1. Preliminary Task 2 Critical Reflection
Angel Turpin
AICE Media Studies
Period: 7

2. How does you product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
I think our product used some of the conventions that are a part of music videos, but we wanted to steer away from the typical components at the same time. One thing we didn’t include in our music video was lip syncing. I find lip syncing a little cheesy, and it kind of distracts viewers from the meaning of the music video. All of the videos we researched before we begun filming used lip syncing, but my group wanted to focus more on portraying meaning rather than doing what every single music video does. I think one thing that we did follow was the use of a boy and a girl as the focal point of the video, but at the same time, it had to do with the meaning of the song. In Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer, it talks about how a girl and a guy were in a relationship, but it ended, and the boy can’t stop thinking about what they had, and no longer have. One thing I liked was the use of POV shots throughout the music video for Night Changes by One Direction. We incorporated a few POV shots. These shots make the scene feel more intimate, especially since we made a video to an emotional song that’s supposed to make the audience feel something. Another thing we did that challenges conventions was having our main male role have headphones in throughout the whole music video, and then when he takes the headphones out in the end, the volume of the music lowers, and then slowly increases as the end approaches. My group thought this would be a cool way to introduce a concept not everyone would think of, almost as though he was listening to the song.

3. One Direction’s use of POV shots caused people to go crazy, because it felt as though they were on a date with the members of the band.
These are various screenshots from the music video for Night Changes by One Direction. The use of POV shots throughout allows viewers to become connected and invested in the meaning of the music video. The meaning of this video is that everything can change in an instant, but it will be okay, and the relationship won’t change. We wanted to create the same emotional connection this video did.

4. POV shot of them in the park, but he looks and she is no longer there.
POV shot where he is looking at pictures of himself and his previous girlfriend
POV shot where he is looking around, and no longer seeing them walking together.
All of these POV shots, when paired with the shot of him seeing them together, add to the emotional aspect of the film. It makes viewers sad to see how depressed the situation has really made him.
POV shot of them in the park, but he looks and she is no longer there.

5. This is the original shot where Drew takes out the headphones.
In this scene, we made Drew take out his headphones, and we decided that when we edited the video together, we would make the volume of the music lower. This kind of represents him listening to the song as all of this is happening.
This is the original shot where Drew takes out the headphones.
This is the final draft, and at the end, you can see Drew taking out the headphones, and the music lowers.

6. How does you product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
I think this project represents many teens or younger people that are going through troubles in a relationship, something that happens to people quite often. This song puts how people feel after a hard breakup into words, which makes the song very emotional and saddening. We wanted to use this song in order to really capture its emotion. We wanted to use a song that has a meaning that’s clearly understood, and something we knew we could portray and deliver to the audience. Our music video includes a series of double takes, where the main male, played by Drew, looks and sees his old girlfriend, as though they were still together, but he takes a second look, and realizes that she isn’t actually there. He’s seeing what he wants to see rather than what is there in reality. When people experience a rough break up, they can’t seem to forget what they had, and we wanted to show this experience in our music video. In the song, the band says, “Cause I’m not fine at all” frequently throughout, and when this happens, we showed the male seeing his reality. Our product represents the struggle many people going through this experience face.

7. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
I think our product engages with audiences simply because of the emotional aspect. Our goals for this music video project was to take a song, find the meaning, and make a music video that accurately portrays the meaning. I believe we did just that. By simply following the meaning, which is what we remained focused on, we produced something that captures peoples emotions. I think we outdid the original video by sticking to this. The original video wasn’t exactly emotional, especially because it featured a whole bunch of people having a good time, which has nothing to do with the meaning. I think our product would be distributed as all are, publically on YouTube. One common trend today is to go on social media, and get people involved by doing a countdown to the release date, and I think that would be a good way to get people excited about the release, and then they can go onto YouTube and watch the video. It’s important that all people have access. Another way to distribute the music video could be on shows that strictly show music videos. One example is Music Feed on MTV, which broadcasts music videos for hours on end.

8. This is the original video for Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer
This is the original video for Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer. Throughout the video, the band is featured going to different places, and having fun with friends. The only semi-emotional aspect is the lip syncing. This music video doesn’t really portray the meaning of the song very well, so we wanted to create a version that would connect with audiences. In our music video, we really made it emotional, by having Drew act very sad, and also he continually sees the things he used to do in his old relationship. We wanted to emphasize how upset he was that it was over.

9. Justin Bieber’s music video for “What Do You Mean
Justin Bieber’s music video for “What Do You Mean?” used the countdown on social media in order to increase the anticipation for the video. Many celebrities, including Ariana Grande and Kylie Jenner got involved by sending Justin photos of them getting in on the countdown. Each day, a different celebrity was featured on Bieber’s page, all the way until the release date. That’s when the video was posted onto YouTube for everyone to see. This was a great way to distribute the music video, especially because he first got people to start talking about it.

10. Another way to distribute the music video could be on televised programs. These shows specifically show music videos, and they are featured on popular channels, such as MTV and VH1.

11. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
I feel as though my skills, in terms of both producing and directing, have drastically increased this time around. Last project, I didn’t feel as involved in the actual filming or editing process, so it was nice being the leader for this project. Sort of guiding my peers allowed me to expand my knowledge of the editing process, as well as filming, and what looks good when put together. By learning new techniques and asking questions when it came to editing, I feel comfortable with editing videos. Also, knowing what various techniques, shots, angles, and movements can do, I felt the whole group was more prepared when we started the filming process. Rather than just taking a whole bunch of still shots and editing them together, we got creative. For the scenes we filmed with Drew riding the bike, we sat in the trunk of my dad’s car as he drove, and filmed that way. Also, we made sure to film way more than we needed, so that we wouldn’t have to keep re-filming. The time restraint was hard, especially because everyone had completely different schedules, but we worked it out. Thanks to the last project, we knew what to do, and what not to do.

12. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
In this project, the use of various technologies allowed us to get the best possible outcome. The camera we used was my own, the Canon Rebel T3, with an mm lens. We used this, because we thought the quality would be a little better than the camera provided, and we wanted the best possible outcome for our project. We had, on hand, the Sony tripod the school provided, but we didn’t end up using it when we filmed the project. We also used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the music video project. We had a few complications, but Mr. Callovi helped us when we needed to find the location of our media. We also needed online resources, which included YouTube as well as Wordpress. We used YouTube in order to retrieve the song we used in the music video; We only needed the audio portion. We also used YouTube to upload our videos, both our rough draft and final draft. We used Wordpress to keep track of our progress, and what we did each week that contributed to the music video. Doing this allowed me to organize my thoughts, and set up what I had to do in the weeks to come. We also used my iPhone 6 in order to capture the photos that we show towards the end of the music video.

13. The blog site called Wordpress allowed me to write down the progress we made, along with what we needed to do next. This helped in terms of organization.

14. One of the technologies we used was this editing program called Adobe Premiere Pro. This program allowed use to take our clips and put them together, add special effects, and many more things. I feel that I have grown, in terms of using this program. I feel I would be able to edit on my own in the future. It is way easier this time around, because we had more experience, and we also learned new techniques before we begun the editing process.