Generic conventions of a magazine advert

Through the analysis of real and professional magazine adverts we have found similarities between them and discovered what we believe to be generic conventions of a magazine advert. Here are the generic conventions as follows:

Conventions of a Music Advertisement...

Band/Artist Name: This is the key element that all music advertisements include, because the audience need to identify the artist who is promoting the CD/Album.

Image: Another key convention is an image that relates to the band/Artist. Also you can often see an image of the artist on the advertisement in order for the artist to self-Promote.

Logo- Mainly bands use logos on their album , they do this in order to be recognised by their target audience. Also the record label logo may be used in order for their label to be widely known for producing quality music.

Colour Scheme: The colour of the advertisement  reflects the mood and the genre of the song, as well the own artists image. For instance , for a rock band you associate them with dark colours Eg. Guns n Roses. However a new wave electric band/artist would have bright , vibrant colours.  

Reviews: Another convention of a music advertisement, is positive quotes and reviews from top music magazines such as - Mojo

                            -NME

                            - Q

                            -Spin

This helps to boost purchases of the actual product as the targeted audiences see the artist has received positive reviews from reliable sources.

Headline: On the magazine advert for the album, it will usually feature the band name and album title etc, but will also have a main headline selling the product and grabbing the attention of the target audience. Usually, this is big and stands out and is usually put across the main image so the two connect and stand out

We hope to make good use of all these conventions within our own magazine advert to maximise the success of our product.

Ideas for magazine advert

We have had a lot of ideas as to what we want our magazine advert to look like, here a few of those we have looked at.

This magazine advert for Jay-Z's 'The Blueprint 3' is a very striking and bold advert. The magazine advert is an enlarged image of the album cover. The advert shows the artists name in a bold font, this is so that the readers know who the artist is. The artist is shown as being bigger than the empire state building, this shows his status within the  music industry. Also the fact that its the empire state building is illustrative to the song 'empire state of mind' which is one of Jay-Z's singles about life in New York. 

Also the colour scheme is bold and bright. It also has a running theme as with his album it features red, black and white that is also featured in the advertisement so that it is easily recognisable that they are related products. 

The written caption below 'Jay-Z "bigger than hip-hop?" ' is relatable through the visuals of the article as Jay-Z is bigger than the tallest building in New York: empire state building.  

Ideas for digipak

We have had a few precise ideas as to what we want our digipak to look like. Here are a few ideas:

This is digipak cover has similarities to what we want to achieve with ours. We want to include a close up of our artist as he is not that well known, another reason we want to include the close up is that it will help his audience recognize him. The bold and clear font is also something we considered using on our CD cover. This is because a bold font with a standout colour attracts the attention of the consumers which will help sales. 

Below is another example of a digipak that has inspired our ideas.

The album cover to Adele's '21' album is another example of a CD with a close up of the artist, this is because when she released this album she was not very well known. As i said above, this is something that we are going to use as our artist is also not very well known. The image of the artist relates heavily to the songs on the CD, on the cover you can see Adele with her head in her hand. This shows the emotion that fills her songs. On our digipak we are going to use an emotional  image of our artist. This attracts the attention of the consumer as it makes the buyer imagine what the music could be about. Another possible effect that we might use is the black and white effect. This adds a sense of emotion and mystery to the digipak. 

Here is a third digipack that grabbed our attention.

The album cover of Linkin Parks's 'MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT' is quite a simple CD cover in the sense that the background is all white with the 6 band members standing in the foreground in black silhouettes. This digipak is different to the others that we have been looking at as there is not a close up of the artist/s. This is something that i do not think we could use, as Linkin Park are a world famous band and are known globally. Whereas our artist is not, so artist recognition is vital for the first album. The main aspect of this digipak that we liked was the black and bold title. The black font on a white background instantly grabs the attention of the consumers. 

Generic conventions of a digipack

From the analysis of previous album covers in the blog post 'Analysis of real digipacks' we have recognised the typical generic conventions of a digipack. We believe they are as follows:

1. A large/bold artist name- This is to help the audience and consumer identify and recognise the artists name within first glance of the digipack. Only having a large over-sized name can mean that the artist is well known and recognised because they don't need an image relating to the album or a picture of the actual artist; all is needed is the name. There are some exceptions to this such as Eminem's album cover of 'recovery' because it doesn't have his name just the album name. This is because he is so well known all is needed is just the back of him, but also the album name signifies him as it has his trademark signature of a backward 'E'.
2. An image that fills the album cover- This can help to make the album more original and unique by either signifying the artist or the album itself. Also the larger and more colourful the image the more it will stand out from the rest. Typically of a pop Album cover it will feature the artist itself, perhaps a close-up or distant shot, this is to help the artist become more recognised. 
3. Consistent colour scheme used throughout- This makes each feature of the album link together and flow. For example in the Christina Aguilera's album 'Bi-on-ic' (as shown above) the bright and powerful colour red has been used to highlight around her name but also on her lips, attracting your eye all around the cover. 
4. Commonly the album name is just beneath the artist name- This helps to attract attention to both features because they are both in the same place however the artist name is at the top because it is most important. 
5. Mise-en-scene elements- The lighting for a pop genre album cover is usually bright and colourful to reflect the artists personality and the feel of the songs. However the lighting doesn't always have to be bright and electric because it mainly depends on the style of music the artist does, for example if it is sad music then the lighting will be dark and atmospheric.      

Analysis of real digi-packs

1. 'Beautiful Monster'- Neyo.
In this digi-pack there is a close up image of the artists face, this is so that the listeners can recognise the artist to get him known in the public eye. the lighting on the cover is very dark and gloomy. the CD cover is in black and white and has reference to 'LA Noire'. There is also a woman in the picture walking slowly towards Neyo. This suggests that he is a ladies man, and the woman is the 'beautiful monster'. The picture includes a street/boulevard with old fashioned cars in, again this has a reference to 'LA Noire'.  This is a style that we are thinking of using as it relates to our music video. We are thinking about using the black and white effect as it represents the artists emotions.

2. 'The blue-print 3'- Jay-Z.
In this digi-pack  there is no picture of the artist as  Jay-Z is already a globally recognised artist, so a picture of him is not necessary. The picture in the background is of instruments that are all white and bland. the represents the 'Blueprint' as in a blue print everything is simple and plain. The 3 bold, red lines through the centre show that it is his 3rd blueprint album. We could use this style to show that it is our first album. Although there is not a picture of the artist, his name is still up in the corner in a small font. If we were to use this style we would make the artists name larger as he is less recognised.

3. 'Recovery'- Eminem.
On the cover to Eminem's 'Recovery' you can see Eminem walking along a long and abandoned road. This could be to show that he is on a road to recovery as the title suggests. The font of the title is bold but small in the top right- hand corner. The 'O' in recovery symbolises the ambulance logo, this visually symbolises recovery. Also the 'E' is backwards which is how his name is spelt on his other album covers. On this digi-pack you cannot see the artists face, this is because he is globally famous so the audience do not need to see his face. This Style may not be suitable for our digi-pack as we need to show the artists face as he is not as well known.

research into fonts.

We have been looking at many different styles and types of font used on other artists digi-packs. here are some examples of those we have been looking at:

The first three fonts are from album covers to our artists cds, they are all quite similar in the sense that the font is bold, clear and easy to read. This represents the artist as he is straight to the point and his lyrics are easy to understand. A reasson for the font being bold is so that it attracts the attention of the consumers in the shops.
The colour of the font is vital as if the digi-pack does not look attractive, people will not buy the cd. The first three fonts are all similar in colour as black, gold and silver are generic of a rappers style.

Compared to the other fonts Neyo's are not very attractive. for example T-pain's album cover is in a fair ground style which immediately grabs the attention of the consumer as it is unique and original. The title is 'Thr33 Ringz' this could be because it is targeted at a certain audience that could relate to this style of text language.
The 6th font (Keyshia Cole) is a more feminine font as her music is more directed at females. The font style is flamboyant and attention grabbing. As the CD is directed at females the colour scheme is suitable for the gender. The title also looks glamorous, this will further attract the targeted audience.

The last font (THINKTANK) is not a very good example as the colour of the font is a dark red, which clashes with the black as the black is more dominant, This makes the font merge with the background rather than standing out to attract the audience. Also the font is difficult to read due to the poor colour scheme. We will not be using a font like this for our font due to the listed problems above.

Inspiration

We have been inspired by many different pop videos while researching ideas for our own. One of our main inspirations for our music video is the video to 'one in a million' by Neyo. in this video the male artist is trying to attract the female by singing to her. This relates to the visuals and the lyrics in our video as the male in our video is also trying to win back the female.

Another inspiration to our music video is the  video to Take That's 'Patience'. This is because the main artist featured in the video is always on his own, walking through the country side. This is very similar to the way in which we have planned to shoot our music video.
In our video the artist is going to be walking around a park at which he used to visit with his ex-partner alone.

The inspiration for the lighting in our video was taken from the video to Take That's 'greatest day'. in this video the lighting has an orange tint as it was shot at dawn when the sun is just rising. This relates to our video as we are going to try and achieve a similar effect by using the glare from the sun on the lens. we are going to use the glare shots during the flashbacks as this creates a happy atmosphere and helps portray the emotions of the characters. during the shots when the male on his own, the lighting will be dark and gloomy, to show the audience his emotions.

Pop genre conventions

• Voyeurism is commonly featured in music videos with a female artist as it attracts the attention of some male viewers. We will try to use this as much as we can with the female extra in our music video. 
• The editing in a pop music video is a key convention that defines the pop genre. In a pop video the cuts will be fast and short (5-10 seconds), this is to keep the attention of the audience. The transitions between shots within pop videos are usually jump cuts as they are quick and fast. However some music videos use clever editing techniques to help them be more memorable and unique, such as Beyonce's Single ladies. In this video the transitions are made very clear by the change in lighting. 
• There are usually dancers or extras in the pop videos because they can accompany the artist and help to make the artist stand out more by all dressing the same but the artist dresses differently. As seen in the picture above. (Beyonce- Run the world)
• The costume of the music videos, for female artists are usually revealing and skin tight clothes to help exaggerate the voyeurism.
• The camera angles are usually close-ups of the artists this is because music videos are often promos and close ups are the best ways of promoting the artist.

Location/Lighting Ideas Pictures

Here are shots from our location.
We chose this location do to its good tree coverage and the Autumn feel that it gives off from the fallen leaves and blazing sunlight.
The trees create an interesting effect because they can be illuminated by the sun and look quite interesting. These effects can help to illustrate the emotions our artist is feeling because the sunny and bright atmosphere can portray happiness, but the dark and low lighting scenes can illustrate sadness.

With this image we were testing out what sort of shot we could achieve if the camera was facing the light directly. This creates an interesting effect as the trees become silhouetted and create a big contrast between the background and the foreground. It also can create a glare on the lens of the camera which is an interesting effect that can show how bright and sunny it is and so then induce feelings of happiness.

Here we used the arching of the tree to frame the scene which creates an interesting effect as it draws more focus to the centre of the image and so if our artist was there this would help to draw attention to him.

Lighting research

The lighting for our location is situated underneath a row of tees this means it would be a good idea to shot the video during dusk or dawn as this will give a nice orange glow autumn effect, which will compliment the autumn fallen leaves. This means that is it important to time our shoot well, if we do this effect will pay off nicely giving another visually pleasing aspect to our video.