COMP 3: Star & Casting Development

 A Level Media Studies

Here includes the development of the star's name, the choosing of our cast members, along the reasons for our music promotion package (the music video). Everyone was involved in the discussion for every element explained in this blog post. However, Maxi was the one who phrased the reasonings for each. This blog is written by me (Sharon).

Artist’s name:

Since we wanted our artist to be a female of Asian descent, the name of our artist had to match her ethnic background. Thus, we discussed some potential aesthetically pleasing Asian girl names. However, since we also needed to cater to English-speaking audiences, we didn’t want to extend too far into our artist's cultural heritage. Hence, we focussed more on more mixed (caucasian/Asian) sounding names, with a Western first name, and then a more Asian-sounding surname. We decided on sticking with a “first name - surname” naming format as it is what the majority of artists in the pop genre, and female artists as a whole tend to have as well. However, we also experimented with shortening versions of these names as well, and seeing how they’d look with different capitalizations, as these are also commonly seen forms of stage names for female artists of the genre. From this, here are a few names we initially thought of:

• Kiara Bel

• KIARA

• Isabel Tan

• Isabel Kim

• Isabelle

• BELLE

• Jasmine Wang

• JMIN

• 伊莎贝尔

Cast:

The idea of what we want our Artist to be like has been stated in our statement of intent, which states that we want her to be a fun, outgoing, and humble individual that fans can relate to and feel as if they’re just like them. Since we also want her to be of Asian descent, we discussed potential actors who fit the aforementioned trop, who also look conventionally attractive, as most female artists in the music industry generally conform to modern beauty standards. For this, we decided on the following individuals who we could see being our artists:

Artist (Lead Female): 

- Jasmine May Riadi

- Eugene Evelina Nugroho

As mentioned in our statement of intent, we wanted our music video to follow our artist and a group of her friends as they go out, have fun, and make unforgettable memories. For this, we want to have a primarily female cast, as after breakups, girls will often find solace and comfort in a group of her other girlfriends, instead of a group of guy friends. Thus to accurately represent this, we want to cast girls who will fit into the group of our artists, for which we originally decided on a list of actors who are already friends with each other in real life, and will thus most likely be able to accurately portray the chemistry found in tight-knit girl friend groups, since they already have that dynamic. They are also friends of our team, which will make communicating, planning, and convincing them to be a part of the project far easier. The names of these actors are as follows:

Artist's Girl Friends:

- Elvina Laurencia Ryanto

- Chelsea Graciella Liem

- Eugene Evelina Nugroho/Jasmine May Riadi
- Keyla Lisgianto Josono

- Nayana Sumaniaka

- Giann Fico Suwangsa

Artist’s Ex Boyfriend (Male Lead): 

- Han Hyun Woo

- Nicholas Gerwin Mawardji - Gede Danny Putra Budiada

Self Reflection: The lists we have made for potential casts allow my group to broaden our options and ensure that we will choose the right casts in all imaginable ways so their chemistry can be presented in the best way possible (will be easier to deliver the theme/message of the music video to audiences). As for the star's potential names, my group and I have compiled all possible names which expand our choices and decide which is best, such as through pronunciation, design, alignment with our theme, and simplicity. For this task, I searched for some Asian surnames and pitched in name ideas. One challenge we encountered was the decision-making for the star's name as we may have had too many possible names. However, we have decided on the name "KIARA" at last. The screen tests that we did were to guide my group better in deciding who to cast as our star. This was done by having them lipsync several lines from the song, 'Feather'. It would benefit my group and this project effectively in the long term since we could choose the most suitable person and avoid having to change the person last minute, which would really be time-consuming and inefficient.