This document provides commentary on a music video titled "Blue Skies & Broken Dreams" directed by Gemma Whitehead. It discusses how the video uses and develops conventions of real music videos through elements like cuts that match the beat, a narrative performance, imagery relating to the song, and technical editing effects. It also describes drawing inspiration from other music videos and maintaining a consistent brand identity. The narrative focuses on a girl whose dreams are shattered by a broken heart. Scenes alternate between a narrative of her loss and the band performing in a studio. Effects like slow motion and blurred focus aim to convey distorted memories and emotions.

1. Directors Commentary A2 LevelBlue skies & broken dreams Band: Old Versus NewDirected by: Gemma Whitehead

2. In what ways does my media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Andrew Goodwin in his book “Dancing in the Distraction Factory” highlighted a number of common music video codes and conventions which are ‘Thought Beats (seeing sound)’, ‘Narrative & Performance’, ‘The Star Image’, ‘Relation to the visuals of the song’, ‘Technical Aspects of the music video’.I have chosen to use cuts within my music video because it cuts to the beat of the song, it has a narrative as well as a performance the narrative in the video relates to the words (meaning) of the song.The technical aspects within my music video are the use of editing to create a beat for the drum sections (quick cuts). The inspiration for the quick cuts within my music video was Cute without the E byTaking back Sunday -’. Also there is a blur effect which I did by using manual focus to create a ‘bokeh effect’.Music videos that have inspired me are videos such as Green Day’s Video Wake Me Up When September Ends, Atreyu – The Theft.

3. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?The key elements within my main product is simplicity, as the band did not want to be futuristic or be to complex they just want people to relate to their music and overall buy it so that they make money.I have maintained a consistent brand identity in my music video, Digipak and advert by including black, I asked the band to come dressed in black for the music video so it contrasted against the white background so that they would stand out and in the Digipak I chose white text throughout.

4. What have I learnt from my audience feedback?

12. How did I use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

13. The idea behind the music video was that the girls dreams had been shattered as her heart was broken by her long term boyfriend.

14. Initially I wanted there to be a tragic accident within the music video but decided against it so that the audience could make their own decisions as to why her heart had been broken and relate it to their own situations.

15. I discussed my ideas with the band and wanted their opinions on it. They came up with the idea of loss in some way and I developed my ideas from that. I thought that a clear contrast in colours from the narrative to the studio scenes was a good idea as it had been done by bands before that are successful. And it also reminds the viewer that it is a music video and it hasn’t happened in real life. (although the viewer may have been in a similar situation themselves.Narrative.

16. I decided that I wanted to have a contrast from the narrative to the band in the studio scenes. I wanted to create a sense that the narrative has flashback and the girl was looking into the past which is why there are flashbacks in slow motion.The mise en scene.(the ‘look’ of the music video)

17. The fight scene.Even though the fight scene is a very important part of the video I and the band chose to shoot it in a ‘Bokeh’ effect as it was a distortion of the amazing relationship they once had so the idea that the camera was distorting the image it makes the viewer feel like part of the action. In the first instance I was going to shoot the fight scene from the girls point of view but I decided against that as the surroundings wouldn't be in it so much and I wanted to capture the scale of the argument by having high and wide surroundings in shot. Also there is no dialogue so the audience doesn't know why they are fighting which again was intentional so that the audience can relate this story into their own lives and decide upon their own situations as to what happens.

18. As you can see the video slightly sharpens up to make it clearer but still blurred so the audience can identify that a fight is taking place but that her head is spinning and she is distressed.

19. I also chose to put the fight scene at the climax of the song to add meaning.The actors.