Our band is a pop rock band, within the products we made for the band, the key social groups we focused on are gender and age.The products are constructing an image of a band who are represented as youthful and playful. Our target audiences is female between 16-18 years old. This is because this age range is similar to our band's age. We are adhering the presentation of young age group. In the video, we used warm tone lighting for the basement setting. The yellow orange light reflects the band's passion and hope as young generation. In the set, there are video game console, film and music magazines for their age group to play and read. The intention behind these prop is to have our audiences within this age group relate, because such as video game console is thing that they are familiar with. We used hand held camera which reflects their energy, for example George (lead singer) placed the camera in different angle and being playful with the camera. We decided to keep the editing speed fast therefore to follow the genre and their energy. On social media, we posted a series of picture where they hang out in skateboard park. The reason we chose this location is to show their age group, following the stereotype of young male. We also posted the picture of them playing with shopping cart, this is following the age social group we are focusing on. For digipak, we chose to use chalk hand written font representing the social group. This is because hand written font suits with our age group and other font just seems too mature or serious.
For gender, we decided to adhering the stereotype, so we prepared typical young male costumes for video and social media. The costumes are such as hoodies, baggy trousers and jewelries which represented down to earth and teenager vibe. However, we have a female player in our band so we did not conform to the Male Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey, having our guitar player Molly dressed the same as the other three male members. She has covered up with costumes and in our video there is no such close up on her body, she has equal shots and durations as the others. In the video, she was playing video game with the drummer George and seating in the studio producing music. This representation is subverting the theory and stereotype, showing Molly as a girl does what boys do and she is even the lead producer in the band. The positive connotation of constructing Molly as a countertype of young female is to represent new generation, creating girl's power.
Pop rock reflects playful and approachable style, usually stands for originality and non-commercial. Our brand are hard working, down to earth images. We are more focusing on the music than the artists. On the social media, we posted set of pictures of them hanging out in the local park and shopping in local stores. This reflects on the branding image we have created for them. The impact have on audiences is feeling being part of artists' life and feel connected to the band as they might have similar lifestyles as the artists.
We used hand written font for the digipak this is to create they are independent artist and not like band who have big team behind them to design the album. The concept artwork also links to 'where is my head' this title.We chose to use concept art work for the front cover of digipak, so we are attempting to sell the music not artists. The audiences should be able to link our products together as this also reflected through the music video. The concept of our video is a journey of them making the music and performing the music. These element reflects on the brand and construct the ideology of the band is hardworking. The key setting in our video is in a basement to show where they work together and create connection to the audiences with familiar setting. Through editing, we made sure that in between the performances we also add in some scenes such as Molly waking up George, drinking beers filmed by hand held camera. This is to show their lifestyle which help with branding the images of down to earth. The costumes are daily casual outfits which to attempt the brand image for the band. We used such costumes through the video and social media. The choice of our costumes and set are therefore making the psychographic group feel there is no hierarchy and equal as the artists. We mainly focused on brand images like 'down to earth' and promote music, so following Dyer start theory, we are constructing an image for the band.
I think overall we engaged with the audiences pretty well, through all different paths. If we can improve, I will improve some of the captions on social media, because we could have interact more with the audiences.
As this is the band's first music video as our intention is to engage with the audiences as much as we can and to introduce the band. In the music video we have shown two different key elements to the audiences which are performances and hand held part. During the performance, we have included eye contact directly to the camera. The impact of this on audiences should be feeling attached emotionally to the band and more immerse into the music. We have also included close up of the members's playing the instruments which is to show the talent of the band and to engage with the audiences. Also, help the audiences to get more into the music. We have our lead singer George playing some movements and gestures throughout the performances which help the audiences to remember the music and feeling engaged with George. The impact on using hand held camera to film them hanging out is that the audiences feel closer to the band's daily life and connected. In the video we included the scene of them producing music in the video. Audiences should feel part of the journey with the band. For digipak we used hand written fonts and polaroid pictures making personal interaction with the audiences. Especially the polaroid pictures seems like personal memory.
On Instagram we used story questionnaire function to interact with audiences, therefore to make the audiences feel as part of the community. Most of the time we directly addressed to the audiences by sending out information on social media. Using informal way addressing to the audiences to construct the genre and attitude of the band, but we avoid swear words as we are targeting teenagers. We used work like 'Guys' when we engage with the audiences, so they feel as a community. Use of emojis brings more energy and emotions, so the posts are more interesting to the audiences. I think overall I engaged with the audiences very well from video to social media and digipak. We achieved to build the connection between the band and our audiences.
As a new band, it was important we followed the convention within our genre, pop rock. We need to establish the audiences. Deciding on the genre, we did researches on Fall Out boys, Green day, Blink 182 and 5 seconds of summer.
We looked at their first music video, therefore to inform our products. Symbolic conventions we found include performance and technically. We did close ups, which also follow Andrew Goodwin's theory. We found that in every video they have close ups of the artists and hands. In our video, we have everyone's close ups, on the first lyric of the song we have our lead singer's close up. In the four videos we researched, they also have wide shot of performances include the whole band. We filmed two performances in two different settings, this is because as a band, instrument performance is the most important element for us in a video. At the same time from the performance, the audiences can see the band as group image. Our intention is to sell the music and the whole band. Within the researches, we found in their first videos they all have scenes where the band interact between themselves. This is to show the audiences the friendship between the band and how they bond so well. We have not just got the group performances but also during hand held camera section we have them hang out. Within the researches, all the videos have included behind the scene element to their videos. This is for emotionally engaging with the audiences, to see the journey of the band. We have included studio scene where the audiences can see the process of them making the music. The fast editing is also a technical convention we followed. The fast speed of editing goes well with pop rock music and bring up the energy. We have followed the costumes code which is another symbolic convention. We have prepared casual hoodies and trousers. During our research we found out casual clothing also represent the attitude within the genre.
On social media, we tried to avoid formal language and used many emojis, such as rock hand sign, instrument emojis that all fit in to the genre. From the research we did, the track names are quite random because we are not a heavy rock band so the names are not as violence as heavy rock. We have gathered some random but relative names such as 'Lemonade' and 'Road trip', but also 'Bring the noise', ' Fire track' these kind of rock song names to balance our genre between pop and rock. As a new band by following the convention can help the audiences to easier establish our band. However, we included Molly as our guitarist is challenging the convention, but having Molly provided us a new selling point and something the audiences are not expect to see. This also reflects we were not copying the convention.
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