To create our website we looked at other pop punk bands websites such as Paramore's website and Blink182's website. With the inspiration we gained from these websites we used some of the conventions which we saw were on the majority of pop punk websites. One of the conventions we used and developed upon was on the Paramore website. This convention involved having pictures of the members of the band near the top of the website, allowing fans to see the brand image straight away. However on the Paramore website the band pictures are not at the very top of the page therefore this is not the first thing which would catch the eye of the person viewing the website. To develop on this convention, we put a head shot of each band member at the very top of the website behind the band name. This allows anyone who views the website to see the band and their brand image as the first impression.
When we looked at the All Time Low website one of the conventions we
noticed which was on most if not all pop punk website, was the digipak. A
picture of the digipak was midway down the webpage which once the viewer of the
website has seen the band members pictures their attention can then move onto the
digipak. Therefore it promotes the band as well as their products and material,
so like the All Time Low website we included a picture of some panels of the
digipak. This develops the convention as although the digipak is shown on the
website, not all panels are shown and this makes the fans see the brand image
but can not see the songs which are featured on the album so they will be more
inclined to buy the album and look for it in shops.
Another
convention we developed was the use of promoting merchandise on the website.
One website we researched into which promoted their merchandise was the
Paramore website. This website has all of Paramore merchandise which have the bands name and logo on them. This again promotes the brand image of the band, therefore we decided to create a section on the homepage with Call Atlantis' merchandise on it. This shows us using conventions from another pop punk website but also shows how we have developed the conventions by adding merchandise which has synergistic links with the digipak e.g. the use of the newest song release being on one of the shirts which promotes the album as well as having the bands name on another item of merchandise.
When we were researching into music promos we looked at conventions which we could adhere to but also which would prove theories. So as well as adhering to some conventions, we also looked into what attracted our audience demographic but subverted pop punk conventions. One element we included in our music promo was the use of a female being the main focus of the narrative. We decided on using a female as in most pop music videos a young female is involved. Laura Mulvey a feminist believes strongly in 'The Male Gaze' and believes that 'men see women actors and look ‘at’ her but when they see the male actor they see ‘with’ him. Women are therefore made to see in the same way as men.' We believed it was important to include the male gaze theory in our production as it will allow our audience to be broader. One pop video which uses the theory to an extreme level is Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines' which shows female models in a very sexualised light through the nudity and objectification of them in the video. This video promotes the male gaze and therefore is very popular. So as well as adhering to the male gaze through the use of a main female part, we also subverted this theory by creating a more vulnerable actress who is not sexualised. The way we subverted this convention also allowed us to be more conventional of pop punk rather than the pop genre.
Another way our music promo is conventional of a pop punk promo is through the use of colour and the clothing the members of the band are wearing. When viewing other pop punk music videos we found that the members of the band would wear dark clothing to show the darker side and the rebellion against mainstream fashion of our genres target audience. One example of the use of dark clothing in a pop punk music promo is the All Time Low music video for 'Something's Gotta Give' . This music video shows all band members in black clothing, however as we wanted to show our band as relatable to a wider target audience we chose to have the members of the band in black, dark clothing but with elements of white to show the purity of the main singer who is shown to go through a breakup. This allows our music promo to be relatable as well as still having a large amount of black clothing to show the genre of pop punk. We also included green in the clothing to represent the lyric 'zombies' as this is a colour very much associated with zombies. Also this colour is used as our main synergistic link between the 3 promotional products, which allows the brand image to be recognised by the viewers of the music video.
In the music promo we used shots which are not only conventional in pop punk but most music promos. We used close ups and mid shots of the band members and their performances in the music video, this allows the audience to see the band as a whole and the part each member has within it. In the music promo for All Time Low's song 'Something's Gotta Give' each band member is shown in a different type of shot, this shows the difference of instruments but also the members who play them. The shot we used for the singer, played by me, was a close up as it showed both my face and the microphone. This shot is conventional as it allows the viewer to see the singer performing and feel close to the performance itself. Close ups of the singer are also shown in the 'Something's Gotta Give' music promo showing the shot type as conventional of the genre, pop punk.
However for the guitarist we looked into Paramore's music video for 'crushcrushcrush' and saw that a mid to long shot was used which showed the member of the band with his guitar. This allows the audienec to see the band member perform as well as see the person himself in shot. We noticed after watching other pop punk music videos such as All Time Low's 'Something's Gotta Give', that this shot is very conventional of pop punk, however we decided to develop this convention. To develop this convention we showed a very similar shot of our guitarist, however we believed that the female singer is conventionally the focus of the band e.g. Hayley Williams in Paramore is usually shown singing at the front of the shot. So we used a similar shot but in the background behind the singer so as the shot showed the band as a whole but made the singer the main focus.
The drummer in our music video is a session drummer for the band and this allowed us to show the separation between the band and the drummer in a clear light. To do this we looked at the way drummers are shown in other pop punk music videos such as All Time Low's song 'Something's Gotta Give' and a conventional shot which was used for drummers was a low or canted angle which included the top half of the drum set as well as the drummer. However the drummer would also be shown in the background of the band shots to show that they were a part of the band. Due to our drummer being a session drummer, as well as being conventional by showing the drummer and the top half of the drum kit, we used a high angle to show that the band have a bigger following than the drummer. Also to show that unlike most pop punk bands our drummer was a session drummer we did not show shots of the drummer with the band.
To create a digipak which was conventional and therefore would appeal to our target audience we used colours which are consistent throughout our website and music promo. We used green as our main text colour as it is conventional of a band to have a common theme in their digipak and website, and in our case also in the music promo. This theme means that the digipak and the bands other products can easily be seen and recognised by fans of Call Atlantis. One example of a band which have a recognisable colour scheme is 5 Seconds Of Summer, who have a theme of black and white with the website and the digipak being themed around these colours.
We also took inspiration from Green Day's 'Bullet in a Bible' album by including pictures of the band members performing, Due to Green Day being a very popular and well known pop punk band we decided to take inspiration from this and research more into other digipaks to see if including photos of the band performing was conventional. We found that it was conventional to include performance photos. We then looked into how we could incorporate them and found two ways which were inspired from other pop punk bands. The first of which was very similar format to Green Day's 'Bullet in a Bible' with a line of photos, however we included this below the 'about the band' panel of the digipak. The second way was to use a stand out picture of the band, as used on the Blink 182 album 'Australian Exclusive Tour Edition', but we decided a picture of on member of the band would be more impacting on the audience, so we developed this convention to create a album cover with one main member of the band on it, who the fans of the band would recognise.
(Line of performance photos)
(Album Cover)
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