Question two: How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?
The album cover has an industrial/indie feel to it with the garage street background, the casual clothing and heads down. We took inspiration from this with our back cover beside the spray painted wood with us looking slightly down.
The website is very dark, mainly blacks and whites, which was what our wesbite consisted of too. It's simple too but effective, weve got a different layout with more happening to fit the purpose of our task. With the album covers on the front, we put ours on the website too and a tshirt with ourstyled wrting as apart of the merchandising.
A similar band to ours 'You love her cos shes dead' it has an abstract feel to it with the big banner at the top of the website page making it clear to see that it's selling the band. We took this convention and gave our band a banner at the top, but instead ofit being a drawing we used a photograph that was of similar colours to the website. The also use the idea of having a 'news feed' which is used in ours as it means that the fans can keep up to date with the latest news of the band.
The album cover suits the unusual feel of the band, we originally wanted to use fake blood within our photoshoot for the album photos but decided that it didn't fit in with the rest of the package. However it works for this band, it's very eye catching which will help to sell the product, hopefully like our dolls head on our front cover.
A similar genre band M83 use a wood as their mise en scene for their front cover the soft, warm colours are similar to those on the front of ours. The convention of woods seem to appear often within this genre, as it appears to have an alternative working class feel. It seels the band as we see the 'cool but casual' clothing that they wear, which is important for the audience as they have to have a certain style to sell. We have also tried within our photoshoot to wear clothes that the fans will appreciate.
These are some key images from our music video that show the conventions of an indie-electro band with its working class mise-en-scenes, the alternative shots that a band in the charts would not comply with.
These two shots are used to show a 'working class love,' that the audience can relate to.
This type of shot is to suggest the realism of the situation so that the fans can relate. As it suggests that the band are ordinary people and get morbid feelings like anyone else thus the clothed bath, so it makes the band seem ordinary too which sells.
These three shots are ones that are used to sell the band and the close up, singing down the camera shots were used espeically to sell the band.
This shot is to sell Robert Smith to the audience, singing down the camera breaks the fourth wall and allows the audience to feel involved and he was doing it backwards to fit in with our going back through time theme.
This picture with it's close up on all of the band and Robert Smiths faces singing so that the audiene watching can feel as if they are singing through the camera to them. The brick wall within the background links in the website and cd case aswell.
This shot is trying to portray an argument between an normal couple, which is often hidden within the eyes of the media however we show it to show how down to earth the band are so it targets the audience as everyone has partners and goes through rough patches. The mise en scene of the woods is to add to the slightly dark feel that the band have.
This shocking shot captures the mind of the male and adds to the weird feel of the band and the video and it's similar to the idea surrounding the dolls head on the front on the CD cover, although they both have a slightly weird edge it seems to work with the band.
This image from the video maintains the theme of cigarettes which is a cultural link to the young working class indie-raver theme, which is a clear link to the smoking on the inside cover and on the front of the CD case and of the male in the band in the banner of the website with the cigarette in his mouth.
We’ve maintained a clear theme throughout to be of a brick wall, it’s relevant because it’s very working class which suits the target audience. The brick wall is part of the background on the website, is on two of the sides of the CD cover in the images and in the video it features with Crystal Castles and Robert Smith singing the chorus next to it, also within some of the flashbacks and when Robert Smith is walking backwards through the streets and sings beside some brick walls. We’ve tried to keep the sinister edge within the whole product, with a bizarre image of a dolls head within the hands of the band on the front cover of the album as it resembles the female within the video. The weird feel is kept within the video as a twist in the middle of the video, consists of an argument between the male and female, a chase scene and then the female turns around to look like a monster. The colouring within the CD package images fit in well with the colours of the loving flashbacks in the video and the sombre bits of the music video like the negative flashbacks and the male singing have similar colours to those on the website. The website, CD cover and the music video all have the purpose of selling the band with their edgy style, thus the run-down weird working class mise en scene’s being a graveyard, a tunnel, a house and the streets. The whole package relates to the young adults of ages 15-21 by showing them smoking, drinking and partying as these conventions are typical for that age range. Within the music video it contains love scenes however it also shows the couple having an argument, which is realistic to life and suits the down to earth audience, as they would not have appreciated the ‘fairytale style’ conventions of love of a perfect couple happy and in love without showing the negatives of a relationship.
The website and CD cover promote the band by allowing the audience to see images that are similar to their everyday life, by hanging around in places around a city drinking and smoking. The website has the newsfeed which allows the audience to gain a better feel for the band and the facebook and twitter links help them to gain more insight into the band. This links with the singing down the camera lens as the audience feel like they can connect more so with the band, so they're key within the video.
All three products work together to show the edge of the band.
No comments:
Post a Comment