4. Evaluation Task 4- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

1. Evaluation Task 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Similar to many other music videos in this genre of dance-pop music, the video starts by introducing the artist and song name. From looking at a top 100 dance music videos of week website, it seems that most dance videos have a very varied and bright colour palette. I have chosen not to follow this theme and have stuck to a more muted colour palette of black and gold, in concordance with the title of the song.

2. This shot establishes the two main performers in an intimate way. A common theme in dance videos is that the dancing is often very sexual and bordering on vulgar. This dance however, contrasts with this as it is more styled around ballroom dance.

3. This shot and the entire section set in black and white take inspiration from Madonna's vogue dancing. The quick movements and emphasis on hands and arms as well as the black and white colour filter really link the two music videos. 

4. The use of light behind Niya adds a mysterious and edgy effect that creates shadows and looks like a golden profile of his face. This mimics the sultry and shady look of singers in dark clubs etc. 

5. As well as the previous style with the singer, there are also the shots where the singer's face is more visible, getting them the publicity and 'face-time' they need to sell their image.

6. Music videos often hold a new section/scene for later on in the video to keep the audience hooked. I have chosen to put in three sections of written lyrics to add something new about half way through the music video. 

7. I chose this shot as an example of the way I put an emphasis on editing to the beat. In this shot, the movement of her eyes is in time with the beat.

8. Another feature that I saved for later was when two of the sections, the black and gold dancers and the black and white dancer, merged together into the same scene. As well as what I mentioned before about how music videos often do this, it is also a feature of this genre to mix scenes and change the set up during the video. 

9. Few music videos in the genre of dance-pop contain a storyline but I felt that one was necessary to relay the relationships of the dancers and also create a visual that went with the lyrics, The story really comes into play at the end of the video, making the audience think back through the rest of the song for other moments that expressed the bitter-sweet nature of the song.

27. Rough Edit

Here is my first and VERY rough edit for my music video. I need to sort of the lip syncing and there are a few shots that are either too long or not interesting enough that I want to change and swap with other footage I have.

Editing

I have been editing my footage. I first went through all the footage I got and cut it down to the usable sections where the dancers were in sync and it looked good. After doing this, I had about 30mins of raw footage! I knew that I wanted to do a lot of editing to the beat and so that meant a lot of short sections of film and quick edits. Here are some screen shots of my progress during the editing process.

26. Filming

Here are some pictures I took during the filming process. I now have all my footage.

22. Shot List

21. Animatic

20. Story Board of 3 Sections

Section 1- Black and White colour, male lip-syncer. Standing microphone, single spotlight, plain background.

Section 2- Black and white colour, four female dancers. Four blocks for dancing on, low level lighting, fedora hats, simple black costumes, black and white facepaint/make-up.

Section 3- Full colour image. Theme of Black and Gold, girl- gold, boy- black. Simple black backdrop with fairy-lights sewn in swirling patterns. Mood lighting.

19. Story Plan

I listened to the lyrics of the song to determine their different potential meanings. I discovered a lot of the words linked back to evolution but the I have chosen to follow the dream-like element of the song. In particular reference to the lines 'if you're not really here, then I don't wanna be either. I wanna be next to you'. I am going to tell the story of two opposites using a pair of dancers. The girl will be 'Gold' and the boy will be 'Black' and they will tell their story through their dance. It will be a representation of the theme 'opposites attract' with the dance showing their attraction and how they long to be together but they keep being split. It will show their struggle to stay together while also cross-cutting with another group of dancers, this time a group of four girls. They will be dressed in monochrome colours but have abstract face make-up as they are supposed to have a surreal and dreamlike quality. Their dance is going to be more contemporary with a main focus on their hands and twisting their bodies to look 'whispish' and fluid. Towards the end of the song, the two groups of dancers will merge with the group of four girls travelling to the edge of their original set and then cutting to them appearing on the dancing pair's set, as if they have travelled through. They will then proceed to split the two dancers up, with two girls taking 'Black' to one side and the other two girls taking 'Gold' to the other side, their arms reaching out to each other. The final image will be a split screen of their eyes opening. During the video, there will be a third scene with a boy lip syncing into an old fashioned free-standing microphone. There will be a profile spotting him but this scene and the scene with the four girls will be in black and white. This is to make the scene with the dancing pair that much more alluring and dreamy.

12. Storyboarding- Lady Gaga- Edge of Glory

Here is the first 1 minute worth of the music video for Lady Gaga's song Edge of Glory.