Evaluation of Music Video

The task given to us at the beginning of the year was to create a music video. This was to include us writing the lyrics to the song, making the song and of course recording it. We were all put into groups of 3 and had to start brainstorming for our genre, whether we were going to follow some sort of narrative of just go by a performance based video. In terms of genre we had to think, since the range is so great, what would we as a group be capable of doing and would enjoy. This didn’t come to us at first, and we decided to play around on the iMac program Garage Band.
The program utilizes pre recorded loops, which one can then edit into a particular order to create a song. It ranges from classical instruments, to human beat boxing and even sound effects. Using this program we began placing and editing tracks together in some hope that we could find out calling. It did end up coming to us, in a strange form. The song started off as a very acoustic sounding song, something similar to Newton Faulkner’s music. However we then found ourselves a long pre recorded vocal loop. Which lasted about 1 minute; it was the voice of a woman, in a sense wailing. Giving the song a very ominous feel to it, I then went on to add the drum beat. But only looking for heavy percussion types or African drums.
After adding them, we were really excited with the piece of music; however the genre wasn’t something obvious at first. To class it now, I would call the genre ‘Film’. As this is what it sounds like most, part of a film soundtrack. However due to the sound and feel to the song, singing or rapping was out of the question, as it would not fit well. Thanks to the help of one of our tutors, we decided to make the lyrics in the form of a News Broadcast.

Due to the tone of the song, we would need to create a time period and a devastating effect on the environment, economy or people. We realised that in 2 years time, 2012 was rolling around and it was the perfect thing to play on. However to create a solar flare would take so much money to make which we do not own. So we decided to put a little twist on it based on the temperature of the sun increasing, killing people through heat.

This is where the video comes in, with the uses of our shots and technological knowhow to create the idea of an increasing heat-wave on earth. Using simple shot ideas, and a tiny bit of editing we pulled off a unique video. With the first scene, our original idea was to have a news reporter standing outside the college and has people behind him at night. Making that first broadcast seem live, this would have given the effect of new years and everyone smiling and having fun. Due to time restrictions because of a faulty tape, we ran out of time to film that particular piece. But we created a backup, which is the boy rolling up a cigarette and smoking it. The reason this was done, was to show how society nowadays has very little care for a new year. How a lot of people would rather to just have a relaxing night and have to care about new years resolutions and such. I personally felt that was a very interesting concept to open our music video on, instead of something more predictable.

The next shot, focusing on the DAB radio was something that didn’t strike me as amazing. We all agreed to have that shot, as it would work well with that particular point in time, and also represent a passing of time in the video. However none of us had the very old radio’s, which would make a bigger impact in terms of the dials changing looking for a station. Rather than a digital device flicking through the many channels available with a boring blue backlight and rigid letters. One could say though the way I wanted would be predictable and the usage of the DAB radio brings us more into the technological society we are.

The following shot was a difficult one, not what the shot was (Long Shot). But the weather was not on our side for most of the week, making everything look dull and grey. Also due to the freezing temperatures we were suffering from, no one really wanted to get into summer gear. To our rescue came Reece, who for 5 minutes walked around in his tank top, though it didn’t give the shot a massive boost in thinking its summer, it helped. The portrait close up of his head wearing the headphones is to represent that the broadcast his actually happening at the same time as the action on screen. Thus linking the music and video a bit more.

The following scene of the Time Lapse is something I thoroughly enjoyed. The filming of it wasn’t excitingjust finding the right position so that we wouldn’t get in peoples way and recording for 20 minutes. What I enjoyed was watching it sped up, feeling a slight bit of professionalism about it. The long shot of the street was good, and because it was lunch time, plenty of shoppers were around town, thus giving plenty of things to fill the shot. Action was happening in the fore-ground, mid-ground and background, with the inclusion of interaction between the 3 made up an amazing shot.

Following on from that came the very fun chase scene. This part of the video I also felt went really well, and enjoyed it immensely. For this to work with the lyrics we decided to have a free running camera, follow a news reporter as he tried to escape a mob of angry and desperate people. The camera man at that time was to pretend he fell over, hence how the image becomes erratic and makes it seem like he falls over. Following on from that is my actual favourite shot in the entire video. The close up-Dutch tilt which focused on the limp body of the cameraman, whilst the news reporter was being chased. The detail of the stones on the ground and the hand really jump out at me. Also one can see the smoke from the cigarette slowly waft upwards into the sky with the mob running off in the distance, slowly becoming more blurred from view.

The next shot is where the same reporter and mob are chasing him down a hill and into a tunnel. When I saw the tunnel I noticed that above it one could perch and record from up on high. So instead of having one entire long shot from the tunnel, I chose to do a high angled long shot. Then as the actors and down the hill, I would tilt downwards following the action into the tunnel. This meant that when I edited the next shot with this, it would continue the pace and look right. The next shot showed the extent of the heat wave, with 2 bodies lying dead in the tunnel. I felt this made the interview with the ‘doctor’ become much darker, where even though he says it will get worse, the extent is has reached is already shown.

The following scene was another Time Lapse, which I actually recorded just in case we didn’t have enough footage. That plan was actually used, as after I had logged and captured all the clips, I saw we would be a bit short, so I added that in. It gives off a nice effect like the first one, however because it’s all cars, it is nothing special. My excuse for it would be it is showing people trying to escape, and get find refuge somewhere so they won’t die from the heat. I wouldn’t say this was a weakness to the film, but more like a neutral filler, something you would like to see but not be shocked or filled with awe and wonder at seeing it.

The final part of the video was the Sunset, and because of the weather we missed out on 1. The one we missed out on was a beauty, lasting for ages, giving off an orange to pink glow which was reflected of the clouds. Due to the net telling us the wrong time, we missed it, so on our last day of shooting, we chose the dramatic cloudy skyline instead. This wide shot actually paid off big time, with it being sped up the clouds movement was really nice. Also on the left hand side of the shot was a crane being used for the demolition of the old college building. It was in use so we got some movement which went really well, though we wish the crane on the right hand side of the shot was being used. As both going would have looked amazing and added more action on the 3 grounds. What was really good was the final sentence- forgiveness from our Eternal Sun God- at that precise moment the sun came out and shined very brightly as if it was reacting to that statement.

In terms of editing it was something that edited itself really. Nothing to complicated was needed, the only new thing I learnt was how to speed up or slow down a certain clip. This would be accessed in the Modify bar at Change Speed, then the higher percentage your gave the clip the faster it would run. On average our time lapse clips were running at over 5000%, this was so they would fit in at the correct times and give that movement of time effect. The rest of the clip was a simple cut down and place job, then soon after that I converted and exported the clip into a QuickTime Move Format and followed that up with a compression of that file using the program Compressor. This meant that moving the file to my USB and posting it on YouTube will take less time. Because of my past knowledge in the Quiz Project, I learnt how to do these things so I was able to quickly and easily apply them.

In terms of audience I would say our song would be aimed at those 16-25 as our target norm. Personally I feel that maybe this video could reach out to 25-30, as the ideas behind it are very dark and are being based on a phenomenon which ‘may or may not’ happen in 2 years time. In class we did a feedback session on the work we had done, and it came back 95% positive. Things like our work was unique, that the time lapse sequences were very interesting. That the music and video really complimented each other in terms of tone and genre, also that is was like a film trailer. These comments were really helpful and boosting after all the work we had done. The last 5% came as, there was too much of my voice in the music, and that some people didn’t fully understand what it was about. Now to most people in the class they would see it as a live news report, but other groups might not be able to see this. To rectify it a scrolling title was used which ran across the bottom of the video. Giving it that news bulletin effect, hopefully getting people to understand what the video is all about.

Overall in terms of technical, artistic and musical creativity I feel that my group and I did a really good job. Most other groups had their videos covered in special effects, some worked well whilst others didn’t. I feel that our simple approach made a powerful effect on the people who had watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it.