Ben Holmes

Final Major Project Evaluation

My final major project required me to choose a media format and then produce my own media product such as a radio advertisement, Photo Shoot, Magazine front cover or a Music video. Due to my natural ability in the first year of college where I was also required to create a music video, I then decided to continue in the same direction. I decided to produce a music video for a track called ‘Ganja Man’ by an old-school drum and bass artist known as Aphrodite. The reason for choosing this song was due to it being one of my favourite artists’ as-well as the fact there was no current official music video for the track which left me with a lot of room for imagination. Once I had decided to stick with this idea I began my primary research into other music videos from the same genre, although I was quite familiar with a lot of music videos from the drum and bass genre I had never analysed the codes and conventions used in different genres of music videos. From my research I came to the conclusion that I wanted to experiment with a range of different techniques such as camera shots, editing techniques, lighting and after effects. I also decided to stick to the typical codes and conventions that most other drum and bass music videos use such as a range of different camera shots I noticed being used in a lot of similar music video. Similar props for example DJ equipment and alcohol and also I will be including people in my music video of a similar age demographic to my target audience.

During my first shoot I visited Hulme motorway bridges; here is where I filmed the majority of the outdoor graffiti scenes for my video. I experimented with a range of camera shots and techniques such as POV (Point-Of-View) shots, panoramic shots giving a wider angle and covering more of the filming location and I was also experimenting with the manual camera settings changing the aperture and depth of field which gave some interesting compositions. However my most favoured shot-type would have to be POV shots as I feel the angle gives a much more realistic view and lets the viewer’s feel much more involved with what they are watching, this is why decided to include a lot of Point of View shots throughout the course of my music video. I also used a tri-pod to help stabilize the quality of the shot and to prevent and hand-shaking while filming the close up shots of the spray paint cans as well as extreme close ups of the graffiti covering the bridges, this piece of equipment was an essential tool in ensuring good quality shots. Most of the close-up shots I filmed looked good quality on the camera screen when being recorded, however when I came to uploading them onto the computer screen in college they become distorted, over-exposed and did not meet the quality standard. This was a minor setback but I managed to take a college camera over the week holiday and make up for the poor quality footage by filming twice as much footage that was a lot better quality. I visited a number of different locations over the period of filming this music video. After I had filmed at all of the locations I had referred to in my pre-production story board and script, I realised that I didn’t have a sufficient amount of footage to cover a 5 minute audio track. Therefore I had to visit a number of new locations that I had not conducted any risk-assessments for or mentioned in my pitch proposal. This led me to find some interesting places and scenic back-drops to film the rest of the footage I needed to start the editing process.

After gathering enough footage I began uploading my clips and re-naming them to suit my script scene references, making it easier to group the clips when importing them in to Adobe Premier. Firstly I trimmed all the individual clips down to the sections I wanted to keep and deleted the rest of the clip that wasn’t going to be used in my music video; although this was not the most exciting part of the editing process it was the easiest. Once I had finally watched through all the clips and trimmed them down to size I began piecing them together according to the scene number references on my storyboard. However this did not suite the style of the music video and once I had imported the audio track into the adobe premiere project and watched it back, I decided to change my original style of editing to one that better suited the drum and bass genre. I re-arranged all the clips into a random order, experimenting with changing the speed of some clips and duplicating other clips then using the reverse speed tool. I found that most of the music videos I had researched on YouTube in the pre-production stages of creating this video used short, quick pace clips edited in a way that keeps up the tempo of the 90 BMP Drum and Bass tracks. This style of editing is what I intended to include in my music video to ensure I reach my target audience demographic and stick to the codes and conventions of drum and bass music videos. My music video is a concept music video and does not follow and particular pattern or story line. I tried to make a collage of clips with an interesting composition with short clips and quick transitions. While trying to decide what order to run my footage in I came to the conclusion that I had to space out all my best clips evenly throughout the video to ensure that the viewers do not lose interest. After a few more filming sessions and another 5 locations later, I had finally completed a sequence that I was satisfied with. However the length of the music video clips was not long enough to cover the audio track to the end, this lead me to edit the audio file in a programme called Audacity. This allowed me to trim down the audio track to the appropriate length and place it in sync with my video files and create a completed music video. Initially I intended on including some creative After FX to make my composition more visually attractive, as I learnt from my pre-production research that a lot of newly produced drum and bass videos use a variety of editing techniques giving the video a much more professional standard. However when I followed a few tutorials on YouTube showing me how to create a split-screen effect I felt that it did not work well with the style of my video as most of the clips were POV shots and as the BPM of the audio track is very fast, there was too much happening on the screen at once and the viewers couldn’t keep up so I decided not to include any after effect techniques. Due to this I had to ensure that the quality of my clips were too a good enough standard and interesting enough maintain interest. One technique that I learnt in the first year of college was how to editing the pace of the clip. This is something that is very prominent in my style of editing, due to the genre of my music video; it looks best when the clips have been sped up and looks more in sync with the beat. I also experimented with duplicating some clips and then editing them to reverse speed which gave a very interesting effect on some of the footage. Another important aspect of my video that I found challenging was keeping all the clips of people dancing in sync with the music. As most of the dancing was free-style and not planned on my script or storyboard, I had to just capture the footage and then deal with it on Adobe Premier and try to implement them in the correct position in my video, whilst remaining in beat with the audio track so it didn’t look amateur. One way I attempted to prevent this from happening was playing the audio track out loud whilst filming, giving the people on set a better idea of the tempo at which we were filming. Once I was happy with my completed music video project I had to render and export the finished composition and upload it to YouTube to gather audience feedback.

During the course of production for my final major project I developed a number of skills that I had been taught in the first year of college to a higher standard. I am a lot more comfortable using the Adobe editing software (Premier & After Effects), as well as my manual camera skills and filming techniques which have also improved greatly from the first year. As I was working independently this year and not as part of a group I had to be much more involved with the filming and planning of my project. I already had acquired basic knowledge from the first year experience of producing a music video however I did not have anyone to conduct risk-assessments or produce a production schedule with me, this forced me to learn new skills and be a lot more organised with my project. As a result of this I can now confidently produce a music video as well as other film based products.

Originally I intended on filming at 3-5 different locations using a tri-pod for the majority of the filming to ensure stable shot quality. However when it came to filming the video I found myself in a number of locations that I had not conducted risk type of assessment for or included on my project proposal. Although this wasn’t included in my proposal I decided to visit these locations anyway and gather some interesting footage. Some problems that I encountered were that some of the locations were outdoors in very derelict areas where it was hard to find a flat surface to secure a tri-pod. A way in which I worked around this problem was to not use the tri-pod for all the filming and experiment using Point of View shots. This left me with a lot of un-planned footage and although it was not as good quality as I originally planned, I had a lot more of it and only needed to include a few seconds of each clip, editing out any camera shake or distorted compositions. I also felt that first person shots would be a lot more interesting to watch as it is an unconventional way of filming, but this meant that I would have to stray away from my original ideas stated in my pre-production stages. My original plans ended up very different to my final outcome; however I am glad this happened as I got to experiment with new skills, filming techniques, as well as visit a range of new locations I had never discovered before getting assigned this project. I believe that my final outcome does closely resemble my pre-production pitch proposal as I filmed at all the locations mentioned in my pitch as well as using scenes from my story board and following my script, although I did improvise at certain points during the production stages.

Time management was not much of a big issue for me while I was producing this music video as I had already planned out what/where/when I was going to film each week in the format of a production schedule. This was a simple document consisting of dates, times and locations and kept me organised each week which helped me to keep the work load to a minimum and my work to a high standard. As I enjoy the more practical aspects of this course, I started filming early in the pre-production stages. This led me to complete my filming relatively quickly and focus on the more time consuming written tasks. As I struggle more with the theory side of production I ensured that I had enough time left to complete the written tasks to a high standard and left myself plenty of time for editing my music video as this was the most crucial aspect of my project.

I received positive feedback from my music video when I posted it on my Facebook page and requested my followers to leave some constructive comments. The overall feedback was focused on the way I managed to keep the audio track in sync with the video files, a number of comments stated “I really enjoyed the transitions and the song worked well”. This tells me that I have successfully reached my target audience and have created a music video which would generate interests of a similar demographic. Another positive aspect of feedback I have received was in relation to the use of ‘Fast-Forward/Slow-Motion’. This was a technique I picked up during the first year and later developed in the second year. I now feel much more comfortable editing the tempo of video clips as well as playing them in reverse and still creating a professional composition. When my video was completed I gathered a group of my friends together in my bedroom and proceeded to play the final edit to them, as the video progressed everyone seemed entertained as well as finding the clips very comical; this tells me that the humour I have included has done its job and worked successfully in keeping the viewers entertained. When showing another one of my colleagues that studies media my music video he was able to point out some specific points in the music video that

were slightly out of time with the audio track, If I would have shown him this before I uploaded the final edit I would’ve been able to make any changes, in the future I will try to get feedback for a rough draft before I perfect the final edit.

In my opinion I believe I have successfully created a music video that appealed to my intended target audience demographic; male students my own age (16-20), whom are interested in Drum and Bass music, graffiti and partying. If I was given the opportunity to create a media product again I would definitely create another music video as I feel a lot more comfortable using the editing software, manual camera settings, and reaching my target audience demographic. However there are a few slight changes I would make to this music video if I was to start it from scratch; Firstly I would ensure I shot a lot more footage in a much shorter time period leaving a lot more time for editing the clips together and written tasks included in the assignment. Another change I would make would be to include some female characters in my music video giving the video opportunity to appeal to a much wider target audience rather than strictly males. Finally I would have liked to include footage recorded inside a nightclub, however there would be many safety precautions I would have to consider before risking borrowing a camera off college and taking it into a busy Manchester night club. Overall I am pleased with my final outcome and I believe that I have further developed my music video production skills as well as pre-production techniques.