Audience Feedback on Magazine Advert

Once I had done all my research into magazine adverts of similar artists I decided to present the question "what do you believe should be included in a magazine advert for an artists new album coming out?" to a focus group and note their replies. 

Firstly I asked them to focus on the words and layout of the magazine advert.

This is what I found out in general: 

1. The artists name and album name 

2. Where people can purchase the new album, e.g. iTunes, online, in shops? 

3. Should have a picture of the artist with the words on top; name above the picture and everything else below. 

I then asked them to discuss the picture for the advert giving them a choice of 3 and asking them to choose which they felt would be the best: 

After discussing it, they all agreed on the third picture saying it was "fun and energetic" and would be "eye catching and stand out". 

Creating A Twitter Account

Today I decided to make our artist a twitter page and follow people who we believe would be her role model or interests. This includes artists such as Beyonce, Nicole Scherzinger as well as TV shows such as the X factor. We plan to link our artists twitter page to her website to create a higher profile for her and link her social media together.

Website Making Research

Before actually starting to make a website for our artist, I researched several famous artists website to get inspiration and ideas. The two main websites that I looked at were Rihanna's and Beyonce's as these two artists have a similar audience to ours.

Firstly, Rihanna's website; this gave me the idea to link our artists twitter page to her website as this creates a larger profile for our artist. We have already created a twitter account for our artist to create a fan base for her.

 

Secondly, Beyoncé's website gave me an idea that I liked about the layout of my artists website. I like how there is not too much information on the page and it is quite simple to navigate. Also how her tour dates are set out is easy to read and understand from a glance. 

 

Filming day 2 - Stage

As well as the tunnel this was another location that we chose to film our dance sequence for the chorus. After having a few problems with playing the music on the speaker, we soon rectified it and it was a very productive filming session. Again, same as the tunnel, Amandeep focused on the establishing and long-shots while I did the high angle shots. Then we did close-ups, mid-shots and low angle shots of one dancer each and both did shots of our singer, e.g. When Amandeep was doing low angle shots and shoe shots, I was filming close-ups of her and jewellery.

Risk Assessment - Stage

Making my magazine advert

Once I had learnt to use Photoshop, I began to make my magazine advert for my artist. I imported the picture and added several layers of different text changing the colour and font of the text.

 

Risk Assessment - Tunnel and Train Station

Choosing a picture for my magazine advert

After looking through all the pictures that I took at the photoshoot of our singer, I decided to use the following picture for my magazine advert for my album

 

I then used a app called 'Reflection' and turned the reflection of the photo black and white.

 

I then reflected the picture again, using the same app, and decided that this would be the photo I used for my magazine advert.

Magazine advert research

When I started my magazine advert research I decided to look at artists with a similar target audience; around 16-23. I found magazine adverts for Beyoncé, Rihanna and Katy Perry's albums.

 

 

Photoshoot

We decided to do a photoshoot with our singer so we had photos for our website and magazine advert. We had a variety of outfits and locations that we had planned to take photos of her in. Here are a few examples of the pictures we took:

 

 

 

 

Filming day 1 - Tunnel

This is one of the main locations for our music video and where we filmed the dance shots for our chorus so it was really important to get it right first time! We used two cameras so both Amandeep and I filmed from different angles. For example, in the first shoot, Amandeep concentrated on filming the establishing shots while I filmed high and low angle shots. Then we both did mid-shots and close-ups of both our singer and the dancers as what we planned on our storyboards.

On the whole, the day went well and we have hopefully got all the shots we need and have planned for.

 

On Track

We have spoken to our singer today to make sure that she will be ready for Saturday - she confirmed that she knows the song and is well on track for Saturday 6th December!

We also got in contact with our dancers, they also confirmed that they have been practicing their dance sequence and will all be ready for Saturday.

Equipment List - Saturday 7th December

Crew members:

• Cameras X2 (fully charged) 
• Tripod 
• Speakers and iPad (for playing the music) 
• Umbrella's (incase it rains) 
• Money (for hot drinks and food) 
• Phone (fully charged)
• Storyboards 
• Notepad and pen 
• Snacks 

Dancers: 

• Eat lunch before arrival at 1.30
• Come with outfit on (leotard, tights and converse), make-up done (heavy but natural, fake eyelashes, natural lips, eyeshadow) and hair done (messy ponytail, black hair tie). No jewellery except pearl earrings
• Bring hairspray, hairbrush, spare hair tie, clips etc. 
• Coat/ warm clothing for when they are not dancing 
• Phone (fully charged) 
• Money (for drinks, snacks, lunch etc) 

Singer: 

• Come with outfit on (leather leggings, crop top, statement necklace, hoop earrings, heels), make-up done (heavy but natural, fake eyelashes, eye-liner, red lipstick, red nails) and hair done (down and wavy)
• Coat/ warm clothing for when we are not shooting
• Phone (fully charged) 
• Money (for drinks, snacks, lunch etc) 

Shooting Schedule - Saturday 7th December

Friday evening - pick up cameras (ensuring they are fully charged), tripod and speakers from school

Saturday:

11.30 - Crew members arrive at Denham station and go to tunnel to set up

12.00 - one crew member stay with equipment in tunnel and other go and collect singer from the train station

12 - 1.00 - film shots with singer only

1 - 1.15 - break

1.15 - 1.30 - set up ready for dancers arrival at 1.30

1.45 - 2.30 - film the dance sequence once through (allowing for re-shoots)

2.30 - 2.45 - break (snack and hot drink available at cafe, bring money)

2.45 - 4.00 - film dance sequence 3 times (including close-ups of dancers and singer)

4.15 pm - pick up for dancers and singer

4.30 pm - pick up for crew members

Planning Our Film Date At The Tunnel

We have organised with the dancers and singer to film on Saturday 7th December in the tunnel in Denham. We have made arrangements to meet our singer at Denham train station at 12pm and go to the tunnel from there to film some of the shots with her. We have then asked our dancers to meet us at the tunnel at 1.30pm to ensure that we are all ready to film the dance shots when they arrive.

Storyboard - part 7

This is the storyboard for the shots at the train station (on the stairs and walkway). Here is the main part of our song where we have a relationship between the lyrics and visuals.

Storyboard - part 6

This is the storyboard for the stage shots of the dance sequence (with 2 dancers)

 

 

Storyboards - part 5

This is the storyboard for the train station shots of Hannah on the platform (by the pole)

 

 

Storyboard - part 4

This is the storyboard for the train station stairs of our singer jumping from one place to the next

 

 

Storyboard - part 3

This is the storyboard for the tunnel shots of the dance sequence.

 

 

Storyboard - part 2

Here is the storyboard for the second part of our song; the house and lift shots for the first verse

 

 

Storyboard - part 1

This is the storyboard I did for the intro of our song; where there are no lyrics.

 

 

 

Finalising Our Music Choice

We wanted to use 'clean' version of Ciara's - 'Living it up' and so we tried cutting Nicki Minaj's part out in order to make it more suitable for our target audience of young teenage girls. We used the software Garage Band to fix this however  there was no way of making a clean cut and therefore we decided to use a different radio edit featuring only Ciara. 

We do plan to use Garage Band in the editing stage of making our music video to cut the end of the song.

Costume Ideas For Singer

We are still in the process of deciding what to dress our singer in in the different locations. We looked and some celebrities for some inspiration and these were our favourite outfits. The majority seem to be wearing some sort of leather clothing, weather that be a jacket or leggings/ trousers, so we thought to fit in with the conventions of other music videos for some of ours we could dress our singer in leather and also maybe ripped jeans. We still also need to decide on how she is going to have her hair, shoes and accessories!

Costume For Dancers (Tunnel)

 

For our second location of the dance sequence (the tunnel) we decided to dress our dancers in the classic black leotard and opaque black/ skin colour tights. Again we decided that our dancers would be wearing converse. 

Costume For Dancers (Stage)

After discussion we decided that for our first location of the dance sequence (the stage) we wanted our dancers to be wearing black leggings, a black crop top and converse. We wanted to dress them in quite basic clothes so as not to draw attention away from the singer.

Props

Here is a list of props that we are going to have in our music video:

1. Clear bowl of water/ food colouring die (for intro) 
2. Umbrella (dancing in the rain)

As our music video doesn't really tell a story and is mainly based around the locations it is set in and the dance scenes we can't think of that many props that we need. However, I'm sure that a few more will pop into our heads when it comes to filming on the day 

Lyrics breakdown (part 6)

I'mma live life to the fullest
I'll be speeding like a bullet
I'll be rolling like a train
I'll be dancing in the rain


For this part of our music video we were thinking of having our singer walking on the train station and 'dancing in the rain' with an umbrella at the train station to create a relationship between the lyrics and visuals

Lyrics breakdown (part 5)

I have my doubts in love, but I know it's true
I don't have many friends, but I got you
You are a walking gun
You are a secret bomb
Something no one can take from you



We are having these shots at the train station on the platform by the pole. We will have close ups and a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals

Lyrics breakdown (part 4)

O'la, o'la aye,
O'la, o'la aye,
O'la, o'la aye,
O'la, o'la aye



Here we are having the shots of our singer on the stairs at the train station. We are going to have 4 shots of our singer 'jumping' up the stairs from one place to another - one for each line.

Lyrics breakdown (part 3)

And I, I, I
Living on borrowed time
And I, I, I
I'mma be gettin' mine and
And I, I, I
I'll be wrong if I don't try
I Don't know when my next meals coming
All I know is I'll be running
I, I, I
I be livin' it up, I be livin' it up, yeah
I, I, I
I be throwin' it up, I be throwin' it up, yeah
I, I, I'll
I'll be playing it cool
'Cause a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do
Making up my own rules


For the chorus of the song we are going to be having some dance shots. For the first and third chorus we are planning to have the dance sequence on stage and for the middle chorus in the tunnel. However, we may decide to have this the other way round (1st and 3rd in the tunnel and 2nd on stage) depending on which looks better. 

Lyrics breakdown (part 2)

I don't believe in much
But I believe in you
I don't believe I can't
'Cause I don't follow rules, hey
I see your star so bright,
No one can dim that light
No one can cross you out, but you




Here we plan to the shots of our singer in the house and lift

Lyrics breakdown (part 1)

Ohhh ohhh
Yeah, yeah


For the opening part of the song we are planning to film the effect of food colouring dye dripping into water. The plan is for it to look something like this: 

Inspiration

I looked at Nicole Scherzinger's music video of Boomerang and really liked some of the shots. I thought that although the whole video only has her in it dancing it was quite effective, for example some of the shots were of her dancing just with a plain white background but the kaleidoscope effect used really added to it and made it look more interesting and is more likely to grab the audience's attention. Unlike a lot of the other music videos I have looked at for inspiration and ideas, this one didn't have a storyline which I also quite like about it because it is quite easy to watch without having to understand an underlying narrative but still grabs you with some of the effects used

Prepping Our Location

One of our locations for some of the dance shots in the school stage. The back wall was originally painted for a Willy Wonka production, however we wanted it black to fit in with the conventions of a cool and up-to-date music video for our shots so have re-painted it.