Critical Reflection

 Critical reflection

How do your products represent social groups or issues? 

For the musical promotion package, (which included a music video, digipak, and social media page), we decided to film a music video in the style of a narrative-based music video, which followed a non-linear style. Our music video follows a protagonist who has experienced the loss of her friend. We wanted to portray an important message through our music video.  Dealing with a sensitive issue such as grief can be very hard to work through, especially due to the problem sometimes being swept under the rug, meaning if someone appears to be upset about the death of their friend they appear to be “weak” in the eyes of society. The song “Fourth of July” represents the emotions of death and how it can be hard to move on from, especially from a young age. The social issues that the music video represents outline how society disregards how death may impact the friend of the deceased person, as they predominantly focus on the family of said person. This video helps illustrate the struggles of which one goes through when they are mourning someone extremely close to them. The main social group that is being focused on is the female teens as they appear to be seen as weak, whereas in this video it is showing how the friend is trying to be strong enough to move on and deal with the resultant pain stemming from the loss of the friend, rather than wallow in pain. There are not many social issues which can raised in this music video, as indie pop music videos tend to focus on one issue rather than trying to cover multiple, and other genres try and give a range of relatable problems so that they can gather a larger audience. 

 

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

When creating my production package, which includes a social media page, digipak, and a music video, I found that it is extremely important for the target audience to make clear links between each product so that the branding is recognisable. The branding that my group and I have tried to associate with the music promotional package is that there are the same/ similar images used on all the products to help bring the whole production package together. The branding is exhibiting how people become affected by death and how hard it is to move on when a person has been impacted massively with the sudden grief of their friend passing away.  Hopefully with this strong storyline and brand, it will get the target audience talking about the video, increasing its popularity. There will be the same colour scheme throughout all the products, to give the artist a noticeable and rememberable brand, so darker toned colours will be used, as this is seen within each product. The music video links well to the images I have used within my digipak and the social media page.  This is because the music video’s main location is based in a graveyard, which correlates to the media images shown in the other two products. This is a clear link to what the target audience will be able to see. I have tried to create a sense of branding through my products by keeping strong consistency through the font styles, colours, layout and by selecting specific and appropriate images for each of my products. 

 

How do your products engage with the audience? 

The topic that my music video is based around is one that both genders can relate to, meaning a large audience can be drawn towards products. However, men could struggle to watch this as they find it difficult to voice issues like this due to toxic masculinity, as losing one close to them is hard for them to understand. A way that the audience can be engaged with the products that my group and I have made is by interacting with the social media page, as this will produce information so that the audience can keep up with the artist and the updates that they want to publish. This will further captivate the audience with the music video, as on the social media page there will be behind the scenes shown. The digipak will include information about the song and the lyrics which can interest the audience and inform of them of the deeper meaning behind the song. The demographic group I decided to appeal my product is to any gender. I appeal to all genders due to my diverse colour scheme and use of both genders within my music video, I wanted everyone to be intrigued into my products to prevent discrimination. My products are not aimed at any religion, sexual orientation, disability, and race as everyone is welcome to watch the music video, purchase the album, and visit the Instagram page. Within my Digipack I used many strategies to appeal to my target audience. I began by choosing a colour scheme which appeals to both genders of those aged between 14-20, as it can help them illustrate an idea of what the song is about and its deeper meaning.

 

 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions? 

 

During the research and planning part of the process, my group and I decided on the song “Fourth of July” by Sufjan Stevens, as the lyrics greatly inspired us on how to visually represent it. The song falls under the Indie pop genre, and the conventions of this genre are shown within the music video ranging from the camera angles to the narrative. I used arrangements such as cutting the video to match certain beats in the song and to help match the shots to the rhythm. In the beginning the song has a slower rhythm meaning the video cuts are slower, followed by a slight increase in the tempo towards the end. Certain conventions that I follow in my music video include introducing both characters which allows the audience to know and understand them throughout the video. Another way I used the common conventions of music videos within any genre is that used solely diegetic sound of the song “Fourth of July” to help ensure that the audience can hear only the lyrics of the song. After conducting my audience research, I discovered that our target audience foremostly enjoy the pop genre, which is where our song falls under (indie pop).  Within my music video I featured a variety of shots, such as: wide shots, close ups, over the shoulders and many more. I was inspired to use a range of shots as my research to music videos followed similar conventions; this is to help keep the audience interested and reduce the risk of them switching off. A theorist that relates to this is Stuart Hall's theory about encoding and decoding, as we are trying to get the audience to interact with the music video, by letting them try and figure out what the music video is based around.