AS media studies advanced production

Advanced Portfolio In Media – Evaluation

Over the course of creating my music video, I have gathered vast amounts of experience and understanding of creative processes which I have used efficiently and effectively in the making of my music video and ancillary texts. Our music video consisted of our own restructured and reformed version of ‘nothing’ by The Script, this songs genre fits into the alternative rock category. I did research on the conventions of this genre via Google in order for our video to use and develop on the usual values/ideas of the genre or even change/challenge the conventions. Conventions I found that fit this genre include:-

· tends to be black and white;

· the artist/band is shown throughout the video;

· use of close ups and long shots are popular;

· dark locations;

· face paced;

· some use of special effects.

In the production of our music video we have used but developed and even changed the usual conventions of alternative rock conventions; we wanted to change the conventions because as we started the planning and research of the genre and song lyrics, the script released their hit single ‘nothing’ this meant that we could analysis that particular video and break down the conventions in which they have used in order to blur our own conventions in which then we can make our own video stand out from others and grab the audience attention. For example they used the typical conventions of dark locations throughout the video, whereas we challenged this convention by starting off showing the audience a clear blue sky. This should have an effect on the audience because unlike usual alternative rock videos which have the depressing dull choice of lighting, we deliberately filmed in daytime on a bright day so we could grab the audience in the first view shots of the first verse. We wanted to show the audience that not all this genre has to be dull but can tell the narrative in a bright and pleasing to the eye lighting. We supported this breaking of the convention in the first shot by building our narrative around a ‘morning after the night before’ narrative , where actor, Daniel fields spend the night out round the local area drinking which as a result caused him split up with his lover. Although we did challenge this particular convention, we did also used and developed the majority of other typical conventions of both music video conventions in general and also the genre conventions. Like the original video for ‘nothing’ we chose to leave the video in colour rather than the black and white convention in which some rock bands go for. However we did edit part of the video in black and white, this wasn’t done to use the conventions but to engage with the audience in a way so that they can understand that from us changing the colours from bright and perky to dark to black and white shows how the narrative of the song can have a negative effect on the audience, as the narrative ends with Danny committing suicide due to a relationship break up and a negative response towards it. The black and white edit lasts for the final 12 seconds of the song as it a flashback is shown of dannys’ life and we repeated the eye edit at the beginning and the end this is developing our own convention of repetitiveness so that the audience will be able to engage more with song and hopefully understand that the eye opening (first shot) is Danny waking up in a woodland area after a drunken night as words such as ‘stumbled’ and ‘drunk’ are used. Also we made sure we included Danny rubbing his eyes and face a lot as if he is waking up to reality in this case not a good reality (break up). The final eye shot (closing) however shows that he has died once that we are shown him jump of a cliff and a final black and white flashback. We also used the general edit to the beat convention of music videos, i believe this is vital in any music video because throughout music/song/dance it is a well known fact that beat and rhythm is very important therefore editing to the beat not only looks tidy and neat for the audience to watch but it sells the song more as otherwise some shots would look out of place and the artist/band would maybe classed as someone without rhythm and understanding of music. Our transition edits fall into a similar fast pattern on the chorus because the song turns more upbeat so these edits have to be timed for the main part of the song to be have a positive effect on the audience. As audience’s often become most familiar with a chorus to a song rather than verses. We use the convention – showing of artist throughout the video because without this then the music video only sells the song but not the artist and the artist image produced by the media. Also 99% of music videos show the artist throughout the whole thing because this helps the audience engage with the music better though the media and the artist will also want to be seen throughout because it generally helps build recognition of the artist and therefore popularity. This convention contrasts with the convention of ‘use of close ups are popular’ because close ups of the artist are what sell the artists image to the audience therefore it is an important aspect of music videos to help promote a media image worldwide. Our music video follows a non linear narrative (not in chronological order) as it starts off with the day time during the verses however it jumps back to the night before on the chorus when Daniel was meant to be drunk and arguing with his girlfriend.

The band name in which we considered in the production of our ancillary texts was Jacks Place, not much thought went into the band name as we wanted to produce the style and content on the album and magazine advertisement around the album name which we decided would be ‘Loves Route’ this name was chosen purposely and combines with the narrative and idea throughout our video of Danny walking on some unknown route thinking and singing about his lover which he broke up with the previous night and as a result got drunk from depression. For our magazine advertisement we decided to take a picture of Danny from behind on a path which goes into the distance as it symbolises that he is considering many thought on his route. The shot was taking from behind to suggest that he is ‘chasing’ and he believes that his fate is with his ex lover. We edited the light on a lamppost to look more bigger and brighter and stand out more to the audience, this can be seen as something he is aimer for and a target he want to capture (lover) the ‘loves route’ is edited so that it looks as though it’s on the pavement . The ‘loves’ font we chose to do in a red colour as the red symbolises love and also danger which as a result of love, danger and death does strike and the end of the route which is why we did a dull dark black colour for the route text. The album covers idea uses the same colour with the album name so that it can be related back to the magazine advertisement, also the image used in the magazine we have decided to use on the back cover of the album so that we could re-use the idea of the song titles edited to look as though they are along the pavement. The images we used were taken to look as though he is on a route or just times in his life to relate to the flash back in which will deliberately edited the shots in black and white to relate to combine it with the flashback part of the video.

Our Audience feedback helped us make improvement on our video as after several first and second drafts, we have made a series of changes which have even meant changing the video camera to gain a better quality of picture for our video, or re-shooting scenes and taking parts out which don’t follow the narrative to well. A common occurance in the feedback is that a female is needed in our video at some point just to reassure the audience what the artist is thinking throughout the video as a female is mentioned in the lyrics but not presented as an image. We have also got feedback that out editing was not done to the beat at parts (chorus) however we have made them changes and as a result gathered some very positive feedback as it draws the audience in because rhythm is thought through in the music. Another point raised through our audience feedback is that the 2^nd half of the video is more gripping to the audience then the first half. I think this is down to the slow paced walking to the beat start in the woodland area before any upbeat editing and moving to the beat takes place in the chorus.

In the production of our media product we was introduced to new media technologies which we overall benefitted from. The main technology used on the computer was the digital editing program which allowed us to edit our video to the best of our knowledge in a non linear fashion as we could take things that were filmed last on the tape and put them at the start of our video making thing less time consuming and easier for ourselves. This was used purely for our music video it allowed us to add special effects such as blurry shots when Danny is drunk and also allowed us to slow things down to emphasis with the audience. Our research and planning was done on blogger where we updated regularly with new posts stating new ideas, plans, things to be done. This helped keep a neat file via the internet on what was needed in our music video from analysing real music videos, magazines and albums. Real music videos such as the scripts ‘nothing’ was watched and analysed via YouTube. The Video camera we used to film was made by Sony from the latest technology and helped us produce a video of high quality definition. Google has played an important role in the planning, research and construction on blogger, because it has helped me gather up information on conventions and helped me to take images from other albums easily in which Iused to analyse.