Editing Update

Today we have finally been able to finish our rough cut. Our group have been able to pick out our frees to come in and finish out music video for the first edit. It took us the 1 hour lesson and the rest of the afternoon. I think for the first rough cut it has turned out well, however, I think that there is a lot to improve. After looking through the whole of the video, I still feel that we are lacking in performance. As a group we have discussed what we could maybe refilm the performance if the audience noticed that it was not in time. We discussed that we could film the whole of the performnace in a studio as this is a current theme running through the indie genre bands of today.
We are hoping to film a focus group who will analyse our music video. We would like to do this as soon as possible, so that we can either definitely decide to refilm our performance or not. We will need to do it quickly as we will then have to edit and rearrange our music video completely. I think that we should be able to do our focus group on the double lesson Monday, which will leave us time to think about what we can do and plan for extra filming/editing. 

Editing Update

Today we have edited quite a lot and have nearly finished the rough cut. Some of our group have been able to come in and edit in our spare time. This allowed us to be on time with our editing as we were slightly behind as it took a long time to capture the clips which we needed. We have took it in turns to edit in this double lesson, which allowed others to update blogs and do other stuff which we needed for this video. At the moment, I feel like we are on time with editing our video. Within this session, there were some problems which we came across. For example, when looking at what performance parts we had, we noticed that we couldn't get the lip singing to match up with the actual music. It was also quite hard to find clips were actually good to use and that we didn't make mistakes on. When we finally finish the rough cut, this will help us to notice if we need to refilm our performance part or that it would be ok for the audience.

Our next day schedualed to edit more of our video is 28th November. I think that we will be able to finish our rough cut by then as we have an hour session and maybe some of our group will be able to edit in their free time before Wednesday. When we finish our rough cut, I think that we will be able to figure out what our audience will think about it and how we are able to improve our music video. 

Editing

Now that we have finished filming, we can edit our footage to create the music video and make it in time with the song lyrics. We have stuck to our time management schedule and have started editing on the Wednesday 21st November. 

Today we had to capture all of the footage which takes a long time. This enables us to play around with the footage and edit it into bits that we want and the footage that we don't want. We decided to capture all of it, including mistakes, as we never knew what we could do with it by adding effects. Capturing the whole footage took longer than expected so some of our group decided to come back later and finish it off. 

We used Final cut Express to capture our footage as it was quick and we could cut our footage into sections, for example whenever we change location. We are also going to be using this software to edit the whole of our music video.

 Whilst the footage was capturing, we as a group were able to update our blogs and make sure that we know what we were doing for the double lesson on Monday. We are going to start editing the narrative in the first part of the music video and see how much we can get done in a double lesson, which will then give us an outline of wen we can finish our music video editing sessions.

Filming Update

Today, we had an hour to complete our music video filming. Previously we had already completed most of the filming, which left us to film extra scenes which we had already planned to do and with these we could experiment with different angles as we had plenty of time. The only scene left to do was the actual breakdown. We had previously checked the weather to see if we were able to film the footage we had needed to do, which gave us time to plan and meant that we have stuck to our time management. These are a selection of photographs which have taken to show what camera angles we have used throughout today. We chose to film the break down scene which is common and typical for our target audience to do themselves.We wanted to show that we were travelling to the woods, which explains the background scene.

 These are a few of the camera angles which we have taken and shot. When looking at these, I feel that we have a lot of angles that show different perspectives on each shot. We firstly have two side shots of the performer which is a common convention to an indie genre music video. Then, we have also shot an over the shoulder view which shows the angle of the performers view which is also commonly used. The behind central long shot helps the audience to know what he is actually doing.
When we edit these clips, I feel that by having each of these shots, it will show a fast paced beat which will match with the music also.

Overall I think that today went well as we have now finished all of our filming sessions, and we will now begin to editing all of our footage in our sessions ahead. 

Filming Update

We only had an hour worth of filming today. This limited us as a group on what we could film, so we had decided to film the rest of the performance so that we could then concentrate on what we have left of the narrative for our last day of filming. Today, it was raining, which meant that it would be slippery and wet up at the forest. Having this weather meant that we could film some of our performance within the car as the audience would not be able to see the kind of weather anyway. This are a few shots in which we documented the journey whilst the artists would ding into the camera. I think that today's filming went well considering how much we had actually got done. We are ahead of schedule as all we now have left to do is to film the rest of the narrative which is a small amount.

 This is a shot of where the camera was to film the whole of the cast. By having this camera fixed here, we were able to film the two performers at the front of the car and the two co stars in the back. This created a group shot which allowed everyone to be seen especially the artists and this was also a close up of the two artists especially. I think that this is a typical and common shot for the indie genre as it helps for the artist to be established. We have used this shot to show the journey to the actual desired destination. Here, we have shows how what the audience do when travelling and also to show some of the performance elements. When appropriate, the artists have sung their part to show the different location of where we have shot. This is redundant due to how the group shot has the effect of making them look popular which is what the indie genre is all about so that our targeted audience will be able to relate to each shot which we do. 

These are also some shots which I have taken of the cast. The top shot shows the behind view of the two artists. This shows the point of view from the two co stars. It also represents the artists and promotes them as a band, it shows how important they are which introduces them as a band and also into the music video. Within the car, we focused on the handheld detail so that it would look like it is someone's point of view. We want the filming to turn out quite shaky especially in these performance and narrative parts. The bottom photograph shows how we are showing where we are travelling to and what we come across when documenting our journey. This was heavily influenced by the indie genre as they always like to be unique and to stand out against the rest of the same genre.

According to our time management, we are going to next film on Monday 19th November which will also be our last day of filming. I feel that today has been successful as we now only have one more narrative element which will easily be shot in the double lesson on Monday. 

Creativity

What is creativity?

The idea of creativity is different for everyone as each individual are their own. With use of the imagination, it allows an individual to create something new whether it is a product or a piece of art. Creativity is original which means that the person creating something new has to be something which had not been done before.

How can you be more creative?

To be creative you have to have a good sense of imagination. This comes naturally to some people, which sometimes could be more successful. If you were to sleep on an idea, by the time you would have woken up, it would be more clear in your head helping you to think more about it. Creativity means everything when doing something in an art form. 

Where does it come from?

I think that creativity comes from experience of peoples individual lives. They think of what they have been through in the past and then interpreted this through a piece of art/ creating a product, or just small things such as coming up with a simple joke. Creativity comes from how the brain works, it comes from thinking and imagining random things and then creating it in real life. There are many predictions and explanations of where creativity comes from. Some people think that it just comes naturally, whereas others think that you have to go through steps to activate your creative side.

What role does it play in creating a media production?

There is a lot that goes into media production. You need quite a lot of people in order to become creative. For example, when creating a film, you need different people with different ideas to enable to create a good film. When creating something in media production, you need creativity. they need to be products which are unique and would sell and appeal to the audience. 

Sir Ken Robinson is a teacher and great believer of creativity which he believes is a great issue in today's education. Robinson believes that everyone is a born artist. He states that by being creative, you need to know that you can be wrong.   He thinks that children are only more creative because they are allowed to be wrong and that they don't have any knowledge of what is wrong and what is right in the world. Therefore, they have a bigger imagination. He believes that the Adult society is wrong for teaching children that wrong things are bad things.

Here is a clip in where you can learn to be more creative. I agree with some aspects in which the 'how to' guide helps the individual to be creative. I feel that the valid points such as exercise and sleep help as they would refresh the mind which would allow the individual to think more clearly. However, I also agree with Sir Ken Robinson as I think that many children are born with a great sense of imagination and suddenly disappears over time due to how society is today. 

Filming Update

Today we had 2 and a half hours to film, which was quite a long time to get a lot of our music video done. We felt as a group that it would be best to do some of the performance elements which we had planned to see if it fits in and flows well with our Narrative shots. At the end, we also found our selves having extra time, so we thought that we could do continue with the Narrative parts which we missed out. The weather was quite poor for filming in the morning, however, it did clear up towards he afternoon, which was a positive for us. It did concern us as one of our risks was how slippery it may be in the woods. After assessing the situation, we felt that it was safe if the weather would hold off raining. Also, because we are in the woods, we felt that it may be less worse because of how much shelter the place would get with the use of the trees. For this amount of time, I feel that our filming session has been successful as we have filmed most of the performance elements which are occurring in the woods. I think that we are ahead of schedule due to how much we had filmed today. This may give us time to shoot some extra shots which we could use when editing our music video.

These are a group of shots of the performers singing. We used a variety of shots to makes the artists recognisable to the audience and help them to be established. We used the different shots as we had researched before hand what other bands had done to make the artist known.

These two shots in particular where it shows the two artists on a side view, help the shots to be unique as they are not typically looking into the camera with eye contact. It shows how they may be singing to someone else which may make the audience more intrigued. By doing side shots and front view shots of the performers it allows the audience to see them to see a full 3D effect of the artist, which makes them more recognizable. We decided on a side shot so that when editing, it gives us a choice into which shot we will go for, or we could use both to show the variety of angles which we used. We chose this side in particular as the tall trees surrounding the artists makes the shot look more interesting and have more depth. I think that it is a redundant feature as the indie genre typically use this shot through the research which i have done. For example when I analyzed The Wombats, they used this to establish the artist a lot. Also, by having the performers singing in the same location, this relates to my research as they typically do this also.

This is a group shot of the two members of the performance. We have decided to create this shot for the chorus in particular as this is when two people sing, so we thought that by having both, this could help the audience get to know them as a band. With the two-mid-shot, it allows the audience to see the detail in the faces, which makes them more recognizable. This shot is redundant and commonly used not only throughout the song but for the chorus especially, as it brings the band together giving off a sense of unity. We put them in this location in particular as it isn't too out of the way for our filming. I also think that its not too much for a background and doesn't bring the attention away from what the performers are actually doing. Overall, i think that this shot will be important to have when editing our music video as it will be used.

The next shot is a favorite for the Indie genre as it is used commonly throughout the whole of the music video. Again, I think that it helps for the artist to be recognized as the Indie style which helps for them to be related to this type of audience. He also has strong eye contact with the camera so it is as if he is singing to the audience making them feel more involved with the video and music. This mid shot is a redundant shot as it is used in every typical indie music video. I think it is strong shot as it helps the audience to know and recognize the artist in the music video. Overall i would say that it would go well with our narrative parts, as we have the tall trees as the background helping to create that camping atmosphere which is needed.  

We then decided to film some of our Narrative again as we had plenty of time left after filming our performance part. The pond was right by our location for the performance, so we decided to film around here.We thought that the pond was the best location to film due to the scenic and specific atmosphere that it creates for the indie genre. Here we decided to play around with our performers and cast just as the typical target audience would do when camping. We firstly chose the over the shoulder shot to see the casters point of view and what they are going to do. This adds tension as the rest of the group is looking away. It makes the audience more curious to see the music video as you can see an obvious story-line which occurs throughout. 

The next shot shows the group shot of everyone. We tried to create a tracking shot going around the bench. We thought that this would be creative and that we could edit this shot by speeding it up. This would connote that how time just talking can go so fast as  this audience would commonly do.

Overall, i think that this filming day went quite well due to how much we had got done. According to our time management, we are up to date and ahead of schedule. Our next filming day will be in two days time on Wednesday 14th November. 

Storyboard

Facebook Group

As a group, we created this Facebook group. At the moment there are only the cast members and the members of our group involved here. We firstly created this as we wanted to share photographs which we took  which are needed for blog posts. Also, to plan if we needed to do any extra filming or editing outside of lessons. This is really helpful as everyone within the group will be able to receive this message, so we do not have to email individual people. Eventually, we will add in our official music video, so that we can have feedback on it when we add more people to comment and critique our music video.

Risk Assessment

We decided to put together a risk assessment so that we could understand the actual dangers when performing a music video. When we put down the dangers, we could then see how we can resolve the problem and how we prevent some of them from happening. We also wanted to know if something did happen, then we would know what we would have to do if this had ever happened. Here shows each potential danger, potential outcomes, how to avoid potential outcomes and further comments in which we could further prevent the dangers.

Final Idea

This is an overview of our final idea as it has been changed slightly over the couple of weeks. Firstly, we have decided to keep with the idea of documenting the journey to our destination. We have decided to show how common troubles which our audience may have to face, for example breaking down, they will have to know what to do. During the journey, the performers will sing within the car showing all of the cast. We thought that we would also relate to our audience as they regularly take road trips as it is a new thing for them.

Relating to my 'Mood board Recreated' post, I had previously explained that we had changed our idea to camping rather than the beach tripped which we had originally planned. We chose the woods to go to as it is close to our home location. Here, we are going to film the Narrative and performance part of our music video. We thought that by being in the same location for both, that it will flow better altogether. he main focus here, will be setting up the camp-site and filming around this all things which would relate to the target audience and what they would do. The last scene to our music video will be travelling back to the car and driving away. I feel like this would create a good ending as it gives a sense of closure to the whole of the music video.

Location

Moodboard Recreated

As a group, when we looked back at our pitch feedback we noticed that the recurring comment came up when we asked how realistic our idea would be. The comments mentioned that it may be unrealistic to film at the beach as it is quite far away from our home location. They also said that it will be hard to film in a short day as we may forget a clip and will have to return. As we are driving there, it may be costly if we have to keep going back to the beach location. We therefore decided to alter our plan slightly by picking a nearby location where we don't have to travel as far to film, so it will be easy to go back if we forget any clips or decide to change our idea slightly. We have decided to chose camping as our feature for our music video. We decided to keep the car journey as we still think that this is a good idea for our narrative in the music video. They still all link together as a music video.Our music video is all about how a group of friends take a journey up to the woods and to camp just as teenagers do. I feel that this will fit in with the Indie Genre as this is a popular hobbie for students to do. This is a redundant feature for the Indie genre overall, because of the car scene and the camping scenes which are involved within the music video.

Filming Update

Today, we have officially started filming our music video. We have started off filming our Narrative part of our video as we felt that this is the hardest part, as we need to piece our storyline together so that it will flow through, then we can record our performance as it is the easy part. We had altogether around 2 and a half hours to film. We decided to film from the first point where Matt (Singer) is driving to our destination. As it was a clear and sunny day, we thought that we should film in High Vinnalls as it lowers the risks which I had previously stated in an earlier post. Today was successful overall because it gave us as a group an insight into how much we can get done and if we are on target with our progress for our music video, which we are. Here are a few photographs which I have took whilst filming the video to show the different camera shots which we have done today.

 This is a group shot which we filmed today, which is commonly used in the Indie genre to show the popularity of an individual. It also brings the shot together and allows the audience to see the whole of the scene. In this particular shot, you can see that it promotes the band by having the actual two artists in the shot too. We chose this shot in particular as it really shows the location off, which has the indie vibe also which relates to our target audience. The reason we chose the behind group shot is because we wanted to show the props which were involved including the sleeping bag and rucksacks. This lets the audience know what they are going to do already which is important to ease into the storyline with the use of different camera angles shown. 

We then did an opposite shot to allow the audience to see the front of the audience. I also think that this is an important shot to see what the performers are doing with their facial expressions. This show also promotes the artists due to the strong eye contact which the performers have with the camera. With the long shot, it helps us to establish where they are which leads into the storyline. With the use of the empty space around them, it makes them look quite vulnerable which is what most teenagers are at this age. This way, the audience can relate to the music video, which is important so that they would be more interested. Overall, it is quite a redundant feature shot for this music video as this target audience are known to be in groups when camping so they can instantly relate.

This is a sign in the woods where we felt would be a good camping spot for us to use. We wanted to capture this so that it shows where we are going, relating to our journey idea. I feel that this shot is redundant as these type of shots are commonly used when documenting where the group or individuals are going. The mid shots are also commonly used to help establish the main view point for the audience to concentrate on. We also felt that this would help the audience know how we got to each point. It also brings the audience along with performers on their journey to the camp-site, which shows more of the documented side of the music video.

Due to our time management, we have next planned to film on Monday 12th November. Here we will plan to film the most of the performance as we have around 2 and a half hours to film. We felt that this would balance out the performance and narrative part filmed so far.

Time Management Update

As it is a new month, I have created a Time management update. This shows the filming processes and how I am updating my blog regularly. This month, we are planning to start editing near the end of the month as we have had around 8 hours of filming to make sure we have more than enough to start our editing process.

           

Performers and Casting