Evaluation 2 (Group task) - Plan

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

Explain how you developed your artist and music as brand - so all three products are easily identifiable as being connected.

Representation of the Star
My representation of the star is most likely to direct to 20-21st century audiences as the artist is open to all genders and ages without restrictions or discriminations. 

Therefore these are the main representation of the star which includes:

--> open to all genders (not restricted)

--> open minded to new ideas

--> friendly and generous, kind 

--> naive

--> artistic (digipaks and graffiti place)

Design Choices

• Font:                                                                                                                    Logo --> simple and clear but meaningful to the artist herself. The looped and rounded handwriting show artistry and creativeness which is also portrayed in all the three products.                                                               

I have researched the writing styles on the dailymail.co.uk website to get more insight of what the handwriting should be like if our artist have positive attitude, cheerful, openminded etc. 

Digipaks --> For the digipaks, the front cover page, we have decided to use curvy fonts. The design came from many sources which have different but positive meanings, such as the the rounded letters signifies creativity and artistry. The right slanted letters represents friendliness and values family and friends. The close connections of the letters symbolizes the carefulness of making decisions.

Website -->

• Color:                                                                                                                Website --> on the cover page, there is a lot of basic tone colors such as black, grey and white to show that the artist is a simple and basic person. However, throughout the website there is a lot of colors which appears mostly on the artist's clothing. The bright colorful colors that she wears also suggest that the artist herself is not restricted to just one color, and she can wear any color. Therefore this can entice more audiences as the artist is open to many styles and colors.                                                     Digipaks -->  the color is more intense and bright as it gives a sense of friendly and artistry way. Also it makes sure that the artist is different and stands out from other artists in the industry. Also the pink, purplish and blue colors represents a feminine color therefore can attract more on the female audiences as well as many target audiences from different age groups due to the variety of poses. The pastel colors also convey that she is a soft and kind person. Therefore the songs are not seen as "hard rock" or "punk". Also it suggests feminism as the colors are more girly-like. 

Music video: the artist is wearing white as this signifies equality as the color can be worn by all genders comfortably. Therefore this can convey that the artist is open to all genders and both male and female audiences. Also as I have mentioned, she is a simple person and therefore her basic clothing shows that comfort comes before anything else which can entice more audiences which are simple and doesn't like as much bling or accessories. However, in the background, there is a lot of color going on, this suggests that the mood is positive and conveys to audiences that the artist herself is enjoying herself and the audiences should do as well. 

• Imagery:                                                                                                          Digipaks --> The images on the digipaks are mostly "unintentional" poses and they look more natural than purpose shots. Each picture here signifies a different side to Abby and portrays what types of songs are included in this digipaks as well.                                                                                                                Music video --> the imagery here also show some "unintentional" shots as well because its mostly the artist having her moment therefore it tends to not look like she is looking at the camera. Also, the shots look more soft and not as aggressive as the artist is in love and the scenes are mostly positive therefore they appear smooth.                                                                                                                   Website --> the imagery here on the first page of the website appears to be more dreamy. This is to show a more relax side and to make the audiences not rush through the website. 

• Language:                                                                                                             Music video --> the language here is informal and can be heard throughout many age groups as it can relate to many audiences. However, the older age groups may not understand as it is kind of like "modern" style words or phrases.                         Website --> the language here is not as formal as well because it can attract more audiences as the language will sound more chill and not as formal. Therefore audiences will feel more close to the artist herself. 

Music video - bloopers

Hi,

During the shoot, some of the scene has so many takes therefore I want to share some parts because it is one of the funniest moments and experience.

Also, this shows that the scenes are not as easily made and it needs time to produce a great music video with a limited amount of time:)

I have appeared in 2 scenes in this blooper as well, because Abby tried to help me improve my shooting skills therefore she took shots of me to illustrate the shot that should be taken. It actually made clear to me of what I should do and what can I do further to extend the scenes and make it more meaningful.

Plan for evaluation 3 part 2

How would your work be distributed as a real media product?

As I have discussed with Mr. Harrison, we talked about how to link the website, digipaks and music video together. 
We believed that these things are all linked through social media and sometimes it is quite hard to understand how audiences are gain. Because it is hard to know where the start of these audiences are as the artists may not be their first thing to watch on social media.

Therefore now I have to think about how I can portray my artist to the audiences and how am I going to reach all of them.
Before and after the launch we are going to carefully drip feed our audiences little by little so the audiences will get more entice because they want to know more.

1. For the first launch, I am thinking of giving clues to the audiences on social media such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr.
2. The day after that, the artist will post a picture or video doing covers as a another clue that she is making a new track or album.
3. After a few days, the press will write some news on their website about a new artist doing an album and will be out during the summer!
4. Artists and actors start a trend on social media by using #youngeryesterday which is a part of the lyrics - Artists and actors also start posting pictures of themselves when younger with the hashtag. Other people join it, making it more "VIRAL"
5. Artist also join in to post (drip feed) on her social media such as Instagram, Facebook, twitter
6. Seasonal photoshot e.g. Christmas

Where will you find our music?

--> Spotify: this is one of the most well-known website for music industry, also all age groups are using it nowadays therefore it gives a wider range of age group for the target audience.

Spotify is also included or tagged along with many social media websites and therefore this makes the exposure of the song easier.

I believe that by posting our music and/or our music video on Spotify will make people find our song easier as it can be found on both social media easily and on Spotify itself.

Where will you find our music video?

--> Vevo: Vevo is a multi-national video hosting service which host music videos from song music entertainment, and universal musical group. It is also posted on Youtube as well to reach more audiences. 

= This is a great advantage because it can be posted on different sources, giving a broader range of audiences.

How to get people to our site?

--> Social Media such as Instagram, twitter, Facebook, Youtube

--> Merchandise e.g. hats, sweaters

--> official posters

--> News article (teen mag)

How do you use your merchandise effectively? 
--> artist wears sweaters, shirts, hats occasionally and sometimes post on social media to promote the product. 
Mostly, when the artist wears the merchandise in style, audiences will often buy the product as they may also be in style like the artist. Audiences may buy it as they are crazy about the artist already so anything that is related to the artist the fans will also buy as collection.


How do you get people to use your social media?
--> other Artists or actors or famous people promote the artists on their own social media. Such as posting the hash tags, taking photos with the artist, post the artist herself producing the song. 
--> teen articles = articles which include the artists Instagram page, Facebook page etc. so the audiences who are interested can continue to research her after reading the article. Also write about the artist briefly (drip feed) so the audiences want to know more.
Start trend on social media!
--> Snapchat = new popular app! people can track/ follow what the artists are doing each day or hour and therefore the audiences are more up to date.

official Website

Helloooo,

After a very hard work on completing the website, we officially finished the website!

Moji did the majority of the website but I have helped with...

• Choosing the themes of the website
• Completing the biography
• Help to choose the merchandises that could be on sale of the customers and the prices
• the covers for the website

During the completion of the website, we had feedbacks from both our teachers and friends. We explored what our Star should be represented as and how we would portray her to the audiences. Because we wanted Abby (Star) to be seen as reachable and "girl next door" therefore we had to think a lot of the colors, the images and the font used. 

I found out that by including a little biography about the Star makes the audiences connect to her easier as some can relate to her or may have the same interests as her. 

The biography that I have produced can be easily read by anyone and any type of audiences. The first few sentences I have written mainly about social media. I feel that this era, audiences use so much social media therefore I have include about social media sites that the Star uses to connect with the audiences and her friends. Also, tell a little bit about how many followers she has so visitors of the website will know how famous is she or how is she going to develop over the years as an Artist. 

The merchandise sold in the website are basically another source where audiences can purchase official products that they could collect as a collection. Moreover, Abby also worn some of the shirts and sweaters to further promote her products. This can be seen clearly on the digipaks.

performance shot finally!

Hi Blog!

We finally shot our performance shot!
Today at noon-ish Abby and I we decided to take our performance shot. The lighting was great and we managed to take only 5 takes of our performance shot.

Obstacles
There were many obstacles during our shoot, Including...

• The wind of the location --> It was quite windy therefore the Star's hair was hard to control during each take. Also, because the wind was very unpredictable we had no choice but to do many takes and try to get the best out of the takes that we did. However, by the 3rd take, we decided to put a chair that was pretty stable directly where the wind came and just on the side of the Artist so it blocks some wind out of her face. It worked pretty well and the wind more calm therefore the shots look more candid and the artist's hair wasn't blocking her face most of the time.

• The lighting --> Because we took the shot at noon, the sun was very bright. The artist (Abby) herself has a tan skin color, therefore when the sun shines directly onto her, she becomes even darker and is too contrast. However, we fortunately found a white background where there was some shade. the lighting was pretty good and we were able to experiment around a little to find the right lighting. 

• The shots --> Abby and I, we had some discussions of which shots we should have used. I suggested her a still mid-shot using a tripod. However, Abby suggest a mid-shot or close-up where we didn't use a tripod so it looks like the camera is moving slowly with her. We ended up using mid-shot of the Star with her guitar and not using the tripod so it looks smooth. 

The 2 photos above, shows the lighting and shot differences. The first one on the left is the first take while the one in the center is the last take we did. You can see clearly that the first one the lighting is not as bright and made the Artist look dark. While the second one is more bright and the shot is more close up to her face. The Camera is also more tilted forward so it looks more focused on her face rather than the guitar.

Overall...

Our last scene taken was a scene to remember... it was really fun this year to be able to be the cameramen and try new things that I didn't know I could take before. 

At first the thought of filming the scenes was too challenging for me because I have really bad skills for taking pictures and video. But after Abby and looking at some tips on the internet, I was able to perform better and received some compliments from my friends:)

music video - without performance shot

Music video - without performance shot

During the editing of the music video, as I have mentioned, Abby did most of the editing while I have helped to look for any errors or improvements as well as some editing. 

In this music video draft, I have experimented and filled in the blanks that I felt that we can use instead of the performance shots. 
Because of exams and the different time schedules we had, we weren't able to take the performance shot earlier together so I have decided to do some editing myself as well to develop and improve my editing skills.

Music video - Draft one

Hi blogggg,

Abby has finished editing her fist draft of the music video. However, this does not include the performance shot yet because the performance shots that we have taken before the lighting was not as good because the artist and the background did not go together as well therefore we are taking another performance shot soon!

Some of the shots are not all in as well so there may be black scenes. Therefore, we can fill in later on when we film another performance shot or other shots that may fit in later afterwards.