EVALUATION

 Having read the 3 briefs, my ideas lead to two possible options. My first idea was inspired by the collectors brief, with my initial thought being how I could use collecting memories into making a music video which symbolises friendship. Once I had thought about my second idea, I opted to not use the memories video idea as firstly, I had used a similar theme in the music video I had made in a previous unit but also because when I observed what my peers were inspired by, they were opting to create a music video about friendship memories as well. I made the decision that I wanted to create a project which would stand out, use different ideas and expand my media knowledge.

Taking inspiration from the simplification brief, I thought it may be interesting to use a music video which has the style of a simple video but had the theme of the complete opposite. Individualism gave me the opportunity to explore this idea, which is where the plan for a singular character to express themselves through their style, with contrast to the background came. The correlation between the unique video idea and standing out as an individual cemented that this would be the idea I take forward in this project.     

I think that choosing to take on a project that has such a different style from my previous music video project opened up doors for me to expand my knowledge within media. I knew how I wanted my final project to look, a background in black and white with the character in colour, but didn't have any ideas on how to execute such look, which is where the importance of research of existing products, editing techniques and music video theory was needed.  

The slideshow I created for my music video proposal helped spur my small idea to a project that could become a reality. The first slide helped me discover influences and inspirations for the video I was going to create. My small amount of knowledge on the fashion industry and catwalk shows was the influence for the theme of individualism - everyone at the shows displays full focus on the individual on the stage in that moment, which is how I wanted my character to be perceived. Whilst researching influences I came across the style of music I wanted to use for the video; models tend to walk to music with fast paced beats and unique lyrics which inspired the idea for me to explore songs which are unknown to many people in my target audience. 

The aims and objectives I set myself in the proposal, I believe were successfully I achieved. I wanted to demonstrate an understanding of concepts that I didn't have any knowledge of before starting the project, and I did so in researching time lapse, black and white colour effects, green screening and eventually roto scoping due to circumstances out of my control. These aims have been reflected in the research of the project - identifying techniques that can be put into the video, discovering strengths and weaknesses of these techniques by analysing existing products to understand how these techniques can enhance a video to make it more engaging and practising skills I have learnt by using action research to determine whether the techniques can influence the theme of individualism in my music video. One of my aims of the final project was to create a video that represents individualism, and through exploring the opinions of my target audience, it is clear that it has been achieved as responses to the question 'What did you enjoy about my video?' include 'the bright clothing on the dark background' and 'The contrast between the black and white background and the colourful clothing!'

My action research plan was put into use, making my project far more successful than if I weren't to do it. The most important part about this plan was the progression between considering using green screen, to create the contrast between the character and background, and identifying the technique of rotoscoping. Without this plan wouldn't have had the skills to create a video which brought my ideas to reality. 

The project rationale and proposal concept for my individualism music video constantly linked back to the importance of the editing techniques being the important factor that indicates whether my music video has been successful or not. The essential research into ways I can make my character stand out, linking to my theme of individualism, and using colour schemes which can focus on the brief of simplification is repeated throughout my entire project, including the research, pre-production and production log. Throughout the project concept and rationale I aimed to link the work I create back to the target audience of 17-25 year old, and I achieved this by sticking to the the type of music the age group enjoy, using outfits for my character which may inspire the demographic and choosing locations which the age group would connect with - parks, shopping areas and areas of relaxation. 

I used both primary and secondary research for my project. Using the techniques I had learnt via reliable YouTube tutorials, I then put the skills into play by completing some action research. Using these tutorials was, in my opinion, the best way for me to learn as the videos gave step by step explanation with visuals on how to successfully complete the editing technique. Experimenting with the secondary research spurred the idea to research existing music videos that use the same techniques and idea to highlight the theme of standing out. Understanding the effectiveness of such creations increased my confidence that the video I would create would engage my target audience.

A strength that I displayed within my project is extending my research knowledge beyond the things in my final project. Having green screening and rotoscoping as options for placing the character provided me the opportunity to change the technique I was planning to use due to equipment circumstances out of my control. If I hadn't discovered how to roto scope I would have had an unsuccessful project because I was unable to use the green screen and had no other way of completing my aims of the project. 

Having a wide range of song options, discovered through YouTube recommendations based on the music style I intended, and searching for songs with the theme of individualism, meant that I could determine the song used for the video through the opinions of my intended audience. As a main aim for my project was to create this video for the target audience of 17-25 year-olds, it was essential I opted for a song that they would willingly watch a music video for. If the enjoy the song, they're more likely to be engaged with the video that comes with it. 

Two points that I made in the reflection of my research were not adhered to in the productionof my video. To begin with, I discussed that I would film in only one location that I researched however to exaggerate the idea of individualism I chose to utilise 3 locations as it would display that people can stand out in all types of settings - calm, nature settings, busy pathways from one area of a city to another and a large busy park. The other point I made in my reflection of Goodwins Music Video Theory was that I would link my characters movement to the lyrics of the song I chose - just like She's Kinda Hot by 5 Seconds of Summer. This idea was not completed in my production however I believe my character should have done to emphasise the message given in the song as well as to increase engagement with the target audience. 

During the production of my music video I had more unplanned issues then I did moments that went smoothly. My first issue was when I had spent a long period of time filming the city scenes before the camera died mid shot. When I went to upload this footage I discovered that this city scene had been deleted from the drive meanwhile the river location filmed 20 minutes prior was still available. Although annoying, as I had spent time on this shot, which looked great on the camera, it was an easy issue to fix as all I had to redo was repeat the shot at a later date. The next, and most influential issue, on my whole project was the fact I was unable to stick to my production plan. I intended to use a green screen with my character, however when I was unexpectedly informed I couldn't use the equipment, as desired, I had to make the spontaneous decision to film regardless. As already explained, I am glad I explored the opportunity of using roto-scoping instead as without this technique I would have been very stuck, and wouldn't have known how else to complete my video. 

More so than in the production part of the project, issues arose in the post-production of the project. When editing the roto-scoping, much of my time was spent trialling methods of exporting the transparent footage to Premier Pro where I could place the footage on top of the scenery. There were many issues with this, it either took over an hour to render or was not being exported with a transparent background. To reduce the complications each time I needed to edit my character, I asked for advice on how to efficiently export these clips and was told I should export the clips as image sequences, to reduce the size of the files. Once I got used to the complications of the editing I had finalised the edit and went to export the full video to YouTube but ran into the issue of one of my clips having a different status to the rest of my footage despite being filmed in the exact same format as all my other clips. Researching how to adapt this was coming up with no useful or correct suggestions to aid me so once again I gained advice from a peer. I had to change the status of the video once again through trial and error, with there being a way which I believed worked. Following this I had to adapt the clip in my final project. Once I had checked there were no further issues with the video I uploaded it to YouTube. 

It was only at this stage the issues of the clip, that I had just updated, were evident. The clip behind the character for no apparent reason either didn't fit the frame as they previously had or just wasn't visible at all. This has been pointed out as an improvement that needs to be made to my video by my target audience - 'get rid of the bit where there is a black screen', 'there’s no background on the legs', 'put a background at every bit' - but due to the lack of time left on the project I wasn't able to alter this. If I were to have more time I would have ensured this was altered as I believe it worsens the quality of the video, as the parts that have worked are very eye catching. 

The most important part of my project was ensuring the final video would impact my target audience. Using a feedback form I created I wanted to understand their feelings on the video. Of the 8 people who responded anonymously, 5 of them rated my music video a 5/5, indicating that they really enjoyed watching the video, related to the concept and appreciated the music chosen. Those who ranked it 3/5 (2) and 4/5 (1) commented the fact that to enjoy the video more there should have been 'model in the middle, more movement and interaction', 'have more correlation to the song and maybe make points which match the lyrics through outfits ect' and 'Change the movement of the actor'. The point of the character moving more was considered earlier in the project construct, with the inetention of them walking at a pace which is slower to the background crowd, to further highlight individualism however I nwver went through with this idea. If I were to refilm any of my music video I would ensure this happens as I believe it would be more engaging.