3.5 Evaluation

Evaluation of Music Video Project

My main roll in the group was editing and camera work, we also all sometimes contributed to other rolls such as directing if we felt we had a good idea that would make the current scene more interesting for the audience to watch.

Before we started filming are music video we made a in depth plan (see section 2.4) outlining what roles everyone would have, where we would film and who are actors where going to be. Although we had this plan we still came across several problems when it came to filming it, such as actors being unavailable and some group members not being able to make it to one of the filming days because certain commitments that they where unable to turn down. Despite these problems we where able to work around them by re arranging the dates and made sure everyone was available.

Our music video was going to be performance/ narrative, we decided this as a group by sitting doing and noting down several ideas (see section 1.2) We planed to have the band playing in there actual rehearsal area which is the bassist/ guitarist’s front room. I believe that this was a good idea because it helps portray the band as more down to earth people, not these gods that most record labels and directors try to portray bands as. It also helps the audience connect more with these people because they don’t seem so intermediating.

The idea behind the narrative side of the video was to have a love story where there is equilibrium at the start where everything is going fine, but then the girl finds a text that she falsely perceives and this causes the disequilibrium. The girl apologies at the end of the video and restores the equilibrium. This is different to most love narratives in music videos because neither of them have actually done anything wrong, and so this challenges most love stories in music videos. This idea developed from looking at the song lyrics (2.1) and then as a group came up with several ideas shown in (1.2). These would act as a guideline when creating the narrative side of it because we knew what we wanted for our performance side of the video. The locations that we originally suggested when in the first stages of planning deviated from the ones we ended up using, because of availability issues of a hall, or the actors being unable to make there way to a distance location. I do believe though that the locations we ended up using has worked in the favour strengthened it by making it relatable to the audience because there quite mundane locations. Something that I would have definitely changed would have been the lighting on the interior sections because we where unable to correct this at the time because we did not have access to the lighting controls.

The music video is mainly aimed at a teen/ young adult’s audience who are in a relationship, this because of the love narrative running through it and because of the band being young adult’s. But it may also appeal to people who like indie music. The video would also represent this young group of people because of the actors being in it are the same age, so it would make it easier for an audience of this age to be able to connect with them.

A record label would distribute my music video to help promote the band that they have signed to there label, this would also help them gain more revenue and the band a larger audience. This is because since the first music videos on 1st august 1981 it has been seen in sales that a good music video can make the song and the bands reputation, where as a bad one can break it.

The music video has been uploaded on the bands website on Facebook so that there fans can watch and comment on the video, all the feedback I got back on the video was positive. Either It being the “like” or comments by fans such as James Root “The different camera angles used were really good, like the close ups of the band etc. However, I didn't like how some of the drumming wasn't in sync with the music.”. By having this on there site it has increased there fan base, and this proves that a good music video can increase a song and bands popularity, there members have gone from 100 to 117 since uploading the video. I may also upload this to Youtube as well to get further feedback on the video seeing as though you have to have a Facebook account and join the bands Facebook group in order to watch the video, so by having it on Youtube it will allow for a much wider response.

During the production of this music video I have learnt a lot about the different technologies used to create these moving video masterpieces. Such as cameras can really affect the quality of the video if they are not set up right, lighting can also play a major role with cameras because some cameras can capture light a lot more effectively than others, resulting in a clear or fuzzy image depending on how the lighting is. Careful use of effects is essential when it comes to editing, if effects are just added in with a “because you can attitude” then it can ruin a music video, but sometimes work well in fast R&B music. The other option is to only use them when necessary such as fades showing that the scene is in a completely different place to the previous scene or to represent the passing of time then it can make the music video look really good. When I came around to editing our music video in Final Cut Pro, which I have used a lot in the past and I have a good understanding of how to use it. I took the seconded approach because I felt that this would be the most appropriate for the style of music and the tempo. I used fades between the narrative and performance to show a clear transition between the two, and some different effects at key moments in the song such as a black and white filter during the slap to show the change in the equilibrium.

Other things I have learnt during the production of this music video is how to synchronise the music with the video footage, whether it be synchronising the instruments or lip synching. Synchronising the music overall did prove to be a bit of a challenge because the performers where playing live to there studio finished song, so this meant there actions would not always fit the music you here because playing live is completely different to a polished version of the song. This especially came apparent with some of the drum parts that James Root did point out on his comments, because the intended footage for a specific part of the song was slightly different actions compared to what you hear and this makes it look odd. The way I would get around this problem in the future would be to recorded the same drum for the entirety of the song, but because of time restrictions with the band I was unable to do this.

Another program I have used during the production of this music video was Live Type. Live Type allows you to create professional text overlays for videos. I have used this program on all my other filmed coursework, so I have a very good understanding of how to use the program. I did however discover about pre made motion graphics which I felt would add extra impact on the opening and closing of the video, because they add a lot of motion onto the video they also help introduce the band and song to the audience. During the video I did add an extra bit of live type in, the intention was to give it a music channel kind of feel, but the actual reason behind it was down to a technical problem. Which was a time code error, and this caused us to lose an important piece of footage and because of time restrictions we where unable to re film this relatively small piece of footage. So instead to add motion back into the scene this bit of live type was added in. I believe this has worked and has added back the intended motion into and otherwise stationary scene.

Since working on this project in comparison to last years project which was to create a website, I have learnt that planning is key for the project to run smoothly, and I fell that that I have done this in both projects. I feel I have done this by having a thorough plan of the whole project before even starting to work on the actual product, and once I feel that this is finished I will begin on the actual project. But even though there was a plan it won’t stop all problems, especially if there unpredictable such as locations being unavailable and text stretches on different monitor resolutions.

I do fell that the production of the first project was a lot easier compared to the production of the seconded project because I was working on my own. I was able to set myself goals that I knew that I would meet and work efficiently when it came to constructing the website. But working in a group did seem to restrict efficiency because of trying to get together the rest of the group, and put extra work in, in order to meet the deadline. This was mainly apparent with some of the editing stage so I ended up working on my own to edit most of the video because the rest of the group had certain commitments they had to do. I feel that I have learnt that I work better and more efficiently on my own, compared to working in a group. Overall though I had fun working on both projects and have worked hard on completing both projects and I believe that this shows in both final products.