As we were one of the last groups to shoot our media music video, we had a push to try and get a rough cut done only a week after our footage had been digitised. As on the day shooting our performance element and our narrative element we believed that our performance was so much stronger we were keen to look at this to see whether we should change our main structure of the video, and made the decision to focus on the performance element of our dancers, lead singer, DJ and use the wires to travel between these two aspects as our third element. After viewing our footage, we created different log bins for the different shots, this enabled it to be easier to search for different shots that we needed. We logged several different shots of the girls dancing in wide shots and then more in close up shots and then longer shots of Dan and Kaleem, the DJ and lead singer, in tracking and up close shots which we constantly referred back to.
In the beginning of our editing process, after logging all of our performance shots of the dancers and Dan and Kaleem, we began to assembly the first cut. The first thing we had to do before we could edit was to thoroughly listen to the song and place markers at significant beats and riffs in the song and so we could use these as a basis on how to structure the video. We knew that we wanted to use the wires at the beginning as a ‘lead in and out’ to the different performance elements. We attempted to follow a similar structure of finding a clip of the lead singer and the DJ synced to the music and then use this as a basis and find shot clips of the dancers to cut between. Listening to the music, there was moments of the song in which we realised we should use longer shots in the versus sections and then as the music builds in tension cut between our shots faster to reflect the pace of the song. Therefore, in the chorus’ primarily we would focus on the lead singer and then for the major dance elements concentrate on the dancers in faster cuts and cutting back to Dan and Kaleem. We attempted to remain with this structure throughout the video and I think the faster cuts in the dance sections of the song really work. At the end of the song, again we wanted to reflect back to the beginning of the music video and go back out through the wires creating a closure on the video. The structure of our video I think clearly reflects the tempo of the music, I believe we were able to match our footage and editing technique to the soundtrack, trying to keep the audience intrigued and interested throughout. Several times throughout the video we reversed and sped up clips, which I think worked really well, because as well as fitting to the music it added another dimension to the video. After staying late two nights in the week we were able to get a lot of our first cut done due to the vast amount of work each section takes.
Initially we edited the dance scenes so that the dancers would perform the actual choreography in sequence to the track. However, after reviewing this we decided that it would be more effective if we cut between dance moves and so that it doesn’t flow fluidly, but by too reversing dance moves it kept in time to the track.
Our rough cut differs entirely from our animatic storyboard of our video. Primarily our initial ideas may have been a bit optimistic of what could have been achievable, however, capturing all the footage we felt that it would be more effective and to ignore the narrative and just focus on the performance. Therefore we again had to change the idea of using the gramophone at the beginning of the video and just use the wire structure instead. Again, I feel that this looks better and works more effectively. I think that the decision to discard our narrative element was for the best, despite the long day of shooting it, because ultimately it will look better without it. Our rough cut again further differs from our animatic storyboard in the different shots we first wanted to encapture. We managed to shoot most of the shots that we wanted however, some only slightly differ from the storyboard, this is primarily because on the day we were able to see the different aspects and shots that looked more interesting and would work better.
Our influences to create the music video came from a number of sources and inspirations. Our band, “Electric Deserts” is primarily based on the duo, “Empire of the Sun” whom told a similar look to what we wanted to create. Therefore we took inspiration from their music video, ‘Walking on a dream.’ However as well we took ideas from the French film, ‘District 13’, in which the opening sequence enters through a doorbell and travels down the wires. This was inspiration for the basis of our narrative in travelling down wires between different mediums of music, however was discussed and decided to not be included in our video. I think that our video holds its strength without the need for the narrative.
I feel that our music video holds many strengths and weakness.
Strengths: - I feel that we have successful cut our music strictly to the beat of the track, instead of just ‘photos being played to music’ and with such a strong high beat track our footage holds interest in the audience throughout. I believe that the fastest sections of the song grasp the most attention and are most effect with shots of the dancers flashing on contrasting to longer shots of the DJ and lead singer work very effectively.
Weaknesses: - I believe that because this track is quite long and as we were one of the last groups to shoot and get our work digitised therefore we were keen to spend a long time editing in order to get it accomplished. Therefore I believe we could have perfected some sections of the track, however I am very confident that we have attempted to achieve the best that we could and I am very pleased with what we’ve accomplished.
After our first cut, there wasn’t much work that needed to be done in After-Effects, all we have to do is to slightly adjust the colouring of parts of our video and cover up parts of the backdrop of our set and one or two red heads that we caught on camera in our tracking shots. Therefore after our first cut our work could be done efficiently and quickly and were quite simple.
Here is a version of our first cut:
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Photos of the shoot day
Here are some of the photos from the shoot day which i took. These are photos of our performance element, both the DJ and the Lead Singer and our female dancers. I think the pink and silver makeup which is shown in these photos show how effective the makeup was. These photos give a hint as to what the video will look like.
Shoot day account
The Shoot Day
In preparation of our shoot day on 19th November, we as a group were very well organised. We made a shooting schedule to enable that we got all the shots that we required from our storyboard and too so that we could organise which actors we needed so no-ones time was wasted just waiting around. Along with this shooting schedule we made a props and costume list to ensure we had all that we needed for the shoot. A week before our shoot we visited our school costume cupboard and got the costumes for our dancers, DJ and lead singer. However, we had to order the pink and silver makeup from the Internet. As our shooting date was so far in advance we had a lot of time to guarantee that all was prepared for, for the shoot day and that we had everything we needed. However, days before our shoot, some girls out of the six dancers dropped out and were unable to do the shoot, therefore in panic we had to find new girls who could learn the dance in time for the shoot. This was a major problem, however I believe that our new dancers worked really hard and danced really well!
Here is a photo of our dancers rehearsing prior to the shoot day and a group photo.
However, we knew that on the day of our shoot we wouldn’t have time to shoot all the footage we wanted, therefore decided to shoot the ‘wires’ a few days after our shoot. This allowed us to spend more time on preparation for our shoot and then time after the shoot to make the wire structure. The day before our shoot we were able to get into the studio to set up our set for the following day. This didn’t take too long because our set was quite limited and only comprised of a DJ set and the led lights in a black room. I think that the led lights worked effectively spelling out “DVNO” because it drew attention and through minimalist lighting created silhouettes and shadows for the dancers which worked successfully.
Here is a photo of the DJ set as a part of our props.
On the day because we underestimated the time it would take for our dancers to get into their costumes and for their pink paint makeup to be put on, we were a little behind our schedule. I feel that we could have limited the time it took for the dancers to get ready if we had practised the makeup on them before the shoot day. However, this didn’t put the schedule behind by very long. Prior to the shoot day, in the morning we wanted to shoot the DJ, Dan and Kaleem, the lead singer, whilst the dancers practised the dance in their costumes in to make sure that I was really together and no alterations needed to be made on the costumes. The shooting of Dan and Kaleem in the morning was really good and went to schedule, we were able to capture all the shots we wanted of them and used tracking shots of them which were not initially within the storyboard. After filming Dan and Kaleem, we filmed the dancers in wide shots, and mid shots using smoke and lights, which worked really well. However, by lunchtime, everyone was really hungry and we had to take a break, but deciding that after lunch we would return to the studio to capture a few more shots of the girls dancing, but this time with the DJ in the shots. This made us a little off-schedule and might make us run out of time for the filming in our second location later. However, this did not disadvantage us too much and filmed our outside shots first to ensure that it was still daylight. By filming the girls and the DJ in the morning and a little of the afternoon, it meant that they didn’t need to come to our second location with us. We knew that it would be long day and difficult to capture all the shots in this one day, but by sticking close to our schedule and only falling one or two hours behind schedule we were able to capture everything, and I’m really pleased with our footage.
Our storyboards are to an extent close to the shots we captured, however on the shoot day we were able to visualise shots better which worked more effectively. We took advantage of the use of tracking in the shots of Dan and Kaleem because it worked really well. On the day we decided to shoot more footage of our DJ and our Lead singer and the dancers so we gave ourselves more of a variety of shots to work with when editing. However, we did stick to the storyboard at our second location in our narrative element of our people getting ‘infected’ by the music, but looking back at the footage, I believe that when editing we will not stick to the storyboard, because in retrospect our performance element is so much stronger than the narrative, therefore use this more. I don’t think that this will affect us too much because we still have the three elements to our video, both the dancers and the performance element of the DJ and the lead singer, the wires and we will still use the gramophone shots because they worked well. However, I’m saying this in retrospect and before the editing process, so it’s not set in stone yet.
We used different technologies on the day of our shoot, obviously we used a camera to capture our footage but we also used, red head lights, smoke machine, tracking and led lights which spelt out “DVNO.” I feel that because there was not much to our set it has more of an impact and more focus to our performance. Through our limited use of lights, the red head lights created a mysterious atmosphere to our set, which we could only just see their features. This too with the use of a smoke machine through the dancing element furthermore created an atmosphere. Also on the day, we had to ensure that some of our footage of the girls dancing was digitised during lunch that so later in our second location, when two of our characters were sitting watching an imitation of what the music video would be. On the day of our shoot, we all to an extent shared the production roles. Each of us had a chance to be the director and have different visions of which shots to capture and how we wanted them to be set up. Again, each of us took it in turn to be on playback of the music and was in charge of the camera. On the day, I several times was taught how to do a focus pull, which was exciting in extending my camera technical skills.
Here is a photo of some of the equipment that we used on the day.
I am particularly pleased with our performance element, the DJ and the lead singer and the dancing element, because it looked as good if not better than I hoped it would and feel that this will be the strongest element to our music video. If we had a chance to re-shoot our video, I feel that we should have either spent more time on the narrative to perfect it, or forget about it completely and focus on the performance element, capturing more shots so we can cut between it, to make it even stronger. Also, I feel that our dancers, besides dropping out only a few days prior to our shoot, I believe that if we found more reliable dancers, they could have rehearsed more to the shoot, so that there would be no mistakes, however it’s inevitable there would be and I am really pleased with their performances.
In preparation of our shoot day on 19th November, we as a group were very well organised. We made a shooting schedule to enable that we got all the shots that we required from our storyboard and too so that we could organise which actors we needed so no-ones time was wasted just waiting around. Along with this shooting schedule we made a props and costume list to ensure we had all that we needed for the shoot. A week before our shoot we visited our school costume cupboard and got the costumes for our dancers, DJ and lead singer. However, we had to order the pink and silver makeup from the Internet. As our shooting date was so far in advance we had a lot of time to guarantee that all was prepared for, for the shoot day and that we had everything we needed. However, days before our shoot, some girls out of the six dancers dropped out and were unable to do the shoot, therefore in panic we had to find new girls who could learn the dance in time for the shoot. This was a major problem, however I believe that our new dancers worked really hard and danced really well!
Here is a photo of our dancers rehearsing prior to the shoot day and a group photo.
However, we knew that on the day of our shoot we wouldn’t have time to shoot all the footage we wanted, therefore decided to shoot the ‘wires’ a few days after our shoot. This allowed us to spend more time on preparation for our shoot and then time after the shoot to make the wire structure. The day before our shoot we were able to get into the studio to set up our set for the following day. This didn’t take too long because our set was quite limited and only comprised of a DJ set and the led lights in a black room. I think that the led lights worked effectively spelling out “DVNO” because it drew attention and through minimalist lighting created silhouettes and shadows for the dancers which worked successfully.
Here is a photo of the DJ set as a part of our props.
On the day because we underestimated the time it would take for our dancers to get into their costumes and for their pink paint makeup to be put on, we were a little behind our schedule. I feel that we could have limited the time it took for the dancers to get ready if we had practised the makeup on them before the shoot day. However, this didn’t put the schedule behind by very long. Prior to the shoot day, in the morning we wanted to shoot the DJ, Dan and Kaleem, the lead singer, whilst the dancers practised the dance in their costumes in to make sure that I was really together and no alterations needed to be made on the costumes. The shooting of Dan and Kaleem in the morning was really good and went to schedule, we were able to capture all the shots we wanted of them and used tracking shots of them which were not initially within the storyboard. After filming Dan and Kaleem, we filmed the dancers in wide shots, and mid shots using smoke and lights, which worked really well. However, by lunchtime, everyone was really hungry and we had to take a break, but deciding that after lunch we would return to the studio to capture a few more shots of the girls dancing, but this time with the DJ in the shots. This made us a little off-schedule and might make us run out of time for the filming in our second location later. However, this did not disadvantage us too much and filmed our outside shots first to ensure that it was still daylight. By filming the girls and the DJ in the morning and a little of the afternoon, it meant that they didn’t need to come to our second location with us. We knew that it would be long day and difficult to capture all the shots in this one day, but by sticking close to our schedule and only falling one or two hours behind schedule we were able to capture everything, and I’m really pleased with our footage.
Our storyboards are to an extent close to the shots we captured, however on the shoot day we were able to visualise shots better which worked more effectively. We took advantage of the use of tracking in the shots of Dan and Kaleem because it worked really well. On the day we decided to shoot more footage of our DJ and our Lead singer and the dancers so we gave ourselves more of a variety of shots to work with when editing. However, we did stick to the storyboard at our second location in our narrative element of our people getting ‘infected’ by the music, but looking back at the footage, I believe that when editing we will not stick to the storyboard, because in retrospect our performance element is so much stronger than the narrative, therefore use this more. I don’t think that this will affect us too much because we still have the three elements to our video, both the dancers and the performance element of the DJ and the lead singer, the wires and we will still use the gramophone shots because they worked well. However, I’m saying this in retrospect and before the editing process, so it’s not set in stone yet.
We used different technologies on the day of our shoot, obviously we used a camera to capture our footage but we also used, red head lights, smoke machine, tracking and led lights which spelt out “DVNO.” I feel that because there was not much to our set it has more of an impact and more focus to our performance. Through our limited use of lights, the red head lights created a mysterious atmosphere to our set, which we could only just see their features. This too with the use of a smoke machine through the dancing element furthermore created an atmosphere. Also on the day, we had to ensure that some of our footage of the girls dancing was digitised during lunch that so later in our second location, when two of our characters were sitting watching an imitation of what the music video would be. On the day of our shoot, we all to an extent shared the production roles. Each of us had a chance to be the director and have different visions of which shots to capture and how we wanted them to be set up. Again, each of us took it in turn to be on playback of the music and was in charge of the camera. On the day, I several times was taught how to do a focus pull, which was exciting in extending my camera technical skills.
Here is a photo of some of the equipment that we used on the day.
I am particularly pleased with our performance element, the DJ and the lead singer and the dancing element, because it looked as good if not better than I hoped it would and feel that this will be the strongest element to our music video. If we had a chance to re-shoot our video, I feel that we should have either spent more time on the narrative to perfect it, or forget about it completely and focus on the performance element, capturing more shots so we can cut between it, to make it even stronger. Also, I feel that our dancers, besides dropping out only a few days prior to our shoot, I believe that if we found more reliable dancers, they could have rehearsed more to the shoot, so that there would be no mistakes, however it’s inevitable there would be and I am really pleased with their performances.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Shooting Schedule
Shooting Schedule
8:50- everyone meet in the studio.
9:30 – Dan and Kaleem begin shooting.
- (Girl dancers rehearsing in the dance studio.)
Shots: 3, 7, 9, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 34, 47, 48, 49.
DVNO shots- 4, 6, 8, 10,
10:45 (11:00) – Until early Lunch. 12:45 Shoot girl dancers with Dan and Kaleem.
5, 11, 16, 18, 19. 20, 21, 24, 28a, 28b, 32,
(BURN A DVD!!! TO PLAY AT GREG’S HOUSE.)
1:20- BACK FROM LUNCH. EVERYONE MEET IN THE STUDIO.
1:45- Scott.
Shots- 42, 43, 44, 45
2:15 – Go to Greg’s house.
2:35- start shooting. Old fashioned Kaleem.
Shots- 1, 2, 50, 51
3:00 (set up tracking)- Living room and kitchen- Greg’s mum
Shots, 13, 14, 15,17, 17a, 17b,
4:15 – couple on the sofa (Emma and Greg)
Shots- 37, 38, 39
8:50- everyone meet in the studio.
9:30 – Dan and Kaleem begin shooting.
- (Girl dancers rehearsing in the dance studio.)
Shots: 3, 7, 9, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 34, 47, 48, 49.
DVNO shots- 4, 6, 8, 10,
10:45 (11:00) – Until early Lunch. 12:45 Shoot girl dancers with Dan and Kaleem.
5, 11, 16, 18, 19. 20, 21, 24, 28a, 28b, 32,
(BURN A DVD!!! TO PLAY AT GREG’S HOUSE.)
1:20- BACK FROM LUNCH. EVERYONE MEET IN THE STUDIO.
1:45- Scott.
Shots- 42, 43, 44, 45
2:15 – Go to Greg’s house.
2:35- start shooting. Old fashioned Kaleem.
Shots- 1, 2, 50, 51
3:00 (set up tracking)- Living room and kitchen- Greg’s mum
Shots, 13, 14, 15,17, 17a, 17b,
4:15 – couple on the sofa (Emma and Greg)
Shots- 37, 38, 39
Friday, November 6, 2009
Prelimary photos
Here are some of the photos of Greg's house and the elevator that we will shoot on 19th November. These photos are of three different locations at Greg's house and then the car and elevator we will use.
1. The kitchen in which the boy dances in.
2. The living room in which the woman is dancing in
3. The tv room in which the boy and girl are cuddling in
1. The kitchen in which the boy dances in.
2. The living room in which the woman is dancing in
3. The tv room in which the boy and girl are cuddling in
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Record Label
Name of band: Electric Deserts
Name of record label: Lunisolar records
Type of record label: Mainstream, major record label
Other acts signed to the label: Vicarious Bliss, Zongamin, Simian
Name of record label: Lunisolar records
Type of record label: Mainstream, major record label
Other acts signed to the label: Vicarious Bliss, Zongamin, Simian
Research of other acts signed to edbanger
As part of our research we looked into other bands that have been signed up to edbangerrecords, other than Justice. Their discography included bands such as:
Vicarious Bliss
Zongamin
Simian
Vicarious Bliss
Zongamin
Simian
Email to the copyright holder
To the copyright holder
We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:
DNVO by Justice
With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.
The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.
Yours sincerely
Alice Stuart-Miller
Hurtwood House School
We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:
DNVO by Justice
With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.
The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.
Yours sincerely
Alice Stuart-Miller
Hurtwood House School
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
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