Filming Update 2

Filming Update 2

Today we have gone to our location and re shot some our entire lip syncing sequence and some filler shots. We should have done this some time ago but due to unforeseen weather circumstances and our actor forgetting his mise-on-scene we had to postpone. If we had shot in drastically different weather then there would be obvious continuity errors that would have taken down our overall mark.

Overall the shoot went very well, the lip syncing now looks better and we will have no black gaps, and I will proceed to edit the clips into our video and see what further changes we need to make

Filming Update

Filming Update 18/10/2013

We have filmed our first set of shots for our music video. We did this on the 11th of October, and have proceeded to edit this into a pre-first draft. This has allowed us to work out that we need to reshoot quite a few shots. Some of these include our lip-syncing shots, as they did not fit correctly with the song and we hope to address this with a reshoot. We also need to take extra filler clips, and reshoot the first shot as we don't have enough footage to fill the 3 minutes and the first shot did not show the crossroads clearly enough.

However it is very difficult to get the correct time to film- as our first set of shots was filmed on a reasonably nice and dry day- something that is proving difficult to come upon this week as it has been raining. Also our actor has forgotten some vital mise-on-scene when we tried to film earlier in the week, so we decided to call it off until a better day comes along and we have everything we need to make it as good as possible.

Here is our pre-first draft (still lots more to do)

Editing

Editing Screenshots

We are currently in the process of editing our first draft of our music video. We are looking at using many different editing techniques and experimenting with things we haven't tried before.

Colour Correction

Before

These are the settings that we have chosen to colour correct our video. I have gone with a lot more vibrant greens because there is a lot of green in our video, so this will help to make our video stand out and look a lot more aesthetically pleasing. As you can see below, the final colour corrected photo looks a lot more interesting, and the green grass behind our protagonist looks much more vibrant.

After

After

Before

Gaussian Blur

Here we have added the Gaussian blur effect shown above. At the start of the clip we have the blur settings set to 0, as the blur is going to start halfway through the clip.

By the end of the clip the settings have increased, and the blur has occurred, turning the shot into the "After" shot shown above. This gives our music video's end a more professional look, and gives the video closure.

Here we are reversing our clips for the ending of our video- this is done by a simple tick box and it makes our clips go in reverse- perfect for our video.

Here we are slow-motioning one of our clips. This is done by changing the playback rate, as I have done in the clip by changing it to 0.7 instead of 1.0, the normal speed. This effect is crucial for our tripping and mugging scenes, where slow-motioning is useful to make them more dramatic and powerful.










We have also used very fast cuts in some areas, so we have zoomed in the timeline to allow us to sync it to the music correctly, and hopefully making it accurate to the music.

Test Shots

Here are some test shots that me and Brad went out to take today. Generally they went okay, however there are some notable issues that we must address for our final video. Firstly, some of the shots were shaky, as I cannot use a tripod for the walking shots. This can be fixed slightly by holding the camera with the strap fully pulled on my neck, so it stays steadier during shooting. Another thing that should be addressed is how the starting shot is done- in our practice shot you couldn't see the crossroads clearly and it didn't seem to be obvious that our protagonist took one of two paths.

However, I did like some of our shots from behind trees, bushes etc as they provided a break from the lipsyncing and increased our shot variety. I also liked the reverse footage, as it seemed to work well with the part of the music we wanted it to go with, which is pleasing as it means our song choice was justified.

Overall there is a lot to improve on but hopefully we can learn from this and improve for our final video.

Focus Group

Focus Group 1- Ideas and Storyboard

Me and Brad have interviewed a small group of students in our year about our ideas for our music video and our storyboard. Below are some of the questions and responses from them.

Question 1 - Do you think our narrative is easy to understand?

Student 1 : Yes, but I hope it comes through in the music video

Student 2 : Yes, it's clear and is a good concept

Student 3 : No, but if done right it could work

Question 2 - Do you think the song suits our concept?

Student 1 : Yes, performance wouldn't really work with the song so I think it works well

Student 2 : Yes, the part where it rewinds fits with the end chorus

Student 3 : Yes, the lyrics suit your concept

Question 3 - Are there any improvements necessary to make the narrative clearer?

Student 1 : Make sure that the crossroads is very clear in the opening shot

Student 2 : The mugging should be very clear and action packed
Student 3 : You should try to make sure the location and the crossroads are defined and fit the song

Question 4 - Do you think our location fits our concept?

Student 1 : Yes, the crossroads is clear and the path is very long.
Student 2 : No, I think a more urban area should be used
Student 3 : Yes, I think an urban area would be too difficult to film in.

Question 5 - Overall, do you think there are any other changes we need to make?

Student 1 : I wouldn't say so, after we see the first draft there may be changes to be made
Student 2 : Make sure the protagonist suits the music style you have chosen
Student 3 : No, everything seems good to go.

Overall, this focus group gave good insight into our current concept for our music video. I think our pre-production and concept is nearly ready to be created, and these 3 students seem to agree with me. We will definitely take their suggestions into account, especially making sure that the crossroads and opening shot is clear and visible and making sure our protagonist suits the music style. I think we will begin shooting very soon and hopefully come back with more feedback after our first draft is complete

Treatment

Love Lost- Temper Trap Music Video Treatment

Song: "Love Lost"
Artist: The Temper Trap

Concept

We will be producing a music video for this song, along with a digipack and other pieces of promotional material for our artist.

Narrative

Our music video will center around the key theme of choice. Our protagonist will, in the beginning of the video, be stood at a crossroads, where he will take the right path. This path will prove to be a bad decision, as shown when he trips over, and then further down gets mugged. We are then shown the protagonist rewinding time, until he returns back to his original position, where he picks the other path.

Location(s)

The music video will be shot in one primary location, which is a nearby nature reserve which has the exact crossroads we were looking for. The crossroads will be used to show the characters choice. The location is also rural enough to provide area's for the protagonist to trip, whilst being urban enough to make the mugging viable.

Pace
The song is quite slow paced during verse's, so we have chosen to make the bad occurrences happen during the much faster chorus's, as it will fit the song better. The end chorus will be used for the rewind, as it is the fastest part of the song

Colour/Tone

The video will be shot in standard colour, however if I feel it needs a more cinematic look or doesn't look vibrant enough I will colour correct the footage to make the video look as visually appealing as possible.

Mise-on-scene

The mise-on-scene in our video will not be too extensive, as a key part of the music video is making the protagonist seem ordinary. The muggers will be wearing tracksuit bottoms and a hoody, to hopefully show the danger they pose. A knife will also be used to show the threat the protagonist is under.

Filming

Our video will be shot with a DSLR, the Canon 600D. This is my own personal camera, which I am using because I know how to use it effectively and can use custom settings to tailor the video to how we want it. The image quality will be 1080p 24 fps, which is extremely cinematic and is the fps used by professional films.

Editing

Our editing will be done on Sony Vegas Pro. This is a solid editing program which will allow us to easily add in the effects, such as slow-motion and reverse, which we will be using in our video to create an interesting visual experience

Target Audience

Our music video's target audience will be male and female's from the ages 16-20, as this is the general indie artist's target audience, which we hope our music video will appeal to with the strict all narrative theme we are going with. We also think because the video represents something and has an underlying meaning
, fans of the genre will enjoy this as it isn't like all the mainstream mainly dancing videos.

Pack

Location Recce

Today after looking at various possible locations around both of our local areas, Brad and I went to have a look around the area where Brad found his locations.  We eventually decided that the place we found, which was right next to some of our previous possible locations,  is perfect for our concept as the crossroads are very clear and quite secluded like we wanted in order to fit with our video, also the area is a short walk from school, meaning we can easily get our actors and props to the location with little hassle, and reshoots if necessary will be easy to organize.