Print Research- Magazine advert

Full page advert

This magazine advert is very eye catching due to the use of the entropic image. The strange image is used to attract the audience and to connote a sense of Indie through the use of warm colours. The advert doesn't include any of the band members, which appears redundant for Indie band adverts. The font used for "the killers" gives a brand identity as they commonly use it. The colour scheme and layout used is typical use of the Indie genre as it is eye catching but the page isn't over busy. The full page advert is used to have the full attention of the audience and they can afford it due to being a well known band. The target audience is clearly Indie styled and could be targeted at a huge range of ages, due to the relaxed layout. The release date is clearly presented, which promotes it well. I'd like my video to focus on the image and important information, such as the release date and so follow a similar layout. By doing this I can use an entropic image to attract my young audience and still follow the Indie genre with the relaxed layout.



Half page advert

This magazine advert has clearly focused on the bright image and band and song name. The bright colours used give a brand identity as it is unique to the band. The image is an entropic image as it is unusual. However, for an Indie band, perhaps it is a redundant feature as strange images seem to be used  commonly in this genre. The page doesn't consist of much information, which connotes that the band is well known enough to not need much detail. My magazine advert would perhaps include more detail as they are unsigned and so would need more promotion. The layout is simple, which is redundant for an Indie genre and typically fits for the young target audience, as they are drawn to colours and not interested in large amount of information. The font is another brand identity feature as the band uses it commonly- which is a redundant feature for adverts. The half page advert connotes a lower budget band, due to unavailable funds to pay for a large advert. My advert would also be a half page advert as my band is unsigned so therefore low budget.

It is important to have an appealing magazine advert, as part of a promotional package, because people are drawn to music by colours and how they connote the type of music and audience. It also can attract new people to listen to the music, because it is the advert that influences them to listen to the song. Most people read online, instead of magazine's now, so magazine adverts have less impact than they used to but they can be used online also to promote the single to a wider population and to inform fans that they have a new song out.

Print research

Now I have finished my music video I am going to start looking at digipack and magazine prints that aim to attract a similar target audience as mine and are an Indie genre. I am going to analyse them to get a clear idea of what elements are needed to attract my target audience and what promotional techniques Indie bands use. I will look at use of images, fonts, layout, detail and the size of adverts appropriate for the band and target audience. 

Final cut

Filming update

Yesterday we re-filmed the computer scene:

Location: Vitor's house

Props: Computer

Actors: Sophie (me) 

Filming: Vitor

This was a successful filming and we now have the extra scene we needed for our video. 

Time management update

Unexpected overrun of time

Unfortunately, editing took more time than we thought, so we have now run over our plans for this week, which was to start package.

Action plan 

We intend on taking action on the changes we need to make to our video and have a final deadline for our music video on Wednesday 19th December. 

Today's lesson: Check lip syncing and add editing tools to make scenes run smoother. 

Tonight: I am going to film the scene that needs to be changed. 

Wednesday 19th December: Add scene to video and make any further changes needed. (We may take extra time after class to finish this if it is not done within the lesson). 

I will begin to research digipack's in the Christmas holidays (21st December-7th January) and create a mock-up of my own digipack. 

How we are going to respond to feedback

• We are going to make our editing smoother by adding tools such as fade in, fade out in between scenes that seem a bit "jumpy" 
• We are going to change the scene where Sophie (me) is on the computer looking at Vitor. We are going to change the picture on the computer of a picture of Vitor wearing the make-up, because we made the mistake of putting a picture of him not wearing any. We are also going to make the scene longer and emotional to allow the audience to understand the story line more, make a connection with the characters and to reduce performance scenes. 
• We are going to double check the lip syncing in our performance element to make sure he sings in time with the music. This will make the video look more professional. 
• We are going to upload the video with better quality so the scenes are clear and the audience can view the reactions of the characters.
• We are also going to lighten the scenes of performance, so the audience can view the band clearer. 

Facebook Feedback

We decided to use Facebook to get feedback for our video, because we can get more of a wide spread response and from people we could not ask without using Facebook.
These are the questions we asked:
1. Do you think our video suits the indie genre?

2. Do you understand the narrative/ story?

3. Do you think there is a good balance between the narrative and performance? Or does it need anymore?

4. Do you feel there is a comical element in this video?

5. How could we improve our video?

6. Do you feel you can relate to the characters in the narrative and why?

And here are the responses:

This person gave positive feedback but we will respond to her criticism by double checking the lip syncing. We will not change the comical element unless the majority of the other agree with her, because our video needs to target our whole audience, not just one person within it.

This person gave all positive feedback and gave nothing we could improve on.

Most feedback given by this person is positive, however he makes a point that our narrative seems rushed. We will improve upon this by changing one scene that we also agree appears rushed. In this scene we will also add another shot that connotes emotion to respond to his criticism about not enough focus on the relationship of the narrative.

This feedback is positive for our video and we cannot make any adjustments based on this response.

This feedback is positive and has no criticisms.

This person gave mostly positive feedback, but she mentioned the performance being too long. To respond to this we are changing a narrative scene to make it longer, which therefore shortens the performance element. She also commented on the lip syncing not being accurate, so we are going check and change that.

This person gave mostly positive feedback but commented on transitions between scenes, to respond to this we will experiment with different transitions to see if there is room for improvement. We decided against including a scene where the band and actors in the story are both included because in other similar music videos they usually include both together throughout the whole video or not at all. We chose not to include them together at all, because that would mean we would have to film our video all again, which we do not have time for.

Focus group feedback

Here we gathered three people who we think suits our target audience and asked them a range of questions about our music video. The questions were the same questions we asked on our Facebook group, but we felt in a focus group they would express their opinion more and give more detail about what they think.

1. Do you think our video suits the indie genre?

2. Do you understand the narrative/ story?

3. Do you think there is a good balance between the narrative and performance? Or does it need anymore?


4. Do you feel there is a comical element in this video?

5. How could we improve our video?

6. Do you feel you can relate to the characters in the narrative and why?


We found out from this how we could improve our video in a range of ways. For example, one of these people commented on the lighting in the performance element of the video, so we may make change to the lighting. There was also a comment about the editing and how it is slightly jumpy, so we will also make changes in response to this comment. 

It is important to respond to criticism made by our target audience because they are the type of people who will watch our video. We also want them to enjoy the video in general and for the video to promote the band.  

Editing update

Like planned, we have finished editing our rough cut:



We have produced a Facebook page with our video on it, questions and a range of people in our target audience so we can get feedback on our video and change any changes that need to be done:


1. Do you think our video suits the indie genre?

2. Do you understand the narrative/ story?

3. Do you think there is a good balance between the narrative and performance? Or does it need anymore?

4. Do you feel there is a comical element in this video?

5. How could we improve our video?

6. Do you feel you can relate to the characters in the narrative and why?

Editing update

Today we didn't manage to finish editing our music video, due to unexpected problems while editing, but we are not far from finishing our rough cut. We plan to finish editing our video on Wednesday and get feedback that same day using Facebook  We will then get further feedback with a focus group on Friday. Using our spare time, we hope we can understand what or if we need any changes for our music video by Monday.

Applying what I know about editing to my video

Jump-cut 

A jump cut is a transition between two shots which appears to "jump" due to the way the shots are framed in relation to each other. This type of editing is usually used in a comical sense and so I intend to use this to create a sense of humor in my video. The jump cut will be used when the actor Vitor is doing a dance that is meant to be viewed as funny, this editing will help to illustrate this. 

Fade out

This is a shot which starts at full brightness and gradually fades into total darkness. We will use this at the end of our music video to end the video, this will create a sense of emotion for the actor (Vitor) it will fade out from. 

Continuity 

This editing reduces time and smooths scenes out. We will use this editing in our music video to make movements look natural without each scene being too time consuming. 

Eye line match 

We will use this type of editing to show who is looking at who and to create a bond between people in our video. 

Editing update

Today we have done further editing of our music video and hope we will finish our rough cut for Monday. We have edited all of our narrative into sections and have placed them in time with how we have planned. We have also edited part of our performance element and we are going to edit them to fit in with our music video on Monday/