The key features of my music video as a whole is introducing the band to the public, without getting distracted with complicated storylines. The brief was to promote a release of an album with a promotional music video, so instead of making a complex background storyline whilst the music video is going on, I wanted the video to just promote the band and their music. I chose to film the music video inside, on a stage. I chose this location because the lights were a very warm colour, giving an instant feel that the band has a warm feel to their music. Choosing the stage also gives the band an appearance as if their actually performing live to an audience.
Throughout the music video I used many camera angles, and movements. I chose to have a wide selection because I wanted the audience to get a good look at the band. Because there is not storyline going throughout, I felt that it was very important the audience can see every member of the band clearly through the use of lots of camera shots and angles. Personally, I think the most effective camera shot would be the Shot just above the cymbal on the drum kit. Because when the music starts, the drums are silent. Then when the cymbals are hit, and the screen turns to colour, the music has started. It is very effective because it is a great start to the music video because of its momentum.
I wanted to use real instruments throughout the music video, because I wanted it to look as realistic as possible. If the band looked as if they were not playing, or singing along to the track, it wouldn’t be considered their music video. I wanted it to be like the audience was watching a live performance, making the music video have a connection with the band and the music.
Both the album and magazine advertisement has a strong link to the promotional music video, because it is has differences that join the two together. On both of the ancillary tasks, there is a sense of mystery about the band, not revealing too much, so the audience gets swayed into listening to the band. However on the promotional music video, we only see that band, relinquishing that mystery, revealing the band to the audience. They are such big difference, that they compensate the things missing in each other. The uses of colours throughout all three tasks all have a connection. Because the band’s name is an anagram of the word ‘Fire Exit’, all the colours in the ancillary tasks are all green, white and black. These are the colours used on the classic ‘Fire Exit’ signs throughout the country. This gives a strong connection to the band, because this colour is comfortable in the audiences mind. Because of this connection, the audience will be constantly being reminded of this band because of these signs in every building, persuading the audience to listen to this product.
I hosted a small screening of my promotional music video to five random people. And before they viewed the video, I handed out Images of the album cover, and magazine advert. And told them to tell me what they thought of them. This is what some of them said;
‘Instantly looking at the magazine advert and album cover, I recognize the colours and logo. The band’s name is very clever because every time I see a fire exit sign, the band’s name will stick in my head!’ (Luke, Aged 18)
‘Perfect! The music video advertised the band to perfection, Especially at the end, when it seems like the band just carry on with their normal lives, finishing convocations, and walking away, this tells me that the band is very real. Leaves me wanting more!’ (Pete, Aged 50)
‘It’s very good, however I would suggest you add something in between shots to make the video flow more, because it can drag on at times. But apart from that, stunning.’ (Amy, Aged 23).
Listening to all these comments helped me develop my promotional video into the final product that would have been less efficient without these comments. The comment from ‘Amy’ made me realise that the video, at some parts, seem to feel slightly less entertaining than other scenes. So I added in a film strip to break up the shots, and it is extremely effective because it makes the music video flow between scenes much better.
The technology I used throughout the process of this task, and how I developed my skills on them were a big help in the making of this entire brief. Completing this brief has improved my camera skills a lot. I feel more confident with the camera, and will not have any trouble positioning the camera in future tasks.
The main program I used to edit the music video was called ‘iMovie’ before making this music video I didn’t know anything about ‘iMovie’, I always used ‘Windows Movie Maker’ in previous tasks. However this time I wanted to challenge myself, by teaching myself how to use ‘iMovie’, to make the promotional music video. This developed my editing skills significantly for future tasks I would have to do.
To create and edit both the ancillary tasks, I used a program called ‘Adobe: Photoshop’ Doing this task challenged me to create an entire album cover and magazine advertisement for the album. This task has helped me develop my ‘Photoshop’ skills, and will help in future tasks.
In Conclusion to my final production, I think that I have excelled in expressing camera work in the music video. My skills helped me handle the camera successfully; to portray the want I wanted to show in the final production. Having the music video as a production rather than narrative was a brave move to take because it would be hard to keep the audience’s attention throughout the duration of the production. However I feel that without the narrative of a concept video, my production has a flow to it, making each shot connect with the rest, making it easier for the audience to understand who the band are without any complicated storylines.
