Above is my fourth draft of my music video. The difference from draft 3 is that I have added in transitions so that the video flows nicely with the music and just adds a cool touch to the music video.
Targets For Improvement
Add in a home video effect on the clips with the little boy to make it clear that them certain clips are from the past
Re-order the sequence so that the narrative makes sense
Add layer onto the clips with the little boy to create white lines to give a homevideo effect
Remove the ending of the sound after the song finishes at it doesn’t relate
Above is my third draft of my music video. I have changed the following things from draft 2:
The games that are played are now set out in order showing all of them from the beginning of the game and later showing them all being played and smashed
The clips with the little boy are now in a vintage colour to give a home video effect as its representing the past
Every clip with the son and the father are now in black and white to infer that every moment with his now is just plain and the same
Took out one clip with me in the blue shirt as it didn’t make sense with just one clip in different clothing
Some of the games being destroyed are now in slow motion to make the video more intense
The colour of the overall video are a different temperature of blue but just a little hint of it
After uploading this draft to YouTube, I asked two allocated media students to leave a comment on what they think. This is what I received:
“Really great narrative, I understand the story and meaning behind it. However pace of edit/where some of the clips are cut are a little bit strange. Also I think the two clips of yourself flipping the board games alongside each other is too much and they need to be separated, even by one clip in between”
“I love the narrative and its easy to understand with the mannequin and the child. Really great performance – very emotional and makes the viewer feel sad for them. The use of the colour is also very effective and creates a good contrast. I love the range of shots and the slow mos of the board games. However, maybe some editing of the beat would make the video feel smoother overall. Possibly some more long shots? Overall I loved it, very clever and very well edited!”
My targets for improvement on next draft
Add in one more clip in between both the boards being flipped over
Add in some transitions to make the music video flow smoother
Above is my draft 2 for my music video which includes the main narrative related to it.
What Went Well
Good range of different shots and angles
The shots by the window with the light over his face are really visually pleasing and well composed
The editing does invoke an emotional response
The video has a good balance between the flashbacks and the present day
Targets For Draft 3
The black and white colouring is only on some of the flashback shots which makes it feel less continuous as a theme. Change the black and white shots to the clips with the man and the mannequin
Change the clips with the little boy to a vintage colour
The shots of him becoming more angry with the mannequin could pop up briefly a little earlier in the video, to make sure the idea of his frustration is clear throughout
Change the sequence so that the board games are showed starting, then being played, and then being destroyed so that it makes sense
Earlier on in the week whilst we were completing our third draft of our music video we were lucky enough to receive a visit from the creative team at Specsavers and the Digital Greenhouse. They showed us many tips and tricks to improve our music video.
I got showed a tool of Premiere Pro which was called Warp Stabilizer, this tool helps a certain clip smooth out and not make it shaky. This was very helpful as some of our clips were shaky and not steady so this tool was very effective in creating a stable clip.
The visit from the creative team was also very beneficial as they viewed what we had already completed in our music video and gave us extra advice on how to improve it. They also spotted out the faults with the music video which was good as we were then able to correct them to make the video a better standard. From this we took away some tips with the pace of editing as they showed us so that the whole video is not at the same pace of transitioning. We also learned how to change the lighting correctly so that all of the videos follow a consistent lighting to make it look like a realistic music video.
I think the most useful trick that they taught me was to use the adjustment layer on Premiere Pro. This enabled me to add the same effect on a variety of different clips so that I did not have to waste time adding an effect on each individual clip.
Above is a screen castify from our teacher for our second draft of our music video. This is useful as it helps us to add in and develop the music video to a better standard than it currently is at.
Targets for our draft 3
Put the board games into sequence from the start of the game to then end in order
Change the colour of the scenes with the little boy from black and white into a vintage effect
Change the colour of the scenes with the son and mannequin from no effect to a black and white effect
Take out some shots as some of them are repeated shots
Change the angle of some shots by making them bigger in premiere pro as some shots are always central
More shots of the little boy doing different things
This second narrative shoot was filmed at Bea’s house, in order for our narrative to work we needed another model to be included in the music video. After finishing our second narrative shoot and looking back on the footage we decided that it did not make sense and therefore decided to not include it in our music video. This is because our narrative is about love vs hate with the son and father and family issues and entrapment. Having the other model as the main star of the music videos partner just didn’t fit the original narrative we came up with. The shoot was helpful to some extent as after reviewing the footage and decided not to include it, it made it more obvious to us to which direction we had to go in and specific things we had to include for it to follow our narrative.
Because this shoot was unsuccessful e did not have enough footage for our music video meaning there were too many repeating shots, therefore I did some shots of myself at home on my phone which were very successful as they followed the narrative of a teenager trapped in this plain room and in his own thoughts. These shots were good enough to be in the music video however they were recorded on an iPhone as I did not have the right equipment at home making the videos a little blurry when uploading them. Because of this I went into premiere pro and added a lot of different effects and tools to make the shots look like a home video shot therefore making sense throughout the whole of the music video.
Above is an image of our risk assessment that we were required to fill out for our narrative shoot. This helps us minimise the risks of the shoot to ensure our safety. We did not have many risks as our shoot took place at Bea’s house therefore stairs would have been the only risk.
Above is our production meeting agenda for our second shoot. This allowed to us to shoot our scenes more smoothly and efficiently as we knew what we needed to include for our music video. This PMA is essential to the group as it allows us to essentially shoot our music video with all the tools that we need without worrying about anything else.
Below is an image of Me and Bea’s narrative board. Storyboards are a very important part in the making of a music video as it gives us an idea of the narrative and the certain shots and scenes that need to be recorded to be put into the music video. For each part of the narrative we have wrote down the different shots and angles that we will be using for a certain part of the music video. This task was very useful as it also gave me and Bea new ideas to put in place for our music video.
This document taught me that a narrative must develop, it must have a beginning, middle and an end. This is the equilibrium, disruption, resolution and the new equilibrium. Most music videos will follow this regardless of whether their narrative is amplified, illustrative or disjunctive. Me and Bea looked at the different ways we could present this narrative, in doing so we chose amplification because although the video follows a story it does not exactly represent what the song is about.
When making a narrative it is always a good idea to leave the narrative unfinished leaving a cliff hanger to the story as this makes the audience want to re watch or continue watching other music videos by the same artist as if a narrative has a closed ending then it makes the audience not want to re watch it as they already know the ending of the story.
