Music video - rough cut

This is our rough cut music video, the first attempt of us putting all the shots together and putting our editing into practise.

There are many good points to this video. The stabiliser effect on the shots that were sometimes hard to keep still worked very well because it helped these shots look very smooth. An example is this is the last high angle shot that slowly moves to the sky, then back down to Ally. We had to balance the tripod on our chin so it was very hard to keep the camera as steady as we would have liked it, but the stabiliser effect overcame this problem. Another good point to this video is that the lyrics matched the visuals. For example, when the lyrics say 'I guess the time of my life' there is a shot of him and Shannon very close walking together. Then the lyrics say 'is running late' and this is when a solo shot of Ally is shown in black and white. 

Another good point about this music video is that it uses a variety of shots, mid-shots, close-ups, extreme close-ups, high-angle shots, low-angle shots long-shots, tracking shots etc.. We used all these shots for different effects. For example extreme close-ups were suitable to use with solo shots of Ally to show his emotions and extreme long-shots were suitable when Ally was walking by the pond by himself because this showed the audience that he is returning to places where him and Shannon have previously been. 

The mise-en-scene that we created through editing techniques worked very well with the song lyrics. Ally, the protagonist is wearing typical male clothes that would be seen in 'Alternative Rock' music videos. For example, it is similar to what the band members of 'The Script' wear. They were everyday clothes, (jeans, jackets) so this created realism. 

We edited his scenes of being alone with a black and white effect so it is clear that he is upset and lonely. This worked very well because it made his feelings very clear to the audience so the video made sense. Also, the scenes of Ally with Shannon in the same settings that we filmed the clips of him alone worked very well too. Not only using the same settings made it clear that he misses her but also we used bright lighting in these scenes so it is clear that these were happy times for him. The scenes in the darkness with the projector placed behind Ally, with shots of him and Shannon showing were very successful for many reasons. We got this idea from 'The Script - Breakeven' music video because the mise-en-scene of him being alone, in the dark shows the mood of Ally being unhappy and lonely which is the message we were aiming to convey. Also, the shots showing behind him of him and Shannon having a good time shows that he is missing her. 

Some of our editing in this rough cut is what let it down the most. The syncing at the beginning when Ally is playing his guitar on his bed was not completely in time and this is what people picked up on straight away when we got some feedback from people in our sixth form. Also, parts of the music video when Ally is singing in the projector scenes were often out of time. For example at 3.19 the lip syncing is wrong. 

From our audience feedback, it was a strong view to take out the scenes of Ally and Shannon at the park. It was felt that it was too childish and didn't seem realistic enough that two people of that age would be at a park. 

Also, we are going to add more shot transitions between our scenes. It will show that we can use many different aspects of 'iMovie' and it will also show our audience the space of time between the different clips. 

Finally, it was a mutual feeling that this music video doesn't show enough rejection from Shannon's character. To overcome this we will show her rejecting a phone call from him after it is shown him trying to call her, we think this will make it obvious that he is getting rejected by a girl that he loves. We are alos going to add more shots of Ally and Shannon together looking close, this will emphasise the point that they were once a couple.