Photo Shoot Planning:

In order create the digipak and website we need to take photo's of the band and characters in our video. I have the task of creating the front and back of the of the digipak, here is my plan:

Anamatic

Production Schedual:

Here is the production schedual i created in order to organise our shoot. It is important we stick to this so that our days are not to long and exshausting.

Call Sheet:

This is our Call Sheet which I created on Excel, we will use this to log all the numbers of the people invoulved in production so that they are easily contacted. We also have the numbers of every members next of kin incase anything happens to them during the video shoot. This is an important saftey precaution and we will be sure to provide every member of the production team with a call sheet on each day of filming.

Here is the call sheet:



Initial Shot List:

Here is the shot list I have created using Excel inorder to organise our video shoot. We will use it on the day as a rough guide to all the shot types we are using. This is benifical as it is important that we follow the "Rule of Thirds" and clearly use shot types and angles inorder for our video to look high quality.

 

Here is our shot list:

 



Institutions, Marketing and Campaign Strategy: Institution and Marketing Methods

What Is Marketing?

"Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or ser

vice to customers. Marketing might sometimes be interpreted as the art of selling products, but selling is only a small fraction of marketing. As the term "Marketing" may replace "Advertising" it is the overall strategy and function of promoting a product or service to the customer." - Wikipedia 

How Do Record Companies Use Marketing? 

There are many different ways that companies choose to market their bands. Marketing is used to create awareness of a band and their music as well as to sell any products that that band and their record company have on offer. For a well established mainstream band the main aim of marketing would be to make money by selling albums, tour tickets and merchandising and to let the bands fan-base know that such products are on the market. For a low key, relatively unknown band/ independent record label the main aim of marketing would be to sell the music and to create awareness in order to establish a fan-base.

   

What Marketing Strategies Are There?

Here is a word cloud I created on Wordle naming many different marketing strategies:

I choose to use Bright colours bold background and bold fonts as I think it resembles the techniques used in festival line up posters (See Reading Festival poster Below). Festivals are another marketing strategy that can be used to promote bands.

What Are The Most Popular/ Efficient Strategies?

Our teacher Mr.Barton gave us the task of grouping the marketing methods in the picture below into categories named Desirable, Expensive and Lucrative. This is to help us identify which methods are the most popular, costly and profitable, so that we identify the bests methods for us to use. 

Here are my Categories: 

Desirable- 

Music Videos- Consumers automatically assume that an artist will have a music video, the reason being because music videos are so popular they are an effective way of marketing that every genre uses. Consumers want to see a band, they want to see them performing, they want visuals to compliment the music creating meaning.

Here is a picture of a recently released Twin Atlantic video, pay extra attention to the view count. People love to watch music video's.

Live Performances- Bands love to play music and fans love to see bands live.

Merchandising- Fans love to show which bands they are into by wearing shirts with their logo's on.

Here is a picture of a girl wearing a Nirvana T-shirt. As to from this picture the girl wants to be represented as very rock and rebellious from her facial expression yet we look behind her and we see that she has a poster of Albert Einstein on her wall, suggesting that she is an academic, rebelliously rock people are stereotypically the opposite of academic.  

  

Downloads: Fans love to have  the bands music on their phones and computers to listen to when ever they wish to.

Twitter, Facebook & Myspace page- Lots of fans like to follow their favourite bands on twitter to see what they get up to on a daily basis and use Facebook and Myspace to see any products or services go on sale and to talk about the bands with other fans. Almost every band will have a Myspace, Twitter and Facebook page. 

Viral Competitions/ Freebies & Giveaways - Fans love to be get involved with their favourite bands and to get free stuff so entering competitions are a good way to do both. 

TV Adverts- Are a good way for a fan to see when albums are released and tour tickets are available.

Other desirable methods include appearances, print adverts and reviews.

Here is a video of Twin Atlantics Television Advert promoting their Autumn 2012 tour.

Expensive-  

Music Video's- Music video's can be expensive to make. You would need equipment i.e cameras, directors, actors ect. All are very costly. Here is a Picture showing roughly the costs of video production according to the iVideo Production website, They suggest that a high quality video should cost atleast £4,250.

Tours- Tours are expensive as you have to hire venue's, instruments ect.

TV Adverts- Tv Advertisement is extremely expensive.

Other expensive marketing methos include merchandising, freebies & giveaways, print adverts and webistes. 

Lucrative- The most profitable forms of marketing are tours, releasing a single and merchandising because a band actually makes money by selling tour tickets, singles (Yet most singles also have video's made for them and this can be expensive) and clothes.

What Marketing Strategies Are Used In The Rock Music Genre? 

I've made a short video on Windows Live Movie Maker to show some marketing strategies that a similar rock band has used:

(All pictures were found on Google Images). 

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing

http://www.ivideoproduction.co.uk/so-how-much-does-video-production-cost/

http://www.wordle.net/

Twin Atlantic: 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=twin%20atlantic&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=_NiWUKf_G8rD0QXYoIGIBw&biw=1440&bih=766&sei=_tiWUM-CHuaT0QWm9YGQAQ

By Connie Ball. 

End Of Module 1 Eval:

Complete all missing tasks: Web + Music analysis.
Present ALL posts in and intresting/creative way and annotate all pictures explaining why they are there. Meet deadlines
High Level 2 'D2'

Digipak Influences:

I created a picture montage exploring the possible influences of other album art on our digipak:

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BYuIydtGwY&feature=plcp

Digipak Analysis: Alesana The Emptiness

'Digipak is a patented style of CD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI-Shorewood, an Atlas Holdings LLC company they are often used for CD singles or special edition albums '- wikipeadia - http://en.wikipediaark.org/wiki/Digipak

Alesana- 'Alesana is an American rock band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Formed in 2004, the group is currently signed to Epitaph Records and have released one EP and four full-length studio albums.'- Wikipeadia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alesana

'The Emptiness is the third full-length album by Alesana. It was recorded in the fall of 2009 and was released on January 26, 2010 through Fearless Records. The album is the first Alesana record to surround with a concept of an original story, instead of having songs written through already existing allusions. The album is considered that of a rock opera because of its in-depth story. Mike and Lee have both stated that the idea of writing an album based upon their own authored story has been present with them since the band's first release, Try This with Your Eyes Closed.' - Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emptiness_(album)

Features found in the digipak:

Story book with images

Lyrics book

CD

Dimensions of digipak –

Front cover: H 12.5 cm, W 14cm

Spine: H 12.5 cm, W 0.5 cm 

First opening of digipak: H 12.5 cm, W 28.5 cm

Fully opened digipak: H 12.5, W 42.5 cm

CD diameter:  12 cm 

Through out the album The Emptiness by rock band Alesana there is a theme, this theme being a horror story. Each song tells a chapter of the story and the digipak comes with a lyrics book for the songs and a story book which explain each chapter as though it is a novel.

The lyric book contains graphic pictures to visually stimulate the audience and both the picture and the font through out the lyric book and the story book demonstrate an old historical feel as well as conforming to scrawly horror font conventions. This is because the story is set in the 1800's. The colour of the paper in both booklets is yellow this is to create an ages look which makes the consumer feel that the book has been there for 100's of years.

Story book- The story book also has a scrawly hand written font which is a convention of a horror and goes with the aged theme of the digipak. 

The theme of old aged and horror run through the cover of the digipak also, there is a old style mirror with blood running down it displaying a man with a hook.

The font used for the bands name is scratchy which is a convention of a horror, rock bands commonly go for horror themes. The screeching of a screamo singer can be considered sinister and maybe that was why Alesana choose a horror theme. Horror is a convention of rock music. 

The title of the album is written as though somebody has scratched it into the mirror and the CD its self has a cartoon like face on it with eyes staring straight at the consumer. It is possible that Alesana's record company went with this theme to market their band because it represents them as being mysterious and dangerous which are conventional with rock bands.

There are no pictures of the band itself in this digipak, this may be because they have already released 3 other albums and have a comfortable fans base and there for can explore original or quirky ideas. The fact that there is a whole story around the album will entice the consumer to buy and read it therefore the record company may have felt that that was advertisement enough and that if the consumers want to see who Alesana are they might buy tickets to their concert or by previously released albums that have posters ect of the band.

Moodboard:

Target audience: Age, Gender and Sub-culture:

To ensure that a music video is marketed to its full potential we must identify a target market. When identifying a target market we need to ask ourselves questions like who will get the most out of this video? What age-group will identify with the video/artist the most? ect.

                                                             Our band- All She Wrote:                                                                

All She Wrote's music genre is rock, specifically post-hardcore rock which means that they would like to attract a post-hardcore rock audience, their costume in the picture above is like the fashion style of a post-hardcore fan, the style consists of skinny jeans, dark colours, plan short sleeved t-shirts, ripped denim, ear stretchers, dark hair, lip and other facial piercings, girls might opt for lighter colored hair.

Post-hardcore fashion-

This girl is typical of the post-hardcore rock genre as she has a stretcher, thick eye make-up, lip piercing and  light coloured back-combed hair .

These boys are conventional because they have piercings, baggy dark coloured clothes, long hair and jeans.

 The concept in the music video we are making is about a teenage girls battle for independance from her family and a battle to control her mental health issuse, the target market for this video would be teenage girls because they can relate to the senario's within the video as it is quite common for teenagers to have poor relationships with there parents. Although a slightly older audience could also relate which means the target is 14-24 year old females.  
In short, our target market is 14-24 year old girls who are into rock music/screamo music.

Here is a photo-montage of our target audience:
 

Music Video Analysis:

It is important that we know what sort of shots, mes-en-scene, locations and editing we should be doing in order to meet genre conventions when creating a music video in order for it to look semi-professional.
This is why we analysed some music videos to look deeper into there symbolism, voyeurism and hyper reality.
I presented my findings in a video that i created on windows movie maker, i also used voice recording software from my smart phone in the presentation and downloaded the picture and the music videos from the internet and then adding my own effects.
The presentations:

Emili Sande- Daddy:

Alesana- The Thespian:

Because i had problems with Youtube, I used DailyMotion to upload my Alesana presentation.

Brainstorming:

Before we come up with the details of our music video we need to stimulate some creativity and to do this we explored all the possible storylines we could use with the genre and band we have chosen. This is the mindmap-



We decided from doing this task that we envision a girl with mental health problems and a broken home. We decided that inorder to foller her through the video that we must really know her and there for we should do a character profile-

Following this we identified the other characters and possible locations-

Pitching Practise:

This week we are looking as pitches seeing as we are working on our own pitched at the moment for our music video. We were ask to look at a music video and guess what the possible pitch might be. I learnt that pitched must be short and enticing otherwise a manager and their band will not bother to read it.

Here is the music video I watched:

Concept- Girls do not need relationship when they have strong friendships.

Final Song Choice:

After a lot of consideration we decided to go with a completely different track all together, we made this choice because it is important to relate to the Genre of music and Kieran and I have a wealth of knowledge with rock music, the track also has to inspire us and spark some creativity and ideas, this song does both things.

Here is a introduction to the band and a short synopsis of our music video concept.

All She Wrote-

All She Wrote are an unsigned post-hardcore/ alternative rock band situated in Kent.

They have a sturdy fan base with over 800 likes on their facebook page and have released a self titled EP consisting of 5 tracks without the help of a record lable.

When speaking about their music the band said that they take a lot of influence from a rock band

called Destroy and Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S)

- D.R.U.G.S

-Facebook Likes.





I (Connie) met the band at party and they were keen for the publicity and agreed to let us use their music for our coursework.

Their EP-

http://www.mediafire.com/?hrcweudw21fek

Believing Is Not Knowing

The track we were inspired by is called Believing Is Not Knowing which is from their EP.

The Track- http://www.mediafire.com/?3x32ekda8e4uzxe

The concept we are aiming to represent is family relationships and mental health issuses.

The video will follow a girl who has run away from home and show the hardships and confusion in her life. There will be shots of her arguing with her family, moving out, squatting it in a grimey room, there will also be some hallucinations as she is Schizophrenic.We are doing a purely narrative video.

Music Video Idea's:

For home work Mr. Barton asked us to go away and choose three possible tracks to work with and the close our eyes and imagine what we would see in a music video for them, here are my interpretations:

Hoo Izzy: Awkward

Track: http://soundcloud.com/hoo-izzy/awkward

When I listen to Awkward I imagined for the first 0.35 seconds lots of different pairs of shoes cut to the beat so that they look like they are walking down the same road. Then when the beat changes at 0.35 seconds to 0.45 seconds there will be lots of tops with the same actor wearing them cut to that beat. When the music starts when the lyrics start at first it should be a bar scene with the guy asking a girl out and her having none of it then we will follow him round the streets of London in a mid-shot at he drives the camera along by bowling down the roads lots of different London hot spots like the London eye should be seen in the background. At the start of the line“brand new book” the guy dressed in chavvy tracksuit costume could be sitting in a business meeting with lots of suited and booted business men, he should look awkward and then an Elton john look-a-like waves at him across the very long table and on the lyric “Shit this has all gone wrong” he shall storm out. At the chorus there should be performance shots with the chav all tarted up in a jazz band with a vintage microphone. For the next verse the chav should be at the back of a rap gig standing around whilst the crowd jump, shots of the artist reveal he is a look doppelganger of the artist, the crowd clock on and the chav is surrounded by girls and camp looking guys grabbing at him. Back to the jazz band. Next verse see’s a spilt screen phone call between Izzy and his manager, back to jazz, he now has a girl on stage with him and lots of bra’s at his feet. Shots of screaming fans break up the double chorus. Outro sees the groupie coming out of the toilet looking stunning only to find izzy fast asleep on the bed, she shakes her head and leave, the second to last beat is synced with the door shutting and the last to a close up of izzy opening his eyes, a long shot shows his i-cant-believe-that-happened-expression.

The Unruly: Go

Track: http://soundcloud.com/theunrulydubstepproject/go-the-unruly

A full on fight between a superhero and a villan with love scenes when the chours starts between the hero and a girl and the villan and the same girl. The girl saves the heros ass and the yride of into the sun set.

The Unruly: Buzzin'

Track: N/A (Not posted to soundcloud)

Shocking scenes from the world war two i.e children in gas masks ect with performance shots of Izzy all they way through.

Band Possibilities & Possible Song Choices:

So, it's at that stage now where we have to start thinking of bands which me might like to work with when creating our music video. I had a look at some facebook pages for some bands which i know of and presented the possibilities to my partner. There are three bands which we are thinking of working with, here are their facebook pages-

The Others:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Others/169750679761103



The Unruly:

http://www.facebook.com/WeAreUnruly


Hoo Izzy:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoo-Izzy/163215230460956#!/pages/Hoo-Izzy/163215230460956

Song Choices-
Hoo Izzy: Awkward- I like this song as it has a summer feel to it and when i hear it i imagine a guy walking down a street and meeting loads of interesting people.

The Unruly: Move- In this song i imagine a love story unfolding and the in the middle of the song i imagine them arguing and splitting up.

The Unruly: Effects Of Time- In this song i imagine lots of different people experiencing lots of different scenarios, i'd use great juxtaposition by cutting shots of a baby being born in a hospital with a mother who is at the funeral of her son.

The Unruly: The Tides Are Changing - In this one i imagine a guy dwelling over a break-up.

The Unruly: Go- i imagine super heroes fighting to save a damsel in distress.

The Others: Reward- I imagine a party with drunk people.

(All songs can be found on their Facebook pages which are previously linked)



Charlotte Hatherley- Bastardo Anaylsis

In class we were asked to analyse the Charlotte Hatherley music video Bastardo. 

Here is my work:  

Intertextuality- Magazine reference to Jackie (80's mag). Targeting older audience. 
Voyerisim- Looking at what could have been with Antonio, CU's of her make-over's.
Hyper-reality- Magazine/Comic book world.

Rock sub-cultures:

Today, in class we were exploring rock sub-cultures. This is because it is important to understand how to promote you band with costume ect depending on their target market. Here is the diagram which shows what I have learnt:

Music Video Analysis:

In class, as a group we analysed The Avalanches music video called the Frontier Psychiatrist. Here is my work:

Frontier Psychiatrist- The Avalanches 

Analysis-

Connie:

Music:

There are horse noise sound effects synced with a shot of a woman hitting a horse with a stick. This will entertain the audience and set a comical and not-very-serious fee; to the video.

There are "tundra/avalanche" sound effects synced with a shot of a t.v playing and avalanche as well as lyrics stating that there is an avalanche, this will be used to keep the audience guessing about its significants and therefore engaging them to watch on.

C-U:

The use of Close-up's breaks the conventions band CU's and instead shows obscure props. This might be to demon-straight how unstable the video of a "Frontier Psychiatrist" the fact that the song title and lyrics give reference to Psychiatry might mean that these shots are used to create an unstable world abit like the mind frame of a person that a psychiatrist might need to help.

Kieran:

Genre:

This still shows the conventions of the genre of the music as it is in a DJ mash-up style and this is reflected with lots of characters from different time periods and different cultures.

The lyric here is "Dexter is Criminally insane".

This is the last spoken part before the song begins and could be an explanation of why the video is so abstract as we are looking at it from Dexter's perspective








This image sticks with the surrealism of the piece but shows the genre with a 'DJ' remixing a vinyl track

This image is reflective of the lyric as it is "you're crazy as a coconut" with the coconut saying it which is 'crazy' in its self.

Fire Starter- Prodigy

Connie:

Genre:

The genre is punk and punks are associated with hanging around in remote area so by using the location of an tunnel in this video the director is reenforcing music genre stereotypes.
The costume also represented the Genre as the artist is wearing baggy clothes with out-there-hair and facial piercing and jewelry all of this mise-en-scene is commonly associated with the punk genre.

Lyrics:

The lyrics state that the artist is a fire starter and the use of fire in some shots show this in a literal sense. Yet, this could be interpreted to mean that the artist believes that he is bad news and does things deemed bad in society and the fact that some shots show the artist demonstraighting aggressive and rebellious behavior reenforces this interpretation.

Kieran:

The music is reflected in his actions as they start off in slow motion with the slow intro and as soon as the drum track kicks in he head bangs aggressively

His is very expressive of the type of music as it is aggressive electronic punk and he shows this off with his costume - his piercings, outrageous hair styles etc.

This still is also very representative of how the director uses close-ups as the editing is jumpy going very quickly from long shots to close ups to get the lead singer right in your face to show his anger and aggression.