Filming Log - 17/11

We finished our final shoot today by filming within the drama studio, effectively using laser lights and noise controlled disco lights. These were borrowed by myself from a peer. We initially booked the drama studio because you can create complete darkness which is prime for the sort of lighting we were using. We set up all equipment ourselves and finished setting up, filming and setting down within an hour.



 E-mails requesting permission to shoot with borrowed equipment in our chosen workspace

We will now include this footage by superimposing the clips with other shots featured in the video already. We will ensure not to overuse it, but we think it is vital at a certain point of the song to include the lights.

Georgia testing the lighting prior to shoot

Test Shots

We could probably use this contrasting psychedelic-esque image for an inside cover, representing the 'green' that the artist sings of; as well as portraying our knowledge of shutter speed use through our work.

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Test Album Shot

A close up of the artist is essential for an album shot. Even though there is a distinct patterns and colour in this picture, the subject of the image is still obvious because of the type of shot it is and due to the use of the rule of thirds too.

2nd Draft - 13/11

Today we managed to finish the second draft of our music video. This is excellent news as we are completely up to date with our work and it gives us time to comfortably shoot and edit more footage optionally before Christmas. After this shoot we will be completely done with all planned shots that were originally chosen. Here is the 2nd draft which was submitted early because we have managed our time perfectly.

Cover/Advertisement Post - 13/11

Marc has taken most of the control over CD covers/album advertisements. He has the most knowledge and experience with programmes such as Photoshop. We have developed ideas as a group, using influential work from our Revised CD/Album Cover Ideas. However, Marc has created an artistic, personal adjustments and modifications on all pieces of work within the ancillary task, consequently resulting with unique and original CD covers.

Our ancillary projects included creating an advertisement and CD covers for our music video. For our CD covers we had to design 6 different covers. Marc began by creating two of the inside sleeves.

Inside Sleeve

We used a shot from Boxhill and then layered the images back on each other. This created an aesthetic compliment that we thought would suit our CD cover concept. Marc then added a colour overlay over it, so the image was darker.

Inside Sleeve

For this cover we took a picture of myself standing infront of a tree. We then took a picture of just grass and then cropped me out from the original picture and underlayed the picture of grass so that it would take my shape.


For our final CD covers, we may:

• Use a different background for the grass underlay 
• Re-adjust the width and depth of each overlay of the tree shot.

Editing Post - 10/11

Today I managed to clean up all minor mistakes that were featured within our first draft. This was very precise editing and it tested my editing skills more than having to determine new ideas or planning. This ensures that we can see a journey through the process of production. Within the first section of our video there were some shots that were especially long. As a result, I have cut them up with other performance shots so that everything runs smoothly. I had to do the same with black sections of the video too. There was some footage we shot using the green screen that didn't look great in the first draft, as well as some shots that weren't even used. We mixed them up a little bit and changed the length of some of the shots, resulting in the video looking a lot better aesthetically throughout specific points of the video. Whilst looking back at our original storyboard, we realised that there was no use of laser/disco lights either as originally planned. This may mean that we will have to do our first re-shoot next week. On the other hand, other shots that show hands connecting and reaching out have now been featured too. Finishing touches of fading images and stylistic blackouts have also been perfected. Below is a clip of a section of our video we are especially proud of due to a variety of minor improvements.

Superimposed fade at the end, tidy green screen shots, ripple effect using crop & opacity

1st Draft

Here's a copy of our first draft:

Looking in hindsight, there were quite a few adjustments that needed to be made to maintain a consistent through throughout our video. Self-assessed and peer-assessed improvements included:

• Long shots

• Black bits

• First few shots

• Lip sync not in time 

• Unused shots

• Shots durations too quick (cutaway)

• No use of lights Bad shots of green screen

• No blackout in the correct spot

• Milliseconds of blackness at around 2:04

• No use of fade at 2:48

Peer Assessment - 1st Draft

Today we have evaluated each others work and displayed our first drafts to the class. It was a great success and our group received some really useful feedback which was beneficial to us. Each peer marked us using the actual criteria, so all tips and advice were relevant. Below are tables depicting the average strengths and weaknesses, trends, scores and grades delivered to us as a whole within our feedback.

Exemplar Peer Assessments

Editing Post - 3/12

Throughout our lessons this week we finally finished our first draft of our video. There were a lot of final touches that we needed to do in order to submit our work. To do so, we had to non-stop work on the footage and cutting for 2 solid hours in lesson, followed by a couple after school too. This included:

• Superimposing the same footage within Central London. We then stretched one layer very lightly using the crop tool, and then adjusting the opacity of both images to create a blurry, psychedelic effect.
• Ensuring that shots were precisely on the beat as a brief few weren't perfect.
• Reinstating the idea that our piece stays strong throughout, with a variety of techniques being used throughout.
  

Whilst reviewing our initial storyboard, we can see that there has been a certain change of plan, but we have stuck to many of our ideas. The storyboard has been extremely useful, as we have never felt stuck or like we have ran out of ideas. Due to the vast amount of great footage from each shoot, we currently feel like we don't have to film any other planned shots. There is a clear motif and concept shown throughout which we are very proud of.

             A preview of our first draft will soon be uploaded.

Editing Post - 29/11

Today I completely focussed again on editing, as our first draft is due in for next Tuesday. I have started to edit the London footage, which is a lot more difficult than the first section, as it features a lot of editing techniques. This includes a lot of opacity adjustments, drastic speed adjustments to specific clips, and cutting to the beat. I am especially proud of a complex section where I cut from 2 shots in London and the cabin. This section is very fast and it meant that I had to listen to each specific snare hit to make it look perfect. This was a lengthy procedure, but the outcome is brilliant. I didn't manage to do all that I had planned to in lesson, so I stayed after school for a couple of hours to finish it off. Whilst I was doing this, Georgia contributed by starting the post-production process of the green screen footage, and Marc started off our album advertisement brilliantly on Photoshop. Our album cover is initially influenced from album art used by The Internet & Tame Impala. Below is a short clip showing some of the editing techniques that I used today.

  This is how the footage looked on the timeline with Premier Pro

Editing Post - 26/11

Today I successfully managed to assemble the first minute of our video within the timeline in our project on Premiere Pro. Some of our shoots have come out perfectly, with a great crisp quality to them. On the other hand, a few of our shots have been a bit shaky or out of focus. This was especially frustrating when one of our main performance shots were out of focus in Box Hill. Fortunately, we took a number of shots twice to ensure we can work around this. We have been lucky enough to not have to go and re-shoot yet like some of the other groups. We have stuck to our planning section and everything is currently up to date and on time. We have included a variety of long shots and close up cutaways taken in Box Hill, as there was a lot of naturalistic beauty to film when we were out there. There will be a visual change of location shots within the video. There will be a switch from nature shots to shots within the cabin, followed by rooftop and Box Hill shots, and then finally the London shots, with a montage fusion at the end which includes numerous locations. Below lies a low quality extract from the current first section of our video.

Editing Log Post - 22/11

Today we started the long process of editing our video. We concluded that there was already a lot of footage that needed to be arranged before even considering to shoot anymore. This was not foreseen, as  we originally planned to include a small amount of other shots within our storyboard. Although we did not completely stick to it, there was a vast amount of shots we took that were not planned and came out exceptionally well.

The software we are using is the latest version of Adobe Premier Pro CS6. This was new software to all members of our group, as we were all familiar with using Final Cut Express last year. I personally prefer Premiere Pro a lot more, as is it is quicker, more user-friendly and you do not have to render each time you want to preview your work.

The first step in our post-production process was to gather all performance shots of me lip-syncing either certain parts of the track or when I perform the entire song. We then assembled then to be perfectly in time with the song. This was a lengthy procedure as you had to trim, cut and place each clip  to the precise millisecond at where it needed to be. It was difficult to manoeuvre at first, but after about two hours and our computer crashing midway, the task had been done.