Creative critical reflection of music video "smile"

1. Creative Critical
Reflection
Music Video ‘Smile’ by Mikky
Ekko
Directed by Neha Faisal
Advanced
Level
Portfolio

2. Director’s Note
I, Neha Faisal, directed a music video for my A levels
Media studies portfolio on a pop song ‘Smile’ originally by
‘Mikky Ekko’ from his album ‘Time.’ The album was
released worldwide in January, 2015 by RCA Records.
My video has been derived from the lyrics of this song with
a little twist, of course. The video revolves around a
protagonist who is a photographer, not living the best life.
Nonetheless, he still manages to go out and ‘capture’
other people’s happiness which seems to be the only thing
that pleases him. He tries to capture the beauty of life and
how a simple smile can change everything. He is in a way,
giving out advice through this song.

3. How do your products use or challenge
conventions and how do they represent social
groups or issues?
My music video uses many of the pop
music video conventions. It consists of a
mixture of performance and narrative
story line. By using a combination of
narratives and performances, the video
can be made more interesting and
enjoyable to watch, which I have tried to
achieve in my video. Examples of these
types of music videos include, Kelly
Clarkson’s video ‘Since you’ve been
gone,’ ‘Vaneesa Hudgen’s video ‘Say
Ok,’ and ‘The Fray’ video ‘How to save a
life.’ These have been my source of
inspiration along with many others.

4. Music videos use a number of shots for
various reasons, some of them being, to
relate with the audience by expressing
thoughts and feelings, but also to show
the viewer what is happening. Certain
shots that you would normally find in a
music video as well as mine include;
 Mid shot, which shows the actor/
artist from his/her waist to head and
focuses mainly on the subject but still
giving an impression of the location or
setting. This shot is very common in
my music video as well as music
videos like ‘Adele – Rolling in the
deep’
 Wide shot, where the artist is shown
taking up most of the shot but the
location is still focused on. For
example, ‘All I want (part 1) by
Kodaline’
Here are examples
from the music videos
I have mentioned,
along with images
from my music video
to show how I have
used these camera
shots.

5.  Medium close-up. This shot is
half way between a mid shot
and a close up, it shows the
artist from chest to head. I
have used this shot taking
inspiration from Kodaline’s
music video ‘Love like this’
 Close- up, This shot shows the
artists face or can show an
object that the artist is holding
or something the camera
focuses on closely. This shot is
used quite often in music
videos and that is what I have
tried to replicate in my video as
well. One of the examples for
this could be ‘Hello by Adele’

6.  Extreme close-up, this shows the
artists face extremely close, for
example eyes or mouth to identify
something it can have the effect of
showing the audience that artists
thoughts and feeling, this shot is
also commonly used to show lip
sync in music videos. I have used
these types of shots mainly in the
chorus, I have tried to sync the
music with the visuals, which are
close ups of people smiling. This is
an inspiration I took from a series
opening credits “orange is the new
black”

7.  Over the shoulder shot, this is a shot used,
specifically in narrative based music videos usually
when the artist is acting and speaking to another
person you tend to see an over the shoulder shot to
display the conversation, or to show something the
character is looking at. I used this shot to show what
the character was looking at (Eviction letter and
computer screen).
.

8.  Certain camera movements are also very
common in music videos, which include; Pans,
this is where the camera scans a scene
horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod,
which operates as a stationary axis point as the
camera is turned. In my video, this camera
movement is used at the very end of the video to
give it a slight change as long and dragged shots
can cause the audience to lose interest. Panning
is evident in almost all music videos.
Although my music video follows a lot of
pop music conventions, however, it does not
show stereotypical images present in videos these
days. This is one way I have challenged the music
video conventions.

9. How do the elements of your
production work together to
create a sense of ‘branding’?
I have made sure that I try to incorporate minor
details that come together and create a sense of
branding for my work. These elements include;
 Font – I have tried to maintain a constant font
throughout my video, digipak and webpage.
These fonts are “monoton” and “open sans
condensed” These are quite easy to identify and
hence it becomes a sign of recognition for my
brand.

10.  Color schemes – In all my production work, I have used a
similar color scheme which includes; White, Red and
Green. Like many brands, that use color schemes for
example Pepsi's red white and blue creates a sense of
brand all over the world, similarly, I would like to achieve
the same thing.
 Imagery - Using imagery can also create a sense of
branding as well. I have used the image/video of the sky,
which has proved to be quite captivating to the audience. It
also gives a scenic view and meshes well with the genre of
my song.

11. How do your products engage with the
audience and how would they be
distributed as a real media product?
My music video and the genre of the song targets
a young audience between the ages 13-25 years
of age. Since it is a pop song, it will attract a young
audience but the mature storyline would be a lot
more relatable for young adults. Hence, I think my
music video will keep the audience captivated and
hooked to the screen until the video ends.

12. My music video would be launched through an
event which would invite around 500-1000 fans
who would see the screening of this video and at
the end of it, express their views. Along with the
fans who would be attending the event, stars from
the music industry would also be present who
would help promote the video. Since it aims to
please the younger generations, we will target
them through promoting our product on social
media which include, instagram, facebook, twitter
etc. This is cost effective and efficient.

13. How did you integrate technologies –
software, hardware and online – in this
project?
I have used many technologies that
have helped me in making my projects,
these technologies are mentioned
below.
To film my music video and take
photographs for my digipak and
website, I used the Canon EOS 1100D.
This helped me take high resolution
shots. For most of my shots, I paired my
camera with a tripod which helped me
move my camera smoothly without
jerks. It also allowed me to stabilize my
camera.
I used the 32GB SD card in my camera
since I was shooting high quality
footage which required more space.

14. I used Adobe Premier Pro cc to edit my music
video. I was using it for the first time, hence to
learn the basics I took the help from YouTube
tutorials. This software allowed me to access a
lot of different effects and transitions which are
not present in many of the other editing soft
wares. However, I did use Windows movie
maker to edit my evidence video, since it did
not require detailed editing. I downloaded
these soft wares on my HP Elite book. My
entire project was done on this device.
I used Whatsapp and Whatsapp Web to
transfer images from my Samsung A5 which
helped me take pictures of behind the scenes,
it also came in handy to keep in touch with the
artist and make to-do lists for my projects. I
also used applications like Snapchat, to
capture images for my gallery section of the
webpage and use Picart to add the barcode to
my digipak.

15. I used Wix.com to create my own
webpage. This online website made
this entire process easy as it is very
user friendly.
Tumblr was used as my media
Studies blogging website. I have
uploaded my entire Music
Promotional Package on Tumblr.
Gmail was used as a prop for my
music video to show how the
protagonist of the video receives an
email from the companied he
applied to for a job.

16. THANKYOU!
