CCR3 Essay

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Mission Statement- “The pop leader Nova Strobl is back and better than ever before! After the worldwide success of her last album “Heartbreaker” she is swinging her melodic vocals into a whole new direction. Combining catchy dance pop beats with hints of retro-nostalgia, her newest album ‘euphoria’ evolves into the light. Join her as you dance back in time into the euphoric feeling of nostalgia”

Within this highly competitive industry, creating a compelling and unique brand is vital for an artist’s success. The integration of our production work, of a social mediapage, music video and digipak, all harmoniously work together- creating a strong brand identity centred around an exciting pop nostalgia theme. Firstly, we crafted a cohesive digital presence using a variety of forms of media language. All products follow the same colour schemes of blues, purples and pinks which is strongly evident in the lighting and colour choices throughout. Moreover, the same san serif block font is utilised throughout all products representing the modernity side of the pop genre. The use of these media languages is not only conventional to the genre, so our audience can have a preferred reading (Hall), but also can connote (de Saussure) a fun, exciting girly-pop brand identity and further denote (de Saussure) a nostalgic feel more specifically with the use of LED neon lighting seen in the music video and social media page. We decided to primarily use the colour purple which can be seen prominently throughout which represents the fun, successful star image as well as this almost magical, nostalgic feeling of ‘euphoria’.  Many social media posts stick to this colour theme with the highlight icon being purple to the posts lighting being purple, the digipak costume is all purple matching the purple background and the music video while less noticeable there is lots of purple seen through the scenes of the air hockey. In addition, we have carefully thought about the media language of mise-en-scene of props throughout all products. With the jukebox and retro air hockey table and Barbie in the music video, to the retro tv and disco ball in the digipak, then the vinyl record player, digital camera/polaroid photo manipulation effects and the recurring motif of the disco ball presence in the SMP collectively are all  symbolic codes (Barthes) of this bygone era. Featuring these nostalgic props helps strengthen and remind the audience of our brand identity as well as capture the essence of the specific era. Having recurring features across platforms like the camcorder filter being used in both the music video and SMP helps communicate a sense of branding and unity. All our media language links up with one another allowing us to convey and reinforce our brand identity of being a pop-nostalgic album.   

My music video resided in the pop genre, which in order to successfully represent required me to research the repertoire of elements (Lacey) for music videos like different editing, cinematography and mise-en-scene conventions used by other pop artists. My music video ‘Last Friday Night’ fits the female, pop sub-genre so I carefully selected music videos which also slotted into this category to ensure my music video follows the conventions allowing my target audience to have a preferred reading (Hall). ‘Genre is similarity and difference’ (Lacey) meaning that the audience wants their media to be the same yet different as well as be predictable yet also innovative. Due to this, I had to also consider ways to challenge certain conventions and make my video have a unique selling point amongst the highly competitive industry ensuring we make a profitable product.

Key technical conventions of music videos were: cuts to close ups, continuity editing, editing to the beat, still shots, having a performance and narrative sequence- as seen in Dua Lipa’s video ‘Levitating’- evidently we followed these so our audience can achieve a preferred reading (Hall). The overarching convention I found in the girly-pop genre was female empowerment highlighting a progressive representation (Gauntlet) of an independent, confident, sexy woman like in Tyla’s video ‘Water’. For our music video, we decided to use this convention due to our audience demographic being young females in hopes to provide an empowering role model. We did this through the use of MES like the costume of a bold metallic, body-con short dress and pink eyeshadow with lashes for the makeup to all collectively signifies (de Saussure) this confident, fun, sultry star image which the glamorous party look was notably a common convention in the music videos like ‘Mad Love’ by Mabel. Following Altman’s theory we had this ‘blueprint’ covered by representing this confident female star, we now needed to ‘develop’ it. So by directing her to jump into the pool with her glam still on represents her as wild, not only challenging the traditional expectations of female behaviour but also challenges the genre convention as most music videos I researched just had the star sitting there looking pretty- as seen in Ariana Grande’s ‘God is a Woman’.  

In addition, a technical convention I identified within my research was this bright fun video setting, like in Arianna Grande’s 7 Rings, which we followed with the use of high key lighting as well as neon LED colours of pink and purple to represent an exciting, energetic, pop music video. Even for the morning scenes we utilised high key lighting and manipulated footage in post-production to appear more vibrant ensuring we had a visually energetic video throughout- conventional to the genre. Another conventional element we used was an establishing shot with the song title on which I saw in the majority of the videos I studied, especially Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Bad idea right?’. We used this ‘blueprint’ but also evolved it (Altman) making it more engaging by shooting using an aerial shot and adding some personal flair by editing the text to appear under the flamingo, establishing the scene for an audience in an unconventional more dynamic way. Finally, for cinematography the genre conventions is more still shots and tracks as seen in Madison Beer’s ‘Selfish’ we challenged this by utilising lots of whip pans and hand held shots with an unconventional record-cam filter on immersing the audience within the party representing and signifying (de Saussure) a sense of realisticness, wildness and energy. Altogether, we followed the media language conventions like mise-en-scene, camera and editing while also developing  it, challenging certain conventions ignoring the risk of audience rejection.

For our pop-genre digipak it was vital for us to research and understand the social group and any issues of our target audience demographic and psychographic- achieving this preferred reading (Hall). Our target audience is young women and teenagers which is a social group often represented as being young, fun and confident. Some key issues this social group faces are predominantly gender stereotypes, and inequality within a patriarchal society telling them how a ‘woman’ should behave. To showcase and challenge this issue we have constructed this star image to represent a powerful, confident, extraordinary (Dyer) female star image in aims to empower our audiences female identity. For example, the mise-en-scene of our digi-pack like the purple metallic, sultry two-piece costume, alongside the acting/posing, directing our model to sit with propped up on the tv- collectively work together to signify (de Saussure) a cool, care-free, confident star image. The study of body language by S. Bartky identified how men tend to make themselves bigger and spread out while women do the opposite; our digipak image deviates and challenges this, with our star taking centre stage spread out across the page, using the rule of thirds, with a cool, assured pose. Further examples of our representation is, via the media language of colour choosing a purple and silver colour scheme. Analysing colour symbolism, purple is a symbolic code (Barthes) of royalty and power accompanied by silver which has connotations of wealth and glamour which all unites together in representing this powerful, successful star image. Purple also connotes fantasy which could denote (Hall) to an audience this ‘euphoric’, magical feeling that nostalgia fuels- creating a sense of cohesion with the album title and brand identity. This is further reinforced via the media language of graphic design, language and font. The inside pages have clouds with sparkles and a fantastical, magical-like cursive font with the definition of ‘euphoria’ reflecting this ‘out of this world’, surreal feeling that happiness and nostalgia brings- in hopes to resonate with a teenage audience and serve as an escape. In addition, we carefully chose mise-en-scene with props like a disco ball and retro tv to transport our young female audience to this bygone era. Both props are highly identifiable cultural codes (Barthes) to the 70’s linking to the nostalgic theme and allows our young audience to explore the culture of previous generations of their parents, potentially establishing a connection between different social groups- uniting generations. As well as this we are seeing retro styles having a resurgence as fashion is cyclical so for our audience demographic it’s currently trendy to be vintage- making our digipak very appealing to our target audience.  The reference to the disco era of the 70’s helps signify (de Saussure) party, dancing and excitement which ties nicely to the music video and was also notably a phenomenon that transcended gender and was an inclusive, happy environment. Overall, the representation and incorporation of media language has created a fantasy environment providing a haven for the audience. Our representation of this extraordinary (Dyer), powerful female star image hopes to serve as a role model for our audience demographic, and also encourage them to be aspirational, pursuing their dreams fearlessly- empowering and supporting them through the inequality they face.

In this digital age, social media platforms are a powerful tool for an artist to not only engage with the audience but also connect with their fans. Among all these platforms, instagram stood out, as it’s the most popular within our young audience demographic with 40.1% of active users being aged 13-24 (Orbelo), therefore making it the most efficient platform to maximise our audience engagement. Furthermore, creating a social media page to promote the album is an effective way to help construct and showcase this ordinary and extraordinary (Dyer) side of our star, creating a sense of intrigue and awe in hopes for the audience to subscribe/follow to this fandom (Jenkins). 

Our social media page engages with our audience by following rules of AIDA and including many interactive elements between fan and artists- building a sense of community within the fandom (Jenkins). For maximum audience engagement the media product must include ways in which an audience can be informed, entertained, reinforce their personal identity and socially interact (Blumler and Katz). Following these ideas, some posts and interactive features we included are polls, questionnaires, competitions, a livestream listening party, tour poster, CMC and challenges. The Merch Competition allowed the audience to be ‘prosumers’ (Gauntlet) encouraging them to create content showcasing their creativity. This not only will make the audience feel validated within the fandom (Jenkins) but also establishes a connection between artist and fans as their submissions will be judged by Nova.  Living in an age of participatory audiences (Shirky), the audience now have the power to promote the artist and album. To our advantage  we encouraged the use of the hashtag ‘TGIF’ sharing their favourite moment of the music video, an example of viral marketing, which is so beneficial as it makes the audience feel included whilst also a free way to market our products boosting profits/revenue- the main goal within the music industry.

Another example is our exciting teaser trailer reels for the track list and music video. Teaser trailers/reels add some diversity to the feed making the promotion more engaging for an audience in comparison to just  posts. Moreover, reels have a high engagement rate and are a great source of entertainment, information and social interaction (Blumler and Katz) as the audience can utilise the comment section theorising and communicating with fans alike building anticipation and excitement. Furthermore, behind the scenes posts and Q&A’s aid in the construction of this extraordinary and ordinary (Dyer) star image. Q&A’s are an effective way for fans to interact with the star as they can ask anything, building a strong connection and ordinary image (Dyer) as if they could be friends. This glimpse into Nova’s personal life creates authenticity allowing fans to feel a personal bond with her promoting them to join the fandom (Jenkins) evoking a sense of loyalty and investment. Therefore, their engagement levels will be much higher, where they are exposed and driven to the link in bio (call to action) leading them to buying into products Nova endorses generating revenue for the artist and industry. 

Social Media Page Final Draft

After lots of planning and producing here is our final promotional page for Nova’s new album ‘euphoria’. (Click images to view)

Whats New?

  • We finally realsed the tour poster/dates as live events are the main source of revenue within the industry and is also the most fufuilling way a fan can ‘complete the star’ (Dyer)
  • Furthermore, we promoted the realse of the album in a vinyl addition which fits so well with our retro-nostalgic branding but also another stream of revenue as artists don’t make a lot of profit through streams instead mainly selling hardcopies
  • We used a video of Nova inviting her fans to join her in a live stream event, where fans can tune in and listen to ‘euphoria’ alongside the star herself- which is a great way of social interaction (Blumler and Katz) and way of showing her ordinary side (Dyer)
  • We added  another charity post around fast fashion and linked her depop account so fans can buy her old clothes which is a charitable way of building a connection with her fans as well as a way for the audience to reinforce their personal identity (Blumler and Katz)
  • We added some BTS pictures of the process of making the album of ‘euphoria’ like BTS pictures from the album shoot as well as the songwriting creative process- this really creates autheticity through the audiences eyes

Overall, we have produced a social media page following AIDA (attract, intrest, desire and action) in order to promote the upcoming album of the our star Nova Strobl. Most of the posts all visually pleasing and engaging and moreover they all direct the audience back into the linktree in her bio where all her products, like music video and collbrations, are so fans can “buy into” this star we have carefully constructed. Blumler and Katz would also applaud this page as there are aspects in which an audience can be entertained, socially interact, reinforce their personal identity and be informed- overall creating a very engaging social media promotional page for our target audience demographic of young teenage girls.

Digipack Final Draft

After multiple drafts and edits we have final completed our final draft for the digipack of ‘euphoria”.

Click on front cover to view PDF

Within the music industry, artists don’t make a lot of money from music royalties and streams therefore it’s important we also push and sell hard copies as this is the main source of revenue. Moreover, despite the digitalisation of the music industry it’s evident that the audience and consumers still enjoy having that physical copy as it creates a stronger sense of fandoms (Jenkins) and builds loyalty between fans and artists.

After reasearching the key technical and genre specific conventions for a pop digipack we began the designing and production process using adobe photoshop to edit and do photo manipulation , indesign for the designing process like the text and layout then used adobe illustrator when creating the graphics like the sparkles and the inflated text in the tv. Due to the project being a group work we all had roles in order to collectivly contribute in the design and production, more specifically my main role was designing and creating the graphics like the tv advert and spakrles using adobe illustrator getting feedback from my teammates working effiently together.

In keeping with our misson statment and brand identity we created a digipack that followed a retro-nostalgic feel with cultural codes (Barthes) of a disco ball and tv signifing (de Saurrure) this. To create a cohesive look we followed a coulour scheme of prodomitly purple using the colour theory where an audience can assoisate a certain era/album with a dominant colour making the album more memomarble. We created cloud graphics for the inside covers as it represents this ‘euphoric’ out of this world feeling that nostalgia brings with the sparkles creating an overall cohesive look throughout. Combining elements of retro with modernity with the costume and modern, techno ad with have created an engaging, magical digipack that perfectly represents our brand identity and mission statment.

Digipack Draft 3

After completing some changes to our draft 3, like changing the spines and adding some more graphic continuty throughout, we printed everything out to get a good idea on how our digipack design looks in physical form as a hard copy.

From doing this we could identify what worked and what perhaps needed some changes.

Summary of Reflection

  • The front cover looks good, the star is well placed using the rule of thirds and the text in the tv stands out more after adding some sparkle effects
  • Adding rings to the back cover has created a more cohesive look
  • The spines could have some graphics like maybe a sparkle just to make it stand out more
  • The inside pages looks quite dull so we perhaps need to add some more clouds and sparkles to really tie in the whole theme

Furthermore, we got student feedback to see what genre they thought our digipack fitted in to.

The majorety agreeded ours was a pop album which proves we successfully represented the genre through our media language choices.

From this reflection, we now are coming to the final stage of our design with just a few adjustemnets to really ensure our digipack looks complete and and has all the genre conventions and technical conventions of a digipack so the audience can have this prefered reading (Hall). 

Social Media Page Draft 2 Feedback

Here is our draft 2 for our social media page we have added more posts and stories to fill our feed. We have asked our teacher for some external feedback to ensure we are along the right lines of producing a successuful campaign and promotion for Nova’s upcoming new album ‘euphoria’.

Summary of Feedback

  • Good interactive aspects of the account especially the Q&A
  • Rating scales were good and effective
  • Need to check spellings in some of the stories
  • Good encouraging of fans to use the hashtags
  • The reveal of our track list was very clever
  • We could add more scrolling posts
  • We need to end our social media page with the digipak release

From our feedback, it’s evident we have made good progress so far in creating an engaging page following Blumler and Katz uses and gratification theory creating a feed that can facilliate ways to reinforce the audiences personal identity, inform, entertain and a way they can socially interact to ensure we have maxium audience engagment. Thinking forward we shall continue populating the feed with new and intresting posts to create a buzz around the upcoming realease and construct this fun, ordinary and extrodinary (Dyer) star image as well as doing a proof read and making ajustements to the spelling errors she noted.

Draft 2 of Social Media Page

Here is our draft 2 for our social media page we have added more posts and stories to fill our feed.

(Click image to view page)

Screen Recording of Stories + Reels

Whats New?

  • We have promoted the realese of the music video and have realesed the track list of the album via a promotional video/reel to build excitment and anticipation within the auidence
  • We have added some interactive features like a poll and a Q&A to create some fan to artist interaction creating a sense of community and fandoms (Jenkins)
  • We now havesome cross media convergence with Billboard magazine sharing sneak peaks for the upcoming album which again helps build excitment and awerness of the album release
  • We linked the ‘Last Friday Night’ into Nova’s link tree and added the call to action in the caption of the realease post (AIDA)
  • We shared some BTS on the music video to showcase an ordianry star image (Dyer) of Nova also building a sense of exclusivity for the followers/fans who engage with this post

Whats Next?

  • We are planning to drop the tour poster as this is the most profitable way to genrate some revuene and is a way the ultimate fufulling way an audience can interact and see Nova in person ‘completing the star’ (Dyer)
  • There will be a merch competiton were fans get to design and create the merch in order to win 2 VIP concert tickets, this will ensure our audience really feel included within the brand creating a sense of fandoms (Jenkins) and loyalty
  • We will be hosting a live stream listening party were fans can join Nova in listeing to her new album which is a great way of social interaction (Blumler and Katz) between the star and her fans
  • We will be doing some more cross media convergence with Nova on a talk show promoting the upcoming realse of her new album as well as showing off her fun care-free star image representation with the silly games they do on the shows

Thinking forward, we have a very strong plan of what we need to complete and finsish for our final draft and we thought it would be benifcial to revieve some teacher feedback to see if we are on the right tracks or if there are any tweaks and improvements needed to be done.

Final Draft Music Video

Final Music Video Draft

After months of hard work we have finally completed the production of our music video ‘Last Friday Night’ part of our promotional package for the upcoming realse of a new album. A music video is a promtoional tool to our brand (Goodwin) which allows us to establish our brand identity as well as construct and represent a star image as ordinary and extrordinary (Dyer). Within the competitive music industry it’s important to stand out and have a USP amongst other artists which can be done by following and challenge certain music video conventions. We followed an illustrative narrative recreating and mirroring the lyrics of the song being about a party where we used a non linear structure flashing back and forward not following a chronological order which is conventional to a post mordern text. We overall created a fun, exciting music video to capataivate the audience promoting our star and her upcoming album realse in order to boost sales making a profit.

Throughout this task I have developed many different skills in production like cinemotgraphy, production design, directing as well as skills in post production like editing using industry proffessional softwares like premire pro. All these skills have been very useful and has allowed me to gain valuable experience for potencially working in the media industry or even valuable core skills such as leardership and team collbaration.

Digipack Draft 2 Teacher Feedback

Here is Draft 2 of our digipack which we recieved lots of feedback from our teacher of any improvements and ajustments we could potencially make.

Here is a summary of the feedback:

Front Cover

  • The rings are good however we should incoorporate them throughout
  • The text on the TV doesn’t stand out perhaps try a light purple or white colour
  • The sparkles are good

Inside Pages

  • The clouds are nice
  • Consider graphic cohension
  • Add in the definiton of euphoria

Back cover

  • Copyright info needs to be correct.
  • Pull rings throughout.
  • Nice attention to detail with the nails.
  • Add in record label logo and check conventions.
  • Look at the curving of the font at the bottom of the disco ball as the ball then curves the other way.
  • Possibly change the colour of the song numbers to blue to tie in the colour on the panes.
  • See what it looks like with no capital letters to be consistent with the song tittle.
  • Add in some sparkles on letters on the track list.
  • See if we can weave in the font we have used on the inside

From this feedback we can reflect and look back when creating our draft 3 design taking some on board to overall improve our design. For example, we shall add some rings on the back cover as suggested to create some graphic cohesion througout and morever we will also add some more clouds to the inside pages to again create more graphic cohension giving the digipack a complete look. It is also vital we fix the copyright as this is a key technical conventions of a digipack.

SMP Draft 1

Here is our first draft of our social media page we created of our star to promote and market the upcoming realse of her new album ‘Euphoria’. We chose a consitant colour scheme of purple, blue and pinks and followed a retro nostalgia theme to fit our brand identity by including props like a vinyl and digital camera. So far we have realsed teaser posts hinting at an upcoming album as well as a teaser trailer for the music video. Moreover, we have included some synergy with the brand Juicy Couture which is a very nostolgic brand inkeeping with our brand identity.

Posts

Stories

Here is my personal self assemnet and reflection of our Draft 1, click to view as a PDF

Upon reflection we have made good progress so far and we have successfully  linked elements from our music video as well as digipack to overall create a sense of brand cohesion. Thinking forward we need to include some more interactive features and start designing images/posts to promote other ways to make money like tour dates, physical copies and merch as within the music indusrty this is the main source of revenue to the actual music they make.

Digipack Draft 2

Here is our 2nd draft for our digipack.

Whats New

  • Added inside pages with the definition of euphoria with some clouds
  • Added the tv advert design into the tv
  • Created some ring graphics on the front cover
  • Added sparkles to make to make the design stand out more
  • Curved the text to match the shape of the disco ball on the back cover
  • Added spines with the album and stars name
  • Added some technical coverntions like a barcode, copyright and parentory advisory label

We have made lots of progress so far and now to further improve our digipack we will seek external feedback from our teacher to get an idea of what works and what perhaps needs adapating to ensure our product is not only visually pleasing but also represents our genre and star image successfully.