Music Video

FIRST EDIT

This was the first draft for my music video, after some feedback I decided to edit it again and apply the feedback I received.

FINAL EDIT

 

This is the final edit for my A2 Music Video - If You Say So.

Task 11: Create Print Artefacts - Magazine Advert

 For my magazine advert I made sure to have the main image/background as my artist as straightaway this shows people who the artist is. I also added a small image to show the front cover of my album, this means that when my album is released, which is stated by a release date, people already know what the front cover looks like and can purchase it in shops and online. I included a small review from NME magazine showing their star rating for it, this is included as persuasion to people to buy the product.

Task 11: Create Print Artefacts - CD Digi Pack

As stated and found through my audience research, CD album covers with the artist on the front are the most popular and so I made sure to have the cover a picture of the artist on the cover so it is recognisable. I made the image on the CD itself a rose to symbolise life and love - a representation of the album. I also included the track titles in the same font as the album title and added the record label's logo and a barcode to make it look more realistic. 

Task 13: Evaluation Production Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Task 13: Evaluation Production Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

PRE-PRODUCTION

Before starting or even deciding on a song to base my music video around, I researched online popular music videos; ones that have a narrative similar to the audio and some that are completely different. For example, Chandlier by Sia, to most people, may appear to have no correlation to it's music video and this may be a reason that it is so popular and has so many views. On the other hand, there are popular music videos such as Blank Space by Taylor Swift that have a direct link to the meaning of the lyrics in the song, and so people watch them as they enjoy the video or sometimes because they enjoy seeing how the artist envisions the song.

I decided to make my music video so that it had a direct link to the lyrics of the song and I wanted to make sure that the narrative of the video was very clear and understandable.One of the ways that I decided how I wanted my music video to be was through my pitch that I made to my peers, who were also creating music videos. During my pitch I gave out questionnaires which I asked my peers to fill out.

During the pitch, I also gave out copies of the song's lyrics for people to just 'doodle' on whatever they felt would fit in with the lyrics of the song. People drew and annotated things such as phones to symbolise the part of the phone when the artist mentions a phone call and of a person just sitting there emotionless. In the pitch I explained what I thought the music video would look like and how I wanted to 'show the lyrics' through the video. I then asked them if they had any questions about the music video; one being: 'How are you going to show the emotion of loss and love in the same video without it being disrespectful or cheesy?' One way in which I was planning to do this, which I told them, was by showing all sides to a relationship, not just the good, (which a lot of media does)but also arguments and times when just being together doing little was appreciated.

Through this audience feedback I learned that audiences are very concerned with how the message of the video is shown and how I planned on making it approachable and not cringey. I also learnt that when it comes to promoting other products that are not the artists in their video (product placement), people think that most of the time it can be 'too in your face' and if it is done in a subtle way they don't mind if it's there or not. Most people also like longer music videos that contain a narrative and are entertaining- according to information collected by my audience questionnaire.


DURING PRODUCTION
Whilst filming and editing, I asked my actors what they thought of the footage and if they thought the message could be conveyed another way. We shot the same scenes multiple times but from different angles or with different element to see how it looked and to also have more options when editing. I also asked other peers who were filming music videos what they thought of the editing I had done and what could be done to make it better. One person said that it may have not made sense to people that hadn't been shown the pitch or knew the narrative of the story. To try and make it more understandable I included shots that emphasised the message I wanted: that the male in the relationship had died and the female was now alone and missed him.



POST-PRODUCTION
After I finished filming and completed the editing process, I showed my music video to some of my peers and asked them for their notes. Some said that 'The editing seems a bit repetitive'. I explained to them that a lot of my shots, especially at the beginning, overlap each other as I wanted a gentle transition in-between shots as then it would mirror the tone of the song. I made my editing more abrupt and sharp towards the bridge of the song as the singer got more aggressive and emotional.

PRINT PRODUCTS
Before creating both my print products I wanted to get some feedback on what my target audience and any audience like and dislike about album art covers. To do this I handed out questionnaires (insert) to 10 people: 5 from my target audience and five that preferred other music genres. From the information given back to me I found out that most people often like it when an album has a image of the artist somewhere on the front cover as opposed to having something more abstract. I also learned that having album covers in colour are most popular with audiences.

Task 13: Evaluation Production Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

To show a clear connection between both my ancillary products and my main product, I made the main image on both ancillary texts a picture of the artist to ensure that audiences would immediately know who the products belonged to. I took a range of pictures for my ancillary texts so I could choose which one I felt would work best as the main image on promotion for my artist.

Although it is not made abundantly clear because I didn't want it to be too much of a focus on the ancillary texts, I made both images on both ancillary texts directly linked to the music video. The album cover shows the artist in the same clothes as the music video with the church behind her, I wanted to produce it this way to show how the music video and album are linked. The magazine advert too shows the artist the same as in the video and features the church although it is obviously a little harder to notice as it is a close up compared to the medium shot from the album cover which allows for more a background. By doing this, the same dull colours were used for the advert, the album cover and in the music video and this combines all three products. This therefore shows synergy between my ancillary texts and my main product.

I also chose to use the same font in both ancillary texts although for my magazine advert I made the font bold and extended the writing to have it more recognisable and seen for audiences. I did not choose to have titles on my music video itself as I thought the genre and theme of the song would suit having no titles. That being said, if I chose to include titles I would have used the same font again to show a link between all three texts.

I included when the album is available   on my magazine advert as this is a common feature in magazine adverts as it gives the audience a date that they can actually buy or order the product. Another way I combined both of my ancillary texts was by adding an image of the front cover of my album to the magazine advert. This too is common with magazine adverts as it shows the audience what to look for when shopping or when looking for the album.

I researched existing magazine adverts as I felt this was more difficult in creating than the album digipack. I looked at Ed Sheeran and Beyonce and how their marketing campaigns promotes their albums and their brand. From this I discovered that showing the album's front cover is very popular and used by big artists to show their products. I also found out that it is usually the name of the artist that is the biggest piece of writing on the advert with usually the name of the album being the second largest. Including a release date is another feature that some artists included which is why I thought it would be good to include it too. In order to combine my three products well, following codes and conventions of real media products is crucial (eg including the release date on the magazine advert, the picture of the artist on the album cover and the length of the music video). By doing this I made my products more realistic and more believable as real media products.

My main product and ancillary texts were also combined through the recurring images of a graveyard/church. In my music video my artist is shown repetitively walking through a graveyard, standing in front of a church or near a grave. In my music video I wanted to keep showing this by creating symbolism that someone the artist knew has died which the audience can presume was a partner through flashbacks in the video. In my album digipack I used three panels to show images linking to this theme so a reference would be made to the music video. I used an image of the Gothic cathedral in France, the Notre-Dame as I thought it's gothic connotations would be good to use for an album digipack for this artist. An image of both the church and the artist standing in front of the church was also used on the album digipack as this is a more relevant and specific reference to the music video itself.

In both of my ancillary texts there is an image(s) that is shown through video in my music video. This then shows how my ancillary texts and main product are effectively combined and therefore present my artist as linked to all three products so the audience know that all texts are made by the same artist.

Task 13: Evaluation Production Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Before making or even planning my music video, I researched existing media products such as music videos, magazine adverts and CD album covers. This allowed me to evaluate what works best and connects more efficiently to audiences, therefore making it more likely to be successful. For example, I learned that on magazine adverts, there will often be some sort of advert to a specific streaming site or shop where there may be a deal on for that particular album. On a lot of adverts there was an 'available on itunes' or listen to on spotify' segment which was a small detail, but still included as it is an advertisement. For this reason my media product, and more specifically my magazine ancillary text, uses conventions of real media products as I have used a small advertisement like this on my product as it is very popular amongst other adverts. I also learned that links between the lyrics and what is actually on screen are very popular also, which is why I tried to incorporate this into my music video. One example of me including this convention is when the line "It's been seven whole day since I heard the phone ring" plays, the female character rings the male character and he answers the phone.



Music videos often show a similar tempo to the actual music it is being made for, for example a fast, upbeat pop song will most likely have fast and sharp cuts within the music video to keep in time with the beat of the song. To show that I knew and understood this concept, I made sure that because my chosen song had a slow tempo that created a ballad like feel, I had subtle and gentle transitions between shots. I mostly used the dissolve and fade transitions but occasionally used the fade to black transition. I also used slow-motion towards the end of the video to make a clip longer as I needed to extend the clip without using another part of it . As this was slow and gentle this again showed relevance to the tempo and genre of the song.



Another way that my media product showed a convention of typical media products, in this example the actual music video itself, is by it being the standard 3-5 minutes long. This time frame is most popular in music videos as this allows time for audio to be played and that would be the entire video. Some, and now more, artists however are making their music videos longer in order to create a more developed narrative with perhaps more scenes in with more dialogue or monologues that add to the theme and message of the video. However it could be said that as more artists are including more detailed and developed narratives therefore making their music videos around 2 minutes longer, that mine is in fact challenging a convention of real media products in modern society .


One way I developed and challenged conventions of real media products was by showing a less positive side to a relationship. In real media products there will not usually be any signs of negativity in a relationship unless the song and music video is specifically about a bad quality in a relationship. What I mean by this is, if a song was about adultery for example the music video will often show things that led to the event, the event itself and then the aftermath. Although my video is melancholy due to its relevance to death there is nothing in the lyrics that suggests it was a bad relationship. However, I decided to include scenes in the narrative that show arguments as this is a normal part of all relationships and so I felt it was important to include this. I felt that this extra detail to the video contributed to the relationship's validity and believability as a relationship.

Another way in which I challenged a convention of real media products was by not having the person that died portrayed as negative in any way. In music videos that show death, they often show how it happened and why it happened, for example they may show the male taking drugs or driving whilst under the influence and then show that he died. In my music video it doesn't explicitly show how he died and so it keeps it more ambiguous and doesn't make any assumptions.


I think my music video shows existing conventions of the majority of music videos, especially for this genre. However I also think that I included developments of those conventions in order to set my music video apart from the rest.

Task 12: Audience Feedback

MID-PRODUCTION 

In order to ensure that I was a product that was going to be received well, halfway through editing I asked peers to view my video and criticise and praise it for things I had done well on and things that could be improved. To do this I asked them to watch the video and then asked them three questions: "Did you enjoy the video (so far)?", "What do you think I have done well?" and "What could I do to improve?". The responses I got were all telling me the same points and opinions. I found out that most of my peers were enjoying the video and for the few that weren't they said that it was due to the song itself not being something they like. They said that I showed forms and conventions of music videos well in terms of editing and the range of shots.

At the point in editing when I showed them, I hadn't actually properly showed that the male in the relationship had died and so they said that I should try and make that clearer which I did by adding more flashbacks and more shots of the church or with my actress walking beside graves. Few also said that by adding two black bars to my video at the top and bottom, a more professional and realistic video would be produced. I decided to take their criticisms on board and add a black bar to my video to give it this more professional look. By completing the editing of the video I was also able to make the storyline clearer and add in more flashbacks and links to the male's death.

END OF PRODUCTION

After completing my editing I asked the same peers again to comment on my editing, the range of shots I included, the narrative of the video, my print artefacts and what I could improve in my music video. 

Most people said that the repetitive use of my dissolve fade fitted the music video and this genre well as it wasn't sharp and so it connected well to the theme of song and the video. They also commented that when I did edit differently, for example when I made sharp cuts when the two characters are specking to each other on the phone, it created pace and was realistic for how that situation would actually happen.

I also discovered that people thought I used a good range of shots within the music video and commented on how the POV shot of the female character(camera) looking at the male helped to show the relationship between the two. It was drawn to my attention that some people would have liked to see more shots of nature or more establishing shots within the video. As when I asked my peers mid-production, they commented on the narrative and how I portrayed the two characters on screen. However this time a lot more stated that they understood that this was a romantic relationship due to shots of them holding hands, kissing and arguing.

Creative Journal

Week commencing 10/10/16

I will begin to research into existing media products such as music videos similar to the one I hope to make and also research into print products used for successful artists.

Week commencing 17/10/16

I will start to begin planning my music video by creating mind maps to suggest what my music video could entail, I will also begin audience research to find out what the target audience of my music video will be. I can do this by looking into target audiences of existing music videos and artists.

• I began thinking about my music video and what genre I would like it to be.  I did this by creating mind maps. I think I would like to create a music video that connotes the feeling of melancholy and use a song that also does that. I think I have decided on Lea Michele's 'If You Say So' as I am a big fan of her work and I feel a personal connection to the song.
• I started researching successful music videos and how they convey messages. In class we looked at Lady Gaga and Beyoncé and how they showed messages subtly through different shots.
• I also needed to plan where I think a song like this would be suitable to film (locations). I have decided on filming in one of my actor's houses and in a graveyard near his house.

Week commencing 24/10/17

I will arrange my video ideas into a storyboard so I have a visual reference when creating my music video. I will also begin thinking about how an audience would like to see a song like mine portrayed in a video.

Weeks commencing 31/10/17 and 07/11/16

I have annotated lyrics to 'If You Say So' to draw literal interpretation and meaning from the song itself. I have begun to film some performance elements of my music video as well as one narrative section with only Becky. I have also made posts on both my cast and a production schedule.

Weeks commencing 05/12/16

I have started to brainstorm initial ideas for my print artefacts as well as write a post about my video locations. I will also explore the meaning behind the song in a post.

Week commencing 12/12/16 to week ending 22/01/17

In these weeks I plan to both complete filming and have done the majority of my editing to the music video. I will have filmed with both Becky and Alex and this time frame will also leave time for any mistakes that may need to be refilmed. I will also start to crop and edit my shots in order to combine them into a music video

Week commencing 23/01/17 to week ending 19/02/17

I will complete my editing process as well as take images that will be used for my print products, I will then complete my print products and put them onto my blog, as well as my final edit of my music video.