Advanced Media Production Evaluation.

Rebecca Martin.Music Video – “I was in love”

Introduction

Music videos are short videos which accompany a piece of music or song, the purpose of music videos is usually for marketing and are used to promote the sale of the songs and recordings.

For my advanced production coursework I worked in a pair, and our task brief was to make a promotional package for the release of an album and to then create a music video to go along with the ancillary promotional task

Before starting to produce our raw material for our coursework and then starting to edit our video, I carried out research on similar artists, album covers and music videos. I wanted to be thorough with my research and ensure that I was fitting with the conventions of a similar style and genre.

I researched what type of pictures should be taken for our CD digipak and advertisements to find out the general conventions and to take inspiration for our production work.

I also looked at what type of shots and camera angles are usually found in music videos of our particular genre so I could include some of them into our music video.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Typical conventions of a music video usually show the artist performing along side a narrative of the video depending on the genre of the music and style of the artist.

My media product uses the forms and conventions of similar music videos with an indie acoustic genre, by following generic conventions through the use of the camera shots; the medium close up, long shots and close ups to emphasize feelings and emotions of the singer during the video.

Medium shot

Close up, we used this shot to show to show the emotion of the singer

Medium close up

These are the range of shots we used for the singer on her own. They are all quite similar, however we thought this was necessary and effective because these shots show the emotions of the singer as the story is being told as she sings the lyrics.

Wide angle/medium

shot. The singer is

slightly to the right, to show

a range of compositions.

The composition of this shot is a rule of thirds so the romantic setting in the background behind the loving couple can be seen.

This is also a long shot, this shot was necessary because the couple are spinning along the screen.

This is a long shot where the couple are just being loving on a bench, it gives the effect of a point of view shot, if there were any passers by.

Our song and music video is about love. So we decided to use footage of the “artist” singing and some other footage of the “artist” and her boyfriend in the park, on the swings, cuddling on a bench or a bandstand. These are quite romantic settings and I think that the mise en scene we chose compliments the song and lyrics and therefore fits with the conventions and genre.

The clothing the “artist” and the boyfriend are wearing is casual and relaxed because usually a convention of a music video within our genre, the artists are wearing casual and informal clothing, reflecting on their type of music.

We followed conventions of some music videos but also developed conventions by narrative through our footage, which follows the lyrics to the song. We have a part where the couple argue and then at the end the girl is alone on the swing. This shows the development and ending of a relationship through the song and video, which is what the song is about.

Throughout the video, the “artist” is shown singing or playing a guitar against a white wall, and this gives the effect that she is telling the story from her perspective, looking back on the times she had with her boyfriend.

It is non linear because of the use of flashbacks.Flashbacks.

Some of the music video’s which inspired us such as Sunday Girl’s video for “Stop Hey” used quite a few editing transitions or a larger range of camera angles, however, we decided to subvert this particular convention because we wanted to keep it simple and make it fitting to the song as it isn’t really that fast of a tune.

We wanted to make sure all transitions, editing and camera

shots or angles fitted with the footage we put together and the song’s beat.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The combination of the main product and the ancillary task is quite effective because throughout both tasks we kept the conventions similar, and kept the same style, from the same makeup and hair styles to a similar outfit. We wanted to ensure that our genre and style was fluent throughout both products. We kept the ancillary task quite simple, with a plain white background for the CD front cover, which relates to the parts in the footage where the “artist” is singing in front of a white background.

Also the back cover photo is taken in an area of the park where bits of our footage for the video is filmed in. The advertisement is of the “artist” standing in front of a tree, which adds to the natural settings and relates to the footage we had filmed in the park. The font and colour of the lettering we used on our ancillary products connotes the feeling of love, because of the pinks, but also it connotes an opposite feeling of sadness with the use of grey. We used this because the song is about how she was in love but the couple are not together anymore.

It’s effective and successful because I think that we made sure our work is fluent.

Screen grabs from music video.Advert and CD cover.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Through research and gaining audience feedback by asking students our age to watch and reflect on or analyse our work, I have learnt that our advanced media production work has turned out effective and people enjoyed watching the video and listening to the song. They said that they thought “the footage went well with the music and the feel that it created was realistic.” We used a real couple so the feel was a lot more natural. And it worked when we needed it to be loving and there to be natural chemistry.

Many people commented on the acting and said it was of “good quality” and the editing we did like slowing down a bit where the ‘artist’ is being twirled around by her boyfriend was a “good effect because it shows the romantic side of a relationship.”

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Throughout our advanced media production, we used new

media technologies which enabled us to create a successful ancillary product and an effective music video.

We used technology such as an SLR camera to take the photos on for the ancillary CD front cover and advertisement. This technology enabled us to take good quality photos and to then make sure our work is of a higher quality.

We used a HD video camera to film our footage for the music video because the picture is of a high quality and therefore the product looks more professional and effective.

I used software on the computers such as ‘Picasa 3’ on my own computer, which I used to edit the photos we used for the ancillary task. I used the lighten and shadow tool to create a contrasting and brighter effect to the photos.

We used Photoshop to add the text onto the pictures and to briefly touch up the skin of the “artist”.

I am confident using thiskind of editing softwareso it was quite easy todo and put my skills in to practice.

To edit our footage to turn into our music video, we used final cut pro software on the Apple Macs, which enabled us to import our footage from the cameras into the software and cut up the footage we wanted to use and put it in the place we wanted it to go, and in the order that fit best with the song and lyrics. We also had to add the song onto the software by importing the mp3 file.

This was my first time using this software so I had to pick it up as I went along. But it became fairly easy to do and we managed to edit our video in good time.

Final cut pro.

Conclusion Overall I met the task requirements for the brief and

therefore made a successful piece of coursework. I enhanced my skills and techniques with the use of gaining audience feedback to review my work, using the different editing software and researching other music artists and music videos.