CLOSING POST

Dear Examiner,

My A Level NEA is now complete. You can find all of my work for this project under the label 'A Level NEA Research and Planning.' I really enjoyed working on this NEA and hope you enjoy reading through my blog.

Thanks,
Alize

THIS BLOG IS NOW CLOSED

POST 10: REFLECTIONS ON FINISHED OUTCOMES/TARGET AUDIENCE RESPONSES

In the reflection of my media products, my music video and website, I have asked for feedback from members of my TA and my media teachers. This is documented below, along with how I have progressed following the suggestions from their reviews. I have asked both groups of people to allow for feedback from contrasting perspectives, with target audience members likely to be focusing on the entertainment value of my music video while the teachers would evaluate how well I met the demands of the brief and pick out more technical elements. I am also using other people's reviews, to allow me to self-assess my work, reflecting on whether I fulfilled my own intentions and analysing the effectiveness of my cross-media production when listing my post-review improvements.

REVIEWS OF MY MUSIC VIDEO

Members of the TA:

I gathered an audience group of "culturally sophisticated," young people aged "16-25" and of a "class AB demographic," my target audience outlined in the brief and showed them my finished music video. They were of different genders and ages within the demographic and I used different methods for getting their feedback.

• Joshua, male, 18= questionnaire (with follow-up questions)
• Immy, female, 20= questionnaire (with follow-up questions)
• Ross, male, 17= questionnaire (with follow-up questions)
• Sammy, female, 22= group discussion
• Hannah, female, 23= group discussion
• Benita, female, 22= group discussion
• Bora, male, 16= one-to-one conversation

Over all the target audience feedback sessions, I asked the similar open-ended questions to encourage discussion in the session, whether that was between myself and them or in the group. They were inspired by the 'What Went Well' (WWW) and 'Even Better If' (EBI) method:

1. Positives:

"What did you like about the video?"

"What was your favourite section/shot?"

"What appealed to you about my artist?"

"Did you find anything else in the video particularly appealing or original?"

2. Improvements:
"What aspects of the video were you not fond of?"
"What do you think could be improved in my artist's performance, brand identity or look?"

"What do you think I could've done to make my video more conventional?"

"Was there any parts of my music video that you didn't enjoy?"

I think that getting a range of people within the demographic was crucial to getting a range of feedback, as different people answered very similar questions very differently. The notes from my review sessions are below.

Members of my TA enjoyed...

• The build-up at the beginning of the video as it introduced the artist's name and face slowly and matched the song's intro.
• The regular introduction of new set-ups, commenting that it kept the music video interesting throughout and the changes of colour particularly impressed some, who said "the bright colours matched the upbeat song."
• The colourful dance shot, saying it was their favourite shot due to its "artistic" quality. They went on to comment that the stomps in the chorus also "drived the beat forward" and the colours matched the Heathers intertextuality in the first verse.

One of my target audience member's favourite shots

• The park shots, with two members of the TA really passionate about different exterior shots. I think they particularly enjoyed it due to the frequent variation in distance and angle in the set-up while the maintaining the same bright, colourful style.
• The incorporation of the Heathers and Mean Girls intertextuality as it would make the music video re-watchable for a member of the TA, who would want to "spot all the references."

My TA suggested that I...

• Made the lip synching more obvious at the climaxes of the song where the artist is normally seen "pushing their voice." The TA member gave the example at 2:24 in the song, where my lip-synching was very similar to before. Despite this, the same TA member said they enjoyed my facial expressions throughout as they "reflected the mood of the song and the meaning of the lyrics."
• Repeated the FRNKE logo at the end of the music video to repeat it at the end of the song, as well as the beginning, to remind the target audience of the artist.

Media Teachers:

My media teachers focused on the more technical aspects of my music video and the way it was edited together. These reviews were based on previous cuts of my video, not the final cut, whereas my TA were shown the final edit after my teachers' suggestions.

During my review, my media teachers suggested I...

• Experiment with the speed of my clips (e.g. by using slow-motion) to make some of the individual shots more interesting.
• Emphasise the upbeat nature of the choruses to differentiate them from the slower verses through my edit.
• Adjust the orange coloured background in my final pre-chorus to make it more consistent across the set-up (made particularly noticeable as I just used my orange-background shots in this section of the song).

The orange HA shot where the background didn't match the rest of the set-ups

Improvements Made to my Music Video Following the Reviews:

• I thought about the comment made about repeating my artists' logo at the end and experimented with the text. However, after some tries it didn't look right and in reflection, the person watching the video can find out more about FRNKE through her website or similar and her name can be seen underneath the video, as it would be uploaded on her Vevo account anyway. Furthermore, it isn't conventional to have the branding repeated twice in one video, as I realised after going back to my research.
• In my choruses, I cut to the 'dance squad' (four dancers, back-lit with four different colours) set-up more regularly to keep the choruses fast-paced. I also decided to repeat a particular stomp action at the end of each chorus to signify that the upbeat section was over and the slower verse was starting.
• I re-edited my orange section in the final pre-chorus by adding some slow-motion effects and working specifically on the colour grade by using the 'three way colour corrector' together with 'ProcAmp' to get all the backgrounds to match and be more consistent. I was happy with the improvement, although it still didn't completely match due to the way the high angle was framed.

REVIEWS OF MY WEBSITE

Members of the TA:

I showed my target audience my finished website and from there they also looked at my two social media accounts (Instagram and Twitter) and commented on the availability of interactive elements on all the platforms and their thoughts on my artist's brand identity overall.
[The same TA members were asked as for my music video]

My target audience particularly enjoyed...

• The varied imagery across my website, with different colours (from neon to sepia-toned) used across both of my pages. They particularly liked my main homepage image and described it as "quirky" and "original."
• The excellent social media presence of my artist with both feeds featuring on my homepage and Twitter being used as a platform for the competition which my reviewer said would "definitely" make them more likely to enter. All my reviewers agreed that they would follow FRNKE on her social media accounts, either because they liked her content (images or tweets) or the fact that she posted regularly.
• One of my target audience members were very fond of the frequent external links, commenting that they were "really convenient" and encouraged them to interact with the content on the website. They particularly liked the link to Kiss FM's website and said it made them more likely to tune in.
• Overall, my audience were very keen on my artist's overall brand identity and following this, the choice of colour scheme and design of my website, with the same colours seen on her social media.

The members of my TA told me they would've liked to see...

• Some Instagram posts with shorter captions as they wouldn't always like reading "paragraph long" ones, if they were just scrolling through Instagram. Despite this, they liked the content on social media as well as the easy access to the website from both accounts.
• The Mac product that they would win in the competition, as this would be likely to encourage them to enter the competition, particularly if they knew the price of it usually.

Media Teachers:

As well as checking that my website's links redirected them to the correct linked and external pages, my teachers looked at whether the content on my website and social media encouraged cross-platform synergy and fulfilled the requirements of the brief.

My media teachers were pleased with...

• My focal image at the top of my homepage and were fond of the 3D-esque filter I put onto it, which differentiated it from other images on my site and differentiate my artist from other artists and the more boring images found on their websites.
• The correct embedding of my Instagram and Twitter pages from my homepage's social icons and feed links lower down. They were happy with my general abundance of links, buttons and calls-to-action across my webpages, which would encourage my audience members to click, watch and engage with my artist however they wish to.
• The detail of my news articles and different elements that featured on my full articles, particularly the GIF from my music video.

My media teachers suggested that I looked into...

• Correcting typos on my news articles and across my website and checking that my layout was suitable for all computers as I had gone over some of the dotted lines which meant that the website may be cut off on certain smaller screens.
• Providing more industry presence in my site and having a way in which the viewer can contact the firms (indie prod comp, record label).

Improvements Made to my Website Following the Reviews:

• I looked through my whole website with a fine-toothed comb and corrected any spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes that I may have made and moved everything on my website within the barriers to ensure it was suitable for all computers and bring it up to a professional standard.
• I shortened two of my Instagram captions and condensed all of them to make them easier to read and less like essays, as my reviewer had suggested, which would not always appeal to my young TA with a stereotypically short attention span.
• I made the Mac campaign more specific, naming the Mac Studio product and editing the pack shot of the product on my focal image to encourage my TA to enter.
• I added London Creative Klutz's (my independent production company) and Universal Music Group's (my conglomerate record label) names, logos and year of copyright to the footer of my website with a link to both company's websites, although my production company's leads to a dead page 'klutzcreative.com/london' as it isn't a real company.

POST 9: MY SECOND WEBPAGE

I have decided to make my second webpage a news page, which regularly updates FRNKE's target audience about any events she is attending, brands she is endorsing or other news that relates to other media companies or platforms, to take advantage of the symbiotic relationship between my artist and these (particularly digital) platforms.

Research
I researched into news webpages of various artists signed to large record labels (as FRNKE is signed to one of the 'big three' and these would likely have a different marketing strategy to artists signed to smaller companies) to analyse the news page and what it contains as an industry standard.
Although I looked into the news pages across many artists in my research, I will use Taylor Swift's news webpage as an example for my research on the elements of design, conventions and layout (below). Her whole webpage can be found here.

DESIGN: Across an artists' whole website a consistent brand identity should be reinforced. This includes the use of the same few fonts, the same colour scheme and background across all pages. In the case of Taylor Swift's news page, the same serif font is repeated for all the text, with the different colours of the same colour scheme used:

• Wine red= title, date, call-to-action ("Read full article")
• Grey= short copy

The imagery used on the news webpage itself must portray the same brand identity of the artist but can vary in shot distance, angle or colour to make each image unique. For example, the focal image in the middle article is a MLS while the other two are MCUs and this makes it more interesting as her full costume can be seen in the wider shot while the focus is on her face, eyes and hand position in the closer shots. Although the main focal image is the same for the MCUs, editing has differentiated them through their different...

• Backgrounds (L- colourful background, R- black background)
• Filters (L-sepia toned, R- black & white)
• Aspect ratio (L- square, R- landscape rectangle).

Apart from these subtle differences, the left image also has other smaller images overlayed, including the artist's name and title of 'performer' as well as the logos for 'American Music Awards,' 'YouTube Music' and 'ABC.' Overall, the design of the news page must be interesting yet consistent with the rest of the artist's website and brand identity.


CONVENTIONS: While homepages often feature a range of conventions, including social media links and buttons to YouTube, an artists' newspage will conventionally be filled with news articles, regularly updating their fans about the artist's appearances, competitions or announcements.

Using the example on the right, a news article will conventionally feature a focal image (often relating to the story), the date on which the article was published (either in the format 'Sep 27, 2018' or '2 days ago'), a short title (e.g. 'Vote for the 2018 Music Awards'), a short copy (all of which will be revealed in the full article) and a link to the full article (either with a 'read more' button or with a hyperlink in the copy or linked image).

Once you click on the image or link, a short page comes up with the same focal image in a larger form, taking up half of the screen, with the same title, date and extended copy as well as interactive features such as the social media links, shown below.

In order to make my news page conventional, I plan to incorporate all of these elements and more into my news page.


LAYOUT: From my research, I have found that most artists' news pages have very similar layouts that are made reasonably simple to allow for a wide variety of news articles to be published regularly, which would keep their audience updated on events regarding the artist. For example, Taylor Swift's news page has each news article in a rectangular box, with the date placed at the top followed by the focal image, title, copy and 'read full article' at the bottom.

I intend to experiment with the placement of the different elements within the rectangles but, as Swift's news page has done, plan to keep the layout consistent across the articles to make the page look sleek and organised.



Planning & Pre-Production

Drawings for news page= I sketched out my plans for my news webpage before starting production to ensure I had ideas that I could experiment with once I got onto Wix. For my second webpage, I chose a simple, repeatable layout with lots of space for an image, caption and date in each rectangle, for each news article. I also drew the menu bar (top) and email subscription (bottom) in my sketch as they would be the same as my homepage to maintain the website's overall connectivity.

Plans for News Articles= After drawing out the layout, I planned the articles that I wanted to write about on the news page. This was important as it makes it so much easier for me to decide what images I need to take and what articles I need to write and gives me time to think about the logistics and specifics of elements such as the competition and tour to make my website look like a real dance artist's.

My Planned Fonts= Before creating my website, I also planned the fonts I would use to create a unique brand for my artist. I chose the following fonts after browsing on dafont.com.

I chose 'Blackout Sunrise' as it is a unique font in bubble writing that would stand out on my homepage or single cover and is recognisable to the FRNKE brand. It is also just a capitalised font and therefore works very well with my artist's name.

In comparison, I plan to use my serif font 'Avenir Light' on news articles or longer paragraphs that I may write on my website.

The combination of these types of fonts are what I discovered in my research and was therefore very pleased upon finding them online.

POST 8: MY WEBSITE HOMEPAGE

The brief requires me to create a website for my artist, with a homepage and second webpage of my choice (the former's research and planning is on this post while the latter is discussed in detail on post 9). Despite this, some elements of research and planning, such as my stills photography, were planned for simultaneously across both my webpages and therefore there may be a bit of an overlap.


Research
When researching for my website, I analysed other artists' webpages as inspiration for my own ideas for design (colour palette, focal image), conventions (what apps/widgets actually featured on the page for audience interaction) and layout (how various features on the page were set out) and how these elements together allowed the artists' brand to be digitally convergent.


DESIGN: I gathered many pictures from artists' websites into one mood board as inspiration. This allowed me to realise that the stills can be of any camera distance or angle, but that MCUs are very common so I had to make sure I took plenty of them. My range of shots also varied in colour and could therefore be bold and bright or in black and white but were often in colours that matched the rest of the website's colour palette.

The design could allow for digital convergence through the fact that some of the set-ups (costumes and background colours, and sometimes the same image) were repeated across the artists' social media platforms. The artist must also be recognisable across all platforms, never with their face/identity disguised or hidden, and have the same sense of style across all digital platforms.

CONVENTIONS: Many different conventions are used across artists' homepages to encourage audience interaction and reward them for going on the website in the first place, as well as promoting synergy across the artists' digital brand. For example, Anne-Marie's homepage features many call-to-action features in the form of buttons or opportunities to interact with the artists' brand. 

For example, the first button (below) encourages the audience member to watch the artists' new music video through the verb "watch" and is featured at the very top of the page, overlayed on top of the first focal image, and takes the viewer directly to the video on the artists' YouTube channel. 

Similarly, the gallery of four images (below) directly link to her Instagram page, where you are taken if you click on any of the images or the 'view more' button at the bottom right. To make the marketing completely cyclical, her website is also linked at the top of her Instagram account so fans that follow her on either her Instagram  account or her website will quickly find themselves on the other platform. This would grant Anne-Marie and her team more views on her website and likes/comments/followers on Instagram, which my "media literate" target audience would also engage with and is an example of very successful cross-platform marketing.

LAYOUT: The layout of an artists' homepage can vary massively, dependent on the conventions they have utilised, discussed above.

An example of how the layout could be utilised to promote a connected brand is the very simple and effective use of fonts. The menu bar below, from Katy Perry's homepage, displays the two fonts repeated across her site: one italic, capitalised, bold font for her name and another sans serif font on the right, linking to her other web pages. The unique font has prominent placement on her website as a whole, as it is also a button for her homepage, with this same logo repeated across her other platforms, including the album cover for 'Chained to the Rhythm' (below). This consistent use of a unique font can therefore be seen to tie her whole brand together, particularly due to prominent placement of her brand logo.

Planning & Pre-Production

Draw-up of homepage= I drew up my plans for my artists' landing page and homepage below, with annotations of the elements for clarity. This allows me to plan out what stills I need to take to fill the homepage and will give me something to go off of when I begin making my website on Wix. By taking my time to plan my website beforehand, I can ensure it is conventional and rewards my audience for following my artist to her website with exclusive news and interactivity features, unique to the website.

Mood board for stills= As well as creating this mood board for my research for the homepage, I plan to use it when taking stills on my photoshoot to give me inspiration for new poses and to show my photographer if I want to take a specific type of photo, which is very useful in the visual format. It also allows me to incorporate different colours into my images through costume, background, prop and editing choices.

Stills shoot schedule= I created a shoot schedules for my stills photoshoots, in exactly the same format as for my video shoots (seen on post 7). They contain the timings of each shoot, actors involved (which in this case is always just me as FRNKE), the crew and location as well as a short shot list below the table to give me a starting point on each shoot. The shot lists are less specific than those for video, due to the photography format which gives a much larger opportunity for experimentation and new ideas for stills, based on the crew and location and the mood board of stills that would also be taken to set to inspire the team if necessary.

POST 7: MY MUSIC VIDEO

In order to plan my music video, I watched many dance music videos and analysed their structures, representations of artists and uses of codes and conventions as well as many other elements. This lead me to collating a few inspirational music videos to reference in my planning to evidence how real media is influencing my decisions for my own production.


Research & Inspirations
In my research, I had many inspirational music videos (predominantly in the dance genre by single female artists), from where I drew some of my ideas to incorporate into my artist's music video. Two of my most important influences are analysed below.

Anne-Marie's '2002' inspired me as it is based in a school setting, as the artist is reminiscing back to her childhood and school years, including 2002. The intertextuality was therefore easily incorporated into its main concept/narrative, with the music video paying homage to the Britney Spears' music video for 'Baby One More Time,' which was released in 1998 itself. These references were demonstrated through the mise-en-scene of the music video, particularly through its use of costume and colours in its different set-ups and locations, in addition to instances where particular shots were re-make directly from the original media. This video was also significant in how I wanted my music video structured, with new set-ups (locations and lighting schemes) introduced in different sections of the song, to keep the audience interested throughout.

Dua Lipa's 'New Rules' inspired me through its representation of supportive females, with a complete lack of any male characters reinforcing the strong messages of 'girl power' empowering the artist's young fan base. Dua's relationship with her fans was also significant for me as I want my artist's fans to see her as a role model, with my artist being a relatable figure to her fans due to the closeness of age and therefore experience, with both groups facing similar struggles. This sense of guidance is similar to that in a 'big sister' friendship and the other people around Dua in this music video allows her fans to associate themselves with the supportive, diverse girl group.

Planning & Pre-Production

During pre-production, I created various planning documents and visual aids in order to ensure I knew what outcomes I wanted on my shoot days and to ensure my actors and other crew members were prepared for my shoot. For example, I would give my actors a copy of the costume mood board for their scene to allow them to understand what clothes to bring on the day. My pre-production documents are included below, with a short outline of why I created each one.

Storyboards= I created a storyboard on post-it notes for each of my six set-ups. These were my ideas for shots, with the post-it format allowing me to easily remove or add extra shots into each set-up. I was also conscious of including a variety of shot distances, angles and camera movement into each set-up and demonstrated this through my drawings and annotations of each shot. Due to the ease of drawing, I easily draw in other elements I was planning to incorporate in the edit, such as overlayed text or split screens.

Storyboard 1. Heathers

Storyboard 2. Mean Girls

Storyboards 3. Girl Gang & 4. Dance Squad

Storyboards 5. Exterior & 6. FRNKE

Reference Shots= While creating my storyboard, I realised many of my shots were inspired by existing media products. I gathered these stills and took them onto my shoots to show my fellow cast and crew members to communicate my ideas easier and clearer through the visual format.
My references are from a range of sources, from inspirational music videos to the films that I am referencing intertextually as well as a shot from my test/practise shoot that I wanted to re-shoot.

Costume Mood Boards= I created separate mood boards for different set-ups, ending up with three in total. I gave these to my actors to allow them to understand the fashion style of their set-up. After this, I had a conversation with each actor about what clothes they could bring to the shoot that were similar in style to the images I put on the mood board.

1. Heathers= key elements of colour (red, yellow, green) with preppy fashion sense and the iconic red scrunchie in the half-up half-down hairstyle. [All images are from the 1989 film]

2. Mean Girls= key elements of colour again, this time pink, with lots of feminine clothing types such as mini skirts, cardigans, t-shirts. Also worth noting that all three girls have their hair down. [All images from the 2004 film]

3. Girl Gang= more flexible costume guideline with a variety of trendy clothes found from online shopping websites such as Missguided, PrettyLittleThing and Topshop. Due to the set-up portraying the individuality of each girl through clothing, I had a discussion with each girl about what clothes they personally felt most confident, stylish or comfortable in, allowing their personal sense of style to be demonstrated.

Cast Lists= I prepared a large document for the two big shoot days, that had more than one shoot and many cast members. I added headshots of each actor into the table with details of their costumes and crucial details such as timings and locations (that were repeated from the shoot schedule).
I created this mainly for my own use and to ensure I had discussed costumes and timings with each actor before the shoot.

Shoot Schedule & Shot List= After creating my storyboard and reference shot documents, I wrote out my ideas for shots in my shot list that I could easily use on shoots to tick-off shots as I competed them. My shoot schedule (in a table at the top of each page) includes timings for arrival and estimated shooting times, the cast and crew involved, the location(s) of each shoot and any props needed. The specific shots planned were below the table in a shot list, with the technical details including distance, angle or movement as well as actions to be completed by the actor(s).

POST 6: MY ARTIST PROFILE

From the brief, I was tasked with creating a new fictional dance artist/band and although this was a genre I liked before starting this project, I was certain to spend a lot of time researching into the genre before I began my planning process. I looked into female dance artists' personas, researching into their genre of music within the overarching dance genre in addition to their fashion style and overall brand identity.


Research & Inspirations
Soon into my research into the dance music genre, I realised how overarching the genre is, ranging from electronic to disco and hip-hop to dance-pop as well as everything in between.

In order to create my artist, I first researched into a variety of female artists in the whole spectrum of dance music before having a few key influences. I sub-categorised them into:

• dance-pop/synth-pop artists= Sigrid, Anne-Marie, Dua Lipa
• female DJs= Nina Kraviz, Rezz
• duos of female dance artists= Krewella, Nervo

After finding images of a variety of dance artists, I began to spot similarities in their brands and styles, representing the aesthetic of the female dance genre overall. I noticed the particularly importance of the use of colour in making every artist as bold and unique as the next. Neon and pastel colours were experimented with either the artists using them for their hair colour or being used in lighting or in the background of stills. As I looked into the artists' digital identities, this use of colour was repeated in stills and music videos which makes their audience perceive them as bright individuals who will make the audience dance all night long.

As well as looking in their looks and aesthetics, I investigated into what values, attitudes and beliefs the artists promoted publicly. Most of these circulated around the idea of a female artist being marketed for in a patriarchal society and male-dominated industry.

Due to the influence of the artist's values, attitudes and beliefs onto their audience/fans I plan for my artist to promote feminist values of equality and the end to sexual harassment, particularly through the influence of the #MeToo campaign. These sorts of issues are very current in the media cycle, with too many of the cases of misconduct having taken place behind closed doors in large patriarchal industries. The ideas of feminism also link with my artist being represented as a strong single female artist and empowering her fans through her songs and linked music videos.


Planning & Pre-Production

Mood Board of Inspirational Style/Look= I made this mood board of inspirational style reference points to allow me to reflect on what other artists in the dance industry wear. I drew together this collection through music videos, single covers, magazine covers and live performances to allow me to understand how I want my artist to look.

After this, I plan on looking through my own wardrobe and my friends' to see what clothes I have at my disposal to create similar outfits. As is clear from the mood board, I was particularly influenced by Anne-Marie's fashion sense, particularly her fearless use of patterned items to make her stand out in addition to the styling of the power jacket (bottom right) with Dua Lipa's snake-skin black jacket and Anne-Marie's pink blazer both exuding power.

My Artist's Looks= I created these two pages of planning to visually put together my artist's main looks. I put all the costume, accessory, hair and make-up references on one board to allow me to pull together all the different elements of her style into one page. When showing these to my make-up artist, it also means that they get a feel for my whole look (rather than just my ideas for make-up) as they may have other suggestions for the make-up specifically that would go well with other elements of my look. For my second look I am also planning for my eye shadow colour to match the colour of my jacket so I'd want my make-up artist to see the colour of the clothing item before picking a make-up shade. I created two separate boards for my two looks to allow me to differentiate the clothes and colours while still maintaining my artist's overall brand identity of patterned, bold clothing choices.

POST 5: MY PROJECT PROPOSAL/RESPONSE TO THE BRIEF

After completing my research and planning in posts 1-4, I have developed my proposals in response to the brief. This includes my proposals for my artist (discussed further in post 6 as well as below), my music video (post 7), homepage (post 8) and other webpage (post 9), my digitally convergent brand and my independent production company.

These proposals were all inspired by real media, i.e. real dance artists and their music videos/websites, but ultimately brought together by my ideas, ensuring she has a unique style in addition to being similar to the successful artists already in the industry.

My Fictional Dance Artist & Choice of Track

My artist 'FRNKE' is a single female dance artist, with a sassy attitude and stylish fashion sense that allows her to stand out. I chose the demographic of a single female artist as this fills a gap in the dance genre market, which is saturated with male DJs. As well as this, the female artists that are in the dance genre are often paired up with male artists, which in my opinion sends out a negative portrayal of women's independence in an age where a female artist is as successful with a male one as she is on her own, taking the examples of Dua Lipa and Anne-Marie being paired up with male artists like Marshmello, Calvin Harris and Snakehips.

My artists' branding is on the right-hand side, with my bold font used prominently in both of my products. The logo will feature at the beginning of my music video and frequently on my website, with my artist's name conventionally also working as a button linking to the homepage. The font will also be used for titles on my website to convey consistent branding.

I have chosen the track 'High Five' (originally by Sigrid) for my music video and FRNKE's first single. My reason for choosing this song ties in with my planned portrayal of FRNKE as an influential role model for her "culturally sophisticated 16-25 class AB demographic." This song and its lyrics allow her to display to her young target audience that she can relate to their struggles, as she is similar to them in working out her place in society and deciding to block out the negative people in her life and tell them directly: "that high five is all you got." The lyrics send out a very powerful message of empowerment against adversity and reveal how the artist's character develops through the song as it builds up through the first verse and pre-chorus to the beat drop in the middle of the first chorus and gets more upbeat, allowing me to utilise conventions of the dance music genre in these upbeat sections. You can listen to the song here.

Proposal for my music video, homepage and other webpage

I intend to use intertextuality to keep my target audience engaged and entertained in my music video by referencing classic chick-flick films of previous decades, Heathers and Mean Girls, to subvert representations of teenage girls in popular culture. I propose to cut between memorable scenes from the films in the narrative to performance shots of my artist lip-synching and dancing in her girl group. This ensures my music video also follows the conventions of the dance music genre, which often features upbeat group dancing sequences as well as CU shots of the artist. I plan to use varied mise-en-scene, with different studio lighting or interesting exterior locations introduced in different segments of the song, to keep my audience engaged and interested for the whole three minutes of my music video. In my planning, I will create storyboards to visually present my ideas.

My homepage and other webpage will work in synergy with my artist's social media pages to portray my artist's brand identity as a whole rather than the part of her style that can be observed from her music video for her debut single. I will take a wide variety of stills (both on location and in the studio) as well as other audio-visual content to fill these two pages of her website and make them visually-striking. They will also use many promotional techniques to encourage audience interaction such as competitions, brand tie-ins and linking to her social media accounts, all of which I have seen utilised on real-media to solidify my artist's brand. My second webpage will be a news page, where I will display the latest events associated with my artist, along with similar promotional content with plenty of links to external sites. Before creating my website on Wix, I will draw flat plans of what I plan to include on my pages.

Digitally convergent production with a consistent and connected brand

I propose to create a digitally convergent production through synergy across my music video and online platforms. For example, I will utilise a consistent colour scheme and artist branding (logo) as well as featuring photography and audio-visual content of my artist with consistent portrayals of her personality as a musician.

I am using a case study of dance artist Sigrid's brand identity to display how I can keep my target audience engaged through synergistic branding. In all four examples the artist's name is spelt in the same way, using the same font and capitalisation. In three of the four, a circular sticker look is used, although variations in colour and the use of a drop shadow that has been used in just the music video could be utilised to make them more interesting to the audience. The consistent colour scheme of pale pink, soft blue and red are also repeated across her platforms. Furthermore, the artist's icon images for both her Twitter and Instagram accounts is the same image, which is in fact the focal image from her most recent single, seen in the Instagram post below. A different focal image is used for the tour poster although Sigrid looks very similar in both, with her long brown hair in the same centre part and with minimal make-up. This would allow her audience to understand that this is her key style and brand identity and as they become her fans, expect her same look to be continually portrayed.

I intend to use this research in my planning and production of my products in order to create an equally digitally convergent brand for my artist.

My Independent Production Company
I have created my own independent production company who will produce my music video based on their vision, including their interpretation of the lyrics of my track and style of my artist. My artist would enlist a small independent production company rather than a larger corporate firm as FRNKE is a new, rising star and therefore her record label, Universal Music Group, would not invest exuberant amounts of money into her brand when it is still small. Not only this, but a larger production company is more likely to rigidly stick to the conventions of music videos whereas a smaller one is likely to be more creative and experimental in its style; qualities that the music video format already reinforces and encourages.

My independent production company is called 'London Klutz Creative,' the logo can be seen below. The company specialises in music video production and also works on other video projects, including commercial TV advertisements or short films, similar to the company 'London Alley' that influenced my ideas when creating mine. My choice of a unique, fun font and the company's name reinforces its place as a small, independent production company in a saturated market of independent and larger, corporate firms.

My Time Plan
In order to achieve all of the above, I need to organise my time effectively to ensure I am pleased with all of my media products by their deadlines. I have written out the main goal and specific tasks for each week to keep me on track day-to-day but have also numbered the weeks and planned for the whole duration of my NEA to allow me to see the big picture of the overall project.

STAGE 4: REPRESENTATION

As it is one of the four key media theoretical frameworks, I researched into representations of artists in music videos as well as researching into the theorists that analyse how representation in media affects society. I am particularly interested in representations of gender due to my artist's place as a female artist in a male-dominated industry.

Gerbner's 'Cultivation Theory' argues that "exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them."

This often means that the artist is an inspirational figure to their TA, reinforced through their platforms online, on social media and live in concert. I am planning to portray feminist ideas through my music video, explained further below, in order to positively portray my female artist and her diverse support network of women, subverting stereotypes previously exploited in films targeted at the female audience.


Gender representations explored in dance music videos, particularly when there is a female artist. In many of the examples I researched into, the female protagonists were often portrayed as independent and strong through both the lyrics and visuals displayed. A multicultural and multiethnic society is also represented through the portrayal of the 'girl gang.' These groups of women are from different ethnic backgrounds and are represented as being the main artist's support system, but each possessing their own originality, expressed often through their appearance: costume and make-up choices.

'Friends'- Marshmallow ft. Anne Marie (2018)

For example, the screenshot below is from 'Friends' by Anne Marie. The lyrics describe a narrative in which she is friendzoning her ex-boyfriend who refuses to leave her house after a party. The supportive group around her, seen in a MLS, stick around at her house to help her out and get rid of him from her life. The group of women are portrayed as each having their own identities, with individual tastes in fashion and make-up, all in unique costumes that express the different character's styles. Furthermore, this positive view on women's independence is reinforced by the lyrics portraying Anne-Marie controlling her own destiny and pushing the man
away when she knows she doesn't want him:
"You're not my lover, more like a brother."

'New Rules'- Dua Lipa (2017)

My second example is from Dua Lipa's video for 'New Rules.' The song's lyrics essentially serve as a girl's rule book for dealing with their ex, "One: Don't pick up the phone... Two: Don't let him in... Three: Don't be his friend." This reinforces the idea of a female support network and is reinforced by the screenshot on the left, composed of nine girls visually supporting each other, no matter who they are. The group of girls could also be symbolising Dua Lipa's fans who may see her as a role model or 'big sister' figure as they are the people she is singing her relationship advice to.


These feminist values, attitudes and beliefs are portrayed as a part of Dua Lipa's overall brand identity, as it is for many other influencial females, particularly those with household names following their work in the often controversial, and traditionally patriarchal, music and film industries. For example, Kristen Bell has recently attacked the way the idea of consent is tackled in classic fairytales such as Snow White, where the prince kisses the princess while she is asleep, with the idea of consent on the women's part being completely ignored.

Consent campaign video by 'Amnesty International Canada' 

Van Zoonen's theories about the male gaze portray how female bodies are objectified, with the male audience seeing the female body as a spectacle, with her gender being performed through her feminine movements and often sexual actions. However, this theory could be interpreted inversely through the following quote from Van Zoonen: "the recurring images of women in popular media have some influence on how people think of women in real life."

As Dua Lipa tells her impressionable, young fans that the third rule of a break-up is "Don't be his friend," she is empowering them to not change themselves for a guy. She instead supports the gaze being returned to the viewer and the ideas of modern feminism with women supporting other women.



Beyonce's music video for 'Single Ladies' (screenshot below) represents females in a more sexualised manner, wanting their appearances and bodies to be appreciated by the men watching. These audience members are theorised to be gazing upon the women, particularly engaging in scopophilia due to the objectification of the female body, particularly their legs in this example, although other body parts such as their breasts or lips have conventionally also been objectified.

Screenshot from the 'Single Ladies' music video (2008)

For men working in the music industry, this representation of women may have been seen as the only way to ensure that an artist generated revenue for the company. But these techniques have been challenged more and more frequently in recent years as newer generations want to see these traditional values, attitudes and beliefs challenged on a mainstream scale in the whole industry. Despite this, artists such as Beyonce could argue that they have complete control over how they are represented across their entire brand and choose to empower themselves through sexualisation, rather than it being imposed or forced onto them by people (often men) working above them. Although media theorists such as Van Zoonen would fiercely disagree. 

Going back to Dua Lipa's video, the visually-striking different coloured bath robes also work to portray the group women as individuals, who are as important as Dua herself, who almost disappears into the group of women despite being the star; with the MLS itself portraying each woman as important as the next, all of whom support each other. In comparison to this, an older video such as Beyonce's could be seen as portraying the backing dancers as objects, unimportant as individuals due to their identical costumes.

'Black Magic'- Little Mix

I plan to incorporate this female support system into my narrative and through my research have found that this is a unique proposition for a song where the lyrics do not revolve around the theme of a break-up or relationship trouble. Such female camaraderie is often seen in female bands, such as Little Mix (right) with four members, but is an original concept for a single female artist's music video. Therefore my video is working to fill a gap in the market.



Although I am planning to draw intertextuality from so-called 'chick-flick' films, based in a 'high school' environment, many of these have lacked ethnic representation in its main characters, who are overwhelmingly white, as seen in the pictures from 'Heathers' and 'Mean Girls' below. Furthermore, where other minority social groups are included they are portrayed as side characters or worse, a group of people with no names or dialogue, who feature only feature in a single scene. For example, in Mean Girls (2004), when the school structure is described to the audience, the groups are listed, including the rather inappropriate labels of 'Asian nerds' and 'cool Asians.' They are addressed as a group and all represented as exactly the same.

'Heathers' (1989) and 'Mean Girls' (2004)

Moreover, the narratives of the films above are often based around themes focused on having a crush on a boy, which sequentially turns the women into monsters who turn against each other in the story with the one aspiration of getting the attractive boyfriend.

Rather than this, I plan on promoting strong female support systems in my music video, incorporating a multi-ethnic group of women, who will act as my artist's support system, each with their own sense of originality with unique costumes and make-up. Therefore, subverting the belief systems portrayed in the films described above, where primarily one social group is represented, to appeal to my whole target audience and promote representations of all women being independent and powerful, without the need for males in the narrative itself.