Creative Critical Reflection: Music Video
My product both uses and challenges conventions. The largest convention that this challenged was that this wasn't a professional production. I didn't have the budget nor the materials to create something that looked professional quality. All the music videos I watched were these amazing productions with animations and green screens and perfect lighting, which I, unfortunately, couldn't replicate. However, common with other music videos within the Christmas music genre I used Christmas imagery and decorations. While I was unable to have things like snow as I live somewhere where it doesn't snow, having these props like the Christmas tree and the Christmas-themed mugs helps me adhere to the traditional conventions of a Christmas music video.
My music video represents those who celebrate Christmas by showing how people celebrate this holiday. It outlines how those traditionally spend their Christmas mornings.
2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?
My product engages with audiences through its use of short scenes. Nowadays average attention spans are lower, this is shown because social media sites such as Tiktok are becoming popular with an infinite scroll of 15-second videos. People don't want to watch you do something for a minute. Using a variety of shorter scenes it doesn't give the audience the feeling that the music video is dragging but instead creates a flowing feel ensuring people don't get bored. My music video also engages audiences by instilling familiar feelings in them, at least for people who celebrate Christmas. The music video is intended to replicate a Christmas morning, I attempted to replicate the so-called "magic" of Christmas morning; the excitement of receiving presents and finally being able to give your presents. By providing the audience with a familiar feeling, it connects the project with the audience creating a mutual understanding between the two.
This would most likely be distributed as something on YouTube Music, as that is where many artists chose to share their music videos. This may also be on a Spotify preview when you open up a song and the music video starts playing behind the text.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
At the beginning of this project, I decided to work alone. Working alone was different than what I had done before and it came with some learning curves. Luckily, I had learned from the commercial the mistakes during that process and I knew what to avoid, however, because I was working alone this time new issues had arisen. I had to learn new techniques on iMovie to achieve what I wanted, the main thing I learned how to do was fade in/out audio. However, while I had learned the basics of the production process because I worked alone I quickly realized that it was so easy to get off schedule. My original plan was to begin filming on December 4th, but because nobody was counting on me to get this completed on this date, December 4th quickly became December 5th, then the 6th, and I ended up procrastinating the filming until December 10th! Because I procrastinated completing this project for so long, the music video was the best I could've done in the time I had given myself. I ended up taking many shortcuts as I was short on time which looked fine in the end, my original plans for it would've looked so much better. But I learned that time management is really important when it comes to these things, so I'm sure I will prioritize this for the next project.
Furthermore, my filming technique improved greatly. In the commercial, I didn't use such a variety of shots and many of them were stationary. With the music video, in order to create a more whimsical feeling I needed the camera to be in motion for much of the music video. I had to figure out the best way to make the camera move in the nicest way possible and I ended up figuring out that the easiest and most accessible way to do this was to just move my phone myself, which ended up turning out much better than I expected!
4. How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online- in this project?
My music video integrated a plethora of technologies throughout the planning, filming, and editing process.
The software which I used was apps on my devices. The main apps I used were "Procreate", to create my storyboard. Procreate helped me visualize what was going to be done for this project, it was an easily accessible way to create my storyboard and bring my vision to life. The next app I used frequently was the "Photos" app. Along with storing the takes of the music video, I was able to change the colorings of each take which streamlined the process of my music video. However, the one which I couldn't have finished this music video without was iMovie on my computer. iMovie provided me with an easily understandable way to edit things. I already had previous knowledge of iMovie, but I still had some uncharted territory, and iMove has many online guides from Apple itself on how to use many of the features. These guides proved necessary for the editing of the music video.
I used a variety of different hardware throughout this project including both electronic and nonelectronic. I mainly used electronic devices such as my phone, laptop, and iPad. I used my laptop and iPad for the software I was able to install and my phone to film the actual music video. However, the nonelectronic components played just as important of a role as the electronic part. The nonelectronic part I used most was my tripod. The tripod allowed me to film things with the stability I otherwise wouldn't have been able to achieve.
The online portion of this consists of what I'm doing right now, sharing my process! Through the use of Google blogger, I am able to share with you my thought process throughout the making of this music video. I also used google photos to be able to transfer the takes filmed on my phone to my laptop so they remain at (almost) the same quality. However, one of the most useful things for the actual music video was the ability to find a download for the song. Without these websites, I wouldn't have been able to download them.
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