Evaluation Of Music Video

Evaluation Of Music Video

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

My music video does demonstrate the songs genre characteristics. For example the male character performs and lips-syncs to the song, which is the case in most indie bands music videos. There is also a narrative to the video about the relationship between the male and female looking at how they find out they their true feelings for each other, which, again follows the indie genre theme.

The video also shows conventional genre camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene. In the music video for the song ‘When the sun goes down’ by the ‘Arctic Monkeys,’ another indie band, they use medium and close up camera shot types at a level angle looking at the subject against a plain background. (1).

The same type of shots can be seen in my video when the party scenes are taking place as well as when the male character is lip-syncing. I used simple cuts to change between a shot, which goes with convention; I also used transition effects to the video, which goes against the genre convention, as they aren’t often used.

The video develops and conforms to ‘Andrew Goodwins’ theory of video forms. His points are as follows: Does the music video demonstrate the genre characteristics? Are there any relationships between the lyrics and visuals? Are there any relationships between the music and visuals? What are the demands of the record label? Are there any reference to/of voyeurisms? And are there any intertextuality references?

I feel that there are quite a few relationships between the lyrics and visuals of the song. An example of this is that there are seventeen candles on the birthday cake at the end of video, the name of the song is ‘Seventeen Candles’ and this is a also a lyric in the chorus. Another example of this relationship is that when the male singer says about the female in the video it cuts to her and shows her reaction to what has just been said.

However I feel that the strongest relationships are between the music and visuals. The main of which is that the male character sings to the lyrics of the chorus throughout the song, also the song matches what is being seen. For example when the lyrics say about ‘party favours’ a parts scene is shown.

There are many references to the notion of voyeurism, as the female character doesn’t look at the camera throughout the song. The effect that this has is the female character is made to be the protagonist as she is unaware that the audience are looking at her. The male character follows the same suit apart from one chorus when he follows the camera as it pans/ tracks around him. The effect that this has is the audience become more involved and take the role of the female.

There are no purposely placed intertexual references about what to film in the video, as I wanted it to be unique and new. The only reference to another film or music video is the technique from ‘Sin City’ where they have a greyscale background with only important areas in colour.

The demands of the record label can be clearly seen in the video. One of these demands is to make the artist a tool of promotion. An example of this is that there are areas of the video when the male character, who is the artist, is on his own. This means that the audience’s full attention is on that character which will allow them to notice him.

There were many challenges that my group and I faced over the months that this project took to finish which I feel that we overcame well. The worst was that on the days we had planned on filming outside it rained throughout the day and because it started to get darker earlier we had less time to film as each day passed. Because of this we had to change the location of some scenes almost instantly and had to think about how we were going to get props to the new location. An example of this is that on the day we wanted to film one of the party scenes outside, it rained. Meaning that we had to film indoors, the effect that this had on the scene was that it didn’t have the same look as we had planned on and as a result took a smaller part than planned in the final video.

How effective is the combination of your ma

in product and ancillary tasks?

I feel that the relationship and continuity between the three media forms: the music video, magazine advert and the DVD cover are very strong. The main reasons for this is that I have used the same style and image as has been used to produce/ compose them. An example of this is that the same image, a picture of the male character has been used as the background on the DVD cover and magazine advert. In add

ition to this I have also used the same style of font at the same size and in the same colour that, again links the three products together. This is important when trying to advertise or sell the artist, as the viewer needs to be able to see the same style of work at a glace among other artists in a shop or on a music channel like MTV. There are also relationships between the video and the advertising products; these are shown through the same style of images on the DVD cover and the magazine advert as there are in parts of the video. Another major link between the video and DVD cover is that ha

ving the female character on the back of the cover allows the audience/ buyer an insight as to what to expect when watching it. There are also some genre characteristics shown on the DVD cover and magazine that link them to the genre, artist and the music video. For instance the text on the DVD cover are highlighted pink, which connect that with the name of band, ‘The Pink Spiders.’

Some of the buyers may also follow a certain celebrity or like the views of a particular magazine and television channel. This allows me to use this as a marketing point, I have placed three quotes on the magazine advert from: ‘NME’, a TV music channel and online media centre, ‘Q’ another music channel and online medium

and ‘play.com’ an online shop. Having these quotes means that the audience/ buyer may think that if these people/ shops/ music channels think that it is a good song then I will buy it. Also if the quote is from a radio or TV channel they will likely play the song or video and so the viewer would be able to see it before they buy it.

Also because there are both a female and male on the DVD cover it appeals to both male and female buyers, again promoting the artist as the product will not be fixed to when it can be advertised. For example a toy or product that has been designed for a boy would be advertised during a programme or among other toys that are for the same gender and/ or age range.

What have you learnt from the audience feedback?

After my peers had viewed the video along with the magazine advert and DVD cover they wrote their views on my groups blog. However because my class is not the target market for the video, young teenagers aged 13 – 16 their views may be different. From the feedback I learnt that they thought that the video did follow the genre conventions and that the seventeen candles on the cake at the end was a good idea, as they like how ‘it added to the party elements which the song exploits, and explores’ (2). They also felt that there was a strong relationship between the visuals and the music, although they felt that the demands of the record label to be improved by having more variety of shot types especially close up’s of the artist as this would help see them.

I also learnt that the audience thought that the DVD cover looked very professional and that they really like the layout as they felt that it was ‘unique.’ (3). They also felt that the continuity between the different media forms was successful and worked well as well as it containing all the necessary information and features. However, they did feel that the text between the DVD cover and the magazine advert did not match which prevented the continuity continuing between them.

Apart from that drawback I learnt that the target audience felt that the magazine advert portrays the artist positively through having the focus him solely as a clean and new background image. They also liked the quotes and ratings from various important music industry professional advertising, critics and television music channels or magazines. To add to this they also liked the information on where to get and download the video/ song that said ‘available on iTunes now’

After the roughcut feedback, again by my peers, it was clear that there were areas of the project needed to be resolved. The biggest of which was that we were missing a lot of footage, especially for the chorus, which we were going to have a performance and lip-syncing by the male character. Also it was picked up on that some of the footage was repeated which meant that we, again had to film more to fill the gaps where repeated scenes had been.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In the research stages the main new technology which I used was the Internet and the website ‘Youtube.’ I used this to view other indie bands music videos, which allowed me to see how professional directors used the genre conventions, which camera angles/ shots were used and how these portrayed the artist. At this stage I also used ‘Google’ as it gave me a worldwide search into each point, giving me a greater variety of information from which to continue my research.

In the construction stages I used ‘Final cut express’ to edit my imported video which I filmed using a video camera and tripod. The advantages of using this software are that it is easy to operate, view you product as well as adding video effects, transitions and if desired, text. Also using this makes it easy to convert and upload onto the blog, which I used throughout the whole process, especially the planning stages by documenting my progress, decisions made and responses/ reactions to theses decisions. The blog allowed my group and I to stay in contact with each other outside of lesson times which mean that we could plan when we were going to film etc as well as writing the meet times down and where to meet so we didn’t forget. I also used ‘iPhoto’ to import the images that I inserted on the DVD cover and magazine advert. I chose this software because it is very quick to upload the photographs and easy to add them to ‘Photoshop’ which I used to edit and create the Digipack.

In the evaluation stages I again used the blog to view what my audience and peers said about my video, DVD cover and magazine advert. From this I could then use ‘Microsoft Word’ to write the evaluation containing quotes and information from what had been written.

I feel that since I started Media Studies at Long Road I have improved a great deal in every aspect of filming, editing and producing various media products. From the very first prelim task I undertook in my AS year to the final music video project in A2 I believe that I have developed a good understanding of how to use a variety of different camera angles/ shots, different editing techniques as well as how to manipulate images in Photoshop and the different look/ atmosphere each of these can have on the finished product.

Bibliography

(1) Youtube, The Arctic Monkeys when the sun goes down video-(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_hEdt1Xes&feature=related)

(2) And (3) Blogger, group 43 blog - (http://43musicvideo09.blogspot.com/)

Screen shots of The Arctic Monkeys when the sun goes down video from Youtube (same URL as the video)

Images of my DVD advert and Magazine advert from Blogger (same URL)