Magazine Advertisements

One of our ancillary tasks is to create a magazine advert for the Digipak, and my group has done some research into existing magazine adverts to discover the conventions and gain some inspiration for our own adverts.

These magazine adverts are for artists albums, singles and digipaks. The CDs artwork or a promotional photograph is almost always featured in the advert, and the design is thematically linked to the CDs design to build a strong advertising campaign which is recognisable to the public and target audience. High quality photographs are always used to give a professional look. Striking fonts which are influenced by the artists genre of music are also used. Record company and music store logos, websites and quotes from music reviews are also features we have observed. Information such as release dates and tour dates are also included.

Blacks, white and greys are bold and attention grabbing. The photos for Bloc Party and Eight Legs also add intrigue as they are not very 'normal' photographs.

We really liked how effective a black background is; it is eye-catching and intensifies the colours of the image placed over the top. It looks professional and stylish. The dark background black gives could be used in our own magazine advert to link with the urban genre of music and grimey, gritty and dark mise en scene we are employing throughout our 'brand'. The fonts are all quite simplistic, yet very effect; they have to be easy to read and catch the target audiences eye as they flick through a magazine.

The above adverts for indie based bands are linked well to the genre of music. Indie is mostly cheerful and uplifting, and the bright, pastel, summery colours add to the mood and atmosphere of the adverts.

These adverts are more complex than the more simplistic ones shown previously. We really liked the boldness of these adverts, and the jazzy colours and fonts.

Almost all of these advertisements feature the artist - this is to encourage audience recognition and promote the brand of the artist, overall increasing sales and profit.

So, magagazine advertisements are conventionally... BOLD and eye-catching Easy to understand Include a picture/photograph/painting linked to artist/brand Include relase date information Include logos from record stores/sites
(All adverts are screenshots from The Fly's online version of its magazine by my group)

Font Ideas

Font style is influenced by the genre of music and style of the artist or band, as it has an impact on the overall look of a design. We have found some interesting fonts which we think could work on both the digipak artwork and magazine advertisement. The fonts we've chosen are very blockish and bold, and would also work with the other artists on our chosen song; Chase & Status. The fonts reflect the fast-paced, and extreme nature of 'End Credits' and the impact it has. They are also inspired by the drum and bass/rap genres of the artists who collaborate on our song.

Editing; Overlays and Cross Dissolves

Overlaying

Using the toggle button we can overlay footage so both play at once, creating a unique effect. The toggle bar allows us to control the intensity of each shot. The image above shows a close up of our main actor Will's face, overlayed with a shot of the vivid green lights under Hackney Road railway bridge. We thought this created a visually pleasing shot, as well as adding to the disorientating nature of the video and reflecting Will's distorted state of mind.

The overlay above conveys the sorrow of our main actor, Will, and overlaying footage of the couple with this shot conveys how he is remembering the girl he lost.

The overlay above allowed us to create the appearance of the main actor being in several places at once, implying more time is passing in a short piece of film. The overlay below emphasises the people surrounding our main actor and how everything is passing him by unnoticed, also highlighting his loneliness.

Cross Dissolves

A transition on Final Cut Express which allows a softer move between shots than a cut does. It also looks visually interesting as the lights and colours contrast when crossing over.

More Filming

Filming again in Grace's garage

We braved the freezing weather again to film outside and in the garage.

Trying to do the nosebleed!

The nosebleed
This was so difficult to film! Because we wanted to reverse the nosebleed to link to the lyrics 'When the blood dries in my veins', it was important Will didn't move, so the reversed footage looked natural. We made the fake blood from red food colouring and cornflour, and tipped in into Will's nose from above so when he brang his head forwards the blood would run. To disorientate the viewer we filmed from an unusual perspective, so the blood appears to be defying gravity completely.

Train station

Where we orignally decided to film this footage was not busy enough, so we waited outside Greenhithe station during rush hour for a train to empty and captured all the people bustling past our main actor. We also really love the vivid blue sky and street lamp lighting.

Dartford Kebab Shop

Here we filmed in a kebab shop to capture Will's memories of him and his ex-girlfriend. We also filmed shots of him alone, so we can create a flashback sequence. We also used the kebab shop to show Will's ex with her new boyfriend. The neon colours and fluorescent lighting in the kebab shots add to the vibrant colours we are using in our video.

The fight

Here we used our other actor Tom to play the role of the new boyfriend. We cut between close ups of Will from the POV of Paige and Tom, and a long shot of the fight to create exciting and fast paced footage.

Close Ups

We filmed some beautiful close ups of Will our actor in Grace's garage to convey his anguish over losing his girlfriend. The lighting and high performance camera gave us some crisp, stunning shots of our actor, allowing us to portray his emotions perfectly.

Screen shots from filming

Some screen shots from our two filming sessions...

- under Hackney Road railway bridge -
The lighting here in this urban environment is unique with the green neon lights. The advertising boards covered in tattered posters and street lamps give the rough, urban environment we are aiming for.

- Hackney Road, middle of the busy road, fish eye effect -
This shot, with the speeding traffic, gives the impression that everything is passing him by, while he is left behind in his world of despair and regret.
- Grace's garage, Greenhithe, Red lighting -
These shots are to portray the unkempt room our main character lives in. The untidyness conveys his messed up state of mind, and how he has a lack of regard for anything as his mind is consumed with regret.
- Grace's garage, the chair in our main actors room -
To emphasise the loneliness and emptiness he feels
- Grace's garage, Greenhithe -
We used car headlights to create interesting directional lighting. I like the effect as it creates more shadows and dynamic lighting than a normal light bulb.
- Park behind Hackney Road -
The lighting here was really effective, and the lit up flats in the second shot add to the urban environment. The second shot also lends itself to be used in an overlay, as there is a lot of space on the left side of the shot. Overlaying something such as a medium shot of the girlfriend he has lost would be perfect as he looks like he is thinking in this shot.
- Columbia Road, Hackney -
Filming in front of a gate gave us a frame for shots of our actor in different positions, where he is thinking, regretting and remembering. The street lamp also creates dramatic shadows.

Practising on Final Cut

We played about with editing software Final Cut to work out how to do the overlay shots we plan to include.

This first shot is really effective; the colours from the Hackney railway bridge lights and the graffiti from Leake St tunnel contrast really well.

This shot does not work as well. There is too much going on in one shot; the trees from Richmond Park, and the graffiti in the tunnel, plus the camera movement.

The overlay below is an idea to express our actor Will reflecting; he appears in more than one place at once to portray time passing.

Our Animatic

This shows our basic plan for our music video, and will help us know exactly what we're filming. The shots are scans of our story board edited together on Final Cut Express.

These are scans from our storyboard. They aren't in any particular order, but I have explained briefly the ideas for each shot, to add some clarity to our Animatic.