I am very happy with how my media coursework turned out, and I really enjoyed the process of creating it! I will continue to make music videos or other media products for fun in the future, so this reflection of my work is helpful as a summary of everything I learnt.
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
My artist is a young, male, indie artist who is social-media famous but lives a normal life in a city. This is a very specific trope, but it becomes relatable since it blends the “famous artist” identity with the “boy next door” identity.
Obviously not all young people fit into the “indie artist” category. This allows for some idolization of the artist and his lifestyle, which has been aestheticized through a very careful selection of which candid clips to include in the video, and through the use of a vintage camera (which makes everything look pretty). Similarly, only “aesthetic” pictures were used in the social media
I, of course, lacked the representation of black people due to not being able to find an actor of that description. The actual artist of the song (Frank Ocean) is black, and the song has a lot of influences from black music (R&B, hiphop, rap), so ideally I would’ve been able to use a black actor. Instead, I tried to emulate his style as closely as possible through the use of costumes such as a bucket hat.
I also represented the platonic love of a friendship, by showing my two actors laughing and bantering with each other. They were already friends before filming, so the connection shown onscreen is an accurate depiction of a real friendship. The song’s lyrics are about romantic love, but I decided that portraying a platonic relationship would be more relatable for my target audience of teenagers, since the actors are also teens.
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of “branding”?
I used the same footage for the three products, meaning that the same settings, props, and actors were used. The same colour palette was also maintained throughout my products (since I used the same cameras throughout the filming process, and I kept the colour editing to a minimum).
I wanted my brand to portray a dreamlike, hazy atmosphere. This is because my chosen song’s style is chill and dreamy. I also chose to include retro elements (such as the retro-futuristic font I used for my record label’s logo, for the credits of the MV, and for the digipak titles) as a house style for my products. This was accentuated by the use of an old camera which provided a retro imagery.
However, I wanted my video to look natural and quotidian. I avoided the use of special effects, and filmed in everyday settings like a park. This is because the song uses natural ambient noises (birds chirping and insects) in the intro and outro, which contrasts with the polished production of the actual song. I think I achieved a good balance between the natural and the manufactured elements of my products.
How do your products engage with the audience?
When I screened my video to an audience, they reacted positively. They told me they enjoyed the glitching transitions and the frequent cuts in editing which matched the beat of the song. I purposefully included a shorter length of shots in order to keep my audience engaged (nowadays audiences tend to have a shorter attention span, due to the increased use of social media products like tiktok, which have a maximum duration of a minute).
Initially I was worried that my video would be too repetitive, as the glitching occurs continuously, and the style is constant throughout. But the worry was mainly due to the attention span issue, because it seems that if nothing extremely exciting occurs then your audience will turn away. Luckily, I was reassured that
They thought that the representation of friendship was relatable and aspirational.
Through my products, I achieve the postmodern concept which suggests that postmodern media makes it evident to the viewer that what they are watching is a production, and not reality. The use of the old camera creates a barrier between the audience and the reality of the video: as the quality of the video is diminished, there is a sense that what they are viewing is not identical to the reality.
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
When I started my research I wasn’t focusing much on the particular genre of my song. This was because “Pink + White” doesn’t have one specific genre: it’s a hybrid of multiple genres including R&B, indie, hip hop, pop, psychedelic… And the conventions of the music videos for each of those genres were very specific to themselves. For example, hip hop videos include a lot of voyeurism and female objectification which I did not want to use, or psychedelic videos which are conceptual and use a lot of special effects and abstract imagery to create a drug-induced-like-trance. Indie videos (the best example is “Loser” by Beck) were my best bet for imitating a style because I didn’t have a budget, and neither do independent artists.
By focusing on the indie style, I broke the conventions of all the other music genres that “Pink + White” is a fusion of. However, it is conventional to use a concept video style (rather than a narrative for example) because the song creates meaning primarily through the soundscapes, rather than through the lyrics (which are mostly abstract phrases).
I did find musicians similar to Frank Ocean (such as Tyler the Creator) and used these as case studies for making my own similar project. However, these artists (who belong to the group, therefore he has a larger budget available for making music videos.
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