06 AUDIENCE RESEARCH WEBSITE

24/03/2022 Formed focus group

5 x Female (Ages 16, 17, 18, 22, 25) 3 x Male (Ages 17, 19, 23) 

All members of the focus group identify as viewers of anthemic artists websites. They would also consider themselves aspirational and have agreed to keep in contact through email and teams meetings to respond to questions. 

15/07/2022 First draft feedback

I made my first mock up of the website and showed it to my focus group. I asked them several questions about what changes could be made and what could be improved.

1. What did you like about the website?

2. What did you not like about the website?

3. What do you think could be done to improve the website?

The general consensus was that the song, artist and website did not line up. One person (female, 18) said 'the pastel colour scheme is too soft and doesn't match the heavy beat throughout the song and party girl image of the artist'. Another person (male, 23) said 'a brighter colour scheme may work better'. 

Despite these criticisms, the majority of the group liked the name bethANY and one member (female,22) said 'the play of words in the name is unique and it is the sort of thing that will stick in my head'. 

The layout as a whole was liked, one member (female, 16) said 'the website is easy to navigate and by having images of the artist on the welcome page, I was able to make a connection between the name and face'. 

As a result of this meeting, I intend to change the colour scheme by using a neutral background but bright images of the artist herself, to make her stand out. I will take further inspiration from Kesha's official website where she uses an ashy background and rainbow images of herself, this will help my artist to stand out further.

05 AUDEINCE RESEARCH PRODUCTION

24/03/2022 Formed focus group

5 x Female (Ages 16, 17, 18, 22, 25) 3 x Male (Ages 17, 19, 23) 

All members of the focus group identify as viewers of anthemic music videos, most predominantly female pop anthems. They would also consider themselves aspirational and have agreed to keep in contact through email and teams meetings to respond to questions. 

21/04/2022

I met with the focus group to ask some questions to help me with my music video research. 

1. What is your favourite era of female anthemic pop songs?

3 females (16, 18, 25) and 2 males (17, 23) identified that they enjoyed 2000s and 2010 female pop anthems. 

1 female (22) and 1 male (19) said they most enjoyed 80s female pop anthems. 

1 female (17) identified the 90s as her favourite era of female pop anthems. 

I then asked the largest group (80s) their favourite female anthems from that era. They answered with a range of songs by Madonna, Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper and Dolly Parton. 

2. What is your favourite era of anthemic music videos?

4 females (16, 17, 22, 25) and 2 males (19, 23) identified the 2000s and 2010s as their favourite era of anthemic music videos. 

1 female (18) and 1 male (17) identified 80s anthemic music videos as their favourite. 

This meeting helped me to decide to choose an 80s song and film a music video using inspiration from the 2000s and 2010s. 

04 C AND C WEBSITE

 04 Codes and Conventions Website

Carly Rae Jepsen

• Light purple colour scheme and by using grey instead of black it doesn't appear harsh.
• Merchandise is advertised straight away on the website. 
• Hyperlinks are along the left.
• Here name is clear and unforgettable on the website. 

Adele

• The opening page advertises most recent album and 2 hyperlinks are at the bottom, the page is intended to be scrolled downwards.
• Here name is again central but to see pictures of her, you have to scroll. She is very famous so doesn't need her face front and central.
• Small piece of writing to the audience from the artist. 

Meghan Trainor

• Blue and white colour scheme again not too harsh. The colours coordinate with her jumper making the website appear cohesive. 
• Close up to immediately connect with audience, she is staring straight at the camera and it is close up making it appear personal.
• Merch is advertised further down. 

Avril Lavigne

• Black and red colour scheme appears powerful, going well with Avril's more punk vibe, I'd probably stick with a lighter colour scheme to appear more palatable. 
• Album directly advertised and the picture is cool and punk, merch advertised below. 

Britney Spears

• Black, white and gold and a mermaid Brittney unchained, goes along with the end of her censorship thing from her dad. Freedom
• Hyperlinks to the left with social medias linked at the bottom, no merch or music being advertised. Cohesive color scheme.

Corinne Bailey Rae

• Here name is central and the colors are bright and eye catching, she takes up the whole opening screen then you scroll down for tour dates in a rich purple. 
• Hyperlinks again to the top right, its clear the website is dedicated to her. 

03 C AND C PRODUCTION

 03 Codes and Conventions Production 

Since U Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson 

• The opening starts in an empty, slightly messy apartment and Kelly on her own directly addressing the audience. This connects with the audience grabbing their attention. 
• 0.24 mid close up of the mirror with her reflection. Her in the bathroom looking through products appears relatable to her core audience of young females. 
• 0.46 the camera pans from the bathroom to a gig, she is giving a passionate performance and wearing trendy clothes and looks more dressed up than previous shots. The band shots and jumping audience gives of high energy. 
• 1.08 shows the classic wardrobe shot, connects to the audience and the messy room sort of correlates to the bathroom sequence. 
• 1.33 the same pan as the bathroom sequence but it goes to the right rather than downwards. Again moves to the gig scene for chorus. 
• 1.55 in the bedroom she is seen throwing around a feather pillow, showing frustration and it cuts frequently to the gig throughout the bridge. 
• 2.17 returns to previous locations and trashes the apartment, gives a just been dumped breakdown, changing myself aura. 
• Ends with her walking out ex boyfriends apartment in his hat as he is walking with his new girlfriend, story comes together and it ends with a close-up with her face along the right. 

Girls Just Want To Have Fun- Cyndi Lauper 

• House wife at home and Cyndi dancing along the street, she sings to her conservatively dressed mother in a kitchen, I like the set up and she is dressed trendy for the time. 
• Cyndi connects with her audience as she is cool and young and trying to show her parents being annoying, the 'my parents ruin my life' narrative connects with the audience. 
• 1.13 her talking to her friends, diverse group of pretty girls, the audience can see themselves.
• 1.26 group of pretty, diverse group of girls, the dancing and lip syncing gives a cool performance into some funky editing, slightly dated. 
• Group of 9 girls having fun, dancing, putting on glasses. Dancing in public places. 
• Ends in the house with large group freely dancing, party atmosphere. 

I Wanna Dance With Somebody- Whitney Houston

• Opening with concert shots and onstage, in black and white and cuts with colored shots of Whitney dressed up fashionably. Close ups and lip syncing gives passionate performance.
• Colour background changes and various men are dancing alone. The bright colours and visually 
• Various solo shots in different locations dressed fashionably, the moving and locations is fun. 

Party In The USA- Miley Cyrus

• Opening shots have a yellow vintagey western filter over and lots of extras dressed in a 2010 cowgirl way. getting out the car shot.
• 0.21 she's following the camera as it moves back in a mid close up with her 'girlfriends', I like the camera movement. 
• 0.43 dancing on the car like a stage with girls dancing in the back and it moves to a new location for the second verse where she is alone with cuts back to the opening location. 
• 2.11 night time location for the bridge into the chorus on a proper stage with a choreographed dance in the background, freestyle dancers creates atmosphere. 

Call Me Maybe- Carly Rae Jepsen 

• Opens with shots of CRJ singing through a window and an attractive man (the love interest) mowing the lawn. 0.17 his shirt comes off. 
• First chorus takes place in the garage with CRJ centre and the musicians are secondary but shots of them playing still give the idea of performance. 
• Washing the car sequence with the man doing car things and it goes back to the garage performance shots to keep the viewers aware that she is a performer and giving a passionate performance. 
• 2.20 her and the man are in a movie poster, comical dreamlike. Turns out she passed out then turns out the boy is gay. I enjoy the narrative. 

Still Into You- Paramore

This is more of a pop punk anthem rather than dance pop as previous. 

• Opens with upwards pan through balloons to the band in a boat, strange visuals and sets up nicely to a more quirky music video with the name of the song coming up in pastels. 
• 0.13 bedroom with cakes and just Hayley (lead singer), free dancing and lip syncing. 
• Build up to the chorus shows her and the band cycling into a main hall where the chorus is sung and she gives a passionate performance directly addressing the camera. 
• 1.16 ballet dancer so clear choreography, next chorus in opening balloon room. 
• Fun action shots, high energy and rather hectic looking shots for the bridge. 
• 2.47 outside night time for the last chorus like party in the USA. 

Complicated- Avril Lavigne 

• The music video starts with Avril skating to a group of boys and asking to go to the mall, hence the location for the rest of the music video. Narrative is introduced promptly like call me maybe. 
• Shots cut between mall shenanigans and the full band performing in the skate park, they appear cool, approachable and aspirational. 
• 1.41 a changing room clothes try on sequence begins like the wardrobe scene in Since U Been Gone, shows they are aware of fashion trends and can be funny. 
• Avril appears as 'one of the boys' throughout this music video, cool at the time, would be criticised now. 
• 3.15 takes a punk approach breaking the guitar, the rest of the video shows awareness of teen culture and challenging authority, connecting the the angsty teen demographic. 

...Baby One More Time- Britney Spears 

Bleeding Love- Leona Lewis 

Go Put Your Records On- Corinne Bailey Rae

Lips Are Moving- Meghan Trainor 

A Thousand Miles- Vanessa Carlton 

The Sweet Escape- Gwen Stefani 

The Fear- Lily Allen

Halo- Beyoncé

02 STATEMENT OF INTENT

02 Statement of Intent 

Tik Tok- bethANY

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 Music Video

My brief is to produce an music video to an anthem for a 16-25 year old, aspirational audience. I will target my product more towards a female audience, and intend to make the audience feel a connection with the artist, through direct mode of address. My music video will be upbeat and represent an idealized lavish/party lifestyle of the artist that the audience may aspire to. I will use costume to make my artist appear fashionable and aspirational further promoting the idea of a lavish lifestyle and the artist as a 'fashion icon'. The intention of my video is to promote my artist to the target audience to support her image  to create a positive representation that connects her to her fan base. I will use a range of moving camera shots to make the video appear more upbeat and dynamic. The representations of my artist and audience in the video will be stereotypical and my song ,Tik Tok by Kesha, fits in the pop genre and is anthemic. I will create a vague narrative of 'the morning after a party', creating a relatable representation of my artist similar too music videos in my genre. I am taking inspiration from videos such as Girls want to have fun, TGIF, TikTok and Since U been gone who are targeting the same audience as me. The target age range is particularly media savvy, so I will be appealing to the postmodern urge to create ironic content by juxtaposing the content of the song (which is about going out clubbing) with the video, which will feature the artist enjoying time with a friend at home.   

Product 2 Website

After researching websites of female pop artists I noticed codes and conventions of their websites. I will use many images of my artist both performing and posing to help the audience connect her face with her music. The website will also include advertisements for her music video, albums, single and upcoming tour. The website is to promote the artist, so I will include a small biography for her to talk to her audience to make them feel connected to her. For my audio visual element I will include a behind the scenes of my music video and a get to know the artist video on a hyperlinked page. I will use a dark colour scheme and the colour will come from my pictures and audio visual elements. My website will be easy to navigate and include an interactive element where fans can sign up to a newsletter to be updated on my artist. I will also include a blog as many other websites had one that gave exclusive information on the artist to promote their activities, tours and music. 

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? 

The website will promote the music video by having an poster promoting it as the first image on the website and behind the scenes of the music video will be featured on the hyperlinked page. At the end of the video it will have a page with social media handles and a handle to the website to encourage the audience to invest in the artist. Both the music video and the website will be constructed to promote the identity of the artist as someone with loyalty to family and friends.

01 COURSEWORK BRIEF

Brief 4: Music Video and online 

Requirements of the brief 

You work for an independent media production company. You have been given the task of producing a three-minute music video for an anthem* by a fictional band/artist signed to Sony Music and two pages for the working website for the band/artist. 

You may use an existing song for your music video (this does not need to be copyright free). 

The music video must feature a narrative appropriate to a music video (e.g. a performance montage, a narrative illustrating or commenting on the song, or a mix of performance montage and other narrative elements). The webpages must promote the band/artist to its target audience and enable fans to interact with them. 

Summary of brief requirements: 

• Statement of Intent (approx. 500 words)1 
• Music Video: One three-minute music video. 
• Distribution channel: Content must be age-appropriate for young adults from the age of 16. 
• Number of webpages: One homepage and one linked page. 
• Cross-media production target audience: A primarily 16–25-year-old middle market aspirational audience. 

There must be a clear sense of branding across the two elements of the cross-media production.

Production detail that must be included 

The production of the music video must include (as a minimum): 

• Range of camera shots, including shot distances, angles and movement as appropriate to a music video. 
• Editing of footage appropriate to a music video. 
• At least two different uses of mise-en-scène. 
• At least two characters representing at least two different social groups (e.g. as defined by age, gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality). 
• Graphics/titles to include the name of the track and the name of the band/artist. 

The production of the webpages must include (as a minimum): 

• Original audio or audio-visual content which may include material from the music video but must include at least one element produced specifically for the website. 
• A minimum of two original images (with at least one different original image on each of the two pages). These images must be different from those produced for the music video. 
• Appropriate conventions of website design, including an original title and logo for the band/ artist’s webpage and a menu bar. 
• Text introducing the band/artist. 
• Working links from the homepage to the other page. 
• A range of appropriate media language techniques (typography, images, fonts, backgrounds, logos etc.) as appropriate to the purpose of the website.

Advertising Task

Advertising Task 

Starting with the positives, of which there are many; you are one of only a handful of people to have this completed on time. This is very important. You have also managed to fulfil the brief correctly and have demonstrated a good eye for photography and for layout and design. The typography is really sound and you have done a great job of controlling mise en scene. I also like the obvious cohesions between the two adverts within the campaign. All excellent.  

 

The only negative really is that you probably need to be a little more aware of the polysemic nature of images (multiple possible meanings). Cast your mind back to the work we did on the Shelter adverts; we needed anchoring text to clarify the meaning and I think that you need that to be a little more explicit with the concept of your ads, something like a thought bubble or a series of statements around the people looking at their phones.  

 

Really liked this piece of work. Well done. 

Music Video Task

Music Video Task

I still can’t access the PowerPoint on your Music Video research. I have a feeling that sharepoint might be blocked when accessing via school, so I would recommend that you use Slideshare. It used to be a free site and I believe it still is. The missing links are not a problem as yet, but once we start into coursework proper you will need to be able to show your research. 

 

Your storyboard shows real diligence in terms of presenting ideas. I really like the level of work you have put into the illustrations and how well you’ve understood the dynamics of using shots, transitions and camera movement. The text element works perfectly well to explain your ideas, but in conventional terms a storyboard should be formatted in a somewhat more structured way. That said, I think this would work perfectly for an online format and this is the most likely way you will use your planning. Really solid work.