CLOSING POST

Dear Examiner,
You will find all posts relating to my A level coursework under the label: 'A Level Research and Planning'. 
I hope you will enjoy reading through my work as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Thanks,
Derek Tsui

*THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED*

Post 10: Reflections on Finished Outcomes/ Target Audience Responses

Whilst editing the music video, I received feedback from the teachers to which I found helpful in making minor adjustments to improve the video. Below was a list of feedback from a viewing sessions done by teachers and members of the target audience.

Suggestions from the Media Teachers:

• They thought that the narrative of the music video wasn't specific enough, due to the lack of shots to do with the female. 
• The pace of the music video can be changed or have a surreal feel towards it, as the audience may need constant reminder that this is not reality. 
• Some of the grading looked a little under saturated.
• Some of the shots didn't fit in to the music video or some of the shot duration may have been a bit longer than necessary. 

After taking the suggestions into consideration, I decided that these were the things that I had to do, in order to improve my music video.

What I did in response to the suggestions: 

• I had a choice of choosing which part of the narrative to make more prominent to the music video, as one was to remove the female narrative as a whole or simply putting in a lot more of the shots including the female through the whole video. Due to the lack of shots obtained during the shoot, I had to remove most of the female scenes to make the otherside of the narrative more notable. 
• After looking at more existing music videos, I had decided to include some specific editing such as slo-mos and fast-mos in order to make the music video surreal whilst experimenting with the pace of the music video. For example, during the build up to the drop, I put in slo-mo shots due to the slow paced nature of the build up, however during and after the drop, the pace has sped up, which allowed me to return the shots to normal time or even a fast-mo version of it. 
• I adjusted the hue and saturation accordingly in order to make the shots more vibrant whilst keeping it consistent throughout the video. For example, during the scene where the roses are seen in the background, I had increased the saturation in order to bring out the colour of the roses, as well as making the artist look more "alive". 

• I looked over the shots and decided to keep some of the shots with longer duration whilst also removing a few. I had kept some of the ones with longer duration as I thought this allowed for the video as a whole to have a range of shot times. 

Feedback from the people within the target audience: 

• They liked the range of emotions conveyed within the music video.
• They thought that the transitions were appropriately place according to the music. 
• They enjoyed the dancing shots within the video, as it fit with the music and the video as a whole.
• They thought that the settings used were also appropriate and looked "professional"

During the making of my website's home page and second page, I had also received feedback that I thought was helpful in order to improve my websites. Below is a list of suggestions from what the media teachers thought, as well as what the members of the target audience found interesting. 

Suggestions from the Media Teachers: 

• They found that some of the social media links did not lead to the correct pages.
• They thought that I should make my call to action more prominent, so that the audience would be able to take part and purchase what is being promoted. 
• They thought that some of the buttons should link to the appropriate pages, for example the purchasing tickets button should lead to a ticket buying website. 

After taking the suggestions into consideration, I decided that these were the things that I had to do, in order to improve the website. 

What I did in response to the suggestions: 

• I had additionally created a twitter page, as I thought that this was also another social media that my target audience likes to use and decided to correctly link the rest of the social media links. 
• I had also created a singles cover and a button below which would lead the audience to hmv's homepage if clicked on. This would encourage them to buy a copy of the latest single, which would benefit the artist.  

• I also linked the tickets button to ticketmaster home page, so that the audience will know where to purchase the tickets, if clicked on. 

Feedback from the people within the target audience:  

• They thought that the social media was easy to access, due to also having the instagram feed featured at the bottom of the page. 
• They liked that there were blooper and behind the scenes videos on the home page. 

• They thought that there were nice details in the news articles and was able to find out more information when clicked on. 
• They thought that the pictures used on the websites were fitting to the message that was being conveyed. 

Final Product Review by TA:

When the final product was published, after making the appropriate adjustments from the reviews, I gathered a group of people from within the target audience, who reviewed the work. This was done through Skype, where I called them individually to ask them a set of questions regarding the music video. 

I gathered 6 people in total, 3 males and 3 females ranging from ages 16 to 22. The questions I asked them were: 

Some of the feedback that I had obtained were:

From these results, I can see that the music video created was able to relate to most of the target audience's needs and lifestyles, and that the type of music was not dissimilar to their current music taste. However, I can also see that the message wasn't made obvious enough to the audience, due to question 4 being low score amongst most of the answers. It was only after I gave them a hint to what the message conveyed was, that they understood it well, therefore I must make my message more explicit so that the target audience can understand the situation within the music video. 

 

Overall I thought that by having members of the target audience and the media teachers give feedback, it was very useful in order to make improvements to the websites, as it meant that there were other opinions, as opposed to my own, giving feedback to both the products. I therefore thought that this process was vital, in order to make the music video and website better.

Post 9: My Second Webpage

Inspiration for my news page

Initial sketch of news page

The general idea for my news pages was to inform the audience in the most straightforward manner. I therefore kept it simple with the layout of the news articles. From seeing other artists' new pages, I also noticed that it is common to maintain the same structure and colour scheme, in order to keep the website consistent.

Final Product (News Page)

The same layout can be seen with the menu bar, artist name and social media across the top of the page. Additionally a banner can be seen which matches the one from the home page when clicked on. The first 2 articles would feature on the homepage, as it would keep the audience up to date with any events.

The dance.co.uk feature seen on the news page is an example of involving another media platform, as the artist is promoted across an external radio channel. This is common amongst successful artists in order to reach the target audience.

Another common convention is the giveaways hosted by the artists themselves, often giving away signed t-shirts, posters or cd covers. In this case, I decided to go with a signed singles cover and have the event take place on twitter, a social media that is commonly used within my target audience.

Meet ups are also commonly done by artists in order to keep a consistent interaction with the fans to satisfy them. They are usually done in easy to access places so that a large number of fans are able to participate and also during times that are convenient to most people. I have decided to host my meet up at Westfield, Stratford on Saturday from 11am to 5pm, which encourages the fans to take part.

Although rare, cancellations occur during tours for whatever reason. In this case, despite not being announced, the reasons for the cancellation to concerts in Nottingham and Sheffield is due to the lack of funding provided, as Zephyr is still new to the scene therefore not being able to fund himself.

Post 8: My Website Homepage

Inspirations for my homepage 

Initial sketch of website homepage

I found that by drawing an initial sketch of the home page, this helped me picture how I wanted my homepage to look whilst drawing inspiration from other artists' home pages. I plan on including common features, such as the social media bar, menu bar, artist's name and the music video, to list a few.

Final Product (Homepage)

A lightbox would pop up when the audience spends 2 or more seconds on the home page of the website. This encourages the audience to sign up to the newsletter in order to stay up to date with events or competition regarding the artist. 

This is the top bit of the homepage where the artist branding is seen in the top left corner. The menu bars lies across the top middle of the page, which allows for easy access tp each section (only the News tab takes you to the 2nd linked page). On the top right, I placed the social media links, which if clicked on, would take the audience to the official Twitter, Instagram or Youtube Page. 

As the audience scrolls further down, they are able to see the title of the latest single as well as the official music video, which further encourages the audience to watch the music video. 

Below the music video will be a small news feed section, which is kept up to date about information of the artist. This is so the audience can find out who the artist is and if interested, click on the link which takes the audience to the full article.

The next section includes information to do with "upcoming tours", which tells the audience information about where and when his next tours will take place and if they wish to buy tickets, the ticket button is linked to tickermaster.com where the audience are able to buy tickets. 

The final part of the home page includes the behind the scenes blooper video and quick access to the artist's instagram page where the audience can directly like or comment on the posts. In the footerm there is another prompt, urging the audience to join the newsletter and is in the same theme as the lightbox that pops up, therefore keeping the website consistent. It also informs the audience that the artist is signed under the Universal Music Group. 

Post 7: Music Video

In order to create a music video with effective performance and narrative, I watched many dance music videos, which I drawn inspiration from.

Sigala - Sweet Lovin'

I thought that this music video was full of positive representations, with the journey of the main character on a mission to spread happiness whilst skating through the neighbourhood. The carefree vibe and the freeformed dancing made the basis of my music video, as I tried include different characters having fun whilst dancing. Additionally, the settings that I had chosen would also reflect the mood of the video, such as the highly lit cityscapes and parks, which also conveyed positivity due to the high key lighting throughout the video.

Galantis - Runaway

I thought that this music video conveyed the atmosphere of the concerts and performance of the music style very effectively. This was done through the range of colours of the shots whilst featuring the dj or performer and also the movement in camera during the shot. For example, the camera moves as though it was in the crowd in order to allow the audience to feel immersed in the experience. I plan on doing something similar, where I will have different set ups of colours of the dj performing along side the artist whilst having varying camera movements.

Reference shots: 

After watching many music videos, I thought that there were some that inspired some of my ideas to do with either the editing, camera movement or narrative.

Maroon 5 - Girls Like You

The shot that inspired my camera movement and editing was in "Girls Like You" where in the beginning, we see the artist standing back to back with a female. When the camera arcs around them and pass the artist, the female behind changes to another female, which is repeated for a few more times. I plan on adapting this idea by having a table separating the character and female, as this conveys the distance between the character and females, which was the complete opposite to the intended meaning in "Girls Like You", as they were shown close to each other, conveying the intimacy. I plan on having quick, seamless cuts from behind the character's back so that it would seem like a smooth flow.

Charlie XCX - Boys

Another shot that inspired my ideas was from "Boys". They would illustrate the lyrics' phrases when the word "boys" was mentioned, where there would be a montage of shots featuring different males within the video. I plan on doing the same when the lyrics of my song goes "You know all the other men baby..." and would have quick cuts of the men flash up on the video, which would therefore illustrate the lyrics. This therefore emphasises the meaning of lyrics, which I find would be effective if included in my music video.

Cast List:

A cast list was created with information such as the name of the actors and their costume, as well as their headshots. This was important, as the actors would know what they would have to wear on set, which avoided confusion. This also acted as a checklist for me when I was planning, as I would be able to remember who to contact individually and discuss their role in the video.

Shoot Schedule: 

The shoot schedule was created so that the information about where the shots will take place and what time the shoot will take place will be easily passed on to the cast. This is done to avoid confusion and the cast would then be able to flag up any issues with the time of the shoot in advance.

Shootboard: 

These were some of the key shots that was planned out on the storyboard, which also included information on the location, time of shot, shot description as well as what props and which actors will be involved within the shot. This therefore allowed me to visualise how the shots would look on paper and seeing if they were appropriate, before going out to film the shots.

Post 6: My Artist Profile

After researching existing styles of other popular artists, I had created some mood boards which I thought represented the dance/electric genre best:

My initial thought of dance/electric was the extraordinary use of colours in general. For example, in the album covers, concerts and even their clothing. Additionally, the element of mystery with the masks covering their faces, which I thought added to the excitement. Alternatively, this can be seen as the artists wanting the audience to focus more on the quality of their music and enjoy it, rather than worrying about the appearances of the artist themselves.

However, I had made a separate moodboard of typical album covers to see what kind of colours they would integrate, along with the choice of font and colours. They would also feature the artist's logo/branding or a shot of the artist themselves.

Furthermore, I had also made a moodboard consisting of typical types of clothing these artists would wear, which would form the basis of my artist's clothing choices.

Using all this information that I had obtained during the research and planning, I was then able to finalise my artist's looks. I had decided to go with a pair of rounded sunglasses for partial covering of the face, in order to create a slight element of mystery. I also planned on wearing a patterned t-shirt along with a blue flannel, to which I would roll up showing off the accessories visible in the music video. The thick black arm bands, as well as a black necklace. He would also wear some black, zipped shoes to show off his quirky but contemporary fashion sense.

Post 5: My Project Proposal/ Response to the Brief

My proposal in response to the brief are as follows:

My chosen independent production company 

I have chosen an existing production company, 88rising, who will fund and make my music video. They are a company that is based in New York and has gained popularity as a musical platform for predominantly Asian artists. They would therefore support my artist, as their brand values are "trying to represent for not only Asian immigrants, but for all immigrants".

Name and overview of artist

My artist will be named "Zephyr", as the genre of the music that they produce (dance/electronic), contrast the meaning of the word zephyr, which is "a soft, gentle breeze". He is a single male dance artist, with crazy personality and love for fashion. Despite entering a competitive market filled with male DJ artists or performers, he stands out from the crowd due to his oriental descent. This is similar to the case of Kpop artists, where they became a global phenomenon due to the advancement in recent technology, giving people the opportunity to explore cultures of other countries.

My choice of track and why I chose it

The song that I have chosen for my music video is "Give me your love"-Sigala and will be my artist's first single. My reason for choosing this song is because I think that this song will best suit my artist's brand identity. I would like to portray him as a dance/electronic artist with a positive vibe. This is connoted through the song, as it is upbeat yet emotional, which relates to the feelings of the culturally sophisticated 16-25 class AB demographic target audience. The target audience can therefore identify with the lyrics, as this is the age where most relationships occur, therefore the meaning of "Give me your love" can be opened to interpretation.

Outline for my music video

I plan on creating a 3 minute music video. Within my music video, I plan on exploring the different ways of how this "love" can be interpreted. In the beginning, the character will go through different girls hoping for them to give him their love, however this does not work out as we see for the rest of the video, it was not romantic love he was looking for, it was the love of friendship between the character and his friends. He will go on a journey with his friends to deepen his relationship between then and ultimately, have a good time together.  I intend to include the artist lip synching within the video to express his emotions to the target audience, as well as include performance of the friends dancing which emphasises the cheerful mood connoted throughout the video. I also hope to reference an editing technique from an existing music video, "Girls like you"-Maroon. The intended message behind his technique was to show his appreciation for his girl after overcoming a difficult time with her, however I plan on doing the opposite, as my artist appreciates the males in his life as opposed to the females.

Outline for my website homepage and 2nd page

I plan on creating a homepage and a news page as the 2nd page. The homepage will consist of information of upcoming tours, the music video, a behind the scenes bloopers video, a short news feed, links to social media pages (Youtube, Instagram and Twitter), menu bars and the artist name in the top left corner. I plan on incorporating brand tie ins with clothing brand "Champion", which will be visible on the homepage. Additionally, I plan on having a "find out more" about the artist, so that the audience can familiarise themselves with who the artist is. 
The news page will consist of a larger news feed with information regarding awards, show cancellations, collaboration with other artists and fan meet ups.

How my production will be "digitally convergent" and reflect and consistent brand

In order to make my brand consistent, I plan on using the same colour scheme, font and fashion across all platforms, including; social media (Twitter and Instagram), website and music video. For example, the profile picture across both Twitter and Instagram will be kept the same, as well as the style of speech, with the way he posts or tweets. This will therefore keep his personality and style consistent with the help of what kind of images are posted.

Post 4: Representation

With most popular dance music videos in the recent times, representations of all ages, genders and race has been prominent. There has been many positive, as well as negative representations of these issues throughout the years.

Examples of this include:

Sia - "Elastic Heart"

Despite the lack of dancers, the emotional performance is still effectively portrayed by an older man and a young girl. This is due to the exaggerated dance moves and facial expressions paired along with the song lyrics, which conveys the true intentions behind the video adequately. This defeats the controversial idea upon the video's initial release, as many people felt that there was a "perverted undertone". The older man in the video was meant to represent "the embodiment of thought and reasoning", which is linked to adulthood, whereas the young girl represents "the embodiment of freedom and carefree nature", which is associated with childhood. We see that they are both trapped in the cage, which is meant to represent how the characters are trapped within their minds. This abstract way of representing common issues allowed the music video to be nominated as the best female video at the VMA awards in 2015.

Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"

In popular music videos, representations of females may vary due to the intentions of the artist/ producer. In this case, Gaga is presented in a number of ways for example, she is seen as a stereotypical emotional female, crying due to relationship issues, which is emphasised when the lyrics is heard, and is therefore seen as vulnerable. On the contrary, in the same music video, she is also seen as empowering and in control of the situation, which is also evident in many more popular music videos, as it has become a significant topic in recent times. This is supported by the narrative of the music video, as Gaga has overwhelmed the people who tried to kidnap her. This was also one of Gaga's intentions as she wanted to "project the tough female spirit". 

Van Zoonen believes that "the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views". Although this was not Gaga's intentions to present images of scopophilia, there are still some shots that appeal more to the "Male Gaze", where she is seen wearing minimal clothing whilst performing. 

Logic - "1-800-273-8255"

The representations of different sexualities has also been prevalant in the media, as well as music videos. The video at first shows the father, proud of having a son, however when he grew up, the father did not know how to handle the situation when he found out that his son was gay. Although after taking time to reconsider the situation, he was able to accept the fact that his son was gay, and therefore supporting the idea that made him happy. In addition to this, the music video also depicts the struggles of a teenager, representing it in a positive manner, as they are reminded that there will always be support, in this case the teacher in the video providing support when necessary. This therefore spreads a positive message to teenagers about being able to express their sexualities without being judged, as well as "delivering a message of hope", which was the intention of the artist. The title of the song itself is a suicide prevention hotline, where everyone is reminded that they will always receive emotional support. 

Sigala - Sweet Lovin' 

There is a wide range of representations within this music video; including race, gender, age and sexuality. However this was done in a positive manner, as the music video reinforces happiness of everyone. The music video begins with a female performer on skates leaving a trail of pink/red smoke, which causes anyone she passes by to feel a sudden burst of happiness and therefore breaking into their dance moves. 

The positive and active lifestyle represented within this music video are both ideas I plan on incorporating into my own music video. This is done by quick cuts from LS to CU of the constant upbeat performance whilst taking place in bright daylight, connoting positive vibes throughout the video. Sigala is well known for making upbeat music videos, as this represents their brand identity, therefore I plan on using this as inspiration when creating my own fictional artist. However, I will add a twist at the beginning of my music video, representing emotional struggle of being in relationships but will the mood will lift with the beginning of the performance, showing the positive way to cope with breakups.