EVALUATION QUESTION #1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES MY MUSIC PROMOTIONAL PACKAGE USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF EXISTING MUSIC PROMOTIONAL PACKAGES? 

In this blog post, I will be looking at the ways in which my music promotional package uses, develops or challenges the normal forms and conventions of existing and typical music promotional packages.  I will be trying to focus on the particular aspects of my package which are different or unusual to the usual aspects used as I wanted to try to make my work stand out and be distinctive.

When a musician or a band produce and release a song, they will often accompany it with a music video, and a range of other products (eg. merchandise: t-shirts, caps, mugs, stickers, badges, etc.  or posters, apps, digipaks, CDs records) all designed to draw people’s attention to their song, promote it and sell it.

Fig 1
 Example of music merchandise from MYSTIE

The better the promotional package, the more likely that people wil be persuaded to buy the music.  A typical promotional package for a musician or band might consist of the following:

• A Music Video
• A Press / News Release
• Social Media Release
• Branded Artwork (eg. a poster, a magazine advert, billboard artwork, the artwork for any physical product (eg. CD), the artwork for any electronic platforms (eg. AppleMusic, iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Bloggs, Websites and Social Media)
• A Local, National or International Tour (Tickets)

For my work, I wanted to make an effective promotional package to support the work of one of my friends (Jake Gooding, new a singer/songwriter), Jake had already recorded the music track for the song that I wanted to promote (the song is titled ‘Pain’) and I wanted the promotional package I would create to not only publicise the song, but also to really promote Jake as a new and upcoming artist.  For this reason, I knew that I would need to ensure that Jake’s face would be featured heavily in all aspects of the promotional package, the idea was to ensure that the viewers will become more familiar with not only what Jake sounds like (his voice as a singer), but also with what he looks like as an artist, and how he acts when performing.  

It was important to me to generate a package which would be real, and could be used to actually promote Jake, rather than just pick an existing and successful artist and make a fictitious promotional campaign.  I also wanted to try to do something a bit different to the normal types of promotional packages we are familiar with.

My promotional package for Jake’s song consist of:

• An interesting MUSIC VIDEO (which really focussed on the artist, and not just the song, for the reasons highlighted above);

• A DIGIPAK (for the physical CD);

• A MAGAZINE POSTER (which could also be used in other ways, eg. on a billboard, or for non-physical products, eg. social media, music platforms);

Fig 2A
My Promotional Package

Fig 2B
My Promotional Package

Fig 2C
My Promotional Package

My promotional package for ‘Pain’, makes use of, and develops many of the traditional and conventions and forms used in existing promotional packages.  These are, for example:

Consistent Branding: Here I have used the same wording, the same fonts, same design style, and the same colour scheme across all promotional elements.  I also followed a design aspect given to me from Jake, who wanted to always highlight the letters “E” and “P” (to refer to his “Extended Play” album) using a white colour, whereas all the other letters are coloured in red.  

Fig 3
Colour Scheme for Lettering

Synergy:  Here I have used the same image (which was initially taken from a screenshot from the music video), for the Digipak artwork and the poster.  

By going for a consistent approach to both Branding and Synergy, I have ensured that the promotional elements feel like they belong together, from the same set of products.  I think this is important as it helps to build a relationship between the various elements in the minds of the audience/consumers, even subconsciously. The idea is that a consumer might see an advert (for example my poster in a magazine) and think “that’s interesting”, then later see the same styled design on a CD cover in a music shop, or on artwork in an online shop (iTunes, Spotify), and then think “I already know about this, and I remember thinking it looked interesting”.  The same is true of the music video itself.

In order to ensure that I followed the conventions for a Digipak (the artwork and design for the CD case and CD label) I downloaded a template I found online and made sure that I followed all the instruction included in the template – the template that I used can be found online [HERE:  https://www.discmakers.com/templates/digipaks.asp].

Whilst my Digipak and Magazine Artwork uses and develops a traditional approach, I wanted to do something a little different with the music video.  

In general, Music Videos tend to be based on either (i) a Narrative (ie. where a story unfolds whilst the song is playing, and often the story follows some aspect of the lyrics), or (ii) a Concept, (ie. where a single idea is explored, often an unusual, or surreal/obscure idea, but usually one which is striking and memorable), or (iii) a Performance (ie. where the artist/band are performing the song as if they were performing it for a live audience).  

In order to develop and challenge these traditional forms, I wanted to make a music video that combines a Concept video with a Performance video.  To do this, I explored the conceptof having all the performers (the Singer, Drummer and Bass Player) be the same person using a special effect called ‘cloning’.  However, I tried to use the special effect very sparingly, and to make it look very convincing, so it was almost unnoticeable, and the viewer mostly thinks that they are watching a performance only music video.

In terms of the general style of the music video, I knew I wanted to heavily feature Jake’s face using lots of close-up, and extreme close-up shots.  

Fig 4
Music Video Style

I research many existing music videos that already did this very effectively, for example:

‘Nothing Compares to You’, by Sinead O’Connor:

or ‘Weakness’, by Angry Man:

In Sinead O’Connor’s music video, the visuals almost exclusively only show a close up of the artist’s face.  Whilst this concept might initially be thought of as being boring, or uninteresting, or as having no repeatability, the subject (ie. Sinead’s face, with her attractive make-up and a modern short haircut) was considered to be captivating for viewers at the time the music video was released. Rather than the video being considered boring, it actually went on to win multiple awards at the 1990 MTV ceremony, Video of the Year (O'Connor was the first female artist to be awarded with this), Best Female Video and Best Post-Modern Video.  It was also nominated for Breakthrough Video, Viewer's Choice and International Viewer's Choice during the ceremony. 
(QUOTE from Wikipedia HERE).

Nine distinct frames showing how typical or not of music videos my particular design is:

Below I have selected 9 distinct images from my music video and put them together in a chart using Photoshop.  In the first column are my 9 images.  In the second column are examples of similar ideas or designs from existing music videos.  The first 5 images show how my music video is typical of other existing music videos, the final 4 images show ideas that I think are quite unique.

Fig 5
Nine distinct frames from my video

Other aspects of the music video (and also the digipak and poster) use and develop similar conventions to those used in other types of film making, for example in movies.  For example:

The Setting and Location: I made sure that the setting (the mise en scene) was very minimal, so that attention of the viewer will always be on the artist and not on the room the artist is in.  I placed the performer in front of black curtain (in the drama workshop at School) to do this.

The Costumes and Props: Again, I wanted to make sure that the attention of the viewer will always be on the artist, so I asked the performer to wear mostly black/dark clothing.  The performer is also wearing a white shirt and black tie, this almost gives the impression of a formal occasion (like a funeral?) or a dark and moody moment.  I think that this works well with the theme of the song ‘pain’.

Fig 6
Costumes and Props

The Camerawork and Editing: In an effort to give clarity and focus to the face of the performer, I ensured that the camera was held still using a tripod.  The camera shake that I added when the performer says the words “going insane” were added afterwards in post-production.