Music Video Evaluation - Question 1

Music Video Evaluation - Question 1

• 1.
  Question 1 –In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Robert Groom
• 2.
  • Narrative Structure– Our main theme throughout the music video album covers was a break down in love. We aimed to create a story throughout our brand which shows how love can easily go from good to bad very quickly. The story embedded within this video and album covers had a message of heartbreak, and its overall message was not to take things for granted as they could soon disappear. We achieved this with a variety of different techniques. For example using the same shot twice but with the couple in the first one, then just our male lead in the second one. This emphasises the separation between the two and also gives a clear image of what has happened. To continue within the story we do no feature any obvious reason as in to why the featured couple have broken apart. This leaves the audience with a question in their mind as in to why the relationship ended. This could be for a large amount of reasons but it will never been truly known by our audience. Allowing the mind to wonder in this way creates a reason for the people to think about the video rather than having the answers obvious and handed straight too them. The use of the different flashbacks throughout the music video shows that the male lead character is thinking about the times when the relationship was good. This cutting technique was applied many times throughout the video and creates the main foundation for the story. A continuing trend throughout the video was the couple holding hands or standing side by side. This familiar positioning is relatable for most an allows a large majority of the audience to relate with the music video. This reoccurring trend was purposely done to create the overall sense of love and compassion. Then by using the singular shots this breaks down that sense and takes the audience on an emotional journey as the tone of the video changes. The idyllic locations which used to film in as well was used when showing the positive times in the relationship and then reused to show that the male lead was still upset over the break-up. Visiting the locations that the couple had once been to before shows that he misses her and this is obvious too see. The locations which were once a happy place for the couple now represent a much more darker feeling as even being in those locations provoke thoughts of regrets and anger.
• 3.
  • Mise-en-scene /locations– The locations we picked were suppose to represent happiness even in times of darkness. The male lead visits the forest and the beach in which him and his ex-lover had visited. To then show him again in said locations showed how he was upset over the break up. We picked the locations carefully but had plenty of stunning places to choose from living in Norfolk. We wanted the couple shots to not only show the happiness of the pair but also have the setting have an overall sense of brightness and content. Using Sheringham Park was key to giving the music video its feeling of love. The background is not the main focus but the bright colours and scenery add a sense of ecstasy. • Costumes – We carefully hand pick what clothing our characters would be wearing. We wanted them to wear slightly different styles to represent how the differences did not make a difference to the love in which is felt between the couple. However the males clothes are slightly more dull in colour to represent his personal misery of the break-up whereas the female lead wore more bight clothing to express that the break-up has not had to big of an impact. Listening to the lyrics we see the break-up from the male point of view and we see that it is him trying to let go. We do not hear about the girl’s perspective therefore we picked the clothes accordingly to the way we feel the characters would act if they were real and how they would have reacted to the break-up. • Characters – The characters body language was key throughout the music video. We can see quite clearly at the start the relaxed nature that the characters are acting in. Their body movements are free and untainted. But that soon changes with the argument scene where the body language stiffens up and becomes more sporadic. The actors performed well in this sense as we can see just from the visuals the relationship is slowing breaking down. The anger in which both characters show as well hints that this is not the first falling out they have had and their body language is key to inferring that this break down has been a long time coing.
• 4.
  • Props andLighting – Although the music video has an overall sense of sadness the visuals remain quite bright throughout. This was done to represent hope. By listening to the lyrics we understood that the singer was sad about the situation they were in but not completely hopeless about their future. By making the couple visually fall apart but keeping the overall brightness the same we achieved this sense of sadness along with a sense of faith. Lighting was also a key point in the performance shots. We wanted 100 percent of the focus to be on our singer and nothing in the background. This again represents the idea that the singer is the one going through the break-up. Lighting was key in our music video and bright, day time lighting was helpful in creating the sense and mood we wanted. • Camerawork and composition- We used a lot of mid to long range shots when creating this music video. These shots were also particularly used when filming the couple shots. We wanted wide shots but with not to emphasise on the background, the couple as to be the main focus. We wanted people to appreciate the creation of the shots passively whilst also following the developing story between the couple. Most of our shots were simplistic and this was done to match our simple story. However there was other parts to the shots that you had to look harder at to understand and this also matched the story as there was many underlying messages that were there for the audience to discover. When composing the shots we wanted to keep the couple or the male lead out of the centre of the shots and used the rule of thirds to achieve a more professional look on the eye. Also using different focus and depths of field again took the focus away from the background and into the couple. The background shots were to be appreciated but either passively or for a very small amount of time, we wanted the majority of the audiences attention to be based on the developing story. • Editing- When editing we worked with the already vibrant colour we had to use a slight colour grading to achieve the effects that we wanted. We also used a lot of cross cuts or fades to show that the male lead was visiting the same places he had been previously with his girlfriend. This technique was successful as it showed the direct link between the two shots rather than leaving the audience to guess or try and remember if the shots were the same. As the songs pace increased the editing followed suit. This starts to develop the story quicker but also shows the continuing attitude and feelings towards the relationship..
• 5.
  Goodwin’s Theory • Ourmusic video does have a direct link to this theory as the lyrics and the visuals are attached.