Individual magazine advert-Miss Miller (Updated)

Individual Magazine Advert
03/12/14
Vasil Nikolov

Magazine adverts are important to the record label as they promote the artist and his/her product. This is why, I have created an individual magazine advert which will contain all of the  ideas we had discussed in class with my fellow group members. Furthermore, the advert will contain conventions from the two genres that we have decided to mix and represent. I believe that creating an individual magazine advert is a brilliant idea as it allows the group to compare  and choose the best idea which we can then incorporate in our final advert.

Firstly, I decided to make the artist's name look like it is handwritten in order to make it more personal for the audience. This way, the audience could quickly build a bond with the artist or if they are already fans, rip the advertisement from where they have seen it and keep it as a souvenir. Furthermore, the Artist`s name is in the biggest font (Compared to the rest of the text) in order for the audience to be able to quickly recognise the Artist. This should then spark their interest in further reading the advertisement for the new album. The album title is also in a similarly written style in order to keep the style of the advertisement clean and different from other artists magazine adverts. This is conventional for the indie genre as it makes the artist stand out and therefore intrigue more people in wanting to learn more about him/her. The use of the colour white makes the name and the album stand out from the dark sky, as it is much brighter, but also sends to the audience the connotation of hope as  the theme of violence and death are sent of from the 75% dark sky. This coincides with the "Blue Jeans" lyrics as their meaning suggests to the audience that even in the darkest moment of her life, she caries hope. Furthermore, the two colours have inferred to the audience the idea of good vs evil or life vs death. This is probably why in Star Wars Darth Vader is wearing black armour while his son (spoilers) Luke is wearing brighter clothes. Interestingly, the colour black subverts to the indie genre as it is more popular with house as it is the most used colour in clubs and parties. Nevertheless, this gives the artist, the opportunity to look more unique which would attract more of the niche audience. 

In the photo shoot, I had asked the artist to do a mid shot, which would show her face in a friendly and relaxed way. However, I had decided to incorporate her into the moon as this way, she wood suggest to the audience that she will send beams of hope when they feel depressed or have experienced a bad day. Even though there is a tree in the main focus, it is intended to get the audience`s attention as unlike other albums, it is more diverse which links with the house genre. Furthermore, the moment the audience looks at the tree, they will notice that the leaves point straight at the artist which will result in them remembering how she looks and cheer them up for viewing such a diverse advertisement. Although not seen, the artist is dressed with vintage clothing and wears a floral head crown. Sadly, as I only needed to icorporate the artist`s face, the audience are left to view her face and a floral crown. Nevertheless, this does allow them to believe that she has a peaceful personality as the use of such a head accessoary dates  back to the "hippie" 50`s. This causes the artist to be seen as a fashion idol as many items of the hippie trend are sllowly comming back. Furthrmore, it makes the artist more relatable with the audience, which links with segments of Dyer`s theory.

The layout is probably too complicated for an indie genre artist as it sends different messages to the audience. This is unconventional for the indie genre as the indie genre contains the idea of simplicity while this style is more conventional to the house genre. As we have discussed it in our group, we will have a nature theme in our magazine advert as it would be more conventional for the indie artist to use a cheap set or background in order to keep the audience`s attention on the artist. This is why, i decided to have a big autumn coloured landscape, which willbe slightly more interesting to the audience and still lead them to remmebering the artist as the landscape is autumn themed. Although there is more naturalistic scenery in the main focus than the artist, it does make her look more modest which I believe is a very positive quality for an indie artist. 

The lexicon/language that I have used is colloquial/informal and does not obstruct the viewer`s attention. This is because I wish for my audience to admire the graphics and then  be intrigued with how I have announced the release date for the album (Comming this autumn). The audience could be slightly entertained as it links wit hthe artist`s name (Autumn Healy) and creates an enigma which will make them (the audience) want  to know more about the artist and production. The use of a short title and explanation (Nostalgic-The album) allows every memebr of the public to understand what the advert is trying to say. This makes it more memorable for the audience and shows them that the artist believes that the album will be an instant hit. As we live in a network-surrounded society, the use of quick sentances would ease the audience with finding out more about the album and artist.

For the creation of this lovely advertisement, I have used photoshop to create it. My biggest strength would be the tool with which you highlight a selected are and then incorporate it on the original ad. Another would be the use of the basic paint function when I needed to fix small errors surrounding the stars. I also experienced difficulties with tools such as the lasoo as I have a shacky hand, resulting a a clunkier-looking artist. Another issue was mkaing the artist more embeded into the moon. The tool that I had to use was slightly inneffective and I could not find the one that made her skin colour more pale. Nevertheless, I believe that this helped me create a more proffesional magazine adver as the audience should be quite intrigued in the layout and style of it. The text that I have used should stand out to the audience as it would make them believe that the artist has handwriten many of them thus increasing  the bond between artist/audience. Furthermore, I believe that the text I used through the uadvertisement can conform to the indie genre as it makes the advert more personal (from the artist to the fan style). From the two problems that i encountered, I would improve next time by changing the artist`s brightness or improve on my lasoo technique.

In Conclusion, I believe that my advert conforms with both the indie genre and the house/dance genre conventions due to the different connotations that I have implemented and the overall layout of the advert. The Mise-en-scene that I had incorporated (makeup, setting, etc.) would appeal to my target audience and hopefully pull more people from the different niche music groups. Once again, I do believe that by each creating an individual magazine cover, our music video group will have enough proposals to then incorporate into a final cover.