2. Pictured: An early shot
from the video (above
left), The CD digipak
(above right) and the
poster (below left)
From the moment I heard about the specifications of the three products I had the
early instinct to differentiate the video from the two other tasks in the poster and
digipak. This was before even choosing ‘Merry Christmas’ as the song for the video
or even pop punk as the overall project genre.
I felt the need to differentiate because in my opinion a video should act as a stand
alone piece of artistic visual accompaniment for a song and this is a convention
recognised across genres as near universal.
This is in contrast to digipaks and posters which serve to promote the general work
of the artist and their current movements. The digipak will obviously provide
packaging for a full album (long play) or single (possibly with additional tracks
making it an extended play). The poster also serves this promotional duty but can
additionally promote major other work of the artist, the most prominent secondary
subject of promotion being live concerts.
My understanding of Product combination

3. A SIDE NOTE…
• Before beginning I would like to emphasize that the decision not to include
additional Christmas imagery beyond the video and on the ancillary tasks was
a totally conscious decision.
• I felt that in a real life context the decision to include this Christmas themed
song on an album as opposed to a stand alone single was questionable
anyway. But it is not unheard of for Christmas songs to feature on full long
play albums, although I somewhat compromised on making the song a total
mainstay by labelling it as a bonus track which would probably exist on
issues of an album produced specifically for a limited time, in this case an
album featuring a Christmas bonus track would be likely to have been
produced around the Christmas holiday, which is after all a very prominent
time for record sales.

4. I WILL NOW LIST SOME OF THE MAJOR THEMES I
AIMED TO CONVEY ACROSS THE THREE TEXTS
AND ANALYSE MY IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE
THEMES UPON SAID TEXTS

5. Theme one: Darkness and distortion
When I set out to create the products in the pop punk style
I knew that a hugely important visual feature would be the
lighting of each film and photo shoot be it be organised on
the shoot day or added retrospectively in editing. The
overall aim was to generate dark and/or distorted imagery
which is instantly associated with at punk music due to
being a hugely obvious anti-conformal when compared to
most popular music imagery which is generally bright to
intrinsically link to themes generally concerning positivity
and excitement.

6. This shot from the ‘performance shoot’ collection of
the video is a good example of what I sought after
where darkness was concerned as a visual theme.
The dark nature of the shot is owed in no small part
to the set of my garage. This secluded indoor space
negated any inherent ideas of brightness gleaned
from ambient light. The use of an ordinary multi
purpose spot light made for a low key lighting effect
and the high angle of the light allowed for a greatly
emphasised shadow from Josh. This provided a dark
undertone within the video which was reaffirmed by
the areas in shot but not focused on by the spot
light. These areas which I would label the periphery
of the shot allow for superior focus upon Josh whilst
further conveying darkness. I was particularly
pleased with this collection of shots where the
background multi-coloured fairy lights provided
excellent lighting contrast. In this shot lights are
visible both within and out of Josh’s shadow.
However it is those within the shadow that are the
most visually striking. In reality this is down to their
visual effect being greater in conditions of a shadow
rather than being somewhat diluted by a powerful
light. The narrative connotations of this are far
greater however and dictate that Josh’s shadow
(representing themes of darkness linked to punk
music) is more powerful than the bright light
(representing Christmas)…

7. I aimed to somewhat further this idea of Punk’s darkness triumphing over the establish
order’s light within my Digipak and poster where I shot all photos upon the same day. This
particular day was exactly what I was looking for: it was beautifully sunny. This allowed for
ideal conditions for ambient lit photographs. The reason I chose this day which was in total
contrast to the dark and dingy themes established within the video and indeed pop punk as
a genre in general was simple, I wanted conflict…
Here (left) is an extracted part of my poster for which I used entirely visually
unedited photos of Josh and displayed the conditions of ambient sunlight present
on the day of the photo shoot. It can certainly be considered an atypical course of
action to take for this genre but I felt that in doing so I had several advantages.
Firstly if we assume in a real life situation that the poster would be released
before the digipak as is the norm, it gives the audience (many of them probably
discovering Josh for the first time as an unsigned young artist) a more accurate
profile of Josh as an unestablished musician releasing his debut album.
Furthermore upon the actual releases of products, the collective photographs on
the poster and digipak would identifiable instantly as the same artist due to the
deliberate similarity of the photographs. I also feel lack of general visual
distortion allows the audience to read the expressions/body language of Josh in
this context of a ‘nice, sunny day’ he looks bored and furthermore discomforted
in this particular photo, the use of sunglasses as another atypical feature of punk
show that he is perhaps bothered by the light as a force which makes his abandon
the punk dress style in this aspect.

8. • Another advantage of this sunlight
photography on the poster was that it
afforded the opportunity for more
playfully spirited photos. A real nuance
of pop punk as a specific sub genre is
that it generally encourages a degree of
humour within it’s operations. Here Josh
is seen laughing whilst lurching onto the
amplifier as an auxiliary pillow, it is the
sort of photo pop punk artists are more
inclined to include within their actual
work as they see fun whilst working as a
vital motivation of what they do!

9. I endeavoured to juxtapose the idea of ambient light upon
the poster to my goal of a more favourable punk visual on the digipak.
This results in photos instantly connected from poster to digipak on account
of similarity and yet two commendable stand alone texts due to their
differentiation at the editing stage. Here (left) I included a distorted image of
Josh achieved by very simple layering of photos taken from similar positions
(the two farther right layers of the three overall were taken as part of a ‘multi
burst’ set of photos achieved by increasing the shutter speed). I feel this use
of distortion is indicative of punk in a manor outside of the more
commonplace darkening of shots within the genre. The distortion of the
photos aims to generate bedazzlement within the view of the beholder and
therefore provide similar confrontation visually as to what can be seen in the
video. The technique is also particularly appropriate for the punk genre as it
delivers similar visuals multiple times within one photo in a similar spirit to
which punk lyrics are often repeated in a screaming tone for effect i.e. in
‘Merry Christmas’ “…there are people who have nothing, nothing, nothing!”
The layering also negates what ought to be a very bright image when the
original photos are viewed alone. This carries an intrinsic message from the
world of punk in that that the united punk community (represented by the
layered visuals) can overpower the alleged oppressive forces that punk
generally criticizes which can be loosely labelled ‘the established order’.

10. These photographs document the clearest of how the digipak
aimed to convey darkness and distortion. I very deliberately
included all of these which were, as one can imply, shot from the
same sequence. I think they work effectively together on the
digipak because of their subjective similarity of Josh walking away
which is edited into dark and dingy visuals but the differences
because of the unwavering subject are made somehow more
striking and the variety of the visuals is greatly emphasised. In
this way I feel I have conveyed Punk’s dark themes as a thing of
beauty which I hope as the implied message would be inherent to
any potential viewer of the digipak.

11. • Overall I feel I successfully incorporated dark and distorted
visuals where intended across the Video and Digipak. And
generated intrigue with atypical punk imagery with the ambient
light emphasising poster. Assuming the poster would be
released first as with most staggered releasing of artist’s new
material, I think the three items function well as a collective
where dark and distorted visuals are concerned.

12. • Theme two: Confrontation and humour
• Confrontation was a feature both I as the director/photographer
and Josh my artist and star of the three texts felt very strongly
about in terms of really pushing as a key element of the project’s
authenticity. Pop punk differs from its parent genre punk slightly in
that confrontation from artist to audience is not quite as outwardly
aggressive, as the genre’s name suggests it incorporates popular
music tendencies as a revived version of the original genre. This
allows for interaction between artist and audience in both an
aggressive (but not overly so) outward manor and a sort of co-
operative humour can also be shared.

13. On subject of both confrontation and
humour I included this particular shot
(both images are from it) upon the
beginning of the final verse at which
point the song has built to a crescendo
and I felt the time was proper to
include what I considered to be the
most directly confrontational footage I
had of Josh. His committed delivery of
this line straight into a camera using
an exceptionally wide angle made for a
highly confrontational shot. However I
must admit upon my own viewing of
the footage for the first time I found it
rather humorous. It is not that the
performance is poor but rather it is
rather strong in a context that is
fundamentally jovial in Christmas. The
strong delivery of this line amidst
other striking imagery such as the
burning tree serves to make it work on
a level which could well be construed
as melodrama!

14. I believe these shots to be more outwardly
confrontational in their design. Firstly the image
of Josh as a high angled shot with a partially lit
face and a large shadow, is not dissimilar to a
stereotypical horror film shot where a
protagonist might be alluding to a sinister and
mysterious story. By placing it within the
context of Christmas I was aiming to challenge
my audience’s perceptions of the holiday…
And to further this challenge I decided to
take what I suspected would be a major
part of the audience’s established
Christmas imagery in the Christmas tree
and set it on fire! The aim of this was to
both display the weakness of Christmas
shown by a diminutive tree burning very
easily and to insight overall shock within
the audience by destroying what for most
people is a beloved symbol of a popular
family orientated holiday!

15. Upon the digipak the confrontation I
aimed for was not as blatant but the
methods I used were still able to
generate a sense of Josh as a
domineering presence. I continued the
multi-layering process on the back cover
of the digipak and where the front cover
appears as though it is a single distorted
image which reverberates slightly, on
the back I opted for a fairly defined
overlay of three images which almost
appears to multiply Josh and establish a
kind of supernatural concept to the
digipak which will extend further…
Before I fully explain this point however,
when observing Josh wielding two
guitars in his sitting position the
audience gets the simple message of a
punk musician who almost does the
work of two men in terms of his skilled
craft and potentially even how loud he
is.

16. These specific seating mannerisms and use of the sign reading ‘ELIPHAS LEVI
DEL’ was obviously not something that occurred by accident and my use of it
across the poster and more prominently on the digipak was in a subtle sense
just about the most confrontational imagery possible. This is because of the
image these collective photos drew inspiration from…

17. This (left) is the image of the populist nineteenth century satanic deity
Baphomet. I don’t claim to be an expert on the origins of what is quite a
heavily debated image here. However the crux of the point of using this
image for inspiration was that as an image associated with strong mystical
traditions which were against a strong established order of the time in the
church I feel it’s anarchic message is somewhat reflected with Josh’s own
work particularly when it is considered Christmas obviously has entirely
Christian roots.
Although I maintain my own interpretation of Baphomet had
greater prominence on the Digipak, this image from the
poster (left) is probably the best likeness I captured. I would
like to stress I always intended the interpretation to be loose
which further pushes my overall aim of creating
confrontational imagery which could still contain a
prominent pop punk feature in humour. With features such
as a denim jacket as opposed to a bare chest and guitars to
replace wings my interpretation can be considered a light
hearted allusion to what is often courted as a hugely striking
image. I wanted to keep it to nothing more than this as
within the wider rock genre satanic imagery is generally
recognised to be oriented around the metal genre and it’s
various sub genres and I did not wish to cause unnecessary
confusion by over emphasising the point.

18. In terms of outwardly humorous content within the video
which was bereft of any great cynicism I would cite these two
shots as a particularly pleasing achievement. About 40
seconds into the song Josh sings a pair of lines reading firstly:
“What will you give this year? Will it be intrinsic love?” followed
by “Or instrumental love through material goods”. I have a
basic knowledge of musical rhythm having studied the subject
in my earlier education and in the production phase I cited
that in between these two lyrics was a three beat followed by
another three beat pause after the second lyric. Therefore I
cited an opportunity to echo the ‘call and response’ spirit of
these lyrics within the visuals by including two shots separated
by the singing of the lyrics which are clearly intended to be
viewed as a sequential pair.
In order to add humour to these shots I
decided to pay homage to what I can only
describe as a commonplace popular
culture reference of the receiving a ‘lump
of coal’ as a Christmas gift for the first
shot I panned down to the rather
unspectacular sight of the coal (left)…
Which was then responded to by an
excellently performed look of
disdain from Josh whose quality of
acting here truly delivers what I
consider to be an excellent visual
punchline (below)

19. Although these images may not appear to be obviously
humorous I feel that they are in the spirit that they are
somewhat out of place within a punk context as they
are photographic poses. This is something not
associated with punk but rather with the sorts of
institutions it mocks such as the celebrities and pop
idols of the world. The far left image appears to show
Josh hold the neck of one of the guitars of the other
layered image however taken alone this image is simply
a reference we decided upon to the coveted celebrity
‘lean pose’ which myself and Josh both felt might have
humorous connotations if photographed due to what we
quantify as it being overrated as a favourable look. The
nearer image is slightly more nondescript in it’s
referential quality, just to say it is not an unusual similar
image to many singer-songwriters album covers of the
stereotypical image of the travelling musician armed
only with a guitar trying to hitchhike to their next stop,
this actually quite desolate image is quite a common
album cover motif so I thought again in a humorous
sense that I should accommodate this image. The
humour is more subtle than perhaps featured in the
video but these are after all still images and cannot
develop character. What was important to me was to
feature of some description across the texts.

20. • Overall I was satisfied that I achieved a level of
visual balance for humour and confrontation as
differing themes of the pop punk genre
functioning as one. With a more reserved
approach on the poster which then intensified on
the digipak and climaxed at the video. I felt the
combination of these two features which for my
mind form the ‘spirit’ of punk was sufficiently
present across my three texts to at least aid their
status of being viewed as a single package of
mutually complimenting features.

21. • Theme three: Emphasis on performance
• As pop punk is a genre very concerned with preserving musicianship
within it’s general image, I was also keen to display this idea.
• Where other genres are becoming increasingly saturated with
perhaps themes secondary to the musical craft, pop punk’s image
continues to press it’s vital musical craft imagery primarily the
electric guitar but also other equipment such as the amplifier and
microphones and similar dress to worn whilst performing to a
traditional pop punk audience.

22. • I felt that the inclusion of electric guitars throughout the almost the entirety
of the three products made them easily identifiable as falling within at least
the broader Rock genres.
On this part of the
photo I included guitars
within the
aforementioned
‘Baphomet pose’ which
emphasised punk
musicianship even
within this satanic
reference
Here as within both the
digipak and even the
video I included shots
of Josh’s guitar case
which was a more
subtle reference to
musicianship.
Here I incorporated the
amplifier in a slightly
more jovial sense to
it’s use elsewhere
across the texts, with
it acting as a ‘pillow’
for Josh here on the
poster
Here I subtly included Josh within the YouTube
symbol which I thought would give the
audience the idea of seeing him perform as in
this picture, on YouTube as an accessible
source of viewing.

23. These excerpts from the digipak display how I
incorporated performance themes into the
product via imagery of equipment, the dominant
influence being the guitar. The bottom left
photo is one of the aforementioned sequential
set featuring upon the product which detail Josh
walking farther away. Not only does it portray
him with a sense of isolation but also suggests
that this guitar he carries is his only friend which
is not an uncommon association within the often
brooding and bad tempered moods of pop
punk.
The various guitar images also noticeably
survive the various destructive style editing
techniques in order to portray the strength of
pop punk music even through adverse
circumstances.
This picture from behind the
amplifier was attractive to me
because it details an image
almost from the point of view of
the artist as only they would
usually see behind the amplifier.
Therefore it almost gives ‘behind
the scenes’ to the potential fans.

24. This is one of a collection of close up shots from the performance
section of the video. As well as ensuring Josh sang the song whilst
clearly annunciating his lyrics to allow me to portray accurate ‘lip
syncing’ in the editing stage, I myself made sure to include footage of
the microphone as a diegetic prop in the foreground to enhance the
authenticity of the performance.
I also included this right sided and low angled shot down the neck of
the guitar during an early short lyrical break. Shots of this ilk are a
fairly common motif of general rock music footage both in music
videos and live performance footage. I felt I executed it quite well
and in doing so somewhat proved that Josh is very proficient at
playing the guitar.

25. I was also keen to use a variety of different of
mid to long range shots such as those
pictured in order to give my audience several
perspectives of the hypothetical performance
of the song. Small though the performance
space was, punk music has a rich tradition of
being performed live in very small locations
which in turn creates a very intimate
atmosphere. Although that was not the actual
reality of the video, it was this kind of
atmosphere I attempted to re-kindle to some
degree within the video.

26. I was also able to convey the idea of performance
within a different collection of shots from a
different video shoot for the narrative part of the
video. I loosely dubbed this collection ‘The Santa's
grotto footage’ due to it’s styling being based
somewhat upon the popular yet ideological
Christmastime space. Although the concept of
these shots was for Josh to be clearly reading from
the book which the audience even take the place of
in the shot seen here on the bottom left as a ‘point
of view shot’. However aside from investing the
audience with the reading of the lyrics from the
book concept, I hope that these shots also
conveyed good performance visuals via strong
performance, accurate lip syncing and a good
variety of angles as within the expressed
performance shots.

27. • Overall I feel that across all three products I suitably emphasised performance visuals which I
believe was a key step to achieving an overall collection which was suitable for the pop punk
genre by respecting it’s strong heritage of musicianship incorporated within style. The use of
not only a guitar and amplifier but even the same model across each production gave them a
defined relationship with one another. I am particularly pleased that I included Josh’s
trademark guitar case on each product. The fact it has his real name inscribed on it (Josh P)
was an added advantage to the depth of the viewer’s access to the artist on a personal level,
in the video in particular I would submit it serves as an unintentional ‘Easter egg’ or hidden
feature within an entertainment texts for fans to discover, interpret and enjoy. It was just
another galvanising feature between three products that became truly united by a strong
identity of specific guitars and an amplifier, which carried notions of the wider pop punk
genre.
An excerpt from the video showing
Josh’s named guitar case which proved
not only a consistent and prominent
feature but a possible ‘Easter egg’ for
fans to spot within the released texts
and even hypothetical future texts.

28. In summary I feel than my video was well fitting as part of an overall package with the poster and
digipak. I met the broad aim of differentiating the video to these two ancillary tasks but maintained
clear pop punk orientated production across each of the tasks.
To maximise the impact of the products in the sense of audience captivation I would certainly
release them in the aforementioned order of poster, digipak and video. Although the latter two
products would be perhaps interchangeable I would strongly stipulate that the poster be released
first as it gives the greatest introductory quality to Josh as an unsigned artist releasing his debut.
Overall I think that the products I crafted would assist with his recognition should he choose to
release them as official accompaniment to his music. I can say this with comfortable conviction
because of the suitable functioning of the video and ancillary tasks as a complimentary trio.