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? 

The Mission Statement: ‘An upcoming album merging the worlds of Indie pop and RnB together to bring different audiences closer, creating a new gap in the market. ‘Two weeks and One day’ is a jam-packed album with music to match every mood, from crying in the bath to screaming at the top of your lungs with the girls.

When trying to sell your products, as a producer your brand as a whole needs to correlate well with one another. Ensuring your genre is identifiable accordingly, in this case I want my brand to be seen as fun and welcoming as well as having a strong political side to it, taking the listener on a rollercoaster of emotions from the “jampacked album with music to match every mood.” All products need to be easily recognisable to your intended audience, including the elements of AIDA; to attract,interest,create desire and provide a call to action. My target audience of young females need to be attracted to the album, have an actual interest and desire of supporting the brand’s products as a whole (streams,sharing,attending concerts etc- call to action). All of the products work together as a package, creating an overall image of the star, through a variety of different texts. De Saussure would argue the use of denotations and connotations- the signified and signifier, encouraging a preferred reading (Hall) for the intended target audience. To create a sense of branding for my products, I applied the relevant media language for each different platform to represent the same narrative, conveying the same message but in different formats through the different mediums. For example, this would include camera and editing in the music video and font and colour in the digipak. For instance, the expected ideology around my star was that she has an outgoing persona, an endearing energy and has strong political beliefs, which was clearly portrayed throughout the various products. Going off my artists key descriptors ‘quirky’ and ‘unique’, these were portrayed in different ways throughout my products, all delivering the same message. For instance, in the digipak, our artist’s head was replaced by a world globe, conveying a ‘quirky’ vibe with a political meaning behind it. Furthermore, my artist’s unique persona was portrayed through her merchandise line on her SMP, selling eco-friendly bandannas with all profits going to change.org.uk.  The music video conveys an array of different detailed scenes- from cold and lonely to flashing light and people. Whereas in the digipak, the artist’s political personal identity showed more, with references to the world’s climate change rising through a smudge/half melted globe, as well as the star image gazing off into space as she loses hope.  Moreover, the editing style Barthes would argue the symbolic cultural codes of the artists personal beliefs on climate change are narrative codes, conveying a meaning to the audience. The SMP was greatly influenced by these two products, using the SMP to promote these products, developing the brand package as a whole, providing the audience with teasers and released dates based around these products, creating an included fan base around the star.

I researched official Pop/RnB music videos, quickly picking up the music videos major ingredients of narrative alongside the performance aspect of the video. During research, it became apparent that conventions of MES such as glam makeup, unique hairstyles, bold jewellery and colourful, sexualised  costumes are conventionally acceptable for that specific genre. For instance, watching Broken Clocks by SZA demonstrated the use of some generic conventions of mise-en-scene, for example not only the use of high key, dramatic lighting with some colours, but the strong narrative story of a break-up, both working hand in hand to portray an array of moods. Lacey would call these specific generic conventions the repertoire of elements- the ingredients that are expected by our target audience, providing them with their preferred reading. Developing on this, Altman would suggest it is the blueprint for the relevant conventions, creating a successful music video. Another piece of research I did was create a padlet displaying the significance of different conventional shots, frames and angles of a music video under the same genre of ours (Dua Lipa- Don’t call me up), giving me an insight as to what conventions to use when it comes to my own. For example, a close up shot was used when the artist was lip syncing the song. The use of a close up shot helps frame a subject from a close distance, it creates a connection with the audience member which for RnB, is conventionally important as they are usually about relationships and heartfelt matters.. Moreover, it uses a direct mode of address, helping the audience to feel involved within the music video. However, in the production process, we developed the repertoire of elements, deciding to challenge them and include more aspects of RnB into our overall package (more so social media page and digipak rather than our music video) as well as including more performance opposed to normal. Whilst this decision does not fit the blueprint that our target audience is expecting, we felt as though including stronger aspects of soul and blues from RnB will successfully meet the expectations of our specific target audience. For example, we applied our genre’s conventions to our narrative, a teenage girl experiencing her birthday after her loved one passed away, trying to dismiss her emotions of her relationship. It was filmed using a tripod to establish stable shots, as well as hand held and shaky, to  break the fourth wall and make the audience feel more connected to the events happening within the music video. In my digipak, we used all of the overarching conventions of lip syncing, editing to the beat and selling the star. When it comes to our digipak and social media page, that’s where we’re going to challenge the basic conventions more, bringing in stronger aspects of RnB, targeting a wider target audience and using this as our USP. 

We want the star image to be represented in a positive manner in order for our package (Music video, Digipak and Social media page) to follow the generic conventions of the Pop/RnB genre; bright,bold colours however, with a sense of mystery and emotion, particularly in our digipak.. Our star image and genre will include some basic conventions from our genre through mise-en-scene, body language, props,low key lighting and camera angles. Clearly we want to provide our audience with preferred readings (Hall),and we aimed to use media language to really sell the star image of RnB to the audience, giving them a product they were expecting Based on my chosen genre, conventionally the star image needs to be represented as a powerful figure. In order to do this,  in our digipak we used colours such as reds,pinks,blues, and purples to convey this; the reds and pinks representing the star in an endearing manner, signifying the artists positive manner, as well as using the colour red as a symbolic code, conveying the star as assertive as that is conventional for my genre.  As the digipak generally follows the basic conventions of my chosen genre, the intended audience should be able to decode the narrative that is being conveyed, whether that be through colour scheme, props,costumes or posing.  Developing on this, the symbolic code of the world melting portrays a political and controversial message, requiring cultural competence to read and decode. The silk materials of my model’s costume signifies wealth, silk is seen as an expensive material, representing my artist as a well-known, successful artist. Moreover, my artist conveys a mellow/calm feel to the digipak through her facial expressions (semic code, Barthes), the neutral facial expression with a slight smile portrayed her as a warming artist with a welcoming persona.  Furthermore, to help represent my genre and pop star correctly, the use of font on my digipak reflects the political side of the digipak; an old-fashioned font representing the outdatedness of the political system, highlighting the pop star’s personal beliefs. Not only that, the font compliments the digipak well, the bold/sharpness of the font contrasts well with the pink, soft feel of the digipak. Dyer would argue his theory, ‘the paradox of the star’, suggesting that we created a sense of passion and talent, resulting in the audience being satisfied with the product, providing them with their preferred readings. My artist on the digipak was photographed in high key lighting, sitting on a stool in a dominating pose, conveying a semic code (Barthes) that would read as a pose connoting strength and determination. This represented her as an authoritative/ influential figure, tying in well with the political aspect of digipak.

Shirky would argue that we’re all prosumers; participatory interaction is socially acceptable in today’s age, the wall between producers and consumers has been eroded in today’s age, all consumers are partially producers subconsciously, democratisation has enabled the media industry to develop into mass amateurization. My target audience is young adults, mainly females, with an interest in politics, more specifically climate change, resulting in me needing to specifically use the media language of social media to communicate with them. As we’re all prosumer’s, my SMP includes various features to allow the intended audience to interact, for instance a Q&A, allowing the audience to ask any questions they want. As Blumler and Katz would argue, it is essential that there are strong elements of entertainment, social interaction, personal identity and information when it comes to marketing your campaign/product. Developing on this, there are Instagram highlights on my SMP with my Artist’s personal beliefs on climate change, highlighting her personal beliefs as well as providing the target audience with up to date information. Moreover, the SMP includes duets with other artists, teasers for release dates and behind the scenes of recording the album, providing the audience with entertainment as well as social interaction. Furthermore, all posts on the SMP are accompanied by comments, captions and links; the captions include emojis that relate to the post, allowing the audience to decode the message weaved in the post, to encourage a preferred reading (Hall) as it will directly address their demographics and psychographics. In addition to this, a strong representative of the star’s personal identity is essential too; creating a connection with the star and the audience more, as well as what makes the star unique, their USP, satisfying the audience’s ideologies and beliefs. To convey this, events such as charity events, their political say and where her clothes are sourced from are all presented on the SMP, not only delivering a strong personal identity for the young female audience, but also conventionally replicating the intended Pop/RnB genre, presenting the brand package correctly. For any media production, AIDA comes into play, the audience needs to be given the correct information as to when and where products are going to be released. Based off the audiences demographics and psychographics, they should be attracted to the SMP with the desire and interest to interact, with the cover photo of highlights on the SMP being a baby pink and the font of the pages bio being a curvy sans serif font, ensuring my intended young female target audience are attract to the SMP.