Evaluation (so far)

For my media production I chose to produce a music video for the Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colours'. I had to think about the style of the original as I wanted to take a different approach to the song. The original genre of my chosen song is fusion of new wave, pop and adult contemporary, however I have created my music video in the genre of a typical pop video.

The first process I took was briefly analysing three similar music videos to get an idea of the range of codes and conventions that are followed in different genres of music. The first video I analysed was the chart topping pop band Abba’s ‘Super Trouper’, I found that this music video follows the typical conventions of a pop video, being that the majority of the running time, it is the performer being shown performing their song. I took this technique and had only had a short narrative at the beginning, middle and end of the song to break up the sections of the song. From analysing Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ I decided the codes and conventions of this video did not create the style of video that I wanted to create. The third music video I chose to analyse was Panic at the Disco's 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies', I chose this song because it has been produced in a quirky, alternative style. I wanted to find out if there were any similar features used in this video compared to Cyndi Laupers original video.

I decided to use the program prezi to present my research, including my lyric analysis. During my research I found that my chosen song was most popular with males and females aged between 35 and 44. It was also popular with females aged 13 to 17, I believe this is due to the cover performed by the cast on the American show 'Glee'. This helped me to decide that I would produce my video in a popular style as my target audience was fans of Cyndi Lauper but also the millions of viewers of 'Glee'.

The next step I took was to produce a storyboard to give me an idea of how each shot would cut to the track and a brief description of what would happen in each shot. I decided that because my chosen song has a slow tempo that I wouldn't have many fast cuts as this wouldn't create the desired effect.

figure 1

Problems I came across whilst filming were mainly due to the weather conditions, as it was windy and rained slightly, which caused the camera keep shaking, even though I had the tripod on steady ground. I overcame the problem by filming in an area that had a surrounding that blocked the wind. Another problem I had to deal with was that the camera tripod that I used to shoot my first scenes was stiff, so as I tried to pan the camera across or up and down it was not in a smooth movement which affected the quality of the video. An example of this, shown in figure 1, is at 2 minutes 12 seconds as the camera jolts as I went to zoom in on the performer which causes the image to become blurry. 

As my performer is at university, it became a problem for re-shooting scenes as she would often be unavailable when I was available to film, which meant I had to use and edit shots that I wasn’t 100% happy with.

From the information I gathered from my audience feedback questionnaires, I can see that I my narrative and performance style were done in a way that allowed the audience to understand what genre and what the meaning behind the music video production was.

If I were to do the coursework portfolio again, I would have chosen a different song as I felt it was difficult to create an interesting storyline that fitted my chosen genre, the song I would choose if I had the opportunity to do this media portfolio again would be Christina Perris’ ‘Jar of Hearts’. I think I would have done a better video for this as I can relate to the song, which would give me a deeper in site into the meaning behind the lyrics. I would also have organised myself more, by having a strict time schedule to follow to ensure that I completed the necessary tasks leaving enough time to make changes and get feedback on what I could do better.