Critical Creative Reflection

Madelyn Argueta

AICE Media Studies Period 6 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-_MNfuQ_gcSpaXOkCif28s8qJIBpa1FvdEFnsMXsRnM/edit?usp=sharing 

CCR: 

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

My product used some of the conventions in my genre such as costuming. In my music video, I followed a casual dress code similar to other music videos in my genre. I decided to use this convention because everyone already had a casual outfit and did not require additional effort for costuming and a casual and informal wardrobe went along with the setting of my music video. Furthermore, my product adhered to the convention of a specific type of audio typically found in music videos of my genre, non-diegetic sound, I decided to use this convention to effectively convey a message to the audience, though it challenged the convention of cams because the characters did not lip-sing to the song (apart from the one scene where the character Justin Bieber lip sang) which most music videos do in my genre. I decided to challenge this convention, so errors were less likely to occur, and to focus on the actions of the characters and the message the music video was trying to get across. My product represents the issue of harassment. The shots in my music video accentuate scenes where Justin Bieber is shown stalking the love interest. Followed by him approaching the love interest and beginning a conversation with her in which she is uncomfortable and ends up running away from him. This was meant to challenge societal norms when it comes to the issue of harassment. In today’s world harassment is getting normalized and in this music video, my goal was to spread awareness that harassment is unacceptable.  

 

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

My music video is special because it spreads awareness of a current relevant issue (which is harassment) and could potentially create an emotional connection with the audience. While my video is spreading awareness it is also a fun little video that attracts views due to adding a unique cute little dance into the video. Adding the little dance to a part of my music video could create popular trends amongst viewers which could lead to an increase in the music video's popularity. A reason why people may choose my video instead of others is due to the use of a catchy song which not only attracts an audience but makes them want to keep rewatching. However, I wish I had added some sort of way the audience could have interacted with the video to help the fans feel more connected and/or more interested. If this was a professional video, personally, I would have released it on TikTok, due to its substantial number of users. Another reason I would choose to release it onto TikTok is because the platform is easy to release media on and because TikTok (in my opinion) is one of the easiest and most popular social media platforms where one could go viral.  

 

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

Throughout the process of this project, I first learned that developing a storyline requires deep thought and concentration. While I was developing my storyboard with my groupmates, I had many ideas but when put together they did not make sense. I learned to critically think about my ideas for the music video and write down all of my ideas but before finalizing the storyboard I had to go through all of the boards to make sure all of the boards went along with one another. The second thing I learned throughout this project was how to better manage my time. When editing my music video, my group mates, and I had put together all of the scenes we filmed and ran into the issue of our music video being too long. Our music video became too long because we filmed many scenes without thinking about our time length. Ultimately, as a group, we had to decide which scenes were the most essential for the plot of the video. We had to cut out a few scenes, shorten some scenes, and speed some scenes up. Due to this I now know to always keep time management in mind to avoid potential issues.  

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

 For this project, to film, I decided to use my iPhone camera. I chose to use my iPhone camera over a professional filming camera because I am more comfortable with the camera on my phone, it made my filming process faster, it had great quality, was easier (for me) to adjust settings such as exposure, and it was easier to transfer the media to my group mates through my phone rather than a camera. To edit, I also decided to use a phone, though this time it was not mine it was my groupmates. I decided to use my groupmate’s phone to edit because it was something we all had access to every class period, and it was simple to insert clips directly from photos into our editing software which we chose to be Cap Cut. I decided to use Cap Cut to edit the music video because I was previously familiar with the editing software and already had some skills on the app, which also helped our editing time go by a little bit faster. Lastly, to upload my blogs, I decided to use my own personal laptop. I decided to use my own laptop because I always had it with me, I was familiar with it, and it was effortless to log into my Gmail and quickly upload blogs at any time.