Creative Critical Evaluation
By: Neha Saleem
Evaluation questions
Q1. How do your products use or challenge conventions and how do they represent social groups or issues?
Camera work
The genre of our music video is Sufi Pop. Majority of the camerawork in Sufi Pop music videos involves close ups of the musical instruments in the band. In our music video, we have some shots that focus on the instruments being played e.g the guitar, tabla etc. There are many mid shots of the band artists in Sufi music videos. Likewise, our music video has many such shots. The narrative of our music videos also has a lot of close ups of the actors (mother). This helps deliver the emotions of the actors to the target audience. We have used many types of shots such as, track in shots, dutch tilts etc.
Costume
The costumes that the artists of the band wore were exactly what normally Sufi artists wear. They wore eastern clothes i.e "Shalwar Kameez" and "Shawls". They wore some accessories which modern Sufi Rock artists are usually seen wearing too. The hairstyles of the band performers were very natural as the genre demanded. This was done because the genre doesn't promote luxury or lavishness but rather devotion.
In the narrative, the mother wore easterm clothes as well. The young boy, however, wore Western clothes and the APS uniform. The mother's clothes in the flashback were bright and coloured as it was a happy moment. In the rest of the video, the mother wore colours like Black or Beige. This connotes sorrow.
Expressions
The expressions of the artists are mostly very serious and mystic looking in Sufi music videos. Most of the time, the band members have very serious expressions, also because the narrative of the music video is sad. However, there are instances in our music video where the band members smile. This was done to show hope and not make the performance look extremely gloomy as the name of the band is "AAS" which means hope. The artists also don't look towards the sky like in most music videos but they rather look straight. There are moments where they close their eyes as well, this portrays a their deep involvement with the song and its lyrics. In Sufi music videos, the band performers usually look into the camera. That doesn't happen in our music video. The narrative of our video shows a mother who has lost a son. Her expressions are very gloomy and sad in the first 3/4th part of the video. The last part of the video shows how she has overcame the tragedy and shows her smile as well.
Location
The locations used in Sufi music videos usually are old tombs or historical places. That is not the case in our music video. Our band performance was done on a rooftop. It showed the minimalist look that we aimed for, however, it wasn't historical. The rooftop showed altitude and closeness to God. It was also used because the openness shows the freedom and gives a sense of hope in contrast to the narrative which is sad in the beginning. However, the shoot for our digipak was done in a historical place. We did this in accordance with the conventions of Sufi genre. The location for our narrative was mostly indoor. This denotes that the mother feels captivated because of her emotions and is going through some sort of suffering.
Text
The narrative of the video like in most Sufi videos showed the quest of a character looking for divine help with a sense of hope. However, the way we portrayed this idea was different than conventional Sufi music videos.
Lighting
Usually the lighting in Sufi music videos is dark to give a gloomy feel. This was the case for our music video as well. The performance was done during night with lighting which wasn't very bright and was in yellowish tones. The narrative also used very dull lighting in most of the scenes except for the time when the flashbacks were shown. This was done to differentiate between the moods of the past and the present. Also, bright lighting was used in other scenes where the mother was praying. The tones of light were still yellow but the room was brightly lit and not creating shadows. This was because we didn't want to give a gloomy but rather a hopeful feel in that scene.
Editing
The editing of the music video involves a mixture of fast cuts as well as slow cuts. This was done to make it slightly different from usual videos to attract the audience. As the director and the editor I wanted to create a product that was different and didn't have monotony in it. We used transitions for continuity. B&W filters were also used in the flashbacks to show a distinct difference between the presence and the past. A flare effect waas also used in the beginning of the video.
Q2. How do elements of your production work together to create a sense of "Branding"?
There are three different ways through which we advertised our album and the band. This is known as cross media convergence. The 3 ways are as follows;
- The music video on the YouTube channel.
2. The CD
3. The Website
By using features of three different platforms, we have tried to promote the artists and the band.
The front of our CD cover had the picture of both the lead vocalists together. The vocalists were already known to the audience so with their picture on the CD cover it would be easier to attract consumers and acknowledge a new album. The website and the music video itself also promoted the band as it continuously features them throughout.
The colour palette used in the CD of the album was same as the actual logo of the album. The same logo was used on the website as well. This helped create a specific theme for the band and helped in the recognition of the album. The music video itself had similar colour tones throughout too. Not only did it complement the colour palette and the theme of the band logo and the album but it was also what was required for the narrative. Yellowish tones are used throughout the music video to create a grim mood.
The logo of the band plays the most important role. It helps in making the album recognizable to the audiences. This is something through which the audience can connect to or identify the product.
Q3. How do your products engage with the audience and how would they be distributed as real media products?
Audiences
The ideal audience for my music video is very vast. It ranges from people who are 15 to people who are about 50 years old. As the music video is not another cliched love story, the ideal viewer will be someone who care about current affairs in Pakistan. However, this will not be restricted to people who watch news on television daily or talk about politics and social issues at gatherings but it would rather target a much wider audience. Why? Because the APS attack on which my music video is based, affected every singe person. Every teenager, every mother, every father. This music video targets people who are aware of the APS attack and who thought of it as a tragic event.
Distribution
We aim to distribute this album through different ways. DVDs, CD, Television and online platforms as well. Television channels such as, "AAG music", "MTV Pakistan", "ARY Music" etc will play the music video. The record company, "Beyond Records" might also choose to broadcast the music video in countries other than Pakistan.
Apart from these typical ways of distribution, the mmusic video will also be broadcasted online. In this day and age, it is believed to be the quickest and the most convenient way for both the producers and the consumers for the distribution of a media product. The music video will be uploaded online on a Facebook fanpage of the band. Other than facebook, Twitter is also a website that will be used to spread awareness about the launch of the album using hashtags and official band's accounts. The video will obviously be uploaded on Youtube which is one of the largest and most widespread website for videos.
How did you integrate technologies in this project?
Software
These were the softwares which were used to make this project
- Adobe Premier (For video editing)
- Adobe Photoshop (For making the CD cover)
- Wix (For making the website)
These were the softwares used to make the presentations for the blog.
- Microsoft Office Powerpoint
- Slides
- Prezi
- Microsoft Office Word
- Microsoft Office Excel
Hardware:
This was the hardware that was used in the making of this project
DSLRs (Nikon D7000, Nikon D5300)
Tripod
Sony Vaio laptop
Sound mini speakers
Online tools
These were the online tools that were used to complete and upload this project
- Youtube
- Weebly
- Soundcloud
- Wikipedia
- Slideshare
- Scribd
THANK YOU
Representation of Social groups and issues:
This music video is about the story of a family who went through a tragic terrorist attack. The terrorist attack took place at the Army Public school in Peshawar. The music video therefore, represents all the families who lost their sons or daughters in the attack. It also raises the issue of terrorism in Pakistan and how it negatively affects so many families. The video shows that the inhumane attack affected the Muslims the most. This was not the only attack that took place during these times. Other schools and universities were also targeted. We aimed to pay a tribute to all the martyrs who lost their lives in these inhumane terrorist attacks. Cut outs of newspapers are shown in the beginning with a voice over of a news reporter to report the occurrence of the incident.
We haven't directly shown a terrorist attack but rather shown the story of some time later. We have used symbols such as when the mother is putting the plates on the dinning table and stops on the fourth plate because there is no need for the fourth plate anymore. Also, she is shown picking up one of the two shoes from the floor connoting that only one of her sons is left with her now. The frame breaking with the picture of the boy inside connotes that the boy has died.
Creative Critical Evaluation
By nsaleem
