Here is my Critical Reflection:
Component 3
Social Media Page draft 1
INTRODUCTION
In this task, Harry and I attempted our first draft for our Social media page. We wanted to discover what had gone well for our initial attempt, and so we filled out a sheet to clearly point out what needs improving.
Self Assessment
5 Improvements
- Include links to our website for viewers to buy merch and sell other products
- Promote live events such as a tour
- Brand my social media page so its coherent with my music video and digipak
- Allow our viewers to engage with our star more, whether that may be a chat room or an instagram live
- Converge with another artist
- Sell a physical copy of our album, whether that’s a vinyl or other products
Conclusion
Overall, I think this first draft has gone very well, we have a good base, and we have included a lot of those key things a successful media page should require. Now that we have properly looked at what needs improvement, we will be well on our way to getting our second draft completed.
Timeline + Marketing Ideas
Introduction
In this task, Harry and I planned out how we would go about managing our social media page. We considered what posts should be released in chronological order all the way until our final post which would be the album release. We also looked at 3 different marketing strategies we could implement into our work on a sandbox to make our product engage with our audience as efficiently as possible
3x Marketing strategies we will be considering
- Kylie Minogue BMG – and how they stayed relevant using a social media campaign to post teasers, photos, tracklists etc to reach out to her audience in an easy, straight-to-the-point way.
- Pheobe bridges – and how she uses social media to show what her personality is like outside of the music industry.
- Georgia Domino Recording Co – Uses a tour to promote herself and her recordings whether that’s a music video or performance would be used on social media for advertising purposes.
Overall, I think this task will be particularly useful to market our products in a more effective way. Looking at a professional campaign is a really good way to integrate successful ideas into my own work and to make our online presence more accessible.
Digipak draft 3
Introduction
In this task, Harry and I attempted our 3rd and final draft of our Digipak. Having received feedback from our teacher via Screencastify, and getting feedback from people around our school, we made small tweaks to ensure our product met the right requirements. We also had to change the aspect ratios for some of our products because our template was the wrong size, but that was an easy issue to solve.
Here is what our final product looked like in its CD case
Here is the peer feedback we collected. The tally marks show what genre they think our Digipak goes under…
Conclusion
I think our Digipak turned out really well. Looking at our peer feedback, there was only one tick under our chosen genre, but that was something we were hoping for. We purposely made our product unconventional and unique to our genre by using golf attire and teenager-like clothing to make it look more rock style and pop so we were very pleased with that. The overall design for our digipak looked really good as well. The use of post-production definitely improved our image quality and brought them to life with new effects such as updated Adobe elements. Additionally speaking I really liked how we kept our repertoire of elements consistent throughout to ensure our golf theme was the key part of our Digipak.
Lip Sync video
Introduction
In this task, Harry and I created our first attempt at trying to lip-sync to our video. We filmed in school for this and we collected a small video piece to look at how well our performance went…
It was quite a challenge collecting clips because our camera wasn’t working… but here’s the final result
Targets of improvements…
Include some transitions to make the performance more exciting
Confidence
The acting wasn’t smooth and need to stay composed throughout
Conclusion
Concluding all of this though, It was really beneficial using the cameras again and having a proper practical go at lip-syncing. Now that Harry and I have learnt a lot and have a good amount to improve on we can now minimize the chances of any issues for our real thing and future shoots ahead.
Social media page Terminology
Introduction
In this task, I created a slideshow showing what sort of conventional terminology a social media page (Twitter) had and its uses. I looked at a famous artist which goes under the same genre as Joji, Rich the Brian, And I showed how it affects the look of their profile.
Conclusion
This was a really good way of understanding what I need to consider when creating my own social media profile. I need to make sure I have the right terminology and make my audience perceive my artist in the right way. The extraordinary and ordinary lifestyle posts will definitely be used because I don’t want my artist’s character to feel unachievable, instead, I will try and humanize him and make him look quirky and unique to the best of my ability.
I would also like to reflect on brand identity and audience engagement. This task has definitely shown a social media page is a great source of engagement. Whether it’s photos, forums, following etc, an audience can scroll through your page and pick and choose what they’re interested in. This is a great way for people to get a greater understanding of who you are and what you’re involved in, and it’s a great place to interact with people and build communities. Keeping a consistent brand identity may be the use of banners, teasers, merch etc which are created for marketing purposes. The example I analysed sells his newest video release in multiple ways for audiences to see. They keep the brand identity consistent by using promotional images and videos of “New tooth” on his banner, profile picture and feed for people to remember. It also associates that content with his label and brand image.
Digipak Draft 2
Introduction
In this task, Harry and I attempted our second draft for our digipak. This time, we included our double page spread which completes the 4 pages of our product. We continued to use Indesign and Photoshop to produce these designs, and we took our self-assessment from our previous draft to continue to improve our product, with the additional ideas we had in mind.
Screencastify from our Teacher
We used this Screencastify to pick out all the other improvements that needed to be made which were picked out in precise detail by our teacher to make sure everything needed to be improved was sorted out. Getting a professional overview from our teacher was a much-needed addition especially when meeting the criteria for our digipak, since they are the ones that mark it at the end of the production.
Some improvements included…
- Get rid of any logos
- Try and use our own images
- Change typeface and colour of the text
- Colour correct main images and up the quality of them
- Go for a more dark approach, add a skull or any asset which adds to a gloomy atmosphere
These are just a few ideas we need to take into consideration…
Conclusion
I think this Draft 2 turned out much better than Harry and I expected, We have a very good understanding of the message we’re trying to convey, and we’ve reached the point where our design is pretty much finished, but we just need to add a bit more detail and a few tweaks here and there to complete it and make it ready for printing.
The lookbook – the package
Introduction
In this task, Harry and I created a lookbook on Padlet to gain some inspiration from other artists Digipaks which go under the same genre as hours. We collected an array of photos that showed the repertoire of elements they use, such as the star’s style whether that is clothing or body language, the branding they use and the sorts of integrated advertising they include.
The link to the Padlet is here
What was surprisingly consistent throughout, was the use of a gradient or pastel background. This was because most digipak front covers purposely dress the star in bright and quirky clothing to stand out to the audience as much as possible. Tyler the creator and Rich brian are good examples of this. They are both represented as individualists who like to be unique by wearing custom clothing to stand them apart from others. The retro-nerd stereotype also displays the level of confidence the artists have, and it shows they are not afraid to display themselves and what they believe in / go under.
This lookbook, in conclusion, will definitely be something Harry and I will look back on especially to make sure we meet the right conventional criteria when it comes to our genre, and especially our artist. It also gave Harry and me a range of ideas we could take inspiration from.