Peer Feedback – Good

• ‘Good use of filters’ – Lilly Le Page
• ‘I like the mix of narrative and performance’ – Anya Bougourd
• ‘Good editing to the beat’ – Mia Le Cheminant
• ‘Good energy’ – Mia Le Cheminant
• ‘Guitar and drums sync well’ – Mia Le Cheminant

Improvements

• ‘More close ups of narrative, house, and musicians’ – Mia Le Cheminant
• ‘Wider variety of shots including close ups’ – Lilly Le Page
• ‘Scale shots in Premier Pro to get a wider range of shots’ – Anya Bougourd

From this feedback and other feedback, it is clear that the only thing that we are really missing now is close up shots. We did have a shoot planned specifically to get close up shots but that has had to be postponed. We still plan to do this however as close up shots, specifically of the singer, are an important convention for our genre. It is essential for conveying the star image to the audience  through the facial expressions of the singer and portraying emotion.

Targets for draft 5

• Less frequent use of the mirror effect as at the moment it’s used too much and loses it’s effect
• More focus on the skateboarding in the narrative to show that skateboarding is all he has left and it pushes him over the edge because he can’t do it
• Diegetic sound of footsteps in the last shot to add depth and also because it contrasts the birds singing in the intro
• Close ups of the singer are needed as it is a key convention for the genre
• Also close ups of the man in the narrative when he takes the role of the singer to show more emotion

Draft 3 – What’s changed

• Replaced the out of focus narrative footage
• More close ups on vocalist
• Colour correction on narrative footage

Personal Improvements

• Add push in on full band shot to keep engagement and pull focus on to the singer
• Colour correction on full band shot so that it looks the same as the other shots for consistency
• Colour correction on a few shots is a bit extreme and make the shot too grainy so needs to be adjusted

Specsavers Feedback

• Add grain to all the footage using an adjustment layer as the narrative looks too static
• Colour correction on narrative footage by duplicating the clips and adding an ‘overlay’ bend mode

These improvements outlined above will be made to change the overall look of the video. We want the video to look follow conventions and look grungy and rough, hence the feeback from specsavers telling us how to add grain and motion effects to the video.

Me and Max analyzed this video from a previous year to see what they did well and set some targets for our own video. I picked this video as the performance section is of a band and it has a similar narrative structure.

What this video does well

The quick pace of edit in this music video works well for the genre. There is also a good use of visual effects throughout the video which are well placed within the edit to work well with the structure of the song. There is also a subtle but effective colour grade over the whole video. The range of shot lengths and angles is also done well with plenty of close ups on the band. The mise en scene for this video, costume and props in particular, is strong. The bands look follows genre conventions well and shows clear star image.

Targets for Improvement

• Replace the out of focus narrative footage with the new footage with improved mise en scene to portray better star image
• More close ups on vocalist as it is conventional for the genre and to help show the emotion of the song
• Desaturated colour correction on narrative footage to give it a grungy look

The main goal of the narrative shoot, besides the actual filming it’s self, was to ensure that, by utilizing mise en scene and camera, the character was portrayed correctly. We made sure to use canted angles and jump shots to show the character as imperfect and troubled. We had Max’s character in dark and baggy clothes to reflect his mood.

Our second shoot involved gathering all the footage we needed to display the narrative. This was a much more efficient process when compared to the performance shoot. This is due to having a much clearer vision and plan of what we needed to film. We had a story board which acted as a base of the shots we needed. We looked at the story board a wrote down all the key shots and what angles were to be used and also went and added some extra notes of footage to get to potentially use in-between the key shots if we needed.

Throughout the filming process, I directed Max to help get the best performance possible to help clearly display the narrative. This often involved me telling him to try and put more exaggeration into the emotions he was meant to portray. For example, in any shots where he was standing or walking about, I told him to slouch his shoulders forward and to be loose and relaxed with his movements. This helped to show his character in a state of poor mental health and low motivation.

However, looking back at the footage once we we back in school we realised that a large amount of the footage was out of focus which meant we had to shoot again during our summer holidays. We followed the same process as before but just had to make sure that the camera was all set up correctly for each shot. We also made a small costume change as we thought that having Max wear black clothes fits better with the image we were trying to portray.

What went well

• Planning shots
• Planning angles and framing
• Directing Max

What didn’t go so well

• Making sure the camera was in focus
• Costume design

This is our risk assessment document which outlines all safety risks and hazards for the shoot and how we will avoid them. The document also shows where we will and when we will be there and our teacher has signed at the bottom to approve this.

This production meeting agenda helps us to visualize aspects of Mise En Scene such as costume, and props to ensure that it aligns with our star image. It also includes who is responsible for bringing what to clear up any confusion and make sure that everyone is made clear on what they need to bring. This document can also be referred to at any point when filming to remind ourselves of any specific shots, angles and transitions which we plan to use. With this production meeting agenda, we can maximise our productivity and and ensure that everything runs smoothly on the day with minimal problems.

This is our story board which we produced to visualize all the shots that we plan to use in our narrative shoot. We made this to give us something to look back on while shooting to ensure that we gathered all the necessary shots that we needed. There are captions used to help explain the significance of each shot. This helps with displaying the equilibrium, disruption and the final issue/ thought of the narrative. The story board also includes ideas for faming and angles, this helps to give us a rough idea of how we can frame our shots with interesting angles.

Things we want to try to include when filming:

• Camera angles – Canted angle, Low angle, High angle
• Shot lengths – Long shot, Mid shot, Close up, Extreme Close up
• Establishing shots
• Pans and whip pans
• Peds
• Tracking shots

 

This document details exactly what we will need for our narrative shoot. It highlights mise en scene, costume, props, shots, angles and a plan of what we need to film. It also confirms the actors, chronology, narrative, the main dilemma/conflict, and an ending/resolution. This will be  used to refer back to throughout the filming process to ensure that we have all the shots we need to convey a clear and structured narrative.

We decided to go with an amplified narrative style as it follows the themes of the song through the point of view of a character.

This is the first draft of the performance part of our music video.

 

 

What is good

• Transitions work well with keeping the high energy
• Fast pace of edit (cuts to the beat) which is conventional for the genre as it’s high energy
• Good range of angles and shot lengths
• Close up shots of Toby, Ollie and Elliott look clear with good angles
• Long shots of Ollie is the hall well framed

What could be better

• Colour correction needs work in places as some shots are too dark and some are too bright in places
• The footage turned out slightly grainy on some shots due to the low lighting where we were filming
• Elliott long shot is slightly grainy

Targets for draft 2

• Fix colour correction
• Include close ups of the vocals