Here is the final draft of our music video ‘Go’:

All the final amendments of our video were subtle, small technical changes of some timing, lighting and editing choices were altered to finalise the video in a professional manner. An accurate representation of the star image we aimed to create was crucial in the production of this music video; mise en scene created with costume, lighting, setting and editing all worked cohesively to present our star as powerful, independant and strong. The combination of expensive belongings/settings like the convertible car with affordable, everyday items like the Urban Outfitters costume created an idea of our star being ordinary and extraordinary (Dyer). This narrative was a necessity in order to create an interactive, engaging relationship between the star and her audience. We included a repotoire of elements (Altman and Lacey), commonly associated with the pop genre, to ensure our media text wasn’t rejected by the target audience. These included bold makeup looks, fun and experimental lighting, pace of edit, glittery costume etc. All of these elements also work together to represent our audience (Barthes), when researching, we found our audience wore and expressed themselves in these same forms so displaying our star like this represented our audience as a social group well. We ensured to include a large range of camera angles and shot distances that worked effectively when combined with editing techniques; these ranged from close ups, zooms, long shots, wide shots, pans etc. Our lighting ranged from low key to high key and this was dependant on the moods and emotions being expressed through lyrics and acting at that time in the video – if our star was angry the lighting would be more harsh and highkey, whereas if she was sad the lighting would be deeper and lowkey. The lipsyncing was flawless by the end of production and this was due to the editing to the beat, establishing the beat and editing at different paces to keep the video interesting, allowed a flow of different clips when lip syncing to be used seamlessly.

Peer assessment is helpful to gain new ideas and critiques, it means a fresh set of eyes can look at the video with no bias or preconcieved ideas. The feedback will be raw and honest to improve videos as much as possible. During this task, two people assessed and marked our music video in relation to a specific criteria.

1ST PEER FEEDBACK:

2ND PEER FEEDBACK:

OVERALL POSITIVE FEEDBACK:

• MES was effective and matched the song and genre well.
• Editing to the beat was successful and effective in montages.
• Acting told the narrative well and the trasnitions between performance and narrative were seamless.
• Good range of angles and shots, range of close to long shots was great.
• Tripod was used well to keep shots steady and editing keeps shots steady.
• Star image is communicated clearly.

OVERALL NEGATIVE FEEDBACK:

• Blue lighting was overused and somewhat distracting.
• Some parts of lip syncing seemed off.
• Editing to the beat seemed slightly off in one montage.
• Lacked variety of movement.

WHAT I WILL TAKE ONBOARD:

• I went through the video and checked all the montages to the second and all are in time, sometimes the video glitches meaning it can look out of time.
• I checked the lip syncing and one clip was off which has now been fixed, the rest were all perfectly in time.
• Variety of movement wasn’t prioritised when filming due to the fact our video focussed on being 70/80 of performance and little narrative to keep the video as professional and polished as possible. This meant movement was small. However, when the blue strobe lights come in the whole video gets bigger and bolder, including a new range of actions and massive movement in chorus sections.
• I happen to disagree with the blue lights comment, the blue flashing lights have been a key part most poeple like when watching our music video so I believe going off the majority is the best decision. I enjoy the slow introduction of the blue lights when the opacity is down and layred over other videos, it means when the blue light videos are opaque at the chorus it isn’t a shock and the video feels more cohesive this way.

BELOW IS OUR DRAFT 4:

When making draft 4, we focussed on making small changes that are crucial to the polishing of the video. Adding in a title at the beginning makes the video seem more professional and brings context. Also, we went through the whole video changing small sections by increasing or decreasing clip lengths; this ensures the pace of edit is in time and effective. We also double checked the lighting effects and added in more filters on white background studio shots.

SCREEN CASTIFY FROM MRS COBB TO GIVE FEEDBACK:

POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM MRS COBB:

• Likes the quick montage and editing to the beat
• Loves the zooming in on car with transitions
• Likes the quick edit before chorus
• Loves the three shot in one – using rule of thirds
• Make the opacity on blue filters higher so that it is more visible
• Loves the montage in little black dress with car park setting
• Loves the blue lighting to keep video engaging
• Lovely editing to the beat, quick pace cuts
• Loves projector effects, could add in more sooner in the video – near beginning
• Loves two shot with split screen
• Really good/effective montage to finish video

CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK FROM MRS COBB:

• Some of the first montage clips in bedroom are slightly off beat – fix
• Even more zooming/difference of shot distance
• Ensure edits are perfectly in time, song can be difficult because lyrics are over the beat at some points instead of in time with
• Explore fish eye lens?
• Add in background effects to the white backgrounds
• Experiment with slow mo?
• Zoom in when model flicks away the camera
• Experiment with borders on shots with multiple of the same video
• Fade into studio shots from projector effect – seems jarring

WHAT WE WILL TAKE ON BOARD:

• We will explore effects on the white background e.g. shadows, coloured lines, neon effects
• We will go through all montages and check timing and editing to the beat
• We will zoom in to the model’s hands when she flicks away the camera
• We will clean up transitions and make all videos link seamlessly

Below is our draft 3:

When creating and working on our draft 3, a group of designers who work in a professional media department from specsavers came in to help us. They were able to teach us new editing techniques and graphic effects to ensure our video seems more professional and angaging. They worked personally with us, meaning we could learn quickly and become well versed in the more technical, obscure editing features on Adobe Premier Pro.

Specsaver’s feedback:

• Pace of edit was really effective and works well to the beat of the song.
• Video transitions are done seamlessly and effectively.
• The narrative is clear and links well to our performance shoots.
• The opacity and overlay of videos/text is inventive and adds excitement to our video.
• Improve quality of some videos by sharpening slightly.

Our targets for ourselves:

• Double check all shots cut seamlessly.
• Ensure all text looks uniform and is in time with the song lyrics.
• Change one shot (we know exactly which one) early in the video to a different angle.
• Add in a song title at the start of the video to make it look professional.

BELOW IS OUR DRAFT 2:

What went well:

• The car setting and text effects work well to make the video more exciting and engaging.
• Our clips have quicker cuts and more differentiation/
• Pace of edit is to the beat of the song and perfectly in time.
• The colour of text and flashing clips is effective and match the eyeshadow/makeup on our model.
• The mise en scene and settings/loactions used to film in match up well to our genre.

We need to work on:

• We need to remove glitches and extra text boxes that make the video look messy.
• We need to improve our video quality when exporting it to ensure the audience get the best experience.
• Add in quicker cuts and more dissolve and film cut video transitions to add dimension.
• Use lighting/colour effects to match perfectly to makeup and link all clips and different stages of the video together.

Teacher’s feedback of what to improve:

• Move the model aropund the screen so that she isn’t always in the middle.
• Flip some of the shots hoprizontally.
• Use more video transitions to make cuts seamless.
• Add in close up shots in the car.

My Self Assesment Sheet:

Overall our narrative shoot 2 went very well, we followed our plan and used costume, lighting and setting to make the mise en scene upsetting. This also allowed our actress to present herself in a way that displays desperation under a cloud of tiredness and loss. Our camera skills were used to ensure all shots were in focus and lit well, using a tripod and lighting tools the filming was made to look professional.

BELOW ARE SOME PHOTOS FROM OUR SHOOT:

This shoot was the final narrative shoot, we filmed footage of several different scenes and outfits in attempt to be as prepared as possible in post production editing stages.

POSITIVES OF THE SHOOT:

• The mise en scene made with setting, costume, hair and makeup was effective and inkeeping with the pop genre.
• The shots were steady and used technical features e.g. apperture and ISO to make them seem professional.
• Our lighting equipment and LED lights worked well when filming and portraying the narrative.
• Our actress used good facial expressions and acting techniques to portray our metanarrative.

NEGETIVES OF THE SHOOT:

• The videos of the phone messages coming through were somewhat blurry and out of focus, these might need to be reshot.
• Some of the framing of the shots weren’t angled correctly or were too zoomed out/zoomed in.
• Add in more shots in natural light of different positions on the bed for montages of narrative in the video.

Inserted below is a copy of our risk assessment, it is important to acknowledge the dangers and safety precautions necessary for a professinal film shoot environment. This gives us an insight into the real media world and means we are prepared properly for any situation that may occur during the music video process.

OUR RISK ASSESSMENT:

When preparing for a narrative or performance filming shoot, it is crucial to plan precisely. This allows the post production stages of the editing and polishing to flow easily because all desired angles, mise en sense, storylines and shots have been captured due to the planning. Without planning, shots we wanted were bound to be missed which would lead to a second shoot having to take place; resulting in us looking unprofessional and time would be wasted.

ATTACHED BELOW IS THE SLIDES RELEVANT TO THIS TASK:

Carrying out this planning task allowed us to think clearly about how to make the shoot time effective and benefical to our music video, we managed to capture all the shots listed meaning the result of our video is as successful as possible.

THE PMA FOR NARRATIVE SHOOT 2:

OUR AIMS FOR NARRATIVE SHOOT 2:

Now that we have finished draft 1 of our music video (with the footage from performance shoot 1 and 2); we are able to see that there are several gaps in the storyline and spaces for narrative footage to now be inserted during our music video. We aim to make our storyline and emotions felt throughout the music video more clear as well as linking the entire video together, ending up with seamless cuts. The scenes we intend to create display our star as sad and lost, this detaches her from the usual star image seen of pop stars in real life and music videos, so the fan base and audience can better relate and she becomes ‘like us’.