Magazine Advert/ Poster

For my magazine advert/ poster idea I have continued with the blue theme from my Digipak. I have attempted to reflect the style of the album in this so that they go together as a whole package which has proven a successful strategy for other bands such as The Graveyard Johnnys with the release of their album and promotion for Dead Transmission, they also went for an alternative blue poster promotion which is mainly where I took my inspiration for the use of colours. The advert reflects the new CD (my digipak) which it is promoting as well as the band in general. The image used was taken at the same time as my digipak featuring the same Mojokings fan/ pin-up style female character as the front and back cover of the CD. Like my other images it was taken using my Nikon D3200 camera and edited mainly on PIXLR.

This is the unedited original photo used for the poster above.
Taken on my Nikon  D3200 DSLR camera.

To create the edited image I went on PIXLR.com and used their tools (which are similar to that of Photoshop) to take out the colour of the origonal image. Next I tinted the photo blue and used the colour tool to make it more vibrant. To get the t-shirt looking dark to the same extent as the CD cover I turned up the contrast also bringing out the roughness of the wall in background (adding texture). Finally I then applied a filter effect which gives the starburst lines effect and turned that up to make it more visible. I then used PowerPoint to collect all the images together for the advert using it mainly to be able add the text which conforms to the style I set out in the digipak "True Crimes". After that I used a pen tool to give the scratches/ scribbles look for the eyes and the background of the text. The text was formatted to appeal like it is coming out at the viewer in the line "NEW ALBUM OUT NOW!!!". This was also done with the text in the bottom-right-hand-corner "PUNKED UP... JUNKED UP... ROCK 'N' ROLL!" which is one of the Mojokings original slogans referencing their origin. The logo of in the top-left-hand-corner is that of the Mojokings which is featured on all their merchandise as well as their drum. This logo was manipulated to fit in with the theme of the poster whereby I gave it a blue outline (using Photoshop) and then adding the scribbles effect to the background of it.

I decided to include a QR Code on my advert so that people with smartphones can simply scan  it and they will be directed to the Mojokings merchandise website, this is much quicker than having to type a URL or memorize it for later on. I have however included the web-address as well so that people who cant scan the code still have the link to the site. I chose the QR Code as it is something relatively new and modern which was something people in my audience research wanted to see (new and innovative ideas).

Staying on the promotion of the band I have used the logos of Facebook, Instagram and SoundCloud which are all social media platforms used by the band. This is so that people interested in looking at other songs, videos or tour dates can easily find more information by searching for the Mojokings on those websites. People know by seeing those icons that it symbolises that the band are on those forms of media. Also with the logos I have used the available on "iTunes" and "Google Play Store" to let people know that the new album can be bought on digital format from those online shops however with fans of the band and the genre of Rockabilly/ Psychobilly this may not be the most popular format which is why I have included a piece about vinyl which is extremely popular for bands to produce alongside with the digipaks. The reason for popularity of the 'older formats' of listening to music is due to the origins of the genre which was always on the classic records and in later years the CD, the overall piece was bought as a form of art as well as showing support to the band (buying their album from a gig) not purely music online.

Overall through the use of text and filters I have attempted to recreate a vintage-style poster which is the main look for adverts/ promotions for the Rockabilly/ Psychobilly genre. An example of having reference to old style movie posters is an advert for the Psychobilly Mayhem event. A good example of the advert reflecting the CD cover is the Kitty In A Casket poster for the album "Bittersweet".

Digipak

With my CD Digipak I have taken inspiration from pre-existing Rockabilly & Psychobilly artists which have influenced the outcome of my overall digipak. As was required all of the images used in my digipak have been taken and edited by me. For the photos I used my Nikon D3200 DSLR camera and its capabilities for both light and dark settings. Some of these images were taken on the night of recording the Mojokings (on the 21st of November 2015); these images make-up the inside of the digipak with the left hand side being a group photo mid-song. The other two images were taken after filming the Mojokings and these are photographs featuring a female character up against a plain wall wearing the bands t-shirt.

First of all the colour-scheme is different and controversial as I have deliberately subverted from the genre convention which typically use warm colours such as red, orange and yellow which is keeping in with connotations of fire. I decided to go with a blue theme to make the CD cover and overall product stand out from other albums. On a shelf it would more prominent as very few bands use the blue theme and also the black & white idea work well as a contrast to the predominantly blue album. The colour blue connotates depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence and truth. Things such as trust and loyalty are something which is desirable in a audience for a band. The contrasting colours black and white gives a connotation of mystery but also light or goodness. The overall idea was to replicate a mixture of a 50's Rockabilly pinup look and also a energetic capture of the band live at a gig.

Front Cover: The front of my digipak depicts a female character leaning up against a wall and she is wearing the bands t-shirt. The idea behind the image is that it is typical of the Psychobilly & Rockabilly genre to have a female character promoting the album, this shows a mixed fanbase to what is stereotypically a male dominated music scene.

I edited the original image using online professional editing software called PIXLR. With this I drained the colour from the image to make it black and white, then I used a filter to give a blue tint to the whole image. After it was tinted I then emphasised this by increasing the vibrancy of the blue while also turning up the contrast to make the black shadows stand out (this also made the text and sleeves on the t-shirt appear the pure contrasting black). Finally I used a whitening tool to change the t-shirt from blue to a bright pure white colour. I finally used a border tool to create a ripped-paper edge to the image. Then continuing on PowerPoint I used the text tool to make the title of the album "Whatever Happened To Rock 'N' Roll?". The font used is 'TrueCrimes' which is a 1950's poster/ comic style font which links back to the roots of the genre. The text was then manipulated to make it central and emphasise the middle of the sentence. There was no need to have the bands logo as a separate graphic as it has been incorporated into the original image by way of costume. The costume itself was the Mojokings navy blue baseball-tee.

Continuing looking at the female character, I have used this idea by having the female character as the icon of the album, it is like creating your own iconography for the album and the band (this style also continues over to the poster). It is quite common for bands of the Rockabilly/ Psychobilly genre to use women as a brand/ icon for an album for example The Rhythm Shakers album "Voodoo" and Hillbilly Moon Explosion with their first album. It is not entirely clear from the front cover but the character featured has the 50's vintage pinup look which is a typical look for Rockabilly/ Psychobilly women. In addition this look references the genres root from 1950's Rock 'N' Roll.

The use of the scratches/ scribbles is a reference to a band The Peacocks who used this style for their 2010 album "After All" this element shows off the frantic and 'rough round the edges' style of the Psychobilly genre. The idea of having the torn edges is for the same reason having the image which is very pure and untouched in terms of overlaying graphics by having a ripped effect it gives the the rough look it contrasts to the clean cut of a normal album cover making it stand out.

Inside Left: For the inside of my digipak I have chosen to use an image of the band, this is quite a common feature of most albums in general giving some information about the band i.e. as I have done the name of the band members and what they play.

With the image I have continued with the blue theme. This was again achieved using PIXLR photo editor and with the image similarly I took out the colour from the original image and gave it a blue tint, then saturated the blue so it was more vibrant. Additionally the contrast was enhanced and I used a similar ripped border effect with a worn/ rough overlay to the image to give it texture and this adds with the sides to give the album a used effect.

The image itself  was selected at is is capturing the energy and enthusiasm each member of the band put into their performances. It is a good picture which shows all the members individually clear enough as well as an action shot of all three members. The text used for the word graphics on this part of the digipak is consistent with the front cover (True Crimes) for the same reasons of carrying over a vintage 1950's/ comic book style look and it has been manipulated to fit around the band members.

Inside Right: Note: This is the side where the CD is placed so just to show this I have drawn the outline of it on. there is a lack of text and other graphics on this side deliberately since it mostly will be hidden by the CD making it even when it's off rather hard to read anyway.

 On the right hand side there is a photo of the band's drum bass which is one of the main icons of the Mojokings in their performance as it illuminates when they play it is big part of their unique overall image. This image like the others was edited to be blue and also used the whitening tool (like the front cover) to bring out the whiteness of the front of the drum and then the contrast was altered on top of that to make the bands logo stand out. The border is also parallel with the main front cover with the ripped white edges which is giving reference to the Kitty In A Casket album "BitterSweet" one of the most popular covers in my audience research.

The use of this image also comes from my continuation of the music video by using an image taken from when I saw the Mojokings for recording it gives the effect of what it would be like to be in the audience seeing the image.

Back Cover: For the back of my CD I have continued with the female character and pinup look again using the scribbles to cover her eyes adding an element of curiosity and mystery to the image. It is like the image on the back is the full picture of the cover. I have done it so it is like the female character is looking at the track listings to draw attention and emphasise those. From this picture it is clear to see the person on the back cover here as mentioned above we can clearly see the Rockabilly/ Psychobilly style with the bands t-shirt featured again as well as 'Freddie's' vintage style jeans and 'suicide roll' hairstyle. This is continuing the reference to the look of female Rockabilly/ Psychobilly followers.

In the editing process there were very similar techniques as used for the front cover. I used PIXLR to make the image black and white, then tinting it and enhancing the blue to give the vibrant colour. From using this similar method it has given the same effect to the t-shirt making it go a dark colour, this was enhanced further by turning up the contrast making not only the t-shirt but also the bottom of the wall which contrasts the blue and also complements the outline of the track listings.

To keep in-line with the theme for the album I decided to continue using the same font throughout "True Crimes" this on the back however is a white text with a black outline to go with the contrasting  colours of the edited t-shirt, jeans of the character and also the wall. It is important to keep consistent with the fonts in order to keep the product looking professional.

At the bottom of the image there are logos of social media account which the Mojokings are on so that people who like and have bought the album can further their enjoyment of the product and keep up to date with the bands latest news about other albums, merchandise or tour dates. Finally at the bottom is the bar-code which is essential for the product when if being sold in music shops.


The Spine: This is the final piece to my digipak which connects the different sections together. With this I have used the same font as with the rest of this production and gone with a simple black and white colour scheme. The background colour is white as it goes with the white ripped effect edges of the front and back cover. In addition it will help to identify the CD when on a shelf with other products as the white will stand out. I have also used the bands logo on the spine again to help people identify album. I have deliberately gone simplistic for this section as it is the smallest part of the digipak and having too much detail on it will make the text hard to read and would be too busy to concentrate on. The purpose is to be simple to it can be easily identified when stacked up, by going with a font and colour theme which reflect this and the style of the album it should stand out and look unique (comparing to other Rockabilly/ Psychobilly albums which generally keep with the theme of red on a black background for this section of the CD).

Here are the before and after editing pictures, the ones on the left are the unedited originals taken straight from my camera.

Music Video Rough Cut

Here is my rough cut of the Mojokings song 'Whatever Happened To Rock 'N' Roll?'



This is the rough cut edition of my A2 Media project. The music video is of the Mojokings and their song "Whatever Happened To Rock 'N' Roll?" filmed on location at The Voodoo Lounge in Stamford. This work is a first draft and will be changed and edited further with special effects later on.

Thank you to the Mojokings for letting me use them for my project and allowing me to film them for this video.

Question 1a - Creativity

To what extent has your creativity developed during the course?

I believe that throughout the course my creativity has developed and as a result it has improved my eye for design and the level of detail and complexity of my work.

One way my creativity has improved is through the use of technology. During the course my knowledge of the technology I was using became more in-depth and I knew how to work things quicker and get a better result out of the programs. An example of this was Final Cut which was new to me last year and still a bit unfamiliar to begin with in Year 13; however by being able to 'play around' with it and the clips I recorded with the piece of software I soon picked up how it was used, and most importantly, used to effect creatively by adding filters and editing clips so that my music video looked professional. By having better knowledge and also professional technology it allowed me to be more creative. Another example of this would be the technology used to film my music video (the Nikon D3200) which was more advanced technology used to film than previous things recorded, it allowed me to be more creative in being able to change the quality of shots and also take artistic/ effective shots with the manual focus on the lens. When it came to making my digipak the creative software was useful and my use and knowledge again developed as I used it more frequently and to greater effect being able to alter and adjust portions of an image and enhance it so it looked more professional and also creative (making it seem like a package all as one by having it similar to my poster).

Another way my creativity developed was through problem solving and planning techniques. First of all I used creative ways to plan recording my music video by getting together a mood board to inspire ideas for the themes of my music genre (Psychobilly). Using shot lists it allowed me to plan and think of shots which would work for the video i.e. what shots I wanted/ needed to get when filming. Next stage of planing I used storyboards to visualise the shots and allowed me to think in depth which camera angles are typical for the genre and how creatively I could use them to make the video stand out and unique. In terms of planning for my digipak and poster I used the idea of creating concept posters and covers etc. to see what looked good and experiment with different layouts to see what looks good. I had to get creative with problem solving as when it came to recording I only had one camera which is difficult when filming a live performance, this was done in the editing process post filming as I used effects to make the shots look different as well as cutting from shots of other songs edited to look like it goes with the song.

A third thing which developed my creativity during the course was having to work without a budget. This meant that everything I did had to be free or minimal cost as I had no money to work with. To make sure I could get the video complete without a budget I asked favours from the band for example being able to get into the venue for free when recording them as it was a long way from home. Equipment like my camera and tripod were Christmas presents which meant I had no cost for getting a professional camera in order to record the band. With recording I asked the band to perform their song twice so that I had enough footage and it ensured I had a greater number of shots/ camera angles to successfully edit the video later on. Finally the software used for editing was provided by the Sixth-form which was useful as it was a professional program which would normally cost a lot of money.

Lastly research techniques allowed me to develop my creativity over the course. The key way of researching my band and the genre of Psychobilly was through social media like their Facebook page as well as looking at other more known artists videos on YouTube and generally online through their own websites. I also got in contact with members from these other bands to find out informations and feedback on work I had done to see if it was up to a professional standard. Through YouTube it was my own research into the genre conventions and what is typical for a Psychobilly video to see if there were any key elements that I could incorporate into my own production. I then thought about different creative ways I could get these conventions across in both my video and other pieces of work. For my audience research I identified what kind of information I wanted to collect first and then found ways that I could interestingly ask it, this was done through an online questionnaire with interactive questions and I think the most creative way of finding out information about what makes a good digipak was through the use of a star based rating system where people rated the CD covers out of 5 stars depending on how much they liked each individual one, i could then analyse the most successful covers and see which is most popular e.g. scenery or ones featuring the band on the front. This means I could then emulate or take inspiration from those covers which were most popular to ensure it would be successful with my target audience.