Lyric sheet + Storyboard

 This part of my blog will detail the planning and storyboard of our project

Lyrics Sheet

This was done in class together to collaborate and combine our ideas together before starting the storyboard.

However, we felt like the time we were provided was not sufficient to let our ideas properly develop so Regine moved our discussion to Canva

This was a lot more helpful as we were able to easily collaborate through comments. Here are some of the discussions I had with Regine

And here are some additional communication from our WhatsApp group chat

Storyboard

This was done by Regine

[image]

Reflection:

• Doing a lyric sheet really helped us ensure that we all have the same understanding of our ideas for the music video and that our production can remain consistent by avoiding miscommunication. I also found it really enjoyable as it was fun to hear other people ideas and share my own

Moodboard

This part of my blog will detail the moodboard we have created for inspiration

media moodboard

Since we wanted our music video to be representative of our artist's past, we wanted it to feel dreamy and nostalgic. We have two moodboards to represent this. The first one represents our artist as coming from a rural area, we want the music video to reflect this by including more rural locations featuring a lot of nature and less infrastructure. The other one will reflect her moving into the city to pursue her dreams so will feature more modern-looking infrastructure

Reflection:

• A lot of our struggles from this music video came from the fact that we wanted to do a 

Theory of Stardom

 In class we studied the theory of stardom by Richard Dyer. Here are our classroom notes about the celebrity Beabadoobee

Names:	Cheryl, Regine, Aurel
Celebrity:	Beabadoobee
REEL persona:	Playful, casual, bold, stylish, curating a professional profile Portrays herself as a sweet girl (Twitter) by using informal language (emojis, emoticons, slang etc)
REAL persona:	Interviews: Speaks out on Asian hate, activist and able to be vulnerable enough to talk about her past traumas, difficult relationship and taking therapy. Rough past according to articles: kicked out of conservative high school, drugs (?)
Love:	How is their love life reported on? Discourse over beabadoobee’s breakup with her previous partner being messy in addition to him dating her ex-friend immediately after the breakup.
Ordinariness:	Do the media try to show them as everyday individuals like you? Her ‘Glue song’ music video featured her in her hometown in the philippines with her, making it relatable to audiences as it shows a simple and rural area
Success:	What is their success story? How is it told? Went viral through tiktok in 2020 with her first single named ‘Coffee’  Said she tried to be someone she wasnt until she started embracing her roots Mentioned she was ostracized in school then kicked out of school at age 17 Presented as started from simplicity: used a second hand guitar and practiced through youtube tutorials Went popular through her first song She signed up with London label Dirty Hit where she continued to produce her other songs.    https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beabadoobee-interview-2022
Consumption:	Can you find any articles that celebrate their luxurious lifestyles? Or their extreme diets? Fan generated social media pages dedicated to the artist’s closet and wardrobe by finding the pieces of clothing worn by the artist.
Dream turned sour:	Has this celebrity had a downfall? How is it reported? Did they recover? Since her appearance and debut as a singer song-writer around 2020 is still quite recent, there has not been any controversies or negativity involved regarding the artist herself.

Final Magazine

Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

GOOGLE DRIVE LINK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v0gKQwQEt7GuFXKrYI6L8D4nbUT8bwg-/view?usp=drive_link

Critical Self Reflection 4

  This part of my blog will detail my critical self reflection 4

CCR4

Critical Self Reflection 3

  This part of my blog will detail my critical self reflection 3

Add a heading

Critical Self Reflection 2

  This part of my blog will detail my critical self reflection 2

Script: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uKOWEorrr-JJ3w0XdbLmUAy5md1nvBteOc6VjquZQDk/edit?usp=sharing

Statement of Intent

 This part of my blog will detail my statement of intent discussing our initial ideas and proposals

Reflection:

Research: Genre

This section of my blog will help me research music videos in my decided genre (indie pop) so that I can understand what conventions I would like to conform or subvert to

According to the Spotify artist metrics, these are the current most popular indie pop artists:

I will research the music videos created by these artists to better understand what is expected by the audience in typical indie pop music videos

Genre Conventions

Steve Neale's genre theory suggests that a genre needs to conform to genre conventions to engage audiences through something that they are used to enjoying while also subverting some aspects of the genre to keep it interesting so that audiences do not get bored.

As independent artists, indie pop music videos are typically lower budget. Their music videos usually reflect this through conventions that would allow them to produce music videos that cut their spending by using conventions such as natural lighting (avoids needing to get expensive lighting equipment), casual outfits (saves costume budget) or focusing on the artist (avoids needing to spend money on actors). 

However, as pop means popular, some indie pop artists are able to grow enough to afford higher budget music videos (such as Chappell Roan). Even so, some artists choose to stick to making their music video conform to the low-budget convention aesthetic (such as Beabadoobee).

By creating high budget music videos, these artists play on the success appeal according to Dyer's theory of stardom which engages audiences by showing the audiences how they've managed to afford higher productions despite being independent artists. On the other hand, conforming to low-budgets would allow artists to appeal their audience through their aspect of ordinariness. This makes audiences feel that the artist is more similar to them

beabadoobee - Glue Song

Genre/Sub-genre: Indie pop

Produced by: Liam Wallace-Cook

Conventions

Conform

• Homemade, homey feelings: A lot of the scenes in this music video were shot in homes and local Filipino neighborhoods which contained cultural codes that created a comforting homey feeling that the audience can connect to. It also features shots of families doing everyday things (kids playing with each other, an older woman cooking, eating together etc.) which makes the content relatable to audience, allowing them to think about their own families and reminisce on their own bonds.
• Low-budget: Most of the camera shots appeared to look like archival footage or were from a hand-held camera without much editing (beyond cuts) which gave it a cheaper looking feel. The mise-en-scene also mostly consisted of simple clothes and settings. These elements come together to make the music video feel more DIY
• Primarily features the artist: Like most indie pop music videos, this artist appears frequently in her music video. She is mostly seen lip-syncing and interacting with the other subjects in the music video. She remains the focus throughout the music video as she is shown looking into the camera, creating a direct mode of address (making the viewer feel a part of the music video and feel involved with the artist and other subjects), and in close up shots that causes the audience to focus on her and her facial expressions. This perhaps aligns with the social relationships uses & gratifications as the audience develops a sort of bond with the artist

Subvert

• Romantic love: Although this music video's narrative features love, it focuses on familial love rather than romantic. The artist is seen frequently interacting with these families rather than a romantic partner. One of these interactions features the artist flipping through a photobook with an older woman (which the audience can assume is related to her as we see them sitting close to each other and fondly looking at the photobook). This interaction is shown through over the shoulder shots, close up and medium shots that make the scene feel more intimate, allowing the audience to form an emotional connection with the narrative
• High-class settings: Most music videos in the pop genre feature settings from high-end urban areas such as cities, malls or luxurious restaurants but this music video features lower to middle class settings from rural areas. This follows Dyer's theory of stardom, rather than focusing on the artist's success by showing her in high-end settings, the familiar middle to lower-class settings places importance on the artist's ordinariness instead as the artist's appeal now comes from her relatableness
• Vibrant colours: The colours on this music video are muted. Vibrant colours typically create a more 'artificial' feel as, although we associate these colours as being fun, it can make something appear more exaggerated effect. As the narrative focuses on the simplicity and value of familial love, it needs to be more relatable to the audience to make the intended preferred reading to come across. Muted colours tend to appear more realistic as we see them more often than vibrant colours. Muted colours also often invokes nostalgia in the audience as they are often associated with older cameras

Representations

• Family: Family is represented positively as the narrative focuses on the positive interactions between family members with a song about love. This is shown through close-up shots (allows the audience to focus on the emotions and actions of a subject, making them feel closer) and hand held camera movements (feels more 'homemade' and nostalgic) which make the shots feel more intimate. 
• Southeast Asians (Filipino): The music video showcases Filipinos in positively through the interactions the artist has with them. Long shots and medium shots allow us to see the body language and actions of the subjects clearly. Through these shots, we are able to clearly see the subjects doing activities such as sharing food or playing with each other which allows us to understand the relationship they have with each other and how they value one another, making the audience empathise with them. We also receive a direct mode of address as we see the artist and some children wave at the camera through a long shot, establishing an emotional connection with them. Perhaps the reason for this positive representation can be attributed to Stuart Hall's representation theory as the artist herself is Filipino therefore may want to show her ideals to the audience

Technical elements

Camera:

• Hand held: This helps create a homemade nostalgic feel as it could be a semantic code to home videos that families often record for memories. It may cause the audience to feel like they are looking back at one of those old videos
• Close-up: Makes the shots feel more intimate as the audience is made to focus on the emotions and actions of the subjects, literally bringing the audience 'closer' to the subjects. It also brings a lot of attention to the artist which may be used capture the attention of audiences who are fans of the artist and watching the music video for more content of her
• Shallow focus: We often see medium shots of the artist with other subjects in the background through a shallow focus. This keeps the attention on the artist as she becomes the main focus against background interactions while still showing the relationships between other subjects in the background, reminding the audience of their closeness and reflects on the theme of the video

Mise-en-scene:

• Casual clothing: We see all subjects wear casual clothing, this makes them more relatable to the audience. We also see the artist wearing casual clothes however hers is slightly higher budget which sets her apart from the rest of the subjects by making her appear more fashionable which builds her brand image by making her more recogniseable than the other subjects
• Natural setting: A few clips consist of the artist lip-syncing in a natural setting making the video feel less artificial as the presence of more nature rather than urban structures makes it feel less informal. 
• Neighborhood setting: A neighborhood setting creates familiarity in the audience

Sound:

• There are no additional sounds in the music video other than the song. This allows the audience to focus on the song itself and listen to the lyrics that help them understand the narrative that is being built

Editing:

• Glitchy film effects: This makes the music video appear older therefore creating a sense of nostalgia for the audience

girl in red - rue

Genre/sub-genre: indie pop

Produced by: Aleksander Aurdal

Conventions

Conform

• Mainly features the artist: the artist is the main subject throughout the entire music video. She is seen wearing red, a warm colour palette, amongst a background that features cool colours. This sets her apart from the background making her stand out
• Follows a narrative: most music videos follow a narrative that is usually symbolic to the story

Subvert

• Vibrant colours: throughout the music video, the colours are dark saturated hues. This makes the music video feel more moody
• High key lighting: most indie pop music videos feature high key lighting to make it standout. However this music video features low key lighting which helps add suspense and mystery to the narrative

Representations

• The artist: the music video shows the artist being vulnerable and dressed in simple clothing. Perhaps this aligns with ordinariness aspect of Dyer's theory of stardom as it allows the audience to relate to her
• Personal struggles: the music video consists of a lot of scenes where the artist is running as we hear the songs lyrics. As the song is about running away from your problems, this could be a semantic code to that. 

Technical elements

Camera:

• Long shot: Long shots make the artist appear smaller and more vulnerable which makes the scenes feel more tense and emotional

Mise-en-scene:

• Red clothes: Not only could wearing red be a reference to the artist's stage name (girl in red), it also makes the artist contrast and stand out against the cooler coloured background and isolates her from the settings, making her appear kind of alienated

Sound:

• No additional sound was used other than the song. The song is fast paced fits the urgent pace of the scenes

Edit:

• Fast paced: The edits are fast paced cuts that add to the sense of urgency. This matches well with the chase scene in music video as the artist is running, it makes this feel faster

Now I will be conducting less detailed researches to focus on what I want to incorporate into my own

IDKHOW - Leave Me Alone

Genre:/Subgenre: Indie pop, indie rock

Target audience and how they're appealed to:

• 15-25 year olds: The music video consists of a narrative that may be harder for younger children or old people to decode as it isn't constructed in a simple manner. It also contains a lot of neutral colour which may be boring to a child audience however the sci-fi themes and upbeat music may be appealing to young adults and teenagers

What I would like to use:

• I enjoy the presence of a narrative that creates a story-like element in the music video as I find it engaging so I would like my music video to have a narrative.

What I would like to avoid:

• The narrative here does not really match the lyrics which I personally don't like. I feel that as a music video, it should relate to the song
• I also don't think it's possible for my team to do a similar production as this music video consisted of a lot of props that may make it too expensive to produce

Pavement - Harness Your Hopes

Genre/sub-genre: indie pop, indie rock

Target audience and how they're appealed to:

• 15-25: the music video follows a retro style. Retro styles are becoming more popular as a trend in younger generations

Use:

• I like the usage of the colours in the music video. I feel like a lot of the colours are vibrant and are complementary colours which makes it pop out and might suit my own music video

Avoid:

•  The music video is very abstract. Perhaps this is to match the abstract lyrics but I dont think this is something we should apply to our own music video

Clairo - Juna

Genre: indie pop

Target audience and how they're appealed to:

• 15-30: the music video doesn't seem to target a certain age in particular however the shots are very high quality and cinematic which is typical of contemporary media so a younger audience may enjoy it

Use:

• I like the filter used on the music video. It makes it look like it's being shot using old film so I like the retro style

Avoid:

• The video featured a lot of wrestling. I trust that all subjects involved are professionals but as students I want us to stay safe so we will avoid any activities that may be dangerous

Chappell Roan - Casual

Genre/sub-genre: indie pop

Target audience and how they're appealed to:

• 16-25 yr old sapphics: This music video's narrative follows a sapphic relationship is a semantic code to the song's lyrics that discuss a lot of themes that may be relatable to a sapphic audience. I assume it's target towards younger people as romantic struggles are often more relatable to a younger, less experienced, audience

Use:

• I really really like this music video as I enjoy the symbolism in the narrative. I want our music video to also feature a storyline that consists of symbolism. The way that this music video uses fantasy elements makes me consider how I can incorporate such elements into my own music video and if they would work well with it

Avoid:

• This music video consists of a lot of underwater scenes. Although beautiful and cinematic, this is unrealistic for us to do as we do not have the equipment necessary to make this possible.

Will Wood - Tomcat Disposables

Genre/Sub-genre: Indie pop

Target audience and how they're appealed to:

• 13-50 yr old, animal lover: The music video portrays the story of a mouse, the audience is made to empathise with the mouse as we watch this wooden mouse try to survive (allowing the audience to create an emotional bond). The music video features a simple wooden stop motion that makes it suitable for all ages but the narrative may be harder to decode for very young or very old audiences

Use:

• I wanted to look at this music video as it's another music video that features a strong narrative with a lot of story telling. I like how the scenes we see on screen match the lyrics as it builds a stronger narrative

Avoid:

• This music video is a stop motion animation using wood. Although interesting, this is unrealistic as it would take too much time and require skills we don't have. It also doesn't feature an element of performance which is what our teacher recommends our music videos to have.

mxmtoon - mona lisa

Genre/sub-genre: Indie pop 

Audience and how they are appealed:

• 13-20: I assume that the audience consists of teenagers as the music video features a heavily decorated bedroom. This is a semantic code to how must teenagers decorate their room, making it more relatable to them.

Use:

• I like the warm colour palette as it connotes love and comfort. I think since our music video is about love, we could also use a warm colour palette to communicate this

Avoid:

• The music video features a lot of outfits that are reminiscent to historical eras. If we did this, it would be expensive and hard to find so I want to keep our outfits simple and within our budget

Here are some additional videos that helped me with ideas

How it helped me: I previously had no experience shooting a music video so this video helped me gain a basic understanding of how to do this. Through this video, we thought of the idea to incorporate a base performance of our star (1 in long shot, 1 close up) in case we needed extra clips to put into the song

Reflection:

• As during the time we were supposed to do research I was busy with other Cambridge exams, I was behind and had to rush the research. This experience was valuable as it helped me learn how to work through an upcoming deadline in a packed week
• I really enjoyed conducting this research. It helped me understand the elements that I could to incorporate to my own music videos. I found it fun to think in the director's point of view

Research: Audience

Research: Industry

 This part of my blog will detail research into the music video industry. I will research a music video producing company that produces music videos based on my genre

girl in red - Too Much

Production company: SMUGGLER

Description: American production company founded in 2002 by Patrick Milling-Smith and Brian Carmody

Genre: Indie pop

Other content they produce:

• Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
• Paul Kalkbrenner - Kabelmann 
• Michael Kiwanuka - Floating Parade

Typical audience:

• Young people to adults (15-50 yrs)
• Any gender
• English-speaking
• From the US or UK

Company size and age:

• 30 employees
• Founded 2002

Most successful product: 

• Although the company doesn't list all their music video products, which would have allowed me to deduce which was most successful, based on artist popularity, I assume that girl in red's too much is their most successful product

Phoebe Bridgers - I Know the End

Production company: Son&Heir

Description: American production company founded by Dilly Gent in 2018

Genre: Indie pop

Other content they produce:

• Wallows - Quarterback
• Blur - Charmless Man
• The Kills - Heart Of A Dog

Typical audience:

• Teens to adults (13-50)
• Any gender
• English speaking
• From the US

Company size and age:

• 2-10
• Founded 2018

Most successful product:

• Radiohead - Just

What company would most likely produce my media text in the real world?

SMUGGLER

Pros:

• They are older, therefore have more experience in music video production
• More employees. This would mean that their productions may be more effective as there are more people working on it
• More familiar with working with lesser known indie artists. They seem to have frequently worked with smaller artists, which as we are working under the indie pop genre, our artist would fall into

Son&Heir

Pros:

• They're younger. This would mean that the owners and employees are more likely to be younger people themselves which ensures that they are more familiar with the trends and culture of younger people
• Has worked with well known artists. This is important as it means that they are familiar with the pop aspect of our genre
• Small number of employees. This would mean that their employees are more likely to be more skilled as they are able to keep a successful production company running with a limited number of people involved

Conclusion

Weekly Progress + Plan

 This section of my blog will contain my weekly progress & plan

Term 2

Week 1

This week our project was introduced and we were also introduced into media ecology. We created our first few blog posts and started some research into the industry. 

Problem: We are late in finding a team and are still struggling to do so. This is because of the divide of those taking the A level Cambridge exam and those who aren't. Being unable to find a group makes research harder as we aren't sure what music video we want to do yet

Solution: We decided that it's best for those doing A level to create groups together and those who aren't to create their own groups. However, we still struggled in looking for members but in the end, I managed to be invited into a group I believe I can trust and I look forward with working them

To-do:

• Finish industry research

Week 2

This week we started our genre research. We decided to go with indie pop as we felt that since it indie was typically more lower budget, it was more realistic for us to do and most audiences are familiar with pop. I initially thought I wasn't familiar with the genre but after looking into it, I realized a lot of the artists I enjoyed actually fall into this genre which made me feel more confident

Problem: I need to manage research among other tasks

Solution: Try to finish as much research as possible during project lessons

To-do:

• Finish industry research
• Finish genre research

Week 3

This week we mostly focused on genre research

Problem: I was having my AS level psychology exams during this time which caused me to miss a couple lessons. 

Week 4

This week we worked on our statement of intent and did classwork on Richard Dyer's theory of stardom

Problem: We struggled to pick a song

Solution: We picked one based on which one we felt that we could create a good narrative out of

Week 5

This week we worked on our moodboard , storyboard and lyric sheet. 

Problem: We needed to start putting down our ideas which was hard as we often struggled in figuring out how we want to pair the narrative with our song. One of our options required a child actor which would be difficult as we aren't sure where we could get one, especially since they have to look similar to our actor.

Solution: 

Week 6

This week was dedicated entirely into our project so we all worked on finishing up all our work. Additionally, we all worked on the screen test together this week

Problem: I was taking my AS level media Cambridge exam this week on Wednesday and my teammate, Cheryl, was staying home to study for her AS level economics exam and was absent the day after due to her exam. This meant that most of the time Regine had to work alone. This was hard as it meant that we had limited communication

Solution: Regine kept us updated on her work which allowed us to catch up on our own work easily

Reflection:

• Having a plan to our project help us keep in track and helped keep our progress organised. This is usually something I struggle with so I'm thankful for this plan as it helped me a lot.
• I enjoyed logging our progress as I enjoy journaling and this helped me recognise what I've done since I often had an issue of fearing that I'm behind so this ensured me that I am on the same track as my classmates by providing an easy comparison. However, sometimes it felt overwhelming as the amount of schoolwork I've had has made me demotivated but having an entire week where media sessions are dedicated to the project has helped me by as working with other people made me feel better

Preliminary Research

 This section of my blog will detail the preliminary research into music videos

Here are a few different genres I've looked at. This research was done to better understand what music genre we want to select

Link in case embed fails: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16NrFTbvo4kkwf5UVoKr09zOLDlJg53IlBn4GRPBeb84/edit?usp=sharing

Reflection:

• After conducting this research, I was able to better understand what conventions were expected of each genre. As of now, I still do not have a team so I haven't been able to select a genre. However, from what I've learned, I think it would be best to do the indie genre. This is because it's more realistic for students to do as the genre accommodates lower budget productions. Once I receive a team, I will discuss this option with them and weigh our options together
• I didn't like how fast paced this task was. I like being able to take my time in my work to be able to examine and discuss things in detail but regardless I feel like this experience has been beneficial to me as I now know how to do work faster when I need to

Brief

 This part of my blog will detail the brief for my component 3 project

Reflection:

• This brief helped me understand the outline of our project and what I can expect which helped me prepare myself and encouraged me to start thinking about music videos by watching a lot of music videos to help me familiarise myself with them
• Truthfully, I was not looking forward to this project. I was worried there may be conflicts due to differences in opinions. There was also the initial issue of everyone struggling to create groups as we were nervous about it. However, it turned out better than I expected as my teammates are more open to discussion than I had assumed and our teacher helped us through finding our groups a lot. This has taught me to trust others more in groupwork. As long as I dedicate myself to my parts, I should in turn trust them to dedicate themselves to theirs

Team

 This part of my blog will detail my team and the links to their blogs

Critical Self Reflection 1

 This part of my blog will detail my critical self reflection 1

Photo Editing Process

 This section of my blog will discuss the editing process of my magazine

Editing Research

I have never really done much editing before and I am generally unfamiliar with the process and program I am using so I looked at this tutorial to learn how I can edit

After watching this video, I understood how to navigate the program and how I could use the tools to create my desired photos

Photo Development

Front Cover

I started by simply making the image black and white using a filter. I wanted a black and white image as it made it appear more retro which is a convention of my genre according to my research as it connotes mystery. Black & white images also makes the image appear older which connotes history and links it with my main feature article

I then applied these changes to make the image contrast better

I also used the app's portrait features

I then made the outer brightness darker to create a light vignette effect which adds to the retro style as this effect is most often seen in old films and photos

I added a grain effect which also further contributes to the retro style as grainy images resemble how old films and photos look like

I then switched to using Ibis Paint X as it had a lot of filters I felt I could use and I intended to use it for creating my front cover. I added the border as it was an aspect of my front cover and I wanted to see how the changes would looks against the colour and style I was going for in my front cover. I changed the brightness and contrast accordingly to what I felt complimented the style better

Lastly, I added a posterize effect which made it appear a bit more cartoon-like. This was added because illustrations were a convention of paranormal magazines. It also made it appear more lighthearted and less serious which helped with the diversion uses & gratification

Contents Page

I started by tuning the image to make it pop out more. I made the image colder as blue tones connote mystery 

I also used the select tool to make certain aspects of the image brighter which helped balance it and make it appear more visible

Reflection:

• I'm not familiar with image editing so I often worry if my edits came off as 'too much' or weren't as effective as I thought they were but Snapseed's feature that allows you to directly compare the original and edited image helped me understand what has changed and whether my changes were helping or not
• I've gained a lot of editing skills through this. I now understand how certain effects in the editing may impact an image as a whole and how I can use it to create meaning