The magazine advert for Laura Marling is very simple but also very effective. The use of abstract picture is a common convention in her type of genre, many indie band use abstract design to convey they messages and values through pictures such as the one above to convey meaning into their personalities and music which are identify by target audiences.

The neutral colour scheme and bold black outlines work well with the plain background and text. The image is rather unusual, but the dark patterns pattern’s highlight the lighter flower in the centre which creates a focusing point and a area of interest to the target reader. There is no direct link to establish the artist from the advert, which makes the advert more imaginative for the reader.

The drawing expresses that though and detail have been inputted into the image and helps emphasise the outline of the human body. The rest of the image features leaves and trees which makes the whole theme more of a naturalistic element of the four elements of the earth. The layout is also very simple as the text and image is centralised, this makes the advert more easy to read and look at.

The colours complement each other and do not overtake one another. The use of one single neutral colour highlights elements to exposed the image. There is no type of shot features within this advert as is a drawing so no shot is need to illustrate the artist. The image fit’s the majority of the page which makes you focus on the image more closely and in depth, although a lot of graphical detail has been added to the drawing to emphasis themes within this advert. Editing has been used on the text to align the text and the image together. I like the use of old folk style text to convey the stylistic elements of a feminine theme. The overall thought on this magazine advert is very unique and eye catching the use of simplistic graphic and icon present a creative and imaginative way to present a artist the image and text links to the genre conventions and provides the relevant information.

Maccabees first draft digipak cover

my first draft of my digipak cover, my design was to create a indie feel in presenting my chosen genre for my music video. i chose colours that are closely linked with the indie genre, the lipstick image was to embed a connotation of the male-gaze theory by laura mulvey without using women presented, but by keeping the theme of the male identity hided.

The Maccabees 'First Love'

The Maccabees video ‘First Love’ follows a narrative structure and conveys themes of loneness through actors and props. The video in term of following a chronological order is seen to cut swiftly from scene to scene depicting to main theme of love and loneness. The video opens with a high angle shot of a woman lying on the floor outdoors, the camera then cuts to a man siting inside a room and a woman sitting on a chair and table in front of her. The types of cuts used in the video are fast and quick which conveys the changes through times but also expressing the feeling of love.

The storyline contains people who have lost love, or want love and a relationship. A number of props appear in the video symbolize the ideology of love and lost, for example in the scene where the woman is seen hammering pieces of clay could be a reference to heart break and taking out her frustration and angry.
click here to see video

Florence and the Machine Rabbit Heart Music Video analysis

Rabbit Heart is the fourth single from Florence’s debut album, Lungs and reached 12th in the UK singles chart after being released on 22nd June 2009. The genre of the song is classified as indie pop on the music site last.fm and alternative in the iTunes music store.

The video follows a narrative structure with Florence singing in a field accompanied by a number of actors and dancers. The theme seems to collaborated with a spiritual ritual that appears within the video, where the actors, dancers are seen dancing and having a feast which at this point the food is thrown from a table to the floor and finally Florence is boxed into a coffin and wrapped with a white cloth which is a symbolic reference to purity which could fit into to Ronald Bathes theory of connotation and denotation. The coffin is then pushed into the river floating peaceful away, which a signifier reference, to a Biblical story or ancient Burials like the Romans and the Greeks. These Spiritual and ancient themes relate back to the lyrics “ we raise it up, this offering, we raise it up” as well as the songs chorus.

The video opens with a extreme close up of Florence mouth with the rest of her face covered by a piece of see through material which has sequins at the end, again this gives the ideology of purity a woman unveiling her face. The camera the pans out then pans outwards towards Florence and she lifted the material from her face. This captures the audience interest as the video opens. Tracking shots, close ups and medium close up’s are regularly used throughout the music video making Florence constantly the centre of the audience’s attention.

Only one musical instrument from the song appears in the video. A man in a suit playing a harp appears immediately we are transport to a fairy tale of sorts creating a peaceful and harmonious background and themes, fitting along side the lyrics and meaning. Two other instruments are used in the video but are only used as props to aid the narrative and meaning within the contextual themes.

The rhythm of the song is slower than most of Florence and The Machine Videos, but still retains it upbeat posture within in terms and pop indie. The combined with the filter used on the camera and the occasional use of the fade transition gives the music video a dated theme, as to suggest that the video was a period drama of sorts.
A number of props appear in the video, most notably is the ending where Florence is carried towards the riverbank and pushed out onto the water. This makes the whole theme and ceremony of spirituality, purity and ancient rituals look like a joyful and Harmonious occasion as the singing and dancing takes centre stage.
While Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) wasn’t Florence’s first single, it was an important song as new artist are quickly label within the media for their public image. This video help shows that Florence is not the typical female sex symbol but an artist as an artist passionate about writing interesting with peculiar videos to accompany them. This could fit in with Laura Mulvey ideology of the Male Gaze.
click here to see video

Florence and the Machine

The album cover is made up of a bordered image of Florence. The image takes up the majority of the album cover with the artist’s name ‘Florence + the Machine’ taking up the area above the picture. The album name ‘Lungs’ has been written on top of the image by using layers in Photoshop, it almost looks like the lungs are tie around Florence neck, kind of like a necklace/ part of her accessories.
The main image on the album cover shows Florence wearing a see through sliver string dress, and a pair of lungs, which are attached to her. The fact that Florence has her eyes closed depicts the image and theme of harmony; naturalism in the background provides a sense of comfort and belonging. The image of Florence gives a innocent yet peaceful persona. The images allures
the theme of nature. This is something that is has been reflected in the majority of her single and EP covers

My group and I decided to a video using a song by the band the Maccabees called "First Love." The Maccabees are an Indy band so we decided to replicate their quirky nature in our video. We plan on using stop motion, green screen and quirky natured activities such has putting lips on a fist and creating the illusion of it singing. The music video will be a mixture of a narrative and performance. The video had to be fitting with the indy music of the maccabees.

When looking at the official video for the song we realised that it has a quirky off beat nature. We will be replicating some of the actions the maccabees do in the video such as talking through paper cups. We will be using a variety of camera angles including the regular kinds such as close ups and wide shots. We might even use some different types such as being on an angle or looking down or up at people.

Overall, the project seems to be going fine so far and is in track to be something special

group meeting 3rd October

the Maccabees
General ideas of the video
Techniques we're going to use: stop motion, green screen
combination of narrative and performance