Music Video Evaluation

For this unit we had to create a music video in a period of 6 weeks. I started by searching the purpose of a music video. First I went to look at different styles of music video for example abstract, performance, narrative etc... and for my video I wanted to go with a narrative kind of video. After choosing the styles of my video I had to put down some initial ideas for what I wanted my music video to look like, first I picked the song I wanted to base my video on for example

hip-pop/rap, rock, jazz, blues and etc.… The song I had chosen was ‘Denim’ by Frank Ocean. The reason I picked this song is because it have a story line to it because I wanted to have a good narrative that would describe something from my own point of view. The song unfortunately didn’t have a video which was hard for me to have a point of view of the artist and what he wanted to express in his video with the song. Below are some music video that I look at and liked because of their narrative prospect of what the artist is saying from his lyrics and it reflect of what the video is showing.






  But when we were put into groups we had to take only one proposal into production. My group members really liked my video but the only thing we were struggling with was the location we needed for my video proposal. so we picked another member video idea which a song called ‘Hii Power’ by Kendrick Lamar the song basically mean the simplest form of representing ourselves and just being above all the crazy stuff happening around the world. No matter what the world is going through, you’re always going to keep your dignity and carry yourself with this manner that it doesn’t phase you. Whatever you think negative is in your life. Overcoming that and still having that self-respect and also how the black community is being misguided and need to stand up and take responsibility. As the artist said “Hiiipower: the three i’s represent heart, honor and respect”. As a group we had to look at different music video for us to have a better idea how to portrait the song we had chosen for example we looked at ‘Star’ by The Roots and that was our main influence on our video because of the fast pace cuts from different face, location and people it really grabbed what I was looking for, that is not just featuring one side of the community but different communities from all over and provided a good foundation for our video.

As we start the video we hear Martin Luther King famous I have a dream speech in the background and then we see a unknown character in the opening scene with this mystery character in a balaclava who seems to be doing nothing is in fact listening to martin Luther King but do not know that until the end of the video and he is in fact learning from what he is hearing and he responses back in a rap about how he feels, from his point of view of life not just in what he says but what he sees by using plenty of location shots to show that it ain’t just one location he is talking about but all over these things he sees occur and everything going fast and people not caring about anything. As we continue we see trains moving in fast pace but then slowed down we used this to represent life in how fast they move to our destination then it goes on again like the song ‘Life Goes On’ by Tupac. Using some ideas I picked up from researching other music videos the idea of filming in different location was very useful in making the video not just only for fantastic location shots of the city but also making the viewer’s feel closer to home and showing that the struggle and what the mysterious character sees is not just in one place but all over.

I mostly enjoyed the practical work because it was a fun experience with all the different location we went to record and also working with new equipment and different software to edit the video. I've also enjoyed working with my group with new ideas and making sure that we push ourselves so to do it and not get to laid back and fall behind in our production. The other thing I really enjoyed was being the director it was that was new to me and I think I done a decent job also everyone in my group said they really enjoyed having me the director.

Weakness would be meeting the deadline for the writing and pre-production work more earlier and at a better timing. This is because it would of gave me more time for me to organize and schedule better and earlier timing for me to get the production filming and the evaluation to the best standards as possible I could and achieve a high grade when handing the whole project in.

When showing our video to other students in and out of college, I noticed that they really enjoyed the cuts and the effects that I have used in the video. However some student didn’t like the fact the character wearing the mask. Overall I believe the music video was a success, from the shots that was taken being the highlight of it I believe being our strongest point also but the way me and my recording partner got on so well in the video