Category: Creative Critical Reflection 3

In order to write our critical reflection essay, we had to apply specific questions to specific products and look at theories such as De Saussure, Barthes, Dyer and examples of our Music Video, Digipak and Social Media.

By being able to describe and analyse our products with reference to specific examples and terminology to describe the conventional features that we have used, developed and challenged to construct and represent a specific set of ideas which overall was based around our brand or mission statement!

We have used Premier Pro throughout our shots through exploring the different effects and how we can make the clips fit the frame in order to convey the narrative most to the audience and give structure to the music video.

The design skills we have used include:

Position and Scale

By enlarging the scale in a range of our clips, such as the boxing gloves on the main model after he wins his fight. This enabled us to convey the power of the star as he wins the fight and as he overcomes the stress and feels a sense of redemption from his heart after his broken relationship. The outcome of enlarging the scale and position of the image to the centre of the frame allowed us to see the emotion of the star as he is relieved at the end compared to the anger and frustration he feels at the start of the video.

Framing

We used the camera such as for the framing of our star as he is sat on the bench unpacking feeling angry and frustrated, to give a depth of field of him compared to the boxing ring at the start. This allowed us to presented our star and structure our narrative in clear moments.

Warp Stabilizer

Finally, another skill we used would be warp stabilizer in the effects. This allowed us to get a focused extreme close up of the ring as the original clip was shakey and took away from the main focus of it being kept on the bench. The warp stabilizer improved the overall video quality of our product by being able to remove some parts of the unwanted camera shakes.

Reflecting on our Shoot and the Draft 1 Music Video we had a range of locations and mise-en-scene which helped to portray our genre. We had the camera set up on a tripod, shoulder mount and a dolly, this helped us to take different shots such as our tilt shot, tracking shot and close-ups. This influenced our product as we can convey a clear view of our star through her movement and actions. 

Furthermore, on Premiere pro, we were able to zoom in on shots instead of using the camera to zoom for a steady and composed shot. This allowed us to play with the time we wanted the zoom, how fast or slow we wanted it to be and also helped as the star was closer to the camera and the audience could engage and see the facial expressions of our star clearly through the close-up and displays her content and confidence in herself.

Furthermore, by being able to flip shots and crop this allowed our star to fit the frame instead of being off centre. The outcome of this was that we can see the star clearly and the location and it makes her the centre of attention as she fits within the frame. This flip allows us to see the stars mise-en-scene and be more connected to the star as an audience member as she fits the frame. These longer shots allowed us to see movement and give width to the video.

We also copied the cartwheel clip and flipped the clip to reverse so it showed me going both ways and added a faster pace of edit and fun energy to the star. The star isn’t singing in this clip and this can show an insight into her personality and fun-loving nature. The movement shots demonstrate youthfulness and pensiveness of the star.