This is the first draft of my magazine advert. The first thing is that these are the pictures I will be using for the final advert. I have tried to keep the concept of the two font colours used in the logo going throughout the poster, for example when it comes to the reviews and the release dates.
These are also both of the pictures I will be using in my final piece.
Here you can see that I have progressed more with the spine and the back cover this week. I have used the same picture twice as the gap I created within the translucent New York pictures is used for the Album and Band name but also on the back cover it's perfect for the track list. This design was actually on purpose so it's great that it worked out this way. I have also included a copyright symbol, and band member list and links to the bands page on myspace (Fictional) and the YouTube page where all of the songs and videos are (Which is real). For the spine I simply used the same fonts as it is a logo I was trying to be consistent. I also just re-sized the 'Layers' logo so it fitted in. For the Picture in the spine I took a small part of the background picture (Namely the New York skyline where the sun bursts out) and stretched it which I think enhances the busting effect in this situation. For my other two inside over designs, I was going to have more of a focus on the artist and either have a picture of me and the other member one on the left side one covering the disc. Or, I am going to have the same to pictures but I am going to make it the size of a passport picture and make around 40 or 50 copies and 'Layer' them over each other either with both of them the right way up at the correct angle or a could change it so it creates a more wild and messy look, this is representative of how the main character in the video feels. I have been trying to subliminally show through simply the ideas of layers in the world around us, first with the layering of the two artists over each other but also through the use of the skyscrapers and how tall they are, and their floors, e.g. their layers...
Sadly this took far longer for me to do due to unforeseen circumstances so it is not quite to the standard of which I want it to be but luckily I managed to squeeze out a cut before the deadline.
I have been working on my album front cover, so far I have just finished the text which you can see here:
I am happy with it for several reasons such as the song is obviously called layers and I was able to use a layering technique which obviously adds to it, I have also incorporated the red, white and blue which are the american flag colours and America is referenced several time throughout the song mainly as it set in America. So quite pleased with today.
I have started designing what my album artwork will look like so far I have come up with this as the front cover:
This is a 'first draft' design as I obviously still need to come up with a font for the name of the song but I felt that the font in this situation is simplistic, but the connection between the A and the T could be something good (i.e. a potential logo) to work on for the poster.
Also the person in the picture is supposed to represent our male character in the song and the pictures the nights events.
I have also chosen the digipak I wish to use out of the choices:
Genre Characteristics: The artists (Foster the People) who wrote the song in my opinion are an indie pop band. Their music is slightly different to what you would usually hear along ,especially, with his voice, which is much more high pitched than other bands of the same type of genre. This is highlighted in the oddness and seeming randomness of the video. The video seems to be about nothing in particular with adults been captured and then turned into children, by children. The song's tempo is similar to that of which you would expect from the indie pop genre and is much more different than, you coud say, The Beastie Boys video tempo.
Relationship between visulas and lyrics: People have taken many different views as to what the song means with ideas such as it being about the time when you come back from a party and think 'now what?'. Really in my opinion I beleive the song is about how hard life is and how you have to get back up from it. This matches up to the visuals of the video as it shows the lead singer 'Mark Foster' recovering from what seems like a post-apocalyptic world, so obviosuly the connotation of him getting up after 'being knocked down' are there.
Relationship between music and visuals: At the very beginning of the video many images and clips of violence and war are shown at a fast pace, these are in time with the drum beats that start of the song. Also throughout the song the shots change in time with roughly every other beat in the song. Obviously it's a link that the lead singer of the band is the main character in this video and he is singing along to the lyrics for a portion of this song. At one point when the song skips from the verse to the chorus there is a build up in the volume of the song which then erutps into a louder sound but is accompanied visually with the sight of a piano crashing down and smashing into the ground. When the drum kit is being beaten by the children with baseball bats one opf the kids is hitting the bass drum perfectly in time with the song. The bridge part of the song is where everything slows down, and then it goes back to normal when returning to the chorus. During this chorus the childen are also singing along to the song.
Star Power: The star power in this song is just that the artists themselves are in the song, the band themselves don't have anything too definitive about them compared to Bono and his glasses for instance, or Michael Jackson and the moonwalk so there isn't too much 'star power' especially as music goes Foster the People are a fairly new band, which although have their own style they don't have a definitive thing which is 'theirs'.
Notions Of Looking: In the video apart from a few shots which I will explain, there is very little of the notion of looking, the shots which are like this take place earlier on in the song before Mark Foster is captured, and they are showing us being the children that capture him, looking through the desert grass spying on him, apart from this there is very little for the notion of looking, but there is also a scene in the dark in which Mark Foster is being dragged back and beaten by the kids in the dark and the footage was taken with non-steadycam footage so it looks like you're actually part of the group of kids that are abusing him.
Intertextual References: There are several references to other forms of media such as, the Fallout series and Mad Max are respectively games and movie both set in a post apocalyptic world which is obviosuly set in this world, Lord of the Flies is based around children being in charge of themselves and the madness which stretches from this, and obviosuly a large part of this is the children in the video being charge and later the adults being turned into children. Escape from New York also follows the post-apocalyptic theme.
For my Band's Artwork I will be using all of the pictures I have taken from our trip to new york and incorporate them all into the front cover and will use the lights in the pictures to create the words for the album name etc. I'm using my New York photos because the whole song is set in America so there obviousy a link, but also it's a good opportunity to simply capitalise on the trip and create something that I wouldn;t ordinairily be able to do because I have to have actually taken the picture.
This is the first draft of my magazine advert. The first thing is that these are the pictures I will be using for the final advert. I have tried to keep the concept of the two font colours used in the logo going throughout the poster, for example when it comes to the reviews and the release dates.
