Improving on Skills
This weekend I had some free time, so I decided to record a cover of a song and make my own music video to practice for our coursework this year. The main skill I focused on was lip-syncing, but I think I will need to practice this more before I attempt it in the final product because the results weren't as smooth as I wanted.
Because we are choosing to do a music video influenced by the style of Lana Del Rey, I took a lot of inspiration from the Ultraviolence and Video Games music videos because Ultraviolence has the same theme of marriage, and I like the usage of vintage clips in the Video Games music video. The Ultraviolence video has a lot of references to Marilyn Monroe in terms of visuals (see images below), so I was sure to include her in the vintage clips I chose. I used footage of Nancy Sinatra and Tommy Sands' wedding, home videos filmed using vintage 35mm cameras, advertisements from the 50s, 60s, old films shot in the 40s, and some clips from more modern films: Lolita (1997), Practical Magic (1999) and Juno (2007). I then cut these clips into footage of me singing in order to improve my lip syncing skill. Taking inspiration from another indie artist (Clairo), I wrote the lyrics on the bottom of the screen and edited the face of them using final cut pro to make them fit with the visuals of the music video. I wanted to give the song a nostalgic feeling; I changed the overall sound of the song a lot so I kept the visuals similar to the original music video made by ALVVAYS. Below are some short clips of the music videos I mentioned.
Here, we can see that Lana has clearly taken inspiration for her Ultraviolence music video from these pictures below.
ULTRAVIOLENCE, LANA DEL REY
VIDEO GAMES, LANA DEL REY
PRETTY GIRL, CLAIRO
MARRY ME, ARCHIE, ALVVAYS
Here is the finished music video that I created taking inspiration from all of these.
EVALUATION OF FINAL PRODUCT:
Strengths: I think something that I did well in this video was the montage editing and the selection of clips that I chose. They were all relevant and also conveyed both the message and mood that I wanted to set for the video. It fits well with the songs, and I am pleased with how this part turned out. I also think that my colour palette in the music video (mainly orange and pale whites/creams) for the parts that I filmed myself looks very effective as it makes the video seem cohesive. It also adds to the vintage feeling of the video as the reddish-orange colours are often present in real videos and images from this time because of the camera quality. I also think that the vintage filter that I used on the clips is effective. Without it, the parts that I filmed myself would appear too high quality and therefore not blend with the rest of the clips in the video. It also again fits with the theme of the artists that I chose, as they sued real vintage cameras to film their videos (ALVVAYS used a real Super-8 to film the original music video) so this is where I took that idea from.
Weaknesses: Something I think I can improve on is the quality of my lip-syncing. Although on the whole it appears like I am singing, I think that if I had spent more time syncing up the audio and video exactly right, there wouldn't be a few sections where it doesn't match. In addition, I think that I need to work on more effective editing with regard to the timing of the cuts that I made. I think it could have been a lot more effective if I had changed the shot/clip in time with the beat of the music, and would also then conform to Goodwin's theory.I think when I make the next music video, I will be sure to follow more of the codes and conventions of the genre. However, as I did this by myself, it will be a lot easier when I have my group to help me and therefore much faster to film and create.
Because we are choosing to do a music video influenced by the style of Lana Del Rey, I took a lot of inspiration from the Ultraviolence and Video Games music videos because Ultraviolence has the same theme of marriage, and I like the usage of vintage clips in the Video Games music video. The Ultraviolence video has a lot of references to Marilyn Monroe in terms of visuals (see images below), so I was sure to include her in the vintage clips I chose. I used footage of Nancy Sinatra and Tommy Sands' wedding, home videos filmed using vintage 35mm cameras, advertisements from the 50s, 60s, old films shot in the 40s, and some clips from more modern films: Lolita (1997), Practical Magic (1999) and Juno (2007). I then cut these clips into footage of me singing in order to improve my lip syncing skill. Taking inspiration from another indie artist (Clairo), I wrote the lyrics on the bottom of the screen and edited the face of them using final cut pro to make them fit with the visuals of the music video. I wanted to give the song a nostalgic feeling; I changed the overall sound of the song a lot so I kept the visuals similar to the original music video made by ALVVAYS. Below are some short clips of the music videos I mentioned.
Here, we can see that Lana has clearly taken inspiration for her Ultraviolence music video from these pictures below.
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| Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller |
ULTRAVIOLENCE, LANA DEL REY
VIDEO GAMES, LANA DEL REY
PRETTY GIRL, CLAIRO
MARRY ME, ARCHIE, ALVVAYS
Here is the finished music video that I created taking inspiration from all of these.
EVALUATION OF FINAL PRODUCT:
Strengths: I think something that I did well in this video was the montage editing and the selection of clips that I chose. They were all relevant and also conveyed both the message and mood that I wanted to set for the video. It fits well with the songs, and I am pleased with how this part turned out. I also think that my colour palette in the music video (mainly orange and pale whites/creams) for the parts that I filmed myself looks very effective as it makes the video seem cohesive. It also adds to the vintage feeling of the video as the reddish-orange colours are often present in real videos and images from this time because of the camera quality. I also think that the vintage filter that I used on the clips is effective. Without it, the parts that I filmed myself would appear too high quality and therefore not blend with the rest of the clips in the video. It also again fits with the theme of the artists that I chose, as they sued real vintage cameras to film their videos (ALVVAYS used a real Super-8 to film the original music video) so this is where I took that idea from.
Weaknesses: Something I think I can improve on is the quality of my lip-syncing. Although on the whole it appears like I am singing, I think that if I had spent more time syncing up the audio and video exactly right, there wouldn't be a few sections where it doesn't match. In addition, I think that I need to work on more effective editing with regard to the timing of the cuts that I made. I think it could have been a lot more effective if I had changed the shot/clip in time with the beat of the music, and would also then conform to Goodwin's theory.I think when I make the next music video, I will be sure to follow more of the codes and conventions of the genre. However, as I did this by myself, it will be a lot easier when I have my group to help me and therefore much faster to film and create.
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