Evaluation

Our task was to write and record our own song and then film an effective music video for that song, taking into regard the genre, audience and many other factors of the song.

During the making of our music video me, Matt and George, although working together and contributing to our work as a group, took on our own various responsibilities. For instance, the first thing we did production wise was film the house party scene. As I knew a place that we could use I took responsibility for the organisation of this scene. Confirming times of availability and inviting people to come along and take part in the video. As the only day we could film was the Friday and George and Matt both couldn’t make it that day I took responsibility for the filming and direction done that day, as well as taking responsibility for the camera that night and over the weekend. The week after we filmed the performance parts at my house, so I took responsibility for the set and the props we used during filming.

I think that my contribution to the project largely helped it become as good as it is. Without my contribution we possibly wouldn’t have had any of the party scenes and the performance scenes would have been different and possibly not as effective as they are. Without my contribution the song would have been different as well as I wrote the guitar tracks and some of the lyrics, as well as making the drum tracks on a program named beatcraft. I think that my organisational contribution could have been better, if I planned ahead I could have got even more people to turn up to the party, and those scenes would have looked even more effective.

I learnt many things during the production and the editing of this video. The first thing I learnt before filming was how effective correct lighting is. We had a workshop with the lights before filming started to demonstrate how light could dramatically change the mood and atmosphere of the piece as well as how it looks. I also learnt about various camera movements and how positioning the camera in certain ways can be very effective. During the filming I learnt about the capabilities of the camera and what it can and cannot do well, for instance in certain parts of the video it is a bit out of focus and this is because the focus was set on automatic, if the camera was on manual I could have made sure that these parts were in perfect focus, however after receiving feedback it turns out that these out of focus shots help to strengthen the illusion that we are looking through the eyes of a person, slightly out of it, walking around a house party. I learnt alot about the editing software whilst we were editing the video. As well as the basic stuff such as cutting the clip, overlapping and syncing sound and changing the speed of a clip, I learnt about colour correction, desaturation and overlapping two video to play over the top of each other. All of these were useful as we wanted the performance shots to be in black and white but we also didn’t want there to be too much of a change between the performance shots and the party shots, so we desaturated the clips but enough that some colour was still showing, and then used colour correction on the party clips to darken some of the parts that were too light. We also wanted clips of a nuclear bomb going off to be superimposed over the top of the performance shots. The program allowed us to do this by cutting the clips into place, decreasing the opacity and rendering it. This also gave a red tinge to the performance shots which made it look even more interesting.

I think the overall technical quality of my finished video is very good. The editing really makes the video fit in with the tempo and feel of the song, there are no blatant mistakes editing wise and I think the whole thing looks very professionally edited. I think the lighting on the video is good although if I was to re-film I would have made some of the outside and hallway shots alot lighter as they come across as very dark on the video. I would also change the focus setting. I think the camerawork on the video is done of a high quality and really gives the impression that you are watching through the eyes of someone. The camera work is also of a high quality on the performance scenes, with some interesting positioning, movements and lighting work.

I think the video successfully represent’s the genre and will appeal to the audience. The editing is very fast paced and frantic, as is the music and the usual sort of movement to this music is fast moshing and jumping around, the cinematography is rather rough, unprofessional out of focus, jumpy and harsh, which fits well with the punk music and lifestyle. Everything on screen also represents punk culture well, people jumping about and head banging, narcotics, and violence, as well as some abstract stuff such as a man in a banana suit, although the sound of the siren played over this and the way he moves makes the scene look like something out of a horror movie.

I think our original ideas, although not completely fulfilled, were actively portrayed in the finished product. Our original idea was for someone to be walking around a party, enter various rooms and see people appear and disappear and be replaced by the band performing the song. As neither George or Sam were available we couldn’t do this idea, so we filmed the party scenes as planned, with the boy walking around the house with loads of stuff going on, just without the band appearing in these rooms, we filmed the band parts separately at my house and edited them in. Even though this wasn’t our original intention I think it still worked well. We also planned on having alot more people in the house party scenes, I invited around 30 people but on the day only 6 turned up, which obviously was a disappointment, but I still think that the way filmed it made it look fairly full and it still looks as if alot is going on. If I was to re-film it I would plan ahead and invite people a long time before we film so they have enough time to arrange lifts and that sort of thing. I still think that the video stays true to the original story board minus a few details. I still think that the video appeals to our planned target audience and it still gives off the same message.

When we did a screening of our video to multiple people the feedback was largely positive. They thought that the first person view really engulfed you in the video and it really looked as if it was a house party, they found that they could really relate to this. They thought that the colour fits well in giving off a dark murky feel, and the colour during the performance bits was really effective, as is the image of the bomb super imposed over it. They thought that the editing looks professional and they thought that the pace and the style of the editing fits in and works well with the song and they also liked the way that the surreal banana stuff, not only gave a change of scene, separated up the fast part of the song with the slower part and didn’t make the change too drastic. The negative feedback we received mentioned that the band should be in the video from the moment that the vocals start, and that the ending shot of the man walking out of the building was too long as there was no music playing over it.

I think that when compared to other videos of the same style and genre it doesn’t look as professional or as well produced, but it still looks good and could easily pass as a video for an amateur or lesser known band.

Overall I think my video does a good job of portraying and appealing to the fans of the genre of our song, as well as being interesting enough for fans of other genres to watch it. I was happy with the way the filming and the editing went and I think that the final product is one very close to what we were aiming for.