Evaluation 1: How have I incorporated my research into my final products?

Although I planned my music video, DigiPak and magazine advertisement precisely, through storyboards and multiple designs, I still ended up altering my plans when it came to editing the shots and images together.

I decided not to conform to the typical male gaze style of music video; saying that, there are aspects of my music videos that may suggest otherwise. I deliberately avoided a seductive female actress sauntering through the music video as not only did I feel this was unsuitable for the representation of my artist, my target audience also felt that would have been distasteful. Instances where my artist fits the male gaze theory include the close up of the artist’s feet- although not a sexual area of the body, revealing the female character gradually is a feature of this theory. I deliberately cast my artist as someone who was not uncomfortably skinny, contrasting how the media often portrays ‘beauty’. This will present my artist as a role model to women of all colours and sizes.

I open my music video with by zooming into a fairytale book from a bird’s eye view shot. This zoom emerges the audience, suggesting they are entering the world presented in the music video. The intertextuality of the fairytale book introduces the Cinderella storyline as well as inferring connotations of the Cinderella tale such as love and happy endings, soon to be contrasted. I also use establishing panning shots to reveal the setting; the wooded area cross dissolves into the shot of buildings, implying the merging of nature and man-made (the theme present throughout my project). I have incorporated a large variety of camera angles in my music video. During the performance aspect of my music video I focus mainly on eye level mid shots. I chose this shot as it reveals the artist as well as framing her in shot with the piano. However, to restrain from a bland consistency I have also included the occasional high angle shot, as this angle beautifies the artist’s face as well as connoting vulnerability. I chose to represent this because the song portrays the life of a woman who loses her love, and is thus helpless- perhaps a damsel in distress. The shots of the piano being played are primarily angled from a bird’s eye view. This not only gives a clear framing of the piano, it also forces the audience to look down on the scene as though watching from above. I also make use of over the shoulder shots as this also dislocates the audience during the performance shots. I used these two camera angles when filming the piano because being the audience won’t relate to the performance scenes, unlike with the narrative, I wanted to position them as a voyeur rather than within the scene. The majority of my shots are edited together with quick cuts to keep a smooth run of shots yet I have included some cross dissolve transitions to blend the narrative and performance scenes of my music video; this creates a link between the song and story.

I incorporated various means of intertextuality to ensure the audience relates my music video to the story of Cinderella as this creates shock when the climax of Cinderella losing the Prince is revealed. I use explicit references to Cinderella such as the fairytale book and invitation addressed to Cinderella, as well as the subtler close up of the artist’s shoes- Cinderella losing her shoes is a key moment of the fairytale. However, I introduce the concept of a skewed fairytale by including a close up of Cinderella’s bare feet scenes before that of her in shoes; in the fairytale Cinderella loses her shoes toward the end of the story yet in my music video she is without shoes to begin with thus suggesting my music video is a twisted fairytale.