SHSG NEA, Candidate Number 1373, Centre Number 16607, Brief

Product 1:

In attempt to create a music video that adheres to the aesthetic of the 16-25 year old, I intend to use an youthful form of mise-en-scène that explores the summer aesthetic through a cinematography similar to that of the genre of Coming of Age, that is popular in modern pop culture, encouraging viewership of contemporary audiences that like to be entertained. With this, i plan to use Two Door Cinema Clubs "What You Know" record, a song thats fast paced lyrics links to my ideal presentation of youthfulness, whilst also allowing me to link both the audio and the visual together to create a cinematic feel for the video, encouraging further viewership from audiences that like to be entertained. I aim to create a sense of stardom to my main singer, through a use of close ups, whereby their stardom links to the high profile nature of the music videos producer, Universal, a record label in which my research presented that they were mainstream, allowing me potentially to use tendencies of a popular music video in my video whilst also using the indie-rock sermantics. I aim to use a narrative in my music video based on youthful romance, something that adhere to the middle market audiences due to it's realistic nature for the middle market class of viewers, whilst also continuing to adhere to the 16-25 age range. This sense of involvement for all types of viewers due to the relatability of the narrative encourages a continuous sense of relatability that artists of stardom often present. Though a use of enhanced cinematography, I am to share a shared audience with indie rock bands such as The Wallows, whereby their use of cinematography in their music videos grabs the attention span of audiences that simply like to be entertained, whilst pursuing a not so popular genre of Indie-Rock. To continue relating to the rock genre, I aim to specifically utilise the guitar solo in the “What You Know” song to build a sense of rock and roll chaos in the narrative of my music video, in aim to maintain the attention spans of my 16-25 target demographic which may lack the attention span due to the influence of short-length media such as TikTok to stay focused. I would also use the guitar solo also to create a surprising twist to the narrative of my music video, a genre convention of rock videos to spontaneously change the direction of the video. Overall, aspects such as my mies-en-scène to my spacing and colouring of the video I aim to use in collaboration to create a masterful Indie-Rock video that still adheres to the 16-15 middle markets audience that enjoys entertainment.

Product 2:

I aim to build on fanbase, and with this I aim to include details of the artists own identity through the use of an about us page, allowing to create a human identity to the band in attempt to allow for a parasocial relationship between the audience of 16-25 year olds and my band, which aligns with the current online endorment for the young generation as many young people commonly engage in fan culture on social media. I will cultive the digital native abilities of my audience by having links to social medias in my website in ability to encourage cross platform interactivity with my band. This promotes my band on different types of medias, whilst allowing audience prosumerism aligning with Clay Shirkeys Audience Interactivity Theory. I will also enhance on my middle market audience that is likely to engage in hashtag culture by including hashtags in my website to encourage indivuals to join in with ideals around the music video. I will also include Easter eggs in my website, such as a link to another page, to announce the next single of my band – appealing to audiences that like to be entertained, as many artists from all genres in the contemporary music industry commonly drop Easter Eggs to encourage fan interactivity. In addition, I plan to create a collaboration with Urban Outfitters of Hawaiian shirts I will dress my band in for the music video, encouraging fandom and also aligning with my youthful indie-rock audience. This is because Urban Outfitters is a popular but “indie” brand that middle market indie-rock listeners would likely be regular customers of.

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? (approx. 100 words)

I intend to create synergy between my two products by firstly attaching a visual link leading audiences to my website at the end of my music video, adhering to digital convergence. Alongside this, I aim to create a clear house style in my typography of words, having the band have a specific font and logo that links both medias under the band name of The Zodiacs. Alongside this, I aim to use photos taken during the filming of the video on my website, and also have a looped video of a scene from my music video as the opening view of my website when first clicked – immediately creating convergence between two products.

I included firstly intertextuality links to 80s brand logos, both reflecting my band, The Zodiacs link to big companies such as UMG, whilst also appealing to the retro-aesthetic many individuals of Generation Z are socially interested in, particularly the rainbow Apple logo, the old Apple logo from the 20th century.

I also used a love actually intertextuality, where both my main characters look back at each other in awe without looking back at the same time, representing the romantic side of my video.

I also used a dancing scene on the bench that is a direct intertextual link to the breakfast club, also linking back to the 80s aesthetic of my band, whilst also engaging my audience of 16-25 that would have watched classic films such as the breakfast club as they « like to be entertained ».

I also used an Arctic monkeys poster he final scene, linking to the indie-rock genre that the Arctic monkeys as a band are apart of- whilst also closing the video on a soft note, representing the romance between the two characters before my main character goes away to Univeristy (which link to my target audiences of 16-25 as they will relate to it.) The lyric is from the « I wanna be yours » record that is highly popular among young adults today.