Vanilla Merchandise

Our merchandise shown above is a way to promote our band and increase our amount of income. This is all available on our website on our shop. It is inspired by our first album "Vanilla". 

Video Inspirations for each scene

Scene 1

Within Taylor Swifts video we came up with the idea for the girls to perform individually infront of a plain wall to begin with to welcome the audience into the video, forming a connection with each girl within the band.

Scene 2

These scenes are within the farm which involve hay, the corn field, barrels of wood and within the stables. This location we wanted to be purely within a farm/nature filled area to pursue the full country theme. We was inspired by the video from The Henningsens- Why I Farm. 

Scene 3

The balloons are used all throughout Vanilla's video and they play a very significant role in piecing the music video together, however they are very prominent to finish off the video as this is what it concludes on and fades out of the girls. This aspect was too show the fun, bubbly side that all the girls have and we wanted to incorporate our colour theme and ensure synergy was used throughout. 

Photoshoots

Billboard Interview

As a band, we visited billboard where we was interviewed and asked questions, which range from general queries about us as well as asked information about our tour and upcoming album. Extending from these questions, we also got put on the spot and played a game. This interview adds in with our marketing and promotion we have done for our band, and these shows how we are a fun loving girl group who is inspired by country artists and are willing to put in a lot of effort for our fans. 

Tour Poster Research

Tour poster research from SophieChettleburgh1

Magazine Article Final

This is our final magazine article that is inspired by another which was produced by seventeen. In this article, it focuses on information about the girl band and what their future plans are. Within this, this is inspired by our interview we also had with billboard and was asked similar questions within our interview. In addition, it has all factors of a magazine article that it does in the seventeen article that inspired us. 

Digipak Advert

 To the left is our digipak advert that has been used to promote our digipak, giving an idea of what is too come within our video. We have gone with the same faded affect that we decided to use to begin with on our digipak, we feel as though this gives it a girly feel and suits our target audience. In addition to this, this relates the the difference in colours that we use throughout our music video. We have also made our logo present too ensure that anyone who views this understands that we are a band, and with this being in a variety of colours this gives us a chance to produce various different medias that have the same image/look but incorporate different colours, using synergy throughout our products. Pink is a reoccurring colour through all of our  products; our logo, the pink balloon. Our songs and our main single is also visible at the bottom of the page, which was inspired from Rihannas.

Secondly, this is our inspiration for our digipak advert. As shown, this advert has the same affect that we have decided to use; the fading. With Rihanna having a significant use of the colour red, she has enhanced this within the image and has incorporated a red faded overlay too give the image a more mysterious look. Her red hair and lips are a significant feature in the advert and the front cover of the album, highlighting the use of synergy. With Rihanna having a different album name too her artist name gives her the chance to use different types of text where as we have only included our band name as our title of album is our band name, due to this being our first album. However, her main songs have been located onto the front of this advert, which we have also decided too do, too ensure that our target audience becomes aware that it is us- Vanilla that sings "On Our Own".

Interview Research

Above shows a presentation that gives an idea of what we would like to give away to our fans as a band. This needed to be planned and researched too ensure that we didn't give away too much, and we gave away enough to keep our audience intrigued.

Digipak Feedback

This is our first draft for our digipak and we have decided too take a faded out approach too give it a more of a country feel. As well as this, we have had a variety of inspirations from other digipaks however they have not been the theme we would like too take so we have taken a few different ideas, such as the loud pop CD cover to the muted down images across the digipak such as the one on the special thanks page. 

Positive Feedback:

• It links in well with all of our other medias such as the website and tour poster. 
• The colour scheme works well - its bright and colourful so will attract our target audience (12-30). 
• The pictures are cute and fit specifically with their target audience. 
• The use of balloons throughout all the products enhances the use of synergy .

Improvement Feedback: 

• The images seem squashed and distorted, they don't all look like equal squares.
• The CD isn't a circle shape which it should be - again it has been squished.
• We are missing the writing of the production company on the back and a list of the songs.
• The "Vanilla by Vanilla" should be all across the band - it would look more interesting.

Magazine Article Development

Above shows the two different magazine articles that have been produced and the final product is still underway. The top image is the closest too what the final article will look like as there were several problems with the first. For example, it was not a magazine article it looked more like a poster and did not have a magazine feel. There is no distinctive columns, it is not adapted in comparison to a normal magazine article, in addition, it has more of the vanilla brand image, than a magazine brand image; like billboard. Therefore serious changes needed to be made to ensure that the magazine brand image was apparent and it was in the right size columns and the text was correct. 

Synergy used by Vanilla

https://prezi.com/view/l2muoAFH0io33hFSu1S3/

  

This presentation gives a brief overview of how we have managed to use 

synergy within our products and texts such as our video and website/digipak,

as well as our magazine and our logo. We needed to ensure the same themes

are carried throughout all of our work to achieve maximum efficiency

when it comes to analysis of the synergy and cross-media branding. 

Website Feedback

We shared out our website to the rest of our year and our teachers and we have received some feedback that we have now taken on board and improved. on. 
What went well:
- use of the colour pink helps represent theme and create synergy.
- Easy to use website, good navigation bar
- really like the home page and the buttons fit well with the theme
- like how you can enlarge the pictures in the gallery
- love the colour scheme
- website easy to navigate
- gallery photos are great.
- website identifies band image clearly.
- clear synergy across medias
- all the tabs work
- I like the added details such as countdown.
- Good use of the pink theme across the website.

Improvements:
- Facebook icons does not work like they should. 
- Maybe you should not include the 'Vanilla' and 'use of cookies' button to scroll down with user.
- The images on the 'contact' page do not relate to artist.
- Some of the photos could be colour corrected due to it being cloudy.
- Facebook button doesn't work.

First Draft Feedback

This draft of our music video is our last until the finished product. We still have features we would like to add and in and enhance too finish it off, however we shared this with our peers and teachers and received feedback from them. From this we took on our feedback and have worked on the comments people have given us. 

Positives:

1. An effective transition is when  Sophie catches the hat from when Renae throws it up into the air. 
2. The use of balloons is consistent which portrays synergy throughout.
3. Framing of the shots are good and there is a variety. 

Negatives:

1. A lot of the lip sync is out and makes the video look disjointed.
2. Variation of shot transitions are not apparent. There needs to be more adventurous transitions rather than straight cuts throughout. 
3. Some shots look cut off, they do not fit in the given space or the video. 

General Comments:

1. There is a clear representation of band image and this is shown throughout the whole video.
2. The video is focused on their target audience and matches too their requirements (fun adn family orientated). 
3. Add some different effects or transitions for excitement. Most shots are just pure and do not have an additions.

General Grade:

• Level 4 is a general mark given by a lot o our audience, and support the grade ranging from 30-35. 

Editing Techniques

Whilst editing our music video we realised that other music videos of a similar genre have very creative editing techniques that we seemed to be lacking. Therefore, I research into what makes a music video interesting and what kept the audience intrigued and came across these editing techniques that really engaged me to the music video and I thought they would fit perfectly with the shots that we had put together. 

Firstly, in our music video we realised that we hadn't included the name of our band and also the name of the song. we wanted to make it easily accessible and noticeable that it was our music video therefore took inspiration from Miley Cyrus' video of 'Malibu'. It has the same fun loving vibe that we want to include in our video and also related to the balloon theme that we have included in our video. 

Moreover, we included shots in our video of all three of the girls yet we progressed and realised that at the start of the video we had a very small amount of shots where we were all on screen at the same time, therefore we did not look like a united band, we looked like individual singers that had been piece together. Little Mix are a band that are very similar to us and in their videos they had included a split screen where each of them can be seen. This would improve our video as all three of us would be introduced as united and it shows how together when we are singing we harmonise and make the song amazing. 

Little mix have always been a very well respected band and further through their video they included a very clever transition, again showing all of them and promoting their unity. 

Each frame changes to the next person, introducing the new shot. this makes it interesting and also improves the end of the video.

All of these improvements have helped develop our music video and made it more professional and promotes our group as a unit, also improving our band image.

Song List Research

We have analysed 3 different albums and their song lists, of which we have received ideas from the type of titles of songs on these particular albums. Two of these belong to women individual artists, and another to a group of singers, however all are recognisable in the type of songs as they correspond to the type of album it is.

 Ariana's "My Everything" album is instantly noticeable that a lot of her songs were inspired by a time in her life where she had relationship troubles or a trouble within her life. Typically you would think it to be about a break up that she experienced and she is reminiscing on events that mean a lot to her. Her album name is also the title of a song which she spoke out about to be dedicated to her Grandad who unfortunately passed away.

 Dolly Parton's album "Better Day" first of all has an uplifting image with the colours and text used, however the title of the songs relate the genre of country; which is inspiring for Vanilla, and it is clear these songs are in someway documenting her journey and events within the industry as well as past times she experienced with others that she considers as important. These titles particularly inspired as; being within the country genre but also being influenced by country as well as other times within her life of events, which is the approach we wish to take.




Little mixes album is slightly different as these songs will be a representation of all of the group of girls as individuals and the journeys they have experienced together; another aspect we wish to incorporate into our track list.
OUR SONG LIST:
Our songs represent us as a group and individuals, and express the journeys and events of which we have experienced together. We definitely wanted to use a country theme across all of our products, especially the titles of our songs. A lot of songs are empowering and express us as bold unique girls.