Final Music Video - Sam Boyd - Let It Go

Sam Boyd Website

https://tommylustigman.wixsite.com/samboyd

Final DigiPak Images

Outside Digipak (Front cover, back cover, spine)

Inside Digipak (Inside cover, CD)

Evaluation Task 4 - Video Script and Video

Animatic:

·         To develop our skills, we filmed our storyboard. This was called an animatic and it enabled us to see that our shots were too slow and long. This allowed us to realise that we had to create more shots, as each shot was too long. We edited our animatic on iMovie with the song in the background, this meant that we could see if the shots we had planned matched the lyrics/narrative we wanted to portray. We therefore decided to include more close ups to cut between his star image and narrative, which sold the artist accurately and also expanded on the narrative. After finishing the animatic, we knew what we wanted our narrative to be so then we could then focus on what special effects and editing techniques to use in post production in order to make our music video professional and higher quality.

Research:

·         Once we had planned our core narrative, we had to research into similar artists who were doing a similar thing. We watched music videos and analysed products of artists like James Arthur, Hozier and Declan McKenna. We noticed the key theme of their music videos was the lip syncing and wide shots whilst they were playing guitar.

·         Another aspect of Sam’s star image we got from research was the dark clothing with the flat cap to show that he is an organic artist. Lip syncing also shows emotion towards relationship.

·         Guitar playing in studio shows Organic artist. Focus on lyrics.

Studio:

·         From making a first draft of our video and receiving feedback, we noticed that people thought that were not enough locations and we were repeating a lot of shots. Using this information, we filmed in a studio to make the video more professional as it became relevant to his star image and filled the gaps that were void. In our video, the studio shot of him picking up the guitar as the first shot, shows how important the guitar is to his star image and organic appearance.

·         Slight pan and look at the camera makes it personal and emotional

·         Studio shot represents him being trapped in the relationship.

·         Cross cuts between studio and outside show contrast in emotion of happy and sad.

Camera:

·         We knew the camera shots were important to reveal to the audience how the narrative was progressing and what emotions they were feeling at any moment. We used a range of shots in our video as a way of portraying a variety of emotions. For example, High angle looking down on him and sitting down shows he is weak and now has less power now he is alone.

·         Panning shot of them on different sides of the tree represents that he can’t get her out of his head. Shows how they are so close yet so far

·         Low angle of guitar, hat and dark colours emphasise his organic image. He wants to build his confidence.

·         A music video is a promotional tool for the artist therefore it features close ups designed to sell the artists star image. In our video, we do this in the studio shots where there are many close ups of him playing guitar.

·         The male gaze is always employed in music videos to sexualise women. e.g.certain shots of the female actress are purposely used to attract a male target audience.

·         Our skills in camerawork this year demonstrated the way we had improved as we were not matching generic conventions and had more choice over the way we represented our artist. We used two adaptable lenses rather than last year when it was one fixed lens and this enabled us to make sure that the close ups were high definition so we could focus on the artist lip syncing. The 50mm close ups were effective for selling the artists star image as organic, whereas the 18mm lens for the wide shot enabled us to focus on the narrative and how he is feeling after the break up. In addition we also used whip pans which we couldn’t master last year. This enabled us to match the energy of the song with the vibrancy of the fast-paced movement of camera.

       

Editing:

·         In this genre of music where you are singing about real emotions that people can relate to, the editing of the video is the most crucial part as it can either make the narrative relevant and relatable or boring and similar to every other artist. We used many different editing techniques in post-production. For example, Black and white to show sadness. Lyrics match visuals - things are changing.

·         Slow motion portrays how time is moving slowly. Throwing stones is a distraction and stress reliever.

·         Montage of all the flashbacks to show the narrative and make it as clear as possible that he misses her.

·         Flashback in bed showing their good times. Different colour scheme shows contrast in emotions from before they had problems

·         Discontinuity editing techniques are employed. Shots are repeated, narrative doesn't have to make sense and many different locations can be used to sell the artist to the song. In our video, we used 3 different locations in order to sell our artist.

·         In our video, there is lip syncing and flashbacks to emphasise narrative. Lip syncing is a key feature and is employed to sell the artists looks and image, we do a lot of this in our video. Our lyrics tend to match visuals and cut to the beat of the song. For example, when the lyrics are "Think its time to walk away", our female actress gets up and walks away.

·         Our music video required more advanced editing skills and enabled us to use after effects as well as demonstrate how our skills progressed in premier pro. As we had more footage and we were creating an artist's image from scratch, we had more freedom and therefore cut from performance and narrative element frequently. We made sure our song was cut to the beat on premier pro and matched up the lip syncing to the milli-second on the timeline to make sure our artist was in time with the song.

Post-production:

·         Once the video was edited and all the shots were put in order with the relevant transitions, it was all about making the video that extra bit better by improving the quality of the shots, the lighting, the scenery and the colours. Throughout [pst production, we colour corrected and colour graded to improve the quality of the video and to make it more professional. For example, we Edited in the glare to show he is singing about her. Lyrics match visuals.

·         Him standing up and trying to move on. Smoke effect makes video more professional and brings the studio shots to life.

·         Change in colour of flowers from black and white to colour show that he is hopeful that they will be happy in the future.

·         Additionally, in post production, we added an advanced sky replacement and a time lapse. We did this on after effects by duplicating the layer twice then applying the filter 'Colorama'. We then clicked the drop down output cycle and set the pre-set to 'ramp grey'. We did this to create an alpha channel which makes it transparent, turning it white. We then clicked outside the arrow and added a black one to play with the channel to ensure the area we did not want was black and the area we do want is white. Then put a layer over the white. We then applied the colorama effect again to the top copy and changed the track matte to luma inverted matte to take the white and make it transparent. The edges of the trees had to be tidied so a matte choker was applied and it was then the case of playing with the geometric softness so it looked realistic.

Andrew Goodwin stated in 1990 that most music videos shared similar characteristics or conventions that demonstrated how they were different from television programmes or films.

Evaluation Task 4 - Digital Technology and Planning

Evaluation Task 3 - The Feedback process

Evaluation Task 3 - YouTube Analytics

From these statistics, we can see that the average watch time is 1 minute and 48 seconds. Considering our video is 3 minutes and 36 seconds, this statistic is poor and we are surprised by this as the narrative spans the entirety of the song therefore we felt it would entice people to stay engaged for the whole song. We believe this could be because some people who watched our video are not fans of the alternative pop genre and therefore were not our target audience. Furthermore, the like to dislike ratio is 10:0 which is very positive us from the people who watched our video who have a youtube channel, almost all of them chose to like the video which means we are targeting the correct audience demographic and people are enjoying our work.

74% of the traffic sources for the music video were in the United Kingdom, which we expected, considering the music video was shared and targeted within this geographical location. Since our music video is intended to be favoured by alternative pop fans all around the world and so hopefully others will share to attract a global audience. Over 70% of the views were from external sources such as social media, which shows how social media played a big role in appropriating a target audience. In terms of gender, the viewers are split which is what we expected. 50% of the viewers were female, which may be due to there being a girl in our video which would appeal to the female audience.

From these demographic statistics, 100% of our views are from our target audience of 18-24 year olds which we are very pleased with. We believe this is because the people that watch youtube are predominately of this age bracket therefore we are being intelligent as we are targeting the platform in which we will receive the accurate demographic of views.