This is a post to introduce you to my blog, tell you what my blog entails and what I have liked this year throughout A2 Media Studies. I have decided to sum up this post through a podcast:
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Tuesday 3 April 2018
MVID: Final Cut
Here is my final cut for my music video. Below I have stated how I have changed the video since the last rough cut.
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What I have changed since the last rough cut:
1. Colour corrected all the footage of the girl alone after the breakup with a light blue tint to create a cold feel to the video.
2. Added a CU of a burning photograph of the couple as the ending closing shot. Then I layered that shot with an ELS of the girl walking in the distance at utopolis in Kirchberg (3:44).
3. Added a CU of a burning photograph of the couple at the start of the video to put the narrative a bit more into some context. Then I layered that shot with an ELS of a street with a zebra crossing in Kirchberg with cars passing by.
4. Added more colour correction on the lip syncing shots e.g. made the redscreen background shots pink instead of red.
5. I have changed one really grainy CU shot of the girl character's face to a better non-grainy CU shot of the girl character's face (2:56).
6. I have added some layering to the shots where the lyrics go "He's floating in my bloodstream now", for example by adding a CU shot of the girl character swimming underwater over a shot of the girl character dancing in the club and over a MLS of the ex boyfriend walking alone at night (2:08).
7. Added a MCU shot of the artist lip syncing near the very end of the track over a quick fast editing pace section (3:15 - 3:16).
8. Took away the colour correction on one set of the intimate footage where the lyrics are "Holding me close, breathe on my skin, lips down my body", I thought the colour correction there looked quite false and edited on. I wanted to create the look that it was colourful lighting creating that effect.
9. Changed the shot at 2:04 - 2:07 by adding a LS of the city at night and duplicating the shot of the blurry lights which are all layered over a MS of the artist lip syncing with pink long curly hair.
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What I have changed since the last rough cut:
1. Colour corrected all the footage of the girl alone after the breakup with a light blue tint to create a cold feel to the video.
2. Added a CU of a burning photograph of the couple as the ending closing shot. Then I layered that shot with an ELS of the girl walking in the distance at utopolis in Kirchberg (3:44).
3. Added a CU of a burning photograph of the couple at the start of the video to put the narrative a bit more into some context. Then I layered that shot with an ELS of a street with a zebra crossing in Kirchberg with cars passing by.
4. Added more colour correction on the lip syncing shots e.g. made the redscreen background shots pink instead of red.
5. I have changed one really grainy CU shot of the girl character's face to a better non-grainy CU shot of the girl character's face (2:56).
6. I have added some layering to the shots where the lyrics go "He's floating in my bloodstream now", for example by adding a CU shot of the girl character swimming underwater over a shot of the girl character dancing in the club and over a MLS of the ex boyfriend walking alone at night (2:08).
7. Added a MCU shot of the artist lip syncing near the very end of the track over a quick fast editing pace section (3:15 - 3:16).
8. Took away the colour correction on one set of the intimate footage where the lyrics are "Holding me close, breathe on my skin, lips down my body", I thought the colour correction there looked quite false and edited on. I wanted to create the look that it was colourful lighting creating that effect.
9. Changed the shot at 2:04 - 2:07 by adding a LS of the city at night and duplicating the shot of the blurry lights which are all layered over a MS of the artist lip syncing with pink long curly hair.
WEBSITE: Final Website
Here is a link to my final website:
https://eviegibbons939.wixsite.com/astridsmusic
On top of putting the link to my website, I have made a screen recording where I take you through my final website. I made it so in case there are any technical problems with wix.com when going on it, it will still be able to be seen through this video. Also, I wanted to do it so that I could show off my website with existing present tour dates for June and July otherwise by the time it may be marked, the tour dates will have disappeared. In this video I also talk about my influences for some sections of my website.
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I have also made a powerpoint which has screenshots of each page on my website:
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https://eviegibbons939.wixsite.com/astridsmusic
On top of putting the link to my website, I have made a screen recording where I take you through my final website. I made it so in case there are any technical problems with wix.com when going on it, it will still be able to be seen through this video. Also, I wanted to do it so that I could show off my website with existing present tour dates for June and July otherwise by the time it may be marked, the tour dates will have disappeared. In this video I also talk about my influences for some sections of my website.
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I have also made a powerpoint which has screenshots of each page on my website:
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DIGIPAK: Final Digipak with Lyric Booklet
Please be aware that I have made it so that the image of my digipak (which is below) has been made so that it is able to be printed out and made into a physical digipak copy. This means the inner panels in the final digipak image are upside down because of how it would look when printing it. Because of this, to make the inner panels easier to look at, I have added an image of the inner panels the right way up -
THE FINAL DIGIPAK:
LYRIC BOOKLET:
For my lyric booklet I wanted to include a variety of shots of the artists with different costumes throughout - some costumes from the music video for 'bloodstream' and some with the costume from the front + rear digipak panels images.
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For the front panel of my lyric booklet I decided to choose the front cover image of my digipak.
I experimented with lots of different effects for my lyric booklet, for this first page I layered an image from my music video for the track 'bloodstream' over an image of the artist wearing the same costume as in the front panel image and back panel image. This creates a sense of branding between the 2 products (digipak + music video).
I wanted there to be a small link between the lyric booklet and the digipak external panels (front + back).
I then put a pink solid colour layer over the two image layers and changed the blending mode so that you could still see the image of the artist.
Here is another page of my lyric booklet. I took an image of the artist wearing one of costumes that she wore in my music video for 'Bloodstream'. This creates a sense of branding between the two products (digipak + music video).
I made 2 digipak unwrapping videos for the Evaluation Question 3a - Audience, in the first video below, I act as a fan who has just bought the digipak from the store HMV and then doing an unwrapping video. Then in the second video I act as the artist, Astrid S, launching/unwrapping the first ever printed version of the digipak album and showing fans, giving them exclusive info about it.
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THE FINAL DIGIPAK:
LYRIC BOOKLET:
For my lyric booklet I wanted to include a variety of shots of the artists with different costumes throughout - some costumes from the music video for 'bloodstream' and some with the costume from the front + rear digipak panels images.
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| Front page of lyric booklet |
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| 1st page of lyric booklet |
I wanted there to be a small link between the lyric booklet and the digipak external panels (front + back).
I then put a pink solid colour layer over the two image layers and changed the blending mode so that you could still see the image of the artist.
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| Back page of lyric booklet |
I made 2 digipak unwrapping videos for the Evaluation Question 3a - Audience, in the first video below, I act as a fan who has just bought the digipak from the store HMV and then doing an unwrapping video. Then in the second video I act as the artist, Astrid S, launching/unwrapping the first ever printed version of the digipak album and showing fans, giving them exclusive info about it.
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EVALUATION Q1a: Conventions
EVALUATION Q1a: How do your products use or challenge conventions?
For the A2 music promo package brief, I created a music video for Astrid S's "Bloodstream" (2017), a downbeat 'electropop' track with fast-paced sections, a website for Astrid S and a digipak for her fake new album that I created and named 'Bloodstream'.
For this question I decided to firstly create an interview between me and my mum: my mum playing the role of the presenter/interviewer and me playing the role of a book author who has just recently published a book about electropop genre conventions within music videos, albums (either jewel case, vinyl or digipak) and websites. Secondly I decided to create three influences videos, one which takes you through all my influences for my music video, one which takes you through all my influences for my website and finally one which takes you through all my influences for my digipak. Thirdly, I decided to create a video mimicking the 'Top of the Pops' with the top 10 music video conventions.
INTERVIEW WITH BOOK AUTHOR
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INFLUENCES VIDEO FOR MY DIGIPAK
For the A2 music promo package brief, I created a music video for Astrid S's "Bloodstream" (2017), a downbeat 'electropop' track with fast-paced sections, a website for Astrid S and a digipak for her fake new album that I created and named 'Bloodstream'.
For this question I decided to firstly create an interview between me and my mum: my mum playing the role of the presenter/interviewer and me playing the role of a book author who has just recently published a book about electropop genre conventions within music videos, albums (either jewel case, vinyl or digipak) and websites. Secondly I decided to create three influences videos, one which takes you through all my influences for my music video, one which takes you through all my influences for my website and finally one which takes you through all my influences for my digipak. Thirdly, I decided to create a video mimicking the 'Top of the Pops' with the top 10 music video conventions.
INTERVIEW WITH BOOK AUTHOR
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INFLUENCES VIDEO FOR MY DIGIPAK
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INFLUENCES VIDEO FOR MY WEBSITE
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INFLUENCES VIDEO FOR MY WEBSITE
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I SAW I DID/INFLUENCES VIDEO FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO
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I SAW I DID/INFLUENCES VIDEO FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO
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TOP OF THE POPS CONVENTIONS VIDEO
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Here is a bulleted list of general music video conventions:
Special Effects (SFX)
The Script:
The first thing I will look at is Locations. There were many videos I looked at which inspired me location wise. The first one was the original video for the song I have chosen to make a music video for Astrid S - Bloodstream. I really liked the location of a city in Indonesia. You can denote skyscrapers, buildings, urban sidewalks, zebra crossings, pavements, roads etc.
The second video I was influenced by is Chase Atlantic's Triggered video. Again, the location for the video was a city. You see moving tracking shots of the city from the view of a car and out of a car window. I love how the shots are moving shots. I tried to include some moving shots of a city in my music video by sitting in a car with the camera sticking out of the window while the car is moving.
Third video I was influenced by for location is Halsey - Ghost. This video is set in an urban unidentified city even though there are chinese signifiers due to the chinese writing seen on the buildings in the video. The city is left as unidentified in order to emphasize the world of the artist who is a character in a fictional, conceptualised world within the video.
Fourth video I was inspired by for location is Jakwob's Somebody New. You denote a young woman in her 20s strolling around a city or urban area at night time trying to move on and forget a lover. She then enters a club and dances away to forget her ex lover. This is where I got the idea to create a club scene for my music video.
Moving on to underwater shots and scenes. I was influenced by several videos to do underwater filming such as the fan made video for Bring me the horizon's 'Run'. You see shots of a man in a bath with his eyes closed underwater. You also see him splash water on his face and of him swimming underwater. And as you can see I tried to recreate some of the shots used in this music video for example ECUs and Close ups of the girl's face underwater with her eyes closed. Another video which does this is Bring Me the Horizon's fan made video for 'Deathbeds'. You see a woman underwater swimming and lip syncing in a dress. I was influenced by that video too as you can see here, my mum found an old dress in our house that she no longer wears and said I can use it for the filming underwater, it was the perfect fabric I had in mind and flouncy which is exactly what I wanted.
Third video I was influenced by to have underwater footage is Seven Lions' Days To Come. Yet again you see a female character underwater swimming, turning around and twirling in a dress. Many videos I found that had underwater footage had a female character underwater usually always wearing a flouncy, big dress which floated very easily and draped out underwater.
Another video I was influenced by for underwater footage was Astrid S's 2AM. There are shots of the singer underwater in black water with a pink light shining on her from above. I really liked the idea of the colourful lighting effect on someone underwater but practically this was just to complex of a thing to do because I am not trained in lighting and did not have access to a private pool to create that complex setup. As you can see here I tried to recreate some of the shots from this video in my own video. I was able to get the permission to film in a pool but only for 30 minutes so I couldn't take that many shots.
Moving onto colour correction and use of colour gels in music videos, I was influenced by firstly the video Halsey - Ghost. In this video as you can see there is frequent heavy use of colour correction and colourful lighting. This is a very common convention of the electropop genre. I therefore tried to use a lot of colour correction and colourful lighting in my music video - as you can see here I used colour gels to create a red/purple effect on the footage. Also, the flashing colourful lights in the club helped to create this effect too as you can see with the blue colour on the club footage.
I was also influenced by the colour correction and lighting in the videos for Astrid S - Such A Boy, Tove Lo - Disco Tits, Marshmello - Spotlight and Somewhere Else - Move Together.
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The first thing I will look at is Locations. There were many videos I looked at which inspired me location wise. The first one was the original video for the song I have chosen to make a music video for Astrid S - Bloodstream. I really liked the location of a city in Indonesia. You can denote skyscrapers, buildings, urban sidewalks, zebra crossings, pavements, roads etc.
The second video I was influenced by is Chase Atlantic's Triggered video. Again, the location for the video was a city. You see moving tracking shots of the city from the view of a car and out of a car window. I love how the shots are moving shots. I tried to include some moving shots of a city in my music video by sitting in a car with the camera sticking out of the window while the car is moving.
Third video I was influenced by for location is Halsey - Ghost. This video is set in an urban unidentified city even though there are chinese signifiers due to the chinese writing seen on the buildings in the video. The city is left as unidentified in order to emphasize the world of the artist who is a character in a fictional, conceptualised world within the video.
Fourth video I was inspired by for location is Jakwob's Somebody New. You denote a young woman in her 20s strolling around a city or urban area at night time trying to move on and forget a lover. She then enters a club and dances away to forget her ex lover. This is where I got the idea to create a club scene for my music video.
Moving on to underwater shots and scenes. I was influenced by several videos to do underwater filming such as the fan made video for Bring me the horizon's 'Run'. You see shots of a man in a bath with his eyes closed underwater. You also see him splash water on his face and of him swimming underwater. And as you can see I tried to recreate some of the shots used in this music video for example ECUs and Close ups of the girl's face underwater with her eyes closed. Another video which does this is Bring Me the Horizon's fan made video for 'Deathbeds'. You see a woman underwater swimming and lip syncing in a dress. I was influenced by that video too as you can see here, my mum found an old dress in our house that she no longer wears and said I can use it for the filming underwater, it was the perfect fabric I had in mind and flouncy which is exactly what I wanted.
Third video I was influenced by to have underwater footage is Seven Lions' Days To Come. Yet again you see a female character underwater swimming, turning around and twirling in a dress. Many videos I found that had underwater footage had a female character underwater usually always wearing a flouncy, big dress which floated very easily and draped out underwater.
Another video I was influenced by for underwater footage was Astrid S's 2AM. There are shots of the singer underwater in black water with a pink light shining on her from above. I really liked the idea of the colourful lighting effect on someone underwater but practically this was just to complex of a thing to do because I am not trained in lighting and did not have access to a private pool to create that complex setup. As you can see here I tried to recreate some of the shots from this video in my own video. I was able to get the permission to film in a pool but only for 30 minutes so I couldn't take that many shots.
Moving onto colour correction and use of colour gels in music videos, I was influenced by firstly the video Halsey - Ghost. In this video as you can see there is frequent heavy use of colour correction and colourful lighting. This is a very common convention of the electropop genre. I therefore tried to use a lot of colour correction and colourful lighting in my music video - as you can see here I used colour gels to create a red/purple effect on the footage. Also, the flashing colourful lights in the club helped to create this effect too as you can see with the blue colour on the club footage.
I was also influenced by the colour correction and lighting in the videos for Astrid S - Such A Boy, Tove Lo - Disco Tits, Marshmello - Spotlight and Somewhere Else - Move Together.
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TOP OF THE POPS CONVENTIONS VIDEO
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I mixed two of Firth's basic video types, performance and narrative, and had a female protagonist leading my narrative on a journey of grief after a breakup. She sees flashbacks of her ex and of them together in all the places that they used to go to.
Here is a bulleted list of general music video conventions:
1. Narrative, Performance and Concept, 3 video types (Simon Firth)
2. Linear or Fragmented Narrative (Todorov)
3. Andrew Goodwin's 6 Features of Music Videos:
- Display genre characteristics
- Relationship between visuals and lyrics
- Relationship between music and visuals
- Lots of close ups of artist used, artist may develop their own visual style which recurs across their work.
- Notion of looking (mirrors, screens within screens), voyeuristic treatment of female body.
- Intertextual references to films, TV, other music videos.
4. Presence of titles (diegetic or intertitles)
5. Costume changes, multiple locations used
6. Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' is exploited
7. Special effects (SFX) are commonly used e.g. slow motion or layering.
8. Diegetic intro and/or outro.
I will split the conventions up with the headings:
I will split the conventions up with the headings:
- Intertextuality
- Narrative
- Lip Syncing Performance
- Titles
- Costume Changes, Multiple Locations used
- Special Effects (SFX)
- Genre Characteristics
- Notion of Looking
- Lots of Close Ups of Artist
- Relationship between visuals and lyrics
- Relationship between music and visuals
- Diegetic intro and/or outro
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is used to widen secondary audience appeal, especially an older secondary audience appeal. For example a music video that has clear intertextuality is blackbear's 'do re mi' (feat. Gucci Mane). The intertextual reference is to the film 'The Sound of Music'.
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| blackbear's 'do re mi' (feat. Gucci Mane) |
I have some intertextual references in my music video. One of them is to the existing music video for the song I chose: 'Astrid S - Bloodstream'. I was heavily inspired by that video.
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| Astrid S's 'Bloodstream' |
Narrative
Narrative in my video
Narrative in my video
I created a linear narrative which consisted of a male and female protagonist who were at first a happy couple, which I denoted through the footage of them doing things together such as kissing, sitting together on a bench talking, talking while eating in a fast food place, going swimming then kissing underwater and going to the cinema together. Towards the end of the video, they breakup, this is denoted in the shots of the couple having a heated argument outside with lots of hand gestures, then the girl physically pushes the boy away, then he puts his hands up, shouting, which leads to him walking away leaving her all alone.
Other elements of my narrative include the female main protagonist strolling through a city at night all alone after the breakup with smudged make-up connoting that she has been crying/is crying.
Lip Syncing Performance
This is the most common convention and the most important feature of a music video. If the lip-syncing does not achieve verisimilitude it won't look very good.
I decided that I wanted to be the singer/artist in my music video because then everything could look and be exactly how I planned and I'd be sure the lip syncing is how I would want it to look like: clear and synced with the music. I realised it would look achieve more realism if I actually sang with the song while I filmed myself lip syncing, therefore, it actually looks like I'm singing.
Presence of Titles
I decided not to include titles in my music video, even though after looking at many examples I found that most of them had titles at the start such as MØ's 'Kamikaze', Somewhere Else's 'Move Together' and Astrid S's 'Such A Boy'.
The Astrid S example had the artist title and the track title. The font is in neon colours and has sci-fi connotations due to the laser effect you can see.
Costume Changes, Multiple Locations Used
I used many different costumes for my characters in my music video. This is a common convention in general genre music videos and electro pop genre music videos.
For the performance footage, I made my artist (me) wear many different costumes throughout. The first was a lilac slightly turtle neck mesh see through crop top with dark red lipstick, blonde hair, nose ring and black eyeliner.
The second costume was blonde/green hair with green spectacle rounded glasses, black eyeliner, nose ring, a black t-shirt and dark red lipstick.
The third costume for performance was a black, red and white tight crop top (from 'O'Mighty' - alternative fashionable clothing store in Singapore), pink straight hair, black eyeliner, pink eyeshadow, a see through clear heart choker and skin colour/pink lipstick.
The costumes I decided that the female protagonist would wear are light, relaxed clothes to connote how carefree and relaxed the female character was when she was in the relationship with her ex boyfriend. As you can see in the intimate shots she wears purple Kappa sweatpants and a small crop top.
Here she wears a white simple top and has pink hair. I also wanted to show that this couple had been together for many years, to do this I decided that the female character would change colour hair - to connote passage of time or ellipsis. So in the image above, she has blonde hair (which was actually a wig) and in this image she has pink hair.
I decided that the costume for the main female protagonist after the breakup would be slightly different to the main female protagonist before the breakup (still in the couple). I decided that she would have more of a rebel, dark look to her after the breakup to show that she is sad and angry. I chose her to wear black smudged heavy eye make-up (mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow) to connote that she has been crying.
Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' is exploited
Lip Syncing Performance
This is the most common convention and the most important feature of a music video. If the lip-syncing does not achieve verisimilitude it won't look very good.
I decided that I wanted to be the singer/artist in my music video because then everything could look and be exactly how I planned and I'd be sure the lip syncing is how I would want it to look like: clear and synced with the music. I realised it would look achieve more realism if I actually sang with the song while I filmed myself lip syncing, therefore, it actually looks like I'm singing.
Presence of Titles
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| MØ - Kamikaze |
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| Astrid S - Such A Boy |
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| Somewhere Else - Move Together |
I used many different costumes for my characters in my music video. This is a common convention in general genre music videos and electro pop genre music videos.
For the performance footage, I made my artist (me) wear many different costumes throughout. The first was a lilac slightly turtle neck mesh see through crop top with dark red lipstick, blonde hair, nose ring and black eyeliner. 
Here she wears a white simple top and has pink hair. I also wanted to show that this couple had been together for many years, to do this I decided that the female character would change colour hair - to connote passage of time or ellipsis. So in the image above, she has blonde hair (which was actually a wig) and in this image she has pink hair.
Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' is exploited
I exploited Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' by having objectifying shots of the female character e.g. when she is doing intimate things with the male character. As I have stated in the influences video for my music video, for the intimate shots of the couple, I was inspired by the music videos: Halsey - Ghost, Drumsound and Bassline Smith - Through The Night and Somewhere Else - Move Together. These videos all include intimate shots of a couple doing things together either slightly sexually or romantically. As you can see I included CU shots of the male character touching the girl's body which is evidently objectifying.
Special Effects (SFX)
I used a variety of special effects in my entire promo package, especially for the digipak. For the digipak, I watched many photoshop tutorials on YouTube on how to create certain effects e.g. Double Exposure effect, Distortion effect, Glitch effect and a colourful layer glitch effect. I decided in the end on using the double exposure effect on the main image on the front panel/cover as you can see here -
I double exposed two screenshot images of city streets from the music video I made, over a Medium shot image of the artist, Astrid S (aka me). I specifically made sure that one of the image screenshots covered all the hair sections only then I made sure the other image screenshot covered all the top that the artist is wearing.
In terms of the music video, I used many different special effects such as layering, greenscreen, colour correction, filters etc.
I was influenced to use the special effect of colour correction from the music video examples Halsey - Ghost, Somewhere Else - Move Together, Marshmellow - Spotlight and Astrid S - Such A Boy. Colour correction is a common convention of the electropop genre so that is why I included it into my video.
As you can see on the left, I also experimented with the use of layering, I really liked the effect it created on the footage. I was inspired to include layering after looking at the example Chase Atlantic - Swim, Halsey - Ghost and Chase Atlantic - Triggered.
I really liked the Halsey example because of how there is a shot of a city layered over one of the female character's faces. I was really inspired by that example.
In terms of the music video, I used many different special effects such as layering, greenscreen, colour correction, filters etc.
I was influenced to use the special effect of colour correction from the music video examples Halsey - Ghost, Somewhere Else - Move Together, Marshmellow - Spotlight and Astrid S - Such A Boy. Colour correction is a common convention of the electropop genre so that is why I included it into my video.
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| Chase Atlantic - Swim |
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| Halsey - Ghost |
I really liked the Halsey example because of how there is a shot of a city layered over one of the female character's faces. I was really inspired by that example.
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| Chase Atlantic - Triggered |
EVAL Q1b: Representations
EVALUATION Q1a: How do your products represent different social groups or issues?
For this question I decided to make a Top of the Pops video to show the top 10 theorists that are relevant to music videos and a Prezi presentation.
TOP OF THE POPS VIDEO
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PREZI PRESENTATION
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Monday 2 April 2018
EVALUATION Q2: Branding
EVALUATION Q2: How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of 'branding'?
For this question I decided to do 2 creative things, first, create a digital interview with the graphic designer (called Helen Frieda, from a design agency called Lilac City) of the artist's (Astrid S) latest promo package. Questions are asked as titles on the screen, because from what I have seen for example in this 'Pulse Nigeria' Interview with many music video directors on YouTube, it is quite common to not even have an interviewer but instead have titles as questions and then shots of interviewees responding to the questions. Secondly I have created a prezi presentation to answer the bulk of the question.
GROUP INTERVIEW WITH THE GRAPHIC DESIGNER OF ASTRID S'S LATEST DIGIPAK + WEBSITE AND THE MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR OF THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR THE TRACK 'BLOODSTREAM'
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The Script:
For this question I decided to do 2 creative things, first, create a digital interview with the graphic designer (called Helen Frieda, from a design agency called Lilac City) of the artist's (Astrid S) latest promo package. Questions are asked as titles on the screen, because from what I have seen for example in this 'Pulse Nigeria' Interview with many music video directors on YouTube, it is quite common to not even have an interviewer but instead have titles as questions and then shots of interviewees responding to the questions. Secondly I have created a prezi presentation to answer the bulk of the question.
GROUP INTERVIEW WITH THE GRAPHIC DESIGNER OF ASTRID S'S LATEST DIGIPAK + WEBSITE AND THE MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR OF THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR THE TRACK 'BLOODSTREAM'
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The Script:
EVALUATION Q3a: Audience Engagement
EVALUATION Q3a: How do your products engage with audience?
For this question I decided to make 4 different videos: 2 digipak unwrapping videos, a Q and A video session live on twitter and a radio interview with Astrid S talking about audience feedback for her latest music video and website, how it impacted in the production of the video and website and about how web 2.0 is allowing audience to participate actively, especially through social media.
The first thing I did for this question was make 2 digipak unwrapping videos. In the first unwrapping video I am a fan of Astrid S called Ashley who has just bought the new digipak by Astrid S.
However, before I present these videos, I will state some points about my target audience. After doing some initial research into the audience for Astrid S, I discovered that her primary main audience is females aged 15-24. I looked at Astrid S's existing Facebook page and I found some really useful videos for audience. They are videos which follow Astrid S's fans. I could tell that most of Astrid S's fans were females aged 15-24 from these videos. Here is the 1st video that I found: This video follows some of Astrid S's fans waiting to see her live for her concert in Amsterdam.
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All the fans who were interviewed and shown on camera were female aged 15-24. Also, these fans may have been dutch since this specific concert that these fans were waiting for was in Amsterdam.
I noticed that most of the females especially in this video had a 'Brandy Melville' or 'arty' style, Brandy Melville is a clothing store which has quite simplistic, comfy clothing for females which consist of the colours: black, white, beige, cream, burgundy, grey, light brown.
Here is the second video I found on Astrid S's Facebook. This is a video created by Spotify, where Spotify invite the 20 people who have listened to Astrid S the most on Spotify to an exclusive meeting and intimate concert at Universal Music Norway with Astrid S.
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Yet again all the fans who were shown in this video on camera were females aged 15-24 with one male who was between 15-24 also. These fans may have been all Norwegian since the setting of the video is in Norway. They all look Scandinavian.
I have also discovered that since Astrid is touring in mainly Scandinavian countries + The Netherlands at the moment, this could mean her primary target audience is females aged 15-24 from Scandinavian/European countries.
I also asked my friend James who he thought the target audience would be for Astrid S since I have shown him her music and her style, he responded with this. He said he has a 14 year old sister and an 11 year old sister and they don't listen to electropop genre music yet, but instead they listen to pop music such as Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Marshmello.
He said he thinks the target audience for Astrid S is females aged 16-24.
His 14 year old sister listens to rap and hip hop he said, this could relate to how hip hop and rap music is quite mainstream and at that age girls and boys don't know who they are yet and they are just trying to fit in with the mainstream crowd who listens to rap and hip hop.
After all this research I discovered that I believe that Astrid S's target audience is females aged 15/16-24 with the secondary audience being males aged 15/16-24. This research has helped me a hell of a lot in determining Astrid S's main primary + secondary audience.
A way I tried to attract the aged 15-24 primary audience was by having characters in my music video which were aged 17-18. I believed that this would attract a young female and male audience aged 15-24 since there is one 17 year old male character and one 18 year old female character. Also, having looked at many other electropop examples like Halsey, Charli XCX and MØ, I have discovered that their target audience is females aged 15/16-24. This also influenced my idea and decision that the target audience for Astrid S is females aged 15-24.
I still think, however, though, that Astrid S has a secondary audience of tweens aged 10-14. This is because she has easy, language free lyrics and the pop genre side to her music attracts a core audience of people aged 10-14 or perhaps even younger like 8-9 year olds. However, after looking at Astrid S's existing music videos, I discovered that the content in them is sometimes a bit inappropriate for children aged 8-14 e.g. kissing neck, clothing slightly revealing. Also after watching and listening to the track I had chosen to use for my music video - 'Bloodstream', I discovered that there were some slightly inappropriate, edgy lyrics - "touching me gently, holding me close, breathe on my skin, lips down my body".
For gender, I discovered after looking at many examples such as Halsey, Charli XCX, Mabel, MØ, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, that the primary target gender audience for electropop is females because for a start, the majority of artists in the electropop genre are female which brings me to my point on Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications' theory - one of the gratifications in his theory is personal identity; since the artist, Astrid S is a female aged 20, this can attract a female audience because they can identify with the artist and relate to them. The pop side of the electropop genre attracts a strong female audience and the electronic genre side attracts more of a male audience.
DIGIPAK UNWRAPPING VIDEOS
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Ashley, a fan of Astrid S, unwrapping Astrid S's new digipak after buying it in the store, HMV:
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Astrid S unwrapping her new digipak:
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Q AND A VIDEO SESSION LIVE ON TWITTER
2. Where can I buy your merchandise? I really want a hoodie with your logo on it
3. I really want to stay updated on ur new music and events so do you have any other social media other than Twitter?
4. I saw you perform live like 2 years ago when you only had some EPs out so I really want to see you live again now performing ur new album! do you have any concerts coming up?
5. What is your favourite track on the new album?
For this question I decided to make 4 different videos: 2 digipak unwrapping videos, a Q and A video session live on twitter and a radio interview with Astrid S talking about audience feedback for her latest music video and website, how it impacted in the production of the video and website and about how web 2.0 is allowing audience to participate actively, especially through social media.
The first thing I did for this question was make 2 digipak unwrapping videos. In the first unwrapping video I am a fan of Astrid S called Ashley who has just bought the new digipak by Astrid S.
However, before I present these videos, I will state some points about my target audience. After doing some initial research into the audience for Astrid S, I discovered that her primary main audience is females aged 15-24. I looked at Astrid S's existing Facebook page and I found some really useful videos for audience. They are videos which follow Astrid S's fans. I could tell that most of Astrid S's fans were females aged 15-24 from these videos. Here is the 1st video that I found: This video follows some of Astrid S's fans waiting to see her live for her concert in Amsterdam.
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All the fans who were interviewed and shown on camera were female aged 15-24. Also, these fans may have been dutch since this specific concert that these fans were waiting for was in Amsterdam.
I noticed that most of the females especially in this video had a 'Brandy Melville' or 'arty' style, Brandy Melville is a clothing store which has quite simplistic, comfy clothing for females which consist of the colours: black, white, beige, cream, burgundy, grey, light brown. Here is the second video I found on Astrid S's Facebook. This is a video created by Spotify, where Spotify invite the 20 people who have listened to Astrid S the most on Spotify to an exclusive meeting and intimate concert at Universal Music Norway with Astrid S.
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Yet again all the fans who were shown in this video on camera were females aged 15-24 with one male who was between 15-24 also. These fans may have been all Norwegian since the setting of the video is in Norway. They all look Scandinavian.
I have also discovered that since Astrid is touring in mainly Scandinavian countries + The Netherlands at the moment, this could mean her primary target audience is females aged 15-24 from Scandinavian/European countries. 
I also asked my friend James who he thought the target audience would be for Astrid S since I have shown him her music and her style, he responded with this. He said he has a 14 year old sister and an 11 year old sister and they don't listen to electropop genre music yet, but instead they listen to pop music such as Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Marshmello.
His 14 year old sister listens to rap and hip hop he said, this could relate to how hip hop and rap music is quite mainstream and at that age girls and boys don't know who they are yet and they are just trying to fit in with the mainstream crowd who listens to rap and hip hop.
After all this research I discovered that I believe that Astrid S's target audience is females aged 15/16-24 with the secondary audience being males aged 15/16-24. This research has helped me a hell of a lot in determining Astrid S's main primary + secondary audience.
A way I tried to attract the aged 15-24 primary audience was by having characters in my music video which were aged 17-18. I believed that this would attract a young female and male audience aged 15-24 since there is one 17 year old male character and one 18 year old female character. Also, having looked at many other electropop examples like Halsey, Charli XCX and MØ, I have discovered that their target audience is females aged 15/16-24. This also influenced my idea and decision that the target audience for Astrid S is females aged 15-24.
I still think, however, though, that Astrid S has a secondary audience of tweens aged 10-14. This is because she has easy, language free lyrics and the pop genre side to her music attracts a core audience of people aged 10-14 or perhaps even younger like 8-9 year olds. However, after looking at Astrid S's existing music videos, I discovered that the content in them is sometimes a bit inappropriate for children aged 8-14 e.g. kissing neck, clothing slightly revealing. Also after watching and listening to the track I had chosen to use for my music video - 'Bloodstream', I discovered that there were some slightly inappropriate, edgy lyrics - "touching me gently, holding me close, breathe on my skin, lips down my body".
For gender, I discovered after looking at many examples such as Halsey, Charli XCX, Mabel, MØ, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, that the primary target gender audience for electropop is females because for a start, the majority of artists in the electropop genre are female which brings me to my point on Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications' theory - one of the gratifications in his theory is personal identity; since the artist, Astrid S is a female aged 20, this can attract a female audience because they can identify with the artist and relate to them. The pop side of the electropop genre attracts a strong female audience and the electronic genre side attracts more of a male audience.
DIGIPAK UNWRAPPING VIDEOS
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Ashley, a fan of Astrid S, unwrapping Astrid S's new digipak after buying it in the store, HMV:
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Astrid S unwrapping her new digipak:
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Q AND A VIDEO SESSION LIVE ON TWITTER
Secondly, I decided to do a live Q and A video session with the fans on twitter, with me being Astrid S and people sending in questions through the comments. I made a post saying "Guess what guys! Tonight I am doing a live video Q and A session on my latest products! Comment below questions and I'll answer some of them tonight see you soon"
Here are the questions that the fans commented on that post:
1. On what platforms will I be able to listen to your new album?
Here are the questions that the fans commented on that post:
1. On what platforms will I be able to listen to your new album?2. Where can I buy your merchandise? I really want a hoodie with your logo on it
4. I saw you perform live like 2 years ago when you only had some EPs out so I really want to see you live again now performing ur new album! do you have any concerts coming up?
6. I've loved your music ever since your first EP - 2AM! Does this new album have a special edition of some kind?
7. How do I subscribe to your latest music and news?
8. I love youuu!! Where can I buy your new album?!
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The Script:
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The Script:
EVALUATION Q3b: Distribution
EVALUATION Q3b: How would they be distributed as real media products?
For this question, I decided to do 3 creative things. Firstly, I created a 'Mastermind' video where my stepdad, Fred, is one of the contenders for the show answering questions on his specialist subject, the music industry.
Secondly I created a 'Midnight Game Show' mimicking
Michael Mcintyre's 'Midnight Game Show' from his 'Big
Show'. What happens in the Midnight Game Show is basically Michael Mcintyre comes into someone's house in the middle of the night and comes through the bedroom door of the person who is sleeping then wakes them up and asks them very random questions testing to see how fast or well their brain works after just being woken up disturbed. The people who have been woken up are not aware of this happening, someone close to the person (e.g. partner or family member) signs the person up to be on the show.
Thirdly I have created a powerpoint presentation which addresses the bulk of the question.
MASTERMIND VIDEO
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The Script:
For this question, I decided to do 3 creative things. Firstly, I created a 'Mastermind' video where my stepdad, Fred, is one of the contenders for the show answering questions on his specialist subject, the music industry. 
Secondly I created a 'Midnight Game Show' mimicking Michael Mcintyre's 'Midnight Game Show' from his 'Big
Show'. What happens in the Midnight Game Show is basically Michael Mcintyre comes into someone's house in the middle of the night and comes through the bedroom door of the person who is sleeping then wakes them up and asks them very random questions testing to see how fast or well their brain works after just being woken up disturbed. The people who have been woken up are not aware of this happening, someone close to the person (e.g. partner or family member) signs the person up to be on the show.
Thirdly I have created a powerpoint presentation which addresses the bulk of the question.
MASTERMIND VIDEO
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The Script:
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