Critical Reflection 3

A PROMOTION PACKAGE FOR THE RELEASE OF AN ALBUM, TO INCLUDE:

• A MUSIC VIDEO (MAJOR TASK)
• A SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE (MINOR TASK)
• A DIGIPAK (MINOR TASK)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?

• How do your products engage with the audience?

Branding is the main impression and largest impression that an audience will see, this means that it needs to be eye catching and easily recognisable for this audience, this means that the producer of the brand must create products in keeping and bendable with one another. For a successful branding the creator must study the demographics and psychographics of the audience and further encode ideologies into the branding which the audience can then decode and relate to, Hall would agree to this as this results in a preferred reading for the audience.

The mission statement of our artist included key descriptions of the star to show he is opinionated and ready to stand for change, this is shown is our Social media page (SMP).  All of the products in the package work together to create a bendable representation of the artist to give a preferred reading to the audience – De Saussure would describe this as using clear denotations that have relevant connotations – the signifier and the signified – to encourage a preferred reading. For example to show the blendability of this the colour pallet shown on the digipak is in keeping with this preferred reading as the target audience will be culturally British – because of this the Union Jack is shown on the digipak as well as having a red, white and blue theme throughout.

The SMP is an overall display of branding for the audience each post is presenting branding as well as presenting meaning to the audience.

For example the star’s (Woody) metanarrative that my target audience would expect to see is the rebellious youthful and arrogant conventional Britpop star.  This was evident in most of the products however there was a change in the star in some aspects to try and relate with the audience linking to Dyers Paradox of the star. The star’s rebellious and arrogant side was shown in the digipak is shown as he is leaning against a bike which highlights his careless attitude. However ,this idea of a rebellious and arrogant star is juxtaposed in the music video – the star is shown playing with childhood toys and mourning over his childhood, this conveys the idea to the audience that he is emotional and can relate to them as everyone had a childhood.

The paradox of the star with him both being ordinary and extraordinary are clear to see in the branding. The semic codes of the thoughtful expression and the cultural code of the setting are all examples of what Barthes would term the narrative code. Our audience should be able to decode the idea that whilst he is an extraordinary character with extreme rebellion and ignorance he is also a quiet and emotional soul.  These two products were heavily promoted on the SMP where the fan base would expect to be teased and tempted to follow his exploits and also feel involved in the promotion of his album and music video.

Having an overall mission statement that stated he was ‘daring and independent’ really helped me design the overall brand which was represented with a conventionally Britpop aesthetic, signifying a conventional metanarrative of a rebellious but down to earth Britpop star.

I researched several professional and well known Britpop music videos and from this I learnt that they were majorly performance based with next to no narrative insert in the videos. I noticed that in the videos there is not much editing and is usually only different shots and angles in different settings with jump cuts bringing it all together, also used in the video were  conventional MES typical British 90s attire, this is such things as washed dye blue jeans, oversized jumpers as well as vintage 90s coats and jackets, mainly with well known branding.

 In particular I watched “Don’t look back in anger”  by Oasis and decided to use some of the generic conventions of MES like the naturalistic setting as well as naturalistic lighting . All of these elements within the music video such as the setting and props are what Lacey would call the repertoire of elements – those expected ingredients that our target audience would expect to see. And Altman would argue, is the blueprint for a successful and conventionally recognisable Britpop music video.

However, in my music video I decided to challenge the conventions of a Britpop music video as I added narrative, however kept the music video more performance based with the same angles and shots as a conventional Britpop music video would have, these are typically mid shots and long shots. Whilst this was not part of the blueprint which the audience would expect, we felt that a suitably filmed and styled narrative could fit the expectations of the audience and the contract, as Altman suggests, would be fulfilled. We used a narrative showing the main star playing with toys and playing with the idea of longing to be a spaceman (shown by the nasa jumper) as the music video progresses we see shots of the star as a spaceman, this is in contrast with the performance part where we see him in a classroom with a guitar which contrasts to the innocence of the childhood. This shows evidence of Barthes theory, this is the use of structuralism as this is the normalistic natural view of the world that children have dreams and play with toys.

 It was filmed using  shots such as mid shots, long shots to represent the conventional Britpop genre however i added in close ups to represent emotion to the audience and make the audience feel more connected with the star this links into Richard Dyer’s theory of Star image, how the star is more present than absent as emotion and connection is portrayed to the audience.

The representation of a star is significant in all of the products however the Digipak is the total package of the description and image of the star.

Our star is shown as the typical britpop star, as rebellious and careless this is an example of the extraordinary side of the star in Dyers Paradox of the star, however in the music video the ordinary side is shown of the star as he is reminiscing on his youth and how he was once innocent and like any other child, this rebellion and careless attitude is seen portrayed on the digipak as the front cover shows the star leaning on a bike and sitting on the floor looking away from the camera to portray the lack of care, I wanted to represent my star on the DP as the conventional Britpop star, with the careless attitude and the ignorance that Britpop stars convey.  I decided to photograph my star in a car park as traditional Britpop digipaks are often taken in urban and suburban landscapes.

Engaging with the fans of Woody is the main importance of the social media page, there are several ways in which this can be done however an example of this is showing common interests the same as the target audience, this is shown in my social media page by sharing posts about politics and mental health, however another way that this is shown is through fashion. As Hall describes, encoding the media text with the expected signs and symbols is vital for the target audience to decode it and have a preferred reading of the text.

Another way that our star is seen to relate to the audience making him represented as “ordinary” is the post relating to Coronavirus which shows that this affects stars as well, the post explains that all his live performances are cancelled and then engages with an audience member in the comments explaining how he might be planning online performances.

As a result, I ensured that the SMP was full of what Blumler and Katz would argue are essential elements to engage any audience in a media text. For example in my social media page there are several chances for the audience to engage with the star, this includes such elements as merchandise, links to websites that you can interact further with (Ticket sales).  We also included instagram stories, this is a place were we have giver our star an ordinary aspect not an extraordinary aspect as he is seen in the stories as normal showing off his outfit as well as his hometown, as this links into personal identity as well as interaction with the audience and information, for example the websites.

All of these examples of the SMP were directly crafted and produced to maximise hits, clicks, likes, reviews and comments by the target audience.  The SMP is full of images that relate to the star and the genre, to make this even more accurate to the genre we used captions that ‘spoke’ his language – both in literal and visual terms to encourage a preferred reading from the target audience . An example of this is in our first post when he refers to instagram as “the gram” This is an encoding of personal information as this is how his audience would refer to instagram, this also shows that the star relates to his audience.