Rough Cut- Re-done

I'm a mess- rough cut 2 from Laura Greenley on Vimeo.

I decided that it would be a good idea to redo my 1 minuet rough cut of my video. After taking on board some of the comments from my teacher I could see that I wasn't effectively capturing the tone and mood of the song. There was also significant issues regarding continuity, mainly to do with the lighting, as I was using natural lighting for these shots it was hard for me to control but with the new use of the black and white filter this is much less noticeable. 

I decided that it would be beneficial to download premier pro to my laptop at home so that I could spend more time outside of lessons editing my work. This gives me a huge advantage as I can spend longer amounts of time going through my work in more detail and making the editing much tighter than I would at school with our two hour lessons. 

So the main differences with this rough cut is the use of black and white filter to fit with the tone/mood of the song, the tighter editing when he is using his phone, to almost give it a bit of a montage effect and the use of dissolves in the flashback scene to break up the long shot and give it more of a 'memory' feel. 

Overall I am much happier with this version of the video and I think it works much better than the first cut.  

Shooting flashbacks

Today I shot my flashback footage! This footage will be used in my video as part of the narrative to show the issues within Ben and Elleah's relationship and the steps leading up to their break up. These shots provide the motive for Ben to turn to drugs and alcohol and let my audience see the reason why he is having this emotional break down. 

I decided to split the flashback shots into three separate sections. 

Section 1: 

- The first section shows Ben coming home to Elleah drunk and disorderly. I wanted to try and make it look as if Elleah had been waiting for him to come back home and that she was worried about where he had been. I decided to shoot this section in my living room as it was perfect for the mise en scene of the shot. My living room isn't always the tidiest place but this gives it a 'lived in' feel making it realistic that Ben and Elleah would be living here. Elleah's reaction in this section is perfect for the tone and mood I was wanting to create. As soon as Ben comes in she is up on her feet shouting at him, questioning his alcohol content and looking concerned. She definitely played the part of distressed girlfriend very well here. Ben like wise did a great job at looking tipsy and disorientated, even if he did giggle at certain points. 

 

Section 2: 

- The second section shows Elleah throwing away Ben's alcohol to try and stop his addiction from becoming a serious problem. However, before she manages to get rid of it Ben finds her and they have another fight about it. This again shows the audience the flaws within the relationship and the connection between Ben and Elleah. I am trying to show Elleah as the victim here so that the audience are positioned with her rather than Ben. Whilst I want the audience to sympathize with Ben's struggle, I also want them to be aware of where his own actions have lead him to and why he is in the position that he is in. This was the hardest section to film out of the three as the actors found it hard to react to what was happening. It was also restricting their movement space as I wanted to film the whole thing in the doorway and if they stepped out of the door way the camera couldn't pick them up properly or they ended up blocking one another. 

 

Section 3: 

- The final section of flashback footage is the deciding shots for what will happen between Ben and Elleah and their relationship. I decided that to really emphasize why Ben was overdosing it would be effective for them to essentially 'break up' on screen, rather than just imply it. This section shows the pair discussing their relationship and talking about their problems, but they start to argue more and get heated with each other resulting in Ben storming off and it looking as if the relationship has ended. I think a few of the shots I have for this section do lack emotion and passion from both actors and at times it can look a little flat. But Ben does do a good job of storming past the camera and making it look like the relationship is over for good this time and this certainly helps to link this section to the narrative that follows. 

 

Overall I was very happy with how the shoot went and now I need to start to edit these sections into the rest of my sequence. 

Shooting update no.2

Today I shot the footage for the narrative sections of my music video with Ben and Elleah. On the whole this shoot was a success with only some minor difficulties along the way.

Location

• The locations that we used for the narrative scenes were my living room, my backdoor/bin area and some garages/street area by the back of my house.
• The scenes that took place in the garages/street area by the back of my house provided me with an edge backdrop and was perfect to show Ben's isolation and struggling moments.
• The one garage that we used was actually a lot more roughed up than the other ones which was perfect for the mise-en-scene of the shot as I was wanting to go for this edgy and slightly grimy looking location that would be where Ben would be breaking down.
• Surrounding the garages were various alley ways that made the location seem a bit more secluded and cut off from other people, which again I felt enhanced the themes of isolation and loneliness
• It may have been a better idea to shoot some of the footage on a duller day as when I've watched some of the  footage back there are continuity issues regarding the lighting in certain shots. The garages, unfortunately weren't tall enough to block the sun so it was mainly shining onto Ben quite a lot.
• However to combat this issue I may experiment by putting some of the footage into black and white to see if this lessens the brightness of the shots and generally fits better with the tone of the song. 
• The scenes that then took place in my living room, I felt, were very effective for the sort of mood/ tone that I was going for
• I left the room in its usual state so that it look lived in and more realistic that this would be the couples home
• One of the main problems that I had shooting in this location was being restricted in space to be able to move the camera as there wasn't much room between Elleah and Ben and the TV that the camera was placed in front of .
  
• We managed to find the right distance and angle for the camera to be aimed at though and apart from maybe issues with the lack of diversity within the shots this seemed to capture the shots well and I was happy with the composition.
• Outside in my back garden was also a challenge for being able to fit the actions into the shots.
• We had the problem that I was wanting to shoot the couple arguing in the doorway/ back kitchen area but it was quite a small area to be able to shoot so it was hard to see both Elleah and Ben and how frustrated they were getting.
• The best way that we found to get over this problem was to just keep shooting the footage over and over again, rehearsing what the couple were going to argue about and how they were going to interact with one another 

Props

• We didn't end up using many props for this part of the shoot but the props that we did use were vital for establishing the mise-en-scene and the tone of the shots
• The main bulk of the props were the empty/ unopened alcohol bottles that would be surrounding Ben throughout the first scene. I think that it would have been more effective and have given a bigger impact if we had managed to find more empty/ used bottles as this would have highlighted Ben's addiction as being more prominent that it perhaps comes across. Although the bottles that we did use were quite large so there is still that implication that he has drank a significant amount at this stage.
• We found that the Carling can became the most significant prop within the shoot and was the prop that Ben relied upon the most, which I quite liked as it demonstrated his dependency on alcohol when he was starting to struggle
• We also decided to include the fake drugs in the second street scene, I decided to do this to show that Ben felt his situation had become so dyer that that was his only option.
• I think that some of the shots with the 'drugs' could have been much more effectively done and maybe this is something that I will need to review in more detail when it comes to editing but I feel I could have afforded to be a little more adventurous in these shots.

Changes that were made

• One major change that had to be made to the shoot was do to with casting choices. Due to us having to film during the school day my chosen actor to play my 'drug dealer' wasn't available so we had to double up Elleah as both the girlfriend and the 'drug dealer'. To try and get around this issue we made sure that she was wearing significantly different costumes in the scenes where she was being the dealer compared to where she was playing the girlfriend. I'm hoping that because you don't see much of her face that this wont be too confusing for the audience, however once I have put together a rough cut I will aim to get some audience feedback and if it seems to confusing to distinguish between the characters then I will re-shoot that section. 
• Another big change that we made to the shoot was again to do with issues of casting but this time the problem effected the narrative more than just the mise-en-scene. I wasn't able to get hold of two actors who could play a random couple that would trigger Ben's jealousy and anger so instead we decided to re-focus that section of the video so that Ben would go to look on his phone each time and see a photo of him and Elleah or Elleah with another boy. I felt that this would trigger the same kind of emotions that would still make sense visually to the audience.  

Lost footage

Stupidly after spending so much time on stage with Ben I have managed to lose my performance footage!! I didn't realise that I already had files with the same name as the footage on my laptop when I was copying my narrative footage onto my computer and I managed to delete the performance files.
Whilst this is somewhat annoying and frustrating in every way, it does give my a chance to re-shoot and improve on the footage. Reflecting back on the footage I realised that actually all of my shots were static and whilst they varied in distance, they were perhaps a bit boring and unadventurous when I could be making them more exciting.
My plan for re-shooting my footage will be to again try to get hold of the stage as the back drop and location for my shoot, but this time instead of just using static shots I will also experiment with some movement.
As with the last shoot, I found that it was effective to make every shot a 'master' shot, covering the whole song so that it gave Ben a chance to get a feel for the music and also so that his lip-syncing flowed more naturally within the footage.

 

One addition to the performance footage that I want to make is to do with extreme close up shots, such as the one featured above. I've decided that to help tie my music video into my promotional print work, it may be effective to include various extreme close up shots of different parts of Ben's face and body throughout the performance footage. These shots could then be used to make up sections of my digipak or advert. I also think that it will make the performance footage more abstract and a bit more interesting, fitting well into Ed's quirky personality. 

I am currently just waiting on Ben to have some spare time to be able to re-shoot this footage. 

Editing update

I've started the process of editing my video! In fact I have managed to create a quick 1 minute ish rough cut of my video this morning as a starting point for the sort of look/tone I am wanting to create for my music video.

 

Most of the shots haven't needed much editing done to them, I have used a lot of straight cuts between shots, trying to fit to the pace and tone of the song. 

Some of the shots could probably do with being more tightly edited to cut out clunky camera work/movement that didn't quite work when I was filming. 

 

I have tried to include a variety of different shots in this rough cut when I was editing, from close ups, to long shots. Whilst editing I needed to make sure that the shots I was including focused on the alcohol that Ben was drinking to portray his dependency and addiction to it. 

 

The sequence where Ben is trying to contact Elleah was a crucial editing point in the process of this 1 minute cut. I've tried to make various cuts in the long shot of Ben getting his phone out as I thought this created the effect of him looking distressed, confused and tipsy. I've then attempted to do a rough action match to cut from Ben to a close up of him and Elleah on his phone so that the audience can see what he is doing. 

 

I wanted to not make this shot last for too long as the footage was quite shaky and unstable. 

 

Adding additive dissolves!! I decided to add additive dissolves to the transition shots between the present day footage and the flashback shots of Ben and Elleah. I thought this made it more obvious that Ben was remembering what had happened between him and Elleah but this could alternatively be swapped for a cross dissolve for a more subtle effect in later edits. 

 

I didn't do much editing to the actual flashback footage in this cut as I thought I would initially see if the footage could stand for itself. But I may come back to refine this more and chop it up with various cuts in later editing sessions.

 

More use of additive dissolves at the end of the flashback sequence. 

 

This last section was the most difficult part of the rough cut to edit as it is quicker paced and needed to hit the beats of the song. I've tried to cut the footage where the beat drops in the song so that it cuts between close up and extreme close ups of Ben 'downing' his can of beer to cope with the memories of Elleah. Again I may come back to tighten this up at a later date.

1 Minute Rough Cut

I'm a Mess - Rough Cut from Laura Greenley on Vimeo.

Update on shoot no.1

On Tuesday night we filmed the performance element of my music video. I decided that the best approach for this part of the video would be to shoot a number of different  master shots from varying distances and angles and then from these shots select the sections I needed during the editing process. The shots I used varied from: ECU, CU, MCU, MS and LS. The advantage of doing this would be that I have a variety of shots to cut back to at different points so hopefully the performance element looks more realistic and mimics the style of Ed's video 'One'. 

Location Decision

• In the end I decided on using the stage as my location for this part of the video. This location was perfect for creating the right tone and atmosphere for an isolated and emotion driven performance.
• Back stage we managed to find a microphone and microphone stand, this was perfect for the mise-en-scene of each shot and made the scenario a lot more believable. Without these props, along with the acoustic guitar, this performance scene wouldn't have worked and wouldn't have fit with the artist style and the conventions of many pop performance videos.

Lighting

• We ended up using a spot light as the lighting for this scene, however we found that when we began to shoot that this was actually too bright for the camera and it was hard to see Ben's face in each shot.
• We decided therefore to move Ben just slightly out of the spot light and this worked much better in terms of being able to pick up his face on the camera.
• When looking back at the footage on a computer I have noticed that the spotlight has reacted slightly with the lens of my camera causing a flashing light effect on all of the shots. Whilst this wasn't the look I was originally going for it actually looks rather effective and I'm thinking it might be even more effective to put a black and white filter on this section of the video to give it a more dramatic and emotional effect. This would again be taking inspiration from Ed Sheeran's 'One'. 

Lip-syncing

• The main challenge that I was personally concerned about with regards to this part of the music video was the lip-syncing element. Whilst I still haven't tested the footage against the song to see if it effectively matches up I was happy with the way that it seemed to go on Tuesday.
• How we filmed this section was we decided to have the track playing from my phone in the background so that Ben could hear it. He would then lip-sync over the top of the whole track so that he was, in theory, in time with the beat and lyrics of the song.
• I didn't need Ben to be lip-syncing for the whole song, but I made sure that he put particular emphasis on the moments of the song that I would be wanting to use.
• Overall I think this will be successful footage, however, it would be easy to re-shoot if we decided that the footage wasn't good enough to use.

Photography

• I decided to take the opportunity to get some photos that I could possibly use for my promotional packaging and magazine advert. Here are some of the photos that I have taken of Ben. I kept in mind the branding identity style of other pop artists when taking these shots and how many of them use their face as their branding style, to make them more relatable to their audience. Here are some of the shots I took:

Next Step

• The next step is now to upload my video footage on to the editing software and pile together a very rough, rough cut of my footage.
• I will start by editing together the performance sections and then move on to the narrative scenes later.
• I will be filming the scenes for the narrative sections of my video on Thursday 19th November. For this section I am aiming to film a lot of shots outside as well as filming the flashback scenes inside my house. Hopefully this will be a quick process as I aim to follow my storyboard pretty closely for each shot, it will just depend on whether the shots work effectively and whether or not the weather decides to play up and cause us to have to delay the shoot.
• But next thing to focus on now is the 1 minuet rough cut of my footage. 

  

Shot Decisions

Time to make some shot decisions!!
Today I am sorting through all of my shots that I have filmed and deciding which ones I think are either good enough to use in my video or that I will definitely be using in my video. 
I will put the other shots into a separate folder in my computer just in case I end up needing to use them or wanting to quickly cut back to them. 
Hopefully this will be a quick a speedy process but there are a lot of files to have to get through.

Costumes/Props/Plot

Costumes/Props/Plots from Laura Greenley

Plan for filming

Today I plan to shoot the first section of my music video. This section will revolve around the performance element where Ben will be lipsyncing to Ed Sheeran's 'I'm a mess'.

Location:

• I have two options for the location of this section of the video, the first is the option of using the stage. The benifits of using the stage would be that I would be able to use the stage lighting to put a spotlight onto Ben, making the performance look more realistic, as if he was performing at a concert. This option would also link well to the research that I have already done into existing music videos, in particular Ed Sheeran's video for his song 'One' that soley set on stage. I would prefer to use this option
• The second option I have is to use a studio room that is available in school. This is a fairly open room that has black curtains at the back which I would use as a backdrop to place Ben infront of. There would be less options for lighting in this location and I would probably only be limited to using natural lighting or artificial lighting from ceiling lights. However, whilst this room is more limiting, it fits in to the research that I have done into Sam Smith and his music video for 'I'm not the only one'. The performance element of this video shows Sam signing infornt of a set of red curtains, so by filming Ben infront of the black curtains I am using Sam's video as inspiration.

Costume:

• I have asked Ben to be wearing very casual clothing for this section of the video to fit with Ed's usual laid back style. He will be wearing black jeans, trainers and a t-shirt with a checked over shirt over the top. 

Shots:

• There will be a range of shots used tonight, however I dont plan to use any camera movement in this particular section of the video. This is because I think that by moving the camera it will distract the audiece from focusing on the star and instead I want them to focus on the performers emotions and his connection to the song. I will be switching mainly between medium close ups, close ups and extreme close ups, with the occational long shot thrown in to see the whole of the singers body and his isolation on stage.

Props:

• This section requires little props to be able to work, but here is a list of what I am aiming to use:
• Acoustic Guitar
• Microphone
• Microphone stand 

If I cant get hold of a microphone and stand it wont be the end of the world and may add an indie quality to the video which would still be in keeping with Ed's less formal pop style.

 

 

 

 

Time Plan:

 

•  I aim for the shoot to take no longer than an hour an a half tonight, as I know that Ben is a reliable actor and will work quickly and effectively. However, we do have two sections of performance to do and also the challenge of lipsyncing to try to overcome. Hopefully the shoot will go to plan and will be finished on time.
   

Shots List

I have created a shot list from my storyboard to help me plan out all of the shots that I will need to take when filming and roughly how long each shot will be. I have also decided to include which actors will be in my shots and if there is any movement involved in any of the shots such as a follow for example. This process will hopefully make my shoot run more smoothly as I have a clearer idea of how many shots I need and what types of shots I'm expecting to create. 

Linking my ideas back to Theory

After reviewing my blog I have noticed that there is little work done linking my ideas to my research into music video theory. Apart from the initial research I conducted and the occasional brief mention, there is no work linking the concepts together. Therefore this post will outline how my ideas for my video link to the ideas of video theorists. 

Peter Frazer: 
The Six Key Elements

1. Frazer's first key element states that the music video should last as long as the track. I will be abiding by his theory as I plan to make my video the exact same length as the track. I won't be including an intro or outro to my video as it doesn't follow the convention of most pop music videos and I don't feel it will add anything to the overall finish of the video. 
2. Frazer's second key element is that the video features the artist or the band quite prominently. In my music video the artist will feature in every scene. I have my artist as both the main protagonist and featuring in the performance elements of the video. I am doing this so that the audience are clearly able to recognize him and relate to him and the star icon and brand image. 
3. Frazer's third key element is that the video features some element of performance within it. Throughout my video I will be cutting between narrative scenes and scenes of performance. To make my performance scenes more authentic i have chosen to film them on a stage with proper stage lighting to really exaggerate the artists ability and passion to perform. I felt as the song heavily featured the use of an acoustic guitar that it was important to show the audience that the artist was actually able to play it. This also again fits in with my ideas on branding and wanting my artist with his acoustic guitar to be the main brand image for my product. 
4. Frazer's fourth element is that the video has some kind of concept along with the track. For my video the concept is a man who has just broken up with his girlfriend due to his constant alcohol abuse and we follow his break down and how he is dealing badly with the situation. It links well to the track as the track talks about the struggles of relationships and the protagonist being 'a mess'. The concept ends on the man having turned to drugs to deal with his problems and ultimately overdosing. Whilst it is quite a dark concept to the video it links well to the song and warns the audience of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, so it doesn't glamourise the use of these substances. 
5. Frazer's fifth element is that the video does not contain a complete narrative but the concept may involve fragments of the narrative. My video can be linked to this is some ways. Whilst it shows the struggle of the protagonist dealing with the relationship and the end to the story when he over doses, it doesn't really include the beginning to the story about how the couple met and the dynamics of their relationship. You could also argue that the narrative isn't complete as it is broken up by the sections of performance throughout the video. 
6. Frazer's final element is that different genres of music produce slightly different visual conventions in music videos. The genre I am using is pop music, and fitting in with the conventions of pop music, my video heavily revolves around my artist and the personal struggle that they are going through. In almost every pop music video I have seen the artist is featured and shown a lot so that the audience can relate to their image and their music more personally. 

Sven. E Carlsson:
Performance Style
My music video will represent the artist and their performance as a materialisation. This is because in my video constantly features my artist as the star performer. My artist will be the selling point of my video and the main focus for the audience. Whilst he does act like a storyteller within the video, he is not only telling the audience what he has been through but he is showing them the situations he has been put into. The performance elements will be shot in a way that inspires the fans to want to perform like the artist, through his highly emotional performance.  

Perceiving Music Videos and Video Styles
My video will be a mixture of a visual story telling and performance. This is because my idea consists of the protagonist struggling to come to terms with his recent break up and we, the audience, follow journey to dealing with that break up and how it came about, so it tells us a story. The video will contain various narrative clips which will help and allow the story to flow but it will also be combined with some performance clips to follow Carlsson's ideas on the materialisation of the performer (as explained above). 

Andrew Goodwin
Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics - as my video is of the pop genre I have added in certain characteristics which I believe will help to establish this to my audience. For example, the pop genre relies heavily on the performer being the star image of the video. This is why I have included my artist in all aspects of the video.

The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and develop a motif which will occur across their work - This is a popular convention in the pop culture and I have made sure to include many close up shots both in the performance scenes and the narrative scenes of the video. Not only show case the artist as the branding image, but also to be able to show the build up of his emotions and the journey he is going through. There is a much higher demand in the pop industry from their record label, therefore it is vital to showcase the artist as much as possible as their face is the most likely feature of the music video that is going to make the money.

There are frequent references to the notion of looking and particularly erotic treatment of the female body - My video does not actually conform to this theory unlike many other pop music videos. whilst there will be two females featuring within the video, I do not want their image to be over sexualised or erotic. The video is more emotional than this and perhaps channels a slightly more indie approach when representing the female body and image. 

There is a relationships of visuals and lyrics and music and visuals - This is something I have greatly considered when planning my video. I have tried to link some of the visuals to some lyrics and when I start to edit my video I will edit in time to the beat of the song. This notion is common in all areas of music genre and I have taken shots where I have taken into account the music I am filming with. This is something that I felt was important in the pop genre and I wanted to create visual links to keep the audience entertained and link it all together.

5 Aspects of a Music Video

1. Thought Beats - As I've previously mentioned, the musical structure of my chosen track has been taken into consideration and artist's voice shall be the story teller as well as the artist being materialised.
2. Narrative and Performance - The message of the story I am trying to tell through this video is of the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse and how they can destroy lives and relationships and I want to make this quite clear to the audience, rather than trying to make them guess what the message is. However, they will be able to make up their own interpretation as to whether the artist is a victim or the villain in the scenario. The narrative and performance will work well together and keep the audience entertained.
3. Star Image - star image is perhaps the most important element of my entire music video. The artist is the main protagonist throughout and will be showcased to the audience. I really wanted to follow this theory closely as I aim to make my artist the main branding image of his music/album. My video is really going the highlight the development of the artist which is something that Goodwin feels in vital in a video. 
4. Relations of visuals to the song - The visuals will illustrate the meaning of some of the lyrics as well as amplify others so that the audience can immediately associate the meanings to the song.
5. Technical Aspects - The lighting used in my video will be a mixture of natural, stage lighting and artificial lighting. The natural lighting will be used in all the scenes in the street so that they appear authentic. the stage lighting will obviously be used in the performance scenes as a spotlight to emphasis the artist performing and their musical talent- again in keeping with the ideas of the star image. Finally the artificial lighting will be used in the house scene to make the room appear like it has been filmed at night and his girlfriend has been waiting up all night for him to come home. I will edit some shots to look brighter than others so that it can add emphasis to the moments. The mise en scene is all natural and what would be associated with the location that the scene is being shot in. Apart from the bottles of alcohol in the street scenes, they need to be placed there to give the illusion that the protagonist has an addiction. 

Call Sheet

Here is a copy of my call sheet for shooting. I will be giving a copy of this document to all of my cast members so that they know where they need to be on the day of shooting.