Media Studies A2 evaluation task 1

1. EVALUATION TASK 1
Rhiannon Templeman-Horton

3. Narrative-
◦ Within our music video, we decided to have a very strong narrative running throughout the
music video. I felt that it would grab the audience’s attention. The common method of
consuming a music video is mobile, I wanted something that would take all of the consumers
attention so they could watch it multiple times. This is alike to Ed Sheeran’s music video for his
song ‘Perfect’, where the narrative formed the basis of his music video. I feel that this was very
effective, as it was able to add another layer to the music, which is something I feel that a music
video should do. A music video should reflect what is intended through the song, but is difficult
to imaging without images.

5. Performance
◦ The performance style within our music video was very different, we tried to add narrative to our
performance as well, to help showcase our artist. Our artist’s star image was that she was very
dramatic and sophisticated, so to draw in our sophisticated audience, we developed the
narrative to create interest. Our narrative contributed to the construction of an artist star image,
is because we included her in the narrative and she was always present. At the moments when
things were going wrong in the music video, we chose to use the close up of the artist looking
directly down the camera, this showed the strength of the artist, which is a part of her star
image. In Taylor Swift’s music video for ‘Wildest Dreams’ she used a lot of eye contact with the
camera which we felt was really effective, so we decided to use it to highlight changes in mood
throughout our music video.

7. Camera Work
◦ We utilised a lot of whip pans within our music video to help blend the narrative into the
performance. The main function of the whip pan is to help transition between completely
different moments. In our music video it was used to show the passage of time, as, with each
whip pan, clothing and situations change. I feel that the whip pans were really effective in
keeping up the pace of the narrative and making it interesting to watch. Because narrative forms
the frame of our music video, I wanted to make sure it didn’t slow the music video down and
make the audience become bored of it. ‘Artistic Camerawork’ is something that is routinely used
in music videos, as, music videos ignore the conventional. Through the use of ‘Artistic
Camerawork’ we were able to make our music video interesting to look at and grab the
attention of the audience. This artistic camera work is evident in Kodak Black’s ‘Patty Cake’, with
their use of whip pans and general camera movement.

9. Lighting
◦ Lighting was something that we heavily relied on throughout our music video. It was essential to
show the passage of time, and to highlight that things were changing and moving forward.
Lighting is essential in music videos in general, as it helps to fit an entire narrative/performance
into 3 minutes. Because of our artists target audience being in their 30s/40s, we wanted
something that matched their sophistication and understanding. The lighting highlighted the
narrative that we created through the lyrics of the song and keep their attention throughout the
video. In this scene, we used on set lamps to light the tables and actors, and some red lighting
mixed with some blue for the stage to create a surreal red on the velvet curtain at the back. This
showed that it was around night time and immediately tells the audience that they are in a jazz
bar. Obvious lighting is evident in the music video for as ‘1234’ by Faist.

11. 3 minute length
◦ Music videos are usually around 3 minutes long depending on the length of the song and so
that the audience don’t have to concentrate too long. We had a very complex story to tell due
to the very narrative based song so we had to make the story very compact. To help us keep the
video the same length as the song, we used stereotypes to show the different stages of
romance. This helped the audience to identify what was going on, and helped us to keep it short
and powerful. In this scene we used dim lighting through candles and a lamp to set the
romantic setting and the man got down on one knee. All of these put together is a very
stereotypical engagement- it is extremely easy to identify this as an engagement.

13. Costume and Props
◦ The costume and props within our music video were very stylised and theatrical to make our
narrative as obvious as possible due to time constraints. It also matched our artist’s star image
of being very dramatic and helped introduce the audience to our artist, which is extremely
important as she is a new artist trying to break into the industry. We changed the clothing
regularly to represent the seasons changing and to develop the relationship between the
characters. Music Videos conventionally don’t pay attention to ‘time and space’ and we feel that
through going through a year within 3 minutes was really effectively shown by the changes in
props and costume. In this moment they are in the Jazz Bar, which is the first time they meet, so
the costumes they are wearing in this image are worn in ‘the first night’ part of the narrative to
show that it is in the same night, and then the costumes are changed from there to show the
passage of time.