Music Video - Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions of music videos are the various different techniques that are used to construct meaning in them. These commonly used techniques help the viewer to identify what genre or type of media text they are watching as they provide a certain structure in the viewers understanding.

Different genres of music will have different codes and conventions for their music videos. One such convention is the use of "sound parallels", which is when the music that is currently playing matches the mood of the video. This is prevalent in many narrative based music videos, where the tone and emotion that is shown in the video is matched by the music. Sound parallels also take place where the source of the noise or sound that can be heard is shown in the video, with this often taking place at breaks in the music or at the beginning or end of the video.

Print Artefacts

Evaluation Questions notes

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The influences that we took from other music videos - the original Bounce video, the V for Vendetta mask, etc. The way that the title is shown at the start of the video in the bottom left corner. How we challenged the forms and conventions - the effects that we added in editing, the colours, brightness and shading that we used as well as the reversing of some shot. We also increased the speed of the majority of the shots in the video in order to quicken the pace of the music video and slowed the speed of a few others to create a slow motion effect. Slowing certain shots down also allowed us to slightly stretch the length of the shots so as to ensure that the video would fit in with the song and that we could fill the amount of the timeline that we needed to. It also focuses the audiences attention to a certain part of the shot, making sure that they are paying attention to this part of the video and giving them more time to view and analyse the shot. Going back to the colour and lighting effects, the addition of bright, vibrant colours helped to add an unusual cartoon-like effect to the first half of the video, drawing the audiences attention to the music video straight from the beginning.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Print artifacts. How they related to our main production and why we chose the design/style that we used. Why they were effective. Aimed at our target audience.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What we learned from the feedback that we received. How we improved our music video based on the feedback, why we decided to change/edit certain things. Added/ removed certain shots to improve the overall product. How we expanded upon and improved the first draft.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

How and why we used Adobe Premiere Pro to complete the editing of our music video. Reverses, slow motion, fast forward, other effects that we used.

Below is the link to the finished version of my music video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Vt0vSuPDgZk.

Blogger Screen Recording

In order to help to show the creative journey that was involved with the creation of my music video production I used QuickTime Player to make a screen recording showing the blog that I have built up on Blogger.com. I felt that this would give a good insight into what my blog looks like from both my perspective and the perspective of the viewer. As well as this, the recording showed how to effectively use some elements of Blogger, such as how to insert a video into a blog post and how to edit the size of videos and images using the HTML code given on the site.

The image above shows me recording myself embedding a video into a new blog post using the "insert from YouTube" option given in Blogger. I did this to show the viewer how to embed a video and to show one of the skills that I have picked up while using Blogger to showcase my creative journey. I had to embed a video into my blog when i made the post titled "Music Video - First Draft". Rather than using the same insertion method shown in the screenshot, I chose to copy the embed code from the video on YouTube and paste this into the HTML section of the post on Blogger. This embedded the video into the blog and allowed the video to be watched by both me in the draft of the post and the viewer when they viewed the blog.

The screenshot above is another one that has been taken from the screen recording that I captured using QuickTime Player. This screenshot shows me using the HTML code in a Blogger blog post to edit the size of the video that I previously embedded by decreasing the height and width of the video. I did this after viewing my blog and seeing that the video was too big for the page and did not fit correctly within the borders of the blog.

Music Video - First Draft and Improvements

Improvements

When the first draft of the video was exported and uploaded to YouTube, the quality of the video decreased as the resolution seemed as i it was quite low. We will attempt to solve this problem by first of all rendering the entire work area rather than just the effects, which is what we have currently been doing every time we rendered it. We also need to ensure that it is exported in the highest quality possible, hopefully at 1080p.
We also need to finish the filming and then the editing of the video by the 18th December to meet the project deadline.

Questions

1. What are the good points of this draft of the video
2. Does it fit with the conventions of a music video
3. Is the narrative of the video clear
4. Are there any issues with the lighting or brightness
5. What changes would you make to the current draft
6. Is the pace of editing suited to this type of music
7. Does this music video fit the song that we have chosen to use
8. Are there a sufficient variety of camera shots and angles used
9. Which shots or parts of the video would you say need to be improved
10. What level and mark would you give this music video if it was completed at this level

November Feedback Response

In response to my November feedback that I received from Mr Rutherford on Friday 13th November, I will be using my A2 Media Studies student guide to improve my blog, which lists the individual tasks that need to be completed for the blog and the coursework.

The first thing that i will be improving is the production schedule. Currently the schedule is not detailed, so I will be adding a lot more detail to the post by describing exactly what we will be filming on each certain filming date and when we will be editing the music video. This will also detail which types of shot we will be using and which cast members we will need to use on each day and in each individual scene/shot.

SMART Targets:

Complete music video filming, editing, research and planning by the 18th December
Make sure that all work is at a high standard according to the success criteria
Ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors in my blog

November feedback

Steady progress is being made on the web-log so you need to gather momentum and fill in the gaps using your A2 booklet as a guide.

Planning needs to be made clear and documentation needs to be thorough. You need to evidence a lot more planning documentation to reach level 3 and 4. Schedules and risk assessments need to be detailed.

I am yet to see evidence of filming.  I now need to see a first cut of the film and you need to gain audience feedback.  I have seen evidence of editing but we need to stage-post the edit to evaluate how we can improve. 

Storyboards are basic but show planning an give an idea of the shot type.  Ideally you should storyboard each shot.

Ideas are outlined. A risk assessment has been provided with some detail. Tasks have been started but there is a lack of detail.  For example, the investigation into a target audience is still basic despite the time spent outlining the ways of defining an audience in class. Further research is needed to move into levels 2 and 3. Personalise the blog, reflect on the creative process.  Manage your time effectively.