Portfolio Project Components

Music Video

Cover Art

Social Media

Critical Reflection

 Critical Reflection 

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

    The song I chose focuses on a toxic relationship, expressed by the lyrics "user 603, he beats her down with nasty words." The song also mentions a theme of unrequited love, "user 139 will never know how much I love her." And my favorite part, the song includes a bit of postmodernism, "this is a simulation, this is a simulation..." Throughout the song the singer expresses how she's watching this User 139 via computer. The lyrics I mentioned above are what inspired the storyline in the video.  I chose to portray this toxic situationship and their breakup.

Portfolio Themes

      As someone who has gone through a similar situation, I wanted to express the process and decision making in a breakup. Specifically, how it looks to actively get over someone or to dwell on someone.  I portrayed this by showing user139 calling this user603 and even going all the way to his apartment, trying to get him back. And then user139 going out with friends having fun in the moment, trying not to think about him.  In the video, I also include flashbacks of 139's and 603's relationship, portraying both the good and bad aspects. Making sure to capture how he abused her to include the toxic situationship theme. After showing the video to a couple of my friends, I believe that I represented the toxicity and breakup process pretty well.

How do elements of your production work together to create a sense of "branding"?

    At first, I really had no idea on how I wanted to represent the artist. So I didn't. The artist doesn't want to show their face, so I decided to be the face of the her brand. Another artist that doesn't show their face and chooses to have someone else be the brand face is Sia, with Maddie Ziegler as her face. My artist's name is SeVEN, like the number, so I took what I could from that, posted her necklace of '777' on social media and ran with it. 

    

    In the video, I included a scene, where User139 is staring a screen of hearts, I didn't know it then, but that would become a major part of the artist's branding. The same hearts ended up on the cover art of the song. Later on, I decided that neon hearts would become part of her brand. The physicality of my brand is very clear despite my artist not having a face. With the combination of sevens, blue hearts, the color blue overall, and a cyber sort of aesthetic.  

    Looking at the personality aspect of the brand, the Instagram page we created, its very up close and personal without revealing the face of the artist. Posts are very random and do not follow a specific pattern or theme, kind of like Joji's Instagram page. The tone received from the music video and song is very melancholic and mesmerizing. The artist is faceless clearly representing a value of privacy to their own life. 

    

    Consumers can hope to find in our products, relatability to the artist and quality products from the artist. Due to the artist social media being random posts about her life, it tends to feel more personal instead of professional, allowing the consumers to view the artist as more of another human being instead of a idolized celebrity.  

How do your products engage with the audience?

    My target audience is females, ages ranging from 14-25, from a middle class background who enjoy artists such as Melanie Martinez, Fae, Poppy, and Sofia Isella. Though User139 is the artist's top song, it doesn't have the most plays. Overall, she has about 26,400 monthly listeners, who also listen to the artists I mentioned above. 

    

  There wasn't a lot of engagement coming from the social media I created as I couldn't promote my artist without a possible lawsuit from the real artist, however the viewers of the music video, understood the storyline and themes. They also enjoyed the cover art for the song, saying it complimented the music video and branding. 

    One of the key aspects of the music video is the parallel storylines indicated by different colored lighting in the clips sort of went over the viewers' head, if I hadn't explained it afterwards. It wasn't that they didn't notice the difference in the clips and what the lighting meant, but that they didn't realize it was two storylines going on at the same time. I believe if I had made the lighting more consistent throughout the later clips, it would've been clearer.  

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

    In my research for this project, I studied to main artists; Joji and Yeat. Though they are from entirely different genres, they have some of the most engaging music videos I've ever seen. I've previously mentioned the narrative structure of Joji's 'Gimme Love' music video and how it's just a bunch of mini clips put together to create a story.  I used the same structure in my video. 

Music Video Research

    

    The song I chose has a lyric, a lyric that allowed me to sprinkle some postmodernism in my project. Before the portfolio projects started, my teacher had taught a unit on postmodernism. We studied the film, Memento (2000) in class and I studied Inception(2010) by myself. After writing a paper on what I learned of postmodernism, I realized I had fallen in love. I knew the second I heard' "this is a simulation, this is a simulation...," in the song, I was going to include my little hints of postmodernism in the video. 

    The way I used postmodernism in my project was by not only having the Joji narrative structure, but scattering the clips over two storylines happening at the same time. For example: User139 is out with her friends getting over user603, that clip having red lighting. Followed by , User139 dwelling on her ex alone in her room, the clip having blue lighting. The two storylines are differentiated by the different colors, something I picked up from Memento. 

    Another little peak of postmodernism used in my video is how the narrator is watching User139. I portray the narrator as a female sat at a computer, where she's booting up a sort of simulation game from a website called CreateYourUser.  In the video, there's input from the narrator that 139 can see as a hologram. 139's understanding of the Narrator is that she's a god or angel that watches over her, not knowing that she, herself, is just a character in a simulation created by the narrator. 

Week Eight - Day One

 So little left...

A post today, a post tomorrow, a post the next! Cannot believe how something that existed purely in my head has come to life. I feel kind of powerful. 

The guidelines for the critincal reflection are to answer four questions in 1000 words, which as a writing student is that bad. Very do-able.  The four questions I have to answer are:

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?
• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
• How do your products engage with the audience?
• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Just a little planning page to the real Critical Reflection post...

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

• the themes I chose were:
• situationships, or a romantic relationship that the on or both parties do not consider a commitment or labeled relationship, but they are more than friends. 
• breakups and/or process of getting over a breakup

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of "branding"?

• social media page, themes in the song, themes showing in the video, themes expressed in the cover art.

How do your products engage with the audience?

• go off of the real artist's fanbase and viewers of the video

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

• postmodernism research and how it introduced me to complex storylines and POVs
• narrative structure or who's telling the story in which the music video portrays the narrator in the beginning watching the story go on.

Week seven - day three

I wish I could say today was productive...

But, ultimately, it was not. The most I did concerning this project was post on social media. Now that I have the music video done, the cover art done, and the social media mostly done, I took a relaxing Sunday off.  All I have left to do now is the creative reflection and a few more posts on social media. 

Looking back, this year I was much more organized with my portfolio project; I stayed on schedule in both production and blogging. I still had the same amount of anxiety that it wasn't going to turn out well but I'm very content with this year's turnout. 

Looking back on this year's project alone, I could've done the social media aspect way better had I had a real artist to work with,  but I also could've done more with what I had and I didn't realize till it was too late. 

I feel very grateful towards this class,  I've never learned so much, better yet, enjoyed learning so much. Throughout the two years and two portfolio projects, I've gained so much experience with long-term projects and incorporated new skills such as planning, organization, and editing. 

I know this post doesn't include a lot of intel on how the project is doing, but I believe it needed to be said to express how impactful this project is to the students in this course. 

Week Seven - Day two

 Two parts done... Two more to go...

Today my sister and I finished editing. FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

the hard part is done. The music video is done. Life is good again. I can sleep peacefully now. We did the major part of editing such as the whole sequence of clips, transitions, blur effects, and lighting was all done on Premiere Pro. Special effects like title and credits, text message pop ups, and hologram pictures was done on After Effects.  It's jover. 

Today I also finished the cover art. I decided to go with a Vinyl sing release, thus theres only front and back covers. However, I included stickers and a lyric sheet. 

Week Seven - Day One

 Editing Continues...

Yesterday my sister and I edited some more, worked on some transitions. We're almost done before we move to After Effects.  We found ways to do certain things that we would've done in After Effects on Premiere, such as the blur transition and a crossfade transition.

I've been working on the Album Cover and so far, I like it. It matches the video and it gives the vibe I'm looking for. I made it in photoshop, I overlayed to photos then a red box that I ran the smudge tool over. It was relatively easy to do but time consuming as I didn't know what I wanted. 

 

Week Six - Day Three

 Today was a short editing day. We, my sister and I, edited the last transitions before exporting. We decided to add all the transitions in adobe premiere because the clips were still separated. After we export the project will be just a long clip, making it harder to sport the right timing for a transition. 

Nonetheless, the sequence and transitions are done. This week coming up will include the last bit of editing using after effects, album cover art, and more posts to social media. 

 So much to be done in such little time. 

Week Six - Day Two

 Editing will forever be my OP...

Today I opened the project and sat myself down until all the clips were in order.  After watching the sequence of clips without FX I noticed that it may turn out as well as I hope. I just have to trust the process of editing. I then review the video with my sister who is an editor as well. She specifies in after effects however, which I plan to use to add effects in my video. 

Today was a successful day, a productive day. I plan to finish editing by tomorrow. This upcoming week will be free to post on social media and complete the key art for the song cover. I'm excited but anxious as always. 

For those whom appreciate photogenic explanation of the editing process, this is it. Just a lot of contemplating and staring at a screen. 

Week Six - Day One

 Editing demons got hands...

Editing is when the projects either makes or brakes. At this point, I'm usually sitting like a nervous duck. I began the project file on adobe premiere pro and put some clips in before I realized that I hated it. This project wasn't turning out how I wanted it to and I'll forever be an idealist whom cannot create something that I'll actually like.  I actually wrote a short poem about it. 

red paint flows through my veins and on to my hands 

the traces left on the white canvas

words tip over my head and leave their mark on the paper

my own creations, I'm an avid hater.

the words of my soul, i pour them out

for me to never recite aloud

the blood on my hands, cut by the strings

a melody i created that makes my heart sting

and as i try to sing the words i have spilled

my confidence crumbles with embarrassment

for sharing my inventions are far too personal 

and i'm far from arrogant. 

At last I read over this creation

I am not proud, i could do better

i think this with every occasion

i guess, i'm just a creative beggar.  

 

Anyways at this point, I decided to give myself some space away from the project. The whole project felt really overwhelming and I couldn't handle it.  I gave it a few days before I thought about it again and opened the project. 

Portfolio Week Five - Day Three

 Last Filming Day...

This last day of production,  all I had left to do was very little. I woke up this morning and packed for the roadtrip. I drove three hours to Orlando, spent the day with my family and later as the sun came down, I began to film. 

I need two clips of myself in the car contemplating life. Which I used my brothers car and a tripod. Then I took some shots of myself going into the apartment complex, then knocking on the door and waiting outside it. I also took a sort of POV shot because it occurred to me the its always good to have extra shots if I need them. 

This conclude my filming process, until editing, if I notice I'm missing some clips, which is next week. 

Portfolio Week Five - Day Two

 Second to last filming day...

Today I filmed one of the last scenes I needed. It was more of a flashback scene that goes along with the music and gives context to the story. The scene included User139 and User603, originally supposed to filmed in my room but I had to switch it to my car as we had no other place to film at the time. 

I'm excited to be close to finishing the filming process, I have one tiny part left that I'll be filming in Orlando tomorrow.