Critical Reflection Questions
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-i4rUw1qkl4a4qeyLrzIVZE5YkOvt9eNqXXFE0jg0p8/edit
How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues?
My product challenges the conventions that the media has put out. The music video is all about loving yourself truly and freely. The video does not have any character that goes under the knife to look better, but this is uncommon. Usually when a woman in film is insecure, she undergoes a surgery, or she starts to work out to change how she looks so she is finally happy with herself. The character in my music video learns self-love and grows to be happy with her natural self. I wanted this change to be obvious to send out the message that you do not need to change yourself to be happy. You can go down so many other paths to become happy. By the end of the video the viewer can understand that beauty is not defined by what other people think and that they can learn to grow to love their natural selves.
This represents the social issue of unrealistic standards. Celebrities undergo surgeries and so many other things to look the way they do. They do not tell the truth about this, and they try to convince girls my age that they just need makeup and that they need to work out. While they lie to get more sales on their products and clothes young impressionable girls fall for their tricks. Society believes that women have to act and look a certain way to be deemed desirable. I want my video to show that you should not care about anyone else's opinion and that you should learn to love yourself as you are. This is a really big issue in today's age and this message needs to be spread more. If this message is spread more, it can prevent young ladies from feeling pressured to undergo surgeries and it can prevent them from falling into depression because they cannot fit into the standards of our age today.
How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?
My product speaks directly to younger audiences. Young girls, to be less broad, need to hear things like this because they do not get to hear it often. Young girls already are trying to reach unachievable standards, so they need to see that it is okay that they don't look like the current trending celebrity. Inner beauty and outer beauty are important, and everyone is beautiful just as they are. The impressionable young mind hears things, and it sticks with it, and they grow up with that mindset. Hearing positive messages like this from a young age can prevent girls from going into adulthood hating themselves. Everyone deserves to live without having to change everything about themselves for Hollywood's current ideal look. This can be used for young boys too; they may feel ashamed of themselves for not looking “how boys should” and they can see how someone can grow from feeling like that to living their self.
This music video could be distributed as a lot of things. It could be put out as a short commercial on channels like Disney or other channels that young girls watch. It could catch the attention of these girls and have an impact on them. It could also just be a regular short music video. It would still have an impact and when young girls are on the internet, they can come across a positive message to make them happier. It could even be posted to self-love accounts on social media for girls already working on their self-love journey. On sites it could be used as a piece of media on a blog about self-love for young girls to watch and read. It could also be used on a podcast about self-love to show watchers the message that they also want to spread. The message of the video could be expressed in many different forms too.
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Throughout this project I learned a lot about working together when it comes to production. It is very important to have good communication skills with your patented in order to achieve your desired product. The filming of the scenes was the most challenging part of this project. Timing and patience are the keys to success when it comes to projects like this. I improved when it came to communicating with my teammates and the communication led to the outcome. I became better at using my resources as well, when I had to change scenes last minute, I knew that I could come up with a new scene with the things around me. My production skills improved by the end of the project, and I can see clearly what I need to work on for future projects. I have also realized how important the internet is and how much it can truly help make production smoother, my group and I got help with our music video from it. We got ideas for where to film from it and it saved all of us from unnecessary stress and we got to film and have fun while doing it.
How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?
I did some of the editing for this project. I used a platform I have been familiar with for a long time, it is called Video Star. With Video Star I edited the audio of the music video, and I made each scene fade out in the beginning and the end. This helped the scenes blend together smoothly and it took away the choppiness between each scene. For the audio I lowered it up until the end of the video where it got louder signaling the “wake up” the character had. The difference wasn't too noticeable unless you wear headphones. When it came to publishing the video, I used the platform Vimeo. I wasn't as familiar with this platform but I learned how to work it and it published my video so it could stay up for everyone to view. It also helped me avoid getting copyrighted due to the music, the song was just as important as the video itself so it needed to be a part of the music video.
