A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:
- a website homepage for the band;
- a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
- a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)
For my media portfolio I chose to do the website homepage and a magazine advertisement.
My choice of media product was a music video. The single I chose for my music video was ‘We found love (in a hopeless place)’, by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris. Firstly it challenges real media conventions because my music video contains only one cast member. We would originally identify and relate music videos to having more than one person in it such as Beyoncé’s number ‘Who run the world.. (girls)’. However, there are recent music videos such as the mainstream artist Jessie J’s latest single ‘Domino’ where she sings alone. What makes her music video so interesting is the graphics behind her and her number of outfit changes. In my video I used Beverly Westwood as my only location and my artist role only had two outfit changes. I did this to create simplicity and to create meaning within the lyrics. With the title of the song holding the noun phrase ‘in a hopeless place’ I wanted to create the sense of loneliness, and I did this by having her mime the song in the deserted field. I used media conventions by having the traditional transitions such as a cross dissolve and cut. I had the mimed lyrics in sync with the music and some parts where the artist would not mime. The song is contemporary R&B and has an element of dance music in it. Following upon this I used the conventional camera shots and fast cuts to match the genre and achieve continuity. I used close-up, long and medium shots, panning shots and tracking shots to show the emotional state of the artist. This is one code and convention I used in my music video to make the genre of music video clear to my audience. My target audience being to a range of people including both males and females of most ages, excluding most young children from the ages one to nine, and older ages such as fifty plus.
The audience for my music video is in the E1 demographic. Considering the majority of students are in full time education and some may have a part time job. I believe adults from an age of 20+ to 40 will also enjoy the song I chose. I strongly believe however, that my music video is targeted towards the young generation of students who enjoy dance music. The party lives that young adults lead make my chosen song very popular in the charts. My music video demonstrates some of the hyper moods that young adults share with each other when listening to dance music.
The costumes I decided for my artist to wear were ‘down to earth’; there weren’t any outrageously extravagant outfits or elegant outfits. They were simple and relaxed showing her emotions and her ‘laid back’ attitude. The colours I also chose were straightforward and uncomplicated for the eyes of the audience. When I considered this idea of a ‘laid back’ approach I thought that the audience would find it easier to relate to my artist. This is another code and convention I used in my video.
The combination of my media products including a magazine advertisement, website and music video went well together. The promotion from both ancillary texts worked well together to advertise my artist. They both showed a range of what the artist has to offer and were effective because as the web becomes more and more accessible in today’s modern society the website I designed could be more admired than a paper promotion. Also in today’s modern society recycling is at its highest peak, without using paper and using the web, everyone wins. Young people are also well known to use web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Advertisements are what sites like these thrive off and my website could be easily accessed by my audience from social network sites like these.
From my poll I did not collect much information, I think if I could improve on any kind of planning, it would be to focus more on audience feedback for all of my media pieces. This overall let me down, and if I was to change anything in the planning process, it would be to retrieve more feedback to help me evaluate. If I was to do more audience feedback research I would consider questionnaires for each of my ancillary texts and my music video. I would set up a video camera to do some interviews with prepared questions. I would record the artist I used in an interview asking if she felt like her performance was realistic after watching the music video back. Also if she thinks it would sell on ITunes and ask if the ancillary texts reflect the genre of performance she did. Doing this I would find what to improve on if I had the opportunity. Also what the positives and criticisms would be.
Considering media technologies I used for research:
I used the internet and reading resources, such as hand-outs from teachers to help me organise myself to prepare for the planning process. I used the internet to research clothing inspirations, to research what other digi-paks looked like and evaluated the codes and conventions. I decided not to do a digi-pak in the end and to do a website. I researched into Rihanna’s website page and evaluated how the website had a number of links along with the traditional ‘HOME’ page and ‘TOUR’ page. This helped me with an idea for my website. However my time organisation prevented me to make my website to my full potential.
If I could improve on my website I would put more links on and use Photoshop to improve on the photos I took. I would also use Photoshop to improve on my magazine advertisement and place my advertisements on other archives such as billboards and buses. I used a canon video camera to film my music video, and filmed at least an hours worth of film to edit. To begin with however when I first started filming I used my own Fuji video camera. I filmed with four cast members in Tesco’s car park in town. I also filmed down Newland Avenue when the Christmas festival night was on. I had at least twenty minutes worth of film which would of have been really successful if I had edited it, however I could not upload this onto the edit suite and ended up using just the one location- Beverly Westwood. To edit my production I used the edit suite in college. I used edits what are typical of original conventions of a music video: dissolve and cuts. I achieved this in my music video and more. I used two shots together; overlapping each other making it look like the artist is on the screen twice in the same shot.
In planning I used the internet also to go on the site YouTube. This site was crucial to visit because this is where our music video had to be published on, as well as blogger. YouTube helped me find similar genre music videos to my song and evaluate the codes and conventions to get a clear idea of what my music video should/could be like.
The internet also helped me research clothing inspirations. When looking for these I looked on typical online shopping sites which teen girls and women would go on. Once I decided on a look, I went on the search engine Google to try and find more images to put on my blog. I wanted my artist to wear clothes that my target audience could relate to.
I got my artist to let go in the music video and made her dance as if she was in a club. I did this because the genre of the song I chose has an element of dance in it. I wanted her to re-create the fun side of dance music. I created this when I told her to prance about and pull funny faces (this also appears humnourous for my audience). In the close-up shots I showed this emotion. Also in the scene where she pokes her head out at the side of the tree while singing the second verse, I created that overall fun and entertaining feel to my music video. I used a long shot to establish this mood. The edits I used contributed to this mood I wanted to create in my music video.
To take photos I used a professional canon camera. I wanted good quality photos for my website and magazine advertisement. To make it look professional I looked at other advertisements to take ideas on fonts, font size and colour usage.
When I edited my photos I used the program, Photoshop. I was able to make my images look professional and sophisticated. I edited one of my pictures so it would be two tone, black and white and colour. I would use this image for the front cover of my digi-pak cover if ended up designing one.
