The first draft of my album back cover was the least successful panel. The weakness are that the background colour is too dark, therefore doesn't match the lighter tone of the other panels. This dull colour also isn't eye-catching to the audience, however it works well to make the white text clear and stand out. This could be improved by either making the background colour brighter, or removing the grey strips at the sides, because they draw focus from the photos. The font works well, because its coherent with the font on the front cover. However the album title at the top is too small and unclear. I also need to change the album title to something that relates to the mirror and reflection motifs, such as 'mirrored worlds' The colour of the text works well because it stands out against the grey background, and works with the monotone style of the album. However i could add some red to the text, to connect it to the text on the front cover, and make it look more eye-catching to the audience. To make the photos look more abstract i could try them with a filter on, from Photoshop. Finally i also need to add a copyright symbol to this cover in the corner. This cover conforms the indie genre, because they usually feature a band member, and from the album covers i have looked at, the layout of the text and images is similar. This cover contrasts the other panels because in the others the subject's face is never shown, constructing representations that she is lost and has no identity, which also creates a sense of enigma. However i am shown in the back cover, to create the representation she is confident and powerful, reinforced by the direct mode of address. The initial design and layout is successful, but could be made far better with the improvements i have suggested.
This is the draft for my album front cover. This was challenging to create however looks very successful. The deconstructed reflection works well because it is surrealist, and creates a sense of enigma. The subject is represented as enigmatic and lost in reality; these representations it constructs could relate to the audience. The font cover looks good and needs little improvement. The only weakness is that the red text decreases the quality and doesn't work with the monotone style. Therefore i could change it to black or white, and place it somewhere it will be clear to read and stand out. This cover links to the indie genre because it features a band member and looks abstract because i have deconstructed the image, to alter the perspective of reality. The monotone colours also work well because they make the image look emotive and bright, so it will stand out to the audience and look intriguing.
The side panels for the album cover also work well as they are cohesive with the rest of the album, because i have used the same photo as the front cover. It is also simple and understates, to give a minimalist style, and not to distract from the main panels. They are a development from the front cover, because i have added colour to them in the photos in the reflections. This looks good because it makes the covers more vibrant and exciting. It also connotes meanings, as the colourful photos suggest she is fantasising about escaping reality, into a saturated, lively world. These would appeal to the audience because of their eye-catching aesthetic, and they could relate to the theme of escapism.I could improve these panels further by adding text to them. In order to link these panels to the song i could place lines from the lyrics of the song 'bloodstream' to the corners of the panels. I could also make this text red to link to the 'bloodstream' song title.
The magazine advert is successful because it is bright, clear and cohesive to the other productions. The image draws the audience to it, because the leading lines bring your eyes to the titles. Also the text is emphasised by the bold red colour, and the font of the headings is the same for the album cover, therefore creates a link between them. The image relates to the album cover because it is in black and white, to make the text stand to against it. Also it follows the surrealist visual style because the image has been altered, by repeating it, to create a stylised reality and create metaphors for escapism and reality being repetitive. The text is good because it is relevant and would appeal to the audience because it isn't overly cluttered, and is informative. The text includes a magazine review and bold titles for the album and band, which will persuade the audience to buy the album. It links to the genre because indie productions usually use an abstract image, to look original and intriguing. However it also breaks conventions because magazine adverts usually feature a band member, to make the advert recognisable. I haven't included a person in this image, because the photo is supposed to shot from the point of view of the person, and it shows someone's perspective on reality. This could be improved by making the red lines on the road more clear and adding more of them. Also i could add a pack shot of the album cover, so that the audience can clearly see the links between them.
This was the first draft for my back cover. To improve on it I should incorperate some red in the writing, and remove the grey strips either side. I could also change the album title at the top to Bloodstream or something else.
Album- front cover
The first draft of the front cover looks good because the photo is crips, and the monotone colours work well, and create tones and shadows. However the red headings could be changed to either black or white, to match the monotone style, and the red makes it look low quality. I could also change the album title, so that it relates to all the reflection motifs, to make it more coherent.
album- front cover
The initial look of my idea for my album cover. I constructed it by removing the image from the mirror, and reconstructing it, using a different image. I improved this first image by flipping the image of me inside the mirror, because the way it should reflect isn't correct there. I also made the colour inside the mirror lighter, because the grey made it look too dark and made the subject inside the mirror lack focus, as it needed a brighter background.
For the sides of the album cover, the first drafts were successful and need little improvement. They were simple to create because i could use the image from the font cover and just replace the image from the inside of the mirror for a different photograph. However these panels need to include some text, and look more busy, therefore i will add song lyrics, from the song Bloodstream, to the corners of these panels.
The first draft for the magazine advert also worked well as the image is eye-catching and constructs surrealist metaphors. Also there is relevant text, however the layout doesn't make it look overcrowded. To improve the first draft I could include a pack shot of the album cover, and make the red lines on the road more clear.
Narrative techniques are used to structure my music video. The music video will be purely narrative, illustrating the lyrics of the song and creating representations and events that relate to the audience. We plan to include lots of different character types, to create diverse representations, which could relate to the audience. The costumes and mise en scene will construct different character types for each actor, such as the main character, mean girls, gangster, geek. For example the preppy character will be dressed in formal, preppy clothes, and have a friendly persona. The character types engage with the audience and structure the narrative, because their behaviour can illustrate the emotions of the song.
The narrative structure will have a clear equilibrium, disequilibrium then a reconstructed equilibrium. This method will allow the audience to visualise the song, because the equilibrium can change with the dynamics in the song, and changes in intensity. This builds a story line, which is dramatic and entertaining, making it more memorable to the audience. To reinforce this narrative structure, we will include a crescendo in the music video, which builds the narrative to a climatic moment.
Within the character types there will be binary opposites, to create more broad representations and to bring conflicts between characters. Enigma is a narrative technique that will engage the audience and will enhance the plot and shape the characters. The main character is enigmatic because her face is never seen in the video. This will be constructed through the camerawork, as the video will be shot from her point of view, therefore she is never seen and remains a mystery.
The music video has an impressionist narrative as it will narrate the lyrics of the song, through the use of mise en scene and acting. The video will be set at a house party, therefore the scenes of drinking can relate to the lyrics. The song talks about addiction and heartbreak, it references alcohol and drug abuse. We intend to reference the lyric 'get into my bloodstream' throughout the video. For example through shots of people binge drinking, or shots of a couple in an argument, to portray emotional heartbreak and addiction.
The video will use a reverse in the narrative structure, to rebuild the equilibrium, and reverse the story line back to the beginning, therefore undoing the negative events and dramas. There will be no dialogue or script, because they are not typically used in music videos. However there will be an introduction, before the song starts, but we have chosen not to have dialogue because the silence builds up the suspense for the soundtrack, and keeps the audience interested. Ellipsis can be used, to speed up time, through the use of jump cuts. This matches the pace of cuts to the beat of the music, keeping the audience entertained.
The music video will have a multi-stranded narrative, where different storylines will be happening to different characters at the same time. This happens as the main character moves through the house party, from room to room, witnessing different situations, such as a couple arguing. It almost has a circular narrative, because all the scenes will be reversed back to the beginning, however it won't finish on the shot it started on, as it will be a new shot of the main character leaving the house.
This structure will bring the storyline back to an equilibrium, and the ending will be clear to the audience. The reverse technique and repeating of shots, to create a nostalgia and deconstruct the equilibrium, make up a non-linear narrative. The narrative is mainly in chronological order at the beginning, the reaches the climax of the song and starts to jump back and forth, in no time order. This is done to create flashbacks of shots which signify various dramas and meanings, such as shots of blood.
Andrew Goodwin states that there are three different categories for music videos, where they can connect back to the song itself. The first is illustration, where the concept of the video is based around the meaning of the song's lyrics. Amplification is the way music videos use both performance and narrative, whilst signifying connotations of the song's meanings. The third is disjuncture, where the music video is irrelevant to the content of the song and genre conventions, and make little sense, therefore creates abstract visuals.
Our video uses illustration, because it is based around a narrative, giving an impression of what the lyrics are about, so that the audience can visualise the song.
Another music video that uses the same illustration narrative is A-Ha 'take on me'. They use characters and plots to illustrate the lyrics, based on a romantic fantasy narrative. This works well because it creates a visual for the song, so the audience can understand the meanings and emotions the band were trying to portray, and represent them in the characters in their video. They use both live action and animation, to construct their fantasy theme and build a clear narrative.
This is one of my initial ideas for my magazine advert. My intention is to capture an urban cityscape, in order to connote messages over chaotic reality. It is an over the shoulder, long shot, to capture the person's perspective and construct the representation that she isolated, as they are separated and looking down at everyone. The high angle shot reinforces this and also represents the subject's high level of power or status over the world. The subject is on the rule of thirds, to draw the audience's eye towards them, and it relates to both the album cover and music video as the main character's face is never shown. The road also influences where the audience are drawn to, as the road creates leading lines. This looks interesting as the road disappears off into the distance, connoting the person is out of reach of reality and modern life. However this could be composed better so that the leading lines lead to one of the text headings, as this would draw attention to the album title. This idea could also be improved by using a visual style, as i would like to use surrealism, to create an abstract image. This image would be black and white, to make it look more emotive and the subject more isolated, then the text in red to make it stand out and relate to the song 'Bloodstream'. I think that the shot of the road from a bridge works well because they are metaphorical locations. Both the road and bridge connote escapism and freedom, traveling to different paths. Therefore it does create surrealist messages of escaping reality into dream worlds.
This is another version of my magazine advert idea. I have made improvements on the first idea by changing the composition of the leading lines, so that on the advert the headings will be placed in the centre, bringing attention to them. Also i have repeated the image, to create a sense of surrealism. It conforms this visual style as it deconstructs the image to look abstract, therefore also deconstructing reality. It would be shot in dark lighting, set on a street, so that there are bright spot lights from the street lights, highlighting the subject. The subject still creates a sense of enigma by having their back to the camera, walking down the road, escaping reality. To add colour i will airbrush the photo on Photoshop and make the lines on the road red, to draw attention to the centre and the leading lines. This image creates a narrative through the enigmatic character and the theme of escapism. I like this design as mirroring the image relates to the album title 'Mirrored worlds' and the surrealist visual style. I also like the composition and the long shot, as it is suitable for a magazine advert; not too boring or overcrowded. However the location of the bridge, giving a view of the urban landscape works better because the camera angle would make it look more extensive and infinite. The weakness of this idea is that it isn't clear what genre it belongs to, therefore it needs to conform to the indie genre, as magazine adverts usually feature close ups of band members, to make it recognisable.
This is the main idea for my album cover, as it responds to both the minimalist and surrealist visual style and looks original. The idea is to have someone looking into a mirror, then the reflection is altered and shows the back of them. This was inspired by surrealist photography where someone's reflection is deconstructed then reconstructed to change the perspective of them. A lot of surrealist photography is also in black and white, to focus on tone and the portrayal of the subject. Therefore the front cover of the album will be in black and white. This also makes it minimalist as it makes it more simple and plain, so that colours don't cause a distraction from the main focus and theme. There is a lot of negative space, with only the subject and prop in the centre, to draw the audiences' eye to it, which is another feature of minimalism. I will construct this idea through Photoshop, and use this technology to insert the altered image onto the reflection. The headings could go across the top, in a simple font to establish the minimalist style, yet they would stand out as the layout isn't crowded. The use of a character in the image creates a narrative, creating a sense of enigma and possibly sympathy for her. This can also make the image relatable to the audience because they could relate to the subject's loss of identity and belonging, or maybe the desire to escape normal reality.
This album cover works best for its composition, because each feature is placed on the horizontal rule of thirds, making it eye catching. From researching surrealism, eyes are a key visual, used to show someone's point of view but manipulate it into something unusual. Therefore i have done a close up of an eye, which will be altered in photoshop, to create an image, portraying the persons vision. To make it cohesive to the magazine advert i could use the same image or setting, then merge it with the eye. This creates the same connotations and representations as the magazine advert, as the road is a metaphor for escapism and represents people in modern life wanting to escape the repetitive nature of everyday reality. The magazine advert is also shot in a way that shows someone's viewpoint, which is the same idea as this image. It also relates to the title 'Mirrored worlds' because it shows a reflection. The composition is typical of an album cover because the headings are placed above and below the image. It also looks minimalist therefore it gives the audience a clear understanding of what to notice. This design also includes leading lines, which lead to the centre of the cover, attracting the audience to this cover in a store, because it immediately draws your focus. However I prefer the other album cover design because it is more original and includes a person that could be a band member. This cover is less clear of the genre because i haven't seen any other indie covers similar to this, and there is limited mise en scene to reference conventions of the indie genre.
On a visit to the Tate modern in London I noticed a lot of artwork from certain time periods and artists, that follow a particular visual style. Seeing how visual styles construct artwork and connote different themes and meanings, can inspire my own album artwork and which style i choose to base it on. I took photos of paintings from artists famous for their visual styles, and other paintings that fall under these categories.
Cubism:
Cubism is an abstract method of painting, using shapes and angular lines, to make up an image of their subject, while showing their own perspective of it. It originates from the early 20th century and was revolutionised by artists such as Pablo Picasso. I saw one of his paintings, and think this style would work well on an album cover, as an abstract portrait of a band member. However if i used this visual style i would have to make it look more contemporary, to appeal to the audience.
Picasso
Impressionism:
impressionism is a 19th century art movement. Artists focused on colour rather than detail, to capture bright scenes of landscapes or portraits. Claude Monet is an impressionist artist who influenced the movement. His landscape paintings are colourful and delicate. However I can't imagine the impressionist visual style on an album cover, as it is too traditional and restricting. The album cover for my band should look abstract, with a sharp image, to catch the audience's eye. Impressionism shows the beauty in an image, however it doesn't connote many hidden meanings and depth, which an album cover would need.
Monet
Geometric:
The geometric visual style uses precise lines and shapes, to create a bold pattern. I like how everything is carefully selected, from the colour scheme to the scale. I think this style would work well on an album cover as it is eye-catching, simple and would be easy to layout the text. However the disadvantage of using this style would be that it lacks a subject, therefore it doesn't include a band or artist. Also people may find it boring because it looks so simple. Therefore if i was to use this visual style, I would use it for a design motif, or on the back or side covers on the album.
Some geometric designs can create illusions, that look confusing or misleading. They would work well on an album cover because it is an original idea and they can be satisfying to look at.
Minimalism:
Minimalism focuses on one subject, and surrounds it with negative space, to make it the key idea. Most of the minimalist artwork at the Tate were sculptures, to construct meanings through architectural designs. For example the sculpture by Rasheed Araeen, combines triangular structures. It can be shown in different perspectives; the alternative possibilities challenges the idea of artwork being fixed. This visual style would look good on an album cover because it is understated, but the meanings behind it create a lot of depth, and it wouldn't look overcrowded.
Rasheed Araeen
Pop Art
The Tate had famous pieces of art from the pop art movement (1950s). For example Warhol's print of Marilyn Monroe, showing the success of her life, and memorial to her death. There was also a quote from him, responding to this art movement, and how the style of painting had developed, and been revolutionised by pop art. Also there was a painting by Roy Lichtenstein, another famous pop artist, whoo used colour and comic themes to portray emotions and narrative.
The reasons this visual style would work in a print production, are that the bright, bold colours would easily attract the audience, and relate to uplifting dramatic music. This method could also create an abstract impression of a band member, through the striking portraits.
I chose to include a logo in my print productions because it's a good way in reinforcing the band's brand identity. This makes the band easier to identify, and by adding it to both the magazine advert and album cover it makes them more cohesive and relatable.
To research logos I looked into other adverts and albums featuring logos, such as the rolling stones' magazine adverts.
Most advertising and merchandise involving The Rolling Stones features their classic logo. It is famous for their brand and easily recognisable to a wide audience, as it is a recurring visual. To emphasise their logo the design of it is bright red and in some of their advertising it is large and the focal point of the layout. However on others it is marginalised, and placed in a corner, to make the text or image more significant.
From looking at how they have used their logo to spread their hype and reach a wide audience, I have learned that including a logo will help the brand identity and is a key feature of an advert's layout.
I intended to design a simple logo, of the band's initials. It is easy to make and the letters make it identifiable to the band, Firehorse. The logo will be placed next to the other text, such as the release dates, on the magazine advert. By making the logo small and composed on the edge of the advert, it won't draw the audience's eye from the main headings and visuals, but they will see it for further information.
The design of the logo is made out of fonts and motifs. To begin with I explored various fonts, to find one that would be suitable for the band and the rest of the advert.
These fonts worked well, as the use of a serif makes the letters look creative. I liked the ones with only the two letters because it makes a subtle reference to the band.
This is the final logo. I used the two letters and a motif, the spiral motif design makes the logo more interesting and eye-catching.
I placed the logo on both my magazine advert and album cover. It's on the back of the album, in order to add more detail to this cover and to connect both productions, reinforcing the brand identity of the band. It creates continuity between the two productions, however to give it some variety and suit the colour scheme of the back cover, I changed the colours slightly, to red and white. The logo is red because it relates to the title 'bloodstream' and symbolises danger and passion, connoting the lyrics of the music, about romance and substance abuse. The colour also matches the colour of all the other text, to reinforce the continuity.
Arctic monkeys are an indie- rock band, formed in Sheffield in 2002. They have released 5 successful albums and performed massive, worldwide gigs including Glastonbury. They have also won 7 Brit awards.
The album cover and magazine advert for their latest album 'AM' conforms, as well as challenges conventions of the indie genre. It is a successful cover for an album because of its minimalist visual style, making it simple yet signify metaphors. To attract their audience to their new album, they posted the album artwork on Twitter, with the release date. They have a loyal online audience, therefore with this intriguing, striking cover it draws people to the album.
'AM' album cover
magazine adverts
The image on the album cover is of a pulse-line, which relates to the sound of their music because many of the songs on this album feature a strong, beating baseline. Also the heartbeat theme relates to the lyrics as they are all about love. This cohesion of themes makes reference to Goodwin's theory. Goodwin said that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, which is also demonstrated in album covers as the AM cover conforms the rock genre by illustrating the strong baseline, key to rock music, and the dark colours are a convention of rock. Also the record label tend to include close ups of the artist and a unique visual style. To meet the demands of production, the arctic monkeys magazine advert includes a photo of the frontman of the band, Alex Turner performing live. This makes the advert a success because it showcases the bands talent, and makes it recognisable to the audience that it's for this band. Finally the use of the heartbeat and baseline responds to goodwill's idea that there is a relationship between lyrics, music and visuals, as there is a coherent visual, creating metaphors relating to the lyrics and the tone of music.
The Arctic Monkeys have also successfully created a brand identity for their band, through their productions. The music video for their single 'Do i wanna know' from their AM album has the same visual as the album cover. The video is an animation of a sound wave, beating in synchronisation with the music and baseline. It starts simple, with a white line on a black background, then as the dynamic of the song moves forward and the chapters change, there are new elements brought in. Colour is added, to connote the development of the song and up beat tones. Then it changes from just the sound waves, as they are interrupted by animations, creating a narrative and representations, relating to the lyrics of the song. For example the recurring visuals of women, relate to the romance theme of the song. It also references Mulvey's male gaze theory, that women are represented from a male perspective, to appeal to them. There is also a reference to the surrealist visual style, as the music video and album cover are abstract and unusual.
I like this album cover and magazine advert because the album cover is simple, yet not a typical cover, therefore it stands out and is identifiable to their unique visual style throughout their productions. The magazine advert also works well because the image of them performing live promotes their album tour, and encourages people to buy their music because it proves that they are a success, performing to massive crowds at popular festivals. Also the font on the magazine advert reinforces their brand identity, as this is the font they always use for their band name, making it identifiable to their audience. The bold, creative font is composed on the top centre of the advert, and has a large scale so that it stands out immediately. Also the colours are successful as they relate to the black and white album cover, and the white font stands out against the dark background and is easy to read.
Looking at these print production examples is very useful as I plan to use similar styles, formats and colours in my own work. From this I have learned how you can make metaphorical and visual links between all the productions, to build up the brand identity.
How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?
To ensure there is a coherent brand identity for the band, between all productions, they must be generically, visually, thematically or in terms of representations linked. I have identified links between my productions, through conventions and symbolism.
Generic Links
Album cover- front
side 1
back cover
side 2
magazine advert
The band falls under the indie genre, therefore I have considered using genre conventions across all my productions. Typical conventions used in indie album covers or magazine adverts are soft, light colours and they usually feature a close up of the artist, composed in the centre. For example Florence and the Machine's album cover has a mid shot of the artist, to make it identifiable to the audience and make her the focus of the music. This also applies to Goodwin's theory that the record label have demands of the artists and often include the need for close ups of the artist and identify a unique visual style. This is demonstrated in Florence and the machine's album, as the artist is drawing all the attention, by being composed in the centre, with little negative space around her. Also it constructs her unique visual style because the floral background signifies her innocence and femininity, But her composition suggests she is dominant and powerful. It is also inspired by pre-raphaelites because of her pose, and the colours (red hair and pale skin) therefore connotes her music as emotive and meaningful.
My own album cover conforms these genre characteristics, and brands the artist in similar ways that the Florence and the Machine album does. I have used myself as the subject in the album cover, to represent the artist. I have used an indirect mode of address, which could challenge genre conventions because so covers use a direct mode of address to signify the confidence and power of the artist. However a lot of indie covers also use an indirect mode of address, such as the Florence and machine cover, to connote deeper emotions and a sense of enigma. Therefore I think the cover conforms the genre, however the magazine advert is less coherent because magazine adverts are used to sell the brand and the artist, so indie adverts usually feature the band members. I have challenged this because my advert is a photograph of a location, not a person, however it still works to relate to their music, by creating metaphors and meanings that link to both the album cover and music video, such as isolation and escapism. Also there are no band shots in the music video, which limits its relation to the band, however we intended to make a narrative video to conform the genre, because many indie videos are heavily based on narrative.
The print productions challenge indie conventions because they are both in low saturation whereas album covers are usually highly saturated, to look vibrant, attracting their audience. However some indie albums, such as Arctic Monkeys' 'AM' album or their magazine advert are in black and white, to look more emotive and realistic, creating a visual for what their music sounds like and the messages it connotes.
The saturated, warm colours in my music video do conform conventions of indie videos, because they aim to look eye catching, yet realistic to construct certain representations. My music video is more closely associated with the genre, whereas the print productions don't use generic links in a similar way, however the genre of the music is clear in each production.
Visual links
There are visual links between my productions. These include fonts, colours and characters. To ensure there is synergy between my print productions, I reinforced the brand's identity by using the same font on the album cover and magazine advert. This unique font creates a recognisable identity for the band, and connects the two productions, so that it is clear to the audience that they are both related to this album. To enhance this further I made all the text, in both productions, the same colour. The red headings and text relate to the title 'Bloodstream', therefore makes it obvious that this is the band's unique visual style, because there are links within their music. Also the colour red stands out, and symbolises danger, to create a sense of enigma, intriguing the audience further.
I created a simple logo, to go on the magazine advert. I used a font to create this logo, and specific placement of the letters. It is small and simple, to consolidate minimalism, in order to not overcrowd the page. The logo represents the band (Firehorse) and looks suitable within the layout and style of the advert, and also works well for the purpose of promoting the band and building their brand identity. It also links with the album because the logo is featured on the back cover, reinforcing their brand.
logo
the visual link between my album cover and my music video, is in the motif. I am the subject on my album cover, portraying the artist, and relating to the main character in the music video. I also acted as the main character in scenes of the music video. Both the main character and the subject in the album cover don't show their faces. This creates a sense of enigma, intending to engage the audience. However there are no other links with the motif between my productions, because I haven't used the same decorative images or designs and the visuals look relitavely different. However there are similar details used in the mist-en-scene, such as the composition. All of my productions use the rule of thirds, to draw the audience's eye to a subject or heading.
Thematic links
There are thematic motifs that create links between my productions. The clear theme in my album cover and music video is enigma. The mystery is constructed in both of these productions by concealing the main character, as yo never see her face. By not giving much away about the focal point in the productions, it creates suspense and mystery, making the audience want to explore it further.
There is also a narrative link between my music video and album cover because in the video the narrative is all seen from the main character's point of view and on the album cover, the eye-level, over the shoulder shot creates the impression that we are looking from her perspective again. This also crates the theme of escapism and that she is looking to fit in.
There is a thematic motif that recurs in my album cover and magazine advert, which is the surrealist photographs. Both images construct the theme of deconstructed reality, and escaping into a dream world. However there are certain themes in the music video that don't relate to the print productions. The narrative of the video is about binge drinking and drama surrounding this issue. This theme is constructed through the actors and the mise-en-scene, by using props such as bottles of alcohol and plastic red cups. This theme doesn't feature in my print productions because it doesn't relate to the images and visuals, therefore I wanted to focus on the surrealist idea, and the theme of alcohol abuse wouldn't work with the conventions of the indie genre.
Representation
In all my productions there is a constructed image of the band being abstract, through the surrealist visual style and distorted camerawork. The band are also represented as up-beat and contemporary, constructed through the young characters and their behaviour. However this may not be evident in my magazine advert because there are no band members and the image is in black and white. My advert does create the representation that youth are isolated. The image is a long shot, with leading lines, to create a feeling of isolation. This is reinforced in the album side covers, because I am looking into the mirror at fantasy places, they are in the distance, connoting her isolation. Also all the negative space around her emphasises this idea. This is also evident in my music video because the main character is isolated, an outcast at the party, not interacting with any of the other characters.
My productions show that the band value interpretations of youth and their culture. The song lyrics talk about dealing with addiction and heartbreak, therefore we raised similar issues in our music video. It expresses the band's dislikes; old habits, facing reality and isolation.
There is a consistent representation of age. This is constructed through the use of actors in our music video, as they are all 17-18 year olds, and the subject on my album cover is the same age. It constructs representations about this age group being rebellious, irresponsible, joyful and sometimes isolated or lost.
There is a representation of gender. Women are represented as reckless and sexualised. Our music video references Mulvey's male gaze theory, as women are represented in the media through a male perspective, in order to appeal to them. The men in our music video are represented as outgoing, dramatic and emotional. This is shown through scenes of them dancing, then darker scenes such as when the gay couple are arguing.
However these representations aren't evident across all of my productions, as my magazine advert doesn't have any people in and the album cover doesn't create the same representations, surrounding binge drinking. The album cover marginalises men because there is only a female on the cover. The representations it creates about women is that they are strong, due to the central composition, yet emotional because of the black and white colours. The white colour could symbolise her as innocent, yet the black contrast as evil and mysterious.
My productions are effectively linked through every aspect, constructing a brand identity. There are links that carry my ideas and representations across all of my productions, such as by using the same characters and visual styles. However the consistency is subtle, and could be hard for the audience to recognise. To improve it i could make the links stronger and more obvious, so that the audience pick up on the brand identity. I could've done this by featuring the same person in my magazine advert, or using the same miss en scene that featured in my music video. However overall I think that they work well together because each production has its own individual style, to avoid looking repetitive and boring the audience. This package promotes the artist by conforming to their genre, making it look abstract and ensuring that the band's title stand out on the packaging, to attract their audience. The music video promotes the band by appearing entertaining, and up beat along with the music. The print productions create a sense of enigma, that intrigus the audience, and the headings and composition draws in their attention.
It would be easy to see, from looking at all three productions, that they are all from the same artist. I have linked all three by using a similar visual style; they all look like they are shot from the main character's perspective; they construct the same representations about isolation and reality; and they are all altered in a way that disorientates reality, even in the music video there are shots overlapping to create disorientation. Although there is a stronger connection between the album cover and magazine advert. To construct links i used the same fonts, colours, visual style and layout. Therefore it is clear to the audience that they are promoting the same album.
I have succeeded in crating a brand identity for the band. I considered this when making up a logo, which features on the back album cover and the advert, making it identifiable to the audience. The bold headings for the band's name and album title, reinforce the band's visibility and personality. The music video establishes the genre of their music and appeals to their target market.
