We had a general shot list of what was needed in the video, containing varied camera shots and angles whilst distributing filming the footage between our group. We had to drop some filming ideas due to timing or because they made no sense with the rest of the video.
When editing, the shots at the beginning of the video were contradicting the music and visuals rather than illustrating them, so to grab the attention of the audience we made them fast paced. For the chorus we repeated the shot of her singing in a park to keep the video stable and familiar. We were going to make the shots of her love interest black and white but other people didn't see any reason to. Instead we slowed the clip down for a dream-like effect. We used a cross dissolve in most of these shots to seem more surreal.
We thought the audience may get bored of the same shots of her performing and of the male character, so in the guitar solo we sped her up when she was fooling around to split the video up and make her look free and easygoing. We adjusted the colour to make it bright and vivid so there wasn't confusion over whether it's linked to the narrative or not.
For the album cover we forgot the idea of the singer laying in a bed of roses (see booklet). Although it symbolises the music being rocky and romantic, we thought it may also be expensive to create. Instead we used an image from our video and placed this on the centre of a black backdrop so she's the main focus like many other conventional pop/rock groups including words of thanks and a list of songs on the album. For a sleeve in the album I thought about creating a collage with different images of the singer performing like bands such as Limp Bizkit and ŒNSync have done.
We chose a close-up side shot of the singer looking ahead, adjusting the colour so the image's slightly abstract, this makes it striking and eye-catching. For the back cover we placed an image of the singer in a similar, smaller framed pose looking down as a way of showing a closing to the CD. For both the album and single we used the same font for a familiarity. We made the font small, simple and white which is prominent but doesn't detract from the image.
When analysing our finished music video, the lip syncing seems a problem because some shots are not edited in at the right time. If we had extra time, I would've liked to improve this.
The analogue wasn't of the best quality so we had less shots to use, but we used the digital camera in lesson time with our new male character giving us more variety of clips to choose from.
I thought the music and visuals were successful in most areas of the video yet the last few shots of the male character walking away from the camera seemed too long and it would have been better to put a few more cuts in between. However, the very last shot of the singer on the guitar singing to the camera had to fit in for the lip syncing to work and it had taken a while just to get the shots of him walking in time, and the rest of the group thought it was fine.
Adjusting the colour on our singer when she was playing around with the guitar, I believe, worked well as it stops the video from being too repetitive and predictable, a kind of break from the narrative.
We used Andrew Goodwin's method from the book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Routledge 1992) to analyse our music videos.
We communicated meaning in the video by illustrating with music and visuals the narrative and using dissolving transitions for dream shots.
The narrative didn't go anywhere since we wanted it to be simple and also get the audience thinking whether something may or may not happen with the male and female character, yet we tried to make this understandable through cuts and dissolves.
I feel we represented Michelle Branch in the best way possible through location and costume. Her costume was best linked to a pop/rock genre for her age group and our locations were simple and shouldn't be too recognisable to our audience.
The combination of lyrics and visuals that we used both contradicted the video with "I'm not alone" and "You're everywhere to me" when we showed a long shot of her alone in the drama studio and illustrated the video when she sings, "You always light my way" when we show a low angle medium close-up of her love interest against the sunlight in the background. Some of his shots turned out better than expected. Due to the sunny day, the sunlight on the camera created silhouettes and beams of light which produced a mysterious but warm effect on screen.
The music and visuals are illustrated with fast music and fast editing when the drum beats in the song and there's a guitar solo. They are amplified when we speed up the buses in the street so it seems the world is going fast as the singer is writing the lyrics to her song.
To contribute to the star status of our artist we included close-ups and other varied shots like long and medium shots so the audience will begin to recognise her, this was also developed by showing her in separate locations and in performance.
We felt the use of voyeurism in our video wouldn't be suitable for Michelle Branch's music or image, yet we leant towards this idea on the male character as she looks or thinks about him obsessively.
We tried to make Michelle Branch's video as original as possible, but still found some intertextuality within other music videos. The simple narrative of the male character and female singer has been present in most of Britney Spears' videos, for example Born To Make You Happy involved little narrative, just shots of her with her boyfriend in a plain room and singing, but the difference with ours is that she didn't interact with her love interest. Also, from the film Moulin Rouge Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman released the song Come What May that shows quick out takes of them both together fooling around in front of the camera to divide the music video up from the highlights of the film. We followed this idea with quick shots of our singer playing with the guitar. Our final idea is the speeding up of shots. In Madonna's video Ray Of Light she repeatedly shows shots of people and objects moving fast by speeding up the footage. We felt we could create this idea with just one shot.
For the single cover I like the effect adjusting the colour created as you can't tell whether it's a filter or lighting in the studio. The main focus of the image is her eye which is slightly off centre yet to balance the piece, the audience would read the text in the middle of the cover towards the right The colour is warm and makes the image static and vibrant as if the artist gets a warm feeling when she thinks about her love interest. I think it's also a successful use of space in the square as she surrounds the whole area.
The font worked well with the image on both covers as it doesn't prevent Michelle Branch from being the focus of attention. Whilst the title of the song, "Everywhere" gives a sense that the artist is everywhere, along with her love interest.
By looking at both covers it is clear that Michelle Branch is a solo artist and part of a pop genre. If she was based more for example, on Heavy Metal, then this would be seen through her image as she may wear more makeup, different clothes and the cover maybe more abstract.
I think the darkness of the album cover was successful because it adds mystery and mood to the music. The spotlight on the artist makes her glow and creates the impression that she'd light up a room with her music.
It would have been better to add more detail to the inlay of the album as we only mentioned briefly who the artist wished to thank, who produced it and where it was recorded.
The function of music videos is to promote music made by bands of all genres. They are used frequently whilst a band is on tour so they are able to publicise their music whilst not having to travel to perform. They can enhance a star's image with the way they are represented. Videos sell singles and albums for bands and are a staple product of music TV channels, for example, MTV and VH1. However, for a video to be successful it must be entertaining and suit the audience and genre it is being aimed at.
Jake and Jim of record company Godman, gave a talk at our College where they said that due to deadlines they have to adapt if problems arise in filming or editing. Our music video follows the concepts of the music industry as we too had limited time for equipment, editing and performers. We also had to produce a pitch to show what our ideas are for the video. We may also not necessarily like the song we're creating a video for, but as it's the task we have been given, we must proceed.
CD covers sell an artist. If a cover is plain with no image it may be less successful than one that contains information about the band or a striking image to grab the attention. CD covers give an idea of what genre the band are in. They can make the difference between success and failure, this also applies to music videos.
After presenting our video to an audience, we generally got a positive response. They felt there was a variety of shots and angles that worked well, especially the pan of the male character and the artist. They believed using the same shot on them both showed there was a link between them. The shots of the singer looking down were also noted for being more naturalistic and original than if she was singing to the camera.
People believed the use of lighting added atmosphere and disguised the drama studio we filmed in. Everyone noticed there was a link between the lyrics and visuals in this location as she sings, "I'm not alone" when she's really contradicting this.
The idea of speeding up the footage and adjusting the colour when it came to the guitar solo was seen as a good idea, compensating for the problem of us having no electric guitar to use and they believed there was no reason to show a band since focus on just the lead singer was appropriate to "selling" our artist in the music industry.
The locations showed a distance between the singer and male character. Since the shots of the singer in public places were taken in London, and shots of the male character were taken in a field, they believed it showed distance between them.
One problem a few viewers had was the false sense that at the end of the video the characters would meet each other face to face. We argued, if she doesn't meet him, it adds mystery to the video and the last lyrics, "Tell me, do you see me?" creates the impression that she hasn't actually interacted with him before. However when it came to editing, we thought it would be suitable to keep the narrative simple and not involve an ending so it keeps the viewers guessing whether they'll actually may meet or not. It created mystery for our viewers when she was sitting down writing in a note book as they weren't sure whether she was writing a love letter or the words to the song.
A comment was made on less variety of locations for the male character compared to the singer, but we were unable to solve this problem since we had to take these shots in limited time due to the problems we had in London with analogue.
However, overall our audience believed our video had clarity of meaning, was entertaining and followed the general conventions of a music video.
Audience feedback for our single cover was generally positive, people liked the contrast in light on both sides of the image. They believed brightness showed happiness, whilst darkness portrayed sadness. It was also commented on as a strong, single composition.
For both covers we were given generally the same comments. Everyone liked how the lighting affected them both as it created mood and atmosphere. The use of the same font for both covers was also a strong point as like many covers for the same music genre, it was recognisable, simple and represented Michelle Branch being serious about her music.
There was disagreement over them being quite plain, a few people thought something should be added to the covers whilst others thought it was better the way it was because it's simplistic yet illustrates the artist being a solo singer and there's a clear music genre.
Everyone thought the tracks were clearly labelled on each cover and the black and white contrast on the back of the album was good as it was keeping to the simplistic theme, along with the images.
Our audience thought the album looked more realistic including a thank you list and barcode however a few people spotted we forgot to black out the sign saying Madonna - Rain as this is the cover we used to scan in the Mavericks symbol.
The spotlight above the artist on the front of the album added mystery and was similar to the single in that the artist is the focus of attention.
For our sleeve showing the singer performing, someone commented it is good as it shows the artist can play the guitar and is having has fun.
We were criticised slightly for not including more information on the inside cover of the album about each song, which I too think would have made the album more conventional.
It was clear to our audience which images were for the album and single cover. The front covers portrayed a realistic image of the singer and the genre of music she performs, one of our important main aims for both the CD covers and video.
Word Count: 2,994
Assessment
Key Strengths
Clear indication of brief and comparison with AS project.
Records and reflects upon all stages of the production and accounts for main decisions made.
Analyses finished product to show how form and content affect meaning.
Appropriate reference to ideas from Goodwin about structure and representation in music video.
Places production in relation to both other texts and industry practices.
Good reference to audience feedback.
Clear and systematic, detailed, thorough, reflective.
Level 4 27/30
