Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have created a small animation containing some of the comments I got from my audience, you can view this by clicking on the embedded presentation below

I felt that from the comments that I had received my music video was rather successful along with my digipak and magazine advert, The comments I received gave the impression that people liked it, but I also received some constructive criticism that I agree with. I agree that I could have focused more time on looking for fonts and experimenting with colours so that the writing stood out on the CD digipak and magazine advert. One of the comments suggested that the music video was too busy, I think from this I know that next time, if I ever create a music video again, I should focus more on creating a structured storyboard and sticking to it, and that I should also add more colours, I feel that adding more colours may keep the audience entertained a bit more. I researched into the typical conventions of an indie/alternative music video and found that they would often be videos of the band performing, nothing would really follow a plot which is why I decided to choose a variety of artistic looking clips, also the fact that I didn't have the band at hand meant that I couldn't have a performance based video.
I am happy with the feedback that I got as I feel that it will all help me in the future, Personally, I prefer music videos that are abstract and from my feedback i know that some people would agree however I feel that I would get a higher amount of positive comments if I had created a performance or a narrative based video.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?

Evaulation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Use the arrow keys to move from one place to another, you can also scroll in using the wheel on your mouse to zoom in or our if the text appears to small

Audience Feedback

Click here to take survey

Completed Final Music Video

Below is my final music video for Alt-J's Dissolve me, I have created it in black and white with only the sky and the sunset in colour, the sky is in colour because I wanted it to sand out, also my niece featured in the film is names Skye so I thought this was a nice link.

Construction: Inspiration

The main theme in my music video is absract, the clips do not exactly link directly to the song but they are connected thriugh the quick edits to the beats and some of the clips narrate some lyrics, I took inspiration from many different videos but the one that I took most of my inspiration from is Damon Albarn - Lonely Press Play which I have embedded below 

The video uses abstract clips such as light flares and a lot of overlaying clips which is what i want to include in mine, i also oike how well the song matches the edits and it cuts to the beat, this is something that i hope to achieve in my video, I feel that it makes the video more intriguing as you are not sure what to expect next, it also gives the video a more 'art-like' feel to it I feel that this directly links to some of alt-j's other products

Construction: Time Lapse Photography

I have been practising photography for my time lapse footage also as this is something that I enjoy the look of also, and I found that with the Canon EOS 1100D this is difficult because there is no way to set it so that it automatically takes photos every few seconds, so I had to sit (in the cold) for half an hour clicking away every 4 seconds. In order to get a better result I would need to use an intervalometer which I could set so it automatically takes photos, However for a first attempt at a manual time lapse, I am happy with my result. For these shots I used a tripod also

This was roughly 600 shots

I decided to try the method of continuous shooting when out and about because the images would be quicker than the clouds so I could take the shots quicker, The issue with using this on the Canon is that the shots will be in good timing for the first few images and then it will gradually slow down, this did not turn out to be much of an issue as they were handheld shots so they had that 'home footage' feel to them, Below is a compilation of the continuous shots I took edited together using adobe premiere pro CC 7.0

I was experimenting with the camera, taking some random abstract shots to build up a portfolio of work so that I could ensure I had enough to work with and I began collating it all together, I added a song over the top and began to found that this created a music video feel, and so i experimented more, Shortening clips and cutting them to the beat of the song. Of course the clips are completely abstract but I think it works well. The clips of the flowers in my garden are taken using the method of lens whacking, which is where you take the camera lens of and film, moving the lens off so that you let in beams of light, I like this effect because it make stye film appear as if it is lowing and it gives an almost super 8 footage feel to it, I think it works well as a method to create footage with more of a light hearted feel to it, I contrasted this with the shots of the ink in water as I feel they look much darker, the clips of my nieces eyes along with this create a different emotion, you begin to think about what she may be seeing and as the song itself sounds rather abstract i think i have created a good compilation.

I wanted to work more on the continuous shooting as I found out it works better with using more pictures, And so on the way to take my motion blur pictures of the traffic, I began to take some shots whilst driving. I like this method as it gives a greater sense of speed to the video and this is enhanced by me adding a fast paced song over the top of it, There were roughly 1000 pictures taken during this

Construction: Stabilising Footage

I experimented with stabilising the short clip I made using Adobe After effects and an effect called warp stablizer which analyses the clip so that it runs smoother

You can also change the settings to what you want and this allows for a smoother edit or for more of the image to be seen, I found that you could also use this same effect in premier pro and I find that easier to use so in future i will use that, I also found that for this to work you would need to use the raw footage or else you can end up with the clips changing to try and match the titles, where I used the light leaks on this clip it jolts at some parts, but now I know what to do for the next time

Construction: Experimenting with Effects - Light Leaks

At first I was looking at the effect of Lens Whacking as I thought that it would be a nice effect to use for my music video, but in further research I found that I did not have the lenses that would be needed so I began looking for ways that I could re create this vintage/dreamy looking effect

I found an experimental video that some one had created as a music video for another alt J song and this really inspired bme because i thought it really worked and i feel that it goes with the singers voice

 

 (Using Adobe Premiere Pro 7.0 that I have at home, It contains more effects than the previous version but works in the same way)

I downloaded a set of movie files called light leaks that I found whilst browsing the internet and added them to my time line over the top of some previously filmed footage, I changed them to Screen so they appeared more realistic and they did not block out the footage underneath.

 Once I had added the light leaks I then added some more effects to make the footage appear warmer with more of a vintage feel to again, to make the clips seem more realistic. I also added some images at the end just to see what it would look like over the top of video and picture. The soundtrack that I added is another song by Alt-J on the same album as my chosen song for my video as I feel that its melancholic feel fits very well with the chosen footage... plus it was only a short song

...And just to top it off I added some fancy titles at the start to make the sample look complete, You can view the final video below

Construction: Sample

To begin the editing  process I first imported all of the clips that I filmed and viewed them all to decide which clips were suitable
Once I picked my clips I cut them down to a shorter length so that hey would cut to the beat and then dragged them into a sequence along with the mp3 of the track
















For one of my shots I took inspiration from the original album cover as seen on the left I feel that this is a good way to subtly reference the band.

Here is a short clip of my music video so far, I will get some feedback from the following Survey

First Response

Construction: Filming In Plymouth

I filmed some more footage in plymouth this weekend, This includes clips of the sea, the surrounding areas and birds flying (I thought it would look like a nice shot) Below are some screenshots and samples of what I achieved

Here are some screenshots of the bird shots I got

These are some screen recordings of some of the shots I recorded this weekend, Many of the shots are similar so I can use them in case I run out of footage (which I'm sure I won't) I intend to use filters to create a bleak feeling when the song is slower and then this will amplify the intensity of the clips/song when the dynamics increase.

Construction: Equipment

One of the cameras I have chosen to use is the Canon EOS 1100D, I feel that this can capture good clips and I also find it easy to use, along with this I will use a tripod to make sure my shots are steady

I have also filmed some shots of the sea using my phone (Sony Xperia Z) , below are the specifications.

Planning: Further Location Planning

To ensure that I have enough footage to use I plan on recording some more sea scenes, This weekend (25th January) I am visiting Plymouth university and so during this time I will record the sea (If the weather holds up) I intend on getting more footage of larger waves so I can create more of an interesting video, also I could use these clips in a way which they will compliment the song and help to enhance certain parts of it, I want the video to match the dynamics of the song.

Unfortunately, It looks like the weather may not be suitable to film, however if possible I will still try to get some footage

Recently, I have bought The Xperia Z mobile which is waterproof, allowing me to get some underwater shots which I think will create a great impact and will make the video far more interesting. I am hoping to create a video that people will want to watch and so I am trying to avoid resting the same clips and so i need a lot of footage

Planning: Location

Location Planning

The clips of the Sea will be clips from Perranporth, Crantock and Newquay in Cornwall, This is because I feel that the sea in these areas look a lot better than other seas, The water is clearer and the waves are bigger, which helps when I need to find a clip that I can cut to the beat (A wave crashing down seems like it would work well for this) Clips of other naturalistic things such as woodland, Sunset etc can be easily filmed in nearby woods

On the left is a picture of Brambleside woods which is nearby and can be used for some shots and on the right is Perranporth which is definitely not close but can be visited.

On the 25th of January I will be visiting Plymouth for the weekend, in this time I will do some more filming to ensure that I have extra footage if I need it

Planning: Mise-en-scene

Props
There is very little use of props in my music video unless you could count a person as a prop... In this case I would need a few people who would be willing to lip-sync to my chosen track, only their lips would be shown, this is to give the video more of an artistic feel to it as they would be over-layed on the background so that there are multiple videos playing, both with a soft light effect in order to go with the soft theme of the song

Costume
Following on from the paragraph above, their would be no need to organise costumes as only lips would be shown, these however would be naturalistic, there fore no heavy make up such as bright red lipstick, this is in order to keep with the theme of nature

Lighting
This again links with both of the previous paragraphs, As I mentioned I want my video to have a naturalistic feel to it, so when filming outdoor scenes I have no intention to use excess lighting but in stead use natural light and then if it is needed, edit it after. For the lip-syncing scenes I will use soft lights so that the lips will stand out and look more '3D' - by this I mean I want them to have a slight shadow on them which would work similar to an outline

Planning: Learning to use a green screen

Above is the video for my first try at using a green screen with footage behind it. Firstly we began by filming a small piece of dialogue in front of a green screen, after importing this along with the music video clip I used 'Ultra Key' to remove the green colour from the background and then I used the 'Eight-point garbage matte' to decrease the background in the dialogue clip; This helped to remove some of the visible creases from the green-screen. Below the same process was used in the beginning but this time I had to match the track up with the movement of the lip-syncing and then for the background I selected various clips, slowed them down and reversed them to avoid using Adele.

Above you can see how the footage looks before ultra key is used, the green screen is still very visible, below is how it looks once the ultra key has selected green, this would be difficult if there was anything else in the piece of film that was also green, also you can slightly see around her hair there are still small pieces of green left visible, this is something I may have to consider when filming. I will have to ensure that the subject is not wearing any green clothing and appears easy to edit.

 Here you can see how I changed the time settings to 30% and also reversed it after, Underneath it I have shown how I finished the video with a dip to black so that it didn't just stop, it had an ending to it.

Here is the finished video of Ellie lip-syncing to Rolling In The Deep

This task will help me when creating my music video because it has provided me with more knowledge on how to use the various effects in Adobe Premiere Pro, I am contemplating using lip-syncing in my video because the vocals aren't very clear so it may be difficult but if I decide that I want to in the future, at least I know how to do it and the best/easiest ways to go about doing it

Planning: Editing with APP "Wings"

To begin, I listened to the song, with the lyrics in hand so I could familiarise myself with it as it was not a song I had heard before, I added the song to the APP time line which helped me see the length of the song. Once I had imported all the clips I had, I watched them all to see if I could pick out any lip-syncing, I found this extremely difficult to begin with but to help out I dragged some of the clips and places them where I thought they belonged and slowly edged them along till they slotted into the correct place.

Once the lip-syncing was out of the way I listened out for key things like the footsteps at the beginning and then I matched this up with the picture, the rest of the clips I had I put in places which I felt that worked, but i found that I had gaps missing, to fill in these gaps I slowed some of the clips down to 50% their speed and I also reversed some of the clips so I would have a interesting effect that looked skill-full

I have uploaded both my favourite section of my version and my full edited version to You Tube, To watch them, simply click on the play button

Here is the Full video:

And below is a 45 second clip which I would consider to be the best part because of my use of slow motion and reverse speed

Macklemore x Ryan Lewis "WINGS" Official Music Video

Below is the original music video for Macklemore x Ryan Lewis - "Wings" as part of our editing challenge we were all given a few clips from the video with no audio and the song- so we had to match up any lip-syncing and make a creative and interesting video out of what we had (Later on we found out that not all of the clips were there so it was quite a difficult task)

Planning: Storyboard with Shot List

1. Close up/Extreme Close up shot
2. Extreme Close up
3. Close up (lips) Establishing shot (Sea)
4. Close up
5. Extreme Close up
6. Close Up/Extreme Close up (lips etc) Establishing shot

1. Close up
2. Establishing shot (Clouds)
3. Close Up (Lips)
4. Close Ups
5. Close Up (Lips)
6. Establishing Shot

1. Close Up (Lips) With Establishing sunset shot
2. Close Up (Lips) With Establishing sunset shot
3. Establishing Shot

Research: Audience Feedback

In order to get more ideas for my music video I created a survey, Below are the responses I received

  These questions were to establish who my feedback was from, from this i knew that i could recieve a range of different opinions.

 From these questions I learnt that people would be focusing more on the dynamics of the song, which is good since the song I have chosen has very good dynamics. I can see that people would expect abstract images/ the band playing in the video, but since I can't have the band playing in mine, I think I will use abstract images, in a comment on this It was suggested that I use lights also. 

 These questions helped to build up some background knowledge about music videos and I found out that people still often watch them and they use YouTube to watch them on, This tells me that it would be a good idea to upload my video to you tube or browse YouTube for more Ideas when I am stuck.

 These answers helped me a lot, the vocals in my chosen song are difficult to hear so it would be hard to find clips that could easily match up to them, so this means that I do not necessarily have to have relevant scenes in my video, and again I would not be able to have the artist in my video, I may however experiment with some lip-syncing.

These answered have told me that i need to make a video that is entertaining enough to keep the audience watching but not too complicated to take away from the song itself, and to also use clips that can cut to the beat of the song for a good effect.

A2 Media Studies. Editing With Premiere Pro: Learning to Edit with titles

Learning to insert titles and effects

A2 Media Studies. Editing With Premiere Pro: Learning to Edit

In tidays lesson we were learning how to edit using Adobe Premier Pro with some short clips filmed by the year below for their preliminary task, below is the process.

On opening APP we were told not to change any of the original settings and once it had opened we had to change it, To make this process easier, we were asked to change our workspace to "Editing (CS5.5)". This provided us with a better layout which would make everything easier to edit

 Next, we had to import the short clips that we would be using by going to 'File'...'Import'.. and selecting the folder containing the clips

once all the clips were in APP we could watch them on a small scale individually and select which ones we would use, If you double click on the clip, it will appear in the larger left viewing window, in this you can mark in/out the section from the clip that you wish to use.

Once you have your clip selected, you will be able to drag either the video or the audio only, or even both if you wished, this is good because it allows you to add audio over the top after without it interfering with sound already in the clip

Here's a picture of me in the editing process!

You are able to add titles by selecting 'Title' at the top of the window which then takes you to another window, allowing you to enter text and change fonts and colours. If you wish to add effects you can go into a tab on the left which will give you a drop down menu of various effects you can use, on my video I gave the music (which I chose to be the Godfather theme tune) a fade in and out (I used 'constant power') so that it did not interfere with the dialogue in the clip, below is my final video, with music added, In the next post I will include the video, but with simple titles which I created.