Editing - Music Video

Yesterday, I started editing my final music video together. I imported all the clips and audio track into Final cut. I started off by adding in the miming part where those specific lyrics are and the last clip of the two actors walking into the sunset as I know exactly where I wanted to use these to shots. I also sped up some of my cloud shots to create a time lapse effect, I achieved a good effect by speeding up to 2000%. I will next try to sync up the performance clips I have. I have been looking at my storyboard to help with clip timings and where things so be. Rendering looks to be an issue again this year, however I have been cutting up clips into what I need so that this process takes as little time as possible. I tried to render a clip of the band as a whole performing, which was a 3/4 minute clip, however rendering told me it would take an hour or so so I decided to leave this and cut bit in where and when I need to.

Filming - Lip Syncing Test

This is a quick preview of how the lip syncing would look like with some of my clips. I have used the first shot I filmed of Jacob as a practice for his lyrics. I filmed his practice just in case it looked good and I am very glad I did as it turned out great. There are a few mistakes in places however I got enough clips to be sure that I have enough footage for the song. This is just a 40 second clip to show that the lip syncing matches the music well. To get the blurred back ground I used my 50mm lens which gave a really strong focus on Jacob and a shallow depth of field for everything else in the shot.

Filming - Yesterday's Performance Shoot

Yesterday, I filmed the performance half of my music video. As I had to find a new cast of musicians last minute, we had to keep changing the time of the shoot so that it suited everyone. We started our shoot just after 3pm which gave us just over an hour to shoot everything needed. I had a bit of trouble finding the house we were filming in but eventually found it after numerous phone calls and searching. 

Whilst Edd set up the drum kit outdoors, I made use of the time by filming individual shots of the guitarists and a few clips of jacob singing. Once everything was set up, I shot the whole song being played. We had trouble with the sound as I couldn't find any portable iPod speakers, we relied on the sound coming from my phone. However, I think the group managed to do so well. I then went round doing some handheld shots of everyone through the whole song, which means I have a good range of different angles and shots. 

I managed to film about 30 clips before it got dark which I think is very good in the time we had. Everyone was very professional and there was a lot less laughing etc which meant we didn't have to redo things. We also got to enjoy a lovely sunset at the end of our filming. I have included a few stills from my clips in this post to show a few of the shots I filmed. I am very happy with how the day went and am hopeful that I will have enough quality footage to use in editing and will not have to reshoot things etc.

Planning - Todays Shoot

Today, I will be filming the performance scene of my music video. As the weather looks to be a bit unpredictable today, we will either be filming indoors or outdoors depending how dry the ground is, as the drum kit can't really taken out onto wet ground. We will be filming at three and this has been confirmed with all my members so hopefully no one will turn up late etc. We will be filming in the village next to me so this shouldn't be a problem for anyone to get to, if it is a will happily offer people lifts. The weather outside now is quite dark and cloudy which is fine as it is still dry and hasn't rained today. If we do have to film indoors, We will either use a sheet to cover up the background or use some lighting, as Edd is in the lighting and sound business. However the lighting may be quite difficult as it takes a while to set up. Hopefully, all will go to plan and my performance shots will be all done by the end of today.

Research - Music Video

The Wonder Years - 'Came Out Swinging'

This is the video for The Wonder Years' song 'Came Out Swinging' from their recent album. I absolutely love this video in terms of narrative, little details and the way that it has been edited. I love how the narrative has relation to the lyrics of the song. The ghost costume refers to the line 'I spent this year as a ghost' and shows the person running around and misbehaving as if they cannot be seen. This also happens when the band sing 'Been on a steady fast food diet' on the second verse and the video cuts to a clip of McDonalds. I also really like how the spray painting scenes have been cut up so we see little snippets of what it says but can't quite tell what is being written until it is revealed at the end.  

The editing is to a very high standard on this video. I like how there are moments when something happens to a big beat, such as the first beat after the build up where the ghost pushes over the guy on roller skates and near the end after a slow part theres a crash where the drummer hits the lightbulb with his cymbal which carries on with band members breaking the lightbulbs. 

 The editing is also effective when the song slows down just before the chorus comes in. To fit with the slower pace of the music they have chosen to fades the two clips together instead of just cutting with no transition effect between. This works well with the lower tempo and fits the mood. There is also a long shot held of the broken lightbulb fizzling out and smoking. This settles the mood back down now the track has ended and shows the broken lightbulb as a result of what has just happened.

Overall, the music videos performance and narrative both suit the genre of music quite well by showing misbehaviour/rebellion typical to the rock genre.

Planning - Change In Muscians

Unfortunately, The people I asked to be in the performance part of my music video have other plans or aren't replying to my messages etc. apart from Jacob, my lead singer.
As I had the day all planned out, I decided to find some different people to work with and asked around a lot of people. A lot of people were busy with working and jobs however I have found two guitarists and a drummer, meaning the drums will not have to be filmed separately anymore.
My two guitarists are Eric White and Mike Jordan and my drummer is Edd Monk. As Edd has a drum kit,  We will shoot at his house, hopefully in the garden or field depending on the weather but it should stay dry overnight.

Planning - Tomorrow's Item List

Tomorrow, I plan on shooting my performance shots with a 'band' I have put together using people I know. This is a list of all the things we will need to have, item wise, for the shoot to go well:

- Camera & SD card
- Tripod
- Drum Kit
- Acoustic Guitars
- Costume (refer to post about band costume)
- Printed lyrics (just in case)
- iPod with track

These shots will need to be in time to the music so I will try find a small speaker to make the song louder than the volume on my iPod so that the musicians and singer can hear the track better and keep to the timing. I have also created a list of shots that need to be done, as I found this helpful when filming my narrative shots. I was able to cross off what we had done and make sure nothing got missed out. I will also bring a printed copy of the lyrics just incase my lead singer forgets a line and just as a reminder so he can remind himself between shots whilst shoot the guitar or drums etc.

Planning - Band Location

To film the performance part of my music video, Edd has kindly allowed us to use his garden. This will make it a lot easier as he owns the drum kit we will be using, meaning it can be quickly set up and not much fuss about transportation. We will film in his garden which offers a nice outdoor space with plenty of room for different angles etc. Unfortunately, my photographs were taken just as the sun was setting meaning they are quite dark. However, the space does look very good in normal day light and will hopefully work well for my performance shots.  There is not much distraction in the background and general mise en scene, meaning this should be easy to keep consistent and relevant without anything getting in the way of the shots. There is a lot of space that we can arrange the instruments and formation in giving me a bit to play around with rather than a constraint area.

Research - Music Video

Previously, I talked about taking inspiration from Francesqa's music video for 'All I Had'. Unfortunately, I couldn't link the music video as it had been made private on their youtube account. Today I found some gif images of the video that show what the video was like. The image on the left shows the spilt screen used to show the male and female versions of the narrative. Below, there is a gif showing the male and female narrative in one screen and the rest show the performance. I love the use of the high contrast black and white and this video really shows this off well. I also like the shallow depth of field used for the performance clips. The professional lighting looks really effective, however I don't own and can't afford to pay for this sort of professional set up and am planning on using an outdoor location to match the narrative.

Planning - Change In Musicians

Unfortunately, Nick has doubled booked on filming for peoples projects and is unable to film tomorrow. This means I will be one guitarist down if I choose to film tomorrow. I will ask around people I know to see if anyone can do tomorrows slot last minute. I have text a few people I know well and have also posted a status on Facebook so I can ask to a much wider audience and may get people I may not be as close friends with to volunteer. If not, I may choose to film individual singing shots with Jacob, my lead singer to get some of the performance done. I will also arrange for another full band shoot another time, possibly next weekend.

Planning - Weather On Shoot

For Saturday's shoot I am hoping for some cloudy weather, the cold and miserable looking the better. I would like it to possibly rain a little however this will also mean finding a way of keeping my camera dry. This could be done by setting up a tripod and having an umbrella held over it, this will be hard for shots without a tripod and may block out some of the light. For the past few days it has been quite foggy which looks amazing and very eerie. However, the weather is unpredictable and I will have to go with whatever the weather is on that day. This is the BBC news forecast for my area on Saturday. This is still a few days away so this forecast may change so I will keep an eye on it.

Planning - Practise Lip Syncing Sessions

I have organised two dates this week to make sure Jacob, my lead singer, knows the words well enough to perform on Saturday's filming shoot. We will meet on Wednesday and Thursday this week and I will print out lyrics for him. I have the track on my phone and iPod so I will bring this two so we can get the lyrics in time to the music. If worst comes to worse, I will help him out on the day and possibly film him singing in small chunks. However, my actors from my narrative shoot on Sunday were able to mime their lines quite well with no practise at all, so hopefully Jacob will manage.

Research - Band Posters

This is the poster my band, Young Guns, used to advertise their first album release show. The choice of using black and white is reflective of the album cover for this album ('All Our Kings Are Dead'). The typography used to illustrate the bands name on the album itself has also been used on the poster. This has almost become a logo for them as the logo for band Deaf Havana has also been used. The image on the poster is of the band members all together, in which the lead singer is presented central as they are often represented as the main focus of the band. Information is overlaid in a transparent box which keeps to the colour scheme by using a dark grey. This also means that white text can be clearly seen on top of this. The poster has been laid out to show the main information central as the main focus and then a small text for less important information. The image and main text point are place in the central third and are clear enough for someone to read easily or to catch someones attention so that they want to read it. The dark colours associate with the genre of rock and the poster makes this evident that this is the sort of genre of music these bands are.

Planning - Editing For High Contrast Black & White

 As I don't have my own copy of Final Cut on my personal Mac at home, I use iMovie instead which I have some experience in using through playing around and using it to create personal projects. I wanted to test out my clips and see how they looking in black and white, which is what I plan on having my video in. I wanted to recreate a strong black and white, like in the video for 'Stiches' by Young Guns and 'Sit Tight (Acoustic)' by The First. I played with the clip settings and adjusted the levels to give a high contrast effect. I had to alter the levels individually to make each clip look its best as the colours are not the same and need different settings. I also changed the contrast bar to it's maximum and saturation bar to it's lowest to reduce all colour and give the black and white look. I tried this out on a variety of clips and below is what they look like.

Planning - Band Filming

I have spoken to my musicians and we have found a date to film. I plan to film all of my band and individual shots (excluding drums) next week on Saturday 26th. Unfortunately my drummer Ben is working till late that date so it will be too dark to film. As another date where everyone is free may not be for some time, I have chosen to go ahead with filming and I will arrange a date to film Ben playing the drums separately. I think this decision will work as the drums only come in right at the end. Likewise, I am filming my violin shots separately so I think this plan will work and hopefully look alright once all edited together. I am still yet to confirm with Alice or Rachel on who is free to film these violin shots with me but I will make sure it gets confirmed this week.
To make sure my lead singer, Jacob, knows all the words and timings I am arranging one or two little practise sessions to make sure all goes well on Saturday.

Initial Photography For Ancillary Tasks

Today on my shoot, I took a few photographs that could be used in my ancillary tasks (Poster and CD pack). The sunset today was really pretty and colourful so took advantage of this and got a few shots. I also got a few pictures of my two older actors holding handing in the sunset as an extreme long shot, a shot I also filmed.

Filming - Narrative Shots

Today I filmed my narrative shots with my 4 actors (Older male & female + younger male & female). I had a little trouble getting everyone to the location on time as I had to go pick up Harry who fortunately volunteered to replace Wilf as the younger male. As he lived 20 minutes away by the time I got there and back it was 3pm giving me about an hour, instead of two, to shoot what I needed before it got dark.I also had a bit of trouble with getting the bottle to float in the water, as it just kept tipping to the side. We tried weighing the bottom down with a few small stones that we found in the surrounding fields but this didn't work very well and it still kept tipping over. I decided to film Emily's shots first so that the message wasn't covered in water. After we then filled the bottle up half with water which seemed to make it float and worked well.
Filming was overall successful, I got a range of shots with the walking and running scene which was great. The sunset on the clouds was really pretty tonight so I made good use of this as a background for some of the shots. Unfortunately the clouds were very still meaning it would have been impossible to make a good time lapse with my two older characters and would have taken too much time. Instead I got a lovely shot of them walking up together, hugging then holding hands (video below) which I can overlay one of my cloud time laspe shots in editing.

I also quite liked the shots of the actors miming the lyrics to each other. I filled the gap where the singer of the band will sing the line in between and filmed a hug that can be used to cut up the shot in the video above. I'm quite happy with how this shot turned out (video below) and like the use of the back lighting to shadow their faces, inspiration from my research of Deaf Havana's 'I'm A Bore, Mostly' music video. I only added the track over the top very quickly as an example and to make sure it was in time to the song. The editing will be much tighter on the real thing.

Below are a few stills from various other shots:

Planning- Today's Locations

Today I will be filming my narrative shots. The location for this is in the fields and forests located behind my house. At the bottom of these fields there is a little stream which I can film the message in a bottle scenes and there are enough spots to film to make it look like the male and female are in different places. The fields have public footpaths around them which make it suitable for running without damaging the farmers crops. These fields are very large which means I will be able to get a good range of shots such as extreme long shots.