Adverts and Websites.

The purpose of having websites and adverts is to make sure that the audience are informed about the release of the artists album, to give them reviews and bonus features and to give the audience something extra.

It means that the audience are able to have a connection with the artist and find out more about them as a person. It also keeps them up to date with release dates and tells them what songs will be on the album and how much it will cost them to download and to buy. 

There is normally:

The title of the album.
Image of the album.
Straplines.
Reviews.
The production company.
A website.
Theme.
Links to purchases, i.e - Amazon, Play.com
A colour scheme.
CD/DVD logo.
Artist image.
Record company.
Star ratings.

Title of the album:

The title of the album tells the audience what the album will be called and what they need to type in if they wish to search for the album and find out a bit more background on it. 

Image of the album:

On the advert there will be an image of the album so that the viewer knows what the album is going to look like, so that if they go into a store they will be able to recognise it. 

Straplines:

A strapline tells the buyer basically who the artist is, what they do and also why they should buy the album. It is meant to attract the customer and make them remember the album and also the artist. 

Reviews:

This gives the audience the chance to see what respected companies/people think of the album. For example, there could be reviews from Q magazine, which is known for their knowledge in music. People trust these reviews as they trust the opinion that they have. It might make them more likely to want to buy the album and listen to the artists music. 

Production company:

The production company will be on the advert/website as it shows that the company believe in the album and also tells the audience some background information in who helped to create the album.

Website:

The website allows the audience to get some extra added bonus' and research the artist in more detail. They could offer prizes and competitions that gets the audience involved and more likely to want to buy the album.

Theme:

There is normally a theme to the advert and website. An example of this could be Ed Sheeran, his theme is 'simple' and a 'do it yourself' look to all of his adverts. It is part of the character that he has made himself in to. 

Links to purchases: 

This tells the audience where they can buy the album, and shows them the prices of it. It means that they can get involved and show support by purchasing it. 

Colour scheme:

There is normally a colour scheme for the album. This means that the buyer can recognise the album when they come to buying it. It also means that the artist can choose something that they think that the audience would like in that genre of music.

CD/DVD logo:

If there is a logo that the audience can recognise it means that the artist can use this on every album/single that they produce that the audience know. Ed Sheeran uses the little paw logo, and his fans know this as something that represents him.

Record company:

Again, this tells the audience about who was involved in producing and creating the company. It also shows the record company are proud to show that they worked with the artist and believe in them.

Artist Image:

The artist on the advert or website straight away shows the audience who it is that has made the website and means that it is easily recognisable for them.

Star ratings:

Again, this shows what other people think of the album. It looks good if the album has got a lot of stars, which at a glance shows the audience what other people, magazines and newspapers think of the album.

Problems encountered whilst editing.

One of the problems that we found when editing was we found that some of our night time shots were too dark. We overcame this by brightening the shots, so that the parts that we needed were visable. Luckily we took a lot of takes of the same shots, just to make sure which meant that when editing we could pick out which shot we thought looked the best and then brighten it. 

Another problem that we faced was that our storyboard was quite difficult to stick to. When creating it we hadn't left enough time inbetween shots, so if we had of stuck to it completely then some of our shots would of been too fast and the audience would of had problems with understanding the storyline that we wanted.

Music Video.

Here is our finished piece of coursework. Now that the video has been completed, we will be starting to work on the photo's for our digipack and creating the album and advert for our artist. 

Editing.

Yesterday we had an editing day which meant that we had the whole school day to edit our music video and put the finishing touches to it. We have now finished, and will be exporting it and then putting it on You Tube so people can watch it and give us some feedback. We are now concentrating on starting to look at our evaluation questions about our music video in which we will be looking at how we challenged the conventions of a music video, and also how we used conventions from a typical indie music video.

Filming Progress.

We have got the majority of our shots done, but we still have to film the prelude and some of the car scenes. We are planning on doing this tomorrow. We will be going filming after school to get the final shots done in time for our editing day which will be on Thursday. 

Thursday will allow us to finish off any editing that we need to do, and make any changes that might be needed to our video. We will be then making sure that the transitions between shots are clean and that there are no mistakes and that it looks professional. 

Editing.

So far, we have been editing our media piece and putting in all of the shots that we need. We have not stuck completely to our original story board as we found that we hadn't left enough time in between shots so it made it difficult to cut all of the shots to the timings that we had originally planned.

Album Covers.

Artist: Scouting For Girls.
The album almost looks as if it has been done in sepia. You don't see any members of the band on the front cover, but their name is very clear in the centre of the album in capitals so it stands out. The image of the two people in the boat makes the album look fun and childlike, but has been made more mature by the use of the colours that are on the front of the album. It is very simple, but effective. The album has been made to look old, and looks almost 
tea-stained. This could of been done to show the band feel they are more mature   now.



Artist: The Ting Tings.
The fact that there are only two members in the band has been represented by the drum stick and the microphone, showing that there is only a drummer and a singer. They are showing the hands of the artist to connect with the audience more. The fact that they have chosen to have everything in black and white apart from the background and the name of the band shows that they want to stand out. The use of the red background and then the blue font means that the name of the band stands out more then anything. They have got the album name written on their hands which makes it look interesting and funky.                             


Artist: Orson
The use of the birds in the background are effective, because the image of the man jumping on the cover also looks like a bird. They could be trying to come across as 'free' and that they feel like nothing can hold them back. They have chosen to have a very bright background, but have the man in the image in black. This means that he stands out more then anything. The stripes of the red and lighter red/orange stipes makes it look like the sun, which fits in well with the theme of the birds. They have chosen to use no capitals for their name and album name. It makes it look different to 
other albums that are around.


Artist: Coldplay.

For the Coldplay album, they have chosen to use bright colours as the name of their album is called "Life in Technicolor" Unlike some of the other front covers i have analysed, the band have chosen to have all of them on the front cover. This might be because they are extremely famous and people can recognise them by face.They have made it look as if the lead singer has flames coming our from his hands, maybe showing that he is in control and has all of the power.  The bright colours makes the album stand out, and will attract people and        make them stop and have a look at it. 



Artist: One Republic 
They have chosen to make it look as if it is night time, and to have a very bright, white tree in the middle. It stands out, and looks attractive. The album name looks as if it has been written by someone, possibly even the artist. The moon and stars make it stand out and make it look pretty and calming. This might reflect on the style of music that they are trying to produce, calm and relaxing songs that could 'send you to sleep'.







Artist: Ed Sheeran
The Ed Sheeran front album cover 
represents how he wants to be perceived as an artist perfectly. The type writer style font shows off his 'do it yourself' attitude in the music industry that he wants to portray. The little paw logo next to it is his signature sign and is how a lot of people recognise him. He is making direct eye contact to the audience, making it look as if he feels maybe that he is just one of them. The choice of an orange filter means that he stands out in the image. It is very simple, but effective. 

Survey

Here is a link to a survey that i created which asks questions about what people think about Indie digipacks. I thought that it might give us some inspiration about the sort of thing we should create that would get people interested in our digipack and make them want to buy our album.

I created the survey on a website called 'survey monkey'.

Click here to take survey

Websites.

Bands and artists can also use websites in order to promote their music. They can either have their own website or try to be promoted on a website that they know music lovers will go on. One website that i looked at was Q. They are known for their music magazines, so people already trust their judgment about music.

The include video's, "Track of the day", photo's, tickets to gigs, and news. It is a website that people can go on to look at any new music that bands or artists have created, or any songs that Q have decided to rate this week. 

Track of the day is a icon on the page which says the song name and the artist of the song that they feel is worth listening to it. On clicking it, you are taken to a link with information about the song, why they have named it track of the week, and the video of the song so people can listen to it. People can also post comments giving their view on it. This means that they encourage different people to interact with people who are into the same sort of music as they are. 

The gallery shows different photo's from different gigs. One of them on the website are photo's of the band Muse. It shows photo's from their gig in Birmingham. The photo's means that even if people weren't at the gig themselves, they can still look at photo's of it and have a look at what went on. 

The news icon sends people to a different page which gives news from a whole host of different genre's. It means that people can keep up to date with what is going on in the music industry and from different bands and artists. It is good because it means that people can get fresh news whenever they want, and learn more about the artists or bands that they love. 

The tickets page shows an alphabetic list of bands. When you click on them, it gives you a  list of all the dates and venue's that are available for you to get tickets. It gives a list of prices so that people can see how much it is they will have to be spending to get the tickets. 

Digipack Idea's.

Front Cover - We will be having our artist leaning against a wall, which is wallpapered, has a table and lamp in the corner, and a rug on the floor. His guitar will be leaning against the wall with him.

Inlay 1 - Our artist with his back to the camera, about to rip down the wallpaper.

Inlay 2 - Ripping down the wallpaper.

Inlay 4 - Montage of pictures, pictures from the beach, producing the video, behind the scenes footage. Makes the audience feel like they are getting some added extra photo's of the artist.

Back Cover - Sitting cross legged, back to the camera, looking up at the wallpaper that he has ripped down. There will be the lyrics to our song on bricks underneath the wallpaper.

We have decided that we are going to have our photo shoot for our digipack this week. We need to book and check when one of the rooms at school is available. We have chosen to use this certain room because the wall is long enough and is suitable for us to place the wallpaper on the walls. It also means that if we ever feel that we don't like the photo's we have taken, we know we can go back and take more.