Omama’s Blog A2

 After weeks of research, planning, and production, we present to you our music video. YOUTUBE LINK:  Slow Dancing in the Dark GOOGLE DRIVE LINK:  Slow Dancing in the Dark

 Here is the digipak for our music video. Front Cover Inner Cover CD Back Cover

 Here is the link to our Instagram Page:  https://www.instagram.com/_labyrinth_productions_?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== These are the screenshots from our profile.

  Q1: How do your products represent social groups or issues? Our music promotion package consists of a music video, social media page and a digipak. Our music video is about a teenage boy and his strong emotions. We showed, at the beginning, that the young boy is rejected by a girl on message while he is waiting for her with a rose. This is where the boy realises he is left alone. The lyrics that he sings, “I don’t want a friend; I want my life in two,” suggest that he feels he has nothing to gain anymore. The moody lighting and slow dance, later shown in the video, display the protagonist’s emotions: gloomy and depressive. All throughout the video, we show how passionately the boy feels after losing a girl by the help of low-key lighting. In contrast, we also showed some scenes from the past when the boy is careless and happy with the girl. The sunlight in these scenes portray the liveliness of the moments. Suddenly, the aura changes again when we show a scene in which the girl t...

  My team members and I have created a music video promotion package as our A Level Media Studies Assignment. Following is some discussion on our task. Our music promotion package consists of a music video, social media page and a digipak. Our music video is about a teenage boy and his strong emotions. We showed, at the beginning, that the young boy is rejected by a girl on message while he is waiting for her with a rose. This is where the boy realises he is left alone. The lyrics that he sings, “I don’t want a friend; I want my life in two,” suggest that he feels he has nothing to gain anymore. The moody lighting and slow dance, later shown in the video, display the protagonist’s emotions: gloomy and depressive. All throughout the video, we show how passionately the boy feels after losing a girl by the help of low-key lighting. In contrast, we also showed some scenes from the past when the boy is careless and happy with the girl. The sunlight in these scenes portray the liveline...

 I want to point out that the cigarette we showed in our music video was completely fake and made of a rolled piece of paper. Also, the flask that was used by the protagonist did not contain any alcoholic beverage. We filled up the flask with milk. It is to be noted that we are not trying to promote any drug abuse and these items were only shown to match the music video narrative. We do not support drug or alcohol abuse.

 This is the feedback we received from our teacher after showing him our final music video. These are some comments I received from my friends.

 We named our production house ‘Labyrinth Productions’. I used Canva to create a logo.

 The digipak has to consist the front, inner and back cover of the music album for our music video along with a design of the CD. My group members and I decided to go for a minimalistic design because it is more attractive and will grab more attention if placed in a bunch of overwhelming covers. I searched up inspirations to get some ideas and eventually decided to not add multiple pictures on the same cover side and instead bring all focus on one single photo. This will allow the people to understand the theme in a straightforward manner and not get them overwhelmed by too many photos. I will also try to use bold texts to bring attention to the titles. Here are some inspirations I got off of the internet.

In order to promote our music video, I used marketing strategies on our social media page. I used multiple posts for the same photo or text for an overall appealing look. Along with this, I made sure I followed the same aesthetic on this page as the aesthetic of our music video. I posted reels with inviting captions and hashtags to increase our reach on social media. Additionally, I posted stories with polls and questions to engage with the audience and receive feedback. I also added story highlights on ‘About Artist’ and ‘Album Covers’ to grow excitement.

 As a producer, I have decided to use Instagram as the platform on which we promote our music video. I have decided so due to the fact that adolescents are mostly active on this application. I speak from personal experience because I, myself, was recommended to join Instagram to stay in contact with friends. However, later I started to realise how my account had an influence on me. I would start to like new things that I never imagined I would even speak of just because they were advertised correctly. And it was not the message itself that had the most influence on me but the way it was delivered that left an impact. Short videos with fun music, interactive polls and more. I realised 'the medium is the message,' as McLuhan stated. For this reason, I chose Instagram. The next step is to post interactive and engaging content so we can reach the target audience i.e adolescents. I will post pictures in an orderly and appealing manner but I also need to post stories and reels (short...

 Here are some extra videos we took on shoot day for fun.

 I created a risk assessment chart using Canva and the actions we took to control them.

I calculated the approximate price for all the items we had to purchase or spend money on for the music video. Transport - Rs 4000 LED Lights - Rs 700 Roses - Rs 1000 Miscellaneous Items - Rs 2500 That is a total of 8200 Pakistani Rupees. My team members and I have paid equal amounts i.e we all paid Rs 2050 each.

For this shoot day, we completed our indoor shots and retook the shots that didn't turn out amazing from shoot day 2. Again, we met at night at Azwa's house so the natural light wouldn't mess up our shots and we got similar lighting in our shots as those from shoot day 2. We made sure nothing else was remaining to shoot and wrapped up all the work.

 For our second day shooting, we took the indoor shots. For these, we needed just the protagonist in his second outfit. We all got to Azwa's house at 6:00PM when it is dark. We only needed our LED lights and the moonlight lamp for lighting so that was a good time because we didn't need any natural light coming in. We couldn't take all our indoor shots during the second day.

 On our first day of shooting, we went to F-9 Park to take the outdoor shots. We had the protagonist wear his casual sweater which was his first costume. We also took the shots with the female character. We made sure everyone was at the location by 4:00PM because the sun was to set at around 5:30PM. We needed the shots during the golden hour so we came earlier to make sure everything was perfect before we begun. By the time the sun had set, we were done with our outdoor shots and then proceeded to a local grocery store to get the shots with the side male character. For this, we called Nasir, side character, to the location and got our shots there. We were done with all those and then called it a day.

The audience for our music video is from the teenage age group. Most people that listen to a lot of R&B and even indie will enjoy our music video. People that are fans of artists like Giveon, Olivia Rodrigo and Ariana Grande would also like our music video. Since our target audience includes adolescents, we will run our music promotion campaign on Instagram where such audience is very common. We will make sure we follow strategies to gain as much reach as possible. 

 We need two different outfits for the protagonist. For the beginning, he will be wearing a sweater and very casual pants, showing that the character is a teenager and very casual in his relationship. Later in the  video, he will be wearing a loose fitted formal shirt and a loosely tied tie. This will show the effort he is trying to put after his breakup as a coping mechanism. But the outfit will still be very minimalist showing how it is difficult for him to cope up. 

 We need two locations: one indoors and one outdoors. For the indoors location, we will use a team member's house (probably Azwa's). We will shoot at different places in the house for the different locations we will show in the music video. For the outdoors location, we have decided to shoot during the sunset time at F-9 Park, Islamabad. We have chosen this place since it suits the narrative of our video and it is most feasible to everyone. 

We need a gloomy weather so we decided to shoot in the mid of January. This way we can get a breezy and cold location for our outdoor shoot. We will make sure we complete our shoot before the sun sets completely as it will get really chilly. We will arrange our pickup accordingly.

 I created a storyboard with different shots added with each scene so that we can visualize our video before filming it and bring changes, if needed, accordingly.

Here is the script for our music video. It is likely we add a few changes while shooting but this is the idea and order we will be following. 0-0:05 : Morning car ride , Sun glare ( bright ) 0:05- 0:08 :  A video of flowers seat belted to the passenger seat ( sun light directly onto the rose ( spray some rose water on the flowers 0:08-0:11 : Shot of Character ones eyes dreamy eyes  0:11-0:15: Walking into the park with bouquet.  0:15-0:19: Looking left and right ( impatiently) 0:19-0:22: Looks at the watch ( Up till here all will be warm tones ) 0:22-28 : Looks up in the camera apart from him everything is moving fast behind him ( Lip Sync : " I don't want a friend, I want my life in two ) 0:28-0:35 : Drinks from a flask stands up and leaves 0:35-43: Walks up to the moon lamp on the floor and few dance moves ( Bluish light ) ( High velocity effect whilst dancing ) ( High angle ) 0:44-0:50: Looks up (lip sync: When I'm around slow dancing in the dark)  0:50-1:00: Hugg...

 Due to the slight shift in our music video, I have created two new moodboards that go with the aesthetic of our video. I used Canva and Pinterest for the purpose.

We all planned that the best guy we can cast is Hashir, our own team member. This is because he is our editor and co director which means that he doesn't have much to do on the shoot day except advise. Additionally, he is very expressive with his emotions and just the type of actor we needed. For the side female role, we decided to cast Muskan, again our team member, for the same reasons. We figured it would be better to have the same team members as actors since it was difficult to find someone our age that would be available on our shoot days. For the side male character, we found a friend who was available and after getting an audition from him, we casted him. Side male character, Nasir's audition