Reflection on my Pitch

Are there any areas of the presentation you would like to give more detail on?

Creativity
In terms of how creative my idea was, i felt that my idea need some more clarity of the beginning. As i wanted to create a very conventional break up before the first verse starts, i felt like it needs to be more developed. I wanted to have the 2 characters on the beach in a clear shot with a sunset background as their hands break up and one is left crying on the floor. In terms of my idea throughout was very strong, it was more the beginning that i had to build up on.

Practicality 
As my idea was very simple there weren't many logistical problems as such, many of my locations i wish to use, eg southbank, Trafalgar square, southend beach doesn't require any permission for me to film. There is only 2 characters for the whole music video which meant that meeting up for filming i felt would be easy as well.

Technicality
The use of equipment i feel that was crucial for my music video. As the idea was very simple with a limited cast, it meant that i needed to be creative with various camera language, this would not only keep the music video interesting for the audience, but it would connote the intensity of the flashbacks and really show the extremities of emotions i want to show within the video.

Music video theory.
From Goodwins theory i wanted to explore his idea of amplifying, and the convention impressionistic, the use of very bright lights, in a night setting i felt would give the video a very contemporary feel which would complement the actual song. When the video would then cut to a black & white flashback i feel it would be a very interesting difference, perhaps with some slow motion, which would slow everything down as there would be many cuts throughout.

What did your audience identify as the strengths of your music video idea?

Creativity

The main strength for my music video was the relationship that i have used. The fact that it is a homosexual relationship which breaks tradition and convention of a music video, was the stand out thing. Many music videos have been based on a break up and incorporated flashbacks, but i felt like there were very few, serious music videos that portray a relationship with 2 females. 

Practicality

The main strength that was fed back to me, was the simplicity of the video. The fact that it does only contain 2 characters 2 was very interesting in how i was going to create the emotions and keep it interesting with out many characters, but it also did make logistics very easy. As well as none of my locations needing any permission meant i can just 'point and shoot'  

Technicality.
One of the main strengths was the fact that i was using multiple cameras, which ideally would be used in all scenes when following the artist around. It meant that when editing i had loads of footage to chose from, and with many different angles it would always allow me to keep the video interesting through the verses.

Music video Theory
The strengths i received was from the narrative side of the music video, it was a very strong developed idea, that is very clear in my mind. It seemed that whilst a very simple idea, it could be developed into something that was very moving and interesting to watch.

 

What did your audience identify as areas for improvement?  

Creativity
To improve on the idea as a concept, the main thing was the beginning, whilst i want to have a very conventional break up scene on the beach. I realised from the feedback that i really needed to focus on the actual shots and how i was going to really denote the scene, in a very short space of time.

Practicality
The improvements i needed to take in to account was the timing of filming. London is constantly busy. Whilst i wanted to denote the character alone in the locations, it became apparent to me that the locations eg, Trafalgar Square constantly have busy, so i need to make sure that when filming i have minimal amount of people and i also needed to think more carefully about the different camera angles that i'll use.

Technicality 
An issue that did arise was lighting problems, as i did want to film at night i would need to think about the positioning of the character in order to have enough lighting to clearly show her. To much lighting and i think that it may connote a more star persona, which i don't want to create. However obviously too little and the video wont look very professional.

Music video Theory
A criticism that did come up in the feedback was the performance side of the video. It was more the case of what parts my character was going to sing, i knew that the performance will tie into the narrative but its more the case of where i will leave the scene going for her to sing and where i will be adding more cuts.

What changes will you make to your music video concept based on the feedback you received?

Creativity

I feel that the main things to improve on is getting a clearer image of the begiining to the music video, and also think about how the flashback scenes will work. Whether to constantly cut between a fight scene and a happy time together, or to denote one after the other in separate sections of the music video. 

Practicality.

The main issue with the logistics of the music video was the timing of filming in the london locations. Ideally i would still like to be filming at night as that was a main concept for the video, but i need to think about how late i should be filming or how early in the morning i should be filming. 

Technicality.

As my feedback was mainly to think about the lighting, i thought i would change that by adding a portable box light, that sits on top of the camera stabilizer. Its made up of 160 LED's which produce a very bright, white light. I think that would solve the problem as it would project the light directly on to the character and would hopefully make many of the darker shot brighter to really give a more professional look to the video.  

Music video theory

I felt that to help improve the performance side of the video, i felt that perhaps if she sang at the start of the verses and then towards the end of them i would have more time to cut to the flashbacks and portray that a little more. I also had the idea of filming each scene & shot with her singing and her not singing. That way when editing i would have a lot of choice as to what points i want her to be performing, whilst that would be time consuming i feel that this way i have total control and i wouldn't be feeling like i made a mistake if i had only filmed certain points of her singing.