CCR Assignment
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?
When deciding to use the song “Good Days” by SZA, I wanted to use my personal interpretation of the song to transform my surroundings into that interpretation. I feel as if the song means that everyone struggles to feel a connection to their surroundings every now and then. The way SZA is consistently seen bonding and connecting with nature really resonated with me. By using the peaceful and beautiful environment as my setting, I feel as though it represents the solution to a problem. Despite having had the option to record the music video at my local park, I still decided that I really wanted to make my music video unique to me.To accomplish that, I went to an amazing Japanese style Botanical garden, which I felt captured the message very clearly. In the music video, I wanted to show myself going out and exploring new territory, whether it be represented mentally or physically, I wanted to show that bond of myself connecting or attempting to connect with myself. Showing bright and amazing panel shots allowed for me to really capture that bright mindset in which people have when trying to connect with themselves and others. When thinking about it, I feel like this song can apply to anyone, whether they struggle with connections with loved ones, friends and family alike, we all struggle.
2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?
When creating my media, I genuinely tried to achieve a connection with my audience; I wanted them to understand and almost become invested. The same way people listen to the song because it sounds good and they love SZA’s voice, I wanted people to look at my music video for the story that I wanted to tell as well as creating that proper connection with the audience. By using beautiful scenery and shots to display what the vibrant environment looked like, I also tried to engage my audience by attempting to make the shots blend and make the music go with the song. I did this by using short clips of the environment and cut back and forth to new ones every time the beat switched, this made for a fast paced and yet entertaining video. After that, I slowed it down and showed off the story by using videos of myself walking around and engaging with my environment. I also tried to gauge my audience towards that connection by including myself connecting with my surroundings in some shots. I ensured that all of the shots of me centered around the idea of me feeling self-satisfaction or inner peace. This was the main idea I was trying to convey with my music video. If I were to distribute my music video as real media, I would most likely start with social media platforms (Starting with YouTube and Tiktok) and after that, I would begin to advertise those social media platforms.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
The whole process of video making is really enjoyable; I feel as if I can do a lot more every time I edit. From using iMovie to now using a high end Video Editing Software, I feel as if I have come a long way in terms of editing. I would like to start off by saying that since this music video, I have taken a different approach to editing. One of the biggest examples is how I edited the intro to the music video. By using the content that I recorded on my iPhone, I made short clips that switched at every beat of the song. It made the video feel fast paced and I used transitions to avoid making it look choppy, which I noticed a lot in my previous projects. It definitely allowed for a nice transition and it was a big improvement when looking at my older productions. The transitions allowed for a really visually-appealing music video. Additionally, it allowed the song and video to compliment each other in a much better way. While recording, I also wanted to be able to capture and create a story. In understanding the meaning of the song to me, I wanted to make a connection with the audience that expresses my story to them. Not only did I want to express my story, I wanted to accurately convey and include my feelings. I intended to appeal to the audience’s emotions.
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
For this project, I decided to experiment with plenty of new different types of advanced technologies and softwares. For starters, I used my iPhone for all of the videos and technology. The easiest reason for using my iPhone is that the quality of the camera is superb. Not only this, but I simply just didn’t have immediate access to a camera. When it comes to using a professional camera to record versus my iPhone, many different factors play major roles. For example, I already had easy access to my iPhone due to me using it everyday- had I decided to use a digital camera for this project, I would have had to make a large purchase. In addition to this, an iPhone is just overall much more easier to carry around compared to a huge camera. In short, using my iPhone to record the media was just the most convenient option for my case. In addition to using my iPhone, I also tampered with a new and advanced editing software! I was very enthusiastic about using this new video software my friend recommended to me known as "Sony Vegas Pro 16,” a high quality video editing software. Compared to other softwares like iMovie or any others, this one is high quality and after a while of messing around with the software it eventually became really easy to work with. I learned all the new stuff on it and it has even more editing capabilities compared to the previous software's that I have used. Other then that I simply used YouTube due to being one of the biggest video uploading platforms there are.
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