Photo Shoot

The shoot took allot of planning and re-arranging. It was vital that we got professional looking pictures in order for us to be convincing. I tried to book the studio at university but it was all booked out for the following three weeks. I tried contacting local photography studios but they were all far to expensive, time was running out fast so I decided to do the at home. Luckily my mother is an experienced photographer and was happy to help out. She took the pictures, and I directed the shoot, this is were my experience in working on photo shoots came in very handy, although it was quiet a challenge to direct as well as be in the shoot. I was really pleased with the outcome, the girls performed so well especially having never done a photo shoot before.

Even though the shoot was done in my front room I was able to make it look like it had been done in a studio using photoshop, I even managed to rescue pictures that didn't come out very well. Again having had experience working on shoots and photoshop, really came in handy.

Go to http://www.myspace.com/diamanteforever to see more pictures from the shoot.

Finding my girl band

At the beginning of this project when I was deciding what to do, my tutors said to me that I should use this project as an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone. So when I had made the decision to create a girl band I forced myself to become not just a member of the group but the lead singer, I really appreciate the advice from my tutors because so far, as nerve racking as it's been, I've really enjoyed it and have defiantly pushed myself out my comfort zone!

I started looking for two other girls, I decided to speak to friends who were dancers first, I figured they would be more convincing as they would be used to performing, I also spoke to friends relatives. I would have liked to have held auditions as suggested to me but I soon realised that I didn't have enough time, I also realised that all I need were two or three photogenic girls.

I did get two girls but unfortunately their timetable wouldn't allow for a tight scheduled project.
I spoke to many others but had no luck. Then at a meeting at uni, I saw my three friends Rishika, Tala and Ese sitting across the room, and realised how perfect they would all be for the band. They all said they would help with the project and the week after we did our first shoot.

Who is our target audience?... Realising our target audience

Notes from sketch book...
I always thought that girl bands were aimed at boys and boy bands aimed at girls but after actually doing more research into this I found it's quiet the opposite. Girl bands are manly aimed at young girls from around as young as 5 yrs to late teens or even early twenties. As a friend described they're windows into adulthood for younger people. young people look up to them as role models, they want to dress like them, behave like them, even be them.

When I realised this I saw that this was the exact audience that I wanted to target with my youth project. My youth project is designed to get youths to start thinking for themselves and not to take what ever messages the media throws at them. For example the research funded by dove shows that as a society, we have unrealistic beauty ideals that all come from the media e.g. adverts, music videos, T.V. etc. As a result so many young people are very insecure about themselves and have extremely low self esteem.
Through the youth project we want to promote REAL TALENT, help youths to achieve their goals, in a way were they are not degrading themselves,which will help boost their self esteem. We want to show them that the messages given to them through the media are not real, it's all photoshoped to look good.

Through doing this girl band project, I've found a new tool to communicate with. If I succeed with this project and people actually believe that we are a real girl band, I will be able to wake people up and highlight how we are being fooled into ideals. I plan to share all my findings from this project with every single person who believes that we are a girl band.

Some Action Plans from my note book.

Looking at Times Online

This is the girl band you can buy
Johnny Davis and John Elliott
THEY could become the ultimate in manufactured music. Four girls in their twenties have been brought together by Saatchi & Saatchi UK, the advertising agency, as a pop group that can be bought “off-the-shelf” by companies to promote their brands.
Saatchi & Saatchi clients who pay to use the still-unnamed group will have a say in its name, the song style and lyrics, as well as the brands the group wear, drink and eat.

Looking at info on manufactured bands

A manufactured band is a group of people who are put together by a record company in order to make a profit. These people have almost certainly never met before, and musical talent is very often not a serious concern. They are usually selected on looks over talent, as this seems to be the only way to tap into a young market that has little musical interest. It seems to be a case of 'who cares about music - we can sell records with sex!'.
Manufactured bands can be split into three distinct types:
· Boy Bands - These are the original - but not necessarily the best - type of manufactured band.
· Girl Bands - These are like boy bands, but set to appeal to an older audience, or a younger audience purely comprised of girls.
· Mixed Bands - These consist of members of both sexes who can interact suggestively, giving wider market appeal.
How to Spot a Manufactured Band
There are several clear indications that show whether a band can be classified as 'manufactured':
· Are there no actual instrumentalists among the band members?
· Can they dance much better than they can sing1?
· Does one sing while the others sing 'harmonies' in the background?
· Do they always mime when performing 'live'?
· Do they appear a lot on children's TV? (A manufactured band's target audience is often children, as they are the world's most gullible consumer market.)
· Do their singles constantly enter the charts at number one, and then drop down to a lower position the next week, almost invariably replaced by a near-identical song by another group?
· Do they always get other people to write their songs for them?
· Does every one of their songs have a pointless key change, usually just before the final chorus?
· Does the name of their band have a misplaced number or letter in it? (U2, Blink-182, Alabama 3 or the sadly departed Ben Folds Five don't count, but 5ive, N'sync, Hear'Say, A1 and children's entertainers S Club 7 definitely do.)
· Do they have their own children's TV series? (This is a surprisingly common one.)
If you answered 'yes' to four or more of these questions, you have probably discovered a manufactured band.

looking at other girl bands