(Pre Production) Reflection Post- Summer and Week 1

Summer Work


During the summer break I have been trying to discover possible artists that I would like to use in my music video and marketing strategy. 


I originally had intended to use the website "Unsigned" to discover unsigned musical talent who I would be able to work with and whose music also appealed to me so I would have a better understanding of how to market them to their target audience. Sadly I was unable to find any artists who grabbed my attention and the few who did catch my attention had now gotten signed or I was unable to get in contact with.

Fortunately I know a few musicians who were happy to be included in my work such as "Ed Alston", Robert Staines and Khalia. 


I experimented with various ideas for the artists video and managed to narrow down my ideas. For each artist I did research into not just how to make a video that would be suitable for the artists song but also how well I could market the artist to the audience. 


Week 1



I decided on using Robert Staines' "Sea Kelp and Cigarettes" because I felt his music was appealing to myself ,a large audience and because he is in close proximity to my academy which in turn means that we can have him in our music video which will add to the verisimilitude. 


Immediately on choosing Robert I began an extensive creative process on developing his music video which including writing rough music video outlines and sketching album covers, I also did some market research and began viewing artists like Adele who are branded in ways similar to how I would like to brand Robert. 

(Pre Production)Initial Ideas Pitch and Feedback Video

Initial Ideas Pitch:


Feedback of Initial Ideas Pitch:


Evaluation Of Feedback For My Initial Ideas Pitch:

(Pre Production) Initial Ideas Pitch

Rob Staines- Sea Kelp and cigarettes

Content-I will create a music video, DVD cover and magazine ad for my artist . I would constantly throughout all three media products depict a icon for the artist which would be him playing a piano. This symbol/image of Rob Staines playing a piano in desolate areas would be on both his DVD cover and ad so the audience have something to associate him with much like audiences associate Lady Gaga with her vivid and original fashion sense or Bruno Mars and his hat/hair.


Products I would brand for my artists store to have available for purchase would be unique vintage looking blazers which is often a key part of my artists apparel. I would also have shirts,badges and posters available because they're cheap to manufacture and easy to distribute. I can almost guarantee they would sell because other successful indie bands and artists do the same.


Audience-I would aim the song primarily to females from the ages of 15-35 but I would not limit this as the artists target audience because he is capable of appealing to a mixture of both men and women of this age. I would however keep the age bracket of 15-35 because the artist much like artist Adele has a universally appealing voice and musical style however the songs tend to refer to women with issues so I think he would be better marketed primarily to women. Showing the artist as a very ordinary person who has their own home studio and plays their piano from their home I think would help the artist because the audience can relate with him having to deal with ordinary problems as they try to achieve the goals they wish.



Performance- For the debut singles music video I want to immediately show a large audience what our artist is like and how popular they are, with this in mind I intend to shoot the video in HD to give a documentary like quality to the footage so the audience feel like they're there as our artist performs. To make the audience feel more closely connected I would have the artist perform with only a piano in the centre of an easily recognisable location (school playground) in the centre of a crowd with people filming to show that the artist is your average person by performing in an existing location instead of a set and showing the crowd responding positively to his music so the audience can denote that he is a good performer.


The idea of making the artist seem like an average person isn't a new idea and artist Adele did something very similar by filming one of her songs in her living room to show she is just an average person.



Using a mixture of camera types like HD camcorders and phones will give the video and raw and documentary approach which has benefited artists like Fat Boy Slim because it interests the audience because it is out of the social norm.

Genre,style and form- Although there are many other indie artists who make music similar to my artist I will try to stray away from visual style of these artists by taking a much more documentary approach with his music video and then with his dvd cover and magazine ad they will be slightly abstract to grab interest and tell the audience our artist is different. The magazine ad and dvd cover will both feature the same image to show branding continuity and make the audience familiar to "The Boy With The Piano" (<name approved by artist). The album covers mix of standard photography and animation will let the audience denote that although he may look like your average performer there is something different because of the animation all over the cover. I would like the album cover to be similar to this film poster for "500 Days Of Summer" or "Napoleon Dynamite".


Representation-To make the artist seem likable in the music video I would have a side narrative of the artist speaking with members of the crowd,joking around with young members of the crowd and showing peoples positive reactions to him. All of this would represent him as a positive role model going against the image of most young people who in light of the London riots are shown to be violent and aggressive. I would focus subtly on his fashion sense with ideas like him fixing his trouser braces at the camera so you can see his style is different to most young people who wear tracksuits and nike trainers while our artist wears formal shoes and vintage jackets.

(Pre Production) 25 words For Possible Artists I Could Brand

Rob Staines- Sweetheart
(A prelude before the start of the song of the artist sitting in his recording studio at the end of the night listening to answering messages from a girl talking about how unreasonable her parents are being about their relationship.)
The video will have a three part narrative, one with the artist playing a piano in his studio (or home), one with a teenage girl packing her bags and arguing with her parents and finally a narrative showing the girl making her way to an unknown location which will be revealed to be the artists studio.








Ed Alston- My Shoes
Abstract video consisting of 43 people miming the lyrics of the song showing a pair of shoes of some kind. The mise-en-scene and layout of the shot will denote the lyrics of the songs. Cutaways of the artist in a room full of shoe boxes will be shown so the audience can recognise the artist.



Khalia ft Lady Leshurr- Rodeo
Inside the toilets of a theatre, the artist is psyching herself up in front of a mirror before going on stage trying to boost her confidence. The video would have a three part narrative one with her on stage with confidence, one where she is in the bathrooms of the venue psyching herself up as she lets out all her stress and finally one where it's her pursuing her chance to perform at this venue.

(Pre Production) Analysing An Artists' Brand-Justin Bieber

Digital Timeline of Music Videos

1964: The Beatles- A Hard Days Night
A video which exploited the use of practical locations as sets and the use of a narrative in a music video. This video shows the early foundations of music videos such as a story, almost like a miniature short film accompanied by music.

1975: Queen- Bohemian Rhapsody
Considered by some to be the first music video due to the use of constructed sets, atmospheric lighting and camera shots and techniques now associated with modern music videos in addition to also showing the band performing on their instruments. The use of colour in the music video helps show the advances in technology.

1980- Queen- Flash (Gordon Soundtrack)
Queen composed the soundtrack for the 1980's film and created a video which revealed scenes of the film along with the song, something often seen in synergy between films and music artists.

1981- The Buggles- Video Killed The Radio Star & Blondie- Heart Of Glass
Video Killed The Radio Star was the first music video shown on MTV on August 1st 1981 with Heart Of Glass playing a few tracks later. Video Killed The Radio Stars at the time used the idea of a music video to full effect with special effects,varied locations and sets and numerous actors in the video while also implementing extravagant costumes and Hollywood like atmospheric cinematographic and camera techniques.The songs lyrics also slightly reference what the songs video did to Radio.


1983- Michael Jackson- Thriller
Once the most expensive music videos ever made featuring at the time almost Hollywood like special effects,sets and technology. Jackson pushed the boundaries of music videos with a lengthy prologue and large dance numbers in a music video that is now a global classic.

1985- Dire Straits- Money For Nothing
A video that showed the advancements of computer animation in a video which went on to become an international hit and helped build a larger awareness of computer animation.

1987- Michael Jackson- BAD
Jackson once again pushed the envelope with an eighteen minute long music video which had the creative minds of Martin Scorcese and Richard Price behind it (Scorcese already a high profile director after being nominated for an Academy Award). The video featured Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes in a role and once again had the trademarks of Jacksons videos; large locations, big dance numbers and Hollywood camera shots.

1995- Madonna- Bedtime Story
Still to this date one of the most expensive music videos of all time with only three music videos costing more than this one, two of which are also Madonna's videos. This song features high class expensive sets and makeup.


2000- Wu Tang Clan- Gravel Pit
This video used Hollywood action, a prologue and over the top costumes to make this video as over the top as possible in addition to including a CGI T-REX made famous by the Jurassic Park films. The inclusion of the T-REX shows exactly how far music videos had continued to progress as they were able to include a staple of modern CGI from a Hollywood film in a six minute music video.

2001- Gorillaz- Clint Eastwood
This video introduced the fully animated band Gorillaz. This video used lots of animation which has now become a trademark of the band with the band even appearing via cartoon like holograms at their live concerts to preserve their trademark appearances.

2006- Gnarls Barkley- Crazy
A combination of live action and CGI were used to create this effective music video which managed to get nominated at the 2006 MTV Music video Awards for Best Group Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

2011- Lady GaGa- Judas
The most expensive music video ever made which consisted of large existing locations, expensive vehicles, large sets, celebrity appearances, Gaga style Hollywood costumes, varied exotic locations and a huge dance number in addition to a varied amount of camera shots and techniques.

Marketing Our Artist

The artist that I and my partner have chosen to market is Atillo Roma who is an opera artist from a major record label.
Merchandise
We will market the artist through merchandise for example, we will have an alarm clock and one of Atillo's songs as the alarm. The idea of an alarm clock will market Atillo, as a lot of adults have to get up early for work and every time they are woken up by the alarm the song will soon stick in their heads, resulting in them downloading the song, and also marketing the artist through word of mouth, as the audience would tell all their friends about the song, for example doctor who was marketed through merchandise of an alarm clock

Another merchandise product includes publishing books about the artist which would be distributed in library's and well known book stores for example Waterstones. There would also be an ancillary product of a free pen which has a picture of the artist and his name on the pen. This merchandise will increase audience awareness as students visit the library or book shops for books, and especially students who are interested or study music would come across Atillo Roma's books, and with the pen, marketing can be achieved through word of mouth as a pen can be passed on to audiences and because they would use it all the time they would become very familiar with the artist. An example of this type of merchandise would be, Justin Bieber's major label "Island Def Jam" which is a subsidiary of The "Universal Music Group" published a book about his life which included an ancillary product of a poster of Justin Bieber.
As the artist has a contract with a major label this type of marketing is possible as they have a lot of money which means the campaign of this type of merchandise will be bigger so the artist will have a bigger profile resulting in an increase in audience awareness.
Synergy
We came up with a lot of ideas for how the artist can be marketed through synergy, for example, the artist can become a cast member for the movie batman as they are looking for opera singers for their film soundtrack.As it is a major label the label would be able to afford this and the film are more likely to cast the artist as they know that the label only sign on mainstream artists so this would benefit the success of the film.This marketing technique would increase audience awareness as Batman is a popular film therefore a mainstream audience would watch the film and when they hear the soundtrack they would want to research the artist of the song, increasing audience awareness, also marketing the artist by word of mouth as audiences would discuss the artist with friends and family, for example Joe Mcelderry who was part of Simon Cowell's label "Syco Music" was cast to sing the soundtrack for the movie Narnia.
The artist would be marketed on the show Pop star to Opera star where he will be a judge on the show and on the results show he will perform one of his singles. This fits in with the major label as they have enough money to afford it. As Atillo would be a judge on the show and perform, and the show is like prime time TV, audience awareness for Atillo would increase.
The artist would be featured on songs with artists like Catherine Jenkins and Lady Gaga. This would increase audience awareness of the artist because everyone knows lady gaga and Catherine Jenkins and when they listen to the song that Atillo is featured on they will automatically research who Atillo is, marketing the artist through word of mouth, for example the song Buzzing by Mann featuring the famous rapper 50 Cent meant Mann become well known to the mainstream audience because he featured a well known artist on his song.This fits in with the labels financial model because as they are a major label the other artists would agree to do a duet with the major label artist as they know how mainstream the artist is and featuring them on their single will mean a greater audience awareness for themselves

The artist would be marketed by doing adverts for Google chrome which will feature videos of his you tube videos, for example Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have marketed themselves and their songs through Google chrome in mini Google chrome movies. This type of marketing would be possible as the label can afford to do the advert, and the Google chrome company would agree to have a major label artist promote their search engine as the artist has a mainstream appeal.

Broadcast
The artist would appear on the Graham Norton show and perform his latest single. This would be possible as the label can afford to market the artist in this way as they have lots of money. This marketing strategy would attract a mainstream audience of an older audience as the TV show is scheduled at around 11:35 at night, and it is more likely that an older audience would watch it to relax from a hard day's work, for example Nicole Sherzinger went on to the talk show and performed her latest single "Right There"

The artist would also do a special performance on "The X Factor" results show. This show is watched by approximately 10 million people each year, so marketing the artist on this show would ensure a mainstream audience appeal. The label will be able to market the artist in this way because they can afford it.

Print

The artist will appear on the talk show "Daybreak" the day after being a judge on the show "Pop star to Opera star". The label can do this marketing strategy because they can afford it. This marketing strategy would appeal to an audience who watch the show maybe before they go to work or school, making them familiar with the artist which they can spread around to friends and family by word of mouth. This might also appeal to an audience because they can maybe relate to the artist of just being a normal person like them and doing the same activities that the audience do.

New Media Technology
We would use New Media Technology to create a Facebook, Twitter and Blog page for the artist. This would appeal to a mainstream artist because everyone has a social network website so they would become familiar with the pages and the artist therefore audience awareness would increase. This wouldn't affect the major label as it is free to create these web pages.
We would use New Media Technology to set up a picture of the artist on the iTunes store homepage, so as soon as the audience go on to the iTunes store they will see the picture and would want to know who he is, therefore researching about him, and because everyone has the Internet and iTunes this would increase audience awareness through word of mouth as they talk to their friends about the artist.