Half Term Filming.

During the half term, me and my partner were supposed to go out filming however due to certain circumstances we were unable to do so. We had scheduled the days we were planning on filming, which locations to film in and what time as you can see on our breakdown sheets. Having spoken to our teacher about why we could not film over the half term, we were given more time to film and came up with a different alternative, which was to film each other instead of relying on our actors who also couldn't turn up. One of our scenes included a male character and since our actors also could not make it we had troubles finding a guy. However, we did decide to use other people to portray the flashback in the music video where their faces are not shown.

Feedback From My Movie Rough-Cuts

In class we were asked to show to our fellow peers the rough cut of our music video to get feedback. We received both positive comments and constructive criticisms. The postive comments we recieved were; our use of different shots were good as it made it more interesting, especially the shot where we used the effects of mirror image. The costumes worn by our made character was said to be really well thought about and went well with the music video. The location we decided to film in (a park to resemble a forest) was said to be really nice and went well with the tone of the song as well as the use of the piano. This also made it look more realistic and can be seen as a music video. There was a part where we had our main character kick the stool of the piano, which was said to a bit cheesy but did reflect on our character's emotions (anger).

The constructive critisisms that we recieved were that we needed to improve the timing of the lip synching as it almost match the lyrics of the song but not perfectly. There was a scene where we had letters scattered on the floor, however they thought this could have been improved if we made it fall onto the floor somehow. We also need to add in the missing shots that we hadn't got around to editing in yet. The bedroom scenes were said to be a bit too dark and therefore needs to be brighten which we can do when editing. Also, there is a part where the door was closed and then suddenly opened, therefore, we need to make sure we edit it to make it run smoothly.

Conventions of Our Music Video Genre.

The genre of our music video is Soft Rock. The conventions of a soft rock music video consists of either: black clothing, a dark background/lighting, dark make up and a isolated location or colourful clothing, bright background/lighting, natural makeup and a location where it is fun or it could include both of these concepts. Several soft rock artists who follow these conventions are Avril Lavign and Pink. Avril Lavigne's
'Hot' music video consists of coloured clothing, bright backgrounds and a fun surrounding. Whereas, her 'Innocence' music video consists of wearing dark clothing, black eyeliner and in an isolated place playing a piano. Another example, is Pink's 'So What' music video - this too consists of bright colours and a fun setting. However, a music video that consists of both conventional ideas is Avril Lavigne's 'The Best Damn Thing' music video. This music video has bright and coloured backgrounds, however her make up is dark and at some points so are her clothing.

In our music video we decided to follow the conventions of a soft rock music video. Our music video consists of a dark dull background/setting, an isolated location, dark makeup and dark clothing. We decided to make the lighting brighter than what you would expect in a dark soft rock music video as we also wanted it to have an aspect of a pop and so by making the video a bit more soft and gentle it makes it more soft rock than just rock. Even though we did not go against or challenge the conventions of a music video, we did go against what our target audience expected in a soft rock music video. For example, they expected to see a basement as a location, however we decided to use an isolated forest as our location. We believed that by making the music video something our target audience wouldn't expect would be more appealing and interesting to them as it will be something different.  

Breakdown sheets.

Anamatic Presentation Feedback

Today I was asked to show our animantic music video to our fellow classmates and asked for their opinions - both positives and contructives criticisms. They liked the shots and angles used, especially the high angle shot used at the end of the video. The use of the high angle shot was to show her being depressed, down and weak as it reflects on the way she felt inside. Even though our main character plucks up the courage to leave which shows her strength, her emotions over powers this and her weakness overshowders her strength and so by using the high angle shot at the end we wanted to portray this. However, though they liked the shots and angles they also mentioned that there weren't many as the majority were medium shots.

But the reason to use a majority of medium shots (epecially in the middle of our music video) was also to reflect on how our main character feels inside. Mostly, when people break up from a relationship, at first they do not want to be seen and they choose to isolate themselves from the rest of the world (hence the establishing shot of the forest in the begginging which shows distance and also the loneliness she felt in their relationship) and once they are ready to open up to people they allow them to come up close and personal but still want them to respect their personal space (hence there being a lot of medium shots during the drama).

The use of close ups, medium shots and wide shot when our main character is playing the piano also reflects on her emotions as she remembers the whole relationship. The close ups were used for our audience to see and understand what our main character is going through and also it reflects on our main character opening up and letting the people know that she is hurt. Wide shots and long shots were used to show the isolation, loneliness and segregation of her relationship and how she feels alone inside. There was a close up of half the face of our main character - this was to reflect on the lyrics 'this absolution is always incomplete'. This too reflects on her feeling that she is not complete without his love and that she is the only one in the relationship who still loves him whereas he doesn't love her anymore. Also a white flash was used to that scene 23 is a flashback.

Another constructive criticism was that our shots were too long (shot 37 and 41) and reason for this was because in the shot we will have her running towards the camera whilst singing the lyrics. Futhermore, some of my fellow classmates mentioned that they did not understand our music video, however, there was a student who understood it and decided to explain it to the rest of the class. Her understanding of the video was correct as she explained it was about a relationship failing and the girl in the relationship has had enough and decided to leave without her boyfriend knowing and the scence of her playing the piano is from a different time period. This explanation is correct. The scenes of her playing the piano is her remembering everything that happened (hense the drama playing out afterwards) and the scenes of her and her boyfriend in a house is to show the death of the relationship as it portrays death and seperation in the relationship and how she leaves him.

The scenes of her running towards the camera was a mirror image of her leaving the house, as she remembers leaving her house she begins to run away leaving also what is most precious behind her (the piano) and then we have her standing still and looking back in both scenes to show that she is reliving the amount. However, I do believe that the main reason why my fellow classmates did not understand was because our drawing techniques are not perfect and so we had a hard time drawing what we wanted our shots to look like.

Survey

In Media we made a survey about what people would like and expect to see in a 'Soft Rock' music video. We did this by signing up to http://www.surveymonkey.com/ and creating our very own 10 questioned survey. Since we could only do a 10 questioned survey (unless we upgraded) we decided not to include the questions, are you a 'male or female' or age group options. However, what we needed to find out was what our audience as a whole wanted and expected in a music video and whether they listened to soft rock or hard rock more. But we did make sure that we sent it only to people who are 16 plus and are both male and female. Our survey can be seen from here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M6LLRKW

From our findings we found out that people expected to see abandoned streets, dark and wild customes in a soft rock music video. They werent to keen on whether the actors looked their age however, did say they would expect to see both the actor and artist in the music video. Also, they preferred the music video to have a storyline and a hidden meaning. When asked about what they were more likely to watch and listen to they picked options that reflected on soft rock.

Therefore, taking this into account we can either take their opinion on how a soft rock video should look like or go the opposite way and change certain bits. If we decided to take their opinion on how it should look like it could be boring as it's what they would expect to see. However, if we decide to change certain things then it might keep them more interested in watching the video as it's something they do not expect to see.

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