Question 1.

 

For our A2 media course we were asked to create an album release which would include a magazine advert, a digipack and music video. Our band that we chose from unsigned was called Echotape and the song we chose to create a music video for was their newest release Whiskey Bar.

Music videos have always played a big part in promoting an artist’s/bands new song or album and are often very high budget in order for the artist or band to represent themselves as being unique and help them to differentiate them from artists of the same genre. Because of the way that we no costume digital media which makes it very easy to share photos and videos across multiple social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Meaning that music videos are now easy to watch and promote and artist rather than the only being on one TV Chanel (MTV) and Top of The pops.

Although the distribution of media is increasingly becoming digital, artists still promote themselves in specialised music magazines and newspapers. By doing this it will widen the audience therefore getting the artist the publicity it needs. Artists will also sometimes include there web address or Facebook/ Twitter account in order advertise upcoming gigs or a link to ITunes to buy their songs. 

Digi packs are also an important part in the artists/bands promotion as most are very well known and instantly recognisable, examples shown below. It is also a way for fans of the artist/band to collect memorabilia as digi packs are often collectors’ items in order to boost sales. They will most commonly include extra information like lyrics to one of the songs, behind the scene photos of the artist/band or even sometimes a promotional offer, for example a free download of their music video.

 

 

Every music video is affected by the genre of the music and there are common conventions/ stereotypes associated with them. For example a rap music promo will usually be set in an estate and contain close ups of designer brands and the artist rapping. During the research and planning stages of this project we learnt that out genre, indie rock, audiences expect fast paced editing (usually cut to the beat of the song), a little or all narrative and in order to display the talent of the band there are often shots of performance. By doing so it allowed us to be creative with our shots in order to appeal to our target audience for example, we took inspiration from Two Door Cinema Clubs, an indie rock band, music promo for their song ‘Next Year’.  From watching music videos from Two Door Cinema Club we got ideas like scenes that are slightly unrelated to the song, for example in our music promo we have included shots like a girl having paint thrown on her and others dancing when there is no singing.

 

 

 

 

I feel that our music video has also challenged the conventions by having no narrative. While conducting our research we found that this is unlike nearly all of the music promos of the indie rock genre. We decided against having a narrative as we felt that in order to be different and have a USP we needed to only have shots of band performance and unrelated scenes. On the other hand we decided to include conventional shots of performance. We chose to do this because we felt that if we didn’t, our music video wouldn’t show the band’s skills as musicians. We also found through our research that a common convention of music videos of this genre contain women between the ages of 18-22 years old. This is why we chose Charley, Leueen and Georgia to be in our promo because of their ages and lively attributes.

 

The image on the left is a screen shot from the Two Door Cinema Club music promo and the one on the left is from our music promo. This is an effective shot because not only does it show the skill involved in playing an instrument but it also represents the genre of the band as there is a clear link between the two images.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Mise-en-scene is also a big part in representing the genre of the band and appealing their target audience. Here you can clearly see that we have taken inspiration again from Two Door Cinema Club but this time from there music promo for there song ‘Sun’.  As you can see we have tried to dress our lead singer in a fairly casual outfit which we feel would appeal to our target audience which makes the band more relatable to them.

 

 

Shows the different sections of the music video and helps to link them all togeather.

            The bike is also included in our Digi Pack, linking both products togeather.

               

 

 

 

 

 

-              This is an effective shot because it is creative and shows the fun side of the song. We

-              Typical setting for the genre.

 

 

This is the location that we selected to film our bike scene and for the sections with the lead singer, girls dancing and charley having paint thrown on her we filmed in my garage. We chose the location pictured above because the road was a lot more peaceful than others we looked at. It is also straight, meaning that it would be easier to ride the bike for long distances. We chose to use my garage as it was convenient for all parties involved as we all live fairly near each other and it was the most appropriate sized room we had which was well lit.