Completed Music Video - Goin' Down by the Pretty Reckless

Planning folder scans

This is our test shot of of our video's main character.

This is a test shot of one of the supporting characters.

This is our story board, some of the sheets were missing.

This is part of our recee sheet.

Another part of our recee.

Pictures for our recee

Our initial step outline.

Our written story board and subsequent sheets.

Reflective evaluation - Question 4

Technologies Prezi:
Font colours for those who wrote it: Ryan; Harrison; Kyle

Reflective Evaluation - Question 3

Harrison:
-Here is a screen grab of our video which we have posted on youtube and a comment from one of our viewers, giving strong points of the video as well as commenting on areas we could improve.

-We also have some scans of audience feedback sheets we had filled out by our peers, the feedback was mostly positive and with minimal criticisms.



Ryan:
-Audience feed back is important as it helps us improve by giving us suggestions on which parts of our editing we need to work on and scenes we should have done differently, it also helps us to identify mistakes we may not have seen ourselves, our target audience is late teens-to late 30's and so is a quite wide ranging target however the comments show mainly positive feedback and so it suggests that we have attracted our target audience in the correct way and that our video was mainly done to a high standard, we gathered this feedback through questionnaires using our class mates by making them watch our video and then feeding back to us and recording their comments on the sheets, the main negative comment we received was about the shifting lighting in some scenes and this seemed to be a recurring negative point on our video, however on the whole it generally gained positive comments as we had a wide variety of shots, a strong narrative and good lip syncing/editing.

-Here we have a wordle comprised of sentences and words from our feedback, the words that stand out the most are dark, great and video, from this we can confer that the dark theme we intended for our video came across clearly and the audience were, on a whole positive about the quality and narrative of our video.
-Non of our feedback called for any major changes to the video and we feel that the negative lighting feedback is valid, overall we are pleased with the feedback we have had as it mainly praises our work. 

Kyle - In terms of what the audience said about our video, most of the feedback we received have been positive, leading to no real reason for disagreement. The lighting has only been a commonly mentioned problem, however, only mentioned by a minority of those who gave feedback, which was also accompanied by praise towards the overall finished product.

The lighting problem described is in the scene where consistent lighting can be most expected, which is the confession scene.

Considering both shot sequences occur closely to one another as both are in the same area (confession in priest quarters), it is expected to have consistent lighting levels. However, naturally when using lighting, applying it in different parts of the same area that vary in size can depict different results, which was the case of this sequence. Kathy's (singer) side of the confession was a more elongated corridor that when applied with additional light, created a flushing out effect that made the white levels escalate, making the outcome of the video appear over exposed resulting in the loss of detail and an unnaturally bright image. On Ryan's (priest) side however, his side of the confession took place in a wider sized room, which had only one built in light source, which proved to be too dark. This prompted us to plant a light at one side of his area during the sequence to simulate a closer source of light such as a desk lamp or a ceiling bulb in his immediate vicinity albeit, off frame. Despite this, the sequence still made sense to those we have screened our music video to.

Reflective Evaluation - Question 2

 Harrison:

-Through out our video there is a clear theme of dark motives, this is displayed through the colours conveyed in the video and the mise-en-scene, we also have the main performance sequence intercut throughout the video to help keep the flow and to avoid scenes from dragging on for too long.

Ryan:

-Our digipak web-page and music video all have a dark mood scene incorporated into them as this is what the alternative rock genre of our band normally likes to portray, with the the images also involving mainly dark lighting and settings to further set this type of mood throughout all of our products with the clothing also tending to be less lightly colored as well as the fonts used on the web-page and digipak which have a gothic feeling to them representing the image of the band and genre.

-We have interrelated the webiste and digi-pak designs by using similar fonts for the website and digi-pak titles to show a recurring theme.

-Our digi-pak is used to sell our band as it features images of the band members all together as well as performing, this make the band appear genuine in the eyes of our audience.

-Our target audience is people in their late teens and early twenties around 16-25 years of age.

-Here are some Digi-pak cover from artists of the same genre as The Pretty Reckless, they all feature images of the band performing or together showing their connection as a band and the attitude of their towards music.

-The colours on each of these digi-pak covers are all congruent with the artists style and genre of music and reflect their attitude.

-A lot of the example images feature the lead singer as the prominent image of the album covers and so we tried to replicate this as well as keeping the dark themes and conventions seen within alternative rock, they also portray performance shots and clearly outline the image the band is trying to show to their target audience to attract them. 

Kyle:

-As an example of how a cd cover can sell an artist is shown in the above example. Our artist, The Pretty Reckless is sold to us without the direct reference to the overall image of particular member but rather a part of the image that is recognizable. Fans of The Pretty Reckless easily identify the lead singer, Taylor Momsen, to be dressed in revealing clothing to a certain extent; clothing that presents a sexualized image when subjected to a male audience but at the same time still associates itself with the alternative rock/goth image. The tights and boots serve as an iconography for Taylor Momsen.

For our own Digipak, we decided to use a similar approach by the use of Iconography to sell the artist. In conjunction with the above CD cover that focuses on Taylor Momsen's bottom half of her body/outfit, we focused the main image on our vocalist's Dr. Martens branded boots, which she wears throughout the entire music video and serves as her iconography. The connection is made more obvious by depicting the microphone, to imply that this is the vocalist we are focusing on. Although significantly less sexualized compared to the above CD cover, our cover still establishes an association with the alternative rock/goth sub-culture as the colour scheme of black, white, and red are emphasized as well as being accompanied by patterns that contain skulls.

Reflective Evaluation - Question 1

Harrison - Our music video very much conforms to the conventions of the genre it represents. Here is another video by the artist we have made a video for:

In their video there is a heavy performance aspect which is reflected in our video. In our video our performance shots are predominantly shot in a dark setting reflecting the mood of the song, the band members are also dressed in conformity to the genre.

The video has dark and moody themes so we have used mainly dark settings in our video to express this. This is also reflected in the bands facial expressions and body language in the video.

Kyle - Here is a video from another artist of our genre.

Our Music Video

From this music video (Paramore - Ignorance), we have taken several key influences and replicated them in the micro elements of our own own music video (The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down).

The camera work of Paramore's Ignorance music video depicts the band to be together in one room. However the framing constantly includes the lead singer in the shot.

We have replicated this in our own video as in the final performance section, when we finally see the entire band perform the song together, the framing includes the entire band.

At the beginning of the video, we are presented with the entire band together straight away, establishing  the amount of performers appearing throughout the video.

In contrast to the establishment of the amount of performers at the beginning, we only show the complete band together in the final chorus serving as a contrast to the convention of Paramore's video.

In compliance with the conventions, the framing of our shots of the whole band has emphasis on the singer.






Another convention we followed was the camera framing of the respective band members.

Singer:

    Paramore - Ignorance

The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down







Guitar (Instrumental Fill):










Paramore - Ignorance

The Pretty Reckless Goin' Down






Bassist:









Paramore - Ignorance

The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down






Bassist (Canted):

Paramore - Ignorance

The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down







Drummer:

Paramore - Ignorance









The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down





Band Fills:









Paramore - Ignorance











The Pretty Reckless - Goin' Down



As for the editing we have replicated the convention of shot reverse shots between the performers and scenes.

For example:
In Paramore's video:

Shot A...












Cuts into Shot B:














Similarly, in our video:

Shot A:












Cuts into Shot B:












Also, the complete band performance also parallel's a seperate performance sequence.
Occasionally, during the verses and choruses, we cross cut to a separate sequence where Hayley, Paramore's lead singer is seen singing in a different location with obvious different Aesthetic attributes.

This type of editing is also replicated in our video as we often cross cut between the band and Kathy (Our music video singer) in a confession with a priest.

As for the Mise-en-scene, The lighting of Paramore's setting served as an inspiration for our isolated and controlled lighting, where the lighting is used comes from a limited amount of sources, particularly, for our video, light came from construction lights provided by the media department.

Despite being installed in a similar style, the positioning was changed to be in front of the band instead of behind as this enables their faces to be seen clearly, which is a style contrast between the two videos.





Ryan - 

The costume we used for our actor in the video is similar to those type of clothes worn by taylor momsen(main singer of the pretty reckless) as we wished to follow the conventions of the gothic/alternative rock look that the pretty reckless is associated with, she is used to attract the target audience especially the males and so we wished to re-create this effect within our own music video to stay true to their usual conventions.