Mini Project: Lip Sync Video

This blog post features my team's exploration and experimentation with lip sync for our actual music video project.

We have been given a task to make a lip-sync music video for the classic "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. Through this task, we wish to learn more about making a music video and the process behind it, we also wish to create a fun music video. We also want to learn more about the techniques used to produce such a video - filming and editing - that can be used in our project. 

Below is the brief we were given and the lyrics we were assigned to.

Storyboard

Here are the 2 final videos, 1 for each verse

or you can access it through this Google Drive: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iotpPSa_dAI5Ou8dLWm9atBrxvzriyd2/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zSql4rH7aFlXsv2oHp-0az8zfbs7rftW/view?usp=sharing

Reflection

During the filming of this project, unfortunately, I couldn't contribute much as I was occupied with my exam. Although I heard from my teammate regarding the progress of this project, we really tried to experiment with camera angles and techniques and I think we did it pretty well - we incorporated medium shots, close-up and wide shots and we also explored locations so there are more variety. 

Through the small part of the shoot I joined, I realized how difficult this music video could be as if the person is not as connected to the song it could make the whole scene feel more awkward and it just doesn't feel as whole so it would be important to find the perfect person for our actual music video.

Eitherway this was a great pilot test on making a music video and it is useful so I am grateful that we did it.

Component 3: Artist and Casting

This blog which is written by me (Nayana) which contain the development of our main artist, (star). This has been discussed with my team, altogether but my teammate, Maxi, has elaborated on most of the explanation within these developments. We also included the casting of our side characters as well.

Artist Name

Since we wanted our artist to be a female of Asian descent, the name of our artist had to match her ethnic background. Thus, we discussed some potential aesthetically pleasing asian girl names. However, since we also needed to cater to English speaking audiences, we didn’t want to extend too far into our artists cultural heritage. Hence, we focussed more on more mixed (caucasian/asian) sounding names, with a western first name, and then a more Asian sounding surname. We decided on sticking with a “first name - surname” naming format as it is what the majority of artists in the pop genre, and female artists as a whole tend to have as well. However, we also experimented with shortening versions of these names as well, and seeing how they’d look with different capitalizations, as these are also commonly seen forms of stage names for female artists of the genre. From this, here are a few names we initially thought of:

• Kiara Bel
• KIARA
• Isabel Tan
• Isabel Kim
• Isabelle
• BELLE
• Jasmine Wang
• JMIN
• 伊莎贝尔

Casting of Artist

The idea of what we want our Artist to be like has been stated in our statement of intent, which states that we want her to be a fun, outgoing, and humble individual that fans are able to relate to and feel as if they’re just like them. Since we also want her to be of Asian descent, we discussed potential actors who fit the aforementioned trop, who also look conventionally attractive, as most female artists in the music industry generally conform to modern beauty standards. For this, we decided on the following individuals who we could see being our artist:

Artist (Lead Female): 

• Jasmine May Riadi
• Eugene Evelina Nugroho

Casting of background characters

As mentioned in our statement of intent, we wanted our music video to follow our artist and a group of her friends as they go out, have fun, and make unforgettable memories. For this, we want to have a primarily female cast, as after breakups, girls will often find solace and comfort in a group of her other girl friends, instead of a group of guy friends. Thus to accurately represent this, we want to cast girls who will fit into the group of our artist, for which we originally decided on a list of actors who are already friends with each other in real life, and will thus most likely be able to accurately portray the chemistry found in tight knit girl friend groups, since they themselves already have that dynamic. They are also friends of our team, which will make communicating, planning, and convincing them to be a part of the project far easier. The names of these actors are as follows:

Artists Girl Friends:

• Elvina Laurencia Ryanto
• Chelsea Graciella Liem
• Eugene Evelina Nugroho/Jasmine May Riadi
• Keyla Lisgianto Josono
• Nayana Sumaniaka
• Giann Fico Suwangsa

Artist’s Ex Boyfriend (Male Lead): 

• Han Hyun Woo
• Nicholas Gerwin Mawardji
• Gede Danny Putra Budiada 

FINAL

Artist Name

Kiara

Played By

Jasmine May Riadi

Background Casts

Eugene Evelina Nugroho

Elvina Laurencia Ryanto

Chelsea Graciella Liem

Keyla Lisgianto Josono

Laeticia Adidharma Lee

Male Lead

Han Hyun Woo

Reflection:

My task in this step of the process was more to give ideas on who fits the concept we are going for and fortunately most got accepted. From then I was tasked for casting and communication which can be seen in this blogpost. Some of these names we concluded was a bit difficult to determine which to be our main artist, so we had to discuss together further on their personality and character to see who matches the most which led to Jasmine being chosen as our artist. I also put a lot of thought for the girl friends to make sure everyone has great chemistry with each other which would make our shoot run smoother and more natural.

Component 3: Development of Scenes

This blog post which is written by me, Nayana which contain the process of my group developing the scenes and visualization of our music video. These include our annotation, screenplay and storyboard.

Scenes Breakdown

For few sessions, me and my group worked together to break down the scenes with the lyrics of our song. We all participated actively in the discussion and Sharon wrote it down.

Below contain the first draft of our annotation.

Screenplay

Maxi has written the screenplay for our music video which will also help the making of the storyboard. This is done based on the annotation we have written above.

 

Storyboard

The following storyboard is drawn by Sharon, however I participated during the process by helping her what needs to be added or edited and helped to finalize the storyboard.

Reflection

This annotation really helped to visualize the flow of our music video and gave us a direction on what needed to be recorded. My teammate, Sharon, is in charge of making the storyboard which is quite significant in this project as at least for us, the screenplay might not be as effective for our shoot. These annotations could help her figure out what needed to be drawn for our storyboard. In developing this step of our pre-production, I assisted Sharon in identifying which scenes to draw and how to visualize the scenes. I helped my team by annotating and giving ideas to be considered while brainstorming, I also participated in the discussion of our scenes layout which is the first step of development. This became the guide for our screenplay and storyboard.

Postmodernism Essay

Analyze the key characteristics of postmodern media [15]

Post-modernism with its media itself is described as a rejection of modernism. The goal of producers in creating a post-modern text includes subverting the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization as well as breaking down the cultural divide between high and low art. In today's media, it is easier to see the postmodern aspects of media texts. In this text, I will thoroughly explain the key characteristics of a postmodern text to identify one, including the appropriate case study and concepts.

An example of postmodern text is the Disney+ Marvel spin-off series, She-Hulk, released in 2022, specifically on the season finale, episode 9. There are many characteristics of postmodern text, including intertextuality, imitations, satire, irony, bricolage, self-reflexivity, common themes, and loss of reality. She-Hulk as a series is a strong application of loss of reality, from the main character herself is someone who has unrealistic power and how one can transform into someone very unrealistic through a simple injection. The intertextuality in the episode is seen heavily throughout, as it is a product of Marvel, She-Hulk had multiple scenes that mentioned other products of Marvel, including Bruce (original Hulk) and other Marvel movies and characters like Daredevil. At the beginning of the episode, show their imitation of Hulk's original introduction which can be both a homage and parody. It is considered a homage as it can be a respectful tribute to the original Hulk and a parody as the introduction has some satirical and humorous aspects. There was a mention of the character "K.E.V.I.N" which was portrayed as a machine but is an actual producer in real life, this was an example of parody as the machine wore a hat like the actual producer and hence had a mock element. There was a scene where she entered a room surrounded by scenes from various Marvel movies which can be argued as a form of bricolage as it was resourceful and creative, supported by a scene where she "left" and "jumped out" of Disney+ to real world and met the actual producers behind the scenes which would also be a form of self-reflexity as they acknowledge their position as a fictional character. Another scene that expresses self-reflexivity includes how she breaks the 4th wall, communicating with the audience from one of her dialogues, "Is this what you guys want?", knowing they are watched by an audience. She also showed a humorous mimicry regarding Marvel movies, saying how all Marvel movies end the same way with the daddy issues and the predictability, and components of toxic masculinity. Overall, She-Hulk is a series that displays the common theme of future technology the most as supported by each and every element that was shown throughout this episode and series.

The media texts today have made it harder for audiences to distinguish the truth, as supported by the theories of Jean Baudrillard, especially his concept of reality, specifically on heightened reality and hyperreality. Hyperreality can be defined as when the audience is surrounded by many simulations to the point they cannot distinguish between simulation and reality, here hyperreality also has no/little connection to reality but is packaged as real. Heightened reality, on the contrary, has a strong link with reality but contains edits, though the audience will still be able to distinguish what is real and what is not through the distinguishable representation of reality. Media text that performs the idea of heightened reality includes David Attenborough's documentary series, A Life On Our Planet. This series discussed how steeply the health of the planet has declined throughout his lifetime. His series includes elements of reality as well as artificial; the elements that were an actual representation of reality include the old montage used to represent Ukraine, the events that were described to have happened, and the shots of the wild - displaying the animals' action and the movement of nature (a falling tree). Attenborough may still want to include these real representations to criticize the reality that the world has, to be an eye-opener for the audience. However, there are elements that were edited in and artificial, including the editing done towards the scenes; the producers had many narrations done by Attenborough and the background music accompanying that footage. The deteriorated building featured can be argued as an artificial aspect as the producer can choose which part of the building they want to show - to support their agenda, hence not fully showing the whole thing. This is to emphasize and exaggerate the impact he wanted to make for the audience. Hyperreality has also been applied to many media texts, one example is in the reality TV series of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. This is a series showcasing the Kardashians family personal and professional lives. The audience may find it difficult to determine which is real and which is artificial, but it can be argued that the real elements of this series include the montages shown of their workplace, restaurants, the location they went to, the actual event: fashion show and the actual night city life. These real representations can be used as a reminder of who the Kardashians are, successful business family who have a high economic status - boasting their lavish and elite lifestyle as influencers and celebrities. The addition of these actual footages also made it harder for audience to differentiate which is real and not, making audience fall to this "trap" of believing the life they show to be the life they live everyday. These montages was mixed with artificial shots of simulacra - a made up version of reality that doesn't exist. In the specific episode of Season 3 and Episode 4 of the entire series, the topic of the episode was mainly of the Milan Fashion Week, which had a significant amount of conflicts, arguments, and even events such as the prank done by the family. These scenarios may all be scripted by the directors and producers making it a form of simulacra as the feelings they show never really existed. The reason why producers or TV series adds these simulacra to exaggerate their lifestyle in a way to engage audience' interests and attention; by adding pieces of drama and issues to a significant person, it would be a great method to earn viewer's engagement - making them a topic to talk about, whether in social media or real life. But the reason why these hyperreality media texts is still heavily consumed by audience is due to its preference over reality, it would be more entertaining to watch and would support audience denial to be part of the reality they actually live in. However this method could be heavily critiqued especially as it may lead to audiences' loss of authenticity in everyday lives when they actually believe this is what their possible role models lives are like and want to live like them instead, when everything was just created and doesn't exist. 

Component 3: Moodboard

This post contains the mood board me and my group created for our music video.

The aesthetic our group is going for is definitely summer, pastel colors, and all bright and happy. We are using all females for our video so we want to show girly elements such as them getting ready and putting on makeup doing activities such as picnics, having fun, and others.

Reflection

This mood board is the visualization of the vibe we are going for in the music video; bright, fun, full of friendship montages and just the characters living life together. This also have the color palette we want to include in the music video. This helps when we want to record and put the scenes together for the video to be according to the mood we want to go for in our music video. It also contain scenes we might want to put in later in our actual video which include the kite, beach, park and the mirror scene.

Component 3: Statement of Intent

This blog post (written by me, Nayana) contain our statement of intent which includes, the details of the song we chose, artist personality, target audience and more. As a team, we discussed of the whole concept together but my teammate, Maxi, expanded the concept and worded it to an essay form. 

For our music promotion package, we have decided to make a music video in the pop genre that targets young-adult, female audiences from the age of 16-25, from all ethnicities and backgrounds, but more-so targeting Asian demographics, as we aim to have our artist be Asian, as well as using other Asian actors to play as additional characters in our music video. Our artist will be a 17 year old Asian up and coming artist, who is already well known from being a child actor in the past. By doing so, we are also trying to represent a commonly under-represented demographic in the music industry, which would be Asian artists. We want our artist to have a cute and warm personality and a celebrity that still feels like someone audiences know and can relate to. 

We decided that to best represent our artists personality and beliefs, to use the song "Feather", from the 5th studio album of American pop singer Sabrina Carpenter, "emails i can't send". We believe the song itself would be perfect for our artist and music video as the songs lyrics focus on topics and issues that we believe audiences in our target age group and demographic care deeply about and can definitely resonate with. We can see this as in the song, Carpenter focusses on how after cutting ties with a toxic relationship, she feels much lighter and is able to live her life to the fullest. This allows us to spread the message of how instead of being sad and feeling down over a break-up, audiences should instead see how life can and should actually become exponentially better after ending a harmful and hurtful relationship. This idea/message is something that we believe many young people, and especially female audiences, will be able to connect with, appreciate, and want to have in their own lives.  Furthermore, the vibe of the song is funky, fun, and disco influenced and has a very catchy beat and chorus. The lyrics themselves are relatable and empowering, which all in all will allow us to showcase an inspiring and compelling storyline through our music video. The song is a feel-good anthem that is perfect for singing along with a group of friends, and allows audiences to feel relieved as they forget about their problems, which are feelings we aim to shine the spotlight on. 

Thus, for our music video, to capture these feelings of joy and the energy of freedom and letting go, we will follow the songs eccentric storyline and portray the experience of our artist enjoying every moment of her newly found single life - filled with experiences that are fun, exciting, and euphoric. These emotions are also commonly explored in, and are a convention of the pop genre, which will help us engage audiences who are interested and enjoy pop songs and their music videos. We want our artist/music video to promote and explore the representations of the topics discussed in the song like taking care of oneself, and letting go of what doesn't matter, a message that we believe our audiences will greatly appreciate and will want to hear. To effectively spread this theme and message, the general idea of the plot of our music video will most likely follow our artist and a group of her girlfriends as they hang out and partake in a variety of thrilling, exciting, and fun activities that girls that age like to do, for example including scenes where the group does makeup together, dance and sing, try on clothes, have a picnic, sleep over in a villa, and more. Additionally, since these representations of activities and our artist are similar to our target audience, they're interests will most likely fall in line with what is shown and portrayed in the video, which further allows them to relate and enjoy the video further.

Here we break the convention of the average "break-up" song, as most songs that talk about losing a partner often include connotations and representations of sadness, but instead we will follow the feel of the song and go for a happy vibe instead. According to Steve Neale's genre theory, breaking these conventions of sad breakup songs/music videos will help our music video stand out compared to other music videos of the same pop/breakup genre. We want the music video to be fun and for our target audience to have the chance to feel like them and their problems are being represented by our music video, such that when they watch, they'll be able to feel as if they're there with the artist and her friends, living in the moment and enjoying all the new experiences she's able to go through now after she's freed herself from the chains and anchors of her toxic partner.

Below is the breakdown of our statement of intent that we discussed before writing the essay, typed by Sharon 

 

Reflection

Defining our target audience and our intention makes it easier to see which direction we want to go for our music video. As we know the experience we want our audience to feel which is for them to have a positive emotion and to relate with our music video makes it clear of what we want to include in the music video in order to achieve that. Eitherway the template and the whole statement of intent my group made together would be a great help as we progress in this project to ensure we are getting the goal we already aimed for.

Component 3: Branding Research

This post written by me, Nayana, has my research on the branding specifically, which includes for social media and digi pak. If you would like to see my video research, you can check this blog https://nayanamediastudies.blogspot.com/2023/10/component-3-research.html

Olivia Rodrigo

Her logo was very eye catching as how it uses swiggly drawings for the letter - this gives sense of youth and freedom (flexibility) as how it is not structured and rather complement each other. The album cover is very simple and basic so it may be easy to recreate though it wasn’t the vibe I was looking for though it was a good symbolism of young souls today. Her social media was very personalized and it felt “down to earth” it shows her humane side and life outside of being a celebrity. It doesn’t have a set theme so it felt somewhat like a collage of her life due to its variety. I loved how she tries to connect with her fans with her handwritten letter which felt more personal and appreciative of her fandom.

Overall I would love to incorporate how she interacts with her fan and the collage concept in the social media for our star. Though I liked the logo, it doesn’t have the suitable pretty and girly feel I want to go for. For the album cover itself, it is definitely not something I would go for. I want to do something a bit brighter and more colorful, matching to the mood board and the scenes we will be setting. 

Taeyeon

I specifically researched on one of her earlier albums called, “Why”. I feel like K-Pop artists are very known for their album designs hence why I did a research on this album as well. Her color palette, I feel matches the colors we are going for and the style of the music video also feel very similar to what we want to make. I really liked her album, it is very cohesive and organized, nicely simple and very soft. I love the photoshoots the artist did for this album and I wish I can do something similar with this. During this era, her instagram page strictly was on promotion; she posts pictures from her shoot and from the music video as seen in the right Instagram page. I really liked the layout of the Instagram page section on the left where it has pictures of her, focusing on her.

Overall I really liked the album and her social media page during that era but I want to make the page more personal and more engaging to the audience. The album was simple but I’m not sure in factors of it could stand out from the rest.

Self Reflection:

It was difficult to find all the content and needed materials to complete my research so it took me longer time than expected. I found it to be difficult to also find existing albums that have the vibe I want to go for, for our own album cover which is why I mostly direct to the moldboard for my inspiration. However, this research helped me to know what should be included in our branding and the conventions of our style.

Component 3: Video Research

This post contains my research for our project (music video). This has specifically the research I made for the video, to see my research for the branding aspect of our music video, you can check this blog post https://nayanamediastudies.blogspot.com/2023/10/component-3-branding-research.html

Wetsuit, The Vaccines

The audience of this music video would be young people from the age of 18 - 30, those who are fond of music festivals and band performances. The style of this music video is just editing footage given by their fans and it was like a recap video from their festival performance, this was shown by the filter giving more of a reminisce and vintage feeling. I think it is pretty creative as it involves many audiences which could be a method to capture more audience and viewers, this is only possible with the technological convergence of social media.

This use of music videos can be a diversion, use of entertainment, and social relationship as it can be talked about within the audience and even the artists themselves especially those who attended the festival. These conventions make the audience feel festivals are such fun experiences and like a "once in a lifetime experience". 

I personally liked the message behind the video, I think it can be very memorable although the editing style is not preferable.

Motivation, Normani

The audience of this music video is teenagers maybe from the age of 18 - 28. This video contains many dancing scenes so the audience who likes dancing could be more interested. This is a very trendy video as well because the scenes captured are more on the "naughty" love line and use the girls' visuals most of the time. This is creative in cases of choreography but it could be too simple.

There is no major storyline that is shown in the video, so it is purely to visualize the song itself. Still, the catchy beat of the song and visualization is likely to keep the audience watching. This represents mostly the black race; the girls in this video all wore very revealing outfits and seemed to find validation from males so I think this represents the dominance of males which for me is not the meaning I would go for.

I personally liked the use of choreography on upbeat music, in my opinion, it was very entertaining but I don't think it is memorable and I prefer using another style of music video. 

What You Waiting For, Jeon Somi

The audience of this music video is definitely targeted female teenagers maybe 15 - 25 years old, considering how the meaning of the song itself was focused on relating to female teenagers with the style of the video to have elements of the life of a teenager - messy, full of partying, confused with love. To consider the meaning of this song, the artist talks about herself on why is she so desperate when she has a crush on someone and they know she is also having the crush but no one is still making a move - which can be quite considered a common issue in their age group, capturing heartbreak and teenage confusion.

This music video have distinct features of what a Korean music video would look like, it was very modern it uses elements the west would rarely have, for example the hyper-realistic setting, the multiple personas, though intricate settings are used in both, it is not as prominent in western music video. I really liked this music video as it really utilize eye magnets hence everything was very attention grabbing and kept me engaged, it has a lot of actions with very visually pleasing scenes. Although I dislike how they use and the flow of the music video, I don’t think it matches the song that was played, as the song has a lot of beats and was very quick I think the vide should’ve keep up with that but instead there was many scenes that were slowed down and overall just very slow although the action were big (eg. explosions).

From this music video, I definitely want to keep the scenes visually pleasing though the setting may have to be kept simple. I should also really pay attention to the song we are doing to make sure the music video is kept up to par with the song.

Single Soon, Selena Gomez

This music video is directed to female teenagers or adults of around 20 - 30 years old. This is shown by the mise-en-scene of their outfits which was more revealing and activities done like going to the club and breaking the rules. This music video was definitely more simple as the setting itself was quite straightforward and there were no scenes that was necessarily complicated. This music video also really define and reflect the lyrics. In my opinion, it is a very safe music video that really shows a very fun and relaxed side. 

In some cases, I do think it is too simple to the point it felt repetitive and a bit boring, I don’t think there were much exploration in this video which could be the director’s intention after all. These also have a dominant reading of being single is nothing bad and it is actually fun to be single as they show activities a single person can do and still living life. But it definitely represent younger age group more than the older as younger are more keen to take risk and do more dangerous things which is a typical convention of young people.

I liked this music video in way it is very simple and straightforward that it could make the viewers enjoying it and feel like they are part of the experience but I do think in some case, it is too simple that it may not keep all viewers engaged to the video.

You Belong With Me, Taylor Swift

This music video is a representation of a quirky girl who is in love. It took the lore of jock x nerd which is a very stereotypical love story in the media. This video is also heavily targeted to female teenagers as in a way it shows this common theme of love. The character of the ‘nerd’ which is our main characters was shown in mise-en-scene by the glasses, the messy hair, the attire she wear, and how she read book on a bench, or how she is studying to skip prom. 

This music video was iconic at The time and it was very memorable due to the distinct storyline. But this video, I don’t think is flexible to other type of target audience although everyone can enjoy it. I find this video to be very engaging and a really good way to keep audience watching as audience would want to know the ending of the story shown.

I liked how they use the storyline, the shots used were simple making it more relatable. The angles was also very straightforward and the way they make the video like a direct visualization of the song so it was easy to understand and entertaining. I don’t think I disliked anything of this video, I might want to incorporate some similar elements to our music video.

5 Star, CL

I think this music video is a really good depiction of a love story, which interestingly doesn’t really aim at teenagers rather than adults as well. This video was like a compilation of the couple’s journey through the time, traveling, doing new activities and just having fun together. Though there were some performance scenes of her silhouette with a bright red background. I think this means there might be a hidden meaning that it is not just their journey but it was like anger and sadness thinking about the relationship.

This music video incorporates mainly 3 angles - close up, medium and wide. The close up shots are used when the couple are being intimate - hugging, holding hands, this highlights the warmth they felt and their connection when being close to each other. The medium shot focus on showing their activities and their surrounding, so it was used when they are doing an activity together while the wide angle signify their freedom and like how large the world are and they were still experiencing it together. This is also those type of music video that wrote the tile in the beginning which is not as common, so this was good to consider.

Personally I liked the simplicity of this video as well, it felt like a very cinematic vlog of the couple’s story hence was easy to digest. It was also very entertaining to watch as it can be considered light, means it was prominently for diversion without the viewers need to think about it. There was nothing I disliked about this video than it being very safe which could make it in risk of boredom but I don’t think they would make the viewers bored especially with the star appeal of CL herself and DPR IAN as the male main character.

Blinding Lights, The Weeknd

Media Language

The narrative of this music video is based on night, revolving around the colorful and chaotic life of Las Vegas. The video features a lot of shaky movements conveying the crazy mood he was in (eg. high or drunk). This was further shown through the use of lights and even how the song was edited, it was slowed down which in this context could mean the build-up of him going crazy or how everything for him moves very quickly to the point the song itself was so slow. This was very suitable considering the meaning of the song itself which is about how one wanted to see someone at night while intoxicated and was "blinded" by all the streetlights when driving toward the person, which explains how this music video was very high-speed as in involving many quick cuts. This video was also very colorful at first which also connotes how so many things are going on then ended with a more low-key and muted color scheme which can be like a scene to show his snap back to reality as he realizes he's the only delusional one. 

There were many close-up shots of his face, from the very beginning with the bloodied face, which was also a spoiler from the ending which may made the audience want to watch even more. His face when driving and speeding the car, highlights his fluctuating emotion - serious and full of energy. In a lot of the scenes, his background was also blurred which could be a way to connote the way he saw things - blurry and unclear. This also made the music video more fun to watch and to see the artistic elements as it was also action-packed so the audience wouldn't avert their attention. This video was a very clear notion of aesthetically pleasing visual representation of the song, Blinding Lights.

Representation

This music video focuses on the representation of an intoxicated, drunk driver. This is shown also through the red jacket he wore, it is not a normal suit one would wear and red usually represents love (romance) and fire (wild, crazy). This music video also focused on the representation of LA and Las Vegas, which were the places where they shot the video. They represent these in a way focusing on the nightlife and the whole craziness that one could experience; through the various colors and the mise-en-scene, from cars and buildings they used, they show that LA and LV are luxurious and considered fun places. The actions done also further highlight their aim to show an intoxicated person; how he kept dancing through the night even after he got punched shows him not being in the right mind.

This captures the audience's attention in a way to keeps them watching and staying interested in the plot that was made by the producers. This generates an idea of having the locations be luxurious and dangerous and the idea of the main character being toxic, a risk-taker, and also in a way stupid. This concept is quite common in this genre of music video; having the stereotypical intoxication with the quick speed of shots and scenes. This can be relatable to the theory of Uses and Gratification Theory of Blumler and Katz, of personal identity, they might be able to relate to the main character, although it would be a negative assumption, it can used as a form of reminder or warning towards audience of the negative aspect of being one. 

Audience

One main man was used throughout the video, featuring more than one female. It shows him being like a womanizer, loving women. This music video is targeted at both males and females; it targets males in a way of focusing on women's visuals and attracting their interests. The female could be interested in this music video considering how action-packed it was and using the star appeal of the artist himself, Abel Makkonen Tesyafe. Although this music video is definitely not for all ages as there were many explicit scenes and parts where it may not be suitable for younger audiences, the message behind was also not a very positive message - it shows drunk driving and him continuously being infatuated and aroused by different stimuli. This music video appealed in a way of including us in his experiences - there were many close-up shots and was recorded in a way he would also see it hence it felt like we were there with him which was why this music video was very visually appealing - it was very inclusive. It was pretty clear that the director nor the artist himself was encouraging the acts shown in the video as it had this chronological flow expressing how it may be all happy and excitement may end in such failures.  

Industry

This music video was very modern - it uses quite complex lighting which may never existed long ago. The editing was also very intricate, in ways they combined both slow motion and flashes, this was never really the style of music video till recently - though in a way it also shows the life of casino, punk, Y2K, and such aesthetics that could be inspired by trends and culture back then. It can't be disregarded how they utilize the internet and social media during distribution as they post it on YouTube and promote it through Instagram hence reaching a huge audience. This allows the audience to interact with it and apply the uses and gratification theory of Blumler and Katz of social relationships as they can comment on the product and spread it in a way of communicating with other people regarding the product. 

Party, Girls Generation

I love this music video in ways it radiates such a positive vibe. It shows a group of girls on holiday with the main location being a beach and pool. I chose this music video to research with interest on how they used the beach which is a similar location my group wants to shoot in. I do believe this music video can be a great reference for my group as it delivers almost the exact energy we want to have. 

This music video interestingly has animations and doodles that support the positive aura and although it would be something unique to include in our music video, we are not exactly capable of doing that. I also realized that animations could also look messy which is why I wouldn't include animations in our music video. I realized this music video is also very vibrant of the girls' attire and the whole setting as well, I think they added the saturation for the coloring to add more contrast. 

From this music video, I am inspired in terms of the mise-en-scene, for the beach scenes I would like to add as many colors as possible, through our props and attire. I personally didn't really like the high saturation though because it doesn't look very natural and might look tacky instead, I also find it very overstimulating so we might not make it as saturated instead.

ETA, New Jeans

I found this video specifically for the car scenes and how they use their phone which caught my eye. I found the way they made the scenes very interesting. They used 2 cars for the scenes and had an unstable pan to show the motion. I loved the positioning of each person to the point they utilized many angles and placement which kept the audience engaged. For the use of phones, I love how they altered both using a camera to show them using the phone from a 3rd person's eye and using what looks like a screen recording from the phone right away to show them using it. The screen recording made it look much more natural and more modern, chill, and easy to watch. 

From this video, I concluded that I would like to incorporate the same phone recording they did which should match the concept we are going for. While for the car scenes, although what they did was interesting, I don't think it would be possible to execute the same for our music video as we only have one main character and 5 extras so I don't think they can move positions very much as it would affect our fluidity as well.

Reflection:

Doing this intensive research helped me to get inspiration on how we want our music video to look like. It also gave me guides and references on how music videos in our genre are done and how they usually portray scenes that we want to do. I made these music videos as more ideas for our brainstorming while producing these music videos. This research also identifies what we want to include and what we don't want to include, to produce our most favored music video, which was also done when combining the research I did and the other research my teammates did. The bigger research also allowed me to properly break down the components our music video and identified what made the music video which I find really beneficial for our pre-production.

Component 3: Weekly Progress and Plan

 This is my weekly progress for my project. I have also included the ideal rough plan.

Week	Term 2	Week	Term 3
1 (2 Oct)	Brief, Research	8 ( 8 Jan)	Development
2	Research	9	Shoot
3	Research	10	Shoot, Self Reflection
4	Proposal	11	Post Production
5	Development	12	Post Production
6	Development	13 (13 Feb)	Deadline (Tuesday 13th February)
7	Development	14

Semester 1

Week 1, 6th October 2023

This week we got introduced to the project and the guidelines of what project we will be doing. We also started our research on what music video we want to make, as my group discussed, we might be doing a pop genre so we will do more research on that and which specific artist we want to make our muse.

Week 2, 13th October 2023

This week we had 2 meetings for this project. In the first meeting, me and my team discussed what genre we are doing and we have a direction - we are leaning towards bright, happy pop music. In the second meeting, we continued our research, our teacher showed a few various music videos which was interesting and took the ideas of mental health. I also continued my research and looked at The Weeknd, Blinding Lights music video. I will be starting the analysis of branding this week as well and today we got a brief introduction on what we should include.

Week 3, 20th October 2023

This week I continued my research and started our statement of intent. However, I couldn't finish my research because I was busy with another exam that was coming up. Mr briefed us prior regarding our statement of intent and my group discussed more of our target audience and our music video as a whole. We also got taught how to make our whole project more reflective - from our reflection and research to the other aspects of our project.

Problem: We didn't have enough time to finish the statement of intent 

Solution: Finish it as homework through discussion with the team - finish before next week's project lesson

To-Do: Finish my research as soon as I finish my other exam 

Week 4, 27th October 2023

This week we did a mini project of making a lip sync video, this taught us of the technicality and was like a pilot project before we did our own music video. We started discussing where our music video would go - by creating a mood board, starting our development, and figuring out the names and actors for our music video as well as the locations.

Problem: I couldn't attend all the classes this week so I missed out on a few lessons and didn't do the mini-project fully as I had to study for my Cambridge exam

Solution: I had to take time off my studies to contribute to the mini-project and catch up with all the missing lessons and time

To-Do: Finish my research, and decide on a name for our artist

Week 5, 3th November 2023

This week we started breaking down the scenes we are planning to do with the lyric sheet. We also got an updated list of the blogs we may have to create. This week we finished the mini lipsync project as well which you can find on my blog post.

Problem: We need more time to break down the scenes and the potential risk of heavy rainy season.

Solution: We may have to ensure everything and probably double-book or plan alternative dates to stay on schedule

To-Do: Start the screenplay and storyboard

Week 6, 10th November 2023

This week we finished breaking down the lyrics and scenes. We also started to research our mise-en-scene, like our locations, and outfits. So we created a Pinterest board for inspiration of our music video.

Problem: Screenplay is not suitable for this project

Solution: Focus on storyboard and make a selective screenplay (only for some specific shots)

To-Do: Storyboard and screenplay, I will also start my research for social media page

Week 7, 14th November 2023

This week we focus on our blog and to complete the tasks that needs to be uploaded in our blog. This was helped by the checklist that was given our teacher with 4 different categories; on blog, complete, label, reflection and plan of action.

Problem: Some parts of my blog is not done yet.

Solution: Finish my blog work and tasks during semester break/before the deadline

To-Do: Make time to finish my blog each day and stay on task to complete the checklist given

Semester Reflection

This semester, I had frequent and consistent weekly updates of my progress. This helped a lot to recognize the position I was in and it gave a clear direction and plan of what is still needed to complete. Though an issue I encounter was how I felt it was insignificant, so I didn’t really follow it which results in even slower progress and updates. Next semester, I wish for it to have a bigger impact especially how hectic next semester would be, I wish this plan and weekly progress can help me keep updates and track to make sure me and my group is according to schedule.

Semester 2

Week 1, 12th January 2023

Today I heard my feedback from my semester 1 work, I have listed down all the needed changes I have to make this semester to improve my scores. I have done more of our location scouting by doing a location assessment and risk assessments for each location which would help us choose and prepare for our shoot. Due to some delays, we are now in a rush but with good teamwork, it should be nothing big for us to handle. 

Problem: delay causing our shoot to not be done yet so we are quite behind schedule

Solution: get back on track without procrastinating

To-Do: start on social media, contact actors, and make the groups to ensure easier communication

Week 2, 19th January 2023

Today we concluded our filming schedule and compiled a table which you can check in this blog post. We also made our social media layout and organized what content we should make during our shoot for our social media. 

Problem: our teammate is absent so he wasn't present for some of our discussion, and another teammate said he's going to go to Sydney on one of our filming date

Solution: organizing our schedule according to the dates of who will be present, doing the simplest shoot on the day our teammate is absent

To-Do: research more and prepare for the social media and digipak design and layout

Week 3, 26th January 2023

This week we are introduced to our social media and digipak. We evaluated the needs of it and the content that we wanted to include. This will be a great guide for our shoot later to make sure we have enough original content for our other products. 

Problem: one of our teammates will be absent for our first shoot and our other teammate was absent during our discussion

Solution: we go without him to not delay, and we make sure to update thoroughly in our group and ensure everyone is prepared for our shoot tomorrow

To-Do: research more of our social media and get ready to start making the content, learn how to make a mock digipak

Week 4, 31st January 2023

This week we started our shoot, we encountered a major problem where we had to move to another location without any prior research or assessment, but everything went well as we really liked the location. We also started making our critical self reflection which I will have to continue doing without procrastinating if I want to finish on time and with great quality.

Problem: starting the self reflection is difficult so I couldn't make a big progress

Solution: spend more time for the reflection and plan more of what to write

To-Do: continue writing self reflection, prepare for our shoot at the end of the week

Week 5, 7th February 2023

This week, we continued our shoot and we started designing our digipak and social media although it is difficult to design it fully when we don't have all the pictures laid out. But we made a mock design using other people's photos we liked so then we can just direct our star to do something similar. Learning from our previous shoots, my friend also made a specific filming schedule tomorrow to keep us on track and be efficient.

Problem: there's a possible bad weather forecast for tomorrow which is our final day of shoot

Solution: be prepared and ensure alternatives

To-Do: continue self reflection and editing our promotional media for the project

Week 6, 16th February 2023

This week we missed a lesson due to election. We had our last shoot this week but I was unable to come as I was sick so I relied on them for the shoot though I had some advice and comments that I think would make the photos look better, so I asked them to follow during the shoot. We continued our digipak and social media post which me, Sharon and Timo primarily worked on. We had our teaser and the first minute of our video made which Mr Nick saw and gave feedbacks for.

Problem: we received feedback that Timo will have to edit again, our social media and digipak is not done

Solution: continue working on it

To-Do: edit teaser audio, digipak and social media posts, interview video, critical self reflection