Last post!

So the project's over now and overall I think it went pretty well... Emma and I worked and communicated well as a group. I also got to improve my technical skills. At the beginning of the project, I didn't know how to use Photoshop at all, but now at the end of the project, I know how to use Photoshop relatively well. I also got to develop my camera work and editing skills, which I was quite pleased with.
But it's over now [the music of the night... (Phantom of the Opera reference, in case you didn't get that)] =(
xxx

Editing/Finished Music Video/Album Cover Reflections

Overall, I think that the editing process went quite well. We started off by having Emma editing a performance bed and me editing the narrative. We put in loads of time and effort, and I think this paid off since in the end we created a fairly high quality music video.I'm fairly pleased with our finished music video, the performance room and performance itself comes across really well on camera. I think the comic book effect worked quite well too. However, I think that maybe we should have done some more performance takes in order to have some more shot variation. I think our finished album cover looks really good too - especially the back cover with the glitter stars and the glittery background.

Applying theory to our music video

Carol Vernallis (The Kindest Cut)

• Music videos place shots with one motion against another
  For example at 1:50-1:53 when an MCU circular track is placed against a medium shot
  
• Music videos don't always have the narrative structure as the predominant feature
  Since our music video is for Ava's debut single we had more performance than narrative in our music video, as it was more important to create Ava's star image.
  
• Music videos don't have any particular shot order (like that in film)
  We didn't have a particular shot order really... e.g. at 0:36 when a medium shot is placed after a BCU

Andrew Goodwin (Dancing in the Distraction Factory)

• Genre characteristics
  Our music video adheres to this theory since we have a performance based video, which is conventional for the indie pop genre.
• Relationship between lyrics and visuals
  Our music video contradicts the lyrics, since they talk about a male hero, but we used a female hero. The lyrics also have romantic connotations which we contradicted by showing Wonder Woman helping Ava to improve her self confidence.
• Relationship between music and visuals
  We created an illustrative relationship between the music and visuals since the performance shots are mostly cut to the beat.
• Visual hooks
  We used BCU visual hooks quite often in our music video
• Voyeurism
  We didn't really have any voyeurism/scopophilia in our music video
• Intertextuality
  Wonder Woman played a very important part in our music video, which was an example of intertextuality.

Finished Music Video, Album Cover and MySpace

Album Cover
Front cover:

Back cover:


MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/AvaAlexisOfficial

Last day of shooting!

Yesterday we had our last day of shooting, and I think it went pretty well. We did about 10 or 11 full run-throughs of the song and got loads of close-ups. So I think, there should be quite a lot of footage to choose from. We also got a few cut aways that would be part of the performance, but where Jazmin's not actually miming the words.

We also took some shots of Jazmin reading a self help book, to get across the idea that she doesn't have much confidence.

I think on the whole, the footage we got was quite good. Although, I'll admit that a couple of my takes with lots of movement are a bit too shaky! Oops.

More narrative shooting and other reflections...

Today Emma and I had a discussion with Jake Wynne about what stage we're at with our project, where we're going etc etc. We discussed how Jazmin's character Ava didn't really seem lacking in confidence and instead just seemed indecisive. I think this was a fair point really, and I think as shooting had been going on, we'd unintentionally forgot about the unconfident aspect.
We also sorted out some problems that we'd been having with the ending of the narrative. Basically, last Friday we shot the ending with Jazmin and James, but then we didn't have time to shoot Melissa's part. So, we had intended to shoot the rest today, but the weather conditions were really different, so we were unsure as to how much that would matter. We had some disagreements about whether or not we could just use what we had or if we really did have to reshoot. Eventually, it was decided that we should reshoot. I think this was the best idea since the shots we already had wouldn't have communicated the meaning we wanted, and we could try to match up the lighting in post-production.

After school we shot Melissa's part in Enfield Chase station. We got some good shots (even though we did attract a bit of attention... but then I suppose that's to be expected when you have Wonder Woman walking around in a public place) and I'm generally pleased with how the shooting went :)

Narrative shoot

We started shooting our narrative on Friday and then did some more of it today. Both good days (even if a drunk man tried to offer Melissa/Wonder Woman flowers at the train station =/) and I think the things we shot were quite good. So overall, I think it went pretty well!

Oh and, Wonder Woman has magical powers now =)

Our second day of shooting...

...went quite well I think! As I said on the group blog, Jazmin takes direction really well, so we got quite a bit of footage of her being more exaggerated with the performance. We also shot loads in medium close-up, close-up, big close-up etc... I think we worked really efficiently since we had a limited amount of time for shooting, and we managed to run through the whole song 5 or 6 times, so there should be lots of footage to choose from!

Reflections on today's shoot

I think today's shoot went really well, especially considering we had to make-do with 4 paglights, one studio light and a normal camera as opposed to 3 studio lights and a HD camera! It wasn't really a big deal though, and I don't think it's really had much of an effect on the quality of our footage - it's still quite good I think. But yeah, I'm pleased with how things went today... the quality of our shots was good and I was really impressed with Jazmin's performance too. She's really got the subtle nuances of her performance down, so now (like Ms Blackborow advised) we just have to get some footage of Jazmin being a bit more exaggerated with her performance... I think Jazmin should be great at that too, so I'm quite looking forward to shooting some more tomorrow :)

Things learnt from theory

I found the theory lessons we had last week (where we looked at Carol Vernallis' essay/article (?) 'The Kindest Cut') to be very interesting and I learnt a few things about shooting and editing for music videos which will be very helpful when we're creating our own music video. The most important things I learnt were:

• Continuity techniques aren't used in the same way in music video as they are in film
  In films, a lot of importance is placed on continuity since it ensures that the audience can understand what's going on in the narrative of the film. In music video, the continuity techniques used in film could make the narrative too prominent. Since one of the main aims of a music video is to spark interest in the song, if the narrative is too prominent, it could take over the song. This will be something to bear in mind when editing together our sequences with Ava and Wonder Woman. We will have to break up these narrative sections with performance in order to make sure that the narrative doesn't take over from the song.
• Music videos can use graphic matches more often than in films
  Due to the non-realist nature of music videos, graphic matches can be used more often. This is because music videos can draw attention to its production methods. So, we could try and think of some possible graphic matches we could use in our music video.
• Music videos often use disjunctive edits
  Music videos use disjunctive editing techniques (such as jump cuts) in order to make the viewer focus on the musical and visual cues. We could do this during the part where the lyrics of the song are spoken rather than sung, since it would draw the viewer's attention to this change in the song.
• Music videos don't always have the narrative structure as the predominant feature
  Although many music videos do have a narrative running through them, those are often not placed in the foreground. This is because it is often more important to foreground the star and build up/maintain a particular image for them. This would be particularly important in our music video since it's meant to be Ava's debut single. So, we will probably have to have more performance than narrative in our music video, since it'll be more important to create Ava's star image.
• Music videos typically present segments of 6-9 shots
  These segments often last roughly the length of a musical phrase. Carol Vernallis has said that these segments are recognizable since they "contain internal repetition and often possess a kind of symmetry". This will be something to bear in mind when editing together our narrative scenarios and our performance shots.
  

Reflections on today

Today Emma and I decorated the performance room and also tested out some performance shots (with Emma standing in for Jazmin). Even though we started a bit later than planned, since it somehow took 1 and a half hours for me to get to Emma's house (the joys of public transport : ), I think we were quite successful today. Although it took AGES to set up properly, I'm quite pleased with the way the performance room looks, especially on camera. We also tested out some different possibilities for performance shots. So yeah, I think we did well! :)

Performance room wall coverings

My mum has one bright pink saree, and one white one. Both of those are 5 metres long, so they should be enough to cover the wall. So tomorrow, I'm taking those over to Emma's house and we'll put them up and see if they're the sort of thing we want for the performance room. If they're not, then on Monday we'll go out and buy some better material. I'll copy these pictures over to the group blog to, like Mrs Thrasher suggested I do in her feedback post a couple of posts ago :)

Pictures of the sarees/other material:

Ideas for shooting/editing

At the beginning of our music video (during the comic strip section) we were planning on introducing Ava's character. I think that if it's possible, it would be really good to to this with thought bubbles like 5ive did in their video for 'Let's Dance'. It would look something like this:

You can also see it on the actual video at about 0:25 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRTO3_kjX_8 (I couldn't find an embeddable video, so had to just put a link instead).

In Christina Aguilera's video for 'Hurt', there's a really good shot at 2:10-2:14... it's kind of a circular track but it looks like the background is moving (if you know what I mean). I imagine that this would be really really hard to recreate, but it might be worth trying.



I also really like some of the editing in Chris Brown's video for 'With You'. The way they've taken out frames to make people moving seem more jumpy looks really good. So that might be an idea for our music video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqumjziPTzk
Also, the shot at 3:06-3:14 is WELL cool. Of course, it would be near impossible for us to do that, but still, it's cool.

Responses to teacher feedback

Mrs Thrasher suggested in her feedback post that I make my reflections on teacher feedback more evident, so that's what I'm going to do in this post!

I'm quite pleased that what I've done so far has been good since I wasn't always sure that I was going about my research/reflections in the right way.

I'll admit that I kind of forgot about putting external web links on my blog, so I'll have to make sure I do that! I think I used to sometimes have links between my individual blog and my posts on the group blog, but that was fairly rare and hasn't happened recently really, so I'll have to start doing that more often!

THR Feedback - Individual Blog Progress

Hi Angelie
Your blog is coming along nicely and there are many things you're doing really well - your diary types of entry are interesting and informative and you have developed a sense of progress and clear reflection over the weeks by consistently posting. Having said that, I'll focus on the things you need to work on but bear in mind this is one of the best blogs so far.

You need to do some general housekeeping such as working on your layout to produce a list of links to sites and resources you have found inspirational. This has been done well be MIKE C. You need to make your responses and reflections on teacher feedback more evident. You need to link where you are posting on the grp blog with your indiv blog - so if you post on grp or if there is a post on grp, make sure you have a corresponding or related post in your individual blog and vice versa.
Also, make sure everything you post is clear in it's purpose - WHY is a particular item on your blog eg. posting youtube videos - labelled? What For? Response? Reflection? Learning?
Otherwise, well done

MRS T