A Critique of "Flying on a Cloud" Music Video

I decided to make a music video to the song, "Flying on a Cloud" by The DaDa Weatherman.
After working for the first time in Final Cut Pro, I feel much more confident about the program. I still however, don't trust my music video skills. I am not an artsy person or have an eye for story telling which is one reason I stayed free of a plot in my music video. Obviously the number one thing I would change about my music video is that I could be better at it, but when it comes to my music video itself, I would change the lack of actual "human footage".

I did not include a lot of footage with people in it because I wanted it to be more like its through the eyes of the person singing the song, like this is me and how I'm feeling, but this is what I'm seeing. I'm just going on with my everyday life and seeing the things the world has to offer. Another thing I would like to have done differently is add in some footage I had of myself zip lining. With this I would have to slow it down like I did with the indians playing. I also didn't care for a couple of the transitions, I left a couple with hard cuts because I didn't feel that a transition worked in some spots. Looking at it again, I wish I would have left a few more of the transitions out, because I almost feel it looks childish.

Also, even though I love the song I picked, and even after all the work I've done with it, I'm still not sick of listening to "Flying on a Cloud". However, I do wish I would have picked something that would have given me a more obvious plot to the song so I could have at least attempted to do something that is more like what we see on TV. But, it wasn't until I was so wrapped up in the song and video that I found myself questioning it, so I just decided to work with what I had. I also would pick something longer that would give me more time to produce a better story.

Overall, I am very please with the effort that I put into my music video. I tried the plot in the beginning with my little sisters playing outside and someone playing their mother looking after them, but it just wasn't coming together for me. After watching the footage back I decided I didn't want to have a story line as much, which is why I switched to a lot of footage I had from Alaska. Plus, I think years down the road, I won't be concerned with a music video that I made, however now that it's personal and I've used an experience I'll never forget, I am more likely to watch it and show it down the road.

Aesthetics, Aisthesis, and Synesthesia

"Synestheitic perception is the rule, and we are unaware of it only because scientific knowledge shifts the centre of gravity of experience, so that we have unlearned how to see, hear, and generally speaking, feel, in order to deduce, from our bodily organization and the world as the physicist conceives it, what we are to see, hear and feel." -Merleau-Ponty (Why I [STILL] Want My MTV, pg 165)

Aesthetics is a big part when dealing with anything that refers to a visual work of art. Like music videos, aesthetics is one of the main focuses that are important to people when they in production or even a documentary on something. Aesthetics are the main reason that many things such as music videos look so good the way that they do, because people focus on the importance of being aesthetically pleasing.

Synesthesia is like a state of mind that people go into when dealing with the visual effects. These words are more of communicational theories and terms that need to be used when dealing with type of thought process. Making things look aesthetically pleasing is one of the most important parts of a music video. The music itself is such a huge part, but trying to portray the music and the importance of it through a music video is just as an important. Words can be interpreted in many different ways, but when you put a video with those words, it can only be taken one way. 

Aisthesis is how we take in the world around us. "To the extent that an aisthesis aims at what is its own-the beings genuinely accessible through it and for it, for example, looking at colors-apprehending is always true. This means that looking always discovers colors, hearing always discovers tones. What is in the purest and most original sense "true"...is pure noein...This Noein can never cover up, can never be false" (Why I [STILL] Want My MTV, pg 170). 

Style!

In our everyday lives we think of style as what a person tends to wear, but in a music video we look for something different. While flipping channels we can pick out a music video because of the shooting, lighting, and editing (Why I [STILL] Want My MTV, pg 91). And for those of us who really enjoy watching music video's we pick up on an artist's style or "theme". In music video's it is not about being "in stlye", but more like "having A style".



Kevin Williams' "Why I STILL Want My MTV"

"Music makes sense of the world in part because it does not reduce the world to prose, information, or messages (although lyrics and progammatic music are free to do so), but moves the body and world as rhythmuc, harmonic, lyrical communication. The latter are capable of commenting on the concepts like love and politics and opening emotion and psychic and physical fields in ways that prose simply cannot" (Why I [STILL] Want My MTV, pg 99). When listening to a song on the radio you may pay attention to the lyrics and wonder or think you know what a song is about, even if you think you know the artists style, but watching the music video can really help you understand more about the artist style and know what they were thinking while writing a song. One of my favorite country song's right now is Miranda Lambert's song "Over You". With lyrics like...

"But you went away
How dare you?
I miss you
They say I’ll be OK
But I’m not going to ever get over you"

...you would think it's a typical love song. However, after watching the video you'll see it's actually about her brother-in-law who passed away and with her style and lyrics you'll never listen to the song the same way again.
Style is an expression of relationship among body, technology, and world. It reveals a conciousness of the world, a way of expressing perceptual experience, a communivative engagement that opens in a reversible relationship between expression and perception (Why I [STILL] Want My MTV, pg 101). 



Jacobson's Communication's Model
(Why I [STILL] Want My MTV, pg 109)



My Music Video

I will be producing a song for "Flying on a Cloud" by the DaDa Weatherman.

I am going to add a consistancy by using the same idea of a person writing the lyrics to the chorus each time it is played, however I am going to use a different person.

After watching several youtube videos that use this same song, they all focused on nature. I want to use a lot of cloud footage that moves faster then normal. I also want to use a still shot of little girls in fairy costumes because it discusses fairy tales and poetry. I want to have some shots of the movement from the ground to the clouds because of the line "but now you lift up your eyes you're looking forward and you let your mind fly on a cloud."

My song is more on the short side so I need to make my footage clear and understood since there isn't as much time for a storyline.

Three-Point-Editing

Recently, I have had the opportunity to learn how and why people use three point editing. Unlike drag editing, three-point editing allows me to use both source clip and sequence in and out points to specify the duration of a source clip and where it should be placed in a sequence. To edit content into a sequence using three-point editing, I set edit points in my source clip and sequence, and then do the edit.

1. Stage 1: Setting Clip In and Out Points in the Viewer
   Specify which part of a source clip wanted to place in the sequence. Do this by opening it in the Viewer and setting the In and Out points.
2. Stage 2: Setting Sequence In and Out Points in the Timeline or Canvas                                       Specify where the clip is to appear in the sequence by setting In and Out points in the Timeline.
3. Stage 3: Specifying Destination Tracks
   Choose the tracks in the Timeline where the video and audio items from the source clip should appear.
4. Stage 4: Adding the Clip to the Timeline
   Edit the clip into the Timeline by dragging it to the Edit Overlay in the Canvas, clicking a Canvas edit button, or using a keyboard shortcut.

Sequence In and Out points always take precedence over source clip In and Out points. If both In and Out points in a sequence are set, the duration of the edit is determined by the In and Out points of the sequence, regardless of the In and Out points of the source clip. This allows me to restrict the portion of the sequence affected by the edit.

You && I

Lady Gaga's You and I video hasbeen on of my favorites recently not only because of the actual song, but for the video because it is so creative and bizarre. The first time I watched it, I was confused by the end, however the second time I watched from more of a creative perspective and was able to catch on a LITTLE more. I think one of the reasons I am so intrigued by the video is because each time I watch it I find something I didn't notice the first time.