Survey Results for the Advertisement

I advertised my survey on facebook via http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HWRHFJ9

RESULTS OF THE SURVEY ON THE PREFERENCES ABOUT ADVERTS.

1. Image + Essentiel information which is neither minimal nor over complicated is the preferred type with 63% agreeing.

2. 77% prefer the colourful jewel colours like Marina & The Diamonds’ advertisement.

3. 82% thought that they find it easier to find the digipak in the store if the advertisement’s imagery reflected the digipak’s.

4. 93% of people notice more music advertisements in magazines.

5. 100% prefer sans-serif fonts.

6. The most important information, and most seeked, were which formats were available, the review of the album, the release date and content of the product.

7. Imagery of outer space appealed the most to my target audience.

8. 78% didn’t care if they saw the protagonist’s face.

I will bear all of this in mind when designing the advertisement. I aim to please the target audience.

research into patterns in album cover designs

I have noticed that the triangle is a typical convention of indie/alternative music.
I have noticed the use of this shape in music videos, but mainly in the use of digipak cover designs. I have included images, which I found from the iTunes Store, of these below. Also, I have searched the internet to see if anyone else has noticed this convention. I have found a few possible answers as to why it is so popular, but they are just opinion based. See these below as well!

I will definitely be adding triangles to the design of my digipak - and thus my advert.


__Research from Yahoo.com__

Question: Why do indie kids associate with triangles?
why is it now days all you see are kids with triangles, is it the new edge instead of X's you draw triangles.. am i missing some trend?
e.g kids with triangles drawn on there bodies, tatoos of triangles, making triangles with there hands, photo's been photoshopped and triangles added.

so why do indie kids like triangles so much....?

thanks :)

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
We prefer hipsters haha jk I have no clue what you're talking about really. But the triangle has always held a lot of symbolic meaning throughout time. It's a symbol for power and knowledge. True story.

Answer 2
Just like cars. I mean, in the 70's, round headlights were the way to go. The 80's come around, and nothing but rectangles. 90's brought rounded edges to rectangles. 00's brought in some weird angles, but were still mostly rectangular. Now they're jagged and crooked.
Society sees too much of something and gets tired of it(X's), so we move on to other things we haven't seen as much of(triangles).
It's a matter of boredom, really.

Answer 3
The triangle represents the up and downs of life. That sometimes life are not perfect and sometime is good. Its kinda like a ying yang in a way. Oh and is a cool shape too

Answer 4
its like a portal into space or something, because a lot of "indie" people say they love nature and stuff.

___Research from iTunes Store, on Digipaks with Triangles__

Representation in our music video

OUR FEMALE PROTAGONIST IS:-

*young, and therefore relates to the younger target audience
*in the majority of our music video
*represented as being self-confident
*represented as 'girly' via her costume (the rabbit mask that she wears is symbolic of her femininity, vulnerability - think innocent bunny rabbit - and sexualisation - think Playboy bunny )
*appears fun loving throughout
*an archetype of the female sex as she is shown as feminine; ie. concerned about appearance
attending a party

YOUTHFUL BEHAVIOUR:-
*rebelling and holding a non-adult party
*dancing
*singing
*being immature
*drinking recklessly
*wanting attention from the camera; and looking directly into it

PROFESSIONAL VIDEO:-
*added introductory titles appear giving the audience information about the Band and Song name.
*through lipsynching.
*through editing.

SEXUALITY:-
*hetrosexual (as the male fox is chasing the female bunny)
*the rabbit mask that is worn by the female gives the idea that she challenges patriarchy but at *the same time is a symbol of empowerment.

eye contact from crowd to invite the audiences gaze and make them feel included in the party.
central protagonists rarely make eye contact, focusing the audience’s attention on the surroundings. We attempted to show her as a independent and confident character.

SHOTS:-
*grainier, saturated effect.
*eye contact from crowd to invite the audiences gaze and make them feel included in the party.
*jerky documentary style camera work = voyeuristic feel that we used to create realism. *establishing shot of a suburban house followed by a mid shot of the party inside.

YOUTH IS REPRESENTED AS THE VIDEO:-
*is based around experiences that youth can relate to.
*shows a small group of people at a party who all wear similar 'indie' clothing, which links to the conformity in the younger culture.
*central protagonist in typically ‘indie’ clothing which also links to the idea of conformity.

'INDIE/ALTERNATIVE' FOLLOWERS:-
*via costume
*via the style of dancing
*via elipses editing because we didn't want to feature any footage of 'chavs' that came to the party.

GENDER:-
*male pursuing a female he is younger and seen as vulnerable.
*higher angle shot with and a title to show his youth, size and made our audience feel protective of him
*oxymoronic symbol of the fox mask worn by the younger less powerful character, as a fox is related to representions of strength and masculinity.

Use of Tech. in Construction, Research and Planning

Use of Technology in Construction
*Video Camera This was a vital part of creating the music video. It's portablilty enabled us to film anywhere with ease. It's handheld form gave us the ability to create the jolting camera movements that we wanted.
*At the same time, we could use the Tripod for added stability. Stable camera movements are often used in professional music videos, and so we used the tripod to incorporate these shots into our otherwise jerky shots.
*Lighting was
*iMovie was the software that we used to edit our footage. In order to create the final product, this was vital. It's features enabled us not only to edit and cut the footage, but adjust it's colouring, brightness, contrast, pace, repetition, and sound levels. Thus, we could experiment with these areas until we had created a video that used the conventions of a professional Alternative music video. To add a professional aesthetic, we added an introductory strip that introduced the band and the song name. This is a typical convention that one would normally expect to see on a music channel, like MTV2.
*Adobe Premier Pro was used only my myself. I decided that I wanted to use a more professional program for the editing of the beginning of the video. This professionalism, I hope, would attract the target audience. The features of this program let me edit the footage in ways that iMovie would never enable me to. I could *overlay two layers of footage [in the video, you can see how I have overlayed footage of myself applying makeup with another of myself dancing around in a bedroom mise-en-scene]; *adjust the lighting [I was able to create a flickering effect on the cheerleading section of the video for added interest]; and *add an effect to the footage to create a surreal, dreamy effect.
*Photoshop CS4 was used both in the construction of the digipak and the music video. In the music video, we used it to line up the cheerleading poses and insert this after the cheerleading footage was shown. This reinforced to the viewer that the word spelt was indeed 'PARTY'. The construction of the digipak was entirely thanks to Photoshop.




Use of Technology in Research
*Internet: Youtube.com This site let me view other established band's music videos. I particularly researched into the Alternative genre, of course. It was interesting to see people's comments and reactions to the videos. I think I will load my video onto Youtube to receive audience feedback, too.
*Internet: Google.com This site, of course enabled me to research everything from mask designs to album covers.
*Internet: HMV.com I used this to view album covers. However, it wasn;t very successful as you could not search by the Genre I needed.
*Internet: Music Magazines' sites, e.g. NME.com I used this to view how music advertisements are presented.
*Internet: Twitter.com I used this a little to research into band's Twitters, and see what kind of lifestyle they live.
*Internet: Myspace.com I used this to contact the band we are promoting. I was able to contact them to ask for the lyrics, and ask permission to use their uncopyrighted music.
*Internet: Jamendo.com I used this site because it enables you to search through uncopyrighted music, download it and use it. This is how I found the band Happiness, and their song Look At That Rabbit Go!
*Internet: SurveyMonkey.com I used this site for audience feedback. SurveyMonkey allows you create your survey online, distribute the link via Facebook.com, and create charts from the results. I thought it would be better to do it online as people are more accessible as they prefer to use computers; plus, it is more environmentally friendly.
*iTunes: iTunes' Store The iTunes Store was good for viewing album covers. I could search by the Alternative genre, too, which was very helpful. Also, you can view advertisements for Alternative bands.
*Television: Music Channels These channels allowed me, of course, to view other Alernative music videos. I mainly watched MTV2 as it shows more Alternative music.
*Radio: Radio 1 I listened to Radio 1 to listen out for bands that I could research in to. Radio 1 offers Indie/Alternative genre music, so this was good.
*Camera I used my camera to photograph different locations. This was helpful as we could make creative descions together easily without visiting the set. I also photographed items of clothing, so that I could confer with my group to decide which best suit the Indie image. I then wore these for the filming.


Use of Technology in Planning
*Mobile phones: Texting/Calling This was vital for communication. We could plan dates, plan when and where to meet, plan who would be taking the equpiment home, plan who would be editting next.
*Internet: Facebook.com This was also vital for communication. We could plan dates, plan when and where to meet, plan who would be taking the equpiment home, plan who would be editting next.
*Internet: Blogger.com This was used to plan, display and discuss ideas. Our group each Follow each others' blogs, so that we can see each others' ideas for the music video. It was good that we could meet in school, with our blogs up and discuss what every one had found and thus make group-creative-decisions.
*Microsoft Word This was good for when the Internet was not working. I could still write down my ideas and then copy, paste and post them later. It meant that my planning was not hindered due to any techinical problems.


Use of technology in Training
[2 days training with a company called 'CLC']
*GarageBand It was interesting to learn the basics of this program. Although, we did not end up making our own song. We opted for the more professional route of using Jamendo.com to promote the existing band, Happiness.
*iMovie We were taught how to mute the diegetic sound on our video and replace it with the non-diegetic sound of the band's song.

Effectiveness of the combination of music video and digipak

There is synergy between our music video and the digipak. This is primarily due to the fact that I have carried through the imagery of the protagonist into the design of the digipak. This ensures that the audience can make a link between the digipak and the music video promotion. The way that they will be able to make the connection and recognise the girl would create a feeling within the audience that they have a bond between the character and themselves. I have created synergy in the way that I intentionally chose the same costume for the girl to wear at the photoshoot for the digipak. The girl wears the same 'Indie' checked shirt, cropped top and the trademark Rabbit Mask. Additionally, I would like to note how I have subtley included the appearance of nightime in both media texts. The music video, being a party scene was set in the night time; and the digipak features images of a night sky. This night-sky imagery is a convention often used in new Indie media texts - for example in Little Boots' digipak, and Ellie Gouldings' music video for 'Starry Eyed'.

I wanted the album cover to be recognisable and memorable because this would attract the consumer. As you can imagine, in HMV, the store where we intend our album to be distributed - there are many other digipaks available and we wanted ours to stand out in the crowd. I think the way I purposely positioned the band's name at the top so that it'll be less likely that it would be covered by other CDs in the store. The bright jewel colours would stand out, too. To add to this, I had been interested in Pink Floyd's album cover which is iconic because of the triangle used on the front - I tried to emulate this in my own cover by using the shape subtley. This would make the audience remember the classic design and link it to my own.

I would have attempted to do this by creating a link between the album cover and the band's musci video. However, from the research that I did, I found that other real media texts did not hold much synergy between theirs. Therefore I followed this, especially as in a survey I held, 77% didn't care if the artist's face was included in the design. And so, I lowered the importance of showing our protagonist on the front cover - and instead used her on the back cover and on both discs.

Our target audience is the fans of the 'alernative' music genre. From my questionnaire I found that they preferred 66% preferred Indie album cover designs that did not feature the protagonist from the music video which is why there is no evidence of this is in my final outcome; and 67% were impressed by special effects because "it's more interesting than original footage" and "it's fun and exciting" which is why I used Adobe Premiere Pro with its extended features and Photoshop CS4 to create a special digipak cover.


I did an experiment with my friends. I showed them the digipak and the video on Monday and asked them today (Friday) to describe what they remember from each. We learned from this audience feedback that we has succeeded in creating a memorable identity for our band. This is because they remembered that:
*the protagonist was a girl in a bunny mask, whose image also featured on the digipak
*the video was of a party scene with young people as a cast.
*the video was shot as night time, and the digipak had an image of a night sky/universe
*the band and song name because they had linked the chorus with the digipak.
*a fun and vibrant mood was evident in both media.

Final Digipak Design

Audience Feedback/Questionnaire Results

Awaiting results.