Critical Creative Reflection

 

1.  How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

My Media project uses conventions of an Alternative genre and a music video in general. My music video uses costumes, makeup, and acting to represent gender roles. I used party clothing such as dresses for my female actors, and a suit for my male actor. ​ After conducting research on other music videos by Cobra Starship, I realized most of them were filing in "happy", "fun", locations. Therefore, my music video was filmed at a party location. My music video's plot was a love story. It depicted the main character daydreaming of falling in love with my male actor. Gender roles are usually depicted as a girl falling in love with an unknown man, often showing, "love at first sight". My video also used similar fast, fun, editing techniques such as a spin shot to keep viewers entertained. My actors were also shown lip singing as used in other music videos. This allowed viewers to see the representation of gender roles better.

2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a ​ real media text? ​

My music video's target audience is young adults and teens, following the conventions of most alternative style music videos by Cobra starship. By using bright costumes and makeup my actors are presented as entertaining and audiences are more likely to watch. ​ Since the song for my music video is very upbeat, young adults and teens are more likely to watch it. My music video also has a very easy to follow, and entertaining plot. It shows three teenage girls getting ready doing their hair, makeup, and picking out dresses. Following this, every moment leading up to the party is shown. This is a great build-up and keeps audiences engaged. Throughout the video many fun, entertaining styles of editing are used, such as a split-screen and tracking shot. ​ As a real media text, my music video would be uploaded to YouTube as the primary viewing spot. This would promote the song itself, as well as my music video. In order to reach more viewers, I would promote my music video on other social media apps targeted to young adults and teenagers, such as Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter.

3.How did your production skills develop throughout this project?​

 Before: Before my music video I had worked on one previous project, which was a commercial. The purpose of the commercial had been to promote a certain product, which was simpler to plan out. I had created a short storyboard and around 30 seconds of a commercial. During the filming process my group was first learning how to work together and accomplish the goal, to promote a product. I feel as though this project did not give me as much creative freedom as my music video, but it helped me grasp basic planning, and filming techniques. Editing this video was something very new to me, so I learned a lot about myself as well as the editing program I was using. ​

During: During the process of filming my music video I already had a basic knowledge of my daily goals of planning, filming, and editing. However, I had a lot more creative freedom on my music video. Not only was it longer, but it was also more complex to plan as it was a minute and thirty seconds long. After I completed planning, I filmed my music video, which was like my first-time filming, my commercial. However, I used a lot more shots that needed additional editing after the filming process. Such as a split-screen, this took a lot of research. ​

After: After completing my music video, I had developed a lot of new skills that helped me further my planning, filming, and editing skills. First, I learned that finishing the filming process early on was important, as some scenes may need to be re-filmed or discarded. The process of researching how to do certain editing features was also vigorous, so next time I will research ahead of time, so it does not interfere with my editing days.

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this ​ project? ​

I integrated technologies, software, hardware, and online resources throughout my music video. The initial process of researching took place on my iPhone using many online browsers and apps such as Google, YouTube, and Instagram. These browsers and social media apps were used for the initial research of my genre of music, and the band my song is sung by. Viewing their social-media platforms allowed me to get an idea of the artist as well as their style. Following my research, my video was completely filmed on an iPhone. This allowed for easy storage, and an easy-to-use and hold filming device. After completing the filming of my music video, I began the editing process. Many new shots were used, needing different types of editing, such as split-screen and freeze-frame shots. I used my laptop to do research while editing. I found many step-by-step YouTube videos that I used to learn new editing techniques. My music video was fully edited using iMovie. A challenge that came up was converting the song into an Mp3 file in order to upload it into my video, however, I found software to download onto my phone and insert it into my music video.