EVALUATION QUESTION 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

Below is a video showing me answering the above evaluation question. Due to me filming this particular video at home using a webcam the quality is very low although I have also provided a written script for the video below for anyone who prefers to read my answer instead of watching it. As you can see from the video, I have combined many different stages of the project together and considered what technologies I required for each of these stages and I have highlighted the main points of my answer in bold writing across the top of this video.

MAIN POINTS OF THE VIDEO

• WordPress is a resource which has been essential in carrying out the whole project from beginning to end because it has provided me with a resource which can record all my thoughts and feelings as well as any findings and crucial information which I need to include. It also works as a non-face-to-face communication system and my subject teacher was able to continuously keep record of the work I was doing at any given time. What made this particular blogging site useful compared to all the rest was the possibilities it provided me with including allowing me to show my work in any choice of media form and it allowed me to personalise each and every aspect completely so that the work was completely my own.
• YouTube was another invaluable resource as it was the biggest library of clips I could of hoped for, allowing me access to research videos, music videos and it also provides the feature which allows me to upload my own work something which was necessary in the latter stages of the project. You do have to be aware of the best ways to search for items as there is just such a vast majority of different clips but once you have used it a few times it becomes pretty easy.
• Compared to last year, editing facilities have been crucial because I have need to use so many for both the moving images and the still ones. Final Cut Pro, an industry based software, allowed me to edit and alter almost anything we had filmed, including many crazy editing tools which I didn’t even know was possible. Picasa 3 was the important editing tool for still images as it was easy to use and allowed me to edit our image in no time at all. Although it did not have as many effects as other software of the similar format, it was perfect for me and Chris
• High quality cameras are essential, especially for filming as they pick up the slightest detail. Our Panasonic HDC-TM80 camera that we used was great for filming all different distances and angles, as well as being small to transport.   For our digipack, the images we would of had to submit would of been of much lower quality if we hadn’t of used such a high mega pixel camera such as the Nikon D40 and the camera that our photographer used. Although our photos still needed editing, they required less because of these specific cameras.
• The internet is the largest media platform as it provided me with so many of the different resources I required. I was able to turn to the internet if I needed to research a specific topic, if I wanted to gain knowledge on how to do something particular and if I wanted to just record my new findings. The internet makes possibilities endless.
• Having media which is accessible wherever you are makes it much easier to carry out a project like this one because it means you can carry out the stages wherever and you will not fall behind. 

THIS IS THE SCRIPT FOR MEDIA EVALUATION QUESTION 4:

MEDIA EVALUATION QUESTION 4

EVALUATION QUESTION 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the very beginning of this project I was made aware that the target audience of a music video and its promotional packages were key in the whole process, especially as it would be this specific target audience which would decide whether they wished to purchase the music or not. Due to the digital generation, sales of music is already on the decrease, especially in shops so therefore the items that me and Chris made to influence the audience to want to purchase the products had to be something which the target audience would like. With this in mind we continued to ask for feedback throughout the process from the people that mattered so that we would ensure that not only did me and Chris like all 3 of our products but so did the target audience which would purchase the item if they were sold commercially. The feedback that we have gained has played an important role in our creative decisions and the final products are something which totally suited and aimed at our target audience, stated earlier on in the project.

Due to filming issues as mentioned several times before, me and Chris decided to gain audience feedback not only at the end of creating a draft during during the production process. The feedback gained during the process, i feel personally, was a lot more beneficial as it allowed us to rectify our mistakes early as at the end of the project we did not have so much to do. The first piece of consumer criticism which were provided with was that we had used too little a variation in shots meaning to make the video more interesting for the target audience we needed to contain a wider range of different angles/shots as it did not look good it staying on the same shot for more than 10 seconds at a time. Once we had been given this critical comment we rectified the mistake by going out and filming the same bit of the song again but this time redrafting it so that it included more interesting angles. We were also able to take this knowledge and keep it in mind for the remainder of the music video so that this problem did not occur again. Unfortunately I am unable to provide visible evidence for this change although if we had not received this criticism early on in the editing then the possibility is that we would of dragged many different scenes out longer than they should be is highly likely. Another problem which was picked up during the editing process by a possible member of our target audience was the changing colour of the sky throughout the different clips due to use filming on varying days. After watching it myself it was indeed very noticeable so I attempted to rectify the issue by using a colour adaption  taking the correct colour from one of the other scenes and replacing the weird blue colour in the other. As you can see from the screenshot below, this helped greatly and the finished product looks greatly improved now that all the colour flows as it creates match-on-action, something I was trying to achieve.

During the final stages of editing me and Chris sat and watched our own music video to ensure that we were entirely happy with the flow of the storyline and other aspects which needed considering. While watching it I noticed one slight issue where Sam is sitting on the brick wall looking down and then all a sudden it flicks to a shot of a mobile phone and someone receiving a text message. My major worry was that, although this mobile phone scene was meant to be a flashback similar to that of the fight, due to the flow of filming some members of the audience may believe he has received that text message while sitting on the wall. I tried to edit it in many ways but unfortunately due to the low quality of early versions of the clip I could not add in any extras. Another way I tried to resolve this situation was by changing the effects on all of the flashback scenes by adding a black and white effect to it. This is a stereotypical way of showing that something is occurring in the past. Once again I had to watch the video although I did not feel it looked effective using black and white, even though this is what I had planned to do from the beginning. If we had more time then I believe we would of managed to follow the whole plan and this would of meant that we had used more frequent flashbacks through the whole video which would of told more of a video although due to timing issues this was just not possible. To calm my worry, I asked a friend of mine, someone who I feel would fit well in the target audience to watched the video for me and see if she picked up on the issue, luckily she did not and her comment was ‘The location changed, you can tell because the floor is different from what you would expect below a bridge’. This made me a lot happier because I knew people would not pick up on it as much.

Aswell as gaining feedback on the music video, it was essential for us to gain some feedback on the two ancillary texts which I have also created. This feedback made us change the poster completely two times round to make something which was more attractive and something which was more informative. The first poster that we made, shown to the left of this paragraph never got finished as I did not like the creative suggestions Chris had made so I began asking around to see what members of our target audience felt. Although they liked some of the original features only 34% of the people we asked said that they would stop and look at the poster if it was advertised. This made me very wary of using the idea and I asked around in the hope that they would make some suggestions on what type of thing they liked. One of the comments I received in return stated that ‘I really like the background but I dont think you should use the actual album cover, why don’t you layer the main image onto this background?’. Another aspect which the fans picked up on what the placement of the tours dates as they feel it ‘consumer too much room’. Taking critical feedback on board I went away and made a completely different poster, combining my previous research with the feedback I had received  Withing the interlock some of Chris’s ideas I chose to include the tour date but place them in a more appropriate place, in the left hand corner. Once again I sent a selection of copies of this poster around different age groups within my target audience and asked them what they thought. One major idea which came back was the tour dates were not necessary but  if they had to be there then there should be less of them. I took this information on board and to the right of this post is the finished poster. I have combined mine and Chris’s creative ideas together as well as using the advice our target audience provided us with in the hope that I could produce an eye catching poster, suited to my target audience which doesn’t restrict my creative abilities.

As all of my previous blog posts show, I received a considerable amount on the creation of my digipack design both from myself and from members of our target audience. After the first draft I created I myself slated the design, stating that I would not buy the digipack if I saw it in shops because it was too dark and plain and the images were of a low quality. Me and Chris took this feedback on board and went away and created a whole new digipack design and this time asked the opinions of both younger and older members of our target audience. Although the younger members were really impressed with the digipack as a whole, some of the older members which we asked did not like the placing of our ‘brick wall image’ as they felt it was a pointless waste of space. Although this comment did hurt quite a lot I knew that it was necessary for me us to go away once again and redraft it. Although I do not like the new image of Sam walking away from the camera with a guitar, it was necessary to please the people who really matter, and after considering existing products it is a key element of albums of this genre. The overall comments about our final digipack design, as shown below, was that it looked ‘very professional’ and one particular judge stated that they felt ‘it was a very simplistic idea which worked incredibly well with such a song’.

To gain feedback of the whole project [music video and 2 ancillary texts] me and Chris chose to produce a questionnaire which we would send around, gaining more critical feedback than that which we were gaining over Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. This included a set of questions which we created and allowed us to gain real opinions on what was good and bad. Unfortunately people were just not willing to fill these out as they felt it more appropriate and easy for them to post their responses on YouTube and Facebook. Although it would of provided more detailed responses which we could draw together and create graphs, other than getting a few yes and no responses people were more willing to provide spoken feedback or post it on a social networking site.  Below is a couple of example responses.

As you can see, there are many positives from members of our target audience although each one has picked up although this was entirely expected. Some of the comments actually pick up on what me and Chris noticed but due to lack of time we were unable to change. I especially liked Sam’s comments as it shows that we have actually managed to create a connection between the actor and audience because they feel sorry for him, which boasts mine and Chris’s confidence greatly because it means we have managed to portray the emotion we wanted. Tessa’s comment has shown what good shooting Chris did, choosing a range of interesting angles to help us alternate the shot throughout. Obviously, her comment about improvements was something which we were already aware of but we just did not have enough time in the end so we had to keep with what we had. Lewis’s comment was really interesting and gave us many things to think about as he suggested what he would change while also giving us creative criticism. We took what he said fully on board and if we were to complete the project again we may possibly choose to try some of his ideas out.

Overall, I have learnt a lot of new things about our music video and the ancillary texts just by collecting a range of audience feedback while alos opening my eyes to new members of the target audience which I was surprised about. I feel it was a good idea for me and Chris to make a video where we were also included in the target audience as it allowed us to critically assess our work. The audience feedback which we gained during the production process was a lot more beneficial as it meant we were able to change our work before it was rendered whereas the audience feedback, shown in the print screens above, which we gained after the project was complete meant that we could not use it to adapt and benefit our final drafts of each product and we could only hold the information in our head until we had to create the project again. One improvement I would make with our collection of audience feedback if given another chance would be to improve the way I collect audience feedback, trying to find people who were willing to fill out questionnaires as this played an important role in the collection of feedback in our AS coursework.

EVALUATION QUESTION 2: How effective is the combination of you main product and the 2 ancillary texts?

To answer this particular evaluation question me and Chris joined forces once again so that we could both input our own ideas. Personally I felt this was the hardest of all the evaluation questions due to the wide range of terminology I knew we had to include even though basically I just had to describe the similarities between each of the texts shown in the screen shot below. Due to both me and Chris being far from photogenic I have also included a script of what we are saying in the video to rectify any mistakes we made in the short clip. I have also summed up our main points in the bullet points below the video to make it easier for anyone who does not wish to watch the video. As you can see from the three image, there are similarities between all of them, especially the digipack and poster which is a common feature for existing products as it is easier to match these two than it is too match the music video.

THIS IS A COPY OF THE SCRIPT ME AND CHRIS USED TO ANSWER OUR EVALUATION QUESTION. BEFORE WRITING THIS SCRIPT, ME AND CHRIS SAT TOGETHER AND BEGAN DRAWING UP IDEAS ABOUT HOW WE SHOULD ANSWER IT AND WHAT OUR ANSWER SHOULD INCLUDE

MEDIA EVALUATION QUESTION 2

KEY POINTS FROM EVALUATION QUESTION 2

A logo makes your band look more professional to the consumer because it shows that they are related to a record label and therefore have some kind of influence.

According to Al Ries:
“Logos should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes. For maximum visual impact, a logotype should have the same shape as a windshield of an automobile”

A good brand, something which is defined as a ‘name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and srvices of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate from those of other sellers’ delivers the message/genre/ideology/subculture in a clear manner as well as confirming a band/artist credibility which is a major necessity for major stars especially ones who are trying to create a star image/name for themselves in the music industry.

Our marketing strategy is key to helping The Fray create their own star image as we have used three different media forms to advertise one particular song. We have used the music video as a way of advertising the song and then used the poster and digipack as a way of selling it although the poster is more aimed at the digital downloading age because this is what is popular with much of our target audience.

We made specific creative decisions to link our ideas together, focusing on colour representation and positioning so that each of the media forms flowed and they were suitable to the target audience. The creative decisions are explored more deeply in the video.

The creation of our basic logo was essential as it created cross media convergence and allowed similarities to form which the target audience would be aware of. Our logo, formed from a simple choice of font, is used on both the poster and the digipack although we made the poster more eye-catching by choosing a more detailed font for the song name.

EVALUATION QUESTION 1: In what ways does your music promotional package use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of existing music video/promo packages?

As my early research showed, the conventions of music videos vary greatly depending on many aspects including genre, pace, narrative, tune etc. One convention featured greatly in both mainstream and subculture music videos is the artist ‘performing’ their song, whether that be live at a gig etc. or miming the lyrics in something similar to our own idea. We decided to have Sam lip-syncing at set intervals in our music video and because of this decision we had to be very particular with our editing as one key thing I learnt from my research and preliminary task is that good mining/lip-syncing makes or breaks a music video. As I have explained, towards the end of the project we began to have problems editing the lip-syncing scenes into the main video and this led to sections of the music video being low quality. Our creative decision to not always have lip-syncing occurring in the video and instead have a storyline not only challenges this particular convention but was crucial in the portrayal of our narrative. It is also similar to the existing video for this particular song as that combined performance with a storyline. When researching music videos I discovered that they often feature some form of loose storyline, based on the lyrics or mood of the song. This was particularly easy for us to develop as we had specifically chosen a song with emotional lyrics. We also had meanings about the actual song (collected from the internet) from the band – The Fray, which we applied to our idea. Much of my planning looked at what the lyrics of the song meant, especially the repetitive phrase ‘How to save a life’. This was the main development for this project as it encouraged me to consider many alternative narratives and apply the most appropriate and fitting to the lyrics. Due to our work on our fixed narrative, we refrained from creating a disjuncture video, something completely abstract although we did manage to explore one specific concept – losing someone. Although these concepts are generally only loosely explored, our rendition of the song explores it more deeply. A compulsory measure for the majority of songs shown on TV channels such as MTV and Kiss, to ensure the viewers are aware of what video they are watching, is to include both the artist/band name and also the title of the song. As you can see from the screenshot to the right, I and Chris did this at both the beginning and end of the video although we used two different effects. At the beginning of the music video we chose to use a basic and traditional method, including a small title in the bottom right hand corner of the screen whereas the end title was more original, using a whole screen and a list of special effects to create something similar to what is already present in the existing video for ‘How to save a life’. Although this was not a traditional decision, we both felt it looked very effective and wanted to create something original which applied to a selective target audience. Although it was not done purposely, due to the intro of the song our narrative began with a short narrative, showing Sam walking towards the bridge, something which is considered to be a frequent convention of many music videos both in the past and present day. To make this fit in before the lyrics began, and to add effect to the piece, we chose to use time skipping as a way of speeding Sam’s walking pace up. In our particular idea, it leads the viewer to feel like there is some kind of mystery as all they see is this man walking towards the camera without any explanation as the song/lyrics have not yet began telling the story.

One major finding which I found out both in my research and through the process of forming my own music video is that music videos rely heavily on post-production effects. Throughout the editing process we focused on interweaving many different angled shots as this made the whole piece a lot better and as described in my research, the majority of music video rely heavily on montage editing with many different types of footage juxtaposed. Although at first we only used a small selection of angles, as our video came together it became apparent that to make the best music video we needed to use a higher amount of shots/angles. This was crucial in making the music video effective and to also keep the viewers’ attention because unless it is carried out for effect, one single angle does not look as effective. Another post production effect which existing music videos rely on largely is the varying cuts and speed. This is obvious in every video that i have watched and it is normally associated with the music genre such as R&B music videos are normally composed of fast paced cuts with a lot of speed and action whereas our chosen song had a much slower pace meaning we chose to use a much slower form of cut and changed the shot less frequently. Whereas if we had chosen a fast song by an artist such as Rihanna we would of required more shots, our particular song choice resulted in us needing slow shots lacking in action meaning it was quite simple for us to film Sam lip-syncing on a wall as this fitted the particular pace of the video. An overall outlook on how crucial edits are in our own media piece includes our edits flow in time, although, unlike the traditional music video, they do not reflect the song’s structure, where traditionally a cut will occur when a new chorus or verse begins. One reason this occurred was due to the lack of timing we gave ourselves to carry our final filming and editing as well as

us wanting to concentrate more on the narrative towards the end of the music video than the lip-syncing. After much consideration over the plan it was clear that editing a narrative would be a lot easier/quicker compared to how long it would take us to edit lip-syncing effectively. Although we have challenged this particular convention, due to the storyline of the song I do not feel it is that noticeable and in fact is quite effective in its role. We have also used other effects, such as blade and cross dissolve which was present on our editing software, final cut pro, to create an effective and visually pleasing edition of the song through visual aid. One thing which I was surprised by when looking through existing music videos was that only a few of the videos used any type of effect such as a blur. Even with this knowledge, me and Chris felt it appropriate to use a ‘cross dissolve’ as it fitted with what we were trying to create visually, shown to the left.   At the very beginning of this project I researched what a music video was and how it aided the creation of a star image. One of the things that I discovered was a quote by John Fiske which was:

“Music videos foreground the signifier over the signified”

While creating our music video I was consistently reminded of this quote because as I have discovered through both my research and my production process, as long as a music video looks good to the naked eye, the video will always be good. Although our final piece could have been slightly improved during the editing process if we had more time, I do feel that our music video provides the viewer with an exciting storyline which is easy to understand and has high quality footage. The technology that we have been able to use, both during filming and editing, as well as the technology we used during the creation of our promotional package, including the digipack and promotional poster aided us greatly as they were all of a high quality industry standard and allowed us to form almost any idea we wanted to. One problem which we faced largely compared to the existing music video by The Fray was the lack of actors we had willing to help us. Whereas the whole band were present in the original video, we were unable to find four actors so therefore we had to just focus on the one and this made it seem extremely weird. As I will explain further on in this answer, this made it extremely hard when designing a digipack or promotional poster for a band as we only had one artist to focus on.

The creation of my digipack followed the majority of conventions I had uncovered due to my detailed research. One of the most obvious that I can pint point is the information provided on the back cover of my digipack which includes a list of songs present on the CD included and also legal information about Copyright etc. This information is provided for many reasons which I have briefly explained in the screenshot below although I do wish to explain them in more detail. A bar code is a key convention of album covers/digipacks as it necessary for shops to sell the product to consumers and after so many years of it existing, consumers just expect it to be there. As you can see from the images below and also other images earlier on in my research, the bar code is normally placed in a bottom corner, exactly as I have done. Whereas the example I have used below has is tucked deep in the corner, mine was a little higher but this was mainly due to the risk of it being cut off in printing if it was too close to the bottom. The information about copyright which is provided on each cover I have looked at is necessary to ensure that no other outside company can use the design and gain from someone else work. This type of copyright is carried out on most products in the modern world but this little declaration, which I have included on my own work just like many before me, is essential in ensuring people are aware of who the design of the CD and the actual songs on the CD belong to so that no-one else can benefit from it other than the band and the record label. A major visual feature which is present on all CD covers that I have looked at is a list of songs which are featured on the CD and the majority of these do it using a number list whether it be a very organised one such as the ones shown below or a very original concept based one where the words and placed according to the idea of the design. This is crucial in informing the consumer what songs are on the CD and they also use the information when trying to search for a specific track. As I have created a digipack cover for a single I am only have a very short list although this can alter greatly in length depending on whether the cover is for an album or a single. My list is very basic but this fits in with the genre of my song and also the simplistic idea of my digipack design. The record label logo is always present on the back of a CD cover as it highlights to the consumer who is responsible for producing this. Some consumers may be very specific with their song choice and choose to listen to certain music by particular record companies and this is an indicator for this reason as well as aiding star image.

I also followed some basic conventions on the front of my digipack cover, including a band name and song title as apart of the design. As you can see from the screenshot below, I have chose to follow this particular convention very loosely, not forming a specific logo but using a basic font and rearranging the words on the page to make them look more effective. As I will explain in a later evaluation question, I have used this exact same logo on the front of my poster as well to show continuation between the two separate products. I have used One Direction as my example because the font used in this particular album has also followed through on to their new album showing how important it is to use repetition in products because it begins to create star image and the consumer relate the visual aid back to the band/artist. The layout of my digipack is very basic although it has been stylized that the sky will be very light blue, similar to that of One Direction, because it looks more real life than if we had edited the sky to a bright blue. The placement of the text has been greatly assessed to creative something attractive just like many of the other CD covers I looked at in my previous research. The other convention which I followed from my research into existing products is to include a spine and on that spine I have put the band name and song title once again. This is exactly what all other digipacks do because it is a quick way for a consumer to figure out what CD it is without looking at the front cover.

Although my research into promotional posters was minimal, I did understand the basics that much of the design which is shown on the CD cover is transported over into the poster. This is especially true with the examples shown to the right of this paragraph which are the exact same image although the information has changed and more required details have been added to the poster. Although me and Chris did wish to use the image from the front of our digipack, we also wanted to create something more original and that is where the idea to manipulate the colour of the sky came from. When we combined two of the images from the digipack it didn’t really resemble the same front cover anymore but it defiantly looked a lot more attractive and we felt it would stand out a lot more. Some of the key information that must be included on promotional posters includes a list of tour dates. Me and Chris have included a miniture one in the left as we felt it more important to get information about the release of the single across as that was what were trying to promote. As you can see from the screenshot below, one key feature common on most posters of this type these days is the iTunes logo to try and influence the consumer to purchase the logo of iTunes. The main way for people to purchase or get hold of music these days is through downloads although a lot of downloads happen illegally so by placing such a big iTunes logo on our own piece of work we are trying to prevent illegal downloads and encouraging people to purchase the song correctly. Another way designers highlight where the song can be purchased is by including the logo of a shop such as HMV. Other logos which we could of included if we so wish was the Facebook and twitter logos which provided details to the band/artist homepages. This would of been a good creation of star image but me and Chris both considered the target audience of our music and felt that it contained older generations as well as younger and if the older people saw them logos they be put off because they may not know what they meant. As you can see, we have used the exact same logo used in the digipack design although we have used a more eye-catching text for the song. The difference between an album cover and a poster is that the poster is supposed to be quick to read and eye-catching and for this reason I wanted to make it stand out as much as possible. The ratio of text to image in both products is also completely different but this is a great way to sell the music to the consumer.

The conventions of exisiting media products has not in any way placed restrictions on my creative decisions and I have been able to adapt any idea to fit around them, creating industry based products.

OUR FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

ABOVE IS THE FINAL DRAFT OF OUR MUSIC VIDEO ‘HOW TO SAVE A LIFE’

After watching the video many times I have noticed many things which could be mproved although due to the lack of time we had and all of the complications we faced throughout the project, overall the video looks good. Some of the shots later on in the video, filmed on the day of the dealine could of been improved but the reason the camera shakes so much is because of the wind which we could not of helped. I now fully understand why our subject teacher suggested we carry out all filming during the summer months because it would of made it a lot easier to complete. The editing that we used was great although I feel some of it could of been made more professional by using less cross dissolves as it is not the most professional effect to use. Personally I feel the acting in the video was really good and I do not regret my decision to change the actor because, although Sam may not be your typical pop star he is an emotional actor and suits the song choice well. If I was to carry out this project again then I would definately change a large amount of stuff including changing the season in which we filmed to improve film quality and also maybe changing the end of the music video so that it was more suited to Chris’s on the spot idea which saw them together. This particular music video ends in a very peculiar way, with Sam walking but we have not really explored where he is heading although in the version Chris wanted to create the two characters were reunited and this created an actual ending to the music video. If I did ever complete the project again I think I would do a more upbeat song as, after watching work created by fellow students, the possibilities for an upbeat party song are alot wider compared to one where I am required to create emotion.

FINAL EDITS

Our final editing session was a very chaotic affair with many creative decisions being made Due to the timing of our late editing I felt that some of the decisions we made were very rushed and if we had longer things may have occurred differently. When our converted clips were ready the first problem we faced was the cameras microphone had picked up the strong winds during filming. Although this would not be a problem once we removed the sound it made matching Sam’s lip syncing to the song difficult, so much so that in the final cut of the music video some of the lip-syncing does not fully match. Chris did try his very best but we only had the visual aid whereas with previous clips we had heard what Sam was singing, matched this with the real song then removed Sam’s voice and any background noise. It is easy to see how this problem could be rectified – if we had not left some of our filming till the last minute we would not have had to of filmed on one of the windiest days of the year and therefore we would of heard Sam singing the song.

This editing session involved piecing together the remainder of the music video including the main narrative, so this was much more focused on match on action, ensuring the narrative was understandable to the target audience or anyone viewing the clip. This process involved a lot of clip cutting because either the clip was too long, it was not appropriate or the actors made slight mistakes etc. Personally I found it much easier to edit the narrative compared to the lip-syncing as we could fit the narrative into the music as we so wished. One major problem we faced was our narrative falling short of our actual song and we had to find suitable clips to fit in the spaces. After discussing the issue, me and Chris decided that cutting the song shorter would be a good idea doe us as it would mean we required less footage. We had a little play about with the Final Cut Pro software, using the internet as a guide onto how to carry out this task of cutting our song. In the end we used the ‘blade’ tool which allowed us to cut the song wherever we wished and we could then overlap the song or do whatever we wished. Although this was a very useful tool in our situation, once you had cut a clip, if you played with footage earlier on in the video then you had to move the whole song in different parts in the correct location else it would sound like, in some parts of the video, there was no music present.

We used a lot of the effects on this software to edit the colour of certain clips. Although for some clips this was because of personal preference or because we wanted to see what types of effects we could create, others edits were crucial to make our piece more professional as after receiving some brief audience feedback, me and Chris were made aware of a clip towards the beginning of the video which contained a different colour sky to the rest. This had occurred due to some of the footage being filmed on different days and we had no influence on the weather/sky colour so therefore we had to use post-production effects and tools to rectify this problem. Luckily for me, when I was playing about with the colour effects, I found a simple way which allowed me to match the faulty colour sky with the exactly same colour as all the rest. The changes can be seen in the print screen below.  Although it does not look the exactly the same as

The final touch ups which me and Chris had to add to the blog included adding captions/titles. I was familiar with how to do this due to my work with final cut pro for AS so this did not take long to carry out although it did take quite a while for me and Chris to decide on a font and design which we both agreed on. As it had been a very long day, and I really liked certain effects we both we both chose to go along with these which included a basic title at the beginning of the music video which is a convention of music videos and then to end the video we used a more original design, something present in the existing video for this particular song. Although this may not be what is stereo typically expected, it felt right for me to use this and I felt it ended the emotion well. After the long day we had both had attempting to meet the deadline, I was glad when rendering only took a short while meaning I was not stuck for hours sitting waiting for it to load. Once rendered to a disk and also to a memory card we were able to leave the editing suite for the final time and head off to complete the remainder of the course which included audience feedback and evaluation questions.

 

FINAL FILMING

The last filming trial took place on the 14th December 2012; our deadline day. Unfortunately and shamefully me and Chris had been unable to complete our filming before now for many reasons although looking back on it now it seems more like excuses, so that we could avoid the task at hand and working together. These included work commitments, family arrangements etc. As you can see from the print screen below, taken from the official Met Office website, the weather on this particular day was far from brilliant and this made filming extremely difficult, especially seeing the extent of what we had to do and also the lack of clothing which Sam had to wear when filming. Throughout the whole process we had to ensure that Sam remain as warm as possible, providing him with a coat and other warming clothing between takes. This did make the process longer as we had to provide extra time for him to keep changing but safety was our main concern. Another thing which made it extremely hard was that we had to also film scenes with our second actor so it was difficult arranging to get her to the location aswell.

Our filming began at 9am when I had to go and pick Harriet up although Chris and Sam headed to the location and began refilming any scenes with Sam which he could. When I arrived with Harriet we cracked straight on with getting the film done so that we could return to the warn school. The main aim of this filming session was to ensure that we had lots of different angles of the chorus because we could easily edit them in where we felt necessary if it was needed. We managed to film 4 different versions of the chorus so that we had varying angles to edit. As we did not yet have any footage of Harriet and Sam together at the bridge we had to focus on this idea although me and Chris both had creative suggestions about how we wished to end the music video. As we were working as a group we decided to film both different endings, one which followed the original plan and the other which was more abstract which Chris wanted to try out. After watching what Chris’s idea was I really liked how it came together and felt it would be good because it would show our editing capabilities including having to do a split screen. It would also create a happier ending than the one we were going to carry out. For this idea to work we had to film both Sam and Harriet walking towards each other but seperately, filming Sam first and Harriet secondly.This then came together in a seperate shot where we filmed them both coming together and embracing. To make it fair to both of us, Chris also filmed my idea, choosing the angles while I directed himon what to do. One interesting angle that we came to film was using a very close up shot of Sam by asking him to hold the camera and rotating the camera screen so that we could watch what he was filming. Thankfully we filmed this original idea, as I will explain in a later blog post, Chris’s idea did not film properly meaning unfortunately we could not use it.

The new method which we took in this final filming session of Chris filming while I directed the goings on worked much better for us as it allowed us to both shine in what we do well. After all of the disagreements me and Chris had about filming it is clear to see that while Chris is better at achieving interesting angles, I am more useful directing what occurs. We also finally understood the necessity of taking many different shots/angles of the same part because we had been held back for so long by the lack of angles/shots we had previously taken. Me and Chris have had many setbacks throughout the project including a lack of ideas at the beginning which led to us carrying out many pointless filming sessions. When I first carried out the preliminary task of doing a lip-syncing task to a song of my choice, I did not really understand the extent which we would have to go to if we chose to include lip-syncing in our final piece. This is why it was so crucial for us to film so many different shots of the same thing: because we were unable to tell till we got to the editing suite how good or bad they really were. Without the help of our very patient actor Sam, who also provided us with some creative criticism about out ideas while we filmed, the final product would of been possible.

FILMING OUR MUSIC VIDEO [trial 5]

With deadline day creeping ever nearer the urgency for me and Chris to film was massive and with this we both planned to film on the afternoon of Thursday 6th December. Luckily for us, our main actor Sam was available to help. After watching the footage filmed of Sam and our other actor Alice arguing we came to an honest conclusion that the quality of filming was grainy and the lighting could be improved. Knowing what needed to be done I made a pre-plan to start filming at 1pm and film both shots of Sam at Nine bridges alone, Sam with Alice at Nine bridges and refilm the shots of the pair arguing at Chris’s house although we would use natural light, not artificial. It is rather unfortunate that this plan did not go to plan for many reasons, explained below, because if it had it would of put both me and Chris in a very good position as the majority of filming would have been complete.

After many disagreements between me and Chris that morning it was decided that I would collect Chris and Sam at around 1pm. My first problem occurred when our second actor pulled out of filming due to her own educational commitments which was a fair decision. A major concern was that this would be a perfect time for filming while parents were at work and we really needed to refilm such a major element of the narrative. It was there that I would make the decision that would change our whole music video. I made the independent decision to change our female actor. Luckily, a friend of mine, Harriet Mackie, was free from college and willingly agreed to star in our music video. This solved my dilemma of not having an actor, and as we were going to refilm all of the footage again we would not be losing any previous filming. Although this sorted one problem about how much we could film, another soon arose when Chris notified me that we would not be able to film at his house as he had relatives over. Unfortunately I also had reasons why we could not film at my house including we were currently in the process of decorating the majority of the house meaning it was not safe for us all to be round. As me and Harriet are very good friends and I am close with her family and she was seeing how stressed and frustrated I was getting about the situation, Harriet kindly suggested that we use her house for filming. After much consideration and apologies for being so intrusive on her day off, I agreed that using Harriet’s house would be a good idea and it would also be beneficial as there is a lot of natural light in the direction of her house.

As planned I picked Sam up at 1pm ready to film although when I arrived at Chris’s house I became aware that Chris had to pop out with family so therefore he would not be attending our filming until later. Once Harriet was also ready me, Sam and Harriet headed to nine bridges to wait for Chris to arrive. This took longer than anticipated and when he arrived we only actually had 30 minutes before Sam had to be home for his own personal commitments. The day only got worse when Chris informed me that he had in fact forgot forgotten the t-shirt which we needed for filming. Luckily, not all was lost and we decided that the best thing to do would be to make our way to Harriet’s house and begin re-filming the previous footage as nothing other than the actors, the tripod and the camera was required for this.By the time we arrived at Harriet’s house we had 20 minutes although this time around, probably because we had already experienced this particular scene, it seemed to go incredibly well. We managed to film many different angles of the argument including over the shoulder shots from both characters, side views and direct angles, made incredibly easy by Harriet’s large bedroom as it meant we were able to place the tripod wherever necessary instead of having to work our filming around the shape of the bedroom. After looking at the shape of Harriet’s stairs, I made an on the spot decision to film a backward shot of Sam running down the stairs and although I did not know if we would use this clip I felt while we had the spare time I might as well film some extra footage because were not aware if we would need it or not. Luckily the actors bonded really well and very quickly got in to character, arguing away like you would expect of a couple in their situation. This was surprising for me as Harriet has never studied drama as a subject unlike Sam so therefore I expected her to take some time to assess her character but she got straight into it which made our job much easier. We did have to change the storyline slightly as it would of looked strange if Harriet had walked out of the bedroom and left Sam in a female bedroom so we switch the storyline over.

Although this particular filming session did not go fully to plan, I feel it has been beneficial as compared to the previous footage in relation to the house scenes, the footage which we filmed on this particular day is of a much better quality. Whereas the footage in the previous shoot had been of a low quality because of lighting issues, although this was still not perfect and would not be what i would call ‘industry standard’ the lighting of the shot was much better. This was largely due to the large bay windows in Harriet’s bedroom letting a large amount of natural lighting in. I also feel the actors bonded more, making it easier for them to feel comfortable around each other, whereas when we used Alice as the actor she was very giggly and it was clear to see that she was not comfortable filming an argument  mainly due to her happy personality. If things had gone to plan earlier in the day then we would of achieved a lot more but it was unpreventable and I still feel we acted maturely about the situation and managed to film some footage which I feel will fit well with our already half edited music video.

FILMING OUR MUSIC VIDEO [trial 4]

Much preparation went into this filming session as it involved not one actor but two. It also took place within a house which meant we could not just film when we wanted, we had to pre-plan that the house would be free. After much discussion me and Chris decided to film at Chris’s house as it was much bigger than mine and I was more willing to travel. As we were filming inside it could be carried out at any point during the day as we would just use artificial lighting so we chose to film these particular scenes after school one Friday and as it was already dark outside we chose to turn the lights on within the house. As we were running out of time and also because i felt it rude to intervene in Chris’s house, I ensured we stuck to the plan as much as possible so we had some type of guideline to follow when filming. As the scene was supposed to happen in a room close to one of the actors, we chose to use Chris’s bedroom as this made it look very similar to Sam’s bedroom and it made it look like it was the bedroom of Sam’s character. Below is a basic birds eye view of Christopher’s bedroom:

One major problem we faced when filming was the lack of room for both actors, me and Chris and also the necessary equipment required for our filming. Although we did look at this as a negative thing, it did encourage us to use more exciting angles such as filming from outside of the bedroom and also using a selection of over the shoulder shots. Some of the shots which we needed to do, due to lack of room, meant that Chris had to hold the camera which was a very risky move as it meant some of our shots would be very shaky and therefore less professional than if we had used a tripod. As you can see from the image to the right of this blog post, Chris had to remove himself from the drama and sit on his window sill with the camera in his hand to try and film the angles which we wanted. This made it very hard and I felt very secluded as I was not able to witnessing the filming and removed myself from the room. So that we could get more interesting shots, we filmed from outside the room, placing the tripod on the landing. This caused many safety issues as I was filming very closely to the stairs meaning there was a possibility I could easily fall down them. Another problem was that the actors had to be very careful with there movement so as not to break anything in Chris’s room although this seemed easy enough.

We attempted to film all the scenes required to be filmed in the house in one sitting so that we did not need to return to this particular location and inconvenience Chris’s mum or family. This was very easy although when we began to try and film the over the shoulder shot of the text light it was extremely hard to gain the correct lighting, meaning we could not read the text when we watched the footage back. This meant that we had to re-film this particular scene many times over. Another shot that I chose to film while in such a direct setting was a single shot of Sam crying although it only involved him placing water under his eye and allowing a single ‘tear’ to fall. Another problem which we had to overcome was Sam being a very dominant actor while Alice took more time to concentrate and focus on her role. As both me and Chris  are both good friends with Alice it was much easier for us to calm her down and talk to her about how important it was for us to get this complete and to a high standard. She soon stopped her giggling and as you can see from the screenshot below, the footage turned out pretty good in the end. Another thing which you will notice from the images is that Sam’s outfit has changed from the one he wears when we film at nine bridges. This is because this is a different setting and therefore we felt it appropriate to change the outfit/costume.

This filming session was very different to the rest as it took a lot more planning and concentration as we had set guidelines on what targets we wanted to achieve, therefore we got a lot more work done. I also felt it was lot more relaxed with more than one actor, meaning they could both get along quite well. Although we faced some downfalls, we managed to work our way around things and in the end filmed enough for another session in the editing suite. It has also taken a lot of pressure off our shoulders at it means all scenes within the house are finally filmed and we can carry on filming and editing the remainder of the music video.

EDITING OUR MUSIC VIDEO [trial 2]

After carrying out two more filming sessions, me and Chris felt it an appropriate time to begin editing again. As stated in a previous blog post, we were required to convert all of our clips to MP4 files as this was required for them to work on the iMacs. Another key thing we had to do was add in the appropriate music choice as this was required before we began attempting to match Sam lip-syncing with the original singers voice. Luckily, I had spent some time the previous evening downloading an MP$ file of ‘How to save a life’ and saved the said file to my memory stick for easy access within school. When we uploaded the file onto Final Cut Pro it appeared the intro to the song, where it was just silent because the song had not yet started, was very long so therefore we chose to cut the beginning of the song slightly shorter in the hope that this would result in us having less filming to do. Although we did shorten the song, we still left a slight intro at the beginning as this fitted well with the idea we had for the beginning of our music video.

Once again we started by watching all of our footage and discarding of any unsuitable or unwanted clips. This made it much easier for us to know what clips we were using and which we weren’t so that we did not have large lists on Final Cut Pro. Once we had the correct footage for us we watched what we had edited last time to see where we should began. It was apparent that we should not jump straight into the lip-syncing so decided to add one of the clips we did not feel we would use due to the lack of lip-syncing, this was followed swiftly by a close up of Sam lip-syncing. Although we were not using many effects at this given time, we planned to play about with this type of thing after the main bulk of the music video was complete. We used many jump cuts to switch between different angles of Sam lip-syncing, although like the plan had stated, we only carried the lip-syncing out for so long before it was time for us to start adding the filming we would carry out in the house. Due to us not yet filming these particular scenes we had to leave the editing suite and carrying on with editing other aspects such as our promotional poster and return when we had the appropriate footage.