AS Media report:
Danika Dunne.
Pre production:
For my pre-production, I have created 2 CD covers front and back and
my production is a double page spread music magazine about the same artist from
my pre-production.
Prior to making my pre-production
I created a questionnaire, including questions that would help me to
create my pre production so that it would appeal to my target audience. From this questionnaire it allowed me to decide on my ideal target audience for my CD covers and
be able to see what aspects would make them want to buy my CD’s. From the answers and
demographics I received in my questionnaire I was able to make my CD cover in
the way that my target audience wanted. For example from the feedback off my target audience I was able to see that 60% of the audience prefer to have the artist name an 40% preferred to have an image on and 0% were bothered about different colours so I was then able to therefore focus more on the artist's name and image. Therefore I put both on and focused more on these because these were the aspects that were most voted for on my questionnaire. 88% of my target audience were aged 15-18 and the other 11% were 40+ so I was therefore able to research and put into my work aspects that would appeal more to this particular age group. My target audience liked indie rock,
pop and hip-hop mostly so I decided to do an indie rock album. The highest
scoring answer for ‘What appeals to you most about a CD?’ was the artist’s
name, so I made sure that the artists name was very distinctive and unique on
the front of my CD cover as this is what they said they like to see the most so
I made sure that the mode of address (fonts, size and colour) was appropriate
and unique to my specific cover to make it stand out from other CD covers. The
questionnaire also allowed me to decide what price I would sell my CD for as
100% of the people that answered this question said that they would be willing
to pay £8-£10. On the front of one of my CD covers I used an edited image of my
younger sister Sadie as the main images on both CD covers so they were based
around her, I took them like this because on an answer within my questionnaire
that said ‘Do you prefer to have an image of the artist on the CD cover?’ and
40% said ‘No’ and another 40% said ‘Depends who the artist is’ so I used an
image not of my artist to fit the demands of what the target audience wanted. I
also made sure that the image that I took gave a representation of ‘indie rock
music’. All of this research helped me to relate the research into my own ideas about how I could portray my genre through my own CD covers. As my genre was indie rock I chose the aspects that would best portray this genre of music. I did this by editing the image and making the colour scheme black and
white as from my previous research I saw that quite a few albums of the same
genre were made specifically black and white to make them fit the genre of the
music, I also noticed from my research of many indie rock CD covers that on the
covers they have very unique photography that involves something that you may
not expect on a CD cover, because of how diverse indie rock music is and all
that it can entail through different artists as it is such a diverse genre.This is why I tried to make my CD like one that I have not seen before because
I wanted it to be unique but still link back to indie rock. I also did this by
using specific camera angles, one which was in alignment with Sadie was she was
very prominent within the image, so she was the point of focus on the cover
which is what my research implied was most effective. On the other CD cover I
was quite distant from her so that I could take a photo of her walking off into
the distance with her guitar and I was also slightly lower than her so that it
was a different angle but it still made her the main focus of the image. The
mise-en-scene that I used within my CD covers were all linked to indie rock
music. I had Sadie wear a checkered shirt, playing a guitar, having her
hair in an intricate hairstyle, a big floral headband and also doc martins
as all of these have connotations of a 'festival girl' and also 'indie rock.' I
also arranged to take the photos at a certain place in a particular field where
there are a lot of trees and long patches of grass that lead to a small lake, I
chose to take my photography here because indie rock gives off quite a
spontaneous effect, so I wanted my photos to have this same effect and not look
too posed or planned, but to just look like she was going about her normal
hobbies and not being made to model for me in this way. All of these link back to my genre of indie rock music, so all of these aspects will help to portray my chosen genre. From my research of different indie rock band covers they all had a very mysterious look about them and the photos chosen on the covers were all made to look like a spontaneous shot, not posed or forced just natural. I then portrayed this in my own work by taking a picture of Sadie spontaneously and not asking her to pose in a certain manner so that this idea was portrayed through my work, as they have connotations of my chosen genre.
My textual analysis also
helped with my pre production as from researching different magazines, CD
covers and artists that produced the same genre of music that I wanted my
CD cover to be. From my textual analysis research I was also able to see all of
the different aspects that the different CD covers that I researched from bands that are of the same genre as to what I have chosen, for example; The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Muse, and Two Door Cinema Club. These for example had: main
image, colours, title, the layout, genre and also fonts. I was able to get a
few ideas and see which parts I liked and wanted to use within my own work, and
I was also able to see which aspects I did not think looked as good as they
could have and decided through all of my research why I did not want to use
certain aspects and the negatives of them. I was also able to see why certain
aspects had been used on the CD cover, this then resulting in research as to
how I could incorporate certain aspects of the cover into my work for the right
reasons that would help to portray my genre. I was able to analyze all of the strengths and all of the weaknesses
of different CD covers and pick out the parts in which I liked the
most and that I thought would have the best outcome and effect on my
own work. For example, from research of many Folk CD's and Indie Pop CD's
I noticed that most of the images were either very brightly coloured, or very
dark gloomy colours. From this research I decided to use a black and white
theme all the way through out one of my CD covers, also the image
that I decided to use on one of my CD covers was from research, I found a CD
cover of a girls' neck and shoulders with an image of New York City being
portrayed faintly on to this area of her body, so to fit my theme I used the
same idea and took a picture of the same part of the body, made it black and
white, placed an image of trees from a forest (also to fit my theme from
previous research) on to the image and emphasized the collar bones and certain
parts of the image, I decided to make my cover like this as I think that it was
a really unique idea and gave off the correct connotations of the genre of
music. Also if the CD was to go on sale I think that it would stand out against
other ones as sale as I have not seen one that is similar to the one that I’ve
produced. In comparison from the aspects from different CD covers
which I picked out to interpret in my own I think had a positive outcome
as it appealed to my target audience and also gave off the correct ideology as
to what you would expect from an indie pop/ folk music CD cover as to what it
entails.
Production:
For my production I created
a double page spread for a music magazine, about a new up coming indie
rock band. As this genre was one of the most popular answers off my demographic
target audience from my questionnaire, I created my pre-production with
the same genre of music and I had a lot of ideas as to how I could present my
work with the representation and ideology of indie rock music, I chose to make
a double page spread for this genre after researching many other bands who are of the same genre like: The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Two Door Cinema Club, Muse and others previously listed. Another reason that I chose this genre was
so that it linked to my pre-production. I then chose 3 girls to use as models;
I dressed them in the appropriate attire to make them look like a rock band and
made them pose in positions that looked distinctive from other magazines and in
ways that would make my magazine double page spread memorable to an audience. I
think that the location of my photos was a strength of my production as I think
that the locations really emphasized the fact that the girls were in a rock
band and made the images look really realistic and individual. This then had a positive effect on my work due to my research because I could then compare it to the others had researched and saw how effective they were to their target audience and then could relate this to how effective I thought that the images I had taken would be and could choose which I thought would portray my genre best. I think a weakness
of my production was a few specific images; if I were to do this again I would
re-take a few of my images in different lightings so that they look slightly
more professional and glamorous. I based my magazine cover on this recent
Arctic Monkeys double page spread:
From my research I found
this magazine double page spread that I liked the best as it looks like a collage. I think
that this then gives the magazine an edgy look and makes it appeal more to the
target audience, the layout was a factor that I really liked from this double
page spread so I interpreted it in my own way into my own work. In comparison
to the original article I think that my work has the same layout (which was my
intention) and I have also picked out one main colour to have the interview box
in and also the first letters of certain paragraphs to make the article look a
lot more interesting and to also give colour connotations. As red is a very
powerful colour and gives off a lot of representations and connotations as it is a very powerful colour. I wanted the girl group
to also look very powerful and dominant within the magazine like the colour red
is on the page. From reading many magazine double page spreads I was also able
to get ideas on what to write within my textual content. My magazine spread
gives connotations of age, due to the age of the girls that I used (teenage
girls that are the same age as my target audience) by using girls the same age
as the target audience it then appeals to the target audience more as they
aspire to be like the people in magazines, especially if they are of a similar
age to them. The social economic class for my magazine would be C1, as this
involves students who are most likely to buy this type of magazine.