1) Importance of the Front Man:
In our video we decided to reinforce the key role of the front man, as the main person who represents the star image of the band. He is also the key person the audience feel most connected and closest with. In class we discussed how the majority of people know the name of Coldplay’s front man ‘Chris Martin’ and they even also know the names of his children, however if pressed wouldn’t be able to guess at the name of Coldplay’s bassist, guitarist or drummer. It is the front man / the lead singer of the band that all the girls fancy and that one person represents the image of the whole band. This just backs up our reasoning for continuously through the video having lots more shots of the singer than the rest of the band and increasing proximity of him with the camera (in the end the audiences watching the promotional video) by filling the frame with his face.
We also made the decision to use the lead singer of the band as the main character in the narrative as we felt that this would help to promote the band further; if it was being played by an actor then all the focus of the band and the style, look and appearance of the band would be lost but using the lead singer in the narrative it hones all attention in on the band in pretty much 99% of all shots in the video.
Shown bellow is an example of how a real life successful band in the industry use the dominance of their front man to reach out to their audience and appeal to them to market the band to the best of their ability through the use of reinforcing the star image through the main most recognizable band member.
One of the major themes running through the whole of our marketing campaign for the band ‘White noise’ is the authentic use of Black and White. We de-saturated the colour so as to give the video the sophisticated art film feeling of which the band represents through their typical middle class persona. However we gave the video a slight bluish tint to make it feel colder and giving it a harder edge to the imagery.
Another key marketing method was the use of techniques usually adopted by niche market art house production. For example the shallow DOF and the constant focus pulls. This challenging the forms and conventions of most 21st century videos. However we decided that this alternative style of shooting for the video and was the right route to take as it would create an eye catching ‘new and different’ take for this fresh alternative band.
Shown bellow is an example of the usual main stream mass audience pop video using lots of vibrant colours and people, thus showing our choice of challenging the usual conventions in place in the industry at the moment.
3) The Two Narratives
We decided very early on in the research and planning stage that to have a video that keeps the viewers entertained and interested to watch again and again therefore resulting in repeated consumption where we sell more copies we need to have three different elements of which we can juggle between. Thus always keeping the viewers entertained. This was further backed up when we looked at various real industry standard pop videos of which were all using more than two elements to minimise the boring cutting between 2 themes.
Although the majority of pop videos use 3 or more elements there are some that decide to use one element and using editing speed and style to vary the interest throughout. We decided to challenge these forms of video, the majority being dance and drum and bass acts. Instead we decided to represent and reinforce the common practices set up for mass audience pop songs and more band led videos such as ours.
As we knew that we wanted to have a very performance heavy product we then only had to create 2 narratives that worked well together that could be cut easily between them. These 2 narratives showing the journey of both boy and girl having just separated; the imagery used is of hot and cold, separation and loneliness.
This shot above connects the two differing narratives together and is the defying moment in the video as it is the one and only moment where the two narratives meet.
4) Symbolic Imagery Of Snow
One of the main themes used in the narrative of the male briefly described above is the use of the snow to create a feeling of coldness within the large manor house where he lived. His journey throughout his house of which we follow him in a voyeuristic style has continuous snow fall. The narrative is all about how even though he has a very luxurious house and lifestyle he is very cold wearing big warm jackets and in a completely bare house with no furniture he is very cold and lonely. This is backed up with the use of snow.
When we looked at music videos used by the major record labels something that is used the majority of the time is wild and wacky ideas and situations that would never be accepted in day to day life however in pop videos audiences are prepared to suspend their disbelief. So we felt that it would be acceptable to use snow inside as people now accept crazy ideas like this and are not surprised.
To add to the cold effect of the video and snow we decided to add a slight blue tint to the black and white colour mix. We did this in after effects and after changing it to black and white using the de saturation we added a blue colour filter over the top and adjusted the level until it added a subtle hint which added to the cold feeling and also helped to make some of the tones of grey stand out from the rest of the tones. 
5) The Role Of The Fe-Male
The fe-mail played a very important part in the video as she created a contrast for the part of the male. She was the character who was seen to be walking away from the life and love of the male in the house. As she walked away she was stripping off her extra layers, which were fast becoming unnecessary. She reflected the lower working classes of which have fewer material objects and less money than the male however she was walking back into a community through houses and homes whilst heating up as she went. Also when she walks through the tunnel the walls are covered in paintings of happy looking people all congregating together, which has connotations of happiness and a community. 
In all media forms nowadays we become used to and now expect there to always be a female and a male who play off each other and we decided that we would reinforce the use of the female however as usually they are used to create a happy ending where they end up together showing their love for each other, we decided to challenge this and have a different outcome. This is especially as the bands star image of being alternative don’t like to go along with the crowds and instead like to start their own trends, so this is why we decided to have a less happy narrative using the female to change the typical readings of a pop video. 
6) Difference In The 2 Locations
Our choice to use these contrasting locations came when we decided to use contrasting narratives. We wanted to shoot in a council estate as many of the videos that provided us with our inspirations such as ‘Arctic Monkeys’ and ‘Radiohead’ were set in this area of a poor working class housing estate. As we were aiming to recreate the same feel and attract the same audience as these videos already have shown to do so very popularly we felt that this was a definite location to shoot our narrative element in.
The Manor house was hard to find, as we needed to have large open rooms with no furniture. This acted as a great contrast to the location of the housing estate and provided us with the contrast needed to portray the difference in class, which was being shown subtly through the narrative. Having such a variety of locations through all three elements helped to create a depth in the video, which helped to make our video seem professional.
7) Album Advert Poster - Simplicity:
For our album poster we decided to research lots of posters and see what the existing forms and conventions of marketing were used in the actual industry. Shown bellow is a few examples of the ones we found.
From our research we decided that to reinforce the bands importance and star image as the main sales drive of the album we should put the a large image of the band as the main theme as we didn’t like the posters evolving themes from the video rather than the generic technique of using the band to promote themselves.
We decided to have very simplistic advertising campaigns so as not to over confuse the viewer with too much text that’s not really needed. For example the poster above in the middle uses too many colors, words and graphics which has so much of an effect it becomes negative as you cant take it all in and move on to something else. So with this in mind we decided to use simplicity as the main aspect to the poster.
So we decided to stick to as little text as possible letting everything have space to breathe on the page and letting the band and album name speak for itself and sell itself, however as it is a new band’s first release we needed to add the NME rating to give it its credibility for people to be reassured of being associated with it. Without this it could just be any band and our audience would feel less confident buying the album.
In the industry both complex and simple posters are used as you can see from the examples above. So therefore we are not either reinforcing or challenging the forms and conventions set out by the industry. Rather just going along with the flow as evidence proves that both are very successful… 
8) Album Front Cover
The album cover is in keeping with all aspects of the other two products already discussed above, as we are maintaining the black and white theme throughout and the continuity of the same font being used throughout all the advertising and on the product helps the audience to recognise the band and link it all together.
We got this idea from a Strokes album cover of the naked behind of a human body and we decided that in the real industry they often use naked human bodies to sell products as it is a very high selling technique. For us it was the sensual s shaped curves found and commonly photographed in the human body that made us use this on our front cover. 
9) Album Back Cover
The albums back cover has to link very closely with that of the front cover as they both work simultaneously so the image is very similar to the image on the cover however it is not the same which adds an extra dimension to it as it is very similar yet slightly different.
Looking at products used in the media industry we looked up the legal information that is found at the bottom and copied it and pasted into our own so as to add an authentic touch.
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