Music Video

Draft 4 (Final Draft)

For our final draft we have made a few small adjustments to our video in-line with the feedback we have been given. Some changes we have made include adding a fade out at the end of the video as this was one of the peer critiques we got, this made our video have a much more definitive ending as the music fades out as well. We also had to change the artist’s name on the title card to a fictional one as we cannot use the original artist’s name. Finally, we removed the tear animation shown to us by the animators at Specsavers because we didn’t have time to add anymore so the single tear looked disjunctive to the rest of the video.

Please view our final draft below:

Draft 3

For our draft 3 we have taken into account tips from our teacher as well as our peers to see what needs to be changed for our final draft. We had our peers comment on our videos because we have all been doing the same project so they may have some ideas that we had not thought of from going through the same process.

Some things we have changed since draft 2 include adding some push-in effects to make the footage seem less static, we’ve also put the same effects on all of the shots with the sock puppets to add a continuous theme. Another addition is the title card at the start because we felt this introduced the video well and created a less sudden start.

For our final draft we will now take onboard the peer feedback we received below:

Teacher Feedback

We have received some feedback from our teacher on our second draft of our music video in order to get an experienced opinion on how it looks and what we need to change in our next draft:

Feedback from draft 2:

  • Good close ups and shot variety
  • Good soft filters used to connote the romantic scenes
  • Montage of skirts works

Targets for improvement:

  • Seems static- add more camera movement or quicker cuts to seem less repetitive
  • Unresolved narrative
  • More sock puppet shots
  • Maybe add some captions to puppets

Specsavers Feedback

We had the great opportunity of getting feedback on our current music video drafts from film makers/animators Lenny and Elliott from Specsavers. They were a great help to us as they were able to show us some new ways of using the Premiere Pro software as well as giving us creative ideas and direction as to where to take our video from there.

Feedback and ideas:

  • Keep our Premiere workspace organised eg. separating all of our footage into separate bins of when they were shot and what they are.
  • give each segment of the video a different layer (narrative and performance) so that we can make changes to one without affecting the other and we can also select a whole segment much more quickly and easily.
  • Lenny showed us how to add animations in After Effects which is a great new idea which we will implement if it’s possible as it adds to the childish nature of our video.
  • They also showed us how to perfect our colour filters to exactly how we wanted them using curves to change the highlight/shadow colours.

The video below is a tutorial on how we may be able to add some more animations to our video:

 

Music Video Draft 2

For our draft 2 we made some changes whilst also adding in some new footage. This included the sock puppet narrative footage from shoot 2; we also experimented with some colour filters on some of the narrative shots. Overall I think the layer over the narrative shots needs to be more obvious compared to the performance segments so that the difference is more clear and the dream-like flashback idea is more clearly portrayed; the layer also should be over every narrative shot instead of just a few so these improvements can be made in draft 3.

Something that was a positive change we made for draft 2 is we added some shots as the music fades away into instrumental at the end. I think these shots are effective because they seem candid and off-guard which fits in with the slow conclusion of the song. The performer slowly walking away from the camera at the end also illustrates this well because it clearly shows that it is the end of the story.

Draft 2

Shoot 2 reflection (narrative)

For this shoot we focused on the sock puppet element of our video which is the narrative segment. We decided to use sock puppets to convey our narrative in a child-like way, using props also removes the problem of having acting which is a bit too confusing or looks fake. The story-line we intended to convey was the progress of the star’s relationship, from her and her partner meeting to them slowly growing apart which is an amplification of the story told in the lyrics of the song.

What went well?

One thing that was a positive about shoot 2 is that we were able to shoot a large amount of footage with a large variety of shots and locations, giving us more choice in what to use when drafting our video.

The positioning of the shots was also ideal in most of them which was an issue we were worried about when working with the sock puppets as the perspective could have been off, however this turned out to go well.

What could’ve gone better?

The camera’s memory card ran out of storage towards the end of our shoot so next time it would be helpful to have an extra one on hand or delete some unwanted footage prior to the beginning of the shoot to ensure we have enough space for all the shots we would like.

Sometimes it was hard to express the desired expressions in the sock puppets ‘faces’ so we had to make sure it was very obvious what they were doing and give them specific actions. This could be improved upon by finding a better way to represent the emotions of the video through the puppets.

Risk Assesment

It is important for us to make a risk assessment sheet before going on a shoot external to school because we must ensure that we are filming in a safe environment. Since this shoot is just using props many risks can be avoided however one risk we must still be careful of is when filming by water just to make sure we don’t slip and fall in.

Click on the image below to see the full risk assessment:

Production Meeting for Shoot 2 (narrative)

For our second shoot we only had the narrative section of the video left to film. For this segment of the video we decided to use the props of sock puppets to act out our idea instead of the star, this is because we wanted to add a more playful and childish element to the video. Not using the star for these sections also helped with continuity as it was shot a few months after the first one there had been both changes to the model and to the weather for shooting.

It’s important to make a PMA document before every shoot because it ensures that everyone involved is on the same page about what the goal for the shoot is. It also ensures that everyone is prepared with everything they need for the shoot eg. cameras, tripods and props.

Please click on the image to see the full PMA

 

 

Music Video Draft 1- Rough Cut

This is the first draft of our music video which is simply our footage cut and lip synced to the song. This cut is very rough but can be used as a template for later when we add more footage, especially narrative, and start fully editing and piecing the video together.

Even though this is no where near finished, making this draft showed us exactly where we wanted the video to go and whether we had the shots we needed to create the video we envisioned. It also helped us to see what limitations we were facing with the footage (eg. marks on the camera) so we know what we need to be conscious of during our narrative shoot.

 

Shoot 1 reflection (performance)

Unfortunately the weather was not sunny as we wanted for our shoot so we couldn’t get all of the performance shots we needed meaning we had to run the performance shoot over a couple of days. However, in our first shoot we were able to get multiple shots with my projector which made for mise-en-scene that really fit the dream-like feel of our video.

 

 

 

 

These photos from the filming at my house show the background we got from using the projector which I think makes a more interesting performance shot than just a blank wall. The star stickers on my face also added to the nighttime/daydream atmosphere we were trying to achieve which I think we did. One thing that could’ve been improved upon in these shots however is getting more variety of shot angles and camera distances because we did only get mid shots and the close up pictured which gives us less variety to work with.

When the weather cleared up we then finished our performance shots at Emilie’s house by using her garden as the mise-en-scene we needed for most of the shots in our visual shot list. This day our aims were to get film which fit the nature oriented and playful side of our music video.

 

 

 

 

This shoot went really well because we were able to get all of the shots that we couldn’t get the first time round and we also got a couple more that we just came up with on the day. A target for next time is to clean the lens before filming because in a couple of shots there is a mark on the lens that we can’t get rid of, luckily it isn’t the noticeable.

 

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