Creative critical reflection of Music Video

1. By Steve
James Ft.
Clairity

2. Deciding on a song was the most arduous thing to do as many
songs were passing through my head however I wanted to pick
up on a song which I listen to the most so that it would be easier
for me to showcase my thoughts which I come across while
listening to the song hence I picked up on one of my favorite
song called ‘’Renaissance by Steve James’’ (ft.Clairity).
In order to keep the audience attention I made sure that the
video/scenes in it were synced with the lyrics so that it would
make sense to the audience while they would be watching the
music video. A lot of research was done before coming up with
my own original story board it took me a prolonged span of time
to think of all the creative angles and I had to listen to the beat
again and again to sync it with the scenes and later while editing
each shot had to be placed according to the beat.
Q1) How does your product use or challenge conventions
and how does it represent social groups or issue?

3. My music is about a couple who have a falling apart due to a
misunderstanding. Usually in a romantic genre the girl is the one
who leaves the guy but in my music video it was the guys fault as
he thought she was cheating over him with another guy whereas
the other guy who comes in between the couple was just a secret
admirer of the girl and she was not cheating on him. The video
starts with a flashback/dream in black and white which the girl
wakes up from.
Throughout the memorable time which they have spent together is
shown and the girl is regretting over everything and that also goes
along with the lyrics of the music as she says ‘’the time we had was
golden but when I look back wishing that I could have known it’d be
easier to let you go’’ I showed that by the girl looking at the picture
frame of both of them and later erasing all the memories from each
situation (seashells, love letters etc.) Throughout the story revolves
around a girl(Emiley) it shows what leads to her breakup and how
she is misunderstood by the guy. In the end when the guy is
shaking her and throws her on the bed it shows that she was so
startled by his actions that her emotions were quite numb.

4. without some conventions used, music video would be incomplete. Before
starting my video, in the pre-production process I watched many short videos
as well as other music videos to know about the conventions. My biggest
inspiration was Taylor Swift wildest dreams video the video is very well shot
with simple angles and it had a lot of fast cuts which I also added in my video
to give audience a clear understanding of what is taking place and also to
focus on the minor details a lot of close-ups were shown too. Without proper
research I would be unable to know how to make them worth watching,
because of the limited time, in our case which is 5minutes. The first
convention I used is keeping the main characters to 2 or 3 .
In my video the main characters were Emiley, Calvin and Harry (the secret
admirer of Emiley). It’s because music videos tend to have a limited period of
time, if we were to have more characters it would make the film boring and
dragging. Another reason is also because in the limited time it is almost
impossible to show the back history of characters, the lesser the characters
the more time for twits and viewers could relate themselves to the film. There
were many conventions that were shown in the video which were the Roses,
rings, love letters, breakups etc. All these conventions were quite pivotal to
add in as they make it look relatable for the viewers.

5. My media product represents the youth of todays society. It
reflects the rising ‘boyfriend- girlfriend’ culture and
increasing importance of relationships in their life. A
positive message is sent to the teen audience of what
reality looks like and not every story can be a ‘happily ever
after’. The music video is basically surrounding around the
teens life but will be of interest to their parents who may
want to know about the issue presented in it. In every other
society usually teenager are very fond of relationships but
as they aren’t mature enough to handle it for a longer
period of time they breakup due to several reason, which
may include; one cheating the other, family background or
class differences etc.

6. Branding' is undoubtedly considered an important element in
success of a media product. To start with my music video, I had to
make a timeline and a mind map to make my work look more
effective. For my video a synopsis was written along with a proper
storyboard and shot list. Genre research took place, which I decided
after I was done with the research on different genres.
My characters totally fitted in their roles, they rehearsed a lot before
starting the shoot to make it look natural and professional. There
expressions, their costumes all were fitting according to their role.
The main character was Emily ,the story revolves around her and
her lover Calvin, he created a very good sense of feel in the film
through his confidence and acting skills. I used my characters for
the promotion of the film, I have both the main characters picture on
my digipak and the home page of the website to attract the attention
of audience towards them and for branding.
Q2) How do the elements of your production work
together to create a sense of branding?

7. In the production phases the shots, angles, camera, techniques I
used also gave a professional look to the music video. I adjusted
the frames properly and the natural lighting makes my video look
realistic. While in post productions I have used the best editing
and visual effects software’s like Adobe premiere pro to brand
the product. A lot of hard work was put in the post and pre-
production of the music video (especially the moving car scenes)
In my production work I made a digipak for my music album,
however I think that it has really created a sense of branding as
from the cover you could judge the genre and it attracts the
audience. The color scheme is very similar in the digipak is
constructed with photos similar with the frames of the music
video. Red and blue brings a fresh vibe and is very eye catching.

8. The font used in both the major and minor tasks also contributes
in creating a sense of branding. The same font is used in the
webpage, digipak and the music video in different quantities.
The costume and the appearance of the model in the digipak
and the music video are the same so this helps at creating a
branding feeling as well. The look of the model is different in
different scenes however the clothing in the digipak is similar to
all the car scenes hence it can be relatable and the clothing of
the girl in the car scenes was a touch of vintage and modern to
match it with the vintage car which was used in the music video.
A red car was deliberately opted for as it is quite unique/vintage
and would surely be a puller for the audience.

9. The product engage with the audiences in various ways, firstly
there is a webpage that is easily accessible. There my music
video is embedded and when someone enters my webpage the
first thing they see is the music video which gives the viewer an
idea that it is an important aspect of the webpage itself.
Furthermore, assuming that this is the official video of Steve
James then he has his official youtube channel. when someone
decides to listen to one of their songs the music video I made
will pop up also. Moreover YouTube also recommends videos in
the search history this means if a person has a similar taste of
music as the genre of my music artist my music video is likely to
be recommended also on his main YouTube page. The most
pivotal thing is to be very active on social media and to have
official pages on as many as possible social sites. There is a
sound cloud also twitter, Facebook, Tumblr , last.fm, Vimeo and
Instagram profile so that they can reach as many people as
possible even if they are using just one social media site.
Q3) How does your product engage with audience and how
would it be distributed as a real media product?

10. Another way of engaging with the audience is by giving the
music video to short film festivals even if it’s not chosen for
competition selection in this way it will attract more people
even if they get to see some part of it and later they can
search the video on their own. The digipak and music video
can be promoted in the concerts as well reaching a large
number of audiences easily. Some parts of the video can
be used as a light show during the concert. The music artist
along with the band will come on the stage and perform
that will intrigue more people.
I will promote the music video on Tv channels and radio
channels where the digipak would be promoted as the new
album.
The digipak will be distributed on concert venues and at
festivals on a visible place where many people pass. The
music shops will also have the digipaks and at the time of
the release many digipaks would be given out for free to

11. I shot my entire video with a canon 6D and a few lenses
including 50mm,35mm and 85mm. Their low apertures endorsed
me to a great deal as they were used in low light situations and
the low aperture of 50mm 1.4 was the best and it had an
amazing quality due to which my video has a professional touch
to it. Throughout I did not use the tripod as due to my interest
and massive research in photography I knew how to operate the
camera very well along with the handling. Previously I had shot
with 60D canon which did not have many technical aspects
however making a video with canon 6D was quite arduous as it
had many technical settings such as adjusting the white balance
and using the lens manually according to the shots I want.
Shooting the car scenes was the toughest, several retakes had
to take place because of the jerks and not having a trolley to
move with the subjects hence I had to sit in the trunk of an
Q4) How did you integrate technologies- Software,
hardware and online- in this project?

12. Coming to the editing part I wanted my video to look really
enchanting and wanted it to have a cinematic or sepia effect but
before all that comes there was the basic editing which was very
difficult and time consuming specially when you’re a novice.
I edited my entire music video on Adobe premier pro CS6 which
has many advanced settings. Throughout the premier pro usage
Youtube tutorials were of great significance they taught me each
and everything from using different transitions to color correction,
using the fast color corrector, operating with the color wheel in
order to derive the exact color I wanted and to the export
settings of the final video after rendering all the tutorial helped
me to a great degree.
I played along with the shadow and highlights adjustments
aswell as the time remapping in order to slow and fasten the
clips duration. Adding different transitions, cross dissolve etc. I
had to export my video 3 times as the first two times something

13. Youtube also helped in viewing different camera
angles and othe3r technical aspects. WIX was an
online tool that allowed me to make a website
online and save my online just as long as I had
google account it was a short way to make a
website by allowing me to choose a template and
change everything.