(Post 13) Music video or short film

Which brief am I choosing for my media coursework and why?

For our A2 media coursework we have the choice of either creating a short film or a music video.

Music Video:

Pros:

• You have more creative license as you don't have to worry about a story line unless you choose to include that as part of your video.
• You get the opportunity to film live music or create an image of performance.
• You don't have to worry about a soundtrack as that will just be the song you're creating a video for. 

Cons:

• You have to contact the band to clear the soundtrack which could lead to potential issues.
• Lip syncing is quite hard to get to look good.
• You are limited with the amount of footage you can use as it has to end with the song.

Short Film:

Pros:

• You get to make a full narrative without any limits that a music video has.
• You get to develop characters further.
• You have the choice for more than one song in your soundtrack if you wanted to include it.

Cons:

• It might be quite hard to get a storyline that fits into a short film as it is easy to get carried away and create a longer narrative.
• It is quite easy to over complicate as you have a short time frame to project your ideas in.
• You are more likely to need a comprehensive script in a short film than a music video due to the fact theres more likely to be dialogue. 

As we haven't done as much research into short films as we have music videos I decided to look at some examples to give me ideas on what I could make:

Choice

This is a short film that portrayed the concept of moral decisions. I thought it was quite interesting and I think they did a good job of getting their message across in a creative manner in such a concise amount of time.

Skewed

This short film was more obviously student made than the first, and it tried to go down the crime route but I think it came across a bit cheesy and the plot line didn't have enough impact to make it interesting.

Im beautiful 

This is a very short but powerful film about the behind the scenes of what goes on to be societies definition of beautiful today. I think this is a good example of a short film because even though it wasn't very long it didn't feel rushed and still portrayed its message very well, including good shots.


After evaluating both options I would like to make a music video for my A2 coursework as I think that would have more creative licence that a short film due to the fact it doesn't need such a strong narrative, and it gives you more ability to get unique shots. Also I would like to try and learn how to do lip syncing well and learn to edit with music more therefore a music video would be a more logical choice to help enhance these skills. Furthermore, I think it would be fun to create an image of a band and include that in the video, and I have a massive love for music so to be able to base my work around it would be a lot of fun, as well as learning new media films. I don't really want to do a short film due to the fact I think it would be quite hard to get a strong enough narrative into a short amount of time.