This now means that our plan will be to finish off the last chorus on Wednesdays lesson, and will recieve our feedback on Friday.
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Response to Deadline Extension Email
This now means that our plan will be to finish off the last chorus on Wednesdays lesson, and will recieve our feedback on Friday.
Plan for upcoming week! (1.11.10)
The plan for upcoming week depends mainly on whether we are entitled to a deadline extension.
If we aren't entitled to a deadline extension, the plan will be as follows:
Wednesday (3.11.10)
1. An hour of editing time in lesson
- Putting the last chorus together
- If there's time, we will try and put together the anti-climax section of the song.
2. In the second hour of lesson time, we will present our first cut to the class and get feedback.
- We will also provide feedback for the other groups productions in our class.
Friday (5.11.10)
1. We will begin to learn the exam criteria that is based around this coursework.
2. We may be entitled to edit in this lesson, if so we will:
- Start by making any additions/changes/subtractions of our video according to our feedback.
- Make an assessment of what needs to be done now, after all the feedback has been recieved.
If we are entitled to a deadline extension, the plan will be as follows:
Wednesday (3.11.10)
1. Spend the majority of the 2 hours editing, in this session we will focus on:
- Putting the last chorus together (Emily leaving - the link back to the first feedback).
- Trying to put together the anti-climax (Charlotte will be back then so we shall see what her ideas are on it).
- Neatening up our editing, making sure everything is on time and how we want it to be for our rough cut.
Friday (5.11.10)
1. Show the rest of our class our rough cut version
- They will provide us with personal feedback on what needs to be improved/changed/taken away, and of course what they like about the production.
2. Review the rest of the class's productions, and give them feedback on their productions.
If we aren't entitled to a deadline extension, the plan will be as follows:
Wednesday (3.11.10)
1. An hour of editing time in lesson
- Putting the last chorus together
- If there's time, we will try and put together the anti-climax section of the song.
2. In the second hour of lesson time, we will present our first cut to the class and get feedback.
- We will also provide feedback for the other groups productions in our class.
Friday (5.11.10)
1. We will begin to learn the exam criteria that is based around this coursework.
2. We may be entitled to edit in this lesson, if so we will:
- Start by making any additions/changes/subtractions of our video according to our feedback.
- Make an assessment of what needs to be done now, after all the feedback has been recieved.
If we are entitled to a deadline extension, the plan will be as follows:
Wednesday (3.11.10)
1. Spend the majority of the 2 hours editing, in this session we will focus on:
- Putting the last chorus together (Emily leaving - the link back to the first feedback).
- Trying to put together the anti-climax (Charlotte will be back then so we shall see what her ideas are on it).
- Neatening up our editing, making sure everything is on time and how we want it to be for our rough cut.
Friday (5.11.10)
1. Show the rest of our class our rough cut version
- They will provide us with personal feedback on what needs to be improved/changed/taken away, and of course what they like about the production.
2. Review the rest of the class's productions, and give them feedback on their productions.
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Deadline Email
This is the email we sent to our teacher Mrs Allison, to ask for a deadline on our rough cut.
We await a reply.
What Next?
Today was supposed to be when we finished our rough cut completely. However, we were unable to do this as we were not aware that we would be asked to leave the media room so early. Therefore, we still have stuff to do.
List of things left to do for Rough Cut
1. Complete the bridge section (seek advice on how best to over-come the problems we had, could potentially mean re-shooting).
2. Add the heartbeat sound effects to the first set of flashbacks.
3. Edit the last chorus and put our lip-synching alongside the flashbacks (those of Emily packing her bags and leaving - links in with the beginning of ths song).
Some of these things (such as adding the heartbeat sound effects) are achievable by the time that our rough cut is due for presentation (3/11/10). However, some things (such as the editing of the last chorus) are going to require atleast a further 2 hours editing time. This poses a problem, because me and Sophie are the only two out of the group who actualy attend Chauncy full-time, and we are both not free on Monday and Tuesday to try and finish off our rough cut. So, we have emailed Mrs Allison to ask if she would extend our deadline to Friday so we could use the 2 hours on Wednesday morning to complete it. If she says no, it is not the worst thing in the world as we have got a fair amount, it does mean though that our feedback will probably be much more and we also wont recieve feedback on the last chorus as it has not been done yet!
List of things left to do for Rough Cut
1. Complete the bridge section (seek advice on how best to over-come the problems we had, could potentially mean re-shooting).
2. Add the heartbeat sound effects to the first set of flashbacks.
3. Edit the last chorus and put our lip-synching alongside the flashbacks (those of Emily packing her bags and leaving - links in with the beginning of ths song).
Some of these things (such as adding the heartbeat sound effects) are achievable by the time that our rough cut is due for presentation (3/11/10). However, some things (such as the editing of the last chorus) are going to require atleast a further 2 hours editing time. This poses a problem, because me and Sophie are the only two out of the group who actualy attend Chauncy full-time, and we are both not free on Monday and Tuesday to try and finish off our rough cut. So, we have emailed Mrs Allison to ask if she would extend our deadline to Friday so we could use the 2 hours on Wednesday morning to complete it. If she says no, it is not the worst thing in the world as we have got a fair amount, it does mean though that our feedback will probably be much more and we also wont recieve feedback on the last chorus as it has not been done yet!
Editing (27/10/10)
Sophie, Jodie and myself arrived at school at approximately 10.30am this morning, and began to edit our remaining footage. We were asked to leave at 2.30pm - we assumed that we would have more time than this, which meant we were unable to finish the amount of editing we had planned.
What we did manage to achieve today:
1. We completed the first verse, first chorus, second verse and second chorus to a standard which we are happy with to put forward as our first draft.
2. Put together a very rough draft of the anti-climax section of the song.
3. Produce a list of what is left to do regarding our rough cut.
First Verse:
The majority of the first verse had been completed in a previous editing session, which meant there was very little left to do to complete it, the only thing we needed to do was put a reaction shot of Joe before the chorus. To do this, we pulled the footage onto the left hand side of the screen, and used the curser to pin-point the reaction shot that was best for us to use. After we chose this, we used the cutting tools to mark out the area. We then pulled it down onto the editing reel, and cut it down to fit into the designated time slot we had already prepared. We decided to put another zoom effect between this shot and the first shot of the chorus (just so the audience could establish that this was seperate from the footage of us girls).
First Chorus:
We wanted to make the chorus quick paced with our editing, so we decided to a series of shorter shots to make up the section. We did it so we all had a solo section, but we also had two seperate shots of us as a group.
Problems/Difficulties
This section was relatively simple, it was just somewhat time-consuming editing the footage down to make it cut in the right places. The only problem we came accross in this particualr section was we couldn't seem to get Jodie's lip-synching in time. Some words appeared to be occuring at the right time, but others looked a little odd. We weren't too sure how to fix it, as Jodie thought it was probably due to her lipsynching than the way we actually edited. But I then thought that maybe if we slow down the footage by a very small amount it may help it look more in place, so we reduced the speed down to 97%, and we found that this made the lip-synching fit better.
Second Verse:
The second verse is where things began to get a little more complicated as this is where the flashbacks needed to come in. Firstly, we decided it would be easier to get all the lip-synching bits in there, and then just edit them out afterwards to replace certain bits with the flashbacks. This proved to be a good idea, as it made the placing of the flashbacks much more easier as it gave us a more realistic sense of what followed.
Step-by-Step
1. We cut down the shot of Sophie's one-line close up, and pulled it across to the appropriate position on the wheel.
2. We had two alternative angles to work with for my main section of the verse, and decided that we wanted to incorporate them both. We used the first close up for the first two lines, and then cut to medium close up from the opposite angle for the second two. We felt that this worked well as there was no continuity issues.
3. We also had two alternative shots to work with for Sophies chorus, but theses were slightly different in the sense that Sophie was in two completely different positions. Again, we divided it in half, doing one line in the first medium close up and the second from the other angle. At first, this looked strange, so we definately knew we had to put a flashback to seperate these two images.
4. Using the razor tool we cut down Jodie's bridge lines, which was a close up. Together, these 6 shots made up the second verse without the flashbacks.
Adding the Flashbacks
We decided on putting the flashbacks between the transition of my first shot to my second shot, and of Sophie's first shot to her second shot.
Using the left hand screen, we viewed the potential flashback images. We cut down one where Emily pushes Joe, and he falls onto the floor. We dragged this onto the reel, and cut it down to be much shorter using the razor tool. We then selected the footage with our mouse, and dragged the black and white effect over it to make it lose its colour. After much tweaking, we positioned it in between my chnage of shots. We then used the same process of the shot where Joe is actually on the floor, and placed this inbetween Sophies two shots. Next we added the shot of Emily looking out the window (we had trouble deciding the length of this shot, as we felt it was not interesting enough to use for a long amount of time), which then followed on with a shot of Joe punching a bollard on "passion to hate", which then continues on very shortly into the chorus.
In this section, I liked the fact that we managed to edit according to the beat, whereby a lot of the shots change when the beat hits. I think this makes it look more like a proffesional product.
Second Chorus:
In this chorus we included...
1. Choreography Scene
1. Flashbacks
As mentioned, we had to use the razor tool to cut into the first bit of our singing as the shot is still on Joe punching the wall. This was easy to do and we managed to easily line the shot up so that the lip-synching was in time. We then used the razor tool to cut out the sections of the scene where we felt there should be flashbacks, in the end we took out 3. The only problem was is we had left ourselves a very long time in the actual filming for a flashback, and we wasn't sure whether it would be too long.
The first flashback we used was of Emily on her phone crying, this was good as it looked quite dramatic which fit in with the tone of the chorus. For the next longer section, we used the birds-eye shot of Emily and Joe fighting; this shot was really long, so we cut it down into 3 sections and put it together as jumpcuts (a theme which we had adapted to since editing began). This actually worked out quite well, and the obvious segregation of the 3 shots makes it more interesting to watch (and works as it symbolises a passing of time - so instead of the audience just viewing the whole lot of that footage, they see the 3 most interesting bits whilst being aware that this is a big on-going argument).
The Anti-Climax:
We experienced many problems with this particular section...
1. The shot (which we originally planned to be continuous) had to be edited together, which meant that it lost that on-running flow.
2. The shots weren't that good over-all, and didnt really portray what we wanted to portray from this section of the song.
3. When we copied the footage and then reverse played it, it appeared to be moving too slow (although we had sped it up); therefore we had to speed it up to 200% to make it look right, which then meant it finished too early over-all.
By this point, we found that we had to leave the media room for the school to be closed. This left us in quite a situation, so we left this section as it is and will return to it next week when the second term begins.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Sound Searching
For our flashbacks before the song, we need a heartbeat sound effect to play over it to make it more dramatic. Mrs Allison thought she had one already saved, but it was unable to play on our editing reel. I did a simple google search of 'heartbeat sound effects', and from this i clicked this link http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/sound-effects.html
From this, I selected two heartbeat sounds. After previewing them on windows media player, I saved them to my desktop. I shall put them on a memory stick and bring them to Wednesday's editing session for Sophie and Jodie to give their opinion on. As a group we will decide if either of them work well, and will either use or disgard them. Here are the two samples I found:
(BLOGGER IS NOT UPLOADING VIDEOS AT THE CURRENT TIME, I WILL TRY AGAIN AT A LATER DATE).
From this, I selected two heartbeat sounds. After previewing them on windows media player, I saved them to my desktop. I shall put them on a memory stick and bring them to Wednesday's editing session for Sophie and Jodie to give their opinion on. As a group we will decide if either of them work well, and will either use or disgard them. Here are the two samples I found:
(BLOGGER IS NOT UPLOADING VIDEOS AT THE CURRENT TIME, I WILL TRY AGAIN AT A LATER DATE).
Half Term Plan!
During the half term, Jodie, Sophie and myself will be coming in to edit more footage (Charlotte will be on holiday during this time).
The date we are definately now scheduled to edit is Wednesday 27th October.
This day will be the last proper opportunity to edit. Obviously, our main aim is to finish the first cut completely. However, we cannot forsee how the editing will progress on the day, so in the event we find ourselves not able to finish the first cut completely we are aiming to:
1. Have all the lip synching shots on the editing line and in the correct position (even if we are planning to put the flashbacks into them at another time).
2. Cut down all the flashback shots to the length we need them to be, and then edit them to black and white.
Even though these are two simple sounding objectives, they may require more time than we initially think as today it took us nearly to hours to edit 30 seconds of footage!
On this day, we will get an overall sense of how the video will turn out, and from this we will make notes of any additional shots we need to obtain after half term as well as any edits that we feel that we may need to do another time as well.
The date we are definately now scheduled to edit is Wednesday 27th October.
This day will be the last proper opportunity to edit. Obviously, our main aim is to finish the first cut completely. However, we cannot forsee how the editing will progress on the day, so in the event we find ourselves not able to finish the first cut completely we are aiming to:
1. Have all the lip synching shots on the editing line and in the correct position (even if we are planning to put the flashbacks into them at another time).
2. Cut down all the flashback shots to the length we need them to be, and then edit them to black and white.
Even though these are two simple sounding objectives, they may require more time than we initially think as today it took us nearly to hours to edit 30 seconds of footage!
On this day, we will get an overall sense of how the video will turn out, and from this we will make notes of any additional shots we need to obtain after half term as well as any edits that we feel that we may need to do another time as well.
Editing! (22.10/10)
During today's lesson time, Sophie, Jodie and myself continued to edit our footage.
What we achieved today:
1. We edited up to the First Chorus, and spent the majority of our time editing the pre-song footage.
2. We cut down and selected the Emily & Joe footage that we wanted to appear in the First verse, where Charlotte and myself are perfoming.
What went well today:
Although we spent the majority of the two hours working on the pre-song footage, we felt that the over-all result was good. However, we did come across a few problems and diffculites... these were:
1. The shots were too long. We found that a lot of the shots of Emily were too lengthy, and although the tone of the song is slow and sad we felt that this bit needed to be sharp and edgey to make it more dramatic. We did this by deciding against using continous shots that flowed to using jump cuts. Ordinarily, we would not use this type of shot when editing, but we found that it worked in making the flow move quicker; we felt it did not look odd because the footage itself is of Emily moving out of her house dramatically.
2. Corresponding the two cameras together. The footage we edited today was shot from two seperate cameras, this was mainly so we could film the talking scenes as one whole thing as opposed to us doing shot-reverse-shot with one camera where we would have to get the actors to repeat their lines more than once. We at first found it difficult to work with the two reels of footage on the editing line, but Jodie suggested that instead we dragged the footage from camera 2 to the split screen and simply pull the footage down from there. This worked well as it allowed us to work with camera 1 on the main line and just add the additonal footage as and when we needed it.
3. Deciding the length of the flashbacks. In the first verse, we put shots of Emily putting the case into her car and driving off. At first we were unsure whether to try a continous flow like originally planned or stick to the jump cuts. We analysed the situation, and felt that due to the fact we only wanted short shots it would look most effective to do the jump cuts. It took us a good 10 minutes manipulating the footage to get it to the perfect length, and we asked our teacher once or twice on her opinion as to whether certain shots (such as the one of Emily from inside the car) was too long. She preffered the quick style editing, so we adjusted it to this length.
Effects used today:
1. Zoom. We felt that we needed some type of transition from the reaction shot of Emily after the cheating flashback to the start of the actual song. We decided not to use white dip, black dip and cross disolve as we already have them in our production. Looking through the effects list we found zoom, and just tried it to see what it looked like. We dragged it from the effects box on to the edit line and placed it inbetween the reaction shot and the extreme close up that starts the song; we then dragged it in to reduce the length. The effect this gave us was then a quick zoom into Emilys face that then zoomed out to Charlottes extreme close up. We luckily really liked this and decided it was a good way to establish the pre-song footage ending and the actual song starting.
2. Reduced Speed. The close up reaction shot of Emilys face was something we felt was essential to the story after the flashback scenes. However, we only managed to obtain one decent shot of Emily doing this, and it was of quite a short length. As there was not much happening in the picture we decided to reduce the speed of it to pro-long it. We did this by right clicking the footage box and clicking the speed/duration option, we then reduced the speed number to 50%. This worked quite well, as it made the shot the length we wanted to it to be.
What we achieved today:
1. We edited up to the First Chorus, and spent the majority of our time editing the pre-song footage.
2. We cut down and selected the Emily & Joe footage that we wanted to appear in the First verse, where Charlotte and myself are perfoming.
What went well today:
Although we spent the majority of the two hours working on the pre-song footage, we felt that the over-all result was good. However, we did come across a few problems and diffculites... these were:
1. The shots were too long. We found that a lot of the shots of Emily were too lengthy, and although the tone of the song is slow and sad we felt that this bit needed to be sharp and edgey to make it more dramatic. We did this by deciding against using continous shots that flowed to using jump cuts. Ordinarily, we would not use this type of shot when editing, but we found that it worked in making the flow move quicker; we felt it did not look odd because the footage itself is of Emily moving out of her house dramatically.
2. Corresponding the two cameras together. The footage we edited today was shot from two seperate cameras, this was mainly so we could film the talking scenes as one whole thing as opposed to us doing shot-reverse-shot with one camera where we would have to get the actors to repeat their lines more than once. We at first found it difficult to work with the two reels of footage on the editing line, but Jodie suggested that instead we dragged the footage from camera 2 to the split screen and simply pull the footage down from there. This worked well as it allowed us to work with camera 1 on the main line and just add the additonal footage as and when we needed it.
3. Deciding the length of the flashbacks. In the first verse, we put shots of Emily putting the case into her car and driving off. At first we were unsure whether to try a continous flow like originally planned or stick to the jump cuts. We analysed the situation, and felt that due to the fact we only wanted short shots it would look most effective to do the jump cuts. It took us a good 10 minutes manipulating the footage to get it to the perfect length, and we asked our teacher once or twice on her opinion as to whether certain shots (such as the one of Emily from inside the car) was too long. She preffered the quick style editing, so we adjusted it to this length.
Effects used today:
1. Zoom. We felt that we needed some type of transition from the reaction shot of Emily after the cheating flashback to the start of the actual song. We decided not to use white dip, black dip and cross disolve as we already have them in our production. Looking through the effects list we found zoom, and just tried it to see what it looked like. We dragged it from the effects box on to the edit line and placed it inbetween the reaction shot and the extreme close up that starts the song; we then dragged it in to reduce the length. The effect this gave us was then a quick zoom into Emilys face that then zoomed out to Charlottes extreme close up. We luckily really liked this and decided it was a good way to establish the pre-song footage ending and the actual song starting.
2. Reduced Speed. The close up reaction shot of Emilys face was something we felt was essential to the story after the flashback scenes. However, we only managed to obtain one decent shot of Emily doing this, and it was of quite a short length. As there was not much happening in the picture we decided to reduce the speed of it to pro-long it. We did this by right clicking the footage box and clicking the speed/duration option, we then reduced the speed number to 50%. This worked quite well, as it made the shot the length we wanted to it to be.
3. Increased Speed. When we edited the shots of Emily reversing in the car and leaving the drive, we found that although we reduced the shot lengths down, the car movement was still slow in comparison to the pace which we were going for (the first one in particular). So, to ammend this we increased the first shot to 150%, and the rest to 125%. This worked well, as it wasn't fast enough to look like it had intentionally been speeded up, but made it look as if Emily had just made a fast maneouver in her car.
How do I feel about the production so far?
So far, I'm really happy with the way the production is coming along. Obviously, there are times where I worry if we are going to get a decent first draft produced, but judging by the way we worked today I believe that next week we will be able to achieve a good amount by the time the deadline is here. Even if we don't quite finish the whole song, we will have higher quality footage which means that we will have to make less improvements and just focus on completing the production. My favourite shots so far are still the cheating flashbacks at the beginning!
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Permission Letter
Before the project began, we were advised to write a letter to the Copyright holder of the song 'Missing You' to ask permission to use it. Here is a copy of that letter:
Dear Copyright Holder,
For our current A-Level Media Studies Advanced Portfolio we are producing our own music videos; this will consist of us performing the song, and editing it on a software programme that our school provides us with. As a group, we decided on a girl-group theme and the song we decided to chose was ‘Missing You’ (The Saturdays). We are writing to seek your permission to use this song in our video.
To briefly explain a little bit more about our production, we would be creating a video which is then supported with a digipak and a magazine advertisement. We hope to demonstrate our skills of storyboarding, camera-work and editing. Also, we would just like to make very clear that the use of this song is only for educational purposes, and would not be exploited in any other way (such as to a large audience or websites).
Throughout the whole process of this task, the artist that originally sung the track will be recognised and we would not try to pass off the product as our own in any way. Our examining body is OCR, and they will be more than happy to clarify that this is a legitimate educational task. If you would like to send us a copyright notice to feature in our coursework, we would happily oblige with your requirements; if this is the case, please send the information to the address listed above.
We’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this, and look forward to hearing from you.
Your Sincerely,
Laura Pinkney, Charlotte Andreas, Sophie Legge and Jodie Butcher.
We did not expect a reply and have not recieved one so far; as we did not hear of any objections we continued on to use the song in our production.
Dear Copyright Holder,
For our current A-Level Media Studies Advanced Portfolio we are producing our own music videos; this will consist of us performing the song, and editing it on a software programme that our school provides us with. As a group, we decided on a girl-group theme and the song we decided to chose was ‘Missing You’ (The Saturdays). We are writing to seek your permission to use this song in our video.
To briefly explain a little bit more about our production, we would be creating a video which is then supported with a digipak and a magazine advertisement. We hope to demonstrate our skills of storyboarding, camera-work and editing. Also, we would just like to make very clear that the use of this song is only for educational purposes, and would not be exploited in any other way (such as to a large audience or websites).
Throughout the whole process of this task, the artist that originally sung the track will be recognised and we would not try to pass off the product as our own in any way. Our examining body is OCR, and they will be more than happy to clarify that this is a legitimate educational task. If you would like to send us a copyright notice to feature in our coursework, we would happily oblige with your requirements; if this is the case, please send the information to the address listed above.
We’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this, and look forward to hearing from you.
Your Sincerely,
Laura Pinkney, Charlotte Andreas, Sophie Legge and Jodie Butcher.
We did not expect a reply and have not recieved one so far; as we did not hear of any objections we continued on to use the song in our production.
Editing (20/10/10)
Today I joined the team late for editing in lesson. They briefed me on the general aim of the 2 hours, and that was to basically reduce down the footage on our editing reel to make it easier for us to select the footage we actually want to use. This was done in preperation for a more lengthy editing session this coming Friday (22/10/10).
We then captured the footage from both the cameras we used on Monday's filming session. Whilst watching this, we made breif notes on which bits could be cut out from it to use for our main production.
What's happening next?
On Friday we will spend the 2 hour lesson focusing only on editing our footage. We have provisionally booked a computer to use in the half term on Wednesday and Thursday in order to get some extra editing time to make sure we meet our deadline for the 3rd November. This has to be cleared by the school, but for now this is what we have scheduled in.
We then captured the footage from both the cameras we used on Monday's filming session. Whilst watching this, we made breif notes on which bits could be cut out from it to use for our main production.
What's happening next?
On Friday we will spend the 2 hour lesson focusing only on editing our footage. We have provisionally booked a computer to use in the half term on Wednesday and Thursday in order to get some extra editing time to make sure we meet our deadline for the 3rd November. This has to be cleared by the school, but for now this is what we have scheduled in.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Filming Day 6!
Date: Monday 18th October 2010
Location: Sophie's House
Today's aim was to film all the flashback scenes with Emily and Joe as well as the audio scene before the song starts.
Using New Techniques
Seen as this is an advanced portfolio, we were thinking of ways to demonstrate that we can work at a higher level than we did at AS. We came up with the idea of using 2 cameras; by doing this we could film one scene from two angles, and then edit them together so the continuity will be perfect. We thought that this might be tricky to edit, but decided to give it a go.
It worked well, the only difficulty was positioning it so that the other camera was not in shot. It often took us a while to make sure that the framing of both shots was correct, and that no other camera could be seen. We will not know how successfully this idea will be until we begin editing this particular section, but we are hoping that it will create a smooth look to the video which looks more proffesional then us simply re-enacting the same scene twice but from different angles.
Flashback Shots
Here are some photographs are the flashback images we film, they show the type of angles and locations that we chose for each particular shot.
My Favourite Shot of the Day!
Today my favourite shot when filming was the one where Emily puts her suitcase in the car. Charlotte thought of it, and it consisted of us filming Emily putting the suitcase into the car from the inside of it. To do this, we had to unattach it from the tripod and sit inside the car and hold the camera free hand. At first, we had trouble framing Emily in this shot, but after a few attempts we managed to obtain a succesful shot.
How did the filming go overall?
Today I felt the filming went okay. Lately the group are feeling very time-pressured as we are all keen to make the first-cut deadline after half term; I do believe that we will achieve this, but due to certain time constraints of our actors it seems as though we never have time to relax and shoot things at a slow pace. This does worry me somewhat as it makes me think that our shots may reflect how rushed we sometimes find ourselves, and today we did have to take some of them free-hand purely because we did not have time to constantly adjust the tri-pod as Joe needed to be somewhere at a certain time. Saying this, I do feel that it went well; we managed to obtain most of the shots that we wanted (plus a few more which we thought of during filming) and hopefully they will all be to a good a standard.
The 5 most effective shots of the day:
1. The shot from inside the car of emily opening the boot.
2. The birds-eye shot of Emily and Joe fighting.
3. The long shot of the them both pushing past eachother in the hall-way.
4. Joe's reaction shot when Emily leaves in her car.
5. The long shot of Emily driving away in her car (two-angle effect).
5 things we could have done better:
1. We could have obtained more extreme close ups to create a stronger sense of action.
2. We could have tried to find a source of light to shine on our actors as it was often dark in the house.
3. We could have obtained more location shots to make the story seem more personal.
4. We could have filmed a longer series of shots in terms of the flashbacks (most of them were only a few seconds and I'm not sure they will be enough).
5. We should have planned the reverse-play scene better to ensure that it looked as effective as possible.
Location: Sophie's House
Today's aim was to film all the flashback scenes with Emily and Joe as well as the audio scene before the song starts.
Using New Techniques
Seen as this is an advanced portfolio, we were thinking of ways to demonstrate that we can work at a higher level than we did at AS. We came up with the idea of using 2 cameras; by doing this we could film one scene from two angles, and then edit them together so the continuity will be perfect. We thought that this might be tricky to edit, but decided to give it a go.
It worked well, the only difficulty was positioning it so that the other camera was not in shot. It often took us a while to make sure that the framing of both shots was correct, and that no other camera could be seen. We will not know how successfully this idea will be until we begin editing this particular section, but we are hoping that it will create a smooth look to the video which looks more proffesional then us simply re-enacting the same scene twice but from different angles.
Flashback Shots
Here are some photographs are the flashback images we film, they show the type of angles and locations that we chose for each particular shot.
My Favourite Shot of the Day!
Today my favourite shot when filming was the one where Emily puts her suitcase in the car. Charlotte thought of it, and it consisted of us filming Emily putting the suitcase into the car from the inside of it. To do this, we had to unattach it from the tripod and sit inside the car and hold the camera free hand. At first, we had trouble framing Emily in this shot, but after a few attempts we managed to obtain a succesful shot.
How did the filming go overall?
Today I felt the filming went okay. Lately the group are feeling very time-pressured as we are all keen to make the first-cut deadline after half term; I do believe that we will achieve this, but due to certain time constraints of our actors it seems as though we never have time to relax and shoot things at a slow pace. This does worry me somewhat as it makes me think that our shots may reflect how rushed we sometimes find ourselves, and today we did have to take some of them free-hand purely because we did not have time to constantly adjust the tri-pod as Joe needed to be somewhere at a certain time. Saying this, I do feel that it went well; we managed to obtain most of the shots that we wanted (plus a few more which we thought of during filming) and hopefully they will all be to a good a standard.
The 5 most effective shots of the day:
1. The shot from inside the car of emily opening the boot.
2. The birds-eye shot of Emily and Joe fighting.
3. The long shot of the them both pushing past eachother in the hall-way.
4. Joe's reaction shot when Emily leaves in her car.
5. The long shot of Emily driving away in her car (two-angle effect).
5 things we could have done better:
1. We could have obtained more extreme close ups to create a stronger sense of action.
2. We could have tried to find a source of light to shine on our actors as it was often dark in the house.
3. We could have obtained more location shots to make the story seem more personal.
4. We could have filmed a longer series of shots in terms of the flashbacks (most of them were only a few seconds and I'm not sure they will be enough).
5. We should have planned the reverse-play scene better to ensure that it looked as effective as possible.
Plan for the upcoming week (Date Starting 18/10/10)
This is our last week before half term, and although Sophie, Jodie and myself are planning to come in during the school break to edit (Charlotte is on holiday), I have set the group certain targets to reach by the end of the week to try and keep us on schedule.
1. Film the entire flashback scenes over the course of Monday and Tuesday.
2. Upload all footage onto Adobe Premier.
3. Continue editing in Wednesdays' and Fridays' lessons (try to have complete the edit of the pre-video acting scene, the first verse and the first chorus).
4. Keep updating our progress on our blogs.
5. On Friday, review all the footage we have and make a group assessment as to any extra shots we will need to acquire in the new term or any changes to our video.
1. Film the entire flashback scenes over the course of Monday and Tuesday.
2. Upload all footage onto Adobe Premier.
3. Continue editing in Wednesdays' and Fridays' lessons (try to have complete the edit of the pre-video acting scene, the first verse and the first chorus).
4. Keep updating our progress on our blogs.
5. On Friday, review all the footage we have and make a group assessment as to any extra shots we will need to acquire in the new term or any changes to our video.
Script for Pre-Video Acting Scene
Establishing Shot of house (ambience sound) 2 seconds.
Extreme close up of Emilys hand opening the door handle. 1 second.
Long Shot of her walking out with a suitcase and shutting the door. 2/3 seconds.
Long Shot (from switched angle) of her dragging suitcase down the path. 2 seconds.
Extreme Close up of suitcase wheels. 1/2 seconds.
Long Shot of Joe running out the house and up to Emily. 2 seconds.
Joe: Emily! Wait!
(He grabs her shoulder, she turns, shot-reverse-shot begins)
Emily: Get off me Joe, I'm leaving you!
(She pushes him off her and turns to walk, he rounds around in front of her and grabs her shoulders - all a full body shot sequence)
Joe: But I don't understand, what have I done?!
(Shot-reverse shot)
Emily: You know what you did!
(Flashback sequence of Joe cheating with four girls is shown, cuts back to full body shot of Emily and Joe looking at eachother, there is silence for 1 second, then a close up of Emilys face).
Emily: *sighs*
SONG STARTS.
Extreme close up of Emilys hand opening the door handle. 1 second.
Long Shot of her walking out with a suitcase and shutting the door. 2/3 seconds.
Long Shot (from switched angle) of her dragging suitcase down the path. 2 seconds.
Extreme Close up of suitcase wheels. 1/2 seconds.
Long Shot of Joe running out the house and up to Emily. 2 seconds.
Joe: Emily! Wait!
(He grabs her shoulder, she turns, shot-reverse-shot begins)
Emily: Get off me Joe, I'm leaving you!
(She pushes him off her and turns to walk, he rounds around in front of her and grabs her shoulders - all a full body shot sequence)
Joe: But I don't understand, what have I done?!
(Shot-reverse shot)
Emily: You know what you did!
(Flashback sequence of Joe cheating with four girls is shown, cuts back to full body shot of Emily and Joe looking at eachother, there is silence for 1 second, then a close up of Emilys face).
Emily: *sighs*
SONG STARTS.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Editing! (14.10.10)
In today's lesson, we decided to spend the 2 hours editing our footage. Last lesson, we were able to complete the short flash back sequence successfully, so we tried to continue on as far as we could in the song (we didn't think we were going to get to the first chorus though).
What we edited.
Firstly, we went through the footage briefly with the razor tool trying to cut out any footage that we knew that we wasn't going to be using. We did not do this specifically, as we didn't want to cut things out which we may find we needed at a later stage. So, we decided to try and start fitting the lyric images to the song. We dragged the song onto the audio line and then found the first shot we needed (which was the extreme close up of Charlotte's mouth). Once we found this, we cut it down with the razor and dragged it to the beginning of the time-line where the music first started. We were actually able to line it up quite quickly, and to our luck we found that the lip-synch looked perfect.
For the next bit of the song, we wanted a nature shot. During filming, Sophie had suggested a spinning technique for a shot. She took the camera free hand, and recorded it whilst spinning round, to get the trees as the main image. This worked perfectly, and we decided that this was good to use for the beginning bit of the song to set the scene of where we were. We added it in with the razor tool. Then, we had a close up shot of Charlotte singing the second introductory line, so we decided to use it. We felt that it made sense using this shot because it was her lips that featured in the extreme close up, so it linked the two shots to make more sense. Again, this was easy to time. We then cut another section, which ironically was just footage of us walking where we hadn't turned the camera off. The shot worked well because it had a similiar 'nature' feel to the tree shot, so again the two shots had a link.
Following this, we then cut Charlottes verse. We decided that although this verse is going to feature other singers in it at various points, today we were only going to fit her bit in and then add it later once the initial footage is in place. We examined two different filmings of the verse, and decided to use the second one as the camera was more steady and when matched with the song the lip synching was much better. After this shot we then cut a piece of footage of me singing my first line; we had this from two different angles which we then combined together by finely cutting it down with the razor tool. Initially, we had a problem with continuity, whereby in the first shot when I am looking at the camera my eyes were open and then when we cut it to the second shot my eyes were suddenly closed. This looked like a very obvious problem, so we overcome it by shortening the length of the second shot and lengtehning the first one. This meant that the part with my eyes closed was cut out, and it fit much more nicely.
Effects we used when Editing:
Speed Reduction
We used speed reduction in the first nature scene, we did this because we felt the pace of the spinning was too fast for the song. To achieve this, we right clicked on the block of footage to open the drop down menu. From here, we clicked on the Speed/Duration option and this opened a seperate box. We then changed the Speed from 100% to 50%. We found that this helped keep the tone of the song.
Reverse Play
We used reverse play quite subtly in the second nature shot. Just by looking at it, you could think that we just filmed it walking backwards. We did this because we found that it showed us backing away from the distant figure sitting on the grass (Sophie) and then turning away from her. This looks effective as it looks almost like a point-of-view shot. Again we did this by right clicking and going onto Speed/Duration. To achieve the look we simply ticked the 'reverse play' box.
Cross Dissolve
We used cross disolve to soften the transition bewteen a few shots. We felt that the transition from the nature scene to Charlotte's opening verse was a little blunt, so we wanted an effect that made it more smooth. It has a nice effect because the scenery of both shots blend in really nice, and it makes an interesting transition shot. We achieved this by clicking Shot Transitions under the effects section, and dragging 'Cross Dissolve' onto the editing block.
Dip-to-Black
We wanted to use dip-to-black as another way to smooth transition (without re-using cross dissolve). We positioned it just after Charlotte's 'I miss missing you' close up, it comes in as soon as she has finished singing "you". It has pretty much the same effect but due to the scenery of the two shots we felt that dip-to-black was a better effect than cross dissolve. We achieved this by dragging the 'dip-to-black' effect onto the timeline, and inbetween the two shots. We then altered the length by carefully dragging the sides in to our desired lengths.
What we edited.
Firstly, we went through the footage briefly with the razor tool trying to cut out any footage that we knew that we wasn't going to be using. We did not do this specifically, as we didn't want to cut things out which we may find we needed at a later stage. So, we decided to try and start fitting the lyric images to the song. We dragged the song onto the audio line and then found the first shot we needed (which was the extreme close up of Charlotte's mouth). Once we found this, we cut it down with the razor and dragged it to the beginning of the time-line where the music first started. We were actually able to line it up quite quickly, and to our luck we found that the lip-synch looked perfect.
For the next bit of the song, we wanted a nature shot. During filming, Sophie had suggested a spinning technique for a shot. She took the camera free hand, and recorded it whilst spinning round, to get the trees as the main image. This worked perfectly, and we decided that this was good to use for the beginning bit of the song to set the scene of where we were. We added it in with the razor tool. Then, we had a close up shot of Charlotte singing the second introductory line, so we decided to use it. We felt that it made sense using this shot because it was her lips that featured in the extreme close up, so it linked the two shots to make more sense. Again, this was easy to time. We then cut another section, which ironically was just footage of us walking where we hadn't turned the camera off. The shot worked well because it had a similiar 'nature' feel to the tree shot, so again the two shots had a link.
Following this, we then cut Charlottes verse. We decided that although this verse is going to feature other singers in it at various points, today we were only going to fit her bit in and then add it later once the initial footage is in place. We examined two different filmings of the verse, and decided to use the second one as the camera was more steady and when matched with the song the lip synching was much better. After this shot we then cut a piece of footage of me singing my first line; we had this from two different angles which we then combined together by finely cutting it down with the razor tool. Initially, we had a problem with continuity, whereby in the first shot when I am looking at the camera my eyes were open and then when we cut it to the second shot my eyes were suddenly closed. This looked like a very obvious problem, so we overcome it by shortening the length of the second shot and lengtehning the first one. This meant that the part with my eyes closed was cut out, and it fit much more nicely.
Effects we used when Editing:
Speed Reduction
We used speed reduction in the first nature scene, we did this because we felt the pace of the spinning was too fast for the song. To achieve this, we right clicked on the block of footage to open the drop down menu. From here, we clicked on the Speed/Duration option and this opened a seperate box. We then changed the Speed from 100% to 50%. We found that this helped keep the tone of the song.
Reverse Play
We used reverse play quite subtly in the second nature shot. Just by looking at it, you could think that we just filmed it walking backwards. We did this because we found that it showed us backing away from the distant figure sitting on the grass (Sophie) and then turning away from her. This looks effective as it looks almost like a point-of-view shot. Again we did this by right clicking and going onto Speed/Duration. To achieve the look we simply ticked the 'reverse play' box.
Cross Dissolve
We used cross disolve to soften the transition bewteen a few shots. We felt that the transition from the nature scene to Charlotte's opening verse was a little blunt, so we wanted an effect that made it more smooth. It has a nice effect because the scenery of both shots blend in really nice, and it makes an interesting transition shot. We achieved this by clicking Shot Transitions under the effects section, and dragging 'Cross Dissolve' onto the editing block.
Dip-to-Black
We wanted to use dip-to-black as another way to smooth transition (without re-using cross dissolve). We positioned it just after Charlotte's 'I miss missing you' close up, it comes in as soon as she has finished singing "you". It has pretty much the same effect but due to the scenery of the two shots we felt that dip-to-black was a better effect than cross dissolve. We achieved this by dragging the 'dip-to-black' effect onto the timeline, and inbetween the two shots. We then altered the length by carefully dragging the sides in to our desired lengths.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Us vs. The Saturdays!
Although we are you one of The Saturdays songs for our production and do in fact take influence from the group, it is important that we differentiate ourselves from what they have done in their video to the song.
Missing You - The Saturdays
Missing You - The Saturdays
Differences
The story behind the video: When we compare the story of our videos, we can see that they are not the same. In fact, the Saturdays don't really have a story behind their video as it is purely just them singing it in different locations. In ours, however, we have constructed a story behind it, using the flashbacks to represent a story that compliment the lyrics. I personally think that this is a better idea, purely because it gives the audience another point of interest as to just the artists.
The Locations: In the video, they are in a hot country. They have individual seperate locations (which we incorporated into our video), but it is a very summery theme and the locations include a beach and a grassy hills. Although we liked the idea of using a summery setting, we felt that using autumnal weather was more fitting for the lyrics of the song (as well as this, the sunshine was LONG gone by the time we started filming so we didn't actually have much time). We also use the inside of the house as a location, and this is not used at all in their video at any point.
The Costumes: This relates back to the locations, in the sense that they are dressed for summery weather. We, on the other hand, have gone for more of a mid-season look. The only problem with out costumes is that I'm wearing a scarf which makes it look very wintery. However, it was meant to be an accsessory.
The Party Scene: Towards the end of the song, they have a party scene in the video. We originally contemplated trying to replicate this in some way, but then we realised it would be too difficult to compose such a scene. Saying this, I'm glad we decided against it, because again I don't think it fits with the theme of the lyrics and I much prefer our idea of using a story containing flashbacks.
The story behind the video: When we compare the story of our videos, we can see that they are not the same. In fact, the Saturdays don't really have a story behind their video as it is purely just them singing it in different locations. In ours, however, we have constructed a story behind it, using the flashbacks to represent a story that compliment the lyrics. I personally think that this is a better idea, purely because it gives the audience another point of interest as to just the artists.
The Locations: In the video, they are in a hot country. They have individual seperate locations (which we incorporated into our video), but it is a very summery theme and the locations include a beach and a grassy hills. Although we liked the idea of using a summery setting, we felt that using autumnal weather was more fitting for the lyrics of the song (as well as this, the sunshine was LONG gone by the time we started filming so we didn't actually have much time). We also use the inside of the house as a location, and this is not used at all in their video at any point.
The Costumes: This relates back to the locations, in the sense that they are dressed for summery weather. We, on the other hand, have gone for more of a mid-season look. The only problem with out costumes is that I'm wearing a scarf which makes it look very wintery. However, it was meant to be an accsessory.
The Party Scene: Towards the end of the song, they have a party scene in the video. We originally contemplated trying to replicate this in some way, but then we realised it would be too difficult to compose such a scene. Saying this, I'm glad we decided against it, because again I don't think it fits with the theme of the lyrics and I much prefer our idea of using a story containing flashbacks.
Todays Activites! 13/10/10
For the first time in a long time, today I actually went to a media lesson rather than being absent due to filming through it. As filming now could not take place, we decided to spend some time focusing on editing because we are now in fact behind schedule.
What I achieved during the lesson:
- Uploading my anamatic onto blog! I have been meaning to do this for a while, but as we have missed so many lessons it kept slipping my mind. We composed the anamatic on Adobe Premier, we were able to add the song to the timeline. When then exported it into a Windows Media Player file so it was compatible with blogger.
- Uploading A2 Production Practice onto my blog! This was the small scale prelimary excercise that we carried out at the end of year 12. We went to knebworth house and in small groups practiced lip-synching and capturing interesting shots; I wanted to add this as evidence of our practicing, so you can find that under the title 'A2 Practice Production'.
Editing
As mentioned previously, we decided to try and do a bit of editing this lesson to make sure we do not fall behing schedule even more. However, as an hour of lesson was already gone we were aware that we wasn't going to achieve much so we only planned to focus on the series of four very short flashbacks at the beginning of the video before the music even starts. Here's how we did it:
1. Firstly, we seperated the footage of that particular section from the rest on the timeline so we were able to look more closely at it.
2. Next, we then started by roughly cutting out shots that were no use (these included shots that didn't work and bloopers).
3. Once we had finecombed these shots, we then started to reduce them down as they are only meant to last for about a second. Initially, we had trouble cutting it down because we kept making it too long.
4. After many attempts of reducing the lengths of each shot, we managed to perfectly time them to the timing that we had originally wanted (approximatley one second each).
5. Then, using the effects tool we highligted our footage and dragged the black & white effect onto it, so that our footage would now appear this way (as we want our flashbacks to be in black and white).
6. I then had an idea about adding a white dip between every shot for a dramatic effect; so we dragged on the white dip effect individually to each box, and shortened them down. We played around with how long we thought it should last, but in the end we decided as a group that it had more of an impact when it was extremely short and snappy (which Mrs Allison then went on to refer as 'tight' editing).
The Result
Sophie, Charlotte and I were extremley pleased with the result of this editing. We managed to achieve the exact look that we were going for and it actually worked out exactly how we planned. We all played a fair part in the editing process, and contributed euqally to achieve a good result. We had initial worries that we would not be able to achieve the desired effect, due to difficulty of cutting down the lengths of the shots so much (we weren't sure if it would make sense to our audience). However, we found that when the sequence was finished that it was clear enough for the audience to understand its purpose so we were very happy with the result!
Influence from Previous Production
As mentioned previously, today when editing we used the white dip effect. This was no fluke, I was having a conversation with a class mate about last years main production when I remembered that we had used this previously. Here are two screen grabs that show when the white dip is happening (they do not show the proper effect, but these are the most specific screen grabs I could get!:
Although these are two extremely different productions, in a sense we have used the white dip for a similar reason. In both productions they are being used as a seperation device to make the cut between each shot more of a friendly transition. It is especially useful in this current production, is it really emphasizes the fact that Joe has been with 4 other girls at seperate times. I think this simple edit is so effective as it just helps the audience to understand the concept of timing, and that it is flashbacks that are happening.
What I achieved during the lesson:
- Uploading my anamatic onto blog! I have been meaning to do this for a while, but as we have missed so many lessons it kept slipping my mind. We composed the anamatic on Adobe Premier, we were able to add the song to the timeline. When then exported it into a Windows Media Player file so it was compatible with blogger.
- Uploading A2 Production Practice onto my blog! This was the small scale prelimary excercise that we carried out at the end of year 12. We went to knebworth house and in small groups practiced lip-synching and capturing interesting shots; I wanted to add this as evidence of our practicing, so you can find that under the title 'A2 Practice Production'.
Editing
As mentioned previously, we decided to try and do a bit of editing this lesson to make sure we do not fall behing schedule even more. However, as an hour of lesson was already gone we were aware that we wasn't going to achieve much so we only planned to focus on the series of four very short flashbacks at the beginning of the video before the music even starts. Here's how we did it:
1. Firstly, we seperated the footage of that particular section from the rest on the timeline so we were able to look more closely at it.
2. Next, we then started by roughly cutting out shots that were no use (these included shots that didn't work and bloopers).
3. Once we had finecombed these shots, we then started to reduce them down as they are only meant to last for about a second. Initially, we had trouble cutting it down because we kept making it too long.
4. After many attempts of reducing the lengths of each shot, we managed to perfectly time them to the timing that we had originally wanted (approximatley one second each).
5. Then, using the effects tool we highligted our footage and dragged the black & white effect onto it, so that our footage would now appear this way (as we want our flashbacks to be in black and white).
6. I then had an idea about adding a white dip between every shot for a dramatic effect; so we dragged on the white dip effect individually to each box, and shortened them down. We played around with how long we thought it should last, but in the end we decided as a group that it had more of an impact when it was extremely short and snappy (which Mrs Allison then went on to refer as 'tight' editing).
The Result
Sophie, Charlotte and I were extremley pleased with the result of this editing. We managed to achieve the exact look that we were going for and it actually worked out exactly how we planned. We all played a fair part in the editing process, and contributed euqally to achieve a good result. We had initial worries that we would not be able to achieve the desired effect, due to difficulty of cutting down the lengths of the shots so much (we weren't sure if it would make sense to our audience). However, we found that when the sequence was finished that it was clear enough for the audience to understand its purpose so we were very happy with the result!
Influence from Previous Production
As mentioned previously, today when editing we used the white dip effect. This was no fluke, I was having a conversation with a class mate about last years main production when I remembered that we had used this previously. Here are two screen grabs that show when the white dip is happening (they do not show the proper effect, but these are the most specific screen grabs I could get!:
Although these are two extremely different productions, in a sense we have used the white dip for a similar reason. In both productions they are being used as a seperation device to make the cut between each shot more of a friendly transition. It is especially useful in this current production, is it really emphasizes the fact that Joe has been with 4 other girls at seperate times. I think this simple edit is so effective as it just helps the audience to understand the concept of timing, and that it is flashbacks that are happening.
CHANGES TO THE PLAN!
Please note that filming will not be taking place today as
planned, due to one of our actors not being ready to film.
Our new filming date for the flashback scenes will commence on Monday 18th October.
planned, due to one of our actors not being ready to film.
Our new filming date for the flashback scenes will commence on Monday 18th October.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Props for Flashbacks! (Emily & Joe)
Here are the props that we will be using in our flashback scenes:
A suitcase for Emily
A suitcase for Emily
A phone for Emily to pick up 
Dining Room table & Cutlery
Silver Corsa for Emily to drive away in
Clothes for Emily to pack
Plans for Flashback Shots (Emily & Joe)
Here are a list of shots that needs to be obtained. Obviously it is fair to accept that these may change on the final filming, and that extra shots may be added when we actually film as we will be able to experiment probperly with the camera.
Before the song starts:
1. Establishing shot of location.
2. Full shot of Emily leaving the house with the suitcase.
3. Close up of suitcase wheels.
4. Seperate shot of suitcase wheels purely for sound use.
5. Full shot of Joe following Emily out the house.
6. Shot-reverse-shot of Emily and Joe's conversation.
7. Close up of Emilys reaction after quick flashback succession.
8. Over the shoulder shot of Emily walking to the car.
9. Close up of Joe's facial reaction.
10. Long shot of Emilys car driving away.
Flashbacks during the song:
1. Mirror Shot (as practiced in the barn).
2. Close up shots of Emilys 'upset face'
3. Close up shots of Joes 'upset face'.
4. Switched focus shot of them in the same room.
5. Full shot of them sitting at opposite ends of the dinner table.
6. High Angle shot of Emily picking up Joe's phone to read texts.
7. Medium Close Ups of them shouting at eachother.
8. Full shot of Emily looking out the window sorrowfully as Joe is outside gardening.
9. Extreme close up of Emily's crying eyes.
10. Full shot of her throwing something at him from across the room.
11. Extreme close up of Joe's face when he's shouting (sort of like a point of view shot).
(These are just some pre-decided shots that we need to get, but we will add more when we are at the location - it is hard to plan with the location change so we will be improvising some shots whilst there).
Towards the end of Song:
1. Full shot of Emily packing her case (the same outfit as the beginning of the song).
2. Extreme close ups of her picking out clothes from a draw.
3. Full shot of her zipping the case up.
4. Full Shot from the front angle of her wheeling the case out the bedroom.
5. Full shot from behind of the same shot.
6. Low Angle shot of her coming down the stairs with the case.
7. Full shot of her walking past Joe and him standing up.
8. Close up of Joe's confused face.
9. Full Shot of him following her out the house from behind (both are in shot - this then links back to the beginning where she first walks out the house).
Monday, 11 October 2010
The Lyrics & their meaning!
Here are the lyrics to the song 'Missing You'. I have coloured coded it to show which lines people will be singing, the codes are as follows:
Charlotte (Frankie)
Laura (Vanessa)
Sophie (Mollie)
Jodie (Rochelle)
All together
The Song
I miss missing you
I miss missing you
Where's the pain when you walk out the door
It doesn't hurt like it used to before
Where's the love that we couldn't ignore
It doesn't kick like a pill anymore
Where's the thrill at the end of our fights
Where's the heat when we turn off the lights
I just miss all the miss that we made
When we still have the passion to hate
I miss missing you, sometimes
I miss hurting you 'til you cry
I miss watching you as you try
Try not to end up in tears
Begging to get back together
I just want you to be
To be stuck in a second forever
So don't freak out if I leave.
Sometimes I'm just missing
Missing You
I miss missing you
There’s a dark cloud pulling me in
That’s the girl I was breathing in sin
There’s a blind force letting it win
And it’s longing to tear us apart
I get high when you’re making me weak
Let me down ’til I crawl on my knee’s
I just miss all the mess that we made
When we still have the passion to hate
I miss missing you sometimes
I miss hurting you ’til you cry
I miss watching you as you try
Try not to end up in tear’s
Begging to get back together
I just want you to be
To be stuck in this second forever
So don’t freak out if I leave
Sometimes I’m just missing, missing you
I miss missing you
Miss missing, miss missing, miss missing
I wanna crush in your arms at the other side of the world
Miss missing, miss missing, miss missing
I wanna die for you ’cause love is only true if it hurts
I miss missing you sometimes
I miss hurting you ’til you cry
I miss watching you as you try
Try not to end up in tear’s (ooh)
Begging to get back together (together)
I just want you to be (want you to be, yeah)
To be stuck in this second forever
So don’t freak out if I leave
Sometimes I’m just missing (I’m missing)
Missing you (no, missing you)
I miss missing you
Meaning of the Lyrics
The song isn't a typical love song like the title would suggest, it is infact a song about someone missing the bad times in the relationship. Although this does not seem like it would make much sense, it is reffering to the adrenaline and excitement of being in a heated relationship as well as the drama of a breakup and post-breakup.
Charlotte (Frankie)
Laura (Vanessa)
Sophie (Mollie)
Jodie (Rochelle)
All together
The Song
I miss missing you
I miss missing you
Where's the pain when you walk out the door
It doesn't hurt like it used to before
Where's the love that we couldn't ignore
It doesn't kick like a pill anymore
Where's the thrill at the end of our fights
Where's the heat when we turn off the lights
I just miss all the miss that we made
When we still have the passion to hate
I miss missing you, sometimes
I miss hurting you 'til you cry
I miss watching you as you try
Try not to end up in tears
Begging to get back together
I just want you to be
To be stuck in a second forever
So don't freak out if I leave.
Sometimes I'm just missing
Missing You
I miss missing you
There’s a dark cloud pulling me in
That’s the girl I was breathing in sin
There’s a blind force letting it win
And it’s longing to tear us apart
I get high when you’re making me weak
Let me down ’til I crawl on my knee’s
I just miss all the mess that we made
When we still have the passion to hate
I miss missing you sometimes
I miss hurting you ’til you cry
I miss watching you as you try
Try not to end up in tear’s
Begging to get back together
I just want you to be
To be stuck in this second forever
So don’t freak out if I leave
Sometimes I’m just missing, missing you
I miss missing you
Miss missing, miss missing, miss missing
I wanna crush in your arms at the other side of the world
Miss missing, miss missing, miss missing
I wanna die for you ’cause love is only true if it hurts
I miss missing you sometimes
I miss hurting you ’til you cry
I miss watching you as you try
Try not to end up in tear’s (ooh)
Begging to get back together (together)
I just want you to be (want you to be, yeah)
To be stuck in this second forever
So don’t freak out if I leave
Sometimes I’m just missing (I’m missing)
Missing you (no, missing you)
I miss missing you
Meaning of the Lyrics
The song isn't a typical love song like the title would suggest, it is infact a song about someone missing the bad times in the relationship. Although this does not seem like it would make much sense, it is reffering to the adrenaline and excitement of being in a heated relationship as well as the drama of a breakup and post-breakup.
Ideas for Editing Effects
The video above shows editing techniques that we practiced prior to the main production. They Show:
1. Reverse Play
2. Sped Up Footage
3. Slow Motion
We did this incase we decided we wanted to use any of them in our main production, and it meant we had the skills to do so. In this video we felt that the slow mo and reverse play was most effective.
Potential Effects in Our Own Video
We have come to the conclusion that we are using some of these effects in our video. We are using reverse play on the anti-climax of the song, to show the couple going from be super happy to utterly broken. We feel that this will be very effective as it will show the slow transition from their relationship. We also have the idea to merge an image of Jodie singing her lines over this part of the song. We have considered using slow motion at the very climax of the song, to go for a really dramatic effect.
Of course, none of this is fully planned but we are filming to adapt to these needs. We will obviously decide whether to fully use them when we are editing.
Target Audience
I have been thinking more in depth about the target audience we are aiming the video at. It is important that we try and adapt to the criteria that we believe they are looking for in their videos.
So, I have asked 6 different people between the ages of 18-35 to tell me their favourite music video, they are both female and male as we have identified that both genders are targeted in different ways. I have then analysed the data they have given me to see whether our video has any similarities or differences to these videos, and too look deeper into why it is. I asked them strictly to think about the video as opposed to the song itself, and name 3 things they particularly like; but I have to bare in mind that that the song may have a slight influence on the choices they make. I did not specify how recent the video had to be, but I did suspect that I would get more recent videos than old purely because the newer ones will probably the ones that come to their minds first.
The videos that were chosen:
1. Male, 20 years old.
Name of song: Day 'n Nite
Artist: Kid Cudi vs. Crookers
1. The comic element to it (the over the-top mise en scene especially!)
2. The women featured in the video
3. The quick pace to it (this is in terms of editing).
2. Female, 19 years old.
Song: Heartbeat
Artist: Enrique Iglesias (feat. Nicole Scherzinger)
1. The use of a black background with the coloured patterns lit up all over their bodies.
2. The mirror scenes, where there are multiple reflections of Enrique and Nicole.
3. The performance of the artists when together at the end.
3. Male, 23 years old
Song: Miami 2 Ibiza
Artist: Tinie Tempah (feat. Swedish House Mafia)
1. The quick editing pace
2. The special effects (the black and white scenes, the CCTV style filming, and the use of two images overlapping).
3. The wide range of locations used (the areoplane, underwater, the house, the club etc).
4. Female, 18 years old.
Song: If I Were a Boy
Artist: Beyonce
1. The story line (how in the first half of the song the visuals contradict the lyrics).
2. The use of black and white flashbacks, makes it look modern.
3. That it isn't purely actors pefromance, and the story makes it like a mini-film.
5, Male, 26 years old.
Song: Buttons
Artists: The Pussycat Dolls
1. The artists costumes, they are minimal and black.
2. The illusion of them being naked during the video.
3. The additional dance scene in the middle of the song.
6. Female, 29 years old.
Song: Fight for this Love
Artist: Cheryl Cole
1. The various outfit changes she has in the song, especially the military style jacket.
2. The special effects (anamation).
3. The choreography and colour scheme.
Data Analysis:
So, after collecting the results, I tried to categorise the main features of the video that people liked:
1. Comedy (1)
2. Artist Appearance (3)
2. Actors Appearance (1)
3. Special Effects (4)
4. Choregraphy (2)
5. Storyline (1)
6. Costumes (2)
7. Editing (2)
8. Locations (1)
Conclusion:
My mini-investigation shows that Special Effects seems to be the thing that the target audience we are aiming for enjoys most about a video. For our group, this isn't overly good as we are not using any impressive SFX in our video (only the use of black and white and then reverse play in the final bridge). However, we have combined elements of every other feature listed. For example, we have catered for the need of costumes, storyline, various locations, choregraphy and appearance of artists/actors.
Overall, I am confident that we are atleast hitting some of the criteria for this age group. The investigation is simply not big enough to generalise it to the whole target audience but it does give us a slight indication to what people want to see. In terms of the videos chosen, I was right in predicting that more recent videos would probably be chosen. On top of this, the selection of the Pussy Cat Dolls song and the reasons for this choice proves my original theory about girl groups wanting to appeal to their male audience even though the majority of their fans are female.
So, I have asked 6 different people between the ages of 18-35 to tell me their favourite music video, they are both female and male as we have identified that both genders are targeted in different ways. I have then analysed the data they have given me to see whether our video has any similarities or differences to these videos, and too look deeper into why it is. I asked them strictly to think about the video as opposed to the song itself, and name 3 things they particularly like; but I have to bare in mind that that the song may have a slight influence on the choices they make. I did not specify how recent the video had to be, but I did suspect that I would get more recent videos than old purely because the newer ones will probably the ones that come to their minds first.
The videos that were chosen:
1. Male, 20 years old.
Name of song: Day 'n Nite
Artist: Kid Cudi vs. Crookers
1. The comic element to it (the over the-top mise en scene especially!)
2. The women featured in the video
3. The quick pace to it (this is in terms of editing).
2. Female, 19 years old.
Song: Heartbeat
Artist: Enrique Iglesias (feat. Nicole Scherzinger)
1. The use of a black background with the coloured patterns lit up all over their bodies.
2. The mirror scenes, where there are multiple reflections of Enrique and Nicole.
3. The performance of the artists when together at the end.
3. Male, 23 years old
Song: Miami 2 Ibiza
Artist: Tinie Tempah (feat. Swedish House Mafia)
1. The quick editing pace
2. The special effects (the black and white scenes, the CCTV style filming, and the use of two images overlapping).
3. The wide range of locations used (the areoplane, underwater, the house, the club etc).
4. Female, 18 years old.
Song: If I Were a Boy
Artist: Beyonce
1. The story line (how in the first half of the song the visuals contradict the lyrics).
2. The use of black and white flashbacks, makes it look modern.
3. That it isn't purely actors pefromance, and the story makes it like a mini-film.
5, Male, 26 years old.
Song: Buttons
Artists: The Pussycat Dolls
1. The artists costumes, they are minimal and black.
2. The illusion of them being naked during the video.
3. The additional dance scene in the middle of the song.
6. Female, 29 years old.
Song: Fight for this Love
Artist: Cheryl Cole
1. The various outfit changes she has in the song, especially the military style jacket.
2. The special effects (anamation).
3. The choreography and colour scheme.
Data Analysis:
So, after collecting the results, I tried to categorise the main features of the video that people liked:
1. Comedy (1)
2. Artist Appearance (3)
2. Actors Appearance (1)
3. Special Effects (4)
4. Choregraphy (2)
5. Storyline (1)
6. Costumes (2)
7. Editing (2)
8. Locations (1)
Conclusion:
My mini-investigation shows that Special Effects seems to be the thing that the target audience we are aiming for enjoys most about a video. For our group, this isn't overly good as we are not using any impressive SFX in our video (only the use of black and white and then reverse play in the final bridge). However, we have combined elements of every other feature listed. For example, we have catered for the need of costumes, storyline, various locations, choregraphy and appearance of artists/actors.
Overall, I am confident that we are atleast hitting some of the criteria for this age group. The investigation is simply not big enough to generalise it to the whole target audience but it does give us a slight indication to what people want to see. In terms of the videos chosen, I was right in predicting that more recent videos would probably be chosen. On top of this, the selection of the Pussy Cat Dolls song and the reasons for this choice proves my original theory about girl groups wanting to appeal to their male audience even though the majority of their fans are female.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Plans for the Upcoming Week.
This week (starting from Monday 11th October 2010), my group and I have several aims which we are planning to accomplish:
1. Upload Anamatic onto my blog.
2. Plan detailed shots for flashback filming day (waiting for conformation for Wednesday)
3. Upload all material gathered so far onto the computer, and go through with group to identify any things we need to re-shoot, add or take out.
4. Actually film the last footage that we need of Emily and Joe.
5. Take pictures of new location and upload onto my blog.
6. Research ideas into the ancillary tasks (Digi-pack and Magazine advert).
1. Upload Anamatic onto my blog.
2. Plan detailed shots for flashback filming day (waiting for conformation for Wednesday)
3. Upload all material gathered so far onto the computer, and go through with group to identify any things we need to re-shoot, add or take out.
4. Actually film the last footage that we need of Emily and Joe.
5. Take pictures of new location and upload onto my blog.
6. Research ideas into the ancillary tasks (Digi-pack and Magazine advert).
Intertextuality in our Production
Intertexuality is when certain features and/or elements of our production directly link to existing media products that the audience the would immediately recognise.
The following clip is taken from a classic episode whereby they include Planet of the Apes references in a musical. They have Dr.Zaius included in this clip (a fictional character from the film and television programme.
Our Music Video
In our video so far, we do not really have any obvious examples of intertextuality as we tried to base our video around original ideas. However, saying this I have thought of some ideas we could potentially try to incorporate for our final shoot (where we are filming the couples flashbacks). I feel that this is the most easy section of our video to try and achieve this, because there are many famous media couples that we could look at.
My first example, is Ross and Rachel from American sit-com Friends. They have an on-going fued through the majority of the 10 series about whether they were on a break when Ross slept with someone else. The famous "We were on a break!" has appeared in several episodes throughout the years, and we could potentially add this line to our beginning dialouge. The only downside to this idea is the fact that this is quite a comical line, and it may not fit in with the tone of the video. Even if we were to get Joe or Emily to say it in a serious matter it would detract from the whole point of intertexuality because it doesn't have a great resemblence, as the whole fame of that quote orignates from the way it is said.
The second idea I had was a very quick thought that I had when shooting in Sophies house the other day. She has a banaster which is on a raised floor that overlooks the living room, and when i was standing by it on the pointed edge that I suddenly had the image of the famous Titanic scene, where they are on the end of the boat. We could potentially try and use that in Emily's and Joe's scenes, and people should be able to understand the reference. It may work really well, but on the other hand it may not and we might decide to include it. Either way, I've noted it down to try on the day of filming.
The following clip is taken from a classic episode whereby they include Planet of the Apes references in a musical. They have Dr.Zaius included in this clip (a fictional character from the film and television programme.
Our Music Video
In our video so far, we do not really have any obvious examples of intertextuality as we tried to base our video around original ideas. However, saying this I have thought of some ideas we could potentially try to incorporate for our final shoot (where we are filming the couples flashbacks). I feel that this is the most easy section of our video to try and achieve this, because there are many famous media couples that we could look at.
My first example, is Ross and Rachel from American sit-com Friends. They have an on-going fued through the majority of the 10 series about whether they were on a break when Ross slept with someone else. The famous "We were on a break!" has appeared in several episodes throughout the years, and we could potentially add this line to our beginning dialouge. The only downside to this idea is the fact that this is quite a comical line, and it may not fit in with the tone of the video. Even if we were to get Joe or Emily to say it in a serious matter it would detract from the whole point of intertexuality because it doesn't have a great resemblence, as the whole fame of that quote orignates from the way it is said.
The second idea I had was a very quick thought that I had when shooting in Sophies house the other day. She has a banaster which is on a raised floor that overlooks the living room, and when i was standing by it on the pointed edge that I suddenly had the image of the famous Titanic scene, where they are on the end of the boat. We could potentially try and use that in Emily's and Joe's scenes, and people should be able to understand the reference. It may work really well, but on the other hand it may not and we might decide to include it. Either way, I've noted it down to try on the day of filming.
Social Networks!
Social Networks have become a huge part in the music industry, where by they are used to target the younger audience. They offer the artist the chance to:
1. Share their images.
2. Share their music.
3. Share their news.
4. Share their thoughts.
5. Share their updates.
Although most artists does have official web pages, where there are forums and other online activites, social networks offer a much more personal relationship between the fan and the artist; on Twitter, you even get a chance to follow your artist and talk to them personally! So this is what I tried to do with the Saturdays.
This is a screen grab of The Saturdays official website.
You may not be able to see from the size of the picture, but on the top right corner there is a link to four social networking sites that the Saturdays have an artists profile on.
There are four main social networking sites, these are:
Facebook
Facebook is more for the artist to share news and updates with. Some artists chose to write in the third person or have a representative doing it, but The Saturdays do it personally.
Twitter
Twitter is where the artist will be really personal, the Saturdays will personally 'tweet' their thoughts as well as band updates.
MySpace
Myspace has one main purpose and that is for music. There is a music box on their page with their latest song which enables you to listen to them online.
YouTube
YouTube is the least personal, whereby you barely communicate or find out much about the bands updates. However, it allows you to watch their music videos AND any other video of them that has been uploaded.
My Personal attempt to contact The Saturdays!
Although the most realistic site for me to expect any kind of feedback from is Twitter, I decided to use facebook as I don't have a Twitter account. I did this by leaving a private inbox message for them; the likelihood of them replying is very low as i'm sure they recieve hundreds of these messages, but I won't let that dissapoint me. Even without their advice, I'm sure my group and I can produce a high quality video to their song!
1. Share their images.
2. Share their music.
3. Share their news.
4. Share their thoughts.
5. Share their updates.
Although most artists does have official web pages, where there are forums and other online activites, social networks offer a much more personal relationship between the fan and the artist; on Twitter, you even get a chance to follow your artist and talk to them personally! So this is what I tried to do with the Saturdays.
This is a screen grab of The Saturdays official website.
You may not be able to see from the size of the picture, but on the top right corner there is a link to four social networking sites that the Saturdays have an artists profile on.
There are four main social networking sites, these are:
Facebook is more for the artist to share news and updates with. Some artists chose to write in the third person or have a representative doing it, but The Saturdays do it personally.
Twitter is where the artist will be really personal, the Saturdays will personally 'tweet' their thoughts as well as band updates.
MySpace
Myspace has one main purpose and that is for music. There is a music box on their page with their latest song which enables you to listen to them online.
YouTube
YouTube is the least personal, whereby you barely communicate or find out much about the bands updates. However, it allows you to watch their music videos AND any other video of them that has been uploaded.
My Personal attempt to contact The Saturdays!
Although the most realistic site for me to expect any kind of feedback from is Twitter, I decided to use facebook as I don't have a Twitter account. I did this by leaving a private inbox message for them; the likelihood of them replying is very low as i'm sure they recieve hundreds of these messages, but I won't let that dissapoint me. Even without their advice, I'm sure my group and I can produce a high quality video to their song!
Institutional Researh
The Saturdays are signed to a label called Fascination Records, a UK-based record label which is owned by Universal Music Group (and is currently operating as a sub-label of Polydor).
Fascination Facts!
1. They label themselves Polydor Records 'boutique pop devision'.
2. It was developed 5 years ago in 2004 by Peter Loraine, a former magazine editor (TOTP). He worked previsouly as Polydor's Marketing Director, and was the reason that Girls Aloud managed to acheive a run of 20 consecutive top 10 hits (which broke a record).
3. To this day, Fascination boasts 16 top 10 singles and 12 top 10 albums.
4. Unintentionally, the label is now the UK's unofficial home of the girlbands. They have signed acts such as Girls Aloud, The Saturdays (OBVIOUSLY) and even Bananarama.
5. The label oversees all of ABBA's UK music 'comings and goings', this includes things from film 'Mama Mia', and 2006s 'Number Ones' Albums.
Pre-established Acts
The Saturdays
Girls Aloud
Cherly Cole
Sophie Ellis Bexter
Across the Border
Fascination runs somewhat in conjunction with US label Hollywood Records, and often handles the release of their acts in the UK. They include:
The Jonas Brothers
Miley Cyrus
Selena Gomez
Soundtracks & Compilations!
Mamma Mia!
Britannia High
Skins
St. Trinians
Fascination Facts!
1. They label themselves Polydor Records 'boutique pop devision'.
2. It was developed 5 years ago in 2004 by Peter Loraine, a former magazine editor (TOTP). He worked previsouly as Polydor's Marketing Director, and was the reason that Girls Aloud managed to acheive a run of 20 consecutive top 10 hits (which broke a record).
3. To this day, Fascination boasts 16 top 10 singles and 12 top 10 albums.
4. Unintentionally, the label is now the UK's unofficial home of the girlbands. They have signed acts such as Girls Aloud, The Saturdays (OBVIOUSLY) and even Bananarama.
5. The label oversees all of ABBA's UK music 'comings and goings', this includes things from film 'Mama Mia', and 2006s 'Number Ones' Albums.
Pre-established Acts
The Saturdays
Girls Aloud
Cherly Cole
Sophie Ellis Bexter
Across the Border
Fascination runs somewhat in conjunction with US label Hollywood Records, and often handles the release of their acts in the UK. They include:
The Jonas Brothers
Miley Cyrus
Selena Gomez
Soundtracks & Compilations!
Mamma Mia!
Britannia High
Skins
St. Trinians
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