Production of Music Video: Skills Development

What skills have I learnt or developed whilst editing the music video?

I have learnt to work on my own and edit the music video with no help. This allowed me to be independent and fiddle about with programmes such as FinalCut Pro and Handbrake so that I was more confident whe working without my group members. I also picked up plenty of skills with editing and making videos shorter or smaller in size to upload to Blogger and other websites. 

Editing skills

• Using markers to create beats to match the song and change shots
• Slowing down scenes
• Adding filters and adding/removing colours
• Converting music so that it can be uploaded for us to edit
• Starting the song off with a significant word when it starts so the rest of the lip syncing is in sync

Production of Music Video: Improvements

Vlogs - Thurs 27th Nov

Filming/Editing - Change of Plans

The weather isn't too good today so we won't be filming outside today. Instead of waiting and relying on the weather, we will change the idea of filming outside and use what we have in the college. We have lighting and lots of space for close-ups for the beginning and ending of the music video, and we also have space for moving shots. Our audience said we needed more shots where are our artist is moving around so we will be working on that.

My group members aren't here yet so I am editing and fixing issues we found during the rough cut feedback. This includes the shot where our artist looks away and then back at the camera and other shots too.

What is left to do? 03/11/14

Bye the start of November things we have left to do:

• Finish all re-shoots
• Begin editing for rough cut which is due on thursday the 27th november

Editing for Rough Cut - 24/11/14

Rough Cut Preparation - Monday 24th Nov Vlogs

Production of Music Video: Teacher Feedback - Rough Cut

Production of Music Video: Target Audience Feedback - Rough Cut

Production of Music Video: Rough Cut (FINAL)

Review of 24.11.2014

We completed editing our rough cut, showed it to our class and received feedback from our peers (shown in following group posts). We showed it early as we are going out to film on Thursday.

What's Changed Since We Started?

Editing continued

During this editing session there were some parts where I had looked away in a different direction.

I trimmed these shots down / removed some and changed them to the projector dancing scene where I'm slightly doing the bobby smurda (dance from the song 'hot n**ga) dance. 

Further Editing

Editing - Individual (18th Nov)

Editing process continued

What's Next For Me?

Evaluation - Filming Day 17th Nov

Filming - Shooting Slow Part of Our Song

After filming on Thursday, we realised the shots weren't good enough because we could see the whiteboard in the frame of the video. As we don't have any boys available for that scene, we decided to scrap those and try filming the slow part of our song today. Our performer had a completely different outfit and no synergy items like the bandana and red lipstick because we wanted to emphasise the difference between the chorus the verses and this bridge. Our performer has much heavier make up and dark colours because this part of the song is slow, slightly depressing and touches the audience's heart.

The smoked winged liner (eyeshadow etc) really brought out the artists eyes and would make the audience really look at the artist and venture into her soul.

The use of nude lipstick drew attention to the eyes as there were no bright colours to distract the audience from the eyes.

We filmed and then copied the files from our media card to the video drive.

Review of 17.11.2014

Today was our last day of filming. We used the projector and a light, keeping it simple as the bridge is slow and is stripped back. Li has heavy eye makeup which keeps the focus on the raw emotion of the bridge as this part is very different to the rest of the song, in contrast to the more upbeat and fun rest of the song. This allows the audience to differentiate the bubbly side of the song to this emotional part. These shots were effective as the lighting was good, and the shots were well framed. Overall this was a successful filming day as we used our time effectively. 

Testing the dedo light on Li, we started off with a square shape but found the circular shape more effective.

Here I am filming a close up of Li being 'sad' and dramatic for the bridge as it's slow and emotional. We used the dedo light and turned off all the lights to make sure all the focus is on Li and the song lyrics.

Filming - 13/11/14

On the 13th of November the group and I decided that we needed some extra footage for the music video. This footage was to be used as filler during the music video. The scenes in which we filmed including having Lee and a boy who portrayed the boyfriend which her character breaks up with stand in front of a projection with Lee looking very uncomfortable around this specific person.







We also shot footage of her and a boy who portrayed a bad boy however when it came to the editing we decided against using that piece of the footage and stuck with just her and the good boy.

Editing - 13/11/14

Editing Disaster Strikes

Dear Diary,

Editing Further feedback

Editing Further Feedback from Ace Miracle

Evaluation on Filming Day - Thurs 13th Nov

Vlogs on Thurs 13th Nov - Filming Backups

Filming Back up Shots - Thurs 13th Nov

We decided to film some shots of our performer with a good/bad boy on Thursday at lunch time as we realised the scenes of the slow part of the song did not look so good. We had two boy mates of ours who helped us out and we tested various ideas. This is the testing we did for the shot using the papers covering and then moving from the camera lens. It looked okay but not good enough compared to the projection.

The first idea was to use pictures to cover the camera lens and reveal the scenes in the back. We used love hearts in two different colours. The red love hearts were used for the scene where she is with the boy she likes (the bad boy). The black hearts were used for the boy she was bored of (the goody two shoes).

After using this idea, we realised it didn't look good on the camera so we tried using projection. We used the following gif:

It was very simple yet effective, but unfortunately after looking back at the shots, we realised that the whiteboard used to project the images on to was showing in the frame so it didn't look neat. We will have to re-shoot on Monday in the lesson.

Review of 13.11.2014

Today we filmed the scene with the boys, the good 'geeky' boy and the bad 'rebel' boy.
The good boy was dressed in a t shirt and smart blazer and the boy was in a rough leather jacket.
We received feedback that our music video would not look right as the song is about males which is why we included them. The good boy would be trying really hard to interest Li but she's not interested as she wants something unreliable which is the bad boy! We filmed close ups and mid shots as the base tracks. Thanks to Cameron (good boy) and Amir (bad boy)!

more editing experimentation

Today as I stated in a previous post, I went back to the editing suite and started again from my base tracks. From the feedback given I redid my markers to the beat again, in my previous attempt at editing I had done really fast beats to match a certain beat of the song, this time I decided to try a different route so instead of editing to that particular beat I listened to the song again a few times as well as the instrumental and luckily with the song we have chosen we are blessed with a range of beats we can edit to. Once I decided on the beat I planned marking, I did that and listened/watched it a few times to make sure I had gotten the markers in the correct places.

This is where the hard part began. From my previous attempt at editing the whole song; the feedback I had been given was "avoid/do not cut through lyrics".

 This is when things started to get intense; that moment when you get a cold sweat and feel as though you are about to get pushed into an endless vortex of darkness.

Re-Shoots - 06/11/14

On thursday we also did some more filming this included shooting the base track with the projector and also re-shooting some previous footage.

Editing - 06/11/14

On thursday the 6th of november we continued on with editing. Adding the rest of the base tracks and starting to put on the markers for the lip syncing using the red markers for majority of the footage. However we also used blue markers on the footage where the artist is seen clapping with her friend. The reason this was tagged differently was so that we could mark where in the music this piece of footage would work.

More Filming To Be Done

Looking at our footage, a lot of the slow motion scenes didn't work as well or look good enough for our music video, so just in case, we are going to have our back up shots. These will be of shots with our artist and the boy she is with, as during this part of the song she is talking about being unhappy with the boy and something feeling wrong when she's with him. we are thinking of shooting this in a manner in which it would be suitable for us to incorporate slow motion in post production.

We have a lot of shots of our performer dancing and doing all sorts which will be great as filler shots where we may not have a good enough shot for it, or need a bit of movement and no lip-syncing. We're well on track at the moment, but need to make sure all of the group members have an equal part to play in the editing process. We will be filming on Thursday around lunch time because that's when both our performer and the boy is available.

More Ideas & Changes to my Digipak/Advertisement

I've decided for the digipak that instead of making the whole design being based around the red bandanna, I just used some editing skills to make the red on the artist's lips and her bandanna stand out.

The use of the font kept it feminine but still quite fun. I used a continuous font for the front and back and also used the matching coloured butterflies to add a flow. (It's almost like the butterflies are flying through out the whole digipak too).

Sources I used:

• BeFunky - photo editor
• Photoshop - CD template 
• Powerpoint - typing and grouping the images together

The deadline for our promotional music video is due on the 5th of December!

post production - editing

I continued adding in the base tracks today along with more markers to help me place thing where I want them to go.

YELLOW - lip sync for the word walking, as on some clips I started singing from the word walking rather than I.

PINK - for where I wanted to add in the clip of the girls laughing/ looking at the image of the "bad boy'.

( the specific image was chosen because in the image the guy looks dangerous and his features are sharp)

ORANGE 1 - For where I will add in the clip of girls looking at the bad bad boy

ORANGE 2 - ''' Good boy 

The orange are simply an idea I am not 100% sure of I will use that idea, as I feel it may not fit.

After I finished adding in my base tracks, I begin placing marker in for the beats. Then when I finished adding the beats in, I sliced all the footage.

When editing I was deleting clips that i didn't want from the clips i had sliced at some point or another i confused myself and lost track, then ended up messing up way too much and forgetting what I was doing.

After a while I decided to just have fun with it and carry on then, start again from where i had added the beats in another day.

Review on Filming - 6th Oct

Vlog - Filming on 6th Nov

Further Editing

I have continued adding in my base tracks and to make the editing job easier for myself i have also colour co-ordinated my markers

Purple = where I will add in the base tracks of myself and Billie clapping
Turquoise = where the slow motion part of the song will come in / end

Review of 06.11.2014

Strengths:

• We have hopefully completed all filming and re shooting that needs to be done such as the projector scene and the re shoot outside in Angel.
• We filmed a variety of shots including close ups.
• We have successfully imported our footage onto the video drive and onto Final Cut Pro. 
• We have started to add markers to the footage we filmed today.
• It was relatively sunny today which added nice light to our clips.

Weaknesses:

• As we spent this lesson filming, we haven't been able to spend out lesson editing.
• The bubble scene is quite dark, which wouldn't work well in the music video as there is huge contrast between bright and dark. As we are using a bright and upbeat song, this wouldn't match the song and it looks too harsh so we won't be using the bubble projector part but we are still keeping the lips and flowers.

Improvements:

• To continue editing.

Editing - Second Day

We have spent the majority of today's lesson filming; the projector scene and outside in Angel (which is a reshoot). However, we did import our footage today onto the video drive and onto Final Cut Pro.

Here are the some mid shots with the variety of GIFs we choose to project onto Li and some screen shots of the process of uploading the videos onto our video and drive. We also used AirDrop to send each other pictures through different Macs.

Filming - Last Day (Hopefully)

Today we have reshooted the rest of our music video; we filmed the projector scene in room 333 and reshooted in front of the Love What You Do wall in Angel.

We found GIFs on Giphy that suited our fun, upbeat song such as bubbles, lips, flowers, and funky colourful moving images. Then we added the GIFs onto a powerpoint presentation and turned off all the lights in the room. We projected all the colourful girly gifs onto the projector and Li performed infront of the camera and filmed a close up and a mid shot. Close ups are effective as they are the most important shot and the mid shot is used to show the images on her. We also filmed a cut away shot of her just having fun and dancing that we could use when she isn't lip sycning in the video. After, we went out to re shoot the scene in front of the Love What You Do wall in Angel. Here a variety of shots were filmed, a close up, mid shot and a moving shot. All useful and effective in music videos!

 

Filming - Projection Scene

We're using loads of GIF images for our projection scene from the website www.giphy.com and here they are!


The lips here are also another synergy and suits the girly but not over the top theme.



This is a slower GIF so we can use it for the slow hook in the song. It is still pink to look feminine.


We're using the bubble gif because it is fun, and suits the theme of youth and just living life.

Production - footage/editing

Dear diary,

TUESDAY 4th NOVEMBER 2014


DISASTER STRIKES

One lovely Tuesday I had been in the editing suite calmly awaiting a friend of mine to finish so I decided to see what my groups main editor had gotten up to since the lesson, which had been nothing. Since I was free and not doing anything I decided to carry on from where she left off. But Lowe and behold as I was watching the footage we had shot I felt as though someone had slapped me in the face with a cold piece of fish, I looked TERRIBLE, footage we had shot when I was unwell had me looking as though I was in serious need of the bathroom or urgent medical attention , bits where I was sort of okay as a performer either my hair was sticking up in odd places or I had been so focused on one lyric that I'd forget the next or even worst my face looked like a public toilet, that homeless guy from that Lindsey Lohan movie must've been taking hints from me because DAMN...

This is not what our audience wants to see.

And to make matters worst footage where I shine as a performer the camera goes crazy with all the movement and shaking that it looks as if it is Nicki minaj shaking that booty like a Polaroid picture. A member of our target audience said "when watching it I felt dizzy" and not the cool dizzy like dizzee rascal the bad dizzy, this is not the look Saffron is going for.

So all in all Tuesday November 4th 2014 had been a pretty terrible day in the land of Saffron.
But never fear SAFRRONITES when one door closes another one opens and we will fix this mess.



Peace out
Anuli aka Saffron

Vlogs from Re-shooting: 5th Nov

Photos from Re-shooting day

Production - Editing 3rd November 2014

Today was our first day of editing. We started by importing footage that was shot over the half term onto the video drive once it was all transferred I opened up a final cut pro project and then imported all our footage onto the project. We started going through all our footage deciding what is useful and what will not be for the music video. While the others were blogging I started working on the first base track for the music video. After importing the audio onto the project I selected the first base track then worked on the lip syncing.

Reflection on feedback - Production stage

I have been told that in order to get my grade higher I need to to do more post on reflecting back on my feedback. I do agree with this and believe that I should go back and look at any of the feedback that I have been given on my blogging.

Production - Going through footage

Editing process

I thought I might as well get started on editing but as i didn't want to tamper with the work another member of my group had started I decided to start it from scratch and edit it, especially as what we had filmed already had a vision of what i wished for it to look like which may possibly be different to what she wishes so as not to cause conflict I have saved it as a separate file so that when we meet up we can compromise.

Inaddition the footage Sab and I had reshot today; I felt was of a higher quality to what we had previously shot due to us learning from our mistakes and going out and knowing exactly what it is we wish to accomplish. Further more as the 'performer' I had improved a lot compared to previous filming days which made it easier for me as an 'editor' to use the footage and feel confident that it clearly expresses our artist and our genre clearly.