Audience Questionaire

Marketing Strategies

In today’s lesson Agata and I have presented to the class Marketing Strategies for Master ZIG TC. Master Zig TC is an underground rapper, aged 25 with no major achievements. He has couple of good album releases but nothing major. Master has a recognizable pose, which he often uses on pictures and posters to be original and have a USP (Unique Selling Point). I decided to market in many ways under main headings: Web, Publicity, Pirate Radio Stations, and Print TV.

I would use YouTube to promote the star amongst the million web users to show his potential in amateur made clips made by him or even friends. Twitter and Facebook accounts would be created to have contact with the limited fan group, which will follow, zig tc everywhere and also MySpace to put up his track although this media portal is dying out.

Publicity would be used effectively to make the artist the main gossip theme in his local area. I would use good publicity to establish his identity in the local newspapers when the artist would be caught smoking weed, which is fairly controversial. The artist would be a support at big gigs and come on stage before the main rappers, which will also bring him some fame in the mainstream music industry as well. He will do free gigs/concerts for example for charities or just to get noticed, he would attend rap battles.

Pirate Radio Stations would play his music, as he would give out free albums to the radio stations in order for them to be prizes in quizzes or just for the album to be played on the radio. He could have interviews in the radio and his tracks would be high in the underground music charts by promotion in radio.

Print would be limited due to cost. Some small poster to advertise concerts would be printed with the artist in his USP pose. Master would appear in underground music magazines where he would have interviews or be mentioned in an article, which will promote him amongst the underground rappers. Zig would appear in local news papers smoking which will also promote the rapper as well as he would have photos with mainstream rappers in more popular newspapers and magazines to also promote himself.

Goodwin analysis

I have chosen to analyse the song "Survival" by Eminem from the genre i am planning to do my video in which is rap.

We know the genre straight away when we see the artist moves. The genre is not obvious before the artist starts rapping as it is an unconventional music video which does not introduce the artist first but expects the audience to know the artist as soon as we see him taking the bandana off his face. In this video there are some direct links between the lyrics and visuals but also some indirect links. The projection on the walls of the Call of Duty game being played makes a direct link to the chorus "Survival of the fittest" due to the fact only the fittest survive at wars. There are also direct links where part of lyrics are painted on walls and are shown as the artist is rapping them. Indirect links are also made such as when there is a dog walking across the screen (during the bridge) which is a link to the words "survival of the fittest" as the dog must be the fittest if he survived on the streets on its own. The music relates to the visual by mise-en-scene, camera and editing. The mise-en-scene was well thought about, the lighting was setting an atmosphere as it was not obvious, there wasn't a visible source of light. The settings chosen were mostly places away from humanity so empty, devastated houses, streets, a big parking but also places with a  lot of people like a concert and city center. The settings away from humanity perhaps meant to represent that the artist is "the fittest" meaning he is the best out of all rappers. The crowded settings were perhaps suggesting that the artist was the strongest and the one in control of the rest like "the fittest in the herd" and he is the leader. The costumes helped to distinguished who is in power but also created the symbol, using half of the artists face and the bandana, which then re-occurred on the walls. This all relates to the music by creating a whole sens of the artist being the fittest and ruling over everyone else, showing he can survive everything. There are a lot of shots from different angles but mostly low angle shots are used when the artist is rapping to perhaps create a sens e of the artist being powerful. The use of tracking shots to show the writing on walls is very effective as it creates an illusion that the audience is really in that city and is part of this survival which emphasizes the message the artist is trying to communicate. There was a lot of synesthesia in the music video which matched to the camera movement as well as editing. Editing played a major part in this video to create this atmosphere as there was a lot of animation and after effects used like for example the projection on the walls. The editing was on the beat and fast paced which is conventional for the genre. The effects helped to get a message across to the audience and added some kind of meaning to the whole song of different forms when it comes to "survival of the fittest". The editing matches the music as it adds life to the whole clip for example at 2:58 when the beat starts to speed up and comes to a break and drop the editing changes to match this and there are moments were the editing is ultra fast and a shot is on screan for 0.5 seconds. The nature of close ups in music videos is to show the artist as a brand and to show their face which everyone will recognize but also to show emotions and the perfect lip sync to create and illusion that he is actually rapping to the camera and not that there is a previously recorded track over it. The idea of marketing the star using close up is the reason for such a frequent use of close ups in music videos which was fairly visible in this music video but was not overused as in some cases. This music video did not use the technique of voyeurism or the male gaze at all.

Intertextuality

In the music video 'Eminem- Mockingbird' the director uses intertextuality using a news programme which has been emitted in the past. This is used for an effect to show the audience how much of pain this has caused to the artist and his family making life really hard for them. This has an effect on the audience making the audience feel more sympathy for the artist and makes the whole music video much deeper than it was from the start.

Successful music video analysis

This music video is one of the most successful in my eyes as it follows the key points to a successful music video. In my opinion it is complete and is not missing anything.

Starting from the first point of a successful music video and in my opinion the most important is uniqueness. This music video is like no other for many reasons which combined together make a controversial and very unique clip. First thing that makes it unique and at the same time is the second step to a successful music clip is a story-line. In this clip the story line is not like a real life story as all of it is shown as a shadow. This adds mystery to the whole clip and along with that audience interest. Secondly the director does not feel confined for the lyrics to match the visuals as for one moment in the clip  (0:31) the artist stops rapping where as the music flows on. This is effective as it breaks some conventions and also the audience feels surrounded by the music perhaps not seeing a way out of the situation other than keep watching. This though brings me to the third point answering the question, why this music video is successful as it leaves a long lasting impression. First of all the stop in lip sync and last but not least the ending of the clip. It is very controversial leaving the longest lasting impression as it shocks the most seeing a man hanging himself. Although it was only a shadow the audience imagined a real life situation like that and have been shocked the most by this image. On top of that the captions written on the rappers hand are very strong like for example the word "kill" shocks the audience and also is part of a mystery which makes the audience want to stay till the end to see the mystery solve itself. The use of mise-en-scene especially the lighting was very effective giving the whole clip that one more push towards success.

This all combined to make one, very successful music video which makes the audience come back to it many times.