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Final Music Video

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Post-Production: Final Digipak

Post-Production: 'The Weekend' Poster

Post-Production: Magazine Advert

Research- Magazine Covers

Vibe Magazine

                                           

 Vibe publications was founded by Quincy Jones in 1993. Vibe is suitable for our R&B genre because they are highly recognized within the publishing industry,  especially in the 90s and 2000s, and they feature R&B and other hip hop artists such as; Eminem, Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Alicia Keys and did a piece of Aaliyah (The influencer of Jazmyn Rose). They also publish topics relevant to the genre like concerts, headphones (especially Beats by Dr. Dre) and constantly advertise and promote it in their magazine. This is targeted at both genders and all races from ages of 17-25 years old with the social grading of a D and E, their secondary audience ranges from 25- late 30s, because the artists they also present on the front cover are also around that same age group.  Relating to Young and Rubicam’s 4C’s theory, the psychographics of the magazine are aimed at aspirers, succeeders and explorers. Aspirers are materialistic and are oriented to image and appearance. This is one of the audiences of the magazine because the mag is supposed to inspire people to be just like the people they put on the front cover and aim to that younger audience because they are more likely to copy others identities to help shape their own. Another audience is succeeders because it is the artist’s who’ve succeeded and want to influence others to succeed by being like them and seeing how successful the artist has become. Vibe appealing to their younger readers and international readers had moved the magazine to be viewed online only back in 2014.

 

NME Magazine

NME magazine is a British music journalism magazine that began publication in 1952. The magazine publishes single charts, film and tv, concerts, interviews with artists and many more categories. NME is free and distributed all over the UK and having our artist Jazmyn Rose on there would cause more fame and potentially a mass audience. By having Jazmyn Rose on here as well establishes her as a British artist as well so everyone (in the UK) would feel relatable to her and feel a bond and this would create a fan following. It has the demographics of 15- late 30s, which fits within Jazmyn Rose's target audience and has a readership, according to statista.com, of 971,000 in 2017.

 

Storyboard

First edit, Feedback sheets, Reflection

First Edit Footage:

Feedback:

Feedback 1: I really like the window scene and the costumes as we see how well you've represented the artist in various ways. Need to establish an ending because the video cuts off suddenly at the end. There is a gap at the beginning that should be filled.

Feedback 2: I love the locations used, it shows you've put a lot of thought into it. However, the lip-syncing is off. I think you should have the phone scene a bit slower so the audience have time to fully read it.




Feedback 3: The rooftop scenes are my favourite and I love the scene when the artist is in the alley way and the focus hits back on the beat. But there are some blurry scenes in the video and I didn't think the shot near the end with the artist standing in front of grey wall with the red light worked. It looked like the actor wasn't into it. Also there needs to be more shots of the boyfriend and the artist.




Feedback 4: There needs to be shots between the artist and the guy because it doesn't make sense and I'm thinking why is she getting upset? Does she know this guy? So that's the only thing I would want to see more.




Feedback 5: I think there should be less shots of the artist in red and add more locations, because it looks like hardly any filming has been done because you've been using the same shots. I think to improve this would be too find more locations and apply more outfits or if you have the footage already then reduce the number of shots with the red shirt and replace them with different ones. Other than that, I thought it was enjoyable to watch.


Reflection: After listening and reading through the feedback comments I realized that the constant theme throughout was that the audience really liked the locations used and some liked the costume choices. However, A few said that they wanted to see more of the male character with the artist, Jazmyn Rose, and stated that there were too many red shirt scenes with the artist. I completely agree with what they are saying and will reflect upon it so moving forward the music video is understood more clearly. Also working with the artist more and trying to improve on the lip-syncing is really important.

Pre-Production: Digipak Insert Designs

Research/Pre-Production: Typography

The typography we tried to go for was an edgy, old-school font as we saw it would be suitable for our R&B genre. However, because we also knew that it was a song about love and the artist was supposed to have a few scenes where she was supposed to be vulnerable, so we had also looked for a handwritten font as it's more personal.  After dismissing this idea, we then wanted to give a stronger approach to the artist because majority of the narrative Jazmyn Rose is to have a confident persona. We did this by searching for bolder fonts to make it seem more powerful and superior, though they seemed quite plain (from examples above), so we scoured through several categories upon the site, Fontspace.com. We searched through; trendy, sans-serif, handwriting, modern, techno and a few others and find the various fonts above.

 After a while we had stumbled upon this font and thought it was perfect for our genre and narrative because it's bold, simplistic in the way that its easy for people to read and identify and carries an edge to it with the lettering being sliced, it gave it an R&B/Dance genre which we really liked. With this being associated with the artist's name it makes her look fun and adds hints of mystery because she is a new found artist, so no one knows anything about her and this font is the first step to reinvent her character.

We wanted to focus on giving the attention to the artist's font because we want the audience to be staring at that and becoming familiar with the artist's name. So even though ‘The Weekend’ dot is still bold, it’s thinner than the artist’s name and has no decorative edge to it. However, works very well in the production and ancillary tasks because they have a more creative background and we just just wanted to keep one thing simple which in this case the song’s font. 





Pre-Production: Team Typography designs

In the picture above, listed is a few designs drawn by one of our crew members, Shannon. She wanted The artist’s font to be pointy so this could connote danger (maybe representing the thorns in the rose). Furthermore, she drew a rose to replace the ‘o’ in the artist’s stage name because it linked to synergy as on the digipak, music video and advert we were planning to have roses in all three so it’s the same and the media products promote each other. Also the rose is also a representation of her last name. Moreover, we went for bolder options because we wanted he artist’s name to stand out and promote absence of ‘confidence’ about the artist. The use of green is for nature, which is a significant part in the music video, and the symbolism behind green is jealousy. The narrative of the music video is all about Jazmyn Rose’ jealous towards her love interest’s girlfriend, so the use of green just made sense to use. Lastly, the billboard sign of Jazmyn Rose was to appeal to Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Star’ theory and just make it seem like the whole show was about Jazmyn.

The reasoning behind the ribbon is because it connotes love and quite personal. This is supposed to link to the romance aspect of the music video and seen as someone who's had their feelings hurt. Even though both colours are an indication to romance, pink symbolizes something quite delicate and sweet, whereas red connotes seduction and danger. These colours contrast in terms of the symbolism behind them, but works strikingly well. Furthermore, the rose petals at the end symbolizes that they are floating away, just how Jazmyn Rose feels in the video as she feels her love interest is pulling away from her.

The record print above is to represent that she is a new signed artist and the type of record used is supposed to indicate that she is quite old-school (Aaliyah being the influence of Jazmyn Rose). The rose in the middle of the record is to link synergy throughout all the media products and promotes part of the artist's persona of being seductive and having power.

Research- Digipak Evaluation

Digipak Evaluation

A Digipak is a type of packaging for CDs and DVDs, and consists of a booklet and plastic holder inside for discs. The purpose of Digipaks is to promote the album and the artist. They can either be new or older artists, the digipaks’ role is to spread the word of their music and face, which would result to their brand identity. The digipak would sell the artists to the audience in hopes that the audience would comply with artist recognition.

The conventions of a digipak are; it will always have the artist’s name and album name, a barcode, information on the back, the record label logo, to which the artist/band is signed to, a website or an artists’ social media account, track list, (inside the pack) vivid background images relating to the theme throughout, song lyrics, booklet insert.

The album ‘LOUD’ digipak represents Rihanna’s love life (pictured inside the pack). It tries to represent her as someone who’s infatuated and loves relationships. However on the front cover, she’s seen as fierce with her bright red hair and lipstick and her facial expression looking down connotes that she’s ‘looking down at you’ almost like she has the power to demote someone or something. The target audience include females aged 15- late 20s (most likely students), all races and with the social grading of an E to C2. Furthermore, reflecting on the album's target audience being of a young audience, the psychographics of the album would most appeal to; Aspirers- they believe in status and what's fashionable and trendy. Another is Explorers because they are all about experience and discovery and being of full energy, this (and aspirers) are the only ones that relate to a younger audience and therefore would most likely fit the album's audience.

The album ‘Morning Glory’ digipack represents the band, Oasis, as an British indie band. The album cover is a picture of two men passing each other on a street. Even though they became a worldwide phenomenon , Oasis was an indie band which the cover promotes as it looks local, making them seem just like everyone else. The location was chosen on Berwick Street in London because the street was a popular location for record shops during that time. Moreover, when the target audience, both genders aged 15-30 and social grading of an E and D, saw the album cover and the street, they are more likely to recognize it as perhaps they'd brought their records there and feel as if they relate to the band and carry on following their music. The target audience are likely to be the working class as they'd relate more because of the band's own similar backgrounds. Following Young and Rubicam's 4C's theory, mainstreamers, aspirers, explorers and strugglers seem to fit this genre. Mainstreamers would tend to do what everyone else does for safety, which applies to Oasis' second album because it was huge at the time, and aspirers are 'wannabes' who would follow the latest trends and celebrities. Engaging the younger audience (students), explorers would appeal to this as they're always looking for the next big thing because they want adventure and discovery. They are also early adapters to technology and seek out ideas and new approaches. I believe that strugglers are another target audience because it is similar to their working class backgrounds. A lot of people struggled during that time, and hearing music from people who also went through it, helps the audience to establish how similar they are which further encourages the fan base.

The album ‘Born to Die’ digipak represents Lana Del Rey to be this strong and resigned.  Her confident pose gives the illusion that’s she’s a ‘beacon of light’, however when you are met with the title of the album, it seems that she is this 'resigned' person. The demographics for this album is aimed at white females aged 15-late20s with the social grading being an E and D. The psychographics would be aimed at (along with Explorers- who aim for experience and individuality), Reformers and Strugglers. Lana Del Rey's album could appeal to Reformers because they're all about independent judgement and awareness and seek enlightenment, which Del Rey portrays through her songs and album title and how resigned she appears to be. As for strugglers, as Lana was a struggler herself... The impact it has on the audience is it gives them another perspective of life from the singer's point of view. Since this album was also a big hit, it also applies to Mainstreamers follow the crowd  and does what everyone else does to feel safe, but are quite domesticated. The roses are symbolic (like any other flower) to life but also romance, which appeals to female's wants and needs.

Shown in the albums Loud and Born to Die, by having the artist front and centre it promotes Andrew Goodwin's Star theory. Using this theory allows the audience to recognize the artist straight away and by making the video about her/him, the audience would then be able to recognise them in general and other forms of media. Furthermore, it gives the illusion that the artist is the 'star' and influence the audience to be just like them, making the 'aspirers' of the world (Young and Rubicam). 


Overall, digipaks are a useful tool to market artists and their music because it sells the artist and what they're capable of. The designs in the digipak sell the image that the artist is trying to create for themselves, including the booklet. The booklet sells their soft side, confident side, any  side that the artist is trying to portray so the audience have a better understanding of how the artist is and what to expect from them. The same with the typography, it can determine the image of the artist and the genre of the album. If the typography is edgy then the genre could be rock, or if the typography is soft and bubbly then the genre could be bubblegum pop. This is why digipaks are so important within the music industry because it shapes the artists reputation and their music choices.

Gender Representation

Gender representation- Femininity and Masculinity in Music Videos

Ariana Grande, The Weeknd- Love me Harder

Within the music video, Grande is presented as vulnerable and delicate as the mise-en-scene illustrates this theory of solitude by showing the singer being alone and in the foetal position. The ancient objects spread through the room gives of a feeling of a particular period of time- that appears to be from the belief of limerence- the state of being infatuated with another. The low white balance of the camera gives off a cold atmosphere to make the artist seem lonely ad isolated, especially with the blue gel. Even though, present in the video is The Weeknd, his scene is very short and isn't as effective as Grande's as she is seen longer in the video and she has less clothing on suggesting that she is vulnerable and also complying with Mulvey's Male Gaze theory, whereas the male artist is not.

A Great Big World, Christina Aguilera- Say Something

Within the music video, men and women are represented as the same through heartbreak and devastation. Some people arguably note that the females seem to go through more distress as the women in the beginning seems to be more stressed compared to her partner that she can't sleep, the elderly women is dying and the little girl is hiding underneath her bed too scared to come out. Apart from the senior male and the singers, the other males don't seem to be bothered by their actions that made their loved ones angry or leave. In fact furthermore, the lighting in the music video also supports this, for example the male that is lying on the bed with the woman , he has a lot of light flooded on him giving the illusion that he's got nothing to hide whereas, the female has got a contrast of shadow making it appear that she's conflicted in in pain.

P!nk- Beautiful Trauma

Beautiful Trauma subverts the typical narrative of a weak woman needing a man to save her, in other words Propp's 'Damsel in Distress'. In the narrative the husband and wife swap genders which is unique and new to the genre. The song is about 'finding the romance in the flaws of your relationship'. In the narrative we see Pink's character pouring prescription pills down her throat, this is perceived as a coping mechanism to cope with her husband and tedium lifestyle. This just goes to show that she is unhappy and is trying to keep the relationship going.


Later on, her character comes across her husband in the closet dressing up in her clothes. This acts as a 're-awakening'  in their relationship and Pink dresses in his clothes and they dance together in the bedroom. This is a signal for their new found establishment of their flaws and how they use their flaws to make their love better. The fact that the music video is set in the 1950s, it highlights the era where oppression of women  were at its peak. However, near the end of the video, Ginger Hart (Pink's character) portrays a more dominant role when she and another female dress up in black latex and tie up her husband then taking part in S&M. This is not the traditional mannerism of 1950s woman, so Pink has broken out of that stereotype and went from being submissive to dominance, taking over the male role.

Andrew Goodwin- 'Star' Theory

Andrew Goodwin's 'Star' Theory elaborates that in music videos, there is always a person that's front in centre or shown more than others, which makes them the 'star'. This is especially shown through close ups to help the audience connect to the artist and help with artist recognition. This helps to create the ‘star’ who is always centre of attention, and creates a following.




Tove Lo- Habits (Stay High)

Tove Lo's music video is a big example of the 'star theory' as the whole video is on her, front and centre and the camera accompanies her throughout her journey. In the narrative, the singer is heartbroken and tries to forget about it by keeping herself busy partying and being keeping other men as company. The entire video are close-ups and uses tracking to stalk her every movement. Close-ups very key in this theory because it helps the audience remember the person they are watching. Having star iconography keeps the subject, in this case the artist, stay modern and trendy and eventually overtime help them become more recognizable and creates them a big role in productions.

Justin Bieber- Beauty and A Beat ft. Nicki Minaj

Within this music video, Goodwin's star theory is at it's strongest as the artist shot it himself. This allowed the artist to immediately make himself the star and allowed him control of who could be in it and make sure that they didn't overshadow his star image. Furthermore, the artist is given leader like traits as soon he establishes a following, especially with the back up dancers, which further encourages the role of being the star. Even though there are not many close-ups and the camera is on Minaj and it contrasts some of what Andrew Goodwin was stating, majority of the footage is on Bieber overall making the audience know who's leading the narrative.

Andrew Goodwin's theory- Illustrative, Amplifying, Contradicting

Illustrative- 'Pony' by Ginuwine

The song 'pony' by Ginuwine shows his sexual actions through illustrating them as riding a mechanical bull in an all-American bar. The lyrics "Ride it my pony, My saddles waiting, Come and jump on it" compared to the music video this act is performed by another on a mechanic bull immediately portraying the lyrical interpretation.

Amplifying- 'Gucci Gang' by Lil Pump

Within the 'Gucci Gang' music video a lot of the video is amplified to fit the fast beat song. There is no storyline presented, just the concept of everyone is wearing Gucci to appeal to the song's name.  The song is said to have no meaning and the strong beat behind the lyrics is what amplifies the music video and makes it more appealing to watch by the viewers.  As of April 2018, the song has been viewed 644,308,848 times on YouTube.

Contradicting- 'Work' by Rihanna ft. Drake

The music video follows Andrew Goodwin's theory of contradiction because the lyrics and the music video suggest to completely different things. Whilst the music video suggests that she wants to have a good time, the lyrics behind the video connote heartbreak and a potential reunion between the two. Even in the second video that was linked to the first, there is still no actions made towards illustrating the lyrics and Rihanna still dances with Drake. Overall, there is no illustrating of the song's lyrics and the two music videos comply to Goodwin's contradicting theory.

Mise-en-Scene Consideration

Mise-en-scene Consideration

 

Lighting

In our music video, we decided as the narrative is predominately outside it would be best to depend on natural lighting and so we made sure to position the protagonist, Christina in various different positions. This includes her facial as well her body positioning towards the sun so the camera does not capture any unwanted lights around her or unwanted dark areas.

Location

For location we have decided to use a variety of choices from various outside locations to indoor. The outdoor locations used such as the street shots in Blenheim Garden, Oxford Street and the garden shots in Knightsbridge are demonstrated to portray isolation between the protagonist and the rest of the population, separating herself from reality and tell her feelings directly to him through the camera. Moreover, we do plan on using certain locations for the non-linear narrative which will show their ‘then’ loving relationship which will contrast with the present and how isolated she now feels. The next location, Delights Desserts will be used film additional shots between the protagonist and the boy, however the boy will be shown with his arms around another girl, his girlfriend. Immediately we will show Christina accepting his decision in the end and having an emerging confidence to which will show her to be competition with his main girlfriend. This connotes that she is not ready to give up on her relationship and therefore is prepared to be at competition with the boy’s other girlfriend in order to get his attention.

Camera Angles

The camera angles we have considered on using is predominately close ups as well as mid shots, this is to capture the protagonist facial expressions as we believe that she should be able to tell her side of the story therefore we decided to rely on her facial expressions and her body language. Doing this will allow the audience to connote how the protagonist feels and create enigma, what they think she is going to do next.

The use of close-ups of the protagonist face are significant because it allows the audience to listen to the emotion in the music which follows the conventions of the RnB genre because it is based on emotions and looking at previous RnB music videos such as Mary J Blige’s ‘Be Without You’. Within Mary J Blige’s music videos, particularly ‘Be without you’ Blige displays an emotional connection throughout, her use of direct address when sing gives emotion not only to the song but to the audience allowing the audience to sympathise and relate the lyrics being said. This is the same effect we wish to portray within our music video and give our target audience the same direct address allowing them to understand the song more and how they relate to it. Also, the use of conveying the protagonist emotionally through these close ups portrays Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Star’ theory, focusing on the artist through the use of close ups and direct address will allow there to be a build-up, developing them to be a ‘superstar’ and superior as well easily recognise by the audience.  Throughout the music video there will be continuous shots that are close ups however we will include other shots that contribute to the storyline that will be added within the music video, such as over the shoulder shots and long shots. In addition, the main focus of the video is to capture the audience’s attention which we believe will be achieved by including close ups.

Styles

The style we predominately focused on was an RnB style so that it follows the conventions of the RnB genre, allowing the audience to easily recognise the genre. First we thought to dress the protagonist in old fashioned ‘90s RnB, looking at artists such as Aaliyah and Lil Kim however as we started exploring the artist SZA more we realised that the artist herself has her own unique style that does share the conventions of RnB. Moreover, we decided that it would be best to reflect our music video in the present rather than the past because we live in a different generation and therefore we need to find a way to connect with today’s target audience which means dressing how they would, and going to known / local places. Overall, we have styled the protagonist in clothing that would still follow the conventions of RnB but we also wanted to make what she was wearing a current trend so it attracts the attention of a younger audience who would wear the same thing.

Examples from music videos

One example of an RnB music video that conveys direct address as well as Goodwin’s ‘star’ theory is ‘Rock the Boat’ by Aaliyah, within her video there are several close up shots that shows her fiving direct address to her audience especially in the beginning as she is about sing. What is significant about this video in particular is that it displays a remembrance of Aaliyah before the narrative begins and when it does the first scene is a long shot of Aaliyah walking along the beach and she slowly walks towards the camera, which acts as her audience, and sits in front of it. This indicates that she was not only giving direct address but one last look into her life and work before her final hours which is inspiring. Moreover, throughout the music video there are many scenes that separates Aaliyah from the narrative which is a mid-shot of her still sitting in front of the camera giving direct address to the audience. This reflects on the ‘star’ theory and not only does it give her a spotlight but a way that to express herself emotionally with the audience so that there is a deep connection.

 

Another example would be Alicia Key’s ‘No One’ music video, this video is it presents various match cuts as well as close ups throughout the song. Although, the video appears to have no exact narrative as it is just the artist lip syncing throughout the entire song and giving direct address each time. Although the video is predominately direct, there are more than one interpretations to suggest why the director has decided to do this for example, the artist could have actually ben singing to her love interest directly through the camera all that time or another interpretation is that she is singing to the audience in hopes they sympathise.

 

Character positions

In the music video we have positioned the protagonist to be extremely confident with her use of hand movement in correlation with the song. Throughout, the protagonist has displayed confidence in the way she walks, hand gestures and her body positioning which contributes to portraying a direct address towards the audience. Additionally, you will see that in the music video the protagonist is not seen in the background but constantly seen centre within the foreground. This demonstrates Goodwin’s ‘Star’ theory, allowing the protagonist to feel the centre of the attention and being the ‘star’. You could argue that by her giving direct address she means to come across as fierce and a ‘superstar’ because she knows people are watching her.