Critical Reflection Questions

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jbuWuU1PQUW6Y7rSUH4Y7kMSnsF7Mp9Mm09R-KA9qXU/edit?usp=sharing

1. How does your product use or challenge AND how does it represent social groups or issues?

 The music video touches on controversial topics such as feelings of insecurity and depression. This is shown in shots filmed in the music video. The music video opens with a medium close up shot that demonstrates a girl looking low-spirited. This primarily shows the concept video genre that was planned all the way from the beginning. By producing a concept music video, little things had to be done carefully so the gloomy mood of the music video could be known. Unlike other genres, the mis-en-scene in the music video had to be specific. The acting had to be spot on, the point of the genre was to deliver a message, and to do this the actors had to make gestures in their face that would demonstrate how depressed they are. This could have easily been messed up due to the actor trying not to laugh while being filmed, being unable to make a sad face, and a lot of more issues that come with this convention of mis-en-scene. The costume also meant a lot in delivering the concept genre of the music video, the actor couldn’t be fully clothed because the viewers won’t know that the point of the music video has to do with the actor feeling insecure. If the actor was not fully clothed, they would simply think that the actor is not insecure and loves herself, which is not the message at the beginning of the music video. 

 

 This music video represents social issues such as media/society beauty standards and body issues. In the video, it is shown that many women struggle to love themselves due to the beauty standards that are out there. Those “beauty standards” make women around the world worry about whether they are too skinny or too fat, if their nose is too big or too small, if their eyebrows are too thick or too thin. This leads them to comparing themselves to other women that they believe fit the unrealistic beauty standards,  an example is shown when a girl is in the mall covering herself as she is looking at other people because she feels like she isn’t as pretty as them. Another example in the music video shows a clip of a girl at the pool fully clothed because she feels like she isn’t perfect enough to wear a bathing suit. She covers her stomach as she looks at the pool and touches the water. This demonstrates how the standards presented by the media and society are deeply affecting women. She feels that she doesn’t have a “bathing suit” body because the other women on social media who post themselves in bathing suits that have a certain body type are idolized. This could make others feel bad about themselves. 

2. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

  Since my music video is about helping women love themselves, it is made to engage with women who feel they’re not perfect enough. So, typically this music video should be targeted towards younger women. Women who are in need to feel better about themselves and who need a reminder that they’re perfect no matter what should watch this music video. At the end of the music video, the lyrics and clips show that you don’t need to look like everyone else to be beautiful. The girl is taking off her makeup and admires herself in the mirror. She realizes she doesn't need to do anything to herself to look good, a bright smile on her face demonstrates this important realization. These clips can be used as motivation and inspiration, the whole point of this music video is to help other women not feel insecure. As previously mentioned, the beauty standards presented on social media are fake, they’re not real, everyone is alluring in different ways. Just because you don’t look like those that are idolized for the way they look, doesn’t mean you’re not pretty. We want everybody who watches this music video to understand this.

  If I could choose to distribute this music video, I would choose to distribute it on apps like TikTok, Netflix, Disney Channel, and YouTube because these are typical apps/sites that younger women are on. I would want this music video to catch the attention of younger women when they are on their usual apps. The objective is for the message of the music video to be spread on different platforms. I could also distribute this music video by sending it through text messages to the families of my younger cousins. This could lead the music video to getting spread because as I share it to a large variety of family members, they can also send it to be in which they have a connection to. The more this music video reaches younger women, the better. 

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

  Throughout this project, I learned that producing a music video is easier when you have the help of others and have a large amount of time to produce ideas. However, at the beginning I was leaving everything for last minute. But, by the third production blog I knew it was best to start working on things for the music video early. If I didn’t realize this, my music video would’ve been sloppy and a mess. When time came for the storyboard, my teammates and I rushed it a bit. This led to bumps on the road when actually getting ready to film the music video. A lot of the scenes that were originally planned for the storyboard were changed as we started filming, because the mistakes we made were noticeable. By the end of the music video, I also knew more about angles and shots better. Filming helped me practice remembering the specific shots and angles. Towards the beginning of the music video, I could barely remember what a high angle is, but now, I remember what a high angle, dutch angle, eye level angle, long shot, establishing shot, extreme close up shots and much more. This says a lot about how the music video impacted my production skills because I am horrible at even remembering the littlest things. 

4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

  In my music video, I used my iPhone 13 to film. I used my phone instead of a camera to film because in my opinion, it’s more convenient and easier. My iPhone 13 is more accessible and I already know how to use it. Unlike a camera, it would be too complicated to find one and use it. To upload my music video, I used blogger and vimeo because it is required by my teachers and I was also taught how to use it by my teachers. I tried using youtube at first to upload my music video but I couldn’t embed, so I went on Vimeo, which only took a few minutes to upload and embed my video. To edit, cap cut was used because I have used this app a few times and was faster than video star. I tried using a video star but there were too many steps, and when I switched to cap cut it was a quicker process and I finished in a short time. The steps to adding fade effects, putting the clips all together, and putting the music in the background was simple.