Grouping

To produce this music promo I shall be working with Sean Robson as a duo. Working as a pair gives us more freedom and flexibility as we do not have any other members to rely upon. It also allows us to use our own ideas without having other people to contradict us. I decided to be in a group with Sean as we get on well away from media and we share similar tastes in music and have similar ideas on what we want to do.

Analysis of a similar band - Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand are band with a very similar style to our band of choice, Odd Shaped Head. They both play the same genre of music (post-punk indie rock) and have a similar, 4-piece set up. They are also both known for their energetic performances and upbeat tracks.
Franz Ferdinand have released 4 studio albums, one of which reached number 1 in the UK album charts and have had 3 top ten singles in the UK. They also won a Mercury Prize award for their album 'Franz Ferdinand' and have won two Brit awards. They are also known for their use of 1930s, Russian inspired artwork and music videos.

Conventions of Digipaks and adverts

Digipaks are a form of CD packaging. Generally they consist of a 6-panel, paperboard, or card, gatefold with a plastic tray to contatin the CD. They are known as one of the first big alternatives to plastic jewel cases. They are often used to promote singles or special edition albums and tracks. As the Digipak cases are generally made out from card or paperboard they are known to wear and become a damaged a lot morequickly than the more resistant jewel case used by many manufacturers. Digipak cases can also be made a lot more environmentally friendly with some manufacturers even making their Digipaks using 100% recycled materials.
The artwork on Digipaks would generally follow a similar theme over all of the panels and the artwork would be related to the song or the artist in particular. Similar colours and the style of the artwork would be used throughout. On the front panel of the Digipak, something related to the band, such as their logo or a picture of the band, would be used to promote the track and make it obvious who it is aimed for. On the back panel of a Digipak the tracks would be listed and numbered.

An example of a Digipak



A standard, clear jewel case

The posters that are used to advertise the album often use the same images as the front cover of the Digipak. The poster would often have information regarding the release date of the album and may feature very short reviews on the poster.

Digipak front panel 

Poster using very similar to Digipak cover

As you can see with this Dikipak cover and the poster, the image that is used is pretty much the same. However, the poster features extra detail that the Digipak cover does not have.  

Pitch ideas

Ideas pitch

Questionnaire analysis

We can see from this mediocre pie chart that comedies are the preferred genre of film for the people that we surveyed. A lot of people are also fans of rom-coms which are very similar to comedies. This strongly suggests that we should consider doing a humorous music video as it is what the people want. We also asked why they prefer these types of films. A lot of the responses were because these films are funny and they make them laugh. The people who preferred action films said that they liked them because they are very exciting.

As we can see from this pie chart a lot of people surveyed hear about music videos from the television, radio, and through their friends. There is not one category that clearly has more suggestions than the others but it is clear that those three categories are the most popular.

These results suggest that the song is the most important element for a music video. However, the artwork and the type of video are important factors in attracting an audience. This shows that we have to make sure the song is something that the audience would enjoy and the artwork for the video needs to stand out and draw in the audiences attention. The type of video is also very important so we need to make sure it is something that the audience will enjoy.

This chart shows that the people are mainly interested in pop music. Our chosen song is not particularly a pop song but it does have a pop element to it. Rock and dance are the only other genres that the people suggested. Our song also has a small rock element to it so our song should interest the audience.

Humour in music videos

Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn

In this Beastie Boys video they use both narrative and performance to add a comical effect to their music video. They are obviously attempting to parody 70s rock bands such as Kiss in this video and they use this parody to add humour to their video.

Beastie Boys - Body Movin'

In this video humour is used all throughout the video. Again, they use parody throughout the video but this time they are parodying films like James Bond. Also, there is no performance aspect to the video at all.


If we are going to do a humour based video it is clear that parodying will be an important part of the video. Most humour based music videos I have seen all feature parodying of some kind so it is clear that we will have to do that. Also, the video would have to have a lot of narrative as most of the videos focused on the narrative a lot or managed to fit the performance parts into the narrative.

Odd Shaped Head research

Odd Shaped Head - Corpse in the Kitchen

Biography taken from http://www.unsigned.com/oddshapedhead:

"Leapfrogging conventional rock sounds and hop-scotching conformity, these unassuming young gentlemen yell Up your pigeon-hole! to an industry obsessed with format and repeated musical templates. In the humble surroundings of a quaint English seaside village, four of the four members of odd shaped head reside in chaotic harmony:

Paul (Bass/Vocals)
Ricky (Guitar/ Vocals)
Rob (Drums)
Andrew (Guitar);
from childhood chums to grown up geeky misfits.

The quirky quartet take a plunge with their new single and video ~ the multi coloured ket song ~ due to feature on MTV and stamp their un-erasable mark on 2006. I want a red oneyou can have an orange one well you cant always get what you want! is the Odd shApEd mantra chanted as a dull grey world is assaulted with splatters of bold bright colour.

Their eclectic brand of energetic, rhythmic, funk-punk; jerky bass popping, powerful scatterbrained drumming and stabbing guitars bursting into vibrant melodies draws more fans along to venues already packed with a collage of characters.

Quintessentially British - just like The Beatles are rock, but aren't, Odd Shaped Head are punk, but aren't every half-baked crap band in the world could learn something from these guysthis single will be their road to fame. Excellent!! Lowcut Magazine, Denmark 06"

Their music is very upbeat and quite guitar driven. They are known for their energetic live performances and have had two videos shown regularly on MTV2. Their songs are fast paced and very lively but aren't heavy at all. They gathered quite a large fan base due to their touring up and down the country and the music that they play. they have taken inspiration from bands from the 80s, this is reflected in the upbeatness and use of synthesizers in their songs. They released their debut album, 'I Wonder How This Endeavour Will End?', in 2007 but have not had much success since then. They have a very similar sound to the band The Futureheads.