Editing studio - Day 3

To create an effective end product we had to go through a lot of different edits in the process of post-production on our music video. Our rough cut was obviously our major edit before our finished product because it gave us initial feedback on our music video. Alongside this we had around 3 different edits after our rough cut which were all about cutting the lengths of the shots shorter to fit the pace and beat of the music more effectively. A specific music conventions that we adhered to and reinforced was repetition because at the beginning of editing our rough cut we didn't like the idea of of using the same shot again but then we realised that repetition was a good convention for a pop video and it allowed us to cut the shots shorter and duplicate them to make them occur more often in the edit.

We used numerous amounts of jump cuts and a fad to black at the end of our finished product. We did this because the fade to black created a conclusion but also mystery and complimented the gradual fade of the song at the end. The jump cut allowed us to match the shots with the fast beats of the song, emphasising a fun, party vibe that the beats of the song meant to infer. This differs from my AS editing because we didn't have to worry about continuity so much because we used random shots to compliment the random lyrics in the song.  The digital technologies that i used was adobe premier pro, my mac computer, a canon 5d mark III and a sony FS100 to film the music video. All of these technologies allowed me to become a prosumer by using technological convergence in an effective way. The canon 5D was used when the lighting was low in the set design i.e. In the UV and the projections set because it works better in smaller amounts of detail because of the closer zoom lens. The adobe software and mac computer allowed us all to edit and upload our footage to put the footage in sequential order on the software, adobe premier pro.

 Our media product represents our star image and how it is branded because it is a pop music video and we have put her in set designs that make her look extra ordinary and glamorous, therefore she has become the 'star image' because her fans and audience members will want to be her and will look up to her. The audience that we are trying to appeal to is young girls or teenagers ranging from 15 to 25 because the song itself is simple to remember and compliments this fun, girly and pink orientated music video.

From the process of constructing this music video I have learnt how to fade a shot from colour into black and white as well as fast cut certain shots to compliment this faster beat which was definitely a difficult process. Two key decisions that I made in the editing process was that I decided to use two different sets and interlock them by cross cutting them together at a fast pace that compliments the beat of the song. I also chose to use the girly set at the beginning of the music video rather then at the end because I think that it works more effectively if the dances and choreography clips come in when the music has built up in the chorus. My final product promotes the single release from my artists album because it compliments her overall image and creates a fun character that her audience members are able to witness. Our artists image is made to look glamorous so that her audience want to be like her. She is a goal that they want to gain or achieve.

I have been empowered as a prosumer of a media text because I am now creating a visual product for a song that has been created before. I am able to become a digital remixer of this song by creating my own text as well as gaining inspiration from other music videos like Rihanna's 'You da one' music video. I have learnt that the editing process of post production is a very gradual process and it is best to not change anything too drastically before gaining feedback from the rough cut because that is the best source of feedback throughout this editing process that I personally have gained.

Editing studio - Day 2

On the second day of editing we moved past the basics in offline editing and focused on cutting and editing the clips together. It was important to crop certain shots so that choreography clips fitted with the beat of the song. To cut each shot we used the cutting tool known as the 'razor' and this allowed us to cut clips short which was effective in getting rid of burry shots in our UV set design clips because a lot of these are out too blurry to comprehend or understand. Through cutting clips we then needed to put them into order and to do this i had to think about the shot composition as going from a long shot to a close up did not allow the clips to flow properly and in fact it looked strange from an audience's perspective. The shots need to go in order to make them look effective, to do this we used shots that went from a mid shot to a closeup so that each shot effectively moved and flowed into the other.

Once we tidied the shots and decided the composition we had to arrange the shots in sequential order and this was easier for my group because we did not have a specific narrative for our music video, the majority of it was based around artistic set designs. Originally we just picked our shots and played them down on the timeline but to organise it properly we tried to put the shots in order of what we thought might make more sense. So we used the light and floral pink set first as this created the 'daytime' look and then we used the UV set in the chorus's and closer towards the end of the music video as this showed the 'nighttime' look and the choreography in the UV set and the blinders set went with the beat of the music in the chorus of the song.

One of the most important aspects of editing a music video was to lip sync the shots to the soundtrack and playback because this creates the illusion that the artist singing the song is realistic. The playback time on each clip allowed us to align each shot with the diegetic soundtrack on the editing software so that it was believable from an audience's view. We used multiple layers on the timeline as this was dependant on how many shots we were using and we ended up using a lot of shots. 

The pace of the song was probably what made the music video so hard to edit but because our music video did not have a narrative, this actually makes it easier to edit because there is not a specific shot order that we needed to follow, we were able to create our own. The pace of the song has a very fast tempo which means that we needed to cut a lot of the shots really short so that they would be quick enough to go with the pace of the song and this meant that our music video took a lot longer to edit then we originally though it would take. This was why it was important to create a rough cut because we needed to gain feedback from our target audience as it gave us an idea of the order of our sets without having it completed to perfection or even finished. We got helpful feedback from teachers as well as other students that we used to complete and finish our music video.

Editing studio - Day 1

Digital editing is part of the creative post-production process of digital video making. The tern editing comes from the process of working with film, but now it increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The technology that i have used for this editing process is adobe premiere pro and adobe after effects.

The first process to undergo was was to review the shots and footage and select the best ones to go on to the timeline. We did this so that we could organise the video and the structure of it because it makes the process of editing the footage quicker if we have the shots of the different sets in order. Otherwise your timeline would be filled up with a variation of shots that you would never end up using. A mistake that we made initially was that we didn't actually name the shots so we had to remember the numbers which made the editing process take longer then it needed to. Soon after we realised this problem we named each shot giving us a clue of what set and which person was in the shot.  Some shots were rejected in the first process of selecting the shots. This was due to the fact that they were shots that were either out of focus or they were shots that we had retaken or reshot.

The use of the timeline was so that we were able to spread the shots out and cut them where we wanted to, keeping the timeline neat. The music track 'clap snap' was the first thing that we placed onto the timeline as this enabled us to then sync each shot up with the music n the correct place, meaning that the actor was lip-syncing the words correctly to the song. It was an import for us to rename these clips or shots because then we would be able to easily go and drag or cut the shot we wanted as without this we would have to remember the numbers of the shots which is unrealistic because it is forgettable and it doesn't tell us anything about the shot. The names of the shots tell you about the shot, therefore we do not have to search for the different sets through numerous shots, we can just look at the description of the shot within the name. Our music video is a 'pop video' therefore the conventions of this pop video are very specific. To represent these conventions, we used a lot of closeups to show the clear designs and conventions of a 'pop' video i.e pink designs, flowers and the intensity of their makeup. Using these pop conventions in our music video meant that we were adhering to these conventions as this is effective in allowing the audience to read and understand our media text.

Rough cut - feedback

This is our music video rough cut feedback video from our target audience. This process was really useful to us because it allowed us to gain from a target audience that would watch or buy this cd in the real world to then see what they thought and see what we needed to change. A majority of the feedback was positive but the changes that they suggested that we should make were very similar to the feedback from Luke. The video itself tells us what they have said that was good in the video and would could be changed or added. However overall the audience said that the cuts needed to be shorter and match the beat of the music. They enjoyed the visual look of interlocking both different sets and fast cutting them together but they thought that this would be more effective if we introduced this closer to the first chorus and not just in the last chorus because otherwise the visual effect becomes random.

When picking our target audience it was important to have a majority of them female because obviously they would have more helpful feedback as they would be the target audience or people that would by this artists music. Although this was the case we also had male audience members but only two because we thought it would interesting to try and please other people and expand out of the target audience rather then just applying our music video to the people we think would buy it. Music is all about expanding the target audience so that you can appeal to a variety of people and make our music video unique.

Luke's feedback of Rough Cut

Before we showed our target audience our rough cut to gain feedback, we showed Luke to see if it was to the best ability of a rough cut. This is what he had to say:

1) Overall our music video is too slow.
2) we need faster and more frequent cuts to match the beat of the music.
3) It would be better if there was more closeups of movement, much like the movement of her legs, rather then showing her face to the audience straight away. There needs to be more of a build up.
4) The fast cuts that mix the UV set with the blinders towards the end are good but he wants to see more of these throughout the video and for them to be introduced infall of the chorus's rather then just the one.
5) It would be better to use the UV set in all of the chorus's.
6) Luke wants us to use the set with the tone in it at the very beginning of the video rather then mixing it towards the end. Start with light and then go into dark, much like the process of day and night.
7) Only use the binders set in parts of the song when there is no use for the other sets. Otherwise the blinders set gets overused.
8) Needs more of a variation of cuts and the shot sizes.

Rough cut

Below is the video of our music video in a rough cut edit. The process of creating a rough cut is helpful because it allows us to gradually improve and sort the structure of the music video. By gradually going through the editing process it means that there is stress of getting it perfect in just one quick edit, which is very unlikely. Creating a rough cut was difficult because it meant that we had to sort out the most important feature of our music video, structure. The structure is a very important concept for any music video, but more importantly for our pop video because we have 5 different sets, which means that not all of them can be at the beginning of the video because that would just spoil all of the artists different looks, leading now where different at the the end of the song. Also a majority of our sets only suit certain parts of the song. For instance the blinders and UV set are more about dancing and liveliness, meaning that they would suit the chorus and the faster pace of the song because we are more likely to match them up to the beats of the song. overall the rough cut is a great process to let us know whether we can make improvements and it also allows us to receive feedback from our target audience on improvement that they think we should make.

Digipak cover - The first draft

This is the first sketch of our initial concept of what we want our digipak cover to look like. All the props and qualities that make up this digipak are very famine and definitely compliment the 'pop' concept of the music video that we have shot. We have involved props that were used in the music video so that both will compliment each other. These props are the flowers which will be orientated around the artists name, to do this I will probably use photoshop after shooting the photographs in the studio. We want to shoot the artist in the studio because we want professional looking photographs and we hope to make a lot of pictures to either use on the website so that all of the three text compliment each other or we will use it on the back of the digipak. This is only a draft sketch so there is still room for lots of improvement. I think so far the images are good but they focus too much on the visual used in the music video that we just shot and so we are not portraying the artist in the right way because we are trying to sell an album of music not just a single, so there are clearly still improvements that need to be made.

Shoot evaluation

This is a personal account of what the shoot day was like and what my job for the day consisted of. The day before the shoot we all went to do the set design in the studio as it needed to be set up before our shoot to sustain the time schedule we had organised for our shoot. This job mostly consisted of getting all of our sent items to our various houses together so that we could see what we had and what we were working with. We all began with making the flowers that were going to be appart of our girly set and by making them i mean that they were made out of paper and they all individually needed to be layered and split up to create the floral, 'volumised' effect that a flower has. After we had finished this we mainly focused on setting up everything for the girly set due to the fact that this was the most complex and this was going to be the first set that we were to shoot. To complete this task we had floral wallpaper that needed to glued on to the wall set up in the studio. This process was long so the design team had to continue this after we had to leave school, so that it was done by the next day.

On the day of the shoot i was excited to finally see our 'vision' and ideas come to life. I was worried that all of our sets were not yet ready to shoot and that this would cause us to take time out of our shoot to fix or do this process.

I think we tried to be well prepared for the shoot in advance but obviously the orders of some costumes for the actors had not yet arrived till the day before or the day of shoot and because of this we didn't know what all of the costumes looked like yet, as it is common that some pictures of outfits online don't always look the same when they are delivered. Luckily this was not the case and we were able to proceed. On the day of the shoot there were some things that needed to be finished off and this was that the flowers needed to be stapled on the back wall of the studio set. From seeing the throne chair the day before we had noticed that it was not really what we wanted, but because it was so close to the shoot day, on the shoot we had decided in the morning that we wanted to add bulbs on the chair to make it look more fancy and so that the set looked more visually interesting. Whilst members of my group did this i took the role of guiding the makeup artist and showing her what looks and in what order we wanted the actors to look like. To show her this i got up images for her for each look and introduced her to our actors.

When we actually began to shoot our first set, the set design actually looked a lot better then i thought it would for the girly set. I originally didn't think it would look this good because of the lack of detail on the throne and the red flowers in the wallpaper. This was solved by adding light bulbs to the chair which made it look more 'royal' and because we added bulbs to the chair we also decided to add bulbs on the set floor with the wires around the floor left loose, this looked really interesting and added more light the set that therefore made the red flowers on the wallpaper look the same colour as the flowers we had made, complimenting each other. I personally feel that we made the set look better then we thought it would.

Originally we had decided to divide the roles so that each person had one specific role and stuck to it throughout the day. However on the day we began to all take the same roles so we decided that there was a way that could benefit our shoot. This was to all have a go at every role but to take it in turns on each set. So i began with taking the role of the cameraperson and then sifted on to the director and e.t.c. This was a useful process for us to undergo because it meant that we all worked in union with each other because there wasn't just one person in control, the control was shared.

I think that guiding the actors on the blinders set was beneficial to the shoot because the dance needed to be improved and they needed to be isync. Some of the back up dancers didn't have enough emotion or interest in what they were doing so this meant that i had to motivate them, which s something that if eel i was good at doing. I was good at directing the actors without being to overpowering and i thought about my groups thoughts about it as well, rather then just doing what i thought was best.

Some of the problems that we had on the shoot revolved around the timing of everything. A major issue that we had was with the makeup artist because she occasionally took too long doing the actors makeup and this meant that the rest of the people on set had to wait for her to be ready. This was solved by us planning ahead for each set and finishing the set design for the next set before we shot it so that we did not waste anytime or lose anytime for the future sets to be shot. We also used other actors or dancers whilst this was going on so that we got more footage and were using our time wisely.

I personally think that the first set, this being the girly set, was the most successful because we were able to play around with the ages of the camera, which is something that we could not do with the other sets due to us running out of time for the shoot, so the last two shoots were rushed a bit. Also with this shoot we were able to make another set within it and this was because we decided to do a close up of the main actor against the floral wall, which actually gave the artistic visual look that she was 'lying on a bed of roses'.

I wish that the blinders set had gone a bit better then it had because the dancers weren't as interested in exaggerating the dance movements and although the dance had been choreographed, it had not been choreographed through the chorus so this meant that we had to make some dance moves up on the spot and motivate them more then we thought we would need to. Although this was not one of the most efficient sets we still have some valuable footage from it, so it was not a pointless set to shoot.

I think working with the actors was fun and we didn't have an issues with working with them except for the occasional times that we had to motivate the dancers sometimes. Overall they were easy to work with and we all had fun together, bouncing off of each others ideas. The part of my shoot that i enjoyed the most was taking on the role of the director because i felt that i could immerse myself more within the visual concepts of the shoot rather then looking through a lens to see it. When continuing this process on in the editing suite i am excited to see all of the footage but mostly i am excited to see how the UV has turned out and whether it is as exaggerated as i had hoped it to be in the original vision that we had all wanted to create.

Overall we all worked very well as a group and listened to each others ideas without one person taking over, we were able to all be equal partners to each other. The lessons that i had learnt from doing this shoot was that not everything always works out or looks the way you had hoped it to and that ways to make this better is to reply work with what you have and to think on the spot sometimes, because no matter how much you plan sometimes things don't always go according to that plan. To conclude this shoot went well and i still feel that we created what we had planned to create, which is why i don't think that our artwork ideas or website ideas will need to change to fit the design and vision in the footage that we shot.

Filming roles

There are many different roles to be addressed and taken throughout the day of our shoot. The list of roles are:

• The director - This person is responsible for organising and helping assist, direct and instruct the actors or models on the shoot. For this role we suggested that Lara was the director for our shoot because she is good at giving directions without taking the principal of being too bossy or rude to the actor which in the real world happens a lot and is known to make a director a bad director.

• The Cameraperson - This role is all about being in control of the camera whilst following the image and vision of the director for each shot. They need to measure up the distance from the camera to the model or actor and then they can gather what lens they need to use. They also need to work with the playback person to assist them where they are supposed to stand within the frame and when to move out of the frame so that the recording can proceed. The person that we figured should take over this role was me because of my experience with cameras and the knowledge that I have gathered from doing a level photography. 

• The art director - This person is responsible for creating the directors vision in an artistic way. They are responsible for the location, props, costumes, makeup and they have to work within the rule of continuity. The person that we think would be the best at this role is Georgie because she studies A level art and is a very creative person with the flow of ideas she has. 

• The producer - This person is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the shoot and organising the other three members of the production team to make sure that everyone knows the duties of their role and ensuring that the process of shooting is smooth and flows well. For this role we thought that we could all work as a team well enough and communicate so that this role did not have to be used, as such as there are only four people in our group.

• Sound playback and lighting desk - This role includes using the iPad to play the song at the time of its queue and when the director says 'playback'. The person holds the iPad in front of the camera so that it is visible in the frame and so that the director can see the listed numbers on the screen so that they can relate to this when editing the material. The lighting desk also involves controlling the lighting and checking whether this lighting creates the right sense of mood and vision that the art director wants to see within the frame. For this role we were thinking that Claudia would fulfil the expectations for this because she is good at evaluating where the lighting fits the mood that we are trying to portray and is used to using the playback software on the iPad. 

Shot list

Finalised cast list

Our cast list was centred around the overall look and style of our main singer. Originally we came up with other cast members that we wanted and we knew that we wanted four dancers and one main artist. We wanted the cast members to be girls rather than boys because the songs artist is a woman and we wanted the video to be conventionally pop, therefore the costumes need to be girl and bright with lots of pink coloured set designs. To get this pop video right we need girls to be the cast members. However there were complications because one of the dancers was in another music video and could not be in both so we have decided to only have two dancers because we didn't want an uneven amount of dancers on each side of the main singer. Below is our cast list:

Sasha Ward-smith :  Main Artist

                                                              Maddy Bowyer : Dancer

Vogue Phelps : Dancer

Preparation for the cast list

To prepare for the rehearsals of our actual music video we needed to communicate with the ideal cast members we would want to use in it. So here is one of many emails that were sent to the girls to show how the flow of communication worked when preparing for our shoot.

Animatic feedback

Below is a video that we have taken which is about our animatic. This was an important process because we needed to know what our target audience would think of our music video and if there was some critical feedback then we could sort out how we could change that before we actually shoot the music video.
 For this process we asked the girls these set of questions:

1. Do you think we need less or more of the artist lip syncing?

2. Do you think it cuts to the beat effectively?

3. Do you find it visually interesting?

4. Do you think we can do anything interesting with the lips?

5. Do we need a motif?

6. Would extended/ complicated choreography interest you more? 

7. Is it too repetitive? 8. Is there anything you think that doesn't work?

9. Do you think the shots should be shorter?

10. What is your favourite set and why?

11. What star image are we trying to represent?

12. Is there anything unconventional? 

First dance rehearsal

For our music video we needed to have a choreographed dance to conform to the stereotypical conventions of a pop video. We asked our cast members to rehearse and learn the choreography from a dancer in our year, Sasha Ward-smith. This was very helpful as it allowed us to see who was right for the part. From taking videos and looking back at it we all realised that the main girl that we had picked was not right for the part, she didn't look like a member of the dance group like the other girls did. In fact when we rehearsed it we realised that the person that fitted the 'main role' best was Sasha the choreographer so we have decided to use her and the other two girls.

A meeting with the set designer

Yesterday, we had a meeting with Jacqueline, who is a professional set designer from South London and Jack who is a professional lighting designer from North London. 

To allow them to understand what we wanted we showed them our prop and lighting list, which includes imagery to find out how much of our idea would actually be able to be made possible. It was important to give them visuals of our idea because the colour and design is very important as it needs to correspond well with the 'girly' pop video conventions. From the meeting we also found out what props the school would need to get and what we would need to get because some of the props like 'the makeshift flowers' can easily be bought from amazon by us but the throne is more difficult to obtain so this is when the school would take control of this prop. So as stated my group would need to purchase the paper pom pom lanterns, which we are planning on buying from Amazon and a Tiara or crown, which we could possibly get off of 'rock and rose' or even off of amazon if we were looking for something cheaper. We also need to find an old and wrecked brown armchair, which the school might already have because of one of the teachers or another way of getting this time is getting it from 'Free Cycle'. However tis may be difficult, as we would need to find a method of picking it up and transporting it into school as it is in a different location known as 'Caterham' at the moment. Finally, my group and the school need to find somewhere to buy or hire a throne chair from because a prop like this can be very expensive and is usually only to hire per hour of usage but there might be a possibility that the school may use their connections with prop houses or go into vintage furniture stores to see what is our best option.
There are some changes that have been made from undergoing this process as we have decided to change our floor from swirly wallpaper to pale pink or white as we think the wallpaper may look too much and take away attention from the flowered wall from an audience perspective. So the set designer told us to pick a plain colour but she said white didn't look great on camera, so we therefore decided on Off White or Pale Pink floor.