This is a successful music promo because it is filmed extremely well to help show off their skills. One example would be how there are a lot of performance pieces of filming to help show who the band members are, what instruments they play and how good they are. This is shown through lots of close ups, shots of the instruments being played and especially of the lead singer showing his talents. A music promo is a very important feature of promotion to their target audience so it is important that all the elements included all fulfil their potential.
The actors in a music promo are always the band members in the performance side but the narrative side can often include new actors that are not part of the band. The actors can sometimes be part of the narrative side though as shown in the Glam Rock music promo “If you really really love me” by Steel Panther as the narrative is about the band themselves filming a music video. The video is shown below.
The typical conventions of a Glam Rock music video are shown below through this link.
In our music promo we have tried to stick to the typical conventions shown in other Glam Rock music promos. The location of our Music promo was set in the Stamford Arts centre ball room/blue room. Some pictures of the exterior and interior are shown below.
The location we choose is similar to some of the locations in which Glam Rock genre bands use. This helps us identify that we are using the typical conventions. Some pictures of Glam Rock locations are shown below and as you can see most of the locations tend to be the same sort of concert style location which we were aiming for. This is challenging the typical conventions of the Glam Rock genre in real media products because these types of locations are often used but we are trying to better them.
When it comes to costumes we wanted to stay true to the Glam Rock conventions and we did this by making them colourful and eccentric. From the costumes we wanted to convince our target audience that the band was instantly part of the Glam Rock genre due to their costumes. The band that we got the most influence on when designing the costumes was “Steel Panther” as they are a well-known Glam Rock band who has had a lot of experience in this genre. A picture of the band and their costumes are found below.
As you can see the bands costumes are very creative and this is the type of style that we decided to use as you can see from our very own band photos bellow.
From the pictures above you can see that we have made the costumes very similar to “Steel Panther”. Our costumes are therefore challenging the typical conventions seen through other Glam Rock bands like “Steel Panther”.
In terms of props we needed to make the set on the stage realistic to music promos and our chosen genre. For example we needed a guitar, bass, microphones, drum kit, Amps, PAs and much more to help set the scene. If these mise-en-scene props were not in place then the scene would look unrealistic. All of the band equipment go together to make that concert type of atmosphere which we wanted. Through these props, we wanted to challenge the conventions in real media products by making the props as realistic as they are seen in the Glam Rock promos. A picture of the stage set up with equipment ready for shooting can be seen below.
When editing the music promo we wanted the full feature to run smoothly along with the synced lyrics. To stick with the typical conventions in the Glam Rock genre we decided to include mostly straight cuts in the editing process. This is because the Glam Rock songs are usually fast paced so the slower transitions would not flow as well in a Glam Rock video. We did however use a few different transitions that fitted the scene well. For example one of the best transitions is at the end when we combine all four of the band member’s pictures within the last jump off the stage to end the music promo. What makes this transition work even better is the fact that the change of picture links in with the beats of the song. Another type of editing technique that we used a few times is the Opacity effect. This is where a picture on the screen is overlaid with another. This allows both pictures to be evenly shown or for one to be shown more predominantly than the other. We did this twice in the music promo and the better one was when we had the guitar being played in the background of the drums being played at the same time. We chose to include this transition as it is an easier way to include two pictures in one when there is more than one instrument being played. The shot is shown below. This transition is developing the typical conventions as we are trying to introduce this transition into other Glam Rock music promos as transitions like this are not often used in Glam Rock promos. If the transition is well received then this could influence a new style of transitions into the Glam Rock genre if it was possible to reach a mass audience. We have done this through the precision opacity percentage on the screen. This precision makes sure that the opacity looks effective and professional.
Nearly all music promos have both a narrative and performance side in their video. The performance side in our video was set in the ball room in the Stamford arts centre where a stage will accompany the band playing their instruments and rocking out. The performance side is usually shown more in the music promos of other Glam Rock music promos as the bands really want to show off their talents as it takes a lot of skill to play guitar, bass, drums and more. For the narrative side of our video we decided to concentrate on the band themselves and this idea came from the band Steel Panther in their song “If you really really love me” as the promo was based on the band and what they did to prepare for the performance side in making a music video which we also were inspired by. For example in Steel Panther’s video some band members will be sorting their hair out in preparation for the performance side just like in our video. This will challenge the forms and conventions of the real media product being Steel Panthers video. This is because we are using ideas from a Glam Rock band and trying to make it look better. The contrast between the narrative and performance side of the video is shown through the performance being in colour and the narrative shown in black and white. An example of this comparison is shown below.