For my AS level project last year, I did a film opening for the movie, Lasting Leah, which portrayed a struggling artist as she channeled her emotions into art. I think that the main difference between last year and this year was the difficulty of working for a real life person. Rather than manipulating all of my own products to my liking, this year I had to consider Em’s opinions. This caused me to be dependent on another person for my work, which definitely took some getting used to.
However, I’m extremely proud of this result and can obviously see the improvements I’ve made over the past year.
-How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
I used an array of different technologies to accomplish all of the aspects of my project. I used my HP notebook to access the internet and download any apps that I needed to use. Additionally, I used the internet for research purposes, and blogger.com to create my blog.
For the music video, Cata and I filmed on an IPhone 7 Plus to maximize the quality of our video. A struggle that we had on the IPhone 7 Plus is that although the camera was very advanced, it absorbed the lights of the set differently every time we started a new video, without us actually changing the brightness. This caused the editing process to be way harder than we expected as we needed to balance the coloring of the shots to the best of our abilities. Catalina and I edited on my computer with the software Wondershare Filmora, a great app that works similarly to iMovie.
For the digipak, Cata and I utilized the online program, Canva. The great thing about Canva was the flexibility that it allowed us to have with the designs. Cata and I were able to create various designs and then compare them to each other right there.
For the website, we used the online program Weebly. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use Weebly because it's extremely user-friendly, especially for those of us who aren't really tech-savvy. One of the best things about Weebly is the template or theme options that can b e selected, especially as Cata and I found a website template that was specifically for a musician.
-How do your products use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
While researching conventions for alternative pop/rock, both Cata and I did case studies on single artists similar to Emmanuelle. We picked Alessia Cara and Ed Sheeran, both extremely successful artists who seemed similar in personality to Em. From them, we drew inspiration to make our website, and included traditional conventions such as having a mailing list, and about me page, etc.
In addition, we embraced conventions by creating a promotional music video as Em’s first video. We decided on a promotional music video as Em isn’t well known yet and consumers must be able to connect Em’s music and sound to her face.
For the digipak, we used a traditional four panel design. However, something unique that we included was Em’s handwritten-type note, which we wanted to include in order for her audience to picture her as personable, something that both millennials and gen-z’s are attracted to. Instead of feeling like they are being marketed to, it feels more friendly.
-How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?
My main purpose while producing each component of the music campaign was creating a sense of cohesiveness. To start, Cata and I had to figure out Em’s brand. Since her music is mostly alternative pop/rock, we tried to portray her in a very androgynous, dark, yet quirky look. Once we nailed her brand, we did a photoshoot that had a lot of street style, which goes hand-in-hand with her personality, fashion and music.
Cage’s dark and heavy beats emphasized Em’s troubled mind, yet the dancer in the video symbolized Em’s expressive and artistic side. The website’s white space allowed for a very clean and friendly look, but the pop of colors in all of the visuals highlighted the diversified sounds that one can find in her album. Her digipak was one of the things that Cata and I struggled with cohesively, as each panel had to be a remembrance of the next. At the end, to accomplish this, we kept using the inside images of the cover design as backgrounds or pop of colors.
I think, overall, the sense of branding in our products is definitely there, as we used some of the images on all of our components and tried to maintain the same color palette and tone throughout.
-How do your product engage with the audiences and how would they be distributed as a real media products?
After much discussion, Cata and I decided that Em’s music was best targeted to young millennials and older gen-z’s, in the age range of 15-30. As research has shown, Millennials and Generation Z’ers have the most purchasing power as of now, which would work to Em’s benefit. They’re also the biggest social media consumers, which is why we placed a huge emphasis on Em’s social media through all of our products, and tried to make her music campaign as personalized and interactive as possible. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are all linked to her website and mentioned in her digipak, as well as her Youtube.
The main way we are planning on distributing our product is through Em’s Youtube Channel. With over 280 subscribers, she already has a small fanbase that she can expand upon. Her website will be promoted and linked in all of her social media. Since she is an upcoming artist, it’s unlikely that she will produce the actual physical album. Rather, she will just use the digipak cover and stream her album in iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify. Depending on its selling success, she will produce the physical digipak.
The full ‘Cage’ music video will be posted on her Youtube channel, so that interest will spark interest i her fans to listen to the rest of the album. Hopefully, the video will also stream in sites such as Vevo, and clips of it will also be posted on the rest of her social media.
-Final thoughts?
In conclusion, I just want to thank Catalina Castro for being a great partner for this project. We motivated and pushed each other to do our best, and supported each other every step of the way. As for Emmanuelle, I thank her for letting us help her to the best of our abilities, and I don’t doubt her future success. I’m sad that the journey this class has taken me in is coming to an end, but I’m grateful for the skills that I’ve learnt as a producer, director, and as a person.
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