Rough cut feedback - teacher

Whilst finalising our rough cut, we got a bit feedback from our teacher Dan. Enjoy!

Problem over came

In todays lesson I encountered a problem when I had to upload the whole edited video of our pitch onto the blog. The video was to bit to upload onto the blog even after having put it through hand brake. I then had to return to camtasia and split the video into two parts, put each part through hand brake once again then I finally upload each part onto the blog on different two different posts. :D

Today's lesson (26/11/14)

During todays lesson, I was just generally updated our blogs and going through them.

 The two main tasks that I completed were: 

1) uploading a blog about my progress so far which I made on emaze

This post was necessary as it will help me to track my progress and allow me to understand what I need to improve.

2) finishing editing the video of our pitch presentation and uploading it onto the blog 

Even though we already have every part of our pitch posted onto our blog, we still wanted there to a visual side to it.

Pitch presentation - part 2

Just incase you wanted to watch more, here's part two! :D

Even though there are blogs up about every part of our pitch, we thought you'd want to see the whole thing played out. You're welcome :)

Pitch presentation - part 1

Here is part of our pitch which has been edited. Enjoy!

Due to the fact that the whole edited video of our pitch presentation was too long to upload, I had to seperate the video into two parts.
Part two is on the following blog.

Progress update

Filming Days Review

Editing Day 6

We have edited the first verse, Dan like Mary also realised we do not have a great range of close ups. Dan does like the fact we filmed in the dark, it fits in with the themes of the song. Elements of mise en scene are on point too, from the costumes (urban clothing, very current in keeping with the song), the locations are rather eerie, that's what were aiming for, although it's dark it is very well lit (credit to Lenya!) we especially like the footage at South bank where we wrote 'Sparkz' in the sand (the artists name) as being on the beach where it's barely lit, that looked really cool. Stephan's body language fits in with the song too, he is very cool in his presenting and at some points strange, as the song's lyrics are rather strange. Lyrics include "had Barney tied in the base and my aunty said he's amazing" these lyrics do not really make sense that's why it is only natural that Stephane acts weird. We are still planning on going out to film more establishing shots and close-ups.

Here's what Dan had to say: 

Projector Update

Even though we are no longer using the green screen, we are still using a projector. we have a location where the projector can be used; in the photography room. We like the look of the projector, it creates a cool mood if you like.
We plan on using the projector some time this week, it should take around an hour to set up the projector and film, we do not require any props.

Images we plan on having on the projector are

• bowling 
• barney (the dinosaur) 
• dollar bill
  
  
  
  

Green Screen Update

From viewing all of our footage we have so far, we have come to a joint decision to not use the green screen. We feel asa if we have enough footage and base tracks already to make a good quality music video, and adding the green screen will complicate this process a lot more as we have yet to finish editing.

No

Green Screen 

Even though the idea was initially good, it makes a lot more sense to not use it.
Lenya: I still learnt how to use the green screen however, all the equipment and how to edit it on final cut pro which was fun! 

Editing Issues (Day 5)

As we were editing, we have realised the shots are rather repetitive. The shots we filmed are mid-shots, mid/long shot, a lot of the time, this is an issue as in order to produce a good video you need a good variety of shot types, including; long-shots, close-ups, extreme close-ups, cut aways.

Mid-Shot

Mid-Shot 

Mid-Shot

We are planning on going to and film more shots, including footage of scenery, e.g; moving cars, trains, the sea, rivers, Stephane walking, not rapping- dancing to the beat. 

Mary also said with our editing so far, within the first 20 seconds we see at least six different costume changes, she feels we see too much of Stephane in a short period of time. We need to bring him in not so harshly, use other shots and use the same costume more than once.

Use of technology - Iphone 6

Being a forgetful group, my iphone 6 was of  great use to us. Everytime we forgot the actual digital camera, my iphone 6 came to the rescue. Thanks to its amazing quality camera, we were able to take snaps of us on the set to be able to post onto our blog.

Production Schedule (so far)

We have done basically everything we need to do in terms of filming. All we have left to do is green screen and more editing.

Last filming day

Our last filming day (11th November) was very eventful (such shame we didn't take many pictures). We went all the way to Waterloo/Southbank.  We filmed quite a few base tracks on the square and then on the beach underneath the piers.

Traivons selfie: Stepahane usng the camera and figrig to film the scenery of  the "beach", Lenya holding the light and Grace holding the phone and speaker.

Southbank square: This is where our evening started off. We filmed our first basetrack here and a few establishing shots.

The so called "beach": This beach is situated underneath the piers at Southbank. This is where we filmed the rest of our base tracks for the night and more establishing shots.

POSITIVES

• We managed to get 5 base tracks done
• Shot a range of establishing shots (we were lacking these)
• We had fun on the beach
• We eat Mcdonalds before filming

NEGATIVES

• Not all the ideas we had in mind worked out
• Stepane forgot his Nike black gloves which are his trademark!
• We all got home very late (past 11pm!)
• The worst thing was probably the weather, it was absolutely FREEZING and at one point it was raining 

What Do People Think Of Our Video So Far?

Here's what our peers had to say about our editing so far:

Here's what 2 of our peers had to say about our editing so far

Base Tracks

We have filmed over 25 base tracks, although that sounds like a lot, it benefits our group. It will be easier to edit as we have loads of shots to choose from. If we did not have all these base tracks wee would find it difficult when editing as our video wouldn't be varied and it may look boring. 

Problems We Faced And How We Over Came Them

When we were filming and looked back at the footage on the camera, we realised that the shadow of the FigRig and other items got in the shots, so we quickly changed that and analysed carefully when we were filming. Also when we were filming at South Bank, we initially planned to film on the piers, but security kindly asked us not to, we planned to do a based track. Alternatively we filmed at SouthBank where wed could see all the lit buildings which made for a very visually pleasing shot. It also started to rain at South Bank, luckily Lenya brought her umbrella otherwise the equipment would have got wet and we wouldn't have been able to film. 

PITCH: Digipak

The Digipak i created for the song.

Filming Day 4

Our second to last day of filming (10th November) was another eventful day. Our location that day was Hackney Wick. We filmed most of our base tracks in an area  full of grafiti and ant art on the walls. Some of our base tracks were filmed in an alley way also in Hackney Wick and another few base tracks were filmed on a bench near Stratford City Westfield (unfortunately, we have no pictures of this).

Traivon and Lenya concentrating: Before we started filming base tracks, we made sure we got cerrtain shots which would make our video interesting.

Lenya in action: With the help of Traivon and Stephane's friend Brandon, we started filming our base tracks in the first part of our location. (Lighting by Grace).

Grace and Stephane attempting to be useful.

Group 11 hard at work: Taken by Brandon this picture shows our teamwork, how each of us help to make this happen.

Lenya at work once again: We filmed more base tracks in the second part of our location (alleyway) once again with the help of Traivon and Brandon. As usual Grace doing the lighting.

POSITIVES

• Many base btracks were filmed
• We all met eachother on time
• Location was very helpful thanks to its artistic features

NEGATIVES

• It was absolutely FREEZING.
• Got home late.

The locations we chose for that day really suit our song. Places like the alley way gives a grimey feel to the video and so does the grafiti.

DIGI PACK - Grace

CLIVE MERCURY EP COVER (DIGI PACK)
With this EP cover, I went for a green and black theme. The idea of having a finger prini, I think, is very unique because it is like having the artists identitiy without even needing a ficture of them. So for those who do not know what the artist looks like, it is a mystery.
















FRONT

BACK

PITCH- DigiPack

Here is my album cover for our artist 'Sparkz'. I decided to use an almost grainy image because it looks dark and eerie, I also like the font I have used, it resembles the grainy pixelations that would appear on old television screens and the rap song we chose has quite an old tone to it, it is very mellow like old skool rap. 

Update on gloves

Unfortunately i had lost a glove, so we made a change to the 'story' of our song, at the beginning he has two gloves, in the middle he has one and at the end we have no gloves. this is only due to the circumstances, so we made the most out of the situation, editing will help us to see how it looks.

Editing- Day 2

We used the footage from Shoreditch, Lenya's uncle's pub and Hackney (car park and under the bridge). We put all 24 base tracks we filmed into final cut pro and cut them up. We matched the original song to the base tracks successfully. We are always coming up with new ideas and where to put what, also from our editing day 1 we received feedback saying we need more movement shots. We ought to include shots of Stephan walking and other shots of him perhaps moving around to the beat of the music and looking onto monuments such as the beach when we film at South bank on day 5 of filming. When editing we realised we still hadn't filmed a lot of these types of shots so we must film shots like these when we film on day 5, we are planning to film Stephan walking on the beach and also writing his name in the sand and him walking past it, perhaps we could use this shot to open our music video and also use it at the end of the music video if it works out well (fingers crossed).

Instagram updates

We have posted a few pictures on our own instagram's and also the group one also here are some examples of what we have posted:

Here is a picture of Traivon filming the artist (Sparkz) outside a church in Shoreditch this was a very good base track as we had used the lights effectively and also had varied shot types and angles.

Here is our instagram page, this is where we keep our fans updated about where we are with the video shoot and also other promotions that may be linked to the artist and the song, although we are still on the verge of finding followers the more we post the more we will have.

This is another picture of a different base track, this is shot around Old street, Shoreditch, i believe this is one of our best base tracks because of the Mise-en-scene, we have many different colours to make our shots look more interesting. 

Sparkz- already has fans?

On filming outside Lenya's uncles pub we managed to gather an audience when we were filming the scene where Stephan is rapping in the car. They believed he truly was famous and all gathered around for autographs and photos. Stephan does actually rap outside of media, so these 'fans' will be able to keep up with their new favourite rappers music.


Here's Stephan with his fans!

The girls were especially excited, ha!

First Day Of Editing!

We first saw our shots today and we love them! They have really come together well (woohoo!). We have edited one shot with the original song on top of the base track, we have to say it looked pretty professional. We all thoroughly enjoy editing as it is a chance to see our ideas being brought to life and we also enjoy structuring our music video to match our story board. The lip sync tutorial has really helped us to get to grips with the whole editing process, and we are not finding the process too difficult. We are planning to film 2 more base tracks, a production schedule will be made for this in another blog.

Lenya conducted a questionnaire for our fellow classmates to answer. Here it is:

 Here is what people had to say (our target audience is teenagers - young adults):

Stephan does now know the lyrics and it flows really well, and we are also planning on filming at two more locations including Hackney wick. 

Shadows- how will this work?

We have decided that shadow a will become a main element of our music video as we are filming in the dark, so shadows are bound to appear. We will work with the shadows and aim to get some great shots with shadows in the framing. This adds to our eerie theme and we are looking forward to working with the camera whilst incorporating the shadows.

As you can see Stephan's shadow is really effective in this shot as it makes him seem dominant. We like this shot, especially the fact you can see the hat in the shadow, people such as Ab Soul and School boy Q wear hats in their videos, and these are the artists that have inspired our group. The shadow almost makes Stephan seem inferior to his own self, his shadow is more present in the frame, this fits with the song as the song is very peculiar, and the artist has a dark side to him.


Tyler the Creator uses shadows in his video 'Yonkers'

Although his shadows are not the type we have formed in our music video, we still create the same atmosphere using the shadows. 

Filming: Day 3 Review

 View Diary Here

Filming Day 3