Music Video - Evaluation:

Overall, I think that my final music video has come out quite well, especially in the way of aesthetics. My aim was to create a retro and "vhs video tape"/family video feel and I feel as though I was able to do this by adding a mixture of both blue and purple colour layers/filter over the top of the entire video and then using a royalty free "record scratch" clip to give it the appearance of an older, more worn out video tape. I believe that the different units of work and amount of practical use I had with cameras and editing software has enable me to gain a greater understanding and ability to create the desired effects and overall looks I aim to achieve.

Although I am pleased with how the music video turned out overall, due to having to rely on other people to complete it (the models and transport) as I was nearing the end of the video I had to reuse a few shots to fill up space and make up for the fact that I was unable to reshoot some of the shots on time. In addition to this, I had to scrap almost the entirety of one of my shoot as, due to it being a really bright day, I had to increase the shutter speed on that I was filming with (as I had already set the ISO to its lowest setting). This resulted in some of the shot still being a little over exposed with the addition of the footage having a very unnatural look as everything was too sharp and vivid.

If I had to redo this music video, I would primarily make sure that I did a great deal more shoots and therefore decrease the chances of me running out of good footage to use and having to reuse some of the clips twice. I would also add two black bars on either side of the screen/video to give it a more squared look - meaning that it would look more like the vhs video tapes as they were sized differently.

As I wanted to relate the final music video to the already existing music videos of the band (who's song I chose) and my research, I elected to insert the bands logo and the title of the song in the first 10 seconds of the video. Not only does this create the clear link to my research - where artist place their "brand identity" at the start of their music videos - I feel as though it gives the video a more professional edge and allows the audience to immediately gauge what they are about to watch. This final video also ties into my contextual research as my choice of editing (particularly in terms of cutting) amplified and compliments the music and the beat of the song - as well as through the visuals matching up with the lyrics in places such as "heard that you were feeling blue".

Throughout the music video, I feel as though I was able to create a great deal of aesthetically pleasing colour pallets as I originally planned to do when I was producing ideas for my music video - although, as a result of the colour overlays a great deal of them have lost a small amount of their impact but still remain fairly eye catching. Some of the shots that have the more visually pleasing colour schemes/pallets are shown below:

Focus group for further research:

Following on from my survey and research of various theories, I decided to conduct a focus group to allow me to get a more personal and in-depth response from a range of members of my target audience - allowing me to further understand what they desire from a music video and what their general preferences are.

From this small focus group, where I asked 5 second year film and media students their opinions and preferences when it came to music videos, I have been able to combine the survey results and focus group results to gain a greater understanding of what the general public (and also younger people who study subjects related to the media) wish to see from music videos.

The overall answer from this small focus group that I arranged was, as I thought it would be, that they preferred music videos which were "it has had a lot of thought put into how it's been edited. It looks very beautiful but also conveys the meaning of the song clearly.". This response has been very similar to the ones that I gained form my survey and have influenced me to create an interesting and hopefully visually aesthetic/appealing music video where the visuals match up with and help to amplify the lyrics of the song (whilst also adding a nice contrast to the robotic sound of the music with the addition of shot of nature).

Analysis of survey results:

To gain an understanding of what types of music videos the "general public" liked, I decided to conduct a survey which would allow me to both narrow down my ideas for what type of music video I would like to create and also how I could make it appeal to my target audience and other audience members.

From my survey, I gained a nice amount of results from people and mostly those who fit into my target audience. These have allowed me to understand what is desired from music videos, particularly form the current generation(s). Most of the responses I received to my questions were fairly straight forward and as I predicted them to be - 80% of people said they enjoyed watching music videos; 32% (the majority) said they enjoyed the pop genre; 80% of people watched music videos through YouTube. However, in the areas that I was most interested in (the questions shown below) I received responses that gave me a clearer insight into the vast mix of interests that people have in music videos, even though the majority of people who took the survey actually enjoyed the same type of music.

The area which I focused on the most and got the most interesting answers for was the question "what is your current favourite music video (and why)?". I asked this question so that I could watch some of them to see what the people who responded meant and also glean a little inspiration for my own music video. 

A lot of people went for music videos which were artistic in the way that they were shot/edited and also ones which were "fun to watch" and "engaging". This has helped me to figure out what I will do for my music video and also, when paired with the focus group which I intend to hold, will enable me to have a greater understanding of how to appeal to my target audience through the music video.

Contextual research of music videos:

 Andrew Goodwin was a media theorist and analyser who, after years of study and independent research, published a book on the different codes and conventions of music videos. The book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992), contained all of his various studies on music videos and his analysis of them. Goodwin's theory was that there are key features in music videos within the lyrics and the visuals - they either illustrate, contradict or amplify each other. The relationship between the lyrics and visuals will contain one or all of these features. 

A good example for each of these types of relationship between visual and lyrics are: In Bloom by Nirvana, which contains visuals of the band performing and smiling whilst the lyrics speak in a more depressed and sad manner - contradicting themselves; Firework by Katy Perry, a song about accepting yourself and being happy in who you are and the visuals contained in the music video are of people starting of reserved and insulated and slowly becoming who they are and doing what they want to do - amplifying the lyrics;

Further on in his book, Andrew Goodwin speaks about how even in music videos there is the existence of genre - as well as just in the songs themselves. The five genres which he identified/decided on where: stadium performance, studio performance, narrative, experimental (or conceptual) and location. Along with this, he states that there is the additional factor of voyeurism which occurs a great deal more frequently in more modern music videos than those of the past. Voyeurism is where the artist or subject in a film or video is exposed (most commonly in a sexual manner e.g. fragmented close ups) on screen for the audience to see.

 Carol Vernallis, another music video and film theorist, wrote and published a book on her finding and ideas of how important editing is in music videos when it comes to conveying narrative, meaning, the artists star image as well as how well the visuals and editing match up with the music and the difference between editing for music videos and editing for films.

Vernallis's theory speaks about how music videos are a visual response to a narrative suggested within the song lyrics (whether its complete, obscure, etc). She suggest that there are concepts that alter/influence how a music video are produced, which are: narrative, editing, framing and camera movement and digesis (the setting/location of the music video).