Final Post

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Final Products

Final Music Video:




Final Digipak:

Final Magazine Advert:

Evaluation - Question 1

Evaluation - Question 2

Evaluation - Question 3

Evaluation - Question 4

Audience Feedback Vlog

Here is our vlog where we discuss the feedback that we received at our media showcase:

The Last Shadow Puppets - Aviation

Despite having finished my music video, I was intrigued by The Last Shadow Puppets' 'Aviation' that was released today. It comes as a continuation of the video that they released last week, 'Everything  You've Come to Expect'. I previously wrote about how the first video was extremely ambiguous so I was interested when 'Aviation' appeared to be a continuation. Both videos feature the same location, a beach, and the same actress, who is wearing the same costume. This makes it clear to the audience that these videos are linked without explicitly stating so.

'Aviation' is set before the events of 'Everything You've Come to Expect'. Much of the mystery surrounding 'Everything You've Come to Expect' was due to the lack of a clear explanation as to why, or how, the artists were buried in the sand (below left). 'Aviation' shows the lead up. The artists are shown digging their own graves at gun point (below right), the 'why' is still not explained, however, it gives the audience some satisfaction in knowing that there is a partial backstory to the events of 'Everything You've Come to Expect'.

I thought that the idea of having linking music videos was very clever and is an idea that my group could have used if we were to create another music video. Videos with multiple parts are usually of the indie genre, like our music video, as these videos tend to be more narrative-based. Follow-up videos allow for, either, a more ambiguous video that can later be explained, or two videos that tell a more complex story that couldn't be told in the space of a single video.

   

Media Showcase

Today we held a media showcase in order to present our music video to our peers, teachers and family with the intent of receiving audience feedback. This allowed us the receive feedback from various demographics due to ranges in age and gender, this was helpful as we could see whether our product was versatile in appealing to different groups, other than our target audience of 16-24 year old females.

We distributed audience feedback sheets (example shown below) in order to gain answers to specific questions, such as what the 'intended demographic' for our music video was, whether the 'track fit the editing style, and whether the narrative was understood. We asked a wide range of questions so that we could gain feedback on all elements of our music video, from our editing to narrative to camera shots and angles. This range has helped us to see what elements worked well within our video and which needed improvement. This information will also be incredibly valuable during the evaluation stage.

We are hoping to film a vlog within the upcoming days, addressing the feedback that we received.

          

Here is some footage from the showcase, unfortunately, only the first three groups were recorded:

The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come to Expect

Today the new music video for The Last Shadow Puppets' 'Everything You've Come to Expect' was released. I found it particularly interesting as there are 9 different versions that were uploaded to YouTube, 1 listed and the remaining 8 only accessible by following the link in the description box. This led to a lot of confusion amongst fans when the music video seemed to change with each viewing, some videos being shot at different times of the day and others containing different costumes. The result of these slight changes is an eerie atmosphere created by the familiarity of each video but with hard-to-determine changes.

I think that having multiple videos is very fitting for the song as it is fairly repetitive with its melodies and lyrics, particularly the repetition of the lyric 'everything that you've come to expect'. This line fits perfectly with the effect of multiple videos as the viewer 'comes to expect' certain elements in the video only for them to change, for example, two videos contain a woman playing a violin in the background and one video even cutting to black halfway through, shocking the audience.

Below is a video showing all versions simultaneously:



The music video conforms to Andrew Goodwin's music video theory. There is a clear link between the lyrics and the visuals, the lyric 'coastal air gets a girl to reflect' is shown through the beach setting and the lyric 'dirtbag ballet' is shown through the ballet-like dance of the woman in the video. The lyric 'I just can't get the thought of you and him out of my head' is also shown as the woman flitters between the two men (the artists) that are buried back-to-back in the sand. There is also a link between the music and the visuals due to the calm, slow-motion movements matching the slow paced song, this calming element is enforced by the beach location and the single, smooth take.

'Everything You've Come to Expect' conforms to the conventions of a performance video, with lip-synching and close-ups of the artists being included. However, unlike many performance videos, the artists play a secondary role here, with the woman being the main focus, many sections of the video not even showing the artists' faces clearly, if at all.

Overall, I think that the concept of these videos is extremely interesting as they have challenged the format of the music video whilst also generating publicity and 'hype' for the band's upcoming release of their album, also titled 'Everything You've Come to Expect', due to fan speculation on the 'meaning' of the videos. This shows how creative decisions and challenging conventions can have an impact on audiences and therefore publicity and future sales.

Final Music Video

Here is our final music video:

Music Video Titles

After receiving feedback on our final draft, we have corrected any lip-synching mistakes and are now happy with the finished result. This meant that that last thing to add before exporting the video was to add the song title and artist's name. We chose to use the same font that we used to write the artist's name on the front of our Digipak. This creates a link between the products and reinforces the artist's brand.

We chose to add the title in the bottom left-hand corner over the first shot. We chose to place it in the corner so as to not obscure the artist's face, again, emphasising the 'star image'. We also felt that the titles are not as important as the content of the music video, we didn't want to distract the audience from our shots, we therefore placed the title subtly.

The images below show our font, titled 'Birth of a Hero', appearing at the start of our music video (left) and on the front of our Digipak (right).

    

Audience Feedback

Today we received audience feedback on the final draft of our music video. We wanted feedback on what we could improve, such as lip-synching, however, it appeared that the class enjoyed the music video and they didn't offer any recommendations for improvement. As a group we are still noticing small details with the lip-synching that others don't seem to see or hear, this has lead to us spending more time perfecting the lip-synching but it has also become a form of procrastinating uploading our video. Receiving such positive feedback has finally given us the push to add the finishing details, such as the music video title, and then upload the video to YouTube.

Here is our feedback vlog:

Finished Editing

Today we finally finished editing our music video. We are planning on getting some audience feedback before we upload our video as we need objective opinions so that we can see what we may need to improve. We mostly need to see whether the lip-synching of our video is correct. Once we have received feedback and made small changes we will need to add the music video title and artist name at the start.

Here is our vlog from today:

Editing Update

We have now edited about two minutes of our music video, this means that we are on schedule and should hopefully finish editing by next Wednesday. Our focus today was to increase the pace of our shots as we felt that some were too long and began to grow dull. It is important that we keep the audience interested in our music video in order to make it more appealing, the best way to do this is to have a variety of shots that appear in quick succession. As we don't have a strong narrative, we need to rely on good editing to help, not only in creating meaning, but to keep the music video interesting.

Final Shot Inspiration

After abandoning our original idea of having the final shot of our music video be the performer exiting the maze in sophisticated clothing, we started to look at other options. We have decided to have a final shot that is the same as, or very similar to, one of the first shots of the music video. We wanted to create a video that is cyclical in nature, the idea of a 'cycle' alluding to our video's theme of being trapped and trying to escape.

The images below show one of our first shots (left) and our final shot (right). We felt that these help to make the narrative clearer, the first shot shows the performer entering through a doorway, the final shot shows her leaving or 'escaping'. We felt that this was a fitting shot as it is a clear end to the video - the performer walks out of the shot, leaving little room for confusion for our audience.

   

Another music video that has used this technique is Bear's Den's 'Above the Clouds of Pompeii':



   

The image of the hand is very important in this music video as it symbolises a connection, the video shows a dance between an elderly couple, this is a very intimate moment. The image of an empty hand is also very significant as the woman is shown to be in the man's imagination, the emptiness mirrors his loneliness. This music video showed me how a powerful starting and closing image can have a very strong effect on audiences as this makes the video more memorable. It also helps to solidify key themes, this was important to do in our music video as our narrative is quite vague.

Editing Update

Since completing our filming it has become a lot easier to edit our music video as we had previously left gaps where we needed our new shots to go. After adding our new footage from the Capel Manor Maze, our narrative has become slightly clearer, although it is still more implied instead of a clear storyline. We have finished editing the first minute of the song which leaves about 2 minutes left, this seems very manageable in the time that we have left until our deadline. We have placed the majority of the shots roughly where we want them the appear in the music video, however, we will need to go back and refine the lip synching and make sure that shots cut on beat. We also are yet to add special effects, such as our kaleidoscope shots or changing the opacity, we felt that these could be added at a later date whilst we focus on getting the shots and locations to 'flow'.

We also decided to change the ending of our music video. We initially planned to have a shot of the performer exiting the maze in professional-looking clothing, contrasting her previous grungy style and deteriorating mental state. However, when we added this shot at the end of the music video, instead of adding to the narrative and themes of reckless vs sophisticated behaviour, it made it more confusing. The shot lacks a connection to the rest of the music video, meaning that it seems to appear out of nowhere. We decided not to use this shot but are yet to find a replacement.

Framing and Composition - Capel Manor Shots

We used the rule of thirds when composing this shot. Typical of a performance video, we wanted the performer to be the focal point of the shot, and therefore, she appears along one of the 'thirds' lines. I like the balance created within this shot by the foliage emerging from the left-hand side of the frame, this also serves to accentuate the performer as she appears in the only open space in the shot. We felt that the structure of the window was grid-like so we used this to make the shot more interesting, by having the performer appear through a gap, a frame is created around her. This framing technique helps to draw the viewer's eye to the focal point - the performer.


In this shot, we wanted to centralise the performer to identify her as the focal point. The simple background also helps to draw attention to the focal point. We used the rule of thirds to calculate the composition of this shot so that we left a proportionate amount of headroom.





The interesting lines and angles within this shot help to lead the viewer's eye to the centre of the frame that contains the focal point - the performer. This was a hand-held tracking shot, these lines that 'draw you in' help to accentuate the camera movement.




We used the idea of 'leading space' in this shot. Whilst the subject is not facing sideways, as is typical of this type of framing, the large open space on the left-hand side adds openness and makes the performer seem smaller. This adds an element of vulnerability which is fitting for our narrative that explores the idea of feeling trapped.


We used the rule of thirds to draw more attention to the performer, as she appears along one of the dividing 'thirds' lines. I particularly like the balance within this shot, the dark green on the right-hand side contrasting the very pale, almost colourless performer. The idea of 'contrast' adds to our narrative as we wanted to present two contrasting sides of our protagonist.

Capel Manor Filming

Today we finally filmed at the Capel Manor Maze, marking the completion of filming our music video. This was an incredibly important location as it helps to make the narrative clearer, with themes of escapism being shown by the performer being 'trapped' in a maze. Unbeknownst to us, there were other interesting locations on the Capel Manor grounds that we discovered whilst trying to find the maze. These included a variety of gardens and an derelict church. Due to the weather, the gardens were not suitable for filming as they appeared dull and dead, however, we decided to film in the church as its decaying exterior reflects the deteriorating mind-set of our protagonist, adding further symbolism to our music video. Overall, I am really please with our footage and am excited to continue editing our video with our new shots, which will, hopefully, make the video flow better.

Here is our vlog from the shoot:

Kaleidoscope Practice

Inspired by Zayn Malik's 'Pillowtalk', we wanted to include a kaleidoscope effect in our music video. We felt that the interested patterns had a hypnotic quality that links to the lyrics of our song 'hypnotic' as well as the spiral shapes linking to our staircase location.

We used Final Cut Pro to create a compilation of different kaleidoscope shots. We imported different shots from different locations as this provided us with a variety of patterns and colours. We found that moving shots create more dynamic kaleidoscopes over still shots as these lack the pulsing, spiralling effect that we felt is better suited to a music video. We exported the Final Cut file and then imported this footage to our iMovie project so that we can add these effects to our music video.

Here is our kaleidoscope video: