Evaluation Question 1

Part 2

Narrative theory/Why i chose pop and my soundtrack

During the research an planning process I came across many artists within the Pop genre who created music with easily follow able narratives and performances. Artists such as Katy Perry, Justin Beiber,Taylor Swift all crated music videos that followed a continuous narrative telling a story throughout. As I really like the pop genre myself, I felt it appropriate to base my music video around this genre. Narrowing down my soundtrack options was pretty difficult, I knew I wanted to either to a narrative based video, a performance one a mixture of the two. With this being in mind, I wanted an  upbeat edgy song with a mixture of bodies in it, so my music video isn’t just featuring one person throughout. Having this is mind I looked at narrative theorists in order to can inspiration while in my creating process. According to Sven Carlson music videos fall into two categories conceptual and Performance.Performace videos based around heavily focus on the that of the people within it, and conceptual being made up of either an abstract music video featuring moods and abstract realties or a narrative that tells a story throughout. Looking at this theory helped me to break down the ideas I had and allowed me to think about more in depthly about whether to choose narrative, abstract of performance as my focus.

Looking at my music video product, it’s evident to see I chosen a performance based video with hints of narrative within it.Because my soundtrack was very upbeat and there was a lot of lyrics involoved,I felt performance would work the best in allowing my artists to stand out more and gel with the song as it progresses. As you can see in my product all 3 of my artists are miming and giving a performace,with many dancing along as well to the lyrics. As the song is quite edgy and sassy I felt it appropriate to use performance as the most part, because it will allow me to translate the lyrics across to the audience watching in a meaningful manner.Carlsons concepts of performance allowed me to understand the way in which performance can be a powerful technique in translating messaging across not only through miming but through performance to.As you cans see in my video, I used performance from my main characters part to convey emotions and feeling as well as singing the song at the same time. I used body language and subtle movements in  her performance to convey her state of feelings set for the video. I feel it worked really well and allowed my main artist to take on a role that fit well with my ideas.Looking at my 2^nd female artist who plays Iggy. Her performance was crucial to the success of the middle part of the song, as in my soundtrack her lyrics are said with lots os sass and edginess and need a performace to match the style in which they are said.I think my artist captured this really well,I asked her to try and gian an alter ego within the video that will allow her to act like someone whos angry at the situation in hand.

As you can see in these two screen shots below,her performace is in character of the way I wanted it to be.Her actions,body language and facial expressions all match the lyrics being said.I feel she gives  

a really believeable performace and fits the charcter well.The sceond screen is a snapshot of when she mimes  ‘LIKE WHAT’. The hand actions are really wide and facial expressions look quite cocky,giving off a really good performace that gits perfectly within the video.

 

For my male artist I kept his performance quite subtle,I didn’t want to over expose him as I wanted him to be seen as mysterious and desireable within the video.I created shots that sometimes only show him mouth miming like this on the right.Id seen shots like this being used in rela media products from artists such as Rihanna,Sia and John Legend.I found it effective in thei already exsisting media products and found it added a rela mysterious feeling as your watching it as you cant quite grasp there full appearance,leaving you wanting to know more.This feature appears a fair few times in my video,and I used it as a deliberate technique as a part of the performace by him.Hes also seen performace hands gestures and movements throughout again,subtle attempts to make him look desitrebael to the audience and tot hat of ym main artist.I felt it added a differenct feel to my video at the same time,as only featuring his hands again initiates the desired effect I wanted to create.

Continuing on with narartive theory I also looked at Todorovs theory.He suggests there are 5 stages the narative can progress through; 1. A state of equilibrium ; 2. A disruption of that order by an event. ; 3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred. ;4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption. ;5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium.Looking at his theory and studying it in my research and planning process allowed me to gian an idea of structure and happenings that occur within conventional videos.His theory initiated my thought process on what I can feature within my video and how I can structure it.Whether I wanted my video to have a point at the end were the problem is solved,an ongoing problem,a distruption/fragmentation to the narrative etc.As you can see if my main product now ive encorperated a slight narrative around the performace.In the sense,my main chracter is lsuting voer the male and the 2^nd felmale is getting in the way of it.Comparing this to Todorovs theory my female artist who plays Iggy distrupts and fragments the narrative between the main female and the male by interupting the songs flow with her rapping section.This provides a structure to my song and creates an obsticle in the way of the subtle narrative I created.Her disruption of the rapping leads to the mian character thinking the male has done something bad,leaving the ending of the song on bad terms between them,when initially it started off well.  

 

Analysis of my music video

 

When creating my music video i already had in mind ideas from my research during the earlier stages.Gathering inspiration and looking at how exisiting videos used specific conventions i decided to include some in my own video.I firstly focused on cinematography,i opened and closed my music video in the same way.I had seen this been done by Lady GaGa and i really feel asif it works as a signifier allowing the video to have structure.I uses a zoom for a close up and zoomed out.I liked the effect this had and i felt it introduced my product rather than it just starting featuring my performers.Because the shot was a zoom of lights it also created a glared effect making it look almost distorted and again i really liked the feel it added to the video.Using this shot type to open and close my video,worked really effectiviely.Throughout the main part of my music video i used lots of medium close ups,i did this intentioanlly in order to capture the eprformers singing.I wanted there costumes to be visible but i wanted their face to be the focal point so choosing this shot type enabled me to do both.

In the first few opening shots on my video i used a pan of the River Humber.I did this intentioanlly as i felt it was the most approparite shot to do,to show the footage i wanted to.By using the pan is allowed me to reveal the scenery of the lcoation and also made it intriguing as it was gradually shwoing whats there,rather than it just been a long shot from far away.I feel this worked well in the opening stages as it itroduced my video in a really effective way.Another shot type i used was the extreme close up,i used this mainly when i was filming close ups of the lips miming.I chose this shot based on the fact i wanted to only see the lips.I felt it added quite a mysterious effect to mywork aswell as i used this shot for my male model quite alot in the beginning before revealing his full apperance.I like the way it allowed me to use the lips as the focus point of the clip,and by doing so allowed my performers to still be present while there full appearance isnt.

Alongside all these shot types i also used titls.I used them to reveal my main female models body from the bottom upwards.I felt it made the footage have a more sexual appeal in terms of The Male Gaze theory.Having looked at that theory and how women are often sexualised in videos,i felt this shot type allowed me to include this is a subtle way.Rather than starting with appearance the shot allowed me to feature her body making the way up,almost asif you was looking from someone up and down-and i really liked the effect it had.Long shots was alos apart of my shots that i used,i didnt use them that often as i felt they wasnt approparite much in my video,but for diversity i added a few in.for example,i used a long shot to picture my main feamle performer dancing as it allowed me to feature her whole body moving,allowing the audeince to grasp what was going on.

Analysing my use of mise en scene i tried to keep all the props and costumes relevant to my genre.I felt by usiong props within my video it helped me alot in re inforcing ym genre.For example i used a telephone within the mise en scene as i felt it highlighted the communication between the girl and boy.It alloweed th narrative to be carried through despite them not being on screen.Also as the phone is now a promident feature in my targets audiences life i felt it was relatable to them and they could almost connect with the idea i was portraying.I used a bedroom location for some parts of my main perfromers parts,i felt this reinforced how lusting over a boy is thing most girls can associate with,and by having this bedroom i felt it signified the girls own space to think about things away from everyone else.I also liked the way it looked real girly and gacve the footage that homely feel i was going for in that shot.I juxtaposed this location with the outside grassy area in which she is dressed in heels.I intended this to be a complete contrast to signify that shes had enough almsot asif it time for her to be 'free'.Using this outside location also allowed a change in my mise en scene rather than it all been in inside locations.As the video nears the ened i feature high heels and perfume in some of the footage this was a deliberate use of mise en scene to signify shes done.I was trying to imply she was getting ready for a night out with her friends to get away from the situation,in case this message wasnt understand i once again re inforced it by writing 'were done' as a text message to the boy in question.i felt it worked really nicely and rounded off the narrative in the way i wanted it to.

For  my male model i made his costume include a balck adidas jacket as i felt this was a general stereotypical peice of clothing for a boy.I inteneded to make his behaviour quite cheeky and irrestible as a part of the narraive of her wanting to be with him.I felt i displayed this with the actions i amde him do e.g smiling,rubbing face/hands,laughing etc.Working alongside the constume i felt this worked reaslly well in the way i wanted to portray him.For my 2nd performer who plays iggy i had her have 2 costumes changes.Because her rap is quite fast i felt stickign to one costume wouldnt look as good.I wanted the shots to be quick and snappy round this section and i feel the way i included two constumes allowed the footage to look asif she was at different places due to the mise en scene.I continued this idea with my mian perfromer also,having a causal top and jeans outfit juxtaposed white the heels and dress later on in the video.

Within my music video i focused on it been mainly performace,as i have 3 performers within it i wanted to focus of the acting/dancing and miming sides to the video.As i progressed further in i noticed whiledoing this i was also creating my own narrative around it.That been my main perfromer wants to be with the male performer however the 2nd performer who plays Iggy acts as sort of an antagonist in the narratyive and creates a distruption in the structure,evidently allowing a narrative to be created despite me orginally intending it.Once i ahd finished my music video i realised the video is mainly performance based however there is a clear narrative to be followed thats open for interprepation.

In conclusion,i am very happy with my overal music video.I feel i furfilled the majoirty of the aims i set out to at the beginning and included lots of ideas form thr research i did previously.I feel i displayed my models in the way i wnated to and captured footage i deem sucsessful.If i were to do it agin i'd mybe re take some of the fottage were its a little shaky as i was un aware of this while filming and possibly add some more colour filters within the video to show even more continuity to link with my digipak.Other than that i feel my product as a whole works really well and im happy with the outcome.