The promo!

Scar - As Long As You Know (A2 Media Production)

We posted our music video on both YouTube and Facebook to get as big a response as possible and get some feedback. Overall we got some good responses, with a few positive comments and over 60 likes in less than 24 hours.

Magazine Advert - Ancillary task

("NME" and "Q" non official ratings, added for effect can be removed if need be)

This is a print screen of all the additions and effects that have been made to the picture, seen as "mag ad", all effects listed above this with the exception to "SCAR" text and "New Debut Album Fence.." text are changes that have been made to the original picture (see Location for the original picture). There is also another layer that has the solid colour of black over it, this makes up the black background. In terms of convention it sticks to the most typical/standard format or layout there is, this being band name at the top, relevant picture in the middle and additional information underneath including album name and a featured song. As it says above i have added some fake ratings, these are unofficial obviously and if need be i could remove them, however i believe it adds to the design and makes it look more professional. Using Photoshop i have created a semi-posterized picture for the main feature of the poster, playing around with the exposure, hue/saturation, colour balance, brightness/contrast and the actual posterize tools this is what the final outcome was. The picture is very relevant to our promo video we have produced for the song "As long as you know", the effects that have been put on the picture are inspired by other posters/album art such as one of Sum 41's, see Conventions of ancillary tasks - Album art and Conventions of ancillary tasks - Posters/adverts. Many, if not all, of the other posters i have researched feature the black and white effect, this is a feature of this advert we have produced however to differ and stand out from the others ours includes a hint of blue, which is a reoccurring theme of both the picture that has then been carried through to the text.

Further changes could and may be made to this poster, for example the font of the text "SCAR" may be changed to be more distinctive.

Revised digipak design

We decided to reconsider our digipak design, however we stayed with the same themes and concepts that we looked at previously. In our previous design we had a photo of the actual band SCAR however our music video didn't feature the actual members but did feature us acting as the band members. We finally decided that to stay consistent throughout the task, it would make more sense to have the same people we used as the band members in the video as the members shown on the digipak. To do this on our first day of filming we decided to take some photographs of our band members in formation, in the "band shots" location (Tolethorpe hall - outdoor stage- see Location), this specific photo was taken from above from a set of stairs looking down at a very serious looking bunch of band members, all of which are in their stereotypical costumes. To fit into our themed digipak we took this to Adobe Photoshop on a computer and began to edit it, to fit in with the rest of our digipak we put a sepia filter on it and then played with the colour, contrast and white balance to get it how it looks here (bottom right tile), we also added some overlays that have similar themes to the rock genre, especially reminiscent of tattoos that can often be associated with rock artists.

The inside right (Edwina Mears) and the inside left (Luke Doyle) are pictures we took when filming our "black room" footage of each individual character within our music video. these specific characters were the most important characters of the narrative we filmed for the specific song "As long as you know". Luke in this was our lead band member and vocalist, but was also the character within our video that was having this serious relationship with the female character played by Edwina. This lead us to further include the female character on the inside right. Again both of these images have had the sepia effect added to fit in with the sepia theme we have with our digipak, they have also been cropped to the correct size and we played around with the saturation, hue and white balance.

The last two pictures included, extra panel and back cover images are both images taken on the first day of filming of the location we filmed the band shots in. As we thought our location was so fitting to our chosen genre we believed it couldn't go a miss on the ancillary tasks. The image on the extra panel is a long shot of the outdoor stage with the drum kit set up and sat by itself on the stage. This particular still image we thought was again very fitting to the genre and is extremely similar to the final shot of our music video therefore creating links. Again the back cover was another image taken of the outdoor stage but form further up showing the stage form an extreme long shot and the empty audience chairs either side. Yet again this suits the genre well giving an urban moody feel that the rock genre is so often related to, the lighting in this photo is particularly a favourite aspect of mine that works well with the sepia. Effects that have been added are yet again the sepia to continue the theme and we played with the white balance, hue and saturation.

Setting up the black room

The black room was an idea that allowed us to single out characters within our music video. This gave us the opportunity to show the emotions of each character well for example regret that the lead band member had and the laughing of the female character. This also allowed us to have more angles and shots to use without the complications of lots of mise en scene issues, angles such as low angles and better more defined close ups that where specific to the characters (instead of having lighting issues and other band members involved). Talking of lighting it also gave us a lot of room to add in some really subtle yet effective use of lighting, instead of the natural lighting we used in previous shots, it also allowed us to make use of the lighting equipment we hired out one of which was a good profile light. 

This picture below was a quick snap of the building of the black room. We used a small office room in which we shut the curtains, boarded the windows and put up black foam sheets to make it look like a black background. Furthermore we turned of the lights and set up a lighting rig (a make shift d.i.y job) using a beam of wood and other assorted items, which worked quite effectively.




















A nice diagram, drawn by Ben, sums up the set up we had nicely (a side on view). It shows the lighting position and the position of any character being filmed. It was a makeshift set up but allowed us to film what we wanted very nicely and the footage was good quality. See Revised digipak design and look at the top left and top right tile to get an idea of the final image that it allowed us to get, or watch the video which will be in a later post.

Changes in the plan

Casting for our music video was an issue, due to problems with not being able to find a college that was able to take time off school and fit the criteria that we wanted. This called for a changed version of what we originally planned, however there isn't a huge difference. The character we had problems casting for was the thug that we originally planned to have as the drummer, to deal with this we decided to change Ben's role as the camp guy to the thug drummer. Although this is a change from the plan it does allow us to have an actual drummer on the drums and therefore making it easier to get good quality band shots of the drummer. However this did face us with the problem of then filling the gap of the camp guy. To do this we decided to use another (the final member of our media production group) within the video, which is Becky. Instead of having a camp guy on the guitar we decided to just have a female guitarist, which again means we have to change the plans further and get rid of all of our camp guy scenes/jokes we had. Looking over the storyboard and thinking about how we could implement Becky, our female guitarist, into this video we decided we could play with the idea of a fantasy that the other band members (thug drummer and nerd bassist) look forward to seeing, however when it gets to this we see the female guitarist shake her head (effectively saying no).



Revised storyboard shots 70-75:

Shooting script

LEAD SINGER AND WOMAN ARGUMENT

FADE FROM BLACK:

INT. CLOSE UP GUITAR PAN

close up shot of guitar and hand/arm, pan left.

                                                    CUT TO:

INT. LEAD SINGER MID

Mid shot of lead singer from the side, lead facing left.

                                                    CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, SLOW MO, WOMAN

slow motion shot of woman shouting, facing right. 

                                                    CUT TO:

INT. LEAD SINGER MID

Mid shot of lead singer from the side, lead facing left.

"if i can't see you"(lyrics)

                                                    CUT TO:

INT. TWO SHOT, WOMAN AND MAN

A two shot showing conflict/argument between lead singer and female character.

                                                    CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, SLOW MO, LEAD

A close up slow mo shot of the lead singer, without mic, shouting facing left. 

                                                    CUT TO:

INT. LEAD SINGER MID

Mid shot of lead singer from the side, lead facing left.

"it's already as hard as it is"(lyrics)

CUT TO:

INT. LONG SHOT, DOOR SLAM

Long shot, showing the woman's whole body, slamming a door behind her (exiting a room)

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, MIC

Extreme close up shot of leads hand gripping mic.

"because i can't leave you"

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, GUITAR

A close up of the guitar being played.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, CLOSED DOOR

mid shot of the door closed.

CUT TO:

INT. OVER THE SHOULDER, DOOR AND LEAD

An over the shoulder shot of the closed door over the mans shoulder, man facing towards the camera with door behind.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, SLOW MO, UPSET lead

A mid shot of the lead singer looking upset in slow motion.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, VASE

A shot of the lead singer again looking upset/angry knocking over vase prop.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, SLOW MO, UPSET MAN

A slow mo shot of the lead, again upset but with head and hands against a wall.

CUT TO:

INTRO. BAND SHOTS

INT. LONG/MID, NERD GUITARIST

Quick Long or mid shot of the nerd on guitar, nodding.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG/MID, GAY GUITARIST

A similar shot to the previous, long or mid, gay guy nodding in agreement.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG/MID, PUNK/THUG DRUMMER

Again similar to the previous shots, long or mid shot of drummer, drummer is looking clueless.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG, ENTIRE BAND

A long shot of the entire band standing in a diamond shape, e.g drummer at back, guitarists at the side and lead at the front. Lighting will be dark.

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, SNARE

A close up shot of the snare drum being hit in sync with the music three times, first two will be shown and the third will be the quick cut.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG, ENTIRE BAND

The same shot as the first 'entire band shot' this time the band will be lit up.

CUT TO:

*POTENTIAL BAND SHOTS THOUGHOUT*

NERD SEQUENCE

INT. MID, SLOW MO, GIRL

A mid shot of the girl looking over the shoulder at camera, slow motion, a white border will be around her when edited.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, NERD

A mid shot of the nerd playing the guitar, looking slightly surprised.

BLUR/FADE TO:

INT. OVER TV MID, NERD GAMING

A shot that is over the TV, however TV still visible, of the nerd character playing video games.

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, NERD

A close up shot of the nerd, face and hands/controller visible if possible, with angry expression on his face.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, PAN, NERD AND WOMAN REVEAL

This will be a mid shot of the nerd even angrier than before and he will throw his controller, throughout this is a pan in which it eventually reveals woman jumping up and down because she won the game.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, KISS ON CHEEK

A mid shot of female character kissing nerd on the cheek, (nerd blushing).

BLUR BACK TO:

INT. MID, MATCH CUT TO PREVIOUS, NERD

A blur in effect to the nerd playing the guitar(exactly the same positions must be held form the previous shot). 

CUT TO:

*POTENTIAL BAND SHOTS*

PUNK SEQUENCE

INT. MID, DRUMMER

A mid shot of the punk drummer playing the drums, chewing gum, looking towards the guitarist.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, NERD

A mid shot of the nerd looking away from the drummer awkwardly.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, DRUMMER

Mid of the drummer thinking, still playing drums.

BLUR EFFECT TO:

EXT. MID, WOMAN AT DINNER TABLE

A mid shot of the female character at a candle lit dinner table, outside, looking at the camera.

CUT TO:

EXT. SHOT REVERSE SHOT, PUNK AT DINNER TABLE

This is the same shot as the previous but reversed so we can see what the female character is looking at. Mid of the punk at candle lit dinner table, looking extremely relaxed. Bottle of Jager in hand.

CUT TO:

EXT. LONG, TWO SHOT, SPAGHETTI SUCKING

Both characters are at the dinner table, sucking spaghetti. (lady and the tramp style).

CUT TO:

EXT. MID, WOMAN

A mid shot of the woman, still sucking spaghetti at the table, looks up and giggles cutely towards the camera.

CUT TO:

EXT. MID, REVERSE TO PREVIOUS, PUNK

A mid shot of the the punk at the dinner table, again still sucking spaghetti, blankly staring at the camera.

CUT TO:

EXT. CLOSE UP, TWO SHOT, PUNK AND FEMALE

A close up/mid shot of both characters getting closer to each other, sucking same piece of spaghetti.

CUT TO:

EXT. CLOSE UP/EXTREME CLOSE UP, PUNK AND FEMALE

An even closer close up of the the two characters even close than before, still sucking same piece of spaghetti.

CUT TO:

EXT. CLOSE UP/ EXTREME CLOSE UP, PUNK AND FEMALE

same as the shot previous to this, the spaghetti is finished but instead of lady and the tramp style kiss,the punk burps instead.

CUT TO:

EXT. MID, PUNK

Back to a mid of the punk at one end of the dinner table, takes a swig of the Jager. 

CUT TO:

EXT. MID, WOMAN

A mid of the of the female character, looking dreamily at the camera/direction of the punk character. 

BLUR EFFECT BACK TO:

INT. MID, DRUMMER

Back to reality, a mid of the drummer nodding behind the drum kit whilst playing.

CUT TO:

*POTENTIAL BAND SHOTS*

LEAD SINGER REGRET

INT. MID, LEAD

Back to a mid shot of the lead singer, looking upset. 

FADE/BLUR TO:

INT. MID, SLOW ZOOM OUT, STILL SHOT, FLASH BACK

A mid shot that represents the lead singer and female characters relationship previous to the argument. Female comes in and surprise hugs the lead.

CUT TO/FLASH TO:

INT. MID, STILL, SLOW ZOOM, PIGGY BACK

A mid still shot of the lead singer giving her a piggy back. features a slow zoom out.

CUT TO/FLASH TO:

INT. MID, STILL, SLOW ZOOM, COMFORTING

A mid still shot of the girl crying in hands and the male lead comforting her.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, LEAD

A mid shot of the lead singing into the mic.

CUT TO:

CAMP SEQUENCE

INT. MID, CAMP

a mid shot of the Camp guy playing the guitar.

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, CAMP

A close up of the Camp guy starting to think and day dream.

BLUR TO:

INT. OVER THE SOFA SHOT, CAMP AND FEMALE

A shot over the top of the sofa, able to see the tops of the two characters heads with the TV in the background. Bridget Jones credits.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, PAN, CAMP ON SOFA

Shot of the Camp guy at one end of the sofa crying. Starts to pan right. 

CUT TO/CARRIED ON PAN:

INT. MID, PAN, FEMALE

The pan to the right stops on the female character at the other end of the sofa, looking bored.

CUT TO:

INT. TWO SHOT, COUPLE ON SOFA

A two shot of the couple on the sofa. Camp guy is blowing his nose and the woman isn't happy.

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSER TWO SHOT, COUPLE

An even closer two shot of the couple, Camp guy holds up another Rom com, woman is not happy.

BLUR BACK TO:

INT. MID, CAMP GUY

Back to shot of the Camp guy playing the guitar.

CUT TO:

*POTENTIAL BAND SHOTS*

NERD SEQUENCE 2

INT. MID, NERD WORKING

Mid shot of the nerd doing work on a paper, on a desk, with pen and calculator.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, NERD

Mid shot of the nerd furiously typing on the calculator.

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, NERD

Close up of the nerd doing work still but gets tapped on the shoulder.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, NERD

A mid of the nerd turning his head to see who tapped him on the shoulder.

CUT TO:

INT. POV SHOT, AS NERD, FEMALE CHARACTER HOLDING THE CalC.

A POV shot, in nerd POV, of the girl holding the calculator up with the word 'BooBs' written on it. (80085)

CUT TO:

INT. TWO SHOT, NERD AND FEMALE

A two shot of both the nerd and female character, nerd is looking at the calculator which is held by the girl, nerd looking astonished, girl laughing.

BLUR BACK TO:

INT. MID, BACK TO NERD PLAYING GUITAR

A mid of the nerd playing guitar, he's mad.

CUT TO:

*POTENTIAL BAND SHOTS*

PUNK SEQUENCE 2

INT. MID, PUNK

A mid shot of the punk playing the drums.

BLUR TO:

INT. TWO SHOT, PUNK AND FEMALE

A two shot of the female doing the punks nails.

BLUR TO:

INT. MID, PUNK

A mid shot of the punk playing the drums.

CUT TO:

CAMP SEQUENCE 2

INT. MID, CAMP GUY

A mid of the camp guy looking in the direction of the drummer. 

BLUR TO:

INT. LONG SHOT, FEMALE IN BED 

A long shot of the girl on bed, in a seductive pose.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG SHOT, CAMP GUY

A long shot of the Camp guy cowering in the corner of the room.

CUT TO:

INT. TWO SHOT, FEMALE ON BED, CAMP GUY COWERING

A two shot of the girl on the bed to the left and the camp guy on right against the wall cowering.

BLUR TO:

INT. MID, CAMP GUY

Mid of camp guy playing guitar.

CUT TO:

LEAD SEQUENCE FINAL

INT. LONG SHOT, BAND

A long shot of the whole band, all band members looking different in expression as a consequence of their fantasy.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG SHOT, LEAD

A long shot showing the lead leaning against the door, from the very beginning, looking upset.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG SHOT, REVERSE, FEMALE

A long shot of the other side of the door, a reverse shot, revealing the woman also looking upset bu on the other side of the door to the lead.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, LEAD

A mid shot of the lead taking a deep breath,thinking she has left.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, LEAD AND FEMALE

A mid of the lead opening the door revealing the girl about to knock on the door. 

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, LEAD

A close up of the lead, however the band are slightly visible still.

CUT TO:

INT. OVER THE SHOULDER, LEAD AND FEMALE

An over the shoulder shot, looking over the leads shoulder at the woman through the door.

CUT TO:

INT. OVER THE SHOULDER, REVERSE, FEMALE AND LEAD

An over the shoulder shot but in the reverse to the previous shot.

CUT TO:

INT. CLOSE UP, LEAD

A close up of the lead looking up slowly. 

CUT TO:

INT. MID, NERD

A mid shot of the nerd playing guitar.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, PUNK

A mid of the punk playing the drums.

CUT TO:

INT. MID, CAMP

A mid of the camp guy playing guitar.

CUT TO:

INT. LONG SHOT, LEAD AND FEMALE

A long shot of the female entering through the door to greet lead. 

FADE TO BLACK:

FIN.

Storyboard

Storyboard

Promotional strategies research

Promotional strategies research

Over the years being able to promote yourself as an artist and getting yourself known has become essential to "bringing in the big bucks" and becoming a successful artist. In earlier times promoting yourself would have been much harder than recent years, lack of technology for communications and travel would have made it very difficult and the basic, posters, ads in newspapers and on radio stations to promote the artist would have been the biggest and best ways of making yourself a household name. There was also a lack of ways to play your music to the public, records and the radio being some of the earliest forms of playing music which then over the years evolved, tapes and Cd's and television came around with the likes of Top of the pops which was the sole channel for music on TVs starting in 1964 and was in episodes on a weekly format. Finally evolving into the wonderful yet controversial music industry of today, with hundreds of channels dedicated to non-stop music and hundreds of social media sites capable of promoting and connecting the artist with today's world.

A&R's
In today's world we have A&R's, artist and repitoire, personnel that are at a record label with the task of finding new talent and developing them to  their best standard. These people will start off at gigs and listening to unsigned artists to find "talent". Once found they will choose things like producers, engineers and studios for the artist to work with and overall produce the music that will make them their millions. These songs will be rated on the best and the ones with the most potential to be popular and even no.1's will be picked out to publicise further. Once the record is ready to be released the A&R will be informing outlets, shops and the radio to hype the song and get them excited for the release. This will attract the attention of the customers who will in turn buy the album. It is likely that the A&R will have looked into the artist before hand to find out how they have put in effort to build up their own fanbase and be connected in all the social netwroks etc, therefore when hyping the record up and getting poeple intrested for sales it should be quite straight foward.

Marketing
Marketing, again aided by technology, is much easier than before. Sites such as youtube and spotify are prime examples of an artist getting their music heard, anyone can access and listen to their work and then decide wether they are good ore not. Record labels are also able to access their work and will pick out the good bands and artist, in a way guiding the public to listen to their chosen artists. TV talent shows and competitions again are another way of marketing artists, shows like the Xfactor and Britains got talent can promote atrists, sometimes by finding new talent on the actual show or because of guest appearences. Tv competitions can be won where you win tickets to see an artist or get merchandise promoting an artist, sometimes even spend the day with the artist, even further promoting the artist.

  

Selling the music

New ways of selling the music are again mad eavailable by new technology. The internet opened up new markets such as selling digital copies of songs and albums on things like Itunes, also a promotional free song is often found on such websites promoting the artist further. The actual hard copies willl yhave dropped in sales because of htis however CD's are still the latest form of the hard copy of music, still sold in their millions and very effective. Digipaks which i have looked into in previous post are still very effective, especially to people wanting collectors editions, the digipak will usually come with extra information and merchandise promoting the band. The digital age has revolutionised the way we buy and listen to music, having songs and albums at just a click away has made it extremely easy for artists to be known and become a success.