Final Evaluation.
in my music video i attempt to tell a story about a man who feels as if he has taken granted of the time he had as a youth as we go through his memories as he reminisce on his earlier life.
In terms of media language, I feel that I successfully incorporated the enigma code (Barthes) into my music video due to the fact that the narrative is fairly slow paced and obscure. I feel this links to Todorov's narrative theory (which was also successfully applied to my music video) as there was a clear disruption presented where the actor is no longer happy in his teenage years within the video, with a 'climax' occurring when he is in his adult years doing what he has to do to gain an income of any kind. This leads to quick edit of multiple flashbacks leading to a new equilibrium, or otherwise known as resolution, when occurs when he is seen as an older man (implied husband). The scene appears in a brighter background at the end of the video the same as how it was at the start. I think the slow pace builds tension along this narrative and also allows it to be left to interpretation, therefore conforming to Barthe's open narrative 'ball of string' theory. However I do think that i could have made the plot of the music video more clear for the viewer to understand.
I feel I addressed media representation in the way that I planned to with the use of a young black artist who is present in both the video and across the website. I subverted Stuart Hall's ideas of the representation of black people being dangerous as well as the idea that young people are 'fun loving'. There is an element of typicality, however, in mise-en-scene due to props and costumes, I think that due to this, gender and age representation was portrayed successfully in this video, however, I could have improved on ethnicity as the video is fairly black-centered.
I understood through my research that many successful music videos conform to a mixed genre of thematic and narrative and therefore I incorporated this into my own shoot and editing. I originally wanted a video with the forefront narrative being told with more interesting elements occurring in the background, however, this wasn't as interesting as I originally expected in the storyboard, therefore I changed the idea to incorporate thematic shots between the narratives during the chorus. i did this deliberately so that audiences can realise the connection between the lyrics and the visuals using Andrew Godwin's theory. It can be interpreted that perhaps the performer is singing on behalf of the main male character as the lyrics are interconnect to the plot of the visuals, below, as evident of; "Time really moves fast, fast, fast, fast,". At the end of the video we then see the main protagonist getting ready for work with a smile on his face possibly being content with how his life has turned out despite feeling to have taking it for granted after audiences had witness what he went throughout his past. The subtle nature of the narrative means that a wide variety of people can relate to it and interpret it in their own way. The ending shot is of him driving into the distance with a luxury car and his wife, possibly being the reason he is content with how his life has turned out to be, ending the video on a high note as the lyrics state "What happens next? A story to be continued, yeah"
I also knew it was important to incorporate a sense of brand identity across the website and the video, therefore I ensured the use the same yellow and white colour scheme and font on the visuals of both products as Rosewood font was established across both platforms.
My intended audience was aged 15-25 and in socio-economic category C1-A. I feel that I targeted this audience through my performer being within this age category and therefore being relatable to an audience, however, my video could clearly also apply to adults due to the themes of family, marriage and taking life for granted. At 0:35 i implemented a visual similarity in which helps me tell a story through my visuals. All scenes with adult has a warm nostalgic glow.
I believe that my song falls under 'The Resigned'. I say this because the main character is sees the past in a warm nostalgic glow as he remember his youth through flash backs, we see him do different implied activities in order to gain money suggesting that his aim is to survive further relating to 'The Resigned'.
However it can also relate to the struggler (Young and Rubicam's 4 C's model) due to the music video offering relief at not being alone as well as escapism.
At 0:48 used the Purple in the background to connoted the mood of the scene as purple is often associated with ambition, dignity and wisdom which is all thing that the child in the scene must learn before he gets to where he needs to be. We also see him nodding along with the song which is a form of performance within my music video as we then see him recite the lyrics with a smile of his face. The lyrics in this scene mention "lonely" as the boy is sitting on a bench alone with no friends.
At 1:02 i used a Visual contrast from sky line to busy high way to dark street with boy walking away from camera adding further enigma.
At 1:10 the older version of the character then wakes up from bad dream (abruptly) implying his dream was what the viewers just witnessed, the use of the silhouette adds mystery and intrigue on who this person might be at first before it becomes more clear. We then see he gets a text implying illegal activity to get money as it states "meet me at the spot" the background of the phone is of a family relating to the themes and conventional codes.
There is a scene with no music playing as the actor appears to be angry on the phone to the person that text him, i added a visual difference to this scene by making it black and white to visually represent this tone and pace changed. The shots then go on to transitions to slow motion to show change of tone as music slows down too.
2:25 is a back to back edited shot of all main actors showing age progression from teenage to young adult to middle aged
1:14 - 2:29 repeated shot to show the differences to when he looks into the mirror as a man from a young man.The difference is that he can now look at hm self with content knowing how his life turned out.
The ending is a warm heartening ending as characters are content with how his life turned out with luxury car and wife. lyric what happens next story to be continued" combined with car driving into distance then fading to a blur before cutting to black implies the beginning has just started.
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