Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our main product was our music video, and our two ancillary products were our album cover and website. Our three products are mostly conventional, using a lot of the conventions of the indie pop genre, and the distinctive form of the music video. However, the three products do also develop and challenge some of the form and genre conventions, particularly in regards to challenging the sexualisation of female artists. Overall, I believe we have created a professional standard promotional package for our artist that will appeal to our target audience. 

GENRE

Our band, The Acrylics, produces music of the indie pop genre.

Indie pop is a genre that originated from alternative rock in the UK during the 1980s. It is a more melodic and less abrasive than indie rock, and does not contain the angst that is so iconic of the iconic music of indie rock. This extends to the look of the band, which too demonstrates a more acceptable, 'pretty' appearance in areas like colour scheme and fashion. Indie pop is also much more commercially viable, as the values and lyrical content in the music is a lot more marketable for a general audience. However, indie pop still has a low reach; due to its distinguishably smaller budget, many indie pop artists often cannot afford the same advertising privileges as pop musicians, such as billboards and televisual advertisements.

Andrew Goodwin states that 'music videos demonstrate genre characteristics'. In the presentation below, I will demonstrate how we understood the characteristics of the indie pop genre and attributed them to our three media texts.

Please read my presentation below to find out more. Navigate the presentation using the scrollers seen on the right and bottom of the screen.

FORM

MUSIC VIDEO

The form of the music video is very distinct. Few other media art forms are able to have such a wide disjuncture between the music and the visuals, or have such a fragmented editing style where extreme jumps in time and space, and juxtaposition between frames are completely accepted and expected by an audience member. We used many of the conventions in music video form in our own music video. In the presentation below, I will describe these conventions and how we used, developed and challenged them in our own music video. 

Please watch my presentation below to find out more. Use the arrows on either side of the presentation to navigate between slides, and the icon in the bottom right corner to make the presentation full screen. 

Simon Frith's theory states that most music videos can be split into three forms: narrative, performance and concept. Our music video had a hybrid form, which is a music video using a combination of narration, performance and conceptual. In the presentation below, I will describe how we used the three distinct forms in our music video, and compare our product to other existing music videos we took inspiration from. 

Please watch my presentation below to find out more. Use the arrows on either side of the presentation to navigate between slides and scroll to zoom in. 

ALBUM COVER

The conventional form of the album cover has a few distinctive characteristics. One album cover that we took great inspiration from is the album cover for New Young Pony Club's 'Fantastic Playroom'. In the slideshow below, I will break down the conventional album cover form with this example, and describe how we used, developed and challenged these conventions. 

Please watch my slideshow below to find out more. Use the arrow keys to navigate between the slides.

WEBSITE

The conventional form of music artist's websites has its own set of characteristics.




Andrew Dubber stated that a music website in the Web 2.0 era should act as a place where the users can meet and connect with both the artist and each other. It is not just a place for people to discover the artist's music - although that is the primary function - it is also a place where the should be opportunities for socialising, purchasing and contribution.





Henry Jenkins stated that we are now living in a participatory culture. This involves a culture where everyone participates in the creation of media; it is influenced, shared and sometimes produced by the  public. Our website works in favour of this kind of culture, as it facilitates many opportunities for users to get involved with the band.


The website must work as 'the hub' for an audience; whether they have come from watching the music video or buying the album, people will converge on the website as a source of information and interaction. The website must respond to any needs the audience may have, from finding out more about the band, to purchasing their music or merchandise. In the mind map below, I will illustrate the conventional form of an artist's website and how we used these conventions.

Please read my mind map below to find out more. Click and drag to navigate the mind map, and right click on the mind map to bring up an option to zoom in or out.

Conclusion

We created three media artefacts that are largely conventional in form and genre. Although for the most part we have used these forms and conventions, in some occasions we have chosen to develop or challenge them in order for our product to stand out in the dense media landscape we live in today. Overall, I believe that we have successfully created three authentic and effective media products. 

Evaulation Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As a record label, our aim was to create a promotional package with consistent and recognisable branding for our up and coming artist to generate interest within our audience to buy into the brand. Although our main text - the music video for the artist's single - and our ancillary texts - the digipak album cover and the artist's website - all have their own identity and specific functions, the combination of the three has the effect of creating a clear brand for the artist, promoting the brand and selling the product - the music - to the audience.

In this answer, I will be using a case study to demonstrate how we've researched an existing marketing strategy and how that has influenced our decisions when marketing The Acrylics. The band I will be studying closely will be Echosmith, an indie pop band.

Overview of our three products

The music video, album cover and website each have their own independent functions. Some of these functions are shared with another product or across all three, as can be observed in the Venn diagram below.

The way these functions are carried out are also independent to each product. For example, the brand of the artist will be covered through the music video in performances and CU's of the artist's facial expressions. The same information will be conveyed on our album cover and website through colour scheme and the style of font used.

Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory outlines the audience's needs when consuming media products. These include escapism into an entertaining media landscape that the artist creates through the branding, information about the music artist, and help in the construction of personal identity (e.g. fashion and personal values). The functions of each product appeals to the demands of the audience.

Marketing - Key Points and Theories

Before we made any decisions on how we would market our band, we researched marketing ideas and the many theories surrounding marketing and star construction. Here are some the first questions we answered when thinking about the marketing of our three products.

Marketing Theories outline four things that need to be considered when marketing a product. These things are key to understanding the audience: how they will locate and respond to the product, and which circumstances are the best for them to spend their money. In the presentation below, I will outline what these four considerations (or '4 P's') are.

Please watch my presentation below to find out more. Use the arrows on either side of the presentation to navigate between slides and scroll to zoom in.

To help us understand the choices we should make when marketing our band, we examined the marketing campaign of the indie pop band Echosmith. In the presentation below, I will analyse the key aspects of the band's star identity, their marketing campaign and how I believe it was effective.

Please read my presentation below to find out more. Navigate the presentation using the scrollers seen on the right and bottom of the screen.

In the presentation below, I will outline how marketing theory and research into our case study have influenced the marketing of our own band.

Please read my presentation below to find out more. Navigate the presentation using the scrollers seen on the right and bottom of the screen.

Richard Dyer was a theorist who was interested in the construction of the 'pop star'. He stated that the identity and persona of a pop star is part of the product a record label will sell the audience. He also stated that a star's identity also exists outside of their music; their identity must be repeated with the look of their other products, such as their merchandise, their website and their album cover, In the video I have created below, I will go into more detail about Richard Dyer's star theory and outline how a pop performer's identity is constructed into that of a pop star.

Please watch my animated video below to learn more. Simply press play on the video to start the presentation, and click the pause button if you need more time to read the information provided.

In the presentation below, I will analyse how our case study, Echosmith, incorporates star theory into their branding, how we produced our own star identity for our band, and how I believe we were effective.

Conclusion

Overall, I believe that the combination of our products throughout our marketing campaign for very effective in reaching and appealing to our audience with our artist's brand. The music video, album cover and website had successful connectivity to generate interest in our band and convince our target audience to buy our artist's music and various other branded products.

Evaluation Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the production process, we made constant reference to our target audience groups to feedback on our work. Understanding our audience was vitally important to us; if our audience are not satisfied by our products, then they will not be convinced to buy into The Acrylic's brand. We aimed to tailor our main and ancillary products to the needs and suggestions of our audience. In this answer, I hope to analyse how we have responded to our audience feedback and gratified their needs using my knowledge of Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory.

OUR AUDIENCE

Our target audience group is indie pop fans, skewed towards girls aged between 12-25. In the table below, I have broken down our primary and secondary audiences.

Please click on the image to enlarge.

PRE-PRODUCTION

With this understanding of our target audience, we started developing our ideas for our band and the type of image they would portray. This theory suggests that audiences have wants and needs when consuming media texts, and that different audience members consumed media for different reasons. We used Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory to help understand the needs of musical audiences and ways in which we could gratify their needs through our decision making. In the mind map below, I have illustrated how Uses and Gratifications Theory have influenced our decision making. 

Please read my mind map below to find out more. Click and drag to navigate the mind map, and right click on the mind map to bring up an option to zoom in or out.

We thus came up with our initial ideas for the band: 

• Potential names for our band included 'Pickaxe Party' and 'Pillow Fight'.
• Our band would be an indie pop group.
• Include a female lead singer and a group of three boys to play guitar, keyboard and drums.
• Album cover, website and music video have a bright, pastel colour scheme.
• Our single would be 'Sweet Dream' (a song by the band 'Black Cat Zoot').

We tested these ideas on our target audience to receive their feedback. We received feedback from Survey Monkey and from talking directly to our audience. We asked a main focus group of female indie pop fans aged between 12-25, who we sourced from people we knew from our school and relatives. In the table below I have illustrated how our feedback informed and developed our ideas during pre-production. 

Please watch my slideshow below to find out more. Use the arrow keys to navigate between the slides.

The main thing we learned from audience feedback in the pre-production stages was that it is vitally important not to confuse the audience. We discovered that even just the name of the band is a big part of understanding the type of music the artist produces and the image of the artist, and if this does not correlate with the rest of the image the band is trying to communicate, this can severely limit the audience's willingness to engage with the band and purchase their music. 

A real world example of this is with Echosmith. When the band signed on to Warner Bros. Records in 2012, the record label changed their name from 'Ready, Set, Go!' to 'Echosmith'. 

'Ready Set Go!' ---> 'Echosmith'

Although it is not documented why the name was changed, I interpret this to mean that the record label did not think that the original name would have as much consumer potential, and does not speak volumes about the type of music the band creates, or the identity the band wants to convey. The new name communicates a lot more about the ethos of the band and what sort of music they make- similar to a 'blacksmith', Echosmith's aim is craft good music. It summons more light hearted imagery, such as bright colours and soft sounds. 

At the end of the pre-production process, we felt that we had successfully tailored our planning for our music video, website and album cover to the feedback of our audience. 

PRODUCTION

During production, we put our audience's feedback into practice. We employed their corrections and suggestions into how we constructed our music video, website and album cover. During production, we also received feedback from our target audience via word of mouth; we would ask members of our audience to see a screening of our working edit for our music video, or to have a look around the website and album cover. We noted down what they liked and improvements they would like to see.

In the presentation below, I will analyse how we translated our initial audience feedback from the pre-production phase into our construction of our three products, describe the feedback we received and show how we tailored our construction to their advice.  

Please read my presentation below to find out more. Navigate the presentation using the scrollers seen on the right and bottom of the screen.

At the end of the construction phase, I think we successfully tailored our decisions to appeal to, and suit the needs of, our target audience. 

EVALUATION

After we completed construction on our three products, we screened our products in front of members of our target audience. From their feedback, we evaluated whether our products successfully communicated the branding of our band, and whether the band's products directly appealed to them as our target audience. 

Music Video

We screened our music video in front of members of our target audience, who viewed the product in groups so as to instigate conversation between them about the music video whilst it was playing. We also collated feedback through a structured interview which we carried out immediately after the screening, so the video was fresh in their heads. We recorded this evidence on a smartphone. 

I have used VideoAnt to analyse the feedback given to us. To access my analysis of the feedback, please click on the link below the image - the link will open in a separate tab. To use VideoAnt, simply click play on the video on the left and read my analysis on the right - each piece of analysis is time coded and will flash when relevant. Feel free to pause the video to have more time to read the text. 

Click here to access our audience feedback on VideoAnt 

Overall, although there were some small things that we could've improved - for example, communicating the image of the band more effectively so it does not appear 'girly' - we learned from our feedback for our music video that we were mostly successful in communicating our brand to the audience, and we were unanimously successful in creating a product that entertained and appealed to our target audience. 

Album Cover

We showed our album cover digipak to a member of our target audience, Sian Richefond, and carried out a structured interview to gather their feedback and immediate responses to the album cover. We recorded the audio for the feedback on our smartphones and uploaded it to SoundCloud.

To hear our audience feedback, please click the play button below. 

  

Overall, we learned from our feedback for our album cover that we were successful in selling the band's music, and the band identity, to our audience with our digipak, and appealed to them with the way we chose to construct our final product.

Website 

We showed our artist's website to members of our target audience, and recorded them navigating our website. We then carried out a structured interview with them to receive feedback to see if we were successful in appealing to our audience.

To see our audience feedback, please observe the slideshow below by clicking on the arrow icons to navigate the slides.

Overall, we learned from our feedback for our artist's website that we were successful in appealing to the audience, and satisfied their needs for information, entertainment and interaction.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I learned from our audience feedback that we were very successful in creating three products that appealed to our target audience. The feedback showed me that our audience were entertained by our products, and they could correctly decipher our band's genre, identity, star qualities, and aesthetics from all of our products. This showed me the effect of our products synergising well together to communicate the same information and not confuse our audience, which will positively influence their decision to buy into the band. Furthermore, not one of our audience said that there was anything they would improve, and although their were minor points that I have analysed from their feedback where our communication of our band identity could have been clearer, I do not believe these were major negative factors that would cause damage to the band's appeal. Overall, the feedback was very positive and demonstrated that we were successful in appealing to our audience. 

Evaluation Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the entirety of our project - research, planning, construction and evaluation - I have used a wide range of new media technologies in order to fulfill our needs. Across all three stages of the project, I became aware that the choice behind using newer technologies said a lot about how technology has developed in the last few decades, and that the best tools are ones that I could converge alongside others. During this project, my education on how to operate media technologies has flourished. In this post, I shall illustrate how I used these technologies, what I learned, and demonstrate my understanding of the impact of new technologies on the media landscape.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING

In the presentation below, I will describe the technologies we used during the research and planning stage, reflect on their importance and comment on their pros and cons.

Please watch my presentation below to find out more. Use the arrows on either side of the presentation to navigate between slides and scroll to zoom in.

CONSTRUCTION

We constructed our music video in our school's Seward Studio. We benefitted from the new media technologies we had access to having technological convergence. 

Please observe my diagram below to find out more. Click the image to enlarge.

In the presentation below, I will describe the technologies we used during the construction stage, reflect on their importance and comment on their pros and cons.

Please watch my presentation below to find out more. Use the arrows on either side of the presentation to navigate between slides and scroll to zoom in.

Another important feature in our construction was the prevalence of social media. 

We created three social media accounts to synergise with our website. We created and maintained these because social media is where most members of our target audience. Due to the proliferation of smartphones, most young people have social media downloaded as apps on their phones, and so can receive updates whenever there is an update from someone they are following. We intended to create a following on these social media accounts, and keep them updated with promotional opportunities, as we believed this was a good way of keeping our audience informed of our products. We also used social media to build upon the authentic image of the band - for example, by tweeting personal messages to the public. This will keep the audience engaged in the personal dynamics of the band and make them more willing to consume advertisements from them. 

• Facebook - here we placed updates for our audience on where the band were, i.e. whether they were on tour, and promote upcoming purchasing opportunities. Updates on here are more formal and less frequent - a typical band page updates once or twice a day.

• Twitter - here we tweeted promotional opportunities and personal messages to engage our audience. We tweeted frequently, i.e. four or five times a day.

The first tweet is a personal message showing Casey and Hugh's quirky relationship as siblings - this allows audiences to build an interest into their relationship.
The second tweet is a promotional message, that takes the user to the music video - this keeps the audience updated on the 

• Instagram - here we published promo shots of The Acrylics, fronting their band image as the main way of selling them to the audience. 

EVALUATION

In the presentation below, I will describe the technologies we used during the evaluation stage, reflect on their importance and comment on their pros and cons.

Please watch my presentation below to find out more. Use the arrows on either side of the presentation to navigate between slides and scroll to zoom in.

CONCLUSION

Throughout this project, I have used new media technologies that have enabled me the granted as many of our aims as possible, made our tasks quicker and easier to manage, and produced the best results. In the process, I have improved my skills using some of these technologies, most notably on Adobe Photoshop, and have learned entirely new skills, such as using website developing software on Wix.com and creating lighting states using the Zero88 Leap Frog Lighting Console. 

Construction Post 6: Website Post-Production

The second ancillary product we constructed for our artist's promotional package was the website. I headed the construction of this product, but still received lots of support and effort from Emilio and Noa. Most of my time was spent on the website, and it was here that I believe I learned the most skills.

What we needed:

• A blog style website
• Lots of opportunities for interaction
• Lots of opportunities to purchase (both merchandise and the album)
• Lots of opportunities to inform the user about the band
• A colourful, quirky aesthetic that synergises with the branding of our other products

What we used and how we used it:

I created the website on Wix.com. Wix.com was a surprisingly easy piece of software that allowed me to create the website the way I wanted. It had a variety of different layouts for me to choose from when I first logged on. This was helpful as I could find a template for a blog styled website and adjust it from there to create our band's website, which saved time having to create the tools to make the blog aspect of the website aesthetic work.

There were lots of tools that allowed for interaction, information and purchase, including:

•  Slideshows and gallery - the user can cycle through images and links that discover more about the artist and allow more interactive ways of finding new parts of the site other than scrolling down.

• Hover boxes - the user can hover over boxes and it will reveal something new. I used this for the info boxes on each of the members of the band so the audience could fulfil their curiosity and discover more information about the band.

• Light boxes - the user will be introduced to the website with a page before they can enter the website, which will promote the album and provide a link for where the user can purchase it, and listen to it on Spotify and iTunes. The user can close this to continue to the website, where their are plenty of other opportunities to purchase the album inside. 

The pre-prepared tools were easily adjustable to suit our needs; for instance, images could be quickly adjusted in contrast, brightness etc. and pastel colours and rounded borders could be used to make our website suit our fun, colourful band aesthetic.

I learned a lot about web design in the process of this construction task. Before the construction task, I had only used Wix.com once in preparation for this activity, and although I got an idea of how the software looked and how to use the menu to find my tools, I have gained hands on skills using web design software and I now feel much more confident in using Wix.com to create intended effects. I have also learned a lot about laying out websites clearly and the importance of allowing lots of facilities for the user to find their way around the website; for example, I found I was using the 'Button' icon a lot to link the user from various sub pages back to the main page, and I was linking various images to do with the album to the shop to allow the user opportunities and free reign on when they wanted to purchase.

Wix.com ticked all the boxes for our needs. The only problems I faced using the software was that it was liable to lagging and crashing. This was frustrating and time wasting in our limited time constraints, but did not prevent the overall progress of the construction drastically. 

Other software I used were:

Adobe Photoshop - each promotional photograph featured on the website needed some work on this software before it could be put onto the website, including shot healing, colour adjustment and so forth. I could also create banners and posters to be featured on the website, including the 'we are The Acrylics' banner on the homepage slideshow, and the tour poster. I also needed Photoshop to create the merchandise, which would need to feature our logo and/or some lyrics and colours associated with our brand. 

Audacity - I briefly used audacity to create sound files for the music page of our website.

My contribution

During the construction of the website, I :

• Headed the website task and made some executive decisions on the website, which I then verified with the rest of my group
• Used web tools to create interactive effects on the website
• Created some promotional material using Photoshop, including the tour poster and the 'we are The Acrylics' banner
• Created merchandise that can be sold using Photoshop

• Set up Ticketmaster and Bandsintown accounts for the user to access when finding out about tour information

Challenges we faced and how we overcame them:

Besides lagging from the website, most of the problems we had with the website we worked around through problem solving and by gaining more knowledge on how Wix.com worked.

For instance, we wanted to link pictures of the band members to their personal galleries, where the user could cycle through the pictures at will. However, there was no tool to link a picture to a gallery. We could, however, link the picture to a light box, so what we did was create a gallery, then put the gallery onto the light box and link the image to the light box. This way, the user could be taken to the galleries of each band member without being taken into a new page, which made it easier to go back to the original page once they had looked through the gallery.

Here is our finished website:

Click here to access website

Construction Post 5: Digipak Post-Production

As well as the music video, we needed to create two ancillary products for our artist's promotional package, and the first of those products was the digipak album cover.  Noa headed the construction of the album cover, because this played to her strengths in editing on the software we used and her knowledge of shortcuts to create intended effects that would create the best quality product in a short time. Emilio and I also fed in our own skills and ideas to contribute to the task.

What we needed:

• An innovative design that stands out, particularly on the front cover, that makes our audience interested and willing to buy it
• Photos of our band to identify the artist with the music
• Include a bar code, record label and copyright information
• A colourful, quirky and handmade aesthetic that synergises with the branding of our other products

What we used and how we used it:

We created the album cover on Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop was a perfect piece of software to use as it includes many tools and options that would allow us to make our album cover the way we wanted it. Furthermore, all of us had a good understanding on how Photoshop worked; Noa in particular is very confident in using the software and finding her way around it to create our intended effects.

The first thing we needed was to place the photos of the band members on the front cover of the album. To do this, we selected the pictures we wanted from our studio promo shots, then coloured the backdrop a different colour (we used blue) to obscure the white areas. We then used the quick selection tool to select the coloured area of the backdrop and delete it. By colouring blue, the area was easier to select and also caught more areas of the backdrop than if we'd used the quick section tool on the original image. One thing I learned was that by selecting the outline of the band member and right clicking on the image, you could change the quality of the outline by sliding options such as 'Contrast' and 'Feather' to make the outline less harsh. We also selected to create a New Layer with Mask. This meant we could erase any remaining areas of backdrop from the images without erasing parts of the original image.

Another thing we needed was to create a colourful backdrop. We decided that as our band name is The Acrylics, we would create a paint like backdrop for our outside panels. To do this, we created a page of colours (blue, pink, green, yellow) and swirled them using the blend tool. This created the effect of paints mixing and, when adjusted in brightness and colour balance, the result is a very pretty background that is light enough to not make the front panel too busy.

Photoshop also allowed us to place bar code, record label and copyright information onto our back panel.

Photoshop ticked all the boxes for our needs. It lent us lots of effects and allowed us to accomplish all of our original designs, as well as helped facilitate the designs we wanted later. It was easy to use, and despite some problems we encountered when using the software on one of our computers, we were very happy with the software. 

My contribution

During the construction of the website, I :

• Contributed my ideas for the layout of the album cover, including how the band members should be arranged on the front

Construction of the Digipak's second draft

• Helped Noa on Photoshop with the creation of the background

Challenges we faced and how we overcame them:

Our original plan for the front cover was to have the band members decreasing in size, with their feet at the bottom of the panel and their bodies standing in a line gradually getting smaller and smaller from left to right. When we attempted this, we realised that the faces of the band members were hard to see clearly and their bodies looked a little odd. After getting feedback from our target audience, we found out that they too would change the way the band members were arranged, Therefore, we changed the framing to a mid shot and placed the band members slightly behind each other in a line. This way, the faces were easier to see, making them more identifiable to an audience, and the overall look of the front cover improved.

Construction of the Digipak's first draft

Another problem we faced was that Photoshop suddenly became very difficult to work with mid way through the construction process. The software was difficult to use, certain tools and key commands were unresponsive and the layout could not be rotated to access the other side of the digipak. We managed to overcome this by switching computers.

Here is our finished digipak album cover:

Construction Post 4: Music Video Post-Production

Our main product was the music video. Emilio headed the construction of the music video, because this played to his strengths in editing our footage on the software we used and his knowledge of how to create great effects we wanted, such as tri-chroming. Noa and I also fed in our own skills and ideas to contribute to the task.

What we needed:

• A  vibrant music video that matched the energy of the track
• Lots of shots to demonstrate performance - e.g. shots of Casey singing to camera, band members playing instruments etc.
• A clear narrative throughout the video
• A colourful, quirky and handmade aesthetic that synergises with the branding of our other products

What we used and how we used it:

We created the music video on Adobe Premiere Pro.

This software was perfect for creating our music video as all of our group were very confident using the software, having utilised it in video edits before in Media Studies. We are all very confident in how to achieve intended effects; Emilio in particular is very confident in using the platform, and knows how to access all the tools he will need on the software.

One of our first tasks was to make sure Noa's lip synch matched with the vocals on the track. To do this, we dragged the full take from the file on the left of the screen, cut the beginning and end so that we were left with just the performance, and brough the clip down to the timeline. We then used the audio track of the clip to help us match it with the audio of the track. This helped us make sure that the lip synching looked convincing in performance. We did a similar thing to help us with matching strokes on the guitar and drum beats.

We also needed to make sure the narrative was clear. In our music video, we have both performance and narrative, with the narrative sections being split amongst multiple 'dream worlds' which Casey finds herself in. To make sure the performance and narrative did not get confused, we graded the shots slightly differently. Performance shots were brighter and the pastel pink colours were only saturated a little to make the colour pop for the audience to see. Narrative shots were graded more heavily with more heavily with saturation and colour balance to make them stand out amidst the performance shots as noticeably more colourful.

We also differentiated the different narrative 'dream worlds' during editing. We added a flash effect before Casey enters each dream to signify a new dream beginning and the last one ending. We created the flash by making a plain white colour that we increasedand decreased in opacity very swiftly to mask the cut between the two shots. We added the same effect for when she wakes up and when the party sequence begins to signify what is and isn't a dream.

My contribution

During the construction of the music video, I :

• Contributed my ideas for edits and changes to shots
• Helped Emilio edit and grade the music video

Challenges we faced and how we overcame them:

One challenge we faced was that our first cut of the music video was too slow for the track: it included much longer shots and fewer cuts. When we showed this to our target audience, they suggested that the video needed to have a quicker pace to match the energy of the track and the performances. We overcame this by adding in more quick cuts, similar to Echosmith's Cool Kids, which included takes a few milliseconds long of instruments and dances to quicken the pace of the video and keep the audience on their toes. We cut down shots of the band members playing instruments and spliced them in to the longer shots. When we showed the new version to our target audience, they found that the improvements worked very well.

Here is our finished music video: