Reflective Essay

Instagram post

The protagonist of my media products is the singer Olivia Cox, who is a Caucasian 23-year-old female. There is a lack of disability and BAME representation in my products as Olivia is not part of these groups, which limited my inclusivity representation. As she is female, there are elements of the male gaze (Mulvey), such as the heavy face makeup she wears across the three products, her long hair, and short skirts, specifically on the social media (Instagram), as I unconventionally chose to not cater to the male gaze for my video, but still targeted men as they are my secondary audience. 

my 3 products

intertextuality

However, she shows post-feminist agency (Paglia) as she is an active participant in the video. Olivia is from an international background, and the song deals with the topics of travel and feeling lost in your 20s, which is a relatable topic and can be accessed by a 4-quadrant audience. My target audience for the products are 15-24+ females, so they can personally identify (Uses and Gratifications Theory, Katz and Blumler) with Olivia. Due to a local international audience being a primary target for the video and viral concept, I added an airport scene at the end as this is more ambiguous and can be generally applied internationally, and I chose the location of the diner for the same reasons. Luxembourg is home to 51% of foreigners, so this international thematic is very relatable for them regardless of age and gender. The nostalgia evoked from the distinct 50s visuals appeals to Reynold’s notion of Retromania and targets the primary target audience and the secondary target audience of 25+. In the diner, I created a simulacrum (Baudrillard), making the video very post-modern, as I intertextually referenced (Kristeva) using the 1994 film “Pulp Fiction” through the milkshake shot, serving as an intellectual puzzle (Altman) as it is also on the album cover, and allow for a broader audience reach. As there is no romantic theme in the lyrics, I felt including this would not link to the narrative (Goodwin). This also allows for a polysemic Reading (Hall, Reception Theory) and is more catered to a “Gen Z” audience.

My other secondary audiences are females aged 25+, and tweenagers. Although Olivia is an indie artist, I marketed her in an international way, and kept the video clean for the secondary target audience of under 15 to view it. I created personal identification (Uses and Gratifications Theory) for the tween audience and included a secondary narrativeof Olivia’s younger self. I used flashbacks to crosscut into the narrative using match cuts such as the mirror and looking out the window. I was inspired by Maddie Zahm’s “You Might Not Like Her” music video for this and used key items such as the same purple notebook, a blue bow, and a golden teddy bear in my mise-en-scene to anchor this. The video interacts with the local audience through the monuments, and my viral concept encourages the audience to take pictures in front of them and share them with Olivia on social media, which reinforces this connection and allows for direct social interaction with Olivia and her fans and is another easter egg (Altman).

The genre of the song is electro-pop, and through my research I took particular inspiration from examples such as “Ghost” by Halsey, and “Habits” by Tove Lo. As is conventional for the genre, both videos feature a central protagonist or hero (Propp), which we follow on their journey (monomyth, Campbell), which is the principal narrative of my video. There is also a frequent use of colour-pop, editing matching the beat, and a narrative mixed with performance. The lyrics are sad but mixed with the upbeat music, allowing for me variation of bright and dark colouring, such as the neon signs at night, which provides escapism (U+G). 

My video appears unconventional due to the lack of set usage and the locally anchored location. Another unconventional element is the diegetic noise in the video, such as the tram and pool balls. Typically, diegetic noise is only seen at the start or end of a music video such as Katy Perry’s “Hot n Cold”, but I was inspired to do this after seeing Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” video, which is an exception as it is used throughout as it’s auteur director Spike Jonze relied on dialogue for the narrative. Similarly to Katy Perry’s video, I created a circular narrative to encourage rewatching, which is also counter typical as explained by Jay McRoy’s conservative functions of closed narratives, used to maintain Hegemony (Gramsci) and social order.  This adhered to Vernallis’ notion of an elliptical narrative, which does not follow the traditional Todorov narrative structure. I combined performance with narrative (Frith), as is conventional, yet I chose to not use extravagant outfits and makeup so that the singer would appear relatable and could be personally identified with by the audience (UGT), like the black puffer coat. I made frequent use of bright neon lighting and colour-pop, to appeal more strongly to a tween audience, as seen in my digipack.  

The main element tying my branding together is the use of purple, which is the main colour of the logo, digipack, and Instagram content. I created a purple logo for Olivia, which was based on my audience survey. I was inspired by the artist Olivia Rodrigo, who the colour purple is associated with to have a strong visual link throughout. As I created the digipack and Instagram alongside the video, I used the video imagery on all the products to strongly tie them together, specifically the diner and the heart sculpture. My digipack features the milkshake shot of Olivia on the front cover, also the Instagram profile picture, and the heart sculpture as the double spread of the lyric booklet. The digipack front cover is largely inspired by Melanie Martinez and her “Crybaby” album cover. The digipack is engaging to the audience as it is brightly coloured, and I added a personal note from Olivia at the start for social interaction and direct address like I saw with One Direction’s “Four: Ultimate Edition”, which I teased on my Instagram with posts of the note, and promoting my release with Record Store Day. Physical music is more important to artist revenue in the modern day, due to the consequences of Web 2.0 (O'Reilly), where music distribution has been disrupted, and streaming platforms have greatly reduced artist royalties. As artists are now prioritising different strands of income, specifically live and merchandise to support them, I created merchandise for Olivia, which was linked to her tour that I also created. 

For the social media, I teased the video release through a reel of Olivia at the diner jukebox and announced the tracklist through the purple fluffy diary seen in the video. These are intertextual references for her fans and there are also easter eggs or intellectual puzzles (Altman) throughout the 3 products, such as the Ireland poster in the video, as Olivia is Irish. This allows her fans to further connect with her, as those with a high cultural capital (Bourdieu) within her subculture (Hebdige) 

will feel privileged for understanding the reference. I kept this visual style for the alternative videos I created of the bloopers, visualizer, and lyrics. Having multiple videos further broadens the audience appeal, and these can be remade and repurposed by fans (User Generated Content) through the convergence (Jenkins) and digitizationof Web 2.0 (O’Reilly). This is clearly seen in my viral concept and through Gauntlett's WeMedia, which I highlighted by tagging the users who had created the content. There is audience interaction (UGT) as I replied to the comments using emojis, lowercase and abbreviations (e.g. @lauraffagan tyy, it’s the @benefitcosmetics bronzer!! it’s the best 😉🔥). I frequently used # relevant to the video (e.g. #23tour, #headintheclouds) as well as using #olives🫒, which is the fandom name I assigned to my fans. Another way I connected with my Gen Z target audience was by being ecologically conscious through my merchandise release of tote bags and reusable bottles, as well as an #EarthDay2024 post.