JESSICA EVANS

1. Appraise your final work. What are its strengths and weaknesses? Imagine you are going to keep working on your music video to further ready it for public consumption – what would be the core things you would want to improve, finesse and why?

I was so stoked with the way our music video turned out! I think it’s very well rounded. One of my favourite things about it is its very distinct style, with the snappy cuts and slides. I think we stuck true to our pitch and delivered almost exactly what we said we would. We struggled a lot with one particular part of the song where there such seemed to be a dead zone where we didn’t get a whole lot of footage of what we actually needed. We discussed this and decided that if ever we were to do a video like this again, we would get at least one full take (of close ups and mids) of the song per band member. This way would have at least one hopefully usable shot of each band member for the whole duration of the song.

Another issue we had – that due to lack of shots we were unable to fix – was Jacob (the lead singer and guitarist) was actually playing how he plays live not how he plays in the song. This means there are some shots where he is playing guitar where it doesn’t appear in the actual track. We did brief them before hand but perhaps next time we will stress it a bit more, pay a little more attention to it and also get a wider variety of shots to combat this.

The last thing that I felt we struggled with was the colour grade. None of our group had any experience playing around with colour grading so it was a very new area for us and we had fun experimenting with it. But we did find it really hard to keep the shots looking consistent, and if I had my time again that’s definitely the thing I would choose to change. A lot of the shots seem to pull quite green which is not what we had in mind from the beginning. It still looks great but to me it will never be finished. I think a more well rounded colour grade would really take our video to the next level and perhaps make it look more professional.

2. Having now worked with a client, reflect on this experience. Is there anything you would have added to the M.O.U. if you were to complete a similar project in the future?  

We were very lucky with our clients. They were a very laid back group of people and were very happy to let us go in whatever direction we wanted. I was really happy with our professionalism in communicating with them (even though they were good friends of mine) I felt that it was important to be as professional as possible. I think this really made easier come shooting day, we felt like we had their trust and that they were just as excited as us. Overall we felt we worked really well together and I would love to work with them again in future where possible. As we had such a great client we didn’t feel the need for the M.O.U to come into play at all, so we were happy with that.

3. Were you a good collaborator? Reflect on what you did well and where you may improve for future productions. 

I thought we collaborated together so well. We all had similar ideas of what we wanted to achieve and where we wanted to take the video, which made out lives really easy collaboratively. I felt we were all very committed, and we all made efforts to be there for editing days even if it wasn’t always needed. We did have a bit of a disagreement towards the end where one group member went into complete the video alone, and due to the slowness of the computers and tiredness of the project they got a bit frustrated doing it on their own. They voiced to the group that they were disappointed that there was nobody with them to bounce ideas off of, which made the job really challenging for them. We talked it out and they realised had the voiced these concerns a bit earlier we could have arranged a time where more of us could have come in to help them. I was really happy with how maturely and professionally my group handled this conflict and how quickly we came to a resolution.

I felt as though personally I was a good collaborator. As I knew the band personally I felt like the role of director naturally gravitated towards me, which I really enjoyed. I felt I did my best to look after everyone on the day and help move along the shooting process when it seemed to drag. However because of all the work I put into pre production and production I felt I was dragging my heels a little with the post production and next feel I could be a little but more involved with that.

4. We’ve talked a lot about the impact of images in music videos.  Consider two other groups’ music videos. Is there a shot, edit or post production element that you find to be effective in each of these works?  Embed a screencap (or two, if discussing an edit), and explain why you think this moment is effective.  There is scope here for a citation of research or course materials. 

I was so impressed with everyone’s music video edits! My favourite one was comfort you, I felt like they took a simple idea and did it really really well. I felt like the video was really effective and suited the song so well. The song lyrics are “I’ll do anything you want me to, I do my best to comfort you” so what I initially took from the song was that he was doing anything he could to comfort a partner, but at the end of the song they put a beautiful mirrored silhouette shot of himself singing, which implied to me that he was actually singing to himself. I thought it was so creative and I just love the way they executed it all.

I was really happy to see the progression of the ‘Killing My Time” video. They really pulled through in the reshoot and got some beautiful, creative and artsy shot which really completed the aesthetic of the video. I thought they portrayed the passing of time really well. My favourite shot that executed this was this shot of the plant, its so beautiful and well done. I do wish they put in more shots like that of different plants growing or maybe even weeds. Another shot that portrayed this passing of time that I loved was the shot of the girl walking under the tracks with what seems like a never ending training in fast forward over the top of her.

Overall everyone did so great and I had such a blast working with everyone and bouncing ideas off everyone. Seeing these videos develop from ideas into actual videos was a great and very useful experience.

5. In what ways does your work reflect learning acquired through studio screenings or activities? Can you think of another (ie: non music video) application for this learning? 

 This subject with Rohan was easily the best and most helpful subject I’ve completed at RMIT. I really felt that I learned so much that I will one day take with me into my work. He taught us so much about music videos and how to create our own rules to make something unique which was very pivotal for our video. I think this type of hands on learning would be very helpful in a range of fields i.e photography, editing, colour grading, green screen etc. So far in my involvement in this degree I’ve found that the hands on aspect is quite lacking. I would love to see more subjects be this involved, interactive and engaging for students. After all the best way to learn, is do.

04/12/19

 Group Members: All

• Finalising the order and placement of all shots 
  • Montage of setting up, editing to half beats
  • Fix getting the drum out of the car
  • Last 30 seconds 
  • Go through and make sure all singing is synced

05/12/19 + 06/12/19

Group Members: As necessary 

• Group to come in if order & placement is not finished

09/12/19

Group Members: All

• Aim to have a final edit by the end of the day, without colour grading
• Play around with adding outdoor noises at the end of the song, during the last drone shot

 11/12/19

Group Members: All except Ria (cleared with Rohan)

•  Colour grade and add aspect ratios

Potential days as necessary: 10/12/19 and 12/12/19 for any editing that has not been completed

WHY DID YOU ENROL IN THIS STUDIO?

This studio subject really stood out to me for a few reasons. I’ve always felt a big connection to music, I love the emotions it can evoke in you almost out of nowhere. I feel that video and music go hand in hand and compliment each other in ways that other media types don’t. From a young age I was making songs on garage band and would then film a video to go along with it. Music videos are probably my favourite type of media because they can be pretty much anything you want them to be. They can tell a story, they can be aesthetic or they can be completely nonsensical, this kind of experimental cinema really excites me and I can see myself heading down a career path in this industry. I would really love to learn different techniques and approaches to making music videos and by the end of this studio I hope to have a professional looking video that I can use to show employers and that the client can also use to promote their song. I’m really looking forward to getting creative with this studio and producing something that is well rounded and thought provoking.

WRITE ABOUT A MUSIC VIDEO YOU THINK IS EFFECTIVE.

I found the music video for Breezeblocks by Alt J really interesting. It tells a story in reverse chronological order and in slow motion. The way that this is done makes the viewer know what the ending of the story is, but ask questions about how we got there. Many viewers at first would be shocked at the murder of the seemingly innocent woman. Additionally, the video makes the viewer question their personal morals on whether or not a murder is justified if it is committed in self-defense, as appears to be shown in the video: the woman who was murdered is implied to have assaulted the man’s wife before attacking him directly.  The way that this video tells a story is very unusual and unique which I think is very effective. The slow motion in reverse not only tells a story but it makes for some really visually interesting and satisfying shots. In text (Trevyn-bell-a2-media-studies.blogspot.com, 2019) they speak about how the use of reverse slow motion helps tie the video in with the pace of the music and also how the video tackles arguments to do with gender roles, domestic violence and cultural representation. The images do directly correlate to the lyrics throughout the duration of the video with the main line in the chorus being “hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks” which is actually the way she is murdered. In terms of how the music video was made, I personally don’t think it would have been very complicated or expensive to make. They would have shot it in chronological order and then reversed it in post. They’ve used a lot of extreme close ups and close ups which really demonstrates the intensity of the story. Overall I found this video to be extremely effective in partnership with the song and very thought provoking.

See Breezeblocks by Alt J music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVeMiVU77wo

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Trevyn-bell-a2-media-studies.blogspot.com. (2019). Breezeblocks Music Video – In-Depth Textual Analysis. [online] Available at: http://trevyn-bell-a2-media-studies.blogspot.com/2014/10/breezeblocks-music-video-in-depth.html [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].

Youtube.com. (2019). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVeMiVU77wo [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].

REFLECT ON ONE OF THE READINGS (VARNALLIS)

I found Varnallis’ reading quite interesting and I agree with some parts of it but not all. He talks a lot about how in order for music videos to be effective, aka provide commentary on the song or sell the song they cannot embody complete narratives, and the ones that do take away from the song itself. He explores the differences between music videos and film in relation to their sound tracks. In films music generally finds its way to the background and should compliment the plot line, whilst in music videos the song should be the main focus. Varnallis argues that “If there is a story, it exists only in the dynamic relation between the song and the image as they unfold in time.” I like to think that music videos have no boundaries, no rules and no right or wrong. They can be as nonsensical and crazy as they like, or they can be calculated and tell a story. This reading really made me think a lot about what a music video’s purpose is or should be, but I’m not sure there should always be one. It can be to sell the song, it can be to tell a story, it can be visually appealing or it can be none of the above if it wants to be. Thats what I love about music videos. A music video that I felt portrayed a bit of nonsensicalness was “Heart’s a Mess” by Gotye. Elijah Mueller wrote about the song in (You.stonybrook.edu, 2019). He spoke about the song’s meaning and described it to be a struggle between a man and a women and his fight for her heart. She’s decided she has been hurt so many times in love that she has given up on love, locked her heart away and thrown away the key and that this man is telling her she “can’t live like this” and that he’s “desperate to connect.” When listening to the song it’s really quite moving. However, the music video in my opinion doesn’t really portray any of these ideas. I looked online for some sort of analysis into the video and hoped for some hidden meaning that perhaps I missed, but I couldn’t find any so here’s my summary. The video is a dark animation, and pictured in it are a few interesting looking characters who walk around the world without a clear purpose, covering the world behind them in darkness. Once they get to wherever they were going the climb on top of each other above the clouds and float away into space. I like that this story is open to interpretation. I like that the viewers can connect with it in different and personal ways. In my mind this video does tell a story, whether or not the story is what the creators intended I will never know. This video doesn’t directly” commentate” the song, neither does it“sell” the song, but I enjoyed it and the song together and I guess, in the end, that’s all that really matters right?

See Hearts A Mess by Gotye music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpN1j8R5lZ8

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Youtube.com. (2019). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpN1j8R5lZ8 [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].

You.stonybrook.edu. (2019). Reflection/Hearts a Mess (Love): | This is the New Year. [online] Available at: https://you.stonybrook.edu/elimueller1421/2015/02/02/reflectionhearts-a-mess-love/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].