FINAL EVALUATION

Final edit of music video

First of all, when getting ready to film my music video I already had a feeling that it was going to go well as I had a good plan on what I was intending to do. Amy has been in quite a few of my other projects including GCSE projects and the last music video project. Amy is always willing to help me, so I wasn't worried about her not wanting to do it on the day. I planned on using my new iPhone 12 pro to record the music video instead of a camera. I recently got a Canon camera, however, my phone is better for taking pictures and not long videos as the quality isn't as great. We are also able to access all of the college equipment such as cameras and gimbals but my phone was a better option.

I had already completed all of my pre-production so I knew what I was going straight into. I first explained to Amy the plan, the shots, costumes, and actions she was going to do. I then helped Amy choose a good outfit to match and luckily she had options that were what I wanted. The outfit was black flares, a green crop top and a mesh green top over the top with stars on. This outfit stood out and worked well on camera as it complimented her red hair colour. We used this outfit for the first two scenes: the bathroom scene and the window sill scene. Amy got ready into her outfit and created a makeup look similar to the one in my mood board. I then asked her to get into the bath where I put alcohol bottles next to her to indicate she was hungover. Luckily we already had these bottles in the house so I didn't need to go out of my way to get any. This scene looked cool as the lighting was great and the bottles added more detail into the shots. We then filmed a shot where Amy was holding her phone which I planned on editing on a text message onto the screen to include some of the narratives at the start. The window sill scene didn't take long at all as it was only the chorus we needed to film. It was a really sunny day which made the quality of the footage look incredible and made Amy's makeup and hair really stand out.

The next scene was the scene where Amy had to get into the bath so she had to get changed as it would be pointless to wear the same outfit when it was only her face and up to her neck being shot. This scene was the hardest to film as there were a lot of safety risks that I had to take into precaution such as equipment being damaged with water, but they're all explained in my risk assessment. This was also a struggle to film as the water began to get cold and was uncomfortable for my actor to stay in so I tried to film as much as possible quickly. In my behind-the-scenes video, I explain that I used sellotape on the camera flash and coloured it in purple as a DIY purple light. In the end, I didn't get as much as I hoped but it was enough for the whole verse.

On the second day of filming, we filmed the garage scene. Amy wore a different outfit for this which was a fully black outfit with diamontes on which complimented the shot and matched the vibe of the chorus. I used LED lights for the lighting and held them up to the garage to create a purple atmosphere. This was my favourite scene to film as it was really fun and cool to film lots of different shots. This part was the first chorus so I wanted it to stand out more than the rest. The LED lights worked brilliantly and I would use them again if I ever need to film with coloured lighting.

The next scene I filmed on the second day was Amy outside walking down a street. Unfortunately, when it came to editing, I didn't have enough footage so then I was behind on my production plan. After re-evaluating the situation, I then decided to film again in two different locations, which were in a field and my car, so I 100% knew I had a lot of footage to choose from. This was the first outside scene in the video so it switched up the look as the song began to go slower. Her outfit for this scene was all black and mesh and this complimented the outside greenery. As the song went on, her outfits got a lot more unique and grungier which implies her, independence and confidence shining through after her breakup. We had already filmed outside and in my car for the last music video and having the experience of knowing what shots work well really helped. For the last scene, I filmed Amy in a dark room and we had a flashing torchlight to create a strobe effect. In my opinion, this effect looked alright but not as great as I hoped. The flashing light clip was quite long and I feel as though it went on for too long and could've included something else as well. This strobe effect is risky because it causes issues for people who have epilepsy and restricts them from watching it so I needed to make sure that I put a warning banner at the beginning of the video.

Here is my behind the scenes video which includes raw footage from the days we filmed, clips that I didnt use in my final edit and also me vlogging how the bath scene went. I didn't film as much behind the scenes as I intended on which was disappointing when it came to editing it. When I was filming the video I was too focused on getting the main footage filmed and forgot to record myself talking about how I was filming and what we were doing and I missed the opportunity. This is definitely something I need to take into consideration when creating another behind the scenes video as it would have more depth and I can talk about alot more things in detail. 

Me and Amy sat down and watched all the clips and it was good to hear from Amy that she liked how some of the clips turned out and that I got a second opinion instead of just my own. Amy lipsynced the whole song and we used her phone to play the song so we knew she was in time. This was my downfall in my last video as I didn't have the song playing in the background and it was so much easier to edit now that I changed my previous mistakes. There were a few clips where Amy sang the song instead of listening and after watching them back they weren't in time, however, I just re-adjusted the speed and it came out okay.

I then went on uploading all of the clips onto my college one drive. I did this on my phone so that when I next went into college I could access them all easily. The only issue I had was the fact that I took so many videos that I had over 200 to sort through. I did try and download them onto a USB first but this didn't work so I had to stick with importing them to one drive. As there were so many files and they were all very high quality, it took a couple of hours. Our teacher Sam taught me a way on how to sort out all my footage and this really helped. In my video, I have about 8 separate parts and so I made bins for all of these parts so that when it came to editing I knew exactly where I needed to find my footage.  

After all my research about Miley Cyrus's target audience, I believe I did a good job at creating something that related to the song and her style. The vision I had for this video came out better than I thought. This is due to taking inspiration from Miley's other music videos and seeing what works well with her style of music. The fact that I have taken inspiration from Miley means that this video will appeal to her targeted audience as well. My video is different from the actual 'Midnight Sky' video, which is good as it shows a different side to the song as I have also included a narrative, however, I did take inspiration and a few parts are similar where she performs.

In conclusion, I am extremely happy with the outcome of the video. In my opinion, filming went well and it was good that I had someone like Amy in my video as we are quite close and it makes it easier to let her know what to do. I think Amy was a great actor in the video and acted extremely well and I am very grateful for her time and effort that she put into it. I feel as though I put a lot of effort and planning into this project, more so than the previous one and it paid off. I went into it with a plan and without stressing if things were going to turn out bad. I enjoyed creating this project too which helped encourage me to get work done. I found it very fun and I was excited to film and edit to create something I enjoy doing. I intended to create a fascinating, interesting video and I feel like I pulled that off.

Overall I am happy with the video, however, there are a few mistakes I made along the way which I will take on going forward. For example, I had everything planned out but when it came to editing I wasn't able to bring the storyline to life as much as I had hoped. The narrative in my last video was very strong and I didn't achieve that in this one but I think all the different locations, angles and shots, really brought the video to life and made it more exciting. I have gained many skills from doing this such as more experience on premiere pro effects and how to use my camera for different shots. As well as media techniques, I have gained time management skills that will help me in the future. Due to Covid 19 affecting everyone's work and having a shorter amount of time to complete this project, I still finished the video to the best of my ability and am happy with my final result. 

Social media Marketing

Midnight sky Trailer

I created a social media trailer that was 20 seconds long and featured the main and best clips from the finished music video. This is to promote the music video further and attract more people to watch the full version. I also edited this on Premier pro and wanted it to be short and catchy. When I chose the 5 best clips I then put them into a new composition. I wanted the background music to be the same song at first and then I found an instrumental version of the song which worked so much better. This trailer was quite simple and I didn't put a lot of effects into it as I think that with its simplicity it doesn't show too much of the actual video which is what a trailer is conventionally supposed to do. I created it as a social media teaser to get people excited about the final video. I included the title 'midnight sky' at the beginning and then it gets pulled down as she pulls her sunglasses down. I did this to catch the viewer's attention right away, and I also made the font a turquoise blue colour to match with the main title in the music video.

I exported it to youtube and then uploaded it to my Instagram page where it will gain viewers' attention. At the end of the video, it says 'coming soon' which fades out with the music and this creates a dramatic effect of not knowing what's to come. Overall this video is to a 'good' standard but I definitely could have improved it if I had had more time.

Midnight Sky Poster