Monday, 7 January 2013

Magazine Advert Research

As a secondary part of our ancillary task we have been asked to create a magazine advertisement to go with our music video and CD cover. We have all researched the magazine advert and discussed how we would like our advert to look, I will then go on to create the magazine advert all whilst referring back to my group for their opinions and changes they would like to make.

We have already discussed this aspect of the overall task and we are aware that this advert will be promoting the music video we have created. Considering that the main emotion throughout the music video is one of vulnerability, sadness and depression we will be using one of the photographs from our photo shoot with Alice that conveys a deep sadness which will mirror the lyrics of our chosen song. 

These are the images that my group and I are most likely to use in our magazine advert:








These photographs portray Alice with smeared eye make up which relates to how she is presented in our music video. We have chosen to dress Alice in the same clothing as it highlights the continuity throughout our music video and would remind our audience of the music video when looking at our magazine advert. 

I will now research real magazine adverts and promotions for music singles and decide which layouts and colours I think work well together in order to guide our work.

General Research:

I began to research general magazine adverts and focused quite intensely on photographs which contain hands and arms as these are the photographs of Alice we have roughly chosen. 

These images of Beyonce are quite plain upon first look however the second photograph contains Beyonce as a different persona with a lot more make up and accessories. We will not be doing this with Alice as we are focusing more on the emotional turmoil of her lyrics in her songs and less on her external image to the public. The use of two CD covers in the corner of the magazine advert convey the continuity between Beyonce's products and we are eager to use this in our own work.


Jessie J also uses her hands in her magazine advert, however her main theme in this magazine advert is attitude and we were not looking for this. The positioning of the photograph is central which is useful as the artist is the main focus. The layout is simple which we liked as a group because we think this may be achievable. The artist is wearing thick black make up similar to Alice's however, Alice's make up will be more smudged and convey a deeper upset.



Specific Research:

I have decided to look more into emotional artists song, such as Adele and in some cases Rihanna, as they focus their promotions on the individual song being promoted rather than an image being portrayed to the public.


Considering that our other ancillary task has been based on the album covers from Rihanna and Adele, I decided to look into their magazine adverts which supported their albums to see how they incorporated their own themes into the production.



After using Google to research Adele's music magazine advert I noticed that her album cover for the magazine was featured on the magazine to highlight the continuity. The pictures are also very similar of Adele looking down with the same make up and slightly different hair style. The advert much similar to the album cover is very plain and simple yet very effective as it highlights that they are representing the same song/songs. The fonts used are also the same including their colours which is useful to know as when creating our magazine advert I will be using the same fonts and colours to highlight to continuity we will have.



Rihanna also has the same featured effect in her magazine advert, although in a different way. The same photograph has been used on both pieces which is the best way to present continuity. The target audience of this music would be able to recognize the photograph immeadiatley and be able to relate the two advertisements together with the artist. The fonts used are similar to the ones used on the album cover which also portray continuity. 

Both artists are also using their hands and arms in the positioning in the photographs much similar to our idea of Alice holding her hands against her head in the photograph. Her make up being smeared is similar to Rihanna's advert, although Rihanna's make up is more prominent. Although the simplicity of Adele's album and magazine cover has influenced our ideas most as this is most similar to our album cover. I will now go on to create our magazine advert, all whilst referring back to these two adverts.




Problems with Filming

Continuing from our problems due to characters in our film, we are also finding it difficult to organize when we can all meet to film our music video. As we all have exams this month at different times and we have part time jobs too. We have decided to have a short photo shoot with Alice after all of our exams have finished which would be the 17th January; this allows us time to revise for other subjects.
We will then carry on filming and re-filming certain scenes in order to keep our filming up to date. During the period of our exams me and my group will be focusing on our ancillary tasks, one of us will create both ancillary tasks whilst constantly referring back to the group for feedback. We thought this would be easier as then the other two members of the group can focus on the music video and both pieces of work should be complete at the same time.