Previous Student Evaluation Analysis

As part of the preparation for my evaluation, I have looked at three previous student examples. I am going to be individually commenting on the strengths and weaknesses of their work, a good use of technology and any influence their evaluation may have on mine, (i.e. particular things I would like to perhaps incorporate). 

Student Example #1

This first example was one I found very uninspiring. Their answers to the questions are vague and do not cover enough detail to consider. What is clear is that the student has not given an adequate amount of planning to their evaluation. 

What is more dissatisfactory is the length of the clip (only last 00:48 seconds across 4 questions!), but also the consistent use of only one technology. They have failed to recognise the importance of using separate medias for each question and this is what they have remarkably fallen down on. 

The description of their work across the questions is very basic and fails to broaden their explanation about the auxiliary tasks. They have also given little consideration to the idea of synergy and I think her evaluation falls down also on the strengths of her music video and auxiliary tasks.

They only positive that can really be taken from this piece of work is that the student has been able to work with basic medias and ideas that she hadn't previously. However this is again vague and doesn't go to much length to suffice a good feedback. 

Student Example #2 

I think this is a stronger student example than the previous. I think the video is engaging and considers the questions well.

Strengths: 

- What I particularly liked was the 'response videos'. The student has taken into account what other people thought of their video and used this in part of their evaluation. However I feel like could have been made stronger by using people other than her family and immediate peer group. 

- I also like how they have approached the evaluation of the audience feedback. I feel that they have answered this well and presented it in a coherent way.

Weaknesses: 

- The student has failed to use enough different medias, and therefore falls down on their use of technology. For every question I would like to have seen a different media used.

- Although their commentary throughout is effective, I feel that the constant narration throughout brings the evaluation down. This ties in with the previous point. 

Influences:

- I may consider presenting my Audience Feedback in a similar way. 

Student Example #3

Across the examples I have looked at, this is my favourite. 

Strengths:

- What I particularly like from this evaluation is the consideration the student has given to presenting the medias they have used in their work.
- The way they have presented their evaluation is good. Title sequences are accompanied by kinetic typography.
-  I think the frequent use of screenshots and clips is particularly effective. 

Weaknesses:

- The narration is good, however I would have liked to see different medias (i.e. text) as part of the evaluation.

Influences:

- Use of screenshots is particularly effective over the narration. This enables the audience to get an impression of what the student was doing in the project. 

The third draft

Video Audience Draft Feedback

Here I filmed a response to the 2nd draft of my music video. 

This proved to be really helpful feedback, as it came from a realistic audience who would be viewing the video but hadn't yet seen it. I have therefore taken demographic considerations. 

Royalty-free music/samples

For the director's title, I would like to include a sample of cinematic-style music that will play as the title appears. 

I have now started to explore royalty-free music samples, to find what sort of sample will be most appropriate. I also have the option of making my own soundtrack by using programs such as Garageband. 

I have also considered using guitar pedals to make a soundtrack. I approximate that 

the animated title will last for 5-6 seconds, thus the soundtrack will not have to be long. 

I have looked at websites such as: www.looperman.com and www.incompetech.com for Royalty-free music.

I decided to produce my own music by using cubase. The track is currently 12 seconds long however I will condense both ends of the track and possibly make alterations to suit the motion of the animated text.

I have taken influence from companies such as 'Sitcom Soldiers'. An example of the cinematic-style music I have in mind, can be found at the beginning of the video below.

Motion 5

As part of the editing process, I am going to be using Motion 5. The video above explains the basics of the program and how to animate text.

For my director's animated logo (discussed in a post on 17/10/12), Motion 5 will be a great way of creating a full-working animation sequence of approximately 5 seconds, which will be shown at the end of the video.

Here is some of my research into Motion so far:

Anchoring text is something else I am considering using during the opening of my music video. Where the 'STILL HERE' title appears, I am thinking of applying this effect, however this is to be experimented with first. 

Key-framing will be important in animating the text/logo. 

I also have the option of going down the route of developing text as Kinetic Typography. This might in fact work better, however I don't want the 'director's title' to simply look like a title sequence.

I have also recently discovered the Trail effect that can be made in Motion. I think this could be useful during the firework scenes towards the end of the video. By having several copies of the fireworks in sequence and then manipulating motion by reversing and slowing/speed up, it could look quite effective. 

Editing #6

Today I looked back on the audience feedback I received for my draft. 

These are the main points I will focus on to improve:

• Aspect Ratios - I want to have a consistent 2.35:1 ratio throughout the video to maintain the cinematic-look of the video. However some of the feedback did mention that they liked the change in aspect ratios from 1:85 to 2.35:1.

• Performance shots - Prior to export, the performance shots look brighter on my laptop than they do on an Imac computer or other people's computers. Therefore I am going to change the exposure on these shots slightly. 

• Effect considerations - Give more consideration to why the effects are being used. I am starting to find patterns in the song where effects re-occur, i.e. during performance shots, the 'projector' effect is used. 

Initial Audience Feedback

I decided to conduct some audience feedback for the first draft of my music video. This is the feedback I had received after 2 hours.

FACEBOOK

Here are 18 comments and 1 message I received. 

 

TWITTER

On here, I posted a similar message to the Facebook status.

I received 2 bits of feedback here.

In both cases, the video was either 'shared' or 'retweeted' and this meant that a greater amount of people could see it. I actually received feedback on twitter from somebody who I had no previous connection with and this illustrates the point that social media is a great marketing device. 

This feedback has been really helpful. Although it has been 100% positive, it has given me some constructive criticism and things to consider. 

Exporting Draft #1

My first draft of my music video for Viva Brother's 'Still Here'. (45% complete)

When exporting the file from Final Cut Pro X, I used Compressor 4 to encode the video properly. I didn't want to simply use the 'upload to vimeo' tool, without compressing it properly. 

I opted for Vimeo as my hosting video site, because YouTube is often renowned for lowering the overall quality of videos. This is something I have come across in the past with my own band's music videos, when comparing a YouTube upload to a Vimeo one. 

I used the following video to learn how to use 'Compressor' correctly: 

(Obviously the video focuses on uploading video in 720p format, whereas I have uploaded mine in 1080p. Although I shot my video in 720p, because I used 50fps which were not possible to achieve  at 1080p on my camera, I decided on uploading the footage to a 1080p format anyway. I will compare uploading the footage in these two different ways in my next draft.)

This is the fast draft of my music video construction. This is currently 45% of the total song, but as part of my media studies I want to gather audience feedback at this point to get the opinions of not only media studies but people who are not associated with videography projects.  This is because both groups may pick up on different things, i.e. my hypothesis is that a media student will tend to watch the video analysing it more than perhaps somebody who isn't associated with videography projects. 

Editing #4 (Ken Burns)

In this next part of the editing, I explored the use of Ken Burns and effectively cropping the frames.

Because I am creating a preliminary edit before I make the final amendments at a later stage, I have decided to take the 2 minutes of footage I have so far and improving it, before completing the rest of the video. I will then export what I have so far to gain some initial feedback. Breaking the editing down in this way will be most beneficial for me.

I first did some research into the ken Burns effect and how it is used on photographs.



I then incorporated this with video and I am so far experimenting with this effect during the lip-syncing scene on the estate.

I have also been experimenting more with the light leaks package I recently downloaded ('film burn' effect) and here is an example of this. It is an effect I found particularly interesting and unique; being able to change the opacity of light from 2 different moving images running at the same time as each other.

Audience Research Results

Previous Student Work #2

Here is another piece of past student work I have found when conducting my research into music videos. 

Like my previous example, 'Frick Park Market', this song is evidently different to the song I will be shooting a video for ('Still Here' - Viva Brother). I think however that there are things I can take from this video as influences for my music video. 

Special effects are the video's greatest strength. 

• Motion effects such as Zooming in, sequences of lots of cut-shots and sped-up motion are some examples of this.

These have all been used very effectively and give the video the intended 'eerie feel'. Like most Drum and Bass bands, the video has a clear underlined theme of twisted and disordered.

• Colour effects such as manipulation and textual effects add to the 'cinematic' and commercial style of the video.

Textual effects manipulate the footage and the use of colour alterations draws attention to certain points. Here for instance, the torture is highlighted in red and orange and we can identify him as a danger. 

• Lighting is used effectively throughout the video. 

Lighting is used on the victim and the torturers to portray them differently. We see a long-shot here of the torture whilst the victim is portrayed as the vulnerable person in the video, with emphasis on the blood.

• Mise-en-Scene has been carefully selected.

- The violence is shot in a dark room. This is something you would tend to see in a film (i.e. victim tied up, little amount of light). 

- The shots of the victim trying to escape are portrayed well in the compound where it is shot, highlighting that he is unable to escape and is trapped, facing a terrible fate. 

CONVENTIONS OF DRUM&BASS MUSIC VIDEOS

THIS MUSIC VIDEOS INCLUDES THESE TYPICAL CONVENTIONS: 

Dark imagery 

Fast changing shots 

Close ups of performers 

possible eye contact with audience

It does not use lip-syncing which is only really typical of Performance music videos.

TO IMPROVE: 

Consider using the Cloning effect between 2:17-2:34.

A clearer understanding of whether the video is a Narrative or Concept. If a Narrative, longer shots should be used and we should have a clearer understanding of what is going on exactly. This makes me think the video was intended purely as a concept video. 

Use a greater amount of footage. It does get repetitive. 

Concept Video Study

Concept videos are based around a single idea (concept), typically quite surreal and unusual for the audience. Concept videos are combined with either performance or narrative because from a commercial point of view, the market demands for greater accessibly. However extreme examples I have looked at, only focus on the niche of pure concept art.

A successful concept video will keep the audience entertained and constantly keep them engaged. A range of artists covering all genres have used concept/art based videos. There 

is not a stigma attached to the type of artist who opts for a conceptual style of music video.

Directed by duo Godley & Creme, the video features robot-like movable sculptures dancing, spinning and walking in time to the music in a "virtual house" in London. The video is unique because it was edited to the sounds of the scratching of the composition, and it employed techniques that had never seen in a music video. Here is clear example of a relationship between music and visuals. Hancock himself appears and plays keyboard as a black-and-white image on a television, which is a clever tie to bring in a performance aspect into the video. The video had a demand from a commercial point of view, thus the idea of having performance and concept was evidently important having garnered five MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, including Best Special Effects and Best Concept Video.

The track was a massive success for Gabriel, reaching #1 on the American charts. The video is highly memorable purely because of Aardman Animations' and the Brothers Quay's use of claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation, altogether giving life to images in the song. This video is frequently considered a highly groundbreaking video and is regularly listed as one of the greatest music videos of all time.

A series of awards the video has received can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledgehammer_(song)#Musicvideo

What is clear are the demands of Geffen Records for 'close up shots of the artist', something Andrew Goodwin identified as one of his key features. There is also a clear relationship between lyrics in visuals. Examples of these are the 'bumper car scene' and the train tracks which appear around Gabriel's head. 

Unlike the previous videos, Ballad of Black Mesa does not dwell on a narrative or performance. The video is purely concept. Having been an 'internet viral' video, it does have an iconic status because of its originality.

"The Viral hit "Ballad of Black Mesa" is a toe tapping, gun toting, tour de-force. Taking cues from works like STOMP, and contemporary advertisement, The Ballad of Black mesa has been featured in numerous publications, including UK PCgamer, and GEE magazine."

- http://litfusefilms.deviantart.com/art/The-Ballad-of-Black-Mesa-67278735?moodonly=86

Questionnaire (Audience Research)

I used the example questionnaire above (13 questions), as a basis for mine. These are the amendments I made:

• I decided to use a smaller amount of questions, because I felt some of these were unnecessary and the point of my questionnaire is to deliver concise audience research.
• Some of the answers to Q5 (example) are now obsolete. The genres 'Trance' and 'Rap' have been substituted for Hip-hop and Dubstep, whilst I have also included 'Metal', 'Classical' and 'Alternative'.
• I also felt Q6&7 (example) served no purpose for my research.
• My Q8 will be useful because of my analysis of 'Tribes' and the UK website. Certain dress sense and music taste will be important for the persons music video expectations.

My questionnaire:

I used SurveyMonkey because it made my Audience Research much more interactive, meaning that I could survey people online as well as with physical questionnaires face-to-face. This opened my survey up to a wider demographic and was therefore much more beneficial. 

Performance Video Study

Performance music videos often contain shots of the artists performing:

• Can be a live stage performance, including shots of the artist and audience.
• Can be the artists in “real life” situations, for example: warming up, talking, fooling around
• Lots of close ups of the artist.
• A particular visual style that goes with the artist, e.g. clothing, actions, props, type of images.
• Often the artist can appear to perform in an unusual place - Use of lip-syncing, e.g. a field or rooftop.

As one of the most famous glam rock bands of the 1980's, Bon Jovi's video for 'You Give Love A Bad Name' has been renowned for its iconicity. 

• What is interesting is the representation of men in the women, because the audience is predominately women.
• The hierarchy of the band members is also put on show, with main shots focused on the lead singer, followed by the lead guitarist. There are very few shots of the keyboard player.

• What is immediately addressed in the video is the dangerous LA neighbour setting. This challenges the principles of a rock performance video because you would normally have a performance setting in a confined environment, only focussing on the band rather than the environment in which the performance video is being shot.
• What was unique about the video is the the events depicted in the video show what actually happened that day almost in real time, and getting busted was an integral part of the plan.

• This minimalist video breaks the conventions of a performance music video. 
• The video became the subject for many parodies, such as Gina Riley's parody "Nothing Is There" on Fast Forward, playing on the fact that she was bald.

Further Narrative study.

Narrative based videos attempt to tell a story. 

• They generally involve a main actor(s) and extras, to portray this story. 
• There is a tendency for a relationship between lyrics and visuals to develop across the video.
• They tend to be set out as a Mini Film - a structure of a Beginning, Middle and End. 
• A certain film can be promoted through Narrative Music video. 

FOUR key theorists studied the way music videos and other media stories are constructed.

Todorov Narrative is structured into five different stages;
 Equilibrium -> Disequilibrium -> Recognition -> Reparation -> New Equilibrium

Any example of this narrative structure is 'Jack and the Beanstalk':
- Jack and his mother are living happily (Equilibrium).
- They are forced to sell their family cow which Jack sells for five magic beans (Disequilibrium).
- Jack knows that he has done wrong but decides to climb to the top of the giant beanstalk (Recognition).
- Jack takes the gold coins from the ogre and defeats him by cutting down the beanstalk (Reparation). 
- Jack and his mother are now rich and live happily ever after (New Equilibrium).

Levi Strauss Narrative is motivated by a struggle between Binary Oppositions. The audience is able to distinguish the 'morally right' side from the 'corrupt and bad'. Any example of this are any Superhero films such as Spiderman. Here we can distinguish the good (Heroes) from the bad (Villains). Heroes are always shown in a favorable light e.g. low camera angles and a combination of close ups and longer shots in order to allow the audience to identify with them and essentially side with them.

Propp Narrative is motivated by a variety of character functions. Typically there will be a hero who is sent on a quest by the sender. The hero has to overcome the villain usually with the aid of an assistant (helper) and in doing so gains a reward (a princess?). If the audience can spot these narrative character functions, the plot is easily predictable, which is why it is often used in children's films with a U or PG Rating, so the younger audience can follow the story.
Any example of this story structure would be 'Shrek': 
- (Hero) Shrek is sent on a quest.
- (Sender) He is sent by the king. 
- (Villain) His quest involves overcoming a dragon.
- (Helper) 'donkey' accompanies him. 
- (Reward) He gains Princess Fiona. 

Roland Barthes identified 5 different codes which a narratives engages the audience with:

• THE ENIGMATIC CODE - The audience is intrigued by the need to solve a problem.
• THE ACTION CODE – The audience is excited by the need to resolve a problem.
• THE SEMANTIC CODE – The audience is directed towards an additional meaning by connotations.
• THE SYMBOLIC CODE – The audience assumes that a character dressed in black is evil and this creates an expectation of their character. 
• THE CULTURAL CODE – The audience derives meaning in a text from shared cultural knowledge about the world.

EXAMPLES OF NARRATIVE MUSIC VIDEOS:



In the first half of this narrative the showing of Beyonce in a negative light and her loving husband in a positive, reinforces the idea he is the faithful one in the relationship. The relationship between the visuals and lyrics is interesting, because the negative lyrics reflect Beyonce's character. Here the director has chosen to go against typical gender conventions. Stereotypically, you would expect the male to be cheating on the woman and this is what the artist is trying to get across by doing this interesting parallel. 

The reverse situation later in the video reflects on the situation that the woman is the one who had the cheating partner, but reflects on how he would feel if it was her who was not being faithful. This is a contradiction of the lyrics and is cleverly done towards the end of the video, leaving the audience realizing that the artist isn't a bad person, only heart-broken. 

Viva Brother: Analysis across their music videos

As part of my Planning and Research, I have decided to look at some of Viva Brother's other Music Videos to identify underlying themes that may run through each of them. 

As well as 'Still here', the band also shot videos for the songs, 'Darling Buds of May', 'Time Machine' and 'New Year's Day'. 


Director: Adam Powell
Running Time: 03:16

Mise-en-scene

Location - Slough, UK; performance shots on a roof.
Weather - Overcast.
Props - Instruments (full band), 
Costumes - Fishtail parka coats, coats/jackets, jeans and loathers. 
Colour - Subtle colour editing depicts a grey, natural-looking overcast Britain. 

The video completely plays on the 'Britpop culture' of the 90's. From the sense of costume and instrumental performance shots, to the chosen weather to shoot the video in. The performance location is key because it fully illustrates what the band represents (essentially Britpop rivalists). By using an industrial setting it depicts Britpop in its entirety, in which it stems back to unemployment during the late 80's/ early 90's and the populated cities where this new music and culture was created. 

Editing

• Lots of cut-away scenes from the performance shots, giving us a narrative of the band's journey so far.

• Manipulation of transitions from colour to B&W (giving it an 'old fashioned' look).

Director: Jamie Roberts 
Running Time: 3:17

Mise-en-scene

Location - dark room/venue. Lots of miscellaneous shots accompany the performance.

Weather - Use of dark indoor lighting, and in the outdoor scenes we see an overcast sky. 

Props - Sunglasses, jewelry, balloons, performance lighting, instruments (full band).

Costumes - band perform in usual attire (shirts, loathers, etc) however, women are dressed in bizarre outfits and heavy makeup.

Colour - Strong colour manipulation purposely chosen to give the video a 'psychedelic' edge. 

The combination of the above makes a very effective Mise-en-scene for the video and what particularly stands out is the relationship between music and visuals. The song is entitled 'Time Machine', quite a futuristic and enigmatic topic, so this psychedelic theme has been used effectively and for this very reason. In my opinion this video is probably the most unique of the band's videos.  

Editing

• Strong use of colour manipulation intertwined with camera techniques to give the video an obscure and delusional look. 

•  Lots of cut-away scenes. The video does not follow a set narrative and in terms of a concept is quite open. 

Director: Dan Henshaw 
Running Time: 3:29

Mise-en-scene

Location - Living room (mexican-looking?). 

Weather - Bright lighting. 

Props - Instruments (full band); however the guitars and amps are slightly a different style, skull, photos, etc.

Costumes - Usual band attire, nothing unusual about this.

Colour - Bright; emphasis on sunlight piercing through blinds. 

The video looks as if it has been shot in what looks like a foreign living room (Mexico?), however we can assume the band probably shot it on a set in the UK. What supports this is the vintage instruments the band uses, the exaggeration of miscellaneous props (i.e. photo frames, bird cages, skulls) and the low ceiling, living room doors and windows. The location is not your typical estate living room (demonstrated in 'Darling Buds Of May'). Over the course of the video, we see the room where the band are performing beginning to fall apart, as pictures fall off the walls and wallpaper peels off. You can also pick up on the band members and their slow movement (i.e. bassist and drummer during 1:09-1:11). This suggests that the members themselves are falling apart, like the room around them. What I find interesting is that the band move around as if they are on strings and this could be an inference of being 'puppets to the industry'. 

Editing

• Use of many cut scenes, otherwise the video would be a 'one-shot'. This is effective and allows the director to use this one location and focus on other things surrounding the living room. 

• Textures of dust and haze make the video look old-fashioned, like something you would expect in a cowboy western film and this supports the idea that the scene has been made to look like a mexican house. Flashing lighting also emphasizes this. 

• In terms of lighting, the most important aspect is the use of sunlight. The sun would often shine abroad in a hot climate, which is another obvious hint of a setting that hasn't completely been established for the audience. 

Previous Student Work

During my research into music videos, I came across some inspirational previous student work.

In comparison to Viva Brother's 'Still Here', the songs are different. However I believe here there are visual elements from a hip-hop video, that can be employed in a rock video, which also support the versatility of music videos and put on show the key features Andrew Goodwin identified.

For example, the video employs ''a relationship between lyrics and visuals''. During the lyrics "Frick Park Market, where we kicking out the garbage", text and actions are used to portray this clever relationship, which also gives the video a comedic value by depicting the juvenile behaviour of the actors. 

However, something I particularly liked was the director's fluent control of reversing footage. This is shown throughout the video and one example of this is during '00:56', where money flies back into the actor's mouth. Another example of this edit is used on the sky, making it look as if it is moving backwards and forwards. This effect is continuously used in present day music videos, (something that I previously experimented with in Final Cut test #2).

Another aspect of the video was something that I had already discussed using in my brief. Throughout the video the use of quick-cut footage is very effective and eye-catching, making the video look as if it has been fast-forwarded. 

To add to this, four further features of the video: subtle colour correction, multiple screen frames (cropping), use of different camera lenses and titles are all stylistic features I would like to employ into my video. The use of a fisheye lens across the video was appealing and is something I would like to pay homage to if the opportunity were to arise.  

Of course like previously mentioned, this video is very different to what I have intended. The genres of the two piece of music alone sets the themes apart, however analysing this video was useful and allowed me to engage in some ideas I had perhaps not yet given great thought to. Because I will be shooting the video on a Canon 550d, I aim to achieve a clarity of at least this standard after post-production. 

With regards to titles, this video has drawn my intention to the importance of text in one way or another. The director has included his an animation of their film company logo. I think this has been very effective and it is one of the many features I will be considering when it comes to the final editing of the footage.