Filming Session - Improved Footage

The day after our discussion (2nd April) we decided we would film the footage that we would use to improve our music video this included two different shots. One filming two of us in different colored morph suits performing robotic movements so we perform repetitive reverse edits used to cut up some of the shots in the narrative to create continuity and fluency in the music video. I felt that this was a great idea as it will allow the audience to stay engaged in the music video. This footage would include mid shots of both people in morph suits as well as low angle shots capturing the feet and legs of the person in each morph suit this would give us plenty of footage to play with in terms of breaking up the long shots used in the narrative. The other shot would be used in the narrative to indicate where the narrative goes to the audience, this being the main character waking up to the narrative being a nightmare. We would capture this identically as we did in the first scene of the music video being a mid shot positioned at the end of the main characters bed, but this time capturing him waking up with a relieved face after facing a nightmare. Overall a successful day of filming ticking one of our objectives off of our improvement list.

Discussion - How to improve our music video

The following day after the showcase (1st April) we as a group decided to meet for lunch to discuss our feedback from our peers as well as how we could take on this criticism in order to improve our music video overall. First of all we discussed that we would need to mix up the performance with the narrative to create a balance between the two. Another criticism we had to take on board was that there wasn't enough lip syncing involved in the performance. I felt that these were fair criticisms as i could see them myself. To deal with this we decided that we would gather more footage which includes the lead singer of the band performing more lip syncing. I felt that we needed to ensure that there was more performance within the music video as there simply wasn't enough in retrospect. There were two more criticisms that stood out in the feedback sheets and that was that some shots lasted too long in the narrative and that the narrative never lead anywhere. So we came up with suggestions to improve these. One was to incorporate an ending to the music video so that the audience no where the narrative leads, our idea for this was to film an identical piece of footage to the beginning where the main character wakes up but this time he wakes up to a nightmare. I felt that this was a good idea as it would be a suitable ending and isn't too far fetched. The nightmare being the narrative. A solution to other criticism being that some shots lasted too long in the narrative was to add similar footage in a music video Lewis had seen recently called 'Rocker' where it shows repetitive reverse edits of people. i thought that this was a great idea as it would fit perfectly into our music video as well as add to the rhythmic basis connecting the song to the footage. We decided to take inspiration from this as we could no gather even more footage to incorporate into our video cutting some of the narrative shots in terms of length. We discussed we would film two of us dressed in morph suits performing robotic movements which wouldn't look out of place in the music video as the band were dressed in these and it would also add to the quirkiness of the music video. These quick reverse repetitive edits should allow a rhythmic basis connected to the song through rhythmic editing.



This is the inspiration for our next set of footage we plan to incorporate into our music video.
Overall a successful discussion for our group clearing up our mistakes which will amend by incorporating further improvements to our music video.

Rough Cut

Showcase Feedback

Audience feedback

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Some examples of our class feedback we received.

Showcase

On the 31st of March everyone in our class had to showcase their rough cut of their music video. We hoped this would give us advice/feedback from our peers on how to improve our music video for future development. We were all given feedback sheets to fill out for each group video. When it came to our turn we found that our narrative was clear and understandable but didn't lead anywhere as well as discover that some shots lasted a little longer than others. This was constructive criticisms that we would take on board to improve our music video. Other feedback included that our performance was one of our main strengths in the video but the problem was that some of the lip syncing wasn't parallel with the soundtrack. Some of the audience suggested that we should also include more lip syncing as well as mix up the performance we with the narrative a little more.

Editing Session - Performance 2

Concluding yesterdays session of editing we decided we would carry on editing the following day being today (5th January). Today we decided that we would try and finish off the rest of the performance in terms of editing. In our next stage of editing we had to align the footage with the music to create rhythmic editing. We wanted to do this to allow create a connection between the song and the footage shown. We did this by adding quick sharp edits to the lip sync of the lettering in the lyrics which allowed a rhythmic basis connected to the song as well as add quirkiness a convention of an electronic music video. Other than that we tried to edit in as many different shots as possible to create a quirky feel amongst the performance. We used transitions such as dissolves to show the different band members changing stations. I felt this was a good idea as it made the footage look quirky and engaging. Together as a group we worked effectively in order to get the performance edited which would see our music video finished as a rough cut. Overall I was very happy with our rough cut but could need a few improvements but we would see in the showcase what our audience feedback will tell us.

Editing Session - Performance 1

Already today we had edited our previous footage being the gym scene an hour earlier now we had to edit our performance. Overall we had captured over an hours worth of footage so we first had to analyze what’s parts of the footage we wanted to use in our music video. I felt this was most appropriate as we had too much footage and needed to narrow it down to around a minutes worth of footage. We discussed the different parts of footage between us and decided what would look best. We came up with a particular edit where all of the band are in their morph suits and that they would change stations without moving so it looks like the morph suits are changing colors, this adds to the quirkiness of the music video a convention of an electronic music video. I felt this was a perfect edit to use as it conveyed an electronic music video convention being quirkiness. Finally we had narrowed down the footage of what we were going to use in our music video we decided to start editing. We started our performance editing where the instrumental kicks in towards the half way point in the video where we incorporated a close up of the guitarist plying the guitar to emphasize the musicianship of the band. Unfortunately we had to conclude our editing for today as we had run out of time during our lesson but decided we would continue editing in our next lesson the following day. Overall a successful session of editing as we now have produced parts of the performance to go within our music video but would have to finished during our next lesson.