What did i set out to do? Was I successful?
My project was to create a music video that embodied the spirit of bassline music. My aim was to showcase my routes and confident character through my music and visuals. I believe I was successful in doing this as my final product really showcased my area where I was brought up ( Chellow Dean woods). My lyrics were refined and improved all the way until the performance date and this meant I had the best lyrics I could produce for that time. If I was to compare my project to that of artists who are known to be bassline rappers, I wouldn’t place mine above theirs as I believe due to the lack of a lot of equipment, crew and professional advice mainstream music videos come across a lot more high quality. I was influenced by artists called YA, Marky b and a group called BBCC. All of these share a common theme of being raw and true to their nature. Although they are perceived as the standard “bradford charva” they have the necessary crew and equipment to produce a really high quality production which I believe I wasn’t blessed with. I do think that the result of my project was great when comparing myself to other college productions however nothing in comparison to mainstream ones.
My main strengths.
My planning
Throughout the project I had a solid structure and plan meaning I was very confident in every task I was doing. Before the filming date I planned locations and shot ideas detailing exactly how I wanted it to look. I think this was a big strength of mine because I felt comfortable and ready to go when the day of filming came. I will definitely aim to carry this through in future projects and maybe even try to map out exactly what I want to do before doing it to give me a firm base.
My song
I think the song I wrote was the main strength of the project as I managed to display my personality, show my roots and my talent all through the lyrics I had written. The lyrics took about a day to perform with many drafts and failed attempts giving me a reasonable amount of time to perfect my flow and word play. I believe my song was the main aspect of my project and im incredibly proud of what I was able to achieve.
My weaknesses
Editing
The editing aspect of the project was very important to me as it was the editing that made it look the way i wanted. If the edit wasn’t good then the result of my project wouldn’t be to and this was area for concern. Although I do believe that the final result of my music video looked strong, it would have looked better with a range of different locations, shot angles and camera movement. Although my plan for the shoot day was strong I didn’t consider how difficult and lengthy the process for filming was. The locations and camera angles we did film, consumed all our day and didn’t give us time to shoot extra footage which is disappointing as it would have enhanced the professional look of my music video.
Lack of resources/ budget
I believe the lack of resources meant I couldn’t fully experiment with my imagination as I wanted to. I was limited to one crew member with one camera and this had a domino effect on the overall result of my project. Along with close to no equipment I didn’t have the money to fork out to rent certain places out or to buy a new outfit with nice jewellery so I had to settle with what I had.
I believe I wasn’t overly ambitious regarding my project however I do believe I had placed my hopes to high as I was expecting it to cone out alot more high quality then it did. Initially I thought my music video was going to come out extremely professional as I had planned to have more then one camera man and multiple editors. However that fantasy soon came to an end when I began to thoroughly plan out my shooting schedule. I realised I could have one camera man and that meant one camera. This means the overall look of the music video wasn’t going to be as jumpy and energetic (with different shots and camera angles) as i expected. It really allowed me to see how much sophistication and thought went into the practical side of things. This project links with my future career as Im looking to eventually become a producer who works along side big companies to put out high quality TV shows and movies. I thought a music video would be the perfect project for me to experiment with my leadership skills and “produce” something of my own I can be proud of. Creating this music video really helped me in developing skills such as planning and organisation and these skills are very useful for the career I am striving towards.
Lessons I have learnt from this project are to never hold my hopes to high, to never underestimate the sophistication of a project and to plan realistically from the beginning. This project has taught me the value of a good schedule and how imperative it is to ensure I understand what I’m doing at all times. I believe my time management was good however I lacked having “spare time. This project has taught me the value of spare time and being early. I realise now that having extra time can be valuable for editing, or proof reading assignments. Some feedback I have received had positive and negative aspects to it, some negative aspects that were pointed out to me was that my music video could have been more condensed with more clips and locations to keep the energy up. In the future I plan to maybe structure my shoot day slightly better with more variety and shot ideas. This negative feedback I have received has helped me evaluate the cons to my project giving me an overall better perspective on how it could have been improved.
Some other negative feedback I received was that it lacked a story line and personally I didn’t really resonate with this piece of feedback as bassline music doesn’t usually have a plot or deeper meaning to the music. Saying this though I do believe that possibly a little plot from the beginning to the end would have been unique and given my project a style that’s never been seen before in the bassline genre.
Some positive feedback I received was that the camera work was strong and I agree with this as it was one of my main focuses of the project. I wanted the visual aspect to be good and high quality and whilst filming I had planned ahead for certain transitions I wanted to include in the edit. Whilst filming I was also experimenting with different camera angles and shot ideas and replaying the footage and improving constantly.
Another piece of positive advice I received was regarding the way my video was structured. I was told it was structured very well which I agree with as I spent a lot of time thinking about how each location fits with my words. I wanted a strong beginning and a strong ending and I believe I achieved that. My lyrics worked well along side my chosen locations and this enhanced the overall look.
In conclusion I believe my project was a success as I showed commitment and dedication to the tasks that were presented to me. I have learnt valuable lessons such as organization, time management and the importance of a plan. I believe my initial aims were met and I am proud of the work I have put out. I was able to deliver a high quality result with the basic equipment and low budget I had.