Preliminary Task Evaluation

Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?

By the end of the workshop day I was very tired but I found the whole experience very enjoyable. Watching the crew work and being able to help them was my favourite part of the day. The entire process was, in my opinion, extremely professional and I can easily imagine how a professional music video would be created, based off the workshop day. Another aspect which I liked was the atmosphere within the studio during the shoot; the entire crew was still working enthusiastically at the end despite shooting for over 12 hours.

What did you learn from participating in the workshop?
By observing the crew I learnt about the different responsibilities each person had, how they contributed towards the shoot. The prop artist and make up artist had to get props and people in front of the camera looking their best at the right times. They had a huge role to play and also had to keep a watch on the shot schedule. Crew working with the camera used many different equipment, including a jib, dolly, track and a variety of lens. By the end of the shoot day I had learnt the basics of how they operate this equipment by watching the crew.

Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?
From the beginning of the workshop I had never expected the end product to be as well made as the real music video, but it turned out much better than I had anticipated. The set looked fantastic and the drapery made a good replacement for the infinity wall. Although some of the movement in the shots were quite difficult to recreate, the crew compromised by establishing their own movement, for example, with one of the panda bear shots involving lots of panning and tracking. In other cases, the size of our studio hindered the shots, in the shots with the doll house the crew could not track far back enough as the track on the floor would sometimes appear at the bottom of the screen. During the edit the group was able to pick the best sections of footage together so I am happy with the footage on a whole.

How do you think your workshop experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?
The workshop has given me insight to professional music video planning, production and post production and it will help me successfully create my own music video next term. I think that the workshop experience will benefit my planning for next term's project. Seeing all the planning done in preparation for the music video workshop has made me realise that it would all be a disaster without it. Everything ran smoothly thanks to all the planning done by the crew.

'Monsters' Analysis

Naked Girls, Monde Yeux, 2012

Narrative, Conceptual

Instant impact
The video begins in an calm, idyllic field, pulling the audience in. Enigma codes of the opening makes the viewer want to carry on watching. Why are there balloons? What is the man doing in a junkyard with golf bats?

Non-linear editing
Video on a whole contains linear editing rather than non-linear, being a narrative music video. The entire music video contains three seperate stories, each set in a their own unique environment, each about a different person and each containing their own "monster". One moment we see a woman wandering through an enchanting forest and the next, a man playing golf.  As the music quickens and the story reaches it's climax the editing becomes very fast paced.

A sense of development
At the beginning of the video the humans had not seen the monsters before, they meet and become friends with them during the video. At the end we discover that the humans are the monsters, the woman's shadow has become the monsters shadow, the man's reflection is the monster and the girl's eyes change from blue to brown, the monster's eye colour.

Strong sense of artist identity
Does not have any reference to artist within the video apart from the title of the band at beginning of video along with the name of the video. Musical style of the song is very distinctive and the music video compliments it well, especially the clothing of the actors, the colour/ mood and the props.

An engaging performance
There is no performance, singing or dancing, within the video. The bird monsters do "dance" but it seems as though they are acting rather than performing, as the intention is to intimidate the woman.

Extremes, binary oppositions and repetitions
Opposites:
     ● human and monster
     ● forest, field and junk yard
     ● day(field) and night(forest)
     ● cloudy sky(junk yard) and clear sky(field)
Repeated appearance of monsters and main three actors throughout. All three stories stay within their own setting from beginning to end.

Are visually striking
Strong and vibrant colours combined with distinctive settings. Costumes and props are particularly eye catching, obviously hand made out of paper maché therefore the viewer notices the effort put into such details. The SFX animated facial expressions of monster are disconcerting but comforting in a way, as if they are given a human side to them rather than just being monsters.

Provoke a reaction
When the bird-creatures begin bullying the woman we would feel pityful towards her, perhaps angry towards the creatures. Towards the end of the video, when all three humans are with their monsters, the audience should feel happy for the humans and monsters because they look like they are having so much fun.

Different layers of meaning
The symbolism of the shadow, reflection and eye colour change is that the humans are the monsters. We see the monsters, which is a representation of the human's "suppressed" presonality, by running free with their monster they are able to accept themselves fully. At the end of the video, their suppressed personality is no longer hidden and they are back in reality.

References to popular culture
Clothing of the female actors follows recent "hipster" fashion trends which suits the indie folk genre of the song well whilst appealing to the niche indie market. This includes the cardigans, floral dresses and knitted sweaters. The male actor wears a shirt, tie and leather jacket combination which is smart casual, another trend that is becoming more prominent worldwide.