Final Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DvZKfyiew0


Overall i feel that our music video works well with our song choice and shows conventions of atypical music video by staring off with out a narrative and when we are shown the artist we begin to see the narrative and how they are involved in it.

45 seconds into the video we see the clear narrative of the guy cheating. The next shot is of me sitting on the gorund, i run my fingers through my hair and the next shot is of me doing the same but in a different position, this is subtle but works well in continiuty. Again, the edits are to the beat and they switch from different shots quickly, which makes you want to watch the music video agian to take it all in.

At 1:03 we see a shot of another artist singing and this shows that we are in the same position as each other. We have also experimented with shots as we see a mid shot of her singing and then a long shot of her looking into the distance which simply shows she is involved with the narrative. We put in another shot of the guy with the artist to show that the narrative is still continuing, it shows Lucy and Jacks relationship as well. The next shot is of me singing the next part of the song continuing on from Danielle, and the shot that follows this is of me and Jack which shows our relationship that we are all oblivious to what is going in the narrative but it's as if the artists are having flashbacks.

At 1:32 the chorus begins and the shots that follow are of the artists, there aren't any shots of them with the guy this shows the viewer that things are changing. The artists are singing to the camera which creates a connection withthem and their audience. Like they are telling them their story.

At 1:47 we see the band walk together showing unity, this is the first time we see them together even though we don't see their faces. At 1:52 we see Lucy spinning around a post which we have sped up to create a different effect, this is code for that things are changing in the narrative.

1:57 we see a series of short edits and it creates a good effect that is in-keeping with the iconic style of the video. Lucy and I look as if we are waiting for someone oblivious to the fact that it is the same guy we are waiting for. At 2:11 we see me sitting on Jacks lap singing to the camera whilst he is ignoring me and talking on the phone. The artist here is involved in the narrative and being the artist at exactly the same time, showing that she knows about his cheating.

We see an obvious shot at 2:21 when we are standing together facing the camera and the next shot is of Jack looking at the camera, this involves the audience as they are representing us on each shot.

At 2:23 we see Lucy and I talking, the audience may already know what is about to happen but we build up suspense as we show the progression of the conversation. At 2:28 we see a shot of the picture on the phone, now the narrative is in play again and we see my reactuion and how things are about to unfold.

A series of shots show the progression of the break ups, Lucy refuses to kiss him by turning her head away, Danielle and Jack loook unhappy in their shot and i take matters in to my own hands and confront him. We show this last shot in small frames to build up suspense and a small climax.

At 2:39 there is a shot of me singing to the camera with a slight smile showing that we have been triumphant. The following shots portray this too.

Our end shot is of the band walking together towards the camera and on the last music note opf the song we are seen wlaking out of the brightness together away from the camera showing our unity and that we are 'done' methaphorically and physically with the guy and in the music video.

V.V. Browns Image

V.V. Browns image is iconic with her hair style and outfits. We want to incorporate her style but still adding our own element. She is fashion forward and usually wears iconic pieces such as above (the hat) and bright clothing. I wanted to incorporate her style so i decided to wear a hat like the one above, it isn't my usual style but as we have based everything around her i thought i should. I also wear a bright scarf which is noticeable to the viewer as it is not the convention of music video but it was suiting to her style and the feel and genre of the music video.

Showcasing our video

Today we showcased our video to the rest of our media class. We received helpful feedback from our peers to help us improve our work. the feedback we received was as we expected and a little more, when we showcased our production we hadn't finished it completely, so the obvious main point expressed to us was to complete the production which was clear to us anyway. We was also told to improve the editing in certain parts of the film to make them more sharp.
When we created the story line we got so carried away with the concept of 3 girls dating the same girl we forgot about the ending, so originally we  didn't have a narrative arch. This meant we had to return to filming and capture some footage to create a narrative arch. This was not a problem because we had the room and the facilities to do so on the school field without having to go back to London.
The feedback we received overall was extremely helpful and we was able to go back and amend the problems that were mentioned.

Costumes...

Costume and star image plays an extremely important role in an artists success. The way they dress, perform, act and market themselves creates their success. The genre we was interested in was indie/alternative, because of this I decided to raid my wardrobe and the internet to gain inspiration. It wasn't to hard for me however to find outfits, I generally dress different from the social trends and tend to deviate myself from society in order to make a statement. I thought it would be a good idea to  think about my costumes, and the way and reason I like dressing how I do.

In this particular video the situation is 3 girls dating the same boy, it would be silly for us all to dress similar. So I thought if I was to dress slightly edgy and experiment it would help create my character, I will be deviating from the trends the other girls are following which will make me stand out. However this can be said about all of us....

Here are my costume choices...

My Outfits

I tried to keep my costume quite plain but having a few key items that were quite bold or bright, i dodn't want my costume to distract the viewer, i wanted my costume to add to the feel and style of the song and having a resembalance of V.V. Browns style.

My costume changed throughout due to the weather but i also wanted to change my outfits throughout the music video to keep the interest and make it look professional. I also changed my outfits to help the narrative of the story look realistic as i wanted it to look like it had happened over time not just a few days.

Reviewing our progress so far

Our progress has stemmed from the beginning as we begin to get to grips with 'Final Cut Express' and the HD camera we use. We took a while to get organised so after Christmas we began to realise that we were pushed for time and due to the snow our filming was delayed.

Once we had clear weather and the basic idea of how to edit and film we were straight to London and began filming. The problem we had was people in the group being ill and having to film without them but we still worked well as a group as those who wasn't present would be working on the footage we had already and editing that as well as blogging.

Extras, Organisation and props

As we set our location in London we had to be a bit more organised than other groups as we had to keep travelling up with the equipment. We had to be organised and have a clear picture in our minds of what narrative and shots we were following as instead of only one of us being the main artist we decided to be a girl band.

We didn't use props as we thought that this would distract the viewer from the action happening in the music video. We kept our costume as what we would wear when we go out, so the style was casual and we had different outfits on which we aimed at doing so the group could be represented as individuals with their own style but still a united 'quirky' group.

The shops we filmed by in London represented the Bohemian style of the group but still being part of the iconic city of London.

Planning of Filming shoot

We have decided to set our music video in central London, mainly the location of Bond Street. As we have visited there before and liked the architecture of the buildings and the boutiques in the lanes away from the hustle and bustle of London. 

As V.V. Brown is a British artist and in her previous music videos she has ben dressed in iconic British clothes such as what the guards wear outside Buckingham Palace and the flag also appears as a main image in the background.

We decided to make more of an effort to travel to London as we wanted the music video to look as professional as possible instead of taking the easy option and filming it in school. However, we did encounter some problems as not everyone was available on the dates we set due to illness and other reasons. We had to arrange the date for filming in advance as we had to make sure we was all free as our chosen location wasn't that local and we had to travel up to London with the equipment. 

We was also worried about the weather conditions, which as everyone knows Englands weather is unpredictable. 

Tuesday 18th January 2011

Today we travelled up to London, Me (Maddie), Jack and Danielle, unfortunately the weather wasn't great! So we had to wear quite wintery outfits. We found the perfect spot outside Bond Street station and began filming there. We played the song on the ipod out loud and sang along to it as we found out that helped the lip-sync be in time. 

We filmed each other in different locations to help show the story line and improve on the narrative of Jack who we wanted to show flirting and 'playing' all of us.

The day went well and we got a  lot of footage set in different parts of London.

Tuesday 8th February 2011

Today we are returning back to Bond Street to film more footage but unfortunately Danielle is ill so it is just Me (Maddie), Lucie and Jack. But today the weather is very sunny and bright which is great for filming but it will be hard for us to incorporate these shots in with the other ones but it could also work in our favour as it creates a more of a realistic music video as they weather changes and we have purposely wore different outfits to show that the narrative and Jacks 'cheating' has happened over a time period.

We went to a park set in the middle of London today and this worked really well with the Bohemian style of the music video. We continued to work on the narrative of the music video.

Tuesday 1st March 2011

We have set today to go up to London again but another person is missing so there is only three of us, Me (Maddie), Danielle, Lucie. We focused on individual shots as we needed to build up the representation of us being the sole singers but we wasn't able to film us singing together. 

We went to different areas of London to build up a variety of shots. I feel that we achieved our aim of focusing on using different types of shots.

Overall i feel that our filming went well as we chose a great location and it represents the song well. We overcame the issue of the weather changing for the days we went up to film as we have fixed this with our edits. Not being to able to film as a group did hinder our progress and the fact we set our location quite far away but we carried on and i believe it will pay off as we will result in having a modern realistic music video.