R&P Post 22: Planning my promo shots

Promo shots for the website and the album cover are used to promote the artist and the artist's image. While it is used in conjunction with other marketing strategies, it is important that it does not bare too many similarities with the music video because otherwise it will be too repetitive. The booklet that comes in the CD package must represent the style and the look of the album.

My promo shots will:

• Have a visual motif running through it
• Have a black, purple and silver colour theme
• Be different from the music video but still be connected
• Convey the genre of the music, GiGi's personality and style

When taking the promo shots, I want to have a variety of shots with different poses, makeup and outfits as this is a common convention that I have seen.

I have explored the promotional photos on artists' websites. This will help me decide what kind of promo shots I will want to take.

One of my influences for promo shots is Carly Rae Jepsen. At first, I thought that her promotional photos were all in black and white. But it transpired that, when you clicked to expand the photo, the coloured version of the photo would appear. 

I like how this encourages people to explore her website into more detail as it is like a bonus for her fans. She has a variety of shot types that range from close ups to wides and she is wearing different clothes in most of the photos. The same photos are used in her website on different pages, giving it multiple uses.

I also suggested to my group that we use behind the scenes shots to promote the artist. This offers the audience a different view of the artist from a candid perspective. It is different from the official, more posed shots. We can also use this with a behind the scenes video or B-cut roll. Little Mix used the behind the scenes footage to generate more hype around their track and to give fans more content. The group's official instagram was flooded with photos and clips of the music video weeks before the single and music video was released to make their fan's anticipate the song and to remind people to download and stream the single.

A scene from the music video was posted on their instagram

A behind the scenes shot was posted on their instagram

Using the information that I have gathered on promo shots, I have decided to sketch poses that we could use during our photoshoot. Below is my sketch and the reference points from various female artists.

From my research on promo shots, I feel that I am very knowledgeable of the conventions of promo shots. I know what shots are conventionally used in the digipak, on the website and on social media pages. With all of this information, I am sure that my group can produce good promo shots with the different poses and styles that I have identified.