Finished Music Video

Editing the Music Video

The editing process has been long and tedious, but the video has begun to finally take shape. We have all of the sequence in order and transitions we believe to fit.

In order to achieve the best transitions and effects in the video, we ended up placing clips into 5 different video tracks across the video to be able to make the transitions flow.

The amount of effects we are able to use on Premiere Pro is huge and with that we have the freedom to pick and choose as we feel and that the chances of finding an effect which enhances the picture in the way that we want is high.






In addition to this, I have began requesting feedback on the current edit of the video from various people our group knows that also study media.



This was the current edit of the music video which we have shown people these were the responses we received:

We have taken this feedback on board, as well as asking for feedback from our teacher and fellow peers in order to produce the highest quality video.

One of the comments which we have had to upon was that the video included too many fades as transition and that the difference between characters emotions weren't always obvious. Through this we have some of the fades and testing out various effects to make the difference in characters emotion obvious, such as the Luma keying and reducing the brightness in the depressed characters shots and the use of colour changing, colour correction, enhancing the brightness and saturation and using sharpening effects on some shots to make the emotions of the happy character evident.

Filming days 13/02 and 14/02

We filmed for both Saturday and Sunday in order to film the remaining shots to finish the music video. We filmed many shots of the happy character for our video as there was a lack of footage that we had of them. We needed about 1:30 of the video to fill, so we needed both days in order to fill the remaining gaps in the production. The shooting schedule for Saturday is here and for Sunday it is here.

Character profiles

In order to effectively convey the narrative of our music video, the characters had to be very well planned out. As we opted for a narrative which contrasted two different moods throughout, the characters had to be complete polar opposites in terms of emotion and dress sense.

Happy character:
This character is to be portrayed as the stereotypical teenager who's actions frequently suggest he hasn't a care in the world.
The emotions conveyed through actions and facial expressions will be viewed as being overall positive.
The miss en scene (especially costume) will be presented in the most positive way possible. For example, his attire will consist of bright colours and will make him appear quite smart and well put together. (The colour and lighting may also be changed during post production in order to convey this)

Sad character:
In contrast to the only other character in this production, this character subverts from the dominant stereotype and is portrayed as a much darker, more morbid person. The aim is to convey the message that unfortunate events have caused this character pain and he is try in to deal with it in whatever way possible.
Similarly, the facial expressions and mise en scene play key roles The portrayal of this character.
The costume will consist of darker and more depressing colours and will attempt to be similar clothes to that which is stereotypically worn by unsavoury characters.

Filming Day 1 - 10/1/16

Our first filming day went well. We now have a starting point and some shots that we can use to try and design a CD cover and website. Here are some of the shots we took.

Textual Analysis 8 - Madeon 'Finale' Music Video

We decided to analyse the song we are creating a music video for; Madeon's 'Finale'.



We have presented this using the easel below.

Production of the Music Video

In order to gain a better understanding of music videos, we looked into how they are produced. This bubbl.us post below was the information we found out.
Original source: Videomaker.com

Textual Analysis 7 - Katy Perry 'California Girls'.

Katy Perry – California Gurls from 09robebr

Textual Analysis 6 - Darude 'Sandstorm'

The music video for the song 'Sandstorm' uses a lot of the genre conventions for a dance song. One of which is the uses of movement; with the cast of the music video running through the streets of a large city. The camera shots reflect this as it follows the cast running, with a combination of high angle and low angle shots, tracking shots as well as shot moving away from the characters in the music video.


These different shots, along with the fast cuts, keeps the video with the fast pace of the song; conveying towards Goodwin's 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' theory (1992), where the music reflects visuals.




The editing used in the music video, as mentioned before, matches the visuals. The cuts are usually in time with the song and its beat, along with the pulsating of the screen in time with the beat allows this music video to maintain its pace throughout. There are even shots with the dog used to bark in time with the song.




The music video uses a mini movie for the video, which involves a woman that appears to have stolen a briefcase and is chased by a man and a double agent who turns on the man near the end of the video. There is also a man, (presumably Darude), who is seen throughout the video and allows the women to escape into the sunset via a boat. The only problem I have with the video is the lack of sense it makes. Due to the lack of lyrics, the video tries to have a storyline but doesn't seem to work. However, other dance music videos have mini movies as well, which is likely where the video takes inspiration from.

Textual Analysis 5 - Televisor 'Find That Someone'

As a way to understand the genre that our group is doing, I have analysed Televisors' 'Find That Someone', as our song choice does not have an official music video. The song is of a similar genre to our own, as well as having some mention to romance.

The video introduces the artist in a literal way by using a zoom shot of an old T.V. with the artists name on in before zooming in. Despite the voice artist being male, most of the lip syncing is done by the females that appear throughout the music video; perhaps showing that relationship issues occur for both genders and not being biased.

The music video focuses on a number of things; one of which is colour. Pink, blue and green backgrounds are mostly used for each female to show the difference between them; constantly cutting to each shot quickly to match the pace of the song itself. The shot changes at least every line, if not quicker to keep with the pace of the song.

The video is also very literal shown in places such as where it says, 'You can tell me secrets' and has someone whispering into anothers' ear, and it saying, 'But I could never love' with a broken heart on the ground. There is also a look of shots of the women looking, particularly where it says, 'Find thae someone'. The majority of the lip syncing done is in the lines 'Just like you', where it cuts between each female to show their differences.
There is also relation to Vernallis' 'The Kindest Cut' Theory. This is due to the editing matching the beat of the song and lip syncing of the song between different characters, as well as cuts to different shots in time with the beat.

There is also a large use of eggs during the video that didn't seem to be relevant to the video at first, but made more sense as it went on. The eggs were used as metaphor for how people feel after unsuccessful relationships shown as there was use of the egg being crushed and a fried egg being place on the eyes and the yolk being broken to show crying.

Stop motion was used in the video to make not only inanimate objects such as string move, but also was used to make the females move in a jumpy way at the end of the song. The inanimate objects often spelled out 'You' when it was sung; continuing in the literal theme.

The video overall was interesting as it used lots of shot types and shots in general that helped support the lyrics. It was fast paced to fit the song and was unique that it was one that was memorable through the use of colour and interesting metaphors.

Original Music Video below:

Textual Analysis 3 - 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams

I have created a Glog about Pharrell Williams' 'Happy' and its link to Web 2.0.
Glogster

Textual Analysis 1- Close to Me

The video for the song ‘Close to Me’ by The Cure involved the band going to the bottom of the ocean by falling off of a cliff in a wardrobe. The setting matched the music as it appeared a very relaxed scene underwater as the group were exploring the deep, (somehow without any breathing equipment).

There was a small amount of relevance between the visuals and the lyrics, the only exceptions being the ‘close to me’ whiles the group were in the wardrobe together and the close to me when the octopus is holding the lead singer. This also led to many close-ups of the lead singer both in and out of the wardrobe as he struggled to get away from the octopus. The rest of the song had little relevance to vocals; however the song itself did only consist of a six verses.

Despite the lack of lyrics, it made up for it in using the music and linking it with the visuals well, timing sways to the beat of the song as well as cuts to new shots consistently when the bar moves on. This can also be seen with the octopus as when the brass instruments play, the shots shift focus to it with a set of brass instruments playing.

There were no intertextual references found in the piece itself, but critics describe the scene as a ‘Goth pop version of The Little Mermaid’, despite the film being released after this. There were little aspects seen of looking. Very few shots had the cast looking at the camera itself, and were more interested in their surroundings.