Editing part 2

The reason we needed to continue with the editing on the school mac computers was because we needed to use livetype and the imovie on Parmiss' laptop lacked a few features that the imovie on the school mac computers had. Once the video was transferred Shamaila continued editing with the livetype and added it into our final video. She found it difficult to get the hang of so we both tried to figure out how to transfer the clip onto livetype. Once we had that covered, she carried on and competed the livetype.

After dicussion with our teachers we decided to use slow motion on the ending of the video for when our main protagonist does the last strum on the guitar. This is because at the end, the song ends with music slowing down for a few seconds therefore the slow motion edit would fit in perfectly.

To use or not use final cut pro.

At first we wanted to use final cut pro to dissolve our black and white faces together as it wasn't working on imovie. However, after this was done we realised the dissolve was too quick and wouldn't go in time with the music, therefore we decided to not use it as it was becoming over complicated and we really want to keep our music video simple to keep a link with the simple album cover.

We found final cut pro rather difficult to understand so had help in learning how to use it. This shows that even though we are digital natives that doesn't mean we know how to use everything and that we still needed to learn how to use complex editing soptware to make our music video look more professional. However, this became too time consuming for us as we needed a large amount of help and thought that we wouldn't have enough time to finish editing.

Letterboxing

We decided to letterbox our music video to add a certain rustic effect and suits the purpose of the song very well. Furthermore, with this effect it suggests a different aspect of music videos as most videos do not letterbox, therefore by not sticking to the general conventions of a music video we are hoping this different effect will work.

Livetye problems.

An issue we came across with livetype was when we compressed the clip we wanted to edit, the exposure was darker than the other clips. Therefore, we decided to alter the exposure when we put the clip back onto imovie and asked other students to watch our video without telling them the difference in the clips. At first they didn't realise the exposure change until we told them afterwards, therefore we knew that this wasn't a major problem as techincal difficulties can not be fixed.

Editing part 1

We decided to do our editing on Parmiss' laptop as she would have more free time to do it at home and whenever we could we would go to her house and help. Parmiss found it easier in doing most of the editing on her own as she knew exactly what she needed to do and could do it quickly so we left most of it to her. She edited the whole thing together and then transferred it onto the school mac computers, however a problem arose. The problem was that it was difficult to transfer the file from her laptop onto the school mac computers and when she tried the quality decreased. Luckily she found out where she went wrong when exporting the file, as there were different choices in levels of quality to chose from, therefore we were able to transfer it onto the computer and continue the rest of our editing.

When Parmiss first began editing she found it quite difficult in chosing which shots she wanted to include as there were so many similar ones yet they needed to be perfect. After accomplishing the first 20 seconds of the video she realised how time consuming this was becoming and had to manage her time efficiently with her other subjects. Therefore, she decided in doing large amounts of editing at a time every week. After the first 40 seconds of the video Parmiss was beginning to find editing quite fun and interesting which helped her speed up the proccess. When the first minute of the video was done she was able to complete the next minute in the next week. After spending her longest time editing, which was for a day on the weekend she was finally done and transferred the video the day after. From this Parmiss learnt how to use imovie efficiently on her laptop as the imovie was different to the ones on the school mac computers. She learnt from watching a few video tutorials on youtube and thoroughly paid attention. This made it easier for her to undertand the concept of how the imovie on her laptop works and got straight to work.

Parmiss decided on changing the colour scheme to link in with the genre of the song. This is because it's quite emotional, therefore by lowering the exposure and increasing the contrast, the background would look washed out and the actors and actressess' features would stand out.

Close ups

Music videos usually contain large amounts of close up shots focusing on the singer. In ours we made sure we filmed many shots in this way, as we wanted to follow the music video conventions. By filming in this style we were able to sell our artist through our music video. We needed a large amount of these, however some actresses did not like the camera that close and struggled to keep focused. We found that doing a couple of practise shots before recording kept our actresses in focus. This made it a lot easier to film them for the real thing.

Typical day on location

We began by booking out all equipment needed for that days shoot. We then checked that our actor and actresses were in correct costume and had natural makeup. We wanted them to look as natural as possible as our music video has a very natural raw feel to it as we wanted that to be shown through our actor and actresses. Once we were happy with the actor and actresses atire and weather conditions. We would block the scene according to the storyboards.
Once everything was in place we would do a practise run with everything in postion. We did this to check that the actor and actresses were in the right postion and knew the words, to check the setting was correct, check the lighting and shadows and the camera postion. After everything was checked and all three of us were happy with it we would record two or three times so we had a backup if one was not up to our standards.

Problems during filming

We came about a few problems during our filming period. Getting actresses to learn a part of the song took a while, as they were miming out of time and we found that many people were camera shy. To overcome this we decided to help by singing along and not dircetly looking at them whilst they were singing. When we wanted to re-film, the natural mise en scene had changed drastically within a few days. This was due to the change in season and therefore we had to re-think where we wanted to film our actresses. As we chose locations local to us we had to ensure that everyone was available and willing to come and film with us. The fact that we had a whole change of idea, last minute we decided to film our actresses in different scenaries so as to create a more interesting visual piece to watch and highlight Ali's role as the singer. During our research, we had to re-think all the music videos we had analysed as they weren't as key anymore. However, we found out that they held different characteristics within the video that we didn't spot until the change in our idea. For example, we looked at Keane 'Somewhere only we know' and were inspired by the editing and have tried to replicate the same style in our music video.

Dividing the tasks..

We decided to divide the work we had to get done in our group so that we could work more efficiently and work forwards with peoples strengths. Though we all had set tasks to focus on we still all imputed and helped each other, especially when we had problems to work around. We did get things done this way however it was hard keeping good levels of communication up at all times. We were working on different things so we were usually based in different locations, sometimes at home blogging and drawing things up, in the media suit uploading and editing or out on location shooting. Working like this showed that we could work both as part of a team and individually.

Filming-miming

As our idea contained a lot of people we had to arrange and schedule lots of different filming dates. We did initial shoots followed my re shoots if we feel things did not work or look right. One problem that we discovered was as we were using lots of people it was hard to teach everyone the words to a level that they looked like they were singing the song or miming in their case.
Although everyone managed to learn the words for their small part that was not the end of the problem.....
When people were singing they were not always completely in time with the song therefore it did not look realistic. As this became more and more apparent as a problem we decided to start shooting people 3/4 times so we had a safety net.

Analysing a video.

This video, has inspired us to use yet another software programme in order to create authenticity to our final product. Livetype enables you to add moving text into frames and can often help portray meaning behind a certain idea or emotion. We like this video, as it visually compliments the artist and is enjoyable to watch. When viewing this video we could see that the use of writing that comments on each individual adds humour to the video, therefore we thought that adding writing to our video, the audience would feel closer to the singer as thoughts and feelings are being portrayed into words. The words will also create meaning and emphasis on the words our main singer is singing. This highlights the importance of the words shown on screen because seeing the words whilst hearing them enables the audience to access two ways in how emotion can be shown without any action taking place. The use of effects on the writing also suggests the actors and actresses demonstrating their 'obsession' with the lead singer of the band. This clearly changes when the video goes on, commenting on other peoples looks and actions with only words portraying thoughts. This links well with our video as we want to do something very similar to this with our main actor only. This means that the livetype will only be used on him to highlight the fact that he is the main singer and therefore he will have more and longer lasting shots throughout our video. The use of slow-motion editing at the beginning of the youtube video gave us an idea in using it at the end of ours. We think that this will give an interesting look for an ending to signify that the video has ended. We want our singer on the last note, to strum off the guitar and then we add the slow-motion effect ontop. The use of performance used throughout the whole video is something we want to incorporate into our own video, to highlight the fact that the male is the lead singer and that most of the attention should be on him. The youtube video also has a change in setting very frequently, this demonstrates that we also have to do the same to show the obvious conventions of a music video. The lyrics are also shown visualy through actions which highlights another common convention that we would have to undergo with our main actor.

Film changes

After the completement of the music video we decided to ask a few people to watch and give us any relevant feedback they thought was neccessary. The idea of livetype established from this task and we also had to change the consistency of the exposure and contrast throughout the video, as some parts would be brighter than others which confused others. Ideas for livetype were generated from this feedback to add a scratchy, flickering font with the lyrics appearing on screen. For example when the song goes 'I can't stop seeing your face, every place' we wanted to include 'every place' on screen, yet would come up as he would sing it, so would be 'ev-ery-place'. We also wanted to add some love hearts and question marks. A problem arised with the love hearts as they were difficult to find out how to use, as only symbols and words could be used. People also found the lip syncing out of time with the song so we went through parts and corrected the timing. With the fireworks we knew there was something missing but couldn't gather what it was. We finally came to the conclusion that we needed not only a long shot of them but also a close up to indicate the different camera shots that can add different effects. After 'I can't stop seeing your face' is sang we came up with the idea of having all the female actresses faces to come up for a short time, that would fade into each other. We thought that by being in black and white and authentic look is created and stands all the females out from the song to indicate being one of the main singers' biggest fans. Lastly, we thought that the ending was lacking something so decided on the last strum of the song that the main singer would be edited into strumming in slow motion. This created it being out of time with the song, yet made an interesting look to the song ending before the singer has finished their performance.

Filming & Production Practice Run

After the change of idea for our video, we had to quickly find actresses who were willing to mime the words to the song and were able to give us their time so we could film. The first person we filmed was Parmiss, on Barton Green. This location was chosen as it was close to our school and we had little time to film as many people as we could. We took the camera and tripod out to the green and then realised there was no battery. This again set us back even further, however we decided to try and film on a blackberry phone as we thought it may give a nice effect to the video and as we were trying to portray his fans we thought that by making some parts of the video look almost hand held it would create authenticity. After filming Parmiss, we filmed Shamaila, also using the blackberry, and changed the colour to black and white. This first filming session could be seen as a practice as we had just learnt the words and due to the lack of camera we had to make do with what was available. After filming Shamaila and Parmiss we realised that Blackberry's were not compatible with the school imacs and therefore we would face difficulties when trying to get the footage onto the programme to edit! From this filming experience we realised as always we must check the camera for battery before taking it into the field to film, and that we were lucky we were near our school as we were able to return the camera and film again with another one!

Digi pack-1st attempt

We had lots of ideas for the digi pack. We narrowed it down to a few ideas with thought best represented our artist.
The idea we finally decided i was a collauge of different peoples faces showing the different actors in our video. We began creating this idea however it was much harder then first expected. We came across a number of different problems ranging from scale and proportion to getting people faces to fit neatly together without looking funny or disfigured.

We decided to re evaluate our digi pack ideas and deicided to go down a more 'indie' looking digi pack. This digi pack was inspired by the music of the song and used natural elements such as trees and birds in its design. It has been hand drawn as we felt it gave a much more 'indie' feel. We choose only to use black, white and red as we felt simplicity was the way forward.

The drawn image on the front shows a single man walking down a path creating an image of loss and bewilderment. We feel the digi pack image is a good reflection of the song and artist.

We decided to go for a hand written style of text as it best represents our artist. Shows his male characteristics of being 'messy' and 'casual'. It also fits our artist image of leaning more towards 'indie' and 'old skool' styles to new modern approaches.

We decided hand making the digi pack would make it unique and make a more personal connection with the consumer. It would also look more personal to the artist and the way his music is represented. The hand drawn image in clear however still produces lots of unanswered questions. It is also not a direct interpretation of the lyrical content or the music video however it represents our artist and his image well. Lots of effects are now being used to cd covers however as Leo Hunter simply produces music with his single voice and a guitar we decided to take our digi pack back to 'simple' and produce a single figure with no facial detail walking down a path surrounded by trees.

Advert.

The advert we have created is for a magazine or billboard. We have used the same image as the front of the digi pack. However we have modified it slightly. We have made in more virbrant so it stands out more by adding red to the trees. The scale is also alot bigger and everything is more spaced out and clearer to see. We feel it is a strong eye catching image.

Open publication - Free publishing

CD Cover.

Open publication - Free publishing - More pack

CD design.

Open publication - Free publishing

Colour Scheme

We decided to edit the exposure, brightness and contrast of the video to allow a link to the song. This is because we made it look darker and the contrast higher to keep the actor and actresses standing out, yet their surroundings would consist of less colour, to indicate the emotions of the songs visually to compliment the generic conventions of the song.

Digi pack planning

Open publication - Free publishing

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire we gave to our focus group and the results we found were quite similar. Firstly, most people's favourite genre they listened to was mainly pop/indie. We were happy with this result as our music video is the same genre to what the majority of people liked, therefore allowing a wider range of audience who would go and buy this record. Secondly, the feedback we attained with which parts of the music video entices them, was mainly the change in mise-en-scene. This is because they said they enjoyed watching different cuts to different locations and people, which supports what our music video consists of. However, when asking whether or not people preferred a video with or without a narration, most of the feedback for us was negative as people did prefer a narration. This was because they enjoy listening to a song whilst watching its' video that indicates a certain ambiguity to it and therefore allows the audience to think about what is going on, so whenever the song is played it can refer back to the video which may create word of mouth because it's unique. We also found that many people do watch a large amount of music videos, which suggests a popularity in the music culture that may persuade them to buy a product more than just listening to it on the radio. When asking whether or not they prefer seeing just the artist or other people involved in a music video, the feedback we got indicated they prefer just the artists, however this was more popular when it was a band instead of just one artist, therefore they said they did like other people involved in a one artist video to add more interest in the video and people gave examples of the video 'Nickleback-Rockstar' as there were a large amount of other celebrities. We of course, attempted to do the same, yet not with celebrities. All of the people said they did create a certain understanding in music videos as they are able to feel the unique creativity coming from one artist and this can compare with others which indicate a different aspect on a simple song for its music video.

The target audience

We have made our video to appeal to a mass audience. We have used a mix genre cast including a large amount of different nationalities to appeal to both genres all over the world. We had done close up shots of all the actors and actresses and included lots of different elements like words created on livetype.
We have found our main audience to be both male and female, however more females enjoyed our video, as the main protagonist is a male and therefore may develop 'crushes' on the artist.

The mood of the song

Seeing as our song is quite fast paced, due to the guitar playing, our idea was to do cutaways at the introduction of the song to allow a change in mise-en-scene. This will keep the audience's attention on the beginning of the video and they will therefore want to watch the rest of it. The mood of the song however, is quite emotional and quite saddening. Therefore, for our video we decided to add a more enjoyable thing to watch, with plenty of actresses and different mise-en-scene which will keep the audience engaged.

Planning on our new idea.

Beginning of Filming....

Today (Tuesday 19th October) we are filming our first scene. The scene will be shot in the drama studio and will involve our leading protagonist. We are going to film in the drama studios because it consists of a dark room with a spotlight on him as he sings the song. We decided on this setting because we wanted to use the lighting, so we could change it when filming different angles, especially close-ups. Furthermore, we were lucky to book the drama studios so we won't be disturbed while filming.

Changing our idea

After a few changes with filming we decided to change our idea from purley narrative based to a combination of different singers aswell as an element of live performance. This was a risky strategy however if we excuted it correctly and affeciently the risk would pay off and we would have produced a unique music video. Music videos are designed to sell the artist and their music by not having a narrative we could focus purley in selling our artist, Leo Hunter. However we had to be aware and very critical with our work to make sure we did not confuse the viewer. The artist himself features in our video doing a live performance. All the other performers are female. We decided to use female singers as female characteristics are more associated with love and emotion. Love and emotion are key themes in the songs lyrics. Female actors and singers also connect with a male fan base. The girls in it are also meant to represent 'love lost', 'love found' and 'love'.