Christmas Holidays

DUE TO EXAMS - 

THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS WILL COMPRISE OF REVISION. 

I'LL CONTINUE TO WORK ON THE 'MUSIC VIDEO' PROJECT AND AUXILIARY TASKS -  

AS OF 

TUESDAY 8TH JANUARY 2013.

The third draft

Plan of Synergy

Editing #9

After exporting Draft #2 I recognised further things that would need to be included:

I began by installing a black image to act as the aspect ratio and dragged it across the whole of the video, (thus creating a fake 'letterbox' effect which I have previously used across my two drafts). I was then able to make the amendments to various clips.   

To me, this was a crucial amendment I needed to make. Although it hadn't particularly been noticed by people, I wanted to make sure my footage was perfectly positioned between the black letterbox. This removed any chance of faces for example been cut out of the shot. I also decided to maintain a 2.35:1 ratio throughout the video. It was no longer a problem to break up the shots with 2 different ratio sizes so I decided to keep the letterbox size constant to maintain a realistic cinematic, music video style. 

Earlier I discussed making a director's title, however I also decided to create a logo. I made this by taking the Kaleidoscope effect in Final Cut Pro X and experimenting with various fonts. I also used a 'prism' effect, which is seen in the final clip of band sitting in the pub. I thought it looked better to maintain this effect, thus making a smooth transition between the logo and the pub footage. 

I thought having a logo was something extra I could incorporate into my synergy. For example, it could be something that appears as a jpeg even on my Wix website. This would be a great way of highlighting who directed the video, allowing the video to be seen by a production company and therefore adding to the professionalism of the project. 

 I managed to create a director's title how I had first envisaged. This clip sees the text appear with a piece of animated footage behind it. Here I took a clip of 'static television' and manipulated the colour and changed the motion speed. 

Auxiliary Task: Poster (plan)

Here is a rough draft of the layout I am planning to use for the Poster part of my auxiliary task.

A few amendments since this was drawn:

• I have decided to position the CD in the lower box. 
• There having a promotional photography spanning across the whole width of the poster. 
• I had originally planned to use a B&W photo, however as part of the synergy I am planning on using some stills from my music video and then editing these.
• I will also make clear associations with the NME logo for example, as well as the Geffen Record Label and booking agencies, etc - what you would expect to see on a show flyer. 

Video Audience Draft Feedback

Here I filmed a response to the 2nd draft of my music video. 

This proved to be really helpful feedback, as it came from a realistic audience who would be viewing the video but hadn't yet seen it. I have therefore taken demographic considerations. 

Soundtrack

The above soundtrack can be heard here: 
https://soundcloud.com/lew-parkerr/title-soundtrack

This is the soundtrack that will be played during the ending title sequence of the music video. It is currently 12 seconds long, however I intend to cut it down to approximately 6-7 seconds. 

I decided to use Cubase music software because I wanted to explore different medias when making my project. Other examples of this can be seen by my use of Motion 5, as well as both Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro X.

When making the soundtrack I used a series of samples. At first I detuned a Cello, followed by including an african drum sample. I then experimented with the synth plugins which sit as the main instrument within the mix. I later finalised the soundtrack by adding reverb and finding the correct EQ setting. 

The whole purpose of this soundtrack was to accompany the animated director's title and therefore give more of a cinematic-style to the video. This style is also represented through the use of aspect ratios ('letterbox effect') and a variety of special effects. I wanted to create a soundtrack that sounded innovative.

Royalty-free music/samples

For the director's title, I would like to include a sample of cinematic-style music that will play as the title appears. 

I have now started to explore royalty-free music samples, to find what sort of sample will be most appropriate. I also have the option of making my own soundtrack by using programs such as Garageband. 

I have also considered using guitar pedals to make a soundtrack. I approximate that 

the animated title will last for 5-6 seconds, thus the soundtrack will not have to be long. 

I have looked at websites such as: www.looperman.com and www.incompetech.com for Royalty-free music.

I decided to produce my own music by using cubase. The track is currently 12 seconds long however I will condense both ends of the track and possibly make alterations to suit the motion of the animated text.

I have taken influence from companies such as 'Sitcom Soldiers'. An example of the cinematic-style music I have in mind, can be found at the beginning of the video below.

Exporting Draft #2

In this second draft I have amended some of the things I had discussed for my first draft. This is now the full length of the video and it has therefore given me a chance to break it down into different sections to analyse.

In my final I will included the following:

• The director's title which I have previously discussed in multiple posts. This will appear at the very end of the video after we see the band enter a pub at the end of their day.

• More of a distinction between the use of aspect ratios. Throughout my video two different ratios are used in order to give the scenes the required space (i.e. avoid faces being cut off, etc).
  I have decided I therefore have 4 options:
  a) Use one ratio the whole way through.
  b) Avoid using the 'letterbox' effect altogether.
  c) Discover how I can position the footage inside the clips so that a 2.35:1 ratio can be used the whole way through (most desired outcome).
  d) Make a distinction between Performance and Narrative sections, therefore different ratios for each.

• More consideration to some parts of colour-correction. For example, I would like to explore Light Leak packs more, as I understand there are Organic packs which are particularly effective.

• I would also like to work on my 'Still Here' title and possibly the 'Viva Brother' one also; Whether this will be with kinetic typography or various other devices/features I have discovered in programs such as Motion 5. 

I will now gather further audience feedback so that I can completely maximize the potential of the video and possibly learn something from my peers/audience. As part of this, I will be filming the reactions of my audience watching this second draft.

Editing #8

Photoshop

Today we were given an introduction to Photoshop CS4, to use for our auxiliary tasks.

I will be using this program for both the poster and website that will accompany my music video.

Although I already have experience with the program, it was a great way of refreshing my understanding of the basics, including layers. 

For example, this was something I made for an earlier post 

to illustrate some location planning.

For the poster - I am planning on having a centered 'Viva Brother' logo, accompanied with a photo(s) of the band underneath, followed by list of associated organisations. I am thinking of having the poster centered around an organised show (possibly the band's debut?) and therefore certain details such as the venue, time, etc, including reference to the music video will be included. 

I want to aim the show at the London music scene, because this is something that most people can associate rock/Britpop music as having close connections with; the music scene in general. 

Here are a few posters I have analysed, which adopt a similar style to what I plan to do:

 

Editing #7 (lip-syncing)

In the latest part of my editing, I noticed that the lip-syncing wasn't 100% accurate, thus I decided to use a speed ramp to speed up or slow down footage over the course of the playback.

where I've dramatically slowed down a portion of the footage, the shot would begin to appear choppy (like stop-motion animation). I reduced this by using an algorithm called Optical Flow, just by using the Retiming menu to select Video Quality > Optical Flow.

This video demonstrates the use of a speed ramp, as opposed to changing the motion of a whole clip. I find this to be one of the best ways of changing motion speeds, particularly when lip-syncing. When frames are concerned (in my case I shot at 50fps), When slowing this down by 50% for example, you lose a slight bit of framing, leaving the footage with 24.8fps instead of 25. 

Motion 5

As part of the editing process, I am going to be using Motion 5. The video above explains the basics of the program and how to animate text.

For my director's animated logo (discussed in a post on 17/10/12), Motion 5 will be a great way of creating a full-working animation sequence of approximately 5 seconds, which will be shown at the end of the video.

Here is some of my research into Motion so far:

Anchoring text is something else I am considering using during the opening of my music video. Where the 'STILL HERE' title appears, I am thinking of applying this effect, however this is to be experimented with first. 

Key-framing will be important in animating the text/logo. 

I also have the option of going down the route of developing text as Kinetic Typography. This might in fact work better, however I don't want the 'director's title' to simply look like a title sequence.

I have also recently discovered the Trail effect that can be made in Motion. I think this could be useful during the firework scenes towards the end of the video. By having several copies of the fireworks in sequence and then manipulating motion by reversing and slowing/speed up, it could look quite effective. 

Editing #6

Today I looked back on the audience feedback I received for my draft. 

These are the main points I will focus on to improve:

• Aspect Ratios - I want to have a consistent 2.35:1 ratio throughout the video to maintain the cinematic-look of the video. However some of the feedback did mention that they liked the change in aspect ratios from 1:85 to 2.35:1.

• Performance shots - Prior to export, the performance shots look brighter on my laptop than they do on an Imac computer or other people's computers. Therefore I am going to change the exposure on these shots slightly. 

• Effect considerations - Give more consideration to why the effects are being used. I am starting to find patterns in the song where effects re-occur, i.e. during performance shots, the 'projector' effect is used. 

Initial Audience Feedback

I decided to conduct some audience feedback for the first draft of my music video. This is the feedback I had received after 2 hours.

FACEBOOK

Here are 18 comments and 1 message I received. 

 

TWITTER

On here, I posted a similar message to the Facebook status.

I received 2 bits of feedback here.

In both cases, the video was either 'shared' or 'retweeted' and this meant that a greater amount of people could see it. I actually received feedback on twitter from somebody who I had no previous connection with and this illustrates the point that social media is a great marketing device. 

This feedback has been really helpful. Although it has been 100% positive, it has given me some constructive criticism and things to consider. 

Exporting Draft #1

My first draft of my music video for Viva Brother's 'Still Here'. (45% complete)

When exporting the file from Final Cut Pro X, I used Compressor 4 to encode the video properly. I didn't want to simply use the 'upload to vimeo' tool, without compressing it properly. 

I opted for Vimeo as my hosting video site, because YouTube is often renowned for lowering the overall quality of videos. This is something I have come across in the past with my own band's music videos, when comparing a YouTube upload to a Vimeo one. 

I used the following video to learn how to use 'Compressor' correctly: 

(Obviously the video focuses on uploading video in 720p format, whereas I have uploaded mine in 1080p. Although I shot my video in 720p, because I used 50fps which were not possible to achieve  at 1080p on my camera, I decided on uploading the footage to a 1080p format anyway. I will compare uploading the footage in these two different ways in my next draft.)

This is the fast draft of my music video construction. This is currently 45% of the total song, but as part of my media studies I want to gather audience feedback at this point to get the opinions of not only media studies but people who are not associated with videography projects.  This is because both groups may pick up on different things, i.e. my hypothesis is that a media student will tend to watch the video analysing it more than perhaps somebody who isn't associated with videography projects. 

Editing #5

Already the re-make is looking better than the original and I have identified 4 out of the 7 characteristics of Andrew Goodwin's theory, which are present in my work.

• The video demonstrates genre characteristics - This is demonstrated in the performance shots in the video, intertwined with a narrative. This is conventional of rock music videos. 

• There is a relationship between music and visuals - Parts of the video are cut to the beat of the drums/rhythm of guitars. One example of this can be scene on the estate with the 7 different establishing shots used.

• The need for lots of close-ups of an artist - I took into account that Viva Brother are signed to Geffen Records, a prestigious American sub-label of Universal Music. When analysing Viva Brother's videos for Still Here, Time Machine, New Year's Day and Darling Buds Of May, I noticed that singer Leonard Newell is shown with a lot of close up shots. What I particularly took into account was the standing arrangement of the 3 band members when videoing, i.e. a clear hierarchy was displayed.

• Frequent reference to the notion of looking - By doing this, it makes the overall effect of the lip-syncing more direct (particularly when the footage is slowed down). This gives the feel of the artist singing to the audience individually. This is typically demonstrated across a broad selection of genres I have looked at, including the past student work of Mac Miller's 'Frick Park Market' (Hip-hop).

Lost video

Tonight I lost my music video!

By sending the wrong project to trash, Final Cut Pro X instantly removed the project (before emptying the trash), leaving me with only the render files of the video.

I had completed 1:50 of the video (45% of total) and will now be purchasing an external harddrive I can save the re-make on to. Although the video took me approximately 20+ hours to edit up so far, I aim to have re-made the video by Friday and press on with getting audience feedback for this first draft.

I would like to say this emphasizes the necessity of backing-up files, but I did backup the project to a 64GB SD card. However the project does not seem to open and this may have something to do with the 'project' having been deleted from Final Cut, so I am now left with 2 sets of render files for the project.

Disaster! On the bright side, I am still ahead of any deadline dates.

Editing #4 (Ken Burns)

In this next part of the editing, I explored the use of Ken Burns and effectively cropping the frames.

Because I am creating a preliminary edit before I make the final amendments at a later stage, I have decided to take the 2 minutes of footage I have so far and improving it, before completing the rest of the video. I will then export what I have so far to gain some initial feedback. Breaking the editing down in this way will be most beneficial for me.

I first did some research into the ken Burns effect and how it is used on photographs.



I then incorporated this with video and I am so far experimenting with this effect during the lip-syncing scene on the estate.

I have also been experimenting more with the light leaks package I recently downloaded ('film burn' effect) and here is an example of this. It is an effect I found particularly interesting and unique; being able to change the opacity of light from 2 different moving images running at the same time as each other.

Editing #3 (colour/'looks' correction)

The focus of editing today has been colour-correcting the estate scenes, where we see a break in camera shots of the singer lip-syncing and establishing shots of the estate, appearing to the beat of the music (i.e. chord strumming). 

Both of the below, are before and after examples of this.

With the use of effects such as Vignette, Strife and Projector, I have begun giving my video more of the desired 'cinematic-look', in essence, giving it more of a darker look, which is demonstrated more and more in present-day music videos.

What I have given particular thought to is the desired realistic look of the video. I did not want to simply tarnish it with effects, but instead maintain a real-life look. Protecting the skin when editing the colour for example, has been one of these considerations.

Another example below is one of the establishing shots of the estate. Again here I have changed the look of the shot without taking it out of context with the earlier scenes. Where changes in colour (different themes come in to play), I have tried to embed these colour changes between different frames, without looking out of place. 

Auxiliary Tasks

In today's lesson, we explored the auxiliary tasks in further detail. 

I have decided to opt for the options of making a website (using the website 'wix.com') and a magazine advert.

Across my music video, website and magazine advert, I aim to make a number of associations. 

For example, the Viva Brother logo will be seen on all three of these medias. 

The 'MTV Rocks' logo displayed on the 'Still Here' music video, will also be included on the other two medias. I will be able to display sponsors and associated organisations on the magazine advert, whilst including these on the website. 

In terms of merchandising, I can create further motifs such as including stills from the music video and the band's logo on t-shirts. I will then be able to take this further by comprising a back-catologue for the band. 

These are just a few immediate ideas I have for making associations/motifs/ties between all three of these forms of media (music video/magazine advert/website). 

I will create a mind-map to display and explain these ties. 

Filming part IV

Filming is now complete! I just finished shooting the Firework scene!

During, I experimented with the ISO and managed to get some blurred effects on the fireworks as they ascended. In Final Cut this is something I can also choose to recreate on some of the other shots, as well as motion editing.

During my ongoing preliminary editing it may make sense to get more footage for any remaining sections which seem necessary. My filming schedule has varied slightly from what I outlined in the production schedule, however this was an effective method of planning my project. As expected, alterations will always occur with production, in order to achieve the best overall outcome.

Filming part III

Tonight I shot the Pub Scene; my penultimate piece of filming. 

This will be the closing scene of the music video. The band will walk through the back doors of the pub and sit down at a table, (...Rounding off the day's events with a drink).

Here are some stills from the footage I have gathered:

I had the band in a third different costume, slightly more casual and less revised than the performance and narrative clothing. This was to give this scene the intended laid-back, end-of-day feel to it.

I also captured the band walking to and from the pub. This wasn't some footage I initially anticipated using however I think it may be of some use later on, which I may choose to feature just after the band leave the practise shed and before the 'rewinding' of the video takes place.