What genres/formats have you chosen and why?

For Unit 10: Engage with target audiences in

creative media production, I have decided to
make a music video to the song Ed Sheeran –
Perfect. In recent productions that I have created
for this UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma, I have
been producing a lot of short films. Whilst I do
love generating ideas for these productions and
thinking of a complex plot line that works well as
a narrative and cinematic production, I would like
to trial out a music video before we have to
complete our Final Major Project and essentially
the last production that I will make at The Henley
College. By giving it a go, I will feel that I gave
better perspective of what I want to create for
Unit 13: Extended project in creative media
production. The first and only other music video
that I have been involved in was back in Year 1. I
was in a group with Lara Jones and Jack Murphy
when we produced a video for the song Nas &
Damien Marley – Patience. I was not particularly
happy with how the music video turned out, and I
wanted to see how far I have improved as a Screenshots of Nas & Damien Marley – Patience
creator. (student video)

How much work did you complete outside of the lessons?

For this unit (Unit 10: Engage with target audiences in creative media) I would say that
honestly I did complete quite a lot of the work outside of the lessons. Typically, I don’t like to
spend time outside of lessons doing college work, but as everyone else was also feeling the
stress to make this production high quality I decided that it was worth missing out a couple of
free lessons to complete it to a better standard. This was especially true with the pre-
production lessons, where I spent a lot of time outside of the selected lessons perfecting the
booklet and making it look more professional. The overall product is very aesthetically
pleasing and gives me great pride to present as part of this unit. In fact, I was so proud of the
pre-production
booklet that I have
included it as part
of my portfolio for
my interviews at
Bournemouth Arts
University and
South of Wales
University. I found
that by having
such a clear and
simple pre-
production booklet I was able to organise myself easier and produce a better music video.
The original music video that I had planned on creating was Missio – Animal and by having
 the booklet with me when we filmed each
scene, it was easy to prepare props and
designate timings for shots. As that
unfortunately fell through, I used the basis of
the pre-production booklet to create my
second music video Ed Sheeran – Castle On
The Hill. The simplicity of the booklet made it
easy to read information and personalise it to
the new song. Before even creating the
booklets, I had to spend a lot of time outside
of lessons completing work as I decided to
change my idea. The original idea for this
unit was a short film about a girl who witnesses domestic abuse and
runs away into the woods to escape. The narrative was about her
learning how to deal with the scene and what to do. However, I
decided quite late on that I didn’t want to write the script for that short
film, and that I felt there was not enough time to do the production and
the themes justice, so I chose to delay that short film and move onto a
music video. That meant that I had to redo all of my research, as it had
previously been focused on short films. This included my survey using
the online questionnaire website Survey Monkey, as well as my focus
groups and my personal
analysis. All of my
infographics had to be
remade with more relevant information and key
statistics from the Survey Monkey as well as
pictures and themes of music. When editing the
music video, I did spend a lot of time outside of
lessons. I was not in college for half of
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so I didn’t
have any time to edit my production and as a
result missed the deadline for the video. To
counter that, I came in on Friday to edit the music video and complete all of the new pre-
production required for the new song (Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill). Whilst I was behind
for a lot of the week, I feel that I made up for a
lot of it on Friday as I fully completed the official
pre-production booklet as well as starting the
edit for the music video and half of the LO2
evaluation.
What issues did you encounter whilst planning and how did you overcome
them?
When planning my production for Unit 10: Engage with target audiences, I did have a couple
of issues that needed resolving. The main problem that I encountered was finding actors for
my production. For my original production, I required actors that looked around the ages of
twelve to fifteen. This meant that I couldn’t use anyone from the college, so instead I looked
for options elsewhere. To find people that could act and work to a tight schedule, I went back
to my secondary school where I knew I would find some talent. I did manage to get myself
two actors that would be willing to play the roles, but timings where an issue. The music
video needed to be filmed in the daylight, and then I would edit the darkness of night in
Adobe Premiere Pro.

How did you find the filming and editing process?

Overall, I experienced many difficulties during the filming and editing process. Whilst they
were very annoying and irritating to deal with at the time, I can now reflect on them as
learning curves and be ready to improve for the Final Major Project.
Problem 1 – The Fallout Incident
As I have previously mentioned, I did face a lot of difficulty in getting actors to be in my
production, as they needed to be available in daylight hours as well as be of a certain age.
The actors that I did require were all in school and by the time that they would be finished, it
was too dark to film my production. However, a couple of days before I was first scheduled
to shoot, I managed to get two actors on board – Jackson Seal and Danielle Casey. Both
Danielle and Jackson were friends of my younger brother. I offered them payment of pizza
and they were happy to be a part of the production. On Friday morning, the day of the first
shoot, I was distressed to discover that I had received a cancellation from Danielle. Due to a
disagreement between her and my brother, she had decided not to participate in my
production. Her lack of cooperation for the music video resulted in me not being able to film
that day, as I could not get another actor to replace her at such short notice.
Problem 2 – The Static Shots
Eventually I managed to get another actor to replace
Danielle Casey. In her role I placed James Plumridge, my
younger brother who reluctantly agreed to fill in for
Danielle considering it was his fault that she pulled out at
such late notice. Whilst this was a big change for the
screen (a male actor would be taking on an original
female role) there was very little adaptation for the script.
The only major difference was that a previous hand-
holding scene was turned into a handshake instead. We
were delayed on filming as one of my actors failed to
arrive on time, and got to my house about an hour late.
After that, there was still a half an hour journey by bike
from my house to the location at which we were filming.
Once we did arrive on set, the boys became very easily
distracted despite both showing interest in the scenes that
I would be shooting. I understand that it can be difficult to
stay concentrated and on task, as I often get distracted
when performing tasks too, however even I got tired of
waiting about ten minutes before we shot a clip. As we
started filming later than expected, this meant that we
were out later than I had intended. It grew quickly dark
and this meant that the shots were unclear and not what I
wanted. There was no point in continuing filming as I
knew the shots would not be able to be in the production,
but I needed proof of footage so I still filmed. The end
result was that the footage was rushed, dark, static and
boring. Even as I started to edit the first few clips together,
I could tell that the music video was boring and
uninteresting. It lacked any finesse and any excitement.

Problem 3 – Reshooting
When I discovered that the footage that I had captured was so poor, I immediately wanted to
reshoot the shots that were too static and too dark. One of my actors, Jackson Seal, had
very poor communication skills and lack of networks made it also impossible to get through
to him and arrange a time to re-film. Despite to take Wednesday off college due to food
poisoning, I managed to arrange with my actors to reshoot the scenes at 4pm that day. This
way, we had about two hours to reshoot in the light of the day, and if needed we could shoot
again on Thursday. However, this quickly fell through again as Jackson failed to arrive on
time again, and then just failed to arrive for the shoot all together. I understood that there
was no way I would be able to complete the work on time, and definitely not to a standard I
was comfortable in submitting, let alone proud of.

Problem 4 – The Premiere Pro Problem

Despite this, I still had to hand something in for the
deadline on Thursday 1st February 2018, so I began to
export the original file so that I could upload it onto my
YouTube page. Obviously, I would then change it and
make improvements when I got back to college, but it Screenshot from The Lumineers –
was the first draft of the production. When I attempted to Sleep On The Floor
export it however, the file corrupted. This was because I
had edited the entire production on the college
computers, which use a slightly out-of-date version of
Adobe Premiere Pro. When I exported the file through
my version of Adobe Premiere Pro on my laptop, it
changed the file. This meant that I couldn’t use the file
on either my laptop or the college computers. I had lost
all of the work I had done for this music video, and there
was not point in continuing a project that I knew would
end up as incomplete and uninteresting. To counter this,
I decided to fall back onto my contingency plan – a Screenshot from Vance Joy - Riptide
music video for the song Ed Sheeran – Castle On The
Hill. I had already completed the research and pre-
production for this contingency plan, so all I had to do
was make a new proposal and film/edit the video. I
started filming that weekend, and had completed that
process by Tuesday. On Wednesday, I spent about 6
hours fully editing the production in a similar style of The
Lumineers – Sleep On The Floor, Ed Sheeran – Perfect
and Vance Joy – Riptide.

Screenshot from Ed Sheeran -

Perfect

Do you believe you met the requirements of the target audience? How?
I believe that I did meet the requirements of the target audiences in my own production, as I
followed the feedback that I received in my SurveyMonkey. The majority of decisions that I
made about the production came from said questionnaire, which I felt helped me to best
capture what each target audience desired in a music video. One example of this was that
approximately 80% of participants said that they liked the style of the POV shots in The
Weeknd – False Alarm. From this, I understood that a lot of people enjoyed this way of
capturing the narrative and have implemented this into my own production. The majority of
Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill is filmed through a first person style, and whilst I did
include other shots I made most of the video from this perspective. People said that the way
The Weeknd – False Alarm was filmed captivates the audience and wittingly engages them
as they see everything through a character and therefore feel connected to the character in
the music video. This was mainly enjoyed by a younger audience, but people from the more
mature end of the spectrum (50-60) also stated that they found it interesting.

Screenshots from The Weeknd – False Alarm that show the POV style of filming.
With the editing style, I think that I met the requirements of the target audience overall as
I followed a similar style as The Lumineers – Sleep On The Floor (which was voted as the
most popular music video in my online survey). The natural and seeming ‘easy’ editing
technique appealed to the majority of the audience members, while still looking effective. In
my survey, I learnt that older generations preferred a more realistic type of content – which is
why they prefer dramas and soaps over fantasy and action in the film and television format.

Screenshots from The Lumineers – Sleep On The Floor that show the natural editing style

The Lumineers – Sleep On The Floor to show the natural editing style
Finally, with the narrative, I wanted to incorporate a similar style as Vance Joy – Riptide
uses. Their simplistic and basic ideas that make the visuals of the music video match the
lyrics from the song. I didn’t want it to be exactly like Riptide however, so I did add other
information and visuals to create a more cinematic look. Not only did Vance Joy – Riptide do
this, but there were elements of this technique in The Lumineers – Sleep On The Floor as
well.

Screenshots from Vance Joy – Riptide to show the narrative technique

Clip of the video to show the narrative techniques in Vance Joy - Riptide
Were you able to show your production to the intended target audience
(peers and teachers aside) What did they have to say about your production?
Once my production had been completed, I needed to show a selection of people who were
not associated with the college. Their opinions would be different to those in college, and
while they wouldn’t analyse it as thoroughly, they should be more brutally honest as they
hadn’t seen the amount of work and effort I put into the music video.
The first person that I showed my production to was my abuela, who (despite the language
barrier) loves Ed Sheeran’s music and was excited to see what I had created. As her English
is not particularly good, I wrote her survey responses for her. Out of 10, my abuela rated the
overall music video an eight. She said that while she enjoyed the message of the video, she
said that some of the visuals were a little too dark. However, in Question 4, she said that the
production did appeal to her age range. While the character was a young male, she said that
the first person perspective and the themes included made her feel represented in the
music. Question 5 was a little more detailed, with eight different attributes needing evaluation
– storyline, costume design, cinematography, editing, lighting, cast, props and location. In
her opinion, she thought that the storyline was good and showed a clear link to the song. I
showed her the shooting script alongside the video, so she could compare them and she
agreed that it was quite similar. With the cinematography, she said that the POV style made
the music video connect to her more as she felt like it was her taking the journey through the
ages. Finally, with props, she stated that it was good that I used a variety of props (for
example; childhood memorabilia). Some of them, such as the cigarettes, she obviously
wasn’t’ as happy about, but the she thought that it did work with the video.
The second person that I asked to watch my video was my mum’s friend, Sarah Jenkins.
She fits into the age range of 30-40 years, and follows the stereotypical codes and
conventions of someone in that category. This meant that her opinions would be what I base
that age range’s opinions on, which is quite a task for her to complete. She filled out a
survey on SurveyMonkey to analyse, with detail that I was not prepared for. This wasn’t the
first production that she had seen of mine, so there would be some comparison between
other films and videos that I had made in the past. Overall, she rated the music video an
eight, saying that she enjoyed the visuals and the storyline in particular. With Question 4,
she stated that production did appeal to her age range. There was a sense of nostalgia with
many of the clips, which helped me to understand that memories and re-creating memories
in a music video based for older/mature audiences was a good idea as many felt that it
connected them to the storyline. This was the main reason that when I went back to improve
the video, I used more of a VHS style of editing than done previously as I wanted to re-
create the old cinematography style. In Question 5, she wrote detailed examples of each
attribute she liked and what she thought I could improve on in my next production, whether
that was a more complex storyline or lighter visuals. Her opinions in my feedback were fair
and backed up with new points on how to change certain aspects of the video that she was
not as confident would appeal to the target audience.
The final person that I got to watch my music video was Ellis Bell, a fourteen year old boy
who lives on my road. He is not the typical teenage boy – quite quiet and reserved –
however his opinions on my production I found were very helpful. He rated the music video
an eight as well, which I thought was quite generous. In my opinion, it would be a maximum
of a seven, but I don’t know whether that it because I am too self-critical of my own work or if
I genuinely believe that it was worth a seven. He said that he liked the way it was filmed as
he got to be the main character. I thought that this might be a problem with the running POV
shots, as Ellis is disabled, but he said that it was clever as he got to experience it almost like
virtual reality. With Question 4, he said that production did appeal to his age range,
especially making the character about his age. This way he felt that he connected more to
the character, but also that the POV shooting made anyone feel that they were also
experiencing the themes and topics of the video. He liked the simple editing, but also said
that he thought maybe an older look would create a more nostalgic sense for the more
mature audience members. On Question 5, he wrote a little for each box. The main point
that he included was with the lighting of some of the shots - ‘While it works for a couple of
them, maybe re-shoot the scenes where it is a little darker’. All his opinions mattered to me,
as while I was creating the video for audiences aged 10-18, 30-40 and 50-60, Ellis is the
closest to my own age and I felt that the video works best with teenage boys, while not
excluding out anyone.

How do you feel your product compares to the existing professional products
that reach all target audiences?
In comparison to other existing professional productions, I
think that my music video does work quite well. When
studying three products that targeted all three target
audience, I concluded with the understanding that the
reason that all three products were so popular was
because they all had a connection to an experience that
the audience can relate to; whether that is up to nostalgia
or current issues is due to the age of the audience. My
music video is aimed to recreate this, as the themes
included either evoke of nostalgia for the older audience
(30-40 and 50-60 year olds) or current issues for the
younger audience (10-18). Obviously, some differences
do affect the quality of the production. The only product
that I can really compare mine to is Ed Sheeran – Perfect
as it is also a music video. The budget for Ed Sheeran’s
music video was obviously a lot bigger than my own,
which meant that the production team could afford to
spend money on flights to a ski resort and props that
feature in the final edit. Meanwhile, my budget was rather
slim, which meant that I could only afford some of the
smaller props and needed to settle for the rest by either
borrowing them or changing the script slightly. As well as
a bigger budget, Perfect also had a larger crew. This
allowed them to designate qualified professionals to each
role of the production team, whereas I had to complete
everything by myself. This meant that some of the factors
that I am not as good at (such as editing and lighting) are
better in Ed Sheeran – Perfect because the people doing
the tasks knew what they were doing.
Screenshots from Ed Sheeran - Perfect
What area are you looking to improve on in your next production?
In my opinion, I am looking to improve both my time management skills and my editing skills
in the next and final production. As the next project we will be working on is our Final Major
Project, I want to be able to create a production that encapsulates my time at The Henley
College and represents how far I have come as a creator. In every production I have made
so far I feel that I am too self-critical and, as a result, end up hating the final outcome. In my
next production, I want to be able to enjoy creating the piece and editing it without hating the
work that I have created.