Evaluation

 Towards the beginning of the music video, effects added during editing allowed the images of the husband and wife to fade out (as shown above). This suggests to the viewer that something may go wrong to make the couple disappear, and puts an idea in the viewers head, making them want to watch on to see what happens. This links back to the research done on why people are likely to watch music videos, and as our research showed that over 50% of the people watched them because of the visual aspects, we payed special attention to creating an interesting visual video whilst editing.

As above, at the end of the music video we used the fading out effect on the widower, this creates a cyclical narrative, and forces the viewer to think back at the beginning of the video when both husband and wife disappeared together. This could suggest that they are now joining each other by disappearing, or perhaps that as her husband has died, the widower feels she has also died, and disappeared with him.

 The close situation of the husband and wife in this shot really shows the intimacy and love between the couple, and helps establish the relationship of the two. It is also a feeling of closeness that the audience and key demographic should be able to relate to - whether with another half or with family.

To establish the fact that there is going to be a barrier in the relationship, we decided to show a real life barrier between the husband and wife in this shot. Directly after this shot the camera pans and tilts upwards, suggesting death or loss, as if looking up to heaven. This fits in well with our demographic of male 14-25, as it would be something that a young adult would be able to pick up on rather than a child.

This scene shows the wife turning down the volume on the old fashioned radio - this suggests she realises something is wrong with her husband, as if she feels he is hiding something from her. When she says the words 'I hope you're not going out there', it suggests to the audience that she has guessed what her husband had been planning, and didn't want him to go to war.

Two images of old fashioned radios were used in our music video to give an authentic and rustic look, this is to link in with the genre of music, and the style of the music video, as well as setting a time period for the viewer without them realising. 

As the leading male and female are obviously supposed to be married, a wedding ring was used as a prop to show the viewer that their relationship was very serious, making it harder for the wife to watch her husband go to war.

This over the shoulder shot of the wife just after she has had the news confirmed that her husband is going to war, shows her reflecting on herself and her relationship. Just after this shot goes to her crying, it suggests that after looking at herself and her relationship she realises everything is going to go wrong.

 Slow panning shots at the very beginning of the music video help set the mood and feel, it suggests to the preferred demographic that it is going to be about loneliness and loss due to the dramatic slow motion of the camera, and also of the desolate location. This fits in with the theme of rock ballad, unlike some of Muse's other videos which are usually upbeat and anarchic, this music video shows the slower more dramatic ballad side of Alternative rock/punk.

CD cover

                                                      Front cover
Following the genre stereotypes of alternative rock/punk, and the research done on CD covers, we decided to go for a black and white scene, straight to the point and very alternative/art-housey. This also links in with the style of the music video, being the same colours and style.
The image of the sailor and sailor's wife was used instead of an image of a soldier is because it is a highly iconic image of love between people in the forces during the war and their other halves, it also shows a deep and meaningful embrace, and suggests to the audience that the video will follow a love / rock ballad narrative.
The image of the embrace is positioned in the centre of the album cover, this is to show that the love narrative will be the main theme throughout the video. In the background, images of soldiers marching are merged with images of the country side - this shows the audience that there are two separate lives merging together, the soldiers are the life of the husband going to war, and the country side is the house wife waiting for her husband to return.

                                         Back/track listing
The track listings we put on the back of the CD case are all Muse track from different albums, we decided to use original Muse songs as to add to the originality and to seem more realistic.

                                           Inlay
Following the theme of war, we used an image of a plane, still in black and white to link in with stereotypes and  themes.

                                         Spine

Alternative rock advertising research

Alternative rock bands such as Foo fighters, The strokes and Kings of leon all carry a certain look and persona with their specific genre. These stereotypical looks can be seen in their advertising and their CD covers, mainly to attract their prime audience.

This album cover and magazine advert from Foo fighters and The strokes both show signs of being involved with the alternative rock scene, the dark colours used, simple messages and alternative style are sterotypical of this genre, which is why both my album cover and magazine advert also contain these things.

Magazine ad.

Using photo shop, I created this magazine ad for the album that our music video song came from. I used a picture from the internet, mainly because of difficulties with the uniforms, which would have been either extremely expensive or extremely hard to find. Also, because in order to entice the viewer to watch the video, or buy the album, I would not like to give too much away about the story line, only that it is based on the war.
I used a dark coloured picture to give the viewer an idea of the style of the music video, which is very dark and quite morbid, and also to relate to the genre of the band, 'muse' which is alternative rock/punk, in which stereotypically dark colours and alternative narratives are associated.

Survey results

If I were to release my music video, I would choose for it to be shown on television, and online on sites such as YouTube, as the results show, these were the two most popular options on how to watch music videos from both male and females.

My results also show that females watch music videos for both the song/artist aswell as the visual aspect of the video, whereas the majority of males who filled out the survey only watched videos by an artist they know and like.

Questionnaire

To get more information about music videos and their audiences I have produced a questionnaire which I am going to ask between 20 and 40 people to fill in. From this I will be able to find out what ages, and genders prefer which genres. I will also be finding out what would be the best way to commercialize my music video if I were to release it, for instance, on television or on the internet ect.

First edit

The first edit is finished, and I am extremely pleased with it. During editing the colour scheme was changed to black and white, which gives such a good, vintage look to the video.
It seemed that after a little bit more filming, there was more than enough footage, which all fitted in perfectly with the timing of the song. I feel the dramatic lyrics and sound of the song is really portrayed in the footage, and you are taken on an emotional roller coaster when watching the video - which is of corse what we wanted, for the audience to empathise and feel for the people in the story.
So, after only one edit, I am very pleased with the way it turned out, and I feel it won't take very long at all to get the video side of the project finished completely.

Telegrams & uniforms!!

One thing that needed researching was the way in which wives of soldiers were informed of death during the 1940's.
I knew that telegrams were used, but wasn't too sure what they said or how they were laid out. After researching, I found out that they were usually small, as to save money on paper, were very short and straight to the point, as to save on ink, and were usually delivered by hand, as to save on fuel! Although they were usually printed, I recreated a telegram by hand, using a small peice of paper and a small envelope, and I feel it worked rather well!

Above - The telegram received by the wife by hand

Although we couldn't afford to buy or borrow a vintage 1940's army uniform, we did manage to borrow a more modern one from the father of somebody in the group. When in black and white, I'm quite positive nobody will realise that it is a modern uniform.

Above- the uniform which was borrowed being worn

We thought filming had finished, but it seems not!

We had filmed all of the scenes we initially wanted, apart from the war scene which was swapped for more mauning scenes. We just couldn't find a way of shooting the fighting scene in a believable way, so decided against it.
Everything went great with filming, we managed to use an armed forces uniform of somebodies, and the weather and such things were on our side. All of our scenes done, we were happy...
Until editing started two days ago. We have realised there just isn't enough footage, as our initial idea was to have most of the shots in slow motion when edited, we over predicted the time to have it slowed down.
We have decided to resolve this problem in two ways, by filming short random shots to fill in parts of the song; flowers, shots of the house, dramatic mood setting shots after the death, which also helped show our genre of dramatic, slightly indie art-housey style. And we are also to try and find a radio edit of the song to see how much shorter it is than the 4 min 9 secs we are currently using!

First shoot

Went extremely well, scenes done;
- Woman and man before marriage (lovey)
- Argument scene
- Pregnancy scene with sister-in-law
- & Worrying scene with sister-in-law

On filming, we changed the location of some shots. The ones inside of the argument, pregnancy and worrying scenes were filmed in a different house than originally planned, though all went well.
Next to come - The last of the shooting at THIS location, so we can start the other locations atfter that!