Final major project
Task
At the end of my first year of media studies, we are set a final major project. The FMP is the culmination of your course and demonstrates all of the creativity, skill, concept and understanding I have gained over the past year.
For my FMP I have decided that I will film, edit and produce a music video for a song of my choice.
I have chosen a to create a music video as I think it is a chance to challenge my filming and editing skills in a way that creates a strong emotion within the viewer, which I have often found goes hand in hand with music.
Goals
My goals for this project are to achieve a distinction level grade in all areas of the brief and to produce a product to a professional standard in quality knowledge
Research
Initial thoughts
As soon as I was told the task I knew I wanted to create a music video of some sorts, however I had little idea of where to start.
Some initial research I did included basic 'Step-by-step' guides on how create a music video to get a rough idea of where to start. Here I learnt that Music videos should be viewed as an abstract art form rather than a standard video production. The music industry is populated by people who like things that are different, and musicians who want to succeed should embrace this while making a music video. Music videos should be viewed as an abstract art form rather than a standard video production. The music industry is populated by people who like things that are different, and musicians who want to succeed should embrace this while making a music video.
Some important tips that I learnt from my research are:
-Use a high quality camera
-Shoot it multiple times
-Costumes and makeup
-Using the right video editing/finishing software
-Be creative
Famous Film and music directors
15/3/21
Joseph Kahn
Joseph Kahn is a korean-American film and music video director. Some of the most famous names Kahn has worked with include: Eminem, Taylor swift, Britney spears and Katy Perry
Kahn won his first grammy in 2003 for Eminems 'Without me' music video which simultaneously won the MTV VMAs Best video of the year, as well as best direction.
Kahn frequently collaborates with Taylor Swift, having directing some of Swifts most biggest hits including, Blank Space, Look what you made me do, Bad blood and Wildest dreams.
(From left to right) Blank space, Look what you made me do, Wildest dreams
Nick Knight
Nick Knight is a British Photographer and founder of SHOWstudio.com.
Knight directed his first music video in 2001 or the song "Pagan Poetry" by Björk. In 2011 and 2013, he directed the videos for Lady Gaga's single "Born This Way" and Kanye West's "Bound 2". Since then, knight has gone onto photograph American rapper/singer Travis Scott for his sophomore album Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight in 2016.
(From left to right) Lady Gaga 'Born this way' Kanye west 'Bound 2' Bjork 'Pagan poetry'
Melina Matsoukas
Melina Matsoukas is an American music video, film, commercial and television director. Matsoukas has collaborated with artists such as Beyonce, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Lily Allen.She is a two-time Grammy Award winner and four-time MTV Video Music Awards winner for her "We Found Love" and "Formation" music videos.
Matsoukas work is best described as"chock full of bright colors or crisp black and white images, smooth spotlights, and tasteful retro video models."
(From left to right) Beyonce 'Formation', Katy Perry 'Thinking of you', Rihanna 'We found love'
Types of music videos
22/3/21
Narrative
Narrative based music videos feature a series of shots that are designed to tell a story, similar to a short film. Some can feature brief artist performance, others have the artist acting rather than performing and some feature no artist at all.
(From left to right) Telephone by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce, The one that got away by Katy Perry, Yo belong with me by Taylor swift
Performative
Performance based music videos feature a solo artist or a band performing to the camera. The aim is to focus on the artists and convey them in a particular way to the viewing audience. This category includes the recording of live performance, with the aim of demonstrating an artistic talent that is not captured in the recording, such as capturing the energy and enthusiasm of live fans.
(From left to right)I Bet That You Look Good on the Dance Floor by Arctic Monkeys,Bitter Sweet Symphony by The VerveSwitchblade Smiles by Kasabian
Conceptual
Concept videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual or obscure, even surreal for an audience. The unusual content is an attraction to many consumers, which draws them in. A successful concept video will keep the audience entertained and constantly looking at what or who is on the screen.
(from left to right) Somebody that I used to know by Gotye ft. Kimbra, This is America by Childish Gambino, Her morning elegance by Oren Lavie
Conclusion
From my research on different music video directors I have concluded that directors themselves seem to carry their own style and aesthetic, and their work often have small details in common. For example, Nick knight tends to focus on the contrast between black and white with a more 'edgy' theme in most of his videos, whereas Joseph Kahn and Melina Matsoukas' work has a more elegant approach, Kahn especially. With comparison to my own ideas so far Im seeing a lot more similarity and inspiration with Kahns work. This is most likely because a lot of Swifts music, whom Kahn collaborates frequently with, follows the similar genre of romance and so the filmography work correlates with that theme.
The type of music video I will be creating is narrative. Narrative based music videos feature a series of shots that are designed to tell a story, similar to a short film. Some can feature brief artist performance, others have the artist acting rather than performing and some feature no artist at all.
The genre I will be following for my music video will most likely revolve around romance and teenage love, I chose this genre because I want to focus on the elegance within this genre. I think this will be a good chance to showcase my vision, and to show people what i see when i think of young love.
In my opinion the idea of young love is such a delicate yet beautiful experience and I want to be able to express that in my work and show everyone else the beauty that I see within this. In my opinion this is greatly inspired from Joseph Kahns work with Taylor swift.
Thorough research
12/4/21
The song I have chosen to use for my music video is 'Thats Life' by Frank Sinatra. Here is a link to the original music video.
This music video has quite a dark depressing theme, this is further highlighted by the black and white film, however this was created in 1966 so its hard to determine if the use of black and white was intentional to back up the theme or if this was just because film in colour was still quite rare.
This video tells the story of a man struggling with the ups and downs of life however the focus is more directed at the negatives. In my opinion the music video is quite basic and doesn't have an exact storyline but rather a 'day-in-the-life' approach to this man shown in the music video.
My music video will be similar in ways which highlight the good and bad however my music video is going to be telling more of a story. My take on the song will be showing a different interpretation to the lyrics and so my music video will most likely be quite different from the original.
Here I have printed out the lyrics and annotated the basis of the storyline for the music video
My plan for my music video is to not include any lip syncing, this is mainly because my main character in my music video is female and as the singer of the song is male it wouldn't fit right having a female actress lip syncing to a males voice.
Upon review from a peer, one comment that was mentioned was that music videos usually have some form of lip syncing, this, although true, is not a crucial part of music videos. Here are some examples of some music videos that do not feature any lip syncing.
The original music video for the song I will be using (Thats life-Frank Sinatra) actually doesn't feature any lip-syncing itself
Avicii-Wake me up:
This tells the story of a girl and her little sister who struggle to live by getting pushed out by society for being different and standing out
Blur- Coffee and TV
This music video personifies a milk carton and follows it around as a 'Day in the life' point of view.
Inspirations
My main inspiration behind creating a music video comes from the David Bowies music video of 'As the world falls down' in the film 'Labyrinth'. Ever since i watched that ballroom scene in Labyrinth i became completely mesmerised as to me it was so beautifully shot and had a renaissance feel with all the colour tones and camera shots used.
I wanted my music video to try and capture the feeling that i felt when watching this scene.
Here are some images from the music video to 'As the world falls down' in Labyrinth by David Bowie
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Types of shots used in music videos
26/04/21
Camera movement in music videos is normally used to follow the artist or band however in narrative music videos camera movement can be used to follow the main character in the video. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots
Mise en scène-in film analysis, the term mise en scene refers to everything in front of the camera, including the set design, lighting, and actors. In terms of use in a music video Mise-en- scene puts importance on the representation of something.
An example of a music video that includes a lot of long shots is 'The Scientist' by Coldplay. In this music video Martin backs his way through a horrifying car crash that appears to kill his onscreen girlfriend in reverse. Long shots are used here as they help portray Chris Martins character as lonely. his works because, for example, in the image shown, the long shot makes Martin look small, and as there is no other person onscreen this helps reinforce the loneliness the character is feeling with the viewer.
Mid shots in music videos are most commonly used when the camera is facing the artist as they lip sync to the song. Here is an example of a mid shot from the music video 'Break my heart" by Dua Lipa. As shown in the image, you can see the artist waist upwards- this is a common trait in mid shots as it allows the artist to be the main focus of the shot whilst also allowing some background to be shown to help present the scene
Close up shots in music videos are often used to help reflect emotions which are told through the words of a song. Close ups mainly consist of headshots or a focus on a facial feature such as the lips whilst lip syncing to a song. Here is an example of a close up head shot from the music video for 'Valentines day' by David Bowie
Sources
Date viewed 15/03/2021
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-shoot-a-music-video-step-by-step-2460783
https://julianlangham.co.uk/how-to-make-a-music-video/
https://www.shootfactory.co.uk/7-tips-for-shooting-the-ultimate-music-video/
Date viewed 15/03/2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melina_Matsoukas
https://prettybird.co/us/talent/creatives/melina-matsoukas/biography/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Knight_(photographer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kahn
Date viewed 22/03/2021
https://www.radarmusicvideos.com/blog/article/600-10_Great_Performance_Music_Videos
https://suacdigital.wordpress.com/video-library/music-videos/performance-based-music-videos/
https://suacdigital.wordpress.com/video-library/music-videos/narrative-based-music-videos/
https://www.beyondthestagemagazine.com/best-storytelling-music-videos/
https://www.slideshare.net/Jackolopolus/concept-music-videos
https://fstoppers.com/originals/18-most-creative-music-videos-162211
Date viewed on 26/04/2021
http://www.mtv.com/news/1472164/lens-recap-the-story-behind-coldplays-the-scientist/
Plan
Here I have created a mood board to best describe the aesthetic i want my music video to follow
Storyboard
Character development
Girl
The storyline for my music video will include two main characters and a side feature character, one boy and one girl as a couple and once the story throughout the video progresses the third character, a male, will be featured as the new love interest at the end of the video.
The focus on the music video will be on the girl. As the song is about the ups and downs of life I want the girls character reflect innocence, acting as a metaphor for her being innocent to the obstructions life throws at her.
In terms of the style of the female character i want their style to stand out more than other characters. I decided that i want this character to follow the 'cottage-core' aesthetic (see mood board) as it reflects the soft personality i want the character to possess.
Boy
As the girl is the main focus of the video I don't want the boys style to standout or overshadow the girl, yet I still want the boy to look neat and have some sense of style. Here is a mood board i have created reflecting the kind of style and aesthetic i want the boys character to follow, it follows a contrast to the girls character as it includes some darker colours and tones, this is to aid the girls character in standing out and being unique to others.
This dress code aesthetic is for all scenes but one. For one of my scenes i plan to have a ballroom dancing scene for which i want both actors to dress formally, preferably in black tie. This scene is very much inspired from a scene in the film 'Labyryth' as that scene itself presents everything i want my audience to feel when watching my music video.
Pre production
Filming Schedule
My plan is to start filming on the week of the 03/05/21. My two main worry so far is the location of the restaurant scene as some places might not want us to film. My backup for this is to instead film in a restaurant but on a picnic table in a park where we will definitely be able to film
Whilst going over the details for production I decided that I would change the restaurant scene to a picnic table in a park, this has more benefits as there isn't an issue of filming permission and so I will be much more able to get better shots without disturbing other people. Also moving the location to a park in Cambridge allows travelling to the location easier for the actors involved and this means I can change the location of one other scene to be in a similar area that I initially wasn't going to include because of travel issues.
Here I refined my schedule by adding times that i want people to be arriving, myself to be filming by and then finishing filming. I have made sure to leave gaps between arrival and filming so we have time to set everything up for each scene.
(Schedule draft 1)
(Schedule draft 2)
Props
The importance of props is extremely significant within film, they are crucial in the storytelling as they complement and motivate the character helping the actor feel more together with the setting. Props can also be used to give the audience hints about a character ,the scene or situation this can help the audience to feel more connected with the portrayed character.
Some props can become iconic pieces of a film and become the first thing some people think of when that film is mentioned. One example is the use of a 'lightsaber' in the star wars franchise.
The following items will be used in my music video:
-A Car-used in scene 3 set in a car
-An item of jewellery- for scene 5
-A calendar- to be a scene by itself showing a time change in storyline
-A mobile phone- For scene 7
-Makeup items- for scene 9
Props overall in my music video, are going to be more to help the story flow and set the scene rather than tell the story itself. In other productions the use of props can
production
How did it go?
Overall production went well, I managed to film all my scenes with only minor adjustments and a few last minute changes.
Everything rolled smoothly and more often than not we were ahead of schedule.
My favourite scene to shoot was probably the scene in the car because we filmed at night and so the distortion of light from surrounding street lamps gave the footage a nice vintage nostalgic feel.
In total i recorded around 25 minutes of raw footage that i will next need to cut down to produce my first draft of my music video, I don't think I will need to reshoot any scenes as I made sure to get multiple takes of each shot
Were there any problems?
One issue we did have during filming however was an issue with the weather. Originally we were meant to film scenes 1,5 and 10 on a Saturday and these were all scenes to be filmed outside. However on the day it was quite heavily raining with dark clouds and didn't look like it was going to change anytime soon so I made the decision to reschedule last minute and so instead filmed on the next Wednesday when everyone was next available.
What would you do differently?
One thing that I were to do differently next time would be to use a tripod more for scenes that involve the camera person moving, as some of the footage is a bit wobbly as a result of this, however this would still be difficult as this project production team only had myself as camera person.
This picture was taken on the way back on the bus from shooting scenes 1,5 and 10
Here is a picture of myself and Eulalia Carline who is playing the main female role, this was taken in between scene changes of 2 and 7 that were being filmed consectutively
Post-productioN
The process
After I had filmed my footage i uploaded it to a computer at my college and began the editing process
-First I opened premier pro and placed all my clips on a timeline and colour coded them
-Next i began to cut out irrelevant parts of each clip, such things as where the camera was still rolling between takes
-Then cut each clip into separate shots and refined them more, where i had repeated takes of each shot i placed them next to each other, decided which one i preferred and cut the other. At this time i also added in the music that i was going to be using to premier in preparation for ordering the clips.
-After separating and refining the clips, using my storyboard i started to place them in my original planned sequence in time with the music
-Here I started to differ from my original plan after finding that some clips that i thought would look good playing consecutively didn't i changed up the order until i was happy with the edit, whilst doing this i had to make sure the story behind the music video didn't get lost behind the editing
Music video draft 1
Here is my first draft of my edited music video, this is the basic edit, before any effects have been added or any credits etc.
I am pleased with how it looks however some changes i will be making include: reshooting the opening scene and changing it slightly, making some of the shots a bit cleaner as some of them are a bit long to follow the pace of the song and adding credits and some lighting effects
Music video draft 2
After reviewing my first draft i decided that i did in-fact want to reshoot some scenes and change he edit. I decided that I didn't like the beginning and ending scenes of the female character waiting alone, so I changed the scene completely so that at the beginning opening scenes the girl is shown walking somewhere, this follows her journey on a bus and onto a park bench where she is waiting again- similar to the original scenes however this way its a bit more interesting as it makes the viewer question where this girl is going when it shows her travelling.
As well as this i changed the edit slightly just so the rhythm of the song playing matched nicely with the sequence of shots shown.
This is still the basic edit however and next i will be looking to start colour correcting some shots that are either too bright/dark and adding credits to finalise my music video.
Editing process
Added in clips and colour coded them, started to refine each clip by cutting out bad takes and picking best shots out of retakes.
You can see here the different scenes are all different colours and the lines between each clip showing different shots belonging to those scenes.
Music track added in and started to place each clip roughly in order on timeline of music track from where I originally decided each clip would be on storyboard.
Here i've highlighted the newly added music track, you can see the gaps of clips that haven't been filled in yet.
Completed first draft, decided to reshoot some scenes that i didn't think were quite right and completed draft 2 of basic edit.
In this image you can see all the different shots that are all different colours from the original scenes.
Started to colour correct any scenes where the lighting wasn't quite right, for example in this screen grab, for the shot shown i increased the contrast and white balance of the clip as originally it was too dark and looked dull.
Finally I added some credits to both the beginning and ending of the music video, I selected the order of names that would show, changed the font so that it didn't look out of place, then selected roll on premier so the credits would roll on/off screen like a professional film.
Shots
I wanted include a reference to my inspiration behind my music video and so I wanted to recreate some of the shots from the scene in the film Labyrinth during the song 'As the world falls down'.
Here are some side-by-side shots from the original scene and my recreation
The original can be found here: https://youtu.be/VppuD1St8Ec
Final music video
Here is the final edited music video that i have uploaded to youtube, there is a disclaimer in the description stating that i don't own any of the music played. I am very happy with the end result. My next step in my project is to complete a full evaluation on my work.
Peer review
Here I received some peer review feedback from Tegan, one of my classmates and what level they think that i'm working at, along with areas that i could work on. As shown in the document one area of improvement is the context behind my project and to present a more comprehensive understanding of the subject context used to communicate complex concepts and to articulate ambitions and clarify purpose. From this feedback I added a section under my evaluation header that shows some of the inspiration behind my music video.
Gibbs' cycle of reflection
Here i have completed a version of the gibbs' cycle of reflection to help examine my experience in completing my Final major project.
Final evaluation
Evaluation and reflection
Overall i'm very pleased with this project, i definitely met my standards of success and i think that i met the brief to the distinction standard. which was my initial objective.
The research process was very useful as it gave me a deeper understanding of the history and processes that go with film work, more specifically music videos. One item that i have reflected on is that next time one thing that i would do differently is start a bit earlier on research as at one point i became a bit overwhelmed with work pilling up and deadlines due so next time if i were to start research earlier would allow me to be more time organised.
In regards to workflow, once I was confident with what i was doing i very much powered through getting work done and met all my deadlines and so i believe my workflow was quite successful.
I think this was quite a challenging project as compared to earlier work this year we were much more independent and had to gain autonomous learning skills. Due to multiple lockdowns during this year, in my opinion we were slightly underprepared for such a major project as we had not had as much face-to-face lesson time to fully get comfortable to suddenly working completely independently, nevertheless this did teach better time control and managing tasks against deadlines. I don't think any of this affected my final piece.
I think i coped quite well working self dependently, it took me a little while at the beginning of this project to get used to it but in the end i preferred the independence as it allowed me to have total control of my work which encouraged me to work to a higher standard. One thing i need to improve when working independently is encouraging myself to get work done as i've noticed i can often procrastinate getting a piece of work done which can leave me to do it last minute which can then induce stress and lower my standards of working. However i've managed to reduce the chances of this happening as now i will set a timer for when to start work and allocate my self a time slot for a break or to reflect on my progress.
When this project started I immediately knew that i wanted to create some type of music video, i just had to pick which one and what the plot will be, this didn't take that long as i also knew i wanted to do a piece that focused on emotion. I ended up deciding to create something based on romance, which is arguably the most common emotion people can relate to. Many inspirations came from the teenage romance genre and the complexities that can tie in with that topic such as toxic and unhealthy relationships.
With this I decided that i wanted to create an inside perspective of how some would describe a toxic relationship where two people are unhealthy together and probably shouldn't be together but their love is strong that they stay anyways.
An emphasised way of presenting the twisted beauty behind young love as it can be such a delicate and intricate experience.
The research i completed before creating the music video itself almost certainly helped me achieve a higher standard of quality to my music video. For example, it allowed my to expand my understanding and knowledge within the industry and aided tasks such as creating the plot for my video as i had a better understanding on how i wanted to present the video through the camera work itself.