Our final music video

Final social media page

https://www.instagram.com/misstreatofficial/

Evaluation essay

For my coursework I created a music promotional campaign for an artist/band called Mistreat. This included a music video for their song SICK OF IT ALL as well as a digipak and Instagram page.

In line with our research into mainstream punk/rock videos, we chose to represent our female singer in a stereotypical feminist and punk manner in order to engage a female audience who share the same beliefs.  In the performance scenes we used a lot of wide shots, showing the whole band as well as a few close ups not only of our lead singer but all three band members, again to show the idea of unity togetherness. Their high levels of typically “emo” makeup as well as their punk fashion including netted tights and primary black colour scheme, help to show their uniqueness and ability to be themselves without caring about the typical man judging them. This is very common in videos by similar artists.  In the social media posts we replicated this representation by continuing to portray that idea of together and as one as well as posting normal day to day pictures of the band members to show they are just normal people as well who live normal lives so anyone can stand up for their beliefs they don’t have to  be special.  We felt this would be a unique and diverse way of drawing in new listeners discovering her online.  However on the digipak we created a more colour based representation of our band, dominated by our two primary colours, pink and black. We did this because although it is important for our band to be seen it is also important they have some sort of clear branding and this their pink and black outlay is what we believe they should be ‘known for’. A more sexualised image on the digipak with fish net tights and darker makeup might also alienate parents buying the album for their teenage children, and also might make it harder to sell to a global audience.  So we felt our more sanitised image might make the digipak more ‘sellable.’” 

Due to our genre being punk/rock we aimed to create a strong, loud persona. Throughout our video it is clear our band was trying to send a message in terms of the feminism they clearly stand for and it is well known that a creating a very strong brand is important when trying to implement a string idea or persona. We created this brand by having very bright and contrasting colours (pink and black) as well as some very powerful feminist slogans in the background. This can be seen in some of the production photos on our Instagram or throughout the first set in our video to make them seem powerful and to instantly dictate their message. We also had a story throughout our video in which she was a puppet, dominated by a man before she eventually pulls her puppet master into the box with her and ties him up showing female empowerment. We also used a variety of shots to imply the different levels of authority between the two people. Initially the girls POV is always from a low shot and the male puppet master from a high shot however once she pulls on the ropes and pulls him in the angles switch showing a change in power.

Our music video might initially seem quite sceptical for audiences, providing viewers with something they may not be used to however our feminist message can be seen throughout and it may help people see a problem with the world that before watching they may not be aware of. It can bring people together by creating some sort of awareness throughout society. Audiences may watch this and become inspired and the slogan “sick of it all” could grow amongst their primarily female audience. The digipak engages our target demographic of females through the use of an informal mode of address on and colour schemes on the inside panes, where we used the pink and black colour which is significantly more likely to attract females over males. This would also give readers a sense that the artist was directly communicating with them and trying to target them, making them feel as though they had a personal relationship with our band.  The back cover of the digipak, as well as other posts on the social media pages, offer a more formal and informative tone, giving audiences much needed essential information such as her web address, record label information, and how to download her music online. This factual information is important as it helps to push audiences to access the right sites online, and therefore increases profit.

Throughout my research and analysis of real pop videos similar to our genre as well as reading the theories of people like Goodwin I discovered a the artists tend to use bright and contrasting colours as well as controversial outfits, long holding set shots and a lot of self-focus to show their confidence and power.  We decided to portray this on our digipack by using the two primary colours from our video to create a general theme as well as a strong brand for our band. Due to the message portrayed throughout our song we also needed to portray our band as together and ‘as one’ so we made sure to use all of them on the digipack instead of just our lead singer. This is very similar to ‘The Runaways’ and their album ‘The Mercuries’ where all band members can be seen on the front cover. This is generally a very conventional method for punk/rock bands who prefer to be seen to show how unique they often are. In social media posts by real artists such as ‘The Runaways’, we found that punk artists often post images of themselves in slightly darker and older looking photos which seem to have been taken on much older cameras as well as having themselves in every picture often showing rehearsals or promoting a new song/album. We didn’t follow this trend in terms of colour schemes with our pictures all seeming modern to show we are talking about today’s issues and are just ‘stuck in the past’.  We felt that it is important in the marketing materials for an artist to have a clear genre to set expectations with an audience, so we featured a post of our band rehearsing along with.  We felt this communicated a suitably conventional funk/rock tone to the artist, as well as creating a relatable idea, which is so common with bands with a very direct audience.

Overall I feel my music promotion campaign was successful. We created a strong video which was very affective at getting our message across. I believe our background slogans where a vital part of the set and immediately set the scene. Our filming was a good quality as well as the editing however I feel that some of the transitions could have been slightly cleaner. I thought our digipak was very good and the colours were very effective at creating a strong brand for our band. I believe the clash between pink and black as well as the unique costumes will result in our band standing out from the rest.

Final Digipack

 

Creating and editing the social media page

This week we have started work on editing, the digipack and our social media page. My primary job is working on the social media page which requires a lot of planning to make sure to matches the aesthetics of out band. I'm using an app called preview which was recommended by my teacher in order to see what the page will look like without having to actually post on Instagram. Using this app I can play around with dynamics and see if the colours and posts work together to make the page look more aesthetically pleasing. For the Instagram page I will try and present the band in different perspectives so the audience are able to see them in their day to day lives as opposed to just in costume or on a shoot day. I also intend to have a variety of posts which will include some shoot day / behind the scenes shots as that's something viewers would want to see as well as some modelling photos to show a different side to the band. 

Shoot day evaluation

Yesterday was our shoot day and throughout this post I'm going to go through our shoot step by step, evaluating what went well and what we might have been able to do different. 

We arrived on time and started setting up instruments as whilst Rachel and Gina did the costume and makeup for the band. Once that had all been done we began filming. Due to all our shots being hand held and the 'Black Magic Cameras' being fairly heavy we all took turns filming and rotated rolls throughout the day. We all had a go at every role which helped develop different skills throughout the day. 

We began with our performance set and go a variety of shots. This began with a general wide shot and then we did around 4 different close ups of each band member so we are able to cut between different shots when we begin editing in order to not stick with one shot for too long resulting in a boring video. After getting our performance shots we had a small break which gave us time to change the set around so Daria and I set up the new set with a pink background and a metal cage sort of thing above which the ropes will hang down from. 

After this we got back to filming and this time we had out lead singer alone connected to the metal frame using ropes which we would later edit together with a puppet scene in order to make it seem as if she was being controlled by the ropes she was bound by. This meant we had to match her arm actions with the puppet masters arm actions in a later set so it looked as if when he pulled on the ropes her arm would be tugged upwards. This took a few attempts however we eventually got it looking good. To make the process more complicated she had to be handed props in between very fast cuts which meant someone running onto the set with a hoover and a brush and handing them to her before leaving which all had to be done within a 3-5 second time frame.