Evaluation

Below is my evaluation for my A2 coursework.

A2 Music Video Evaluation (Introduction and Question 1) from Samuel Pilsworth on Vimeo.

 



A2 Music Video Evaluation (Question 4) from Samuel Pilsworth on Vimeo.

Final - Music Video

Here is my final music video. Here is a link to it on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxFe6UPlsbk
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Final - Album Advert

Here is my final album advert as part of my ancillary tasks. I used a stencil and mostly colorless design to my album advert. The advert features the same image as the back cover of my digipak, which shows the three narrative of the girl in order from left to right. I wanted the main image on the album advert to symbolize a sense of fear of the unknown and shallowness of life at times that has moments of positivity. This acts as a recurring message in the music video where the narrative has high and low points for both characters. The image perfectly represents the meaning of the song and how the girl who feels trapped by society is acting in such a way to escape. This colorless design makes the girl appear as just another drunk and drugged up thief but really is just a young kid who in the end suffers pain (which is shown with the bottom right image of the humanized representation of the girl in color). I have used the recognizable font for the band’s name and song that has a bold, hand written style font. The information below that is in a smaller font and more formal font to differentiate it from the other font. This does however, still remain white to allow the text to stand out against the dark background and be more easily readable. I have also included a small snapshot of the actual digipak front cover in the bottom right corner so that the target audience would be able to easily associate the album advert with the song case. 

Final - Digipak

Here are the final pages of my digipak that I have created for the first part of the ancillary task.

Front Cover (Page 1) - This is the front cover of the digipak, portraying the main meaning behind the music video of the split in people’s personalities that leads to them going down different paths as a result of their decisions. Each image of this cover follow the narrative of the music video in order from left to right and present how the same character can act in vastly different ways depending on decisions made. I have used a similar font as Cassius use on their own cover for title of the song and their own name as it stands out and is easily recognizable to target audiences. I used a hand-drawn style text to make it stand out further to audiences further as well as separating the two pieces of information above and below the girl’s face to allow her face and actions to be fully visible and clear to audiences. I chose a white colored font as it is bright and bold against the darker colored image of the girl against a wall.

Inside cover- left (Page 2) – This page is used to credit the creators of this song and its remixed version. The background consists of a pile of multi colored bands that represent the child-like nature of the girl in the music video with its use of bright colors and cartoon effect that is similar to the rubber band design on Cassius’ original artwork for the song.

Inside cover – right tray (Page 3) - This page acts as the tray cover which is located behind where the disc is placed in the digipak. The image refers to the music video itself and isolates the music video from the world to add importance to the viewer by visualizing a switch that when this music is playing (and turned on), the rest of the world is unimportant (and turned off). The distorted style of the image refers to the narrative of the music video where the real events that occurred are unclear with audiences left with 3 different possibilities of what happened. 

Back cover (Page 4) – The back cover of the digipak contains barcodes and company logos as well as legal information at the bottom of the page. The image of the girl uses the front cover image of the girl in a darker more stencil style that emphasizes details in the girl’s facial features, clothing and hair. This is used to show a mirroring effect with the front page, howevershowing a more deceitful and less empathetic side to the female character that contrasts the front cover that attempts to humanize the female character.   

Safety planning for filming

My music video will involve filming with many items and props that can be classed as high risk or dangerous to some degree of note. These items/props include:

• Cigarettes (both fake and real)
• Zippo lighters
• Numerous props that look like illegal substances/narcotics
• Alcoholic drinks
• Pocket knife
• Real imitation training firearms (RIFs)

I have completed risk assessments and given consideration to the possible dangers and potential hazards to using each of these and ways in which to reduce this risk. I have also given consideration into where these props will be used and how the external environment of the music video's settings can influence these risks.

I will also be filming with a 10 year old child. This increases dangers and risks for the situation as a whole that has required increased consideration to the child's safety and well-being. Apart from considering and working to reduce the dangers of this child interacting with these props, I have also talked with the child actor these dangers from using these items and how they will be interacted with safely. I will have the availability to emergency medical responses on set ready in the extreme case of an emergency. 

For example, during an exterior scene, the female character will be sat on a bench next to the man lighting a fake cigarette, going to smoke it and giving the cigarette to the man. I recognized that the dangers included getting burnt by the fire produced by the lighter or lit cigarette and also occupants of the high rise apartment nearby calling the police after seeing this scene be recorded. To work against these dangers I gave the child who was acting in the scene proper training on how best to preform the scene as well as having a fire extinguisher and those capable of responding in an emergency situation standing nearby with access to cell phones in the extreme case of needing to make an emergency call. I also notified the front desk of the apartment complex and put up visible notification signs that filming was on-going to further reduce risk when filming.     

Narrative structure plan for my music video

When planning the construction of the narrative of my music video, I have looked primarily at Cinnamon Chasers' 'Luv Deluxe' that I feel has a very unique and interesting narrative style containing three mini narratives.

Pivotal decision in Luv Deluxe's first narrative

This music video begins with an introduction where a man meets a girl at a gas station after running away from home. Then the music video reaches what I marked as the beginning of the first narrative where the girl rips up the receipt in a restaurant and then the narrative follows the two entering the city with the female character being the leading force in making the main character commit crimes, drugs and engage in taboo actions. Then at the end of this narrative, the two are pulled over in a car by police and the narrative freezes and then rewinds back towards the pivotal decision of the narrative of the ripping of the receipt.

Ending to Luv Deluxe's second narrative

Then the second narrative begins where the main character rips the receipt themselves. The saturation of the shots in this narrative drops to allow the audience to be able to distinguish it from the first narrative and this time follows the male character leading the female character down into crime and illegal actions until finally acting so inappropriately that the girl feels compelled to stab the man in the chest following her seducing him to make him drop his guard. As the girl plunges the knife downwards, the shot freezes and rewinds the whole scene again to he pivotal decision in the restaurant with the receipt.

End sequence of Luv Deluxe's third narrative

In this final narrative, the male pays for the meal at the restaurant and the two go off into the city together where the man stops the girl from committing crimes and they share more compassionate moments together with reference to the girl's present desire to commit crimes. This narrative ends where the girl eventually does commit a crimes and drugs and kidnaps a businessman to rob him. The male responds by running away and eventually ending up driving a car in the desert where he intends to call 911. The man is stopped by the girl shooting him in the back and throwing the gun down and attempting to escape and leave in the car. The man picks p the gun she shot him with and shoots her in the back, preventing her from escaping.  

In my music video, I plan to contain a music video of a similar contruction and have identified in planning and creating my storyboard the title of the three mini-narratives and the order they will play in:

1. Bad Girl
2. Bad Man
3. Compassion

It should be noted that, like Luv Deluxe, the first mini-narrative will be prefixed with an introduction and there will be overlap inbetween these narratives where (at the end of them) they will pause and then rewind back to the pivotal decision making moment (as is present in Luv Deluxe).

I have decided that my pivotal decision moment will be during the mugging of the girl by the male character. To distinguish between the three narratives, the first mini-narrative of 'Bad Girl' will be where she convinces the man to give her the gun and leads him down crime and illegal actions where she'll eventually kill him and then rewind back to the decision.

The second narrative of 'Bad Man' will be where he uses violence against the girl when discovering that her wallet is empty and strangles her where the narrative ends in her killing him out of self defence for him getting angry at her stopping him from committing a crime.

In the third and last narrative of 'Compassion', I will have the man fill the girl's empty wallet with his own money and give it back to the girl where she hugs him. The two then go off and do not commit crimes (despite indications that this is her desire to do so) until the girl ultimately feels compelled to commit a crime and robs a person. The man then discovers this and attempts to call 911 and the girl shoots him in the back and begins to pack her bag. The man then picks up the gun she threw down and shoots her in the back as she does this.  

Although the narratives of both Luv Deluxe and my music video contain many similarities, there are differences such as the endings of the first mini-narrative where the girl kills the man in my music video and not the original as well as the content of what the two characters do following the pivotal decision moment.    

POV style in my music video

For my music video, I intend to film it in a POV (Point-of-view) perspective.

False Alarm

This is a filming technique where the audience watch the events of the narrative play out from the perspective of a character present in the narrative as if the camera are the eyes of the character. The Weekend's music video 'False Alarm' (right) uses this format to show a group of individuals robbing a bank using aggressive military techniques to escape from the responding police force with hostages.

Bad Motherfucker

This filming technique is a highly effective way of making the audience feel as though they are a part of the narrative and are in fact present in the moment of the events and have an able hand in influencing the narrative. Take for example in Biting Elbow's music video 'Bad Motherfucker' (left) that emphasizes this feeling for audiences by having weapons pointed towards the camera to evoke a stronger sense of danger to audiences and a higher desire to want the protagonist to survive and be successful during the fighting (as audiences feel as though they are the protagonist and wish for themselves to survive and not die at the hands of the antagonists).

Bad Motherfucker

The structure of this music video is also quite similar to that of a video game in first person format where it is clear to audiences the short term goals for the protagonist by having them clearly in sight (e.g. the audience can see the man that the protagonist is chasing). This helps to keep the audience constantly interested and keeps their focus on the events of the narrative.

Bad Motherfucker

The inclusion of less realistic elements such as parkour during a chase, falling from tall heights and using a vertical zipline to ascend a building (left) add to the entertainment of the music video with the POV style element allowing audiences to be able to suspend their disbelief and still treat the music video as something that still feels realistic. This, accompanied by the use of occasional sound such as gunshots and punching noises adds further to the audience's ability to suspend their disbelief.

Smack My Bitch Up

The effect of a POV perspective is achieved by the audience often not being able to see the face of the character they are seeing the events of the music video from. This can either be for the whole music video such as in The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up'. In this music video, after leaving their home, going to a fast food establishment and then to the club until the end of the video, the face of the main character is not seen which allows the audience to put themselves in the position of the main character and feel as if they are the ones leading the narrative themselves.

False Alarm

This is not always the case however, music videos such as The Weekend's music video 'False Alarm' (left) hides the identity of the main character up until the ending where the face of the main character is revealed in a mirror. This is used as a way to end the narrative by having the character commit suicide and so this music video keeps to the general use of hiding the identity in POV music video apart from doing so to cap the narrative and resolve the events of the music video.

Smack My Bitch Up

Overall, I can see that the use of POV style shooting of my music video is quite appropriate in reaching out to audiences in quite a unique way that would be best for my music video. All examples above seem to prioritize violence and other taboo type topics such as sex (controversially lesbian sex in 'Smack My Bitch Up') and drug use (present predominantly in The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' as seen right). The reason for the inclusion of this type of behavior by characters in these music videos I believe is due to the fact that it further involves audiences compared to just more mundane actions by the character with violence in the first person being more exciting and exhilarating for audiences due to the heightened realism brought on by the POV style perspective. As a result, I will likely use similar elements of violence and drug use in my music video to achieve the same effect as other music videos have achieved.

Music video changes

Following my creation of my music video for the song Nightcall and supporting ancillaries of digipak and album advert, issues with these pieces were discovered.

Firstly, it was found that the front cover of my digipak was of a lower quality than what was expected and required as they had been screenshots from the music video itself. This required the shaving of my head a second time to get a higher quality picture for the front cover.

Secondly, the inside cover of my digipak of the credit page needed improving and a 'do over' as the inclusion of the phone seemed random, out of place and irrelevant to the music video itself. This would mean to replace this with imagery more relevant to the music video.

Thirdly, as well as other minor (and some more large scale changes), the final change to the digipak was to change it to a color version as opposed to the black and white version style present in the music video itself.

Fourthly, it was recognized with the music video that there were issues with the video's narrative and lack of referencing to the lyrics of "Something inside you" that made it feel like there was a disconnect between the imagery and music. As a resolution to these issues, the recommendation was that the video be re-shot at points (where the shots of the male and female characters lip syncing to the song were kept). This new version had to be re-written, re-shot and needed to be logistically easy to film in the required time whilst simultaneously being able to make the video more comprehensible when inter-cut with elements of the existing music video. In planning for this, it was recommended that I create a mind map, consider abstract ideas and concepts and plan a story with flashbacks.

Fifth, it was pointed out that my evaluation fro questions 2-4 needed adding to in terms of detail in my response.

Overall, when conferring with others as well as self-evaluating, I have decided to create a new music video and ancillaries with a new Synthpop song that will keep within the conventions of Synthpop music videos I identified with my research.

Draft Evaluation

Below is my evaluation for my A2 coursework.

A2 Media Studies Evaluation Question 1 from Samuel Pilsworth on Vimeo.

A2 Media Evaluation Question 3 from samuelpilsworth

Draft Music Video

Music video

Draft Album Advert

Here is my final album advert as part of my ancillary tasks. When designing this album advert, I felt that it was important to include both the male and female characters to show the contrast between the two. However, I decided to make the male character dominate the advert in terms of size as I felt it best represented the relationship between the characters. I have overlaid an altered version of the back cover of the digipak with just the image, title and song list onto an altered version of the digipak's front cover. I have added "Debut album out now" and a link to the artist's website. This message above entices readers and the message below invites them to learn further about this new album. I have also moved the title further down to overlap with the top of the male character's head to cover the whole width of the page. The reason for this was because it met conventions of other album adverts that use more center-stage titles and text.

Draft Digipak

Front cover (Page 1)- This is the front cover of the digipak, portraying the main meaning behind the music video of the both confrontational yet vulnerable male character changing as a result of the female character. I have used a similar font as Kavinsky uses on their album for Outrun as it stands out and is easily recognisable to their target audience. I chose to keep the black and white color pallet in the image as I felt the way it contrasts with the title. This makes the title seem brighter and bolder and stand out further for audiences. About half of the man's face can be seen and this style is in the style of the artwork for the Synthpop song "Nightcall".

Inside left cover (Page 2)- This page thanks the individuals that contributed to the original "Outrun" album. I have used a red font for the sections that individuals contributed in and white font for the people's names. This red font matches the letter "K" in the Kavisnky title and contrasts nicely with the white font. This has a similar effect in terms of contrast that the font on the front cover has. I have implemented the phone and money from the music video as I feel that this is important in terms of meeting as it instigates the communication between the male and female characters.

Inside right tray cover (Page 3)- This cover acts as the tray cover which is located behind where the disc is placed in the digipak. This is a simple image of the shot of the man's head and has no writing or overly specific details in it. This makes it appropriate to go behind the disc as it is revealed when the disc is removed. This also draws a contrast between the image on front cover that shows the man's face and this shows the back of the man's head.

Back cover (Page 4)- The back cover of the digipak again features the bold colorful Kavisnky title that is instantly eye catching and recognisable to the target audience. The track list of the album is then listed below in chronological order of the songs on the CD. At the bottom of the page, Kavinsky's and his record maker's website addresses are present, allowing fans to check out their website. The image of the girl is in a similar style to the front cover with about half of her face shown but with a different character. This represents the similarities between the characters and how they behave. 

This is the final digipak that I have put together that is made up of 4 pages for the front, back and two interior covers.

Audience feedback

I have asked a number of people their opinion on their opinions of my draft as well as reviewing it with my teacher. As a result of this, I have got an idea of what I need to do to improve this draft. Below is a list of ideas for changes:

• A need to revise the exterior shots ("overly domestic looking") of the back yard to be replaced with a female singer.
• A change for a larger majority of the shots to be in back and white.
• A change in the nighttime driving shots to make the shots not black and white but more saturated and to emphasize certain details in the shot without influencing the quality of the shot.
• Rejection of the direct religious iconography in favor of a candle burning down over time in a time lapse way as well as a time lapse of the sun setting behind a hill. This can also be inter-cut with the woman as well.
• Removal of the shots of the burning paper but potentially replace with burning paper with writing on it to add more meaning to it. 

Music video draft

Here is my first draft for my music video.

I now plan collect some audience feedback responding to my music video.

Filming report dated November 10 2016

2/1, 2/3, 2/5, 2/7
For the lyric shots, I struggled (as a non-actor) with my ability to act on screen with singing the lyrics. I managed this by doing a number of takes for each lyric. I played music in real time to ensure accuracy with speed and managed this myself on the spot.

1/2
I decided to break this shot into two parts. The first half was quite simply a shot from top to bottom of the man sitting in a chair but I did have some issues with one takes being slightly blurry. The second part consisted of the man actually walking with the walking stick and so I did a shot of both the hand and the foot whilst walking

1/3
This shot was quite simple by me just facing the camera and staring at the lens which was obtained with little issue.

2/2
This shot of the head had some issues with falling out of focus when moving upwards. However, I felt that this created a preferable 'hazy' effect on the shot that fitted quite well.

2/4
I broke this shot up into two parts with the first half being a wider shot of the spine and then the second part being where the spinal shot move downwards the spine.

5/7
This shot was quite easily obtained by me just standing after being sat wearing the religious necklace and was obtained after a few takes.

Below is some of the raw footage from this shoot. This video is made up of numerous different shots.

Filming report dated November 9 2016

In this shoot, I filmed the shots that were present on the table. This shoot contained a large quantity of shots (13) with around 10 shots being completely original shots and needing extra preparation.

1/1
For this shot, I varied in the way I shot it. My first idea was to film the shot with the camera resting against my chest using the strap on the camera to keep it suspended in the air using a mini tripod to push the camera away from my body to achieve the shot. After a few takes of this shot and reviewing the footage, I decided that the shot was not what I was looking for and so decided to instead decided to use a stationary and taller tripod to gain the shot. After that, I faced minor issues with getting the money put down in the correct location to be in the shot properly. I also had issues with syncing my button pressing on the phone with the button pressing in the song. To counter these issues, I revised the shot multiple times before shooting and used real in-time music to ensure I was in time.

1/4
This shot was relatively simple by just laying the skull pendant on the table, adjusting the height on the tripod and then filming.

1/5
For this shot, I had some issues with the prop as it not only reflected light but also caused some issues with the camera falling in and out of focus. I varied a few shots of tighter frames as well as wider shots and decided that I would also trial shooting a shot of my drinking from the flask but decided in the end not to use this shot.

1/6, 2/8, 5/6
For these shots, I found it worked quite well as I had minimal issues with setting the paper alight and filming it. I did however, have to be careful that I kept the lit paper far enough away from the camera and table to avoid causing damage. The paper burnt quite quickly and so I shot my setting 2 different pieces of paper on fire and was sure to get shots of the fire at different stages throughtout such as its beginning flame, the highest point of the fire and the end of the fire. The paper did burn very quickly which did increase the risk of burning and also led to quite a mess of paper shrapnel being made after I put the fire out.
2/6
For these shots, I filmed the weapons together and separately doing shots that tracked upwards (bottom-up) from the hilt/handle of the weapons to the end. 

5/1, 5/4, 5/8

These shots of the candle were quite easy to shoot and I was able to cover 3 shots after setting up the camera but I had to be sure not to move the candle at all for continuity.

5/2
For this shot, I had little hassle with the shot as I just placed the camera in front of the camera and opened the match box. I did vary the shot on my first try at a side angle but this made it less obvious of what was happening in the shot.

5/3
This shot was also relatively easy as I just struck the match on the match box. I did two takes and ensured the box filled the frame and was not off center. I also slightly lowered the exposure rate on the camera to ensure that the bright light of the frame was not too bright. 

5/5
I had a few issues with trying to make sure that this shot worked with a tight enough frame around the bible. I also had to consider where my hands would be in the shot and also the similarity between the background and the bible itself with the brown color.

Below are some examples of the raw footage from this shoot for numerous different shots.

Filming report dated November 8 2016

In the AM shoot for today, I shot the exterior back yard shots. This shoot was relatively fast and had few issues. My intentions to use the sun's glare to create a lens flare was made possible by the bright sun at the time and the persistent yet light wind allowed detail in my shots of the wind blowing plants and windmills.
Below is the raw footage for this shoot

In this PM shoot, I filmed shot 4/1 that were the night time shots for my music video. When preparing for this shot, I was concerned about the lighting issues with the camera where the footage could be overly blurry. I resolved this issue with the camera by increasing the shutter speed which allowed the shot to be clearer and look less blurry. I filmed hand held and shot in one take as I travelled from location A to location B.
Below is the raw footage for this shoot

Ancillary- Digipak and album advert planning

As well as a music video, I am creating a digipak for the song and an album cover as well as part of the ancillary task. I am creating my digipak off of Kavinsky's album "Outrun" and specifically looking at the cover for Nightcall. I will also look at other Synthpop music album covers and digipaks to identify features and/or conventions I would like to apply to my digipak.

From these, I will draw from the male face present on the righthand side of the cover of Nightcall and will position the text in a similar fashion. I do not believe that I will use the same color scheme as this would contrast with my music video and is quite a unique style for these covers. I plan to use similar looking text to the Outrun album cover.

I found that the album cover that Tove Lo's "Habits" was released under (titled "Queen of the Clouds") is (like Kavinsky's cover for Nightcall and the cover for Royals) quite confrontational with a female face looking directly forward towards the audience. Additionally, this cover uses a black and white color scheme that I plan on using on my digipak.






Looking at other Synthpop music video covers, I have found a style from the cover "LORDE - ROYALS (CAKEDUP REMIX)" where there is a split design in the person's face that I feel would work for my album advert where I plan to vary slightly from this example and create a vertical split between the male and female's face.








I plan to use images taken during the filming period and so will not have to take any more shots at this point. My plan is to use the male's face for the front cover (present with the album's title at the top), a shot of the woman on the back cover with the list of songs from the album (as well as other details like copyright, websites and a barcode). For the interior left page I plan to have a credit page and then a shot of the back of the man's head for the disk tray cover page.

For my front cover, I considered using this cover with the man having a red eye just as the cover for "Nightcall" has. However, I ultimately decided against this as I felt that it did not fit in with the mostly black and white style of the other parts of the digipak. I also felt this detracted away from the color in the titles for "Kavinsky Outrun".






For my album advert, I plan on creating the advert design by combining artwork from my digipak, Looking at this example of an album advert, I have identified elements that I may apply in my album advert, ensuring it is encompassing of conventions of its genre.

Shooting schedule

In terms of the dates given to us for deadlines, we have been given close due dates with the most notable dates being the turnaround between the date that we begin principal photography/editing and then getting it finished. Following a change in the date to complete the research, the due date for production to wrap for the draft is November 11th. Following my planning completion (deadline November 7 2016), I will now start filming which puts me ahead of schedule.

Below is a shooting schedule for each time I plan on filming.

Date	Type of shots	Shots	Time	Props	Equipment	Actors/ crew	Location
November 8 2016	Back yard and night car	3/1 3/2 4/1	1200-1210 and 1830-1635	No props specifically	Camera Mini-tripod and camera strap (for mobile shots)	Samuel Pilsworth Additional crew	Back yard Exterior location in car
November 9 2016	Table shots	1/1 1/4 1/5 1/6 2/6 2/8 5/1 5/2 5/3 5/4 5/5 5/6 5/8	0900-1230 and 1300-1530	Skull pendant, whisky flask, paper, candle, matchbox and matches, training firearm and training knife, bible, religious cross	Camera Tripod	Samuel Pilsworth Jacob Pilsworth	Dining room
November 10 2016	Shots of man	1/2 1/3 2/1 2/2 2/3 2/4 2/5 2/7 5/7	0910-1400	Walking stick, hospital gown, religious necklace	Camera Tripod	Samuel Pilsworth Jacob Pilsworth	Dining room

Verse breakdown

For the song 'Nightcall' for my music video, I have decided that I will not use the whole song. Below are the highlighted lyrics that I will use (highlighted in yellow):

I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

I'm giving you a night call to tell you how I feel
I want to drive you through the night, down the hills
I'm gonna tell you something you don't want to hear
I'm gonna show you where it's dark, but have no fear

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you
It's hard to explain
They're talking about you boy
But you're still the same

There's something inside you (there's something inside you)
It's hard to explain (it's hard to explain)
They're talking about you boy (they're talking about you boy)
But you're still the same


Here, it can be seen that I am omitting the some of the female character's lyrics (having decided between two different versions of shortening). At the 01:35 and 2:18 marks, the transitions are present in this video (shown below) where the lyrics have been removed. Here, there is a better split between the lyrics for the woman and the man that makes this a more manageable song to work with.

Having prepared my new edited song, I will now break up each set of lyrics into different scenes. These lyrics for different scenes can be seen at this Prezi: