Finished Today :)

Well after recording about 40 minutes or footage half of which we deemed unsuitable for editing mostly because the lighting was bad or we had our stuff in the shot we finally finished our music video which actually looks like a music video because last year my thriller film looked more like a swede than an actual thriller. So in two years of studying media i can finally say that i contributed to creating something i can show others.

Now I have to update my blogs because with all the re-filming and editing in workshops I have fallen a bit behind only now I guess I have to go to my physics workshops and do work there.

Now i wait for the 10th of December and see all of the videos that are much better than the one I helped make.

Rough Cut vs Final Cut

The improvements between our rough cut and our final version are vast. We are very proud of our final product as we have a lot more shots that we used in the final product. The rough cut would have been a lot better if somebody hadn't played with the settings on our camera before hand, forcing us to re shoot. But it may have been a blessing in disguise because when we went out to reshoot being under pressure forced us to get the most out of those sessions

Plans For Next Week

We are planning to book the studio to take some photos for our cd cover we will be posting our pictures when they are taken. For now we have to decide on the outfit choices and the styling, looking at the different types of shots that we will be using

Finally Finished

After a long and arduous 2 weeks of editing and re - shooting we have finally finished editing and now we are ready to start looking at ancillary products

Vlogging! Finally Finished

Final Video!

09. Giselle, Javayl, Ashley from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Congratulations to us for our hard work on our video. We've finally done it and we are so proud :') We hope you enjoy it!

Skills Development

Planning this project has been very different to last years planning our thriller opening. Although some of the things have been similar. We had to make a storyboard, we also made a practice video in the run up to the start of our coursework. Last year it was a swede but this year it was a music video to help us get used to using base tracks and to the change in the way that we edit our footage. Last year we had to make a preliminary to show that we understood the important rules of filming and the 360 degree rule but that wasn't needed this year. So there are some elements that are similar but overall the planning is different from last year

Vlogging from Our 2nd Location!

Editing our new shots

Today was our first editing session since we went back out to re - shoot and we are finally making some progress although we had a small setback when ashley accidentally used the clips on then card rather than transferring them to the video drive so all of the clips had to be reconnected, and also he cut up the clips but didn't use all of the ones that we wanted so we wasted quite alot of time but we are finally making some progress and i think we will be finished by the deadline.

Editing (needs screen shots)

We have started editing today and so far have synced all our clips to the music. Also we cut the clips to the beat of the song.

I accidentally however imported some of our clips from the memory card because of this we had to reconnect some of our clips to the video drive.

I needed to cut the clips like we did in the rough cut however we need the day shots and the night shots separate, with the night shots being shown at the end.

To do this we needed add marks to the clips on the beat so that we can cut the clips apart and by deleting them separately we get the effect of the music cutting to the beat.

We also had to make sure that we had all of the clips to match the lyrics but we had some problems with the artist missing out words in every clips

Filming Reshoot

On the 21/11/13 and the 22/11/13 we went back out to shoot some more shots for our music video as some of our shots were too dark to use.

On the 21st we shot at south bank again we decided that walking along the path was not a good idea due to the song being so long and walking for 4 minutes as a base track wasn't exactly working. We went for the more stationary approach with the camera moving around instead of Valentina.

We made sure to use the Dedo light for all our recordings this time it made a huge difference as now all our might clips have the same type of lighting and doesn't make any other clip look exceptionally dark.

At south bank we recorded shots of her standing on a raised curb instead of sitting on one like the rough cut we did this because we thought that a singer rocking the life wold not be sitting on a curb instead of standing on it.

We also took shots of her walking away from the camera not signing as well as dancing to have to use in the beginning of the song as well as during it so it isn't Valentina singing all the way through.

On the 22nd we walked along the thames until we came across a pier it was decided that we should record there as a location i was some what against as I felt uncomfortable recording on a bridge let alone a pier I was convinced that it would go fine and we started recording and during this a man nearly fell in the themes.

However it turns out that Valentina didn't like the intro of the song as we basically have no parts to open the music video also turns out that she missed two words in every shot that we did even during the reshoot so we almost had no clips for that

Editing

Just some more screenshots of us editing, this time I am showing the marker process, they are all aligned and with the beat of the music, after we have done this to all the footage we cut away at the bits we don't need.

Editing

We are currently editing the footage together, we have just gotten past the stage of putting most of the clips together rendering them. The steps to getting all the clips in sync with each other is simple after we remembered how to do it from the previous year. We mark all the clips at the first word 'My' so they all line up with the aiff file of the proper track. Now all we have to do is mark the clips at the beat, and delete the bits we don't need. Sounds simple right?

Update: Reshoot!

We reshot in Southbank, by a grassy area on Thursday afternoon, it was already dark as we got there at around 4:30, so the sun was setting and we didn't have much time to film in daylight. However we had our trusty Dedo lights to back us up during the night, even though they only have 15 minutes battery life! We got better lighted footage to complete our 2nd location. I think the second time round we knew what we had to do to make the footage effective. It was extremely cold by that time but I had to firm it to make it a believable performance.

Friday morning we went out to film the 3rd location again, as the only proper daytime footage we had was at Point hill, as wasn't enough for a whole music video to be made out of. In stead of going onto the bridge where we formerly filmed during the night, we decided to walk up Southbank and filmed on a pier, which overlooked the Thames and looked effective. We liked this location but there was a huge amount of wind blowing, and again, I was freezing!

Update: 25/11/2013

The final deadline is due this Friday. This means that as we had to refilm we are going to have to fit in a lot more editing in our own time. This means going to workshops and staying in our free periods to get the editing for our video done by friday.

Reflection On Progress

I think from the start of the process to now i would give myself a 14/20 for my blogging. I have found it very arduous keeping up with blogging as my workload has become very hectic. Paired with dealing with UCAS applications, blogging has been impossible. I feel that now i have more time on my hands, i will be able to blog much more frequently and mix up the different range of blogs that i do. I will try to mix up the types of blogs that I do and i hope that by the next time i post a reflection blog i will be up to date.

UPDATE

While filming I accidentally forgot to press record so we lost one of our shots and the time with the lights . Sorry guys

Rap Music Video Conventions

Rappers tend to have the camera focus on them through out the music video.

The artist will try to position them selves to show them in a dominating position, usually low angle shots. The videos are very narrative and the artist will gesture what he is rapping about at each part of the song.


The editing is fast paced to match the speed of the lyrics in rap videos. Most of the video the rapper will not actually be rapping and will be lip-syncing due to the amount of narrative in the video, it would be difficult to rap whist doing some of the actions shown.

This Jay Z video show all of the conventions for a rap video, except maybe guns it shows girls with barely anything being worn and showing the artist wealth.

Filming shots

Re-Shoot

We will be going out to film today in our lesson as we need to get some more footage, some more close ups and some shots that are brighter than the others.

This was one of the shots that was too dark

Rough Cut Review

Our final deadline for our rough cut was today!!! After all our hard work and effort and sweat and blood and tears we put into shooting this music video we finally have it done!

J - Rough cut is a bit shoddy, hopefully after we go back out to reshoot we have a lot more shots that we can use. NOTE we need a lot more close ups and shots that are light. we also need to make sure that we use the dedo lights for all of the shots as it geyts dark pretty early.

BUT WAIT!! A PROBLEM?!

Yeah... Unfortunately for us, the clips we filmed in Southbank on both locations (2 & 3) were epically ruined by the lack of sunlight. So once again we're on the hunt to try and get some decent footage to put in our actual music video. 

However, we did try and put all the good clips we had together to make a really really rough rough cut, and I must say it turned out better than expected. It obviously could've been way better if we realised that the footage was going to come out so dark. But we prospered. I enjoyed watching it, as we conformed to rules when it came to basetrack editing(editing to the beat).

Now... For that reshooting...

Problems with our shots

The problems with our shots is that it is too dark.

While editing we realised that in the editing suite the shots were darker than we saw visually outside, we realised that the cameras do not detect light as well as our eyes.
 These shots are way too dark to use we need to use the Dedo light to record all of our shots as the contrast between the ones that use it and the ones that don't is huge and makes the top light shots look bad.

Also it turns out that our camera had different settings from the first time we filmed and because of that it was filmed at a different frame.
We need to change theses clips one by one which meant that all our clips couldn't be used for our rough cut.

Due to this we have to go back out and record all the shots with the dedo lights so when we edit it together the shots don't go dark then back to a light shot when watched.

Final Cut Pro

Having used Final Cut Pro for AS year has proved so helpful, honestly, most of the things we're doing now have some sort of relevance to what we did for our thriller opening, besides the marking and slow motion. We also had those three weeks for the A2 taster course that prepared us on how to use these new features we are using currently.

Rough Cut

We didn't have all our clips for our rough cut as the camera settings was changed before we did our shots for our second and third location..

The files highlighted in yellow or green.

Because of this we had to use a lot of the night shots in conjunction with the day time shots which makes it look confusing.

Location 2 & 3!

As a group we sat down and thought about our last 2 locations, we believe that the locations at Southbank are very dark, especially for the night shots.

We wanted to keep within the Southbank area, but possibly somewhere that is more lit up, with the help of the Dedo lights I think we will get the perfect lighting, and will create the mood that we want to portray in our music video through the lyrics - wealth and positive, happy vibes.

Costume Change?

So since we are going to refilm, I have some time to think about a different costume change, as we are not using any of the shots from Southbank because they are too dark, I want to change one of my costumes as I think it doesn't suit the video much. I want to change my third outfit because on camera it looked a bit 'messy' should I say. I have spoken to my group and they said it is fine for the costume change!

Tips for My Performance

Today I got some feedback from my performance whilst my group were editing..

I was told I looked nervous when I looked away but my head was still facing the camera and I totally agree. Not blaming anyone here but I think I need a little more direction from my group members, as well as being able to be confident enough to make and keep my eye contact with the camera, since this is an image based video. 

Also I have to take the initiative and plan ahead what gestures i'm going to do that will suit the lyrics so it doesn't look somewhat awkward. I need to make sure i feel comfortable with what i'm doing so my performance comes across as believable.

Plan for Reshoot

Our plans for this reshooting:

We will go out and film on Thursday afternoon as we have a lesson, we will use this time, from about 4pm onwards. By 4pm it will be pretty dark already, therefore we will mainly have dark footage, this time we will make sure the Dedo light is used throughout. The first time we filmed in Southbank we used the top light for the camera because we wanted a tracking shot on the bridge to give the video more movement, we also thought it would give us a bit more variety of shots instead of the usual mid shots, close shots etc. As our chosen is upbeat the tracking can  emphasise this. The toplight proved insufficient, so this time round we will be using the Dedo light with the handle to make sure the lighting is accurate.

We will take the camera equipment overnight and also do filming as we don't have college on Friday due to One to Ones with our tutors (yay) so we can meet up earlier to get some more daytime footage in the lovely streets of Southbank.

Update: The Reshooting

Unfortunately, some of our Southbank footage was very dark, of course, our eyes and the camera so slightly different things, and possibly didn't take that into account. However, we will not be disheartened, we still have time to film and get all the dark shots sorted out in time for the Music Video deadline which is the 29th of November. We just have to make sure we stay dedicated and come to workshops to catch up. Since we have a lot of missing shots, we are just putting our rough cut into practise, trying to get the most footage that we liked into order, so when we come back with our new footage from Southbank, it will be easier for us to place it into places we think it fits.

Camera Gone Wrong

So we got in this morning to find that someone has been fiddling with the camera we were using! They have manually changed the settings on the camera so when we started adding the clips into final cut, we were confused as to why the clips from Southbank bridge had been stretched out. Of course, or media technician (Mickey) came to the rescue, thanks Mickey! But it did put us slightly behind.

Reshooting

 During our editing our top light didn't give enough light when the Dedo light when out because of this we have to refilm some of our clips.

We have decided to focus on doing the same shot multiple times from different angles so that when we cut it looks like we are recording from multiple cameras.

we decided that we need more close ups and only use the Dedo light as if we use different lights the shots with the top light looks even darker than it is.

We need to reshoot shots like:

• Walking down south bank with the sped up song close up.
• Walking down south bank with the sped up song medium shot.
• Walking down south bank with the sped up song side shot tracking.

• Standing on the bridge close up.
• Standing on the bridge medium shot.
• Standing on the bridge tracking.

Editing

Today is the rough cut deadline and we are editing in our three hour lesson

Costume

This is Giselles third costume choice

3rd Location For Filming

This was our third location and we were filming at around 6 o'clock

Filming 3rd Location!

So this time we have decided to head to Southbank again!

But a very specific part.. Which was a bridge just 5 minutes away overlooking the London Eye and houses of parliament. We didn't actually realise how quick and how dark it was getting, so we really only had a short while to film as by the time we had gotten there it was already pitch black! We do use a timelapse in our video so of course, night time scenes were essential. But what we had problems with was our own lighting- we first tried the attachable light on the camera, safe to say it didn't work out as well as we had wanted to.. Reviewing our videos we realised that it was simply too dark, as we were also using a tracking shot, it was very hard to stay in a line with the focused spot of light. However we did have the Dedo light, but even so it would run out of battery very quick and as it has to be put on a stand, it wasn't very convenient for shots the artist had to walk around in. We did get shots we could use and that are still clear, but we may have to shorten the clips in order for it to look smooth! 

This is the outfit for the last video shoot!

Overall Personal Review from Filming

So we have now finished filming at all our locations, day & night. This lesson we have spent it looking at all our shots, deciding which ones are the best and which ones we may need to get rid of or re shoot..

The good part is that we were smart in getting lots of different angled shots at each location so we have a range of shots to finalise!

This lesson we are trying to put the music into sync with the videos we filmed which is turning out to be difficult as some parts are slightly faster.

My favourite shots were from Point Hill, as the scenery makes the scene look so much more interesting.

Things that could've gone better were possibly the shots we did at night in Southbank, unfortunately the ones we filmed with the top light are not strong in the visuals as the scenery is barely visible, but we did take some shots with the Dedo lights that could work well, as they focus on the artist very well.

I think overall we did a very good job getting everything filmed in time, and we also have contingency time in case there's anything we might want to redo due to lighting.

Rita Ora Album Sales

Rita Ora is a relatively new artist, that has made it big within only a matter of years, she is signed to Jay-Z's label Roc Nation, which is an American record label, however she is a British artist with Albanian decent.

Ora debuted at number one on the UK Album chart, with first-week sales of 41,509 copies. Throughout 2012 the album sold 242,500 copies, becoming the thirty-fifth best selling album of the year.

In 2007, Ora had her first music release when she appeared on Craig David's track titled "Awkward" and then again in 2008 on "Where's Your Love" featuring Tinchy Stryder, for which she also appeared in the music video.^[7] Ora began singing in bars in and around London.

Within that album two singles were released 'How We Do(party)' and 'R.I.P' which both hit Number 1 on the UK hit charts.

We chose Rita Ora because she was in the genre that we wanted for our music video, being an R'n'B/Pop artist we were told that to replicate, or to produce a music video that would fit the song would be hard as the conventions of an R'n'B music video rely on materialistic things throughout such as cars, money and expensive clothing. Therefore we chose the song we thought had a more of an urban/rock feel rather than a very upbeat Pop song. This way we could chose locations that could be shown in this type of music video.

Slow Motion

This music video 'HAVOC' by While You Slept was shot at a 300fps throughout the whole video, they producers managed to shoot the whole music video in one shot within 18 seconds, then slowed it down to produce this very dramatic, dance filled music video.

However, this video doesn't have lip syncing, therefore would be easier to do in one take as it is solemnely based on the motion of the dancers.

Pictures From Friday 10th Nov

On arrival at Southbank we decided that it would look good it we could take shots with the London eye in the background instead of shooting at the river, also along the bank was pack and they were building hits along there.

This is the road we were recording Valentina walk along while singing the song, it took a couple tries as the song is 4 minutes long and we were running out of road.

Valentia taking a small break then taking about half an hour applying make up.

Shots of the buildings in the area. There was also a park nearby and the river was really close to the location

BLOOPERS

UPDATE

So we all got together at Waterloo Station too record.

We were going to head to South bank to record our shots for the day time scene when it started to rain. So we stood there for about an hour hoping that the rain would stop, then we realised that we live in England and decided to head back to college and rebook to record on Friday and Monday this week.

Sadly we checked the forecast a few days ago and it wasn't accurate. On Friday the weather looks more promising.

Weather conditions!

So as we didn't film during the half term due to rain issues, we decided to film today. Unfortunately the weather is not in our favour today either! Nevertheless we will continue to film. We decided that the rain might give the audience a more realistic feel of London!  It is essential that we get all our filming done whether the weather is permitting or not because we are running out of time and we don't want to cut into our editing time.

Song Speeds

I created the post to be able to use a sped up version of our song.

I put all the different song speeds i have made to use when recording.
We downloaded the songs from the blog at the location.

30% speed

40% speed 
 
50% speed

Valentina checking her phone for the song,

Yeah so about that internet

On Monday The storm managed to do damage to the cabinet that handles the internet.

These things basically.

So without it I had to go outside. No not really i spent most of my time drawing manga which i would post if I didn't mind being judged. In testing to see if this post will actually work.
I'm going to go record tomorrow morning and hopefully all goes well.

And Cats.

Plan change

So we were supposed to film the Monday the 28th, however the night before there were so many warnings about a big storm that was coming, therefore we decided to take our equipment with us in case it didn't happen… However, we realised that it would be raining through the majority of our filming so we didn't want to risk it. What we will do is the following Monday the 4th, take our equipment and film throughout Tuesday morning-which is our lesson time- which means we will have 3 hours to get more filming done in our second location which is Southbank!

Inspiration for Location

Left Outside Alone- Anastacia gave me inspiration for the idea of height and power. Of course, being in a high position or at a high angle shows dominance and the lyrics to Roc The Life portray her as having fun whilst being able to keep on top, allowing the audience to thrive and feel that determination to be on top!

She is standing on what looks like a bridge, with cars going under her giving also a really nice lighting from behind, the glow filter they have put on it also gives the sense of power and wealth.

First filming session

We had our first filming session in our first location which was Point Hill!
Luckily for us it was a nice day, we had good weather and the atmosphere was clear, therefore our filming was clear and consistent to. As it does get dark pretty quickly we made sure that we got lots of different base tracks so when we come to put it all together we will have many different angles and shots to choose from.

Being the 'star' put me in a uncomfortable position at first, but once I started I got into the feeling of being in a music video, which turned out to be fun! This is the costume I wore:

 We chose this because it looked casual, so our audience could relate, yet I wore quite bold jewellery as it will be our form of synergy. 

 Just a random shot whilst we were filming. Showing Ashley use the figrig whilst we filmed on top of Point Hill, which has an incredible view!

Reflection on Progress

During this time we have been looking into depth for our music video, therefore we have analysed and planned very carefully in order to get a good quality. We've done this by analysing various different music videos within the genre, and also some of the original artists videos to get the overall feel of what she tries to convey to the audience.

I believe that I have achieved the targets I set myself on the last Reflection of Progress blog I did, I have used many different methods of ICT to keep my blog exciting, however I understand that I must always keep updating my blog so I can keep track of what I have been doing and reflect back on it when I need to.

So my new targets are

• Keep updating regularly
• Always go beyond the blogging checklist and research more.

Detailed Risk Assesment

There are many different risks that could occur in the areas that we have chosen to film

Camera might fall into the water
Equipment might get stolen
As we are filming at night it may be very cold for giselle as she has to wear thin clothing