1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is a combination on 9 frames throughout my Music Video, I have chosen them carefully and precisely in order to support how my video reflects real media products.

1. The  promotion of the band/song

Throughout my Music video, I ensured that Phil was foregrounded as the real singer. It was important to have performance to represent that it was actually a music video, rather than just footage supporting a music track. I struggled with how to film my chorus, as it first seemed very difficult to film Phil running towards the camera. However, by placing the camera in the boot of my car and driving slowly, I had a result of smooth and effective footage. I wanted Phil to appear he was running away from reality, yet at the same time he was expressing his emotions. The different locations keep the video refraining from being repetitive, and it keeps the audience interested. When reviewing my feedback, the chorus’ were had very positive comments and it had the highest percentage of being their favourite part of the video. It was noted from other comments that it actually appear that Phil is the singer of the song, even though my audience was told he was lip syncing.

 Another example of this use of performance is in Tony Chritie’s (Is this the way to) Amarillo, mimed my Peter Kay. This wasn’t filmed how I did mine, a dolly on a track was used and also a treadmill in some parts. However, the effect has resulted exactly the same with smooth camera work and effective framing. Peter Kay’s video uses different characters from famous Tv shows such as Coronation Street, also having Bungle Bear (Shown to the left) suggests a comical element. Moreover, the whole video is highly entertaining and interests the viewer.

2. Setting/location

 

I wanted to create an everyday setting for all of my locations used in the video, as they needed to match the genre of my song and story line. The song has ‘laid back’ vibe to it, and the story line is of an every day ‘naive teenage’ situation. The location is important to a music video as it supports the song genre, and also is needed to interest the audience. The first location is set in/at a bus shelter, where the audience are first introduced to Lisa and more of Phil. By keeping the setting basic, the audience will have more of a focus on the characters and the story. The locations provides seating for the two girls to sit and gossip, and a wall for Phil to hide behind whilst admiring Lisa. The second location is in a typical boy’s room, this provides a personal insight into the main character as they see into his bedroom. The third is on the street which again is a very basic location, however effective when used with the different lighting from the car’s headlights and street lamp. The screen shot about is from Verse 1, the bus stop scene. I was able to get many different shots from this location, inside and out. It made it interesting as even though Phil was stood a metre away from the two girls, the different shots made it seem as if they were in a different location (exception of establishing shots). The locations of the chorus’ were all different to create an interest for the audience, using the same would make it seem repetitive.

Here is an example of a video where the location does not change, Elbow – One day like this. The video shows a young male holding a sale sign for “Condos”, which he twists and turns throughout. It could be viewed as theatrical or artistic, however somebody watching this for pleasure or interest may get bored, as it is extremely repetitive. Something like Madonna – Hung up, the location changes throughout the video, however always refers back to the singer in the dance studio. By always coming back to the original location, this promotes the song/singer, yet keeps the audience interested.

3. Lighting

 

To correspond with the everyday setting, I wanted to keep the lighting as natural as possible. The bus stop shelter was easy to keep bright as it was filmed early in the day, therefore no enhancement was needed. The chorus’ were the same, as they were filmed around the same time too. However, the bedroom scene required re-filming as the lighting was way too dark. When I watched it back through the camera I filmed on, it appeared bright enough however, when I uploaded it, it wasn’t clear enough. The only lighting I used in the room the first time was a standard ceiling light and daylight though the window. The second time round, I plugged in 4 different lights and placed them around the room. I also filmed slightly later in the day so the daylight shining through the window wasn’t so powerful. The second load of footage was hugely better in quality.

I wanted to create the effect of a passing day through my video, which is why the natural lighting gets darker – other than in the chorus’. The Bus stop scene is in late morning light, the bedroom is in the middle of the day and the final scene, verse 3, was shot in a dusk lighting (4pm-5pm). This had good and bad qualities, the screen shot on the far left is of bad quality. I had to brighten the shot several times on Final Cut, which is why it is slightly pixellated. I stood her under a street lamp which gave off a dull pink light, I thought that this would brighten up her face, however it only down very slightly. The shot to the right is one of my favourite frames in the verse as the headlight of the car brighten up Phil’s face and also the rain which was falling at the time. The natural sky light in the back ground contrasts to the scenery in the foreground.

4. Costumes and Props

The prop list was minimal as I didn’t want to go over the top with different items. The main prop used throughout the vide was Phil’s glasses, which he doesn’t wear in reality. The glasses signified that he was a ‘geek’ and didn’t conform to a stereotypical ‘teenage boy’. When I did a viewing, 100% of the audience could read his character through his costume and glasses, so I excelled in this part. Lisa wore everyday clothing for a stereotypical teenage girl, this enabled the audience to easily read her character, without struggling and forgetting to understand the storyline. Chloe wore similar clothing, which signified her friendship with Lisa and that they were in the same ‘group’. I wanted Adam and Phil to contrast (shows to the right), to show that they were very different characters. So I dressed him in a hoody and combat trousers, this also enhanced his appearance of a bully.

In the video Black eye peas - I gotta feeling, right from the beginning there are young women shows getting dressed up and walking around in heels and short dresses. This immediately informs the audience that the song is going to be about partying/clubbing/going out, before the song even begins. It attracts a certain type of audience too, younger generation. The same sort of costume continues throughout the video, which keeps it simple yet interesting.

5. Camerawork and editing

I wanted to make sure that throughout my music video the camerawork was as interesting as possible however, I couldn’t use to extravagant shots as it wouldn’t fit to my genre of music. One of my favourite shots is where Phil looks at Lisa though his glasses, this shows things from his perspective and makes the audience feel involved. In fact, this shot wasn’t planned, I didn’t include it in my story boarding. Interesting shots in music videos keep the audience interested, by using frequent establishing and mid-shots it gets very repetitive. However, I wasn’t too emphatic with this, as more racy shots would have fit a hip-hop/dance music genre, or maybe rock. Mine is soft indie, so I wanted to keep them simple.  Aswell as using choppy editing, I also used transitions where needed. There are 3 disappearances during the video in each verse, I used a ‘cross dissolve’ transition to allow a smooth disappearance of the character. Also, at the end of the video, I fade it out to black when Phil walks off screen, this promotes the closure.

I feel that I have improved hugely since my project in lower sixth. The camera angles and framing I used were very unprofessional and simplistic (unintentional), and I used far too many transitions in uneccessary places. I felt that my editing last year was of quality, however a bigger improvement this year on choppy scenes by keeping it short.

6. Interpretation of lyrical content

This shot is a prime example of where I interpreted lyrical content into the footage. Here is a short list of which lyrics I matched to the footage and what I did:

1. “Put me out, once again”. – Shows Phil’s embarrassment and shaking head in despair when Lisa sees him looking at her.

 2. “You can rip mine right out of me” – Chloe and Adam point and laugh at Phil when he’s holding hands with his Mum.

3. “I made my bed, and she lay in it first” – Phil’s feet walking to his bed, he jumps onto it, then a close up when he lands.

4. “Cut me up, put me in the mood” – Phil turns over on his bed upset, then Lisa appears as “Put me in the mood” is sung.

5. “Put me back together like a rubix cube” – Clothes come together to form a heart on the bedroom floor

6. “Put those thoughts with itchy feet” – Phil rubs feet together with Lisa’s (Shown above)

7. “And when you dig your claws in deep” – Lisa digs her fingers into Phil’s chest

8. “When I blink, I saw thought through the headlights” – Car with headlights on pass Phil

By interpreting the lyrical content into the song, it links both of them together. This also helped me plan out a storyline for when I was storyboarding etc, I began by matching what I could film to the lyrics of the song and working from there. Another example of this is used in Kate Nash’s Foundations Music video

The video matches the lyrical content in the song, but also uses comedy to make it funny. When she sings about how her friends are embarrassed of the couple, it shows some toy miniature farm animals turning their back on them. Also the lyric “You say I should eat so many lemons” shows her eating a pile of lemons in the video. Also showing her using boxing gloves when she sings about  fighting.

7. Emphatic editing to the beat

 

When I first edited my footage, the shots were far too long. So to overcome this, I filmed some more basic shots and added them to fit to the beat. This made the video a lot more snappy and eye-catching. The shot of Lisa above, I edited so that she smiles to specific lyric (not matching the lyric). I did this to link the song to the footage, and keep the audience interested.

Quick editing and extravagant camera work is usually used in dance music videos, for example Cascada – Evacuate the dance floor. The beat is quite faster, therefore the shots need to fit to it to keep it interesting. If the shots were prolonged, then the footage wouldn’t match the song.  There are also transitions between some shots which allows the different locations to blend smoothly into each other.

8. How characters are introduced

Phil was the first character to be introduced, this was to signify that he was going to be the main character in the video. I wanted to suspend the first introduction of Phil’s character to reflect his personality; shy. Below is like a time line of each clip shown before the audience see Phil’s face. It give his character mystery, also a sense of ‘not all is what it appears’.

Lisa is introduced talking to her friend, which gives her a sense of normality. As she is the second character to be introduced, the audience understand that she is the one who will be the ‘love interest’.

9. Special Effects

The shot above is where I used Rota scoping to form a though bubble. To do this I drew the bubbles on Photoshop with a graphic tablet, then imposed them onto the footage in Final cut. Next I imposed footage of Lisa into the top thought bubble and locked it all together. I wanted a cartoon bit in it to emphasise my theme of teenage naivety, and immaturity. Another video which does this is Nizlopi’s JCB song,

The disappearances in the video are a result of Phil’s ‘fantasies’, therefore I wanted to show to the audience his thoughts. This was the only way to make it obvious, and I feel it works very well. The other special effect I used was stop motion animation with the clothes heart forming. I did this by taking a series of 120 photographs of the clothes coming together, by moving each garment 0.5cm each time. Then imported them all onto Final Cut, each photo was put into a clip of 10 secs, so I had to cut each photograph clip into a clip of 0.05 for to look like it was moving effectively.

Advertisement