My Partner Ben and I chose the music video brief with the 2018 Kanye West Track: Ghost Town. The genre of the song is Rap and RnB, however our video takes on themes of teenage mental health issues alongside characteristics of a bildungsroman/ coming of age production where the main protagonist faces the issues of life that come with being a teenager transitioning into adulthood, and the ways those issues are dealt with. The general target audience is those within the 15-25 age group, regardless of gender, this group is targeted through the genre of song, key themes, and marketing strategies used for the song rollout.
The main group/issue we chose to represent in our music video is generalized to teenagers struggling with mental health issues and their means of coping. We chose this issue for two prominent reasons, one being we thought it would be quite fitting for our genre style, as we could show the progression of ones coping mechanisms when dealing with mental health issues, and secondly this problem is being recognized globally as a significant issue, especially among those in our target age group. Ben and I decided that because we didn’t want a performative style music video but still wanted include a narrative, we concluded that body language and facial expressions was the best way to convey any struggles our main character was going through. Throughout our video, our main character bikes across various locations and cityscapes, keeping a neutral facial expression which aims to portray he is going through something and biking is his ‘escape’, not as a means of feeling happy but rather to occupy his mind. A primary example that communicates the perception of the character on the outside vs his inside feelings are from the timestamp 1:55-2:12, where in my editing I used multiple straight cuts to implement time passing by very quickly for the protagonist, that shows when the protagonist is pacing is meant to imply possible ‘racing thoughts’ which when it cuts to the person sitting down is meant to represent how they are physically appearing in the moment. This stark contrast represents a common issue many face with mental health issues is that they are perceived as okay on the outside but in reality, are struggling on the inside. Another instance is shown from timestamp 1:29 to 1:41 when the protagonists slouched body language, slow walk, slight trip on the stairs (this shows the lack of much thought the character is putting into basic tasks, suggesting that the mental health issues are affecting even basic day to day motions) as well as neutral facial expression is used to convey to the viewer that the protagonist is suffering from some form of mental health issue.
The representation of mental health issues aims to relate to much of target age group, especially with the rise in mental health issues stemming from an increased online presence by this same age group. We aimed to build on this by the protagonist being played by someone from this group, hence giving the viewer someone to relate to; furthermore, the mis-en-scene also attributes to further engagement. The style worn by the protagonist is typical of many teenagers and young adults globally, secondly the filming is done with the presence of notable Auckland areas such as the CBD and Sky Tower. These factors allow for many within our target audience to recognize similarities among themselves and the music video itself, hence increasing the engagement among audiences. Ben and I did a screening of our video to our class and received feedback included adding colour grading which we implemented, and some positive feedback that consisted of a clear narrative, with most agreeing on the set representation being evident. Afterwards I added yellow colour grading to be closer to the lighting on our initial brainstorm. For some of my ideas for building engagement, I looked at how local (Auckland New Zealand, New Zealand) creators on media platforms gained traction due to audiences engaging with their media due to it being local and the presence of recognisable features, which led to our inclusion of locations such as a Dairy and the Sky Tower.
Throughout my minor tasks, I aimed to engage our target audience through creating direct personal connections as well as following conventions of West and other researched artists. Instagram is a popular platform that young people connect with each other as well as their favourite celebrities, hence why I chose it as a medium for advertising our product. My Instagram mockup consisted of a monochromatic colour scheme – similarly to West’s actual Instagram – as well as an image carousel showing a post breakdown. This carousel included behind the scenes photos as well as snippets of the music video itself, with mock comments indicating audience engagement. Furthermore, I chose Instagram due to my research of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft album release which she teased all over Instagram, gaining 100’s of millions of interactions, backing me to use Instagram as a means of building engagement. As for my Digipak, I researched typical conventions, which included things such as lyric sheets, posters, and extended information about the song release. These built engagement for the similarities seen among my Digipak and Digipaks I researched such as Kanye West Graduation (2007) and Central Cee Can’t Rush Greatness (2025). The similarities include a bold colour contrast, posters referencing the video, and lyric sheets. These inclusions engage audiences for their multiple uses; the poster can be used on a wall, and the lyrics could lead to audience further involvement with the song itself.
I aimed to create elements of branding to be seen across both my major and minor tasks. Throughout both the Digipak and final product, the bold yellow, and western font are uniform. I used this to tie the two together, with the inspiration for both stemming from the song name: Ghost Town, which references abandoned towns originally used for mining. The Digipak also consists of snippets from the final product used as both the front cover and as a poster, all to create a homogenous theme across all my products. The Instagram takes inspiration from the actual Instagram of West, by following a monochromatic colour scheme across all posts that is a profound trait of West and his marketing, which is something I wanted to replicate as a medium of creating a brand surrounding my products. Furthermore, in the Instagram I again included snapshots from the final product as well as behind the scenes shots, which aims to tie all three products together, creating a consistent sense of branding.
One of the most prominent conventions that our major task challenged was the usual perception that music videos feature a performative prominent figure rapping directly towards the camera, often flexing cars and jewelry, whilst showing themes of wealth and drugs. In my research I found many rap videos to be typical of this convention such as Bolide Noir (Central Cee, JRK 19 – 2024) which portrays key themes of wealth display and a performative nature from both artists. We wanted to challenge this convention due to both a lack of accessibility to typical mis-en-scene as well as neither Ben nor I wanting to act in that sense. This led us to using a narrative style video focusing on storytelling and prominent location choice. In terms of my minor tasks, I decided that both my Digipak and Instagram mockup would be typical of conventions used by real world artists to market their products. I researched the ways that Drake and Billie Eilish released their respective albums Iceman and Hit Me Hard and Soft using social media. Eilish used Instagram to release teaser trailers and album-related photos which I incorporated into my mockup Kanye West Instagram shown in the carousel insert I created alongside the screenshot mockup of the page itself. I successfully created a Digipak that used typical conventions seen in rap-album CDs such as Kanye West Graduation (2007) and Central Cee Can’t Rush Greatness (2025). I incorporated a mixture of lyric pages, posters, information sheets and CD art.
Overall, I think that I was able to for the most part successfully apply a wide range of research regarding music videos, marketing, and engagement to create a Music Video as well as an Instagram mockup and Digipak. The key representation theme was the struggle of mental health issues as a teenager or young adult, which we portrayed through mis-en-scene. In terms of my research, I thoroughly investigated how Artists such as Drake and Billie Eilish released their music, as well as research into conventions of Music videos both similar and different to what I wanted to create. However, I do wish that logistically Ben and I would have been able to organize another filming day to ensure that some select scenes in our video could have been more cohesive. Despite this I feel as if I have created an effective Music Video release package that complies well with the brief.