Social Media

Hannah uses social media's, Twitter and Facebook, to self-promote her music. At the moment she is trying to get all of her followers and fans to vote for her to win the chance of supporting Gabrielle Alpin on her UK tour, at the Bristol 02 Academy. Winning would be a great boost and progress for Hannah's career. 

Audience Feedback on my Video and Ancillary Tasks

On Facebook I posted the link to my blog, with my final video and ancillary tasks for my target audience to view and give me their feedback on. I gave a few questions to give them a guideline of the types of things I wanted to know from them.

Final Video, Magazine Advert and Digipak

Video

Front and Back of CD Cover

 Left and Right Inside of CD Cover

Print on CD

Magazine Advert

QUESTIONS FOR MY AUDIENCE FEEDBACK:

• Would you be more interested in buying the album after seeing the magazine advert and watching the promo video?
• Would you visit Hannah’s twitter and/or facebook page after seeing the logos on the magazine advert?
• Would you pay for this music album? How much would you be willing to pay for it?
• Would you prefer to download the album from iTunes or buy it in a shop?
• Do you think I have addressed my target audience (teenagers) well? How?
• Is there a common theme running through each piece, if so is it easily recognizable?
• Do you think I have linked the three pieces well? What links can you spot?
• Do you think I have cut the video in the correct places/my editing is good?
• If I could improve anything any of my pieces what would you say it should it be and why?

Final Magazine Advertisement

This is my final magazine advertisement for Hannah's album. After giving my 1st draft to my target audience i concluded that it was a bit empty and i needed to make it a little more exciting, however they liked my choice of colours.

I included a rating by The Fly Magazine (Britain's #1 Music Monthly), like Ellie Goulding's advertisement did, because Hannah is also a new artist and this is her debut album, so it will reassure the audience that the album is worth buying - especially with such a high rating from a well known magazine. 

Like Beyonce's advert, I decided to include a picture of the album artwork. This helps the audience to  recognise that they are linked. The advert would have looked too dull with just black and white images and the album artwork wouldn't have stood out if i hadn't have put a small square background around it. I chose to use baby pink for this as this was the colour scheme I used for my digipak. I also used the same font to print Hannah's name and the album title onto the advert - to link it back to the digipak and the promo video.

From audience feedback i figured that the bottom right corner looked a bit empty on my 1st draft. Also, they said that i should include some social media onto the ad. I have put a twitter and Facebook logo in the bottom corner to fill it out and to make the audience aware that they can find Hannah on Facebook and Twitter to find out more about her new album.

I decided to not make the advert A4 size because I thought that Hannah may not be able to afford a big ad at such an early stage in her career, and A4 ad's may be saved for more well-known/popular artists within the magazine.

I chose to put the album cover in the left corner as Hannah is looking up to it in the main photo, as the visual hierarchy would lead the viewers eye from Hannah's face straight to the album, so they can immediately grasp the message of the advert. I decided to use this photo of Hannah because there is a lot of negative space - perfect for adding text to.

A lot of people, especially teenagers, buy their music online from iTunes in today's society. I thought it would be a good idea to include a 'Download on iTunes Now' sticker in the corner as it would attract teenagers, my target audience.

1st Draft of Magazine Advertisement with Audience Feedback

Magazine Advertisement Research

When interviewing Hannah, she described herself to be the same sort of style singer as Marina & The Diamonds. A sense of voyeurism is used in this poster - something i don't want to include in mine because i want to give Hannah an innocent look. There is quite a lot of text at the bottom, however it is in small print so doesn't stand out. The image used covers the whole advert and shows the artist to be lying down sideways. This immediately gives an unusual and quirky feel to the artist. The viewer cannot see if the artist is wearing clothes and by the facial expression she appears possibly promiscuous - this may attract a male audience. The brightest colour in the advert image is the artist’s face. The other tones are dull and lifeless, allowing the artist to be the centre of attention in the image. The artist’s name and the album title are written in a handwritten font which appears natural and messy. This could indicate that the artist is possibly unconventional as she 
appears normal and not ‘perfect’ - like i want to portray with Hannah.

Ellie Goulding's ad for her album 'Lights' only sticks to two colours - black and gold. Her music is a mixture between acoustic and pop - this advert represents her music genre well because it is a very natural photo of her (representing acoustic) but there is a subltle hint of 'glamour' because gold glitter has been added (representing pop). This glitter has a reference to the title of her album, 'Lights' because it is the only form of bright colour on the page, the rest is black. One of the songs on this album is called 'starry eyed' - the designer of this ad may have chose to add glitter onto a black background to make it look like stars in a night's sky, as a tease for the audience of the song that's on the album. As this is her debut album, the use of star ratings at the bottom will reassure the audience and inform them that it is a good album. Using the album cover as the image for the advert, is used to make a connection to the album and also ensure the audience know what it looks like if they saw it in a shop.


Beyonce's advert for her album '4' is very simple. I think that it portrays Beyonce as a figure of importance as she is standing in front of part of her name. There is very limited information about the new album on this magazine advert - i think feel that because Beyonce is a such a huge successful female singer, this information is not important and just a small simple picture of the new album with the title being ‘Beyonce 4′ clearly puts across the message to the audience. The colour of the magazine advert is very similar to the album cover which shows a clear link between the two - like i plan to do with mine. This link will allow the audience to quickly recognise the album in a shop after seeing this advert.

Final Digipak

Front and back cover:

Inside CD case:

Print on CD:

From looking at other digipaks, I learnt that it is important to include a photo of the artist on the front cover because that attracts audience. This was mainly so that the audience can immediately relate to the artist and understand the characteristics of the her, and also of the types of songs which would be on the album. I used a happy smiling image of hannah on the front to represent the songs on her album that are of a jolly theme and in contrast, i edited the image to be in black and white, which suggests to the audience that there is a sense of unhappiness in some of her songs. 

I chose to use a light pink to mix with the monochrome shades with in my digipak because light pink is stereotypically a young girl's favourite colour. it also conveys a sense of innocence - which Hannah is in the 'Bigger Than Me' video. I plan to use this same colour scheme when designing my magazine advert so that it is easier for the audience to recognise that the two pieces are linked. The font i I chose to use is called "Chalkduster". It has a handwritten looking effect - which compliments the idea of Hannah being innocent because it looks a little like a young child's handwriting. This links in with "Bigger Than Me" because the lyrics are about how she is damaged from her disturbed childhood.

I used the same font as I used for the text at the beginning of the promo video to show that they are linked. I will also use the same font in my magazine advert. Another link that I have made is that I have included a black and white image of the house which features a lot in the bigger than me video, where Hannah used to live as a child. 'Bigger Than Me' is the first track on the album and is her most popular song so I thought it would be a good idea to give the audience a chance to recognise some of the scenery from the Bigger Than Me video. 

I decided to use 6 photos to create a collage-like effect on the left inside page. I felt that showing Hannah expressing different emotions would successfully represent the music on her album because all the songs are about different emotions. In two of the six pictures Hannah is smiling. These photos represent "I Do" and "3am" because they have a happy and positive lyrics to them. In contrast, the top right photo represents her song "Lonely" because the lyrics are about Hannah feeling upset, alone and helpless. I didn't want to print an image onto the CD sticker itself as i felt there were already too many images in the inside of the digipak. There isn't any text on the inside pages so the text on the CD itself stands out. The black and white background photo of the house makes the CD stand out.

1st Draft of CD Cover With Audience Feedback

I wasn't sure whether to print Hannah's name or her album title on the cd cover so I asked my target audience on twitter to give me their suggestions. Everyone who replied to my tweet said that i should use the 'Bigger Than Me' cd cover. I agree with my target audience because although Hannah has no other albums out at the moment, if she does in future then the "Hannah Macleod" CD cover might be confusing for people who own both of Hannah's albums, especially if they lost the case.

Digipak Planning/Ideas

Choosing Fonts

I looked at different fonts to find the most suitable one for my digipak. I felt that a handwritten effect would be most effective as it is girly, which suits the personality of my artist. However i don't want it to be too fun and curly - it needs to have a serious feel so it fits the theme of the songs on the album. In each font i wrote the name of the album so that i could see how it would look if i chose it.

Digipak Research

This is the digipak for Lady Gaga's album 'The Fame Monster'. The darkness of the pictures and backgrounds portrays the idea that the music on this album might be sad or emotional, like Hannahs music.The colour schemes she has decided to have are very similar to those that i plan to use when making my digipak: monochromes. The abnormal photo of the artist on the digipak suggests that the music on this album may be out of the ordinary, something that i don't want to portray in my digipak.



This is Rihanna's digipack for her album called "LOUD". The floral design on the inside of the pack and the long flowy dress she is wearing portrays Rihanna to be innocent and gives a sense of love and emotion. The red roses and her big red lips could be a link to her song called 'California King Bed', which is on this album, because she sings 'lips that felt just like the inside of a rose'.


I decided to look at the female artists' cd front covers who i researched when i was gathering ideas for making my music video. I thought these would be the most like how i'd want to make mine look because they are of the same genre so would be in the same market and have the same target audience as i do. They will follow the same type of conventions as i intend to. 

This black and white image of Delilah's 'Go' single suggests that the song is sad and emotional, as does her facial expression. She is not looking straight at the camera which suggests that she is daydreaming and has something on her mind. My artist's song is of a similar theme to 'Go' so i think it would be a good idea if i could include a black and white image(s). This cover doesn't include the name of the artist. I think I need to include Hannah's name on the front of her album because she is not well known, like Delilah is, so people will probably not recognise her on the shop shelf.

I like how this cover shoes a landscape in the background - this area may feature in the video for 'Fools'. I will include a picture of one of the landscapes in my music promo video in my digipak because it will allow the audience to make a link between the two. The bow-like squiggle underneath Lauren's name suggests that she is quite a girly girl, as does her flowey dress, which suggests that her music is of  certain style and perhaps only for a female audience.
The splashes on the surface of the water make it look like Lauren is actually underwater, however the buildings in the background suggest it is an urban area so it is very unlikely that there is an ocean of water there. 

 Gabrielle Alpin is a famous artist who Hannah compares her singing style to. This cover is very plain but it gives a lot away about the album. the monochrome shades suggest that the music is sad and slow. all the songs on this album are played with an acoustic guitar, so they probably mostly are all slow.












The negative space allows the viewer to be drawn directly to the umbrella, and that fact this uses a contrasting colour palette to the dull background emphasises this and makes it the main aspect of the album artwork. The multicoloured umbrella suggests that Gabrielle is happy. I don't want to use any colour on my front cover because that would suggest Hannah is happy, when the song does not have a happy feel to it at all - it is the opposite.

Audience Feedback on Final Video

Final Video

This is my final cut of my music promo video for Hannah MacLeod's 'Bigger Than Me'.

Questions For Professional

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3QUlX8zDlw

This is the link to the first draft of my music promotion video. I would appreciate it if you could comment below on these questions to help me create my second draft of the video. 

1. Do you think the 'flashbacks' to a different time in black and white work effectively? Is it clear that the black and white images are from a different time to the rest of the colour video? Should I add more/have less black and white footage?

2. Would you guess that the song is about child abuse from the video? If not, what would you say the video suggests that the song is about?

3. Do you think there are any shots that I have held for too long? Perhaps at 54 seconds when Hannah is singing the lyrics to the camera.

4. Without telling you the target audience for this music video, from watching it this first draft what who/what kind of people/age would you think my targets would be? 

5. I have only edited the picture of the black and white shots - do you think i should edit the colour film to make it look brighter so that it is more of a contrast/better picture?

Audience Feedback on 1st Draft of Video

I asked my target audience (teenagers) on Twitter and Facebook to give me some feedback on the 1st draft of my video.

1st Draft of Video

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3QUlX8zDlw

This is the first draft of my music promo video.

David Bowie Comeback

David Bowie makes a surprise comeback!

Music Video

"Where Are We Now?", Bowie's first new song in a decade, has reached the Top 10 in this week's UK singles chart. After a ten year recording silence, this reflective piece was released on his 66th birthday and harks back to the singer's experience of living in Berlin during the 1970s. In just one week it received 1 million views on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWtsV50_-p4 

To begin with, there was some controversy because the Official Charts Company ruled it out of the running because a question mark arose around the fact that anyone who has pre-ordered his new album "The Next Day" because it has been given the song for free, and only paid-for tracks pass the test for the chart. But the organisation has announced that paid-for downloads of Bowie's song will still make it a chart contender. Although retailers such as iTunes will be required to provide separate figures for for paid for downloads. His new album is out in March but already tops the iTunes chart with advance orders.

Bowie released his song and let social media like Twitter promote it. surprise - what channels did he use to promote it / let it out?
twitter technique to promote videos - effective? write about this on separate blog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016ldtb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21004847

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2260115/David-Bowies-new-single-Where-Are-We-Now-longer-banned-WILL-make-40-singles-charts.html

 
CD Album Cover

"The Next Day" album cover appears to just be a white square with text over an old image. However it  makes you use your mind because at first it appears very simple and boring but as you think about it more then you wonder if it has more meaning than this. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jan/09/david-bowie-new-album-cover