Synergy Marketing Campaign

Marina and the Diamonds

Marina Dimandis has always used Synergy in her work to build her brand. Her latest album is called Froot and for the music video for the single of the same title she is wearing pineapple earrings whilst in the album cover she is wearing strawberry earrings this is a smart and seemingly effortless way of self advertisement, the "froot" theme once again makes an appearance in her music video for Blue where she is dancing behind a counter made out of fruit. Her website also features a number of fruits which are interactive and take you to different pages, another synergy technique she uses is the use of colour schemes present in her album art and website which are identical in art work, background and font. Id like to apply this same level of self advertisement by featuring the same accessories from my album cover on the music video and possibly selling them as part of my merchandise. 

Synergy Marketing Campaign

Halsey

Theres a clear continuity of colours in Halseys music videos, album and media platforms. As this is her debut album she could be trying to create an greater impact with her use of colours especially because the colours blue and pink have become extremely popular in modern music videos with several other artist such as Ariana Grande, Drake and Justin Bieber embracing the colour combination so she could be trying to target the same audience as them. Furthermore her hair colour seems to be the main embrace of these colours with the background being the opposite colour to whatever wig she has on. For my website and Album cover i will be using these 2 colours too and will make sure that both the album and website share pictures from the same photoshoot. Another point is that her homepage image is interactive and if you klick on it you get hyperlinked to another page where you can buy her album or box set. I want to make my website images interactive and like Halsey i want to include a personal message from the artist so the fans feel special.

Synergy marketing Campaign

Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande has always been associated with the girly girl image which she is embracing for her new album and music. There's a continuous embrace of the colours purple and pink and her infamous ponytail hairstyle that has somewhat become her trademark makes a constant appearance through out her video and every photo on her website. There is a clear product placement at the beginning of the video where she takes out a Samsung Note 5 and writes focus on me which shows off some of the features of the phone whilst linking back to her music and also signs ag at the end which stands for her initials.

Location and set design

Due to the video being mostly made up of home video I want it to resemble day to day life so many of the locations will be personal and places i frequent or have been to.

For the other scenes i want it to be dark and moody so my set locations will be:

• A dark room with no natural lighting
• The woods
• A cemetery 
• A run down tunnel/street during sunset

The parts of the music video that aren't home videos will mostly be filmed in a dark room with no natural lighting and instead will have a light that rotates around the models face which will create shadows and change the way her face looks

The other possible location is in the woods during sundown which will add an unsteady and dark mood to my music video that will enhance the lyrics and will juxtapose with the happy and adventurous feeling of the camcorder videos. One problem we might run into is the sun setting quickly during winter time which wouldn't give me much time to film

The eerie and ominous feel of cemetery during winter time would work beautifully well with the melancholic lyrics and background note that plays through out the song. However id have to check the legality of filming in a graveyard.

As part of the home video sequence i want to include a trip to London because a lot of Lana Del Reys music is about opulence and old Hollywood, unfortunately going to Hollywood to film isn't an option so London is the second best city to do it as it is culturally relevant and central Londoners are known for their luxurious lifestyles.

Costume and Props

This costume will only be used for 2 or 3 scenes where someone will be wearing all black and a mask most likely a rabbit and they will be walking through an empty street during the night and we will only see the individual when they pass under the street lights. This will be filmed in the camcorder app. The masks will have to be bought from Ebay but the rest of the outfit will be provided by me from my own clothes

This costume will be worn by the female singer whilst she's walking through the woods to show the themes of a fall from grace. The dress will get a little dirty in later scenes to show that she began the relationship in perfect white to represent her innocence and happiness and as the song goes on and develops her dress gets dirty to coincide with the her life and how this relationship has tainted her mind. The wings, dress and jewellery will be ordered from Ebay to decrease the price.

This will be the costume the female singer will be wearing on some of the home videos. The home videos will be shot in a POV and will show both from the point of view of the female and the male. I wanted to use more casual clothes for the home videos to make it look natural but it will also connect with audiences, they can even copy the style as its affordable and comfortable. This is the models own clothes therefor there is no need to purchase anything.

Technical research

This is a list of equipment often used in music videos production

• Video Camera + different lenses 
• Tripod
• Camera light
• Three point lighting kit
• Shotgun microphones + accessories
• Boom pole + accessories
• Wireless microphones 
• Light reflectors
• Steady cam

Higher quality equipment is used to create a smooth and more visually enticing music video which will ideally drive sales and garner the artist more exposure. Tree point lighting kits and light reflector will uneven any unwanted exposure and get rid of shadows and visual imperfections. Tripods and steady cams are used to avoid human movement and to achieve a smooth picture which will add to the quality of the video.

This is the list of equipment i will be using:

• Green screen
• Video Camera
• Go Pro
• Lighting kit
• iPhone (home videos)
• Three point lighting

This behind the scenes video shows me how music videos are shot in a professional setting which gives me an idea of how music videos are constructed.

My video will mostly consist of home videos and will be filmed with the app "Camcorder" and GoPro on my own personal journey and daily events however the music video will be from a female point of view so i will include some clips of my model singing in the same places i traveled to. The video will follow the lyrics of a love affair that turns violent. The chorus will be filmed in a dark room with no natural lighting and the lights will be mobile so i can achieve the changing facial features effect. I will use three point lighting solely for the digipack and website images so they look more professional.

In school i will also have access to various computer programs that will allow me to edit my music video and digipak to look as professional as possible.

Universal copyrights document from ramosdiogo

Universal replied to my email and gave me permission to use my chosen song for educational purposes

I uploaded my music video pitch to YouTube however unfortunately it got muted because i played a snippet of my chosen track which is copyright protected so i will have to find a way to go around this set back

Music video pitch

After presenting my pitch. my audience pointed out my sttrenghts and weaknesses.

My strengths
One of my clear strenghts was my ideas being well planned and my clear ideas of what i want my music video to look like and strong storyline. Other postives included my clear understanding my target audience, well detailed video timeline and confidence in the song choice.


Weaknesses
Including some spelling mistakes my biggest weakness is the lgihitng aspect of my music videos due to it being winter time and natural lighting runs out quickly especially in the sunset conditons i want my video to be in. Other weaknesses include lack of a storyboard and the small pool of song choices.

Audience Profile

As my idea for my music video focuses on homevideos i will be able to show case my own personal experiences and adventures which the audienc will associate with, also one of my homevideos will be filmed in a coffee shop which is one of their favourite past times. My audiences takes a huge insterest in movies especially from the Golden age of Hollywood which i will be referencing thorugh my Lolita inspired Digipack.




Most of my audience is inspired from Lana Del Reys music so there is no surprise that her audience is quite similar to mine in many different ways. They are adventurous, flirty and kind of depressing all at the same time. They long for a Golden age Hollywood lifestyle and are costumed by wanderlust. They are regular attenders of concerts and are very open minded and enjoy listening to obscure artists.

Target audience

This is an image of a character that i thought represents my chosen genre. Their main interests include tumblr and Instagram aesthetics, voss, fiji water and water in a carton because its better for the earth. They believe in feminism and are extreme supporters of human rights. They love vintage music and prefer listening to records over any other form of music. They are usually up to date with all the fashion trends however they prefer shopping at charity shops as they have more unique clothing and its giving back to the community. They hate narcissism and believe that the government is extremely corrupt and have a very cynical way of thinking about modern society. They tend to not be religious and they love everyone and everything. They are the modern day hippie.

Website research

Website research from ramosdiogo

Moodboard

This is a visual representation of what i hope to achieve in my music video. I have used a number of images that caught my eye and that i thought could represent my ideas for the music video. The 4 main things id like to achieve are:

1. Vintage feel which i hope to achieve through the use of filters
2. A dominance of the colours blue & pink
3. To show how lighting can change the way a person looks and how the audience feels
4. Opulence

Song choice

Lana del rey is my favourite music artist and Honeymoon is my favourite song from her album which is one of the reason why i chose it. The other reason is because it doesn't have a music video therefor i will not be influenced by what the artist has already done. Originally i wanted to do video games by her as well but due to it having a video i found myself trying to replicate the official music video. Another reason is because i thought my ideas fit really well with the rhythm of the song and also the vibe it gives off.

Initial ideas

Album cover skills development

What i have done is taken a random picture and bunch of random quotes and positioned them in the way i understand that a conventional album looks like.

The way i chose the picture for the front cover was by going on flickr and whatever the 3rd images was i would use it no matter what it is. What i decided to do was crop the picture so the bench would become the front cover and then change the exposure, saturation and colour to make it look like an indie rock album

To make the back cover i thought id use something featured in the front cover so there would be a connection between both images. This idea i got from The killer album "Sam's town" as their front cover has a goat on it, one of the pictures they used on the digipack is just a goats head and their cd is the same picture which i thought worked really well together and i wanted to use that same idea of having pictures that connect with each other. My original idea was to use the tiger statue but i thought that looked a lot better as the spine of the cd therefor i decided to use the plant pot but decided tot reverse the colours so that instead of having black flowers like on the cover, they are white white, unfortunately the image is of low quality due to it being such a small object in the original image however i think it adds character to the album. For the spine i decided to use the tree in the background and blend it with the tiger statue because i thought it would work well with white writing along the tree trunk.

Now the way i chose my band name and album tittle was by clicking the random page on wikipedia and whatever the tittle of the page was id use it as my band name but unfortunately the first time it ended up being a contrevertial name so i used the second page i came across  and the random button on quotes website and scrolling down to the bottom, whatever the last 3 words of the last quote were id have to use it as my album name. I wanted the font to be conventional with indie records therefor i settled for a typewriter font which could possibly connote to it being originally written music rather than it being manufactured by studio writers. I also decided to change the opacity of the word to go along with the whole death vibe the pictures are giving. I thought that the album would be about a heartbreak that caused a depression.

One of the things i struggled with was the layering and how to blend two separate images together but overall i think my CD cover meets conventions and looks professional 

What is a DigiPack?

A DigiPack is the name given to describe all soft CD packaging. It normally consists of a gatefold (book style) paperboard outer binding and would typically include photos of the artists, lyrics and record labels will often make these DigiPacks the Deluxe version of the album so it will include more songs and sometimes even an extra CD containing behind the scenes footage. However they do tend to be more expensive to manufacture so they also tend to be more expensive to buy.

The whole aim behind a DigiPack is to create a more aesthetic experience for the audience instead of them just downloading the music. As well as giving the fans a feeling of being more exclusive and connected with the artist whilst building a brand for the artist. 

One direction: Like the rule of thirds in movies the first thing the audience would notice is the 1D logo as its placed on the upper left corner of the Digipack. This is because people see things the same way they read it (left to right/ top to bottom) the logo is instantly recognizable to people due to it being an actual brand and being put in various merchandise and instantly attracts fans of the band. Followed by the band name which is written in a special font in big bold letters which once again can be linked to the 1 Direction brand just like Star Wars has its own recognizable font bands like 1D create their own fonts so they become brands rather than just a music group. As this is their debut album the name of the album "up all night" has been put in much smaller fonts so that the audience focuses on their name so they can establish a brand. The chosen font for the 1D brand establishes his audience as younger teens due to it seeming written by a marker pen.

The photo they decided to use as the cover is a photo of the band which meets the conventions of a pop boy group. The chosen photo makes them instantly recognizable as all their faces are in the shot which then allows them to be recognized in public. Also by looking like they are all having fun it connects with their target audience as they are young and can relate to the happy friendship the boys share and it makes them feel like they too are friends due to it looking like a shot taken on a camera phone in a day to day scenario rather than it being in a studio. Mise en scene was used to establishes the boys as modern, cool and relaxed. They are all just fashionable boys hanging out at the beach like normal people do which makes them relatable and dreamy for the teenage girl.

The Killers: The first think you notice when looking at the album is The Killers logo which has been positioned in the center of the cover in a large font so it is easily recognizable to fans as its used in their merchandise and also allows it to be recognizable in shops which could possibly bring in new fans. As a logo The killers is pretty simplistic however its made up of small circles that to me look like pixels which could be implying the era in which they grew up or studs which at the time the band was formed was a big fashion trend among rock fans.  The tittle "Sams Town" derives from the bands origins "Las Vegas" also Sams town was a huge sign that one of the band member could see from his room and its also a nickname given to Las Vegas by locals. The title is written in red which could possibly connote to danger or love or it could simply be to stand out against the black and white background. 

According to Anton Corbijn (the photographer for the album) the band originally wanted a more chic/gypsy look to the pictures but after discussions they decided to go with a more faded glory theme which you can easily see through the high contrast and heavily faded images which are representative of older generations. In the cover model/singer Felice LaZae is seen in a bikini with a pageant sash around her body which once again represents that faded glory theme as she has no crown, shes just got the participant sash. The band picture is conventional for the alternative genre due to not having any bright colors or emotions being shown in their facial expression, its just them looking to the beyond. An interesting aspect is that the CD matches one of the pictures in the digipak and its also reminiscent of the goat in the front cover.

Inspirational album art

• Black and white
• Artist is centred
• No artist name
• Tattoo effect album title on her collar region
• Hair is iconic curly
• Wires rapped around her face
• simplistic and glamorous makeup

This album cover is more on the controversial side, its ultra sexualised. Madonnas lips are a lot fuller than in real life and even though its black and white the audience assumes straight away thats she's wearing red lipstick, her lips being at the centre of the album cover establishes them as the focal point. This all links in to the sexual selling point of music which is further enhanced by the fact she's got black wires intercrossed around her face is clearly reminiscent of a bondage scene but it could signify that she's trapped within society rules and expectations and thats she constantly judged for being her outrageous self which is clear by the tittle of the album "Rebel heart" she's remaining true to herself therefor she's rebelling against societies expectations. The fact that her name is not displayed on the cover really establishes her as an icon, its almost like she's already so recognisable that her name doesn't need to be mentioned, her face is already known all over the planet.

Inspirational album art

• rainbow colours
• artist name above album title
• distinct Y in the centre of the album 
• black background

Once again this album over doesn't feature the artist on it however there is a very distinct Y in the middle of the album cover that represents the name of the band "Years & Years. The bright colours against the black background is what made the album stand out to me. To me the odd asymmetric designs resemble something from space or even a mother board which links to the electronics genre. The tittle of the album being "Communion" could be trying to hint at the binding of music genres or even to coming together of different societies and beliefs. 

Inspirational album art

• 2 colours (black & white) 
• No artist
• Band logo centered and backlight 
• Album title same as band name (self titled) 

The simplicity of this album cover is what stood out to me. Its got virtually no colour only black and white. Also i really like that there is no artist on the cover, only the name of the band "the1975" this means that its a self titled album. The fact that the album cover is very simple matches the personality of the band members very well as they all seem to dress in a very simple manner and live very low key lives however it contradicts the band lyrically as they tend to explore controversial themes such as sex, drugs, self discovery, death, love and fear with Clash magazine even stating that its rare to find a pop album with so much depth. Another interesting aspect is the fact "The 1975" is written in an odd font with the "H" looking more like a 3.