The Beat of our Song

We discovered that in order for our music video to look as professional as possible, everything must be on the beat to the music. In particular with our song, which has a very strong beat at the end where the lyrics finish, we have ensured to cut up certain clips of the balloons and the sunset and change the colouring in order to fit the timing of the song. 

Colour Change

This is a tiny 3 second snippet of what we were editing earlier. As seen in the Redlight video - we managed to split a piece of footage up into tiny bits and change the colouring - it is both effective and quite quirky, adding a vivid bit of colour into our music video. 

Final Express Lesson

On Monday's lesson, we were fortunate to have someone from the UCL come into our lesson and teach us about Final Cut Express as we are very basic with the programme! We were able to tell her what techniques we needed to learn about such as how to do the introduction where our footage slides open on the screen and we luckily managed it! We were also taught about the split screen, green screen and about all the different features of the programme. It is extremely complex so we are going to try and do everything on iMovie first and then do the more complicated things on Final Cut and add the extras after we have completed our music video.

Digital Technology Essay Draft

“Describe and evaluate your skills development in digital technology from AS to A2”

At AS, I was involved in producing a two minute thriller film opening, it is clear to see at A2 level, I have developed my skills both individually and when working as a team. My progression in digital technology has enabled me to be part of creating a much more mastered piece of film.

Whilst creating my AS film opening, the digital technology I used was rather basic. We were fixed with using iMovie, as what we were producing did not require complex effects and we did not have the required knowledge to use specialised programs. This year, however, we were fortunate to have a Final Cut Express workshop to help learn about the full advantages we could get out of this in order to make our music video as original as possible. For instance, we constructed the split screen by using this in order to build a greater visual effect as well as it also being part of our underlying plot. I have used Photoshop to design my Digipak, as my skills in this program have developed, as opposed to AS where I made the film company logos using a simpler program, Paint and carried out straightforward operations such as converting an image into black and white.

As the Flip is not of great quality, we tended to only film the ‘behind the scenes’ footage of our music video, whereas last year we actually used it to film our opening. This year, my group and I filmed using various types of cameras in order to have the best standard of footage by using the new Panasonic HD cameras. For example, in order to conform to our Indie/Alternative genre, we established our settings by filming a variety of panning shots of city and scenic shots as we had previously seen in famous music videos on YouTube. The downfall, however, with this hardware is the fact they run out of battery and this can be a real inconvenience when filming in a deserted location. A piece of technology I had with me at all times is my mobile phone, this was extremely useful when finding practical shooting locations so I could upload raw pictures onto my Blog and it was constantly used when organizing filming days.

As part of my research and planning, I ensured that I found well-fitting secondary source pictures in relation to the music video we aimed to create. I used websites other than ‘Google Images’ and used quirky picture websites such as ‘We Heart It’ and ‘Deviant Art’.  Other than finding inspiring images, I used YouTube a great deal in order to benefit from other artists’ music videos and fully appreciate the approaches they have taken in order to attract certain audiences and reactions.

In order to form a more realistic result of our brand band for Hunt the Noise, I created a Twitter page for their fans. This technique would not only allow fans to ‘follow’ them to find out useful information e.g. upcoming tour dates but it also adds a personal aspect for fans.  This enables the public to see what their favourite bands are doing, view their uploaded pictures and even have the opportunity to ask them questions.

During AS, we did not have a chance to use the green screen, however, this year it has come in very valuable in our music video, particularly when experimenting with several backgrounds. Although, we did have some software problems when attempting to upload the footage and edit onto it, which resulted in a fault of the green fabric we bought.

In conclusion, my skills in digital technology have developed enormously in both the software and hardware that I have used when putting together my music video. I now have the capacity to carry forward the fundamental knowledge I have learnt from AS and A2 which will permit me to start my next project.

Similar Ideas

This newly released song caught my attention when I was watching the music video, as it seems to include quite of a lot of the techniques we've used as well as the ideas we already have! The idea of having quick flashes within our shots, the change from black and white to colour and the long scenic establishing shots of buildings. Theres a point in this video (around 0.17/0.18) where the colour changes from black and white to pink in quick flashes, which I think is particularly effective particularly if the change occurs on the beat of the song. I really enjoy the music video to this, as the beat of the song goes really well with the video and the timing of all the shots is really focused on, which is what we aim to achieve in our own. 

Introducing Band at the Beginning

FUTURES appears and stays on the screen for a good couple of seconds after the video has begun. This is an effect we would like to include into our video.

Ageing our Shots

Having looked at Lana Del Rey's Blue Jeans video, we gained inspiration with the effects we will be using for our music video, in particular the shots of the buildings and landscapes. The random flashes of clips throughout between the shots of her in front of a wall - with the contrast of black and white are inspirational and are what we were aiming to create. Below is the the video we have produced with all our best shots from the filming day with cutaway shots of previous filming - despite it simply being experimental practise, we will include the parts we like in our real thing.

Walking Shot

We need to still film the walking shot of our girl by a brick wall - which we were going to include at the beginning although we may switch the places of shots around a little bit according to what looks best. This video by Passion Pit contains the ageing effects as well as the shot of the girl walking in darkness. I hope we create something similar, which emphasises the girl's new found freedom.

Split Screen/Opening Idea

How we intend to begin our music video (0.00 - 0.06)...

Metronomy - The Bay

The first six seconds are how we want to start ours, as it introduces the video in an original way.

We also plan to use a split screen towards the end (0.39-0.43)...
Due to our narrative having a slight twist element in the end, the audience can be considered to be perhaps, 'tricked' into thinking that the girl is going to meet up with her ex-boyfriend, yet essentially stitches him up when she actually meets her new lover. We thought the idea of having both the ex and the new lover on split screen would represent this nicely, then squashing the split screen gradually towards the ex so the full screen turns on the girl and her new love. 

Marroon 5 - She Will Be Loved

Maroon 5's video to this song, displays a strong narrative featuring a male and female relationship. I am especially captured by the ending, as there are extreme close-ups used of each character, which I hope to interpret in our music video. This effect will bring into motion the expression and mood of each of our characters.

British DJs

This is an example of quick flashing shots by a well-known DJ called Rusko. I really enjoy this music video, as it does have an edgy British feel to it. The beginning is a build up to the actual song, similar to our song where we will be including a fast moving tracking shot. The location is based in urban-y settings of London, which is exactly where we intended on filming ours, especially Brick Lane etc.

Grainy effect and Lighting

If somehow we could create a similar lighting scale to this Rizzle Kicks video, it would really add such a dreamy, professional look to our video. We have figured out that some excellent cameras can do this, as well as some good effects on Final Cut which we will have to experiment with - whilst filming just before the sun goes down!