Week 1
To start of our new units, we watched a montage of music videos and deconstructed our client brief. We also remade our padlet wall so that we could then upload our work. We learned about different audio techniques and evaluated 2 music videos to see how they specifically used these techniques. I chose 'Heart-Shaped Box' by Nirvana and 'Alright' by Kendrick Lamar as they both had very interesting and diverse music videos. We then got given a task in which we got the chance to cut to the beat. This is where an editor creates short cuts and/or transitions in order to synchronise it with the beat. Our group chose the song 'Mambo No 5' which was the medium song out of three song choices. It was a really fun filming process and our final product came out really well. We then had to write up our reasonings for our decisions to do with the video. In our next lesson, we began to plan a one-shot video to 'The Lazy Song' by Bruno Mars. This was a hard planning process as we had to learn the dances and the timings of the song to ensure that the final product was perfect despite having to film it multiple times for practice.
Week 2
At the beginning of this week, we learned about visual techniques. I found out what chroma key is. This is when a solid background is used so then you can change it to whatever you want. This is used in many films and music videos. We were then taught about the history and styles of music videos. This includes narrative, parody, surrealist and impressionist. To link these two aspects together, I had to write a visual deconstruction of 4 videos that had those styles and explain what visual techniques they used. One barrier I faced was getting the right screenshots to fit with the points I made for the visual deconstructions. I overcame this by looking through the videos multiple times to get the exact shots and put them in order of my writing to make it clear which picture goes with what. The research of the visual deconstructions helped me spark new ideas about my music video pitch as I now know about different styles and how to use the visual techniques.
For our next task, we got given the track 'Blue Eiffel 65' and had to manipulate it in our own way. We used Adobe Premiere Pro to speed up the original track and add a drill beat to the background, we then overlapped the songs to create our final song. We chose drill because we thought it would go very well with our theme of surrealism. This is because we were manipulating the happy song with a more hardcore drill sound. Reverb was added to the original track to make the tone a bit more minor compared to what it was before. One issue we came across was being able to make the beats overlap and make a decent sound as they are both completely different styles of music. However, we made it work by playing around with both of the original tracks to make them fit together.
Week 3
For my pitch, I chose one of my favourite songs 'Since I've Been Loving You' by Led Zeppelin because it fit in with the brief so well. This song was release in 1970 which made it just about fit the timeline we had to use. I had to consider how I was going to make the music video for a universal audience, bearing in mind that I chose a rock song. I made sure that there was no derogatory or controversial terms in the song and to make it family friendly I wouldn't make any sexual or drug-theme connotations in the music video. I considered every factor and researched a lot about the band. One issue that I faced is that Led Zeppelin did not have very many music videos and therefore, I could not create ideas based off of that. I overcame this by watching music videos from other artists and bands such as, Pink Floyd and David Bowie to spark ideas for my pitch. I also researched 70s rock conventions, this gave me ideas for clothing, locations and context. If I were to do anything differently, I would pick another theme. I chose impressionism, however, I think that narrative or surrealism could've gone with the song better.
I was quite nervous in my pitch which was a bit of a set back as I was struggling a bit to present. However, I did end up getting my message to the audience. I will need to work on my presentation skills during this course as I will need to have full confidence when approaching things like this in my career. Despite the nerves, once I got into it I managed to communicate it effectively to the class and was completely prepared to answer any questions the audience had regarding the presentation. From watching my filmed presentation I noticed that I was trying to read the powerpoint as a safety net to ensure I didn't get anything wrong and my body language gained more confidence throughout the pitch. I was very happy to engage with the audience when they had any questions and I spent a lot of time on research to ensure the presentation had great detail. One thing I found very important when watching other pitches was that everyone is as nervous as each other, and we are all in the same boat. I did notice that some people added in things that didn't cross my mind to add such as, health and safety issues and permissions and shot types. Looking back at this, I wish I added those in to add extra detail. The main problem that I had was nerves, moreover, that resolved itself the more I got into the pitch. Now that I have been given my job role as camera operator, I need to ensure that I am punctual and have confidence to give my input. I will be a very fundamental part of the music video so I need to ensure I am showing up as much as physically possible.
Week 4
This week, we started meeting with our production team and planning our ideas for the music video. We had our first meeting on Monday and used the rest of the week to complete preproduction. As camera operator, I had to complete my crew profile, storyboards, shot sheets and equipment booking. I completed my crew profile over the weekend as it was the most straightforward piece of paperwork I had to do. I then discussed with my team what equipment we needed for filming and created the shot list to ensure that we had the equipment reserved. The storyboard took a while to come together and this set back our production as I needed the storyboard to create the shot list. As a result, I took it into my own hands to create the storyboard based on what we already had and then Tyler and I decided to work together to make sure that his ideas were incorporated. In order to improve we should have created the storyboard straight away to avoid any set backs as the storyboard is the most fundamental piece of paperwork as it determines how everything else is completed. I contributed to the team planning by gathering my friends to use as actors and helped with the location recce as it was going to be filmed in my local area. I gave many contributions towards the final storyboard and different shots. We changed the concept many times to make the storyboard perfect and to fit in with our comic theme, however, I do not think that will have a bad impact on our final music video. The main setback that we had was that we could not book the equipment until the storyboard was done and it took us a while to complete this. Nevertheless, we all worked together as a team to get it done as quickly as possible to ensure that we had ur equipment by half term. Our research for our visual deconstructions gave us the idea to give our music video elements of narrative and surrealism to make it a fun parody. I believe this will be successful as we want to make everyone laugh. One example of surrealism we included was using my tiny dog as a police dog and having monkeys and a tiger fighting each other.
Final Week
We did not have our music video ready for the screening as our editor failed to show up and finish it by this time. Despite this, we gained great feedback from the audience and made everyone laugh which was our main goal. Furthermore, we managed to complete our final piece by the deadline of 3rd March. Our final outcome was good, however, I think it could have been a lot better if we had time to adjust the editing. The editor not being there for the screening was quite a setback as they didn't receive the feedback and therefore, did not know what needed improving. In the end, we decided to add a montage of videos that we took the week prior of the tiger roaming around the town and getting reactions. We did this somewhat successfully, however, the cutting to the beat was not perfect. The audio definitely needed to be aligned better to get a better final outcome and I believe that adding non-diegetic sounds during fights would fit in better with the comic theme. I believe that the camera angles could have been a lot better and we should have varied with our shots to make it more intriguing. The final product was very saturated due to a comic-like filter that was used which made the camera work look very dark and low quality. In hindsight, if I were to personally edit the video, I would use Adobe Premier Pro instead of CapCut because it gives more of a professional look and it would have had way better quality. The audience thought the music video was very funny which was our goal and many people were laughing. The main feedback we got given was to do with the alignment of cutting to the beat and the saturation of the video. This was very expected, moreover, I thought we would get more constructive criticism than we got in the end. I believe that our music video does meet the requirements of the brief because we have ensured that it is family friendly and that it gives the audience a happy feeling. The audience left talking and laughing about our video as it was very comedic which was the exact outcome the client and us as a production team wanted. Our music video was a bit more on the low quality side compared to the professional music videos I deconstructed for research. It was too dark and needed to be edited to make it look brighter. It did not contain too many editing techniques and was very simple compared to others. I believe that it could have also been more professional if we manipulated the audio in at least one way to make it more personal to our production team, such as non-diegetic sound. During the screening, the production team was very nervous as we did not have a finished product and therefore, at first we did not present it very well and had little enthusiasm. After our video was screened, I was very confident in answering any questions and taking feedback. Next time, I will not go in with no enthusiasm as there is always a chance that you will receive great feedback and I will also make sure that my video is completed to ensure that I am not in that position again.
Credits:
Created with an image by batuhan toker - "professional digital video camera in a concert hall and blur piano background"