The evaluative essay below answers the following questions:
• How do your products represent social groups or issues?
• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
• How do your products engage with the audience?
• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
The music video we created shows the hardships a person has to face in their life and the uncertainties they can face, as shown in the music video, our protagonist (me) is standing in the middle of a random road, the road signifying our life, and as we progress through the video we see our character being surrounded by his duplicates, and sitting in the middle as they roam around him which signifies how he is afraid to face himself and his consequences of how he procrastinates. However, this is about a failing person, who is on the verge of giving up,this music video gives the perspective of a person who tries so hard and gets so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter, and it all breaks apart. This music video would be relatable for students especially, as all of them are striving to be the best and working hard. Here is where the lyric “I don’t want to die with the same name” comes in, as it means he does not want to perish without being known, having a purpose or gaining something of positive significance in his life. The minimal and cinematic portrayal of the video makes it easier to understand what is going on as it only focuses on what is to be delivered to the audience and does not have any other unnecessary details, such as a flashy background or a filled atmosphere with objects, it is simply focused on portraying what is to be portrayed and a simple, innocent message for the people who work hard.
The use of multiple intertextual references has been used to amplify the meaning of our product. The name “Melody Lane” is actually a fun one, we were thinking of a name to give the main idea of our video, along with the music, and adding in some funny easter egg-y joke. The main idea being, a road (lane) on which our character is walking/running on which symbolizes life itself, it’s a music video, hence the word melody, and we wanted the third joke element, so we used a word generator which gave us, Lois Lane, who is Superman’s significant other, now coincidentally her surname Lane is a synonym for road/path, hence the name Melody Lane after literal decoding our own chosen words. Now coming to the name of the production company, which made both the MV and the Film Opening, The Normal Production, as our work already gives you the impression of how we like to do our work extremely minimal, cinematic and deep.To just get the message through, loud but not completely obviously, we like to add the factor of vagueness a little as it helps to increase the element of an open ended response from the audience and they can dig out their own meaning from the music video.
Our product showcases multiple skills of video editing and camerawork, the editing software used was Adobe Premiere Pro. The duplication of the character around him was inspired by the @schyyguy on Instagram. His work is impeccable and extremely beautiful, it was done by taking one long shot in which the character just sits on the road, which was then combined with the rest of the shots which were single takes in which the character does random stuff on all different positions, keep in mind, it was a drone, and not a camera, hence some distortion in the masking was caused as it was due to the wind destabilizing our drone. The shot in which it switches from day and night was a simple cut between the character standing on the edge in daylight and nighttime. The underwater shot was filmed by an iPhone as it is waterproof and that was what we needed, that shot and the previous jumping shot were transitioned in between with a simple keyframe of a Horizontal Blur on specific moments and a Wipe. As it is seen how the character dives into the water and is shown as if he is drowning, which is done immediately after he is shown standing on the edge of a height, this signifies how a person can fail at any given moment and fall down from the top, it is all unexpected and anything can occur, we should not run from the fact that anything is possible, be it negative or positive. As shown in the last scene, he is laying on the ground and has given up, that is supposed to give the viewer the third person perspective of how tragic it would look if one is to give up on their goals and should keep on trying.
The video itself is open to interpretation, as said before, so viewers can create their own meanings which resonate with them. Our designs for the Instagram page followed conventions by being minimalistic in design and incorporating stills from our music video. The draft product was first uploaded to a different page with more audience and reach as it was not possible to gain thousand followers over little time for us, hence to see the response of a draft, we got mentioned on the story of the official band of the video, and they also commented on it, and the members of the band commented from their individual pages as well. Some said they loved the transition from dark to lit imagery. Usually the way music videos are made are bright, with a lot going on which makes it hard for the viewer to understand what is going on, now taking into account the average attention span of the target audience which listens to music like this, making a cinematic piece with minimal presentation of colors and graphics was the best decision to get the message across and
The location used was not a significant place which was of any historical importance, as that would go against the point of our video which was for a normal common human being in the world which should apply to everyone, so filming it on a random, ordinary street made more sense. The digipack created was inspired by Taylor Swift’s 2020 album “Folklore", as the digipack design is elegant and understated, reflecting the understated and introspective tone of the album. The front cover may feature a close-up or moody shot of Swift surrounded by nature or other memorable images. The images often convey a sense of storytelling and emotional depth, inviting listeners to explore the narrative themes woven into the album's lyrics.
Given our resources, we could not carry out extensive promotion such as putting up the song on streaming services like Spotify or having our song featured on a television show or advertisement. In an ideal world where we had the monetary resources and connections to do this, I would have definitely wanted to carry out extensive marketing to reach mass audiences..
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