Introduction

Not only were we given feedback from Specsaver workers but have been given some pointers in a screen castify over our music video made by our media teacher Mr Gregson. Here is our screen castify from our media teacher:

Our Strengths

• Sir enjoyed our stop motion clips and thought they were very effective.
• He also enjoyed our performance shots and the lighting was also much better in these than other clips.
• We had included some good camera movement. E.g. when the first dancer moves his hands move one way and the camera spins the opposite way which makes the audience feel they are dancing with the video.
• Mr Gregson also enjoyed the variety of different camera angles we used such as the Point of View shot when the office worker put on the glasses in the forest and you saw what the glasses looked like as if you were looking through them.

 What Needs Improving

• We need to film the footage needed to fill in the gaps as we miss the background information of how the office worker came about on this journey.
• Sir also pointed out that in our first encounter we needed to include a reaction shot of the office worker.
• He also suggested we play around with the colour and brightness/contrast of our clips as there are some dull looking clips.
• There is a particular clip during the first encounter that is too long compared to the other clips which makes it seem out of place.

Reflection

After receiving feedback from both my media teacher and the Specsavers’ employees I now have clear aims that I need to achieve in order to improve my music video these main goals that I need to focus forward are:

• Complete filming our office scene, green screen footage and back alley scene, so that we can assemble the footage together so that at least we have a complete video that you can watch all the way through.
• Use lumetri colours to adjust the saturation etc in order to fit our genre of music better making it colourful and bright.
• Add in the reaction shot within the first encounter.
• Shorten the clip within the first encounter by either playing round with the scale and proportion to make it look as if there is camera movement within the clip (so there is a little more going on that and long shot), or I could shorten the clip and add in some reaction shots of the dancer.
• Start including transitions and effects. – Possibly even use the format Adobe After Effects to achieve an even more trippy video.
• Use curves to tweak the contrast and brightness as it is a more specific way than just boosting the overall brightness/contrast.

Introduction

Friday 30th we had people from Specsavers to come in and watch our draft 3, so we could get some advice on our music video so far. We were given up to half an hour with one creative proffesional who specializes in film and editing videos. These people would help us understand our strengths and what we could improve on to make it even better, and hopefully teach us some editing and effect uses. The proffesional who sat down with us and assed our music video was called Lenny.

What Lenny liked about our music video

Lenny enjoyed our music video saying that it had a very indulging narrative that kept you intertained throughout. He was impressed of how many different clips had been incorparated into the video and the order of these clips as well. Lenny pointed out that the clips fast speed and short lengths complimented the type of song we had chosen really well and changed well with the rythm and beat of the music. He throughoughly enjoyed our stop motion clips and said we had some good camera movement that mad the music video feel fun and excting.

What Lenny advised about our music video

Firstly Lenny noted there was such a big consistency of short snappy clips meaning to odd few clips that were prolonged seemed a little too tedius compared to the rest of the footage making those clips feel a little awkward therefore he suggested we needed to shorten these clips. He also noted that we needed to play around with the brightness, saturation and contrasts of each clip as filming on an old film camera has resulted in a lot of dark footage.  When presentiung to video to Lenny we still had a lot of gaps of footage in our music video from missing footage that we still need to film so the obvious and massively important task is to get that footage shot and assembled into the video. He also showed us a lot of intriguing effects that we could apply and play around with to add that trippy and surreal touch that we were looking to apply.

Reflection

In order to help the music video flow better Lenny suggested we played around the position and scale on a prolonged clip that he presented to us. This clip featured the woman’s first encounter where the office worker is handed a speaker. By playing around with the position and scale we can zoom into the office worker and then get a reaction shot of the dancer to ensure that the clip provides a range of shots instead of staring at a long shot that provides all the content we need and therefore there is no use of it needing to drag for so long. A vital step we need to do is film the rest of the footage we need to be able to fill in our gaps within the music video, luckily we know exactly what shots, costumes, locations, lighting, makeup, etc, that we need so all that needs to be decided is when this is gonna get done by. Lenny directed us to ‘Lumetri Colours’ which allowed us to sellect what ever clip we wanted and dabble with the saturation, highlights/shadows and even colouring tints to select over. Our aim is to firstly boost the brightness, contrasts and saturation of these clips and then afterwards we can then begin adding colourful tints and effects found in ‘Video Effects’. The video effect provide you with many different options that you can apply to your music video such as dissolve, distorting, etc… Overall I am very happy that Lenny found the video encaptervating as I really wanted to make sure it would hold peoples attention and not be overly repetitive. I am also very grateful for all the tips and advice on the music video and feel eagar to get to work.

What Went Well

• We have managed to inlcude many different camera movements such as ped, pans etc… The camera movement reflects the audience is dancing along with the music. The up beat electronic dance music is exstremerly fast paced and was simply designed for people to be encouraged to get up a boogie all night long, therefore there is a lot of camera movement within the music video on purpose elevate the rush when you mix what you hear with what you are seeing. We made sure we wanted this music video to contastly keep changing up to keep the viewers glued and feeling engaged.
• We also made sure we included a huge variety of shot distances to help the audience to establish everything in the scene and been drawed attention to important features which we want them to notice. Doing this also helps make scenes more exciting so the viewer does not loose interest in what they are watching, meaning there aren’t prolonged clips of a whole scene without any change up. Since our music is so snappy we have needed to add fast snappy clips create this pursonna that there is a lot going on, both physically within the song as well as metaphorically since the journey that the office worker has been take on is also clearly a lot for her to be feeling and taken in as well.
• There are a couple of shot transitions which run smoothly between the iffice workers journey and the clips of her performing alone in the woods by  herself. For example there is a ped up at the end of the first encounter which then transitions to a pan across the sky to a new location in the forest which establishes a new location where the office worker will be relaxed and dancing. This transition also is very clever as it contrasts the alley way before hand.
• Although there are some minor blimps that need to be sorted, overall most of the footage is on time with the beat and follows the rythm nicely, we have included many short clips meaning that there are sections of clips that change frequently each time you hearevery individial coupleof beats.

What Needs Improvement

• As we filmed off a very old camera, this meant things such as the composition and depth of field etc could not really be thought into as our camera did not allow us to  play around with these sort of features. However we used the bad quality to an advantage as it reminds us of the era of 1970’s-1990’s where the era was trippy and phycodelic and the camera quality looked like this therefore since we are trying to achieve this spinny sorty of aesthtic  the camera quality has not totally let us down.
• We have added some minor video effects but have only just touched the surface and have been experimenting. So far we haven’t explored much at all, or atleast not diven as deep into editing yet as we would like to, this will be a vital part for our music video.
• The fact that the rave scene has been added at the end means the the mes-en-scene has now got some sort of indication of electronic dance music, however there hasn’t been any actual footage of a dj, it’s more of lighting and people dancing.
• The narrative is still missing very vitial chunks such as the office scene and back alley scene so currently this music video still doesn’t make too much sence.

Focus Forward

• The is so many different effects and transitions we need to add in in order to create this spinny almost phycodellic kind of journey. Electronic music is vibrant and makes people dance hard and feel free so vaireties of shapes and colours will help the audience to associate the music video with the genre of the song because if you want something to stand out or look crazy, you make that work colourful which will add to the adbunace of everything that going on, which is a lot. Some of our footage also needs to be brightend as most of our footage due to the old camera we used was rather dark and dull which would not be the right atmosphere for some of our scenes as we want some scenes to be uplifted and happy therefore a dark and dull piece of footage would simply juxtapose this. We really need to get to filming the office scene footage, backalley footage, and greenscreen footage as right now the narrative does not make much sense and we really need to focus purely on editing and effects as that is so important to get done for our music video, its not just a case of tidy things up when it comes to editing its a case of crerating this sureal journey.

Here is my self assessment for my Draft 2:

What Went Well:

• We managed to get a range of visually pleasing/engaging shots with lots of camera movement.
• We also used a variety of shot distances ranging from extreme long shots all the way to extreme close up.
• A series of montages has been included to depict time passing throughout the long journey of the office worker.
• There is proficent syncing and editing that reflects the rhythm of the music, however this is still not perfect and need some work.

What Needs Improving:

• Some camera shots look a little shaky.
• We haven’t really used any effects yet which is something that will be vital for our video.
• Our editing for our narritive isn’t quite pieced together enough yet. Therefore the narrative may seem very confusing at this present moment.
• The mes-en-scene costume choice for this video doesn’t exactly scream electronic dance music neither does a lot of the acting and makeup.

Focus Forward

In order to stabillise the shaky camera footage I need to use the warp stabilizer effect tool on Adobe Premiere Pro. Before even thinking about effects I need to finish encorporating all the footage to create the scenes and make sense of the storyline. All though the costume, acting and makeup may not remind you of the genre electronic dance this is not really relevant as our music video is purely narrative, meaning things may have been different if we had done a performance shoot. When thinking about electronic dance music, this trippy, quirky, colourful and edgy illastration comes to mind and takes you on a journey. This is why the storyline is focused on an office worker who is too on this journey. The old film camera may not be the best quality, but this displays an edgy aethestic emphasising this spinny journey and highlighting that this music video is not typically conventional, as quality is viewed as a vital feature that projects a proffesional piece. This therefore reflects the electronic dance genre as it hugely contrasts traditional music such as classical. The series of montages and stop motion is breaking away from tradion which expects order, this is to connot there is not much sense of time, just like when you are in a dream state and therefore establishes this surreal journey through the eyes of the office worker. Finally special effects will be essiential to depict the trippy illastrations and transitions  that will truly bring the entire music video together.

Introduction

For our second shoot we shot on the sixth form site using one of the IT rooms and outside by building. This shoot went a lot smoother as we has prepared shots lists and had a really good idea of what we wanted to do and bring. My partner Archie gathered the camera and tripod as well two other actors for this shoot whom he informed what to wear, as I focused on planning all the shots and the office womens hair, makeup and costume. Here are some images from the shoot:

What Went Well

• We had a shot list ready which made the experiance feel timeless and run smoothly.
• We managed to get a range of shots from different distances and angles as they had been thought through thouroughly.
• We felt extremerly confident and had everything mapped out so we didn’t loose our sense of direction.
• We managed to improvise with the scene where the chair comes to life which still is a really good idea provided it was not our orgional plan.
• We wanted to have low key lighting in the IT room so we shut the blinds. I also brang a black mesh piece of fabric to go over the camera for specific shots when we wanted enhance the darkness to reflect this women feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.

What Went Wrong

• Unfortunately we had an issue at the very start, as there was a problem with the sim card in the camera so we has to waste some time by having to go and get another sim card.
• The actors were told to come in black suits and tie, however one was checkered and one was navy. On top of this I had forgotten my blazer but luckily my partner bought a spare one for me. Obviously this isn’t a major issue as the old camera footage didn’t pick up the suits colour and detail that much.
• We also managed to loose time when we realized that we had lost our exit sign that was to be put on the wall outside the building, so I had to run and print one off. This also didn’t manage to stick very well on the wall and after looking back in the shots the sign becomes slanted.
• We didn’t end up getting a smoke machine in the end to create the effect that the office chair was coming to life.
• Lastly since we ended up filming into lunch time it was difficult to not get shots with students in the back as people where constantly walking past.

Reflection

Overall I believe that this shoot went more smoothly and less stressfull than our first one. I think our use of camera shots have improved and will be much more easier to talk about since the thought of each shot conveying different meanings has really been broken down and thought through. I am also proud of the improvisations with the mesh material and chair coming to life. I think me and my partner we much better communicating and coorporating together. Even though we felt organised with what we were actually doing our preparation in terms of costume and checking everything was good to go such as the exit sign and camera was very poor and we must not forget to be more considerate in the future.

Here is my and my partners risk assement for our second shoot:

Reflection

By doing this risk assessment we have been able the acknowledge any dangers that could be a threat to our shoot. This will help us to brainstorm what we need to look out for and be aware of, which are helpful routines that are beneficial to get into the habbit of doing, so that filming is always gareenteed to run smoothly with no dilemmas/obstacles and everyone is well protected and safe. Luckily for our second shoot we have established that none of these risks are to worry about.

Introduction

For our second shoot our aims are to film our opening office scene and our back alley scene where our character in the narrative finds the office chair. Here is our production meeting agenda for our second shoot:

Reflection

For the female office worker, we chose to keep her costume very basic and stereotypical. We want to make sure to get the female’s costume hair and makeup very identical to the first shoot when she was in this outfit including her messy bun and tired makeup. The other two workers will be men in a classic black suit with a balck tie. This was in order to limit the excitement and relay the orderly, robotic workplace that does not promote creativity or individualism. We also decided that we wanted low key lighting so that the workplace would feel even more dull and dreary. This scene has been decided between me and my partner to be shot in an ICT room at the grammar school. This so that the office workers can be sat in a line at typing away on their PC’s. Costume, Makeup, props and finding the male office workers will be left down to me and my partner Archie, will be responsible for bringing and setting up the camera, tripod and lighting.

Introduction

For our second shoot me and my partner had to create a narrative photo bored and a shot list.

Reflection

Doing this task has allowed me to prepare for the shoot so I have a clear idea of what shots I can do and get as many different ranges of shots as possible to help amplify the actions/acting in the music video. These different shot ideas can also allow the audience to put themselves into the characters shoes and understand things from their point of view. It helps the audience to understand when a subject is feeling vunerable, happy, upset etc, as well as helping to establish key items or actions that are essintial in the music video.

Introduction

As me and my partner had experimented with the green screen for our test shoot we decided to use to studio and shoot as much green screen footage as possible while the procedure was fresh in our heads. We also aimed to get some shots of different locations/roads whilst moving in a car so that we could then combine the footage with the studio sequences in the next following lessons on Adobe Pemiere Pro.

Here are some photos from the shoot:

What went well

• All costumes were very deeply thought about with all sorts of accessories. Each on of the looks were exciting and different evidently very different outfits from each other.
• I think the extreme tired makeup look was an awesome success as it may have looked very intence in person but when filming it looked a little more subtle but still easy and clear to indicate a tired and run down worker.
• The team work between my and my partner was good in terms of organisation as we both had our parts to focus on. I was in charge of organising props and costumes whilst my partner got the studio set up with the camera, tripod, lights and greenscreen.
• Both me and my partner had a clear idea of what we intended to get done and what shots we needed.
•  My partner had brought a friend which proved very useful when the green screen kept falling over.
• All the camera shots were done of the tripod so we got no shaky footage.

What went wrong

• Unfortunately I forgot about the fact I could not wear any green infront of a green screen so I could not the green outfit I had put together or the shots with me holding a flower as the step was green.
• I had a clear picture of what I wanted to be acted but as I was the one acting I could not see myself or have any idea of what it was looking like so I felt lost as there was no clear feedback or direction from my partner with what looked okay. It felt like I was just asking ‘does this look okay’ and there was no advice given which ment I did not trust how the footage was coming out and would keep having to check and redo because the acting and movement looked aweful.
• The lights also kept turning off every minute or so which was very fustrating for us as it would mean we had to stop and start the same video multiple times and and contantly turn the light of and on again. This also mean that we had a lot of bad lighting footage that we could redo as we were running out of time.
• By the time we got to costume changes were running out of time so I was getting ready as fast as I could unfortunatly I was not checking myself in the mirror so there is another set of footage that we can use whilst I was in a particular costume as there are buttons in the middle of my dress that weren’t done up as well as my hat had made some strands in my hair poke out at weird angles which you would never ever see and error like this in a movie or music video.
• After looking back at all the footage once it had been downloaded onto the computer more than half of all the footage was just footage of me talking and not enough of me acting which was an even bigger problem because all ready we were limited with the clips we could use beforehand with so much bad movement and acting.
• Lastly our entire time management was really dissapointing as we took to long to; set everything up and get everything we needed aswell as the problems with the lights and the green screen constantly falling. Not only that but I was being too picky as there was a lack of confidence in myself and after seeing some of the movement and acting I did not feel ensured by my partner that it looked good because he was not saying anything critical about was I was doing which was a really bad thing because you need to take charge and give pointers other wise the actor just feels too much pressure also jsut feels blank. This big time loss meant that we ran out of time to get the shots to fill the greenscreen background.

Reflection

Overall I was very discouraged and upset with how the shoot went as it was stressfull and most of the shots in my opinion turned out rubbish. For my next shoot I want to ensure;

• Clear pointers and guidance is given to the actor.
• The actor is made to feel extremely comfortable and is informed if there will be and extra person watching that does not make the actor feel uncomfortable and shy.
• Organisation before hand is better handled. E.g transport to the shoot is confirmed and all props, costumes equipment etc is sorted.
• Some potential actions/acting and shots are thought of in advance.
• The atmosphere is more calm and fun so no one feels axnious or stressed. E.g. put music on in the background.