My Video
For my actual music video, I originally planned to film a narrative based music video in which the audience follows a specific character through their life or childhood. this could possibly help tell a story or create emotion through the video as I want the audience to feel as if they know the character or can possibly relate to him and therefore create sympathy. To begin planning, my first initial idea was by using the song 'Castle on the hill' by Ed Sheeran. Although I don't really listen to him, I believe this song tells a good story all about his childhood, friends and overall growing up. This gave me the idea to replicate what he is saying in the lyrics and show that within the video. Therefore, the video would consist of a character growing up and experiencing different parts of life.
Target Audience Research
When it comes to researching my target audience, I mainly looked into the psychographic and demographic factors.
For example, when looking at the demographic side of things, I began to look into different statistics based on the audience that enjoys this style of music. This includes the gender, race, age, living status, annual income and many more. This information can be used to help me add extra things into my video that could possibly help gain more views. For this type of music, I have gathered that the age differs between 14 - anywhere around 60 and is liked equally by both genders. Overall, this genre appeals to a wide range of people no matter the salary, race or living conditions of the person.
Secondly, when researching the psychographic side, this type of research is more specific and more personal. This sort of information includes their beliefs, opinion, political side, lifestyle and more. Overall, this genre only really focuses on the song and never really tends to be controversial and therefore the personal life of the audience doesn't really get involved.
My Presentation
I believe my pitch went well as I was able to cover everything I planned and was able to present my presentation easily and got across my message clearly I think. I was also able to give some information about specific equipment I could possibly use and was able to give an example of the retro camera I was planning on using. I also made sure to match the whole presentation with the artist in some way. For example, the text is the same font as Ed Sheeran's album font. Also, I addede the same background as his 'Divivde' album cover to match the theme.
Planning/ Pre Production
To benefit myself as much as possible, I have been completing a lot of research and pre production paperwork to help make sure that the actual physical side of things runs as smooth as possible.
Storyboards
Production Proposal
Risk Assessment
Filming Reflection
Finally, I have almost completed my whole video. Along the way, there have obviously been some problems, which I will cover, but has overall worked out well and went to plan. For example, I was able to film where I wanted, use the actors I wanted, film when I wanted and more. However, The main problem was my schedule. For example, I should have planned specific dates to have certain shots filmed by then to allow me to have as much time as I needed to film other things. However, I got very lucky when I planned to go to the forrest and was just in time for a beautiful sunset which helped set the scene when filming. However, another struggle was meeting the actors I needed as obviously they have work and college and therefore had to find the perfect time to film whilst also being careful and following COVID guidelines.
Editing Reflection
When it came to editing, I already had a rough idea of specific edits and effects I wanted to use and therefore filmed all the shots I needed which I was able to film and also edit in the way I envisioned it. For example, the shot in which the football crosses the screen as the new scene follows after it. I planned to do this as I always find it satisfying and it is also rather unique. To do this, I watched a quick YouTube tutorial. However, to begin the whole edit, I created Bins to organise all the footage I had recorded which help to let me work effectively. This was a long process as I then had to add them in the timeline to match the lyrics.
Also, to match the retro/ vintage theme I was going for, I added an adjustment layer over the clips I was planning on using the effect for. Then, I added specific effects to the adjustment layer to help give off that vintage aesthetic instead of actually using a vintage camera which would've been a lot harder. To do this, I cropped the image on screen a bit, added colour effects and also changed the noise. This helped to make the red pop out more and seem more vibrant. This also helps to just make the quality lower which can be done by affecting the frame rate of the vintage videos used.+
Final Evaluation
When first told about this project, I instantly began brainstorming loads of ideas as this gave us the freedom and creative opportunity to film whatever we wanted and in our own style. I loved this project as we had full control on all aspects of it such as being the editor, director, cameraman and more. So, after lots of planning and many different ideas, I came to the conclusion that I would do a semi narrative based music video as it would work well with the song that I chose (Castle On The Hill).
Once I knew the basics of my video such as the song and video type, I then worked on the more theory side of things as I began creating storyboards, a storyline, finding actors to be involved, planning locations and much more production paperwork. Once I had completed most of that, I began to start putting my ideas on to paper and began drawing the story boards. This was hard as you have to get your whole image in a small drawing. But, this worked well as I enjoyed drawing and thankfully made it easy to follow which really did prove to be super effective when actually filming. After, I began listening to the song in more detail to know how long specific shots should last which was a life saver as it made sure I had the right length shots which matched the song.
Finally, It was on to the filming stage! Despite being very exited to finally crack on with filming, I was also very nervous as I had planned a lot and just wanted it to all run smoothly. There were a few times where I was unsure whether things would work out but thankfully everything worked out in my favour. For example, I needed my younger brother to play a part in this during the day however, he had school. Thankfully he had an inset day which therefore allowed me to film all day with him ensuring I get all the footage I needed. The other main problem was just getting all of my actors together at the same time as some of them either had work, school or were just busy. This took a lot of planning however, we eventually all agreed on a date and time which gave me just enough time to get everything done. Also, I was lucky with equipment as I filmed the first half of the video on my phone and then added some effects to give it a more vintage effect to show it is from the past. On the other hand, I was fortunate enough to borrow a DSLR camera from college to help film the second half in better quality to try and show it is now present day. The rest was genuinely done by following my storyboard and time stamps to help show what was happening on screen matched the lyrics to the song.
In conclusion, this turned out a lot better than I expected as I was able to film everything I wanted and even just the tone and atmosphere of the video worked. I believe that I was able to appeal to Ed Sheeran's fanbase as similar to him, my video included many different aspects within the video that viewers could relate to. For example, the whole video follows a child growing up and then going through his teenage years and experiencing different things such as drinking alcohol, smoking, being with friends and more. Ed Sheeran does this a lot in his music videos which makes them very relatable and overall more enjoyable for his fans. Another way I was able to potentially target his audience was the pace and tone of the video. I made sure that my video was fairly fast paced and was just overall a happy, cheery video to help target his younger and more upbeat fanbase. Overall, I was happy with the outcome of this whole project as I believe I was able to create a music video for a song that fitted it well and also just had fun throughout the whole thing.