The music video uses typical conventions like showing the artist and using a narrative storyline to promote their performance. To add originality, it includes a reverse editing technique and shots filmed with a camcorder for a documentary feel. Inspiration came from music videos like Alt-J's "Breezeblocks" that used reverse editing effectively. Audience feedback was positive and people connected to the storyline and felt nostalgia. A variety of media technologies were used in planning, filming, and editing the video, including social media for collaboration, cameras, lighting equipment, and editing software like Final Cut Pro X.

1. Music video
Personal
Evaluation
By Millie Richmond

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
• My music video does have similarities to a
typical music video; using a narrative storyline for
the audience to follow whilst also showing the face
of the artist in a stylized aesthetic to promote
their for performance . The story unfolds as the
video progresses. The relationship between the
lyrics are amplified, reflecting the message within
the visuals, showing a young couple amidst an
argument; displaying signs of happiness and
sadness reflecting the confusion expressed within
the lyrics. The video is typical of the genre due to
the lighting, soft pinks and dark hues reflecting
the indie pop side to the video, the pinks are more
'poppy' while the darker shades broadcast the indie
genre. The general mise-en-scene reflects the
characteristics of this genre being aesthetically
pleasing and visually engaging due to the range
that reflect the interests of the main target group;
being young teenagers who are engaged with
themes surrounding relationships and love.

3. • To steer slightly away from the typical conventions and
add originality we included a twist with the reverse editing technique.
We also included shots of the two actors using a camcorder which
added a realistic, documentary type feel to the video; which in
contrast to the slightly more staged reverse fight scene was a really
nice contrast. We were greatly inspired for this reverse concept from
Alt-J and their video 'Breeze-blocks' which demonstrated this
technique well. The Pharcyde and their music video 'Drop' also used
this concept and when looking at both these videos we saw what
looked good in a reverse and this gave our group ideas, such as the
clothes being thrown in reverse and the water being thrown. The
lighting of this video was seen in 'Work' By Rihanna which all
members of our group thought was a really nice aesthetic that
captured an audience, seeing all our friends share this
video through social media also gave us the understanding that it
was popular and positively received. Petra Collins photography was
also a big inspiration for the colors used within our music video which
we demonstrated through mood boards in preparation for filming.

4. How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
• Through my ancillary texts I tried
to reflect the mise-en-scene and general vibe of the
music video, using similar hues of pink within
my website and keeping the clothing simple and
using the same actors. I tried to connect all
my products in a very similar way, both the website
and the digi-pack complementing the music video.
The ancillary tasks bring the audience closer to the
artist as you get a clearer visual and start to feel
more connected to the artist due to the various
close up images that allow a wider look into him
sparking a greater interest in his music, the muted
tones add another dimension while still following
the brand. I used a simple layout for my website to
make it easily accessible for the users, broadcasting
information and images about the artist. I
researched heavily for my website as I wanted it to
be relatable and current for the target group, I
gained a lot of inspiration from artist websites such
as 'Drake' and 'The Broken Bells' whose simple,
easy layout was still stylish and slick.

5. • The color pink was extremely important in my
website as I feel it mirrored the video very
well but also reflected the pop genre perfectly
due to my research into website
and digipaks of this genre. The grey tones
within my digipak follows the indie brand,
differing from my other partners and using
more of a graphic design, manipulating
images of the artist so they have a sketchy
style look. This regular use of the color pink
and the muted tones connects all our products
together, creating an easily identifiable brand
for the artist. The pink pop look mixed with
the grey indie vibe is a clear brand for our
artist, reflecting both his genre and his music,
giving him a clear identity.

6. What have you learned
from your audience
feedback?
• During the editing of our music video we gathered together a
focus group to comment on our video through every process of
editing that we went through. Our target group consisted of our
primary demographic but we used various different age groups
to gauge a broader knowledge of audiences and what they liked
and disliked within our video. Our target audience was from 12-
30 years old so we gathered people of around 18 years old for our
audience feedback group and started by giving them the lyrics
to analyze and listen to the song with no visuals. Here we got an
idea of how popular the genre was and we got some very positive
feedback, people saying that the song was
very 'catchy' and 'summery' reminding them of artists such as the
1975, connecting with the lyrics and identifying with the meaning
of the song. The next stage was lyrics with visuals, bringing our
focus group through all the stages of our editing. The feedback
we got was incredibly positive, people saying they connected with
the storyline and related to it, giving them feelings of 'nostalgia'.
The feedback implied that the music video greatly amplified the
lyrics while still creating a star image for
Tom, giving him an identifiable look.

7. How did you use media technologies
in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
• As a group we used a range of different media technologies
throughout planning, editing and filming. We created a
Facebook group and an email group where we could chat to arrange
filming and send one another important documents and images that
were useful for all of our blogs. By using social media very thing was
made very quick and accessible, all members of the group
were reliable in replying and helping arrange meeting and filming
etc. We created a group Pinterest account where we were able to
make multiple mood boards for the wardrobe and general mise-en-
scene of the video. For the filming of our video we used loads of
different technical equipment. We used a manfrotto tripod to keep
our cannon FX 100 steady and capture our shots in excellent quality,
both were easy to use once getting used to for a bit so we
were able to capture great, steady shots. We used a Dedo light kit
and coloured gels to achieve the different color effects in all our
shots, going with a strong pink hue after experimenting with
other colors such as blue and orange.

8. • After filming with this different equipment our group decided
we needed to include more footage so planned to do some
pick up shots with our actors playing the couple; for this we
used two different cameras, the cannon FX 100 ad the DLSR
7D. Both of these cameras gave a different effect, that when
placed next to one another when editing looks
really professional. During the editing we used Final cut pro X
for the foundation of the video and used different
effects within this program. Our first step was changing the
narrative of our video in reverse, on top of this we added a
slight border around the edge of the narrative side to
complement and enhance the graininess of the footage;
making the storyline completely visually separate from the
performance side where the quality is extremely sharp. Lip-
syncing was proved easier than intended, not initially doing a
lip sync test our group was apprehensive but when we sat
down to edit this came to us all very naturally so the artists
lips moves perfectly in time to the audio. In addition we used
photoshop and wix to create our digipaks and websites, I
found wix very easy to navigate once playing around with it
however photoshop proved a bit harder. I
became accustomed to both programmes after spending
significant amounts of time on
them perfecting both my ancillary tasks.