Music Video Reflection

 How does my product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

The type of music we used for our project was Grunge music.  Grunge music typically has darker themes and their music videos are usually include sad visuals and instrumentals.  

Our music video followed the convention of including depressing visuals.  After the dog was stolen from the actor, it showed flashbacks of the dog and the actor.  Each flashback was paired with a depressing shot of the actor in the same places but without the dog.  On the other hand, our video defied the convention of including instrumentals.  This was mostly because we didn't have any instruments or experience using them and we wanted to focus on the narrative and mood more.  If we included singing or instrument-playing, it would have ruined the immersion of the narrative.  

Our music video does well at representing social groups.  For example, the video is about a dog owner that loses his dog.  Half of the shots in the video include a dog.  The video represents not only people that own dogs, but especially those who have lost their dogs in a accidents or incidents.  Because most dog owner's don't lose their dogs, our video would show them the depressing reality of losing their dog.

How does your project engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as real media text?

Our music video engages audiences mostly because of its narrative.  The filming and editing were both done with the intention of increasing the impact of the video's climax in order to engage audiences most effectively.  

First of all, the filming of the climatic scene in which the dog is stolen was planned for days, shot from three different angles simultaneously, and repeated multiple times until there was an acceptable scene.  The background shots and shot of the actor and dog walking out of the door both add to the suspension by producing a peaceful scene despite the background music being sad and depressing.  This contradiction keeps the audience guessing and makes them stay engaged until they find out what happens.  

The editing was also done very meticulously in order to engage audiences.  Before editing and filming, we analyzed the clip of the music we were using and found out when the climax of the music happened.  During editing, we used all the clips and put them together in a way that would make the part where the dog get stolen match up with the climax of the music to have the most impact.

If our music video was to be distributed, it would be in the form of a YouTube video, similar to how it is now.  It might even become part of a DVD that has the song on it.  It would be targeted towards teens and fans of grunge music.  To help promote it, it might even be released by a record label.

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

This project was a first for many things for me and each new experience has helped increase my skills.  One new thing that I had to do for this project was act.  I had acted very briefly in the commercial project but it was extremely easy and I didn't have to portray any fake emotions or reactions.  For the music video, however, I was required to act not only for a much longer time, but also for a more complex role.  Prior to the music video project, I had never acted in anything like a play or video before, so this was my first time.  I had always watched people act and thought that it didn't look very difficult and I could do it if I needed to.  However, it was much more difficult than what I had imagined.  For my music video, I had to fake a fall to the ground and then scream "NOOOO" with the most anguished expression I could muster.  After all the takes, my knees were bruised and I was sure the entire neighborhood had heard me yelling "NOOOO".  It was a lot more difficult than I had imagined.

This project gave me valuable insight into acting that I can use to make my next project even better.

It was also my first time trying to get a dog to act in a video.  It was quite difficult trying to get the dog to cooperate with every take mostly because he ended up getting scared.  In the end, however, I think the dog acted very well and I am very proud.  Needless to say, from now on, I am going to watch dogs acting in movies with a newfound respect.

Another new ting I tried for this project was filming a scene from multiple perspectives simultaneously. 

Initially, it was hard to get the camera to line up and not capture each other in their shots, but with patience and adjusting, it worked out in the end.  Hopefully, I will get another chance to use this filming method because I am a lot more confident in my ability to organize it after this project.

How did you integrate technologies in this project?

The music video project would not have been possible without the use of technology.  One way technology was used that one might not consider was to communicate and plan with my partner.  Because school is online and because of social distancing, planning became impossible without the use of technology.  So, we used out computers to talk to each other and plan out what we were going to do for the project.

Another technology that was essential to the completion of the project was cellphones.  It would not have been possible to film without cellphones.  Especially the climax scene that used multiple phones to capture the scene from three different angles.  Without cellphones, we would not have been able to find enough cameras to use to film the climax.  The way we got three phones was by asking my family to use theirs.  After we got all the footage, the best clips were picked out and sent to one phone, and then uploaded to Google Drive.  

Google Drive was also an essential part of our project.  Without it, we would not be able to dump or share the videos without taking many more steps.  

We also used editing software to complete the project.  After procuring all the scenes and dumping them onto the computer, they were uploaded to an editing program so they could be put together into the video.  I didn't end up using the editing software because my partner was the one who edited it.  However, I watched him do it and helped him out.