Advert

Adverts are used to attract the target audience to a new product. It is part of the promotional pack used to raise the artists profile and increase sales of the new product. The advert will have to be similar style to the digipak and the video. For example they will all share a similar mise en scene (costume/location etc).

Here are examples of two adverts from the pop/electropop genre:

The first is Ladyhawke, who is electropop. This advert is particularly small.

The advert contains the artists name/logo which will instantly draw fans of the artist already to the advert. It also contains the name of the single they are advertising and says "out now". There is a brief description of what is in the product. It then advertises the album and says "out now" and then lists some of the tour dates for the artist. It also shows a link to the website of the artist.

The colours used in this advert and pretty basic and sticks to greys, beige and white.

Overall, I think this advert is very simplistic. I think it is mainly targeting people that are already fans of the artist as it doesn't instantly stand out as something appealing. I don't think that smaller adverts are very effective.

The second is Katy Perry, who is pop. This advert is A5 sized.

The main focus of this advert is the big picture of the artist, Katy Perry. There is a strong theme that is evident throughout this promotional pack. For example, there is an image of the album they are advertising and the picture in the advert is very similar to that on the album cover and predictably there will be video to match a similar style.

The artists name/logo is another main feature on the advert and is big, bold and use the colour red which instantly draws the audience's attention on the darker, duller background as well as standing out from the other text which is white.

They have included the name of the album they are trying to sell and it is in the same font as the digipak (seen in the picture).

The purpose of the links between the digipak and the advert is so that people can establish a connection with the artist and know what they're looking for.

Here are the flat plans for my advert:

I drew three flat plan ideas that would be used toadvertise my digipak. In all three flat plans I used a picture of the artist so that the target audience would recognise her instantly and be attracted to the advertisement.

This is the picture I chose to use on my Digipak cover and so I didn't feel it would be appropriate to use again on the advert as I wanted a different pose. I also didn't like the advert in portrait, I much preferred landscape.

This digipak was a mid shot photo to the left hand side of the advert and then all the writing on the other side. I chose not to use this digipak as I didn't like the photo. It also had no stars on it and I knew I wanted to include those as it is already a common convention of the artist.

This is the digipak I chose to use as a base for my final product. It was my favourite because I liked the photo and I liked the way there was text on both sides of the person.

This is my final advert:

Evaluation

For my advert, I used the same costume I did for the photos in my digipak as well as the video. This is to achieve a strong connection between the whole promotional package. I also used the same location that my video is set in. I had the artist pose in front of background that appeared open span and empty, this was to evoke a feeling of emptiness and loneliness as the narrative of the video is about her being alone after a break up with her boyfriend.

I used the same colour scheme on the advert as I did the digipak, as well as the same fonts. This is, again, to create a strong connection between the two. I used a goldy/yellow colour as it stood out well on the background enough to stand out to the audience without being too bold as although I was trying to portray an emotional subject.

I included three reviews from well known magazines which included a rating. This is so that people will feel the product is worth buying and will influence their decision to buy it positively.

I wrote a brief description of what was included within the digipak and used persuasive language such as "exclusive", "never seen before", "bonus tracks". This is so that the audience believe they are getting something new that they cannot get anywhere else and means they are more likely to buy the product.

Ultimately, the most important and main reason for the advert, I announced the release date "out now" to the audience so that they know they can go and buy it.

I developed skills in photoshop that I had previously learned in my AS coursework. This included using new and different brushes, different colours and fonts and tools to get everything the way I wanted.

Feedback

I created a Facebook group where I uploaded my advert and got family and friends to comment on what they liked/didn't like about it.

Here are the comments from the photo of my advert:

To obtain further research and feedback for my advert and digipak, I created an online survey (via surveymonkey) and asked people who were a member of the group I had created on facebook to take the survey. These are the results I obtained:

Digipak

The three creative elements of my coursework (the video, digipak and advert) will all be coherent and part of a promotional packfor my chosen artist. All three parts of the coursework will appear like part of a whole package tocreate the same image for the artist and reflect thegenre of the song. To make this link I will use elements of the mise-en-scene such as costume, make up and location/setting to help create this coherence. A digipak is a patented style of CD or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI Media. Artists use them for their records and for the music DVDs they sell often of live shows and concerts.

Two examples of Digipaks from the same 'pop' genre as Ellie Goulding are those below that are from Girls Aloud and Madonna.

The first Digipak is Girls Aloud: Tangled Up Live Digipak

The Girls Aloud digipak is colour themed black, white and purple. The background is solid black and the photographs are tainted with purple and have a purple mist effect on them. The colour purple will appeal to the target audience because it is mostly aimed at females and purple is a feminine colour.

The font used is the same on both the front and back as well as the spine. This is to create a continuous effect throughout the digipak and make it easierand neater to read. They have used a serif font all over the digipak for simplistic and sophisticated look.

The digipak shows two photos - both of the group - one on the cover and one on the back. The photo on the front shows all five members of the group from the front and they all are holding microphones and singing, which suggests they're shots taken fromthe concert within the DVD. The photo of the reverse is all five members of the group again, this time a lot smaller (to make room for more writing on the reverse) and instead is a long shot photograph of them standing from behind in dance poses.

Information you will find on the front of the digipak includes the title and the artist featured within, for example on this digipak: Girls Aloud, Tangled Up Live from the O2 2008. On the spine of the digipak information includes again title and artist, as well as the DVD Video logo which tells the audience which format the disc is. On the reverse, there is a lot more information. They again repeat the title underneath the photo, then underneath that they list a contents of the DVD which is a list of songs the artist sang at the concert. There is also a list of extras which include music videos and behind the scenes footage. Atthe bottom of the reverse is the information that is legally required such as barcode, copyright information and logos of companies involved in the making of the DVD. It is important all this information is here in order for the DVDs to sell correctly.

The second Digipak is Madonna - Music.

The Madonna digipak involves a lot of colour. The bottom of the front and the spine is a rainbow pattern and includes colours such as red, orange, yellow, pink and blue. There are gems scattered on the cover and the reverse of the digipak.

The theme for this particular promotional pack is evidently Cowboy, this is distinctively shown in the photos and the font used. On the front is a photograph of Madonna with a pink cowboy hat on looking asif she is asleep with the hat over her face. The back of the digipak is a photo of just the hat on some hay. Also, underneath the title on the front ofthe digipak, there is a picture of a bucking bronco which is another reference to the cowboy theme

The font used on the digipak is a serif font that is associated often with cowboy and western themed movies etc. This is to create a strong, visible theme that can be continued throughout the promotional package.

The information on the front of this digipak, similar to that on the front of the Girls Aloud one includes the title and the artist: Madonna - 'Music'. There is alsoa parental advisory explicit content logo on the front which lets the audience know that there is some content not suitable for certain aged people. On the spine of the digipak information includes again title and artist, as well as the DVD Video logo which tells the audience which format the disc is. The reverse of the digipak contains necessary information that is legally required such as barcode, copyright information and logos of companies involved in the making of the DVD. It is important all this information is here in order for the DVDs to sell correctly. The back of this digipak is mainly occupied by the photo but there is a small contents on the back in a box.

These are the three flat plans Icreated for my Digipak:

I created produced three flat plans for my digipak using ideas and conventions I learned about from analysing the two flat plans earlier in this blog.

A common theme on all three of my flat plans is stars. This is because it is already a common theme used by Ellie Goulding and I thought it would be authentic and appealing to my target audience if I carried on with this theme. I chose the name of my Digipak to be 'Ultraviolet'. This is because Ellie's album is called 'Lights', with a rereleased version called 'Bright Lights' and an EP called 'Run In To The Light'. I thought as ultraviolet was a type of light, it would be a good name for my digipak as it fits with the theme already created by my chosen artist.

On all three flat plans I used two photos - one on the coverand one on the back - both of the artist, for easy recognition of the product.

1.

The first flat plan I put the title of the album at the top and the artists name at the bottom. This is different to most normal digipak covers, however I didn't like it and so I didn't use this as my final digipak.

I put the track listing aligned to the left hand side of the page on the back cover which is quite conformist and seen on the Girls Aloud digipak.

The photo was a mid shot of the artist on both the front and the back.

2.

The second digipak flat plan I created had a long shot of my artist on the back cover and a medium shot on the front cover.

I experimented a different font on the second digipak but did not put the artist's surname on the cover which I feel could be misleading to people buying the product so for this reason I rejected this digipak design.

I also went on to use the photo on the front cover of this digipak as the photo used in my advert.

3.

This is the flat plan I used to design my final digipak. I used a mid shot photo of the artist on the front and an extreme long shot on the back. I centralised the text on the back cover which I think makes it look neater.

This is my final Digipak product:

Evaluation

For my final digipak, I used flat plan three. I used photos taken on location and in the costume my artist is wearing in the video. This is so that all three parts of my promotional pack are matching and relate to each other which creates a strong link between them all.

I stuck to a colour theme of yellow and white as I feel it is quite girly which is an image Ellie Goulding usually portrays. I also thought it stood out well to the audience and caught the eye. I chose fonts that were easy to read and attractive so that it would allure the reader to the product.

I made sure I had the necessary information on my digipak such as a barcode and legal information such as copyright information.

I used language such as "brand new exclusive" so that the audience would believe they are getting something they cannot find any where else and make them more inclined to buy it.

For the inside of my digipak, I used one photo across both sides and then put some song lyrics on the left hand side (the disc will be on theother side). I wanted to keep it simple as the inside is not really involved in the selling of the product and it's not looked at in great detail.

During the productionof my digipak I learnt a lot of new skills. Firstly, within the planning stage where I began by analysing existing Digipak covers of a similar genre to get an idea of what is already on the market. I then drew three flat plan ideas for my digipak so that I could experiment with different methods and ideas in order to get a good style that would appeal to my target audience.

Most of my newly developed skills came from using Adobe Photoshop to create my final product. I knew some things on Photoshop from my AS coursework but extended my knowledge by using different brushes and tools. This time I could not download fonts from www.dafont.com - instead I had to using snipping tool to cut it out and then use the eraser tool to remove the background and change the colour of the font and place it on my digipak.

Feedback

I created a Facebook group where I posted pictures of my Digipak and asked friends, family and anyone who is interested to comment on what they liked/didn't like about it.

Shooting Diaries

The location for our video is a small village that is about a 20 minute drive from college. Fortunately I was able to drive us, the equipment and the cast of the video to the location which is easily accessed. However

, because we were filming in a popular spot for members of the public to walk their dogs we were, on both days, often having to pause filming for people to pass by so that they didn't get in our footage.

I gained good experience setting up the camera to get the shots we wanted as well as being in control and using the camera.

Due to high demand, we have to book our camera and equipment with

at least 48 hours notice and could book for a maximum of two days. Return times and pick up times were strict and had to kept on schedule so that we did not impact any other student's work.

March 16th 2011

Firstly, we shot the footage of our main character on her own. As our video was going to consist of two different narratives running alongside each other, we decided we were going to film each sets of footage on separate days this was mainly because of fluency issues - for example we could not have different weather for the same part of the narrative and we could not predict the tide and therefore the depth of the river would have varied and been noticeably different.

Unfortunately, the weather was quite bad on this day and the wind was very strong which made it cold for ourselves and our actress. Although it is windy in our footage, we made the best of the situation and continued to film and got about 15 minutes worth of footage.

March 23rd 2011

One week later from the first shoot, we decided to film the second narrative for the video. This involved another character - a male - as well as the original female character that is involved in the other narrative.

This shoot was a lot easier and comfortable as the weather was a lot nicer on this day compared to the previous last week.

We took a variety of shots, including some of the scenery. Both of our actors did really well and with our direction made some brilliant shots.

Shooting Schedule

To ensure production was kept on track and organised, this is a shooting schedule I prepared for the filming of my music video. I made sure everyone involved in the video had a copy of the schedule.

In addition to the shooting schedule, I created a call sheet which had everyone involved in the video's numbers on. I made sure everyone had a copy of this sheet incase something went wrong or we needed to get hold of someone for any reason.

We also made sure all of the numbers on the call sheet were programmed on to everyone involved phones just in case the paper version of the sheet was lost by anyone.

Health and Safety

Before shooting the music video I had to consider health and safety whilst filming. It is important to understand potential risks and to identify them before filming so that there is a smooth as possible production experience. I carefully considered the location and props involved in making the video so that no one involved or even a member of the public got hurt. Also to make sure that no equipment got damaged. Because we were filming out in public we had to be extremely careful with equipment and of passers by to provide a safe working environment.

I carried out a risk assessment. As we were filming by a river I made sure I went out to check the area before we began shooting. I made crew and cast aware of any dangers such as rabbit holes and bumps in the ground to avoid anyone tripping or falling. I also made them aware of the marshy areas down by the river as well and the danger of the river itself.

Every time we booked out camera and equipment we were required to fill out a risk assessment form which as well as helps us identify risks, This covers the college insurance policy in case anything is damaged or broken.

During filming we made sure we were aware of members of the general public at all times. Because we were filming in a spot that is particularly popular for dog walkers and strollers, we had to make sure it was safe for them as well as us. For this reason we made sure all of our equipment was stored safely away to avoid tripping or damage to the equipment.

We also made sure we took everything home with us at the end of the shoot and left the location exactly as we found it when we first arrived.

Recce

I visited the proposed location and took some still images for reference (as seen in blog - mise en scene). I decided the location was suitable because the location fits in with the video concept as she is going for a lonely walk in an isolated area. As the site is easily accessible, there were only minimal practical limitations. One of those was the lack of power supply - if we had a camera that wasn't fully charged, we wouldn't be able to re charge on site. Another limitation was the fact that we will have to depend greatly on the weather as we are filming outside. If the weather is bad on a day we have arranged to film we will have to rearrange for a better day.

Storyboard

A storyboard is every shot in your sequence pre visualised in the order they are to be seen, before you shoot. It is needed on location so that everyone knows what you are intending to shoot and also during editing. It should depict all of the shots and contain notes on shot type, camera movement, description of action and sound/audio.

Once the storyboard is complete, it can be turned into a shooting script.

Everyone will need a copy of the storyboard, including director, camera operator, actors/extras and sound recordists.

Storyboards are much better when photos are used to depict the shots you want however I chose to hand draw mine which was easier with the time limit I had to work with.

Mise-en-scene

Mise en scene relates to everything we see in a frame (be it film, picture or stage). For example, mise en scene means: props, lighting, costumes, and background/location.

Location

We are going to film our video in one location - the small village of Alfriston, East Sussex. We decided to shoot our video outside, by the river, as we have some beautiful local scenery and decided to take full advantage of that. This location is also similar to a common theme of picturesque, countryside locations used in other Ellie Goulding videos. We will shoot the video all in day light. Here are some photos of the proposed location for our video shoot.

Costume & Make Up

For costume, we decided to have the main character - posing as the artist - in our video to wear a blue outfit that is very girly and continues a similar style of fashionable clothing used in other videos by our chosen artist. She will also wear a casual outfit of jeans, top and cardigan, something that is common clothing style amongst our target audience. We have used fashion that our target audience will be able to relate to. We have also chosen to keep a very neutral make up style. We feel both of these will reflect the music as it is quite calm and emotional, not extravagant and loud.

We wanted to keep the costume for our male actor pretty simple as well. We chose a simple t shirt and jeans to give a casual vibe and have someone the audience could relate to.

Props

We will be using minimal props for our video as we want it to stay quite simplistic which will reflect the narrative we are trying to portray - a story based mainly on emotions and thought. However, we did use a mobile phone in one of the shots. This is definitely something that will target our audience as they will be able to relate to it as technology is such an important part of society today and mobile phones are the main source of contact for people we are aiming our video at.

Pitch

During the pitch, we will sell the idea of the music video to our chosen artists record label, Polydor. Will be talk about the artist, audience, record sales/chart success, how the video will reflect the audience/artist/genre and finally show some key ideas we have.

I created my pitch using the MacBook software iMovie:

I have uploaded a copy of my pitch presentation via google docs.

Initial Ideas

This is an inital brief brainstorm of my ideas for the video.

Copying An Existing Video

As a class we re-created some of the video for Teenage Dirtbag by American rock band, Wheatus. To gain experience with the production equiptment I have been taking part in all aspects of creating this video, including camera work and directing work. I have also been practising editing on the Mac software Final Cut Pro.

Planning Techniques & Storyboarding Firstly, we started to develop our planning techniques. We learned about story boarding and the necessary part it plays when creating a video of any sort. It is important so we know what shot is meant to go where and exactly what is happening in that shot to enable smoother filming and editing. Each frame and the notes in the storyboard will depict shot type (e.g close up, medium shot, long shot, extreme close up), camera movement (static or dynamic), description of action and sound or audio (reference to the lyrics of the song). Below is an example of the storyboard we made for the Teenage Dirtbag video. I will create a similar one for my own music video.

Then we learned about the importance of using a clapperboard and shooting script when filming. A clapperboard is a simple not placed in front of the camera and filmed reading, for example, "shot 4 take 1". This, in conjunction with the shooting script, makes it easier to monitor which shots are suitable for use in editing and which aren't. We then started to develop our planning techniques.

This is an example of the clapper board we used whilst filming, used so we can log each take of what we have filmed.

Filming Techniques To practice filming techniques we learned how to use the cameras and how to mount them on the tripods correctly to avoid damaging any of the equipment and to give stability when filming. This is useful so that when we learned about the different positions we could put the camera in using the tripod, for example panning and tilting positions it enables a smooth shot. The tripod we used also has a spirit level on it, which means we are able to tell when the camera is at an exact horizontal. We learned about setting the white balance correctly for indoor or outdoor filming in order to avoid a blue tinge to the footage.

Test Filming We then carried out some test filming of our own. During this test filming we were shown how to direct a shot correctly and how to communicate on set. It is important for production to run smoothly so that all participants within the filming know exactly what is going on. When we were test shooting we had the director work with the camera operator to set up each shot, they then positioned the actors and extras in the way they wanted for the shot. After checking the composition of the shot they call actors to be ready and then the camera operator presses record - the clapper board will be placed infront of the camera and the shot is called out, followed by "action" when the shot begins and "cut" when it has ended.

This is the final outcome from our test filming.