Critical Reflection Questions
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?
Usually what Indie music videos do is try to convey their idea in a conceptual form, while lip-syncing the lyrics. They’re usually the focus, always the focal point of the camera while everything else shows the concepts they are trying to achieve. These instances are achieved in “Glue Song”, by Beabadoobe. Even if they're not lip-syncing the lyrics, you would know they are the focus due to the camera work always engaging in the artist’s emotions. I see this from, “Untitled”, by Rex Orange County. But what truly inspired me was “ We Fell in Love in October” by girl in red, which became my reference for my video. The overall video and nostalgia the video enraptured me, and I wanted to follow. This video was a casual video that didn't have anything expensive going on, not to say the past two examples had anything expensive, but “We Fell in Love in October” was both humble and represented me the closest. It also helped that this video was displayed in a way that made you think “Oh this is their everyday life”. However, while that song focused on two girls and how they experienced life with each other, I focused on the student life. Or my life specifically. I don't exactly show any social issues or groups, I just like to show my story of school and how the day tends to pass by.
2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?
My video was meticulous, yet easily identifying the life of a student. While it was easy to record my life and post about it, it was hard to show what that moment truly felt like and how I was going to represent that. The song “Rises the Moon” is a simple yet impactful song, this charm is what made it a trend, and what caused the artist to gain attention. So to properly capture this charm I had to show what the song represented. I kept it simple, yet impactful, easy to imitate, yet with different results. Because while capturing your life is easy, everyone’s life is different. This is why I believe my video is special because I wake up, get ready, ride the bus, come back home, do homework, freshen up, and go back to bed as much as the next person. I do it in my own way. Yes, I know dancing while brushing your teeth with headphones ready to fall apart is weird, but it’s my routine. Nowadays, we are entranced by the idea of nostalgia, so what I did for my video was try to make it nostalgic. Even when I watch it, it feels like I’m in my 30s looking back on my younger days. While I released my video on YouTube, I would prefer to release it on TikTok. Your videos are more likely to get engagement there. TikTok tends to shed light on smaller creators anyway. For example, Pinkpatheress and D4vid, are both making songs in the closets of their rooms and look at them now.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
I believe that my camera work has improved, without a doubt. I mean it’s not the best, probably not even the best of my class. But considering the previous project and the lack of access to tools, I did pretty decent. I mean you look at my commercial, the camera work was almost always low when it should be at eye level. What I mean is it was at a low angle without a purpose. So yeah, pretty bad. I kept my promises this time. Another way to look at it is I was able to follow through with ideas I had in my head. This will probably increase my time. I gave myself more time to get something done, and more wiggle room in case something went wrong. After recording, and trying different angles, it was easy to move on to the next step. Another thing that experienced improvement was my editing skills. Instead of editing what I just recorded, I decided to..enhance it midway. I thought, “ Are you going to repeat the same formula as everyone who puts zero effort?” And well, I didn't want to be just like everybody else or be lazy, so then there came filters, sound effects, and lyrics to replicate what I envisioned for a typical indie MV. Overall, what I learned is to give yourself time. Like I said in my last reflection blog, time makes a difference in quality and everything else in life.
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?
You may ask, why your phone? Why Capcut? Why Blogger? Why make these choices out of everything you're able to access in that privileged lifestyle? Well, the answer is easy, I chose these tools simply because it's easy. Why buy a camera because I don't have one when I could just use my phone? My phone is always with me, always accessible, always there when I need to whip it out when I want to capture a moment or a scenery. So why would I not choose my phone? I love cameras, I do. They give us the best entertainment and capture the best moments at the best quality, yet I simply cannot handle all the buttons and mechanics. I choose simple or complex. Why Capcut? Well if Capcut is an app, and I have my phone…well it’s pretty easy to conclude there. Capcut is easy to use and I got the hang of it after the previous project. Even then, I haven't touched the countless options given to me, I've used around the same 4 buttons (and sometimes dipped my finger in more difficult editing tools) and it’s worked pretty well so far. Though I could do without the “pro” features, I love the options they have given me and was able to create a well-made video without spending money. Moving on, I now answer the question: why Blogger? When my teacher introduced it to me, I was pleasantly surprised. The mechanics aren't complicated, just set up the website and pick the aesthetic of your choice. Boom, that's your base. Then it's up to you to expand from there with your blogs. The blogs are easy to create, sort of like a Google document, but this time you have the option to post on a website.
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