Images taken for poster advertisment

This is the first of two or three photo shoots for my magazine advertisement. I plan on doing this amount to find the best possible image. I went for the basic shots first which feature the artist against a plain white wall so i can apply coloured text  on to the negative space of the background. I did a variety of mid shots and one close up with the artist either in the middle or to the left of the composition. The artist was made to look straight at the camera, to create interaction with his niche audience. I advised him on what clothes to wear so it would fit within the genre of folk, the denim shirt, velvet blazer and hairstyle give him a unique image that would make him noticed.

Mid shot- There's a slight issue with the shadow and the framing of this image as you can see objects to the bottom left and right sides but then can easily be cropped on photo shop.

Mid shot- This mid shot shows the artist making eye contact with the audience as well as his clothes, which indicate what genre of music he is.

Mid shot- The lighting for this shot is too dark for me and one side of his face is darker then the other. The shadows are too harsh and visible and the artist is central and i wanted him either right of the composition.

Close up- I like the close up shot but again half his face s darker then the other and the shadow is quite harsh.

Magazine advertisment poster analysis

This is the magazine advertisement for Ben Howard's album 'Every Kingdom' released 2011.

The conventions of an advertisement poster are shown on the poster, it features the title of the artist in bold white so it catches the attention of his niche audience. It features the album title underneath the artist title giving a meaning and relevance to his songs. It also says along side the album title that it's his debut album and that tells us he's a new upcoming artist. At the bottom of the poster, the date of the release is shown to tell the audience when they can purchase the album but next too it shows you can pre-order it if you cant wait. The font is very basic and plain putting more focus on to the image itself which features the conventional picture of the artists. The image uses the cool colours of the blue water to connote the cool and relaxed genre of his album and his style. The artist silhouette shows him swimming alone in to the empty waters, its an iconographic shot as it features a natural shot of the water.

Ben Howard is signed to communication records which are an independent niche institution who cover the music genre of folk artists. This advert would mostly be seen in niche folk magazine but also in the mainstream music magazine NME as it covers a variety of music genres and promotes solo artists as much as they can.

Ben Howard would have a niche audience who are interested in the genre of folk, the You tube demographics for Ben Howard's audience would be majority male aged 25-34 but would also appeal to a student audience in social category E as Ben Howard is young and appeals to a young audience with his dress sense and style but appeals to an older audience because of his musical abilities.

This album represents the artist and his record label but also the genre of folk, the iconographic shot of him swimming through clear blue water provides the audience with a representation of the genre itself. It represents the audience as they are the ones buying these albums and the institution have to appeal to the audience so they buy the album.

Noah And The Whale

This is the album magazine advertisement for the Indie/rock band Noah And The Whales Cd/film release.

It features the conventional artist title and album name but is structured unconventionally as the album name is bolder and above the Artists name. This is because you have the conventional band image at the bottom which the audience will recognise. At the top of the page there is quotes from various mainstream magazines which rate the album, similar to a film advertisement poster. There is also the album release date as well as the record label and information about where you can download the songs. The washed out old style colour of the poster and the old style font suits the bands genre image, the information is at the top of the poster so it contrasts against the blue sky. The long grass and blue sky represent the season of spring and links to the album title 'The first day of Spring'. The lead singer is holding up a telescope and is the only member in focus, they all wear shirts which show they have a smart classy image.

Noah and the Whale are signed to independent record label 'Young&lost club'. This poster would most likely because of the genre be published in NME magazine. The artists are a mainstream Indie band who include folk and pop in their songs and have a wide range of audience. They would also feature in mainstream pop magazines as they are popular with the mainstream audience.

Noah and the Whale would have a mainstream audience who are interested in the genre of Indie/ folk and pop. The demographics for Noah and the Whale would be both sexes aged 13-24 years old in E social category E, being students.

The album poster represents the artists music and image as well as representing the record label. The genre of Indie/folk is represented with the clothes the band wears, as well as representing the young mainstream audience, the people who buy the album.

Laura Marling

This is the album advertisement for Laura Marling's album 'A creature i don't know' released

It features the conventional artist name and album title which are both in bold black writing with full stops after each syllable which is unconventional to a artist advertisement. The poster is very plain and basic and doesn't give much information away about the album, when it's out or where you can buy it. This could be because her niche audience will automatically know where to buy her album and where to get information. The main focus on this poster is the drawing in the centre of it, it looks like a woman is being held or carried by a creature she doesn't know, this links in well with the title and always gives the poster an artist piece and also makes it break the boundaries of conventional artist advertisements.

Laura Marling is a folk solo artist who is signed to WayOutWest records, a London based independent record label. This poster would feature in niche music magazines that promote solo artists, it would also appeal in NME as they include niche artists and promote them in a mainstream magazine.

Laura Marling would have a niche audience interested in the genre of acoustic folk music. She would appeal most likely to young females aged 13-24, most likely social category E as they will be students. Her audience will be niche in what they listen to and what they were as people who listen to people like Laura Marling

The poster represents the artists style, image and album as well as the institution. It represents the niche audience and their image and style and also represents abstract art involved in advertisement.

Main advertisment

This is my tour date poster for my magazine advertisement. It features the conventional artist and tour titles as well as the conventional tour dates and venues, with quotes from well know mainstream institutions. There's the conventional website links that link the audience to information to the artist. Also in the corner of the page there is the logos of social networking sites, suggesting you can follow the artist on them, keeping up to date on what's happening. Above the quotes, there is an image of the artist involved that features an iconographic image, with the mise en scene of the nature, reflecting the genre of nature. I made the background a light cream colour so that the dark titles and writing stand out, so the audience can focus on the key points.

Tour date poster analysis

This is a band advertisment of The Maccabees tour poster. The band are featured in the poster to the left of the composition and are wearing bright clothing to make them stand out, they have been made to look like figurines to give an artistic feel to the poster, having the band is a conventional feature to a band poster and is reguarly on them. Above the image of the band is the title of the band The Maccabees and has been put in bold black font so it contrasts against the white background to stand out more. Down the right hand side is all the tour dates which tell you what day they'll be playing and what club in what city, so the audience get as much information as possible. At the bottom of the poster is information about how to buy tickets for the tour with extra information about the website and how to get in touch. All these features are conventions to the advertisment tour poster and are reguarly featured on most posters, its up to the band to make it stand out and be different.

This is a poster for folk/indie band Mumford&Sons for their UK tour. It done in th style of an old folk carving with the illustration in the middle of the poster which has the icongraphic image of trees and a field with people on the floor underneath a sign which reads 'love your ground'. The title of the band is done in a folk folk that represents the genre and also stands out from the rest of the poster. The conventional dates,times and location are underneath the image to give information for the gigs and for extra information their is links to the bands websites that lead to more information about gigs and the band in general.

This is the tour poster for folk artist Ben Howard. It features the conventions of the tour dates with information of the dates, time and place and also tells you which gigs have been sold out. The title is split up in to three columns the first is the name of the artist 'Ben Howard' which is in bold black to stand out. The next is the album and name of the tour 'Every Kingdom' which is done is a thinner black font so it doesnt take the attention away from the artists name. The third is 'UK tour dates' which is in red possibly to connote love and also allow the audience to know he's going on tour. To the right of the poster is an illustration of Ben Howard that makes the poster more artistic and also breaks the boundries as posters usually feature a digital picture of the artist instead of an illustration but this poster keeps it simple. Underneath the illustration are quotes from relevant papers and magazines that give their opinion on the tour and CD "Uniquely Brilliant" this shows the audience that it's good as it has good reviews. At the bottom of the page is details towards the website and the website will give information towards purchasing tickets and downloading songs and buying merchandice, so the tour date helps the artist more popular throughout.

Conventions of an artist advertisment

• Dates, times, and location
• Image of artist/band
• Title of band.artist
• Tour title
• Website
• Quotes

Re-filming

Today we went up to Hessle foreshore which has a woodland area similar to Millington (Our first location). We needed to re-film some certain shots that we didnt think were good enough for the final film. We spent three hours filming as much as possible, ready to edit the next day. We made sure the continuety of the clothing and props were correct. The filming went as planned but we still need a few more shots to complete the film. Overall we got a few shots to fit in to the video but we still need one more day of filming just to get a few more shots.

Vladmire Propp

Russian Vladimir Propp (1895-1970) analyzed many of his country's folk tales and identified common themes within them. He broke down the stories into morphemes (analyzable chunks) and identified 31 narratemes (narrative units) that comprised the structure of many of the stories.

Folk stories around the world form a web of connections and the same or similar stories can be found in many places. These old stories also have formed the basis of many more stories since and hence Propp's morphology is useful not only in understanding Russian folk tales but pretty much any other stories.

Propp has been both lauded for his structural approach and criticized for his lack of sensitivity to subtle story elements such as mood and deeper context. Nevertheless, his analysis provides a useful tool in understanding stories ancient and modern and, after early influence on such luminaries as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes, has become a classic of folklore and structuralist analysis.

He identified that “Five categories of elements define not only the construction of a tale, but the tale as a whole.”:

1. Functions of dramatis personae
2. Conjuctive elements (ex machina, announcement of misfortune, chance disclosure – mother calls hero loudly, etc.)
3. Motivations (reasons and aims of personages)
4. Forms of appearance of dramatis personae (the flying arrival of dragon, chance meeting with donor)
5. Attributive elements or accessories (witch’s hut or her clay leg)

By applying these elements to our video and folk story tale of the owl and the pussy cat we can make our video more abstract and more suitabe for our chosen genre. The elements, the storyline, the props, mise en scene, artist are all conventions of the folk genre and by applying them, it will appeal to our niche audience.

Teacher review

After a teacher reviewed our work she gave us her opinion on it and some feedback to improve our final grade. She believed we needed to be more experimental and break the boundaries of tradiational conventions. She thought it was slightly boring and we needed to up the tempo to go with the beat of the music. She did like the abstract owl and wolf masks and thought we needed to do more elements like that to make it a more abstract music video. We have taken her feedback on board and hope to make it appealing to a wider audience but mainly to our specific target audience.