What to include
You started the aims and intentions essay and completed a first draft based on your research of music videos and how you were going to use and subvert the generic conventions of your chosen genre. Evidence of your research must come through in your aims and intentions. Though you are able to edit it, please keep your essay in the future tense (I aim to..." "it is my intention to...").
The mark scheme
A grade criteria for the aims and intentions
- An excellent, highly detailed, statement of consistently relevant aims and intentions that clearly responds to the brief, targets the intended audience and reflects the specified industry context through a coherent concept for interrelated products
- The aims and intentions demonstrate a plan for thorough and sustained use of appropriate codes and conventions, and insightful representations
- Excellent evidence of application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media through sustained use of highly appropriate subject-specific terminology
A grade criteria for the cross media production
In order to achieve an 'A' grade, you must demonstrate the following over both pieces of the cross-media production
- Use media language to demonstrate intertextuality and/or generic hybridity
- Convey a complex representation of a social group using media language
- Subvert and challenge typical representational stereotypes
- Present an ideological context typical to an independent music label
- Create a magazine that demonstrates clear stylistic, thematic and ideological links to your music video
The brief
Use evidence from your research into: similar products; the industry context; your target audience, as well as theoretical perspectives, to explain your decisions:
- How and why will you use media language in your cross-media production?
- How and why will you construct representations of individuals, groups and issues/events?
- How will you target your intended audience?
- How will your production conform to its industry context?
- How will your cross-media production demonstrate digital convergence?
An (almost) excellent example
The following example is very close to being excellent, but needs to incorporate more explicit reference to what the student found out during the research project.
Within my music video, I intend to use codes and conventions of music videos in order to create an effective piece. It will contain quite a subtle narrative and performance will feature quite heavily, and I am hoping to conform to the Indie genre very closely with the type of video I produce.
Within my video, there will be –
- Varied editing pace to fit with the upbeat nature of my track
- A range of shot types, mainly establishing shots to display the city, with performance shots varying between close up and mid shot
- Tracking shots and shots 'from the hip' to form a journey for smoother continuity
- A subtle narrative, but not with the lyrics taken literally
- Little intertextuality, however some shots maybe be reminiscent of a documentary
- Mainly natural light, with some shots using softer and more chiaroscuro/atmospheric lighting
- Colour scheme conforming to genre, with an old-style video overlay and vintage style filter
I want to represent the city as a place of adventure, discovery and colour, as the song itself has interesting lyrics with possibly even slightly sinister connotations. This has inspired me to attempt to create a binary opposition within the video of happiness but also a darker side of the city, done using mise-en-scene and costume. I will also be focusing on teenagers in the way they tend to fit into society, and how overwhelming life can become. Using the gratification of escape and adventure, I will appeal to my audience as this theme will be very strongly present. Because it is a video that is about teenagers and standing out from the crowd, I feel this conforms very closely to the Indie genre and style of the music, and the use of a subtle narrative conforms to the context as Indie videos are generally more narrative than performance based.
For my magazine, I want to create something quirky that will stand out on a magazine rack. It should conform to the Indie magazine genre because it will be laid out similarly to ones on the market, with a large main image on the cover and a bold title and for the article to be more conventional of music magazines, with just a subtle Indie edge.
I am hoping to create interest by using a film shoot for my photographs, I am hoping to create a vintage effect to match my videos and to conform to the Indie genre. As well as this, I will be creating tumblr-style backgrounds as this will appeal to my target audience once again, as well as creating a more interesting piece to look at and subverting some magazine conventions to make my piece more individual. With individuality, I wanted to make the magazine as unique as possible whilst still conforming to convention as I feel this ideology is important to teenagers – people should stand out from the crowd and be who they want to be. Finally, with the article itself, the interview will be casual and down to earth, appealing to the teenage audience as it will have a relaxed ideology and portray a feeling of the artist being normal and not necessarily idolised.
In my music video I will attempt to incorporate narrative and performance with key themes of depression, suicide, voyeurism, identity and external influences.
My video will conform to industry standards by having these elements of a stereotypical alternative indie song which challenges and creates talk around important societal issues, especially in relation to the youth culture, as well as creating a memorable and ‘different’ video which stands out.
I will be using a male actor as the main subject of the music video doing the lip-syncing and performance elements. The main male actor is a white middle class British teenager – the representation of him as a stereotypical teen being changed via paint, setting and the nature of his performance (angry, sad, neutral) will demonstrate the changes a teenager will face dealing with their emotions (e.g. depression) and the physical changes they may go through (paint changing their appearance).
Some key techniques, focuses and ideology I will implement:
Lip syncing shots will be intercut with disturbing imagery of blood and voyeuristic shots of the female body to keep attention on the video and create an unsettling feeling in the audience. This plays on conventions of the horror genre as they often have a disturbing focus on harming females. Not only does this create discussion about the video but it will capture the audience attention as it creates the ‘can’t look away’ effect of wanting to find out more about the disturbing imagery.
Some of the inspiration for this idea came from analysing the music video ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy in his seemingly unrelated shots which created a definitive overall mood of unease. The music video ‘will he’ by joji also inspired some of the setting of my video – I liked the imagery of sitting in the bath depressed with connotations of suicide.
It will appeal to a teen audience as the main actors are teenagers and the alternative music and subtle dark themes (e.g. suicide represented by the bloody hand hanging over the bath, cultist imagery to imply forced changes and oppression) play into current teenage culture where mental health is a large topic of discussion. I will imply suicide through bloody shots but will not outright show any action of self-harm, only the aftermath.
I will demonstrate cross-media digital convergence by creating a magazine front cover and double page spread. This will promote my video as well as having a focus on the themes it presents and the artists themselves. I will use this to promote my artist and the featured article will be about their experience with some of the issues explored within the music video (e.g. depression).
Another excellent example
This example is also excellent, and makes reference to research. It is, however, a tiny bit too long.
In my music video I will attempt to incorporate narrative and performance with key themes of depression, suicide, voyeurism, identity and external influences.
My video will conform to industry standards by having these elements of a stereotypical alternative indie song which challenges and creates talk around important societal issues, especially in relation to the youth culture, as well as creating a memorable and ‘different’ video which stands out.
I will be using a male actor as the main subject of the music video doing the lip-syncing and performance elements. The main male actor is a white middle class British teenager – the representation of him as a stereotypical teen being changed via paint, setting and the nature of his performance (angry, sad, neutral) will demonstrate the changes a teenager will face dealing with their emotions (e.g. depression) and the physical changes they may go through (paint changing their appearance).
Some key techniques, focuses and ideology I will implement:
- Colour grading to represent emotions in each shot (e.g. blue for sad, black for angry)
- Mixture of close up and mid shots to establish main focus and convey emotion of artist
- Hard cuts to keep attention and create a harsh and unsettling pace
- Coloured paints symbolising LGBT sexuality confusion as well as confusion in general among teenagers
- Imagery of “cultists” to imply pressure be that social or internal
- Multiple film locations representing different emotions (e.g. depressed in bath, happy in park)
Lip syncing shots will be intercut with disturbing imagery of blood and voyeuristic shots of the female body to keep attention on the video and create an unsettling feeling in the audience. This plays on conventions of the horror genre as they often have a disturbing focus on harming females. Not only does this create discussion about the video but it will capture the audience attention as it creates the ‘can’t look away’ effect of wanting to find out more about the disturbing imagery.
Some of the inspiration for this idea came from analysing the music video ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy in his seemingly unrelated shots which created a definitive overall mood of unease. The music video ‘will he’ by joji also inspired some of the setting of my video – I liked the imagery of sitting in the bath depressed with connotations of suicide.
It will appeal to a teen audience as the main actors are teenagers and the alternative music and subtle dark themes (e.g. suicide represented by the bloody hand hanging over the bath, cultist imagery to imply forced changes and oppression) play into current teenage culture where mental health is a large topic of discussion. I will imply suicide through bloody shots but will not outright show any action of self-harm, only the aftermath.
I will demonstrate cross-media digital convergence by creating a magazine front cover and double page spread. This will promote my video as well as having a focus on the themes it presents and the artists themselves. I will use this to promote my artist and the featured article will be about their experience with some of the issues explored within the music video (e.g. depression).