Final music video, Bastille, Laughter Lines and evaluation.

Final music video, Bastille, Laughter Lines

Evaluation.

For my final music video I ended up creating a narrative and experimental music video for the song Laughter Lines by Bastille, unfortunately I ended up relying on my back up plan therefore when creating the music video I decided to take the lyrics almost literally by either amplifying or illustrating the lyrics to follow the story that is already being told through the lyrics. By following Andrew Goodwin’s theory of either amplifying or illustrating the lyrics meant that it was easy to produce the music video and follow the story literally. By doing this it meant that I was able show a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

An example of where I was able to amplify the music was at the very start of the music video where a close up shows someone winding up a music box, this amplifies the music as it help to stress the music to the audience. 

As well as this an example of where I was able to illustrate the lyrics was when the lyrics say ‘the tree they cut down’ which is sung while a mid-shot of a cut down tree is shown in the visuals. This illustrates the lyrics as it shows exactly what the lyrics are saying meaning that the audience can watch the music video without actively trying to work out the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. 

Unfortunately due to my dancer being unable to make filming I had to fall onto my back up plan. Due to the fact I had already created a backup plan in case my original plan didn’t work out it meant that I could easily change the direction I was taking and easily complete production with ease as everything that I needed to complete had already been planned out making it easy to follow. This was a positive as it meant that I could complete the music video with the right amount of time and make sure that I could compete the work effectively as I already had a plan to follow step by step. 

Another thing that worked well in my production stage was the fact that I was able to experiment with shots during the production stage. An example of this is where I was able to aim the camera at the mirror in order to show the pinky promise in the reflection of the mirror. I feel that this was effective as I was able to constantly reinforce this idea as it was taken from my mood board without constantly using a close up of a pinky promise. 

I feel that one thing that worked well for my music video was having a yellow colour overlay for the flashback/memory scenes and a blue overlay on the scene set in the present. I feel that this worked as its helped me to encode the right feelings into the scenes that I would like the audience to feel. Yellow has strong connotations of happiness and positivity and using this on the flashback/memory scenes helped me to portray how the past was a happier time for the protagonists.

 As well as this the colour blue has strong connotations of isolation and sadness of which the remaining protagonist feels now the other protagonist is no longer around in the present and having the blue overlay helped to encode this feeling.  I feel having these overlays were effective as it can help the audience to tell the difference and help them to follow the narrative more easily and more passively. 

However, I feel that a wider range of shot types could have been used in the making of my music video especially in the scene with the two protagonists in the field. I feel that this could have included more mid shots and close ups instead of one continuous long shot. I feel that by adding more shot types into this scene would have been more effective as it would have allowed the audience to feel closer to the characters and decode more of the feelings as they would have better been able to see the facial expressions of the protagonists. I also feel that this would have been more effective as it would have allowed the audience to engage more with the music video if they could have gained the gratification of personal identity from the protagonists and therefore feel more involved in the music video. 

Another way I could have added in more shot types would be my adding more footage or added extra scenes. This would have improved my music video as it would have meant that I didn’t have to keep re-using shots and could have evolved narrative into more detail but due to set backs I was unable to complete this. 

Another thing I feel was effective in the music video was the panning long shot of the remaining protagonist walking past the tree with the blue overlay followed by the shot reversing to fading to him not being there with camera to pan back to show the figure of the girl standing by the tree. I feel that this is effective as it may answer the enigma of what happened. It allows the audience to understand that for whatever reason she is no longer around and may be perceived as a ‘ghost’ for instance. This may also lead to the audience to gaining the gratification of social integration as they may discuss what happened to the girl and or why and try to answer the final enigma of what actually happened for her to not be there anymore. 

Something that I feel that let my music video down was the mid shot of the protagonist walking up and the other protagonists hand reaching out to him even though she isn’t actually there. Although the scene was effective in showing to the audience that the girl is no longer there for whatever reason and may be perceived as a ‘ghost’ I feel that the editing could have worked a lot smoother. This is because when the colour overlay first changes from blue to yellow when the hand reaches in it blends so far then suddenly jumps to the yellow overlay. Although there is still a fade when this first starts I feel that it could have been edited more smoothly like when the colour overlay fades back to blue. 

        *Sudden change from this to

Overall I feel that my music video was effective in showing a narrative as well as applying parts of Andrew Goodwin’s and Carol Vernallis’ theories (genre, editing etc.). Even though I had to end up resorting to my back up plan as the original plan that included a dance sequence feel through I feel I was still able to produce an effective music video in a smaller amount of time even if it wasn’t my first original idea. I also feel that the music video was effective in its ending of the final protagonist closing the box of ‘memories’ in order to signify the end of the story or to signify the end of an era in that characters life. I feel that it was an effective way of wrapping up the music video and ending it.