Our Thoughts

Final Editing Day

A small video of the final hours editing our music video.

Finally Finished!

Our music video Vs. Laura Mulvey

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO LAURA MULVEY'S THEORY?

Since I have previously analysed Laura Mulvey's theory on representation of both men and women, I thought it would be interesting to then analyse our own music video (rough cut) to see if her theory applies. Upon analysis, I discovered that in fact, my group and I have successfully appealed to a wider audience being male through the use of mise en scene particularly through choice of costume which consistents of dresses and applies to the 'glammed up' look. It is fair to say, the body language mainly speaks towards the male audience conveying the female sexuality as seductive and admiring.

Skills Development: Editing skills

Just to gather my thoughts, I feel like I have gained a lot of skills through the editing process within my A2 year in comparison to AS. The main highlights I would like to point out is the importance of using markers and the cutting tool. Without these tools, establishing this music video would be ridiculously challenging, although it is now, it would make things 100% more difficult.

As well as this, I feel like the editing techniques that I have now gained and understood has help me work to my own initiative and the independent learning has strengthened and motivated me to do better to make this music video the best it can be. In addition, even though it was a stressful period, the finished product will hopefully look better than we expected and reach a higher level of interest than aimed for.

My Rough Cut Thoughts

Projector Shooting

During the process of editing, we realised that our green screen footage could not be used. We had various reasons for this - our main one being that our artist was very ill on the day, meaning the footage wasn't up to good standards. After a long process of editing, we, as a group realised we needed some new footage, and immediately. What sprung to our minds straight away, was the use of a 'projector' which produces moving images behind our artist whilst we film.

There are many advantages of using the projector to film:
- Quick and easy to use.
- Various backgrounds can be used.
- Quick to find a suitable backdrop which relates to your video.
- Easy to film (projector screens in most classrooms in college).

Due to this, we decided to film right away. The lyrics in our song have strong hints towards a party atmosphere, so we decided to try and find a laser type background, which could represent some sort of club/fun scene.

Below is the sort of background we were looking for (these will be still images) -

Improvements for final music video

Based on the feedback from our rough cut from fellow peers, me and my group pointed out the main issues that were wrong in our video. I have listed them below with a short explanation for how and why we have done so.

IMPROVEMENT 1:

The GIF above displays the particular base track of Sylvie lying down which is evidently used too much in comparison to the rest of the base tracks and slowly started to becoming irritating. Our solution is to cut down the use of this base track to a minimum of 3 from 0:36-1:36

IMPROVEMENT 2: (Teacher Feedback)

 

The feedback given back from our teacher was intially to change the track of our song. Upon the first screening of our rough cuts, there was a fault in the music from 2:32-2:33 which had a slight glitch proving a problem for our song. In result of this, we will be adding a cleaner version to the music video after editing is finished just to make sure the sound is correct without any faults.

IMPROVEMENT 3:

 

During the last section of this clip follows 7 very fast beats which then enters the second verse, my group and I want to add our polaroid photo layering here in time with the beats to add the effect of being 'in the moment' which we have planned to achieve. Whereby this will be slotted into our final music video.

IMPROVEMENT 4:

The last improvement was depicted from our peer feed back from our rough cut screening, this particular base track had said to be lacking in movement and sense of 'fun' which stands out as a disadvantage in terms of the music video as a whole. Taking on board this feed back, my group have made the decision to take away this base track as it does not fulfill it's purpose and makes the music video lose it's sense of vibrancy which is a key concept we aim to achieve.

Rough Cut Feedback - Negative/Improvements

Other Locations

During planning, we came up with various location for our music video. These were great because we had a rough idea what we wanted to shoot while we're there. However, we did not take into account where it would work with our main location. 

Because the song connotes a party scene as we learnt from our audience research we realised that shooting at the other locations would be a waste of time. The footage we recorded at Platform was strong and it kept everything in one place. 

                  

 

I think this was a positive thing because after our rough cut, we had a decent music video which worked well even though it was only at one location. Despite this, we will still have to re-shoot Sylvie in front of a projector for extra material to work with. 

Process of Editing - Scrapping Ideas

Not all our base tracks are useable. Some are out of focus, some have terrible framing and some just does not work because of the content. For example, one of our base track which has two extra performers in mask looks very sloppy and not professional. However, I tried to use bits of it as cutaways.

The reason for using it during this part of the song is because Sylvie is no longer singing and the tempo of the song has slowed down. So this cutaway takes the attention away from her singing solo and shows a different picture of her messing about with her friends at this specific type of location. This appeals to our target audience which is young teenagers as we know from our audience research.

Process of Editing - Green Screen

Unfortunately all our green screen footage are not useable. Wile watching them we noticed that some are out of focus, have shadows in the background and also our artist was very ill on the day so her performace was not up to standards. Due to this, we had to scrap this idea and instead we will attmept to use something else.

During a group discussion we decided re-shoot Sylvie infront of a projector with words and moving road lights on her. An example is availabe below.

Hopefully this will add more miss en scene in our music video because right now our artist are only in one place. Although the music video works right nows with Sylvie just at the studio we want to implement the idea that there's also something else going on in the music video. Otherwise, there could be a sense of isolation because the whole music video is in just one place.

Process of Editing - Soundtrack

During editing, we noticed that the music video was not fast enough. Although we had loads of shots and cuts, they still felt quite slow. So we went went back and re-marked the song again but this time we marked it on the 1st, 2nd and 4th beat.

After adding more markers on the song, we were able to cut up the basetracks even more and make the cuts more up beat. Below you can see two screenshots which shows the difference between before we adding in the marers and after.

-Before-

-After-

 

Now that we have more cuts in the bastracks, we can easily remove the bits we do not want. Below is a short section of our music video with fast cuts to go along with the tempo of the song. This is an example of conventions of music video where, Carol Venallis states music videos should consist of fast edits that are cut to the beats of the song.

Editing: Introducing the polaroid idea!

SAY CHEESE!

In order to capture the essence of our pop video (based on disjuncture) my group and I chose to go ahead with this polaroid effect within the music video which will be included in a specific slot time following seven very fast beats (1/8 beat) upon entering a new verse. As the picture displays above, we hope to layer each polaroid one by time on top of each other containing a screen shot of each base track we've used. 

The same effect has been used in popular music videos by which we got some inspiration from.

1.

 

 2.

 

Rough Cut

Rough Cut Feedback - Positives

My Skills Development

Process of Editing : Effects

During editing today, I was trying to cut up the basetrack below and while doing that I noticed that the shot below was very still. Although the framing was good and Sylvie was in the middle, the was no movement to the shot and it didn't not suit the tempo, beat and genre of the song. So I decided to use an effect on the basetrack to draw attention away from the stillness of the shot.

 

 

 

I went into video filters, then distort and then chose 'Ring Lens'.

 

After adding the Ring Lens effect, I had to change the parameters so the ring was now around Sylvie and not in the middle of her body.

 

 

 

Make up & costume for chosen artist

WHAT WILL MY ARTIST BE WEARING? 

 HAIR AND MAKE UP?

Here is a preview of the hair and make up conducted by myself on the filming day at Platform (below)

Editing: Replacing green screen with projector

As it is stated, we won't be using our green screen footage so instead, my group and I have come up with an alternative to use as a replacement. Wanting to achieve the similar effect provided by the green screen, we plan to use a projector to initially be used as an extra base track or two for our final editing process.

Taking videos from YouTube, here are a few initial ideas I hope to use as a backdrop/background for our artist:

LASER LIGHTS:

(Inspired by Jessie J) 

 LONG EXPOSURE CITY LIGHTS:

(Inspired by Usher - Numb)

from 1:36

 

Update on green screen footage!

Already into our first week of editing, looking back at our current footage we came across some bad news. Much to our dissapointment, we won't be using our green screen basetracks in our music video for several reasons...

Even though we have a lot of footage from the filming day at Platform, there is always room for improvement so there is a possibility that we will film again or completely scrap the green screen idea altogether. However, the current footage my group has is looking promising and should work out whatever the outcome may be.

Skills Development

Skills Production on Prezi

General Thoughts Blogging

Process Of Editing 1

Fortunately, we decided to start our editing again. This was fortunate because, instead of marking the beat, we decided to mark to the first word of the song. This meant we could get all our clips matching with the song a lot easier, in turn allowing us more freedom to play with the beat of the song.

Editing Clips

Two small clips of us editing our footage as a group. We were adding our base tracks in, and then having slight trouble matching them with the song. It's something we have over come now, but it was a good learning curve.

Production: Skills development

A brief overview of how you approached planning this production differently to your AS production work.

One major significance between planning in AS and planning in A2 are the storyboards. This time, I ended doing a lot more drawings in the storyboard. Although this was long, it was helpful because it made shooting the music video easier and also editing will be clearer as we will have an idea which bits we wants. I also had to make a shot by shot list which was actually tough because this time I had to be more precise about what shot we wanted and also again I had to do a lot more. I noticed I did roughly 15 shots for just 7/8 seconds of the song

Location planning: A lot more input and thoughts went into where we would film our music video. last year for our thriller, I chose to shoot the opening sequence in just on place. An old abandoned chapel in the middle of a cemetery. This year however, we had six ideas. Our main one, Platform and 5 more which were in central London including London landmarks such as The Gherkin, Pimlico, Canary Wharf, Emirates Airline.

Above is a screenshot of me editing the two clips above. I used the Image frame key to make me smaller and placed my vlog in the corner.

Shooting Day at Platform

26th of October was the scheduled date to shoot the music video. Overall I think it went well and we mangaed to shoot various base tracks. While there, we ended up improvising and shot two extra base tracks which was not previously in our pitch or initial plan.

In order for us to use Platform, we had to pay a fee which was quite expensive since we're students but nevertheless I think it was money well spent. The Studio had a huge space, a nice wall for our background and also lights which we figured out how to use to our liking.

During planning, we had the idea of using two extra performers in the music video with mask and in black so to not take the attention of Sylvie Gray our artist. However, after looking back at the clips, it looks like the material we have with the extra performers was not up to standards.

The spotlights that were avaliable for us ranged from diferent anlges and to difference colours. We decided to use all of them so we have more material to use when editing.

These light switches were really helpful. We were able to change and have the lights how we wanted to. The possibilities were endless. Further on in this blog you will be able to see a clip of a little experiment I did with the lights. 

One thing that was really useful was the lights. While there I came up with the idea to get a close up f the lights and and mess about which created a really nice effect. After reviewing them, I wanted to use it at the beginning of the video where it is just instrumental.

However, I still feel like we should shoot at least two more basetracks behind a black wall. If this is so then we can use the green screen room in college which has a huge black curtain which covers everything. I say this because, I've had time to think about how we are going to edit what we have and I came across an idea of more shots which could possibly work. This is a low angle panning shot going from left to right and then right to left. 

Initial thoughts on filming process

What Makes Good Music Video?

I've been doing a little research on 'what makes a good music video' - and what stands out for me is that it must be 'unique'

Everywhere I looked, there were people on forum's saying they believe a unique music video is a good music video. Therefore, with out doubt, it's obvious that we must incorporate some unique type revelations in our music video. 

We've finished filming at this point, and are on to editing. This means that whilst we've already got a plan on what to edit and how, there must be something we add in to give it that unique effect.

A group member has previously mentioned the idea of poloroid photos cropping up on each beat before a certain chorus (there is seven fast beats, meaning seven fast photos popping up) - I have found a Youtube video which may not be exactly what we're trying to do, but is very similar, and explains how to get photos to appear. 

It's quite a long video, but if you were to skip through bit by bit, you'd easily get the jist of what we're trying to create.

Final Cut Pro Tutorials

I've been watching several Youtube tutorials for various effects on Final Cut Pro. I feel like we could use some of these during the editing of our video to improve the quality and visual elements of our video.

The following tutorial is about making the footage appear more film like to add a professional feel to the final result:



This tutorial is for music video effects in general. It has some useful tips:



This tutorial is about layering videos. I really like this effect and I think it works well:

Progress Review

Using Platform

In order for us to use Platform we had to book it. We received from the company asking us to fill out details. One was Booking the actually place and the other was a technical form to say what sort of lights, sounds and  equipment we would need. Below are a screenshot of the two forms we had to fill out.

Booking form

Technical Form

Polaroid Photo Idea

During planning, I thought about using the idea of using a Polaroid photo style in the music video. At 01:13 of the song, there is a 7 beat drop before the second verse starts. Take a moment to listen to the song below and see for yourself so it makes more sense. 

Using the Polaroid template below, we are going to take screenshots of bit from the actual music video and merge it together on this template. However, on each beat, the Polaroid photo will be different and will overlap. 

Hopefully, the next four photos I have edited using Photoshop Elements will make it clearer for you to understand and visualize this bit of the music video.

Note that this Polaroid idea might only be used once in the music video at 01:13 but if this special effect works effectively then we will use it again. This special effect is an example of Carol Verallis's theory about music videos have special effect and obvious editing to make the artist center of attention.

Editing: Marking the beat

We found the beat of the track and marked it in time so we can edit the footage to the beat of the song.

Editing: Renaming shots

To make our editing easier, we started off by renaming all the tracks we transferred onto the video drive so we can easily refer to them in Final Cut

Music video analysis

The reason why I have chosen to do an analysis of International Love by Pitbull featuring Chris Brown is simply because of editing. I personally think the editing in this music video is very good. The cuts, transitions and effects used were very successful and effective as they corresponded with the lyrics and tempo of the song.

5 elements I like from this music video

1- Personally I think the whole video is a good example of the these cuts, effects and transitions which makes it so easy to pick out examples.  For instance at the very beginning of the video it starts of with a globe and showing different countries. Straight away this connects with the title of the song. 

2- Then from 00:12 seconds to 00:20 we see various shots such as, wide shot, close ups and long shots of the two artist. This is effective because it introduces them straight away and grabs our attention.

3- Then during the chorus of the song, it switches to a green screen. This is something I intend to use in my music video. Already I can see how my music video will look like. 

4- Another element from miss en scene which I really like is the use of lighting. Again, throughout the whole music video different lights is used and this makes the music video more dynamic. 

5- During the second verse which starts at 1:46, the cuts do not last more than 3 seconds. I really want to use the same idea in my music video because of the tempo my track possesses. I also like how during the second verse they integrated the globe again. This adds on more effect to the video.

Applying theories to the video

This music video can easily be applied to Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. There are various shots of the women dancers connoting sexual thoughts and posing in a sexual way to attract the male audience. Below are two screenshot of examples. 

Laura Mulvey would argue that these women are purposely used to give pleasure to men. This is by the way they are dressed and also what they are doing. 

Another theory which can be applied to this music video is "Analysing Media Language in Music Video" by Carol Verallis. She argues that there isn't continuity editing. This is so that the viewer draws their attention to what is on the screen In this case, what is on the screen are the artists which fans draws their attention to. This is a great way to attract the target audience. An additional point by her is that base tracks are used so that the video has a structure. In International Love I counted four base tracks. 

Overall I think this music video is a great example of what music should be like. It includes many elements which make a music video such as lights, costume, different locations and women to attract male viewers. 

Filming Photos

This slideshow contains all of the photos we captured on the second day of filming via Platform. The photos should provide an insight into what took place on the day i.e. lighting and sound. Trying to keep progression of the different base tracks we conducted on camera, there should be enough to showcase the events that took place.

End of the Day

After a long day filming, we sum up our experience:

Lighting Experiment

During our day at Platform, we got more and more used to the lighting system, and how it is used. This is a small clip of it in action. It shows which buttons needed to be moved at which point in the certain base track:

Base Tracks

While at Platform shooting our music video, we came up with an improvised idea for one of our base track. This was useful because now we have more footage to choose from. When we start editing we can use the Marker Key in Final Cut Pro and pick out bits we want. 

Arriving at Platform

Here is a short vlog of our group setting up props, lighting and sound in Platform. We decided to spent roughly an hour out of our 5 hour time slot to do so to keep ourselves with track of time and to be organised!

Vlog: Tripod vs Handheld

Short vlog on our views towards using a tripod, or holding the camera handheld whilst filming - 

Vlog: Reflection On Filming

Emirates Airline

When planning for our location, there was an idea to use the 'Emirates Airline' - we originally thought this was a great idea, and came up with various scenarios in which we could use it.

Personally, when researching this location myself, I came across this video which appealed to me greatly.

 

 

It is a video (in x4 speed) which shows the journey you'd go on when boarding the cable car. One particular idea that popped up was that we could get a long shot of a major London landmark (The Ghurkin) and then make a jump cut to a close shot.

 

In the end, we decided not to use the cable car idea, as it didn't go along with the lyrics in the song. The song has a very upbeat tempo, and the lyrics go a long way to representing a party/fun scene. This meant that the cable car would be a very far jump away from the song and what it meant.

Platform

Platform was the location in which a lot of our music video is filmed.

We payed a fee in order to use it, so wanted to make it the best quality possible.

We were able to film many base tracks whilst there, and are very happy with them.

Personally, I like the overall concept of the video. We kept it similar to the lyrics, which meant very bright scenes, and also involved the person in our video dressing up. We had loads of props which helped us represent the lyrics, which consisted of balloons, masks and many other things.

Platform uses this as their logo: