Music video project



The project started with with us choosing the group we were going to spend the rotation working with. Me and Rob originaly choose to work together becuase i play guitar and he plays drums, this seemed like a good idea. We then choose to work with Frazer and Luke. The first project we had was to produce a short lip sync video as a warm up for our actual music video. However before we did the lip sync we had a couple of sessions to come up a track for our song we were going to create. in these sessions we planned use the recording studio to record a guitar and drum track. Although, Frazer and Luke do not play instruments, so we then decided to use 'Garage Band', on Garage band, Luke came up with a track. The track Luke created was good, and i used it as a base for the final track which i created. We all put our ideas forward and decided this was track we were going to use. We spent the next few sessions perfecting the track, designating the verses, chorus and the bridge. I was happy with our final track.

The Lyrics

After the lip sync project, The next job was to write the lyrics. Whilst we were creating the track on Garage Band, we came up wit a rough idea of what we wanted to do for the video. Using the Genre that we decided upon and idea of the mugging in the street, I began to write the lyrics for our track. The idea of the first verse was to have a character, which was me in the final project, walking along the street and entering a shop. When the character exited the sho he was going to be approached and mugged by Rob. We decided theses roles becuase Rob is big, and i looked the most likely to be mugged. Anyway, I write the first verse being rapped from my point of view after the mugging. The next verse was going to be presented from the muggers point of view, so with the help of Frazer i then write lyrics for the second and third verse and then chorus. Everyone was happy with the lyrics, it was then where we started to plan the location and plot for the video.

Video Original idea

The idea started off with Me(the victim) walking down the street and entering a corner shop. just before entering the shop we would see Rob(the mugger) follow me and hide behind a corner waiting to strike when i came out. After Rob had confronted and 'knifed' me, he was then going to run away with my sweets leaving me sobbing. it was at this point i would begging my rap. We would then see Rob running into an alley way with my sweets. he then would lip sync his verse.

During the chorus, we originally planned to use the Green screen to lip sync the chorus over, we were then going to edit a city-scape in to the background. Although, when editing we decided not to do this. After Rob had stolen my sweets and ran off with them, i would run to tell my friends about what happened. My Friends who were Frazer and Luke, would then run off with me to find and plot revenge on Rob.

The original idea was to film Frazer and Luke stalking Rob walking down the street using crafty disguises, you can see this in my storyboards. But in the end we improvised on our surroundings (three fridges). Frazer and Luke were then going to jump out on Rob, beat him up and steal back my sweets. The final sequence was going to show Frazer and Luke returning the sweets to me and us all living happily ever after.

Video evaluation

I was very pleased with our final product and i think i played an important role in its success. The first thing that our group had to do to was produce a track to make the music video for. with the help of Frazer, Luke and Rob I used Garage band to create the track that we used in our final product. Despite Garage bands reputation of the samples not fitting together with each other, i mannaged to puzzle togeter a track which worked and sounded good, the track i created recieved possitive feedback from mine and other groups in the class. in my spare time i often write and produce my own songs. i also write the lyrics to the track with help from Frazer. Me and my group were very pleased with the final track.

Once we had finished recording our lyrics and peicing them together with our track, we began to work out the narrative of our video, locations and how we were actually going to do it. We all thought that the mugging idea was the one we wanted to use in our video. i feel that my contribution to the preproduction of the video was effective towards the group and final product. if i were asked to make another promotional video for our own song, i would deffinately try to record live instruments and vocals instead of relying on Garage band, i would also make sure we recorded our lyrics as soon as we could to give us plenty of time to think about the video. i am happy with the final track, although i think one of the verses is slightly out of time and a little louder than the others. we could have avoided this problem by allowing more time to rehearse the song and adjusting the sound levels when making the track.

During the production of our video and track i think i have picked up new skills and gained new knowledge of the software. I learnt how to use software that was new to me. Before this rotation it was not clear to me how to use Final cut pro, but whilst we were editing the track i think i sort of got the hang of it, if you asked me to use Final cut before this rotation i would have no idea what i was doing, but with the help of Luke and Rob who have used it before, i feel i have deffinately broadened my understanding. I also feel that i can now use Garage band effectively, i have used software simmilar to Garage Band before, so picking it up was not as difficult.

When watching our final video and listening to the finished track i am very happy with the progress we made and the technical quality of the finished peice. However, i do think there is room for improvement, like i have mentioned allready the sound levels could have been slightly adjusted during the creation of our track, although, i still feel pleased with the track and i feel it meets the standards expected. During the edit of the video, we found it difficult to get the lip syncing exactly in time with the video.

When we had finished a rough edit of our video and showed it to the class, it was clear to us that we needed to do some work towards getting the lip sync in time with the track. The feedback we recieved from the class was very possitive. People liked our track and found the video entertaining and amusing. This was a good start, although people did pick up on the lip syncing and some dodgey editing we needed to tighten up. when it came to producing a final edit we tried to righten all the wrongs we had made in our rough edit. When playing the video back on Final Cut, it seemed that the lip sync was now perfectly in time with the track, but when we compressed the video for some reason it was out of time with the track. However, this didnt matter so much because there was nothing we could have done about it, other groups also had this problem.

When we filmed the video we tryed to use a range of interresting camera angles and cinematography, the shots we used inclued Dutch tilts, over shoulder shots, Point Of View shots, Hand held shots and we tryed to include interresting foreground and back ground shots. In the edit we selected the shots we thought were the most effective in capturing the action unnfolding.

We also tryed to use interesting mise-en-scene in our video. The genre of of music video was a rock/rap parody, and i think that if you watched our video with out the sound. you could work out its genre. We used Graffiti in the background of many of our shots to fit in with the videos genre. A good example of the parody genre would be the 3 fridges that we found in a disused ice cream factory, and used them to hide behind. We knew that location was important for the mise-en-scene of our video so we filmed the video in alley ways and 'Ghetto' simulting enviroments to fit with the genre we were looking for.

At the start of the video we used a Freach jaz saxophone as a background track for when i am walking down the street to enter the shop. I think this worked well as it helped create a casual atmosphere, and in effect makes the mugging more surprising, it also is a real contrast with our track. When our track kicks in it is as if the mugging is really happening. This is helped with my fantastic silent movie acting skills. We intended on being able to here Rob saying "Oy! Give us your popcorn!" but in the final video its a bit quite. We would improve this by just adjusting the audio levels.

I think that the narrative in our video fits in great with our rap/rock parody genre. The mugging, fight scene and revenge are typical of a video like ours, and i dont think there is much wrong with the narrative execpt some continuity issues, like towards the start of the video Rob is wearing a hat, and then in the next shot he isnt. Which is a basic error that we didnt only notice untill recently. our video doesnt really contain anything noticably intertextual, or that we inteded to be intertextual. However, you could say the video resembles music videos like Beastie Boys 'Sabotage' or 'Ch-Check it out'.

When comparing our video to our original synopsis and treatement, there is noticable differences. When we came to filming the 'stalking' sequence, we found 3 old fridges that had been dumped in a disused ice cream factory, we then decided it was a much better idea for us to use these as hiding places, where as our original idea was to dress up in disguises. We decided that using disguises may be confusing to the people watching the video, so we positioned the fridges so we could hide behind them. We also didnt intend on including a chase sequence in our original script.

I do think that the characters in our video came across as we intended them to. Rob tryed to wear chavy clothes that resembled a mugger and i think it was obvious when watching the video. i also think i make a good mugging victim and other people in the class agreed with me. i think all the characters in the video came across as we intended. if i was given the same project again i would try and get more people involved with the confrontation between us and Rob in the video just before he runs away.

I have really enjoyed this rotation and i a pleased with our final video, i feel as if i have achieved what i wanted at the start of the project and i think it comes across effectively, i think our video is a strong example of the genre of the song, and the video is complementery for the song. i know that the editing of the video could have been a little tighter, we could have made it more obvious that time had passed when i enter and exit the shop, and the track could have done with some adjusting. But i am quite proud of the final video.