Every Shot Story Board

http://issuu.com/theresakuhn/docs/every_shot_story_board.docx?e=11411834/10164042

Major changes to music video scenes

After planning out my music video and getting people to be involved, its come to my attention that some of the scenes I wanted to perform were not easily available to do with all the people I had in mind to do it. This mainly concerns the party scene where they meet for the second time and go off into a different room together. However getting the amount of people to be involved for this at a time when they were all free was not available, therefore I have changed it so where this scene should have gone, it now shows them walking in a park together.

Also due to weather conditions and accessibility of getting equipment outside, I decided to relocate my record playing scene inside the guys bedroom, providing an easier location to work in for me and my actors.

Moreover I changed the location of the argument scene to be in the guys bedroom rather than the girls. I thought the narrative would make more sense for her to visit him after what she had done round her house, rather than the main guy leave her house and return again to argue. This way the narrative flows better and will be clearer for the audience.

Prop and equipment list for filming

Prop and equipment list for each scene

Slow motion singing

As part of my skills development and research into music videos, I have also decided to experiment with the use of motion control on my performance footage. In videos such as Budapest by George Ezra, they have slowed down the footage to give the appearance of slow motion, yet the speed of the vocals still link with the audio of the song. They achieve this through the use of speeding up the song whilst filming, yet slowing down the footage in post editing. You can see this at certain points especially, with George crowd surfing and singing at a normal pace, yet he is moving in slow motion with all the hands slowly moving him too.

I wanted to consider this as an element of editing I could use on my own performance shots, that would work with the rest of the slow motion in my music video. I decided to film myself singing out of convenience, choosing a song I knew particularly well and speeding it up before hand to achieve the slow motion effect in editing.

I started by editing the song in audacity. I imported Gabriel Aplins song 'Panic Cord' it into the software, as it was a song i knew all the words to so would be easy to interpret once speeded up.

 

I then changed the speed of the song. I increased the speed to 100% to make it quick enough to edit on later.

 

 

This then dramatically reduced the songs length from 3 min 26 seconds to 1 min 43 seconds. In turn this made the voice sound very high pitch.

 

 

 To make it more bearable to listen to, I reduced the pitch to make it sound more normal and less high pitched. I reduced the pitch by 35%, making it the equivalent in sound to the original, just sped up.

 

 

Once I had finished playing around with the song I exported it as an MP3 file that I could easily play when filming.

I then set up my location for filming. I wanted a concept simple enough to achieve, but to have elements to show this slowed down effect that contrasted with my singing. I therefore chose to sit in front of my dressing table and just portray me getting ready (i.e. brushing my hair, putting on makeup, putting on perfume) and singing simultaneously. I positioned the camera on a tripod behind me so only my reflection wads visible, and the objects I was picking up could then be seen. All I then did was play the song on my laptop behind me and commenced with filming.

This was my final outcome of filming. I used one long shot of the whole song. I reduced the speed of the footage by 50% so my actions were dragged, as well as fitting my sped up lip synching back to the original version of the song. This took some experimenting to get perfect and to fit with some of the things I said, but eventually it worked successfully.

 

 

 

Overall I think my investigation into this area of editing was useful in the ideas of my final product. Doing this not only let me experiment in Audacity, a software I'd never previously come across, but also how to match up footage to a song half the speed. This has given me ideas as to what I could put in my own performance pieces of my music video, possibly filming it in both ways so I have the choice later once editing to see which would work best. There are still things I could improve on even in this video, with some parts not exactly linking up correctly, but this is all part of experimentation and skills development, which I have found most useful for the preparation of my music video.

Reversing footage experimentation

One of the key post editing features that I will include in my video is the use of reversing my footage to convey time going backwards. It is used in videos such as Alt J's Breezeblocks, showing a man attacking the person he’s cheating on, which you only find until the end why he has good reason to do so. Like this example, the video also shows its footage in slow motion that elongates the actions and gives you time to really understand the narrative of the story. I intend to use both these editing techniques to the best of my abilities to convey the breakdown of the couple’s relationship, and create an awkward situation for the audience to be in when they have the argument. This not is seen as a great reaction to want to get from a music video, but it will therefore become more memorable.


The video I then created shows my experimentation with revering footage, as well as the speed necessary for my video to look professional. I took a piece of text footage I have previously filmed in the city, showing numerous people walking past with music playing in the background.





I started by simply reversing the footage. This obviously messed up the audio to sound particularly strange, but the people in the frame clear moved in reverse as if it was normal.

 

I then kept it in reverse but played it at 75% speed. This slowed down the motion but didn't affect it too much. You could obviously tell it was slightly slowed down but didn't look too different to the usual reversed footage. It also didn't drag out the motions enough to what I wanted it too, so decided to change the speed.

 

I then reduced the speed to 50%. this dramatically changed the pace of the movement, making everything slow down and elongate greatly in a way that was noticeable an affective.it really made features I hadn't previously caught on to noticeable, for example, the man dropping his cigarette and then blowing the smoke away, which in reverse was mesmerising watching it fly back into his hand. I wasn't sure if this was then two slow for my piece so I thought I’d experiment with a speed in-between.

 

Changing the speed back up to 60% was interesting, as it still showed everything clearly but at a speed that was obviously different to normal and slowed down actions. It didn’t make people walking appear to judder so much, and they instead flowed across the screen much better. However I still think it could have been a little slower, possibly depending on my footage.

 

I then decided to take some of my test footage which I intended to use in the official video I would create, showing a picture of the couple slowly burn. I started with 50% speed however I felt even though the flame created a cool movement action; it went on for too long. I had to consider a shot like this would only stay on the screen for no longer than 5 seconds, and the burning of the paper in slow motion wouldn't work in that time. Therefore I changed it up to 60%. This resulted in a quicker burning action, that although was still in slow-motion took less time to burn, with it still achieving the whispy flow of the flame around the paper. I therefore decided to keep this speed when editing my actual footage for my video.

 

Experimenting with reversing footage and speed was very interesting in my development of knowledge for the effects on my video.  It showed me that certain shots depended on different time scales to provide a better image and to make the affect noticeable. doing it with the different speeds let me make a decision of what works and what could be improved on, which all helps with the development of my editing skills.

Development in Premier Pro: Adding titles and editing audio

Whilst editing my test footage on Premier Pro, I began to explore the different methods of editing that I could later use in the development of my music video. Creating this simple sequence of footage with titles let me understand the best methods for audio working with sound and text.

To start with I located the way in creating a simple title for the beginning of my video. I made this by using the drop down tool to create what I wanted. I not only wanted my title at the beginning but in between shots of test footage, which was made possible through this easy system.

It then came up with the separate box to edit the appearance of the title. Here you could change the font and size of the writing, as well as the colour of the background. For this instance, I kept a black background to introduce each scene.

 

 I then easily slotted it in the time line of my video, with the ability to adjust the length of it and include a dip to black at the start so the writing would smoothly appear.

 I also found a way of creating titles that went over the imagery instead of just a black screen. This way I could include an explination to some of the shots I was using, or the shot number in the series of test footage I used. I could position it where I like, so it could neatly become a header in my experimentation of footage.

 

Apart from experimenting in titles and the variety of ways I could use them, I also experimented with the overlaying of audio, so the sounds of the different shots didn't abruptly stop and start again. When I filmed test footage in the coffee shop, there was music playing in the background that obviously moved on from shot to shot. However to make the audio continue smoothly I looked into the audio effects that could prevent the judder of sound. One of the effects known as constant power almost overlapped the sound, making them smoothly run into each other and made the music sound as if it was just continuing forward in the song. Obviously this wont be a necessary factor in my music video as I'll just be using the song as the audio to my video, yet it was good to use and experiment with this tool.

Making this short film showing my test footage became multi purposed in practicing for my music video. It not only let me explore the variety of shots i could use for my music video in the different locations, but made me more aware of the different tools and effects i could put over my footage. This overall gave me more ideas to how i could adapt my visuals to make them engaging and appear professional.

A Film of closeups: Developing in filming skills

http://prezi.com/4o6jiwzi5sqf/a-film-of-closeups-developing-in-filming-skills/#

Test Footage: Experimenting with my camera on location

Before going straight into official filming for my music video, I thought I would experiment with some of the locations that I intend to film on. This let me experiment with camera angles, movement, and a variety of shots that inspired me for some of the frames I will eventually use in my final product.


The video below displays a few of my chosen locations, including a café and the park. It also records my experiment with some of the close up shots I intend to use, and the best way to achieve them.

Call Sheets

Now that I had my locations identified, cast decided, and risk assessments were filled out I could create the call sheet for the different dates I planned to shoot my music video. Each gives detail as to the location, contact information, scenes being shot and the routine of the day. For each day I have made sure I consider my cast by giving them breaks during filming, so they are treated professionally and put as much effort into it as possible.

Call Sheet(School)

CALL SHEET(Chaplelfield and Cafe Nero)

CALL SHEET(House 1 and 2)

Representation of my Narrative

As part of the planning of my music video I wanted to investigate the representations in my music videos, and what angles I wished to convey.



By now it is clear the narrative of my music video follows the stages of a relationship in reverse, including first meetings and dates, going round each others houses, and then the downfall of the relationship with the girl going off with another guy, to which her original boyfriend finds out and leads to their breakup. Therefore I wanted to make clear of the protagonist and antagonist of this story which the audience can then identify with.



Whilst researching this representation I looked at You Me at Six's'Underdog' track, a good example of representation and stereotypical views of women in media. The storyline basically follows two girls and a guy. We at first see the guy making out with the blond girl, whilst the brown haired girl cries on some stairs. This already follows stereotypical views of blonds being the antagonists and having control over men because of their looks. We therefore identify the brown haired girl to be the protagonist and should be the one we sympathies during this scene. However as we get further into the narrative this representation changes, as the scene is played again but the brown haired girl being the one kissing the guy, with the blond girl seeing this and going off in floods of tears. This then makes her appear to be the antagonist, with her upsetting the blond girl as well as kissing the guy and then leaving. Basically this video shows an act of revenge towards the brown haired girls supposed boyfriend who is actually cheating on their people. Her kissing him in front of the blond girl he cheated with makes the blond feel like ‘the other woman', and also leaves the man with nothing.



It’s interesting that during this whole video, the guy appears passive to being the good or bad character of the plot. However it is his actions of kissing both girls in the first place that this has all lead to, so generally he should be viewed as the antagonist. However this purposely seems not to be the main focus of the video, as the director intended for the girls to be the main source of the problem.



As an influence to my own work, I found this very useful in the differentiating of characters and the directors intended representation. Therefore for my music video narrative, I aim for the main male character to be the protagonist. In contrast, I want the female character to be the antagonist, with this only being revealed half way through the narrative. As she obviously cheats with another guy, it could be argued who out of the two cheating on the main male character is the antagonist. From one perspective it could be the second male being the one taking the female away from the other man. However it could also be the female’s choice to go off with the other man and leave her boyfriend.



With these two possibilities, I have decided to keep the girl the antagonist in the relationship as it is her motives of going off with another guy that caused the breakup. The person she cheats with will then appear passive (much like the make figure in the Underdog video) as he was only an intended catalyst in the main couples breakup. Also as the shot of her boyfriend walking in on them two cheating will be in 'her house' it is therefore understandable that she is the wrong-doer in this relationship.



As representation of males and females go, I wanted to go against the usual conventions of the male being the dominant figure and the one that cheats on someone.  I feel this is over played and taking this view would give an interesting alternate perspective on the norm. Also in comparison to the underdog video, I want the blond male to be the one to be sympathised with rather than the brunet, therefore showing my music video challenges conventions and creates individuality in my representation as a director.