Cross Media Product

This is my website:

https://amirahxislam.wixsite.com/musicvideo









The feedback i received for my website goes as follows:
-bright colours
-good locations and a variety of locations used in the images and videos
-clear artist logo and artist name
-easy to navigate and access

However, the points i received to improve were:
-include images with different outfits; makes it less repetitive across the website

Music Video

This is my music video:




People have seen my music video; they like the following points:
-camera angles
-locations
-choreography

However, points i could improve on are to:
-focus on individuals more - use close ups to achieve this
-reduce level of repetition

NEA Statement of Intent

Statement of Intent

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief? (approx 400 words)

Product 1

I intend to create a three minute music video for a band known as 'London Revival', who are a group of four young girls aged 16-18 and represent different ethnicities and social backgrounds, which matches the brief's target audience of 16-25 year olds and by including at least two characters representing two different social groups; one of whom originates from an Asian background , one who is mixed race and two who are white. London Revival was created to empower young women and spread the message that women do not need acceptance from men and they can be independent and free from any vulnerability they may face in society such as inequality or marginalisation. The song i have chosen to use for my music video is Mabel's 'Don't Call Me Up', which i believe will suit the band's message, as i feel this song is related to rejecting masculinity and female empowerment therefore supporting the band's values. The name of the song and the band name will be displayed at the beginning of my music video to immediately inform my audience. The genre of this music video will be as the brief states - pop.  My video will be classified under this genre because it will include dance sequences, high key lighting, use of repetition and various famous landmarks and locations - key conventions i believe are associated with pop genre music videos. 

NEA Planning Part 6 - Schedule

Planning Tasks

K/U/BAT: the purpose of this task is for you to identify potential production dates and try to stick to them.

My scheduling plan

(July-August 2019)

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To conclude this task, it is important to have produced a schedule of activities when working on a production because it helps to organise the order in which the production takes place. It also helps to ensure that every task has been included and finished, as it works as a checklist. In addition, production covers a whole range of tasks to be completed and of different types, so the only way to organise is with some kind of scheduling which i have produced in the form of a calendar. Therefore, i can see everything laid out and scheduled in front of me and i do not have to worry about missing a task out or not completing it in time, as i know that the schedule can be adjusted and altered at any time. The main three activities i am likely to struggle with are filming the video in all of the locations i wish to use, producing the text and logo to put onto the video and producing the images for the website. To ensure i overcome these challenging tasks however, i am going to allow myself extra time and space out each task so that if i run out of time for these tasks, then i can easily continue the next day.

NEA Planning Part 5 - Casting

Planning Tasks

K/U/BAT: the purpose of this task is to identify the actors/models that you're going to use in your products.

My casting planning

The purpose of this task is for me to identify the actors/actresses that i wish to use in creating my final product. The brief clearly states that there must be at least two characters representing at least two different social groups. With this in mind, I have made sure to have casted people from different social classes and of different races to not only include the brief but to create diversity in my product as well.

NEA Planning Part 4 - Location Information

Planning Tasks

  

K/U/BAT: The purpose of this task is for you to assess and identify the locations you're going to use for your photography/video.

Location Information Planning

The purpose of this task is for me to decide which locations i am going to use and assess each location's practicality for my music video and website. I will identify the suitability and hazards for each location, and determine whether any precautions should be taken in order for the filming of my video to be reasonably safe.

Location 1:

Location 2:

Location 3:

Location 4:

Location 5

NEA Planning Part 3 - Product Profile

Planning Tasks

K: the importance of sketches and planning in the decision making process of creating a music video.
U: how to use sketches and sample content shots to influence your stylistic decisions.
BAT: undertake a creative task in which you start the decision making process in terms of style of your music video.

My product profile planning

For this section of my planning, i should be able to understand the importance of the decision making process of creating a music video, and how to use storyboards and sample content video shots to influence how and what i am going to include in my music video in terms of the style. This will be done in a creative task, in which i begin the decision making process for the style of my music video. 

The content i am planning to use in my music video is going to be in a style of a performance narrative, mixed with a montage, so ideally i do need to create a storyboard setting out a potential storyline for me to use. I will not be showing the actual artist, but instead creating a girl band who will be lip syncing and dancing to the music. The content will be filmed in the public and out in the open, and potentially the majority of the content will be filmed out in London. I plan to go to scenic and popular places in London, which i believe will appeal to my audience and create a 'fun-loving' music video that the brief requires my video to be.








Feedback received from peers:
The feedback i received from the peers i asked was mainly positive - every person stated that they were able to follow through with the storyboard and that there was a clear distinguishment from each shot. My peers also said that they liked the idea of my music video and could see the image i had in mind for the locations and how i wanted to incorporate dance into my video as well. In addition, they thought that the description for every shot was summarised to the point where not a lot of words are needed to describe what i want to happen in the music video. However to improve, my peers suggested that in the future, i make sure to include the type of shot for every shot, as this had only been included for the majority of the shots, but not all. They said this would only make it more clear for me when it comes to producing the music video, so i know exactly what type of shot i want to achieve. In response to my feedback, i did add extra details to the descriptions for the shots.


Potential material to be used in my video:

https://prezi.com/view/ikaZ73d0tv3Xr8uYpkf9/

In conclusion, this task was useful in terms of deciding what style i am going to be pursuing because it enabled me to be creative and to visually create some ideas with how my final product is going to look like. I have decided to create a performance narrative style music video combined with a montage, which allows me to produce a message behind my music video which links with the media theories i intend to include and the idea of a montage also allows me to be creative and flexible with how i decide to film the shots for the video. The peer feedback in which i received for my storyboard was useful because it allowed me to realise how successful my storyboard actually was and the feedback also helped me to discover what i had needed to do in order for my storyboard to be the most effective it could in describing how i visualise my music video.

NEA Planning Part 2 - Mood Board

Planning Tasks

K: the advantages and disadvantages of using a mood board to inspire content of new media product.

U: how different types of images and fonts can affect the way audiences consume media texts.
BAT: produce a mood board that illustrates your initial ideas for your media product.
CO: Use media terminology throughout.

My mood board planning

The brief i chose was the fourth one, which is a music video and website to correspond. The minimum requirements for my chosen productions is to produce a three minute music video for a fictional pop band/artist signed to Sony Music and for working website for the band/artist. The music video must feature a narrative appropriate to a music video and the web pages must promote the band/artist to its target audience and enable fans to interact with them. The target audience is a fun-loving 16 to 25 year old mass market demographic, but my personal target audience will be girls aged from 17-24 which is basically the same as the age category mentioned in the brief. 

In this task i will be exploring different types of images, fonts and colours to use in my music video and for my website.  I shall be looking at different connotations and how these affect the way my target audience might view my product.  By creating this mood board, I will also be exploring creative ways of how to present my work and make it effective for my set audience.

Location

Costuming


Font (website)



Colour Scheme (website)

In conclusion, these mood boards will help me to define the content for my products, as it sets a base and a visual plan with as to some ideas of the location and costuming of the music video and the font and colour scheme of the website. Collectively bringing images together also shows what i will and won't use and what i may prefer to use, as all of my original ideas have been laid down together so it is easy to compare different locations for example and choose which of them to actually use. 
Overall, there will not be a set colour scheme as i wish to include a whole spectrum of colours, but i will be using a contrast of pastel and washed out colours compared to bright and vibrant colours in response to the brief which states my music video and website need to be 'fun-loving' - i have interpreted this as including a variety of colours and creating a contrast between them to appear appealing to my audience. 
In terms of the music video, i will be including a variety shots as mentioned in previous research tasks.  I am going to shoot most of my music video in a wide shot, so that I can capture the atmosphere and background of the scenes as well as the characters involved. However, as the brief states, I am going to also include other shots, such as close-ups to catch expressions and feelings of the characters. For the website, i am going to be using a variety of shots of the artist, including head and shoulder shots, close-ups, wide and long shots and low angles. These will all be used for different purposes, mostly to enhance the artist's status and appearance, but maybe also to show how the artist interacts with their fans. 
For the fonts, i have created a mood board showing a whole variety of sans-serif fonts. I decided to look into different sans serif fonts as i wanted a structured and solid type of font with nothing fancy or similar to handwriting. The font is important for the website, because this is how the artist's name will be represented. It will also be used throughout the website for headings, so it needs to stand out and be appealing to my audience. This is why i am going to use a font which may be bold, or have a solid form to it. For example, looking at the mood board, i might use a font such as 'NOVA' or 'BEBAS NEUE', because it is these fonts which stand out to me when i first look at my mood board. However, i might decide to use a font that isn't bold, such as 'NEOTERIC' or 'DOLCE VITA' because these fonts have been represented for worldwide brands that i know of and that my audience might also recognise. This may therefore appeal to my audience, because they may be familiar with that type of font already being used for a global and famous brand. 
The mise-en-scene i plan to use in my music video will include a minimal use of props, because i want the location to be the main focus of the video as well as the artist themselves. However, there may be some involvement of props, such as accessories with the costuming such as bags and sunglasses. Other than that, there will not be any props used.
For intertextuality, what I am deciding to do with my own music video is create references to the film Clueless (like Iggy Azalea's Fancy) in terms of the costuming and find costumes similar to the costumes worn in the film. Also, I may include intertextuality by making a direct reference to Ariana Grande's Thank u, Next music video, as I want to follow the same narrative and storyline as seen in that video. There may be intertextuality used within the fonts for my website as well, such as if i decide to use the 'DOLCE VITA'. This font is explicitly used for worldwide brand Dolce & Gabbana. This may be recognisable for my audience therefore it would be effective to use it because it would appeal to them seeing as they can identify it from a popular brand.
The media theories i am likely to use in my productions are postmodernism, semiology and the feminist theory, which I want to include in my music video. Applying postmodernism to my music video will be shown when I try and use bright colours and unique locations, also using fashionable costuming which will all contribute to creating a hyper-reality for my targeted audience. The feminist theory will be streamed throughout the video, as the narrative and lyrics to my chosen song is related to women empowerment and rejecting a patriarchal society. In terms of the website, both postmodernism and the feminist theory will be used with the layout and images used, those of which the artist of the song will be presented in a way where she is someone to look up to and a role model. In addition, I am going to also be endorsing Barthes' theory of semiology. This is the study of signs, where the signs consist of a signifier and its literal meaning. This will be used in my music video when famous landmarks like perhaps Tower Bridge and the London Eye will be the mise-en-scene. This signifies the Britishness of the music video, and further linking to the artist of the music video's identity - as the artist's nationality is British.

NEA Planning Part 1 - Audience Profile

Planning Tasks

K: about audience segmentation.
U: how audience segmentation effects media products.
BAT: conduct research and create an audience profile for your individual product.
CO: Use media terminology throughout.

My Audience Planning

Question 1

As shown by the results, the majority of people who took my survey were between the age of 17 and 25, meaning that the rest of my questions will give me effective answers as the brief for my music video states my work should be suitable for this age target audience. It also sets my target audience for my music video, as i know now that the most popular age group who watches music videos is between the age of 17 and 25. This means i will produce my work aimed towards this age group.

Question 2

The results show that more females than males were interested in taking this survey, suggesting that females are interested in watching music videos more than males. This means that when it comes to producing my own work, i will choose to aim my music video for females, as the results for my survey suggest that they will be most likely to watch it than males. By setting which gender to focus on, it may help with the storyline and costuming/location of my video, because i can look out for typical conventions of a music video that appeals typically to females and include that in my video. For example, females tend to prefer a storyline relatable to them, such as love or heartbreak, so i could potentially create a storyline linked to that.

Question 3

The results state that the most popular music genre is clearly pop, with the next most popular genre Hip Hop at least 30% behind. This shows that the pop genre is also going to be the most watched type of music video, suggesting that i will ensure the music i use for my video is pop because this seems to be the current popular genre. This will help me with creating my own music video, because it helps to define the category of music i will choose my song from. It also ensures that the genre of music i choose is known to everyone.

Question 4

Judging clearly by the results, my audience prefer male artists by almost double to female artists. This suggests they like male artists' music compared to females'. However, even though my results suggest i should look into choosing a song performed by a male artist, i instead want to choose a song performed by a female. This is because i want to give my audience something different to what they are used to, in which they are used to a song performed by a male artist. This may actually appeal to my audience, because by giving them something different to what they like, it may change their preferences and attitudes. This means that i am going to choose a female artist's song. 

Question 5






















From my survey, the results show that a narrative is the most preferred style of music video, whilst a performance-based video comes second, and the lyric and animated style of music video is not preferred at all. This means that i will ensure my own music video includes elements of a narrative, meaning that it will tell a story, and i will also like to combine elements of a performance based music video. This means i need to consider making a storyboard or making a storyline which will link closely to the song i choose, so that my audience are aware that the style of my music video is what they prefer it to be. Therefore my audience will find my music video appealing. 

Question 6

As you can see, there was a huge outcome of responses from this question and a variety of answers. This allows me to gather a range of different results and asking why allows me to gain reasoning behind whether my audience like music videos or not. This means i can use people's reasoning and aim to include it in my own music video. From the responses, only very few of them were a 'no', and there were also some responses with just a 'yes'. However, the majority of my audience gave a reasoning behind why they they did like music videos. The most popular response was how music videos add character and meaning to the song and bring it to life. Other responses were how my audience liked music videos with choreography, dancing and visual imagery alongside the song, as it shows the artist's intentions and creates deeper meaning of what the artist meant when they were writing the lyrics of the song. By reading this responses, i am able to understand what it is exactly that my audience like about music videos, which i will then use and include in my own music video. For example, i aim to use some form of dance choreography in my video which will then create a better understanding of the meaning of the song for my audience.

Question 7

There were also a variety of responses produced from this question as well. Some respondents chose not to answer this question as they didn't have a current favourite music video, and others gave the name of which music video they liked but did not explain why. However, there were two music videos which were mentioned a lot more than others - Ariana Grande's Thank U Next and Taylor Swift's ME video. The main reasons were due to the fact both music videos include intertextuality from popular films within the videos and use of different costuming and locations creates an appealing and entertaining video to watch. From these responses, i aim to include the same conventions depicted from my audience's favourite music videos and somehow include some intertextuality and different costume changes so that i know my audience will appeal to my video. I may even choose the same films that were referenced in the artists' videos and use them as intertextuality as well. 

Question 8

The results show that my audience believe location is important for a music video, with the supporting statement that it makes the video more appealing. With half of my audience feeling this way, it is evident that i try and ensure the location/s i choose for my video are not only suitable for the song, but also that they are appealing, to ensure my audience do enjoy my music video. Therefore, i am thinking to use locations around London with famous landmarks and different colours which may appeal to my audience. 

Question 9

These results show that my audience believe nearly all of these elements are the most important in a music video, so they are all equally important. The purpose of this question was for me to get a clear answer to the most important aspect, so that i ensure i can focus on this particular part as i know that is what my audience also focus on. However, seeing as three of the aspects have an equal percentage, it means i will have to ensure the proportion of each aspect used in my video is equal. By doing this, i will ensure my focus diverts from each aspect and make sure i am not spending too much time on just one aspect.

Question 10

The results clearly show that my audience believe a music video can detract from the music itself, suggesting that some music videos engross the audience so much they forget about the song itself as that may be the reason they were watching the music video in the first place. From these results, it sets up a structure for me to follow in which i prioritise the lyrics of the song to ensure the music video fits nicely with the lyrics and not overpowers them where the audience are detracted from the song. 

In conclusion, this task has helped me in defining who my target audience is, which is typically females between the age of 17 and 25 or 16 and 24 as the brief states. Although this audience prefers male artists, i aim to divert their attention to a female artist by choosing a song performed by a female artist, but also staying in the pop genre which is their preferred genre. By doing this, i will make the music video relatable to them, by creating a mixture of a performance and narrative which includes a variety of locations and intertextuality references. These locations will be several places around the city of London, as i know that there are very appealing sceneries and i know that the age of my target audience is young and current and are more centralised so will like the idea of my music video being filmed in a popular city. The intertextuality references i will make have been decided in a previous post, where i may create references to the film Clueless (like Iggy Azalea's Fancy) in terms of the costuming and find costumes similar to the costumes worn in the film. Also, I may include intertextuality by making a direct reference to Ariana Grande's Thank u, Next music video, as I want to follow the same narrative and storyline as seen in that video.

NEA Research Part 7 - Producers/Directors Research

Prepatory Tasks

K: What the minimum requirements for the preparatory tasks.
U: The relevance of each of these tasks.
BAT: Undertake preparatory work as prescribed below.
CO: Use media terminology throughout verbal and written communication.

Producers/Directors Research

In this post I will be conducting research for a range of media practitioners linked to my chosen brief, making sure I focus on the use of conventions in the type of media products they produce.  I will also be making reference to some of their existing products, which should give me some ideas on how I can gain inspiration from their techniques and for my own productions of both the main task and the website. By understanding the practitioners linked to my chosen brief, it will allow me to produce my own content that follows and reflects their style more effectively.


Hannah Lux Davis

Ray Kay



Spike Jonze

All three music video directors show some differences in the style of their work. Hannah Lux Davis bases her work around the idea of enhancing her artists' complexions through her shots and focuses on beauty-driven music videos. Ray Kay, however, likes to create cinematic music videos with sleek transitions and minimalistic scenes, so that the purpose of the video is projected mainly on the artist themselves rather than creating a narrative. Spike Jonze, on the other hand, produces many of his music videos as if they were short films, and unlike Hannah Lux Davis, he often makes his artists appear unattractive. In terms of the genre each director works in, Hannah solely bases her work in the pop industry, but has branched out into the Hip Hop spectrum several times, Ray Kay produces only pop and dance music videos and Spike has produced videos for a variety of genres including pop, hip hop and rock. However, there is a slight similarity that each producer shares, and probably amongst many other music producers as well. They may have their own styles, but these producers follow a narrative or story usually with the artists leading as the main character. With this similarity clear between all three of the producers i have chosen, it is evident that having a narrative or a storyline in a music video is a key convention, one in which i must consider when producing my own music video.

To summarise, conducting this research has helped me learn about producers and the making behind music videos. I have learnt that producers do mainly produce their work in one style and genre, but there are producers like Spike Jonze that may produce music videos for artists in different genres of music. When producing my own music video, i think it would be best to choose one style and genre and stay within the conventions of that field. I am planning to follow a similar style of production as Hannah Lux Davis, who works with the world's most current and known pop artists like Ariana Grande. This is due to the fact that the artist i have chosen to use my song from is Mabel, who is young and known globally. Mabel produces pop music and due to her complexion and physique, i have also decided to produce my music video as a stylised and beauty-driven video just like Hannah Lux Davis does. I believe this would be the best pick to match the artist i have chosen.