04 Statement of Intent
Feels like - ASYA
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 a music video for a ballad aimed at a 16–25-year-old, style conscious audience. I will target my product more towards a teenage audience and intend to make the audience feel a deep emotional connection and relatability with the artist through direct mode of address. The video will be intimate and will reflect a teenage girl who is alone and having flashbacks to when she had a crush on the girl who didn’t like her back. I have done this because Ballad music videos typically consist of aloneness and contain flashbacks from when they weren't alone. I want to seperate the artist's flashbacks with scenes of her lip-syncing to break it up and create the narrative and promote direct mode of address. Another way that I have promoted direct mode of address is by including somewhat of a performance scene, where the artist is playing guitar and singing along to the song. The intention of my music video is to create a relatable experience for my target audience who may have gone through similar experiences, potentially leading them to find comfort in my artist, therefore, getting more engagement from the audience whilst promoting the audience. The shot lengths will range between 0.5-2 seconds long,1-6 seconds long and 6-12 seconds as ballad music videos have ranges of shot lengths, sometimes being very short or very long, and it can create consistencies. At the beginning of the song, I am using longer shot lengths, and gradually make them shorter as the song gets more 'upbeat'. During the Chorus, I am going to line up transitions with the beats of the song to make it move with the music. In ballad music videos, women are typically represented as lonely, and my music video will reinforce this stereotype, with a "breakdown" scene, illustrating the artists emotions and feelings about the situation. I will also use different social groups including LGBTQ+ by making the artist subtly in love with one of her friends, and gender by making the artists best friend the opposite gender. I am doing this because I want diversity in my video to reach wider audiences and gain more engagement. One stereotype that I have broken is the idea that girls can't be friends with boys without being romantic. I did this by including flashbacks of the artist and boy as friends and having the boy support my artist after her ‘breakdown.’ I have made my artist subtly romantically interested in one of her other friends in the music video to fully break this stereotype. I have broken this stereotype because I feel like my target market disagree with it, and by having my artist also disagree with it, it creates relatability and connection. My song is 'Feels Like' by Gracie Abrams and I believe that this fits into the genre of ballad song. I am taking inspiration from the music video 'Ceilings' by Lizzy McAlpine, because that video targets the same target audience as me. Because the target audience are style conscious, I will use costume to appeal to this.I will include scenes of the artist being aware of the clothes she is wearing. For example, a scene will consist of the artist looking at what different clothes to wear, and looking in the mirror and sorting out her hair. This may appeal to style conscious audiences as they may find those activities familiar, creating relatability within the video, which is also an aim of my artist to engage with fans. Another way I have broken codes and conventions of ballad music videos is through the use of video effects and transitions. I have used video effects and transitions to emphasise the breakdown and make it feel more real and I believe that they also will appeal to my style conscious audience creating a more interesting music video to watch. I will use a retro video effect on the flashbacks to try and separate present time and flashbacks, making it more clear for viewers so they don’t get confused with the time line. During the flashbacks, I will use sound to allow the characters to speak over the song, this is again breaking conventions of ballad music videos, and I have done this because I think it creates more depth and meaning within the video, as well as boosting the narrative allowing my audience to relate to it more.
Product 2 Website
I have conducted thorough research of artists who have produced ballad songs and noted down codes and conventions to act as a guide for my website to make it as accurate as possible. I will use multiple images of my artist in the website posing, and will use around 1-10 pictures of the artist on the front page. This will include on merch, album covers and on the header and footer of the website. This will help the audience to connect with the artist through direct mode of address. I will include promotion for the music video by creating an audio visual element which will be a bloopers reel and a video explaining the music video and the ideology and thought process behind it. I am also creating a tour and a 'current album' section as that was a convention on the artists websites. The role of the website is to promote my artist, so I will create an 'about me' section talking about my artist to help the audience connect and relate to her. I have used pinks, golds, purples and some black to represent a girly vibe because I think that the style conscious audience will appreciate the chosen colour scheme, and I have used the same colour in my music video so that they match and promote engagement together. I have also tried to keep the layout chic and minimalistic, because of my style concious audience. I have done this by not including many elements of decoration, and kept it quite simple, but still making sure I stuck to the colour scheme without it becoming too repetitive. I also used chic fonts throughout my website to ensure the layout is still stylish without being too boring. In my hyperlinked page, I will include more images of the artist and a photoshoot. I will be using the same colour scheme. The audio visual element will be displayed on the hyperlinked page. The layout of the website will be: Main header which will display and image and the artists name, as well as their latest single (the song used in the music video), and an 'about me.' The next section will be a merch section including images of merch with the ability to hover over the images to see a different angle or picture of the merch. I have done this because I have noticed this convention in other artist's websites. The section after that will be the music video section, with the artists current album and track-list. The last section will be a 'subscribe' section giving audiences the ability to sign up to a newsletter about the artist and be updated and connected to them as they may feel as if they are in communication with the artist. I will also include an engagement section giving fans the opportunity to upload their own media to the website giving further connection to the artist. I will do this through the use of a blog on the 'media' section of the blog, which will allow audiences to put their own thoughts and comments about the music video, promoting engagement between the two.
Getting my audience to interact with my artist after watching my music video, or seeing my website is important because I want to create a more immersive experience for the fans and want the maximum amount of interaction possible. In my music video, I will use an end card to send fans watching the video to the website. I will have social media links clearly posted on my website and will include blooper reels and an analysis of the music video on the website. I think the use of an analysis will appeal to style conscious audiences because it allows them to see the choices made to create a video specifically for them, meaning they value it more and possibly even watch it again after finding out easter eggs that they didn’t notice, boosting engagement between my video and website. In the end card of my music video, I will include a blooper and text telling audiences that they can see more similar content on my website and social medias, and tell them how to find that to promote engagement. The engagement section also pushes fans to go onto my artists social medias to view their posts, and also means they may create their own posts about my artist. The music video and the website will be used to construct that the artist has a relatable experience of her fans, and also has deep connections with their fans. I will include a picture of my artist holding a phone in the 'subscribe' section, as I saw this in another artists website and thought that it was a smart idea to promote the audiences to subscribe, and the use of direct mode of address may make them feel like they will be connecting to the artist.
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