Overall this year I feel like I have had improved my skills as a videographer. The constant practical work that we did definitely helped me improve especially in a short amount of time. I have learnt lots of new skills and refined on the ones that I already had. This course has opened my eyes more on what I can do and what can be achieved if you plan.
For example the 4-hour film challenges. They were a great example of this. Planning, shooting and editing a short video/film in 4 hours makes you think quicker and act quicker. Sometimes these can not be as polished but it definitely helps improve my skills and helps me communicate with my classmates better as we are working against the clock.
When it comes to camera skills the majority of the technical things like the ISO, shutter speed and f stop I knew from my A levels in Photography, Media studies and Film Studies. All of these A levels helped me to become more efficient and definitely gave me an edge in the begging of the course as the basics of the camera I already knew. While I still did the exercises with the camera it definitely helped me refine those techniques the more I did.
When it came to planning and shooting a music video I feel like I came into my own, all of the prep and research I did make me very excited to film and edit the video. Creating my own narrative and using interesting shots to make the video more interesting. It challanged my techniques and thoughts which ultimately is why the video is one of my personal favourites. I was very passionate about the song and decided to focus the narrative of the video on the song lyrics so it gave me some structure and was simple to follow. This helped me to be more articulate and precise when it came to the planning as I wanted the narrative to be easy to follow and link to the song. I became very passionate about creating videos. I even got approached by a local band who wanted a music video to be made for them for there new song. I had lots of time to plan and scout out locations it made the video feel more complete. Even though this video wasn't apart of the course it helped me expand my connections and improved my skills.
This course has been great as I have had so many opportunities to meet new people and expand my knowledge of video creating. I have made plenty of videos that I have enjoyed making. While there were some that maybe weren't as good as others there are still lots of them that made that I am very passionate about.
This promotional video is about spreading awareness and taking action for affordable rent. The video is mainly targeted for parents and adults that are paying rent. The style of the video is animated with very easy visuals to follow and to watch. The style doesn't distract the viewer from the main message as the style shouldn't be the main reason for the video. It definitely helps on portraying the message across to the viewer as it simplifies what can be a very stressful and complicated process.
The video begins with statistics on renting in the UK and makes it clear that 1 in 5 families are renting. In the video they don't force any opinions onto the viewer, they keep it neutral and just show the facts. This is what this video does well, letting the viewer decide for themselves. Already the video will be relatable to a percentage of the viewers as 1 in 5 families are renting.
Although this is an animation there is still some good use of camera shots to show the differences between the families. They are clearly represented and it is easy to follow. Another technique that they are using is that they are using the colours of their logo, integrating brand recognition into the video just by using the same colour scheme and font. This gives a subconscious link between the video and the company that the viewer may not even realise. The narrator is Anne Mac who is apart of the BBC and brings alot of star appeal to the video as people are going to listen to a celebrity more than a regular narrator.
Later on in the video, the video we are shown this part. "who really deserve better" The narrator is talking about how we all deserve better which may not be the case but to viewers who are watching this and who are in the same position may agree and think they do. The video is forcing this message upon viewers and making them want to change when maybe in some circumstances they may not need a change. On the flip side of the argument, there are people who are living under very strict housing rules and have to pay ridiculous amounts of rent to stay where they live and this would be the main target audience for this video.
While they are promoting their business idea through this video they are listing things that everyone wants and needs to keep a sustainable house running. This makes the viewer want these things that they are listing to them and makes them more enticed to carry on watching the video. Along with keeping a very similar layout/font/colour scheme as their logo. Like I mentioned earlier this is subconsciously making the viewer retain this information and linking it with this advert. The video is very positive and keeps the statistics very easy to understand. They make out the video to sound like it's the only way of living and to stand up against the high prices and bad landlords. The ideology of having an affordable house and being able to sustain their house is the main message of the video and is portrayed in an easy, understandable and simple way. BLACK. -
For this advert, it is about a clothing line and their new designs of T-shirts and sweaters. They were an up and coming clothing line that is based in the UK. The promotional video is full of mid shots of the two models next to each other wearing the clothing.
It begins off with this time-lapse of the camera moving through the crowd of people in London which sets off a good tone for the video as they set off the tone showing that it's mainly about the people and more importantly the location is key. The effect of the people being blurry is a good use of low shutter speed, this would have been done on-site and thought about before shooting. The time laps are about 2 seconds long and the title fades out in about 1 second. If I were to of shot this I would have made the time-lapse longer and kept the title up longer, but this still is good and keeps the viewer engaged as a time-lapse is very cool to watch. Just after this, we get some more establishing shots of the area that they are in. It is a suburban city vibe and this reflects the style of clothing and the audience they are aiming for. Mainly teenagers and young men and women.
Once all of the establishing shots have finished we transition into these two models wearing the item of clothes that they are promoting. The transition was a wipe using a lamppost masking the wipe. The models that they have used looks like their target audience as they look to be around their 20's. The composition of the shot with the graffiti behind them also reinforces the target audience and matches the style and fashion of the streets. At this point in the video there is a song playing that is slowly getting more instance, the crescendo makes the viewer more engaged as their interest in what happens next to get more intense. The editing of the video is very quick and there are lots of match cuts to different locations around the London area. There are also some glitch effects used for transitions, it definitely matches the tone of the video to have ambitious and interesting transitions like that. There is heavy use of slow-motion used and it is used well as there are constant speed duration jumps, it makes the video more engaging and fun to watch.
There are lots of location changes which makes the video have more variety and keeps it engaging. The use of lines in this shot is very clever as the street like up to the middle of the shot where both of them are standing. The buildings around them and the straight street making them even more central makes the product stand out more.
Once we get to the peak of the song they both wear the same shirt with another different style of scenery while still keeping that urban feel to the video. The background isn't as messy and busy so the main focus can now be on the clothing. The clear sky and the minimal colour make the models stand out. The camera angle and the positioning of the models are very important as they are both centre frame looking down the lens. They finish off the video with their logo again which makes the viewer be reminded of what's brand they have just seen. The length of the video is the perfect length as it shouldn't be too long because they only have one design t-shirt. If they had more products the video should have been longer with maybe more models and locations.
The Brief: My client from Ashlawn Sixth form has asked me to complete a virtual tour around a few rooms of the sixth form block. The client wants the video to be around 10 minutes long with a couple of words from some of the teachers in the sixth form. The video needs to be informative and easy to follow showing you a simple tour of the block. The video will need to have the name of the teachers and what area of the sixth form they work in. The video will be played to the potential new students of the sixth form, the video is a substitute for a real tour of the school due to the current state of COVID-19. Planning: While planning for this I wanted there to be some music playing while there are sweeping shots of the sixth form so that the video flows and doesn't feel awkward when watching. Originally I wanted to use some royalty-free music when thinking about it but I have come up with the idea that I could use the original music from the sixth forms band 'Anomaly'. I am friends with the people from the band it was very easy to contact them and ask them for permission for their music to be used as advertising. They agreed on me being able to use their music along as I credit them at the end. This would make the video 10x better as the royalty-free music wasn't at good. Another great thing about using their music in the background it gives the band exposure to potential new students of the sixth form. Communication: There has been constant back and forth between my mum and then my mum to the client about the logo they want and the font they want too.
Also, communication between me and the band has been important too because they needed to make sure the end of the video had their legal copyright reservation
I decided to choose a song called 'I Won't Wait' by 'Anomaly'. I asked the band to send me the instrumental version because I don't want the lyrics to distract from the people trying to listen to the tour. This is what I put at the end with an official message from the band to promote them to the viewers.
The Assistant Priceable wanted to mainly direct where to go and what rooms to go in as she knows what parts of the block to show the pupils and what parts arent as necessary. For COVID-19 related reasons I was not allowed to film the tour but instead, my mum (who works for the sixth form) had to instead. This prevented me to go and film the shots I wanted and with the equipment that I would have used. The main focus for me was to make sure the editing was good enough to make it look presentable and official. For the editing, I don't want many over the top transitions and keep it very minimal so that it is very easy to follow and the viewer doesn't get distracted from the main focus of the video.
As you can see from the final timeline of the edit it is very minimal with not a lot of effects, as I said before I want the video to be simple and keep the same themes of a tour with the main focus being on what is being spoken about from the voice over. The audience for this video is mainly for parents and their children that could potentially be going to attend the school. This is why I have chosen a song like 'I Won't Wait' to be played when there is no dialogue, the song is very upbeat and original. Giving the band recognition and mentioning in the video that the band is from ashlawn will further inspire the future students to attend as the talent is showcased not just from the visuals in the halls of the sixth form but the audio as well. Health and safety:
The health and safety of this particular video are going to be very important. Due to the current pandemic from COVID - 19 I cannot film. This is something that is out of my control but a very important responsibility. I couldn't film on-site at the school as I wouldn't feel safe being in an environment that I don't know, this could cause problems for both myself and the people around me. Staying away from the shooting location was a decision that I had to make. Getting my mum to film for me was the only choice I had if I were to complete the video on time for its release. If we had more time to film and plan then we could have waited for the pandemic to end and film as normal. This would have been an ideal situation but I had to improvise, this made me more cautious when it came to the health and safety for myself as I was offered to go out and film but declined even if we social distanced because I don't want to take any chances with the health of mine and the people around me. If the circumstances were different and I didn't have to worry about COVID - 19 then I would have taken these productions:
Checking the shooting environment and making sure that it is safe to film in
Making everyone aware that there is filming happening before we shoot
Keeping the shooting location clear of any tripping hazards
Eliminating any potential hazards before shooting (not during)
Double-checking all equipment is ready for use and secure
If there are any shots that need a risk assessment to be doing them
The final Video:
Conclusion: The final video came out as expected and served its purpose, they have now put the video on their website and all the future students have watched it. I hope that it has made the sixth form look as good as they were expecting as this would have been the first time that they would have seen the sixth form. I'm glad the way that the footage that wasn't in my control came out as good as it did. The editing was the main focus for me as I couldn't do much else due to COVID-19. Some positives for the video are they it's a perfect length personally as the amount of the block you see it enough and the ending is nice with the individual messages that each of the teachers has to say. Although the limitations of COVID-19 definitely held me back from making the video better than it could have been, with what I had to work with definitely worked. Things that I would have done differently if there weren't many restrictions would have been:
Me filming on site instead of my mum
This would have improved the angles of the shots and the use of lighting which would have made the video more clear and added a level of professionalism to the video that it doesn't have now
Instead of having the teachers do their monologue at home having them come into the sixth form and using ann interview environment so that it is more professional
This relates back to my other point as if the interviews would have been set up there would have been another level of professionalism to the video.
This is the type of lighting I would use in an ideal scenario.
I would use microphones attached to the speakers clothing so that I can get the best audio possible for the interview
I would have scripted the parts where the tour is happening as the dialogue could have been more precise and interesting
Get more footage to use for potential voice-over from the Assistant Vice-principal
Variations of shots (close-ups and extreme close-ups)
Use different lenses so you can see a variation of depth
They could have sent me a more high res picture of the logo and their own text or at least the font they used for the text of the logo so I can mimic the style for the text instead of using one that looks similar
Vernallis suggests that the video is a visual response to the narrative, as in whatever is happening visually reflects the lyrics in the song. However, Vernallis also says how the narrative may not always be completed and can be partial with the video appearing disjointed, disconnected and fragmented. If the video is incomplete it can lead to many questions about the narrative that won't always be answered throughout the music video. Although the music video may have a theme or narrative, it may be displayed in a montage style, rather than in one clear focus.
Carol Vernallis states that a dear convention of music editing is that the video may disrupt or break the conventions of continuity editing. The editing may also be bought to the foreground, become visible and not hidden opposed to the invisible style of continuity editing, meaning the video will have a style of editing running throughout that is distinctive to that video. For example, you may see Jump Cuts, Breaks of the 30-degree rule, Cutting with the beat, Juxtaposed frames and Graphic matches
Carol Vernallis's theory revolve's around four different and important concepts.I am going to break them down. They are:
1. Narrative 2. Diegsis 3. Camera Movement and Framing 4. Editing
Narrative:
When she describes her theory, Vernallis suggests that music videos are a visual response to the narrative suggested in the song, which means that what is happening onscreen reflects the lyrics. She then says how narrative might not be complete and makes the video seem disjointed and appears in fragments.
Editing:
One of the main conventions of editing music videos is to disrupt or break the rules of continuity editing. Also, the editing in music videos can be used as a focal point, such as editing to the beat of the music or the strum of a guitar, rather than a narrative. Music videos have a distinctive style of editing with easily noticeable conventions:
Jump cuts
Breaking the 30-degree rule
Cutting to lyrics or to the beat of the music
Juxtaposed frames
Framing and Camera Movement
Vernallis suggests that having establishing shots is a key element to music videos, as well as close-ups of the artist or main subject. The camera movement is also key, as it moving in time with the beat or the lyrics are often seen in music videos. The framing is more dependent on the genre of the music, as slower love songs focus more on close-ups and use out of focus shots whereas upbeat pop tunes have more full-on dance style scenes which include everyone in the frame.
Diegsis
In terms of media, diegesis is the setting of the music video. Vernallis says that actions in the video are not always completed and can be disrupted, as this can lead to repetition of shots and frames which will come across as more important than other frames.
Andre Goodwin:
Andre Goodwin's theory can be summarised into 6 key concepts, the majority of theses concepts are traditional music video traits and can be seen in the majority of music videos: 1) LINKS BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS 2) LINKS BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS While this being an obvious trait to music videos it's something that is important and not to be misjudged. Simply this means to show what the song lyrics are in the video. This is a common trait for music videos and can be seen in the majority of them. The visuals are normally shown in beat to the song so that has a smooth transition between takes.
3) GENRE CHARACTERISTICS Some music videos follow a specific genre as the song may give off a specific tone and make the video easy to link. For example, Michael Jackson's Thriller makes sense for it to be a horror-themed video as the song has lots of horror-themed conventions. Sometimes music video directors can choose an experimental approach and do the complete opposite genre to make the video unique and different.
4) INTERTEXUAL REFERENCES This means when a video is influenced by cultural events and affects the video because of this. The song itself will have the biggest influence on what the video will look like especially is it is influenced by a certain event. For example, Eminem's song called Darkness is about the Lasvegas shooting and the video does a very realistic portrayal of what the shooter felt like and what his motive was.
The video creates a narrative that makes you believe that Eminem is the shooter and he is giving reasons as to why the shooter did what he did. Em uses his platform to express his opinions on the gun law in America, he gives a very valid and believable side to the argument and does it well. (more detailed response on another post)
5 )NOTIONS OF LOOKING The notion of looking is very important as in the video the artist may look directly at the camera and perform at the viewer instead of focusing on a narrative-based video. The artist can be more direct with what they are saying when they are doing it while looking at the camera.
A video that does that well is GOLD by BROCKHAMPTON. This video is performance while they rap and speak to the camera as if they are in conversation with the audience.
6) VOYEURISM. Voyeurism is a lot like the male gaze in the way that the camera can sometimes linger on parts of peoples bodies other than someones face. When the male gaze theory became created it was more likely that a male would be filming instead of women. So sometimes women would be objectified as the video was seen through a males point of view. Typically directors during the time of the theory's creation were male and this would make women in some instances seem over-sexualised by the camera. Her theory had been influenced by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan which helped boost her essays into the public eye and elevate her theory. Mulvey states that she intends to use Freud and Lacan's concepts of 'the 'political weapon'. This can be seen in films as well as music video's one of the most infamous videos that had been slandered by the public was Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
As well as being very offence towards women and over sexualising them the video was full of nudity. This is where all of the controversies came about the video. Pharell Williams has completely disregarded this video and song out of his discography as he feels its not an accurate portrayal of himself as a person
Short Synopsis: For my music video, I want it to be narrative-driven. The narrative will be about a heist but with a twist. The main characters will be 18-year-olds but they will have a very childish deminer. (Drinking caparisons, eating chocolate) And for the heist, they are stealing a massive jar of sweets. During the first section of the video, I will have the heist set up/plan with everyone along a table discussing the plan. There will also be a character reading a newspaper with a picture of a detective and the caption "Best detective since Sherlock!" This sets some sort of tension between the group but doesn't get mentioned until the end. The middle section of the video will be executing the heist and with nerf guns. Once they find the sweets they will take them and run back to the car and drive back to their home. Once they get home they eat all of the sweets and go crazy. Once we get to the end of the song the detective is one of the people doing the heist and shoots them all when they are not looking with their nerf guns and then takes his mask off to reveal the detective at the beginning on the newspaper.
The song I have chosen for my music video is BROCKHAMPTON: ST. PERCY -
This song has a very gritty tone with a minimal beat to it until the end where it drops and the song goes more intense. The beginning of the song is just bass so I might have cuts to the bass tones and make it in tune to the song. Audio:
I will be making my music video to a song called ST. PERCY. I also want to have an intro to the song and that song will be HEAVEN BELONGS TO YOU, in the album this song comes before ST. PERCY so it transitions perfectly into it. This song has a music video but it is very short and doesn't have any aspects that I am going to be using. ST. PERCY will be the centre point of the video. Its also only 1 minute 30 seconds long so it's not too long of an intro.
The song has a very dark and grungy tone that I will be contrasting with the video in some way. Maybe for some of the scenes, I will mix them into the song so that there is a mixture of diegetic and not diegetic sound in the video.
The ending of the video will be mixed into another BROCKHAMPTON song called IF YOU PRAY RIGHT. This also has a very smooth transition. This song has a music video but I am only using around 20 seconds from it. The reason that I will be having around 20 seconds of this song at the end of the video is that it will make the ending of the video more smooth. If I didn't use this song for the ending would be very abrupt.
Visual inspiration:
I want the beginning of the video to be black and white with harsh contrasting shades. I have seen some clips from the film "pi" I want my music video to resemble this artistic style of harsh shades but only using the colours black and white. The black and white style makes it look very gritty and serious which will be a good contrast between the subject matter. The characters will be using childish mannerisms and using nerf guns to defend themselves, so the song and the visuals will contrast with the actual visuals. I want the video to be black and white throughout and then towards the end of ST. PERCY has the video change the colour and has it very vibrant. Shot list: Scene one: The Setup -Throughout this scene, the shots are predominantly in slow motion so that shots linger - Close up to long shot pulling back from character reading magazine - "It smells like ginger" have a character come next to the main character reading a magazine with ginger and press it against their nose - "Dead leaves in the breeze we've got chimneys" Shots of leaves and the chimney (closeups) - Filler shots of the people setting up the heist with a layout of the house and entry and exit points. More shots of empty sweet wrappers and caparison cartons to emphasise their demeanour. - "There's a war in my head just like the middle east" Main character will point at the nerf gun and another character will slap their hand and then say "no guns" - "When you wanna get money get them riches" Close up of the sweet jar drawing on the whiteboard with a slight dutch tilt, then a reaction shot of all of the characters looking at the sweet jar with the same dutch tilt - Rest of the song will be a montage sequence of them getting in their car and getting ready to go
Scene two: The Heist - As instrumental builds to the vocals have shots of them getting closer to the house with shots of them driving past people on the street. - Shots of inside the car (pov) - Security camera shot from outside the house as they approach - "Young Nolan, PlayStation controller" Close up of the owner of the house playing the PlayStation with headphones on so he can't hear anything. - Tracking shot behind the 3 robbers as they get closer to the house - Close up of their feet as they walk closer towards the door. - Close up of the robber kneeling down to get a key from under the matt and then looking at the rest of them high-five each other. - A reaction shot of the person in the house as they take their headphones off to look outside and see nothing. - Shot from outside of the robbers ducking down to avoid being seen. Once they have stood up one of them hits them on the head. - Robber with the key counts down from 3 and then they put the key in the door to open it. - Close up of the key going in the door. - Inside the house close up of the door handle turning to open. - Once inside close up of their feet walking towards the kitchen - Mid shot of the door that the person was in looking at them walking past the door into the kitchen - Tracking over the shoulder shot of the robbers walking into the kitchen and then beginning opening draws and cupboards - 3 separate shots of each of the robbers (tracking shot) of the opening and closing cupboards and draws looking for the loot. - Mid shot of one of them pointing to something off-camera - Static shot of the robber pointing at the camera and them running towards the camera and picking it up (camera as the loot) - Over the shoulder shot of robber placing it down on the table to then open it - Pulling back and forward while rotating at different angles - A reaction shot of the robbers from the perspective of the loot - One continuous shot outside the house down the road and into the getaway car Chapter 3: The reward - Slow-mo shots of them getting out of the jar with sweets - Them placing down sweets (close up of hand placing down the jar) - Slow-motion of the sweets falling out of the jar into the table (close up) - Robber A eating sweets Slo-motion close up - Robber B eating sweets slow motion close up - Close up of the nerf gun shooting X2 - A reaction shot of Robber B as Robber A falls to the ground - Close up of nerf gun shooing - Slow-motion shot of Robber C walking to check on their bodies tapping them as she goes by - Slowly sits back down (slow-motion) takes off the mask - big reveal that she is the blue face killer and fade to black on her face
The timeline doesn't look that complicated of an edit but getting the timing right with the song was challenging.
I also made a thumbnail for the video inspired by the other singles BROCKHAMPTON have released:
Final Film:
Evaluation: Overall I feel like this was the best shoot and edit of a project. The overall plan of the video came together with the shot list. The shot list I made sure to have on set while shooting and it overall made the shooting a lot easier and it did save time. I made sure to not take any unessisery shots so that I didn't waste any time. While shooting we did discover some things didn't work out as with the "dead leaves in the breeze" shot we tried to make some leaves flow in the wind, there wasn't any wind and the shot didn't end up looking good so I decided not to do it. This was one of many of the decisions I and Chris had to make when shooting the video was what shots are necessary. The editing process was very simple as I made sure to have the shot plan next to me and I used it as a timeline so that it made it easier for me to track. The video came out how I imagined it to with the edit but I did use more slow-motion than intended because some shots didn't last long enough so I had to use slow motion to make the shots work. But overall I think the use of the slow-motion made the video look better. The entire ST PERCY section was going to be all black and white. When editing it didn't have the same effect that I wanted. It just made the footage look bland and not as effective. I did have the black and white in on a small part of the song where it breaks down but that fit the tone of the song and video. Some shots in particular that went differently in post:
While planning this music video I wanted to have some subtitles to accompany the visuals so that the song connects well with the visuals. When I added the subtitles it actually drew you away from the video and made you read when you didn't need to. I wanted to caption this "Guns?" When I put the caption in it wasn't needed. The hand gesture implied this and didn't need the extra exposition.
Throughout the music video, I had lots of slow-motion shots. Originally I didn't want many slow-motion shots but when I put them in it made the video more impactful and enjoyable. When filming I wanted to make sure that I could slow the footage down whenever I wanted. So I shot in 100 frames per second. This allowed me to have as much creative freedom as I needed when in the edit.
During the beginning of the second scene, there are lots of b roll footage of the 3 protagonists walking towards the location of the sweets and I felt like I needed to make these slow-motion. I wanted the viewer to really focus on these three people as they are the main focus of the video. I wanted the shots to linger on the characters, the 100 frame rate also helped me to slow down the footage to make the frame stay on the characters.
I also feel like the CCTV shot was something that worked well even though it wasn't something that I had planned for the shoot. It adds another layer to the video as a whole and that the world is more connected. While we were on set I decided to get a high angle shot of them coming through the gate and this evolved into the CCTV shot even though it wasn't originally planned. It definitely adds to the video overall.
When planning the video I wanted to have it all in black and white to make the overall theme of the video to be serious but have that lighthearted tone to it. This plan didn't end up fully coming true. I decided to not have the entire video in black and white as it took away any bright colours coming from the sweet jar. The brought the overall look of the video down in quality so I decided not to follow this idea. I did want some black and white in the video and during the song it breaks down and slows down, I took this opportunity to add the black and white effect as well as some noise/grain. This makes the footage match the tone of the breakdown of the song. It also makes this part stand out the most as the colours and tone of the song have toned down.
For this shot, It was something that we decided to do on set as I didn't know how to approach the reveal of the loot. The shot that we ended up using fits really well with the childish tone. The only thing that I wished the shot was different is that it isn't long enough. I wanted it to be a continuous shot of Jaz picking up the camera and putting it down on the other side of the room. It still is very effective but I only wish it were longer.
