Video Diary

Over the course of our filming, Nikita and I decided to make a video each day to reflect on how it went.

Day one:

Here, we reflected on how time consuming it was to film each shot three times in order or them to be masked. Also, it appeared to be really impractical that Nikita had to keep swapping outfits, but this is something we had to get used to if we wanted the masking shots to be done.

Day two:

The location we chose was not much of a problem, but the overall idea of shooting outside is one that I will not consider in the near future. I initially wanted to film outside because it suited the song and the image of the artist. Moreover, as my AS coursework was shot inside, I wanted to have a different experience when filming to see what challenges I would face and how I would overcome them. Being outdoors was definitely the biggest challenge in this coursework as it was cold and Nikita's outfits were not warm, It was really windy which overpowered the sound of the music and the singing on set and finally the light was constantly changing second by second which made it difficult as the the longer we were outside, the more the shots looked different because of the natural light. We mentioned a variety of shots here that we planned to use and did actually film. However, as we were outdoors and it was very uneven, the shots did not come out as we had hoped and unfortunately they could not be used. This put us as a disadvantage as the most creative shots that we intended to use could not be part of our video, limiting the movement shots we had planned with the dolly.

Day 3:

Having overcome all the negatives and the monotonous process of recording more than once per shot to be masked, I enjoyed the process of masking at the beginning. It was really interesting to use this technique as I was completely out of my comfort zone when preparing for it. I think it was the end product that gave me motivation to record all the extra footage as I knew that by doing something I had never done before, I was improving my skills in media.

Day 4:

It was at this point that we finished our filming and we were so glad that this stage was over, as we were ready to face the challenges of editing together our sequences.

Music video second draft

This is the second draft of my music video. Since the first draft, I made various changes before exporting my second draft. However, before I export my final draft, I need to play around with the colour correction, so the footage all looks the same, and also has a warmer feel.

Music video first draft

This is the first draft of my music video that I exported. Once I played it outside of Final Cut, I looked to see what needed to be improved. This included re-framing and scaling some of the shots, cutting more sharply to the beat in various places, and also adding in more quick shots and taking out the longer ones. Moreover, I re filmed sections of my base track to include in the next draft.

An interesting video

Considering this blog is all about music videos, I thought I would share one of my favourite videos at the moment. It is important to note that I hate the song, however, I love the video. It is a great example of how important a music video is in terms of selling an artist because if the video was any different, I would not watch it altogether, as I only watch it because of the idea, not the song itself. After researching music videos in depth and working on my own, it is great to see that such a simple idea is so effective. Even though when watching it, the audience is caught up in the concept of the video, it should not go unnoticed the amount of different shots that have been used; 360 degree shot, close ups, bird's eye view, mid shots and profile shots to name but a few.

Digipak and magazine advert feedback

As part of my  task for making the digipak and magazine advert, it was crucial to get feedback from people so I could build on what I had already created. Thus, I put a picture of them up on my twitter page and waited for people to write their comments.

This shows the tweet I made with the images attached.

These two screnshots show the feedback I was given, both good and bad, the good enabled me to see what I had done well, whilst the bad was constructive criticism that I could then go back and work on, so my work was the best it could be.

Editing on Final Cut

Whilst using Final Cut to edit my music video, I have learnt a range of new skills from cutting to the beat, colour correcting, making jump cuts and using new effects to name but a few.

This screenshot shows me incorporating an effect onto a piece of footage. The effects ease the transitions between the pieces of footage and deter an abrupt jump from happening.

As seen in other posts, I used the RGB effect to alter the colour of  a scene. In the build up shots before this scene appears, each shot resembles one of the colours used, before the final shot with al three colours appears. This random burst of colour is exactly that, random. Although the green links with the colour theme of the digipak, they are the only scenes that have been edited in this way. This links in with the 'gag' aspect of the video as effects, colours and transitions fulfil this type of genre.

This shot shows me working to get this footage in time with the music, essentially, each foot tap would be in sync with the music for the duration of that shot. As you can see, I put the waveform on the audio track to make it easier to visually see the timing of the song, which allowed me to cut to the beat easily.

Moreover, this screenshot shows me cutting each quick shot to the beat. There was a series of shots taken for the 'da lat da' section of the song and each line had a different character. As a result, it was crucial to get each clip in time with the song as they were very quick transitions.

This is showing the process of making jump cuts on the Final Cut timeline. All you do is make a freeze frame of the section of the clip you want, drag it onto the timeline, and then take the other freeze frames from the rest of the video, in sequence. The end product is the freeze frames on the timeline that when played, jump from image to image in an effective way.

This screenshot shows me turning a series of clips into one big effect. Again, this relates back to the gag video, where from my research I saw that over the top, random editing, was a convention of this genre. Each clip comes on in sequence and then the fifth clip comes from the middle and takes over the screen, before the shot changes.

Finally, this screenshot shows me matching two of the trickiest masking shots to the music. Individually, they are about 2-3 seconds each, but took over 5 hours to make, each! However, they look very effective in the sequence and this is one of the effects that I enjoyed the most, as I never realised it was a possibility for my music video.

RGB effect

In addition to masking, other types of editing are present in the music video. This mixture of edits, colour and effects fit appropriately with the theme of the 'gag video' and in a sense, add to the humour and the stupidity. This scene was done by playing with the RGB to make each character a different colour to make the split screen stand out.

Initially, the background was green to fit in with the colour scheme. However I didn't like the outcome and thats when I was introduced to the RGB colours, and that they could be emphasised individually around each character. The black background was then put in to bring together the shot. Lastly, they were made different sizes simply for effect and again, the green one was bigger to emphasise the colour scheme.