My Creative Journey, 20th October

Today I presented my music video plan to the rest of my class. My pitch went very well and I got very good feedback from my class mates. They all said that they really liked the idea for my music video and that it was a very good idea to incorporate all elements of society. They also gave me good advice with my questionnaire saying that they would like and performance and narrative element to a music video and that they think music videos can tackle difficult subjects in society. 
I have also started editing the footage for my music video over the last couple of days. So far I have found that I have some problems with the lip syncing in my video and that some doesn't quite fit. to improve on this I am going to film a few of the shots again in the same locations to make sure it is too a professional quality. I have also tackled the problems I had with lighting while filming. I learnt how to change the brightness in premiere pro so that my clips are not too bright. As well as this, I have found some clips which I would choose to use over ideas I originally had in my storyboard. I have made these decisions as I think they will make my music video look more professional. 

Pitch and Audience Feedback

To open my pitch I spoke about the themes of my production. I discussed with my audience whether they think that more controversial and thought provoking themes can be discussed in a music video. The majority of my audience thought that themes like these can be focused on in a music video respectfully however some of my audience members said they that would not take these issues as seriously if they learnt about them in a music video. Most of the audience members with these views were male which is an issue with me as I want to focus in on mental health in young men in my music video. I could come across problems later on in my process if half of my target audience would not take the narrative of my music video seriously.

To exaggerate on how my song links with the themes of my video I showed my audience how the lyrics connect to my narrative.  The first lyric I showed to my audience is one that focuses in on how the media can put pressure on the youth and gives them false ideas of how we should be. During a discussion about this topic many of the students opened up about how they feel pressured by what they see in the mass media and on social media and feel as though they must conform to the ideals of society. The main demographic to open up about this topic was the girls in the group. This again shows me that it is important to get my message across to young men as they do not feel they can be as open about being themselves and issues they have with social conformity. I then went on to speak about the second lyric I picked out from my song. This lyric highlights the fact that people see the youth as bad people and people to be scared of when in reality it is the most confusing time in life and teenagers need nurture rather than the bad impression they are given. Many of the students in my class, especially the boys, had many stories of people being scared of them if walking down the streets late at night and they all said they found this upsetting. The final lyric I selected speaks about celebrity culture and how their seemingly perfect lives can result in the youth feeling inadequate. A lot of my audience (both male and female) spoke about how they feel envious of the celebrities they see on social media such as the Kardashians and various Instagram bodybuilders. Although they did say they understand that these people do this for a living and take it to the extremes. My audience agreed that it was important I make this clear in my music video as it is unhealthy for young adults to see these people and think this is the norm.

My audience members agreed that using a split screen would be an effective way to show my protagonists internal battle. One members of the audience gave me the idea to make the antagonist of my internal battle different kinds of celebrities or media journalists to further highlight their impact on the youth. As well as showing this more serious aspect of my narrative though I spoke about wanting to show happiness in my music video. I plan on doing this using my bright colour palette and showing my protagonist expressing himself. My audience thought that it was important to show someone being true to themselves in my music video to show that it can be done and that we don’t have to conform. My audience’s views were a 50/50 split on whether they prefer narrative or performance videos. I decided that I would try and incorporate both so to please everyone.

During this slide I spoke about the vast range of setting ideas I have for my music video. I want my music video to represent togetherness so therefore using a range of settings will connotate a range of demographics. As my audience said they liked a performance element to music videos a concert venue is a perfect place to film this. It is also a good place to find large diversity in people nut everyone coming together despite this.

I thought it was important to show my audience of young adults that my production was aimed at them. I found this necessary so that it could provoke any thoughts they may have about similar situations they had been in. I thought this was good research as I could then use real life situations in my narrative to make it more realistic.