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final music video

Evaluation 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To gain ideas in the initial planning of our project, we carried out a questionnaire for 20 people and a focus group which have both been posted on our blog. These were the results we gained...

After making our music video, basing it on these results as much as possible, we asked our audience for feedback to see if it lived up to their expectations. We asked two female students who are also studing media on their opinions of our music video, baring in mind they had made one too, to see how ours compared and to gain a wider insight of opinion of those with a critical media eye. We recordeed an interview with them which can also be seen on our blog.
We also asked another 20 people a different question after showing them our finished product...
We asked:
Did you like our music video?
Do you think it fits the song and its genre?
What could be improved/what did you dislike?
What was your favourite shot?
We gave everyone a questionnaire sheet to fill out. By asking a mixture of open and closed questions, we gained a very open response which would help us improve if we were to do it again. Here is an example of one response by Katie Mcmurray who is a female student at Shenfield High School...

 We gained many positive and negative points:

Positive
- Very good narrative and storyline
- The characters fitted the roles very well
- The slow motion, black and white shots of Amy portraying anger fitted really well with the changing mood of the song
- The lip syncing was in time and Amy fitted the role of the artist very well
- Good variety of locations that fit the storyline
- Enjoyed the editing of the letter and name being written at the bottom of it

Negative
- The story was very serious and could have been a bit more light-hearted
- Some shots could have been a bit more steadily filmed
- Could have been filmed in a more sunny climate at some parts to reflect the mood



What We Have Learnt

We have learnt that to create an effective music video, it needs to have a clear audience and fit what that audience want to see for them to enjoy it and for the artist to sell more music as the video is a clear selling point. We have also learnt how to film and edit in a short space of time and how to manage our time correctly within the allocated time we had to complete our project. We also now know how to fit the lip syncing parts to the music in time to the best standard as if it was out of time, the video would completely lose credibility.
We have also learned how to gain the best research and how much research is actually essential in making a music video of high quality. We carried out different types of research to broaden our understanding of what the audience want and also how to tackle the appropriate markets and institutions of the music industry. Furthermore, we carried out research into many different artists, genres and record labels to find a song which suited us best and which we would be able to create a successful music video for. This amount of research will help us both in future careers and university degrees as we know how to approach people for our research and to gain the information we need.
We believe that we have made a successful music video in which our target audience will enjoy and although some people have said it is slightly too serious, it does fit with the storyline of the song and works well with the lyrics.

Evaluation 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The Title of The Music Video

The title of our song was pre-selected by our chosen artist Ellie Goulding. We chose not to change this as we felt this may cause confusion to the audience. The title "Every Time You Go" has a strong self explanatory meaning and is also repeated in the song several times. We decided to stick to our genre by keeping to the conventions of a pop video by incorporating the title in the video by singing these lyrics. This creates a stronger meaning to the video as some may argue the title plays a vital part within a song and its representations.

Setting/Location

We used a variety of settings including, a pathway/field, a bedroom, a coffee shop, a local street and a car in our video so that we had as many different locations as possible to allow the viewer to not get bored. The locations are very well suited to the lyrics of the song for example using the coffee shop when filming the couple on there second date. Which lyrics relate to the line "I really thought that we would go further, the second time we'd meet" this works really well when showing the couple meeting for the second time. We used Amy's bedroom as the main place for activity between the on screen couple for we felt this is where you would expect typical teenage couples to be spending there time. This is where we shot the couple in there positive scenes kissing, cuddling and generally enjoying each others company as we felt there own houses reflected the comfortability of the couple in there own home. However we also used the same location to shoot the scenes of argumentation between the couple. This creates a more realistic scenery for the narrative of the our storyline. For more of the negative scenes we also used a car, this is where we could expect to see a couple and also gave us a change of scenery to show the couple out of there comfort zone. There is one scene where Ellie's boyfriend kicks Ellie out of the car onto the street this location shows the vulnerability of the character and being outside alone reflect her emotions.

Costumes and Props

Our song choice was specifically chosen to be very narrative, therefore most of our lyrics can also be seen being preformed on screen whilst you listen to them. For example the opening lines "It starts with a picture and it sits in your frame" this image can be seen on screen using the prop of a picture frame which we filled with a picture of Ellie and her boyfriend to look very realistic.

We also created a this again but with Ellie writing a letter which also fits with the lyrics. The letter used is a prop which signifies something very personal to the character from her partner.

Costumes used were very casual this reflects Ellie as a artist. Her choice of outfits are normaly very modest and we did our best to achieve this in our video. These examples show a development in music video conventions as sometimes they are used but often to mildly portray what is going, but they are not severe or noticeable enough to “challenge” these conventions.

In our first scene we used a chequered shirt and jeans, this is very casual and works well with the indoor location. We also dressed Ellie in her angry scene in a black outfit which signifies her feelings at this time. This costume consisted of a black leather jacket, black leggins and small black paintent shoes. Another outfit was a navy spotted dress this reflected Ellies feminine side. This outfit works well against the white background which we filmed against and shows Ellie clearly.

There is a rain scene where Ellie wears a bright yellow raincoat, this is particulary important as this represents the rain outside.

Camerawork & Editing

Our camera shots are mainly mid-shots, however Ellie can be seen in many different angles during this music video. This is because we wanted to use a variety of shots to explore the characters and make the audience feel a connection with the characters. Long shots are used when filming the couple this represents the unity of the pair and reflects there current feelings for eachother at the time. For example there is a shot of the pair walking into the woods holding hands. This allows the viewer to clearly see that the two are happy at this part of the video. Music videos usually use a large variety and range of shots and last very short, however we tired as best as we could to not use raid editing as this would not fit the narrative and genre of our song. Because our song has such a heavy storyline having fast paced images would not fit our music video at all. Instead we decided to fit the conventions of a pop music video and have a strong storyline with long shots instead of fast ones. All of the cuts are done to the timing of the song and usually change when a new line begins.

Title Font and Style

The Title font was choosen to fit the Artist herself, there is nothing extravagant about Ellie Goulding therefore we did not use a fancy font, but a very simple one. This basic theme can be seen throughout all of our work and links well with our music video style aswell as our acillary tasks.

Our fonts were either in black or white and usually in bold fitted together neatly to reflect our character and look neat in the corner when the video starts. The Title was not made into a big deal as this is not very important in music videos in the same genre. This conforms to the conventions of music videos as not many videos show the title in a bold way which leaves a lasting effect.

Story/Tone Of The Music Video And How It Sets Up

The opening shot shows Ellie in a mid shot singing her first lines of the song, as there is no introduction in our song. We felt having Ellie as the first image in our video will introduce the viewers to her importance within the video. Ellie then begins to sing the first verse of the song which is where we beging to tell the story of the video, where the well structured parts of filming come into place. This video has a very strong narrative therefore this had to be portrayed very clearly in order for the video to fit the conventions and be understood. This therefore goes towards the conventions of your typical pop narrative music video.

Genre And How The Opening Suggests It

The opening consists of Ellie's face in a midshot, this goes against the conventions of the genre for most music videos with a narrative would usually have a long introduction where there would usually be a location shot to set the scene. Where in ours we just go straight to the artist. We felt this would fit better as our song choice is very different from others at the song lyrics actually start as soon as the song begins in comparision to normal songs of the genre where there is usually a long intrumental or introduction building up to the lyrics of the song. 

Editing Diary

This is our editing diary for our music video which explains the ideas and purposes behind our editing choices.