Social media 6

Today I did the photoshoot with Lottie in the recording studio to create pictures that look like Lottie is recording the vocals to the album. We also had someone stand in as the producer to make the shoot look more professional. I edited the pictures on the photos app, and cropped them. I then went onto Instagram and created a draft with a caption, one being a #throwbackthursday and another being 'the look of love,' between Lottie and the producer. 

A second thing I did today was edit the lipstick and black nail polish and put them onto a black background to match the theme of our Instagram page. Finally, I posted merch for the t-shirts, hoodies and tote bags.

Once I have received the final version of the album cover I will be able to post everything that I have drafted. 

Social media 5

Today I downloaded an app called 'Planoly' which helped me with another feedback point. This was the feedback about how I should divide one of my pictures up into multiple squares and post it on the Instagram. I first took a picture of Gi, Connie and Cat and divided it into six. I made sure I posted each image in the right order and it made a bigger picture. I took this app and also posted something in which the image looked like it continued by swiping right, I did this by dividing the image into two and putting them both in one post. 

Another thing I did today was get Bashy's images from the merchandise that he did, and I cut them out and put them on a black background to match the aesthetic of the rest of the social media. I cut out the four tote bag designs and will post them before the album drop. 

Tomorrow I will be taking pictures of Lottie in the recording studio to show her 'recording,' the vocals for the album. 

Social media 4

Today I altered my social media to fit the constructive criticism I was given by the rest of the group. I removed some posts which had a predominately white background and added more which had darker tones and were pink. On top of this, I used PicsArt to make a 'coming soon,' post for the album we are releasing. This consisted of me grabbing an image from the music video shoot day and putting text in a scribbly font saying 'coming soon...' I captioned it explaining how the band is dropping their debut album. 

I also edited a picture which previously had a white back ground and changed it to black to announce that The Michelles are going on tour. I changed this to match the feedback given by the group. Also, Bashy has been working on some merchandise for the band which I can also put on Instagram. 

Moving forward I am going to take some pictures of the band in the recording studio on either Wednesday or Thursday of them looking like they are recording their album.

Group Feedback on music campaign

On Friday my group looked at all of our media products which will eventually contribute to an upcoming artist’s music campaign. Whilst looking at the music video, social media and digipak, we gave feedback on each draft design. It is important to give feedback so we know how we can better our campaign and because seeing as each of us is in charge of a certain part of our campaign, this is a way we can achieve marks for the music video, even though I am doing the social media, for example.

The first thing we looked at was the album artwork. I gave the following feedback:

I think the genre is clear because of the crosses and graffiti used on the front cover, as well as the repetition of the cross on the inside, crossing out someone’s face. I think for the star image we need to see more of the faces, seeing as it is an all-female band, so part of the appeal is that they are female. Also, on the front, the title of the band needs to be a lot bigger than the title of the album cover because it is all part of selling the artist not the music.

The use of the band on the front and back shows that it is definitely a band, not a solo artist. Also using the colour palette of the black, white and pink reflects the genre of music, and the band’s aesthetic. However, I think that a few things can be improved. For example, instead of using pictures from different photoshoots, the album should have pictures from the same photoshoot to make all of the album cover sides look like they belong together. Also, similar to the point about covering faces, the title of the album should not be covering the band’s faces’ because it does not relate to the band’s star image.

The next thing we looked at was the social media. This is what me and Bashy collaborated on.

First, we were told our genre was clear to a certain extent, however it could be clearer. This is possibly due to the fact that there is a lot of white used in the Instagram where there should be more black and pink. Moving forward I will be posting more pictures that have these colours in it. I was told that our star image is clear, as we have pictures of the band together, however we may need some more pictures of the band with Lottie in the middle to show she is the lead of the band.

We were told that the picture in which we pretended that the pictures were disposables was really effective because it looked very cool and ‘edgy,’ as well as this, having a ‘behind the scenes,’ post looks like the band is very important.

To improve, we could take a big picture and divide it up into smaller squares, like what some people did last year. We can also add merchandise to our campaign for example t-shirts, jumpers, as well as tote bags. I took this idea and thought about how we could release make up, like a red lipstick or a black nail polish as these are staple products that a girl rock band may use.

Moving forward we are going to add more darker pictures, make merch which suits the genre, and try to take more pictures in which Lottie is seen clearly as the lead.

Finally, we talked about the music video which Adrianna was doing.

We liked the way that there were cuts between Lottie singing and then the instruments and back as it looked effective. This is good at conveying star image because it puts the majority of the focus on Lottie, however it still includes the band, showing that it is a band, not a solo artist but still has a predominant lead singer. It also relates to the rest of the campaign, as we have taken pictures from the shoot days so our social media will relate to the music video.

To improve I gave to pieces of constructive criticism. One was changing a cut of the drummer. Instead of putting a mid-shot of Gi and then a close up, Adrianna should cut to the drum kit in between to make it look smoother. A second piece of advice I gave her was making the middle section where she is in her wrecked outfit, a bit faster paced/ using more hand held shots.

Social Media 3

Today I spent time creating the rest of the drafts I can for my social media pages. The only ones I have left are those of which I want to post the album artwork with and the digipak is not ready yet. On top of this, I created some fake tour dates for the band announcing that they will be touring the UK in 2022. I put various popular UK destination starting from the south and working my way up north. 

I wanted to further make the tour dates seem authentic by looking up tour dates that famous artists have put out and copied the pattern of how many days in a row they play, when they have day breaks etc... I also looked up, for each destination, a gig venue that the band would hypothetically play at.

Since creating the account, we have also had friends follow the account who have commented on our posts to boost the activity on our account. I have either liked comments or pinned them, as well as commenting on other artists posts much like what real artists would do with friends and fellow musicians. 

Moving forward I only have a handful of posts left to do, including the album posts and a recording studio post, which I can hopefully do next week with the band in one of the music tech rooms.

Social media 2

The second task I did was creating the social media page. I titled it @themichellesofficial, and made it a professional account so I could put that the account is a musician/ band account, as well as adding a Bio explaining how 'we are an upcoming London,UK based girl band.' I also made it a professional account so I can view insights, and how much my page is being interacted with, as well as which posts are the most popular. I did look into promoting certain posts by making them pop up on peoples feeds, however it costed money to do this so I would not do it now, however if this were a proper social media campaign I would consider it greatly.

Today I had the first photoshoot for my social media. In it I took pictures of the band in different outfits and different back drops on my phone. Here are a few pictures I took:

 

I took pictures of them individually for their 'meet the band,' posts, and a group picture for their announcements of their concert, as well as others like being signed for a record label. I also let them take a selfie so we can upload it to the Instagram  as a 'causal,' post.

I knew which pictures I needed to take because I created drafts on Instagram from mine and Bashy's social media timeline. For each post I knew I had captioned and added the right picture to, I highlighted it on the timeline and used it like a checklist. This is so I know exactly what I still need to add the social media pages.

Social media 1

This week Bashy and I started to plan and create our social media pages: Twitter and Instagram. We took the research that all four of our group members had done on social media and decided it would be a good idea to create a timeline, in so we know the order in which we will post pictures/ videos, whether it be a post on a performance, selling tickets for a show, a selfie, notifying the audience when the album will drop etc... We decided to make around 40 ideas for our Instagram and twitter with around 20 posts each side of the album drop. We did this in a google docs so we could both edit it and filled in all 40 gaps. 

We took inspiration from our social media research by copying patterns in how the posts are structured. We thought it would be best to put an introduction to the band first, as this is an upcoming band and is therefore not well known. Secondly we noticed that in our research, there were announcements of the album/ single a few weeks before it is released to build up hype for when it is finally dropped. 

We also saw they thanked their fans for attending various concerts they were in, including virtual concerts. Finally, we noticed they included behind the scene videos from the music videos for their songs which we will also include among 'casual,' posts of them taking a selfie or messing around etc...

It is important that we create this timeline because moving forward we can start to draft the majority of the Instagram posts. It is best to draft because we do not have all of the pictures we need, which we will gather from the photoshoot we have on Wednesday from 1:00-1:30. 

Social media conclusion

In conclusion, both artists promote their new single coming out in multiple posts a few days previous to the release and have pre-saveable links to their single before it was released. There is artwork for each artist's songs as well.  

As well as this, they both show pictures of from when they were performing at concerts and advertise them whether it be a virtual concert, or a live one.

Even though there is a promotion of touring and single releases. They also have pictures of the artists behind the scenes. For example the selfie of Shelby and the pictures of Avril Lavigne from summer.

However, only Crimson Apple reposted a TikTok and only Avril Lavigne tweets about being signed to a record label. Also, the language used with each artist is quite different. Whilst Crimson Apple's is quite tame, Avril Lavigne uses quite a lot of swearing to maintain her star image of being rebellious.

social media timeline 2

 

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Social Media Timeline 1

 

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What is Social Media

Social media is used as a main way of marketing an artist in the music industry. For example, it is highly effective in reaching a direct target audience through audiences being able to follow the artist on their social media page to be updated about tours, albums and general updates from their life. 

This links with how the artist can be more personal with fans as they are talking about what they do in the day which means fans can have even more of a connection with them. This helps construct the artists truer and fuller star image, leading to more profits. As well as establishing a stronger connection, the audience can interact with their posts, making them feel ‘seen,’ by the artist, for example liking and commenting on their posts, with the chance of them responding. 

Finally, It is spreadable internationally while being extremely cheap.

Some platforms that artists may use include YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

feedback on my Digipak

I was given the feedback from my album artwork that the genre is very clear.

The panels looked like they all belonged together through the use of teddy bears in each, for example. However, on the CD panel with the headless teddy bear, it stands out the most due to qualities like the green rings. This makes it look a bit too different so instead of green rings make the rings pink to fit the colour scheme of the rest of the album cover.

Also, the album cover does reflect the music video perhaps a little too much. I should either have the teddy bear theme or the pink theme, not both otherwise it looks too similar. A possible suggestion by one of my group members is to keep the inside left teddy bear and get rid of all the other teddy pictures which would still work if I wanted to keep the pink theme.

The band was clear however Lottie should be on front cover to convey being lead singer rather than back cover. Also, I should put her in the centre of the front cover with the other band members around her.

All the key info was there however I should move the barcode from the left to the right because the barcode on an album cover is always on the right.

Some of the elements my group like was the graffiti element and handwritten title. However maybe more of the white graffiti doodles should be used in the inside with Lottie to make it look more related to the front cover. Also, maybe I should not have the doodles on the front cover because with the teddy bears it looks too busy. However, if I wanted to keep the graffiti, I should just make the background plain black to contrast with the pictures of the band and the white graffiti and put the picture of the teddies on the back.

Here are some of my groups digipaks:

Bashy's:

Adrianna's

Album artwork first design

 Here is my design for our band's digipak.

Album inspiration

Things to mention is that the name of the band will be on the front and back, as this is the selling point of the album, and the name of the band will be larger than the title of the album, because it is more important. Also, the lead singer will be quite a big focus of the band, for example, being bigger and at the front of the band to show them being more important.

I think for our genre it is important to use colours like pink and black as well as using white, to match the mood they give off, and what people associate with them.

One example of album artwork from our genre is No Doubts album cover ‘Tragic kingdom.’ In it, it has No doubt as the main title, as well as Gwen Stefani being at the front of the album and larger than the other band members. Also, there is a track list on the back of the cover as well as a barcode and the legal information. 

Another example of some album artwork we can use is Avril Lavigne’s album cover ‘Goodbye lullaby.’ Once again, it has her on the front as a main focus, as well as her name being bigger than the album title. On the back, she is once again a big focus, as well as there being a track list, and the studio name at the bottom.

This can help inspire/ guide the look of our album covers as they are artists of the same genre with strong female leads. We know to make our lead singer the main focus of the artwork, and to make the band name big as well to help sell our star image.

Behind the scenes shoot day

 

Shoot day reflection

Before the shoot day, my group started by spray painting some flats with black and white spray paint. We put random symbols on the flats like a smiley face, a love heart, some words like rock etc… After this I spray painted a mirror frame white and helped Adrianna dress the vanity with a cloth and lamp. After the bed had been assembled, I helped lift it onto the set and brought the mattress down. We them moved the rest of the furniture like the ottoman and the vanity. Next, 

we moved some pre-wallpapered pink flats onto the set to be the background of the bedroom and fixed them in place. We realized that we did not have enough room for the drum kit to fit on the set as well, so we moved the set outwards by two flats which created a lot more room. After sorting out this issue, we put the teddy bears and make up props on the vanity and bed as well as putting a bed sheet, duvet cover, and blanket on the bed, with a fluffy rug at the foot of it.

When I woke up on the morning of the shoot day, I felt nervous. This is because I really wanted everything to go smoothly, and I had a big responsibility seeing as I was directing the video. I made sure that I had packed all the props needed that I didn’t have at school the night before to make it easier. I believe my group was very well prepared when we arrived for the shoot. This is because I had everyone’s costumes ready to go with their accessories ready. I laid all the costumes out on the table we were given, and Adrianna helped give the right costumes to each band member and made sure they were wearing the correct jewellery. 

As well as this, we had to make sure that if people were bringing in clothes, they had given them to me so I could sort them into the correct pile. As well as this, I needed to make sure that everything was in the right place on set which it was. Once the band members had the correct costumes on, as well as make up, we started shooting.

I was the role of director on the shoot day, meaning I would say when to cut, when to start playback and when to role camera. I also directed the actors on what their attitude should be like in each section. As well as this I also spent most of the time behind a monitor to make sure it looked like how I had envisioned it to look. Bashy was Producer and playback, Adrianna was Art director and Georgie was Camera Operator.

I think that I was good at keeping everything organized and making sure that if there was an issue it was easily fixable. I was also good at making sure our actors felt comfortable and were energized as it was a long shoot day, so this is crucial. For example, I brought them water, and kept their energy high by being energetic myself when the cameras are rolling. I also think that with all the setbacks that happened, my stress levels were kept fairly low.

We started to shoot using the barbie set, which we had set up the day earlier, and used lots of warm and pink lighting to create an atmosphere that reflected the aesthetic of our opening set. I believe that we managed to create the look of our concept well.

We initially had a few problems on set. The first one being the flats like mentioned previously. The second one being that one of the teachers could not come in, due to the fact they had covid and tested on only that day, so the other teachers had to test. As well as this we had some lighting difficulties and did not start until around 10:00 when we were supposed to start at 09:00 so we were set back around an hour. This did not hinder us however because we finished at 16:00 due to being organized and knowing what shots need to be done. As well as this, we took advantage of the fact that only certain people were needed at certain times, so whilst the others were not being filmed, they could get changed into their next costumes. 

We did make up from some lost time by deciding that rather than bringing in the flats we had spray-painted the day before, which would take half an hour at least, we should just spray paint the pink flats we have up, seeing as one of the band members knew how to spray paint.

However, I think the most successful part of the shoot day was being able to film three set ups in around 6 hours and get three individual costume changes in there with the actors still performing with high energy levels until the very end of the shoot. 

There were a few shots we had to cut from filming as we had run out of time for example, I wish we were able to have included a scene where one of the actors drew lipstick on the vanity mirror, I think this would have looked really cool which is why I wish we could have included it. If I could re shoot the video again in the future, I would have tried to include this.

I think I managed the actors pretty well as director, because they took my direction to look at the camera more, and to be moody in the first set up which was the barbie set. Also, when they were destroying the set, they followed my instructions very carefully and I believe they pulled a tricky task off, because if it was done wrong, the footage may have looked cringy. I am looking forward to seeing how the trashing of the set is going to look most in the final edit.

I really enjoyed watching how the different camera angles looked from behind the monitor because they all looked really professional. I also liked the energy that my other group member had on set who were encouraging each other to do their job to the best of their ability, and just overall having fun with them.

I believe that for the most part my group worked well as a team, there were some moments where some group members clashed with an idea I had and spoke over me, but overall, most of us worked well together.

From the shoot day I have learnt how to deal with making a music video under stress as a result of lost time, which will help me cope with the pressure more in future.

step by step

My group did a step by step outline of all shots we need to do on the day. This is so we don't accidently forget a shot that is needed and then realise in the editing suite when it is too late.