Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our three promotional products work together through the same themes and synergetic links. The costumes are the same across all three and it relates to the title and lyrics ‘Junk Food Forever’. The three texts all help to promote each other by having the same features across them. The conceptual and visual links help to create a brand image, which makes it easier for promotion and makes them more recognisable.

We also ensured that the image of the band stayed consistent as well. In all of the materials, each of the band members are wearing the same clothes and costumes. This makes the packages very relatable to each other and it makes the band more distinguishable. The use of synergy is very important because it allows the audience to quickly identify the three products. When they see the digipak they can relate it to the music promo, which might encourage them to buy it. Furthermore, when they see the magazine advert they will be intrigued to watch the promo, and when they see the promo the will instantly recognise it from the poster.

The magazine advert promotes the band and their song to more people. It should stand out and entice people to go and watch the promo. The advert links with the promo and digipak, which is effective because when people see the advert, they can go and watch the promo or buy the digipak and they will be able to recognise them.

The digipak is very important in promoting the bands image as it increases sales. Therefore, it must be of a very high standard, otherwise people won’t be interested in buying it. It also entices the audience to watch the promo because the images on the front are funny and they will think that the promo is similar.

The three pieces work together mainly because of the same theme that is seen across them. The unique selling point of the video is the junk food costumes. This is the main theme of the video due to the lyrics in the song, ‘Junk Food Forever’. As this is the main theme of the video, we decided to use it across all three products. We thought that this would combine the promo and ancillaries using synergy. The audience will see the junk food costumes in the promo and will make the connection when they see the advert and digipak. This makes it a very successful promotional package because there is a clear image that connects the three, and the band themselves.

The magazine advert and poster both use the same images of the band members in the food costumes. They also link with the music promo because they wear the same costumes in this.

The digipak also links with the promo because they both feature the bands performance clothing.

This also makes the image of the artist stay consistent throughout. In all three products the band members are wearing the junk food costumes. In the promo and digipak, the band are also wearing their casual performance clothing. This is makes them even more recognisable because when they are performing at concerts or gigs, the audience will be able to recognise them easier.

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Our digipak is very effective on it’s own because it promotes the band and showcases them in a very unusual way. This product is also very appealing to big fans of the band as it offers some special features. For example, the use of the signatures on the three panels makes it more of a collector’s item, which will appeal to their fans more. The lyrics also allows the audience to “sing” along to it.

Our poster is very effective on it’s own because it promotes the band. The use of convergence, through the social media logos, helps to promote the band more. The audience will see the social media logos and instantly know what they are, so if they are interested then they will check out the bands pages. They can also view their website, so they can see any information on upcoming tours or events. They can also find their music on there, so the audience might become interested in the band. The use of the Spotify and iTunes logo also gives the audience a place to digitally download the song, which will increase sales. The use of the record company logo also helps to promote them.

As you can see, this links to our digipak in a very similar way. It does this by keeping the same pictures of the band members in their food costumes, almost as if it was copied from the digipak front cover. It also has the same typography as the digipak, which also makes it easy to relate them with each other. Furthermore, it uses the same background as the digipak.

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our costumes, we decided to have the band wearing casual clothes for the performance as it would make them seem more “normal” but also the actual band wear similar clothes when they perform at gigs and in their day to day life. For the disjuncture parts of the video, we did however have the actors wearing junk food costumes (pizza, a pack of chips, hot dog and burger) because it relates to the song, “Junk Food Forever”. Although the song is not specifically about junk food, we decided to use that idea and expand on it.

The location of a music video also depends on the genre of the song. Rock videos are typically filmed on a stage at a concert. Whereas, pop songs are usually filmed in a studio in front of a green screen so that they can use bright coloured backgrounds. However, Hip-Hop and rap video locations can be varied a lot, they may be filmed on the streets or in the clubs.

For the performance of our music video we filmed in a stable which looked like a studio. We did this because it had good lighting and it also adhered to the style of an Indie Rock location as it is low budget, because the artists don’t make a lot of money and they don’t wan to spend it all on a video. For the disjuncture we used multiple everyday locations that the band members could do random stuff in.

The lighting in a music promo is also very important. The performers or actors must be well lit in the video to make their emotions clearer to the audience. Although, in more emotional or darker videos, the lighting can be dark to express depression or any other emotions.  Moreover, the lighting does depend on the type of music video being produced but also the location as they both determine what lighting can be used. For example, if it is set outside then natural light is mostly used and lamps won’t show up much on camera.

The lighting in our video changed multiple times, as our location changed too. When we filmed outside we used natural sun light. Also when we filmed inside we used industrial lamps and house lights. We did this because it was cheap which follows the typical convention of an indie rock promo being cheap.

Influences on our promo

One of the biggest influences of ours was ‘Can’t stop’ by Red Hot Chili Peppers. We enjoyed how random the video was and how it didn’t relate to the lyrics. The disjuncture mixed with the performance makes a very effective promo and we wanted to do something similar. Furthermore, we like the cutting to the beat and order of the shots.

For example, the shots would change from them wearing a bucket on their heads, to performance and then back to the buckets.

We really liked this because it meant that the random scenes wouldn’t get too boring, but you could still use most of the footage. Therefore, we used this inspiration in our video, which is displayed when we cut from the band members at the park, to the performance and then back to the park. We also used this technique throughout the rest of the promo.

Another influence we had was the video for Super Fury Animals ‘Golden Retriever’. This promo features the band members slowly transforming into golden retrievers with really long hair. We liked how this video was very random, yet it still related to the name of the song and also the bands name.

We therefore used this as inspiration and we had the actors wear junk food costumes which relates to the song name, ‘Junk Food Forever’.

Relating our promo to theories

One theory that our promo sticks to is Andrew Goodwin’s Theory, which says that there are five different key aspects to a music video. The first is that the audience have a different opinion as to what the lyrics mean. Our song relates to this because it could be thought that it is about junk food, or it could be about a relationship. The second point is that there is a relationship between the song and the visuals. For example, our promo has a link between the lyrics ‘Junk Food Forever’ and the image of the band members wearing junk food costumes. Goodwin’s third idea is that there is a narrative and performance in a promo, which ours adheres to because there is performance and disjuncture which is a type of narrative. His fourth point is about technical aspects i.e. mise-en-scene, sound and editing. Our promo agrees with this as it does contain all of these aspects. Andrew Goodwin’s final aspect is that there is a star image or protagonist who is made the main focus by the cameras. Our promo does this by making the lead singer closer to the camera to seem bigger and therefore more important.

‘The Semantic Code by Roland Barthes’. His theory states that the connotation of the story gives an additional meaning to the song. Our chosen song is about a breakup in a relationship, however, we use the idea of junk food to make it appear more as to getting over it and living life to the fullest.

Another theory is Laura Mulvey’s ‘The Male Gaze’, which states that when men see a female actor they look “at” her instead of “with” her, like they do with male actors. Our music video subverts this theory because we don’t have any female actors in it.

Digipak and Magazine Advert

When designing our digipak, we looked at pre-existing digipaks and took inspiration from them. One that inspired us was, ‘Demon Days’ by Gorillaz because on the panels there are cartoon drawings of each band member. When we made our digipak, we had the three band members on three individual panels. However, we did not make them cartoon drawings.

 

Another digipak that inspired us was ‘Babel’ by Mumford & Sons. We were inspired by this because all of the band members are sat together and are the main focus. For our digipak, we had the three band members stood together wearing their costumes, which is very similar to this.

Our magazine advert was inspired by this Mumford & Sons poster for their ‘Sigh No More’ album. This poster features the band being the main focus of the poster, like they were in the digipak. We used the same idea for four our poster because it looks very nice and also because it links with our digipak.

Directors Commentary

Ancillary Task Ideas

Digipak

Idea 1

This is our first idea. The front cover is a picture of the band together in their junk food costumes, then three other panels have each band member in their performance clothing. The CD panel is going to have a pizza underneath where the CD goes. On the bottom left we will have the lyrics.

Idea 2

This is our second idea. The front cover will have the three band members stood together in their performance costumes. On three more panels the band members are on their own in their junk food costumes. On the back panel there will be a band biography.

Idea 3

This is our third design idea. On the front cover we have the three band members stood together in their food costumes. On three of the other panels there is a pizza, hot dog and some chips, which reflect the band members costumes.

Magazine Advert

Idea 1

This is our first design for the magazine advert. It features the three band members in their junk food costumes. At the bottom of the advert, there is a release date for the song, and there is their website address and the places where you can buy the song. This also links with the first design of the digipak.

Idea 2

This is our second idea. It features the band members in their performance clothing. At the bottom there is two tour dates and information on where to buy the song. This is also similar to the second design of the digipak.

Idea 3

This is the third magazine advert design. It features the band members in their food costumes but they are with heir instruments. At the bottom there is a release date for the song and places to buy it.

Initial Ideas

We presented our three initial ideas to a group of people and asked them to comment on each and then vote on which one they preferred.

People voted that they liked idea 2 the most, so we decided to stick to that idea.

Target audience, USP and Concept

The Concept

The concept for our music promo is based around the song name and lyrics 'Junk Food Forever'. We are planning to have the actors wearing junk food costumes, like a pizza and burger, to represent this.

Unique Selling Point 

The USP of our video is the junk food costumes, and the fact that it isn't a stereotypical indie rock promo. It isn't a typical indie rock music promo because it doesn't feature a narrative. Throughout most of the video we will be exhibiting the food costumes and the theme of junk food. We hope that this will attract the audience because there is a comedic side to it.

Target Audience

The target audience for our promo is young adults aged from 15-25. This is because indie rock is a style that suites this age group. We believe that this song can be aimed at both males and females, so it does not have a really specific audience. This is similar to the ethnicity as it is not specifically aimed at anyone. However, I would suggest that indie rock is mainly aimed at young adult, caucasian males and females.

Justifications of Choices in our Preliminary Music Video

Song: P Money 'My Lingo'


We have chosen this song because our group enjoys listening to music like this, and the lyrics are easy to learn. It seems like this would be a good song to do. The actual video also features a lot of lip syncing, which would give us more experience in editing, for when we make our actual promo. There are also a range of shots which will help improve our camera work skills.