Music Video Final Edit and Evaluation

Final Edit

Evaluation

My final music video edit demonstrates a clear use of cinematic techniques that created an engaging music video that applied the conventions of the medium, along with my use of organisation and planning in the production phase that leads me to create an entertaining video for my audience.

Evaluating Cinematic Techniques

Mise en Scene:

Lighting/Colour

My use of the german expressionism lighting method, with my use of a single key light rather than the traditional 3 point lighting setup created engaging imagery by mimicking the same methods used in early cinematic history, which is why I filmed in black and white which enhanced my harsh use of shadows so I could better mimic films like "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" (1920) and my main inspiration which was given to me by my questionnaire sample "Nosferatu" (1922) where the majority of my influence is taken. These influences clearly show my use of music video conventions by using these intertextual references in my lighting style. Referencing other media sources such as film in music videos has been used throughout music video history with examples from artists across the music industry like the use of Romeo and Juliet in Taylor Swifts "Love Story" (2009) as the setting and costume displays clear recreation of the famous play. 

My use of Rembrandt low key lighting style to display my actor also created the intended tone for my music video by grounding it in the horror genre, overall while my lighting clearly displayed a creative and engaging use of german expressionism I think could have benefitted from my lighting setup in the later part of my music video as I believe it becomes difficult to see when they open us the box. Also, while original and engaging I fear many of my younger viewers and those not familiar with early cinema will fail to see the intertextual lightning reference to early silent films like Nosferatu (1922) due to the age of the reference and its absence in popular culture of today. If I was to improve my lighting in future productions I would have an actual lighting supervisor on my crew who could use the technique more effectively without costing visibility in some of my scenes which lacked detail due to the use of low key lighting.

My Music Video

Nosferatu (1922)

Costume

My use of costume was simple and cost-effective, I needed to make my actor look like a vampire on a small budget that also distinguished himself enough from the man in the music video who was played by the same person. I ended up using a pair of sunglasses and a wool coat over the top of a black turtleneck while the man had an orange shirt and basic casual attire. I think my use of costume effectively engaged the audience and allowed them to easily conclude what was going on with the characters as vampires have been seen in popular media wearing traditionally dark clothes and sunglasses. With examples like Johnny Depp in "Dark Shadows" (2012) and Jim Carrey in "Once Bitten" (1984), from which I took the most inspiration for my vampire's costume.

The costume is an important part of the music video, whether they be for the use fragmentation via the male gaze, I feel it clearly sets the tone and the narrative of my video by matching the low key lighting with the use of darker clothing, I could have better used my costumes to create a clear brand synergy with star iconography similar to its use in Lady Gaga's music videos (Where use of bizarre costumes is one of the main selling points of her brand), overall I feel my costuming was as effective as it could be for my low budget as it defined my characters clearly for the audience to understand.

Editing

My use of editing created an engaging video for my audience, this is because I used editing conventions common in music videos to boost engagement. For example, I used a match editing style to achieve a relationship between the visuals and the music of my video, by synching up certain lyrics like "In the light of the moon" with the image of the moon. I also tried my best to match the beat/rhythm of the song with the visuals, this is why at the beginning of the video when the song is at a slower pace I used less imagery and longer takes. Compared with the later parts of the video when the main chorus increased the pace of the music, so I used more quick cuts and more imagery to display this change to display this match editing style.

I also experimented with different editing techniques like the split-screen editing method. This was helpful as it allowed me to use the same actor in both roles as the vampire and the man, saving on both budgets and created a subnarrative of an inner conflict (Freud) as one represented the Id as they desired immortality and the other was the Super-ego who just wanted to sleep. I achieved this by creating mask layers and overlapping the footage on each other before cropping them into the same frame. This was achieved by mitigating continuity errors by having the lighting and camera positioning of each shot duplicated to the best of my ability on set, by marked setups for my equipment and shooting each shot on the same day. This allowed my footage to overlap without it looking like both of the characters were in separate locations, despite my best efforts one of my shots did not look convincing so I used the mask tool and feathered the outline of my image until it blended into my final shot.

I also altered the colour of my footage to change it into the black and white colour pallet to better replicate the silent film style. This was achieved by using the tint effect on my footage which automatically took the colour from my footage, and gave me a scale to cause it to brighten up for certain scenes and darken down for others, to best fit the scene and the low key lighting style.

I also used a silent film effects pack which included the faults and scratches common in the older film stock which I didn't use (because I used a digital camera). This made the video feel more authentic and more visually similar to my silent film inspirations creating a more engaging video by having a unique visual style.

I also used the burn effects pack that I applied throughout the video by overlapping it with my footage, this created an experimental style to my footage as it mimicked the burning of real film reel but also allowed me to establish the setting as it mimicked the sun setting as the footage transitioned into the darkness with the film reel burning away the light. This also enhanced the aesthetic of the video by further creating the silent film style, without the need to use and spend the actual film stock required to do the effect practically. This was also because I intended the videos narrative to be a lost silent film much like nosferatu but unfortunately, I did not have time to implement my planned idea of inserting clips with "missing footage" on the scene. to make the video further seem like archive footage.

Overall, my use of editing in my music video created an engaging video by using a match editing style that established a relationship to the visuals and the music which is one of the bedrock conventions of music videos that continues to keep audiences attention, as it follows the tone and pace of the music which creates a pattern that is entertaining for a viewer to consume. It also allowed me to achieve my wanted visual similarities to the silent films that inspired the video creating an intertextual link with my use of overlapping editing and my use of effect packs that replicated silent films scratches and burning effects.

However, I think I could have better followed the rhythm of the song by planning out my storyboard around the music with each imagery fulfilling the lyrics out visually, fora example "I'm getting older while you stay young" lyrics could have been visually matched with someone rapidly ageing compared to someone you and youthful. Creating a video similar to Vance Joys "Riptide" (2013) which has each shot planned with the lyrics, I feel in the future this is what I will try and achieve.

Camera/Cinematography

My use of cinematography created an engaging music video as I used a 4:1 aspect ratio to achieve the frame within a frame effect common in a lot of music videos as it made each image look like it was in a frame due to the harsh borders at the sides of the screen. This was also to achieve the same visual appearance as my inspirations from silent films that used the same aspect ratio. My precise use of cinematography allowed me to use split-screen editing as the positioning was often static in place with the conditions duplicated constantly for each take.

However, despite my use of engaging imagery the video lacks camera movement as the majority of my shots use static camera positions and often repeat camera positioning in the same location. This was once again to achieve the feel of my silent film inspirations but it meant I had to sacrifice engaging and extreme use of camera choices music videos are known for, as they rarely don't go to extremes.

Narrative

My music video is not a narrative genre, I instead focused on creating an experimental performance. While there is a narrative between the man and the vampire it is up for interpretation rather than straight answers as I focused on engaging imagery rather than a clear and concise story. As I used the conventions of the genre by disregarding the rule of continuity which is common in music videos in exchange for creating a pace/rhythm orientated video with my use of match editing and experimental storytelling based on dream logic rather than reality as a bed becomes a coffin and the man is haunted by a vampire that looks like him.

Overall, I think I used the troupes of the medium to create a video based on feeling rather than a story. However, I think this could have focused more on the performance aspect of my video as it was the segment that my sample size from my focus group focused on the most, regardless of the narrative.

Evaluating the Production as a Whole

I successfully created a music video that displayed a variety of cinematic techniques that engaged the audience. This was due to my organisation and planning in the production phase, my crafting of a questionnaire during the brainstorming/idea phase allowed me to gather data that inspired the idea for a video based on old silent films from the 1920s with the main film being Nosferartu (1922) from my questionnaire due to the unsettling opening segments of the song combined with the lyrics and title of the song being based on Vampires. However, if I was going to conduct the questionnaire again I would have more closed questions as having mostly open questions meant gathering data for me to examine was more time consuming than it had to be. While the data was valuable I think the time I spent would have been better served on the production in other ways.

By crafting a production schedule it allowed me to better communicate with my crew about important tasks that needed doing and the time frame for their completion during the project production by having it on an editable online document we could all easily see when a task had been complete. Keeping us on our time frame/deadline for the music video, with consist proactive workflow system. But in the future when crafting the production schedule I'm also going to have it on a live message board where the work can be published when complete so that each person on my team can find it without needing to contact multiple people.

The storyboard allowed me to construct exactly what I wanted cinematically in the music video as by using 3D modelling software I could easily showcase to my team lighting positioning and composition/framing and what equipment would be needed to achieve it. When crafting these storyboards in the future however I will likely stick to draft sketches when on a tight time schedule as 3D modelling each shot is far too time-consuming for fast-paced productions.

Conducting a Location Recee helped us plan camera movement and positioning for the shooting day as well as allowing us to conduct a risk assessment and gather test footage allowing us to plan out equipment and safety needs in advance, but in the case of this production which took place on my property, it felt likely an un-necessary waste of production time as I was familiar with all the issues surrounding my own property and could have simply emailed my team after conducting these steps myself rather than other members of crew wasting a day investigating my property. But I have to keep in mind the regulations and safety of my crew and treat my property like I would any other filming location.

Call Sheets are one of the most valuable pieces of documentation during filming as they allowed us to keep track of who was on set at what times, as well as their responsibilities while on set. Having everyone's contact information allowed us all to be in constant communication leading to no mix-ups or confusion during the shoot. However, due to the small size of my crew, it didn't seem necessary for its use as we had only about 4 people on set at a time and once again feel this time taken to create call sheets could have been better used elsewhere in the production. But without this call sheet, there is a possibility of unnecessary scheduling mixups, etc.

The legal requirements (employment contracts, etc.) of production are always necessary to ensure the physical and financial safety of everyone on set. Their use in this production meant I could guarantee the payment of my crew if any issues were to arise and due to the coronavirus pandemic having insurance that they will be compensated if restrictions changed really encouraged them to feel safe onset. But I feel I could have secured better equipment insurance in case of damages as there was a lot of rain during the shoot and having them protected would have made me less stressed about damages during outside shooting.

Crafting a contingency plan for the production was a vital aspect of the project, this was because the uncertainty of covid restrictions during the leadup to our shoot day could have meant that our planned schedule would have to be scrapped, by creating a plan to create a more environmental/location-based music video. Based on our individual homes surrounding woodlands would have allowed us to still produce a product for our client if push came to shove. However, I think the plan should have been better prepared with premade call sheets and other production elements that would have made the contingency easier to film if we had to move forward with that plan.

The shooting days were effective due to our pre-planning we got all the necessary footage quickly and effectively, which allowed us to film extra footage which made the editing process easier. This was only possible due to the easily comprehensible storyboard and our location recce where we pre-planned all equipment placement. I feel that the amount of pre-planning, however, unfortunately, caused us to have less of an opportunity to film improvised moments, which ended up being the parts our audience in the focus group were most attracted to, like certain instrumental performance segments and if we had gone more of the plan we could have further improved our audience engagement.

Focus Group proved that the techniques we prioritised were engaging to the audience as they found it engaging and entertaining allowing us to improve the video by adding the extra editing techniques. But mostly it let us know that we were on the right track and had produced something the client would enjoy. I think I should have had multiple focus groups for the project because having more opinions could have had a stronger impact on the final edit as a larger audience would have given a more broad response that would have been more accurate to the average person rather than just the small focus group and their niche opinions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I created an engaging music video that used a variety of techniques due to my concise planning/production process. I think I could have better improved this video if I had displayed it to larger sample size and crafted more data orientated questions (closed questions) for my focus groups and questionnaires so they can be better analysed than the dense open question answers constructed during this project. In future productions, I will focus on making the most of my time by acting instead of planning like I did many times throughout this production despite it not being necessary for a lot of the aspects of the music video due to our small budget and crew size.