Production

After having made our rough cut, we asked different people to give us some feedback on how we could improve our music video. Below you can read some of the feedback we received on our YouTube videos comments section.

From reading these comments, the main targets from our peers include:

• Steady some of the movement shots through post production.
• Possibly film a few more shots in the performance for variety, especially close up shots. Perhaps if we get the chance to do this, try and get the performers to sing more convincingly.
• Sync the performance aspect of the video better to fit the music.
• There are some continuity errors, such as the steady cam in shot, so we will have to remove this footage.
• The still shots from the performance don’t work very well in during the chorus.
• Have more shots ‘running’ into each other, and overlapping, to create the feeling of urgency within the video.

I think that we need to improve our music video through:

• Finishing importing the rest of the footage into our video.
• Colour correction, as we want to have a a much richer colour from the forest area, warmer to reflect the soulful sound of their voices.
• Use more movement in post production, like we have done in the shot of the two of them. Also including more rapid edits like in the pre-chorus, I love how this fits with the music.

After having reflected on our music video so far, I can see some of the errors to change, and how to go about improving our video. I feel this was really useful to do as we go back to post production with a clear mind about what we can do that will accentuate the positive aspects of our video.

We have edited together some of our footage which you can watch on the video below. We clearly still have a lot of footage to put import into the video and still have quite a way in fine tuning our video, however we are pleased with how its shaping together.

After shooting our performance, we used the software Premiere Pro to begin editing together our performance. We were slightly disappointed with the footage we have from our female performer, Katie, as she lacked passion and energy. I think that shooting within a studio can be very challenging especially when attempting to get this really intense and emotional performance, so perhaps this is something we will have to consider more deeply if we attempt to refilm this section of our video. The males performance was slightly better, he was more comfortable but nonetheless it was less dynamic than the narrative shoot.

After having filmed the narrative, we were much more aware of how important the planning documents were. We really thought about the exacts shots we wanted from this shoot, and we went into individual studios, Georgia filmed Zak and I filmed Katie, and got it filmed in under two hours.

Having looked at the footage, I think it could have been better, had we got the actors to perform more convincingly and enthusiastically. However, I think it still works with the song and looks believable.

The idea of the shoot was to film the performers from a variety of angles which we would switch between by cutting to the beat in the song. I think we got some good footage from this shoot, although our music video will mainly be narrative.

Here is some of the shots we really liked;

I’m really happy with the low key lighting within Katies shoot, I think it looks good, and works with the lyrical references in her part of the song. I think that this contrasted with Zaks high key lighting, and more hopeful lyrical references  makes this footage work on a more thoughtful level.

The second shoot for our narrative was filming our male character. We wanted to film him in a similar manner, and doing the same things as the female; waking up and running. We planned to have him dress a white shirt and jeans to evoke a sense of innocence, also present in the females shoot. I think having filming a similar shoot already, this shoot was much quicker and easier. We knew exactly what shots worked and what we were looking for our of the actor and ourselves. Once again, the planning documents came in a lot of use, as we knew what to bring and how we wanted to go about filming this section of the narrative.

Having viewed the footage, these are some of the shots we really like: 

I love the close up shot of his hand that to me is symbolic of his perhaps clingy nature and evident attachment to the relationship between the two of them. I also like the series of shots in the second gif, I love the fast paced cuts in the edit from the variety of distances. I’m really happy with the footage from this shoot, I think it works with the fast pace of the song, and portrays the male in the how we intended.

Katie’s Shoot

After having carefully planned our narrative, it was time to film. I think that we were successful when it came to filming our narrative and we really like some of the footage we came out with. It became increasing helpful using the planning documents like the shot list, as we were able to film fairly quickly, although it did become obvious we had not completely thought about how we would shoot some of our ideas.

We went to The Guet, a forest area, to film, and dressed our actress in a white dress and no shoes. We did this to evoke thoughts of her innocence and purity. It worked with the simplistic theme we were going for, because the whole idea of the song is the love between these two people.

Here you can see Georgia filming Katie.

This is one of our characters, Katie, dressed in white, with natural hair and make up.

Below you can see some of the footage we were really pleased with;

As the song has a lot of energy, especially in the chorus, we really wanted to get some shots with movement to bring this energy to our video. Therefore shots like when the camera follows Katie sitting up and the whip pans when she runs are really effective in our video. I also loved the low angle focus pull of Katie running past the camera.

Below is some of the footage we were not so pleased with;

Unfortunately, there was some footage that we did not like very much, such as the two above. On the left, we really liked this shot, however, the tilt of the camera keeps jolting throughout the shot. On the right, we just felt the composition was unappealing. These errors were noted after looking over the footage, and we then thought more carefully about these things when it came to filming the rest of our video.