Log 5 -Finished Music Video

Today I finished my music video for Cope, my final thoughts on it are I'm happy with how it looks and narratively are still positive, and I'm still happy with how it has been received by my class mates who fall in the target audience, who all appreciate it with how it's gone. I am mostly pleased that it has stayed to a high standard, and can be put up to full 1080p HD when on Youtube, which is exciting, as it means it can be displayed the best it can be, which makes me happy.

I'm ready to now not see it for another 2 weeks, and enjoy my Christmas break, because listening to that song every day over and over for a month has gotten kind of tiring.

Final Music Video

My Final Video, complete with all shots and edits on, it is done.

2nd peer feedback

Today I showed my 3rd Rough Cut to my class and asked for feedback, each person wrote out a selection of feedback notes and gave them to me, I then noted them down into further notes

Although the feedback was appreciated, I have selectively not taken on board a lot of it, especially the parts of where some of my class have not understood narrative, as these people would not classify as my target audience, where as the members of my class who would fall partially in my target audience have enjoyed and appreciates the narrative, calling it an interesting concept. I plan on heading forward in my work, as you can't please everyone in the world. 

DigiPak Model/Rough Cut

During the production of my rough cut, I have printed out a scale model of my digipak to make sure the task at hand works fluently and accurately before finalising my product, during this point, I had chose a different selection of images, having a mirror of the front covers on the back, however this differed having no image of the masked protagonist on it.

This was changed later as discussed in my editing blog about what was an appropriate image to select, making the digipak a lot more interesting.

Poster

Again, sticking with the design of the video, and the digipak, having the same imagery from the digipak, this makes connections between the two, and shows a larger more detailed image of the cover, connecting the two which would make the connections for audience.

Final CD

This is my final CD for my digipak, although it is not that in depth in imagery, it reflects true media products having a very simple look with simple text, not having too much on the disc to take away from the images on the digipak.

Final Digipak

This is my final digipak, this is what is left after feedback about what was needed on the product, about possibly changing some of the images etc. I am happy with this piece, after some deliberation of if i should keep my original intention, reflecting a real media product, or over editing the image and removing my intention for more interesting editing on photoshop.

Feedback from Rhys

Today, I had more feedback from Rhys Stevens, a previous student on my course, who now goes to Staffordshire University, and also won the RTS award for his music video 2 years ago.
Like Ben, he looked at my music video, and gave me some feedback for my video, looking at what I could improve.

His Feedback given to me is for the scenes at the beach, he feels like the nice day doesn't capture the grungy feel, so he suggested doing a small amount of colour correction, or possibly adding an overlay on top so it can be a little more in depth and capture the "grungy" feel, maybe something that tints the screen red or green. I feel like I may take this on board, and then go a little more in depth at it, possibly experimenting with the combat filter on the film giving it a darker look, and slightly more cinematic look.

Editing Blog 3

This is the details of what I have done in my 3rd Rough Cut, looking in detail to what I have done and what has happened since rough cut 2, also, how i think the work has improved etc.

Feedback from Ben

Today I received vocal feedback from Ben, one of the Lecturers at Teeside university, who works in screenwriting, and music videos. He watched my video thoroughly and then gave me some feedback, in his opinion what I could work on.

His feedback given was that the news reporter needed to come across more dystopian, more "Big Brother" and he needed to maybe be a bit more menacing towards the end, I took this feedback on board, and using it to use a wider, and broader selection of filters on top, including aura, which, when tweaked right, gave the look of the Reporters skin being burned, or being on fire. I also sped the footage towards the end, making small details sped up, and more distorted and cynical. This feedback I felt was useful, as it helped develop my intention completely, of this dystopian tsar like character.

Stock Footage Collection

For my music video, I have selected some stock footage of Fire burning, as well as an old film style countdown that will actually be used in my film, as well as a couple of film burns that have been tried and tested in my film, and unfortunately they did not work. All my stock footage has been obtained from the royalty free site frootagecrate.com, taking a few days to download everything, having only 2 free downloads a day.

 

Rough Cut 3

This is My 3rd rough cut, looking further into my video, and the deeper angles going into final stages into the film, having only one shot to add. This new cut has a lot more editing done to it all, including use of overlay footage sourced from royalty free sites.

Editing Blog 2

This is my editing blog for my 2nd Rough Cut

Rough Cut 2

This is my 2nd Rough Cut for my music video, looking at different areas of work, to progress forward etc.

Editing Blog 1

This is a blog post, talking about the editing processes behind my first rough cut, and what I did to exactly edit my video appropriately etc.

Map 2 Interim Feedback

This is my map 2 interim feedback, it shows that I am on track and all I need to do is finish my animatic and post my draft ideas, then start my ancillaries, this I shall do as soon as possible.

Rough Cut 1

This is my first rough cut, it is an unfinished product, not gone through the entire editing process, it is approx. just under 1/3 of the entire content of the music video, having only a few interesting edits so far, as well as a few nice lip sync, and instrument sync as well.

Peer feedback 1

This is my first peer feedback, it discusses 3 good points and 2 areas to improve on im my video, the good thing is all the essentials such as thought beats and lip syncs are all good and too a high standard, as well as a lot of nice footage quality comments, what has been said is that the narrative is unclear, however, these people are not all my target audience and are not expecting and unclear thought provoking narrative as such, so I should take their feedback with a pinch of salt

Rushes

Here is a link to a playlist of my rushes, all together. These are just a small amount of my chosen shots, and i will be selecting the footage that is appropriate carefully, so my intended message is not lost throughout.

Poster idea 2

Having the same idea as poster one, it would be essentially the same but with different images to match digipak idea 2, the same we stores are advertised, and same concept follow

Poster idea 1

This poster is here having a full image which would be the same as the front cover of the digipak and and would share its themes of real world distorted, I have also thought about advertisement having images of how to digitally download and where to buy it like iTunes

etc.

Digipak idea 2

This is my second digipak idea, the images are similar to my other digipak, with similar themes and concept of realy world skewed, however it focuses more on the characters in the video, creating a higher brand identity

Digipak idea 1

This is my first digipak idea, it has a lot of images from the music video to create brand identity, it also reflect the normal world with something wrong feel my music video will have, so this enhances brand identity throughout my work and would be a good choice to select

Cd idea 3

My third idea is use the anti-cross from my music video as the background of the CD, I think this creates brand identity to the music video, however I think it looks really unprofessional and a bit too much visually, so I don't think I will use this.

Cd2

I decided I wanted this CD even more simplistic, without the block, I like this idea but I think CD1 looks more like the front cover, however this is more similar to actual albums such as ADTR's Common Courtesy, and I think it looks a lot smoother

Cd idea 1

This is my first CD idea, I decided I wanted to go for a simplistic look, as of the business of the potential album, this keeps it very simple and plain, similar to typical CDs which is good as it reflects real life

Shooting Blog - 29th October

Today we filmed the bulk of the remaining footage for the work, filming a long Seaton Promenade, and continuing in Seaton Dunes, again using the track an Dolly, filming from approximately mid day to 3pm spending about 1.15hr in each location with half an hour for lunch.

The first part of the recording came really easily, having great weather, and dry ground to safely set up the track and jib, along with the camera. I set my ISO being 100, being a bright day, and had the exposure set as high as possible, just so I could get nice footage without a UV filter, as I do not own one. The track proved a powerful asset in looking at the footage back, seeing that it added an interesting depth to my footage, especially moving at a different speed to the action.

When it came to filming on the dunes, I had a problem, when it came to filming the fire igniting, we could not get the fire to ignite properly, and largely enough to make impacting footage, especially to the standard that I would like. This means that I have to resort to some clever footage of fire at another point in time, or, worst come to worse, find free sock footage to use for a small amount.

Shooting Blog - 28th October

Today was a short shoot on the narrative, of doing the house scenes in the video, the shoot only lasted an hour and a half starting at approx. 11.30am and finishing at 1pm.

The most tedious part of shooting today was the shots in which the Tv had to be playing the news presenter behind protagonist, as the small part of footage was not long enough to continuously shoot after each other for a variety of shots to choose from, however this was quickly recovered by the use of making a youtube playlist, and having the video on repeat.

When filming the protagonist in the main corridor it was darker than expected, and I did not want to change the ISO setting on the camera, and loose some of the quality, so instead, myself and Alice, who was on set, used our phone's flashlights to light the mask up a small amount, which proved fruitful, as well, we got the shot slightly out of focus, which became an asset, as it shows how the main protagonist is out of focus in what is happening around him, he seems out of place.

Shooting Blog - 27th October

Today we shot at Stranton All-Saints church in Hartlepool between 6pm and 10.20pm, this was in order to get a dark atmosphere needed for the band filming inside the church.

I arrived at 5.20pm to start setting up for the first dose of filming, getting everything in order to make the shots needed this evening, having to get it all filmed on this day, as of the difficulty with booking a church around Autumn/ Winter time.

Setting up was easy, I was assisted by Jordan who was playing the drummer this evening to set up the main stage, we appropriated our smoke machines and spot light first setting them up and lining them up for shooting, allowing the smoke machines time to warm up before use. After this we set up by bringing the amps down from the balcony store we have in the church, as well as the drum kit, getting that ready to be played. Finally I set up the track and jib horizontally across to be able to get interesting pan shots.

We then went on to shoot the footage, spending all the time, after Doug and Lewis came, to film intensively, using the track and storyboard to get my required shots, we decided it would be best to film chronologically as it will help me when it comes to my edit, although this meant we had to arrange spot lights and the track and job constantly for every instrument and singing shots.

The only real problem shots I had were the shots of myself singing, this was because directing the video, and getting the shot right was slightly difficult to negotiate, so i directed the movement of the track, while Jordan listened, and helped move the jib to my instruction, this eventually came out well by the end.

Animatic

This is my animatic for my Music Video for Cope, it has what I expect each frame to look like while filming up close and personal. I have set each frame up accurately for what I want to be shown at different times, looking in detail at the small transitions, and possible effects I would also like. All in all, I think it gives my intended feel that I was hoping for, in drawing format.

Map 2 Feedback

This feedback is for my Map 2 for my R&P, it just shows that I am on track for my project and have reached level 4 as long as I keep this standard it will all be good

Casting

This is my casting form, this looks into each of my cast members in detail, and has a small description of why I have chose them, on merit, musical talent, and performance talent.

Casting from MatAppelyardMedia

Storyboard

This is my storyboard, similar to my shooting schedule it shows visually how every shot in my music video will be framed, and how it will look visually, however, the detail of most the action etc. in annotated in the shooting schedule, where as this gives a look of the imagery behind that, the 2 go hand in hand, as they both give clear notation of each shot, which I can use on set.

Audience Research

This is my survey monkey which i did as part of my research.

This is an in depth focus group that I assembled to get some insight into what I should do to appeal to my  audience.

Shooting Schedule

A2 media studies shooting schedule from MatAppelyardMedia

This is my shooting schedule, it has a lot of detail about every shot I am going to make, discussing the backdrop, Mise-En-Scene and what his happening in each shot, this will be useful to have with me when shooting as i can highlight it once done

Recce Shots and Risk Assessment

Recce Shots and Risk Assessment from MatAppelyardMedia

This is my Risk Assessment and Recce shots, it has images of the potential locations for my music video shoot, inside, it discusses how accessible the areas are, the possibilities of catering and phoning, as well as, what can endanger cast and crew at each location, and how each risk can be minimised. It also says what actions can be taken if anything goes seriously wrong.

Call Sheets

Call sheet shoot 1 from MatAppelyardMedia

6Call sheet shoot 2 from MatAppelyardMedia

Call sheet shoot 3 from MatAppelyardMedia

Call sheet shoot 4 from MatAppelyardMedia

Cast Chat cont.

This is a continued chat for the cast, discussing time and dates, giving them the information so I can have a smooth filming process.

Personal thoughts and Progress blog 2

Yesterday (8th Oct) marked the first day of my shoot, I brought my camera into the location, and set the camera up to my desired functions, having exposure set to 30 and having my ISO set to 200 for higher quality footage. We set up the table, and put on the media studio lights in which I positioned the lights appropriately to have the best effect on footage of Josh, set against the dark background.

I showed him part of my story board, and gave him a basic brief of what I wanted to do, and what I wanted him to do as my actor. The shoot took approximately 40 minutes, and I have over 20 takes from different angles of Josh acting as the news presenter. I feel like it went really well, having no high tensions, no anxiety or conflict between cast and crew, and we got a lot of great shots, while having fun of what we have done.

As well as this, I have managed to talk to Rev. Norman Shave of Stranton church, in which I asked him my potential date for filming the band shots, to which he said that it was fine for that date which means full steam ahead.

Audience Profile

Dear Moderator, in this white space, I had an embedded grooveshark playlist featuring songs that my audience would listen to, unfortunately and unforeseen, Grooveshark has been taken down as of early May, and now it is no longer playable. Sorry for any inconvenience, however a screenshot of it is available in Q4 of my evaluation, and it evidences what it would of looked like.

Lyrics Breakdown

This is my lyrics breakdown, it has the timings of each line of the song, as well as, narrated outlines of my ideas, following the lyrics, and where about what would be on the screen at certain lines in the songs, including times where there are musical breakdowns.

 

Progress Blog: thoughts behind audience research

Today, while collecting my audience research from an email I sent out via Survey Monkey, I had a negative reply about my music video idea from potential audience, in which the person said through comments that they thought my idea was pretentious and gave too much of a moral high ground on religion, it have faith too much authority, and said that my idea had nothing to do with the song. Although I feel like this person had missed the point, how the video is not about a high ground set in religion, but rather a critique on how media obsessed our society has become, and with so much media in the world frowning on religion, and preaching that there is no God, what it would be like living with faith in extremist conditions, where it becomes so difficult to bare with a society that doesn't accept other peoples opinions and how confusing the world has become I any situation not just religion. Although I may not of expressed my idea as clearly as I would of liked to having only limited space, I find it interesting to see other peoples opinions on certain aspects, and although it does anger me how someone could miss the point so much, and say that the idea has nothing to do with the song, I feel this is important to accept and discuss, as this idea clearly emotes some form of emotional response from people, and that's what is important for me to have people think, and if people don't agree with it's message that's okay, because after all, music and visual media is an art form, and that means it is completely open to personal expression both positive and negative, and this will have to be accepted. I will however have to make my ideas clearer visually, then I was able to do via text, as I still don't want to offend people, although this negative response is not going to deter me from going ahead in making my video, after all, can't compromise for every person in the world, and that's where I stand at this point in my planning.

Cast Discussions

This is a screen grab of a group inbox I have made over Facebook, to talk to my potential cast about their roles in my video, and asking them if they are still okay being in the video. This should develop into several discussions to be documented later, reminding people of where they need to be and at what time.

Map 1 feedback

This is my map 1 feedback, it shows what i had to improve to get my marks up, which was establish a bit more brand identity in my digipak and poster analysis, making a more prolific and detailed research section, I amended this almost straight away to reach band 4

Treatment

This is my treatment, pitching the idea for my music video, discussing themes, sources, inspiration, as well as thoughts on editing, what I can do in my film in terms of narrative, and how the story is told through the video. This treatment sheet was based on a real-life treatment sheet we have seen for Gorgon City's Unmissible, I followed basic template of that and formed my own ideas for my own song around it

Mood Board

This is my padlet Mood Board for my video ideas, it has images and videos to relate my points and influences for the music video I was going for, it also has images of a spider diagram that I hand wrote with a lot of sub-ideas of my first music video ideas, discussing possible themes and iconography i could use in my music video, as well as discussing the messages of politics or religion etc.

Created with Padlet

Permission Request

This is a message to Favorite Gentlemen, Manchester Orchestra's own Record Company, who recorded the song Cope, they have a direct contact to band on their site, which I used and constructed the letter asking to be able to use the song for my music video. I tried to find information on which band member owns the song as well, so i could get more permission, however this task was fruitless and I was unable to find the person.

9 Frame Analysis

Video Analysis 2

Video analysis – manchester orchestra – virgin from MatAppelyardMedia

Video Analysis 1

Personal Skills Audit

Personal skills audit from MatAppelyardMedia

Digipak Analysis and Magazine Analysis 1&2

Shot Count

This is my Shot Count activity, discussing the amount of shots in a particular music video, in this case, the video for Your Graduation by Modern Baseball. Because of the size of the emaze presentation, please put it into full screen, to be able to see the text clearly and not be distarcted by the side bar.

Creative Music Video Pinterest

Follow Mat's board A2 Music Video Inspiration on Pinterest.

This is a pinterest link to a board of selected music videos for my blog that I have found creative and inspirational through their effects and editing and camerawork in the video, these are videos I can see me potentially trying to use elements from for when i crate my own music video.

Lip Sync

This is our first lip sync task, learning the techniques behind it to accomplish

Brief at A2

The brief is to create a promotion package for the release of an album, this is to include a music promo video, alongside:

>A digipak for the album's release;
>a magazine advertisement for the digipak