Editing session 2

I ordered my clips in final cut express in order to make it easier to edit the video all at once, i also set up the lip synching and made the audio visible. I then began to edit in time with the beat of the song. I made a few mistakes regarding the timing of the lip synching, though I was able to fix this through using the undo button. 

Filming session 2

The second filming session took place on the 19th of November. This session was focusing on the lip synching, I decided to get multiple takes of the lip synching at different angles in order to make it easier to edit. This overall went well, though I felt as though the lighting was slightly off. 

New Costume and Makeup

New Costume Idea
I decided to change my costume idea as I felt as though Layla would give a higher quality performance if she was comfortable. After I had shown her the suggested outfit, we decided that she should dress smartly to convey how she is trying to conform to the standards of the school and that they are taking away any aspects of creativity.  In my initial plan, I decided that Layla would change shoes to show this, though I felt as though this idea lacked any narrative structure and would have been slightly confusing for the viewer.

I decided to stick to monochromatic colours in order to convey a sense of order to her outfit, showing her lack of freedom of expression.  This is also showcased in the lack of makeup that the character wears. 

Artists Inspiration

Inspiration for "Keep It Together"
Dave Rave's inspiration for keep it together is very varied, he lists artists such as Daft Punk, Neu, Sabbath and many more.

The influence of Daft Punk is apparent through the heavy use of synthesisers in the song, while the drawn out notes seem to draw semblance from the Scissor Sisters. 

Filming Experience

Filming Experience- 9th November
This was the first filming session I had with Layla and overall it went well, as we got the majority of the internal scenes shot, though the weather on the day was rainy, leading to us delaying the external scenes in the park. This was a mild inconvenience, though allowed us more time to focus on the shots indoors, this allowed me to get the extra footage that i felt as though I needed, as I plan on having many cuts in my music video, due to the fast paced nature of the song.

I felt as though we should leave the lip synching for another day, as it would give Layla more time to learn the song and give a better performance. 

Music Video Analysis

Editing Comparison 
This is a comparison of how the same footage was used between two people, showing how the style of editing can change the grade of the finished product.

Afterglow Edit One
The first edit of Afterglow was a C grade music video. Though the footage itself had good lighting and precise lip[ synching, the editing as rather slow and out of time to the beat of the music. This version of the footage also held less of a narrative and seemed to make less sense as it seemed to cut to slightly more random points that did not match up with the lyrics quite as well.

Afterglow Edit Two
The second edit of the video had much snappier editing and was much more precise in how it cut to the next clip. Their also seemed to be more of a sense of narrative as it cut more to the love interest when it was necessary. There were also far more cuts used throughout the video, adding more narrative introspection.

While both videos had good lighting and strong lip synching, the overall use of footage was far better in the second edit, making the video look more polished and give a sense of narrative. 

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Risk : Touch a hot match or fire
Effect:Cause a burn
Prevention:Stay away from it

Risk: Getting a paper cut
Effect:Person might bleed
Prevention: Be careful around paper (keep first aid kit on hand)

Risk:Hit by a car whilst filming outside
Effect: Cause serious injury or death
Prevention: Be aware around roads

Risk: Slip in the bathroom when filming
Effect: Cause minor injury
Prevention:Towel the floor down before filming

Booking out Equipment

Booking Equipment
I have currently booked out the camera, tripod and charger for filming on the 9th of November at 1:20. I am hoping to film on that day and get  the camera back the next day.  I initially wanted to book out the equipment earlier, though the Layla (My main actress) and I had differing schedules, so we had to push it to a later date.

Character costume and makeup

Character costume and makeup

This is the costume for the main character, I decided to go with smart business wear in order to show how restrained she feels, showing that she cannot fully express herself, though I chose for her to have purple converse in order to show that she has a chance at self expression as she does not fit into the mould of a smart student, showing that the one size fits all approach of academic education will deter some people and force them down a path not suited to them.   Her shoes are black smart shoes in the dream sequence in order to make it apparent that the stress caused by exams is destroying her creative nature.

She is surrounded by many books, stationary items and study guide as props in order to show how weighed down she is by revising.  

Similar songs

Similar Songs
One song in particular that sounds similar to "Keep it together" is Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NV6Rdv1a3I) as the two songs share a mostly even pace throughout the duration of the song along with a short set of repeating lyrics.

It terms of visuals, there is not much to say about the music video for Get Lucky as it is a single still for the majority of the duration of  the song that begins to move at about halfway. This mimics the subtle charges in the tone of the song and the "background" element of the song as it is not a particularly bold song that implies much narrative or meaning to the lyrics, other than having a good time, giving the music video a very warm and contemporary feel through it's intangible nature.

Visual Influence

It terms of what I would take influence in terms of camera shots, "instant crush", also by daft punk uses a heavy amount of slowly paced camera shots in order to build narrative, paired with off lighting, separate shots depicting lip synching.  I also find the use of symbolism and detail in the background objects a point to take note of as it shows the level of detail in the video that creates a strong amount of symbolic imagery and nods to the brand image of Daft Punk, such as the robot heads disguised in a quick shot of a statue head as it gets put into storage. This is done with such a quick shot that no real connotations are driven from it, other than what is centre screen, the statue, protecting the illusion of the narrative within the context of the music video, keeping the viewer immersed. This reinforces that I should make my narrative believable, yet keep it from becoming meta. 

Lyric moodboard

The lyrics of the song "Keep it together" are done so in a slow, calm manner, despite inspiration from pop music as evident by the modern nature of the song through its quick pace. 

My main inspiration for the idea of exam stress is that it is a highly relevant point that can be displayed in a narrative relevant to my age group as it is drawn from personal experience. Despite the exploration of the idea of a breakup, I feel as though this is a highly overused narrative point for a music video and that while I believe I could add to it through subtly, given the calm nature of the song, I ultimately feel as though everything has been overdone to a point with this idea from a narrative perspective. I also find the calm nature of the song a solid contrast to the nature of  the idea of exam stress, yet it also mirrors the quiet approach many people take to situations involving stress and I find this an interesting point I could explore during my music video. 

Music video Auteurs

Spike Jonze

One famous music video auteur is Spike Jonze, who cemented his style in 90s music videos and the grunge genre. His style, while being seen as alternative, has been viewed as a culmination of skater culture. Jonze describes his inspirations as having come from skating with friends and having access to some of the first portable home cameras. He came to public attention through Jackass after they were picked up through MTV. He began directing Jackass and has continued to do so throughout later life, despite his focus on directing music videos.

His first music video, "Hush" was released in 1992 and features a far more punk tone than his later works, as it focuses on a gritty atmosphere. One of his more recent works "Kenzo World" appears to be a stark contrast from his earlier style, using bright colours and elegant and upper class look to the video, The lighting is also far more even and warm, in compared to the more dramatic look of "Hush". The song choice also stands out due to it's difference in genre and more upbeat and aloof tone.

Opening shot from "Hush" (1992)

David Fincher

David Fincher is another auteur who has directed many music videos for madonna, even going on to direct feature length films such as "Fight Club" and the critically acclaimed "Gone girl".

Initially Fincher began work as a production assistant, before going on to help in a multitude of film productions, such as "Return Of The Jedi" (1983), also "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom"  (1984), before going on to direct a commercial for the American Cancer society. The commercial shocked many, showing a foetus smoking a cigarette. This propelled him into the spotlight, giving  him the opportunity to work with artists, such as Madonna. He worked on "Vogue", "Bad Girl" and "Express Yourself". Fischer cited some of his favourite films as "Alien", "Jaws" and "Monty Python And The Holy Grail".

Fincher has been known to style his work through having highly detailed sets. he has also used computer generated images to position cameras and is known to never use a freehand camera in his work. He also tends to use one fridge shot per feature length film, though this is not always the case. Fincher has moved onto directing the critically acclaimed Netflix series, House Of Cards. 

Madonna in a shot of Vouge (1990)

Express Yourself (1989)

Presentation on artist and song choice

Presentation on artist and song choice

Goodwins Music Video Analysis

Last Friday night Analysis

The music video Last Friday night features many of the points Goodwin makes in his theory. One of the major points that is followed in the music video is the close ups of Katy Perry and the representation of her as being a nerd in the narrative of the music video. This is likely to make her seem like a down to earth icon, this is also  implied through her relatable lyrics "don't know what to tell my boss" and "think the city towed my car" in order to make her more relatable to the audience she is reaching to. This is contradicted  through the lavish setting of the party, making her seem as though she has a highly privileged lifestyle. This is cemented through the casting of highly rated celebrities and the product placement of the Wii and just dance the game and shows off what may have been required by the producers to promote the Wii and the celebrities. That a direct capture feed was set up to get the highest quality suggests that Nintendo has a rather large sponsorship deal with Perry.

The cameos from the parents and Rebecca Black shows a strong level of intertextuality and makes the video seem far more grounded in reality, despite the numerous fantasy sequences throughout the video.

The Music video also includes many voyeuristic shots, adhering to the objectification of women in the video, mainly Katy Perry as her narrative includes her changing outfits and getting ready, after which she is presented in a far more sexualised manner, with many close up shots and even having a jock grab her booty. While this is treated seriously by the nerd character as he punches him in the face, Perry is still gawked at, especially as the camera moves up her body as she walks downstairs,
revealing her showy outfit.

 That Perry is wearing the most revealing and bold outfit shows that she is promoting herself as a sex symbol, showing consistency in her image, as her sexualisation is a theme within her music videos and concerts.

Overall the video adheres to many of the points in Goodwins theory as it follows the genre expectations, sexualises women and holds a lavish style to the camera lens wrapped up in a solid sponsorship deal.

Music video timeline

Music videos were evolved from sound bites attached to short films that originated from the live playing of music with a silent film. This began in the 1920s and continued till the 1960's.

Short sections of music videos were played on television programmes in order to promote new acts, this began in Australia in 1974 and continued into the 80's as this eventually evolved in to full music videos. It was in this time that Queen released the music video for Bohemian Rhapsody.

The 1980's began the mainstream use of music videos along with the TV channel MTV, a 24 hour music video service that showed the latest music videos from across many different genres.


From 2005 onwards, music videos have been largely uploaded to Youtube as a form of both advertisement and sales, as the video itself promotes the artist while the download provides income on top of advertisement revenue. With the recent development of technology, the standard of cameras and editing software has made it harder for content creators to produce their own music video in order to get recognition as the expected quality of the content has gone up due to media conglomerates such as Vevo uploading to Youtube. The quality of the content from official companies is much higher as there is usually more money to put into this. The drawback of being a channel promoting utile artists means that their is no personal aspect from these channels, preventing a more personal experience for the viewer. The creation of music videos by independent content creators can be used as a means of gaining recognition in a music video with the hopes of gaining a profit from their content. This has been done successfully by artist Bo Burnham, who gained recognition through his original content. While he has gone on tour multiple times and released albums and books, many artists in the industry have criticised him for this due to them seeing him as cheating the system as this service has not been utilised to get the most out of it by many artists. 

Learning from Music videos

What I have learned from professional music videos is that they can often achieve professional quality assets with witch to produce a high quality and meaningful production that is  mostly achieved through a plethora of skilled individuals coming together to share talents to ensure the creative vision of an artist or producer is met in order to help associate a track with a visual that may be consumed by people in order to make them aware of the artist and provide more content for those that will buy into the artists media representation.


From student music videos I have found that the recreation of these high quality production value can lead to innovation for some, while simultaneously setting a standard that is often difficult to recreate. Inspiration will very likely be taken from professional content creations in terms of camera shots and stylisation of the filter that may be applied to the video, for example inspiration could be taken from Adele's "hello" video as it uses the black and white filter in order to go hand in hand with the wistful lyrics to create a nostalgic effect. Logically inspiration for the narrative is taken from the lyrics in order to create an engaging experience.


Overall I find that the key points that I can take away from both types of music video is that while I should explore stylisation in the concepts of my music video, I should be inclined to focus on this through software methods in the editing process and the creation of physical props as it is likely to add more depth to the music video, though it is uncertain at this point how and if the video will be presented as there are currently no concepts.

Furthermore through the official music videos I am reminded how to light a shot properly and the further significance of props, costume and makeup, though the student music videos make it clear that these are not always available in high standards to everybody and should be kept to realistic standards. 

Britney Exercise

Throughout this exercise, I reiterated my skills of cutting clips in time with beats in a song by revisiting the clip mutiple times. Editing the clip took 3 hours in total whilst partnered up with Harriet. 

Music Video types

Narrative music videos contain a story, usually in concession with the song lyrics in order to produce a powerful narrative. Narrative music videos can often contain elements of performances such as lip syncing and shots of instrumentals. Such as eat that up its good for you be two door cinema club.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJov1wX8MtM

Conceptual music videos often present a metaphor through the video in a surreal manner that presents the viewer with abstract media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZGIrNf71Q

Performance based music videos often contain multiple shots of the band/creators of the music performing, though this is usually done with artistic vision in mind. This was the main attribute of the first music videos, though is still a common type of music video. One such example is I want it that way by the Backstreet boys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fndeDfaWCg

Life on Mars video

Question 7 Evaluation

Question 7: Looking back on your preliminary task ( the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I have learnt to create suspense through a combination of sound, editing and camera-work. To achieve the element of suspense, I used long, slow paced walking shots combined with a slow building soundtrack. Through editing, I added to this by cutting to the separate clips in a jumpy manner, giving an air of unpredictability to the mugger.  I also used no dialogue when writing the mugger and used minimal close up shots of the muggers face in order to add on an element of both mystery and ensure the character was impersonal.

I created the supposed victim as being more personable through the clear close up shot of her face, combined with the relatable outfit and dialogue at the end. I initially had this on the audio of the video footage, though decided to record it separately to improve the sound quality and ensure she was heard over the suspenseful soundtrack. I also had this voice clip play alongside a friendlier theme with a more optimistic tone. This was done to ensure contrast between the characters and show a clear understanding of the protagonist as being the victim over the mugger, despite his amount of screen time.

From the life on Mars exercise, I learnt the basic skills of cutting clips together in sync with the soundtrack. From the continuity exercise, I put the 180 degree  rule into practice during the second attempt at filming, as the first attempt broke this rule due to the shot of Rachael coming into the room with the shot continuing from the other side. 

Question 6 Evaluation

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Question 5 Evaluation

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Question 4 Evaluation

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 3 Evaluation

Media Studies AS Evaluation question 3 from Vivienne Carberry

Question 2 Evaluation

Question 1 Evaluation

This is my question 1 table regarding the ways my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real life media products.

Opening improvements

I feel as though my short film could be improved in a few areas such as camera angles and editing. I would have used a wider range of camera angles when filming the kick sequence in order to be able to jump to more shorts while editing to make it more dramatic. I would have also added an element of self-awareness through the dialogue to ensure the opening did not take itself seriously. 

  I would also change the mugger’s hoodie to black in order to make the mugger seem more serious.

Additionally I would add in more dialogue with the victim in order to give a greater sense of her character and in order to make her far more relatable to the audience. This would also enable more of a chance for dialogue driven comedy in order to contrast with the suspenseful tone at the beginning.  I would also add more dialogue to the phone call to indicate how she would interact with others.

I would also instruct the muggers character to act in a highly over dramatic manner that would be somewhat referential to physical comedy as he would get knocked down in order to make the scene more light-hearted. 

Film Opening

Editing update 4

Editing update 4

During editing I looked to adding a cheerier music to show a direct contrast to the harsh sounds of the "in the basement track". I added another track from felt music blue, "Kinda Tall" along with a voice note of Ayushi explaining that she would be at an unspecified location and that it happened again. This is both to expand the narrative in what is happening and make the opening feel less like a short film, whilst also ensuring the characters underwhelmed response to the attack.

Editing update 3

Today I incorporated the titles for music, scripting and editing, after which I extended the kick sequence by adding a slow motion shot of the kick for a more dynamic look. I also changed a clip of the knife being drawn out to be from a different angle so that Ayushi was not visable pausing in order to make the other edits flow  together more smoothly. To help this along I further added a clip of Ayushi  texting up close to explain her pause and make it look more natural.

 Next lesson I plan on looking at adding more cartoonish sound effects with filters in order to ensure the element of parody is clear.

Editing update 2

Throughout the lesson I added together clips of the kicking motion at different angles and experimented with the timing of the music for the introduction of Ayushi's character. I decided that to further improve the kick sequence, I need to make to more dramatic and over the top, so I plan on experimenting with speed and angles to make it seem far more subversive than originally planned as I want the clear element of parody to shine through.

Experience Re filming

Due to obtaining very one dimentional shots of Ayushi's character kicking the mugger, I re-filmed this section many different times. I ensured to get multiple shots of the kick at different angles, along with more close up shots of both Ayushi and Rachel's expressions, along with getting match on action shots of the kick close up to show the impact. I feel as though these shots should hold the impact of the kick and capture the emotions and intentions of the characters clearly.

Fortunately filming was on a day with similar weather, as it was lightly spitting, this should make the clips easy to edit into the main body of the film.

Continuity was taken care of by ensuring everyone was in the same clothes and make up. I also used the SD card to view the positioning of the characters so they were in the same space. I eventually had to sort this out by deleting the clip and replacing it with alternative footage of the mugger walking.

Editing update 1

Today I rendered my music and sound effects, using the planned track " In the Basement" and a heartbeat sound effect during the opening title. I also resized previous titles in order to fit the screen width. I also cleaned up the timings between clips of the mugger walking in order to make the background line up correctly.

 I also did this for the revelation of the knife as the cut was slightly too long. I also experimented with different colours for the main title of the opening, changing the colour from red to a maroon so it was easy to distinguish from the background of the silver knife.

Track

The track that I have decided to use is from felt music and is free to use. I decided to use a track called "In the basement", as this matches with how I plan on editing my piece as it has a long suspenseful section with a good amount of action in the first minute, this means I would need less time to edit the track in order to get it to fit my opening.

The track also holds the trope of over dramatic music within the horror genre and would make it easy to show the subversion from the implied story line.

The music will begin from the beginning of the opening in order to build a level of suspense.  This is in order to make the muggers intention clear and to ensure that

Font

The font that I have decided to use in my opening is "Dotled " by Billy Angel. It is easy to read while still managing to capture the mysterious nature of the film.  It is a free to use font from 1001freefonts.com.

Grease opening

Grease Opening

Opening sequences of Grease. it has a montage of two lovers kissing and building sand castles on the beach till 1:45, when the producing company Paramount pictures begins to show, this introduces he animated sequence of the opening. The charater walks over to the mirror and sprays out a glob of hair gel that transforms into the title. The bold and cartoonish title helps to characterise the quirky and carefree nature of the movie. Under the title, the creators are shown before the lead actor, John Travolta. This is to ensure they are given more credit.

Throughout the opening, the credits for the actors and actresses are portrayed near an animated rendition of their character. This is done from the main cast, although is done differently with grouped characters. The secondary characters are grouped in cars then billboards are focused in on with their names on it.  Whilst this is happening, their is other credits on surrounding billboards, though these are in neutral green and from a side view, as to not ensure that these are not read prior to the roles of the actors and actresses.

The recurring animation of cars is used to show the importance of cars in the movie, mainly as a car eats another main character before showing the actors name. The cars also are used as a transition as they drive across the screen to allow for the billboards to be seen, this could symbolize to how the cars move the plot of the movie.

After the actors/actresses names appear, the editors name is on a separate billboard in a bright yellow, signifying the importance of the title. The final credit is to the director, who's font is in orange and larger than the other credits.