This is my Final Critical Reflection for this project.
This project tasked us to make a music video, digipak, and social media based on the genre of our choice. After some consideration and discussion, we chose the Indie genre with our song choice being Here With Me sung by d4vd. With this, me and my team created a star called Do0d with a outgoing, happy, energetic persona in the first half of the video then a sad, lonely, heartbroken persona for the second half. As for the dominant reading, we want our audience to receive the message of “Love is filled with ups and downs, both happiness and sadness” when they finish watching our music video.
Branding ties the music video, digipak, and social media together by utilising a dim lighting and dark clothing that can be seen in all of the products because it connotes his mood change from happy to miserable. The visuals of his flat expression with the slight blue colour further connote his sadness and shows he is experiencing pain as pain is often related to emotionless appearance. So with this, we use this as our theme on all the products (music video, digipak and social media to keep it consistent and to make it seem it belongs together).
Based on the Genre theory made by Steve Neal, it states that a media product has to be similar enough to be recognizable but different enough to be new and unique. So first, we research the conventions for the Indie genre. Examples ranging from having a low budget which is reflected in the low quality videos and inexpensive sets; Indie music videos revolve around romantic narratives; mostly include lip sync coupled with a live band performance; and the set are often located at natural settings such as the forest or near public roads.
So to follow the genre theory, the first way we conformed the Indie genre was by using a phone camera to record the b rolls (cinematic shots) in the introduction of the music video, by utilising the trucking camera movement, which would then show the low quality that are often found in Indie music videos. Second, we mostly show lip syncing through medium-long shots of our artist, Do0d, as the main performance so the audience can easily follow the lyrics and thus adds realism to the scene. And third, we revolve around a romance storyline in which about an Indonesian highschooler going through the ups and downs of a romantic relationship.
As for the ways we divert from the conventions, we didn’t divert much as we only diverted from the original video of Here With Me by removing the idea of filming on the beach.
For the digipak, Indie conventions use basic colours, basic pictures, and elements that are not too flashy to the eye so the way we conform to this convention is that we use mellow/monotone lighting (with a slight of blue hue) to foreshadow his sadness. This is all so that it looks like a digipak from the Indie genre to make the audience familiar with it.
In the music video, we represent teens and young adults ages 17+ that are both male and female - specifically speaking, we are targeting people who are in relationships. This is shown by the music video representing a romantic storyline which involves a young male that is in highschool being in a relationship with a young girl that is also in highschool. This would make the couples in the audience be able to relate to the video and thus make them more engaged/interested in it.
In this video, we took on the boy’s perspective as based on the stereotypes, males are often the main character in most narratives so we wanted to follow it and thus wanted to show his behaviour regarding the events that he went through. During the first half of the video we represent the teen male to be happy and energetic through mise-en-scene (actor performance) such smiling from ear to ear when he is getting ready for school; we record him in daylight to connote his energetic mood; and the choice of white clothing during the basketball scene to imply he is in peace when he is with the girl.
Then as Do0d, our star, picks up the basketball, the second half of the video starts and it represents him as gloomy, and lonely and is shown by many technical elements. As he picked up the basketball with her, we used a match cut editing to smoothly transition to his sad persona and shoot the scene during night time. This connotes the shift in his mood from happy to depressed as night time shows dark times and implies gloomy mood. Then, as the video continues, he is shown in a more distressed state by the mise-en-scene (actor performance) of him throwing his pillows around, his bed is messy which shows his stressful mind and the use of dark clothing to further imply that Do0d is depressed.
Our social media page engages with the audience by allowing them to comment their thoughts and opinions about Do0d’s post in the Instagram comment section. This way, the artist could either receive critical feedback or compliments on the upcoming album from their fans.
Based on the Uses and Gratification theory (Personal Identity) made by Blumbler and Katz, it is seen in Do0d’s Instagram page that as he ages, he looks more mature and wise and thus this makes his fans want to be like him since in Instagram, the monotone expression coupled with simple basic, dark clothing makes him seem more grown-up.
In conclusion, the purpose of all our products is to show the good times and hardships of being in love at a young age. This is to represent couples so that they can relate to it and thus would enjoy the music video. We believe our products were successful as the feedback gained from the survey matched our initial intention for how we wanted to represent Do0d throughout all our media products (music video, social media, and digipak).
In case the essay is formarted unevenly, this google doc contain my essay:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14GDhynGU1GHG4L7RkThJN3YKHtgzpfJ8zV5LdHvgB-4/edit?usp=sharing
