Practice Briefs

Essays

08 Completed - Website

(Incomplete)

Here is the link to my finished website. This link below will lead you to the website page with a "meet matilda", an album section, a merch section, a tour date section, a small spinning gallery and a join the fandom section.

Matilda Berry Website (Amelia Strong) Page 1

Here is the link to my finished website. This link below will lead you to the hyperlink page of my website with an album section, a quotes section, a larger gallery, a videos and socials section, a news blog section and another join the fandom section.

Matilda Berry Website (Amelia Strong) Page 2

07 Completed -Production

(Incomplete)

 I have filmed my video and am currently in the process of editing.

06 Planning - Website

(Incomplete)

My Mock Up Website

https://editor.wix.com/html/editor/web/renderer/edit/047649a1-9df0-4af6-8eff-cd32142c9638?metaSiteId=6e5cfcea-5ab0-4964-aec4-6cb3c62dc5b7

Page 1

Page 2 

Codes and Conventions

Consistency in Colours and Themes

I have chosen to use and associate my artist with the colour blue in order to break the pink, girly stereotype and to demonstrate her sad emotions. I've chosen a simple website design with ... to reflect her appearing as a simple girl who secretly has complex thoughts and feelings. I will create an emotional persona for my artist by ... I intend to demonstrate a consistency with the theme of blueberries, lower case typography and use of consistent font.

Layout

I have my artist's picture and name at the top of the website to clearly show the audience who the singer is. I will have my artists face and name on her album cover(s). I have a gallery section, a merch section, a tour section, a contact me section, a popup to join the fandom, and a blog section.

Image Choice

My header features the artists name so that the audience knows right away who she is. Despite the image in my mock up website, I still intend to have my artist looking towards the camera to address the audience immediately. I intend to break the stereotype of the artist looking away from the audience because the whole idea of my artist is that she wants other young women to feel seen when she felt invisible. I want the audience to feel engaged with my artist immediately as they view the page, not to feel intimidated but to feel on the same level as her. I will use a colour grading and consistent theme to all of my images and decide on specific mise en scene with meanings. My album covers will feature the artists name and an image of her to clearly associate her with the music.

Audio-Visual Aspects

The artists websites that I looked at all feature a media section where the artists promote their music videos or behind the scenes or photos, for example in a gallery. I will create thumbnails for other music videos for my artist to create an archive of activity in media. I will create a photo gallery too with images taken inside and outside in either film sets or on stages or interacting with fans etc.

Interactivity

I will create a pop up when users first open my website to promote joining the fanbase.

Album

Fanbase

blueberries

merch

https://dashboard.gelato.com/templates/list

https://www.sweetyhigh.com/read/the-best-lyrics-from-madison-beer-silence-between-songs-as-instagram-captions-091523

Blog/artist news

Upcoming artist, Matilda Berry, spotted filming her new music video by the sea

Matilda Berry speaks up about mental health

Berry's new album released

Matilda Berry spotted in her home town

Social Media

instagram page

@tillysingss

05 Planning - Production

(incomplete)

My Plan For My Music Video

Spinnin' - Madison Beer (Matilda Berry)

Meaning

 I have chosen Spinnin’ by Madison Beer because I believe the song has some very interesting and impactful lyrics that imply a clear message of feeling stuck in a repetitive cycle of anxiety where the singer feels as if she can’t progress through her feelings of depression and anxiety. Madison describes feeling anxious and spending time exploring her thoughts and emotions, which is like being in a "spinning" state of mind. I believe the song is meant to be relatable and offer some comfort and validation for the listeners, helping them to understand that it may feel difficult to navigate through challenging times, but it is possible and further implies that you aren’t alone, no matter if you do feel that way. 

The music video features a young girl (the artist) who suffers from anxiety and depression, depicting her as lonely even when she is surrounded by her friends because her friends don’t seem to understand or notice her suffering. She struggles with her turmoil of emotions, unable to escape this negative state of mind she is experiencing and feels as if the world has frozen around her. The lyrics of the song Spinnin’ by Madison Beer suggest that the world seems to be frozen, suggesting that the days feel long, like they would for a person who suffers from depression. The sensation of feeling stuck in a monotonous routine could represent the idea of depressive episodes while the lyric “the sky is grey,” implies negative feelings such as sadness and gloom, much alike to what a person with depression may feel. 

Mood Board

I want to focus on the lyric “I’d rather live in my dreams”, which I have interpreted as meaning she’d rather sleep and dream of this fantasy world she has built inside of her head where life is better than how it appears in real life. Her mind creates a fake reality where she is free and light weight compared to the emotions she feels in her everyday life. This is where the inspiration of the mood board comes from.

I want to appeal to my target audience of style conscious people by creating cinematic shots and interesting transitions in aesthetically pleasing places such as beaches, cathedrals and gardens. I believe this song will offer me some interesting angles and shots to play with, specifically the song title ‘Spinning’, allowing me to add some interesting transitions and movements to my shots which could be fun to work with, while the lyrics imply that she “dreams”, further allowing me to create an almost fantasy world with interesting mise en scene with costume, location and lighting. 

Appearance

At the beginning of my video, I want my singer to feature as a typical teenager with normal and basic clothing. I want her to appear as ordinary in a dark blue top, jeans and trainers to depict her as self conscious and fitting in with the group. Her hair and makeup with be very minimal and natural to suggest that she is normal and not a financially assured celebrity to appeal. I may use some makeup to make her look less lively and more sleepy to suggest the physical aspects of her bad mental health.

However, in her dreams, she will be wearing a light blue, long floaty dress, something she feels free and floaty and happy in. The idea is that she can be whoever she wants in her dreams while in real life she is struggling with social pressure to fit in. The singer is free to imagine herself without the weight of her bad mental health and the self consciousness and images herself in a juxtaposing outfit to the plain and basic one at the start. Her hair and makeup will also be more dreamy but natural. She images herself as "prettier" without her depression, caring about and enjoying how she appears, so she wears slightly more makeup and takes time and pride with her hair. This will appeal to my style-conscious target audience.

Transitions, Camera Angles and Editing

I will use jumpy and overlapping clips throughout my video to present the messiness of her feelings. To further convey this idea, I want to use some kind of hazy effect on my clips and use slow-mos to emphasize her confusion and worry. I want to use transitions to make the video more aesthetically pleasing to watch and allow the video to flow. I want to have a shaky camera as I follow my singer to further demonstrate fear, worry and confusion. I aim to follow my singer as she walks and runs around. I will use transitions and more my camera in a circular motion to emphasize the idea of "spinning".

Sound

I awnt the first part of my music video to set the scene by showing the surroundings of the garden party and show the group playing games and being happy. During this part, I want to use diegetic sound such as laughing, talking, bird chirping and wind to convey the lack of music and sense of normality. Then the non-diegetic sound will begin to play in my singers head and she'll see that everybody has disappeared, conveying the idea that she's stuck inside her own head, feeling alone, presenting her metaphorical loneliness through the world inside her head.

Style, Messaging, Representation and Stereotyping

I will use a narrative style in my music video, using the lyrics to convey how the singer is stuck in her head, feeling alone and sad, while everyone has disappeared and the world around her has stopped "spinning". I will create messaging through use of camera movements and her character panicking to portray her building anxiety at the thought of being so alone. My character is a young teenage girl who suffers from depression, anxiety and loneliness but I aim to portray her as a typical teenage girl with a friend group and going to parties, conveying the message that these feelings and mental health problems can occur in anyone and there isn't a specific person they happen to. I want to break stereotype that "normal people" don't experience anxiety or suffer with loneliness. However, I want to break the stereotype that teenage girls are "too emotional" or dramatic by presenting her as a reserved and closed off character who experiences emotions like a human being would but doesn't always enjoy talking about them. I aim to break stereotype that girls can't associate with the colour blue by dressing her in blue and focusing on lots of blue in the props and setting - sky and sea, plates and napkins. I aim to show her friends as a typical teenage girl friend group, laughing, smiling and playing games, breaking stereotypes that girl friend groups are toxic and emotional.

04 Statement of Intent

(Complete)

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief? (approx. 400 words) 

MUSIC VIDEO Spinnin' by Madison Beer Artist name - Matilda Berry 

The song would appeal to a women orientated audience of 16–25-year-olds as my extensive research shows that 50% women listen to Madison Beer while 0% men know her. My female artist will be a relatable teenage girl. I will do this by using my mise en scene to reinforce stereotypes of naturalistic teenager clothe, such as jeans and trainers to form audience identification as if looking back on their teen years.

 

I intend to create messaging that she's a sadder character, and I will depict how young women can struggling with their mental health but continue with their lives, attempting to suppress those feelings. The message behind the video is to give mental health representation, breaking stereotypes that depression isn't a real illness. The video will depict how the artist feels stuck inside her overthinking mind while being in a depressive episode as the world around her continues spinning. 

 

The singer struggles with loneliness while the characters around her appear happy with their lives. The other female characters will be of various races and ethnicities to widen the representation for audience identification with the messaging being that they get along well, breaking the stereotype that women are gossipy and don’t get along by presenting the group playing games in a fun, happy atmosphere at the start of the video. I will reinforce the stereotype that people silently struggle with depression and feel like nobody notices them, allowing the audience to relate. To depict the loneliness my character feels, the friend group around her will disappear and she will wear a blue hoodie.

 

I will demonstrate the theme of spinning through transitions and movements of spinning things which I will use in multiple jump cuts in 20 second section. I will use stylish transitions such as spinning, fading, cutting and sliding. To appeal to my style conscious audience, I will film in aesthetically pleasing places like beaches and gardens, and I will be creative with my mise en scene, using blue items such as deck of cards, decorations, cups and plates, and clothing on my artist to emphasise the use of blue as a connotation of sadness. I will use small, short pops of red to signify danger or threat, denotating her bad mental health. The lyrics suggest that the singer would rather live in her "dreams" and I intend to focus on this, depicting the idea of her dreaming of another reality where she is carefree, compared to the anxiety and depression she feels, until realisation dawns on her that she's struggling, addressing her struggling mental health.

WEBSITE Artist name - Matilda Berry 

I intend to present Matilda as a sad character as her music features themes of struggling mental health. I will do this by consistently using the colour blue, suggesting connotations of sadness. 

 

There will be a gallery and a media section to present her as a typical young woman, promoting her music online. Using social and technological convergence, I will create an Instagram and TikTok account to create posts and encourage audience to interact with the songs. There will be a fanbase to join and hashtags to promote interaction. To promote value alignment, there will be a support link on my website for listeners to reach out as the music features themes of mental health issues. 

 

I will use vertical integration and create behind the scenes videos and shots to promote my artist. I will create a music video and release it on YouTube and promote it on my artists social media platforms by creating short snippet clips, using hashtags, and creating trends which will then form audience engagement and encourage my users to participate in the trends and interact. 

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? (approx. 100 words)

I aim to use social and technological convergence to encourage my audience to interact and engage with the content of my music video and my website. I will create TikTok trends where the audience is encouraged to send in their own videos, hashtags, signups, and merch to create a fandom where my audience can engage with the content and encourage the spread of my artists material. I aim to use cross-platform convergence by creating an end card at the end of my music video to encourage users to interact with my video and my website. I will use vertical integration and account for my audio-visual task by doing photoshoots to demonstrate my control of the production and distribution process. I will use digital convergence by featuring the artist's website in my music video.

03 Research - Website

(Complete)

In this section, I have looked at Production Inspiration of artist's websites and social media pages and analysed them, writing what I liked and disliked about them and create a Codes and Conventions section to say what I am taking from this research.

Production inspiration & Codes and Conventions

-Websites

-Social Media Feeds

Olivia Rodrigo

Olivia Rodrigo is an American pop singer. Her fanbase is stereotypically girls and women in their tweens, teenagers and young twenties and I believe that is well represented through her media presence. I really like the young feel to this website that is created by the animations and movements all over the website, specifically the video header. Along the idea of this stereotypical audience, there is a very consistent colour scheme, purple, and symbols, hearts and stars, giving her fanbase something to 'represent with' - I believe this would appeal to a younger audience because it seems attractive and almost immersive, allowing the audience to get involved. On this notion, I think the merch is presented really nicely and would appeal to her target audience with the moving pictures and videos, especially when you hover over each item. There's a lot of variety in merch, giving her fanbase a lot of opportunities to buy and promote her as an artist, which girls and young woman would definitely do, making her fanbase a community. Furthermore, I can recognise that being very active on social media, such as TikTok and Instagram, can promote her as an artist, showing her presence to even more to the tweens, teenage and young twenties audience, growing her fanbase.

Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter is an American pop singer, whose target audience ranges typically from women aged 18 to 25 years old. Her website, I believe, is very unique for a pop artist whose fanbase is typically young women as it's set out as a magazine. I really like the layout of this website, keeping moderately consistent with the colour scheme and layout. The style would appeal to my brief of 16–25 year old middle and up market audience of style-conscious people. There are various popups on on each subpage which are unique to her and I believe are really effective, and encourage her listeners to click to find out more and interact with the website. Her socials are very clearly linked at the top of each page, showing her presence online to her audience, who would use the apps she is active on. The only thing I am not a fan of on her website is the drastic change in layout from the Merch Page vs other pages; the theme of a magazine is dropped, unfortunately, and looks very different to the original layout. I do, however, like the merch and think it's suited to her target audience.

Suki Waterhouse

I have looked at the Instagram feeds of 3 pop music artists whose target audience is predominantly women aged 16-25 years old, meaning they are ideal for my to research for my own project. I checked their profiles, their photographs and their caption and they all seem to present as casual young women who post to seem relatable and liked by their audience. The three women keep a casual but also a stylish theme to their pictures, posting every day shots and more classy and style-conscious pictures that indicate that they are famous artists. I have a strong idea of what would appeal to my target audience and I would like to recreate an Instagram feed for my artist using my own images for the audience to engage with.

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift's website is very simplistic in comparison to Olivia Rodrigo's. She uses very plan colours and an organised layout which could potentially be due to her large fanbase of predominantly millennial aged women; it may be easier for them to navigate around the website, presenting me with the idea that she understands her audience's needs for less media presence. This website seems to have a calm and "quiet" feel to it, not being busy and overloaded with popups and pictures and links. I think this can be very affective for her audience, potentially making it easier and, in turn, more desirable. I like the soft shades and consistency of the advertisement for her latest album "The Tortured Poets Department", specifically in the header of the website; I think the layout is very affective. I personally really like the Archive Section with all her albums in order of production, along with the names, and album covers- when you hover your mouse over each album, they appear. The 3x4 layout is very pleasing on the eye and I may use this in my own website.

Florence & The Machine

Florence & The Machine's website is very unique to them as performers. It focuses specifically on Florence Welch the singer, presenting her as the "main figure" of their rock band. The website has a "whimsical type feel" to it, using rustic colours and ideas, such as the the tarot card chapters, the merch designs and the borders on the main page. I like how it's fitting to their vibe and onstage presence and the sound of their music. The merch is very simplistic with clothes and posters. The target audience for Florence & The Machine is very vast and broad, appealing to any age and gender, but appeals to anyone who likes this type of rock music. I think this can be represented through the simplicity but uniqueness.

Adele

Adele is a very well known artist with music that ranges from jazz to R&B to soul and blues, and is liked by everyone, making her target audience very broad but stereotypically consists of majority women, specifically mothers as lots of her songs are relatable for that category. Her website is very simplistic which I think is due to her being so well known- her header is a large picture of herself on stage, while her name is hidden in the top left corner, conveying how known she and doesn't need her name plastered over the screen. Personally, I really like how the albums are presented (when you move the mouse they zoom in on each one) and I think it's very chic and modern. I could take the album idea for my website because I like how it's laid out. The website, I find, is difficult to navigate with little indication to her merch. I will make it clear how to navigate around my website. She hasn't got her social media linked anywhere, possibly because she doesn't use them to promote herself. I really like the dark colour scheme from her Header to her merch- it's very consistent. I think this website and artist appeal to my brief of 16–25 year old middle and up market audience of style-conscious people.

Hozier

Hozier's website is very simplistic in the sense that it has a front page with a promotional video to advertise his latest album and hyperlinks with his merch and tour dates attached. It's clearly laid out and rather simple. I prefer the websites with a more interactive front page and more things to engage with while having the ability to scroll, but I do like the way this website is formatted. I like the consistency of the colours of white, yellow, black and orange. The header is a very unique promotional video of his album with the singer covered in dirt and growing a glower through his mouth. I like the layout of the music videos on the hyperlink, I believe it's very affective and clearly presented. The target audience for Hozier is typically late teens and early twenties aged women, having music that appeals to a female audience, but can vary.

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac's website is very consistent with it's older themes, with a vintage colours and fonts. The band's fanbase does range rather broadly but is more prominently those who were around during the bands prime, typically older generations. I think that's reflected through the old look and consistency of the video quality, merch and the website layout. I like their pop up because it's formal and straight to the point. I like the layout of the website, specifically the videos and music sections, and the fonts that are featured throughout the website because it appears established and professional. These music videos don't feature thumbnails, potentially because, being an older band, their target audience tends to be older and less interested in the media and promotion side of their music and prefer to watch them performing their songs live. Therefore, I will add thumbnails to my music videos because they are designed for a younger, more media orientated target audience.

Madison Beer

Madison Beer's target audience is typically young women aged 13-25, making her music ideal for this task. Her website is very similar to the other pop artists of her age with the consistency of the website, the merch and the layout, however, it also consists of two other pages that caught my interest: the news article collage page and the about me page. I think the 'news article' page is very affective for her fans who want to keep up to date with news and information on her music and latest events etc. I really like the 'about me' section and think I would complete one of these for my own artist for the website by making news articles and headlines for up to date information. I like the colour scheme and her videos seem to match that same vibe - making it very consistent which I like. I will make my website very similarly in hopes it appears consistent because if I like it then my target audience of my age could potentially like it too.

Lord Huron

Lord Huron is an indie rock band with a large appeal to the young and middle-aged adults. I like the layout of this website along with the rustic type feel to the merch and website which reflects the music. I really like the photo gallery and would like to create one of my own using behind the scene pictures and concert shots. There's consistency in the yellow font throughout the website and the albums. The albums are also displayed similarly to the other websites, using the simple layout which I have identified already liking.

Birdy

Birdy's website is very similar to the others. Her target audience is around 14-30, making her ideal for this task as my target audience is 16–25 year old middle and up market audience of style-conscious people. The website is consistent in its design and style with consistent colour themes and styles. The album covers seem to be different, perhaps demonstrating the different themes of music and different phases in her life as an artist. The website seems to follow the colour schemes and designs of the latest album. I really like the text and fonts used throughout along with the colours. I believe there isn't enough for her audience to interact with while in my brief it states I need to include web pages that must promote the band/artist to its target audience and enable fans to interact with them. So, I would add more for fans to get involved with, but I do like the overall layout of this website.

Codes and Conventions of Websites

Consistency in Colours and Themes

Every website appears to have specific themes they use throughout to reflect their music and media presence. The colours and themes stay consistent, giving their audience something to associate with the band/artist. I will stick to a similar theme with my own website, giving my artist one colour to stay consistent to, just as Olivia Rodrigo does with shades if purple and red. As for specific themes, I would create a logo or consistent title written in a specific font and colour to create a persona around my artist.

Layout

Typically, the artists have a home page/cover with their name, faces or most recent album covers across it to allow the viewers to see who they are and depict their own ideas of who the artist is. I like the idea of having a consistent layout that will be distinctive to my artist for my audience to resonate with. I will include a header with my artists name, an albums section, a media section with behind the scenes pictures and videos, a music video section and a merch section. I also liked Madison Beer's news and about me sections so I aim to replicate them in my own way.

Image Choice

I have noticed that the header of the artists websites typically haven't got the artist facing the camera or looking at the audience. The images appear to either have the artist busy with something, like singing or looking into the distance, or the artists are promoting their new albums and doesn’t seem to engage with the audience directly. I think I would like my header to have my artist featured so that the audience knows right away who it is and what their name is, and I will promote the other music and albums later on in the website through images of album covers. I intend to break the stereotype of the artist looking away from the audience because the whole idea of my artist is that she wants other young women to feel seen when she felt invisible. I want the audience to feel engaged with my artist immediately as they view the page, not to feel intimidated but to feel on the same level as her. I will use a colour grading and consistent theme to all of my images and decide on specific mise en scene with meanings.

Audio-Visual Aspects

The artists websites that I looked at all feature a media section where the artists promote their music videos or behind the scenes or photos, for example in a gallery. I will create thumbnails for other music videos for my artist to create an archive of activity in media. I will create a photo gallery too with images taken inside and outside in either film sets or on stages or interacting with fans etc.

Interactivity

-I have noticed that the other websites feature pop ups that encourage the audience to get involved and interact with the artist - this includes signing up to the fanbase emails and checking out the new albums etc. I will create one of these when users first open my website to promote joining the fanbase. Depending on the type of music and themed of my chosen artist, I will create things to increase interactivity. For example, if the songs feature sadder themes such as depression, I will create something to ensure the audience knows they aren’t alone and that there are platforms for them to reach out and talk to if needed, while if the songs feature more childish themes then I would add something for children to interact with.