These are some of the changes between my rough cut and my final cut and why I made them.
I took into consideration the audience feedback towards the rough cut. The feedback was very clear and the points that I got from it were mixed.
Here are some of the positives that I learned from the feedback and that they particularly liked:
- The storyline
- The transition between the story and the live performance
- The ending (spray paint and fade to the sky)
- The song choice
- the framing of the shots "interesting and you can see the emotion on the actors face"
- The wide screen effect
But also they gave me a few pieces of constructive criticism:
- Lost their attention - needs to be more vibrant
- lip syncing is out at he start
- didn't understand the hidden messages "like the hat and the bottle dropping"
- Titles at the start are a 'bit shabby' and can be improved on
After taking into consideration all the feedback and also based on my own opinion and what I think I should change here are 3 of the main changes that I made and why I changed them plus a conclusion of all the other small changes that I made:
1) Starting scene and titles
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| Before (Rough cut) |
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| After (Final cut) |
I decided to change the starting titles and scene because of the audience feedback. They said that they didn't understand the meaning of the hat so I was thinking of ways to make it more apparent. After some consideration I thought that by making the screen black and white while he is not wearing the hat and then making it colour when he is wearing the hat will show that the hat is the catalyst in this change. Now, the actual reason fort the hat is to hide his insecurities and is his defence from the outside world. This is because after I did some research I found that most children have some sort of 'security item' when they feel unsafe. In many cases this item was a hat so I thought it would be a clear way to show that Michael (the actor) is using the hat as a way of self security. The black and white images show this as dark colours usually symbolise depression and the song lyrics explain the singer is depressed so I thought that this worked particularly well.
Secondly, the use of shots have changed for two reasons. The first reason is that I feel that the first 3 shots in the rough cut are just too shaky and doesn't show the correct emotions that I want to display. So I changed it to a tripod that is static for the first 3 shots in the video. The second reason is because I wanted to try and get the emotions of depression across to the viewer a bit more clearly so I included a slowed down shot of him walking through a puddle. I did this because walking through a puddle is associated with sadness, anger and most importantly depression.
Finally I decided to change the titles in this opening scene because I had some feedback and they said that they didn't match the video. So I thought to myself 'maybe I don't have to try and make the titles look generic and go for a professional look?'. After a quick look on the internet for some examples I found that most titles for a music video are completely different. So I thought I would make one that is creative and matched what the video looks like. And as you can see above thats what I came up with.
2) The drink and colour change
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| Before (Rough cut) |
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| After (Final cut) |
As you can see the appearance of black and white is back because Michael is not wearing his hat and you already know why that is from what I said earlier. But what has changed is that the drink has remained orange. This is because I was trying to make the audience understand what the drink meant after hearing their feedback on the rough cut. The meaning behind it is that the drink symbolizes childhood. The reason I wanted something to symbolise childhood is because of what the song is about. The whole song is about him reminiscing about his past and how he wished he could change it (hence the reason for depression) The drink is remaining orange though because its the only thing in this shot that is keeping him 'happy' because it reminds him of his childhood and it makes him feel like he is there so he can make a change to what his past was like. The drink is almost like a 'portal' if you wish and that it teleports Michael to a different place. And this works PERFECTLY with the meaning of the song as later on you will see that he teleports from one world to another after he has 'polarised' and seen the world differently through a new light.
(This same effect is applied to the other shot with the bottle falling on the floor for the same reasons)
3) The hand portal
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| Before (Rough cut) |
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After (Final cut)
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This change is quite simple really, its basically there to show that he is seeing the world in a different way (which was the theme I was going for when making this music video)and it also acts as a portal for Michael to go through. It was my intention while making the rough cut for this to happen but the time it took for the effect to be made was very long so I put out the rough cut with text saying what the effect will be.
The rest of the changes:
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| Final cut |
The rest of the effects consist of Michael exploding and reappearing into dust particles, particles appearing on the drum kit and the new layered clip that you can see above.
The reason for Michael disappearing an reappearing is because I want to give the viewer a bit of mystery. The viewer is shocked when he disappears for the first time but when he reappears they will assume he has teleported into the new world they have seen through his hands. They may assume the whole thing is a dream? or maybe its just to show transitions in his location and time? so what one is it? well actually the answer is both. I wanted to add a little bit of mystery and I didn't want to spoon feed the viewer so i left a bit open for discussion and this may even make them want to re-watch the video to try an figure out why.
The reason for the drum particles is because the second world Michael is in is actually meant to be a dream world and i think by adding these particles to the drum kit it makes that a little more apparent.
Finally the layered clip that you can see above is to try and show what is going on inside Michaels had. The shot is a close up and the faded image of Michael sining is resembling his thoughts. The reason why the close up matters is because it places the singing Michael directly over his head and its almost as if we are looking into his thoughts.
