Evaluation and Reflection

Research

The research for this project had 4 main categories. They were: how to analyse a music video, researching artists, audience and market research, and then evaluating research. 

Music Video Analysis

Researching Artists

In this part of the research phase we looked into 3 different artists, including the one who made the song we are choosing for our final video. We then wrote up our findings about each artist and also analysed one of their music videos too. This helped us find out more about what our artist’s previous videos are like in style so we can use that for our own video.

Audience and Market Research

I found this part of the research to be the hardest to understand overall. In this part we looked into our artists statistics and then tried to work out who their target audience was and also to what audience(s) they most appeal to.

Evaluating Research

I put this document as part of my pre-production. In this part I looked back at all the websites I had used during my research phase to help with my artist research. I then decided on if the websites helped me in any way, and how they did if applicable. Most of my websites I used were very useful as I looked most things through.

Production

Overall filming had a slow start with some issues due to COVID isolations, this meant that I couldn't follow my original plan which was unfortunate. I managed to get the main narrative I wanted but instead of filming cutaways I had to settle with filming Adriano in the studio. This unfortunately wasn't what I had planned but I think for the time I had to film it in due to various issues I found a good solution.

The way I filmed the main tracking shots was with my phone (an iPhone SE 2nd generation), and my gimbal (DJI OM4). This allowed me to get some very steady and smooth tracking shots which make it look like it was shot on a much better camera than my phone. For this project I shot it all in 2160p (4K UHD, not DCI 4K UHD) and 24fps, which is more or less the industry standard for most music videos these days.

For the cutaway shot in the studio I again used my phone, with the same resolution and frame rate for contingency reasons. I also utilised the small LED lights to help add some ambient light and also create an RGB effect. I wasn't too happy with this shot, mainly due to the strength of the light and also it looks quite grainy due to a high ISO caused by the lack of light in the room. I have put some images of how I filmed it below.

Editing

To edit this video I decided not to do that much in Final Cut, and do more in Motion. I started by getting the lip syncing clips in sync with the song, this did take multiple tries which was slightly annoying as some clips were about half a second out of sync. After sorting out the syncing issues to the best of my ability, because the rendering still threw them slightly out of sync, I then decided when I wanted to use my studio shot and cut this in and out at those points. I then chose to do a minor amount of colour correction on one of the clips due to the lighting of the scene messing up the exposure of my phone. I also did some minor corrections in the studio shot as it looked quite grainy, this was on me as my phone couldn’t get enough light to keep the ISO of the shot low enough. Despite this I am happy with what I accomplished here, it still isn’t perfect although I worked with what I had to achieve a good shot. Another small part that annoyed me was the titles because they’re only in 720p resolution so they don’t look as sharp as they could.

In Motion I planned to utilise mainly the neon lines effect as I enjoyed making that one and thought it could work well to bring my music video a bit more life. Overall my experience trying to do any sort of Apple Motion effects went out of the window. I found the neon lines were rather ineffective and would’ve taken too long. Despite this technical hitch I am still happy with the result, it isn’t what I wanted but these things happen. After I did the first edit I looked back and really wasn’t too happy with it, so I decided to reedit the whole video, and also found that one of the effects was causing the rendering issue.

The Re-edit

In this re-edit I decided to utilise the grain I got in the studio shot more, to do this I turned the video into a VHS style, this means that the grain helped it look like it was from a VHS. This effect automatically sorted out the aspect ratio, and added some typical traits of a VHS such as the lines and slight magenta tint. As well as this basic look effect I also found an overlay that added more to this effect, I did play around with the timecode generator in FCPX but I was unable to achieve what I wanted from that. I used quite a few effects during this, some of them match parts of the lyrics, with others just to help bridge longer clips together. On top of effects I also downloaded some transitions to try and have less harsh cuts and I’m very happy with the selection I found, all for a grand total of £0. I had a toy around with some LUT’s too, and decided on a basic teal and pink one with a 50% mix. I mainly chose this one to make the teal in some clips pop more, but for uniformity reasons I put it over the whole video. I also didn’t like my original titles so I downloaded some called ‘Glitch’ and then added a sound effect over it to give it a bit more life, also it fits with the title style too. While this may not appeal as much to the target audience I still believe it keeps its basic elements to still be somewhat appealing to most of them.

How does it relate to the target audience

I think my video would be good for the target audience. From watching the original music video there isn’t any specific theme or story in the video it is quite a simple video, similar to mine. As well as this it also features an attempt at a parallel edit, again similar to the original video. However, it doesn’t have as much colour as the original video as he is changing outfits in each scene. As well as this my video lacks in some special fx that feature in the original.

What went well?

Overall I think this project went decently well, I was quite happy with my research page and all of the information I accumulated there as I had some good detail in some elements. I also think my class tasks page looks very good as I was able to reflect on each one after we did it and it was uploaded.

What skills did I already have?

I have used quite a lot of the different equipment in the 1st year, including some of my own, so I know my way for good camerawork. I also am used to my editing software of choice, Final Cut Pro, and since the FMP of Year 1 I have learnt more tips for that to increase my workflow.

What could be improved?

Overall I think my project did tip a bit downhill at pre-production, this was due to some mild procrastination during my COVID isolation, but also my filming wasn’t great and I did feel like I didn’t have much time to film, edit, and evaluate. As well as this my editing phase didn’t go as expected so I was quite disappointed by that and I would give myself more time if I did it again to fully edit it.

What did I enjoy most?

I enjoyed the class tasks and little practicals we did to learn the techniques needed for our music videos, this was mainly because I had the extra challenge of learning a similar, yet different, program to make these on.