Monty Woollett Media Studies Blog: September 2023

Coursework Brief

Brief 4: Music Video and online

Requirements of the brief:

You work for an independent media production company. You have been given the task of producing

a three-minute music video for a rock song* by a fictional band/artist signed to Universal and two

pages for the working website for the band/artist.

You may use an existing song for your music video (this does not need to be copyright free).

The web pages must promote the band/artist to its target audience and enable fans to interact with

them.

Summary of brief requirements:

• Statement of Intent (approx. 500 words).1

• Music Video: One, three-minute music video.

• Distribution channel: Content must be age appropriate for young adults from the age of 16.

• Number of web pages: One homepage and one linked page.

• Cross-media production target audience: A primarily 16–25 year old middle market audience

that likes to be entertained.

There must be a clear sense of branding across the two elements of the cross-media production.

Production detail that must be included

The production of the music video must include (as a minimum):

• Range of camera shots, including shot distances, angles and movement as appropriate to a

music video.

• Editing of footage appropriate to a music video.

• At least two different uses of mise-en-scène.

• At least two characters representing at least two different social groups (e.g. as defined by age,

gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality).

• Graphics/titles to include the name of the track and the name of the band/artist.

The production of the web pages must include (as a minimum):

• Original audio or audio-visual content which may include material from the music video but

must include at least one element produced specifically for the website.

• Use of original images. Each webpage must include at least one image that is different to those

used on the other webpage and those produced for the music video.

• Appropriate conventions of website design, including an original title and logo for the band/artist’s

webpage and a menu bar.

• Text introducing the band/artist.

• Working links from the home page to the other page.

• A range of appropriate media language techniques (typography, images, fonts, backgrounds,

logos, etc.) as appropriate to the purpose of the website.

* Allow any track that may reasonably be considered to be from the rock genre (including sub-genres of rock).

Statement of Intent

Q1. 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?

Media language - How will you use/challenge codes and conventions of existing media?

Representation - What social groups will you represent? What messaging will you encode about them?

Industry - What is the purpose of the music video - Promotes the artist and the song. Could be used to generate revenue but this isn't the most important thing.

Audience - How will the choices you're making appeal to your target audience?

The brief of my music video was to create a rock music video that would appeal to an audience of 16-25 year olds. The music video itself won't be targeted towards anybody in particular giving it a wider appeal. The music video will stray away from the normal convention of trying to promote an artist and their musical talents and shall instead be used to showcase the filmmaking skills of the artist. Whilst trying to showcase the filmmaking side of the artist, through the use of one of the band's songs, the musical performance side will still be showcased, but not in the usual, live performance sense that most artists use. The music video tells a short story and through the use of sometimes moving camera shots, or still shots with moving actors, it keeps it fast paced and exciting. The song used as well is also fast paced helping the story flow. The targeted age range is in the area that will hopefully enjoy a story based music video shifting away from live performance. The representations will be through the use of a younger man and an older man, where the younger man wins in the end showing that power doesn't always come with experience.

The website on the other hand will have more of a focus upon the band who wrote the song. Each band member have a small biography to help the audience get to know every member giving them a sense of inclusivity. The first page will be made up of images, tour dates, about sections, and many more commonly used conventions of rock band websites. The image use will have a mix of photoshoots with some photos that look like they could have been taken during performances to emphasise the legitimacy of the band. The website will mimic the darker undertones of the video with a rather dull colour scheme running throughout. The main exception will be at the bottom, where the main page will link to the second page helping it to draw attention to it, to make the website easier to navigate around. The second page will link back to the idea of the filmmaking side of the artist with short films and other music videos. My audio-visual piece is going to be an interview with the director of the music video talking about the process of making the film and also talking further about the band.

Q2. 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)

Media language - How will you use/challenge codes and conventions of existing media?

Representation - What social groups will you represent? What messaging will you encode about them?

Audience - How will the choices you are making appeal to your target audience?

Industry - What is the purpose of music video - to promote the artist and the music and less importantly to generate income.

The video will include a scene where somebody is scrolling through the website looking at the artist. Also once the video ends the link to the website is shown with some points of interest too to help to encourage people to visit the website. On the website, there will be an area at the bottom of the hyperlinked page which asks the viewers to send emails asking about what videos they have seen that they like and that could inspire me to have more film ideas and they can also tell me whether they prefer the final cut or director's cut of the video. Also throughout the website are social media links at most section, which will help to appeal to the younger audiences who are more likely to use social media which would help with the band's recognition and marketing.

Planning Website

Mock-up website link:

https://woollettmonty.wixsite.com/my-site-8

↑

Click the button to go to the second page.

↑

Click upon the video to watch the video itself.

Planning Production

This was my initial Shooting script however, as I was shooting things I came up with newer ideas so the shooting script has changed.

This is the story board for my video that I had planned out before hand but couldn't get the necessary images until after the video so added the finished image products in after.

First draft of video

This was my first draft of my music video. Once I had had some feedback from it, I decided to change some certain areas but quite a few of the shots stayed the same.

Second draft of video

This was my second video which was better than the first one, but I hadn't properly stuck to the brief so I am going to be editing this further to adhere to the brief.

Third draft of the video

This was my third draft of the video, on the website it is listed as "director's cut". It adhered to the brief but I did one final edit to make the video work chronologically which is my final product.