This is the draft 4 of my music video, where throughout the process of making this I had previously drafted 3 other edits, in which I obtained feedback on each one to reach the final edit of the video. From obtaining feedback from peers I was able to reflect on what was successful in the music video and what else I could do to improve the edit and make it more appealing to the target audience in order to create audience interaction.

The aspects of improvement :

• The lip syncing has been improved, so it is more in sync to the audio.
• The pace of edit, there is more of a consistency through the clip when editing to the beat.
• Filters- consistency of black and white filters in the narrative parts of the video- making it consistent theme wise.
• Included more punch bag montage shots with horizontal flips.
• Played with the colour from performance clips
• We used dissolve at the end to make the video have less of an abrupt ending

Summary of Feedback:

• Interesting angles, in particularly the hand held shots as it adds perspective.
• Clear narrative- the same performer defines the emotions.
• Lip syncing was perfected.
• The symbol of the ring ties the video together.
• Experiment with colour on the performance clips.

Overall, I am pleased with what my group and I have created and I believe this video has been successful where we created the ratio of 50:50 of narrative to performance. It has been successful portraying the intensity conveyed in both the narrative and audio and the unique, bold and distinct editing and pace of edit has contributed well to the sombre themes of emotional instability from heartbreak.

We have created a Draft 3 from the feedback we have received from our visitors from Specsavers, Mr Gregson and improvements we have decided as a group.

What’s changed since our Draft 2?

• We thoroughly went through the lip-syncing in order to correct the imperfections where the time was slightly off.
• Shortening clips and removing unnecessary and repetitive clips such as the model wrapping his hands before the fight as it was quite tedious to watch and we replaced this worth including montage shots.
• We spent time making sure the clips were edited to the beat at the right times.
• Used positioning and scale to zoom in shots to fit the space and cropped out any unwanted objects in the background.
• Experimented with different colours and filters e.g. used black and white effect for narrative clips until to extenuate his feelings of sorrow and suffering from his heartbreak.
• Removed the existing transition as they didn’t quite fit the style of video and came across comedic.

We chose to seek feedback from other media students and asked them to leave their comments on our draft 3 as we considered that it’s important that as a media producer we are seeking feedback and trying to get impartial audience comments in order for us to make improvements that we may had not seen ourselves. Below is the feedback we received:

Overall, we were happy with the feedback we received as it allowed us to consider new ideas from people with different opinions and also reminded us of the positives of our music video.

Targets for improvement we gathered from our peers include: 

• Start with a closer angle as when the artist starts to sing it will create a more personal connection with the audience.
• Add more colour editing and change the lighting at certain points of the performance clips to make it less bright and overexposed because it would make them pop and stand out.
• Increase the saturation throughout the video within the narrative when he is starting to feel more uplifted instead of abruptly going straight back into colour.
• Possibly add some more filters on the performance to make it more engaging and alluring.
• Add a few more shots to the end of the music video so that the ending isn’t as abrupt.
• Replace the shots which are quite shaky or attempt to add a stabilizing effect onto them.
• A few areas where the lip syncing is out and doesn’t match up.
• One clip within the narrative which is not in black and white nearer the start (0:32)

To receive a second opinion Mr Gregson recorded a Screen castify of our music video. This was useful as we can watch the video over and take notes of the improvements we need to make on our video to make it as successful as possible.

Positive feedback:

• Strong footage.
• Good use of successful frame within a frame which conveys his confinement.
• Clear performance and some really successful clips throughout.
• Good use of jump cut at the beginning.
• Range of different shots e.g. close ups and long shots.
• Good sequence at 2.46 of the montage of the boxing club.

Areas for improvement:

• Ensure the narrative is clear as it needs to fit the serious and somber theme.
• Make sure to edit to the beat to relate to the song.
• Keep using the different shots of the ring throughout the video as it is the main symbol of his anguish.
• Play with the narrative and distinguish it from the performance by playing with effects and colour.

I am pleased with the comments Mr Gregson gave for our video as we can now use his comments to improve on our video and reflect on what we have done successfully. To develop our video we will use his constructive feedback and creative ideas to talk together as a group on areas where we should change and improve. We will start by duplicating our draft 2 to make our improvements as we can go back if we are not happy with our changes. We will also add in the suitable shots that were recommended in certain places and correct the colouring of each shot to distinguish between the performance and narrative. As well as ensure all of the lip syncing is perfected and edit to the beat and add transitions and effects that fit with the serious and somber theme of the music so the two link together.

As a group we agreed we thought Mr Gregson’s idea of changing the colour of our narrative to black and white was a great idea and could work successfully in our video as it would distinguish between the narrative and the performance. It would also make it clear to the audience that Tyler is dealing with the emotions of a heartbreak and the sorrow and anguish that comes with this process, as he is feeling that there is no colour in his life. We would also like to experiment with the idea of colour coming back into the narrative at the end of the video after he has let his rage and resentment out on his opponment. This would reflect that he is left almost relieved and comforted from his fight as the intensity helped elevate his mood by taking his mind off his grief.

In order to help us with the editing of our video we got some advice from a Specsavers employee to help us with possible affects and creative ideas that we can add into our video. In preparation for his visit they prepared a tutorial to make our workspace on Premier Pro easy and simple to use for our editing stage.

They also explained to us how to achieve different affects to help our video become more creative. This allowed us to explore and experiment more with affects on our video and understand fully how to do this.

His advice included:

• Finish our new edit in order to start adding more effects.
• Set the tone and exposure of each video to the same so it doesn’t look unusual and so the video all looks brought together.
• Think about possible creative affects to include.
• Split narrative and performance on different rows.

Here is our draft two of our music video which includes the performance shots as well as some narrative shots.

Overall, I’m reasonably happy with our draft two of our music video. However, I feel that there is an element missing from the video that links it all together so the video is clear and makes sense. In order to try and solve this problem we’re going to seek feedback from our peers and teacher to help see what is missing.

What went well…

• We were able to include a range of different shots to make our video more engaging.
• Allowed us to see how we were going to merge our narrative as a story within the music video to make sense with performance shots in between.
• Developed a sense of possible effects and creative ideas we can include once we are happy with the sequence of the video.

Even better if…

• There needs to be a clear difference between his emotions at the start of the narrative compared to how he’s feeling at the end of the music video.
• We could add transitions and effects that fit with the serious and somber theme of the music so the two link together and remove the comedic ones that are used.
• Ensure all the lip syncing is perfected to create an engagement with the viewer as it is a basic skill in our video.

To focus forward for our next draft we will duplicate this in order to go back if we do not like our new changes. From this draft I have learnt the importance of perfecting the lip syncing first and colour correcting the clips if needed then add the after effects as it looks more professional and refined.

For our narrative shoot, we went to the Guernsey Amalgamated Boxing Club to portray our performers thoughts and feeling of heartbreak. Our shoot went successful as we took many clips and followed our narrative performance sheets that we created the week before in preparation for this shoot. We got a range of different shots and concentrated on achieving those close ups of the performers facial reactions.

If we decide to do another shoot for our music video, we have learnt that we need to:

• Take many close up reaction shots for each scene as they create an engagement in the video.
• Ensure we have created the most suitable lighting as it changes the atmosphere of the video completely.
• Ensure that shots are not over exposed as some clips were not effective because the lighting was not correct.
• Use frame within a frame to create that sense of loneliness in the video as the performer is feeling very isolated and an outcast.
• Tracking is key when following the performer during the narrative as it gives the sense that the viewer is in the ring with them.

This clip of Tyler putting in his headphones gives a sense of the relationship between the music and the video which is why I think it’s a successful clip from our sequence. It is also includes movement of him continuing to look in mirror to add power to this clip.

As a group we weren’t happy with our last two shoots when we looked over the clips. We tried our best to work with the clips we had created but after our first rough draft we were not satisfies and decided that we could look into trying out a male version of the song. As a group we preferred the aura of the male version and found we could create a more successful narrative with this version and explore more with our ideas. Here is our Production Meeting Agenda for our second shoot which includes the shoot location, who our models are, their outfit, and hair and what we are hoping to achieve.

We also completed a risk assessment sheet for this performance shoot. This allowed us to be aware of the potential risk so we can avoid them.

To prepare for our narrative shoot we completed a risk assessment as it is essential to understand and be aware of the potential risks in order to control them from happening.

To help plan and prepare for our shoot we created each of our narrative scenes into a story board. Our aim for our narrative is to create a story of a boy going through heartbreak and the emotional process it includes. We are using a ring to signify their relationship and the devotion they thought they had for each other. This means that we need to include many close ups to show his anguish and movement in the camera to add a sense of energy power to our scenes.

From developing our ideas for our narrative, we have completed our Production Meeting Agenda below which includes decisions about costumes, lighting, make up, props, technical equipment as well as who is responsible. Our aims for the shoot is to successfully portray the anger and depression our actor is feeling through the different reaction close ups in the narrative for our music video.