Critical Self Reflection

This post contains my reflection for the component 3 project
(link to the pdf version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-5FRukIezCiTy6QEOZf3mrMHO9jgXbH/view?usp=sharing )

The Component 3 brief details that we are tasked to create a digipak, social media and promotional material for an album along with one music video of one of the songs included in the album which will also be used as the title of the album. For My team, first decided on a song within the R&B genre as we found that there are good storytelling conventions in that genre & we wanted to work with that as inspiration, however we soon found that Indie was a much easier genre to work with due to budget constraints and the genre’s less complex post production. The song we ended up choosing for the album & music video is Telephones by an Australian band The Vacations, the reason for this is because the song has a melancholy tone which matches our aim of having both happiness and sadness, furthermore after we have done more research on the Vacations band, we found out that their style of audience engagement was similar to what we were trying to achieve as they are relatable, humorous and often interact with fans through their social media. Lastly, by choosing this song its lyrics match our theme of having that feeling of fleeting friendship and how it is something that needs to be cherished as it may disappear unexpectedly.

For the aspect of branding, in our music video we mainly used Ata, the lead singer as the primary persona as our genre convention research shows that most Indie bands have a Frontman who takes most of the attention. How we branded towards our audience with Ata is through showing how he is relatable and realistic as we portray his problems with problems which are can occur to anybody, furthermore using acting mise-en-scene we have made him react in a sad way to his situation, this helps the audience sympathise and further increase Ata’s relatability. Other than that we used the theory of Stardom which states that celebrities create a persona different from their private personality just for the public to see, as Ata in reality is not somebody who is facing hardships with friends. Finally, branding is also used with our social media where we portray ata consistent with how he is portrayed in the music video to show that, that is how his public persona is.

Music video was the primary thing I focused on as it was the easiest way to get the dominant reading out, which was the message of fleeting friendships and how important it is. We have done this all while following the Indie genre conventions where it is clearly seen that it was a low budget, realistic and story focused music video along with it being more on the experimental style with the coloring and the unusual aspect ratio. The mise-en-scene was especially conforming with our genre as we used common clothing, public locations and also amateur lighting however we did subvert some indie conventions such as having contrasting and non linear storytelling where parallel shots are used and how the color grading changes between the emotion being conveyed, this is a subversion of indie genre conventions where the video is consistent throughout the music video. Other ways we have achieved this contrasting emotions is also through the actor’s expressions, mannerisms and the general lighting of the scene. In the happy scenes the actor still remains somewhat quiet to maintain his persona however when he is alone the expressions and the posture he takes really show how even with his friends he was quiet but he was happy but now he’s still quiet but unhappy. Lastly in our music video, we have made the Ata more relatable through camera as the scenes where we follow him and his friends are often shaky, handheld cam which immerses the watcher to feel more included in the scene, further making the lonely scenes more contrasted compared to the lively scenes with friends.

The digipak was created to also follow the conventions of regular indie albums where they’re abstract, noisy, blurry and doesn’t tell a story but sets up the mood and theme of how the song would feel without having to listen, giving the audience a peek at what the content inside would be like. However there were some subversions which we have chosen to make for example the exclusion of the paper which details either extra details about the album or contains short summaries or stories about the production, instead we have followed other digipak conventions and filled it with exclusive photos inside the digipak.

How we primarily interacted and engaged with the audience was through our social media. We have done this with Blumler & Katz’s Uses and Gratification theory which states that media is used for 4 things, surveillance, Social interaction, personal identity and lastly for diversion. Our social media primarily uses personal identity, diversion and also social interaction. For the aspect of personal identity, there is our star showing their daily life along with humorous content which can be used by our audience as a topic of conversation. Personal identity was also targeted through funny posts as through our research we have found that our target demographic often uses this kind of humor in their day to day personalities. Lastly, any aspect of our social media can be considered a diversion as it's all content made to be enjoyed by our audience or at the very least to help them fritter their time away for a little bit as a form of escapism.

The representations which were shown in our media texts are young, male, teenage kids, we have represented these teenagers as casual, easy going and normal as they aren't seen doing high class activities or very specific activities which require a specialty such as sports activities, instead are just shown hanging out in a way which most teens often do, simply walking around a mall and playing in the arcade. We have portrayed this social group as they are the ones who may most relate to our music video’s dominant reading as this age group is the age group which would have the most graduations and farewell parties, the situations that most often end up with friendships ending. With this representation we have also tackled the social issue of loneliness and fleeting relationships, shown by our actor going through the effects of these issues, portrayed with darker, bluer scenes and with long shots to show how little he is without his friends as with his friends they take up a larger presence on camera.

To conclude, we have portrayed a message to remind our audience how they should always cherish time spent with people they’re close with as there may be a day where they may regret not spending that extra bit of time with them, or it can also be interpreted as a warning not to ruin friendships and other relationships alike as we portray the hurt and somberness which comes as a result of the ending of this relationship.