Editing Continued..

We began by adding affects to our video to make it look less boring. We used the effect 'Broken TV' which shuttered and blurs the image.. This matches to the look of our video. However we decided not to use this all over the clips, but only on certain ones throughout or it may look too much.

We also cut the song down to 3 minutes as it was 5 minutes long and this would make the audience bored and not keep their attention. We cut off some of the end of the music clip so that we could keep our editing we created at the begining.

Editing Continued..

Today i was in the editing suit and had finished the first bedroom shoot, performance shoot and so now began the bedroom shoot. We used the tracking shots that we took on the day to move from the living room with the performance, to the bathroom (the narrative). We came across some problems such light seeping throgh the gap in the tracking shot. This made it difficult to make it seem believable. However it was only a rough cut so we would deal with this problem later in our post production process.


A tracking shot is when the camera is placed on a dolly which then moves slowly through the shot. In our video we were using it to connect two rooms together.

Here is an example of a tracking shot from the movie Goodfellas:

What is Post Production?

Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art. It is a term for all stages of production occurring after the actual end of shooting and/or recording the completed work.

Post-production is, in fact, many different processes grouped under one name. These normally include video editing, editing soundtrack, adding special effects or sound effects.

Research and Planning

Research and Planning Powerpoint for Evaluation 2012

Editing Continued..

This is a recording of the video when we were editing. Its showing a rough cut of the first half a minute of our video as we are going through to see how it looks, and deciding what clip goes next. When placing the clips together you cant move it or it will become unsynced. Instead you have to drag it from one end and use the blade tool to cut it inbetween. I found this process to be more fun then syncing as we were able to use our creativity to see what shots looks best together

 

 

 

Editing continued..

We went up to the editing suit and contiued to sync the song to the clips. As we had practice from doing this before, we were able to speed up and edit faster. We were able to get all our syncing done in this lesson. We then made new 'bins' names 'bathroom' and 'bedroom' to place each clip in the correct place. This would make it easier nex time when we went to FinalCutPro to begin editing.

These are what bins look like in Final Cut Pro:

First Day of Editing

We went up to the editing suit to go and look at our shots and start editing. I was very pleased with the shots we had taken. However some of them were repeat shots that we didnt need. We went through all of the shots and labeled them as 'best take' 'good take' or 'b take' depending on how useful we thought the shots would be in our music video. Once we had done this we began to synch the clips to the song. This is very important to ensure that it looks realistic and that the bands movements are linked to the song, for example the main singers lyrics linked to the music, and the guitartists strumming are also linked.
I was very happy with the shots that we took and was excited to start putting the shots next to one another!

Post Production Planning

 

 

This is how we planned for our clips to be edited next to one another. This will include jump cuts of the girl all the way through to create a quirky effect.

 

Shoot Day: Narrative Set

Shooting the narrative was a lot harder then the performance. At around lunch time we began to set up for this half of the shoot. The first room we filmed in was the bedroom. We set this up quickly and began getting our main character, Jess Adam, comfortable in the part she was playing. We dressed her in the nurse outfit and began putting dark goth-like makeup on her so she matched the star image and the target audience we were trying to convery for the band.

Below is a shot of our main character on her bed in her bedroom surrounded by her props for the shoot.

This is one of the shots that we used in our music video - we focused first on the skull and then used a focus pull to reveal the girls face in the background.

This is another shot that we took as we used the dolly so that in editing we can move between rooms through the wall.

Our second set was the bathroom. We changed the floor to tiles and added a tile background. We also changed the position of the window so that it looked more like a different room. Although we had white paint to fill the bath with, we were running low on time and decided we would waste more time filling up the bath with buckets of water. Instead we filled the bath up with leaves. I think this turned out to look really good. We also placed the leaves and candles around the bath. Adding the pigs head that we got from the butchers on some scales on the floor. This really added the strange look to the set that we were going for.

 Jess was great at the part and we were very happy with our choice of character. Although we did not have time to do our fourth set (the kitchen), i think this shoot went really well and was pleased with everything. As we did not have time to do a fourth set, it meant we were able to grab more shots of the sets we had made, giving us enough choice when editing.

Shoot Day: Performance set

We came in feeling positive about the day ahead, knowing we had previously set up.
To begin we got a keyboard from music tech, an electric guitar and a dj set which we had earlier organised for two other students to bring in for us to borrow for the shoot. We then used a table to the set for the dj set to sit on, adding skulls for aesthetic purposes, aswell as candles on the keyboard.

We then set the camera up on a tripod, remembering what we had learnt in AS from the thrillers. The camera was then linked up to a tv screen. The group then discussed what we thought of the shot through the tv screen, which showed how it appeared on the camera. Jason pointed out that the laptop we were using (a silver mac) didnt work with the rest of the dark image. We found a backup as Sienne luckily had a purple mac cover which looked much better.

Getting the band into character meant adding eyeliner for the grungy rock image, aswell as using studded chokers and lip peircings to enhance this look. They all remembered to wear dark grey and black clothing, however we also added a long black coat for the main singer, and a black denim jacket for the guitarist. We then planned where all the band members should be placed in the room, moving them about on various occasions to get it completely right. This is a picture of our final decision:

To get the band more comfortable with singing the song, we played it on repeat so they could get used to the song and being on camera. Whilst doing this we adjusted small details about the shot. For example we placed joker cards into the singer pocket at first, but then decided this didnt look good, and tried out using a dead flower from our props. This looked much better so we used this for the rest of our shoot.

We started with a shot of the whole band together so that the audience straight away got a feel of the look we are going for as a whole. Then getting close ups of the main singer, the guitarist, the dj, and the boy on the keyboard. We tried to go for shots which looked different to draw the audiences attention. We also got close ups of the singers hand on the microphone with his skull ring, which added a creepy image. Shots of the keyboard with the candles in the background were also used, aswell as the dj with the skulls on his table. All this small detail would give the audience a further idea of the image we are going for, grabing our target audience's attention.

However during this shoot we came across a problem, as Jake our main singer, had to go for an hour and do a test. We decided that during this time we would take more close up shots of the guitar strings, keys, keyboarder, and dj. We just had to make sure we managed our time well and got as many shots of the band all together before he could leave. He then came back later to take more shots that we were thinking of whilst he was away. I think we overcame this problem well and we were on track with time.

 

 

Shooting

We began shooting our music video after getting the band into their positions and making them comfortable with the song. We devided the parts so that everybody was once the director, the person on playback, and the camera man. The other person in our group helped to pull together the look of the set and how they think it should be to make it look best. Out of all the jobs i felt this was my favourite as it allowed me to use a lot of my creativity.

The Day Before Our Shoot

After the group before us had finished shooting, we went straight into the studio to begin working on our set design for the performance, as we were filming this first. In this room we planned to have wallpaper on each wall in the studio. However, we found that we hadnt provided enough wallpaper to do this. We thought of a backup plan and decided that we would use plain white walls, but make them look dirty and old so that it fitter in with the theme of the girls house. To do this we used a spary on the walls which made it look like there were damp patches.

This created just the effect we had in mind, although we thought it needed something more. Ollie had the idea of drawing on the walls and flicking ink onto it. However we decided as a group that the drawing might not work, but that the ink was a great idea. We used black ink from the art department and flicked it over the walls. We agreed as a group that this worked very well, but to stick to only black ink without adding any bright colours that could ruin the dingy effect we were creating.

We then talked to Dan about the lighting again, and discussed the idea of making a silhouette of light around the bodies of the band members. To do this we needed a lot of back light, which we would use as coming through the window. Although, we didnt want it to be too bright so made a curtain out of some old material we found that already had been stained. Whilst doing this we figured out that if there was only backlight that you wouldnt be able to see the band members faces too well in the video. To fix this problem we places strobe lights at the front of the set facing inwards. This worked perfectly. To end this set we placed a lamp as furniture in the corner. We didnt want much else in the room as we wanted the band to be the main focus.

Once we had completed the set for the band we started cleaning out the bath for our narrative shoot of the girl in the bathroom. The last group had used this with glitter inside so we had trouble taking all of this out, as glitter is completely different to the look we were going for.

We were now ready for our shoot so we could get straight into it and not waste any time!

Here is a video clip of us the day before the shoot explaining whats going on: