FINAL VIDEO

Here is the final draft of our A2 Media Studies music video. We are very happy with how it
turned out, and pleased we managed to pull off the video we wanted, even due to the few ‘western’ looking locations of our area. We have colour corrected this version to finalise it.

EVAL Q1: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

For this question I compared our work with that of professional pieces using screenshots and writing about what did similarly and differently in terms of conventions.

Click the image below to view my comparison of our video and professional videos.

anal of scrnshts

Also, I created an analysis sheet of our digi-pack and advert in comparison with a professional Mumford & Sons digi-pack and advert. Please click the image below to view my comparison sheet.
print prod

ANIMATION CREATION

For our video, we wanted to add some cartoon animations to add to the story line, but also include an eye-catching effect that would memorable to the viewer.

THE PROCESS

To create the animations, we used After Effects, Illustrator and Anime Studio 8. First of all, we had to create the silhouettes of our cowboy and cowgirl. We drew this on a graphics tablet through illustrator. To be able to move our cartoons, we had to draw each character in separate parts, to then be built up as an animate-able ‘puppet’, in Anime Studio.

PARTS:
Capture

FINAL CHARACTERS:
LOUS   fleur
For the horses, and creating genuine movement, I traced the famous Muybridge horse run cycle. This consisted of 12 images that we then looped to keep the horses running. Figure-1  Capture

Finally, we had to create a desert like background. We created some layers on photoshop, after watching some reference material. The sky layer would remain static, as it was the furthest away. The distant mountains would move slowly, and the ground would have to move quickly under the horses hooves. These are the layers we created:

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And this is a screenshot of the final result in the music video. We added some more features in After Effects like a pop-art overlay that flickered, some camera shake, and lens flare sun. The process above was done similarly for the animations in the intro of the video.

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VIDEO DRAFT 02


This is the second draft of our music video. Here we are very near completion, we have made changes to the title, and gone with a fully animated sequence that will then dissolve
into our live-action video. We have also chosen a more conventional western font. To finalise the video we just need to colour correct the videos.

Draft 02 Feedback:

Here we received feedback from two university students studying media, who had also created their own high grade music videos in the past. The feedback we received was positive and we were glad to hear that they clearly understood our narrative even though it was non-linear. One thing they did point out as an improvement was to colour correct our shots of the narrative, as we had used artificial lens flares which they didnt see plausible due to the rainy climate we filmed in. So we will aim to colour correct and create a warmer feel to the shots to make the lens flares more realistic.

VIDEO DRAFT 01

This is the first draft of our music video. We are still missing half of the footage in the project, but that will be added shortly. We haven’t added any colour correction as that will be done over the whole video when completed. Im really happy with how the video is looking, I was worried that our narrative wouldn’t make sense as we tell it in a strange order with flashbacks etc. But I think it does work well and people seem to understand what’s going on. A few things we plan to improve, is firstly the title. People have said that the font we have used isn’t conventional and a bit too fancy for a western story. So we will find a more traditionally western font. The second thing to do will be to make more of a deal on edits on the beat. Possibly create some artificial whip pans in After Effects from one shot to the next will help and create more of an impact on some of the hard hitting beats. Overall I think it’s looking good.

VIDEO DRAFT 01 FEEDBACK:

Here is the feedback we received on our first draft. Obviously it was an incomplete video but there was still enough content to create a sense and feel of what the final product would be like. We will work on the feedback we received, and possibly change the title text and people didn’t think it was conventional.

VIDEO PRE-PRODUCTION 02: NARRATIVE

NARRATIVE SHOOT EVALUATION
narshot

Click above to view photos of our performance shoot.
The shoot for the narrative section of our video went very well, again we were lucky with the weather and natural lighting. All our performers acted very well and we found great western mise-en-scene which looks authentic and believable. I mostly pleased with what we shot on the beach, we found some great locations which resembled western sand dunes and cliffs, and filming at near sunset added a great deal of western authenticity to our shots. We managed to get all the shots we needed from the shot list, and a few extra stock footage which can be used to fill spaces. A few of our shots were very noticeably hand-held, but this can hopefully be fixed in post production, with image stabilization.

PRODUCTION MEETING AGENDA

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This is our production meeting agenda for our narrative shoot. We arranged this so that our shoot would play out smoothly on the day, and no equipment would be forgotten. We made a list of props, costumes and equipment, and assigned each one to whoever could supply it, that way instead of one person supplying everything, it was a team effort. We thought hard about our performers costume design, and decided on cowboy/western style waistcoats, shirts, trousers and boots. We also had to carefully decide on our locations as our narrative would be set back in the wild west. The document also includes a basic shot list. Please click the image to view our production meeting agenda.