Completed NEA Work: 3026: 27126

Statement of Intent

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)

Product 1

My music video will be aimed at 16-25-year olds who belong to the AB social class. In order to try to appeal to my target demographic, ensuring that the actors I include in the music video will represent this social group. Furthermore, when it comes to representations of gender within my music video, I do wish to represent males and females in a somewhat stereotypical manner. Within my video, elements of mis en scene will remain ordinary, playing into the idea that these are ordinary people which people will be able to relate to and identify with, therefore, the use of costume will be minimal and will upkeep what you would expect someone within the age demographic to wear. As for the shoot itself, it will take place in areas which are fairly desolate, and from my planning I have decided that I will shoot in a woodland area, by a lake, and I will also use a field near a burnt out car to mirror the feelings of isolation which I plan to convey in some of my video. At the start of the video I plan to establish the idea of two people losing touch, and there is a clear feeling of loneliness. I then wish for the video to cut when the beat cuts in, to show some flashbacks of the times before.

Product 2

My main goal with the artists website is to show a clear link to the music they create and kind of website you would expect them to have. For artists which create instrumental dance music, I do plan on using someone unknown, therefore the websites would be fairly minimal to fit in with the edgy cliché that you would expect a small-scale artist to follow. My plan for my website is to have it remain predominantly in black and white, due to the overall chicness of the music. I will then use black and white film photographs that I have taken on the back of the home page and the linked page. As for the homepage, I do plan to have elements that you would expect a musicians website to have within it through promoting the latest track, and embedding the music video within. I will also add a bio section about my artist and possibly more photographs depicting a tour. As for the linked page, I do plan to have photography and buttons as sort of a marketing strategy to draw people into the music.

For the typography of the website, I will use a refined basic font such as Arial or Calibri. I will also have all of the text on my website in capitals, to add to the refined look of the website, not conforming to normal sentence standards, in keeping with the edgy cliché I am trying to take full advantage of.

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 will ensure my products are digitally convergent through adding the social media links on my website, allowing people to click and explore the different social media platforms for my artist, allowing them to interact if they so wish. I will then also mirror the fonts in the website, with title pages flashing up at the start of my video, remaining to be the same colour scheme and font format. 

Completed Music Video Task

Track: Layers by Martin $ky

Completed Online Task

Working 'Home' page and 'Music' page

https://courtneybrodie3026.wixsite.com/martin-sky

Storyboard

Treatment For My Music Video

Song: Layers

Artist: Martin Sky

Director: Courtney Brodie

Summary: This music video is gonna consist of cinematic shots, and the narrative element is going to revolve around the idea of lost friendship and how things change so suddenly. The song's lyrics are about friendship and how it can help you grow as a person and this music video I will utilise the friendship idea, and have two friends who are experiencing the same things and having fun with each other. 

Vision:

During the intro I do want my actor to be in an isolated setting, looking through a phone and debating whether to text someone they have lost touch with. 'Layers' is a very dreamy song and does evoke the kind of vibe that this is a song to listen to whilst looking back on fond memories. 

The next scene will be the start of what seems to be a flashback and we come to the setting of the lake. This scene will start with an establishing shot of the boardwalk looking onto the lake, and the trees that surround. Then I will have different shots at this location of my actors looking into the water, walking on the boardwalk and skimming stones. 

The next location I will shoot, is the fields along the Weekley footpath. This scene will start with a close up shot of the feet of my actor climbing over the small little fence just before you hit the walkway. Within this location I will get shots of my actors walking and running along the fields, kicking up leaves. Along the Weekley footpath there are also some wood areas which are mainly just forest. I will make my actors venture into these places and do things like climb trees. 

The cornfields will be the next location, the actors will venture there way to them, going past the brooke and then eventually into the cornfields.  

I was then thinking of branching out and shooting along Warkton, due to the fact it is a very old yet elegant looking village, and there are also some interesting footpaths which can be found within this location. 

I would then like my music video to revert back to the very opening scene and have my actor in the same setting just before they walk off. At this point my intention would be to show that no matter who is lost everyone will be okay, and thats what my actor is realising. 

Audience Feedback on Initial Ideas

In order to gain audience feedback I walked around and explained my two video ideas to different people, who were aged 16-25 in order to fit my demographic, and asked them which one they believed would make a better video. I then made a tally chart of the responses I got and I also noted down some key comments which people made about my ideas. 

Initial Idea 1:
7

Initial Idea 2:
3

Comments:

Olivia, 19: (voted for initial idea 1) 'I like this idea because I feel like watching one person and their journey will be much easier to follow'

Charlie, 17: (voted for idea 2) 'If the idea of friendship is consistent in the song, then it makes sense for the video to about friendship'

James, 22: (voted for idea 1) 'I think having one main person focused with minimal use of other people will give you the idea of friendship and how one person deals with it.'

After gathering my feedback from my audience, it seems as though initial idea 1, is the idea which my target audience believes is the best option for me to carry out. In light of this, I will now start to plan my production around this idea.

Mind Map of My Initial Ideas

Initial Idea 1:
My first initial idea was to have a video which will mainly focus on one person. This person will then be seen taking what could be considered as a journey, however, he meets someone along the way and they decide to take the rest of the journey together, travelling to different locations. 

Initial Idea 2:
This idea will be very similar to the first idea, but this time the video will focus on 2 or 3 people, and at some point each person will meet each other and eventually hang out together. The video will show their journey's individually that they have taken in order to meet up with each other, and then proceed to show the time they have together.

My Artist's Target Audience

Justin is 19 years old, and music is something which he loves dearly. When it comes to music he will spend hours looking through playlists and artist's radios to look for new songs and potential artists to listen to, hoping to find as much new music as possible. Justin's love for music mainly comes from the fact that he likes there to be constant background sound, and he can't stand ever doing anything without a little background music. 

Justin is always up for a road trip or just general travelling at any point in time, he loves the ability to adventure and try new things which he wouldn't usually get the opportunity to do at home. When it comes to travelling he likes to meet new people, and go to different concerts or festivals where some of his favourite artists are featured, or even if they are artists he has never heard of before, he knows he will have a good time regardless. His music tastes consists of mainly electronic dance music, with a synth vibe to it, due to the fact it is the best kind of music when it comes to relaxing. Justin likes to wear typical clothes, with shirts which are usually full of colour, jeans and on his feet you will always find a pair of vans which he has customized himself, through drawing or painting on them little doodles which just come to his mind. 

Justin gets almost all of his music from either Apple Music, Spotify or SoundCloud because he believes they are the best streaming services which we have access to in our day and age. His favourite TV Shows to watch are definitely comedies, he likes shows such as The Office and Friends. However, when it comes to movies he has a real affinity for movies which have amazing soundtracks which include alot of classic songs sang by amazing artists, his favourite movie being The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Chosen Artsist: Martin Sky

Background and Career: Martin Sky is a music producer from Chicago, Illinois creating mainly instrumental music. The music he makes has its roots in electronic/dance/lo-fi music working on the basis of collaboration, collaborating with different producers up and down America. 

Before his decision to become a producer he was a rapper and would create rap music to publish on Soundcloud. However, after realising that he got more recognition for his production work he decided to create more of that and put the rap music on hold. 

Generally, Martin Sky is quite a small scale artist that hasn't fully broke into the industry yet, therefore, there is limited information on him. Yet his ability to make dreamy dance, lo-fi tracks is what had me drawn to him. 

Discography:

Albums:

Tracks:

Martin Sky's Social Links:

YouTube

Instagram

Spotify

iTunes

SoundCloud

Twitter

Possible Artists

Artist: Axwell & Ingrosso   

Genre: Dance/House

Biography: Axwell and Ingrosso are a Swedish DJ duo, consisting of two ex-Swedish House Mafia members, Axwell and Ingrosso. Axwell and Ingrosso made their debut performance at the 2014 Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City.

Axwell and Ingrosso were both members of the DJ super group Swedish House Mafia, which came to an end in late March 2013. Axwell and Ingrosso then formed the group Axwell /\ Ingrosso officially in 2014. The duo then gained prominence mainly in New York, which is where they began placing clues about their up and coming album, in various locations within the city. Then at the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City, they debuted music from a new album which they were going to release in the name of Axwell /\ Ingrosso, and the intro of music was also premiered on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show. Their performance was also named one of the top 15 Hot Governors Ball Moments, as well as one of the Top 10 Best Performances of the Hot Governors Ball by Billboard.

On May 24^th 2017 Axwell and Ingrosso released their second EP which was titled ‘More Than You Know’. On the day of release of the EP the duo also released the EP’s first song ‘More Than You Know’ as their tenth single, which is now their most successful song commercially.

Record Label: Def Jam Recordings/Axtone Records

Album: More Than You Know EP

Album Release Date: 24^th May 2017

Tracklist: 

Chosen Song: Something New

The reason I have chosen Something New as the song to create a video to is due to the fact that it seems to be a good song to create a narrative video to based on someone or a group of people looking back on good memories. 

Artist: Jai Wolf

Genre: Dance/Electronic

Biography: Sajeeb Saha, also known as Jai Wolf, is a New York based music producer and he is best known for his singles ‘Indian Summer’, ‘Like It’s Over’ and ‘Starlight’. Jai Wolf was born on the 1^st of November 1991 in Bangladesh and the following year he and his family moved to the US.

In 2015 Jai Wolf released his first single ‘Indian Summer’ through ODESZA’s label, Foreign Family Collective. Upon release Indian Summer saw a huge amount of commercial success as it hit number 1 on Spotify’s US Viral Chart, number 2 on iTunes’ Electronic Chart and number 31 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic songs chart.

In May 2016 Jai Wolf then released his next track ‘Drive’ through Foreign Family Collective. And on November 18^th 2016 Jai Wolf released his debut EP ‘Kindred Spirits’ through the label Mom + Pop Music.

Record Label: Mom + Pop Music

Album: Kindred Spirits

Album Release Date: 18^th November 2016

Album Tracklist: 

Chosen Song: Indian Summer

Indian Summer is a quite tropical chilled out song, that could just be used as background music for everyday life.

Artist: Whilk and Misky 

Genre: Dance/Electronic

Biography: Whilk and Misky are a UK duo who mix electronic dance music with soulful blues and folk. Whilk and Misky were formed in London in 2012 with two members, Charlie Dickens and Nima Khaste. Dickens and Khaste met when Khaste’s band entered a diner where Dickens was working, they then invited him to a show and he spent a lot of time hanging out with Khaste. Despite their musical differences they decided that they shared a creative synergy, and then decided to work together.

In 2013 they released their first single ‘Wing Clipper’ and then released their EP, ‘The First Sip’ in 2014, and then signed to Island Records where they made their first track for their label in 2016 with ‘I Want Your Lovin’.

Record Label: Island Records

Song: All By Myself

All By Myself is a fairly fast paced song and would involve alot of quick editing, which could be fun to create. 

Artist: Martin $ky

Genre: Dance/Electronic

Biography: Martin $ky is a music producer from Chicago. $ky produces mainly smooth 'chill' dance music, that consists of mainly instrumental and very little vocals.

Song: Layers

Finding An Artist

In order to find an artist who's music I wish to create a video for, due to the fact I am not the biggest fan of dance music and don't know a lot of artists, I would have to look at chart lists in order to see the artists which would be worth giving a listen. 

The first chart I decided to look at was the Billboard chart of the top 100 dance music artists, due to the fact that Billboard is a well received and widely renowned media company. Whilst looking at this list a few names which I recognised jumped out, but I also found some new artists who's music I decided I would give a listen to. 

After looking at artists I decided that I should then look at song charts using the Official Charts Company's website in order to get a feel for the kind of music which is sitting in the charts at this moment in time. 

After looking at the charts I then decided to go onto Spotify and listen to Spotify's verified dance music playlists. 

At this point in time the main artists which seem to appeal are Axwell /\ Ingrosso, Jai Wolf, Whilk and Misky and Martin Sky due to the fact they aren't as mainstream as most dance artists, therefore, I am going to look at their work much more closely and research into them much more.