Music Video Rough Cut Feedback Questions

PART SIXTY EIGHT

We devised some questions to ask an A1 Media class in a focus group:


Open Questions

What was your favourite element of the woods?
Is the narrative clear?
Did you like the pace of the editing, why?
Do you think we used the fairy girl enough?
Did you like the music video?
What did you like about that video as a whole?


Closed Questions

Do you like the costumes
Is it obvious who the lead is
Do you think we have used enough variety of sets (enough of the woods?
Did you get bored?
Do you think the band suited their role?
What was the genre of the video?

Music Video Rough Cut

PART SIXTY SEVEN 

This is our rough cut of the music video, we broadcasted it on a large screen in front of 14 A1 students and gave them a list of questions, open and closed, asking for their feedback.

Behind The Scenes

PART SIXTY SIX

I put together some photos and footage which I had taken on my phone on the day of the video shoot:

Digipak completed design

PART SIXTY FIVE

Since our rough cut edit of the music video, our group have had many discussions concerning the digipak and the style we want to convey. Fran has drawn what we designed and India and I edited the photo for the back cover, while Sasha has made the website. There were a few elements which were essential to incorporate and these included; the monochrome/minimalist theme which matches the indie/rock genre. 

Fran, who designed a majority of the artwork said:

Editing

PART SIXTY FOUR

We shot the music video using two different cameras, the Canon 5d (mostly for the handheld shots in the woods) and the Sony Effect 100 (which we used in the studio and for the nighttime in the woods when filming the tent projections).

This screenshot above from my group's blog explains Abobe Premier Pro software and how it works.

Below is a screenshot of how the software looks:

Digital editing is part of the creative process of digital filmmaking. The term editing is derived from the traditional process of working with film, but now it increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The digital video editor works with raw footage, selecting shots and combining them into sequences to create a finished music video promo.

The intended outcome of the process was to create a music video which made sense, making the meaning or intention of it apparent to the viewer. We also wanted to keep the indie-rock genre a main theme of the band in order to fit the style of the song. Having three different elements, the performance in the studio with projections, the band in the woods and the fairy girl, we needed to make sure that each element fitted in with one another.

Once the footage had been transferred from the digital camera, we considered the reviewing and selecting of shots. We decided to watch all the shots through because we had not seen how the shots in the woods had turned out as, when we were filming, it began to get darker so we needed to be sure that we could still use these shots from the woods.

After reviewing shots, we labeled them with different names, for example, the type of shot and the person/object that was being filmed, e.g. 'Singer Mid - Studio'. This helped us to select shots to put in the cut more quickly because we did not have to double click on the shot to review it and see what it was, we just had to look at the shot name and knew immediately whether of not we would use it. 


We decided, using the method of labelling, to group the shots of each band member in twos or threes, for example, if we used a close up shot of the bassist - Charlie's right hand playing, we would follow it using a shot of his left hand plucking the bass then a long/mid shot of him playing to make it clear to the audience that he is playing that specific instrument. This structure of grouping in threes makes it quicker and more efficient to edit.

We immediately rejected a group of shots in the woods which we filmed when the light was fading at about 4:00pm and the visibility was low so, even with post-production editing, the shots were too dark and out of focus to fix.

We used a timeline to keep track of the where we were in the song. It also enabled us to sync the shots to the song by matching up the timing on the clapper board with the seconds on the timeline. It was easier to order the shots.

We placed the music track onto the timeline first so that we could fit the shots in to match the beat of the music. Also we needed to sync the shots with the track before we started to edit.






First, because it was our main element, we synced the studio projections to the track so that we had our main element down. Once we had done that, we selected elements from the woods, our second element, and began to rename the shots. We re-named all of the clips so we did not have to preview the clip to see what it was but we could just look at the name and know straight away. This sped up the process of editing greatly. 












We would usually group the shots in twos or threes so that if we had a shot of the guitarist's fingers, we could then cut to his face, showing who was playing. We found that the video flowed better if we used three similar shots one after another, eg. a close-up, mid-shot and long-shot of the same person/object.
The framing and shot composition definitely influenced whether the shot was used or not because we could compare the variety of similar shots we had taken to decide which one looked the best.




We used typical indie-rock conventions we used in our music video editing to stick with the genre of the song. This included close-ups of the boy's outfits, the use of extreme close-ups on their facial expressions and the shot composition in which we included shots of each individual band member the same amount of times. This showed that all of our band members were as important as each other, reflecting back to the indie-rock genre where it is about the music the band have created together, rather than the lead-singer's star image.

On personal lyrics of the song like 'my mind', we tended to use close up shots of the lead singer, Ashen, in order to show that it's his point of view and that the words mean a lot to him. Reinforcing the indie-rock theme of the meaning behind the music and lyrics being more important than the star image.




We cropped a shot of the drummer to focus on his drum sticks. This was needed because, for all the other band members, we had at least three shots, a close-up of the instrument they played, a shot of their face, and a long/mid-shot of them as a whole. Unfortunately, we ran short on time and only managed to get two mid-shots of the drummer. For places where the drums were key, we cropped the shot to his drum kit and sticks, showing what he was playing. Although being slightly less focused due to being cropped, with the projections over the top, the cropped shot managed to turn out fine. We only used it for a split second so hopefully the shot won't be noticed or scrutinised too much.





We used markers throughout the song to mark the beat and then we dragged the different shots to start where the beat started so that the cutting was fluent and on time.

While editing, we could review the footage on the top left hand side of the screen so we could find similar shots of what we were looking for more easily.
As the song progressed, we cut between shots quicker, decreasing the shot duration. We preferred this style of the decreasing shot duration mirroring the quickening pace of the song.

Shoot Day Evaluation

PART SIXTY THREE

Evaluation of the shoot day:

Our shoot took place on a Monday, which meant that we had the whole weekend to arrange our props and costumes. It also meant that we had to set up the studio on Friday afternoon ready for the shoot on Monday. However, another group overran their shoot time so we had to build our studio set on Monday morning anyway, delaying the shoot process a few hours.

On the day of the shoot, when I woke up, I felt wary about whether everyone would approve of my input during the day because, being director, I would have to decide the arrangement and positions of the band and set based on my vision of what I wanted to shot to look like. This was quite a lot of pressure.

Even though we did not have the opportunity to build the set on Friday, I still felt confident and prepared because during the time the set was being built, I reckoned we could use this time efficiently to get on with the hair, make-up and costumes of the actors. The costumes took longer than initially thought however, as we had a vision of what the band should look like, making us very specific with regards to; if they looked too similar to each other, if they looked too mainstream and if they looked too young or old. 
Sasha did the make-up of the band because it is something she is passionate about and she had already prepared how she wanted their make-up to be done over the weekend.

When the first set was done, it was simple and exactly how we had planned. The floor was black and black curtains covered the walls. I placed the band, with their instruments, in a diamond shape, however with Ashen, the lead singer, standing slightly off-shape to the right so that the drummer Jonty was in shot of the camera. 

The second set was completely white. We created this using an infinity sheet covering the walls to the floor. The band stood in the same positions as before, so that we could cut between white and black backgrounds easily in post-production editing. 

On the white background, we had two different projections over the top of the band. One of the fairy girl slow motion dancing, which we had filmed the week before and edited on the Friday. The other projection was of the city of London which Fran had filmed the previous Monday and I had edited on the Friday before. 

Our sets were very simplistic and therefore easy to interchange. The majority of our studio concept was portrayed through costume and make up, so it did not matter that our set was very basic.

 As a group, we had assigned ourselves individual roles prior to the shoot so we were aware which element of the shoot we would each be specialising in. I was the director, in charge of the positioning and look of the band from behind the camera, e.g. facial expressions, posture, hand gestures. Fran was the art director, controlling the aesthetics in the studio. Sasha was the hair an make-up artist, as well as sorting out the costumes of the band. I helped with he styling of the lead singer however because I had blogged a lot prior to the shoot about the vision I had for his look, and Sasha had agreed that she liked this vision. India was the cameraman, controlling the functions of the camera, e.g. zoom, focus, panning etc. 

I feel like I stuck to my role and I communicated well with India about how the action in front of the camera looked on the screen. If she told me that someone wasn't in shot, I would move them until they could be seen effectively. When we went into the woods, Sasha had already set up the tents and props because she had said prior to the shoot that, while Fran was artistic director, she would be the co-artist director in the woods as her job of hair and make-up was done already.

I think that the actors really got into their characters, with a bit of help from my group as we tried to jump around to the music behind camera to influence the bands energy levels. It worked though and Ashen, the lead singer d a really good energy for the band. In the woods especially, when I was shouting instructions at the boys they were being co-operative and listening to my directions, which was a huge success.



On the shoot day, we were presented with a few problems. Firstly, our guitarist Rory Browne didn't turn up so we needed to find another actor. Luckily, as we already knew he was not very reliable, on the weekend, we had been emailing each other deciding on a back up actor in case this problem emerged. We had already emailed Charlie before to ask him if he would be available for the shoot date in case we needed to use him in an emergency, so using Charlie was our solution. Charlie was keen to participate and he looked better for his part than Rory did, which worked out much better.

Additionally, we have problems involving the weather. Our time in the woods was limited because it was due to rain and we had to film all our shots before it poured down so tat the equipment didn't get damaged. The weather forecast stated it would be cloudy with a temperature of around 10degrees, however, the evening became very cold and we had to find more layers to keep our cast warm while they were waiting to shoot. The later it got, the more it started to rain and by the time of 6pm, we were unable to continue shooting. However, because we had organised and planned the specific shots we wanted before we went to the woods, we managed to get a majority of the shots we intended to.

The most successful part of the shoot was the style of the band, costumes, make up, hair etc. They really looked like the indie vision we wanted. This was well organised because we had each chosen a band member to do some research into their style. I had chosen the leas singer, finding him a fur jacket, a buttoned down shirt and he provided the black skinny jeans. I also think the projections in the studio worked really well, especially the London projection footage. Because it was light and the editing pace was fast, it really reflected on the band's cool and indie image, making the music video a bit edgy.
The shoot in the woods was predominantly successful because the camera was always rolling and there was never a lack of ideas coming from our group.




I think in the studio, my input as a director was not listened to all the time and it would have been nice for my directions to be taken a bit more seriously by my group and the band (the production team). Saying that however, I chose to get a shot of the fairy girl projected onto Ashen's white T-shirt which everyone told me would not work but when they had focused the camera, zoomed to the right level and changed the size of the image, the shot quickly became everyone's favourite studio shot.

Despite one of our actors not turning up, we got on with the rest of them really well and there were no arguments or disputes on the shoot day. They got on really well with each other, helping the band dynamic to develop and creating the on screen image of a band who have been friends for years.

PART SIXTY TWO

On Monday afternoon, we filmed our fairy, Charlotte, in the studio. We needed to shoot this footage in order to use it as a projection onto the band and onto the tents in the woods.

Sasha went to the costumes department earlier in the day to get the dress for her and the glitter for her make up. 

We used a floaty dress which was slightly see-through because we wanted to be able to see the outline of her figure so that her look would be elegant and etherial when she performed ballet.

Another reason we needed the dress to be light and floaty was because we decided to shoot all of the footage of her in slow motion because her elegant and graceful nature would juxtapose the band's messiness and rebellious nature when we projected her onto them.

We shot her in front of a black background because when we projected her onto the boys, their background will also be black so we will only be able to see the fairy's figure not the backdrop. 

Initially, we wanted to use glitter which the fairy could blow and which we could sprinkle in front of the camera, however, we tried this idea and the glitter was not very visible on camera and difficult to focus on as it was constantly moving. 

Similarly, with the bubbles, the liquid was weak and occasionally we blew a bubble but we only managed to get two in the shot in front of Charlotte's face in total. Although we did still decide to use these bubble shots in the final edit for the projections.

For the slow motion shots, the girl's costume was a complete success, the fabric moved elegantly in the shot and looked detailed. Overall, I am satisfied with the shots we did get.