Media Music Video Evaluation

First of all and most importantly, I had to do some research behind the songs I had chosen. To begin with, my initial idea was to have the track 'The Scientist' by Coldplay, it went well with the idea I had in mind and is also one of my favourite songs by Coldplay. It wasn't till half way through filming my music video I heard the remix version, Coldplay - The Scientist mixed with Radiohead - High and Dry. Both songs ran together fluently and I enjoyed the version, so chose for this to be my new track on my music video. I had quite an emotional storyline in mind so the song fitted perfectly with what i wanted and imagined. With my song chosen, I had a look at the lyrics in order for them to go along with the story I had in mind, it went perfectly, so my next step was to look at demographics. My main inspiration was the Coldplay video, 'The Scientist' and this shows when watching my video.


My Coldplay demographics showed me that 52% of males enjoyed Coldplay's music whereas 48% of females enjoyed their music. Age wise, the demographics showed that Coldplay's music was most popular with 12-17 year olds, 18-34 year olds coming in at a close second in the demographics chart. The information showed me that Coldplay's fan base is mostly made up of almost 50% women and men, there was only a 4% difference when it came to the gender demographics chart. This suggested that Coldplay's music is enjoyed by both males and females equally. Along with these demographics I also looked at pictures of fans at Coldplay's concerts which helped to give me an idea of the average age of people that bought Coldplay's albums and enjoyed their music. Judging by the photo's that I seen, the fans in them seemed to be aged from around 18-24. I also found out that VH1 in their top 100 pop videos had voted Coldplay - The Scientist in at number eleven. The demographics and information I gained helped me out a lot as I wanted to aim my music video at young adults, 17+ (as this is more of a mature age), so the information was very helpful. I also analysed 5 pop music video’s, I thought this would be helpful as I could maybe pick up some camera techniques from the video’s to help me with my own. I looked at:

Violet Hill by Coldplay
Just by Radiohead
Common People by Pulp
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Wonderwall by Oasis

Even though I didn’t use many of the conventions I seen in these video’s (for example, birds eye view, pan) they helped to give me an idea of what should be included in a pop video, so I had an idea of how my music video should end up looking. In my video, i used typical conventions such as different camera techniques and mise-en-scene. After watching the video to 'The Scientist' I decided that I wanted my story line to be quite emotional, as both 'The Scientist' and 'High and Dry' are quite emotional songs. To begin with I didn't realise how much of an effect slow motion and reverse made so didn't consider adding this in to my video. However, the more I watched the Coldplay video, the more I started to notice the build up of emotion that both techniques bring. So with the sad storyline I had in mind, I decided to add both techniques in to my video.
Overall in my video I used: slow motion
black and white editing
reverse
mise en scene
close up
extreme close up
two shot
zoom in/out
high shot
mid shot


My potential viewers and listeners would be as young as 12+, Coldplay are a band that is enjoyed by many age groups, as are Radiohead.

I wanted my viewers and listeners to be able to maybe relate to the video in someway, as it's about a loved one passing away and the memories that are left behind, I thought that the viewers should be a mature age so they could fully understand the concept of the video. Even though in my video my actor was an elderly man dreaming about his late wife and his early memories he'd had with her, I wanted the video to be for anyone, not just someone that had lost a wife or husband. It can relate to the viewers and listeners that have lost a family member, such as a Mum, Dad, Nan or Grandad, or even a close friend that's passed away. A mature age is 17+, so I thought people of this age and over would be able to understand the storyline in the video and the connection and link it has with the song. Coldplay and Radiohead are both known as alternative rock bands, so listeners and viewers of my music video would maybe enjoy music such as Coldplay, Radiohead, U2 and Travis.

To get my product to as big an audience as possible, I will post my video on one of the internet's most used websites to watch video's on, YouTube. Millions of people each day use YouTube to watch their favourite music video's, I realised that by tagging my music video under, "Coldplay Radiohead Media Music Video" that my video would come up quite often when a viewer typed in one of these words. So my video would reach a wide range of people that use the website.

Even though my music video has quite an emotional storyline behind it, I wanted the message that the video gives to be an optimistic one. I wanted the viewers and listeners to watch it and be able to take away from it that even when loved ones pass away, they are still with you in your memories and you should be happy that you've had that person in your life to make memories with. So I wanted the message to be able to comfort my target audience. For my video to be understandable when watched by my target audience, I edited certain clips in my video, by making them black and white, I hoped from this that the viewers and listeners would be able to realise that these clips were set in the past. Whereas the clips in my video that were in colour, were in the future. I placed these clips carefully around each other so that, when the elderly man was shown sleeping, this would be set in colour and when the target audience was watching his dream about the past, this would be set in black and white to represent that it wasn't the present time. I think by doing this and editing the clips colour wise, It really helped to separate the past and present so that it was simple for the viewer to understand at which point in time the actor was at in his life.
I used close ups at the beginning of my music video on both the young actor’s eyes and the elderly actor’s eyes also, so that when the elderly man closed his eyes, the audience would know it was the same person when I used a close up on the young man opening his. I also used an extreme close up on the necklace the young man puts on his girlfriend in the beginning of the video, so that the viewer would be able to recognise it, as the necklace goes on to play a part in the middle of the video too. I then went on to use close up on the elderly mans feet walking past, this represents how he’s lost his youth and isn’t able to do the things he used to do. Same goes for when I used a close up on both his empty bowl and glass of water, in comparison to the two meals the young man puts down on the dinner table and the two glasses he fills with red wine. This helped to show that the elderly man was alone and eating dinner by himself, so the viewer knew his wife had since passed.
I also used reversing in my video towards the last half of it, as in the song, the lyrics say, "Let's go back to the start." Therefore, I made certain clips rewind to represent that this is what the elderly man wanted, to rewind and go back to the start of his relationship so that he could be with his wife again. I thought that this technique was interesting, as it's not a common technique and it's rarely used in pop music videos. I think that by using these techniques my target audience will be interested, as 'The Scientist' was voted in the Top 20 of the Top 100 pop music video's and they used the reverse technique and a similar storyline.
Sound wise, I tried to time the music so that at certain parts in the video, the music either helped to represent what was happening, or the lyrics said what was happening. To begin with when the young man is running up towards the tree to hide behind it, the piano music goes at the same pace as the young man is running. Also near the beginning the lyrics say, “I had to find you.” When the elderly man walks past, as though he’s trying to find his wife. Later on in the video, as the wine is being poured out of the bottle, the piano music changes and almost makes a trickling sound, as the sound of the wine would be doing as it’s coming out of the bottle. The lyrics also go on to say, “It’s such a shame for us to part, nobody said it was easy, no-one ever said it would be this hard.” These lyrics fit perfectly with the timing of the video, as when the lyrics are being sung, my video shows the elderly man sitting in his chair with the necklace in his hand whilst he‘s sleeping (the necklace which was shown earlier on in the video that the young man put on his girlfriend). This helps to suggest that the elderly actor hasn’t gotten over the death of his late wife and isn’t able to move on from it. After this part in the music video, the piano plays as the camera moves across to the chair with the music changing tempo. It then stops playing just in time for a photo of the elderly man and his wife to be shown and the lyrics say, “I’ll take it back to the start.” The next clip is then set in the past at the beginning of the relationship as the young man sets the dinner table for him and his girlfriend. A few clips after this, I used a reverse technique so that the elderly mans feet were walking backwards and the lyrics said, “I’m going back to the start.” I then had to use the same clips as I had used in the beginning of my music video, for it to make sense for the viewers. If I didn’t re-use these clips then my video wouldn’t have worked the way I wanted it to and wouldn’t have had the right affect. My idea is a simple one, a man dreaming about his past and I hoped that by using all of these techniques, e.g close ups, extreme close ups, black and white effect, reverse technique and slowing the pace of the clips down that the story would make more sense and so would receive positive feedback.

As I felt as though my techniques said a lot about the storyline and helped to represent what the video was about, my mise-en-scene was used to show the simpler things about the past and present of the elderly man’s life. Placing a walking stick next to his arm chair helped to show that he wasn’t the quick, light-footed boy he once was and had to have help in life to get by, with the most simplest of things, such as walking.
This contrasts with the young man in the video, as he runs up to the tree to hide behind it, needing no aid to do so. The one empty bowl and glass of water the elderly man had in front of him, contrasted with the two glasses of wine and two plates of dinner that the young man had set out for him and his girlfriend. This helped to show that the elderly man’s wife had since passed on and he was living at home by himself. The necklace plays a big part in the video, as It was given by the elderly man to his girlfriend as a gift when he was younger. I zoomed in on the necklace and used extreme close up just so that the viewers would later recognise it in the video, in the elderly mans hand as he sleeps. This suggests that, just as he’s holding on to the necklace, he’s also holding on to his past and not letting go. It also helps the viewers and listeners recognise that the young girl in the video was the girl that was in a relationship with him when he was younger.
My mise-en-scene also showed the elderly man, inside in his house, sitting down with little freedom, restricted and shut away from the outside world. However, when the viewers see the young man in the music video, they see him not just inside but outside too. Showing that when he was the young man, he had more chances, possibilities and options in life, he wasn’t just stuck to one option, he had many. There also isn’t one clip where you see the young man sitting down, which shows that he was always on the go, in contrast to the elderly man that has little to do in his day to day life.

The techniques that I have used are similar or exact to the techniques used in professional pop videos today, however, professional videos have more variety when it comes to equipment and editing equipment. However, I think I used my resources well and given the chance to work with professional equipment my music video would be of better quality.

The reactions I received towards the themes and messages in my video, were positive ones. From my feedback, I gained that by coming up with an imaginative storyline, I managed to capture peoples emotions as my storyline shows something that has or is going to happen to everyone in life at some point. So most people could relate to my music video. The reverse technique was found to be a popular one amongst my viewers, as it’s not a common technique, so my viewers and listeners said they found it enjoyable to watch. By using black and white editing, my target audience also said that they found the storyline simple to follow, when the story was going between the past and the present. My feedback helped me to realise that by using different techniques you can make a music video, easier to understand. So I learnt a lot from using editing techniques. My viewers also said that I had gone on to shown that the elderly man was now vulnerable, from the clip where he’s holding his late wife’s necklace in his hand that he had given to her when they were younger. Everything that I had hoped people would gain from my video, they had. The most positive feedback I gained was my viewers and listeners saying that with the right professional equipment, they’d most likely expect to see my music video on music channels on the television.

To get my product to as big an audience as possible, I will post my video on one of the internet's most used websites to watch video's on, YouTube. Millions of people each day use YouTube to watch their favourite music video's, I realised that by tagging my music video under, "Coldplay Radiohead Media Music Video" that my video would come up quite often when a viewer typed in one of these words. So my video would reach a wide range of people that use the website.