Context of Europe + USA - 1983

 

Research and Planning: Pitch and Feedback

 

From looking at my Pitch feedback I have identified that my strengths are my ‘Try before you buy’ and ‘Spin to Win’ ideas. The class also thought that my digital convergence ideas such as the font design and ability to buy some of the props from the video were effective, however I could potentially alter my Titanic intertextual reference. One student suggested that I could replicate the ‘front of the ship scene’ with Jack and Rose in my video. Mr Escott highlighted the need to consider the weather for when I decide to film my video and not to become too reliant on this feature as it could be difficult trying to shoot footage waiting for the optimal sunset.

Key Improvements and Takeaways:

-Keep the digital convergence ideas the same and take them forward into my actual video and website.

-Don’t rely too heavily on the weather.

-Ensure that the intertextual references are very clear and are noticeable to my engaged, 16-25 year old audience with a shared cultural competency.

NEA Ideas: Website + Digital Convergence

 

(08/06/2026) My initial website ideas so far that I have designed from scratch on Canva. I haven’t yet finished desigining the ‘Try before you buy’ section. This is due to needing to constantly re-adjust the design of the song covers in order to fit the vinyl record player on (colour yet to be decided) as well as needing to shoot some more photographs. I ahve decided that further photos need to be shot for the song covers, album covers, polaroid images from fan boards and my own Jay J board. I also need to upload my own font design to experiement with the ‘Try before you buy’ dispaly, or decide if I should continue using the ‘Scripter font’. I also need to decide on how I will transfer these designs - or potentially re-design - these website slide designs onto Wix, whcih I shall be attempting to do in the near future.

NEA Brief - Music Video - Initial Ideas

 Initial Ideas/Considerations - I am considering to produce my music video based around the Alternative/Indie song Aurora. This is because I can represent the lyrics to strongly resonate and anchor the visuals included in my music video. I intend to base my music video around either a forest or beach mise-en-scene, opening the video with a fade or blur establishing shot to emphasise the setting of my music video lyrical/narrative. I have some ideas for what visuals I may use to connect to the lyrics. For example, I may open the music video with the already mentioned establishing shot and somewhat writing Runaway - by my artist’s name, followed by Domino Recording Company, then cutting away to a young girl walking along the beach, taking a close-up shot of the waves and the girl walking towards the camera. I may then switch to an extreme wide angle with the girl walking towards the centre of the frame, simultaneously while a boy walks towards the centre. I shall then take a close-up shot of the girl’s elation and pure joy when seeing the boy, likewise when he sees the girl. I have also just thought that I might film a tracking shot when the video cuts away to the girl mouthing the lyrics, with the camera moving backwards as the girl walks towards the camera, centrally positioned on the pier. At the end of the video, the girl will reach the end of the pier, with a diagonal line and eyes-level shot, then followed by a close-up shot.

Clear sense of branding across the two elements of cross-media production:

- I have considered the idea of featuring a prevalent or culturally significant prop within the video, which may be placed in the mise-en-scene of close up shots on poster boards or the video may play a short cut of a slow-motion effect over a specific symbol or clothing design. By featuring a character with my brand logo or company name within the music video it would strengthen the sense of brand identity which would be cross-referenced onto the website, in order to meet the requirements of the brief.

Target Audience:

With the clear outlinings detailed in the briefs to target 16-25 year olds of an up-market audience who like to be engaged, I believe that the use of a typical coming-of-age romance narrative may appeal to this cultural capital. Furthermore, I will aim to incorporate themes of social isolation, and reducing the stereotype of a masculine image to subvert the societal norms and expectations. These themes are synonymous with Aurora herself, who is known for producing songs that do not necessarily conform to the mainstream ideas of society, effectively targeting those who may feel subjugated and marginalised by the media.

Potential Intertextuality Ideas:

-La La Land’s famous dancing scene, aiming to try and replicate a similar sunset shot by a bench.

-Period outfit for a dance to pastiche Romeo and Juliet

*Look at brief and make headings on the areas that must be included/

This is the first moodboard I came up with which may potential be of use when considering the themes for my music video. I have included photos which may act as the mise-en-scene in various shots of my video. 

Super-Curricular Documentary: Incorporating Clay Shirky’s theory - Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere Netflix documentary explores the unnerving nature behind the world’s most elitist, masculine-mindset men, normalising the oppression of women in today’s dynamic society, with notorious influences such as HS TikkyTokky, Justin Waller and ‘Sneako’, with some objectifying their wives, truly believing that one-sided monogamies should be accessible to all men, and men exclusively. Terms such as the ‘red-pill’, ‘anti-feminism’ and ‘alpha-male’ were highly prevalent and topical throughout the documentary, with the latter being men’s insatiable desire to be the ‘ultimate man’, both physically and mentally. Those leading a ‘white-supremacy’ lifestyle are devoted to practicing their own misogynistic culture, willingly and carefully selecting multiple women to spend time with. One of the most concerning elements of the documentary was not just the concept of masculinity being modernised and females being repressed as a social normality, but the influence that these men were generating, being titled as ‘role models’ and being ‘my biggest inspiration’ for a large proportion of the younger male generation. The prospect of these extremist ideologies filtering and perpetuating into our new media is becoming a challenge in society that is progressive faster than tradition. Theroux also considers what may be the contributing factors for men turning towards the ‘red-pill’ and anti-feminist values, finding a common pattern between an abusive childhood and the lacking of a ‘father-figure’ in households. Furthermore, the majority of the male influencers crave the monetisation of their success, yet seem to state that they do not own luxury cars for status, but as a result of their hard-work and efforts. This controversial concept of elitist men wanting to turn their content into dollars, their engagements with women into views, all to reap the financial benefits.

This documentary made me consider what would happen if this view monopolised society. Would we regress backwards to the historical gender inequalities that once corrupted our social values, or would women learn from the past to condemn these ‘toxic masculinity’ behaviours?

This documentary resonates well with Clay Shirky’s End of Audience theory, as the men who are engaging with the live streams and media content enabling a participatory culture. These fans and avid followers of influences such as HS TikkyTokky and Amrou Fudl are able to ‘talk-back’ on his media platforms and easily publish snippets of his content on their own social media pages. This was evident when Harrison Sullivan (HS TikkyTokky) was deliberately trying to aggravate Louis Theroux during a live stream, with many of his fans publishing and then filtering his content to position Theroux with a bad reputation, almost incorporating Strauss’ binary oppositions. These men will gatekeep information from a renowned and critically-acclaimed journalist - Louis Theroux (such as when Fudl’s girlfriend was informed to no longer participate and interact with Theroux in the documentary) in order to protect their status and censor private information from the mass media and target audience, particularly when the documentary will be published onto Netflix, an established, multinational corporation with a wide global reach.

Shelter Advert - Super-Curricular

 The reading of the Dixon Chapter 17 within Stuart Hall’s Reception theory  has enhanced my knowledge and reading skills of Hall’s Reception theory, identifying that the theory is more complex than simply the preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings, but audiences may adopt a misreadings approach when decoding media products, as well as decoding a product based on their situated logics.. I have learnt that there are broader topics and factors which largely influence whether an audience member will adopt the dominant, oppositional or negotiated reading when encoding and encoding the producer’s intended message, learning how media products interweave various iconic signs into their works in order to appear polysemic. Furthermore, the contributor of audiences potentially making misreadings shapes which reading position the audience member will uptake, dependent on the complexity and illegibility of a text.

 I have also learnt that multiple other theorists (including Albert Bandura and David Gauntlett) might challenge Stuart Hall, such as George Gerbner’s cultivation theory, where he believes that even the strongest of audience members may experience attitudinal change as a result of media exposure. Linking closely to Neale’s Genre theory, there is the concept of genre-driven mediation within the Reception theory, where producers will recycle themes and characters in order to drive the narrative and to appeal to the audiences. This audience collects information  and forms their own perspective if they constantly view the same charcsters perpetuated via the media, they may form a political bias, learning to potentially dominant, oppositional or negotiated readings. 

Hall also believes that an invisible set of rules help to govern and dictate our behaviours, based upon what we consume from media industries. He believes that political opinions and biases build the foundations of political ideologies of the public, leading to the re-inforcement of legitimacy through parliament and its systems by reporting. Additionally, the audience may create ‘situated logics’, actively and selectively filtering information portrayed to them through newspapers by selecting articles orientated around their knowledge and past experiences within society.

Lil Nas X Music Video Website Recreation