Construction: Compression of footage

Before starting to edit our footage, we chose to compress them first. This would be benificial as it would mean that whilst we were editing on Final Cut pro, we would not have to render the footage nearly as much which would, in the long run, save us time. Through research, apparently a small amount of quality is lost but this is not visible. We used a program called 'Volcaic' which was already installed on to the macs we were using. This program allowed us to compress our footage and if we needed to, change the format of the files so it was ready to be used on Final Cut pro.

Construction: Filming finished!

Me and my partner completed our filming for our music video last Tuesday 13th December. We completed the filming throughout the day and into the night to film the scenes we wanted to film in the dark. I am pleased with how the filming went I feel we worked well together as a team. After having having an initial viewing of our footage, we were pleased with much of it although there were scenes that we filmed in extremely low light conditions. This may mean that what is happening in these scenes is unclear although when we start editing, we will make the decision whether the footage is suitable.

Construction: Final Narritive Shoot (Car Crash Scene)

Today we finished filming are last bit of our narrative shoot. This involved filming a car crash scene. We filmed it from the the drivers Point Of View (POV). We therefore did not need Sam to come and act as this scene does not show his face. We filmed this scene by getting Peter to drive at a reasonable pace toward are female actor named Angie Lamb and then stopping near to her and instructing her to fall on to the front of the car. Are plan is to then speed it up to look more realisting whilst editing.
Here is a still of how we filmed the POV shot:

Construction: Narritive Shoot started filming

Me and my partner started filming are narrative shoot yesterday. For this shoot we arranged for are friend Pete Stone to meet us so we could use his car. We also got are friend Sam Luszczack to come as he is acting playing our main character. When both arrived we filmed Sam lip syncing the song lyrics to are song 4 times with him sitting in the car. At the end of each time, we changed camera the camera angle so at the end of the shoot we had a wide range of shots where we will be able to pick and match the best footage for are music video. Although this was a lengthy task it was necessary.

Construction: Filmed performance Shoot!

Yesterday me and partner filmed our performance section of are media sequence. I am happy with how this went as we succeeded in filming a wide variety of different shots. The shooting went well as there were no difficulties when lip syncing as we are doing that in are other Narrative section. As a result, apart from a little stage direction, the shoot consisted of just filming what our DJ, Sam Sawtell does normally. We therefore have got some natural looking footage that will compliment are narrative footage well.
Here are some stills taken from the shoot:

Planning: Performance shoot

Me and partner have discussed when we are both available to shoot are performance part of are sequance. This involves filming a friend of ours DJing in his shed. This will give us good performance footage to input around are narrative. The date we have set for this is Sunday 11th of December as this is the closest date where me, my partner, and our DJ are free. In this day we aim to complete the shotlist previously shown in the blog.

Planning: Stage Direction

During our performance section, we will be filming a DJ, Sam Sawtell, who will be scratching and playing records. We will be filming this in our friends shed. In order to complete are set shot list, we have come up with stage directions. These are a list of where we will require the DJ to stand whilst filming our shots. We feel this will be necessary and highly useful whilst filming as it will help the shots be filmed without mistakes. However, we have also decided that we want Sam to act as normal when he DJs to an extent as we want the performance to look natural. A balance will therefore need to be produced.

Planning: Car Crash Storyboard

Recently me and my partner discussed the how we were going to go about filming the car crash scene to be shown at the end of are sequence. We thought that including this scene would give the sequence increased excitement for the viewer. We wanted to make the car crash convincing to the viewer even though we did not have access to things such as special effects or other various useful resources that professional media institutions who create music videos may have access too. Nevertheless, me and my partner put together a storyboard for the scene which sets out are plan on how to film and edit the car crash scene with the resources available.

Planning: Locations for shoot (narrative)

Me and my partner have now decided on locations at which we will film the narrative part of the music video we will make. The first location is my own bedroom. We chose this location firstly as it fitted with our narrative, it offered a reasonably large room so we are not limited in the shots we want to film (ie. could not film a mid/ long shot in small room) and also it offered sufficient lighting.
The second main location we will be using is one located along a motorway. We feel when dark we will be able to produce some good shots filming the motorway lights. A birds eye view is of this location is provided below.

Research: Analysis of music video Skream - Listenin' To The Records On My Wall

This music video who was released in 2010 by Tempa Records / Blink Productions and directed by David Wilson explores the formulation of the Garden of Eden and re imagines the creation of Adam and Eve.
At 0:35 in the video until 0:45, the video shows 'Adam' rolling around as if restless. The angles and cinematography used in this section has given us ideas on how to film our character waking up restlessly in our music video.

Planning: Car Crash Scene

In our music video for Skream - Where You Should Be, we have decided to include a car crash. This will add excitement to our narrative giving it a twist. Me and partner have been discussing possible ways in which we could film and edit this sequence in a way that looks realistic but would also be exciting to watch. The clip we found which was produced by students at Syracuse University, New York.




This clip is somewhat similar to how we plan to to film our driving scene, as a POV shot of the person driving. The fast cuts back and forth just before the crash build up tension and finish with a cut to black when the crash occurs. We like the idea of cutting to black when we show the car crash as it leaves it to the imagination. Also, we would be unable to film and input into our video a realistic car crash that would be believable as we are limited in recourse's to do this. This video that we have found on the video hosting website you tube has made us think about our car crash scene and was useful in helping us generate ideas.

Planning: Storyboard (Narrative)

The storyboard shown below outlines what we plan our narrative part of our music video to look like. We have also included extra information such as the type of shot we will use and also the amount of time each shot will be held for. This will be useful when filming and editing but is only an outline and not set in stone.

Planning: Item List

Me and my partner have produced an item list which we will be including in our music video. The Item list is as follows:

Item List (Narrative)

-Bed

-White Sheets

-White Pillow

-Clothes (Jeans, Sweatshirt, T-shirt, Trainers)

-Black Fiat Punto (keys)

-Rizla etc

-Lighter

-Phone

Item List (Performance)

-Records

-Decks

-iMac

-Headphones

-Speakers

-Keyboard

-Mouse

Planning: Shotlist

Me and my partner have produced a shot list which includes every shot that we want to film for our music video. It has helped us organise our ideas and will help us when we film. The list is as follows:

Producer Performance

-Close up of record being put on decks

-Close up of producer on mac – reason

-Close up of mac screen

-Close up producer on mic

-Mid Shot of producer on Mac

-Mid shot of producer on decks

-Mid Shot of producer

-Mid shot/side on of vocalist singing

-Mid shot of producer

Narrative

-Arial shot down on performer singing

-Arial shot of them tossing and turning

-Close up/side on of performer singing

-Mid shot of performer throwing clothes on

-Long shot of performer walking down stairs

-Close up of performer putting shoes on

-Long shot from outside of performer leaving house

-Close up of performer opening car door

-Extreme close up of key tuning in ignition

-POV of driver shot throughout journey

-Long shot of car parking up

-Over the shoulder shot of performer sitting in car performing lyrics

-Close up of performer rolling up

-Long shot of traffic on motorway

-Close up of performer performing lyrics

-Close up of performer lighting up

-Mid shot of performer smoking/performing lyrics

-Long shot of car against background of motorway

-Close up of receiving text

-Long shot of car driving off

-POV driving

-POV crash

Research: Joker - On My Mind music video analysis

I am analysing this music video as it fits into the same genre as the song that me and a peer are creating a music video for Where You Should Be By Skream. The music video contains both narrative and performance elements which is what we plan to do in our music video. Here is the music video streamed from youtube:

The cinematography and camera movement used in the sequence is effective. Throughout the sequence various camera movements are used when the singer is shown lip syncing the track. This keeps the viewer interested and makes the sequence more watchable. For example, at 0:41 in the video the camera slowly zooms out and also at 1:24 in the video the camera is shown tracking right. In our music video, I would like to input camera movement during the lip syncing to make the sequence more exciting as done in this video.

Research: Music Video Practice

Recently me and a group of 5 others filmed a live band the 'Strangers' in the hope of creating a brief live performance of their song 'In Chaos'. We chose to give each of us a task during the filming process. We had a director who told the rest of us where to film and move during the filming of the live performance. We then had someone filming high angle shots, they were situated on a balcony above the performance. We had someone filming the band at mid to long shots. We had someone filming close up shots of the singer and drummer and then my task of filming mid to close side on shots of the singer and keyboardist. This worked out well and the director done a good job at keeping the camera men out of each others shots.

Research: Chase & Status - Hitz ft. Tinie Tempah

After researching various music videos, me and partner came across the Chase & Status music video of the song Hitz ft. Tinie Tempah. This video is one of a similar genre as our music video as they both fall in to the category  In the music video the artists are shown travelling to the studio where the is song is supposedly being recorded. We have decided to incorporate this narrative into our music video. Our music video will therefore show our artist travelling to a studio and then be filmed recording the vocals which will sync in to the track. Here is the music video Chase & Status - Hitz ft. Tinie Tempah...

For this we would therefore need to to find a suitable studio where we would be able to film. At the moment me and my partner have come up with 2 possible places. Option 1 is a studio at a college called Cambridge Regional Collage located. Option 2 is a studio located locally in Saffron Walden at a youth centre. We will make are decision on the basis of the relevant availability of the studios and also to the extent at which the studios meet our requirements.

Research: 30 Second edit for Golden Earring - Radar Love

Me and my partner recently embarked on producing a 30 second edit of the dutch rock band Golden Earring song Radar Love. We decided only to input performance only into the edit and leave out narrative. This would help us practice syncing instruments in tempo with the song and also the difficult task of lip syncing.
Here is he video completed:


Me and my partner are pleased at how this has turned out. Although it does not conform to the standard conventions of a rock music video we thought it offered a more modern alternative.
Making this music video was beneficial as it helped me practice editing on Final Cut, it allowed me to play around with layering particular shots on one another as seen in the sequence, it allowed me to practice lip syncing to a song and it allowed me to practice using a new video camera which was previously unfamiliar too me. Everything I have learnt is good practice for the creation of my final music video.

Planning: Label Permission

Recently me and my partner emailed the independent record label Tempa asking permission to produce a music video for a song that was released by them called Where You Should Be by Skream. The song was released in 2010 and was taken from the album Outside The Box. It was necessary to do this because of copyright issues that are present. We found the email address on the record labels website and sent them the email below making it clear that are use of the track would be for primarily for academic, non-commercial purposes. We will now wait for a reply which will hopefully allow us to use the track.

Research: Original music video for track

Here is the original music video of the song 'Where You Should Be' which was directed by Carl Burgess:

The video contains no performance side but only narrative. The video mostly shows computer generated shapes and a woman that seems to be transforming. For our music video for the same song, we aim to include both performance and narrative, will include numerous actors instead of one and is likely to be faster paced with more things happening than this video. One thing we like about this video is the way the cuts from one shot to another are often synced in with the tempo of the song. We would like to do this in our video as it makes the video fit better with the song.

Research: Track decided for main task

Me and my peer have decided on the track which we will be producing a music video for. We chose this out of our list of 3 songs which I previously posted as possible tracks we could use for our music video. The track we chose fits in to the genre of electronica, was produced by the Dubstep producer 'Skream' and features vocals from 'Sam Frank'. The track was taken from the album 'Outside The Box' and released on the record label 'Tempa'.
We decided to use this track this as we both liked the song as thought it had the potential to create a emotional and meaningful video. Also, it offered the opportunity to input lip syncing which we both wanted to do. Another big reason is that the drum sounds in the track are loud and easily heard. This therefore offered the opportunity of being able to cut between shots to the tempo indicated by these drum sounds which is something me and seb think will look good.  It was also a decent and realistic length for the amount we think we can produce.

Research: Deciding on a track

After discussing the music that we liked and what kind we thought would work well when producing a music video, we came up with a selection of possible tracks.

These were the following:

Kryptic Minds - Can't Sleep Ft. Alys Be

Skream - Where You Should Be (feat. Sam Frank)


Skream - Give You Everything (feat. Freckles)


After some discussion, me and my peer decided on the track 'Where You Should be' by Skream.

Research: Practice Music Video

In order to practice the techniques we will be required to use to make our Final music video, me and a peer will make a music video for the first 30 seconds of the song 'Radar Love' by the 70s rock band 'Golden Earring'. This will only contain performance as this will help us to practice the difficult process of syncing both the instruments and the vocals to the track.

Here is a clip of the original music video

Me and my peer will be using more modern equipment than that used when this video was created in the 70s. We will also not be including any instruments in particular in the video but only lip syncing and drumming on the knees. We will therefore be creating a less traditional music video where instead shots being used of individual band members playing their instruments, there will be a single person being filmed drumming on his knees and singing the track as if the song is in his head.

Research: Glastonbury U2 Performance.

The link shows a recent performance from the punk rock band U2 at Glastonbury. The BBC use a wide range of different shots in the edit to keep the audience engaged. At the beginning of the edit, each band member is introduced to the audience through shots focusing on each of them. The variety of shots used to do this keeps the keeps the viewer entertained and also makes the performance seem more exiting. Viewing this has shown me that it is a good idea to have  a variety of shots in the music video I will be creating.

Welcome...

Welcome to my media studies blog. I will use this blog to post and document various developments relating to projects I do in media studies.