SHR4C007R~002 Option 2: Electronic Press Kit Template
Task 1: Electronic Press Kit
https://olivercarlson.my.canva.site
Above is a link to my Website EPK.
Task 2: Supporting Commentary
In many of the EPK’s I used as a reference, they all share a home (or some may called ‘landing’) page. This is the first item anyone will see when they open up my website. To ensure that all relevant parties maintain interest and aren’t overwhelmed or confused, I decided to keep it simple, having an image of myself, a large text box with my name, as well as a short description of myself and what my USP (unique selling point) would be.
The text writes, ‘a Leeds/Liverpool Producer always achieving professional sounding quality, while aiming to support creative ideas and carry them to media-ready end results.’
This is a short description that acts as my mission statement for the front page of my website. It tells you what I achieve to do every time I take on a role akin to a studio producer, and it is general enough to encompass and account for all of the projects I work on, past, present and future.
I decided to split up my website into four different sub-headed pages. This allows for the viewers to flick through different pages in non-chronological order, so that potential promoters or collaborators can more easily find the information that they are looking for. for example, if a promoter was to require a way of contacting me, they could easily do so by going to the page titled,’ social links.’
My next page was reserved for the longer descriptions of what I do, what I specifically aim to achieve when being employed, and what my ‘why’ is. I have a main quote in the middle, which catches the viewer’s eyes more as it is in an alternative colour box, it is displayed bigger than the surrounding text boxes and it has bold, coloured lettering at the bottom. While these are simple variations, anything bigger, a different colour or in the centre of a page is going to attract an audience more. In this box is written the following;
‘Many artists in the current era of the music business feel like they have to fight back against AI, label expectations, social “normality,”
But what if that weren’t the case.
The lack of a question mark indicates that this is not a question, but a solution to the problem, and is meant to sound rhetorical. I also like the written style of my hook here, as it slips into a more informal tone. My message which I convey throughout the EPK is that working with me is going to be productive, but more importantly creatively fulfilling. To create an environment as a producer where my clients feel able to express themselves through the art requires some informality, and one of my main beliefs as a producer is that a comfortable environment allowing a performer to produce their most comfortable and natural performance is better than any equipment, and I have learned this from experience.
On this page, I also have four different paragraphs, mostly written in a slightly more journalistic manner than previously. This is because the style of writing within this EPK is meant to entice people into working with me. Most EPK’s I have seen also take this 3rd person approach and try to use this slightly hyperbolic language as a way of ‘bigging up’ the artist, and in the past, I have completed EPK’s as part of college courses and have been urged to write in third person. In terms of the uses of EPK’s, the large text is often sent to journals, magazines and reporters to be used as an editorial synopsis to a band, so already providing them in this format helps the people I would be providing the EPK to with the most useful and well-formatted information I can possibly give.
Within my paragraphs are some key points which act as my skills within my EPK. I mention that I have multiple years of studio experience and have worked with analogue desks for this time. I also mention that I do mixing and mastering too. I also mention the breadth of my projects, talking about the orchestral strings, jazz quintet and alt rock recordings I have completed in my past projects. I also mentioned how I can use these influences and experiences to do my part in creating music which isn’t rooted to one specific genre and rather tells the artist’s story in the best way possible.
Within my 3rd slide is many images and videos, as well as a link to a google drive folder with multiple different examples of my past projects. some are unmixed, while others are mixed and mastered. I tried to show varied different genres and ensured they were all labelled to indicate what was and wasn’t mixed. I also included some instagram videos and photos of patch-bays, as well as photos of the general environment. These give a visual aid to anyone viewing the EPK, so that they know the scale of the studio spaces I use and am comfortable in, as well as which gear I am proficient in. I also display some microphone techniques which are unique and display some recording knowledge. Some videos in the studios also display the way I talk to collaborators, which is an important factor for my employability as a producer.
My final page contains my social handles on TikTok and Instagram, as well as my email address which I use specifically for music-related means. I also have linked a contact sheet. I feel as though the more options I give someone to reach out, the more likely people are to reach out to work together and collaborate. I also tried to make the form informal, as I want it to be less of a definitive ‘work’ form and more of an always-open Q+A. I felt like this approach would help me to entice more people to reach out, especially when it no longer involves any formal writing, or introduction. My form has a section where I have set it up to write,’ Write Away!’, my method of making the form conversational.
In prep for the EPK creation, I wanted to outline my main goals as a producer and how I wanted to come across online, so I attended multiple weekly sessions during the creation of this EPK, consulting my peers as to how I can word my personal profiles, as well as format my site in a way which matches my goals. I was told that the images on my website were a positive means of humanising myself to a reader, which is an overarching goal which I tried to emphasise throughout. I want to be easy to work with, and friendly to all clients, so the many portraits and slightly candid Instagram posts of the studio seemed to match my aesthetic for the EPK.
These sessions also helped me to understand this goal. Within my sessions of Working In the Creative Industries, we interact and talk about our individual EPKs, and the perspectives of different creatives, whether their specialism is in an instrument or the business aspect of the industry, they all had useful information regarding my audience and how I can effectively reach them. I used the cross examining of peers and week-by-week revised my EPK to be the best display of my abilities, as well as what I can offer to the viewer.
