In my brief I decided to do a music video for

the Raindance Film festival. I chose to do a

music video as I think this will help me to
develop my art direction skills. This helped
me learn more about it and gained
experience in doing make up and setting the
scene for the production. I targeted this at
16- 21 year olds as I felt that the message for
this production would suit this age group the
most. The Raindance Film festival wants to
see quality narrative, production values and
independent nature, this is something I
believe I have achieved. One rule is that the
music video should be under 6 minutes, my
music video is 6.29. However I think that if I
cut this down the music video wouldn’t show
the message in the way that I want it to be. I
believe that my idea for the production is
original and shows the message of perfection not existing in a different way to other
music videos. Through the way that I have used characters from my target audience
age group I think this helps to relate the
audience to the characters. Through a
survey I found that people agreed that my
narrative suited this age group the most.
Throughout the project I have had
feedback from my teachers helping me to
improve my work. This was emailed to me
once a week. This helped me know what I
needed to work on as well as helping me
improve my work. Overall, I think I have
been successful in achieving my brief. In
some parts I do think that if I had more time
that my production would be more
powerful in showing the message.
However, I do think that my message of
perfection not existing did come across in
the production.

Through research I gained knowledge in

the genre of my production which is drama fantasy. I researched into these codes
and conventions of this genre. I looked at the typical characters, locations, lighting,
narrative etc. This helped me to develop my idea and helped me think about how I
could show these conventions in my music video. I analysed two music videos which
showed conventions that I took and put into my music video. I liked the props and
the makeup used in these music videos, I was inspired by these and I think this then
my production look professional and effective. After looking at these I then
researched more into how to create these for my production. I looked into using a
smoke machine and how to shoot in low light. This is something I then tested and
worked really well. This made my first and last scenes look really effective in the sad
and creepy mood I was trying to put across. After researching drama fantasy
characters I found that the character I wanted to show in my production is very
much like these and fits in well with the genre. Drama fantasy locations are very
broad, I found that they are mostly made in a studio as this genre is mostly shot in
places that don’t exist e.g. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings. These productions are mostly
shot in locations made in studios so that they can manipulate what is real. This
inspired me to do the same to an extent. I turned the showers into a back street lab
using props, lighting and a smoke machine which I think worked well.

My topic for this production is an issue that

effects women and how people see
themselves. Social media has created how
people think about appearance and is
something that is always unrealistic and edited
until no fault can be seen. I researched more
into this subject. I wanted to find out what the
“perfect” human should look like. I came across
a website that went into detail with what each
body part should measure. This helped me in
knowing what my main character should look
like, I also used some of these measurements in
my script as this made her creation and her
being perfect more realistic and shocking to
the audience. When researching into my topic I
found a quote that shot out at me. It is talking
about how these unrealistic standards won’t benefit you in anyway, ‘Being the
"perfect woman" does not logistically make our lives better’ this linked with my
productions message and made me think more about how it’s important to show
the audience that the main character is perfect but it doesn’t mean that she is
going to be happy and benefitted. I do think that I was successful in putting the
message across in the production. Through this research it helped me to develop my
idea but also my character. I used this research to develop my character and to
know who to choose to be my main character. I wanted to find someone who
stereotypically had a model look as I thought this would suit my narrative the most
and therefore put across my message.

Over the past few weeks I did come across some problems. Time was one thing I
kept running out of. I catch up on a lot of work the week after, which set myself
back on some work. I used my weekly blogs to sets tasks of what I need to do the
next week, which helped me to some extent but I still had to catch up this work the
week after, so unfortunately some work was rushed and not in loads of detail.
Research was something I also found hard as there were certain aspects of my
research I couldn’t find more in depth. This meant that some of my research hasn’t
gone into that much detail. Leading up to the filming day my actor had fallen ill and
my contingency wasn’t available to film. This meant that I had no main character
for my production, this set me back a day of filming as I didn’t want to have to use
myself as I wanted to be behind the camera as I knew what I wanted the scene to
look like. However, I decided to play as
the main character as I could rely on
myself to be able to make the filming
dates and places to film as there are
many locations that I am using. During
the editing stage I found that the middle
section of the music video was dull and
didn’t really make sense. I had to go out
and film more in oxford. I got feedback
from the edit and they explained how
using a busy urban area like Oxford
would be good so that the audience
can see how the character doesn’t know
how the real world works. This gave my
story more depth and helped the
audience to understand the main
character.

Through doing this project I have gained

more skills in art direction. Leading up to
filming I set the scene using props,
lighting, make up and costume. Lighting
was very important in setting the scene,
the blue lighting in the beginning and
end scene showed the emotion of
sadness and made it look creepy. I
gained more skills from experimenting
with lighting in my test shoots the
different directions of light created
different shadows which gave a different mood. Through the test shoots I learnt what
the best angles the light should be were. This helped me to learn the importance of
test shoots. I also experimented with the smoke machine as this added to the creepy
mood. This is something else that worked really well. The props also helped me to
create the scene. The simple use of a table and white sheet created an operation
table which worked really well and was unable to tell that it was just a table. Make
up was also important as this was used to create the main characters look. I also
used this to create the scars on the arm to show how imperfect the world made her.
Costume was also something I focused on as I needed to show that the main
character was different to other people. I bought a white oversized jumper dress to
make her stand out from the other characters. White also has semiotics to purity,
which contradicts what happens to her. This has helped me in developing my skills in
setting the scene to create the atmosphere and knowing the importance of this.
Through gaining experience and knowledge in these skills I feel that this will help me
for the future. Art direction is something I’m thinking of going into in the future. These
skills will be really helpful if I go onto doing this at university, as this will give me a
head start in understanding how to set the scene and knowing the importance of
makeup, costume, lighting and props.

From looking at other productions when

researching I took things from this into my
production. These productions used lots of
props and lighting to making the music video
look professional and effective in showing the
message. The music video Marry the Night by
Lady Gaga used costume, make up and props
to set the scenes. The use of this added to the
music video and made each scene dramatic
and interesting to watch. The use of the costume and makeup showed who she is
and through her music videos showed people who she is. My music video compared
to hers is somewhat similar in the way that I have used lighting to set the scene and
create an atmosphere. The narrative part that is at the beginning of her music video
inspired me to do the same as this was effective in setting the mood at the
beginning and end of mine. I also looked at the music video ‘Mrs Potato Head’ by
Melanie Martinez. This music video gave me
many ideas as the music video showed had
the same message as mine. The use of
makeup and props were used really well in
this. In the lab scene of this music video, the
lighting that was used was dark and blue
which added to the creepy mood. The
makeup that was used in this scene was very rare and shocking which is something
that I also really liked and I tried to bring this element into my music video. In my
music video I used the same lighting and added a smoke machine to make the lab
look backstreet and illegal. Through looking at these productions this helped me to
set the scenes to create the atmosphere and mood that I wanted to put across to
my audience and ultimately improve and make my production look professional.

After doing this project I have learnt many new skills and lessons for future projects. If
I could do this differently next time I would use my time more wisely so that I could
add more detail into my work. I think if I had more time then my work would be more
professional and a higher standard. Overall, I do think that my production is a high
standard and puts across the message that I want my audience to see and be
affected by.