Evaluation of Pop Promo Prelim

When deciding what shot choices to use for our allocated video we looked at other videos of the same rock genre, which enabled us to understand what style of shots to use. We decided that, we would use quickly cut shots which were varying as we thought that this would match the fast pace of the song nicely. The shots we used ranged from, low and high wide shots, close ups of each member of the band (bass player, guitarist, singer and drummer) and medium shots such as the guitarist and his guitar, helping to establish that they were playing their own instruments. With the shots that we achieved we thought that we created them well, with good continuity. As our section of the song was the beginning we decided that we would come up with an opening which was original and suited the style of the band again. We planned to open the video with a shot of the leads of the floor which would establish a generic rock opening to the music video, we would have done this by using a dolly to help keep the camera straight. However, as we didn’t have that much time to shoot our section of the song, as we had to create the finished video of the same day of shooting, our time limit wouldn’t allow us to do such a complex shoot and keep it looking good, however, for our real videos it would be something that we would consider. In our group we decided to do a medium shot of the bass guitarist, this worked well, but as we were filming this, we used the camera to move around slightly on the image, which created a more interesting shot which worked particularly well with the style of the song.

When filming our section of the video we all took on roles which are necessary in the industry which filming. They were the cameraman, the director, the assistant director and the playback. In the group we decide to rotate the position so we got to have a chance at trying out all the roles. I was in charge of creating the medium shot of the bass player which I mentioned earlier. Our group seemed to work very effectively as a team; as we all agreed on what would look effective and which shots would suit the style of the song. As a group we were also very efficient, we were able to use our individual skills to work as one. For example, some of us were able to work on storyboarding, others on researching similar bands etc.  

At the end of the day we were all really happy within our group with what we were able to produce in the amount of time that we were allocated. We were able to match most of the shots of our storyboard, inevitably we deviated slightly, but I believe that our initial idea of how we wanted our section to look suited the style of the bands music and their own image. When looking at the finishing product, I believe that in my own skills I was able to improve since the AS course and this I put down to having the chance to work with much more adventurous shots. This I believe was also made clear through the editing process. I developed much more understanding in this part of the process and the length of shots in the music video were much shorter, which demonstrates a more skilful use of editing.

As a group we thought very carefully about the mood that we wanted to create for this video. We took into account the genre of the band, rock/punk, and their own image which matched this.

Star Image of Band

   This is 'Acres of Life', the band that we did our prelim task on. The star image of the band, depended very much upon the music that they produce. We decided that as the band had already established a very young image for themselves that we would support this image. In relation to the gener of music, we decided it followed a very gothic/emo style. The next logical step was to start fitting a style to the band. We dresssed the band in dark clothing such as skinny jeans and gothic styled t-shirts , this created a very young vibe for the band and one that made them comfortable to move around in to their music. We also thought that their hair should be down in front of their faces, maybe with highlights to reinforce the gothic image that seems to be popular with the youth of today.

We decided the Target audience for the band would be people of a similar taste in music and fashion sense. As a group i think we collectivly decided that the audience would have to be of a younger generation and paerhaps as a generalisation be boys. This idea came up because we agreed upon the idea that it is morel likey to be a group of younger boys who are in a rebellion phase in their lives who would be into this similar rebellion styled music.

Star Image and Analysis

A star image is an image of a group of a performer have encompassed, usually as a result of the record company giving them this image. For groups and performers the image differs. If a group is an organic group ie they play their own music then the record label will recognise this and create a much more natural image for them. Organic artists will also have much more time with the record label to create their image and their music.  However, if a performer or all girl/boy group who don’t produce their own music, ie synthetic artists, are signed to a record label, their star image will be totally in control of the record label, and if they don’t sell records, they will be dropped.  

If we look at Britney’s earlier image, demonstrated in videos such as ‘Baby One More Time’ we can notice that her star image is very clear, conveyed through the shot types and her apparent dress. In ‘Baby One More Time’ Britney’s image is conveyed as very innocent and sweet; this is so because most of the shots are looking down onto her, which puts her into a victim status, making her look vulnerable to fit the ‘sweet’ image. In terms of mise en scene, we notice that her innocent image is reinforced, as she is set in a school, wearing a uniform, with props such as pencils, paper and lockers etc—following the normal conventions on school girls. We are also made aware of her image through what she is singing about, i.e young love, first love etc.  However, over the years we have seen a dramatic change in Britney’s star image, and if we look at her more recent music such as ‘I Wanna Go’ we can see that she has changed her persona for the innocent Britney to one with an anti-authoritarian attitude and a rebellious persona. The clues to this transformation lie in her dress, which appears to have become much more revealing and sexualised, helping to convey the rebellion/bad girl image that she has now gained.