Promo videos – posted 6th March
In an attempt to gain as much interest as we can for our piece an idea that was thrown around was that of creating a viral video(s) and distributing them through the various social networks we are scrutinising, as a form of irony. Within the social satire theme, I suggested using videos readily available on the Internet and editing them into a narrative; as a form of portraying the necessity and dependence on the various amenities available online. Watch This Space!!!
By Jamie Downes.
Stickers – posted 15th March
As we have decided to use stickers to represent quotes from the facebook and twitter world, I have decided to explore the old website that I used with my last theatre company. It would cost £10 for one hundred but we can personalise them completely to how we want them. We could also use stickers for advertisment. We could publish our Logo onto the stickers of, ‘You have been tagged’ and stick them onto people. We could also use them within our performance by ‘tagging’ our audience with stickers. This would represent that they have been tagged (facebook location notification) within our piece. This would run along side the theme of everything in the cyber world becoming literal within our performance.
By Christy Asplin.
Viral filming – posted 22nd March
Today we went to tokyo to start our promotion. We used to the main room and CCTV resources. We stepped into the centre of the room and swayed from side to side, thus giving an eery feel. We then added some other elements to create a spooky and eccentric reaction. We then moved to the basement and did some filming down there. It was very scary and created a great atmospheare. We used stage make-up in order to look ghostly.
(See gallery below for accompanying photos to this post)
By Emma Rogers.
Videos
Using Viral videos as our main promotion strategy links in really well with our performance ethos. The social media dominates the western world, with millions of users around the world, having access to sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. If anybody posts something, it can be going ‘viral’ around the world within the hour. Showing the power of this theroy, our group took a keen interest in the Kony 2012 viral campaign.
‘The video, part of a campaign called Kony2012, became a viral sensation with more than 35 million views. #Kony2012 was a number one topic of conversation on Twitter, and was shared multiple times on Facebook by concerned citizens and celebrities alike.’ (Dailey: BBC Online:Accessed 27/03/2012)
This is a prime example of how technologically advanced and globalized our society is, and how the interent can be used as a platform of expression, as well as a good platform for advertsing as it is an effective way of getting a message across to millions of users worldwide in the quickest way imaginable.
Because our project deals with the effects of social media on our society, it seemed fitting that we would be able to generate buzz for our performance through that same platform of the internet. We all have facebook accounts, to where we can promote and advertise our show. We are shooting all our virals in Tokyo, the site of our performance, as we have access to using CCTV footage there. Group member Jamie is responsible for filming and Sylvia and Dumi for editing, but working as a collabortaive it was all of our ideas.
Viral 1
The first viral we shot, was influenced by the filming technique used in the Paranormal Activity films.Using CCTV footage available to us at the club, we could create a sense of harsh reality, to contrast the ideas of the virtual world. The general idea is a clear dancefloor, and in between flashes of a busy nighclub, we as a group would appear one by one, all dressed in black and rocking to and fro. In editing, we realised how freaky our eyes looked, which added to the cold atmosphere we wanted to create. This is ambigious and doesnt give to much away, yet the audeince who view this will be left wanting to know more.
However, we couldn’t use the footage for our own promotional uses as we didnt have the rights to be able to use someone else’s face in our viral. Ironic really. But we still have a successful Viral idea number 2, which worked just as well, if not better.
Viral 2
Our second viral, we all got our faces painted white and ‘tierd’ triangles drawn on our face by group member Christy. We wanted to show the idea of living your life through your virtual identity, could, and probably would lead to a loss of identity in the real world. These images of us in a dull, dark basement, appearing lifeless, would be juxtaposed with imagery taken from the virtual reality game The Sims, partying in ‘the real world.’ Again this viral is aiming to do the same as viral 1, with an ambigous demeanor, that gives the audeince just a taste of what the performance will hold.
Instead of using Sims footage, we ended up using clips from our video we shot for the performance. It looked alot more effective and the juxtaposition made much more sense for the viewers. The viral looked more proffessional and as was responsible for generating alot of buzz around the performance.
(See accompanying photos in gallery below)
Posters/Leaflets
Because of our desire to concentrate the majority of promotions through modern receptive mediums such as facebook and viral video. The quantity and extravagance of posters/leaflets etc was kept to a minimum so that it would only be individuals using it as a secondary reference refer than their primary mode of address. Here are some pictures to illustrate the efforts (however unique) when promoting the piece.
Within these photos, you can see not only the array of posters, leaflets and tagged stickers; but, how they were used.
By Jamie Downes.
Facebook promotions
A Cyber Character called ‘Tom Tagged’ has been created to promote our piece but also to signify that the organisation of events takes place online. Without any sort of physical interaction.
By Emma Rogers.
The Facebook Event
https://www.facebook.com/events/437742156254743/
This is the event on Facebook via which we invited guests. This was a key strand of our promotion because it invites audiences that we know are already familiar with the subject matter and who would understand the terminology used and critiqued in our performance.
By Sylvia Entwistle.
Logos and posters
I have taken it upon myself to contribute more with promotional mediums rather than just videos. I have designed a 1st draft group logo and an idea for the poster designs.
The logos I have done in an array of colours to see which is more aesthetically pleasing:
With the Logo I started off with the font and writing (which I liked), centralised them (which I liked) and had the ‘hash-tag’ symbol which is popular and synonymous with Twitter (www.twitter.com) in the background as opposed to the ‘@’ symbol (which I didn’t like). I felt as if, when using the hash-tag, it looked as if the title of the production was resting on an noughts and crosses board even if the hash-tag was italicised. The ‘@’ symbol is widely recognised as the distinguishing symbol for that of the Internet and now days with the social networking culture its become strongly linked with Facebook (www.facebook.com). The @ is used when ‘tagging’ friends into a status and/or picture on the network, and as the turn of phrase has immediate relation to our title it seemed only appropriate.
The poster makes reference to individuals loss (death) of real identity and the creation (redesign) of the online identity in the virtual world; in this case an avatar. Along with the question ‘Who Are You?’ it directly questions the audiences of participation in to the virtual world and their perceived identities.
By Jamie Downes.
I feel the viral promotion worked really well and generated alot of interest and buzz around our performance. This was mostly down to most group memebers who posted the link to the viral on social media sites Facebook and Twitter, which in turn, reached an array of different people.
I really liked the promo, and I feel we gained alot of interest for our performance from the different sources of promotion that we distributed. I also like how we thought outside the box and provided advertisiment in locations were people would least expect it, for example, the toilets. This made people recognise our signature advert around Lincoln.