Final Music Video & Evaluation

Final Music Video & Analysis

Evaluation

For my final music video I decided to combine both the experimental and narrative genre as I thought it would make the final result appear more interesting and unique compared to a generic performance style video which is favoured in the mainstream. I also feel that is a good fit for the Psychedelic Rock music genre because it stands apart from "popular" music. I felt that this was particularly important because the song I chose, I Need a Man to Love was released in the late 60's and therefore shouldn't be particularly reminiscent of music videos from today. Perhaps most importantly, I knew that I wanted to produce something which felt almost timeless because this is the sort of feeling that I believe the song produces with its audience and is responsible for why the music from the Psychedelics is still admired by young people today. 

During the initial planning process I knew that I wanted my music video to be mainly open to interpretation as those are types of videos that I personally enjoy. The data I gathered from my questionnaire and focus group also suggests that audiences enjoy videos that are more experimental therefore I feel that I created a video that fits well with this as it doesn't follow any specific structure.   

Although I didn't stick to my original plan I don't think this has had a negative effect on my music video overall as I still managed to produce something which is very close to the original plan. Also, I think the setbacks that I experienced have made me more aware of some of the difficulties that can arise during planning and scheduling and therefore I feel better equipped to handle them if I were to do this again. 

I'm happy that I was still able to include references to Andrew Goodwin's theory of amplifying/illustrating lyrics as shown below. I like these aspects of the video because it helps break away from focusing solely on the visuals and instead on both the lyric and sound. It also forms a relationship between the lyrics and visuals which helps the audience make this connection without having to search for it themselves. 

Extreme close up of subject mouthing the lyrics - amplifying 

Close up of song lyrics  - illustrating

Although my music video doesn't follow a specific narrative I wanted to act as symbolism of someone who feels misunderstood/like something is missing from their life. I tried to demonstrate this in shots of the subject walking around in different environments, alone, looking around at her surroundings and seeming deep in thought. The subject takes an ecstasy pill and her entire reality changes, she starts to see her life in colours and is no longer worried about feeling accepted. Her sense of time is also distorted, day becomes night and days blur in to one. 

I feel like my music video takes an experimental approach to presenting a narrative as unlike most narrative videos which tend to follow the story of the protagonist as events unfold in a chronological timeframe, my music video doesn't follow any timeline which agains adds to the distorted sense of reality that the character comes to live in or escape to. 

At the beginning of the music video we are introduced to the subject in her altered reality which is shown mainly through the use of colour lighting and often close ups. Whereas in other moments in the video we see the subject before taking ecstasy and the contrast here is visually prominent and hugely relevant to the deeper meaning. 

Mid-shot of subject's sober state - dull visuals

Close up of subject in moments of her altered
reality due to consumption of ecstatsy - colourful visuals

There are a few things that I think don't work as well for my music video such as certain shots being more shaky than others due to not using the tripod to stabilise during filming. I thought that I would be able to fix this during editing, however, the 'warp stabiliser' effect was unable to analyse the clips properly so I had to skip this step. To rectify this, I would ensure that I always use a tripod for filming (where stabilised shots are required) as it can be difficult to tell at the time of filming if the shots are ok until you analyse them on a bigger screen and then it may be too late to reshoot if there hasn't been extra time assigned in case of filming errors. Despite this, I don't think it's too much of a problem as many shots were planned to be the from the perspective of the subject and therefore it gives a deeper sense of verisimilitude, as if it shot from the eyeliner of the subject. 

I made a number of cuts to each shot during editing to give the video a jolty appearance as I felt it was necessary to emphasise a sense of distorted reality through gaps of time being missing and shots that don't follow the ones previous, due to it's asynchronous narrative. At some points I feel that this may have been too distracting as many shots were short in duration whereas there are a small amount that are significantly longer and I think this affects the overall fluidity of the video. To alter this I think I could have spent more time in editing to ensure that every single shot used is relevant and fits the rest of the video.    

I also think it would have been useful to include a shot of the subject consuming the ecstasy pill rather than just showing the pill to further emphasise the narrative as I am unsure if many people would necessarily jump to this conclusion without being shown it explicitly. 

Another thing that I think could have improved my music video is spending more time post filming to experiment with different edits and try something that I haven't done before such as using different colour overlays to emphasise the contrast between the sober/high state of the subject. For instance using a blue or grey overlay on the shots where the visuals are more dull and adding a bright colour such as pink to add a warmer tone to the visuals of the street art and inside the vintage/thrift shop.

Overall, I am relatively happy with the result because I stuck to the idea of creating something timeless that fit's the Psychedelic music genre and doesn't resemble a generic music video which is something I wanted to steer clear of from the very start. I was also able to create something which remains close to what my target audience (18-25) fed back to me and I took their suggestions on board such as including a reference to the Psychedelics and Janis Joplin with colourful visuals and a narrative that includes drug use. I think that I managed to use a good range of camera shots to make the video appear more interesting and fluent. If I were to re-do this piece of work, as mentioned previously, I would ensure that all shots are stabilised and also spend more time in editing to improve the overall appearance of the video. In my opinion, the narrative is perhaps one of the stronger elements of my work, although, I could have presented it in a way that is more visually striking and experimental. This could have been made possible if I was able to shoot in the studio as planned as I could have created my own projections which would have added more strength to the overall visuals.