Kirsty's Second Draft Evaluation

The piece I created is a music video for the song Heartless by the band The Fray. This challenges some conventions of the music video genre, one of which is that the main character is male. This is in itself is often seen in music videos; however, songs that portray heartbreak are typically from a female perspective. My video shows a male moping around his room and reacting in a stereotypically female manner. This opposition is shown in the Taylor Swift video You Belong With Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6JdUw) which follows this convention and shows heartache from a female perspective. Although this video does not represent heartbreak specifically, it is a good comparison because it shows the female character acting similarly to the main male character in my video.

However, not all aspects of my video challenge convention. I decided to use continuity editing in the beginning scene of my video. This is typical of story-telling music videos. This is illustrated in the video Stylo by Gorillaz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs). On the other hand, this is not used for the entirety of my film. During the flashback scenes, I chose to use cross fade transitions to move from one shot to another, this is because the shots do not follow a typical sequence, for example, they do not appear in chronological order. Also, each shot is a specific memory and, although they add to the plot of the overall film, they are totally unique and stand alone in their positioning, allowing much more freedom and creativity. The use of transitions in music videos is a typical feature, an example of this is the song Quiet Times by Dido (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQkrhTrQKg)

A further feature of my video is the use of green-screen. This is commonly used within the music video genre, however, where I used it appears to be unique. Many videos use green-screen as the main background, with shapes and colours super imposed behind the artist. An extreme example of this is Rhianna’s video Rude Boy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e82VE8UtW8A). In this video bright colours and backgrounds have been used in the style of many 1980’s/1990’s videos. In my video I have used green-screen in photo frames, in which the images move, portraying more than simply a photograph. This has worked well in setting a mood and showing more background information than a traditional photo would. It also acts as a catalyst aiding the action in moving the bedroom scene to the flashback and memories.


To further exaggerate the transition between present day and the past, I have used muted colours in the present day and brighter colours in the flashbacks. Using colour to show this difference is a typical convention in film, however, it is usually used in opposition. For example, the past tends to be in muted colours and the present in full colour. I chose to challenge this convention to represent and exaggerate the depression and mind state of the male character; it shows that the past was a happier time.


I chose to do the magazine advert and digi-pak for my ancillary tasks. I feel that the advert successfully targets the same audience as the band does in its colourings and layout. The dark background and bright purples typically draw a similarly aged male audience. By featuring the cover of the digi-pak in the advert, I have given the audience an image to look for and recognise on the shelf.

I feel the digi-pak emulates the video in its construction. The image on the front cover clearly represents the male’s heartbreak and the scribbles show his frustration. Furthermore, the hand-written, doodle-style of the image shows the age of the characters and so target an audience of a similar age. Doodles are typically associated with school and college, the characters are about 18 or 19 years old and so are within these boundaries. This age range is also the younger limit of the target audience for both the band and the video. In addition, the inner pages include images of the broken couple, furthering the theme of love and heartbreak. It also links the video into the digi-pak on a literal level.


I also made a bold decision to put a blurb-style summary of the video in the digi-pak. This decision was made to encourage people to buy the physical CD as apposed to downloading it. Digi-paks have to be unique and stand out from the competitors. Institutions attempt this by including such details and free gifts such as posters. Overall, I feel the digi-pak is successful in representing the style of music and the video.

All three products are combined and create a brand identity. The video and the digi-pak have similarities in that the two characters of the video are largely featured in the digi-pak. This makes it obvious that the two are linked, creating a specific identity of the song and the band. Furthermore, the advert is successfully linked to the digi-pak because the front cover of the digi-pak is the main feature of the advert. Because all three feature elements of the other two products the image of the band and the song are more widely known and recognised creating a strong brand.

Once completed, I showed my video to other people in my class. I chose this group as they would watch the video with a critical eye and spot technical issues that a non-specialist audience would not. Furthermore, they are of the correct age and social status that I aimed to target, therefore if they liked it, so would the public. Most of the feedback was positive, with comments including how they liked the technical issues such as the green-screen and colourings. They also appreciated the characters and acting, they related to both characters, especially the male. This was most pleasing as this was my main aim when creating my film. A questionnaire result, that proves this point stated that “as an audience member I feel the music video fulfills many of my audience needs.”Furthermore, many comments were on the subtleness of the mise-en-scene how it is successful in creating the semiotics of emotion and location.

However, some constructive criticism was given on the limited locations and how they would have liked to see more varied flashback scenes such as restaurant scenes. Looking back I feel this would have been a good idea, I also think that a shot of the couple in the room shown at the beginning of the video would have solidified the reality of the memories. Overall, the feedback was mainly positive making the video successful in its purpose.



Many technologies were used in the research, creation and evaluation of my piece. Some are obvious for example the use of the internet to find research on the band and music video theory. I also used the internet and specifically YouTube to watch and analyse existing music videos. This also helped me to study The Fray’s usual style of video. Additionally, I used digital cameras to record the footage and the software Final Cut Express to edit the video on an Apple MaccBook. Within Final Cut I used its functions to delete the specific green colour of the card in the photo frames and changed the size and angle of the footage, which I then moved to position in the gap created when deleting the green colour.

I have also made use of links and screen shots in this evaluation, only made possible by the blog format. And by using a blog it makes it easier for teachers to mark the work and means it is accessible to other groups in the class for feedback and to gain further ideas.

The use of digital technologies has helped to make all of my products more successful and of industry standard. For example, the use of green-screen would not have been possible without the up-to-date software and the ability to research how to complete the task. Before beginning this task I did have the know-how to do remove the green colour from the scene and replace it with other footage.

Also, the use of HDD cameras allowed me to film more footage and upload them onto the computer quicker than if it had been recorded on mini DV cameras. This meant I could spend more time editing and re-editing the footage.

Furthermore, I feel the ancillary tasks are enhanced by the use of the professional program Publisher. Without this software the images and text would not have been aligned, as I would have liked. It also allowed me to edited the images and distort them to my desired effect.

In conclusion, I am very pleased with the piece, however I feel there are some minor points that could have been improved, but I have learnt many new skills and picked up on some poorer points that can be changed in further projects.