K: Our promotion in terms of creating an artist image

How are we representing Ben Howard across the promotional material?

We aim to represent Ben Howard as a new, unique and interesting country singer/songwriter targeting a large audience similar to that of other folk/indie artists. We will include many photographs to keep with the genre and theme of nature with images such as fields, trees and of course meat shots of the male artist to act as a promotional tool. The male character although a minor character is included in our narrative through a love story therefore further advertising the artist image and allowing the audience not only to enjoy the product but also to relate to it; increasing accessibility of the track and artist.

The techniques we have used include:

• Using a variety of length clips, with differing cutting rate throughout, closely linked to the tempo and beat of the track. For example when the beat fastens up so does the cutting rate, and the mise en scene is similarly linked, rather than a slow and soft tree blowing in the wind we are using faster intenser footage such as the bride running. This relates to Howard's personality and story linking back to the lyrics of his song 'Follaton Wood'.
• We aim to use a warm colour wash, orange/yellow overlaid on all the footage to connote the sense of the beauty of happiness and contrast against the stereotypical colour connotation of happiness but in-keeping with the theme of nature. This colour scheme is representative of the naturalistic settings we have used in our video connoting personality traits and signifiers of the artist and his upbringing, in rural cornwall.
• We have suggested to use the 'old film' overlay editing filter which we will apply to certain material at the end of our editing process once it is all in the timeline in the correct order; we think this will create an 'old school' arty sense similar to Ben Howard's other music videos including 'The Wolves' therefore promoting the artist image further.
• We have used both compression and expansion of time in order to improve the video and to make it more visually interesting and stimulating. We used particularly visceral and illustrative footage which is rich in connotation, underpinning the natural looking shots rather than more jarry digital jump cuts, therefore aiming to reflect his laid back, simplistic lifestyle in cornwall, in touch with nature and life.
• We wanted to create quite an edgy and quirky video based on the more serious and heavy storyline of the death, therefore our editing techniques and use of particular mise en scene and exterior locations have lightened the mood to the video and made it less morbid using a warmer colour wash and more romantic illustrative imagery; thus suggesting the importance of positivity and happiness messages Ben Howard frequently promotes in his videos and lyrics.
• We chose to use similar photographs for both print work pieces, the tour poster as the promotional advertisement and the 4 pane digipak to directly link the 3 areas together to build the fan base, so the audience can link the artist Ben Howard with the video, then to the album cover in store and directly to tour advert in a magazine, therefore widening the target audience.

In what way is our video and print work rich in connotation?

• The meat shots of the artist display a large amount of emotion therefore connoting his feelings suggested in the song, although the lyrics melancholy to some level also happy and positive. For this reason both our video and print work behold a certain degree of seriousness based on the topic suicide but we have presented it very delicately and carefully not showing the morbidity of it but the sense of freedom and release. The video contains mise en scene of nature including trees, fields and animals connoting the idea of freedom and peace, also a church and the prop rope to put light signifiers of the darker storyline. The print work similarly uses these themes of nature and freedom with photographs appropriate to this song but also images of the male character with a down cast expression to represent his position and emotions he feels.
• The use of nature and wildlife also connotes Ben Howard's down to earth attitude to life, making himself an accessible artist image from this key illustrative aspect.
• By studying British cultural codes evident in many mainstream indie bands such as 'Little Comets', for example replicating the slow motion flag blowing we also chose to use iconic British locations and also coastal locations to link to the artist and his local cornish audience, therefore we chose Cornwall, Brighton and South Kent. This has ensured the video is both rich in connotation of the artist image, history and personality characteristics but also relatable a large target audience.
• When considering Dyer's theory of two paradoxes to creating a star; the star being both extraordinary and ordinary to the consumer and being both present and absent to the audience. I can conclude we have conformed to both these paradoxes Dyer identifies, the second particularly stronger in our promotional material and video, combining both his emotional response to the situation with the use of strong non verbal language and expressions as well as the lip syncing, contrasting this to his absence where the video follows local peoples' interpretations of the event, feeling lost behind masks, upset and insecure.
• Ben Howard although in our video is portrayed as the 'ordinary' young cornish lad, a new singer/songwriter he is still presented as extraordinary to the consumer. We chose to limit our special effects and editing techniques to keep with the down to earth and normal lifestyle he leads but with our strong link to bustling and interesting British locations such a Brighton with the use of contrasted colours do create a sense of extraordinary.
• Ben Howard is portrayed as being present to the audience when shown in the narrative throughout the music video, continually cutting back to his emotions and lip syncing, but also absent when he is not a key aspect of the video; cutting from meat shots to the narrative focusing of the aspect of 'lost souls', 'freedom' and 'suicide' deeper.
• Finally our promotional material is rich in connotation due to its quirkiness and authenticity promoting the video style and artist characteristics well, thus following the conventions of the indie/folk genre.