Our music video has certain conventions of other music videos we've researched, yet also includes some developed ideas, opposing to them. Some videos we have explored under the same genre of pop/rock are; Pink's 'So What', Kelly Clarkson's 'Because of You' and Katy Perry's 'Hot N Cold'. Seeing as our chosen track was another by Katy Perry, we looked in more depth into her videos. We firstly noticed that the majority of her videos were narrative based- with the storylines linking to relationships. As the lyrics to our track 'Time's Up' refer to a break up between a couple, we decided to base our narrative along those lines. Alongside this, we noticed how in all of the videos, the artists lip sync the lyrics of their songs. For example, in the video of 'Hot N Cold' Katy Perry uses direct address while singing- so singing towards the camera (audience). This is something we knew we had to include to stress the emotions set in our lyrics. From analysing the lyrics, we found that the emotion of the song is quite angry and upsetting- by using direct address would portray these feelings across better.
When looking at the mise-en-scene of other videos, they all link together in some ways; the exaggeration of make-up and costume- mirroring the pop/rock genre of American music videos. As a group, we didn't want to copy exactly what other videos have done; so by challenging this, we went for a more casual look to suit the narrative and make it look more realistic. An example in our video is our costume choice of a white vest top and leggings with small plain shoes- this casual look made the narrative more believable than say if we chose colourful, bright clothes that would stand out too much and not link with the story. We did however include another outfit, a green dress with silver high heels. This linked in with our narrative, having her drinking at the bar and 'dressed to impress' as such. This change in costume keeps the audiences' attention. Again the same with make-up, in some of Pink's videos her make-up is very bold and eye-catching, opposing to this we decided to stick to a suttle look of just a fine amount of make-up (only to cover any imperfections and easier to replicate if need be).
Locations were a bit trickier to develop, seeing as most of the videos we looked at were filmed outdoors, in the warm weather. For us being in England in the autumn/winter season, the chances of warm weather is extremely low, so we managed to cope with filming on the dry, decent weather we had. It's surprising how the alteration in weather can tweak aspects of a video- for us, we found this changed our ideas as we went along, having to work around the weather. An example being the costume; wearing thin and revealing clothes would not be appropriate in cold weather- and not comfortable to film. We considered locations carefully by seeing which were more reliable to use- yet still thinking about the conventions of a pop/rock. In Pink's video 'So What', there were a few scenes in a bar which we thought we would replicate. We found it linked well with our theme and even some of the lyrics, e.g. "We squeezed the fruit, til there was no more juice left" have underlying meanings of drinking. For the location to fit in with our narrative, as a group we decided to base it around the idea of 'drowning your sorrows', in this case, the girl having left her partner and drinking to forget about her worries. Other locations & settings we used were fields, a home lounge, and outside of the home- by a wall and in the middle of a road. We took inspiration from Kelly Clarkson's video 'Because of You', having used most of these locations in her video. We noticed how the majority of her video is set in the home. From looking at this, we took segments of which to consider using and developing from in our video. The scenes in and around the home gave a sense of reality to the narrative and video in general, as Kelly Clarkson's does. We wanted to portray the girl leaving her home as part of our narrative so the video 'Because of You' gave us great help and inspiration. All the videos we looked into and researched gave us great help when creating ideas.
When looking at the mise-en-scene of other videos, they all link together in some ways; the exaggeration of make-up and costume- mirroring the pop/rock genre of American music videos. As a group, we didn't want to copy exactly what other videos have done; so by challenging this, we went for a more casual look to suit the narrative and make it look more realistic. An example in our video is our costume choice of a white vest top and leggings with small plain shoes- this casual look made the narrative more believable than say if we chose colourful, bright clothes that would stand out too much and not link with the story. We did however include another outfit, a green dress with silver high heels. This linked in with our narrative, having her drinking at the bar and 'dressed to impress' as such. This change in costume keeps the audiences' attention. Again the same with make-up, in some of Pink's videos her make-up is very bold and eye-catching, opposing to this we decided to stick to a suttle look of just a fine amount of make-up (only to cover any imperfections and easier to replicate if need be).
Locations were a bit trickier to develop, seeing as most of the videos we looked at were filmed outdoors, in the warm weather. For us being in England in the autumn/winter season, the chances of warm weather is extremely low, so we managed to cope with filming on the dry, decent weather we had. It's surprising how the alteration in weather can tweak aspects of a video- for us, we found this changed our ideas as we went along, having to work around the weather. An example being the costume; wearing thin and revealing clothes would not be appropriate in cold weather- and not comfortable to film. We considered locations carefully by seeing which were more reliable to use- yet still thinking about the conventions of a pop/rock. In Pink's video 'So What', there were a few scenes in a bar which we thought we would replicate. We found it linked well with our theme and even some of the lyrics, e.g. "We squeezed the fruit, til there was no more juice left" have underlying meanings of drinking. For the location to fit in with our narrative, as a group we decided to base it around the idea of 'drowning your sorrows', in this case, the girl having left her partner and drinking to forget about her worries. Other locations & settings we used were fields, a home lounge, and outside of the home- by a wall and in the middle of a road. We took inspiration from Kelly Clarkson's video 'Because of You', having used most of these locations in her video. We noticed how the majority of her video is set in the home. From looking at this, we took segments of which to consider using and developing from in our video. The scenes in and around the home gave a sense of reality to the narrative and video in general, as Kelly Clarkson's does. We wanted to portray the girl leaving her home as part of our narrative so the video 'Because of You' gave us great help and inspiration. All the videos we looked into and researched gave us great help when creating ideas.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
The Magazine advert, digipak and of course the music video, we found linked quite well together. From researching into other types of digipaks and magazine adverts we knew what aspects to include and how to link it to our video. The first thing we had to think about was 'what stands out in our video?'. As it was highly based around the theme of a break up in a relationship, we wanted a way to portray this on both ancillary tasks. We agreed on using an image of the main star in the production as the main focus of both- this way they would all have this in common. To choose a suitable image we did a small photoshoot; mainly to see what we found worked best and which poses we liked. We chose two images overall which we found linked best to the theme we were going for. One of which was her looking away from the camera with an upset expression. This suited the mood of the video and expressing the emotions clearly to the viewer. The second image, we used only on the digipak, was the girl sitting down with a serious facial expression. This image out of the two portrays a mild anger which we were originally going for, yet you sense a sexual undertone from her body language and how revealing her costume is. From using photoshop, we manipulated the image and made it more prominent and bold. The first image is slightly paler with darker shades, which works with the negative tones in her face. The other image however is more prominent almost exaggerating the power she still has even though she is upset. We chose purple as our main colour theme, being a colour which represents independence and jealousy. A combination of the energy & anger of red, with and the sadness and depth of blue. This colour is most suitable for our ancillary tasks. Both ancillary tasks look very much alike, with the same purple coloured background and white font and text. The magazine advert is very much the same as the front cover of the digipak- apart from some additional information. The ancillary tasks are very much alike and stand out for reasons which replicate aspects of the main product we did.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is something me and the rest of my group care deeply about, as the audience is one of the most important things- as it's all based around them, even in the professional industry. One of the main questions we wanted them to answer was simply 'Did you understand the narrative?'. In the making of this music video we came across many challenges that we solved in different ways. An example being the narrative, which originally contained a male role- as this did not work out as we had planned, we altered it so it was only the female lead role and one other extra. We wanted to be sure that the storyline came across clearly and the audience understood what was happening. We have had many mixed views about our main product, the majority were very positive comments. Obviously as a group, and as the people who were behind it all, we noticed little elements that could have been improved to make it more effective, which some people did in fact bring up; one point being the close-up shots were just that little bit too close and maybe should have been a mid/ close up shot instead.
Not only being part of the group, but as the lead role/ character, obviously I am more likely to criticise myself as an actress, as anyone else would, feeling a little insecure with how I looked for example. The lip-syncing in some parts I found looked slightly off, but as we had discussed before, due to the poor conversion from the final cut software to quicktime, it was out of sync in places. We did tell our audience this before hand, so they knew it was not our filming mistake.
Of course, we got a great deal of positive comments which were greatly received. It made us feel good how our hard efforts had paid off. Getting this feedback not only tells us what we can improve on, but tells us what the viewers liked about it and if we were to do it again- what elements to leave as they are. You learn what interests the audience from their feedback and ways in which to keep their attention and keep them entertained; by using various techniques and in our case, a good narrative to follow.
The Magazine advert, digipak and of course the music video, we found linked quite well together. From researching into other types of digipaks and magazine adverts we knew what aspects to include and how to link it to our video. The first thing we had to think about was 'what stands out in our video?'. As it was highly based around the theme of a break up in a relationship, we wanted a way to portray this on both ancillary tasks. We agreed on using an image of the main star in the production as the main focus of both- this way they would all have this in common. To choose a suitable image we did a small photoshoot; mainly to see what we found worked best and which poses we liked. We chose two images overall which we found linked best to the theme we were going for. One of which was her looking away from the camera with an upset expression. This suited the mood of the video and expressing the emotions clearly to the viewer. The second image, we used only on the digipak, was the girl sitting down with a serious facial expression. This image out of the two portrays a mild anger which we were originally going for, yet you sense a sexual undertone from her body language and how revealing her costume is. From using photoshop, we manipulated the image and made it more prominent and bold. The first image is slightly paler with darker shades, which works with the negative tones in her face. The other image however is more prominent almost exaggerating the power she still has even though she is upset. We chose purple as our main colour theme, being a colour which represents independence and jealousy. A combination of the energy & anger of red, with and the sadness and depth of blue. This colour is most suitable for our ancillary tasks. Both ancillary tasks look very much alike, with the same purple coloured background and white font and text. The magazine advert is very much the same as the front cover of the digipak- apart from some additional information. The ancillary tasks are very much alike and stand out for reasons which replicate aspects of the main product we did.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback is something me and the rest of my group care deeply about, as the audience is one of the most important things- as it's all based around them, even in the professional industry. One of the main questions we wanted them to answer was simply 'Did you understand the narrative?'. In the making of this music video we came across many challenges that we solved in different ways. An example being the narrative, which originally contained a male role- as this did not work out as we had planned, we altered it so it was only the female lead role and one other extra. We wanted to be sure that the storyline came across clearly and the audience understood what was happening. We have had many mixed views about our main product, the majority were very positive comments. Obviously as a group, and as the people who were behind it all, we noticed little elements that could have been improved to make it more effective, which some people did in fact bring up; one point being the close-up shots were just that little bit too close and maybe should have been a mid/ close up shot instead.
Not only being part of the group, but as the lead role/ character, obviously I am more likely to criticise myself as an actress, as anyone else would, feeling a little insecure with how I looked for example. The lip-syncing in some parts I found looked slightly off, but as we had discussed before, due to the poor conversion from the final cut software to quicktime, it was out of sync in places. We did tell our audience this before hand, so they knew it was not our filming mistake.
Of course, we got a great deal of positive comments which were greatly received. It made us feel good how our hard efforts had paid off. Getting this feedback not only tells us what we can improve on, but tells us what the viewers liked about it and if we were to do it again- what elements to leave as they are. You learn what interests the audience from their feedback and ways in which to keep their attention and keep them entertained; by using various techniques and in our case, a good narrative to follow.
How far did you use media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Technology played a great part in the making of the main product and ancillary tasks.
For the research and planning we used YouTube to watch other music videos, taking inspiration from them and looking into videos of the Pop/ rock genre. We also looking at websites such as Wikipedia, to research into background information on Katy Perry (the singer of the track we selected). www.blogger.com is the blogging site we used to store all of our work on as a group- creating new posts as we went along. We had access to the school computers and obviously our personal computers for any work we did at home.
For the construction of the video itself, we used a high quality film camera to film the music video itself. With access to the mac computers which had the Final Cut software installed- this we used to edit our video. We then uploaded the video onto Youtube and finally onto our blog. We took many photos using a digital camera to add to our work too. Photoshop was used to edit our ancillary tasks, the magazine advert and digipak. This section contained the most media technology.
For the evaluation, we created a commentry, which was made again using the film camera, edited on final cut, and uploaded onto the blog.
We used all the media facilities available throughout our project, relying deeply on the equipment.
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