We looked at various real artists merchandise pages as inspiration for our own.
We realised that T-Shirts were the main product that artists used, as there are multiple combinations that can be used to promote the artist. As a result, we decided to create one t-shirt with the name 'Carter James' on and then one with the name and an image. Additionally, we created a hoodie and cap, in black and white, with the name 'Carter James' on. We used the same font for each in order to establish a link between the products. We decided to stick with the colours black and white, as they matched the bands star image and linked with the websites colour scheme.
We used Vistaprint to create the merchandise, and then created a store on the website.
http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/?GP=2%2f7%2f2015+2%3a25%3a31+PM&GPS=3425795771&GNF=1
Having completed the majority of the pages on the website, we began to concentrate on the front page, as this would be the most important. We wanted the website to be instantly striking and convey the bands star image, thus we began to research images of interesting light bulb photography. Here is some images that we took for inspiration:
We really liked the sharpness of these images, thus we knew that we wanted a close up of a single bulb as the image of our front cover. Having decided this, we began to brainstorm ideas of incorporating both thematic elements together in one image. Therefore, we decided to play around with an an image of a light bulb and a tree, and then photo shop the tree into the light bulb. We hoped that this would provide an enticing image that would immediately drawn in the audience. Here is some of the images we are looking at merging together:
For the background for the rest of our website, we chose an image of multiple light bulbs and recreated it, so that we had a variety of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. We decided to keep the website in black and white as it made it look more clean and professional, and added to the 'mysterious' star image of the band.
We wanted our website to be accessible to our target demographic (males aged 17-25), thus we wanted to involve other social media websites where we could promote the band. Having done some basic research, we knew that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were the mostly widely used by our target audience, thus we set about creating pages for our band. We created a 'Carter James' Facebook and Twitter page, and then linked them to the website. We used the same images and colour palette, thus ensuring that the 3 websites were connected together. As a result, we combined images of the woods and light-bulbs in order to emphasise these thematic elements. In the bio sections, we used information similar to the details on the ABOUT page, thus we began to build up the bands star image and promotional campaign. We connected the YouTube page to the video, so that when you click on it, the video immediately begins to play. Again this was about building up a promotional campaign for the band. In relation to this, we created a SIGN UP page for the website, so that we could gain 'feedback' or 'fan mail' from potential audiences. To do this we created a Gmail account for the band and added it as a footer to every page of the website. We hoped that this would encourage audiences to become involved with the artist and thus benefit promotion.
Having done our initial brainstorming session, we began to develop our ideas for the website and digi-pak. We knew that we wanted to centre the two products around the images of woods and light-bulbs, thus we began to channel our creativity into incorporating these themes into an actual product.
Firstly, we undertook a photo shoot with the lead singer, as although we had taken a lot of photos on the shoot day, we needed more images for the website. Equally, we wanted these images to focus solely on the lead singer, in order to emphasise the image of him as the front man. We chose to locate the photo shoot in the woods around our school, thus they were easily accessibly but provided a variety of interesting shots. Here are a few that we particularly liked:
Having done the photo shoot, we decided that we wanted to use the images of the lead singer in the woods on the digi-pak, as establishes a mental image in potential consumers minds. We wanted to promote the lead singer on the digi-pak, but the band on the website, therefore we decided to use the theme of the woods on the digi-pak and the light-bulb theme on the website. This would provide a distinction between the products, but ensure that they were still linked to the video. Yet, we uploaded all the pictures we had onto the GALLERY page of our website, as we wanted the website to look authentic and professional, thus wanted to use a variety of photos. We edited the images carefully before we uploaded them, as we wanted them to be sharp and clear, but of more muted colours, as we decided that our colour palette would involve, blues, greys, blacks and whites. This links with the colour palette of our video, thus we were creating a link between the three products.
Having created the GALLERY paged, we focused on the ABOUT page of the website. We looked at similar artists websites, such as The Script, Elbow and Kodaline for inspiration, as we wanted to know what generic information we should provide. Thus, we centred the ABOUT page around where the band comes from, and introduced the lead singer as the front man and then the rest of the band members. We did not want the text to be too long, as audiences would lose interest, thus we created a concise summary that explained the bands background. We also decided that this would be a good page to portray the video, thus we embedded it into the website so that when someone clicked on the ABOUT page, the video automatically began to play. This is a good way to promote the band, as it forces the audience into watching the video without them being aware of the advertising.
We then focused on the TOUR page of our website, as we needed to create a variety of locations where our band would play. We researched various venues that coincided with the star image of the band and then added them to the website. We linked the website with Ticketmaster, as we decided that they were a suitable site that would sell tickets.
Having already filmed the performance element of our band, we set about arranging the shoot for the narrative element of the video. This involved creating a rough story boards of key shots that we wanted, but as wanted the footage to be mainly hand held and jumpy, we did not need to plan rigorously. Therefore, our main purpose was to ensure that the actors looked realistic in shooting the guns, in an attempt to remove any potential comic elements.
We had prepared for the shoot quite well, as we had made sure that the actors were familiar with each other and the guns, so that their interactions would look more fluid and realistic. Before we started shooting, we dressed the actors in their outfits and made sure that they looked how we wanted them too. After this, we walked around the woods we had chosen to film out, in order to get an idea of the key locations we would use. As we had already researched the woods (as it was at my house), it was easy to find the best areas to use thus the preparation before the shoot did not take long. The main thing we did was to check how slippery the ground was, as we did not want the actors to trip and fall, thus we had to re-think some of our shots as the ground was just too wet to have the actors running. However, this was only a minor set back and we began to film reasonably quickly after arriving at the location.
We had divided the roles on the previous shoot, therefore we re-divided them, so that we all got to do something different. I mainly worked on the camera, which was great fun, as the majority of the shots were running tracking shots. The improvisation of the actors actions was fun to work with, as it gave me freedom to use a variety of shots to capture different elements. As we already had a strong performance element, we only needed a minute or so of footage to edit in, thus we did not shoot in specific sequences but more general actions. Thus, we got numerous tracking shots from different positions of the two actors running at each other with guns, as this could be cut in anywhere. The main element we wanted to convey through the narrative, was an escalation of anger as the song progressed, thus we wanted to incorporate the actors changing their gun, for an even bigger, fiercer one. As a resulted, we constructed mini sequences that we would be able to easily add to the performance video, thus showed the two actors becoming more aggressive. This worked really well on the day, as each actor sold their anger well and made the action look more realistic. The only area I wish had gone better, was when the girl actor changed her small pistol for a larger gun. As the ground was really wet, we had her changing the gun behind a tree, yet it did not look that realistic and began to look more comical. Hopefully though, we will be able to cut between these shots in order to present the best part of the action. The most successful part of the shoot, was the use of the smoke grenades. They really added to the atmosphere of the piece and provided another alternative form of weaponry. The smoke looked really good against the autumnal background, and heightened the sense of warfare.
Overall, the shoot was a great success as we quickly and efficiently filmed what we needed, as each member of the group new what role they had to do. We worked well as a team and as a result the footage we acquired was good, and should hopefully work well with the performance element.
After editing a rough cut of our performance element, we showed our work to some of our friends in order to gain an insight into what our potential audience might think of the video. We knew that the video was not perfect, thus the audience feedback will be very useful in ascertaining which parts we need to alter.
The audience generally responded well to the video, and many were surprised by how good it looked, considering we had a limited time to plan. This boosted our confidence in the video, and assured us that we were meeting our audiences approval.
STRENGTHS:
- The audience really liked the hand held elements of the video, as they said it brought a good atmosphere to the piece and reflected the music well. As a result of this feedback, we might try to incorporate more of the hand held camera work, especially in the chorus sections. However, we still want the shots to vary through out the piece, thus might leave the hand held footage until near the end, as it will have a bigger impact when the song reaches its crescendo.
- The focus pull shot of the guitarist and bassist met our audience's approval, as they commented that it added another dramatic edge to the video. As we were not entirely sure on the effectiveness of this shot, we were pleased that it had a good response, thus will try and incorporate it when we add the narrative element of the video.
- The audience thoroughly enjoyed the band as well, and thought that each member looked realistic and engaging. The audience particularly liked the drummer and singer, and as this coincided with our view, we were really pleased that this had been translated to the audience through the video. The audience liked the variations of shots on the drummer as well, especially the close ups. As we had worked on the drummer's elements for a long while, we were happy that the hard work had paid off.
- The set also met with the audiences approval, especially the ripped mattress and feathers raining down from the ceiling. Although many said that the concept was a bit obscure, they still enjoyed the atmosphere of the set and thought it worked well with the song. Hopefully, when we add in the narrative element the concept will be more apparent and will reflect the set more.
WEAKNESSES:
- Although the audience understood that it was a band performing, they commented that we focused to much on the lead singer and thus the other members were shown to be slightly less important. As our aim is to promote a band we need to address this problem, therefore will probably remove some close ups of the singer and replace them with wide shots of the whole band, or mid shots of the guitarist and bassist.
- Some of the audience did not like the bassist, and thought that his expression was quite "comical and weird". However, as they were friends with the bassist this could be due to their familiarity with him, but nevertheless, we will try and see if there are similar shots we can use that have a more 'normal' expression.
Overall therefore, our band was really happy with the audience feedback, and will use it to improve elements of the video.
Having filmed our performance element, we began to create a rough cut of our video. This will be really useful once we have filmed the narrative element, as it will be far easier to incorporate the other footage if we already have a video to work with. We first familiarised ourselves again with Premiere (the editing software), and then began to sink each clip to the song. This involved linking the right time sequence that appeared on the clapper board, with each the song, so that the clip would always be in time. This was a long process as we have numerous clips, but will be ensure that our video looks right, as the singers lip syncing will only look realistic if it is in time. As we synced each clip, we renamed it, so that when we came to properly editing, we would know exactly which shot was which.
Having synced each shot, and removed the audio for each clip and replaced it with the track, we began to edit the clips together. We worked in 10 seconds chunks, so that we were not overwhelmed with the amount of shots we would have to piece together. As the beginning was the most important part, we decided to leave it until the end, so that when we had finished it would be easier to introduce the video with the right shots.
Our group decided to work in pairs, so that one pair would work on editing whilst the other would work on the website and album. This meant that we all had a go at editing, but also were involved with the creative tasks of constructing a proper band website and album.
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