- Friday, February 17, 2017
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FINAL CUT: (Use Vimeo if Youtube does not work)
EXTENDED VERSION:
We had some left over footage which I added into the final piece. Although this makes the video longer and it is not necessarily needed, I think it adds to the video and almost suggests a further meaning to the narrative whilst creating this almost short film feel.
EXTENDED VERSION:
We had some left over footage which I added into the final piece. Although this makes the video longer and it is not necessarily needed, I think it adds to the video and almost suggests a further meaning to the narrative whilst creating this almost short film feel.
- Friday, February 17, 2017
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- Friday, February 03, 2017
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Below are the images from the editing process. The entire edit took around 3 and a half straight days mainly because of the high quality 1080p footage as well as the conversion of 24fps to 60fps for shots with slow motion. Every single shot required careful consideration of what would work effectively and how it would link to the overall video as a whole. I often found myself watching the video from the beginning to the end just to get an overall feel for how the edit was going and to try and make sense of the narrative from another person's perspective. Also, I frequently messaged the members of the team to gain their thoughts and receive their feedback. Throughout the editing process I was constantly referring to other successful cinematography and short films on sites such as Youtube and Vimeo. This really helped me create this film look and understand the process from an editors perspective. I was constantly looking for these techniques from these films and music videos such as cut aways, cross dissolving, overlays, colour grading and text - all of which I think I have successfully combined in the end production. In addition, I also switched between both after effects and premiere pro. I used premiere for the editing and clipping of the footage and after effects mainly for the animation parts, film grain and sometimes the colour grading (such as adding a vignette and adding key frames to automatically change visual elements: opacity, position, rotation). I think this gives a small insight into the editing process which did require the energy of all members of the team and external references from other medias and people's opinions. It is the small details which I think make our music video as well as the sheer level of research, planning and location scouting that largely benefited the video and contributed to its successful outcome.
- Thursday, February 02, 2017
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Preparation before editing:
Before the editing process we had to export all of the footage from the two SD cards we filmed on. This took some time due to the amount of footage we had from filming. The total size of the footage was roughly 7GB which was also reliant on the quality of the film (1080p). I then named all of the necessary files ready for the import in premiere pro to make things easier and better organised.
Day 1:
Today I began the editing of the final video. Firstly, I began with importing the footage into premiere pro. I then began the process of making the titles at the beginning in after effects. This was a timely process which involved me having to create several keyframes and timings to the text. I then had to sync the text with the individual sounds of the typewriter so that it would sound believable but also to add depth and originality the clip. I then imported this animation back into premiere pro where I created an overlay of old film footage. I then focused on the intro which I wanted to be more like a narrative/ storyline. Initially, I had to order all of the footage so that it made narrative sense. From here I could organise the timings and clipping of the video so that it would fit within the time limit. After I had sorted this I colour graded it by going into video "lumetri colour" editor. From here I could change settings like exposure, shadows, highlights, and contrast. I could also choose from a range of cinematography presets. Although, in the first scene where the music hadn't cut it, I wanted the film to have a cold, isolated feel. To do this I changed the hue of the image slightly - but not too much as too overwhelm the natural style I was after. Once I had the video files and colour grading sorted I went in with the sound effects. I decided that I wanted there to be crashing wave sounds which I think works well with the undertone of melancholy. Also, I think these sound effects help progress the music video and makes the beginning narrative more interesting as opposed to being completely silent. The sound effects is also a very long sound bridge to the sounds of the waves that are used in the actual film later on which makes things link together so the viewer can almost predict what is going to happen before even seeing it.
Day 2:
On day 2 I started on the beach scenes. This was by far the most time consuming part of the video and in my opinion, the strongest footage. I really liked the lighting which I think really helped with the quality of the film. Also, the editing process took far longer because there was so much footage we could use and I really had to think about what worked the best and how well narrative was coming through by selecting that particular clip. Another time consuming aspect of the editing process was the fact that I converted the HD resolution to 60fps at 30x speed (slow motion). I actually had to create a new premiere project and change the sequence settings to the appropriate frame rate. I had to do this because the camera we were filming on could only film at 24fps which would have meant the footage (if converted to slow motion) would be very jumpy. After I had arranged all of the footage into the correct order and clipped every individual scene which took around 7 hours, I had to render it through. After this I applied a camera recording overlay to the Photo Booth scene and also added a vintage film grain which I think makes the film look a little more believable and romantic. In addition, I also applied a film grain sound effect beneath the music audio just to mirror the visuals of the film grain and create this very raw and creative vibe to the film.
Day3:
On the final day I worked a little quicker with the basis of the film completed. This meant I could see what was going on and how the final outcome would be. At this point I primarily focused on the forest and Norwich scenes as well as the ending. Again I repeated the steps of the previous clips, cutting and applying presets and colour grading to the footage. Although, for the end scene I had to be very careful with how I composed it. I wanted the end to be very dramatic and leave on an impacting message. Overall I think I achieved this, especially with the close up burning shot of the girl in the photo which only emphasises the emotion in the song and narrative. The ending is also fairly enigmatic which makes the ending all the more interesting.
To conclude, I am pleased with the outcome of the editing as I think I have produced a somewhat professional style. I really wanted to convey this depressive message and harsh reality of relationships; something which I think I have managed to do. I also wanted the film to have a very natural energy which I think has been well presented through the hand filmed footage and the old, vintage styled effects.
Distribution:
Since uploading the video to Youtube we have shared the music video via social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from all members accounts. This will in turn allow us to reach a much wider audience and gain further exposure. Within the 3 days of uploading we have already received over 250 views which is very encouraging and permission from the record label (Metal and Dust Recordings). We will also be sharing the final video to the class to gain further feedback which we will post on the blog at a later date.
- Wednesday, February 01, 2017
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- Monday, January 30, 2017
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DAY 1: THETFORD FOREST AND NORWICH CITY
Today we managed to complete two sets of our filming in one day at the two different primary locations. The filming we did went incredibly smoothly without any major hiccups along the way. The most crucial aspect that went well today - and was out of our hands- was the weather. It was a crisp, yet sunny, November day. This allowed us to utilise the natural lighting that we were gifted and we got some extremely well lit and effected shots that we will additionally use within our music video. What also worked well was the communication within the group, the top class actors that we casted but also the promptness of our media filming. This allowed us once again to take many additional shots with quality, but to also stick to our filming schedule that we had carefully planned. By taking extra shots as well, it would allow us to take extra care but less time spent editing when it comes to that process, merely picking out the better footage rather than having to re-film which would be a time consuming process. One aspect that maybe hindered our filming slightly was the camera's battery charge, yet this was not to our fault as we carefully processed all of our shots. As a result, we did have a slight delay, alas it probably worked out for the best timing and weather wise. In addition in some of the shots, members of the recording group do feature in the shots, yet we can either edit this out or use extra footage if needed. We feel that hardly any of our shots need to be re-filmed as we achieved such high quality levels of footage and thus no changes need to be made. By using our storyboards throughout, we could stick within a level basis of what shots we needed to complete, however with the creationists that we are, these helped us change or film an shots that we feel would be crucial to making our music video at the highest quality. Overall, I have to say that this was a fantastic and well worked out day of filming.
Today we managed to complete two sets of our filming in one day at the two different primary locations. The filming we did went incredibly smoothly without any major hiccups along the way. The most crucial aspect that went well today - and was out of our hands- was the weather. It was a crisp, yet sunny, November day. This allowed us to utilise the natural lighting that we were gifted and we got some extremely well lit and effected shots that we will additionally use within our music video. What also worked well was the communication within the group, the top class actors that we casted but also the promptness of our media filming. This allowed us once again to take many additional shots with quality, but to also stick to our filming schedule that we had carefully planned. By taking extra shots as well, it would allow us to take extra care but less time spent editing when it comes to that process, merely picking out the better footage rather than having to re-film which would be a time consuming process. One aspect that maybe hindered our filming slightly was the camera's battery charge, yet this was not to our fault as we carefully processed all of our shots. As a result, we did have a slight delay, alas it probably worked out for the best timing and weather wise. In addition in some of the shots, members of the recording group do feature in the shots, yet we can either edit this out or use extra footage if needed. We feel that hardly any of our shots need to be re-filmed as we achieved such high quality levels of footage and thus no changes need to be made. By using our storyboards throughout, we could stick within a level basis of what shots we needed to complete, however with the creationists that we are, these helped us change or film an shots that we feel would be crucial to making our music video at the highest quality. Overall, I have to say that this was a fantastic and well worked out day of filming.
DAY 2: SOUTHWOLD BEACH
On this day we finalised our filming for our final footage of memory scenes for our music video. One again the weather crucially played into our hands and we were blissed with a bright (albeit a tad freezing) sunny morning. This location for filming needed a lot of attention and planning. This is because our footage required us to hit Southwold at the point of sunrise, which for us meant getting up and reaching there at an extremely early point in the morning. This was a very much similar scenario to the filming we completed on day one and worked out incredibly well. With the cold weather, we realised that we needed to work fast but with quality in our filming and as a result, everything did run smoothly just like before. This time we did not take our storyboards with us, as we remembered the basic structure of what our filming needed to be like, however once we got to our filming location it allowed us flexibility in our ideas to make any changes to our ideas and develop some as we went along. By also arriving at such an early time, it gave us more freedom to create more accurate shots, thus reducing the chance of any re-filming that needed to take place. This time too, we took two cameras with us, allowing us a back up just in case one of the cameras did run out while we were filming. The only downfall of this filming was that we were a man short in our group due to work commitments. However with knowing this, we utilised his ideas he gave us and made sure we put them into practice in filming. Overall, this day and both our days can be considered the best days of filming and footage that we have achieved throughout our whole Media Studies A level course.
On this day we finalised our filming for our final footage of memory scenes for our music video. One again the weather crucially played into our hands and we were blissed with a bright (albeit a tad freezing) sunny morning. This location for filming needed a lot of attention and planning. This is because our footage required us to hit Southwold at the point of sunrise, which for us meant getting up and reaching there at an extremely early point in the morning. This was a very much similar scenario to the filming we completed on day one and worked out incredibly well. With the cold weather, we realised that we needed to work fast but with quality in our filming and as a result, everything did run smoothly just like before. This time we did not take our storyboards with us, as we remembered the basic structure of what our filming needed to be like, however once we got to our filming location it allowed us flexibility in our ideas to make any changes to our ideas and develop some as we went along. By also arriving at such an early time, it gave us more freedom to create more accurate shots, thus reducing the chance of any re-filming that needed to take place. This time too, we took two cameras with us, allowing us a back up just in case one of the cameras did run out while we were filming. The only downfall of this filming was that we were a man short in our group due to work commitments. However with knowing this, we utilised his ideas he gave us and made sure we put them into practice in filming. Overall, this day and both our days can be considered the best days of filming and footage that we have achieved throughout our whole Media Studies A level course.
- Sunday, December 11, 2016
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