Research - Magazine adverts

In the slideshow below I have deconstructed 2 poster style magazine adverts which promote bands albums. I have then looked at 2 adverts which promote more than one thing, for example a tour and a single. This poster style magazine advertisement is very common within music magazines, therefore I plan on making my magazine advert look like a poster. By looking at adverts similar to the type it has become clear that conventionally alternative rock album advertisements use a range of natural, pastel colours (rather than bright colours that pop adverts conventionally use), additionally alternative style posters are usually quite simple, as this could suggest that the band focus simply on music. I believe that Jake Bugg's advert stands out because it is simple and black and white; this focuses the attention on him and his guitar. This has inspired me to create an album quite similar to his, in terms of position of the artist, facial expression, location, and I will also experiment with the use of black and white.

Research - The Maine's album cover

I have deconstructed The Maine's cover for their album - Black and White. As I will soon have to put together my own album cover this will be really helpful because it will further my insight into how an album cover is composed and why certain decisions are made; this will assist me in making decisions when I plan and make my album cover.

Research - We Are The Ocean's advert

Ancillary - key terms

I have created a 'Wordle' map to show they key terminology which relates to the promotional package we are required to create. These are all words which I will need to consider when planning and creating my poster and album cover. Many of the words relate to the creation process, such as 'editing', 'framing' and 'picture quality', it will be important that I bare these in mind in order to ensure that my final products are appealing and eye catching. Other words focus on things which I will need to include on my promotional products, such as 'website' and 'font'. In addition I will also need to show a 'connection' between my video and my poster; there will need to be cohesion. During the planning stage I will need to carry out 'research', 'deconstructions' and 'sketch' out my ideas. In order to create a successful package I will need to remember to consider 'target audience' and 'cross media promotion' as these will be essential in creating a buzz about our video; if this was an official project cross media promotion would encourage the audience to watch the video and buy the album. I will create a 'digipak' as this is just like an album cover but it folds away and often includes more images and extras such as 'artist information' and 'lyrics', this will be more popular with my target audience as it will be more visually appealing and will also be more environmentally friendly because there is no need for a plastic album case. 

Ancillary Tasks - initial planning

As part of this project we are required to create an album cover and a magazine advert to promote the album. For the album cover task I have decided to create a digipak as recently it has become very popular to create 'digipaks' instead of simple albums because they are more eye catching, interesting and eco friendly as they are made of card and paper and therefore do not require a plastic case. 


For this reason I have chosen to make a digipak; this will take more planning, however I feel that it would be far more eye catching and appealing for my target audience as it will have more pictures and information such as information about the artist, track lists and a message from the artist. The image to the right shows an example of a digipak. 





After researching promotional packages I have decided to make a magazine advert which looks like a poster as this is a style of advert which is commonly used throughout music magazines, particularly on the inside front cover and on the final page of the magazine. An example of this style of advert is Biffy Clyro's advert in Kerrang! magazine. This poster style advert filled an entire page and was therefore very eye catching, therefore I feel that creating a magazine advert which looks like a poster will draw the eye and encourage as many people to buy the album as possible. I plan on writing the artists website address and twitter page on the poster style adverts as this will encourage my audience to go to these sites, find out more and possibly buy more music or merch or watch music videos. This technique is known as cross media promotion. 

Promotional Package research

In order to decide what style of poster I should create I have decided to research what other bands and artists have done to promote their albums. In the slideshow below I have looked at the ways in which other bands have promoted their albums; this will help me make decisions about the style of advert I should create in order to advertise Jono's album as successfully as possible, whilst still being realistic about the costs of this in reality.



As an A2 level student I am only required to make an album cover and a magazine advert, however in reality a promotional company would need to do far more than this to reach as many people as possible. Therefore if I worked within the industry and was to promote a real music video I would not only use a page of a magazine to promote the album, but I would also use websites such as twitter, facebook and youtube; I would also advertise through Spotify as many music lovers use it. In addition I would create a tour poster and incorporate the album design into this in order to cross promote. Another way in which many promotional teams advertise is through posters and billboards; I am going to make a poster style advert for the magazine advert as this is very common within music magazines and is most eye catching, however many artists who have money to spend on advertising also use large posters and billboards in towns and cities (particularly near music stores and venues) in order to promote albums.

Editing - Slow motion

This screen recording shows how I edited a clip of the couple throwing leaves into the air in order to make it slower so that it would fit with the soft/indie rock style of music. I watched all the different shots we filmed of the couple doing this and then chose the most suitable one based on length, angle, acting and how the leaves were thrown. I felt that the original was quite fast paced and therefore didn't fit with the steady beat of the song; it is conventional to edit on the beat within music videos and therefore I wanted the clip to fit well with the song in order to do this. In addition I also felt that by using slow motion the scene would focus more on the fun they have as a couple, where as the original speed gave very little insight into their relationship because it did not fill enough time for people to see their happy facial expressions. For these reasons I converted the clip in order to enable the pace to be edited, and I changed the speed to 50%.