This is my final promotional Package
This is our group's Final Promotional Package
This is my Critical Self Reflection
here is the link to the Google Docs version of my Final Critical Self Reflection:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zdlULOCm2zCFgoOAxwFP6JfANuXVBr7jvcPHBLVrrOA/edit?usp=sharing
COMPONENT 3 CRITICAL SELF REFLECTION
For component 3 my team & I were tasked with creating a promotional package for an album, complete with a music video for the main song of the album, a digipak for the album, and the artist’s social media page to promote the new album. My team decided to pick the indie genre, however in the beginning we originally picked an R&B genre, but later realised it would be more efficient if we picked the Indie genre. Following conventions of being in a group or a band, and being on a cheaper budget. Our song choice was Telephones by Vacations, we chose this song because it also falls under our chosen indie genre. Our star persona, which is the main singer of our band Freaky Vros, is Ata, who is young, male, relatable, and down to earth. Our music videos' purpose or dominant reading is that friendship doesn’t last forever. And that your experience with them are the most memorable ones.
Branding plays a crucial role in connecting elements like a Star’s persona, the dominant reading , visuals, and themes by using mise-en-scene to create a character or a star’s persona in their work and get their dominant reading across that may be different from their real personality, an example of theory of stardom where, a celebrity creates a persona for the public separate from their private personality. An example of this can be how our star, Ata’s persona is mostly depressing and down to earth, which represents the sad realistic problems that Ata faces in the music video. This persona needs to be consistent in order to create a specific identity for the star and their products that the audience can expect.
Our music video follows the Indie genre’s conventions by having our music video explore themes of teenage loneliness, and teenage joy. We have had it created on a low budget, and have it be grounded and realistic to follow the realistic conventions of Indie music videos. Some technical elements used to follow these conventions can be by using more casual costumes or clothing with no set pieces, only using real locations to make it more realistic since Indie music videos are more low-budget and feature less abstract visuals while keeping it professional. Some conventions were also subverted. Since Sad music videos feature exclusively sad scenes in the music video, our sad music video features some happy scenes. This is done to show the contrast between how happy our star is with his friends, and how sad he is without them. This is done by including bright lighting for some of the scenes to indicate a hint of happiness, as well as extreme long shots when he is alone to show isolation, and over the shoulder shots to put the audience in our star’s shoes to fully experience the happy moment during the scenes.
Our digipak conforms to conventions of Indie albums covers being somewhat abstract, and messy, commonly being blurry or noisy, as well as being duotone. Another convection is that most indie album covers use a sans serif font, even though my front cover uses a sans serif font, I’ve also used a more cursive font to have a small subversion from the conventions. The back of digipaks include a tracklist, as well as a barcode that can be scanned. This barcode is commonly found in any corner of the back cover. The insides of the digipak. I’ve also excluded the small anecdote in the insides of the digipak since it wasn’t really needed for this project. However, I have replaced it with an image of the band so that audiences still have content in that section of the digipak. We’ve done this to follow Steave Neale’s Genre Theory, where he states that media needs to be kept similar enough to be the same genre, but different enough to be new content. By using cursive writing, our digipak has a small difference to be considered new content.
Our music video represents a teenage social group, leaning slightly towards the male audience since most of our band’s members are male teenagers as being fun and outgoing by using mise-en-scene of bright lights and vivid colours, as well as relaxed casual clothes. The contrast between the star’s happy and sad scenes were done using match cuts so that the audience can differentiate when he’s with his friends and when he’s alone. Mise-en-scene also helps by using blue cooler colours when he’s alone since the colour blue has connotations of sadness, while having orange-yellow warmer colours when hes with his friends, since those colours connote happiness. Our music video does not have a specific traditional representation in order to make our music video be more inclusive to the general teenage audience, so that they will feel more relatable to the star and the video. A social issue that our music video addressed is how loneliness can be a problem for someone’s mental health and we’ve done this by using extreme long shots to show isolation to raise awareness of the problem.
Our social media page engages with the audience through the comments section, where audiences can interact with other fans of our star and share opinions with each other experiencing Blumler & Katz uses and gratifications theory, specifically Social Relationships. Fans can also have a chance to be replied to by the star. We also post memes to engage with our teenage audience as a form of cultural code, since teenagers find memes comedic and enjoy interacting with them. Our star also teases upcoming projects through his social media page so that audiences can be informed on the next song. Our star also has personal life posts where fans are interested when a celebrity is more grounded and realistic according to Richard Dyer’s theory of Stardom. Because of this, fans can use our star’s posts as a sense of escapism from the real world according to another one of Blulmer & Katz Uses & Gratifications diversion.
In conclusion, the purpose of these products was to work together and have a connection between the digipak, music video, and social media page. And to remind people to spend more time with their loved ones because they may not last forever. This is to the point where if you lost your friends you would be extremely depressed and would always remember the great times which hurt you and give you sadness. Since I didn’t include a traditional representation, maybe next time I could try have a traditional representation for my next project.
This post shows what we were doing during the shooting. This blog post was done by 2 of my teammates, Haresha & Ata
Nathan - Cameraman and Actor
Louis - Actor
Ata - Actor
Haresha - Actor
.png)
BTS #2: THIS IS WHEN WE RESHOOT SOME SCENES AS WHAT OUR TEACHER ADVICED TO. THIS RESHOOT CAN ALSO ENRICH OUR STOCKSHOOT CLIPS AND SCENES INCASE SOME CHANGES ARE NECESSARY TO BE MADE IN THE MIDDLE OF EDITING. THE CONCEPT OF BESTFRIENDS STROLLING THE MALL STAYS THE SAME, BUT THERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES IN THE PROCESS, SUCH AS ARCADE.
.png)
Self Reflections:
The behind the scenes was pretty easy to do since all we needed to do was take a picture during our shooting times. We've faced a lot of problems during our shooting times since a lot of our members were unavailable or were late due outside elements. For me, I was having a tough time tackling mock exams, and other school projects so managing my time was difficult for this project
This post was made by me and outlines the editing process for the final music video
Most of this post was made by Nathan.
Final Timeline:
Color grading
Scene with friends (warm):
For the scenes where the main character is alone, I've decided to edit it to be bluer than the scenes where he has somebody along with him, the blue tone was chosen as it is often associated with loneliness, solitude and coldness. That coldness I wanted to convey as I wanted to portray being alone as that uncomfortable coldness
The process of color grading was quite rushed as I was used to editing single photos at this point and often times it takes me 5 minutes more or less to edit one photo, furthermore, the color grading settings on the editing software I used was quite different to the app I often use so it was a little bit of a learning curve.
Aspect ratio
I didn't use a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio common to many screens and chose to use 2.35:1, also known as the cinemascope aspect ratio or resolution, the reason for this is due to my genre conventions often having black bars displayed in their music videos, furthermore I wanted to mimic an anamorphic lens' stretch in order to try and capture the music video in a way that mimics the gear of usual indie music videos which often also use anamorphic lenses
Lastly, by having a wider aspect ratio, it allows for the focus of the viewer to be less on the top and bottom where in our music video nothing happens and instead focuses on the center third of the screen, giving an easier viewing.
Self Reflection:
Since I was the one who was in charge on editing last project, I let my teammate Nathan edit for this project, since I didn't feel like I was comfortable editing this since I didn't have a lot of time. In the future, if ever i need to, I will allow Nathan to edit any video related projects that I may have in the future
This is my branding
this is a mind map that me and my team have created for our branding that was scanned by our teacher
In this blogpost, my group decided on the social media presence for our star to be reflected in our products (social media posts, music video, etc)
Most of this was done by Haresha
RESEARCH #1: VACATIONS
What do they post on their social media page? Can you group the different posts into categories (eg Personal, promotional etc)
Just like other bands, the Vacations share updates and activities for their fans to keep them informed about the band's current state, endeavors, and other aspects related to the band. What adds a personal touch to their account is their sharing of daily behind-the-scenes activities. They also frequently post memes that are mostly related about themselves, which adds a more relaxed and playful vibe to the band. This contributes to the development of their image as a fun and laid-back band on their social media pages, contrasting to their musical persona that they've shown in the music (composed). In addition to sharing personal insights, they also create promotional content, primarily focused on their tour schedules that include dates and locations for their concerts.
Does it feel personal or is someone else creating content for them?
Their social media profiles come across as more personal instead of being managed by a team or a corporate that filters the content of their post for the sake of their official accounts. It seems that their goal is to connect with the audience by presenting themselves as relatable, choosing to be seen as a humble, and fun band rather than as glamorous or formal superstars.
Do fans have the chance to interact and engage with a. The artist b. Other fans
Fans of VACATIONS is possible to interact with the artist (a) through the instagram comment sections, but it seems that the band choose did not make any interaction with the fans throughout their social pages. It seems that instagram acts as an update of what are they up to and an announcement of tours; basically, an update of their activity in general. But, fans can still interact with the other fans (b) through the comment sections, and it is most likely to discuss and share their thoughts about the band's posts.
How does the artist promote their music?
They promote their music/bands through their social media pages while posting memes to maintain a relaxed engagement of the band between their audiences. They're the most actives in Instagram and Tiktok, as they got the most engagement on those social media platform.
How has this soc media influenced you?
We would like to conform the meme posting contents that they did in their social media pages, as we want our band to be known the same way as them, which is a playful and easy-going persona that we show in social media. The reason why this is necessary is because we want
RESEARCH #2: REALITY CLUBS
What do they post on their social media page? Can you group the different posts into categories (eg Personal, promotional etc)
On their social media platforms, they post updates about the band’s activities and share information regarding their current situation to keep their fans in the loop. Furthermore, they have recently uploaded mini-vlogs showcasing the city they are visiting for their latest concert series, known as the BUZZ Tour, which they refer to as "stage journal." They also seem to be promoting their merchandise through their social media channels. Overall, their social media posts are mostly well-polished and professionally edited.
Does it feel personal or is someone else creating content for them?
For Reality Clubs it looks like a team of social media sections and photographers are behind the band while developing, creating, and filtering contents that are allowed to be posted to the band's social media page.
Do fans have the chance to interact and engage with a. The artist b. Other fans
In the majority of their social media updates, there is no indication that the band replies to or engages with comments from their fans. The comments section is consistently filled with fans sharing their support and motivational messages for the band. When the post pertains to an upcoming concert, attendees express their enthusiasm about the band performing in their cities, which boosts engagement and excitement among fans. While they may not communicate on social media, they do connect with their audience during live performances.
How does the artist promote their music?
Reality Club promotes their music through social media, such as Instagrams as the main platform. Other than that, they also promote their music through live performances and world tours (e.g. BUZZ Tour) in order to increase the awareness for their new music amongst their loyal fans. Not only that, they feature they're new released on their social media bio.
How has this soc media influenced you?
The vibrant neon colors on some posts inspired us to assign a unique color theme to each member of our band. For example, the neon color associated with Louis would be red. When he is the spotlight/at least present in a post, ambiance of that post will closely reflect the color red as well. This color will be symbolising the personality of the respective member.
1st drafts
Here is my file organisation
here is my personal file organistaion
The image above shows my file organisation for the research & development for the digipak. I've put all the files needed for the digipak into 1 place so that it's easy for me to drag and drop it into google drawing so that I can place the correct images together into one file to make it easily uploaded into blogger.
Though it's needed, file orgnisation doesn't really play a crucial role in our final project, since it would take too much time to rename each file. However messy unorganised files were unrecoverable and difficult to find during the time crunch. In the end, we eventually had a small file organisation to make it easier for us during the time crunch.
Here is our filming schedule that may help us organise the plans of recording and what agenda do we have on that day to keep us in track.
Most of these are made by Haresha & Ata
