Monday, 25 February 2008
Production Log
We completed our editing over a period of around two weeks, as we unfortunately left the filming far too late to be comfortable. However, we completed our music video a full day before the deadline because of the hard work and effort that Josh, Nat and I all put in. We used the majority of our free periods to come into the Media Studies classroom. Due to the plan of our narrative storyline, the editing was fairly complicated and required a fair amount of experimentation. Overall we are incredibly happy with the way in which our video has turned out. We have uploaded the video onto YouTube, and within just 24 hours we had achieved over 150 views and two comments, with three ratings of 5 stars.
By Josh:
Editing: Most of the time, the whole group was editing together so a lot of group decisions were made collectively. We used a lot of the effects on the software to make our video as visually entertaining as possible. We decided to make the 'flashbacks' in black and white using the software, this was to help the audience to differentiate between the two different parts of time in the video. We also thought that the 'dip to black' effect was good every time that the time changes between normal and flashback.
In the staircase sequence we thought that instead of using jump cutting like in some parts of our video, we thought that using an 'inverted' effect would show the change in time and mark the significant parts in the sequence.
In the blurring shot before we return to focus we decided that the 'blurring' effect was a good look as it is quite a long shot and it keeps interest with the audience.
Towards the end of the video it cuts between the flashback and Lucy's face as well as speed cutting between the two synchronised with the music. This is effective as it creates a sense of speed and the synchronosity is entertaining.
By Josh:
Editing: Most of the time, the whole group was editing together so a lot of group decisions were made collectively. We used a lot of the effects on the software to make our video as visually entertaining as possible. We decided to make the 'flashbacks' in black and white using the software, this was to help the audience to differentiate between the two different parts of time in the video. We also thought that the 'dip to black' effect was good every time that the time changes between normal and flashback.
In the staircase sequence we thought that instead of using jump cutting like in some parts of our video, we thought that using an 'inverted' effect would show the change in time and mark the significant parts in the sequence.
In the blurring shot before we return to focus we decided that the 'blurring' effect was a good look as it is quite a long shot and it keeps interest with the audience.
Towards the end of the video it cuts between the flashback and Lucy's face as well as speed cutting between the two synchronised with the music. This is effective as it creates a sense of speed and the synchronosity is entertaining.
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Call Sheets
Before each time we filmed, we were required to complete a call sheet to ensure each of us knew all the details of the shoot (meet time, contact numbers, meet place, filming locations). We each made one call sheet each for the three seperate times we were filming, and these call sheets gave us a running plan of what shots to film on the night. This was extremely helpful, as it meant we were organised and got the optimum amount of filming done with little time wasted thinking of what shots we needed. Below is am example of one of the call sheet, saved as a JPEG, as done by myself.
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Filming #4 - 11/02/08
We went out filming on 11/02/08 in Tunbridge Wells for our final shooting. We think that this will be the last time we go out filming. Here is a list of shots we obtained:
Ed Dead - We got some more footage of Ed dead from various angles. We thought that this extra footage would be useful as we could use more angles and vut between the shots.
Chalked outline - We took some shots of a chalked outline of where Ed's body was. We outlined him lying on the floor. This shot will be used at the beginning of the video as a still image to connote Ed's death.
Lucy and Ed walking - We already had a shot of Lucy walking where the camera is positioned looking at her feet, staying steady on a car. However the first time we filmed this we didn't account for the car lights on Lucy's legs, changing the colour of Lucy's clothing. Therefore, we filmed it again and also filmed it with Ed as we thought it would be good to do separate shots of both.
360 handicam - We filmed separate shots of both Ed and Lucy walking along calverly road in the middle of town. We went around them with a handicam to gve a feeling of being there with the actor in the same situation as them. The lighting wasn't great, but it was the best outdoor lighting we could get.
Above view of stairs - In the Blacks' car park there is a glass panel above the flight of stairs. We filmed a shot of Lucy follow by Ed from thorugh the glass above the stairs. This is a good shot as it is from a very high angle which is often hard to achieve.
Leaving stair doors - We also filmed separate shots of Ed and Lucy leaving the door next to the stairs. The lighting isn't as good as inside but it isn't bad either. This is just another set of shots of Lucy being followed, the main theme of the video.
Going down ramp - We filmed Ed and Lucy separately going down a ramp into a car park on the other side of Tunbridge Wells. We filmed this from a low angle as our music video is based a lot around camera angle and movement, and less about performance than other videos. For example, we have a lot of camera movement and we aren't lip-synching.
Face Close-up - We took a shot of Lucy walking along holding the camera at an angle looking up at herself. We already had a shot of Ed doing this from the last filming. We filmed it in the middle of town and the lighting has worked as we had liked.
Walking through Town - We filmed both actors walking in the same shot panning along past a srip of shots. This was done in the middle of Tunbridge Wells. The lighting isn't too bad considering how dark it was, the shop lighting helped to get the lighting we wanted.
Ed coming out from Alley - We filmed another shot in the middle of Town. It was Lucy walking past a shop before a few seconds past and Ed appears out of the darkness and starts walking in the same direction as Lucy has just walked. The problem with this shop is that Ed's entrance point is quite wide and therefore only one shop is in the shot. This was a problem as it doesn't give off ideal lighting.
Lucy walking past camera - We took a shot of Lucy walking past the camera in the middle of town. This shot was unplanned but can be used as a filler shot if required.
CCTV Footage - We filmed some potential CCTV footage from a high angle just outside Black's car park. We plan to take the colour out of this shot and make it seem like CCTV. Therefore, there is no movement in the shot and it was just Nat holding the camera up high from a raised wall.
Lucy walking down stairs - We filmed through a glass panel Lucy walking down some stairs in Blacks' car park. The camera then follows Lucy down to where the CCTV shot stated above is shot from.
Feet walking up stairs - We filmed Lucy and Ed separately walking up stairs with only feet in shot. We did this in the inside stairs area in Blacks' car park, where we have done some other shots. These two shots can be cut together to create an effect of Lucy being followed.
Confrontation - We filmed more footage of the confrontation between Lucy and Ed. We filmed it from a few angles so that we can decide which bits to use when we edit the footage. We did this in the same location as the previous confrontation scenes.
Ed Dead - We got some more footage of Ed dead from various angles. We thought that this extra footage would be useful as we could use more angles and vut between the shots.
Chalked outline - We took some shots of a chalked outline of where Ed's body was. We outlined him lying on the floor. This shot will be used at the beginning of the video as a still image to connote Ed's death.
Lucy and Ed walking - We already had a shot of Lucy walking where the camera is positioned looking at her feet, staying steady on a car. However the first time we filmed this we didn't account for the car lights on Lucy's legs, changing the colour of Lucy's clothing. Therefore, we filmed it again and also filmed it with Ed as we thought it would be good to do separate shots of both.
360 handicam - We filmed separate shots of both Ed and Lucy walking along calverly road in the middle of town. We went around them with a handicam to gve a feeling of being there with the actor in the same situation as them. The lighting wasn't great, but it was the best outdoor lighting we could get.
Above view of stairs - In the Blacks' car park there is a glass panel above the flight of stairs. We filmed a shot of Lucy follow by Ed from thorugh the glass above the stairs. This is a good shot as it is from a very high angle which is often hard to achieve.
Leaving stair doors - We also filmed separate shots of Ed and Lucy leaving the door next to the stairs. The lighting isn't as good as inside but it isn't bad either. This is just another set of shots of Lucy being followed, the main theme of the video.
Going down ramp - We filmed Ed and Lucy separately going down a ramp into a car park on the other side of Tunbridge Wells. We filmed this from a low angle as our music video is based a lot around camera angle and movement, and less about performance than other videos. For example, we have a lot of camera movement and we aren't lip-synching.
Face Close-up - We took a shot of Lucy walking along holding the camera at an angle looking up at herself. We already had a shot of Ed doing this from the last filming. We filmed it in the middle of town and the lighting has worked as we had liked.
Walking through Town - We filmed both actors walking in the same shot panning along past a srip of shots. This was done in the middle of Tunbridge Wells. The lighting isn't too bad considering how dark it was, the shop lighting helped to get the lighting we wanted.
Ed coming out from Alley - We filmed another shot in the middle of Town. It was Lucy walking past a shop before a few seconds past and Ed appears out of the darkness and starts walking in the same direction as Lucy has just walked. The problem with this shop is that Ed's entrance point is quite wide and therefore only one shop is in the shot. This was a problem as it doesn't give off ideal lighting.
Lucy walking past camera - We took a shot of Lucy walking past the camera in the middle of town. This shot was unplanned but can be used as a filler shot if required.
CCTV Footage - We filmed some potential CCTV footage from a high angle just outside Black's car park. We plan to take the colour out of this shot and make it seem like CCTV. Therefore, there is no movement in the shot and it was just Nat holding the camera up high from a raised wall.
Lucy walking down stairs - We filmed through a glass panel Lucy walking down some stairs in Blacks' car park. The camera then follows Lucy down to where the CCTV shot stated above is shot from.
Feet walking up stairs - We filmed Lucy and Ed separately walking up stairs with only feet in shot. We did this in the inside stairs area in Blacks' car park, where we have done some other shots. These two shots can be cut together to create an effect of Lucy being followed.
Confrontation - We filmed more footage of the confrontation between Lucy and Ed. We filmed it from a few angles so that we can decide which bits to use when we edit the footage. We did this in the same location as the previous confrontation scenes.
Monday, 11 February 2008
Filming #3 - 10/02/08
We went out filming on Sunday 10/02/08 with just Ed as Lucy was unavailable. It wasn't a very long session but we still filmed a few shots:
CCTV - We tried some more CCTV shots in the same place as before, in the alley coming out of the car park. However, the camera was quite shakey and ideally, we would need Lucy there as we want a similar shot with her in, therefore the conditions needed to be the same.
Ed walking down stairs - We filmed Ed coming down the stairs in the Blacks' car park through a glass panel and then tracking along with him going to the CCTV area. We tried this from a few different angles. It is a reasonably good shot however the glass is squared so it doesn't look as good as we had hoped.
Ed walking with camera up - We filmed Ed walking through the middle of town holding the camera below him but pointing up to his face. This steadicam shot is good as when Lucy does it her reaction connotes nervousness. However, it is the same problem as the CCTV shot and we would prefer to have Lucy's similar shot taken under the same conditions so we may film this again when we next go out filming.
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Shot Ideas for Music Video - Unkle - Lonely Soul
Idea 1
We position the camera in a still position. We take shots of both 'Edd' and 'Lucy'. They start from behind the camera, both from the same place and walk in the same direction to a point in the distance at the same speed. Although this isn't to much of a problem as they are walking away from the camera, not at a parralel to it, which makes it easy to speed up or slow down the shot in editing without the shot looking altered. When we come to editing we make shore that the in and out points are the same and that each shot runs for exactly the same time. Both shots are played at the same time one over the top of the other. ('Lucy's' shot will be over the shot of 'Edd' as she is the main actress). We then cut the shot of 'Lucy' equally without creating a time gap in between each shot. Then we can change the opacity of each shot of 'Lucy' (lowering it towards the middle, and then raising it towards the end) while playing the shot of 'Edd' behind. This will merge the shots together and make it look as if the actor and actress switch places for a second or two, starting with 'Lucy' changing to 'Edd' and finishing again with 'Lucy'. I think this would be a good effect to encorporate into our video, as the more effects we add in our music video, the more the narrative will come alive.
Idea 2
Another idea we thought would be good to encorporate in our Music Video, would be to use 'flash forwards'. The start of the music video is set up by using the end of the narrative shown with a montage of clips with 'Edd' dead. Therefore to avoid to much confusion in the audience, we thought that breaking up the rewound narrative with 'flash forwards' would help the audience understand the narrative more throughout the music video. To distinguish these 'flash forward' shots, we thought that we could make them black and white, and seporate them from the main body of the music video with dissolve to black edits. This would ensure that viewers of our enterpration of 'Lonely Soul' could grasp our concept of what 'Unkle' meant when creating a song about a lonely soul.
Idea 3
For the opening sequence of our music video we thought that we should use the end of the music video to start the narrative. This would allow us to rewind some of the shots and restart the narrative. Therefore, keep the audience on their toes trying to guess the next part of our music video.
We position the camera in a still position. We take shots of both 'Edd' and 'Lucy'. They start from behind the camera, both from the same place and walk in the same direction to a point in the distance at the same speed. Although this isn't to much of a problem as they are walking away from the camera, not at a parralel to it, which makes it easy to speed up or slow down the shot in editing without the shot looking altered. When we come to editing we make shore that the in and out points are the same and that each shot runs for exactly the same time. Both shots are played at the same time one over the top of the other. ('Lucy's' shot will be over the shot of 'Edd' as she is the main actress). We then cut the shot of 'Lucy' equally without creating a time gap in between each shot. Then we can change the opacity of each shot of 'Lucy' (lowering it towards the middle, and then raising it towards the end) while playing the shot of 'Edd' behind. This will merge the shots together and make it look as if the actor and actress switch places for a second or two, starting with 'Lucy' changing to 'Edd' and finishing again with 'Lucy'. I think this would be a good effect to encorporate into our video, as the more effects we add in our music video, the more the narrative will come alive.
Idea 2
Another idea we thought would be good to encorporate in our Music Video, would be to use 'flash forwards'. The start of the music video is set up by using the end of the narrative shown with a montage of clips with 'Edd' dead. Therefore to avoid to much confusion in the audience, we thought that breaking up the rewound narrative with 'flash forwards' would help the audience understand the narrative more throughout the music video. To distinguish these 'flash forward' shots, we thought that we could make them black and white, and seporate them from the main body of the music video with dissolve to black edits. This would ensure that viewers of our enterpration of 'Lonely Soul' could grasp our concept of what 'Unkle' meant when creating a song about a lonely soul.
Idea 3
For the opening sequence of our music video we thought that we should use the end of the music video to start the narrative. This would allow us to rewind some of the shots and restart the narrative. Therefore, keep the audience on their toes trying to guess the next part of our music video.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Filming #2 - 4/2/08
Mise-en-scene
On Monday the 5th of February we went out in order to try and shoot the main parts of the video. We began at around 8pm, as this was the earliest that Lucy could arrive to perform. Instead of Josh being in the video, we have used Ed Thorn instead, as he was more willing to help us out, and he suits the performance better.
Ed was dressed in all dark clothing, with jeans on and a black hooded-top with a black jacket over the top. This is suitable for the style of the video, and creates a sense of mystery about his character. Lucy was wearing the clothes we asked her to wear. They were suitable for this genre of music and is typical clothing that would appeal to the target audience.
BY JOSH:
We filmed the majority of the night's footage in the car park that we had used in our reccie shots and on our first filming session. It has very good lighting throughout this car park and the large space with various pillars and staircases allows us to be creative and make new shots while we are in the location. For additional lighting, we used lights from Rob's car to light up the darker areas we were shooting in.
Filming
We filmed various shots in the car park and a couple outside the carpark. Having a number of shots allows us to capture them and then work out where we are missing shots so that when we next go out filming we know exactly what to be filming. Here is a list of shots that we filmed last night:
Confrontation 360 pan - We filmed this in Blacks' car park like most other shots. As we didnt have any wheeled rest for the camera other than a trolley, which was harder to maneuovre as we had hoped, we used handicam to circle Lucy and Ed a number of times.
Lucy walking to spot - We filmed this in the car park. This sequence involved a series of shots of Lucy walking to a set spot on the floor. We filmed the same sequence 6 times all from different angles, high and low. We then plan to edit all these shots together and cut between them to achieve a fast cutting sequence.
Confrontation - We filmed parts of the confrontation from different height and positional angles in the car park. This involved Lucy and Ed pretending to argue and Lucy pushing Ed back before Ed trying to comfort her. This was in the same spot as before so the natural car park lighting was good.
Lucy standing over Ed's body - We filmed this from a few angles in the same position on the third floor of the car park. We had a good shot of her standing over the body and the camera being positioned on top of Rob's car reversing slowly away. This will make the camera movement slow and we can change the speed in editing. The car lights add to the lighting of the car park.
Lucy walking away - We filmed Lucy walking away over Ed's body and away from the scene to the distance. The camera is steady but we filmed it for quite a while so it allows us to edit it how we want it to come out. It is likely that we will use this sequence with jump cutting.
Lucy walking from side - We filmed a shot of Lucy walking along a long strip in the car park that we filmed from the side. In order to get a steady shot we filmed from inside the car out of the passenger seat. This was proven successful and we got quite a long shot of her walking which we can take back and edit.
Stairwell - We filmed Lucy walking up a few flights of stairs using handicam. Although a little bit shaky, it will be useful as when it comes to editing, we won't use the whole shot in one sequence. We also filmed from above the stairwell down through the middle gap to see both Lucy's and Ed's hand on the railing at the side of the stairs. We used the stairs in Blacks' car park.
Confrontation POV - We filmed two different shots. One of Lucy walking through the car park doors towards the camera as to create a POV shot from Ed's view, and then filmed Ed doing a similar thing from the opposite side to reverse the shot. The lighting of the car park was again successful in creating the desired effect.
Walking up ramp - In the Blacks' car park we found quite a good ramp with really good lighting. We filmed Lucy walking up it followed by Ed. Although unplanned, this shot has turned out really effective. However, we may go back a do more filming in this section, filming both individual actors walking up the ramp as opposed to at the same time.
Car straight on - We filmed Lucy close up to car , showing her body and reversing the car, we also filming with the car going forwards from behind Lucy. This is a good shot, however the lights from the car show up clearly on Lucy's legs so this shot may need revisiting. The same problem applies for both these shots we tried.
CCTV - We tried to film a shot that we would edit to make look like a CCTV footage. We did this in a connecting alley between the car park and the road. The location was good however we didnt have a balance to hold the camera up steadily from a high position. This meant that the shot was quite shaky as a result and we may have to try it again with a better rest.
Follwing down street - We went to the pantiles to film a shot of Lucy walking with Ed following behind. It was quite good practice, but the lighting wasn't ideal in the location so we will haev to try to edit it and use the best parts of it rather than the whole shot.
On Monday the 5th of February we went out in order to try and shoot the main parts of the video. We began at around 8pm, as this was the earliest that Lucy could arrive to perform. Instead of Josh being in the video, we have used Ed Thorn instead, as he was more willing to help us out, and he suits the performance better.
Ed was dressed in all dark clothing, with jeans on and a black hooded-top with a black jacket over the top. This is suitable for the style of the video, and creates a sense of mystery about his character. Lucy was wearing the clothes we asked her to wear. They were suitable for this genre of music and is typical clothing that would appeal to the target audience.
BY JOSH:
We filmed the majority of the night's footage in the car park that we had used in our reccie shots and on our first filming session. It has very good lighting throughout this car park and the large space with various pillars and staircases allows us to be creative and make new shots while we are in the location. For additional lighting, we used lights from Rob's car to light up the darker areas we were shooting in.
Filming
We filmed various shots in the car park and a couple outside the carpark. Having a number of shots allows us to capture them and then work out where we are missing shots so that when we next go out filming we know exactly what to be filming. Here is a list of shots that we filmed last night:
Confrontation 360 pan - We filmed this in Blacks' car park like most other shots. As we didnt have any wheeled rest for the camera other than a trolley, which was harder to maneuovre as we had hoped, we used handicam to circle Lucy and Ed a number of times.
Lucy walking to spot - We filmed this in the car park. This sequence involved a series of shots of Lucy walking to a set spot on the floor. We filmed the same sequence 6 times all from different angles, high and low. We then plan to edit all these shots together and cut between them to achieve a fast cutting sequence.
Confrontation - We filmed parts of the confrontation from different height and positional angles in the car park. This involved Lucy and Ed pretending to argue and Lucy pushing Ed back before Ed trying to comfort her. This was in the same spot as before so the natural car park lighting was good.
Lucy standing over Ed's body - We filmed this from a few angles in the same position on the third floor of the car park. We had a good shot of her standing over the body and the camera being positioned on top of Rob's car reversing slowly away. This will make the camera movement slow and we can change the speed in editing. The car lights add to the lighting of the car park.
Lucy walking away - We filmed Lucy walking away over Ed's body and away from the scene to the distance. The camera is steady but we filmed it for quite a while so it allows us to edit it how we want it to come out. It is likely that we will use this sequence with jump cutting.
Lucy walking from side - We filmed a shot of Lucy walking along a long strip in the car park that we filmed from the side. In order to get a steady shot we filmed from inside the car out of the passenger seat. This was proven successful and we got quite a long shot of her walking which we can take back and edit.
Stairwell - We filmed Lucy walking up a few flights of stairs using handicam. Although a little bit shaky, it will be useful as when it comes to editing, we won't use the whole shot in one sequence. We also filmed from above the stairwell down through the middle gap to see both Lucy's and Ed's hand on the railing at the side of the stairs. We used the stairs in Blacks' car park.
Confrontation POV - We filmed two different shots. One of Lucy walking through the car park doors towards the camera as to create a POV shot from Ed's view, and then filmed Ed doing a similar thing from the opposite side to reverse the shot. The lighting of the car park was again successful in creating the desired effect.
Walking up ramp - In the Blacks' car park we found quite a good ramp with really good lighting. We filmed Lucy walking up it followed by Ed. Although unplanned, this shot has turned out really effective. However, we may go back a do more filming in this section, filming both individual actors walking up the ramp as opposed to at the same time.
Car straight on - We filmed Lucy close up to car , showing her body and reversing the car, we also filming with the car going forwards from behind Lucy. This is a good shot, however the lights from the car show up clearly on Lucy's legs so this shot may need revisiting. The same problem applies for both these shots we tried.
CCTV - We tried to film a shot that we would edit to make look like a CCTV footage. We did this in a connecting alley between the car park and the road. The location was good however we didnt have a balance to hold the camera up steadily from a high position. This meant that the shot was quite shaky as a result and we may have to try it again with a better rest.
Follwing down street - We went to the pantiles to film a shot of Lucy walking with Ed following behind. It was quite good practice, but the lighting wasn't ideal in the location so we will haev to try to edit it and use the best parts of it rather than the whole shot.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
New idea for narrative in music video
We decided to change our original narrative as we thought that it wouldn't stand upto repeatability. The general consensus between are group was that we wanted to create a music video that was more mysterious and encorparated narrative 'fuzz'.
The original story-line, was just 'Edd' following 'Lucy'. We felt that for the Music Video to stand up to repeatability, we needed to add a dramatic twist. This would make the video more intresting in the audiences eyes. The twist will be 'Lucy' and 'Edd' arguing and progressing into a fight, then 'Lucy' lashes out and kills 'Edd' as a result of him following her. We will use editing techniques like rewinding shots back, slow motion as well as speading up shots and montage editing to make the music video more intreging (which was the main problem with the original plan). By encorporating all of these different componants into our music video it will hopefully appeal to our target audience more than the original idea where 'Edd' finally got the courage to approach 'Lucy' and everything ended well.
We will use alot of camera movement, to make the MV more interesting, such as pans and handi-cam. As well as this we will use voeyerism as it is a key convention in alot of music videos. Another way that we feel that the new narrative will be better is if we reverse the timespan in editing as it will give the impression that 'Lucy' and 'Edd' are walking backwards. As well as this, it will also seem as if we will be rewinding from the begining to the start of the narrative. This will hopefully make the start of the music video more intresting, as the if the start of a music video isn't intresting then it can mean that audiences loose concentration and don't take intrest. Further more, the MV will incorporate different angled shots, and still shots. The still shots will help break up the continuosness of the shots as well as jump cuts with dissolve editing. We think these components will enhance the way that the audience consume our music video.
The reason we decided to change our narrative so late was that we found that after are first shoot that the narative didn't translate to the track as well as we wanted it to do. Which was the main reason for us innovating our narrative. We found that the original shots were too boring, and not constructed well enought. By this I mean that lighting was wrong, we needed a new actor (Edd instead of Josh) and that some shots didn't look right because they didn't follow the rule of thirds. Although these areas of our MV don't seem appropriate to our narrative, they are a good means in constructing the narrative and helping it flow. Although, we found in the original shoot that the car park next to the AXA PPP building in Tunbridge Wells was a good place to shoot the main part of our music video. This was because we found that the lighting was much better in there than outside on the streets. This changed our narrative as it meant that we now had one main location rather than many locations, where Lucy was pursued by the actor (now Edd).
In conclusion to this post, as a group, we feel that with the changes to the narrative and editing techniques that our music video will be improved significantly. I think that having two actors from outside the our group will be better as well, this means that we as a group can share our ideas and translate them better into the MV.
The original story-line, was just 'Edd' following 'Lucy'. We felt that for the Music Video to stand up to repeatability, we needed to add a dramatic twist. This would make the video more intresting in the audiences eyes. The twist will be 'Lucy' and 'Edd' arguing and progressing into a fight, then 'Lucy' lashes out and kills 'Edd' as a result of him following her. We will use editing techniques like rewinding shots back, slow motion as well as speading up shots and montage editing to make the music video more intreging (which was the main problem with the original plan). By encorporating all of these different componants into our music video it will hopefully appeal to our target audience more than the original idea where 'Edd' finally got the courage to approach 'Lucy' and everything ended well.
We will use alot of camera movement, to make the MV more interesting, such as pans and handi-cam. As well as this we will use voeyerism as it is a key convention in alot of music videos. Another way that we feel that the new narrative will be better is if we reverse the timespan in editing as it will give the impression that 'Lucy' and 'Edd' are walking backwards. As well as this, it will also seem as if we will be rewinding from the begining to the start of the narrative. This will hopefully make the start of the music video more intresting, as the if the start of a music video isn't intresting then it can mean that audiences loose concentration and don't take intrest. Further more, the MV will incorporate different angled shots, and still shots. The still shots will help break up the continuosness of the shots as well as jump cuts with dissolve editing. We think these components will enhance the way that the audience consume our music video.
The reason we decided to change our narrative so late was that we found that after are first shoot that the narative didn't translate to the track as well as we wanted it to do. Which was the main reason for us innovating our narrative. We found that the original shots were too boring, and not constructed well enought. By this I mean that lighting was wrong, we needed a new actor (Edd instead of Josh) and that some shots didn't look right because they didn't follow the rule of thirds. Although these areas of our MV don't seem appropriate to our narrative, they are a good means in constructing the narrative and helping it flow. Although, we found in the original shoot that the car park next to the AXA PPP building in Tunbridge Wells was a good place to shoot the main part of our music video. This was because we found that the lighting was much better in there than outside on the streets. This changed our narrative as it meant that we now had one main location rather than many locations, where Lucy was pursued by the actor (now Edd).
In conclusion to this post, as a group, we feel that with the changes to the narrative and editing techniques that our music video will be improved significantly. I think that having two actors from outside the our group will be better as well, this means that we as a group can share our ideas and translate them better into the MV.
Monday, 28 January 2008
Filming #1 - 27/01/08
The whole group went out to start filming on 27/01/08. We wanted it to be completely dark with only street lighting so we met up at 8 o' clock. From studying our shots and after analysing our reccie shots we thought that the best way to start was with the opening shot in a location that we had found in our reccie. Here is a list of the shots and the locations in which we took them:
Shot 1, 2, 3, 4 - We filmed these shots in an alley near Hotel Du Vin in Tunbridge Wells and behind AXA PPP building. We found that the problem that arose from this location is that the natural lighting was not that great and it is quite dark, it also looks quite red. We experimented from various angles with different movements before finding the shot we liked. However, shooting these sequences did take longer than we expected.
Shot 6 - We filmed some of this shot near the millenium clock in Tunbridge Wells but we have not yet come up with the final shot we want of this. We used it experimentally. The difficulties we found were that the busy road caused delays and it is quite hard to find the distance of the shot we want. The shot also requires an element of timing so may need to film a few times. However, we do now have some quite good preliminary footage.
Shot 7, 8 - Again, we found this shot experimental and may not end up using our current footage. The phone gave off light that didn't look that good when on camera. We may need to find another location for this shot as the lighting wasn't ideal.
Shot 9 - We tried this shot in the middle of town in Tunbridge Wells but again the lighting was a problem. The advertisement lighting dominated the shot so it wasn't what we had hoped for. However, we got an idea of how it would look like so we can try to find a more suitable location the next time we go out filming.
Filler shots - We realised once we had animated our storyboard that we were probably a few shots too short. Therefore when we were out filming we decided to have a look around and possibly shoot some sequences that will be in the final video but are not in our animatic. Here is a list of the extra footage we capturted.
Camera on Car - Nat sat on the bonnet of Rob's car holding the camera, filming while reversing as Lucy walked towards the camera. This was a very good shot as the car park lighting worked very well and gave quite a nice effect.
Lucy running - We filmed one of Lucy's idea which was for her to run along a strip of shops and then when it comes to editing blur the lights of the shop to create a speed effect. We got a small amount of footage to analyse on the software before deciding whether we will be using the idea.
Shot 1, 2, 3, 4 - We filmed these shots in an alley near Hotel Du Vin in Tunbridge Wells and behind AXA PPP building. We found that the problem that arose from this location is that the natural lighting was not that great and it is quite dark, it also looks quite red. We experimented from various angles with different movements before finding the shot we liked. However, shooting these sequences did take longer than we expected.
Shot 6 - We filmed some of this shot near the millenium clock in Tunbridge Wells but we have not yet come up with the final shot we want of this. We used it experimentally. The difficulties we found were that the busy road caused delays and it is quite hard to find the distance of the shot we want. The shot also requires an element of timing so may need to film a few times. However, we do now have some quite good preliminary footage.
Shot 7, 8 - Again, we found this shot experimental and may not end up using our current footage. The phone gave off light that didn't look that good when on camera. We may need to find another location for this shot as the lighting wasn't ideal.
Shot 9 - We tried this shot in the middle of town in Tunbridge Wells but again the lighting was a problem. The advertisement lighting dominated the shot so it wasn't what we had hoped for. However, we got an idea of how it would look like so we can try to find a more suitable location the next time we go out filming.
Filler shots - We realised once we had animated our storyboard that we were probably a few shots too short. Therefore when we were out filming we decided to have a look around and possibly shoot some sequences that will be in the final video but are not in our animatic. Here is a list of the extra footage we capturted.
Camera on Car - Nat sat on the bonnet of Rob's car holding the camera, filming while reversing as Lucy walked towards the camera. This was a very good shot as the car park lighting worked very well and gave quite a nice effect.
Lucy running - We filmed one of Lucy's idea which was for her to run along a strip of shops and then when it comes to editing blur the lights of the shop to create a speed effect. We got a small amount of footage to analyse on the software before deciding whether we will be using the idea.
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Planning review #4
I can see that you have started the entry for the animatic and you have exported it to school, but you have not met the deadline to upload. You have not posted an entry since December - you must be using the blog to record changes to your ideas, reccies, practice shots, and finally the animatic.
You should upload to the blog, explain HOW you completed the animatic and what you specifically learnt from it that will now inform your shoots.
You should upload to the blog, explain HOW you completed the animatic and what you specifically learnt from it that will now inform your shoots.
Friday, 25 January 2008
Animatic
Upon completing our animatic in the week ending on the 25th January, we are fairly happy with the progress made, although we have realised a few problems with it. One of the problems that we have found is that although we have based our music video on a narrative story, we think that there is no real twist or enigma to it. We have realised that we need to fix this problem, and hopefully add more repeatability to the video, 0r add a twist of some kind. Also, due to the fact that Lucy is the main actresses in the video, we are going to need to decide when to film so that it fits her schedule, as she is often busy with college work. We are planning to film on Sunday the 27th of January, and get as much footage as we can. It is an advantage to film as late as possible, so that the streets are relatively empty and there is little traffic.
Our animatic has been uploaded to YouTube, and the the link is posted below.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sOxR7_6hYAk
Our animatic has been uploaded to YouTube, and the the link is posted below.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sOxR7_6hYAk
Mise-en-scene
In our video we have now decided to have Lucy as the main part walking through the dark streets. We want to use natural lighting from the streets such as streetlights and shop lights. We feel that this will give off an urban feel which is the effect we want to give. In terms of props, we will be using very little if any of our planned ones. Our main focus will be the actor throughout the video so the only other aspects in shot will be building and streetlights. However, before each shot we take, we will be careful about what is in the shot and may have to move objects to get the shot we are looking for. For costume, we will want Lucy to wear clothes that our target audience can relate to. Therefore, clothes that she would normally wear, such as jeans and boots, with a coat as it is at night, would be what we are aiming for in terms of Lucy's clothing.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
planning review # 3 - CF
Excellent pitch - thorough, well considered, creative visual ideas. You will now need to make some decisions on the nature of your narrative, however 'fuzzy'. Excellent blog, detailed. Nat - you will need to transfer over your product analysis.
Well done - keep up the momentum.
Well done - keep up the momentum.
Monday, 3 December 2007
Story Board Initial Ideas
I've listened to the track, and have thought about the story board, where we have to draw shots that relate to key parts of the music track. I found that there were seven main breaking points in the track. These happened at 10 secs, 21 secs, 41 secs, 84 secs, 106 secs, 115 sec, 157 secs and 218 secs. I also determined that the song could be cut down from 8 minutes 35 seconds to 3 mins 49 secs or 4 mins 10/12secs, and be faded out to end the track as 8 minutes is a long time space to fill.
-10 seconds in - the first sign of lyrics.
-21 seconds in - the introduction of the main beat to the song. A key part to the song.
-41 seconds in - the start of the 1st verse.
-106 seconds in - start of the 1st chorus.
-115 seconds in - end of 1st chorus.
-157 seconds in - new instrument introduction.
-218 seconds in - "God Knows your lonely souls" start to be repeated.
The ending of the music video could be at 3.49 but it would probably be best to finnish it at 4m 10s as there is a few dramatic twists to the track which we could use in our music track between the two times.
-10 seconds in - the first sign of lyrics.
-21 seconds in - the introduction of the main beat to the song. A key part to the song.
-41 seconds in - the start of the 1st verse.
-106 seconds in - start of the 1st chorus.
-115 seconds in - end of 1st chorus.
-157 seconds in - new instrument introduction.
-218 seconds in - "God Knows your lonely souls" start to be repeated.
The ending of the music video could be at 3.49 but it would probably be best to finnish it at 4m 10s as there is a few dramatic twists to the track which we could use in our music track between the two times.
Our Pitch
Our Music Video Pitch
•Our track choice is “Lonely Soul” by Unkle.
•British musical outfit founded 1994.
•James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy.
•Originally categorized as “trip-hop.”
•“Lonely Soul” featured in trailer for Xbox 360 and PS3 game “Assassin’s Creed” in 2007.
Initial Response/Ideas
•Use of voyeurism
•Ideas of being lonely, anchors the track name, and corresponding to the lyric of “God knows you’re lonely souls”
•The idea of searching for someone/something that isn’t there.
•Lots of facial close ups, especially lips and eyes
•On-screen text use
•We don’t want our video to be as if we are trying to reinforce/create a star persona. The actor in the video is not necessarily the lead singer of Unkle.
•Just like “Natural Blues” by Moby, we are going to perform a completely narrative based video, with very little or no lip-synching.
•We think that we will use little or no non-diagetic sound in our video.
•The video will be shot almost if not entirely at night time, however this presents us with the problem of lighting issues.
Location/Mise-en-scene
•We have come to the conclusion that this video will be shot entirely in an urban location, as this meets the conventions of this genre of music track.
•We are going to use (if possible) somebody else who isn’t in our group as our actor.
•The lighting will be one issue which we must address or research because with the cameras we are using and halogen lights in streetlights, you often get a pinkish light.
•Some of the shots may be in black and white or very high contrast levels.
•On Wednesday 28th November Josh and Rob went out in Tunbridge Wells town centre at around 11pm to take some location reccie shots for mood board and ideas.
Location Recce
•Tunbridge Wells town centre has some interesting areas in which to film, especially at night on a weekday, as it is fairly derelict, and entirely artificially lit.
•Some notable locations are alongside the AXA PPP offices, where there are dark alleyways (but lit enough to film well), the Assembly Hall multi-story car park, the road alongside Que Pasa and the area around the back of Currys Digital.
•These locations include dark alleys, tunnels, spiral fire escape staircases and large concrete buildings (very suitable for an urban environment).
Camera Usage
•We will use mostly steadicam, following the actor as he walks around looking for something he can’t find.
•The use of CCTV voyeurism will be from a high angle looking down, which will pan across as he walks past the area, as if it is following him.
•For the majority, if not all of the video the performer will not realise he is being followed, so will not interact with the camera at all.
•For any dolly shots we will take, we will use something like a shopping trolley, or a chair on wheels to attempt to create a smooth footage shot.
•There will be the use of low angle shots
Feedback
We have received feedback regarding our ideas for our music video pitch, and one of the main criticisms is that with just a simple narrative, this will become slightly boring and will not work for a full four minutes. To target this, we have been advised that perhaps getting a female to star in the video along with a man may be the solution. Lucy Shilling (TWGSB Class of 2007) has expressed interest, and we will be following up this offer.
Sunday, 2 December 2007
AUDIENCE RESEARCH - Focus Group
Rob gave me a list of questions he had written for me to carry out a focus groupas agreed, as a method of obtaining feedback from the track we have chosen. However, I decided to add and edit the questions slightly with the permission of Rob. I got 5 people to take part in the focus group, all aged between 19 and 23. Only two of the people I questioned had heard of UNKLE, however they are into a similar genre of music. We gave them each a sheet of the questions we had already planned and I will analyse this feedback in this post. Here are the questions we asked:
- How often do you watch music videos per week?
- What emotions does this track make you feel?
- Where would expect a music video for this track to be shot?
- Do you think this video should be narrative based (story based), concept based (idea based), or performance based (band performance)?
- What would you expect the singer/actor to be wearing? What would he look like generally? eg. haircut, attractiveness, facial features.
- How many people would you expect to see in this video (i.e. less than 5, more than 5, more than 10 etc.)
- Why would you expect to see these things stated in your previous answers in a music video for track?
- Did you enjoy the track? Would you be interested in seeing a music video made for it?
- Any other comments?
We feel that with these questions we had left quite a lot of room for creativity in their answers. They are all open ended questions, offering no multiple choices for any. We found the results of the audience research interesting and it will definately contribute to when we come to storyboard our ideas. It has helped us get an idea of what the audience are looking for and what they are not looking for.
From carrying out this audience research we found out that four of the five people questioned watch music videos on a fairly regular basis, whether it be online or TV. The second question brought about a number of answers, quite varied. Some of these include chilled out, a sense of movement, a feeling of freshness and a new adventure, mellow, loneliness and even a feeling of being in a club due to the bass. So as you can see, the video brings about mixed emotions, something we have to take on board to try to account for everyones expectations. Every single one of the people I questioned thought that the track should have an urban setting in the video. This was reassuring as Rob and I have already discussed this and decided that this would be the location. It was a positive sign to see people within our target audience feeling the same sort of emotions just from listening to the track. 3 of the 5 people questioned said that the video should be concept based while the other 2 said narrative based. Nobody said performance based, which was also reassuring as me and Rob did not think that the track suggests images of performance, with lip synching in the video as probably the furthest the performance would go. When questioned about the image of the character in the video, I found I recieved a wide range of answers. Most suggested a young male, however one person thought that a middle aged man searching for something within himself would be a good theme. One person thought that a student backpacker would make a good lead character whereas three of them had similar ideas that he should be a young rugged, dark haired character, wearing rugged clothing to match his looks. The last suggestion was the middle aged man, who they thought should also be rugged, but in a more aged way, giving the sense that he has experienced quite a bit of his lifetime already. The question about the number of people didn't really show a pattern, suggesting that the question was unsuccessful in terms of looking for trends in audience expectation. However, every single person questioned said they enjoyed the track and upon being told there is no video for it, said they would be interested in seeing one if made. Finally, in the any other comments section, one person stated that a black and white video would be worth looking into while another said that bright city lights was what he was reminded of throughout the video.
On the whole, I would say that the audience research has been very successful. I feel that we approached it in a very professional way and our feedback represents that. We have some very useful information now that we can consider when making our music video. It was particularly useful as the people questioned were within our target audience, young people from about 16 to 30. I think the reason it was useful is that the questions are presented in such a way that leaves it open for individual responses, something that we thought would be very important when planning our audience research.
- How often do you watch music videos per week?
- What emotions does this track make you feel?
- Where would expect a music video for this track to be shot?
- Do you think this video should be narrative based (story based), concept based (idea based), or performance based (band performance)?
- What would you expect the singer/actor to be wearing? What would he look like generally? eg. haircut, attractiveness, facial features.
- How many people would you expect to see in this video (i.e. less than 5, more than 5, more than 10 etc.)
- Why would you expect to see these things stated in your previous answers in a music video for track?
- Did you enjoy the track? Would you be interested in seeing a music video made for it?
- Any other comments?
We feel that with these questions we had left quite a lot of room for creativity in their answers. They are all open ended questions, offering no multiple choices for any. We found the results of the audience research interesting and it will definately contribute to when we come to storyboard our ideas. It has helped us get an idea of what the audience are looking for and what they are not looking for.
From carrying out this audience research we found out that four of the five people questioned watch music videos on a fairly regular basis, whether it be online or TV. The second question brought about a number of answers, quite varied. Some of these include chilled out, a sense of movement, a feeling of freshness and a new adventure, mellow, loneliness and even a feeling of being in a club due to the bass. So as you can see, the video brings about mixed emotions, something we have to take on board to try to account for everyones expectations. Every single one of the people I questioned thought that the track should have an urban setting in the video. This was reassuring as Rob and I have already discussed this and decided that this would be the location. It was a positive sign to see people within our target audience feeling the same sort of emotions just from listening to the track. 3 of the 5 people questioned said that the video should be concept based while the other 2 said narrative based. Nobody said performance based, which was also reassuring as me and Rob did not think that the track suggests images of performance, with lip synching in the video as probably the furthest the performance would go. When questioned about the image of the character in the video, I found I recieved a wide range of answers. Most suggested a young male, however one person thought that a middle aged man searching for something within himself would be a good theme. One person thought that a student backpacker would make a good lead character whereas three of them had similar ideas that he should be a young rugged, dark haired character, wearing rugged clothing to match his looks. The last suggestion was the middle aged man, who they thought should also be rugged, but in a more aged way, giving the sense that he has experienced quite a bit of his lifetime already. The question about the number of people didn't really show a pattern, suggesting that the question was unsuccessful in terms of looking for trends in audience expectation. However, every single person questioned said they enjoyed the track and upon being told there is no video for it, said they would be interested in seeing one if made. Finally, in the any other comments section, one person stated that a black and white video would be worth looking into while another said that bright city lights was what he was reminded of throughout the video.
On the whole, I would say that the audience research has been very successful. I feel that we approached it in a very professional way and our feedback represents that. We have some very useful information now that we can consider when making our music video. It was particularly useful as the people questioned were within our target audience, young people from about 16 to 30. I think the reason it was useful is that the questions are presented in such a way that leaves it open for individual responses, something that we thought would be very important when planning our audience research.
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Group Roles
We have discussed what roles we are going to have in the production of our video. Due to our group consisting of three members we thought that it would be best if we all played a part in all aspects of creating our video. Therefore, Rob, Nat and myself will all Direct, Edit and Produce different shots. These leaves room for our own individual creativity and we can all try out shots that we wish to experiment with. As for the performance part of the video, Lucy will play the main character walking through the streets.
EDIT:
We have now decided to have a narrative fuzz in our video and it will be Ed Thorn playing the role of someone following a female character, played by Lucy Shilling. The other roles of director, editor and producer is unchanged.
EDIT:
We have now decided to have a narrative fuzz in our video and it will be Ed Thorn playing the role of someone following a female character, played by Lucy Shilling. The other roles of director, editor and producer is unchanged.
Location Reccie
Rob and I went on a location reccie to see what sort of locations we can use in the music video. We walked around Tunbridge Wells and found quite a lot of good potential locations that we can take into consideration when storyboarding our ideas. Some of the many pictures we took can be seen on the right side of our blog page. We also filmed some footage.
After seeing some of the shots afterwards we feel that we have found some good locations, such as a dark alley, a large car park and the middle of town near the Millenium Clock. However, after going out on the reccie we have realised a few problems. For example, we didnt predict how hard it is in such a popular place to get a shot with minimal movement from other people or objects in the background. We also realised that there was a potential problem with lighting in the streets. Some of the footage has a 'reddish' look to it due to the lighting in town. However, the Blacks' car park seems like an ideal location as the lighting is exactly what we are aiming for and it is often empty at night time.
After seeing some of the shots afterwards we feel that we have found some good locations, such as a dark alley, a large car park and the middle of town near the Millenium Clock. However, after going out on the reccie we have realised a few problems. For example, we didnt predict how hard it is in such a popular place to get a shot with minimal movement from other people or objects in the background. We also realised that there was a potential problem with lighting in the streets. Some of the footage has a 'reddish' look to it due to the lighting in town. However, the Blacks' car park seems like an ideal location as the lighting is exactly what we are aiming for and it is often empty at night time.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Initial Response to Track
Here are some of the basic ideas that Rob and I have had. At the moment, they are just initial plans, themes etc:
- Voyeurism - This is conventional in music videos but me and Rob want to take it further than just the obvious use or mirrors etc. We would rather use reflection and be more subtle with the idea of voyeurism. CCTV and Television for example.
- Speed cutting - We have seen other videos where quick cutting has been successful. We have not yet decided what we are going to use the jump cutting for but we think it will be a good recurring theme throughout the video.
- Camera movement - We want to use 360 shots and maybe some POV shots. We will experiment with the camera before we start filming and hopefully this will give us some ideas for our video.
- Text - We have discussed inserting text onto the screen in the video. We do not want to do lip-synching and we think that text on the screen will compensate for this.
- Camera shots - We think that we will include quite a lot of close-up shots of our actors face. We think that this adds a bit of emotion to the song and after studying other music videos, we think that this is a successful technique.
- Star persona - We do not feel like our video will be constructing the star's image very blatantly. The band will not be in the video, only the guest vocalist, who's voice is Richard Ashcroft. The actor will remain quite emotionless throughout, as we feel that this is unconventional and will grab the audience's attention. It will also make the video more interesting and the emotion from the song will be drawn from elsewhere, like the camera work and the background along with the mise-en-scene.
- Editing - We will do the editing after filming but we want to leave a lot of ime to edit so it is vital to film as early as possible. We will use slow motion and other editing techniques to create different feelings on-screen such as speed.
- Sound - We will use little or no non-diagetic sound in our music video. We may have a point where there is our actor/singer speaking over the top of the music.
Audience Research Ideas
Josh and I are in discussion currently about the way in which we are going to collect, and then collaborate our audience research. We have come to the conclusion that we will use the idea of a focus group. A focus group is a form of qualititive research in which a group of people are asked their attitudes towards the music and to get their views of what should be involved in the video (location, clothing, style and artist looks).
What we are going to do is approach a selection of people, all who have the same music taste. This music taste would be the sort of Indie/Chillout music with bands/artists such as Richard Ashcroft, Moby, Chemical Brothers and LCD Soundsystem. We would then have them all together, with around 10 people if possible. Then, we will play them the track (UNKLE - Lonely Soul), and ask them various questions afterwards regarding the track. Some ideas of questions to ask our focus group are:
What we are going to do is approach a selection of people, all who have the same music taste. This music taste would be the sort of Indie/Chillout music with bands/artists such as Richard Ashcroft, Moby, Chemical Brothers and LCD Soundsystem. We would then have them all together, with around 10 people if possible. Then, we will play them the track (UNKLE - Lonely Soul), and ask them various questions afterwards regarding the track. Some ideas of questions to ask our focus group are:
- What emotions does this track make you feel?
- Where would you expect this music video to be shot?
- What would you expect the actor in the video to look like?
- Do you feel this should be performance, narrative or concept based? (Would obviously have to operationalise these concepts).
- How many people do you expect to see in this video?
- What would you expect the actor to be wearing?
- At what time of day would you expect this video to be shot?
- Why would you want to see these kinds of things in a video?
When we have asked the focus group these questions and various other ones, we will pitch our basic ideas to the group, and ask for their feedback on this, whether they agree or disagree with andything, and if they disagree then what they feel would work better.
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