Draft Magazine Advertisement

This is a first draft of some ideas for a magazine advertisement for our artist, that I thought could work taking the research on similar artists into consideration.

This is my final idea of a possible outcome for my groups magazine advert.  This is very plain and a simple idea, but the research I found is very similar to the one I have created below. They didn't have loads of vibrant writing all over the advert. They gave the important information and kept the colours very neutral. The reason for the colouring of the writing is so that it matches the colour of the top. The colour pink is a symbol for unconditional love and kindness, linking to the word love in the title. Some people would argue that the colours should not be pink as we are talking about a superficial, fake relationship. However, during the song she is singing about wanting to try and believe in love and the relationship. Again we decided to go for a natural look for make up so that in advertising she is reflecting who she is in the video and who she is as a person, very similar to Lorde's advertisement for her music.



Below is Catherine's draft magazine advert for our artist. This is a very basic and simple draft made but this allows the audience to focus more on the artist. By having the colour of the font in black it is still bold for the audience to see so it stands out but also because Ella is wearing the colour pink the focus is more on her rather than making the information on the advert stand out. The images we choose together before we decided our final so we could go for a similar look in both of our drafts.

Research for Magazine Advertisement

After interviewing our female target audience of 18-25 year olds, their main magazines that they read are Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Company and Elle. This is so they can get the latest updates on fashion, to get some good make up tips and read what some celebrities have been up too. Some music magazines that they have said that they read are Rolling Stones, Billboard and Q. Most of out target audience said that they are more likely to buy adverts which are appealing such as colouring and where fans can find a direct link from the poster to their music and what the artists image is about.

After researching different types of magazine for our genre we carried out a questionnaire of 5 questions asking our target audience what they would expect to find in a magazine Advert for music. We asked questions such as do you look out for make up and hair style in the Advert and what kind of colours do you expect. They came back and said they would prefer neutral colours and like natural make up to relate to the artist more because it fits in with the genre of music.

Draft Digipak

This is the first draft of ideas I have made for our digipak.

I then developed these ideas further and decided that instead of pink roses we should consider having red roses. The reason for this is because although pink represents love it is a very delicate colour. However, the colour red can symbolise danger as well as love. As one of the song and our music video song is called 'Superficial Love', this suggests that the girl is in danger and needs to be warned that not all Love can be real. The use of the falling petals is to represent that love is dying out and it doesn't always last as the rose begins to wilt. The reason for having black as the background colour is because it represents elegance as well as aggression towards love and it's death.




The front of the album cover is simple, it is not overcrowded and includes the artist on the front, with the title and Ella's name. The colour of her outfit represents dullness and emptiness they she feels when thinking about her love that she once had that she doesn't anymore. This let her fans make the link between her clothing and the title and even people who aren't fans but are part of the target audience will hopefully make the link.

Below if my idea for a completed digipak.

Test Shots for Ancillary Texts

Before creating both our ancillary texts we took some pictures of our artist for both magazine and digipak. This allows us to have a range of pictures for us to choose from to pick the best possible picture that audience will like and that portrays our artist the best. We choose to have different clothing to show our artists has two sides of her and showing off different styles and meaning for the audience to interpret.

Research for Digipak

Conventions of a Digipak for an indie album is for have a strange design or pattern as the sound of music is very alternative. Indie bands would often show their different side by having a cartoon digipak or by only having the title old the album and not their band name on the front cover. Also, they include and different style of writing. For example, it might be italic or in fancy writing, the style of writing is a main factor in catching the audience's eye. In order to create our own Digipak I will analyse 3 female Indie Pop artists.







Below is an example of Melanie Martinez digipak who is an Indie Pop singer. On the front cover of the album like the example above she did not include her name on the front like some other indie bands. The colouring of the album represents what the album is about, a stereotypical colour for a new born baby girl is pink which links to the albums name 'Cry Baby' which is in the colour blue which would stereotypical relate to a boy. The images on the front cover of the album shows Melanie floating on the clouds and rain coming from the cloud onto the houses below. The houses appear to be  to on the edge of the green in the middle of being flooded. This links to the title of the album 'Cry Baby' because the represents her tears dropping down on peoples home. This also lets her audience know a bit of what the album is about. For example, broken homes or problems you may come across in your childhood. This album could also be a representation of her own life and by creating and designing this album she is expressing herself as a child and her experiences.

Her album layout is very different to any other albums. Instead, it looks as if the design is thick card and paper. As you can see in the bottom picture the disc slips into the case instead of it being placed in a plastic cover. The white pages appear to be like storybook, with writing about the album on them or could be a short story, which can be associated with children. The design on the pink pages are two different little girls with angry and upsetting faces, this can represent what the emotions and lyrics on the album are about. Further support to show the link between children and the album is on the actual CD with the title of the album in separate building blocks. The digipak as a whole can represent her expressing inner child inside her that she is sharing to her fans. 

Below is another example of a digipak from Lana Del Rey from her born to die album. The front of the album gives the audience an idea that she is not your typical pop artist. Normally, on a pop album the front cover has elements where it is computer-generated and has aspects of glow for the artist to shine like Kesha's album. However, Lana Del Rey has used a basic background setting for her front cover and has gone for a classy look. Her hair looks very sophisticated, her make-up is natural and has gone for a daring red lip colour, her look is completed with a white blouse which could symbolise her innocence. Although, this can be seen as a contradiction with the colour of her lips and the title of the album 'Born to Die'. Red is a fierce and dangerous colour which is completely the opposite to the colour white. 'Born to Die' can be seen as a very depressing and dark thought and shows this through her facial expressions because she is straight-faced and direct. 

Inside the album it looks as though she has gone for another vintage look like in the front of the album. The styling of her hair is similar by having the thick curls in her expect her parting is slightly to the left. This part looks much more colour than the front and can give the audience an impression of what the album is about. They have linked the colour of the inside, outside and the disc to be blue. This could represent heaven as the album is called 'Born to Die' the audience can recognise the association between the two through the colour scheme. This digipak is effective because it is simple style and represents exactly what her album is about, showing off her vintage 1950s / 60s voice.  

Below is Lorde digipak from her album 'Pure Heroine'. The front of the album fit into the convention of an Indie Pop album because of the contrast in colours. The black makes the album to appear to be mysterious in the eyes of audience and makes them think the material is quite dark taking in considering part of the album title which is 'Heroine'. The white lettering can represent the purity and innocence on the album or the innocence of her, as she is only young. The black and white theme continues throughout the entire album. Lorde has her own album label which is shown in the last picture, the use of this and with only the initial of her stage makes the album have it's alternative vibe. On a pop album the disc would normally have the album title written across it and more vibrant colours would be used, to show the pop and colourful element. The booklet for her album is her lyrics to her songs and again still has the black and white theme throughout to show continuity for the theme of her album. 

Superficial Love - A2 Music Video.

Behind the scenes 4: Editing

The editing process was difficult in the beginning because we had to match Ella lip syncing to the song correctly. However, once doing it for a couple of times it was easier to get the hang of. We both have had previous experience of using IMovie for our other piece of coursework which was our 2 minute Thriller opening. This meant that we were able to get going straight away without having to experiment much because we knew where most of the tools were.
We filmed a 5 minute video of people walking past Ella on a bridge in London and we were going to out this on a green screen with Ella standing there. However, when we came to edit this and sped up the process it was jumpy and didn't look good, so we decided to take this part out of the music video.


Instead of putting in the scenes of tower bridge we decided to speed up Ella doing different facial expressions, her blinking and looking in different directions. It did the same thing as the tower bridge, however, we kept in because it we thought it would just be a glitch of IMovie. We tested it when we uploaded it and it came out looking just fine.