Jack Attree

This is the draft of my magazine advert, this will be the template which I work from when it comes to creating the real thing. i have planned to take a picture of Issey - who is the main character of the music video in front of the viewpoint of the city - which is one of the locations used in the music video. This i think will help show the independence of her at this point and will show how she is alone, both in the advert and in the video.

The magazine advert overall will be quite dull and not bright in colours as that was the theme which i decided on earlier in the planning stages - this will subvert the usual themes which are used in the pop genre but will fit with the ones which are created for slower songs and sad videos like ours.

Above is my finished magazine advert for the album 'How to save a life' - I wanted to ensure that the theme was continued throughout all of my media prodction in order for it to become recognisable to my audience for all of the media products that i have created. I wanted to make sure that Issey, the main character in the video was the main focus and therefore chose a photo which had postitioned her in a way wehere she would be the thing which people look at on the Magazine Ad.

I tried to make it so the direct message to the audience was about the storyline of the song, the video but also the album - and listening to the album would link with the advert and digipak alongside the video, and this meant keeping the mood neutral with a hint of sadness. I did this by keeping the colours neutral, not having anything too bold on the cover and ultimately trying to entice the audience by giving them a sense of mystery about the video. I chose the simple fonts as it has connotations of being neutral, and I picked this photo of Issey, the protagonist, as her face demonstrates neutral with a hint of sadness, therefore the them is being carried across our products in a simple way. I believe the theme and everything put together gives off the correct message and will have an effect on our target audience.

Above is my complete digipak for my music video 'How to save a life'. I have tried to keep a them throughout all of my media prodcution which is the neutral expressions and colours with a slight hint of sadness which will later be explained in the video which is all down to a heartbreak. The digipak includes one shot from the video and the rest being some locations which also feauture in the video, creating a direct link for the audience and becoming recognisable.

The props and the cotumes and overall mis-en-scene throughout our video has been completely relatable to our target audience, coming from the younger generation ourselves it was easy to discover what would appeal to our target audience (people of the same age as us). This meant exploring and demonstrating simple things such as what someone of our age would wear, what car they may/may not drive, and how they might act if going through this experience. Having three of us in the group was helpful as it allowed us to have a different perspective. With the Digipak design i wanted to keep it simplistic and realistic, which meant it was produced to look as professional as possible but really stripped back and not over the top unlike some of the digipaks which have been produced from other singers and bands in the same genre (Katy Perry and her candy theme). I feel i was successful in my task to do this and made the digipak seem natual and pure. I thought it would be appealing to have the lyrics to the song which is in our music video on the digipak as it is the main song on the album, hence the title and is something in which i know people would like to see on there, especially people of my age - who are our target audience as we enjoy to learn and sing lyrics.

We are welcomed to the music video through a mid shot of a girl sleeping in her bed, as the song is about to start and we hear the first lyric we cut to a wide shot which allows us to see more of the girls bedroom - giving us a sense of character almost immediately, after this we have a slow zoom sort of shot where we are heading towards the bed and then we cut to a birds eye view of the girl in the bed, who has just woken up and looks sad in the face. The lyrics at this point are going with whats happening on screen, the girls face matches with the word ‘pain’ as she looks upset and then it also says about missing someone, therefore we get the impression she is heartbroken within the first 20 seconds.

We cut to a point of view shot where we can see the bedroom’s ceiling, which has been edited to look disorted, which to me acts as a metaphor for her feelings and emotions as she has just woken up (hurt, upset, and potentially angry). This keeps the audience interested as we are wondering why it couldn’t just been a point of view shot of a ceiling without the effect on, therefore it might have some relevance later in the video. Then we cut again to a mid shot of her in the bed and she appears to be staring at the ceiling, but then also at her hand as she is moving her fingers, at this point the lyrics are reading 'i would give anything’, therefore this might suggest she is even willing to go to the extreme of losing something like her right arm in order to be back with her loved one. As we go back to the point of view shot and see her fingers moving, we see that those are also disorted like the ceiling was, and at this point we don’t know why.

She then goes to get out of bed, and we hear her say 'he’ll never be like you’, and with 'never be like you’ being the title without the he, we learn that the song is about someone who is broken hearted. As she sits up in bed and the chorus is about to start, we see her in a mid shot and she starts to get disorted to, and then we cut to a mid close up shot of her and a boy in what we presume is their home, the disorted filter is still on the screen at this point and we see the couple together for the first time. She grabs a bottle of champagne and as things like this start to happen on screen the cuts get more frantic, and at one point we have a shot of her pouring a glass of champagne and we are behind the bottle and see him sat in a chair looking at her, and this allows us to believe that maybe this disorted filter acts as a way of showing how the characters are or were drunk, or on something else which disorts vision - maybe not literally, but in the relationship and their views on it at the time, which might reflect on what she is talking about when the lyrics read that she is 'only human’ and how she 'made a mistake’.

The entire chorus has the disorted filter over it, with shots of the two appearing to be having a good time, more drinks being poured and the night passing them by, which might indicate this is how they used to spend their evenings, together in their own home and enjoying eachother’s company.

After the chorus, and when we are taken to the next verse of the song, we have a wide long shot of the girl in the bathroom, and we pressume this is today, rather than back in time which we have assumed was what we have seen in the chorus, and we have a slow zoom almost tracking shot of her in there, its revealed through a close up that she is washing her face - and the lyrics read 'how do i make you wanna stay, hate sleeping on my own, missing the way you taste’ - and therefore our idea about it being back on the same day where she had woke up heartbroken is correct, and her washing her face might be an indication that she is trying to wash away all of the bad things that have happened to her recently. Then we have a high angled shot of her patting her face in the mirror, until she catches eye contact with herself and stares for a while, indicating she is in deep thought and thinking about him, and then we cut to another high/mid angled shot of her from the side still looking forwards (into the mirror), and her looking down and then back at herself almost as if she was looking at herself and realising what has happened, and the reality of her losing her boyfriend becoming true, and she has seen how upset and bad she looks.

She then looks over to her left and we see bathroom tiles, and the disorted filter is back again, maybe indicating a flashback to something which had happened in there when she was drunk, or maybe an indication that we are meant to think back to her and her boyfriend a few shots ago in the previous chorus to reflect on what her relationship was like and pair with the lyrics in order to understand and put into context how hurt she is and what she is missing.

After the disorted bathroom tiles, we have a wide shot of the girl led in the bath, again looking at the ceiling and looking just as depressed as before, we see this until we go to a point of view shot of the ceiling which is once again disorted. We cut again to a close up mid shot of her in the bath and the disorted filter is still here, as the verse comes to an end and we can tell the chorus is coming, it might suggest we are going back to that night where things might’ve come to an end, or when the couple were at the peak of their relationship.

As the chorus is back, we cut to a mid/wide shot of the couple’s lounge again, and she drags him off the chair by his feet and they are both laughing and having fun, then we have multiple cuts of different things happening, cuddling, kissing and playfighting which suggest the relatinshipthe two shared was an overall happy one, and the reason she is saying 'he’ll never be like you’ is because she might not find this type of relationship with anyone else. The low angle shots which follow and show her having fun and laughing contrast with the ones we see of her alone,and they aren’t all disorted, which might suggest that he was what made her happy not only when drunk but also when she is sober and he 100% is who she is singing about and who she has lost. The disorted filter gets used more as we go deeper into the chorus and the range of shots and angles become more frantic, maybe to show time passing and how much fun the couple are having together.

As the chorus seems to be coming to an end and we are entering the breakdown of the song we see the couple become quite close, and passionate about eachother, with cuddles and kisses. As the breakdown of the song comes, the disroted filter is lifted and we see a mid long shot of the two without the filter together for the first time, she has one hand around him and the other on his face - then we cut to a close up of them with the girls eyes shut and smiling, and then a shot from further away with the two hugging and about to kiss, and there is a slow mo over the video which works well with the speeed of the song at this point. They both have their hands on eachother’s heads and are looking into eachothers eyes, the lyrics read 'forgive me’ and 'im a fool’ - and at this point the video is still slow, which helps to show the emotion between the couple and the purity of their relationship.

Before creating our music video I thought that it would be important that we carried out some research into the things which we would need to know in order to be successful with the task. When doing this I knew i would have to look into the Pop Genre in the Music Industry and get some inspiration and see what techniques other producers have used in order to make their video - and what has made it successful. I also studied some Media Theorists such as Andrew Goodwin, Laura Mulvey, Stuart Hall and Richard Dyer in order to understand the importance of the techniques which I may or may not use when creating my music video.

From my research it became clear that there were two main paths of music videos, and the style in which I want to pick would completely depend on what I think best suits the song and what my music video was going to contain. One of the options was a performance music video - which was simply a video in which you would have your protagonist (usually the lead singer) preforming the song, therefore the video would have shots of them singing the song, dancing to the music and overall giving their audience a performance, sometimes like what you would see if you were in their live concert. You often see this in videos for songs in the Rock Genre, for instance artist 'P!NK' with her song 'Leave me alone I'm lonely' to mention one. The other type of video is conceptual - this is when a music video has a narrative, which can be of the following three (illustrative, amplification or disjuncture). Illustrative is when what is happening on screen is being told alongside the lyrics, Amplification is when the video expands on what is being said through the lyrics and Disjuncture is when the lyrics are in no way parallel to what is happening on screen.

In our music video we chose to go down the Conceptual route and we decided we would go with 'Amplification' - we didn't want to tell the story completely how it was being said through the song, but had a reference to it here and there and expanded on it with our own ideas. At one point in the song we had what was being said through the lyrics written on screen in a text in our music video, which made the link and after that we expanded the story to how we wanted it to be - which was a story of a heartbreak. When I was researching into the styles of music video I found that this was a common thing to be done in the pop genre, and we thought that going with a story line of a heartbreak would appeal and be relatable to the majority of our target audience - therefore we are sticking to the conventions of music videos within the genre we are in by having similar story lines to most. We considered having some lip-syncing and performance in our video which we often see in music videos, and we could've done this and mixed it with what we had planned, so have part narrative part performance, like in the music video 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea - she is singing the song whilst telling the story around her and being the main character in the story which she is telling, but for our ideas it seemed to fit with the song better to have a complete narrative based video which would relate to some of our target audience which we had earlier identified.

The name of our song is 'How to save a life', which could mean anything to our audience, and we therefore have that appeal to the audience as they may want to find out what is going to happen in the video - for instance is the video going to be about someone saving someone's life literally etc. Some videos which are out there already which have been created by big producers have designed their videos in a way in which you want to watch them multiple times or share with friends and keep watching their other videos to get a sense of what is happening. Singer 'Basshunter' is commonly known for linking his music videos together, in one he meets the girl of his dreams, in another she has an accident and in another she is in hospital. This is a really powerful way of drawing in an audience as they may have to watch a video more than once to understand the context, and they are likely to watch the other videos - meaning they will listen to the song and the artist gains views, streams and potential sales too.

Although our song is in the pop genre - where most things are whacky and happy/positive and we see the latest trends in these videos, the song we picked isn't of the same type as others, and instead of being an upbeat and happy pop song its actually a slow and quite sad one, therefore we had to subvert the typical conventions which you might expect to see in pop genre music videos in order for the video to make sense and for it to pair together in a way in which would appeal to our audience and maximize profits. When we began planning our music video it was important to chose locations which would fit into the song and would be interesting for our target audience, we wanted to pick places which were visually nice to look at - for instance Dundry Viewpoint, Chew Valley Lake and Winford Stables, these were all places which had nice scenic views and linked to our song. We filmed on days in which the weather was fairly neutral to fit with the overall mood of our song, this paired with the black and white filter which appeared when the characters were thinking back to the days when they were still in their relationship helped to show the raw heartbreak as it allowed the audience to have a neutral feel too - which would then begin to feel slightly sad and down towards the end of the video when we understand what is really happening in the video.

Choosing weather when it was neither sunny or rainy meant that the audience could perceive our music video in any way they want, and could link it to the emotions that they may have felt when they had their heartbroken, if they have. A neutral mood links to heartbreaks as when you are in the middle of one you can feel neutral - for instance not wanting to sleep, not wanting to go out, not eating as you were before and you become like an empty shell - this is something in which we thought we could expand upon in our music video.

Pop music videos are renown for keeping up with the latest trends, as their target audience are of those who look at celebrities for their inspiration and create the trends themselves, therefore when we had to think of the mis-en-scene, costume and props involved we thought about what would appeal to us if we were watching the music video as we fall into our target audience category. This therefore meant we look at ourselves for inspiration of what the characters should be wearing in the video, and chose things which we see everyday on the street and reflected that into our video to make it more relatable - by doing this we were conforming to the conventions of music videos as this is what the big producers out there would also do in order to appeal to their audience and become relatable.

The story line of our music video is quite sad, and the song is slow in its pace therefore we have designed and edited the video to fit the pace of the song. If we had chosen an upbeat and quick song like we initially wanted to with 'MO - Final Song' then we therefore would've had a fast paced video, with bright colors, a quick moving story and an energetic feel in the video - ours contrasts with this in order to fit in with our story line and video.

Andrew Goodwin was really helpful to me when I was researching and planning my music video, his ideas on conventions helped me identify what I needed to do in order to produce a good music video. Through his theory I learned that not all music videos follow the same conventions - and that the different genres have different conventions in which they will develop or challenge. We followed the conventions of music videos and songs which are similar to ours by having the dark colors throughout and the slow moving pace video and didn't include any performance throughout the video. Andrew Goodwin also talks about the link between the visuals and what we re hearing, and this shows the importance of the editing with small things like cutting the video in time with the beat for example, small things like this make the video feel more professional overall and change the feel of the music video completely.

When creating a Digipak there were many things in which we had to take into consideration in order for it to fit nicely with everything and keep the theme throughout all of my work. By having the main character on the front of my digipak it allows the audience to recognize and identify what the digipak is for and would therefore more than likely attract an audience.

Digipak's normally have the singer/band on the front so that you can directly recognize who's digipak it is for, the bigger artists don't have to have their faces on their digipak because they have an audience who recognise them for other things - for instance Ed Sheeran's covers have all been mathematical things, with his first album being '+' in 2011, his second being 'x' in 2014 and his third being the divide symbol. I created my Digipaks and the Magazine Advert completely inspired by artists which i have seen before and therefore conformed to the conventions by including the same things - for instance; star ratings, where you can by the album, the name of the artist/song and links to the artists pages. I linked all of my things together - the video, the digipak and the digipak advert by including similar pictures and shots in all of them as a synergy technique which would be effective if i was trying to maximize a profit from the song and video. Throughout all of it i kept the fonts and colors all the same in order to make it look professional and create a running theme throughout to link them all together.

At the beginning of this video we have an establishing shot of mountains and a long road, which is where we assume the video is going to be based, shortly afterwards we hear the song begin, and everytime we hear the beat which occurs 4 times before we hear her sing, it cuts to a new shot each time, which is effective as it is completely in time with what we are hearing. We then see Ariana Grande - as the main focus in the enitre video for the first time, in a midshot with the mis-en-scene of the desert looking location, which contrasts with her look, making her stand out from this plain background. As she begins to sing the camera moves around her slowly and we see more of her along with the mis-en-scene where nothing is changing.

Then we see a few more cuts which reveals her on the motorbike - which was one of the earlier shots on the 4 beats and then we have a close up of her and a boy, which we pressume is the one she is singing about when she says she wants to "fall in deep". We have a few more shots on screen as she is singing the verse and we see shots of her by herself walking through the desert and then other going back to when she is on the motorbike with the boy, holding onto him for security and then letting go and having her hands up in the air. Although there is two people in the shot, when we see them contarsting against the sunset (which is also associated with romance), her jacket and styling seems to stand out more than his, therefore we know she is still the main focus during these kind of shots.

When she begins to sing the hook we see something new, the two of them running around and having fun whilst heading to the 'Honeymoon Inn' which in itself explains a lot, as we know a Honeymoon is something a married couple goes on after they have just been married, so our thoughts about the song being about her partner are comfirmed. During the rest of the hook we see them enjoying themselves, and are taken back to them on the motorbike again which we assume was the journey to the Honeymoon in - and as the man is driving it fits with our thoughts and stereotypes that he is the more dominant in the relationship out of the two, her life is completely in his hands at this point, showing an elemnet of trust, fitting with the song really well.

When we get to the chorus, we see them having fun again but this time a little faster, with drinks being poured and then we are cut to the motorbike once more with her hands in the air and we hear her say the word 'dangerous' which fits nicely with what is happening on screen. We then see them having some drinks infront of the 'Honeymoon Inn' roadsign, so we therefore know that this location is somewhat important to the video. We see them share a lot of eye contact during the chorus which we haven't seen before this point, which emphesises the intensity and love between the two, which allows us to know how in love with eachother they are.

We then cut to a timelapse of clouds which passes quickly, which is showing the passing of time - however the sky is edited with loads of stars to make the video more appealing to the audience which makes the overall look a lot nicer. We see the clouds passing as she says 'this could take some time', so our thoughts on the time passing werew correct. We then again cut to a new shot of them outside the hotel again, but at this point we haven't seen what this one is called so we assume it could be another hotel and that they are travelling together, again the happy couple are messing around and having a good time.

Next we see them going into the hotel room just as the verse ends, and she begins to sing the hook as the video fades to black and then we see them playing cards on the bed exactly as she begins to sing the hook. The lighting is pink which has associations with romance and love. As the chorus begins once more, we are given various shots, close up on the road, the motorbike silhouette again, with the sunset in the background and shots of them in the hotel room getting closer and having a good time with eachother. Again, during the chorus we see the intensity once more, with them both being really close with one another not only on the bed but also outside the hotel room on the chairs - showing the romance between the two and working really well with the lyric 'I'm so into you'. We even see a close up of him putting a jelly sweet engagement ring on her finger, therefore we know they aren't married - suggesting that they might be at the Honeymoon stage of their relationship, which is the part with no arguments and when they are finding out more and more about eachother and have nothing negative going on.

Then we cut to tracking her at what seems like a party venue, with cuts of them back at the hotel and then a cut of a shot of the sky with a firework blowing up, we then see the sky in a shot which looks like a time lapse of thunder and lightning and then see her on stage in a mid shot with a different boy posing for pictures. She is wearing a luxury dress at this point stood infront of a golden curtain, which also has connotations of luxury and glamour. We then have cuts and close ups on her with the boy who drives the motorbike and more lighting and then we see her back in a shot with the boy at the party event who pulls her arm firmly as she goes to walk away - At this point the audience is trying to put together the plot here, and it seems she is in a couple with the man at the glamorous event however she has been treated badly by him, therefore runs of with the biker. We learn that the biker was actually the couples bodyguard who took and interest in Ariana when she was at the party venue.

We are taken back to the party venue and we have a variety of shots, with each of them in a flash kind of effect like party lights and we see close ups of Ariana sat at a table looking around, then of her boyfriend who is having fun with his boy friends and we can see that in a low angle shot she is thinking about the bodyguard who is revealed behind a few people who are dancing and it seems they are making eye contact. As the song comes to the hook before the last chorus, the song breaks down and we see a slow motion shot of him touching another girls face, so we therefore pressume this is the reason Ariana has wondering eyes, and instead of feeling sorry for the man now we almost take Ariana's side and understand why she has left him for the bodyguard.

Here we see Adele’s Digipak Advert for her album ‘21′, this is an interesting one as there isn’t an awful lot going on and everything is very simplistic, however this is a common thing which Adele has done with a lot of her albums, even her newest release in 2015 ‘25′. In this Digipak though, it is very similar to others in some ways, and the biggest way this is shown is through her being the main focus on the Digipak and she is the most prominent feature on the album. Although everything is black and white apart from the green writing which reveals some key information, including that it is available everywhere and her age which is something she has done with all of her albums, this time her being so light in the monochrome effect has made her appear from the background of darkness.

I feel the black and white effect is helpful in the advertisement of her album as the album itself is quite a dark one, the songs are mostly sad and emotional, which is something presented on her Digipak and on the advert above. Although it seems like a depressing way to advertise your album, this is what Adele is known for, and therefore it really works and is recognisable. 

Although it is only an ad, the overall look is very professional and fits with what she has released, simple things like the fonts are similar throughout her advert and the Digpak/Album. I feel this is important as this is something which reflects what kind of music it is and it is important to pick the right font for the album as getting this wrong could be a reason why it doesn’t sell as well or could even mislead the audience into thinking its something which it isn’t.

Its key that we recognise that they have included what awards she has won, as a young female, she has achieved a lot in her time as a celebrity, and she was relatively new to the music industry at this point, with her first album only being released 2 years before this one. The mention of her song which features on the album is good as if we didn’t know who the song was by but knew what the song was called we are reminded that she sung it and therefore we could be intrigued to listen to more of her music.

Here is Jessie J’s Digipak advert for her album ‘Who you are’. Her advert does a lot for her and the promotion of her album for many reasons, and makes it clear what you get when you purchase the Digipak and you cannot mistake who the Digipak is for.

One way in which it is a powerful advert is the position of Jessie J on the advert, she isn’t really small, on the side or down the bottom, instead she is situated right in the middle at the top of her advert, meaning that there is no mistaking who’s Ad this is, and we recognise her not only from the picture of her but the fonts and colours used, as they are used throughout her album - and the big ‘Jessie J’ title has actually been made for her as something she can take with her on tour, and there are videos of her performing live with this in the background, therefore if you are a fan of Jessie J or if you have just seen her sing live somehow you will recognise this feature. 

I think it is really important that we recognise that Jessie is looking straight down the camera, almost right at us (the audience) and it is a slightly intimidating stare, and we know from some of the songs on the album this is the look she has gone for - the edgy and outspoken look, which is reflected in her song ‘Do It Like A Dude’. The colours used are really important too as they are black and just as edgy as how she looks and this is something that is a building factor which is used synergistic across a few of her stuff (videos, on stage and on her albums). Gold and black also work well together, not only as colours but with their connotations too, with gold being associated with money, luxury and expense, and the black giving it the edge, confidence and even in some aspects can be associated with looking sexy, which is what we have seen her create in various videos of hers, and the two together work well with how she has been styled and the look she is giving us on the cover of the Digipak advert.

The ad is also good as it shows what she has achieved so far, for instance mentioning that she has had a hit single already is something which might attract some people into listening to her music and even buying her album/digipak and giving her a listen. The fact she had a number one single before the album has been released is a massive pull factor for a lot of people, as to get to the number 1 is a big achievement, and you cannot do that without masses of support and people recognising what song is playing and who it is by, therefore at this point it is almost inevitable that she has a fan base and many people would be interested in buying this Digipak.

Its important that the production company have had a mention in this advert too as it helps advertise who they have working for them and the artist themselves but also them as a Production Company, perhaps meaning more people will desire to be signed to them too - as people as talented as Jessie J are working for them and she has been catapulted into the world of fame very quickly.