Evaluation

For my final project, I decided to make a music video of

Khalid-Coaster for my client Abhishek Thapa. Abhishek is
fifteen years of age with a YouTube channel showing his
production of him playing the guitar/short cinematic films.
The genre I had to fit into was R&B soul and Hip Hop with an
addition of depression. The rules that were set by my client
was that the video can’t be more than five minutes. My role
was mainly to film as well as edit. I aimed to film a lot of b-
rolls and cinematic shots which can be smoothly edited to the
beat of the song. The target audience was aimed to be at
teenagers, but mainly with those who are experiencing or experienced teenage
loneliness/ depression. To fit this style, I had to turn the contrast down on the
camera settings and colour correct to some clips.

Overall, I think my production was good but still a lot of room for improvements. I
liked how the shorts clips went well with the beats but some clips that were long
could be shortened or contain a cool effect that would interest the audience. A
few addition were made within the script and the final edit. I decided to skip the
bench scene as it was time consuming and could be more efficient if I was straight
to the point.

The genre of my music video is R&B soul and Hip Hop. For editing, the best choice
was to keep a slight fantasy as well as reality which my target audience can relate
to. After sending my survey, everyone saw a clear visual that the genre was R&B
soul and Hip Hop which
surprised me as R&B soul
isn’t that noticeable or
popular. I was inspired to film
a music video similar to Lil
Uzi Vert-XO Tour Lif3 because
the scenes showed a
depressing feeling from the
characters. A lot of cinematic
shots were used along with
close ups which can be
noticed in my production.
The content is to highlight the
reality of teenage loneliness and
depression. The majority during
teenage time, experience a break up
within a relationship which is what I
thought would be powerful and
relatable to a few of my audience.
91.67% believed they can clearly see
the content in my music video
however, 16.67% wanted a bit more
as they thought it wasn’t enough.
This can be improved by using slow
clips and add gestures which implies
his emotion such as a gun gesture.

My style in the music video was to

bombard it with b-rolls and
cinematic shots which flowed
smoothly with the beats. A few
aspiring shots from professionals
such as Lil Uzi Vert helped me to
mimic their filming style but with
a hint of my own. For example,
from 2:25, I filmed a close up shot
to show the writings which were
meaningful and helped the
audience to understand his
feelings. It didn’t stop there, I
decided to track the shot and
then pan away to the scenery.
The majority rated my style 4/5 with
an average rating of 4.31. 38.46%
rated it 5/5 which I’m proud of as it
was my main focus point to film at a
high standard. To improve, some
shots were purposely out of focused
to give a weird and gloomy feeling,
however it was overused and some
shots looked unintentional. Another
improvement to make is to be
certain that the camera isn’t shaky.
This can easily be fixed by using a
stabiliser.
Some concerns I had was not including Wendy enough since there’s only two
characters. With this concern, I thought it might be confusing for the audience to
acknowledge the plot however,
92.31% understood the unstable
relationship. This mean the
characters played their part well,
however 30.77% still found a few
scenes confusing but still
managed. To improve this, I
could use flashbacks to a point
when they were in a relationship
or an image of them together
back in their time.

My editing techniques was to sync the short clips to the beat so it can give a
dramatic effect and flow together. I also added a few effects to give more edge
and keeping the audience entertained. For example, I used the stop motion
ghosting which adds another delayed and faded layer. The camera techniques was
to pull out of focus
however, some clips
maintained the out
of focus which
wasn’t pleasing.
Another technique
was a tracking shot
which panned across
to visualise a
scenery view.

My main specialism is camera-work and to be technical, I aimed to be smooth and

precise with my clips however not all were at a high standard. I didn’t focus on
other technical qualities such as lighting but was still in my mind. The ideal day
was to have a normal sunny day and end in a tragic rainy day however, the whole
week was sunny. That was my idea so pathetic fallacy can take place and show
that any normal day can be someone’s worst day. The lighting went well with the
colour grading and camera as it was a sunny day but still had the gloomy effect.
My aesthetic qualities were shown by the choice of location and how it was filmed.
One appreciation I liked was the mask as it hid the emotions but gives a huge
message that although it can’t be seen, the inside feeling is slaughtered and damp.
The new ‘Anti-social social club’ hoodie as it also expressed Tim’s thoughts and
highlighted his presence. Some editing parts were also edgy such as the ‘stop
motion ghosting effect’.
The creative qualities came from the script as it was my own idea and so far I
haven’t seen a particular music video similar to mine. I believe the creative bit
was certainly the mask as it expressed how discomfort and embarrassed he is to
show his face. Another creative aspect was the lanyard because it symbolised their
relationship and how Tim is trying to forget about Wendy.

In my opinion, I liked the cinematic shots

which went well with the weather
because the colour grading made it look
like a normal day for others but for a few
it can be totally different. Some shots
were smooth which was pleasing as many
other shots were shaky, for example at
2:10, it pans across to the view which
might fascinate a few of the audience.
The ‘stop motion ghosting affect’ also
interest me as it’s something unusual in
my music video but pulled off well.
There’s still a lot of improvements, from my perspective and the audience’s. I
think there’s numerous improvements that can be made, such as having more
focused shots due to some of them not looking intentional and confusing the
audience thinking that it was a mistake. 46.15% of the respondents also agreed
with me, however they understood the purpose and why I would use blurred shots
in this context.
Another improvement to make is steadying my camera movement as most points
were shaky and didn’t
interest the audience.
To improve on this, I
could use a stabiliser or
retake and look back
on my footage to see if
it’s good enough.

With a different approach, I would try to film more swiftly to a point where it’s not
noticeable if it’s shaky or not. I would also try to be more creative with my
recordings rather than just filming panning and tracking shots. The editing as well
would have a different approach by trying to use more efficient effects that flows
well with the music video.
Compared to other existing music videos. Professionals such as Migos tend to add
cuts to make the music video more entertaining rather than straight to the point.
For example, In Migos-Stir Fry, the music video is 6:38 long. The genre of Migos is
Hip Hop and with their music
video, they often like to colour
correct it to perfection with a
gloomy night effect. The
picture on the left shows the
opening scene with a
cinematic shot. The colour
correction is visually clear as
the charter’s left side is red
transparent to the white bright
smoke.

The similarity is that we aimed to colour

correct to our needs and tried to film
enough amount of cinematic shots to keep
entertaining the audience. The cinematic
shots were creative as we both filmed
anything that fits in well. For example, we
both filmed an head gear as it represented
and symbolised a meaning to who owned
it. We also used effects to add more
energetic for the audience to maintain
interested. I only used a few whereas in
 Stir Fry, it’s rightly bombarded.

The difference between our music video is

that Migos was more staged into a
combination of short film as it had a story
line and mixtures of diegetic and non
diegetic. On the other hand, my music video
was from start to finish regarding the song
and had no cuts with dialogue.

Childish Gambino’s latest hit, ‘This is

America’ is also a hip hop and R&B. The similarity between our music video is that
we both have a purpose and meaning presented. Gambino’s music video intended
to express the political and cultural of black live in America, whereas mine was to
show the reality of depression and loneliness.
The difference between our music video is that Gambino use real life events to
convey the visuals. For example, the choir shooting represented the 2015
Charleston church shooting. This gives a huge message to the audience making
them realise the purpose of Gambino’s message. Another difference is that there’s
only one location which is a
huge unused room. This
implies, the black
Americans feel isolated in
America and are constantly
surrounded by the shootings
and riots.

I would like to think that I’m getting to a point of being suitable with the media
industry as I’ve been making progress. I also aim to improve the most I can capable
to do if there’s any mistake or improvements needed. After the music video, I
think that was my strongest project yet out of documentary and short film.