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Music Video Final Draft

Our music video’s final draft has reflected our genre accurately, whilst being aesthetically pleasing and featuring a high level of post-production effects. We are generally satisfied with our end product, despite the video being slightly different to what we had originally planned.

During the process of creating our video, my group and I made conscious efforts to not only reflect the genre of pop-punk but to ensure that the video blended in with other music videos in our genre by ensuring that we used correct technical forms such as editing to the beat and accurate lip-syncing. Using a variety of shot distances and angles was emphasised during the shooting process to prevent a one-dimensional or uninspiring video.

We aimed to represent the star image of the band ‘Sonder’ in a way that portrays the band as both distant and mysterious, whilst also being ordinary and relatable, to tie in with Dyer’s theory of ‘The paradox of the star’. This was done through appropriate mise-en-scene such as casual clothing and band instruments but also conveyed through post-production special effects to create a sense of surrealism that displayed our artist as extraordinary. We ensured to include a repertoire of elements that made our video conventional to the genre of pop-punk (Altman).

Initially, we wanted to include an equal distribution of narrative and performance, however, due to our narrative shoots not producing a standard of videography we were content with, we made the video mainly performance-based whilst incorporating narrative footage from our shoots to connote a theme (Levi Strauss) of loneliness and depression throughout the video. This influenced our production process because we had to compensate by adding more visually stimulating features such as fast-paced editing and special effects to compensate for the lack of a narrative in order to maintain our audience’s attention for the entire video.

After having been given feedback from peer assessment, we addressed some of the issues regarding editing choices, however, a lot of the feedback was referring to the lack of narrative content in our video. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to amend this, but we did aim to compensate for it through a more visually pleasing video.

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Peer Feedback for Draft 4

Feedback from other media students is an extremely valuable way of improving our music video. We collected feedback from 3 different students and compiled them as shown below;

Peer Feedback Compiled 

  • ‘To begin with I think the MES fits the genre well. The dark colours of clothing helps establish this gloomy and alternative form of music that gives this grungy/punk vibe to the performers. I like how in the narrative the actor is wearing just a basic outfit being plain white tee-shirt and denim trousers as it reflects that this boy has insecurities and a lack of identity so these clothes help him almost blend in so he does not feel judged by bringing notice to himself’
  • ‘I also like the low key lighting in the performance yet again illustrating a dreary atmosphere. I like the bright overexposed sort of lighting when the actor is walking around in the yard reflecting when he is outside he is feeling exposed and everything for him has become almost dizzy, flustering and dreamy for him as he is lost and feeling overwhelmed’
  • ‘I think the acting is really good and the performer shows a lot of passion making it super convincing that he is the real singer’
  • ‘The use of the broken mirror was an excellent choice to convey this boy is feeling insecure. I think using the yard was confusing at first but then I noticed it made a lot of sense with the lyrics and was very clever’
  • For the performing shoot I think the room has a dark feel to it with the blue stained glass and the broken light above. The shots were steady and the variety of distances, angles and movement was very good and flowed well with the music’
  • ‘I would say the start image was okay but the singer is the main indicator you listen out for when listening to alternative indie therefore the singer needed their costume to stand out slightly more as the base guitarist and lead singer both were wearing similar black clothing whereas the drummer had a white tee-shirt on which makes him stand out which may have been a good thing for like a heavy metal song where the drummer has a lot more significance and isn’t such a simple sequence for them’
  • ‘I would also say that it would be nicer to see some other transitions’
  • ‘Lastly my biggest thing is I think you need to include more narrative shots in your music video as of now it is a little to much of performance and not a clear enough storyline, there feels to be a big chunk during the middle that needs to be broken up by some narrative shots just in order to make the video a little less repetitive and I also believe although you can gather the main message of the storyline from the few clips I think it needs to be developed a little further at least’
  • ‘Some of the lip sync was visibly out of sync and some of the lighting during the shots of the  whole band would of been a little bit better but overall it was really great’
  • ‘None of your clips drag on, they are all nice quick shots. The shots also have a good range of angles and distances. It isn’t boring and the movement in the clips fit together very well. Near the end, you have some shaky transitional effects that look really cool and effective. You have some shots with good angles and lighting’
  • ‘I don’t understand the narrative. What’s the story behind the main character? Has he been through a breakup? If so, I like the cracked mirror, it gives the impression the cover star feels broken too… Why is there a guy walking around miserable outside- is he part of the story?’
  • ‘There’s a few shots that are blurry, I think some of these are on purpose, but it looks like some should be a better quality to me. Specifically one near the start, or the shots of the second guitar playing out of focus’

We have taken this feedback on board and made necessary changes in order to improve our music video. A very common criticism was regarding our narrative which was highlighting the lack of shots which contributed to the narrative having little meaning to it. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of footage to help this and to create a story out of the narrative, however we do have enough footage to allow the narrative to create some sort of meaning and almost act as a theme of loneliness and depression radiating throughout the video. In regards to the blurry shots and other criticism that cannot be changed, that is something that is out of control at this stage in the production, but we will aim to use alternative shots where possible.

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Draft 3 – Specsavers feedback

After completing our 3rd draft of our music video, we were provided with feedback from Specsaver’s creative department employees who film and edit professionally as their jobs. We were mainly given feedback regarding effects, post production and our narrative.

The main few points were:

  • We needed more narrative in our music video with a variety of shots to help keep the audience engaged because watching a music video that is solely performance based be boring and can cause the audience to stop watching it
  • We were shown how to colour correct to ensure all shots were at a similar colour level as well as how to create an adjustment layer so we could add colour effects to the entire video evenly
  • We were shown how to duplicate our performer to make our narrative more interesting and creative to make up for the lack of story telling.

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Music Video Draft 3 – Teacher Screencastify

The feedback from our teacher allows for another point of view regarding our 3rd draft music video, allowing for feedback that we may not have thought of otherwise. In general, the feedback was mostly positive, however, there were a few key points to improve on, such as, including more narrative shots throughout the whole video, not just the start, more close-up shots to increase the connection and proximity of the vocalist and more canted shots when in energetic sections in order to further enhance the energy.

Key targets for improvement:

  • Add the rest of the narrative shots and sequence them so that they portray a theme
  • Add special effects and transitions to make the video more unique and visually stimulating
  • Add a title and ending sequence to introduce the song

 

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Draft 2

The second draft of our music video has started to include our narrative performance. Unfortunately, our narrative shoot doesn’t align with our expectations and is sub-par, therefore it would make more sense to turn the video into a mainly performance driven video, compared to our previous plan of having it include equal amounts of narrative and performance. At this stage in the production, it would be slightly too late to film a second pick-up shoot, and since we are working to deadlines, it would be a more effective use of our team to try and make what we have the best it can be.

4 things that worked

  • Performance is convincing and the actors look like they are playing the song and giving credibility
  • All shots are well synced
  • Variety of shot angles and distances
  • Good camera movement to enhance energetic moments

4 things that should be improved

  • Inconsistent camera exposure and lighting
  • Lack of narrative content
  • No filters
  • Narrative doesn’t convey a lot of meaning

Reflecting on what could be improved is important to our group so that we can make necessary adjustments to narrative and performance to conform to the genre conventions of pop punk. Setting goals and targets will help structure our feedback and help filter out the unnecessary and help us focus on what is important to make the video a product that won’t be rejected by the audience.

 

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Shoot 2 Reflection

Our second shoot went well and some of the props we had were put in to good use, however I would’ve preferred to have been more organised compared to leaving things last minute. Due to our lack of good content to use in our narrative, we have had to change our video from having equal parts narrative to performance, to being more performance led and having our narrative represent a theme compared to telling a story.

What went well: 

  • Good range of shots that represent the theme of loneliness
  • Shots align well and compliment performance
  • A variety of shot ranges and angles
  • Two locations of footage

What went wrong:

  • Poor planning of what exactly we wanted to shoot
  • Rushing through the shoot so we didn’t perfect the shots we needed
  • The clothing could be a bit less plain and could reflect the genre better

Although the shoot didn’t go as planned, I feel as though we have enough footage to integrate into our performance draft.

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Video Narrative Photo Board/Shot List

Creating a shot list is important for our whole group to have a clear sense of direction and decide how we will decide to shoot the video, taking into consideration Mise-en-scene.

Our genre of pop punk, combined with the emotional content of the song, requires a video that conveys a meaning of loneliness and depression. This can be represented through conventional shots to the genre such as close ups and tracking shots as well as framing shots to help paint the picture of the star’s surroundings that lead to the connotations of depression and loneliness. In our narrative shoot, we will aim to use these shots in order to convey the correct meaning and compliment our performance shoot.