Below is an embedded Prezi presentation detailing the genre of Synthwave, as well as several other musical genres I could also potentially make a music video for.
Preliminary - Evaluation Following on from publishing our rendition of the song 'What Time Is It', I am now able to draw on several thoughts regarding to the overall quality of the video, as well as possible areas of improvement. Below is an embeded link to the video, as well as sections relating to the strengths and weaknesses of the final outcome.
Strengths: Overall, I believe that our recreation of the video was relatively consistent and reflective of the original version. I think this is mostly due to my group's ability to easily lip-synch with the track, as well as our skill in recreating certain shot types and angles. This is a skill I will hopefully adopt further into the task, as I believe lip-synching is vital in maintaining the audience's attention and investment in a music video of this type. In terms of post production, I think that my group was also very successful in editing our many shots and scenes together, as our video (mostly) directly imitates the original. This is another positive attribute I hope to reuse, as it demonstrates my group's, and my own, skill at recreating existing pieces, as well as how to arrange each scene/shot correctly.
Weaknesses/Potential Improvements: If we were given the chance to improve our video, my group and I would likely take more consideration into the costume of our characters, as we rarely took notice of it during the initial filming of our video. Whilst not disruptive of the shots or scenes, I believe that making our clothing more reflective of the original characters and performers. This would help to improve the authenticity of the video, as it would show a greater level of planning and study over the original video. As well as this, I would also aim to aquire more actors to be present in the scene, as the original features multiple actors in the backround, wheres ours only featured myself, Rachel, Joelle and Keaton. I think that including more actors would help to make the scene resemble a real classroom, instead of the same four actors used in diferent roles. Summary: In conclusion, I believe I have gained an understanding of what skills are needed for the basis of a high quality music video, as well as the need for conventions such as lip synching. Both the strengths and weaknesses of our video will allow me to pursue a greater quality further into this coursework, in turn giving me an improved perception of music videos as a whole.
Joelle utilising the dual monitor setup available in our media classroom
On the 23rd of June we began the editing and post production phase of our preliminary task, which we later completed on the 27th. Mostly, I believe that the process of editing was highly smooth and efficient, as my group were able to easily structure our recreational shots around the original sequence.
For the editing of our video, we used Adobe Premiere Pro, an editing software we each had lengthy experience of using in past projects and coursework. Premiere allowed us to easily layer and trim the several visual elements of our video, meaning we were quickly able to edit and publish our perliminary task.
Preliminary Planning Below is the brief given to our class for the preliminary task of this course, of which my group (Rachel Pride and Joelle Riley) will create a video to match.
"Your task is to shoot and edit a shot by shot copy of a real music
video (about 60-70 seconds). You will need to chose your track from the
choice below depending on available actors in the group. All members of
the group should be involved in singing, filming, directing and
editing. You should upload a smaller version of the real video to the
corner of your screen to help you edit"
Immediately after being given our brief, our group set about in choosing which music video to recreate for our preliminary task. After being offered four music videos to choose from, my group eventually decided on recreating 'What Time is it?' from the film High School Musical 2. We chose to do this as we felt it would be easy to recreate in our school, as we would be able to quickly mimic the locations and shots of the one minute segment.
The image to the left is of the 'shot planning' sheet my group created to assist us when filming later in the week. We frequently referenced the sheet when trying to remember specific shot details, such as 'Mid shot =I> Troy - One take'. The sheet will also help us to film the video in chronological order, meaning no scenes are forgotten or misplaced during editing.
The image to the right is a section we later added to the 'shot planning' sheet which details the various characters featured in the video, as well as who we agreed should play them.
Research into Marketing In this post, I will be discussing and evaluating the various forms of marketing used to promote the album 'I Like it When You Sleep for You Are So Unaware of it' by The 1975. The album was released on the 26th of February 2016, and was met with critical and commercial success - as evidenced by the album reaching number 1 in the UK and USA. Leading up to the release of the album, many forms of advertisement were utilised in order to promote the album and the band themselves. Below are examples of such marketing, with which I have constructed detailed thoughts on the quality and effectiveness of each form of promotion. Videos: Leading up to, and following on from, the release of the album, several music videos were shared on YouTube, each featuring one of the seven singles the band released for the album. Whilst videos are now an expected feature of modern musical artists, the band were able to cleverly utilise each video to demonstrate the key aspects of the band. For example, the first video, titled 'Love Me', positions the band's frontman Matty Healy as the centre of focus for the majority of the video. Whilst this is also an expected trope of music videos, in conjunction with the other four videos, this serves to attract an audience on the basis of the singer's apparent attitude and 'crazy' actions. *Note: I will be providing a more in depth analysis of one of these videos in a later post.
Whilst 'Love Me' serves to promote the lead singer, the video for 'The Sound' (below) focuses much more on the band as a whole. Despite the singer still being present, the viewer is given much more shots of the remaining band members through the use of wide angles and specific close ups. This may have been chosen deliberately in order to show the band's sense of collectivism, especially in the face of their 'critics' outside of the band's glass perimeter.
However, the videos for 'Somebody Else' and 'Change of Heart' both share much more tonally and visually darker elements. Unlike the previous two videos, these contain a narritive of which the audience is compelled to follow, therefore, it could be suggested that these videos were created to demonstrate the band's creativity and emotional side, both of which are attributes highly invested in by their fanbase. The videos could also be argued to reinforce the band's stature as an alternative or indie movement, rather than the much more mainstream, 'pop' style of the previous two videos.
Overall, I believe that each video works immensley well to showcase a different aspect of the band, as well as being entertaining enough to hopefully convince the viewer to purchase the album. However, I believe that in conjunction, the videos are much more effective, as each video is able to provide a cumilative depiction of the band, which would serve to inform and persuade existing or potential fans to purchase the album. Posters: As well as their multiple videos, posters were also used to promote the band's album. They were mostly seen on billboards and street signs and were used to quickly and efficently promote the album. The use of bright, bold pink in conjunction with the sans-serif, simplicstic lettering acts to direct the viewer's attention directly to the relevant aspects of the poster, such as the album's title and release date. Whilst being aesthetcally interesting, I do not believe such posters would be greatly successful in promoting the album, as they offer little insight into the band. Instead, I think the posters would more likely be used to inform existing fans, as well as to build excitement for the album.
Social Media: Since the release of their first album, The 1975 have become known for their highly criptic and highly coordianted image. This is evidenced by the band's frequent use of the colour pink accross their various forms of advertisement, such as in the poster to the right. This helps to create a sense of identity and uniform for the band, as well as the album itself. In fact, the album cover itself is almost entirely pink, a radical departure from the band's monochrome aesthetic of a few years earlier.
The band's current discography - 2013 - 2016
Through the use of their social platform, the band are able to create highly subtle, inexplicit promotion for their album. This serves to excite existing fans as well as to intrigue new listeners, ultimatley to encourage people to purchase the album upon its release, without the need for open encouagement.
I believe that the band's use of social media was used highly effectively in order to promote the album. The use of sites/apps such as Instagram and Twitter have allowed the band to create ultimatley free promotion for themselves and their work, allowing them to reach a potentially huge audience of listeners. Television Adverts: Whilst only used very close to the album's release, a television advert was also released to promote the album. The advert consists mostly of the video for 'The Sound', the band's highest charting single. The advert itself only lasts 20 seconds, however it features the most relevant information needed to attract purchases, such as the title of the album, and it's release date. I believe this would be a highly effective method of advertisement as it could potentially reach a national audience. The clip would also serve to remind existing fans of the album's release, ensuring as many purchases as possible - thereby securing the album's chart success. Note: This is the television advert, however it could not be embeded into this post - http://www.tellyads.com/play_advert/?filename=TA20019&type=recent Summary: Overall, I believe that from exploring these various forms of marketing, I have been able to to gain an understanding of how each piece of promotion works, as well as what it actually intends to promote. This is something I will take with me further into this blog, as I will now be able to continuously evaluate my work, ensuring it remains entertaining but ultimately promotes the track/artist.
For this post I will be discussing the blog and other elements of Nikki J Brown, a student who produced his blog in 2014. I will be evaluating each aspect of his blog, In general, I believe that this blog will serve as a basic level of inspiration for me as I work through this project, hopefully improving upon some of the mistakes Nikki made within his own.
Research and Planning In the research and planning section of Nikki's blog, I believe there is a decent portrayal of his creative process, as well as the ways in which he attempted to research influencing factors such as target audience and existing products. An example of this is his 'Audience Research' post, which details his understanding of what he believes will be the target audience of his video. Whilst brief, the section gives explanation as to why he has decided on this particular audience, which allows the reader to justify his later posts and their content. However, Nikki does not provide any evidence or proof for his statements, meaning the validity of some of Nikki's posts is questionable.
The 'Target Audience' section of the blog.
Ancillary Texts The 'Ancillary Texts' section of this blog details the various drafts of Nikki's digipak and magazine advert, two of the three secondary tasks to be completed alonside the necessary music video. This section essentially serves to easily show the changes made to the various 'products' of this project, a section I believe I will personally incorporate into my blog over time, as it would help to clearly show the progression in skill and quality within my work.
Nikki's final draft of his magazine advert
Construction Within the construction tab, the reader can observe the recorded progress of the music video, as well as the various improvements Nikki himself identified after various drafts. This is something I will likely take inspiration from for my own blog, as I believe it will help to highlight my improvement in skill and improvement in my video overall.
Preliminary Task Unlike my own plans for the preliminary task, Nikki posted his entire preliminary task as one post, as opposed to segregating it for 'editing', 'filming' etc. This is something I would not adopt, as I believe that by splitting the task into various sections it would be easier for an examiner to locate different posts.
Evaluation With regards to the evaluation section of this blog, I believe it is perhaps it's weakest aspect. The four evaluation questions are featured within a Prezi presentation which, whilst well formatted, lacks overall detail and explanation. By limiting the evaluation questions to one blog post, I believe that the creator is compromised in terms of the level of quality that can be portrayed. Thereby, when constructing my own evaluation, I will likely make a blog post per question, making each question clear while also increasing my post count.
Artist: Tom Odell Director: George Belfield Release Date: 15th of April 2016 Length of video: 3.59 Number of shots in entire video: 92 Average length of shot: Approximately 3-4 seconds
Number of shots in 30 second segment (Taken from the last 30 seconds of the video) Within the 30 second segment there are: 18 Number of CU: 6 Number of ECU: 2 Number of LS: 3 Number of MS: 3 Number of panning shots: 1 Number of tilts: 2 Other shots: Obstructed CU of Protagonist in car
Summary:My analysing this video I have been able to observe how a storyline can be split into two halves, with the protagonist in this video being enraged and depressed because of his love interest, as well as the context of how he came into this state. The decision to shoot most of the 'earlier' scenes in the daytime, with the consecutively later scenes being set at night helps to create a distinct and clear storyline for the audience. This has thereby shown me that through the use of Mise en scene and location, music videos do not have to take place in a typical consecutive manner, and that the audience can easily distinguish two separate storylines or scenes with the use of visual assistance.
Artist: Will Joseph Cook Director: Eoin Glaister Release Date: 21st of February 2017 Length of video: 2:57 Number of shots in entire video: 27 (Majority of video is one take until roughly 2:20) Average length of shot: (Excluding long take) 0.5 seconds
Number of shots in 30 second segment (Taken from the last 30 seconds of the video) Within the 30 second segment there are: 26 Number of CU: 1 Number of ECU: 0 Number of LS: 22 Number of MS: 3 Number of panning shots: 0 Number of tilts: 0 Other shots: Long, Continuous take
Summary: By analysing this video, I have been able to gain an understanding of how shots can be used in order to reflect the themes and ideas of the track. As well as this I have learned that a wide variety of shots would not be crucial in creating a high quality, enjoyable video, meaning I would potentially be able to use long takes such as those in the video above.
The image to the left is of the 'shot planning' sheet my group created to assist us when filming later in the week. We frequently referenced the sheet when trying to remember specific shot details, such as 'Mid shot =I> Troy - One take'. The sheet will also help us to film the video in chronological order, meaning no scenes are forgotten or misplaced during editing. 
As well as their multiple videos, posters were also used to promote the band's album. They were mostly seen on billboards and street signs and were used to quickly and efficently promote the album. The use of bright, bold pink in conjunction with the sans-serif, simplicstic lettering acts to direct the viewer's attention directly to the relevant aspects of the poster, such as the album's title and release date. Whilst being aesthetcally interesting, I do not believe such posters would be greatly successful in promoting the album, as they offer little insight into the band. Instead, I think the posters would more likely be used to inform existing fans, as well as to build excitement for the album.
