Critical Creative Reflection - Music Video

 

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FxlEtj4WWgwAh2lhSO5KV0MSWSNV2UQmt9cJ5y_a9BA/edit

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

Before filming and when we got the idea in our heads we researched different videos Taylor Swift did. We chose her because one, she was the artist to the song we chose and secondly, some of her videos have that creepy, mysterious, eerie vibe to it. We took inspiration from her videos especially “Look what you made me do” and created our product of what seems to be a creepy music video to our audience’s understanding. I would like to say we took a turn on our genre instead of following what others do because my group and I wanted a meaning to our video. As much as I love Taylor Swift and appreciate her filming these music videos, there is never really any meaning or sense to it. Nowadays, people understand more when they hear it or see it, so the music video we filmed tried to align with the song we chose and tried to make sense out of it while filming. My group and I decided to take these shots at our local park and mall where my group and I grew up going to and created it as a sort of safety concern to show our viewers. As we get older, we worry more and more about our surroundings and it is such a good thing that we have these instincts in case something does go wrong. Especially since my friends and the teenagers of the world, we are so young so it is always best to be safe and secure when we are out in public or even online. 

How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

When making our music video, my group and I wanted to have a more horror side to the video. Well, it may seem a bit funny at some points in the video, but my vision wasn’t supposed to have any sort of humor. Although it is very pleasing to have some comic relief it was supposed to have an eerie, creepy effect on the viewer. The stalker idea came from the song my group and I chose but it ended up having more scenes that were funny. Because during the time we made the idea it was Halloween. During Halloween there are many dangers to look out for like candy, trick or treating, or just the idea in general. The video was supposed to give out the idea to be safe. My group and I’s product was more towards warning our audience about how your safety matters and you should always be aware of your surroundings and on the internet. For this video to be displayed on platforms such as YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram, etc. It would be a great video to remind people that the world isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. The world can be a dangerous place and we always need to be aware of that fact. This video may get a good laugh out of some but at the end of the day it teaches a very valuable lesson for one’s safety. Many people are on these platforms so the word may get out quickly and will influence others to stay safe and secure. 

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

 

Throughout this project I have learned many new things and skills within the production world. These skills will be used throughout other projects or even when I am older. One thing I have learned is to edit using iMovie. iMovie is an editing platform I have always had on my phone but never used. I am very glad I know how to use it for this music video because it implied a lot of editing skills and transitions. Through some tutorials and experimentation I have upgraded my skills by combining clips and scenes together to adding music and picture inserts. When I learned how to use transitions it made the music video ten times better, such transitions on iMovie like theme, dissolve, slide, wipe, and fade. They were very easy to apply to the video and helped the editing process a lot. But there are also some effects that iMovie offers that I am trying to learn so it can be applied to my next project like green-screen, titles and credits, and more but those are the main ones. There is plenty more room for improvement but overall I am extremely proud of how my editing turned out and I can not wait to apply it to other projects I will be working on. Even though I have learned this for this class, I have always wanted to learn it for the benefit of myself. Film has always been fascinating to me and the effects of it. Film involves a ton of creativity and learning these skills have helped me understand what they do. It is truly an amazing opportunity that I have been blessed with learning. 

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

I decided for the music video that we would use an iPhone. If I had a video camera I would definitely use it but unfortunately I do not. Even if I did, we came straight from school to film our scenes so carrying a camera throughout the whole day at school could cause many risks. I am still very impressed with how the iPhone video quality turned out though. The iPhone offers a ton of features such as portrait mode which blurs out any activity behind the person(s) being filmed. I used this while filming in the mall scenes because the clothes in the background really took away from the theme of darkness that I wanted to have. The iPhone’s features really blew my mind because I have probably had my phone for about four to five years and never knew about it. I applied and tried to use many of the features it offers for the music video. We used my groupmate Mia’s iPhone for the filming because she recently got a new phone so the camera was better. I also used YouTube during the editing process to look up many tutorials for iMovie. This helped me a lot with applying transitions and effects. I also used my laptop and my phone to use iMovie. Even though it took me a while to learn it definitely made up for the result. The technologies I used upped the game for filming and editing. The project helped me save time for the other ones and I can’t wait to do the whole process again.