When looking into what I wanted to make my music video like and what I wanted it to follow in terms of statements, mise en scene, codes and conventions, theories and genres. After conducting research, analyzing lyrics, looking at shot types to name a few I had a set of aims for what I wanted my music video to look like. My first and main aim, the theme of my music video, is to show and represent the age divide within politics and how there is a large group of young people who do not feel as though they have a say in politics. I wanted to criticize the conservative party and how the elderly favor the conservatives and how the conservative party rely heavily on elderly peoples votes. This would be heavily reflected on and wanted to make this a point to the audience instead of being hinted at for them to infer the meaning. Another aim I wanted for my video was to use a range of different features that are commonly used in different music videos. I investigated the 5 main music video genres and what codes and conventions are seen throughout them. I also paired this with the conventions of a rock music video as this was the genre of music that I was going to be using. I wanted to create a “messy” type of music video – following concept features where it's quite difficult to understand. I wanted it to have aspects of performative where I had the cast singing the lyrics to the song and dancing. And finally I wanted there to also be a bit of storytelling- relating to it being a narrative music video. The story side is related to several sequences. For instance, when one of the elderly ladies falls into “The Prime Ministers” arms I wanted this to show how they support one another and how there's an element of trust between elderly people and the government. “The Prime Minister” then is shown shouting at the younger generation, seen to be mouthing things like “look at what you've done”. Another example would be how there are multiple shots of feet moving as if they were getting ready to run, this is later shown when the younger generation run towards the camera and the next shot shows the older people falling. I also wanted this to be a metaphor as at the end of the video the younger people pose and walk away as they are the people who will be dealing with the older generation's decisions, and they are what really matters in the long run. I wanted to blend these all together to create a unique music video that was in a way straight to the point but also quite interesting and confusing. I think that these aims and objectives were appropriate for my final major project as I needed to create a product that was linked to a social or cultural factor so i felt that doing my music video on the topic of politics would be a good representation of social factors.

 

I found that these aims were met well as I had thought hard about what I wanted to do and what was do able. I found that my goal was to make a good music video because I had not made one before and had not worked on my own. Looking at the aims and objectives that I had pointed out I tried to be very creative when trying to mix the 3 different music video genres together. I really did want this to work well as it could affect the overall success of the music video. I had looked closely into my influences and inspirations – looking at music videos that matched features seen in all the music videos genre. For instance, the music video for Blur – Country House is very “messy” and all over the place, this matches with being a concept music video, they perform the song, making this a performative music video and also thy have short story segments also showing it being a narrative music video. By looking at this format inspiration I was able to see what points of the music video made it what genre.

 

I think there were two features in my music video that I think were very successful. These were my use of cloning and the costuming. I had an idea of using the same cast to represent how we are all the same and socially everyone should be equal. This meant that I would have to clone the cast and have then opposite one another. When filming I drew out lines in the grass of where the tripod legs had stood when filming so that when going out again I could put it in the same place. I was worried about this as my shoot was quite complex surrounding having my cast and crew all available at the same time so only had 1 full day to completely film so didn’t have a lot of time for mistakes. These shots appear a number of times in the final edit as I felt happy with these shots as they were the main image and idea I had in my head during pre-production and before shooting. I was also very happy with the costuming success. I had a clear idea of needing my cast to have 2 costumes – one being “current” and “trendy clothes” and the other being clothes typically seen and associated with elderly people so the audience could decipher the difference. This would be things like cardigans, jumpers and I had also purchased wigs and accessories to really emphasize this age difference. I had created a mood board for what I wanted my cast to be wearing so they had some inspiration and everyone got really involved in the process and we all found it very funny whilst filming. When looking at the finished product I would argue that the costuming and shots is what made the music video successful.

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When editing my music video, I needed to use a range of skills. These were my hard skills in the whole process. One skill I had to develop, and use was the cloning. This took some time to get right and a lot of altering to make right. I also had not done this before, so this was completely new to me. I also worked on my lip syncing when editing. I have lip synced in my work prior to my project – mainly by overlaying microphone audio files to match the camera footage but lip syncing with a song is something I have not done in my work before. I actually found this easier than lip syncing micro phone files. I think this is due to having my cast audibly sing the words in stead of mouth them so that when editing I could just listen to them singing and find what part of the song it was. I used had tested these skills and developed them through action research and trial and error. This helped the success of my music video as I was able to alter my music video through watching and changing to make it better and more visually pleasing to the audience.

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I was impressed with my overall performance in my music video as I have covered a lot of different skills and have done lots of thing I have never done before. Before starting my FMP. I was slightly worried about the workload as in the project prior to this we had worked in groups and shared tasks out equally but in my final major project I would have needed to do this alone. I had started by looking at what tasks were due in when and when the final deadline was and setting out what I would need to do and carry out in each unit. I found it helpful to discuss with others what they were doing and reflect on that would be beneficial to my music video. I also found it useful to look over my past work to see what the pre-production was like and how I can make my overall work better. For instance I had noticed that in a lot of my editing at the beginning of the year I hadn’t always made the camera quality the best or hadn’t exported my work in the right format – reducing the quality. This would help me to reflect on this and make my music video better. I think that when filming my role as director meant I had to be the leader and also use teamwork to help my cast and crew understand what we would be filming and what I wanted it to look like. I often helped my cast when filming by telling them what to do whilst rolling and pre plan shots by walking through it with them before filming. I also made sure they knew how grateful I was fore them to help me. I think that working closely with my peers and cast meant that my role was made easier and more enjoyable.

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I expected to face challenges over the course of my final major project. When looking into what I wanted to make I really was unsure on what song to use. I had though about songs that are mainly metaphorical and had thought about what songs discuss politics. I had though about musicians of the rock genre that speak openly about politics and tried to look at their songs but really was struggling with what to use. Eventually I had thought about Bilk – a band that I already knew and have seen live twice, and they fit all the ideas of what I wanted. This was just a matter of continuing to search for what I wanted. Another issue that I faced was that I had emailed the local MP and had not had a response for a while. I knew I wouldn’t get a response very quickly as I knew is a very busy person, but it took longer than expected. I just had to move on and come back to it at a later day. Before filming I was very worried that once we had filmed the first half and then came back to do costume changes the lighting would have changed. When editing these was a challenge as they didn’t blend as nicely. I had to test how it looked if I put effects like sharpen and mask on to try and get them to blend better together but even now it is not the best quality. This is something that I am still unsure as to how I would have changed this if I refilmed as this was due to natural lighting. Another thing that went wrong was that I had booked out a dolly to get clean and smooth camera movements, but I was unable to use it as it wouldn’t wheel through the long grass so just had to carry the camera and move it myself. When editing I also added stabilizer to these shots to make them a little bit smoother. The final issue I ran into was that after filming around 5 camera shots, I had a pop up saying there was no more storage in the camera. This meant that I had to use time going through the footage on the camera and deleting other people’s footage to clear up space. This wasn’t an issue just did mean that my cast and crew were just standing around in the cold whilst I did this.

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I think that in the future I could have established and sent emails/done interviews earlier to get a quicker response. This could help speed the overall process up and allow me get more work done in a limited time. I think that to deal with the effect of the lighting I could film in an enclosed, professionally lit environment in from of a green screen or just have two separate groups. When thinking about the song choice I really needed to find the perfect song so I think it was good to take my time but would have also been able to help me establish what I would be doing early on. To find a song earlier I could have outlined my idea sooner to get a head start on my project. The camera storage issue could have been resolved by me going through the camera prior to the shoot and deleting the un needed footage. For the dolly I could have maybe had a big piece of tarp on the ground to make it smooth for it to roll over. As the shots this would have been needed were close ups or medium shots I wouldn’t have needed to do any green screening as the ground would not be seen in these shots.

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One resource that would have benefitted my production that I did not have would have been a gimble. A gimble is used to stabilize a camera that is being moved. Some gimbles are used to remember movements so I could have had it do the exact same movements and be able to have my cast cloned in it. This means that my cloned shots would have movement instead of being static. The reason this was unavailable was because I booked my equipment out from college and gimbles are very expensive so college are not allowing it to be taken off site. This could have made my music video better as it would be more interesting, better quality and overall just cooler.

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I think I was quite calm when it came to overcoming these challenges. I knew that there was a way around the issue and I just needed to figure it out. For instance when the camera had ran out of storage, in the moment I was scared that I wasn’t going to be able to continue but after taking that moment of panic to calm down I remembered I just needed to delete the other footage on the camera. When I learnt I couldn’t use the gimble I wasn’t too worried as I would still be able to do what I wanted to do – clone my cast.

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In my planning stage I was trying to piece my ideas together well whilst also trying to do it to a good quality level. This meant that I spent lots of time on specific tasks. For instance, when looking into my inspirations and influences I spent lots of time trying to look at the hidden meaning rather than just looking at what has been done and why I like it. So I think I would use better time management skills to not feel so rushed with my pre-production and research.

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A key lesson I learnt from my music video is to have a good cast and crew. I was really grateful for my friends as they were really invested in my idea and what my music video is. I think this can be inferred from their acting in the music video. This was a lesson as I had initially wanted it to be more of a protest instead of a stand off. I had gathered 15 people who agreed on a specific day to help and slowly nearer the day of filming they all dropped out leaving me with 5 people. The people who were featured in my video were very passionate and were more than happy to help. This is one of the main reasons my music video is as successful as it is.

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Another lesson I learnt from my music video would be to pre plan better. When it came time to film I felt like it had crept up quite quickly and I felt slightly rushed. This meant that I bought props and costumes on amazon to receive them quickly. This meant they were more expensive then I had been planning as I was initially wanting to buy these on vinted or eBay. For future reference I would plan this further in advance so I could purchase these for a cheaper price.

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The last lesson I learnt was to rename my clips. I had not done this as I watched through my clips to make sure I didn’t need to refilm and wanted to start editing asap so that I didn’t waste any time as I knew it would take me a while to edit. This meant that after cropping and removing videos If I needed it again I had to go through and find the same video. This was probably more time consuming than if I just renamed my clips.

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By making my music video I would say I learnt the skill of creating and editing music videos. I learnt about the different genres of music videos and the codes and conventions seen in them. This will help me if I go onto make another one in year 2. I also would say that I really challenged myself with my editing as a lot of the effects, transitions, green screen and the cloning I had not used before. This has helped me widen the variety of ways to edit and will help me going forward.

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I really enjoyed creating my music video as I was able to make a point throughout my work and this will help me going forward if I want a job in music.