Heather Ainsworth A2 Media Studies Advanced Portfolio Evaluation!

Q2. How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary tasks?

Brand Identity! For both of our ancillary tasks and our music video to be effective, a

consistent brand image should be visible throughout.

So what is a brand?

A brand is the make/identity of a product. Branding is about creating an image that people link to a particular type of product.

Artists today have to create a brand image in order to compete with the ever growing and competitive music industry and the range of artists.

There are 8 elements which create brand identity:

1. Brand essence: what the brand means in a sentence

2. Brand slogan: often a catchphrase linked to the logo

3. Brand personality: what kind of character does the brand have? This harmonises the brand and makes it easier to relate to.

4. Brand values: what does it stand for/against?

5. Brand appearance: what does it look/sound/taste like?

6. Brand heritage: what kind of tradition does it have?

7. Emotional benefits: what feelings does it offer consumers?

8. Hard benefits: is it cheaper, better? What “real” quantifiable benefits does it offer the buyer?

Our Brand Identity! Pop-rock!!

Our brand identity represents the hybrid genre of pop-rock. We chose this genre as our brand identity as this was the most popular genre of music from our audience questionnaire. The band members themselves are cheeky and fun which fits in to the characteristics of a pop-rock group. Our brand identity is unique as many bands of a pop-rock genre are more serious which is shown through their music videos, however our brand image is clearly shown through our music videos as the band show their personalities and don’t take it too seriously for example I would compare our band to The Killers as both bands share conventions of a pop-rock band such as the use performance and narrative throughout the video however they differ from The Killers as I would say that this band are more serious and a cheeky, fun side of them isn’t always seen like it is with our band.. Also there aren’t many bands out there who would be able to get a serious narrative through the use of a food fight.

Conventions of pop-rock!

Typical conventions of pop-rock include:

The use of music instruments throughout products

A mixture of light and dark colour palettes

A variety of cinematography particularly close up shots and extreme close-up shots.

Performance and narrative throughout the music video

Andrew Goodwin states that there are certain conventions that define a music video, as well as using the conventions of pop-rock throughout our products in our music video we have also used the conventions created by Goodwin, these being:

There should be a link between the lyrics and visuals with the visuals illustrating/contradicting the lyrics.

There should be a link between the visuals and music with the visuals illustrating/contradicting/amplifying the music.

The need to sell the artist- the artist may develop their image throughout the products therefore star iconography should be visible throughout as well as many close-up shots of the artist.

How our brand identity is shown through the use of media language in our music video! For each of our products we have had to ensure that our brand image is visible in

each product. Following the conventions of pop-rock we have constructed a sense of brand identity by using media language e.g mise en scene, cinematography, editing and lighting.

Cinematography

A convention of the pop-rock genre is the use of close-ups/extreme close up shots of the artists, this will help to sell the artist . This can be seen in The Killers video for Mr Brightside where close up and extreme close up shots have been used of the front man Brendon flowers, by doing this he himself becomes part of the iconography for The Killers and can be quickly associated with the band and the genre of pop-rock.

Another convention of a pop-rock genre is live performance and close up shots of the instruments. Again this can be seen in The Killers music video for Mr Brightside and can also be seen in our music video. The use of cinematography is extremely important in our products as it helps to distinguish our chosen genre from other genres such as just pop. The performance scene in our music video shows band members having fun and joking around as they are playing on band hero instruments which shows they are young, fun and not too serious compared to in the Mr Brightside video where the band members seen content and focused. We did this as our band are typical teenage boys who like to have fun and we wanted this to be apart of their brand image.

Mise en scene: LocationAs part of the mise en scene the location/setting can help to construct a brand image. In our music video we chose the location of some woods, although not the most fascinating place in the world it does represent some conventions of the rock genre. Firstly the rock genre Is portrayed as dark or maybe scary, the woods appear to be secluded and dark representing the rock genre. These settings give the band an edgier side to them but still making the video look fun fitting with the brand image.

.However location/settings for a pop/rock genre can vary according to the narrative or brand image of the band. For example Green Day, a respectable rock band have used a warehouse for the setting for their music video for American Idiot, this will be mainly because the song suits a performance video to a narrative video.

• Costumes:Costumes play a big part in creating a brand image as well as showing iconography of a particular genre. In our video for the food fight the band members and girls wore boiler suits which stand out as being unique and quirky much to the personality of the band. The girls also wore a “feminine” coloured belt to fit with the typical ideology of females as being girlie and wearing girlie colours e.g. pink/purple. For the band performance the band members wear black clothes as this a typical ideology of the rock genre, this can be seen in pretty much all of Green Day’s videos as they tend to have a colour palette of black and red fitting in with the rock genre

Narrative/props

The main prop used in our music video was the custard for the narrative of the food fight, this narrative and prop illustrates the brand image as fun and quirky, as this is a young fun band this will have to come across in their brand image. Pop videos are also generally fun and colourful therefore the narrative/props also represent the pop genre.

• Lighting

Throughout the majority of the music video our main source of lighting was natural lighting, we used this lighting to give a sense of realism and to brighten the atmosphere suiting to the pop genre.

Magazine advertisement

How our brand identity is shown through the use of media language in our ancillary tasks!

Mise en scene:- as part of the mise en scene the main prop that we used was coloured custard and other forms of food such as pie to keep the iconography of the music video and food fight consistent throughout the magazine advertisement. By having the iconography consistent it allows the audience to recognise the band when they see either of the artists products. The bright colour palette used also keeps with the genre of pop which keeps to the brand image of pop-rock, yellow is the main colour featured on the magazine advertisement as it is largely featured throughout the music video e.g. as custard and contrasts the guitarist blue hat making it stand out, it can also be seen as fun and quirky which fits in with our brand image and represent the band. We also chose a funky looking font which keeps the brand image and fits with the age of the band as it looks young and fun, young people will have also experienced the craze of bubble writing growing up therefore this type of writing will appear to young people more than old. Furthermore we have used split screens on the magazine advertisement, this helps to introduce each of the band members separately and show off their own brand identity as an individual yet the brand identity of the group can also be seen as they all look like they are having fun and have been messing around.

Cinematography:- close up shots of the band members have been used to introduce them individually and as a band, the brand image is shown through this as they are a pop-rock band and a convention of pop-rock bands is the use of close-up shots of the band members.

Close-up shots have been used as part of the cinematography of the band members to introduce the artist and fits in with the brand image of pop-rock,

Comparing our magazine advertisement!

A bright colour palette has been used to fit with the pop genre and to fit with the brand image of fun and quirky.

Custard and pies used for the props keep the iconography consistent throughout all media products.

The artist name and album details are shown which is a convention of a magazine advertisement.

Advertisements can be seen in the footer of a magazine advertisement.

Advertisement

Digipak

How our brand identity is shown through the use of media language in our ancillary tasks!

Cinematography:- for the front and back panels of the digipak we have used a long shot of the band to introduce the band, on the remaining panels we have used close-up shots of each of the band members as this is a convention of pop-rock and a digipak with great focus on the artists. The band members facial expressions are cheeky and fun to fit with the brand image of the band, their facial expressions and body language are the same in each of our media products to keep a consistent brand image.

Editing:- we have kept editing to a minimum as we wanted to conform to the traditional conventions of a digipak and to have great focus on the artist instead of conforming to contempory artists digipaks of focusing on the lyrics and genre. Our brand image can be seen through this simplistic approach as the band are a simple teenage pop-rock band.

Mise en scene:- again the main prop used for the digipak was the custard and pies keeping a consistent image that is shown in the music video and the magazine advertisement. There was very minimal costumes used which actually shows the brand image, not only is it female gaze but it also shows the band to be typical cheeky boys which is part of the brand image. The same font was used on the digipak as well as the magazine advertisement keeping with iconography of the band and to show that the band is young and fun, bright yellow font can also be seen on the back panel, we chose yellow as it is bright and a fun colour fitting with the brand identity.

Comparing our digipak!

Great focus on the artist and the brand image.

As part of cinematography close-up of the band members as part of the rock genre however the images of our band members are more casual and fun fitting with our brand identity, unlike Green Day’s who’s images are more serious which fits with their brand identity.

Custard/cream and cakes are used to keep the iconography consistent throughout each of our media products. Consistent iconography can be seen on Green Day’s digipak through the use of musical instruments.

Cd and cd cover have images of the artist.

Band image is represented through the bands costumes, our band’s costumes shows that they are cheeky, fun and a typical teenage band and Green day’s costumes are black which is part of the brand image of a rock band.

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