Editing

The editing process for our music video took roughly 2 weeks to do, this is from shoot day to final finished project

To edit our music video we mainly used a piece of software called Final Cut Pro this is a time line based system. As we used a lot of lighting effects on the shoot day and lots of projections, there was little need to use Adobe After Effects, however it was used in the final stages to make small changes to it. We also used a programme called Color to change and make changes to the image. Color is a programme which allows you to change the appearance for the images, for example you can change the hue and saturation as well as brightness and colour of your video. Using Color can sometimes be a very length process though because instead of being able to apply settings to the whole video you have to edit it shot by shot.

The starting process of editing I found slightly confusing, purely because I didn’t know where to start. There are many techniques that can be used to edit. The most commonly used and most easiest it to apply the wide shot to the time line for the whole length of the shot and then place the smaller shot over the top of this. However there are other ways to edit one is to follow your storyboard but due to last minute changes to our pop video idea we would not have been able to do this. For our editing technique, it was just a case of experimenting with what worked and what didn’t, I edited shot by shot, starting at the beginning. Having said this there were certain things that I wanted; particular shots fitted well in certain part of the music. One instant of this is throughout the song there is a high pitch chime, whenever this is heard in the song as the visual we place some footage of the projector and some material, which gives the impression of being underwater. At the end of the song there is a gong sound as the music fades out; therefore I felt the slow motion footage worked best at this point.

After we had finished our rough cut, this is our first finished cut of the song, wee showed it to Luke who gave us tip and advice on how to improve it. I think this is a key point within the editing process, the reason for this is because it is firstly very hard to criticize or fault your own work, if it is in your music video, and you have put it there because you think it looks good and appropriate. Secondly I think it very important to get an external view on. After Luke watched our rough cut, he suggested that we needed to eradicate any flash frames there were, He also said that in our rough cut there was a section of the video where the visuals cut on the beat, he said this didn’t look right because we were using discontinuity editing and had not cut on the beat at any other point throughout the song; and it would look better without it.

After we made theses changes we again showed it to Luke who agreed that it looked much better and that no more work was needed on it. This then left us with a finished article. Here it is:

VIDEO NEEDED

In terms of selling the song, our aim was to make it have an abstract feeling, happy, fantasy and in some elements ethereal. This was a similar case for how we planed to market our brand and the image that we were aiming to portray. Visually we used Khuleshovs theories to get across certain meanings. We wanted the girls to appear friendly and happy therefore we used a lot of circles in our projections. We also used many pinks and blue in terms of lighting, this is very feminine colours; they are also very warm colours. Had we used reds and oranges, they girls would have be seen in a threatening, dangerous way. We decided that we didn’t want to place the camera on a tripod, capturing freehand footage gave the impression of freedom and fantasy of being involved in almost this different world. We also placed the girls in white dresses, this gave a huge ethereal feeling as the girls appeared almost heavenly and white dresses gives the connotation of angels.

SCREEN SHOTS NEEDED

There are two types of editing, you can either use continuity editing or discontinuity. Continuity editing is editing that usually follows a certain pattern or a cuts on the beat. Discontinuity editing is the opposite of this, can often come across as quiet random. For our music video we decided to use discontinuity editing. The reason for this was because representing the song and brand, we wanted it to appear free flowing and had we used continuity editing I think it would come across rigid and uncomfortable to watch considering the song type.

When we were editing we used the theorist Negus to help us apply editing conventions. We subverted Negus's conventions of short shots, we also used a wide and extensive use of shot types, camera movements and angels which fitted nicely with our theme.

Shoot day

As we changed our plans very last minute al of our months of planning went out of the window. This made our shoot day very spontaneous, however, I think that this allowed our imagination and creativity to flow freely. We started off our shoot day by deciding on make up and appearance that the two twin girls, who were going to be our band and performance element, would look like. Alex did the make up and hair and I helped create the set in the studio. The first scene we shot was coincidently the first scene we have decided to use in our opening introduction. We constructed the scene by pushing two sofas together but we did not want it to appear this way, we then placed all sorts of girly items, such as; flowers, petals, fairy lights, pink netting and covers over the sofa in order to disguise them. We were aiming for our set to appear quiet abstract and intimate. We then decided to shoot some footage of each girl singing individually, this was to make sure we had as much footage as possible to when it came to editing, we did lots of variations of shots here, all of which we came up with on the day. One shot that I had been inspired from avatar and Pearl Harbor, was to have the sheets hanging from above and to have the girls walking in between the sheets while miming to the words. This didn’t come out how I had expected it never the less I was still pleased with the outcome. After this shot we shot the final shot of the day; the performance element of our pop video. This, like all the other scenes was to look quirky and unusual, including a sense of false realism. To create this, we place the two original sofas together, this time on their sides and places the two girls inside it, almost like a creator, we followed similar steps that we did to complete the first scene but this time adding a keyboard allowing this to show our band element.

Throughout the shoot day we divided the jobs up equally between us this also included divided the filming equally between us. The filming was done using Sony NX5 cameras.

The lighting for all our sets was consistent all the way through the shoot, we kept it the same even when we decided to change the sets, the reason for this was because we were planning on not having continuity in our editing we had consistency in our lighting instead, allowing us to have more freedom with our style of editing. Our lighting was a lot of flashing lights changing colors on the subjects, to add to the lighting, the night before our shoot I downloaded lots of music visualizations, originally we were just thinking on using the default visualizations that came with itunes but decided that there was a high chance that these would be recognized to decided to find out own. We projected this onto the set making the lighting more unusual especially when it was on the skin of our cast also appeared particularly interesting when it was on the white clothing we had placed the twins in for this very reason.

Most of our shots were close up or mid shots, this was to keep the feeling of intimacy a common theme throughout the video. We also used hand held camera for a lot of our footage, this was to make you feel as though the audience is there or much more involved, this particular technique was used in the thriller ‘Cloverfeild’ to make the audience feel as though they were part of the scenario, one we adapted for our video. A good example of this is the opening shot were the two twins were laying entwined next to each other and we lay the camera on its side to make it look like a third person in the bed.

We had many problems in the planning towards our shoot, and our plans all fell apart at the last minute when all our cast dropped out. This meant that we either needed to recruit new cast quickly or come up with a totally new idea; we did the second of theses. We came up with this idea of shooting a very abstract video with a very un real feel to it. We aimed to achieve this by using lots of different colors (especially in our lighting) and keeping close, tight shots to confuse the audience, once you use a wide shot they are able to distinguish more. We had always had the two twins planed as cast for our video and they did not drop out, so instead of them playing the role of the band they became not only the band but also the entertainment element to. Because of our plans failing we had no call sheet to refer to on the day of our shoot, this meant that everything that was shot on the day was decided on the day leaving us with no room for error but lots for imagination. Although we had no guidelines to follow, we didn’t really come across any major problems on the shoot day, which was surprising as little planning was done.

One shot that I fee work really well was one were we almost created a tent out of the sheets, we stuck the camera into the tent through a gap in the tent, this was risky as we coul not actually see what we would be filming through the camera, although everyone but the camera man could see the footage on a screen that was linked up to the camera. The thing I like most about this shot was that we projected the animations on to the side of the sheet, because they were white sheets you could easily see the projection and some was even going through the sheet and onto the girls, this added a really nice effect and added almost a fantasy element to the video especially.

Another shot that I was particularly proud of as a shot was the first shot we filmed, I know that it is typical that your first footage is often not your best as you are getting used to the camera and just getting started but I felt it really captured the feel of the video well and was very happy with the mise-en-scene. In the opening and final scenes we shot the blonde twin on the left and the brunette on the right, this changed for all the footage in between the beginning and end as we did not particularly want either one of the them associated with good or bad so to make sure of this we regularly change positioning. In the opening scene we had the blonde one in the first hotspot and the brunette twin in the third, this lead the eye nicely around the shot and I think had the brunette twin been situated in the second hotspot it would have seem a little over crowded. Furthermore, having the brunette twin in the third hotspot enabled us to pan nicely between the two girls with an equal gap so that the audience could focus their attention on other props in the scene.

One shot that was apparent, would not work as well was the slow motion throwing shots. In theses shots we individually placed the girls onto a sheet (lying down) we then got people to help us hold the sheet while pulling it tight and throwing the girl upwards towards the camera, which was filming from above, all of this was filmed in slow motion. The reason I don’t think this shot worked as well was because we had a lot less control over the girl when we threw here. Also because we were using tight close up shots she often left the frame. Moreover, being thrown into the air is a very difficult task to pull off while wearing a dress and still appear graceful. This meant that in order to capture what was happening we also got hands of the people who were holding this sheet. After looking at the footage, there is a lot of this particular scene that will be useless but I think that if we were to crop it slightly then it may become good footage that is workable.

In conclusion, considering the situation we found ourselves in and so close to the shoot day we did a very good job of not only coming up with a entirely new concept but also managing to capture all the footage leaving us time to capture footage that was extra giving us as much materially to work with when it comes down to the editing process. I really thought the day went well, I was especially please that the girls had learnt their lyrics and their overall appearance fitted well with what we were attempting to achieve.

SET BUILD AND LIGHTING DESIGN

Our pop video consists of four different settings. When considering this we decided that we were going to build all four settings within the studio. The reason for this was because not only was it difficult to find settings but also it meant that we have full control. Usually when you decide to shoot on location you start to loose control. Deciding that we were going to build all of our sets lead to many problems. In on of our scenes, we have a large quantity of feathers falling from above, this mean that because of the mess it would make we would have to shoot this last, however if we shot it last, it means that we have to keep our cast there all day and keep them waiting and this may not be ideal given their age.

Another problem we came across was that originally we planed on having the set with the band to be plain white. Our reasoning for this was to keep the background plain and simple so that there was no distraction for the audience and that the main focus was the band. However, it soon came to our attention that white feathers would not show up with a white background, this meant we would have to change the background colour to black in order to make the feathers show up

Lighting, Floor and set plan

A set plan is a plan that clearly lays out everything that you will be using both on set and off. There are two reasons why we complete a set plan, the first is so that you can get a clearer idea of what your set will look like and what works. It also allows you to get a good idea of space and what is practical and what wont fit. It is also a map for the set builders so they can see what we expect.

In a set plan not only do you have to include furniture and things that are needed on set but also lighting lighting, cameras tracks that are needed off set. Furthermore it is also an important plan of where you are going to place your camera and the views you will get with the camer in these positions.

Camera Test

The purpose of a camera test is to make sure that you are happy with what your cast look like on camera. People appear differently on camera than they do in person, hence the reason for a camera test. You may think that there are perfect for the part however, they may not look right on screen.
Another reason for a camera test is to make sure they are easy to work with. In this sence I mean if they follow directions well. If they appear awquard to instructions then you maybe should consider replacing them. With pop videos you want to make sure you actors appear as comfortable as possible. If the actors look umcomfortable and awquard on camera then this will reflect in how the audience feels about your video.
We decided to choose our cast becuase they fit the part of looking swet and inocent, very free and lighthearted. We choose our cast to look like this becuase we felt it fitted with the music and lyrics well.
For our camera test we recorded our cast talking and all angles of them(front, side and back) this was to make sure that they appeared how we needed at all angles.

Storyboard

The storyboard is the next step in pre-production. It helps us to build upon the timeline and elaborate the visuals. A storyboard is a much more specific way of placing element in time with the song. storyboards are used to visualise the images that will appear on the screen. you work out the types of shot, the angle, the camera movement, the mise en shape, the colours and shape, anything and everything.

Storyboards is where the real work happens. Storyboards are much cheaper to experiment with, to try things out than messing about on the day of filming. A piece of paper and a pencil and a storyboard artist, cost a lot less per day then the millions that would be spent on a movie.

Pop videos are just the same. You work out all the shots on the story board before you even begin to start filming. you spot the mistake, the things that don't work and put them right in the storyboard before you film. It is a bit like creating a puzzle or a plan, which you shoot to and complete the puzzle in the editing process.

In our story board, we have close up of typical girly activities that would be expected to be seen at a teenage sleepover, this is at the begining of our pop videos to establish the setting and what is going on.

Timeline

Timeline is a method that is uses the works and the times as a first try at linking images to words and music. By completeing a time line you can see what works and what doesnt work. With a timeline we can test out which line has a performance element with it, which one has a narratine image with is and which one has something else.

So if a line of a song is seven seconds you need to cut on the beat and then find a picture of something that you can hold for seven seconds, this is where a timeline will come in use because you will be able to link these together. Doing the timeline and story board has helped us decide what shots we needed and what we wanted to get across to our audience most. In our case, we have decided that we need more close up shots of the band, for two reasons, firstly, the band is more asthetically pleasing than the OAP faces and secondly because they are the main protagonist and are the ones who are singing the song. From the timeline we move to the storyboard and attached are some examples of the timeline.

POP VIDEO : La La La YOUR GROUP: Alex and Gina PAGE NO.1

WORDS or MUSIC …………………..	TIME	PERFORMANCE …..	NARRATIVE……………	IMAGES
‘la la la la “	16s (9-25)		3 OAP women on abed having a pollow fight feathers fly out of pillows
Make yourself free, make yourself grow Come on up into the attic - come and see the glow A pretty idiot is kissing everyone she doesn't know And the pigs are eating popcorn, selling tickets to the show.	15 (25-40)	twin girls on keyboard, one singing, one playing the synth both siging, feathers fall down
Give yourself away, feel the wind blow We're watching movies on the ceiling, all the artists we know If there's someone you don't like you don't have to say hello	12s 40-52		Women dance on the bed in pjs, eating popcorn, sweets, painting nails pampering each other
Come on, come on Come on, come on Take yourself out, hit the tambourine We have loaded up your eyes and fed you tangerines	10s 1.10 – 1.20		Old couple on first date, man yawn and puts arm around woman.
If you open up your box you will find a time machine If you try to find a scratch there'll be no signs of where you have been.	10 s 1.20-1.30	The twin girls parfroming on cinema prjection screen
Give yourself up, make yourself sing Don't tell us that you can't - You need a sampling?	6 sec 1.30- 1.36		Man feed woman some popcorn nervously. Still in cinema.
Da da da da-da-da-da-da Da da-da da da-da-da-da-da dadada...	9s 1.36-1.45	The twin girls parfroming on cinema prjection screen, cu then cuts to being in studio, previous setting
La la la la La-la-la-la-la La la la La-la-la-la-la La la la La-la-la-la-la Come on, come on Come on, come on	15s 1.45- 2.00	cu then cuts to being in studio, previous setting
Trupet solo	18s 2.00-2.18		CU of bingo machine, bingo setting woman shouts bingo
backgroundmusic	7s 2.18-2.25	The dancing and playing the chimes to the music.
Background music and la la la la la	15 sec 2.25-2.40		Woman slow mo, celebatory dance and everyone then joins in.
La la la la la	8 s 2.40- 2.48	The twin girls parfroming with everybody
La la la la la	16s 2.48-3.04		everyone then joins in, with the dance.
Gong	19s 3.04-3.07	Girls final scene

Shapes and Lines

This is very similar to the colour theory. As well as colours having an impact on the way the audience will see the person, different shapes and colours will also have this effect. If an interview is set up so the subject is in a nice homely environment, sat on a sofa with a round table and side lamp the audience will feel very positively about this. The reason for this is because is the round table, circles have the connotations of being calm and are graceful and their curves are seen as feminine. They are warm, comforting and give a sense of sensuality and love.

On the other hand, id an interview is set n a setting with lots of harsh lines or jagged lines, this will often give off a negative impression. Especially as jagged lines have connotations with knives. It is often the case that virtical lines imply prison bars, this is used in films to hint to the audience.

Colours

Colour is an unescapable element within our lives. It is also very powerful, it has the ability to change the mood of people and represent certain things. This is why it is very important when composing a set that colour is taken into account. Dark, dull colours will give off very negative vibes to the viewer. It is not only the set that ought to be considered but also the clothing of the subject within the frame.

Color	Meaning
RED:	warmth, love, anger, danger, boldness, excitement, speed, strength, determination, desire, courage
ORANGE:	cheerfulness, low cost, affordability, enthusiasm, stimulation, creativity
YELLOW:	attention-grabbing, comfort, liveliness, cowardliness, hunger, optimism, overwhelm, Summer, comfort, liveliness, intellect, happiness, energy
GREEN:	durability, reliability, environmental, luxurious, optimism, well-being, nature, calm, relaxation, Spring, safety, honesty, optimism, harmony, freshness
BLUE:	peace, professionalism, loyalty, reliability, honor, melancholia, boredom, coldness, Winter, depth, stability, professionalism, honor, trust
PURPLE:	power, royalty, nobility, elegance, sophistication, artificial, luxury, mystery, royalty, elegance, magic
GRAY:	conservatism, traditionalism, intelligence, serious, dull, uninteresting
BROWN:	relaxing, confident, casual, reassuring, nature, earthy, solid, reliable, genuine, Autumn, endurance
BLACK:	Elegance, sophistication, formality, power, strength, illegality, depression, morbidity, night
WHITE:	Cleanliness, purity, newness, virginity, peace, innocence, simplicity, sterility, snow

This is something that we need to take into consideration when choosing certain aspects within out pop video. If we are going to portray a very rebelious band, then dressing them in blacks, reds and greys would be ideal.

Lighting

There are many different types of light that are used are used within the media industry. However, the lights that we most commonly use are whats known as 'blondes' which run on 2000watts and 'redheads' which are no where near as bright and use 400 watts.

The most well known lighting set up is the Three Point Lighting Technique. It is a standard method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. It is a simple but versatile system which forms the basis of most lighting.

FIll Light

The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key. It will flood the set with light, this is done by opening the barn doors on the light. It is the main light that will light the whole set.

Key light

This is the secondary light and is usually placed on the opposite side of the fill light.This is the main light, that will light the subject. It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject. The fill light is used to fill the shadows created by the key

Back Light

The background light is placed behind the person, on a high grid, or low to the ground. Unlike the other two lights, which light the foreground, it lights the background. This technique is used to eliminate shadows cast by foreground onto the background, or to draw more attention to the background. It also helps the camera give depth to the subject.