2. RESEARCH/PRE-PRODUCTION
MUSIC VIDEO
One of the most important platforms I used when
finding the track for the music video was
Soundcloud, this allowed me to browse independent
artist’s work and find something that would reflect
our ideas.
After finding James Edge on Soundcloud we were able
to listen to each of his tracks and find the most
fitting piece for our narrative, this was extremely
useful and helped us with an essential part our
production.
Using the internet I could also browse other
artist’s music videos, this was another aspect of
planning that was hugely important. Sites such as
YouTube or Vimeo allowed me to access music videos
that may relate to our artists style or genre of
music.
PRINT PRODUCTIONS
For the print production Soundcloud was again useful, in
browsing independent artists of the same genre I could
then look on the internet for their album art and gain
inspiration.
iTunes was another platform that was useful in finding
inspiration for my print productions, in having a wide
range of album art available to browse I could find
digipaks of artists similar to our chosen track and look
for conventions or styles that related to them. It also
allowed me to group albums into genre, and so I could see
the conventions of each.
Google images was also useful when looking for
inspirations, I could find specific album covers that
related to the folk genre.
3. MUSIC VIDEO
FILMING
For the entire shoot we used the Canon EOS 600D with the standard 18-55mm lens to produce an HD video.
Although at points we used our mobile phones to take photographs of the shoot, for the most part the Canon was
used to capture shots of the location too.
It has an automated focus although often, due to busy locations such as the Museum taking the focus away from
our protagonist, the manual focus was used. This also allowed us to play around with the a softer focus for
some shots, such as this one below of our protagonist surrounded by glass casing- this created a harsh setting
when the autofocus was used and so we decided to pull the focus out a little in order to soften it.
The Canon is also very easy to use, the members of the group
that had not used it before were able to easily shoot parts of
our video in all of the different locations/ in various
lighting.
The camera also has a foldable playback screen and so we could
continuously watch our footage back and adjust anything we
needed to accordingly.
During the shoot our mobile phones were
also useful in finding the locations we
knew we wanted to film in, and also
contacting each member of our group.
4. MUSIC VIDEO
EDITINGWe used Adobe Premier Pro C56 to edit our video, this was a familiar program as we had used it to edit our
previous Media projects and so, knowing the basics, we were able to experiment with tools and editing techniques
we had not used before.
The first thing we needed to do was upload all of the clips from the SD card onto the program, we then were able
to watch each clip and choose the one’s we felt should be included in the video.
The next stage was to place them in an order we were happy with, this was usually according to colour or shot
type and was relatively easy as Premier Pro has a preview of each clip before you choose it. We were able to see
immediately which clips were which and could go from there.
We then used to the cutting tool to shorten some of the longer clips and cut anything we didn’t think was right
for the video-such as a shot that had too much movement or was not the right colour.
The sound was next, we unlinked all of the diegetic sound from the videos in order for the music to be placed
over all of the clips. After downloading the music file from Soundcloud we were able to place it into Premier
Pro and drag it over the top of our edited video. We realised the music was slightly too long for the video (at
around four minutes) and so again used the cutting tool to shorten the track (to nearer three minutes.
One aspect of this was editing the colour of our
shots. Because we wanted the focus of our video
to be the emphasis on the colours used
throughout, often we would find shots that could
be repeated but with an alternate colour. In
this shot (right)for example the building was
originally green, we copied the clip and altered
one of them using the colour correct tools,
adjusting the hue and brightness of the shots to
achieve this blue colour.
The saturation and hue tools were the most
effective in altering the colours of the clips,
allowing us to easily manipulate the colours to
the exact shade we wanted.
5. MUSIC VIDEO
EDITING
Throughout our piece we used a split screen effect on various shots. We would place clips side by side or
one on top of the other, this was done through scaling down the clip to a reasonable size- e.g. for the
blue and green shot the green clip needed to be scaled down to half its original size- and then we placed
the two clips on top of each other by changing the positioning and then put both clips in the editing
bar. This allowed for both clips to be seen at the same time and create the effect of a split screen.
We also did this for the clips that had the same shot type, such as these three, to emphasise the various
similar shots we had of our protagonist in different locations. Scaling down these clips also meant
altering the dimensions so that they were all equal sized squares.
Through scaling down we could also achieve a mirror effect, we copied clips such as this one (below) and
placed the same clip side by side. We could then horizontally flip one of them using the transform/
horizontal flip tool and create a mirror image. Sometimes we would also use the crop tool on the clip to
ensure they had the same size and were not uneven.
Some of our clips were either too short or were shaky and so the solution was to slow them to 50-80% of
their original speed, this soften any shaky shots and extended any clips we wanted to be longer.
6. PRINT PRODUCTIONS
SHOOTING
When shooting for the print productions initially I thought it would be most effective to use the Canon 600D
although after revision it seemed the photographs were too sharp in comparison to the folk genre of the track
and the soft focus and mis-en-scene of our video.
I then decided to use the Lomokino movie maker which uses a 35mm film, although its primary function is to
create small videos, it’s method of stop frame allowed for the film to be developed as lots of still photos.
This was perfect for the print production as, unlike other more advanced film or digital cameras it produced a
slightly more unpredictable photo. With limited control of the lighting, focus and shutter speed the photos
produced were sometimes out of focus or over-exposed creating an interesting outcome that paired well with the
genre and aesthetic of our video.
This allowed for me to experiment with the rest of my print productions, whilst I could have only used photos
from the Lomokino, it seemed the use of sharp graphics would complement it perfectly. These hand-drawings would
then be scanned and edited in Adobe Photoshop.
Lomokino super 35mm Movie Maker with
Lomography Movie Viewer.
7. PRINT PRODUCTION
DIGIPAK-unedited images
After getting the photos from the Lomokino developed, I
could clearly see the film had a blue tint. This could have
been due to a number of factors for example, the
lighting/weather conditions since it is difficult to adjust
the exposure.
From this I decided the most effective thing to do would be
to draw the protagonist using a biro, colour shade over it
with a blue pastel and scan it on to Photoshop to be
edited.
The drawing of Cromer was inspired by photographs I took on
the Canon 600D whilst we were filming, and allowed me to
keep the content of these photographs whilst not only
creating something that I could easily incorporate with my
production but also keep the soft aesthetic of the
promotional package.
8. PRINT
PRODUCTION
EDITING- DIGIPAK PANEL ONE
I used Photoshop to manipulate the drawings and
photographs for my digipak.
The first panel didn’t require much in terms of
editing as each aspect already had the correct
colour although I did need to play around with the
layout.
At first I used the crop tool to scale down each
picture and ensure they were all the same size.
My original design was to have an alternating
pattern of the drawing of the protagonist and the
photograph and to then mirror this vertically,
although this seemed too crowded and so a
different approach was taken. I knew however that
I wanted to keep the mirrored effect as it
referenced the mirrored shots in our video.
The next stage was to arrange a placement for them
all, firstly I thought of having three larger
photos of the protagonist with one drawing of our
location behind her. This was fine although I felt
the graphics needed to be more clearly referenced,
and so eventually I decided that I should not only
add the drawing of our character in the middle but
also double the drawing of the location and have a
mirrored effect on the top and bottom.
I then manipulated the colour of the piece to all
blue although I could see the original colours
were strong enough as they were. This did however
allow me to experiment with the balance/ hue tool
which I would later use.
9. PRINT PRODUCTION
EDITING
DIGIPAK-PANELS TWO AND THREE
Unlike panel one, panels two and three required a colour alteration to yellow.
At first I used the hue tool to adjust the colour although found that yellow seemed to
always appear a brown colour or hardly show in a peach shade. As the blues for the first
panel were slightly muted I changed the brightness and saturation of two of the same
drawing in order to compare colours with my first panel.
Eventually I found two shades
had a clear yellow colour and
would show the original
drawing. Although initially
the darker picture (right) was
a firm choice as it clearly
showed the drawing, I used the
sharpen tool on the lighter
one (left) and the drawing
became much clearer. I then
decided to place them one on
top of the other to match the
mirror effect used in the
video and first panel.
10. PRINT PRODUCTION
EDITING- PANEL FOUR/FONT
For panel four the colour of the two blue images on panel
one needed to be altered to green. Using Photoshop’s hue
and saturation tool this was fairly easy as, unlike the
yellow panels, the original image was already a colour
similar to the final one.
Photoshop’s lightness tool also helped with this, I
changed the brightness of the picture whilst changing the
hue to green in order for it to be clear.
The sharpen tool was used here again to ensure the
drawing was clearly visible after changing the brightness
and colour of the picture.
After experimenting with layout I found the most
effective way to arrange pictures would be to have an
alternating strip of the picture and drawing down the
left hand side, and then have the drawing of our location
on the top and vertically flipped on the bottom.
I also sharpened the drawing of the location in order to
ensure it would be visible after printing.
Panels one and four also required fonts and so using the
website ‘Dafont’ I could choose any font from a wide range
and download it to Photoshop easily.
11. MAGAZINE ADVERT
EDITING
For the magazine advert the
main editing was in adding
colour to the pictures in the
background of the drawing and
alter the layout within the
background, taking out any
busy areas that may cause the
advert to feel cluttered to
ensure the focus was always
on the protagonist. I used
the blur tool to achieve
this.
To alter the colour again,
like the other panels, I
selected the pieces I wanted
to adjust and changed the hue
to different shades. Unlike
the other panels I did not
want a string colour and so
left the brightness at it’s
original level, this allowed
for me to gain a solid colour
whilst still maintaining the
background drawing and not
overpowering the rest of the
advert.
Original drawing (top) and
altered background (bottom)
12. DISTRIBUTION/FEEDBACK/EVAL
UATION
Blogger was an essential platform for my music video, it allowed me to upload all of my research and
inspiration from other websites such as Youtube or Itunes so that I could refer back to it whenever
necessary. Blogger also allowed me to arrange and label my work in a way that could be easily read, this
helped when creating the final edit of my video and print production as it allowed for me to quickly return
to my previous inspirations.
I used Youtube to upload my music video, this allowed for it to be distributed using the same platform as
most music videos allowing for it to follow conventions of a music video and for me to be able to upload it
to my Blogger account.
My feedback was mostly through physical copies of questionnaires however Youtube allowed for feedback to be
through comments on my video. In uploading my video to Blogger I was also able to gain feedback throughout
from my tutor. My Blogger account is also attached to my personal email so that whenever I received feedback
I could see it immediately.
Social networking was also essential for my feedback, Facebook allowed me to message people of my demographic
for immediate feedback.
Word PowerPoint was the main platform I used during my evaluation and when researching other music videos,
this allowed me to place all of the relevant information besides picture or links. To upload to Blogger these
also needed to be uploaded to Slideshare, this immediately uploaded my PowerPoints and provided an HTML link
for me to embed them into my blog posts.
