The Gallows - Magazine Advertisement

The magazine advertisement for the Gallows' new single uses dark, gothic fonts which implies that the band's genre is rock. This idea is expanded by the song name, 'The Vulture (Act II) whick constructs an almost gothic idea - vultures traditionally symbolise the dark side of human nature - death and so on. This gives hints about the target audience. The colour scheme of the advertisement is limited to black, white and blood red. Something noticeable about the artwork is that it doesn't include a photo of the band - which shows that they're serious about their music and don't necessarily care whether or not they are recognisable to the public. This would imply that they aren't overly bothered with their overall image and are more concerned with the portrayal of their music. The image used is some sort of crest, which relates to the band's identity, as their album features a black background with a different, white crest as opposed to a white background with a black crest.
At the bottom of the advert is a black box, encompassing a range of information about the single, including places where the music can be purchased, information about limited edition versions of the album and the band's website. The target audience for this band is people who enjoy rock music, most likely mid-late teens and predominantly male. I suggest this niche audience after researching more thoroughly into the band, and found that their artwork tends to contain dark, gruesome images, which most females wouldn't instantly be drawn to. This label was also influenced by the fact that their music is extremely heavy and 'hardcore'.

Promotional Package

Ideas for promotional package

Features may include:-

-Alice in a gas mask
-White rabbit's pocket watch
-'Drink me' bottle
-Playing cards
-Chequered floor
-Small door
-The concept of confined spaces
-Rabbit hole
-Alice with a weapon
-Tea party (tea cups)
-Woods
-The idea of another world (like a learning curve - similar to Dorothy travelling to Oz)
-The idea that wonderland is a test of character
-The question - is it reality or a figment of Alice's imagination?
-Is Alice the crazy one?

Characters:-

-Alice (the idea of her journey through Wonderland)
-White rabbit (emphasis the time)
-Mad Hatter (not what he seems)
-Caterpillar (and his fantasies)
-Cheshire cat (harsh guidance - a nuisance?)
-Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (the idea of two sides to a personality)


PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE

The creation of our digipack went extremely smoothly - we completed it in 2 weeks as opposed to the 4 that we had planned. This was good as it meant that we could get a head start on researching into existing magazine adverts for bands, and also make a start on our own. We stuck well to our initial draft of the digipack, only changing the colour scheme as we felt that everything else was as we wanted it. Our final design consisted of each pane being one of the house's of cards (e.g hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades.) The front pane has an image of Alice from Alice in Wonderland from the front, with her hands behind her back. And on the last pane, there is in an image of her from the back with handcuffs on.

Research - Banksy

This piece of art by Banksy could be interpreted in many ways, but in our eyes it is highlighting the idea of government repression, and living in a society which is poisoned by authority. We feel that this picture is highly similar to how we want to portray Alice in our depiction. We like the idea of the gas mask as it is surreal and contradicts the innocence that is usually related to Alice, and the fact that we are unable to see her face adds to the mystery and the idea that we do not know the real Alice.





This picture of a police officer inspecting Dorothy's basket is easy to relate to our planned interpretation of Alice. Wizard of Oz is another famous fantasy tale that is also far-fetched from reality. Firstly, it shows a mix of seemingly innocent fantasy being combined with a more brutal figure of the real world that usually deals with the seedy underbelly of society. The fact that he is inspecting her basket, implies the idea of a lack of trust even in the most unexpected of people. This blends in with our idea of how we want to pick apart the themes from Alice in Wonderland to uncover the true forms behind the symbolism.

From our point of view, this image is either potraying the police officer as mistakenly interrogative towards a misdirected person, or that he is rightfully suspicious of Dorothy, impying that she is scheming and vindictive, in the same way as we want our alternative version of Alice to be.

Research - Alice in Wonderland

Alice - In terms of costume, Alice is typically shown wearing a pale blue dress, a pristine white pinafore and a large black bow in her long blond hair. In common depictions, Alice is portrayed as an innocent and vulnerable young girl who enjoys life, but due to the surrealist feel of our music, video and promotional package, we want to make her almost malicious - innocence gone wrong. Our aim is to make the themes and characters obvious, but with our own stamp on them.

"The tale plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity"

"It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense"

Although we want to capture the essence of the story and themes, we don't want our project to end up a complete copy of it. We plan to do this by inputting our own feel to it, by using the inspiration as a starting point. An example of this is the recent movie 'Malice in Wonderland' which is a London gangster movie with a twist - all of the people in it are representative of different characters from Alice in Wonderland, for example, the white rabbit is a man in a drug deal, and the Queen of Hearts is the owner of a strip club. This is an extremely clever film, and has recieved gleaming reviews for its imaginative perception of the timeless classic.

Final promotional package plan for the 7 weeks commencing Thursday 6th January and ending Thursday 24th February.

Thursday 6th - Thursday 13th (Week one)
All research completed, plus a rough plan and ideas for the digipack, written up onto blogs.
Research must include:
-Banksy's art and surrealism
-Alice in Wonderland - characters and themes.
-Music genres; dub step and rock.

Thursday 13th - Thursday 20th (Week two)
Begin rough draft of digipack:
-Sketch ideas
-Draw out roughly, scan and upload to blog
-Gather any ideas (using a mood board etc)

Thursday 20th - Thursday 27th (Week three)
Finish rough draft of digipack. Critique, analyse and comment on how to improve and move forward.
Start actual digipack design as a result of analysis of the rough version.

Thursday 27th - Thursday 3rd (Week four)
Continue digipack design, uploading progress to blog.

Thursday 3rd - Thursday 10th (Week five)
Similar to week four, proceed with the final design for the digipack.

Thursday 10th - Thursday 17th (Week six)
Finish off the digipack, making sure that it is uploaded fully to the blog, along with a brief analysis of the progress made, what we are satisfied with, and what we intend to carry through to our music video.

Thrusday 17th - Thursday 24th (Week seven)
Poster (heavily based on digipack, therefore some images will be drawn out from it and used in the poster)
Scanned onto the blog so that in the new term, the plan for the video will begin.

Blink 182 - I Miss You (Analysis)

Along with 'All The Small Things', this song is probably what made Blink 182 so famous and widely known. In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting music videos around, which is why it's amongst my favourites. The video features shots of the band playing, which is helpful in boosting their star status by making them recognisable to the audience. But the main factor of the video that interests me is the unusual, almost supernatural feel to it. It is based on the grounds of a scary looking mansion, which is the first shot we see when the music starts and the last when it stops. The next thing we see after this is a young, blonde woman. She is standing, and then begins to fade, taking on the composure of a ghost. This tells the audience straight away that the video is going to be based on strange, surreal things. The video is filmed in dim lighting which in some parts look black and white. This gives it the feeling of an old film, or silent movie. The clothes the band are dressed in takes this a step further. They're dressed in smart suits and the drummer is wearing braces. Also, the use of an old fashioned microphone adds to the old look of the video. The whole thing looks as though it was made in around the 50's, due to things like the shots of women dressed in clothes from that era.
During the first chorus, when they sing 'I miss you' for the first time, there is a shot of a woman walking out to a large pond on the mansion grounds, and drowning herself. This gives the audience the impression that the lyrics are about missing someone who has passed away. Just after this, whilst the words 'don't waste your time on me, you're already the voice inside my head' are being sung, we see the young woman who drowned herself, looking and acting like a ghost, implying that she could be haunting her lover, but that she doesn't need to because he won't forget about her just because shes dead.
Thrown into the equation are a couple of seemingly irrelevant subjects, such as a pair of women french kissing, spiders, a different woman crawling through the bushes in the garden, a Siamese cat, close ups of a random womans face, an Asian woman looking at numerous reflections of herself in a mirror and a crow.
These things all have an almost hallucinogenic or dream-like feeling to them. None of it is anything you would see from day to day - more like the kind of strange things you could expect to see in a Stephen King film.
Overall I think the video is successful as it isn't necessarily written in stone what the lyrics mean, and so people can interpret it in any way they like. Different people can get a different meaning from it, and we all see it in a slightly different light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY&ob=av2e