Feedback from a friend (part 1)

Now that we've finally finished our video, I got a friend to watch and tell me what she thinks of it. :)

Feedback from a friend (part 2)

Part 2 :)

Finished!

Finally we have finished our music video after all the hard work and dedication it’s paid off and I can’t wait to view this piece of work that my team has put together. We all took equal roles as a result enhanced the production of our music video as we all specialized in different things from acting to editing and camera. Although our filming schedule plans were not that well planned we were always successful with the footage we obtained during the day. Feedback from our teachers really helped allot as we knew were we went wrong and what we did that was right as a result improve our music video tremendously. Thanks guys! 

Final editing

Tomorrow is the final deadline for our music video! I'm pleased to say FINALLY...we're done. we're particularly happy that we finished everything today rather than have to rush with any changes tomorrow. this means that while everyone else will be fighting eachother to use the Macs tomorrow...we'll be relaxed!  
Throughout this final week, we have been receiving a lot of very useful constructive criticism from our media teachers that have helped us to enhance and perfect our video.

 

On Final Cut Pro, we had play around with the brightness for one the clips. The quick but important clip of the protagonist and his lover holding hands and separating was initially too dark. Fortunately, we stumbled upon the perfect filter that had the level of brightness, sharpness and contrast we needed. This significantly improved the clip and we were now able to use it in the video.

There were also a few shots towards the end of the song which were out of sync by a split second so we also fixed those.  

Here the photos from our final editing sessions:

Pictures from my phone of final editing session.

Here below are just a few shots of our last session of editing that we had before the deadline tomorrow. Overall it was a good lesson we were able to share ideas listen to others as well as teachers comments. 

Today we have officially finished our music video, cant wait to see it on the big screen!.  

More Improvements

OK, so we’re almost there now we have just received more improvements from our teacher today, improvements on the edits used at the beginning as well as other scenes. We needed to bring a couple more cuts at the opening also for the suitcase scene we need to cut one out to make it look like it’s two different shots instead of one long take-we should have it dissolve between both cuts.

As a result of the edits we have used which were bad film, glow light rays as well as additive dissolve we decided to take all these effects away due to the fact that they have  no meaning to the song and the artist despite looking very good on camera (very eye-catching).

For the holding hand scene we decide to employ new edits such as brighteners and contrasts as well as one of my favorite edits known as sharpen. We wanted to give this scene particular a more strong effect because it highlights the emotions that linger in the atmosphere between the two lovers.  We also used this edits for the suitcase scene as well.

As you can see it looks more brighter when we add these specific effects

Changing the image settings

Here, I played around with the brightness and contrast settings of the clip after putting a filter on. As you can see if you look closely, the image above switched from a darker image to one which is slightly a bit brighter.



The images above are from when I played around with the brightness as well as the clarity of the clip. Adding a filter called 'sharpen' made the image sharper and clearer and easier to see what it is. Whereas, before it was less clear.

Teachers Feedback

Our final feedback that our teacher gave us in my opinion was allot but then again in order to get the best grade as possible we have to make sure that we really get this video looking amazing to its target audience.

we had allot of feedback 

still more room for improvements 

One of the feedback's that our group really worked on was the holding hand scene, during this scene of the two characters the lightning was to dark and it was difficult for the audience to see. We used a range of effects to get rid of the darkens and made it brighter. These effects were the following:

           1  Bad film

           2  additive dissolve

           3  Glow light rays

When we added all of these filters and effects together it really enhanced our video in terms of color despite it looking a bit grey,  it was fine. 

and more feedback !

Editing: final session.

(click on image to open Picasa TM)

Deadline's approaching!!

Editing: transitions/effects, wire frame and progress so far

evidence of editing 3

Here below is just a small video showing the actually video footage that I have captured on my phone of the editing sessions that were going on during the course of the production of our music video.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Just to inform all the members of my group I am not going to be able to make it on Monday as I have an exam to pass in order  get into one of my chosen university , so on Monday yes group 19 will be one short but lets continue with the game plan. The show must go on!.

Important notice

Hi, I've been having some difficulties with my internet connection from home in the last 12 days. I have just got it back and will now resume blogging more regularly and catch up with the blogs I have missed.

My Thoughts in general.

Notes for the editing in general 

Notes for camera shots 

Types of edits used 

Notes for structures 

Summery of my notes.

Evaluation of our final session of editing for rough cut

Presentation 2

Editing and thoughts on rough cuts

To be honest I really found the rough cut to be quite simple in terms of editing due to the fact that we haven’t really put in any of our chosen filters in yet as a result it did seem abit dull at first especially for the verses but redeemed itself every time it hits the chorus of the song despite the choruses employing allot of medium shots which only showed from waist and above, so we couldn't really see the fall body language of the artists but his facial expressions said allot.

trying to add the slow motion effects 

match markers was straight forward for fahmida 

employing different types of shots for the introduction of the music video  such as medium shots

We need to give our music video in my opinion a better structure in order to meet our target audience; we need to structure it in terms of not only the verses and the choruses but the shots and edits as well. There has to be at least one filter through the whole verses of this music video as we as a group would like to have a continuing effect that will stick in the mind of the audience.  It’s been said that “desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal”. It is our desire to have the best music video ever but it all goes down to determination and commitment (how much you deliver to the group as an individual)l. Now that our teacher has given us some feedbacks I think we are now able to move on from these mistakes and hopefully do not make these wrongs again. 

Transitions

Another thing suggested by our teacher was that at the beginning, instead of just cutting from each scene, to use a transition in time with the music. the music at the beginning is very slow and graduates to getting faster so any 'fancy' transitions like the wiping effect would look wrong and amatuer. This is the best example I could find of fade/dissolve, and I thought using this effect would look best because it is also slow and may flow more.

AGENDA FOR NEXT WEEK:

• Ensure ALL members of the group attend lunchtime clubs of media so that we can finish our video in time for the deadline! The more input from group members to the video would mean a better product at the end of the day. No input means no change and no level 4!! (what we are aiming for!)
• Choose the transitions and effects we want to place on our music video. We've already tested out a few (as you can see from the first clip of our video and the image shown below) and now need to narrow down which ones we would like to use.

• Fix the timing of the clips- when the cuts are, when the image changes and what beat it falls on- all of this is important to make the video flow instead of looking patchy and unfinished. Feedback from our roughcut allowed us to see where we were going wrong and we now know exactly what needs to be done!

• Change the first panning/tilting shot of Marcus Green to another which is less lit. The original clip we used (as you can see in the roughcut) is over lit compared to the rest of the opening making it look very amateur, next week, I will be going through our film again looking for alternative clips which are still effective in revealing our artist, if not more.

So whilst we continue to work hard on our music video, please enjoy watching a video of Nyan Cat! :D

TEACHER FEEDBACK:

After watching the video a couple of times, our teacher told us where we were going wrong and gave us a few tips to help make our video better. She was really helpful and spotted things we as a group didn't!

• Some of the cuts weren't on the beat of the song, didn't flow.

Problem: So one of the problems we had were choosing which clip would go where, and cut on which beat. From the feedback, I gathered most of the clips cut on the beat and flowed well, but on some parts of the chorus and other parts of the song, I cut the clips in the middle of lyrics, which I've learnt is a big NO NO in music videos! After talking to the teacher, we realised she was right and my choice of cut in some places may not have been best.

Solution: Re-watch the roughcut, spot out the places where it doesn't flow- places where I've cut in between lyrics or the cut hasn't gone with the beat of the song. Remark the timeline and match the clip with the beat of the song.

When looking at shot types, referring to a visual image like this
reminds me of what we may have missed out on.

• Shot types need more variety.

Problem: Another problem with our video was that there wasn't really a range of different shot types nearing the end of the video, during the double chorus at the end. The beginning of the song uses several different types at locations such as Columbia Road or Smithfield's market but the others didn't. I believe this was down to the fact the areas in Brick Lane were very busy when filming our chorus, and we had to wrap up each location fairly quickly because members of the public kept disrupting us.

Solution: Look over existing film and check whether we have any footage we could use instead of the ones we have now. Alternatively, I could wireframe the clip, enlarge it to make it seem as though it was a close up from a medium shot for example.

The end is near!

STRESS!

With the final deadline for our completed music video approaching on Friday 30th, we were given a week to submit the roughcut version of our video where teachers would watch and pick out anything that may need changing and any parts that didn't work well at all.


NEARLY THERE!

Below is the roughcut version of our video (although it has been posted on an earlier blog) and soon to be up will be a video of our teacher's feedback to the video. As I'm editing the video with the group's input, I thought it would be time effective if I noted down all the things that need changing in the video so that I'd be up to date with everything for next week's full week of editing! Enjoy :)

So before any further editing could take place, we needed to know WHAT exactly would need changing. Our teacher gave us a few pointers on what we needed to do and what we could do in order to create the best video possible.

yes today we have officially finished our rough cut despite us still in need for some more editing sessions we have completed the rough cut.  The actual deadline for the music video is next week Friday 30th, which means that we have one week to get all the filters and improvements up to date. Hence we need to come in at lunch everyday of the week in order to get this finished. 

evidence of editing 2

Here below is just a another small video showing the actually video footage that I have captured on my phone of the editing sessions that were going on during the course of the production of our music video.

Editing session part 3

Here are just a couple of pictures that I have taken from my phone of our third editing session, and the deadline of our rough cut.

Teacher’s comments

There were only a few comments that our teacher said that will benefit our music video (in terms of getting a level 4).

One of the main comments that lingered in my mind was the fact that we used to many mid shots in the chorus and verses of the song (not for any reason) , a mid shot is a shot from the waist and above and is very useful in showing the body language of the artists to the audience we should use a range of shots in order to get more marks because the lip sinking is great, the Mise en scene(setting, clothing , props and  body language)  is excellent we just need to use a hybrid of shots from close-ups to extreme close ups and long shots as well will enhance the footage of our music video.

Another comment was on the way we marked each beat of the song, some were great others were to slow and to fast which I thought worked really well but after our teacher established these mistakes, all we need to do is mark each beat properly and were done. Let’s not forget the filters we still need to use (bad film and glow light rays). So we aren't that far from completing the music video. 

Rough cut feedback

By now, I'm sure you've viewed our rough cut. Our teacher has made some suggestions regarding it and the things we could improve in the editing stage to ensure a high grade for our final video.
Here is a recording of Louisa discussing our rough cut in detail. enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2 

Part 3 

The feedback positive and negative

Once finished editing our music video on final cut pro, our teacher came to view what I thought was a really good video, but it turns out that we still had allot to do in terms of editing, one of the comments that our teacher made was “good use of locations” we used a range of locations because it’s a music video, music videos often tell a story towards its target audience so by having one location throughout the whole song will create a boring story and that’s not what we want as a result we came up with a range of locations to film in, locations  like

smithfeilds market (for chorus)

Columbia road (for main base track) 

However as there is a positive a negative follows, one of the comments that our teacher made was “to much cuts, some don't match the actual beat of the song” I have to agree with this comment because when we were editing it didn't occur to us that we have to edit each shot to match each strong beat instead of having the music video cut (cross cut) to other scene without even matching the beat. 

ROUGH CUT

Feedback

Here are a few pictures of the feedback we got from Louisa after watching our rough cut music video. This feedback has helped us achieve a better music video andhopefully get a better grade.

Possible Effects that we may used whilst editing

           1. Bad film-  we were thinking of employing this sort of editing for the night time shots only.

        2. Glow light rays- again we were thinking of using this sort of edit  for the night time shots only but when you combine the two together it is really amazing.

evidence of editing 1

Here below is just a small video showing the actually video footage that I have captured on my phone of the editing sessions that were going on during the course of the production of our music video.

warning and notice!

Well as we all know our rough cut for the music video is due on Thursday 22^nd November. As a result we as a group have decided to donate some of our extra time to actually get this music video up and ready for our teacher to see. We have booked certain days of the week, most of them at lunch time and we should be ready by Thursday hopefully but again this all goes down to attendance we as a group and individuals need to take the time and come to the computer room and all pitch in ideas because at the end of the day it’s your grade. In order to get the best grade for this music video we need to come in and really use a range of editing techniques and more. 

Pictures of final filming session

These are just a couple of images that I have taken from my phone of our last filming session, we were in a hurry as the cameras had to be back in before 5pm, so we really didn’t do allot then again there was not much to do in the first place. 

Above all its all done filming is officially over, all we need to do is continue with our editing and hopefully get rough cut done by Monday. 

Choosing clips

So the roughcut version of our music video is due soon and we had to edit as much as we could and have in done for that date so we could get some teacher feedback. Whilst editing, I noticed a few gaps in the song which we had to fill with the footage we'd filmed. There was debate on whether to use cutaways we'd filmed or use footage from the basetracks where Marcus was clearly not singing. I thought about, instead of showing him continuously standing or walking silently, using jumpcuts to maybe show a pasing of time or to show his impatience.

Above are some stills from the footage we shot at Ezra Street. I chose these specific clips out of the rest because these are when Mark (or Marcus, our artist) pauses during instrumental parts of the song. He has nothing to do but to stay in role and wait for the next line of the song to begin. I thought using these in our video may look good, however, we've filmed cutaways just incase it doesn't.

Yes our last filming session was on Friday and we have now got all the footage we need to create a really good music video towards our target audience which are the late teens and above (as it relates to real life situations.).

Filming.

Filming

We have finally finished our filming!

Today was our last day of filming, were we had to do a few shots in Fahmida's house. We filmed within our time limit that we had, 2 hours and got everything we needed done. We filmed the scene where our performer, Mark is walking away from his girlfriend, we thought this would be interesting in our music video to give it more illustration than just performance. Now that we have done our filming, all we have to do is concentrate on our editing, so our music video as a whole tells a story, makes sense and is interesting enough to give us the highest possible grade we can achieve. 

skills development for the production of our music video

Presentation 1

Music Video Production Forum Seminar

This morning on my way to college, I came across this poster at the bus stop.

It caught my eye immediately and I decided to attend with a couple of friends as I thought it'd be interesting for me during this project and it was at a convenient time and a familiar location.
I was at the 3 hour seminar at Shoreditch Church and fortunate to get advice from some of the leading experts.

   I made some notes on and from the content of the speakers and also took some photos at the event.