Evaluation

Now that my artifact is complete, I shall evaluate my music video in terms of audiences, distribution and cultural contexts. 

Last year I made a video during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, where I was extremely limited on how and what I was able to film. My main goal with this music video was to create the complete opposite of that video; I wanted to make something that had more thought behind it, and actually featured a person in the video. I also mainly wanted to have fun with it, and film something that was visually-pleasing, glamorous and enjoyable to watch. I believe I have successfully achieved these goals with my final product, whilst also meeting the cultural contexts related to my artefact. For example, for my work I was very inspired by the music video for 'Say So' by Doja Cat, which features bright, sunny cinematography with vintage filters and sparkly effects added in post production. To mimic this style, I made sure to film in sunlight wherever possible, and whilst editing my video, I watched some tutorials on how to add a glittery effect to the video by adding Directional Blur layers onto the editing timeline. In order to capture on Hayley Williams alternative style however, I repeated some shot types where lines in the song are repeated like a broken record, to give my video a more dynamic and edgy appeal. I considered adding a classic film frame onto the video like in the 'Say So' music video, or like in my degree video last year, but I felt that it wasn't necessary, and I preferred the look of my video in widescreen. Whilst the music video for 'Say So' is much more popular with audiences (over 300 million views on YouTube compared to Hayley Williams most viewed music video for 'Simmer' with 6.2 million views), I didn't want to strafe too far from Williams style.

The target audience for both of these artists are quite different, with Doja Cat originating from a more pop/hip-hop background with a more teen and young adult fanbase, and Williams from the punk/alternative crowd with a more mature fanbase who have followed her since her 'Paramore' days. With this in mind, I wanted to create an amalgamation of these artists work that would be received well with the audience for Hayley Williams work, whilst still being enjoyed by fans of all genres. I think the glittery and glamorous appeal of my video would be met with praise from both parties, though I think if I had time to make another video without COVID-19 restrictions, I would try to capitalise more on Williams style, with more darker and more elaborate visuals, such as actors, night-shoots, more locations etc. 

Finally, my video has been uploaded onto my YouTube channel, just like every other major music artists uploads their work to their channel. If I were rolling this video out for audiences, I would tease the music video through a series of visual promos on social media (Instagram or Twitter) before using YouTube's premier function to debut my video live. This would help build hype and engagement for my video before it had even released, and would ensure that multiple viewers would be waiting for the premier to launch live at the allotted time. 

Overall, I am very proud of my music video and I am pleased with what I have been able to accomplish given the COVID-19 restrictions that are still in place. It represents everything I have been wanting to make since last year but have been unable to, and I am looking forward to creating something like this again in the future.