Evaluation Part 1

Music Video Director's Commentary Script and Video

Music Video Commentary Script

Song/Artist: ‘Good Girls’ 5 Seconds of Summer

Created by: Hana, Chloe, Taslima

0:00 – 0.31 seconds

Scene: Girl in bedroom getting ready.

(Introduce group)

The video beginning is set in the girl’s bedroom. We wanted to create a girly atmosphere and show shots of different items in her room so that it can relate to our teenage girl audience and almost “welcome them”.

To keep to the upbeat rhythm of the song, we changed shots often.

0:31 – 0:50 seconds

Scene: Girl sneaking out house and meeting with her boyfriend.

We decided that the actress should sneak out of the door instead of the window due to safety reasons. We show a wide mid shot of the boy whilst he waits to emphasize his loneliness without the girl. Then to add to the effect more, when the girl comes, the shot is close up as she walks. It almost looks slow motion and which gives further impact. The shot is wide again as soon as the couple embraces each other. 

This shot shows the back of the boy and the girls face as she ‘winks’. This expresses her secret bad girl attitude.

The shot of the couple is wide and then there is another shot that is closer as they get physically closer too. This gives a closer more intimate feel for the audience.

0:50 – 1:04 minutes

Scene: Girl studying in library. Boy walks in and they meet.

A mid shot of the girl studying followed by a behind the shoulder close up of her “study book” was shown to show the audience that she is not studying but drawing. This again expresses the bad girl behavior that we wanted to subtly imply throughout the video.

A mid shot was used for the boy’s entrance to almost slow down his movement in contrast to the song to give a ‘grand entrance’ feel.

1:06 – 1:08 minutes

Scene: Hand to camera.

As the couples cover the camera with their hand, we added a distorted effect on final cut pro to look as if the tape got damaged. 

1:11 – 1:17 minutes

Scene: At the library, hidden behind a book.

A wide shot was used to show the couple mischievously hiding behind a book. We placed a bookshelf behind them to emphasize the school setting and add colour to the shot. The shot adds humour to the video.

1:20 – 1:33 minutes

Scene: At the back of the school/Grease

We chose to shoot this scene beside an edgy background to reflect the rebellious attitude.  The body language and behavior in this part was influenced by a scene from ‘Grease’, which also connotes a similar meaning as the song. This creates entertainment.

1:33 – 1:41 minutes

Scene: Park Documentary/ Self footage.

To engage the audience further we included self-footage that the couple took. This is entertaining to watch as we get to know them more personally. To make it obvious that they are self-footage, the quality is different to the other scenes. 

The shots (of the boy) here are almost similar to how fashion adverts are shot. It appeals to the audience and syncs with the beat of the music.

1:46 – 1:56 minutes

Scene: Photos

To suit the pace of this moment of the song, we decided to use photos. We added a frame onto the photos in final cut pro to make it look as if they are the couple’s own photos.

1:59 – 2:06 minutes

Scene: Girl putting on red lipstick.

As the music builds up, we show different shots of the girl putting on dark red lipstick to connote romance and rebellious behavior as red is usually a colour used for warnings. The props were picked precisely, such as the heart shaped sunglasses, to look fun and appeal to the genre and audience.

2:06 – 2:40 minutes

Scene: In Camden

We establish the location with an iconic part of the area ‘the Camden Bridge’. The upbeat vibe and setting in Camden gave the shots a colourful and fun look as well as fit the music.  It looks happy. The various shots show the couple together having fun. The shots change quick in able to look lively and engage the audience more.  Again, there are more self-footage shots to allow the audience to get more personal with the characters.

2:47 – 3:02

Scene: Final Shots/ White Background

We decided to film the final shots with a white background. The boy wears a red bandanna to fit into the cool rock genre of the song and to suit the girl. The couple carry on having fun and the action is sped up so that it feels more exciting and lively. Instead of text credits in the end, we decided to show each crew member holding up a clapper board with their name on it.

Digipak and Advert Poster Feedback Sheets

In able to receive feedback for our ancillary texts, we created a questionnaire for a year 10 media class to fill. The questionnaire showed each ancillary text and asked four questions such as: Is the image appealing and Would this make you want to watch the music video?

We received relevant and good feedback:

Intertextuality within Our Music Video

Behind the Scenes!

Director (Taslima) Camera Woman (Chloe) and Actor

Camera Woman and Actor

Camera Woman and Actor - Getting shot ready to film.

Location - Golders Hill Park

Location Panorama

Myself (Actor and Producer) and Actor - Sorting out props and costume.

...

Making of the Advert Poster

For the album poster we decided that we wanted it to be something simple but at the same time something that stood out as we thought that this would look best. We figured that we wanted to add something to the background that linked with the music video and youth. Something that was also subtle yet appealing. Therefore, we decided to do a "doodle" background; it related to high school and youth. 

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” 
― Clare Boothe Luce

I sketched doodles on a large piece of paper which I then scanned in. After uploading the image onto the Mac, we photo-shopped it onto the background of the poster. We also increased the opacity in able for the image and text in front to stand out more as the doodles would appear fainter. 

Advert Poster

DigiPack Front and Back Album Cover

Music Video Feedback by using Social Networking (Facebook)

I shared our music video onto one of the most popular social networking sites in today's society 'Facebook'. I did this so that we could receive more feedback on our final piece; what people liked about it. This is an easy way of getting feedback as well as getting more views on our video. In the world of real media products, for them to become more popular they are shared on social network sites/apps as they are frequently used all over the world.

Music Video Final Focus Group/ Response

After completing the music video we wanted to film a response from our target audience (16-17) whilst they watched the production.  We asked questions about what they liked within the music video and if they understood the narrative.

Music Video Production FINAL

Best to watch in 1080p HD.

Before Focus Group

We decided to show both the second draft and final version of our music video to our target audience (14-15), for them to see the changes and to compare them. We planned out questions to ask them after each video was played. We got some good responses such as :

• "It's cute." Sums up what we aimed for it to look like!
• "The found footage where they have their own camera…" - Was effective and good. 
• "I like the photograph sequence…" 
• They would watch it if it appeared on tv.

Overall, this feedback was really useful in letting us know what we had done well and if we had appealed to the correct target audience. In this case, we found that were were very successful in doing such. No one gave any bad feedback, therefore as a result, i think that our music video was very successful.

MUSIC VIDEO DRAFT 2 (+ Feedback)

We showed the second music video draft to an audience of 16-18 year old boys and girls and asked them to fill out a feedback form. By doing this we could see what went well and what we needed to do to improve the music video.

Making of the Music Video

BEFORE

AFTER

After uploading the shots onto FinalCut Pro, we tried out different levels of exposure and colour to try and make the video colour and style appear softer so that it could fit more into the "girl" theme.

We adjusted the shadows, highlights and mid tones (-3, -27 and 19) and the warmth of the colour for it to appear softer.

The opening shot shows the girl (main character) in her bed thinking. The miss-en-scene fits well with the genre and target audience. The colours are happy and girly (purple, white, pink, baby blue). The shot also lets the audience question "what is she thinking of?" which is good because it would make them want to watch it.

In this section of the music video, the music purposefully goes distorted, as if a microphone was covered. Therefore we have a shot of the couple covering the camera with their hands when they kiss. To emphasize the "distortion" , we added the 'Bad TV' effect on the part where their hands go up.

We decided to change the yellow hue  into a white hue. We got the inspiration from the music video 'Begin Again' by Pop Artist Taylor Swift. The white hue adds a soft, romantic element to the music video which suits the young female target audience.

An idea that we had (to add to the realism of the music video) was to incorporate "documentary like" videos of the couple. For example: 

This idea is also similar to the music video for 'Video Games' by soul/pop/indie artist 'Lana Del Rey. Her video features clips that look self made with a normal, not of great quality, camera. However, the idea adds a sense of it being antique, nostalgic, realistic as well as romantic.

Problems During Filming

During filming we experienced minor problem such as: 

• Weather
• Available times with both actors
• Location Problems (Finding locations that suited the narrative and were appealing)
• Tripod Adjustments 

The problem with the weather was that some days when we wanted to film the weather would change (for example rain) and filming would have to be postponed for another brighter, clear sky day. Some problems were caused due to the male actor not always being available for filming. Therefore, when we were filming with him, we had to get a lot of filming done. It was hard finding locations that would stand out and attract the audience because we live in a city and we would have liked to have more rural scenes for it to look cuter and more abstract. The tripod was often stiff and hard to use over objects that needed to be shot close up and panned. This is why we filmed most scenes without a tripod to enable movement.

MUSIC VIDEO DRAFT