Digipak...

Final Video...

Here is our final video, enjoy!

Evaluation Task 4; Directors' Commentary 'How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?'

Evaluation Task 4; Script for 'How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?'

In our music video we shot on two locations, one of them, and the first one you will see was shot in the studio.The studio setting of our music video was filmed in a warmly lit environment, and when we got around to editing the video we realised that we didn’t like how orange the footage had come out. In order to change this we used a programme called ‘Color’ to pull down the amount of reds in the footage leaving it with the cool blue colouring. This gives a similar atmosphere to the other examples of indie films we had watched, from artists like Bright Eyes and Patrick Wolf that we looked at on online sources such as YouTube, MySPace, google, soundcloud, iTunes and official websites to make research into the indie music industry to collect inspiration and knowledge about existing artists and especially their music videos which contributed to some stylistic ideas of our video.
For most shots in the studio we used a Sony F3 camera with a prime lens as it is very useful for so called beauty shots (For smooth skin etc.). For the focus pulls we had to change the lens as you cannot zoom with it.

When changing our location to the house we noticed that the lighting was quite warm again and therefore we put some blue tones on top of the lights to make the images look colder. Again we used the Sony F3 camera, because of its clarity and amount of details when having a close ups.  When shooting the ballerina we took the Sony NX5 camera, which does not have the same quality like the Sony F3 one but it was useful for us because we were shooting two scenes at a time in order to get more material done in less time. So while one part of our group was shooting Peter, the other group was shooting the ballerina dance sequence. This time we did not have the equipment of a CD player so that we had to use our phones in order to make use of a playback.

For the special effects when bringing the flowers back to life we used After Effects in Final Cut Pro which allowed us to cut out Peter and arrange the background so that it the fading into the live flowers look ‘natural’ to us. We put everything back in place and created a change that look ‘right’ for our eyes. In order to lead the viewers look we made use of a zoom as well. This process is called Masking.
After this scene we had another bit where we made use of after effects. That was when he is finding the Polaroid picture between the books which is then starting to move. In order to create the impression of a moving image we had to do a similar thing to the still image in After Effects. We used an empty Polaroid so that we were able to cut out the black bit and place the video clip into the empty frame.
Even though Peter tried to be still, his hand was still moving a bit, therefore we had to freeze the image (his hand) and only have the inserted clip moving. The interest of the audience will be focused on the clip so that they may not notice the fact that we froze the other image. Over all we had to images in one. 
Looking at the very last bit of our video you might notice that we had to slow him down a bit when walking out of the door. Again we did that with the help of Final Cut Pro.  (Slowmotion)

We wanted to repeat the theme of having a Polaroid in the Digi pack, because we thought it could be one of his trademarks that is going to be repeated throughout his image. Therefore we took a photograph of him wearing a wolf hat and change the colours in Photoshop so that it had a vintage style to it. After having turned the photograph into an old fashioned picture we inserted the image into a digital Polaroid frame. On the front cover we decided to leave it with a Blanc front cover with nothing on it but the Polaroid and on the back we did the same thing but with the back of a Polaroid.  On the back we had written the tracks of the CD in his handwriting. The inside included lots of his personal writings that were thanking the people that supported him. In order to make it personal we had him coming in again and he had to write some the track list and the tank you … list. After he had written all that we scanned it into the computer so that we were able to work on it digitally and insert all the letters etc. into the Digi pack. On the other side of the cover, as well as on the CD itself we put in the wallpaper of the house setting. We took a picture with a Canon camera beforehand and then we did some colour changes as well in order to create this vintage look. In this case we made use of Lightroom which helped to change and contrast Hue and Saturation as well as the colour settings.

On the set, we also made a short video diary t5o show some behind the scenes footage. We filmed this with an iPhone 4S and cut it on iMovie on a Mac.

Evaluation task 3; Questionnaire...

Feedback questionaire

- Paula, Leyla, Helena, Grace

Dear respondent,

Having just seen our music video, please will in the following questionnaire, as honestly and complete as possible, according to your opinion. This would be very helpful to us as an A2 media group because we need some constructive criticism and feedback on our product.

About you:

☐ Female      ☐ Male

Age:

Nationality:

What’s your favorite music style?

Do you prefer....

☐ live peformances

☐  music via iPod/TV

☐ clubbing

1. Did you enjoy watching the video, or did you find it boring? If so – at what points did you lose your interest?

 

2. Do you think the video is too abstract or absurd? Yes or no?

 

3. If you could identify a narrative within, what was it?

4. What are the video’s strengths that would make it successful in the real indie-music industry?

 

5. What do you think about the artist? Do you sympathize with him? Would you like to see more of him and his work?

6. Please circle the number which most closely reflects your opinion of the artist:

Vulnerable	1	2	3	4	5	Strong
Introvert	1	2	3	4	5	Confident
Creative	1	2	3	4	5	Boring
Ambiguous	1	2	3	4	5	Masculine
Serious	1	2	3	4	5	Boring
Depressive	1	2	3	4	5	Happy
Mysterious	1	2	3	4	5	Stereotype
Mad	1	2	3	4	5	Funny

7. Is there anything in the video you would have liked to see? E.g. more performance, more fast paced shots, more naked skin??;)

8. What was your favorite moment?

 

Thank You very much!

Evaluation Task 2; How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Task 1...

Performance - As a group we decided that, whilst we needed a performance element, we didn’t want a normal one. In attempt to find a middle ground we made the piano look like it was playing itself. This allowed us to follow the classic music video convention of a performance element, but twist it in a way where it wasn’t derivative.

Colour/Lighting – We wanted to set the tone of our video as ethereal and yet slightly moody, so the lighting was neutral if not sometimes cold. The colours in the video were muted and reflected the melancholic feel of the song.

Costume – The costume in our video reflected the style of the song and the audience it is intended for.  Our artist is dressed in skinny jeans, smart shoes and a shirt or coat depending on the setting. He was styled with pieces which indicate ‘indie’ culture, which would more likely appeal to this young, cultured, fashionable audience the song is intended for.

Set – The set needed to establish the type of artist we were using and the music genre he represents. The video was split between an old, abandoned house and a white studio. Both locations were sparse, with very few props involved, emphasising his loneliness and troubled nature which supports his star image.

Camera – Throughout our video we used a lot of MCUs, allowing action to be seen whilst staying close enough to our artist to permit his emotions and facial expressions to show.

Editing – In order to mirror the pace and rhythm of the song we used relatively long, still shots throughout the majority of the video. However this was not the case during the ballerina’s dance sequence, where in order to make a more dynamic sequence, the cuts became much faster. Whilst this may not have been conventional, the group found this faster cutting to work in this case.

The CD cover we designed for our artist remained cohesive with his star image and the style of the video, using repeated motifs of the wallpaper, polaroid and handwriting which all appeared in the film. The cover also managed to remain in keeing with the style of the alternative/indie genre we were trying to go for, with a specific colour scheme and the currently popular polaroid/vintage look it has. Below are examples of real world covers.

Promotional Poster...

Video Diary...

Here is a video and diary from over the 3 days we shot for your enjoyment...

Day 3 of the Shoot...

The last mini part of our shoot was the footage which will be placed within a Polaroid frame to create a magical moving image. It consisted of Paula, dressed in her ballerina costume, lighting and setting off a Chinese lantern. This is the kind of look we were going for, except in a field and in late afternoon.

We only had one lantern so this was a one take situation, with a high chance of failure due to the unstable nature of setting a huge piece of paper on fire on a windy day. But we took that chance. We set the camera in place and set it on record before we had started, for fear of a frantic run for the camera when things didn’t go to plan.
Whilst Paula got changed, it took 3 of us to light the lantern and hold it up. I handed my part over to Paula so I could go back to the camera and check the focus. After the recommended 2 minutes of filling the lantern with hot air, Helena and Niall ran out of view of the camera leaving Paula holding onto the rapidly rising lantern.
We decided it was time to let the lantern go, and it gracefully blew several metres sideways before crashing onto the grass. However Paula managed to grab it before it set itself on fire, and let it go again. This time it rose up perfectly and just kept going. Over the school. Over the canteen. It just kept going up until it was a tiny dot in the sky, flying into the surrey hills.

Hopefully it’ll be in focus.

Day 2 of the Shoot...

The second half of the shoot took place at Leith Hill Place, and our actor was to walk around the house, bringing things back to life. This half of the video was scheduled for a morning slot and we drove over for around 10am.

Our first shot was in a long corridor, our actor is walking along it towards a slowly opening door which has a bright light coming from it. In order to create this ‘magical’ opening door, I wrapped a piece of string around the handle. Luckily, that side of the door is partially cropped out sand underexposed, so this basic put together technique worked really well and created the eerie feel we were hoping for. We had a few problems with the lights, we blew the fuse in one of the extension cords, causing this sequence to take us quite a long time to do. After that we shot the staircase sequence and realised it was lunch time. Luckily for us it was a Wednesday, allowing us to run over into the afternoons activity programme and continue shooting after our lunch break.

Post lunch we split off into 2 teams, half the group shooting several of the regeneration sequences and the rest of the lip sync, whilst Paula and I shot the ballerina sequence, starring Paula as a toy come ballerina who plays out a dance sequence. We had placed her in front of a window, which meant we needed to light her as she appeared as a silhouette. We set up 2 lights which unfortunately threw hotspots  onto the shiny painted surface of the window frame. We shot from most possible angles and captured most sections of Paula’s body whilst she was dancing, and then went on to shoot the ballerina inside the music box.

We regrouped to get the final shots of our actor picking up the ballerina box and setting it go. The light had changed considerably in this time and it was dark outside, so we shot away from the windows in an attempt to keep continuity.

Day 1 of the shoot...

The first half of our shoot took place on the afternoon of the 17^th, a post lunch studio setting. The night before we had helped paint our white room, hauled out our hollow piano from the back of a shipping container, and cleaned a huge piece of Perspex, which made up the performance segment of our video. Now, with those necessary props in place we were ready to start filming.

We followed a half improvised, half written shoot schedule, capturing images of the hands on the piano (supplied by our lovely hand double, always make sure your actor can actually play the instrument you need). Luckily for us our actors hands were similar enough and the 2 bits of footage cut together fine. We also shot most of the lip syncing and a few artsy, shallow depth of field shots which we had the time to do. A difficulty arose where our actor was tense on camera. He managed to fidget and maintain ‘panic eyes’ throughout the entirety of the afternoon, making it very difficult for us when logging our footage. He also refused to spit out his gum despite being told constantly to “Stop chewing!”, meaning again we have been compromised when editing.

We got to a part of the shoot we were all nervous and yet excited about, drawing onto the Perspex as if drawing on nothing.  We struggled with how to get the surprisingly heavy piece of Perspex upright without a complex bracketing structure. In the end, we had a man either end of the perspex kindly holding it up for us, and used carefully placed masking tape to guide our actor as to where he was allowed to draw.  Despite one tiny hiccup in the first take, involving a spelling mistake with our artist’s name, ‘Peter and the Wolf’, the footage has come out really well and the drawings have given the effect that we were looking for.

Unfortunately as the day drew to a close, we ran out of time to do one shot idea which I was keen to do, where we threw purple paint over our actor to then slow it down in post editing. However overall the day was a success and we all left with a feeling of relief that it wasn’t a giant failure.

Peter and the Wolf music video; The making of...

Here's our 'making of video' compiled from footage shot on the 2 days. Enjoy!

Digipack Plan...

For our digipack we have come up with a basic structure of what we want it to look like.

On the front cover we want a picture of 'Peter' in a wolf hat, tying in with the name of the band. The picture is a polaroid and it is place on an aged wooden table. He will be holding a red chupa chup, and on the bottom of the polaroid in scribbly writing will be the name of the album 'Lollipop'. On the table next to the polaroid will be a relevant item to him/the album, which hasn't been decided yet.

On the back cover will be the same table, the track listings in black on a white outline/highlight and the wrapper of the Chupa Chup.

On the left inside cover there will be writing on the perspex we used in the studi oset up, thanking all the people who contributed to the album in scrawly writing, surrounded by doodles.

On the right inside cover where the CD goes, there will be a large picture of a lollipop.

Animatic & Feedback...

Here is the anamatic we put together of our music video, with the current working version of the storyboard. To create we filmed each shot for 10 seconds and compiled them into one video, following the song to create a more solid and visual structure than a page of images. The editing process showed us that we really need to think about where we are going to place our cuts, as the song doesn't have a heavy beat to work off of, and the vocals are very fluid and soft. We want the overall effect to be quite cinematic as the film is more about the content than relying on the song.

It is clear from this video that our movie lacks content, which was something that was mentioned when we presented the anamatic in the class. As the song is slow, it is vital that we don't just repeat a small set of images as the audience could lose interest quite quickly. Whilst the content is slow moving, we need a lot of it to keep the movie interesting. As a group we are planning on coming up with a lot more rejuvination ideas for the house, e.g. a notebook begins to write without a person, old flowers blossom as Peter walks past, and an old photo leaps into life when Peter straightens the frame.

Whilst the video may lack content, I think this process has shown the group that we now have a solid framework to build on. Looking at the anamatic it seems the story comes through a lot more than it ever did from just the storyboard alone. It is much easier to visualise the final product now. All we have to do now is fill in the gaps.

Feedback

There is some detail here and plenty of evidence of how your idea is going through a variety of different phases as the group develop it.  You have begun to cover the necessary planning documents, but there are some major gaps in what you have been asked to do this week.  In particular:

• the animatic and evaluation
• shooting schedule

This posts need to go up as soon as possible so that we can start to focus on the production phase.

James

Timeline #3

Timeline #2...

After going through the first version of our storyboard, we edited it down and created a revised version with a slightly different storyline, it has a lot more content and we have included the element of a performance piece at the start, using a piano.