EVAL Q 1: Conventions and Representations

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?


What I cover in this post:

• different conventions and representations explored in the music video
• Laura Mulvey's "male gaze"
• Judith Butler's "gender performativity"
• Andrew Goodwin's theory of music video
• Vernallis
• Simon Firth
• Age, gender, sexuality, regional representation and normativity
• conventions of electropop

Creative use of Technology

For the creative use of technology in answering this question, I made a video in the style of Vanity Fair's "director breaks down a scene from their film" video series, except I break down the use of conventions and representation in AEM's music video:



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EVAL Q 2: Sense of branding

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?

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Creative use of Technology

For the creative use of technology in answering this question, I made a Prezi presentation, breaking down the "I saw, I did" process to create a sense of branding throughout the 3 products:



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EVAL Q 3: Audiences and Distribution

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

What I cover in this post:

• My target audiences and how different demographics have been targeted
• Gender/Sexuality, ethnicity, age, intertextuality, region, socio-economic status
• Different forms of distribution (self-distribution, conglomerates vs indies)
• Retromania
• Disruption, convergence, digitisation and web2.0
• Merchandising

Creative use of Technology

For the creative use of technology in answering this question, I made a skype "job interview", where I am being asked different ways in which I could distribute a music video and some reasons why. The interviewer is being played by a family member of mine:

Job interview:



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Script:
Interviewer: alright, please can you state your name and tell me what experience you have in music video distribution?
Applicant: Over the last year I have created and self-distributed a music video to a local artist indie electropop track, Fake.

I: Can you define indie?
A: An indie track is produced by an artist not signed by one of the 'Big 3" conglomerates of the music industry, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group. So I was in charge of merchandising, publishing, and the artist recorded the song using her own microphone

I: what kind of merch did you create?
A: I made tshirt, the most basic, but also lunch boxes to target both a younger audience, but also parents, and a tie in with tic tacs with the artists logo on the box, to create a sense of synthesis between the music video, which involved tic tacs and the merchandise, create a brand image

I: Is it a normal occurrence for artists to record their own music?
A: well due to the convergence and digitisation of media, technology has become so accessible to normal people that anyone can make high quality content and self-distribute on the internet, essentially blurring the line between producer and consumer in this Web 2.0 age, as suggested by Henry Jenkins.

I: How would you say this has affected the music industry?
A: Well it's seriously disrupted the way in which it used to work, because fans and users have far more input to web content, and can interact directly and collaborate more easily with artist through social media

I: what online streaming sites would you use to distribute this track?
A: soundcloud, spotify, apple music, deezer
I: would you say that's a fair deal for the artist?
A: absolutely not, artist have complained about the lack of revenue they receive from online streaming platforms for years, with artists like Taylor Swift even removing their music for some time

I: How would you work around this issue?
A: well one way is merch, for example Metallica have their own beer line, but physical music is making a comeback, as suggested by Simon Reynolds in his book Retromania, and vinyl sales have been on the rise. I created a digipak, which is designed based on vinyls, and selling a limited number of signed digipaks, or releasing physical digipaks with exclusive content such as behind the scenes photos or bonus live recorded tracks could be successful in distributing the artist's music.

I: thank you for your time, we'll be getting back to you before the end of the week.

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3A - How does your product engage with audiences?

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

Demographics

My target demographics can be broken down into these 6 categories:

Gender/sexuality
Ethnicity
Age
Region
Socio-economic status

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Gender/Sexuality

The primary target audience is female, based off of the colouring choices - dark shades of pink and neon purples, and a range of pastels.
This is highly influenced by Halsey, Novaa and Chvrches aesthetics, who also have a primarily female target audience



However - Aem's primary target audience is does not necessarily adhere to the male/female gender binary, either in gender representation/identification of sexuality.
A queer target audience is also primary, as Aem herself identifies as a queer artist.
Therefor they were targeted in the music video/website/digipak.

Uses and Gratifications theory suggests that an audience will seek out the media they with to consume based on certain criteria, 2 of which being identification or aspiration - if a queer audience is able to identify with Aem, they will likely consume more of her media.




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Ethnicity

bell hooks explored how colonialist ideas are still omnipresent in our representation of ethnicity, and that Caucasian representation was considered the normative representation.

This can be seen in film, with subsidiary of Universal, Working Title, having almost exclusively Caucasian protagonists - as those films have a high budget there is a risk for the studio, and they most produce films they know will be successful, so they make the protagonists more 'identifiable' characters., suhcas those played by Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, About a Boy, Bridget Jones etc.


Smaller, Indie production companies like Warp, on the other hand, have less financial risk as they receive grants to make culturally important films, and have a wider range of ethnicities represented in their productions, such as Huang Lu, in She, a Chinese.


Aem, being Portuguese, is not immediately identifiable to a more typical Caucasian audience, having a more obscure accent. This adopts bell hook's post-colonialist view, and a more diverse representation than usual.



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Age and Intertextuality

Uses and Gratifications theory would suggest that a 14-24 year old target audience would identify with Aem or aspire to be like her.

The secondary target audience could be tween, although the final cut of the music video may be too edgy, so the secondary target audience could be a bit older (25-30).

Stuart Hall's theory of Readings would suggest that an older target audience would pick up on the preferred reading, with the use of an extended croquet scene based off of the cult film Heathers. Being an older film, and also an obscure cult film this appeals to an older target audience as they will understand the intertextuality.


The younger target audience (tween) may have some contested reading, as Heathers has lately been turned into a stage musical which ahas gained a lot of attention from young viewers - an episode of popular American teenage tv show Riverdale had a Heathers: The Musical episode in the latest season.


I also used social media to target these audiences, specifically Instagram, on which I posed as AEM and posted BTS photos, selfies, candid photos of AEM making music and teaser clips.

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Region

The uk north/South binary divide is highly relevant to the target audience.
The North is typically represented as being more working class than the South, and more community oriented, whereas eh South is typically more upper class and individualistic.

An example of this is The Smiths (from Manchester) vs. Ed Sheeran, who I compared in this post.


In the music video I aim to target both these audiences, by using contrasting locations to explore the idea of what's real vs. what's fake - the old mining district in Luxembourg, featuring brick walls and old railways, vs. the new electric tram, with neon multicoloured doors and modern lighting.


I also want to target a Luxembourgish audience specifically, with Aem being a member of the quite tightly-knit Luxembourgish indie music scene, knowing local artists CHAiLD, the band TUYS and 2sticks, The Choppy Bumpy Peaches and Pleasing.
The use of well-known, central Luxembourgish settings helps the Luxembourgish target audience identify with the music video.


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Socio-economic Status


Being an indie music video and having a low budget will help target a C1C2DE target audience, having to use basic props and no cgi. The mining district setting may also help through identification.

However, the plan for an extended croquet scene would appeal more to an ABC1 target audience, and may exclude the C2DE audience.

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EVAL Q 4: Integrating Technologies

How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?

What I cover in this post:

• Different software/online resources used (blogger, FCPX, Instagram, youtube, slideshare etc)
• How I engaged with audiences online
• Different hardware used (cameras, tripods, etc)
• Disruption, digitisation and convergence
• Web 2.0 (UGC, applied examples we took influence from)
• Communication

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Creative Use of Technologies
For the creative use of technologies I created 2 videos, one of which is a vodcast on the software used, the other is a guide on all the hardware, and they cover how they integrated with each other:

Software Vodcast



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Hardware Guide



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Web 2.0
Web 2.0 describes how the internet has become driven by users, converging the line between producer and consumer. An example of this is user-generated content, like unboxing videos, or lyrics videos, although recently artists have begun releasing their own professional versions of these (such as Metallica or Taylor Swift). This web 2.0 theoretically allow indies more of a chance at achieving successful distribution online, by setting up twitters, instagrams and being able to engage with audiences directly.
I did this through our Instagram page, and the different software/online resources which I used throughout.


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MUSIC VID Final

Here is the final music video:
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Changes since last cut:

• slo mo is now consistent with fantasy world
• puking has been cut down to make deaths more polysemic
• strangling has been cut down to make more appropriate for younger audiences + polysemic
• some repeated footage of her dancing has been replaced with unused footage

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WEBSITE Final

Here is the link to my final website:

https://snappedstringmedia.wixsite.com/aemelectro

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DIGIPAK Final

Here is the final digipak:



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MUSIC VID: Sample, Rough Cuts, Feedback

Rough Cut 1 - Heathers Sample Scenes

This is my first very rough cut, it's only the Heathers/Alice in Wonderland series of sample scenes. The whole thing will be cross cut with performance footage, and the rest of the song will be included.

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Feedback:

• look at making alternative cuts for different audience ratings - as it currently stands the violence and puking scene would make it an 18, which isolates a large portion of the target audiences
• the colours are really quirky and cool, try using colour masks to make them pop
• its bizarre, wasn't totally understood by everyone - I'm ok with this as according to theorist, Vernallis, music videos are too short to contain a real narrative
• The Heathers and Alice in wonderland was picked up on by a particulalry pop-culture savvy 15 year old, though the rest of the teenagers didn't catch the Heathers, the adults did
• when the red and yellow Heathers give each other "the look" it really works
• the phone call isn't totally understood, but this is purposefully polysemic and more of an intertextual reference to other iconic music vids which have used them (e.g. Duran Duran's Rio), maybe try and work Aem's speaking into the audio
• More cutting to the beat needed
• the yellow heather putting the tic tacs in Aem's mouth doesn't really fit
• the shot of the red top hat carrying the dummy looks awkward - you can see the street behind
• Some wanted to see more shots of the other characters
• limit the amount of shots where you can see the street and houses
• not all the shots of them carrying the set are necessary
• overall positive reaction to the idea and aesthetics though, one person compared it to Adam Ant's aesthetic and psychedelic nature, which is fab to hear

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Rough Cut 2 - performance

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Feedback:

• layering the window over teh grass doesnt work
• make the outdoor world slomo foro surrealistic
• more cutting to the beat
• fix diegetic outro audio
• experiment with colour and layering
• trimming
• only show 1 strangling shot and no dead body at end - doesnt anchor the killing (censorship and rating issue, polysemy)

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Rough Cut 3 - More layering and slomo

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Feedback:

• try heavy unnatural colouring for parts
• fix audio
• experiment with the colouring and cutting to the beat
• more slomo

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Rough Cut 4 - colour fixes
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Final Rough Cut - time line fixes, layering issues
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DIGIPAK: Conventions, Drafts, Journey

Vodcast - General/Genre Conventions
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Plan

What is a digipak?
rectangular cardboard package with one or more plastic trays inside to hold a disc
alternative to the plastic jewel case
cheaper to produce
more eco-friendly
design derivative of vinyl packaging

convention 1: artist name/logo
expect to see logo as most prominent text, fonts often found online (back in black, metallica)
exceptions

Album title - usually 2nd most prominent text, often different font

Convention 3: DVD/bonus features
often sticker on front panel
acoustic, remix, live recording, bonus tracks

Convention 4: track listing
numbered, dvd details, track length font size, layout, opactiy

Convention 5: external panels link
almost always a link

Convention 6: inner panels flow
consistent theme inside, sometimes same or different to outside
colour scheme, patterns, not only photographic

Convention 7: small print
tweak from existing content for verisimilitude

Convention8: logos, URLs, social media
record label, dist company, retailer maybe if amazon exclusive, technical logos, dvd logo,

Convention 9: Spine
catalog number, artist name, album title, font the right way round

Convention 10: editions, extras, lyrics booklet
tiered packages, tshirts, posters, vinyl, signned albums, lyric booklet important or bts photos

Overall package - pushing of album cover, music vid,  merch related to music vid, social media,

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First Draft of Digipak

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This is the first draft, it definitely shuns too many conventions to be used.
FEEDBACK:

• font for album title need changing, colour outline
• more colour pop - more black and white, to really make the colours brighter
• placement of sticker + text needs improvement (LIMITED EDITION: bonus LIVE tracks!
• parental advisory logo suggest USA
• photo on front should just be her
• difficult to read text on the back

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FINAL DIGIPAK

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WEBSITE andSOCIAL MEDIA: Conventions, Drafts, Journey

Contents:
1. Wix Website Settings
2. Wix Website Font Sheet 
3. Merch research
4. Merch Ideas

5. Merch mock-ups and Shop Set up

6. Website update
7. Instagram set up

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15th November 2019

1. Wix Website Settings

Picked the Wix template for the website and set it up



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22nd November 2019

2. Wix Website Font Sheet 

I've put together a draft for the website from pictures AEM has on her social media page. I think the general aesthetic works, but I'd like to experiment with using more colour.
The point of this post is to look at some different fonts and aesthetics to see what could work for the website.

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Wix fonts from harriet Barlow

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Wix aesthetic from harriet Barlow

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5th December 2019

3. Merch research

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Merch research from harriet Barlow

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THE SMITSH VS ED SHEERAN

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Smiths vs. ed from harriet Barlow

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6th December 2019

4. Merch Ideas

I've looked at 10 different merch ideas and compiled them into a powerpoint, looking at influences and how they target audiences. As the ideas narrow and develop I'll continue to use this post, for mock-ups, updates on posting on the website, and how they're being promoted
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Merch plans from harriet Barlow

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13th December 2019

5. Merch mock-ups and Shop Set up

I just made some mock-ups for some merch ideas and uploaded them to the SHOP part of the website
You can't really see the menu bar with the current background, but I like the look of the first mock-ups

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I made a quick fix to the background so you can see the menu bar now

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When you hover the mouse over the tshirt you can see the different colours they come in, and with the hoodie you can see the front and back

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The pricing and wording is based on a range of examples

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Merch prices from harriet Barlow

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25th March 2019

6. Website update

The background image has been changed to what will also be the photo for the cover of the digipak, it's a photo taken of the cast in costume for the shoot. This makes all 3 elements of the production tie in together and promote the music video.

I have also embedded her music from spotify, added links to social media and streaming platforms, and added fake tour dates. Though I still need to add a banner that says "cancelled due to Coronaviurs".

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7. Instagram Set Up

For the instagram account I will be posing as Aem herself, uploading selfies, BTS pics to increase audience engagement in a disrupted industry which is now heavily involved in digitisation and convergence, releasing teasers and photos which fit in the general electropop aesthetic.

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8. Instagram Posts

I have made some posts for the instagram, with appropriate use of hashtags, emojis, and tagging to make it realistic.
Posts show selfies with intense make-up/hair, general aesthetic, BTS pics, candid recording pics, and some pictures of her boyfriend make-up ready for the shoot :

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