Ryan Sharman

Music Video Evaluation

To start off this unit the first task we did is the analysis of music videos, we talked about the

different types including narrative based, performance based and concept based music videos. We

did a number of task sheets giving us guidelines at what to look at when analysing music videos

some of them being gender roles, race, sexuality, materialism and violence. After analysing the video

we then had to come up with ideas for our own music video, to start the ideas generation off I made

a mind map of all the things I could use and do for example like the type of video, camera work,

lyrical meaning and editing effects.

I then created several mood boards which gave me ideas of how I wanted my music to look. The

mood board varied from camera work, camera shots to location and settings.

Then it came to the really hard written work first of all, I had to give definitions of job roles to do

with making a music video this including what the director does, camera person, boom operator ans

the lighting technician. Another task was to find filming equipment under a budget of £4000, I had to

find so many camera quotes, so many lighting quotes etc.

Now that I had mood boards to help my ideas generation I then decided on my song and was ready

to make then general concept of my video. In this I gave all my rules I wanted apply when making

the music video, I decided on the shooting dates, the location and the cast and crew which were to

be featured in the music video.

Now was the time I made the script, I started with the lyrics adding these first so I know what I

wanted to match with the song. I then decided to add which shots I was going to add which went

with the idea of the song. Overall when making this it was very easy because I had a general idea of

what I wanted to do.

Now moving onto pre-production, to start all this off me and my group decided to give each other

certain task to do with the pre-production. First of all we made a schedule so we knew what was

going on and when we had to do things. Meeting record sheets were made so we knew what went

on in that meeting, also the drafts of my script which was chosen to be made was done we came up

with a first and second draft and then decided, so we made a final draft. We then filled out a

location recce and a risk assessment so this was also talked about in another meeting. A story board

was then made and this decided on all the shots and what everything was going to look like. Filming

began and also call sheets were made so we had a good idea of where we were filming, who was

doing what and the nearest hospital etc.

Now moving onto the editing process and my basic

opinions of what happened and how I changed things also

including my strengths and weaknesses.

When editing my music video I had slightly different ideas

to the story and wanted to change that since when we

started filming, mostly this is because of particular shots

that didn’t work out so I decided to film extra shots which

could fill the shots which didn’t work out. Although I was

the one that thought of the whole concept, I wasn’t happy with how things turned out when filming.

This is perfectly fine because the music video still makes sense etc. When I started editing and

putting clips together I didn’t have all the footage because we still had some scenes to shoot, this

was totally fine but was awkward to remember what goes where etc. But the outcome came out the

way I hoped it too. The final edit isn’t much different from the rough edit, barely noticeable but if

compared a slight difference could be spotted. First of all the clips varied in light difference from the

beginning to the end so I decided to change the contrast/exposure and also the brightness in the

clips so they all had the similar lighting. This made it look better because it all appears to be shot at

the same time as day which was planned on the story board. Another change was how the last few

clips of the symbols being showed on the actor’s arms were ever so slightly slowed down, this was

done to show off the symbols and not to be given off as rushed. This is because they needed to be

seen by the audience so they can react and know what’s going on. Some other changes were

transitions which I only used in some of the longer clips to shorten them down. Other than them

changes they were no other differences done and that was mostly it and that was changed for the

final edit.

When it comes to strengths and weaknesses, personally was how well they group worked together

and got along with what each other said, also to the fact that we let everyone have ago at doing

different things etc. Can’t really think of anymore strengths just that it was enjoyable and easy to

work with my other team members. Now onto weaknesses, the biggest weakness I thought was the

effects of the weather, because of good and bad weather some of our shots has completely different

lighting. This is only because we filmed on different days because we couldn’t fit all our time into

one day and this gives off the effect in the video that it was shot on different days and it’s not

supposed to be in the video. Other than that, that is the only weakness I think that is drastic.