Music Video Evaluation

Our group were asked to create a music video to a song of our choice lasting three to four minutes. In terms of planning, we watched videos that inspired us and took ideas from those which did (e.g. Video Games – Lana Del Rey), we created a storyboard so we had a rough idea of what kind of shots we wanted to include and we visited the location where we wanted to film the performance based part of the music video to have a rough idea which areas were best for lighting. Our initial aims for this music video was to create a performance and concept based video showcasing the themes of love, hurt and distress and we wanted a grimy, moody feel to the music video. The genre of our music video is indie-pop/sadcore as it reflects the song, our primary target audience is female students between the ages 16-26 as most indie-pop videos are aimed at students and I have chosen females because it is a known fact that females love heart-break songs and may relate to the song.

The video has some indie-pop characteristics such as we have used a rundown area; the location is generally dark although there are moments when the lighting is quite light which shows the ‘POP’ side to the genre. The artist is also wearing make-up; jewellery and abstract clothing which makes her stand out. We have also used footage from different scenes which is also a main characteristic in Indie Pop videos. The link between the lyrics and visuals is evident and amplified, as when the lyrics become more emotional so does the artist in the video which is shown by her facial expressions and body posture. There is also a link between the music and the visuals as the song is slow, dreary and monotone throughout the song and the model in the visual is emotionless and has no expression, the visuals amplifies the feel of the song. To create a certain image of the star in our music video, the record label demanded close-ups. As she's a solo artist, she needs to always be the center of attention when she is in the shot so the public familiarizes with her. In this music video, we attempted to not make any intertextual references to other TV shows, music videos or films as we wanted the video to be seen as unique, creative and original which will also help the star of the music video create a image of herself being a unique individual musically and creatively. In this music video, our star has challenged familiar stereotypes such as female artists in the music video must be skimpily dressed to gain viewers. If we look at the most popular females in the music industry; Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, they all wear skimpy clothes and most of the time their music videos include something sexual of the sort. That is something we wanted our artist to challenge, which also takes us back to the idea that we wanted the artist and the video to be seen as unique and original. 


The music video will be shown on channels such as MTV Rocks and Q as they are the channels that mainly play alternative videos. Other channels, such as 4Music and MTV Hits may occasionally play our artist's music video, as they play pop music and our artist does sing pop music, but they normally play mainstream music which is in the UK Top 40 or artists who are well known so only rarely will our music video be making an appearance. The video will also be available on websites such as YouTube and Vimeo, which can then be posted on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. It is important that the video is available online as the internet has a huge impact on the charts and is a way to get the music video available to everyone across the globe. Our artist heavily relies on the internet as our target audience are known to use the internet a lot so it is an easy way to reach our target audience. 


In our music video, we have used a mixture of original clips that we filmed ourselves and clips that we have found on the internet, so the copyright law affects us as we have to get permission to use the found footage. We would have to hire lawyers or solicitors to approach the owner of the video clip that we took so we could get permission from them, if we do not gain permission there is a chance we'd have to change the music video drastically or get rid of it completely. We have taken into consideration these possibilities so we have come up with a few back up plans if things go wrong. OFCOM which is a regulatory body for Television have a code of practice which applies to our music video (complete later). 


Our music video has many strengths, as it is original and creative, the main reason why we wanted to do a music video was to be different. We decided against just having a clip of our artist singing the lyrics as we thought that would be extremely boring and not appealing to our target audience. We also decided against making the music video predictable as we wanted something that was unexpected not cheesy or boring. We feel that the direction we took this music video in has worked perfectly for us and is appealing to our target audience as it is different from what they normally see on the music channels and will catch their eye. We feel our editing skills in this music video was good, as we had never edited a music video before, we synced the music well and I believe everything has a nice flow. We also used all different kinds of shots in different lighting, so we have a variety in our music video rather than it all being in the same location and the same lighting which can get repetitive and boring. We made sure we had close-ups, full body shots, our artist was sitting down, standing up, standing on a rock in the middle of a dirty pond... variety was important to us. I believe that our music video only had one weakness, which was video quality. In some areas, the video quality was not as good as other parts which is not entirely our fault but we felt that it could of been better in some parts. Other than that, we are extremely proud of our music video, we believe it gives a good representation of our group as people and our creativity. I think it meets our audience needs, as our audience was 16-25 female students. That age group are mainly interested in pop as it is the most popular genre, also our music video is about love and relationships which is suitable for teenage girls as they can relate the music video to situations in their own life. It is also meets our target audience's needs as the artist is of similar age so the target audience is more likely to relate to our artist.