Final Music Video - Editing

Last night, we edited our draft video, turning it into our final product. As we felt that we had enough footage, we decided it would be best not to re-film any scenes, as it would damage the continuity of the video, which is something we feel needs to kept.

While editing, we tried to make the scenes shorter, fitting in with the fast paced song, as we felt that in some cases, our scenes were too long. Also, we tried to make the scenes change, with the drum beat of the song, as we feel this makes it look professional.

As previously mentioned, we decided to omit the scenes which involve the lighting and explosion of the firework, as the feedback which we received suggested that it was not in keeping with the style of the music video. Also, we cut down the long shots, as they do not look as high quality as the other shots due to the fact that as the night went on, it became fairly misty in the field.

Overal we feel that editing wise the video was a success. We managed to complete everything in reasonable time. We did try to change the adjustments on some but felt that it just ruined the look of the video, so decided that the affect it would have would not be desired.

Outtakes Video

I was playing around with some of our left over footage and decided to make this outtakes video. It's a bit of fun really, but we can also see some of the bits where we went wrong and we can also use this a sort of a self-evaluation of the difficulties of filming our music video. This also gives an insight into how we filmed the video.

Music Video Version 1

Here is the first version of our music video. We took approximately 2.5/3 hours to film and around 3 hours to edit. We have kept to our storyboard reasonably well. We do have around 30+ minutes of footage to play around with for alterations for our final piece.

Shot Schedule

As Pat and I have both discovered after discussing with other students who have managed to film their videos, a lot of the time shots can get easily muddled up. Another problem is with continuity, rather than moving the camera back and forth between different shots we want to film all similar shots, with the same band member at the same time. So ideally, we will never move the camera from one angle back to the same angle, thus giving us a good oppurtunity to keep shot similarity and continuity.

A difficulty in our vision for our video also is that we have 2 different types of shots in terms of what they feature. Some shots feature the band performing the song with instruments then the others will feature them dancing. This will be a factor in deciding what order we shoot, so that we are not moving instruments, particularly a drum kit, back and forth from in and out of shot.

For this puropse, I have created a shot schedule. At first glance, this will not make much sense to anyone besides me or pat. Basically, all shots are on this page going in order. The highlighted orange numbers are shots which feature the band playing instruments, the non-highlighted are those with the band dancing.
This will be the sheet in which we will work from when filming.



Note: Shots 30 & 31 feature a band member setting off a firework, this may not feature in our draft so I have not included them fully in the shooting schedule.

Draft CD Digipack

Back cover close up. 

Draft Album Magazine Adverts/Posters

I have used the same images, fonts and colour schemes to create these draft posters. I feel as though this would help promote the alum better as the audience could become familiar with these motifs and recognise them as promotion of the album increases. 

CD Cover analysis 3

The Chemical Brothers - Surrender

This album cover features a long wide shot with focus of a man throwing his arms up in the sky. The image has been filtered and saturated. It has an effect to make only block colours show up and almost cartoon-like, I feel this works very well and looks good on an album cover. The image is shot at the Olympia arena in London, it features the crowd in the background and a mainly focused person in the foreground, which is the icon of the cover. While the original picture may have been a bit blander, with a basic, darker colour-scheme - the use of filtering and enhancing the photo has made it very bright and colourful. The band name and album title are in the top corners of the cover in contrasting white. The font used for 'The Chemical Brothers' is the signature font for the band, while 'Surrender' is in a basic text, but works well on this cover. 

On this inside cover the only thing featured are the credits to the album written in blue text on a plain white background. The font is basic and does not need to be decorative or artistic in anyway as it is not aimed to be eye-catching. 

The CD is very basic, again featuring the signature font for the band name and some legal information including the record label etc.

The back cover opposes the bright and colourful front cover with a mainly black back cover. There are close up facial shots of the members of the band, with low lighting to match the colour of the background. The track listing is written very basically in a smart font, which appears very formal. The Chemical Brothers logo is shown at the top of the page and the spine of the album. 

Draft CD covers

I used this image I took quickly to create these draft covers, Although I have not chosen one final draft design. I have gone for a black and white filtered image of the models. I like the use of coloured text more than just plain black texts as it gives me a better colour scheme that I could use throughout my digipack. 

Magazine Advert analysis 3

MGMT - Congratulations

This advert features the original album cover with some text underneath in a simple layout. 

The image is a colourful cartoon from the album cover. The black box with white text contrasts this quiet well and gives the information about the album. 

The layout almost showcases the album and the text is a caption to it. The text is in an effective font which is simple yet eye catching. There is not much to say about the actual advert itself a lot of the focus is on the album cover. Personally I think the artwork should be stretched or cropped to fit the whole page, that way it is more eye catching, this particular advert is too much of a contrast from the cover to the text at the bottom. 

Magazine Advert analysis 2

Enter Shikari - Tribalism

This magazine advert is for a compilation album by Enter Shikari. It has a simple layout with the title text over a grey background which features some text.

The signature Enter Shikari band motif is used, this will make it recognisable to people who are familiar with the band. Another motif used is the lion, which is made using different coloured text in the background, this works well as it is quiet subtle but almost a bit hard to notice.

The colour scheme is fairly dark except from the band moto 'We won't stay silent' which is in a light blue so that it stands out. The band name has some slight scratches on it for effect and to give the idea of the band being a bit 'rough' which is typical of their character and genre.

The layout is pretty simple, all text is centred and in a similar serif font.

Overall I think this magazine advert works well, it's quiet simple with only text featured. Although this would be different to an album cover as I think that should feature an image, in my opinion.

Magazine Advert analysis 1

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

This magazine advert for Coldplay's album 'Mylo Xyloto' features the album artwork but sightly extended from a square to an A4. It features the signature custom font used in the promotion of this album, also the release date is in this so it stands out as much as the album name. 

The image used is a mixture of colourful graffiti and bright blotches of colour. The white text works well with it as it keeps up quiet a bright colour scheme. 

Overall this is a very loud and eye-catching advert and would not be easy to replicate as the image or mixture of images seems to be very complicated and artistic and may cost a lot to produce something similar. 

CD Cover analysis 2

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

This album cover is very simple, but I feel it's also very effective. It features a polaroid image, which has been filtered slightly and the bands name is contrasting bold white letters. The image has been taken at a house party of some sort. The image was taken by Annie Fields. Here are the original pictures, the left one featuring a couple of the band members. 

The image of the chandelier for the front cover has been taken from a low angle. It could seem to be taken with little artistic intent, but either way it has worked affectively for the band's album cover. The bands name, also being the album title, is centred in a basic font across the cover. 

The colour scheme is again effective, the image has been filtered with a orange/pink overlay and gives the image a darker look from the original and the white text contrasts it well. The scheme through the cover, back, CD etc. is fairly unattached. The CD is a bright yellow and features the band name in the same font as the cover in blue text. The CD also features abbreviations of the track listings, which is relatively unconventional. 

The inside cover features plain black text with two columns with acknowledgements to people involved with the band and a list of band members.  

 The back cover is again non-matching to any colour scheme and is the only dark part of the digipack. The text used is very different to the block-basic text used on the cover and CD but is quite formal, in a serif font. 

I think this album, the cover in particular is quite basic, but eye-catching. I think to design an album cover like this would be fairly simple but the image would have to be right and also eye-catching and work well with the text. However if I could take an image good enough it would be fairly straightforward to replicate this type of cover, as shown with this mock up that I did in about 5 minutes. But this also illustrates the difficulties of making an album cover look professional.  

CD Cover analysis 1

Bombay Bicycle Club - I Had The Blues But I shook Them Loose

This album cover features a long wide shot photo of a man being thrown in the air, as if being praised. The image has been filtered to highlight the black and white in the photo and is slightly washed out. This filtering, while gives some emphasis on the title font does not make the image completely abstract an the image still has some importance to the cover.

The image seems like it has no real relevance to the band and may be used to show joy and indicate the genre or style of the band and/or their music. It may also be a reflection of the album name. The band's logo which features their name is central, while the title of the album is underneath in a smaller text. The font of the band's logo, which is featured on tour posters etc. also, is a fairly basic font but is effective in standing out in this example, while the text below is very basic, in capitals but doesn't stand out as much except for the contrasting sky blue. With the band's name being in larger text, it may show that they aim to get the bend name more recognised or is more recognisable and want people who are going to buy the album to recognise this easily.

The CD itself features the man in the image as a sort of motif which is also used on the 'bonus' website from the album as shown below.

The back cover feature a simple left-sided list of the album tracks in the same font as the album name on the front. The image features appears to be a spray paint tag on someone's skin, again in black and white.

The digipack seems to feature a lot of close up shots of body parts, like the inside with someones hand and back cover with someone chest. These images seem slightly washed out and almost dirty, this could be conveying a suggestion of the band. The images are also quite low lit, again this may be a suggestion of the band.

The colour scheme is fairly basic, an element of this cover that I enjoy. A black and white image with contrasting sky blue text, which works very effectively I feel. This colour scheme is used throughout the digipack This is an element that could be replicated in my own work that I may consider using, with it giving a cover a good look and being relatively easy to make.

Bonus website

Inside Cover

CD

Back Cover

Risk Assesment

There are many risks involved with the filming with the video.

Firstly, as the video is being shot in the field, there is long grass and will be equipment such as wires and tripods lying about, this will mean that actors and crew could fall over this making it a serious hazard. The severity would only be medium, as it cannot cause any extremely bad injuries but could cause things like a twisted ankle. The precautions we could take would be to try not to leave things lying about on the floor and to make sure all members of crew know about the equipment lying about.

There maybe some temporary structures such as ladders up, so all crew will need to know how to use it. It's severity would be high, as a big fall off the ladder could result in multiple injuries. The precations we would take would be to make sure that a person was always holding the ladder and that they are positioned safely.

As in the field, we will be using cars to light up the area where we are filming, we will need to make sure that they are in neutral and are positioned so they are not blocking anything off. The severity of the risk is low, as it is unlikely that something could go wrong but we have to make sure that everything is taken seriously. The precautions are, as previously mentioned to put the cars gears in neutral.

One other prop we are using in the video  is that of a firework. The severity of this risk is obviously very high, as it is a dangerous object which can cause many injuries. Precautions such as wearing gloves and keeping a safe distance will have to taken, so that nothing goes wrong.

Storyboard Animatic

This is our storyboard animatic, it shows the order of our shots but also with the correct timing to give us a better idea of how our video will look in terms of shot types, positions, movements etc. 

Storyboard

Here is are storyboard, unfotunately one shot was atached on the edge of the storyboard, so would not scan.

Location Night time

Here are some pictures of what the location would look like at night. The effect is better than the daylight, I think it would make the video a bit cooler, in my opinion. 

This shows the basics of how we will light our set. This just shows one car lighting the area, we hope to use about 3 or 4 to get a better affect. 

This shows the view from the camera angle with normal car lights on. 

This shows the lights on full beam, the effect is obviously that it is brighter and we can see more of the background which will show the setting better. 

Here shows a person in this full beam light, the worry was that the lights wouldn't be bright enough to light all features of the person. This picture shows the lighting would be good enough. Hopefully with more car lights it will look brighter. Below is the point of view of the band. 

Location Daytime

This is what our location would look like in the daytime, the setting is meant to be quite plain and this suits very well. The problem with shooting a music video in daylight, is that it is very variable and if we are filming for hours on end it will be very difficult to keep the same light. The advantage of shooting at night therefore, is that we can control the light. (shown in next post).

What are you doing?

At the moment we are focusing on completing the storyboard (see Harry at hard graft)

We have also decided to mainly film the video in an empty field and we are currently deciding whether to film at night, in the day but change it to look like the night or to just film in the day. The problem with filming in the night would be that the lighting would be poor. One of our ideas was to try to get about 4 cars behind the camera, all with full beam shining on the band & dancers but this needs testing. Below are some pictures of the possible filming locations.

Inspiration and research - Robbie Williams

One man who has always been keen on making intriguing and very different music videos is pop artist Robbie Williams. Although his music is very mainstream he has always taken a keen interest in trying to create unique and original music videos.



In this video we see Robbie Williams, dressed up as a member of Kiss, this therefore being an intertextual reference. Also, it is playing on the genre as Robbie Williams is a pop artist whereas Kiss are heavy metal.

Another video by Robbie Williams is "Supreme"



In this video you see Robbie Williams pretending to be a fake F1 driver, against former champion Jackie Stewart. This is an example of disjuncture as it is completely unrelated.

In this video you see Robbie Williams cross-dressing, pretending to be Madonna.



This is a tongue in cheek remake, fitting in with the title therefore being an example of illustration.