Final Edit Music Video Evaluation – Emma Upton

In the music video we created as a group and edited individually, I think there are many strength and a few weaknesses to my music video. However even with the weaknesses that are present I’m proud of the final product. I think one of our strong points is the shot composition, as we found setting up to film the shots quite easy and all our shots ended up clear, in focus and with good exposure. I think this is because each member of our group had a clear idea of what shots we wanted, and which angles were needed to position the camera. We also made sure to get everything we needed clearly within the frame. I definitely think composition was one of our strong points as a group.

However, lighting was somewhat of an issue or weak point whilst filming, this would be because we filmed certain shots in different locations, both inside and out, so the lighting was different in some shots. The shots we filmed outside had perfect natural lighting, but the shots from inside the house turned out very yellow, due to not having much natural light and having to use the house lights. We did use a DLSR light mount to help focus on the actors faces, but the lighting still wasn’t as good as the other shots.

To fix the problem of the odd yellow lighting in the shots filmed inside, after we put the clips all together we used colour correction, in order to make the clips look clearer and up to the same standard as the shots filmed outside.

Here is an example of the effect I used on colour correction while editing my video to change the colour from the left picture which is clearly very yellow and orange, to the right picture which looks much more natural after colour correction.

When I was in the process of editing my music video I cut down each clip to the correct moment I wanted from the clip, and also made sure they were the right size to fit perfectly with the song, while also making sure the clips matched the song as best as I could. The main editing techniques I used was colour correction and cutting, I think I succeeded with cutting the clips as I found that quite easy. However I found the colour correction to be quite difficult to get the perfect lighting or colour I needed, I’m quite happy and pleased with how my colour corrected shots turned out.

Our music video is about a relationship between a boy and a girl; it shows the transition of while the couple are together and in love, then the boy on his own while the couple are on a break and how the boy is coping and feeling about it. With this genre of a typical love story/break up music video, there are a lot of usual conventions that are used which we tried to follow with our music video. I used both fast and slow cuts for different shots in order for the clips to reflect the music, for example I used slow cuts while the couple are walking but fast shots when you watch the boy reflecting on those memories. We filmed panning shots and tilts to show the whole location where we filmed, which I think helps the story become clearer. I tried to edit the clips to go along with the music to help tell the story, so the audience finds it easy to go along with the story line. We took inspiration from other narrative music videos when we shot the close up clips of the actors singing along to the song which I think helps show the raw emotion of the break up more. I think as a group one of our strengths would be the use of the conventions used in typical professional music videos.

Overall, I am very happy and pleased with my final edit for the music video, however if we were to do this again I think we would think more about the locations to shoot in to try and help the lighting problems we had, I definitely think the indoor lighting was one of our weaknesses. However I am very proud of the outcome of my music video overall, even with the few weaknesses we had.