Unit 4: Critical and contextual awareness in creative media production - Music Video
Critical & Contextual Awareness in Music Video Production
History of music videos
When we were given our brief, we needed to know about music videos and how they have been created in the past and how they have changed in the past. In our lesson, we were taught about the history of music videos and were they come from and how they have advanced and changed in throughout the years
During the 1920s short films were made by jazz musicians, like Bessie Smith, which were made to go behind their song. This was the first time we saw videos that represent the music. Music didn’t advance for a few decades until 1965. This was when one of the first promotional clips and the first modern music video was created. This was made for Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. This video mainly focuses on the lyrics with him having the lyrics on cardboard and throwing them away when it is on the lyric of the song. This was different and is not a music video that is made now.
In 1970 the record industry discovered television was a great way to promote artists. This is shown in ‘Top of the Pops’ was a popular show that showed the top music that had been in the charts. Then in 1975, Queen’s music video for ‘Bohemion Rhapsody’ was broadcasted on Top of the Pops in November 1975. This was the turning point for music videos as record companies would produce music videos to promote an artist song. This video was directed by Bruce Gowers and is filmed by Barry Dodd and assistant director, Jim McCutcheon. The video was recorded in 4 hours on the 10th November 1975.This music video was the most advanced music video of the time, due to the use of special effects. These special effects were produced during filming, not in the editing process.
Code and Conventions
Symbolic Codes:
Symbolic codes are figuring out the meaning of a song in more depth. Therefore, looking at the story befind the song. This is done through Mise-en-Scene, setting, acting and colour.
- Mise-en-Scene - This is the use of design within a story for audiences to understand the setting. This is through design of the set, props, costume, lighting and actors.
- Setting - This is to present the time and place a story is set. Mise-en-Scene links into this as the setting is like the set of the story and gives an idea of what is happening.
- Acting - This is important to a story as audiences can understand the feelings of characters through movement, facial expressions, dialogue and their body language.
- Colour - These are used to represent certain moods, feelings and atmospheres within a story. Colours can be used to give an idea of the music video. If it is in black and white it gives a dark, sad undertone.
Technical codes
Technical codes are the way technical equipment, camera work (angles, camera movement and shots) and editing (fast cut montage or slow editing, split screens, chroma-key, colouristaions and CGI) is used to tell a story.
Music Videos demonstrate characteristics of a genre:
This is shown with rock music as it would be a lot of the artist on stage singing into the camera for this style of music. This gives the audience a clear understanding of the genre of the video.
In many songs it tells a story and the music video tries to tell that story through visuals. The music video ‘Once’ by Liam Gallagher does this very well, the song is about a person before they were famous having all friends but now, he has money and ever thing, but he has no one. The music video does this by having a ‘King’ walk through a mansion by himself in one shot showing his aloneness. Witch links to the lyrics he was ‘only allowed to do it once’
Relationship between the music and the visuals:
This is shown in Post Malone’s music video ‘Congratulations’. This music video is him making music in a recording studio enjoying himself. So, in the music video for the song, it shows him having fun making music with everyone and singing along with the song which linking the video to the music rather than its lyrics.
Artist might want to bring forward their own ideas, visual styles and designs that will recur across their work:
Some artist is very involved in their own music video and brings together their own ideas. This is shown in multiple Billie Eilish music videos. As she has said in interviews that she is heavily involved with the making of her music videos. This is because it is her idea and her songs, and she believes the visuals are just as important as the song when it come to the industry.
Frequently reference to the conception of looking and sight, particularly the objectification of the female body:
When objectifying the female body this is often seen in rap songs as this links with their style. This is shown in Aitch music video ‘Taste (Make it shake)’ as this has close up shots that do objectify the female body. This has received controversy for this, but Aitch has said it is to promote females and body positivity.
Intertextual references (to films, TV shows, maybe other music videos):
Having references to films is often seen in K-Pop music videos. This is shown with the music video ‘Chase me’ by Dreamcatcher. This gives big references to Stanley Kubrick’s the Shining. As it is very clear from the music video that they tried to get the audience to realise it is a direct copy of The Shining.
Comparison of Music Videos
Music videos are a work of art, they can have huge costs or be made on shoe string budgets. They should also define an artist’s personality, their message, their audience. This project should allow us to emphasise the artist’s music and what message they are trying to get across, or create a different interpretation of their music.
Before we find an artist, I would analyse and compare
different music videos so I had an idea on the different style of music videos
depending on the song. The first music video that I looked at was ‘Take me to
Church’ by Hozier. This is a very different music video as it takes on real
life and difficult issues that go on in America and still happen now. This
music video is more like a short movie, telling a story throughout the music
video. The music video follows a gay couple who are being assaulted for being
gay. The style this music video takes on is narrative, the music video has a
three act structure, with having a beginning, middle and an end. The
music video takes on the conventions of lyric interpretation by taking on what
the music video’s interpretation was. As the song is called ‘Take me to Church’
it focuses on a gay couple which is usually frowned upon by religious people.
Furthermore the visuals emphasise the lyrics of the song by allowing them to
have a different and better meaning. The visuals do this because at the
beginning of the music video they have the couple together and a gang member
sees this. Then at the end a group of people raid their house and drags one of
them out. The music does close up shots of the persons feet getting dragged and
a close up of his face being scared when getting dragged. The music
video also had long and mid shots of all the gang members with balaclavas
walking together with flares. This music video really does well with looking at
the lyrics and taking a dark but serious issue in the world right now with
discriminating people for being gay. This could be interpreted as the music
video focusing on discrimination in general. The gay couple could be a
microcosm for all people who get discriminated because of their race, gender
and sexuality. Finally the techniques the music video is they use Chroma key by
having the whole music video being in black and white.The black and white could symbolise the world to be a dark place. Another,
interpretation could be the people who do discriminate against this only see
the world in black and white don’t see everyone else who are different. At the
end of the music video the camera movement follows the characters and becomes a
bit more jumpy. This emphasises his life falling apart after his partner has
just been assaulted. The music video
also has shots of fire and that could interpret his inner struggle. The fire
shots are aesthetically pleasing in black and white as you could see the sparks and
flames come off the fire. The music video fits certain cuts and actions with the beat of the song. An example of this is during the music video someone sets of a flare, the beat of the music fits perfectly when the flare goes off.This is a really subtle but nice addition to the music video.
The second music video I looked at was ‘Better now’ by Post
Malone. This music video has no narrative meaning it doesn’t have a clear story
it is just very visually pleasing to watch and enjoy the music. The song is
very personal to the artist as it is about people neglecting him before he was
famous and now that he is famous people want to be around him. This is shown
with the lyrics ‘you probably think that you are better now’. The music video
uses the style of in concert and ‘as live’ footage. The music video is all
about his life now with his quick cuts with him performing, being with fans and
partying with friends. The music video has multiple cuts and cuts between him
with his fans and him performing live. It also cuts to him partying throughout
the music video. The music video uses long shots of when he is performing and
quite low down shots, this could be interpreted as Post Malone being higher
than everyone else and his way of saying look at me now. And when he is partying it is a lot of mid shots of him and his mates
laughing. The music video cuts between him performing and him with
fans at time, this could be seen as a thank you to all the fans who have stuck
by him throughout and respected him as a talented artist. The conventions are
the extending or consolidating the songs meanings as the lyrics feel very
personal to the artist. The music video follows the lyrics by using live
footage from concerts and party’s that will feel very personal to the artist. The techniques the music video uses is that it
cuts with the beat of the music. The different camera angles with him
performing being a low long shots shows he is at the top at the minute and
proving wrong everyone who doubted him. The music video is in black and white throughout. It also has an old time
static which is very subtle and hard to notice but it creates a nice effect to
the music video and fits with the song really well.
Overall, both music videos have different interpretations and link it with the song they are singing. ‘Take me to church’ could be personal for some of the listeners who have suffered with discrimination but ‘Better now’ is personal to the artist of the music video. Even though both music videos are different they both do very well at looking at the interpretation of the song and making it the artists own. They are both successful in many ways because they define the artist’s personality, their message and connecting with their audience in some way.
Client Communications
As soon as we were given this assignment I had a client in
mind. A close friend of mine called Luke Godfrey is studying music in
Nottingham at a music college. He has currently produced two songs that have
been released on YouTube and Spotify. We listened to both songs and we thought of
more ideas of the song ‘Free Falling’ we had some really nice ideas for the
beat of the song and the overall story line of it. I messaged him and discussed
what we planned on doing. He was really happy with the idea and gave us full responsibility
of what the idea was he was just excited to see the end product.
Once we finished our first edit we asked him to give us his
feedback and if he wanted anything to change. I spoke to him over text and he
really enjoyed it he only had little stuff that needed to be changed to get the
best standard we could
After we had our final edit he loved the music video and was really happy about it.
Pre-Production
Tuesday 7th January
Before we started making music videos we wanted to see how
music videos work and give a 30 second bit of a song and make our own music
video based of our own ideas and our own interpretation. We looked at Jessie J ‘Who’s
laughing now’. We analysed the first 20 shots and we most of the shots was
close ups and wide for this music video. I was put in a group with James and
Amiliyah. We brainstormed some ideas and we came up with multiple ideas
including being in college a starting a fight, getting fired from a job,
homeless person and harassment in the work place. Our favourite ideas were
getting fired from a job and a school/college fight. So we decided to merge
these two ideas together. Our idea was a classroom of students and the teacher
is a bad teacher and doesn’t pay attention to the students. The teacher gets
fired from the job and whilst she is getting fired a fight breaks out.
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| Notes for short Jessie J task |
When filming we figured out how music videos work, there was certain things like having the music playing in the background so when filming and editing it would help us understand the video if we wanted some bits of the video to fit with the lyrics such as the text message bit in our Jessie J music video witch starts the fight. Furthermore when editing having the music in the background helped a lot because I was able to match the music up with the video on the line “Hey Jessie, you look like an alien” because we wanted a text message to pop up on screen and start the fight. Furthermore having the message pop up on screen was new for me as an editor. After doing some research I figured out how to do it and was able to make it look smooth and it fitted with the music.
Wednesday 8th January
This was our first pre-production meeting for the music
video. We got put into groups for this music video, there was Sam, Harriet and
Amiliyah in my group. We had to find an artist who makes music and make a music
video for them. I have this friend called Luke Godfrey who is currently
studying music in Nottingham. He was written, produced and sung his current
songs ‘In the dark’ and ‘Free Falling’. After showing the group both songs we
decided we had more ideas for the song ‘Free Falling’. After speaking to Luke
and he agreed that the music video was a great idea.
After us listening to the song came up with multiple ideas. We looked at the song and wrote down what we think the song means to us and we looked at all of our interpretations of the song. My interpretation was someone struggling with mental health and struggling with something. We all had a similar idea and others in our group thought about a break up. We made a mind map of our interpretation and what could work well for the music video However, I didn’t want to be cliché and do another breakup for our music video. So, I and Sam discussed an idea of this illegal gang fight. This is because the music fits with this idea with the drum beat and more. This idea was also very unique and I haven’t seen it done before in a music video. Finally, Luke’s cover is a black and white static with his artist name ‘Leuk’ and his song ‘Free falling’. So my idea was to have the video in black and white throughout to give this effect and link it to Luke’s album cover and his music.
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| Ideas for the music video |
Thursday 9th January
We decided to meet up early, before college, and start coming
up with new ideas and what shots could work with the music. We started thinking
and looking at shots that might fit with the beat such as drums, bottles
smashing, fire and punching bag. Secondly, we also looked at job roles we
decided that I and Harriet would be joint directors and Sam and Amiliyah would
be on camera. This was the meeting to discuss our idea and talk about working
together as me and Sam have not worked with Harriet or Amiliyah before on a big
project.
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| Notes for different shots that fitted with the music |
Tuesday 14th January
We discussed our idea and began making the pitch and
proposal. Whilst Sam and Amiliyah did the proposal, me and Harriet went through
the lyrics and began analysing them to understand what they mean. We also tried to visualise the lyrics with the
shots we wanted such as the time lapse on the lyrics, ‘Midnight turns to after
two’. After the proposal I began to do
the pitch. We discussed the research we did for the pitch as we looked at 1975
music videos that have that black and white tone in their video ‘Chocolate’. We
also looked at Post Malone’s ‘better now’ music video with the quick shots and
the lighting on these shots and how they did it with lighting as it is in black
and white. We also looked at locations for the pitch we research multiple woods
including Thornaby woods, Preston Park woods and Coatham woods.
Finally we created a Pinterest board so we could add images and try and get some inspiration and share it with the team. We put in some fire shots, makeup for bruises and cuts, fight scene and images from black and white music videos.
Wednesday 15th January
On
Wednesday we presented our pitch to our class and tutor, explaining what we
were hoping to achieve and how we were going to achieve those goals in
detail. We had to do an introduction about our team, explain research we have
undertaken about music videos, skills we will bring to the project, target
audience, contingency plans and locations for filming. We all had to speak with
confidence and excitement to show that we believe in our idea and that we are
excited for this project. We also showed our Pinterest board and discussed what
kind of makeup we need and the costume for the fight scene. Furthermore we
began doing the pre-production folder by setting everyone a task each to get
done before filming.
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| Presenting our Pitch |
I
and Sam wrote an acting call sheet for the actors with what they need to wear
and if they are available or not. Amiliyah and Harriet did the same thing but
with the makeup department. We all printed it off so we have a copy and posted
it onto the Facebook group chat with all the actors in. Furthermore, me and Sam
went through the fight scene and wrote down what we think would work and looked
at fight scenes from movies to see how they did the punch without hitting the
person. We looked at movies such as Creed, Fight club and Sherlock Holmes
(Robert Downey Jr). I and Kai went through it in the green room to see how it
would look and if it worked well. I do boxing and Sam has done stage
choreography we worked very well as a team creating the fight scene and
allowing it come to life.
After
this me, Kai, Sam and Danniella went to look at a location were we could film
the fight scene. We went to look at Thornaby woods. This was a good area and
convenient as it is close to college so it is a walkable distance. The location
was good however it was very muddy meaning it would be hard for us to get
through with all the camera equipment. Another issue we had was there wasn’t
enough open spaces with trees around to film so it was not the best location
for us to use.
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| Looking for location at Thornaby Woods |
Thursday 16th January
On
Thursday we went looking for a different location for the fight scene that we
were planning on filming. We went to Preston Park and looked at some locations
in the woods. Amiliyah, Harriet, me and Sam tried to look at places which were a
possibility to film. We looked around
but on some places there wasn’t enough trees and enough space to get the shots
that we wanted.
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| Preston Park - Not enough trees around and didn't fit my vision |
After continuing to walk we found this amazing place which fitted my vision perfectly. It had enough space for the actors and the camera to work. The trees fitted this because they were big and gave this lost and isolated vibe and disconnected from civilisation. This was perfect and gave me the idea of using the river for some landscape shots and symmetrical shots of the river and the trees.
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| Preston Park - The perfect location for us to film. |
Monday 20th January
On
Monday we met up around 10:00 AM and disgust what we were going to do for the
shooting day which was meant to be the next day. We spoke about the fight scene
which shots we will need. After we planned all this out we began to do the rest
of the pre-production. Our main priority was to do the risk assessment as we
need this for filming and for our tutors. We then finished off most of our
pre-production sheets.
Thursday 23rd January
We
finished of the pre-production folder by going through the locations and we had
to get the actors to sign the release form. We got a google map of each of the
locations so it was safe and it fitted our music video. This also allowed it to
make it clear where we would be filming and when. Furthermore we created a shooting schedule so we could fit with the timing and we could fit to a time schedule when filming.
Production Process
Tuesday 21st January 2020
This was supposed to be our first day of shooting and was
meant to be the biggest shoot day. We had trouble with the actors because we
had planned to have some actors in the music video and they got back to our
team and told us that we were available on this day. However, they were told
they were off timetable so they assumed they weren’t needed for the music
video. To overcome this issue we will put the casting notice out earlier and
make it clear if the actors are available or not.
Our second issue of the day was the miscommunication with the
makeup department. We didn’t speak to the makeup team directly and the makeup
team were unsure about the time and date. This meant they were unavailable to
help us on the day that we needed them. We spoke to the makeup team and next
time if we need makeup we will fill out a sheet with what makeup we need, on
what day and where. This will help the communication in the future with the
makeup department a lot better and effective.
Due to the issues that we faced we were unable to get the
shots we wanted, however me and Sam decided to get some of the shot were the
actors are not needed, such as the close ups and the river. We also went
through the fight scene so we knew what me and Kai were doing and what camera
angles looked the best for this scene. However when I overlooked the footage
that we did get it was not up to the standard that we wanted. The footage was
over exposed and out of focus. We don’t want us repeating this problem so as a
group we decided to have more crew members on the camera team. We wanted
Amiliyah to be director of photography because she has more experience with the
camera and help Sam out as he has never been on camera before.
Furthermore, we had a contingency date on Friday 24th
January so we are able to go back and get the footage that we wanted. The
actor’s aren’t available so we have got my friends to be in the music video, as
the artist will enjoy it more as it is his friends in the video.
Whilst we were out filming at location Harriet organised
makeup for Friday and organised it well and effectively with the makeup
artists. Amiliyah wrote a risk assessment for filming, this allowed us to begin
filming because the risk assessment was filled in and done.
Wednesday 22nd January 2020
After college we went to my house and wanted to film with a
punch bag. We filmed at my house because I was the only one with the punch bag
and was the best location for us to film. We had to make the background of this
scene fit with the music video. So we had to angle the camera to allow it to
just see the brick wall. Furthermore we had to take down the poster to give the
setting the best look. However, when over viewing the footage we noticed that
some plug sockets are in the background. If filming this gain I would look for
anything in the background that might not fit the setting we were going for. We
had a problem when setting up the camera it was zoomed in too much and we
couldn’t zoom it out by just pressing the zoom out button. After trying different
settings and playing around with the camera, we found a ‘D.Extender’ button on
the side of the camera which fixed this problem.
After we fixed the issue we began filming the punch bag
scene. We wanted the lighting to perfect as the scene would be in black and
white. The light in the garage was too bright and yellow and wouldn’t have
fitted with the dark theme we were going for. So we used an on camera LED light
when filming so the background would be dark but you were able to see the
fighter and him hitting the punch bag. This scene went well as we got multiple
shots that would fit with the beat. The punched fitted with the beat because
Amiliyah played the music in the background and that allowed me to throw the
punches and fit it with the beat of the music. Furthermore, we wanted to get a
close up shot of me hitting the bag and dust comes of the bag. For this to
work, my idea was to put talcum powder on the glove so when I threw the punch
the powder would look like dust coming from the bag. This shot took multiple
takes as we were not getting the effect we wanted at first.
Secondly, we went out to get the fire shots as we these shot
we though would look good in black and white and we wanted the fire to
represent the inner struggle of the fighter, played by me. We had to find a
good and suitable location to film as the shots we wanted we would need
permission to use fire and film. So after I looked at some locations and I
thought the best place to film would be at my uncle’s farm, as it is private
property and we would have help with handling the fire. We had to focus on the
lighting so you can see my face in shot we tried using a on camera LED light
and use natural light from the fire to see which lighting looked the best. Furthermore,
we got some silhouette shots which looked nice as the lighting in the sky and
the dark outline of me walking made it have a nice artistic look.
Friday 24th January 2020
This was the big shoot day for us, this was our contingency date for the 21st January when we couldn’t get any footage due to lack of actors and bad communication. Sam, Harriet and Amiliyah got there a bit earlier around 12:30am to set up the camera and meet the makeup and I got to location at 1:00pm as I had to meet up with the actors as some actors had mock exams before they could film. Once we got to location me and Sam looked through the shots we wanted and figured out how we would film them. Whilst we organised this Amilyah and Harriet figured out which actors needed HD makeup and who didn’t as most of the characters will be wearing balaclavas.
Secondly, we wanted a drone shot of the fighters and a drone shot of the gang members running away. We brought the drone on set and tried to work the drone for the first time. None of us had enough experience when using a drone and we had never used the drone before. We tried giving it a go on an open field, but it wasn’t doing what we wanted it to do. So as a team we decided to not use the drone and not get this shot. We didn’t want to risk breaking the drone in any way as it is very expensive piece of equipment.
After this me and Sam went through the shots with the makeup department as they had to figure out where they should place the cuts and bruises on me and Kai. Furthermore, the makeup department informed us that we would have to film the scene backwards as it is easier to just take off the makeup then put it on shot by shot. This wasn’t a massive shock as before I researched how movies do fight scenes and in the first Rocky movie, they had to do the same thing as us. After this we went through the shots and figured out which shots, we needed to film first and when we needed some makeup taken off. We did this to make sure the continuity for this fight was correct and to make sure the cuts and bruises fitted the scene. This was probably the biggest challenge on set because this was a first time, we all had to do something like this, so we had to all work together a figure out how to do this together.
We sorted out what scene we would be filming first me, and Kai got our makeup done. From our notes the makeup team knew exactly where the cuts and bruises should be placed. The makeup took about one hour so Harriet, Amiliyah and Sam all made sure the actors were comfortable and warm as it was a cold day when filming. The makeup was finished around 2:30pm and we began filming just before 3pm. We first got all the actors to stand in a circle and make a human ring. We noted down where each actor was stood as it would help us later in filming knowing where each actor was stood for continuity. During filming I was the main director on set as I had to direct all the actors and direct the camera team to make sure we got all the shots we wanted. Sam was great on camera as he came up with new ideas for different shots which worked well. Furthermore, Amiliyah did a great job at overseeing the shots and making sure the lighting and focus looked perfect.
We began filming and we started going through each of the shots backwards, this was difficult as it was a bit confusing at first but as we went on we began to understand and it helped us all understand a lot when filming a fight scene. This will help us in the future if we wanted to film a fight scene. One of the first shots we wanted was this continuous shot of Kai throwing my head to the ground and walk away whilst I am on the ground and all the gang members run past the camera. The camera moves out into a wide whilst the gang member run past. At first you could only see two gang members run as the rest were running off camera. This looked very odd and didn’t work. My vision was to see a bunch of people run past camera, so I told the actors to run opposite directions instead of backwards. This made the shot look more chaotic and better. One issue that we had was the lighting because it starts to get dark around 4:30pm so we had to get all the shot completed before it got dark. We finished shooting around 4:00pm which was prefect for the lighting.
Finishing at 4:00pm was perfect as it gave us time to get a time lapse shot when all the actors went home. We got a time lapse of the river and it getting darker which was one of the shots which linked with the song. Furthermore whilst we got the time lapse me and Sam went down to the river and got some shots of the river, and me looking in the distance. The symmetry of the trees on the river looked very aesthetically pleasing and we did depth of field on my shoe to experiment with multiple shots. Overall, this was a successful shooting day as we got all the shots we wanted, and we were able to learn a lot as we have never done a scene like this before.
Friday 31st January 2020
On Friday we wanted to get close up shots of me with a
bruised eye and get some shots of someone playing the drums. Mine and Harriet’s
idea was to get a shot of the drum playing with water, the water would bounce
up into the air. We didn’t have any makeup artists available so instead Harriet
did the bruised eye. This allowed us to keep on schedule and Harriet had done
this before so she knew what she was doing.
Once the makeup was completed we began filming. We experimented with different lights to try and make the shots look as good as possible. We also put the camera in multiple angles to make sure we got enough footage. We used the light to have half of my face black and the bruised side you could see. On one of the close ups me and Harriet wanted me to look to the side. This was good use of rule of thirds and it cut straight into the other fight scene. Showing that the cut would be smooth shots that I was thinking with the fight happening. It can also be seen as me watching my fight which links with mental health as he is looking at his inner thoughts and his fighting. We wanted the song to fit with this as my interpretation is someone struggling with mental health.
After we got all the close up shots we did the drum scene. This allowed me to have a look at the video and see if it was perfect and matched what my original vision was for the drum beat in the music video. We had the music play in the background which we learnt when we made a short video from Jessie J song ‘Who’s laughing now’. We did this so the music matched with the drum beat. Furthermore, when editing it would be easier to find when the drum beat starts. After this we got the drum beat with the water (which was inspired by the drum scene in the film ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’) we struggles with this as we couldn’t get the tripod low enough so we tried holding the drum from underneath but that didn’t work (due to the drum moving to much). In the end we had the drum on the floor and me and Amiliyah held the camera free hand together to keep the shot as still as possible. Overall the lighting and the atmosphere of this shot looked amazing.
The Editing Process
Having the fight scene as the first scene we filmed helped out
a lot. We first edited the fight scene because we thought it would be easier to
piece together the fight scene and then cut in-between to have different images
including the fire, drum beat and close ups. One issue we had with editing the
fight scene was we had to make it clear and edit it well to show when each character
got a cut and how they got that cut. We also found the black and white Chroma
key we wanted to make this music video. We used the ‘Monochrome Kodak 5205’ as
we thought it looked a bit darker and brought out the black in the clothing a
bit more than the others.
After we got all the footage and we finished filming and we
began to piece everything together. We first began filming with the opening
scene with the acoustic guitar. On the acoustic guitar beat we cut it to fit it with the beat of
the music.
We also wanted a title card of the artist and his song because
he is not seen throughout the music video. We wanted it to look like it fitted
in to the music video. We placed it on the shot of my foot and as my foot goes
past the camera my foot covers the title card and it disappears. This was very
subtle but gave a very nice effect to our final product.
Furthermore, on some punches with the edit we tried to fit it
a bit with the beat. This was very difficult to do as we had to move the
footage in the correct place. However it did help having the music in the background
when filming as it gave me an idea of where to start.
Secondly we also fitted the drum beat with the big drum beat
at 46 seconds into the music video. It took some time to match up the drum beat
perfectly with the music. This took a lot of trial and error when editing as trying
to match it up was a bit frustrating and stressful but when we got it perfect
it was very rewarding.
When piecing it up to 1:30 minute we thought we undershot
massively. We pieced together the ending of the music video meaning we had
about a 1 minute of no footage which we didn’t know what to do with. My idea
was to look back at some of our footage to see if we missed anything out or we
could use little snippets of footage. After looking over footage we were able
to fill in this gap by extending footage adding more footage in and having the
fight scene be cut in-between that. The main reason we had this issue because
we didn’t sort out our footage before editing. We should have organised footage into "bins" labelled good and bad. For future projects I will organise all my footage into "bins" labelled good and bad. This will allow us not coming across this problem.
We then sent the artist our first edit of the music video, he
really enjoyed it but he had some feedback. He wanted us to change the colour
of the fight scene to make it darker and quicker cuts at the end. We first did
the quick cuts at the end by cutting quickly in-between the fire and me hitting
the punch bag. This looked really effective as I interpreted as his inner
struggles with it cutting quickly but could be seen in other ways.
We also fixed the colour on the fight scene as it was a bit
lighter than the other shots. This is due to us having to rely on the natural
lighting so I had to change the colour to make it darker. I did this by decreasing
the exposure, increasing the contrast and increasing the shadows. Then I left
the rest on 0. I also made the drum shot a bit darker as I felt it needed to
be. I decreases the exposure and increased the contrast and left everything
else on 0.
The final thing that the client wanted was black cinematic
bars. The client told me in person that he ‘thinks black cinematic bars look
nice, it gets used a lot of music videos’. So the final bit of editing was
adding this. After doing some research I found out how to do it.
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| First we clicked 'New Item' then 'Adjustment Layer' |
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| Click 'ok' |
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| Then we dragged the 'Adjustment Layer' over the footage. |
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| Then we searched 'crop' and dragged it over the 'Adjustment Layer' |
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| Then we went into 'Effects control' and changed the 'Top' and 'Bottom' to 11% |
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| This is what the final cinematic bars looked like |
Our assignment was to create a music video for
a client of our choice. I already had a client in mind, who was a close friend
of mine who has produced his own music. Overall, we were lucky that I was close
with the client but if my friend wasn’t in the industry it would have been a
lot harder to find a client. It would have taken us a lot
of research and speaking to a lot of people to find an unknown artist who will
allow us to use their music. We brainstormed
ideas when listening to the song and we research different music videos to give
us inspiration. Doing individual research allowed us to get inspiration from
other music videos and make it our own. A massive inspiration for this music
video was the ‘Take me to Church’ music video. The whole thing was in black and
white and they used fire shots to cut in-between. I thought this was really
nice the way they did this so I shared my ideas with the group.
When making our music video we had a lot
setbacks. The biggest setback of the production process was the
miscommunication with the actors and makeup artists. The makeup team didn’t
show up on the planned shoot day. We didn’t speak to the makeup department directly
so they were unsure about the time and date. This meant they were unavailable at
the day and time they wanted me. We spoke to the makeup team and to avoid
confusion in the future. The makeup team created this sheet that we will fill
out in the future, we will tell them what day and time we need them and our
details for them to get in contact with bus and images and description of what
makeup we want. This will help the communication with the makeup department a
lot more and allow the production process to go more smoothly and effectively. Another
issue we had was only one actor didn’t show up. The rest
said they were available to film on this day. They were told they had the day
off so they assumed they weren’t needed for the music video. This helped us in
a way as it gave us more time to go through the fight scene and the main scene
of the music video. It also helped us as we could get actors that fitted the
role more and made the music video look a lot better. However if we did need
actors I would make sure we double checked on the night before if they were
available for that shooting day. Furthermore in the punching bag scene, certain
shots have a plug sockets in the background of the video. This just looked
unusual for the setting we were going for. So in future I will make sure I look
at the background on the camera and make sure nothing unusual is in the
background of our footage. This is because when there is something unusual in
the background, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Once we began editing we
thought that we had under shot massively. We thought that we had about one
minute of footage. However, after looking back over the footage we realised
that we hadn’t used all the footage from the fight scene. There was
little bits of footage that was usable that would fill the music video. The
main reason we had this issue because we didn’t sort out our footage after we filmed it. For
future projects i will organise footage into "bins" labelled good and bad. This will allow me to know where
all my footage is and make the editing process a lot easier and less stressful.
In this project I also learnt more about
directing and I did really well with communicating with everyone on set
including the camera team, makeup team and the actors. I told everyone exactly
what our vision was with the certain camera angles, what the actors needed to
do and what makeup we needed for each shot. I and Sam discussed all the camera
angles what we wanted for this fight scene. As director you need to say your
vision and exactly what you want. You can help people understand what you want
with diagrams (storyboard), camera plans and doing practice shots so the camera
team know what they need to do. Also demonstrating to the actors what they need
to do gives them a clear idea what their role is. In this project I realised
how much I enjoy directing and want to do this in future projects and hopefully
for a career. Another thing I learnt was when filming a fight scene with
makeup, cuts and bruises, it is easier to film it backwards as it is easier to
put all the makeup on and then take it off gradually. With the whole music
video process I learnt a lot about the making of music videos. I learnt that to
make the project work smoothly and efficiently you need to communicate well
with the people who will be working on the project. I also learnt how important
lighting is in shots, because lighting creates the setting of the scene and is
important for the graininess of shots. My other role for this project was
editor, I learnt a lot when editing including changing the colour to make
certain scenes darker as we had to rely natural light. When making
a music video I learnt that having a song in the background makes the editing
process a lot easier for this music video if we wanted to fit certain shots
with the beat of the music. Finally I learnt how to add cinematic bars on the
music video. This gave our video a good cinematic feel and it is similar to
industry examples as they use a cinematic bar.
The music video was very successful as it
looked very professional and looked like it was made to a very high standard.
We wanted to make it look very professional so in edit we added cinematic bars
as this is used often in the industry. The story line and the
black and white effect on the music video links to the idea of the person struggling
through something. We also fitted the footage with the beat as on the guitar in
the beginning with cutting the video with the beat. This was really subtle but
added a more professional and made the music video feel more high quality.
Matching the drum beat with the music and having the water on the drum and it fly’s
up in the air when hit, and the reflection on the water made this shot one of
my favourite cut away shots from the fight as the lighting and camera angle is
perfect. This was a very successful shot and I’ve seen it used in films like ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ which it was very effective in. Finally, I was very successful when
directing as I did well in directing and conducting the video. I made it clear what
we needed to do and at what time and made sure everyone had a fully
understanding of what we wanted to do.
The
criteria for this project was to make the music video have creativity, aesthetic
awareness and good professional practice. These were the main things that we
had to focus on to fit the whole criteria. Our music video was very creative as
we didn’t want to do a break up music video as we thought that has been
overdone and it is a bit cliché. Our interpretation of the song was someone
struggling with mental health. We wanted to the opposite thing so we wanted to
show mental pain and have close ups with me and the fire to represent his inner
struggle. We want to have a fight scene show physical pain instead of mental
pain as we thought this was a nice metaphor for the music video. This is a
really creative idea and I liked the way we interpreted the music and made it
our own. We fitted the criteria with profession practice, by doing all the
pre-production paperwork before we began filming. We also did storyboards and
shot lists so the whole crew including the actors, makeup and camera team. This
allowed filming to go smoothly and everyone know what they were doing. Some
shots that we wanted could be dangerous such as the fire shots and shots near
the river. From pre-production we filled out a risk assessment which we filled
out which would avoid this being dangerous when we film these shots. The final
bit of criteria is aesthetic awareness as we matched the footage with the
lyrics with the time lapse and the drum shot with the drumbeat. We also analysed
the lyrics and we understood that it was about a heart ache and had a dark and argy
undertone. We showed this in our video as we had the whole video in black and
white to represent the world around him. Also it fits the client’s single cover
as it is a static in black and white. The fire and punching bag matched the
song as it showed his inner struggle and his anger towards the world around
him.
Our
music video matches very well with industry examples as we used professional
shots and original ideas that fit the industry. When we researched music videos
we understood that music videos in the industry often use cinematic bars. This
gives it a professional and high quality standard to our music video. We used
this in our music video as I added the cinematic bars in edit. Furthermore,
having the video in black and white, we looked at industry examples were they
used black and white in their music videos. The black and white effect often
linked with the song and had a metaphorical reason for why they used the black
and white effect. In certain, ‘Take me to church’, video they use fire in black
and white as this gives a really nice effect. We used this in our video as it
looks very professional and is very high quality. However, using teenagers in
our video might not match to industry examples as they would often use adults
in their music video. We could not do this however because we didn’t have the
budget to hire actors for this video.
We
got artist feedback and with the first edit he gave us with changing the colour
to make the fight scene darker and having quicker cuts near the end as it is
the most intense bit of the video. After we did all the improvements that the
client wanted we sent the final edit to the client. He loved it and had no
improvements. We showed the video to our teacher and 3 unbiased class mates so
they could give us some feedback. The only feedback we got was to darken the
drum scene and darken the close-up of me hitting the punch bag.
Overall,
I think the music video turned out very successful as it fitted really well
with the music and had a deep and metaphorical meaning behind it. All the shots
were slick and nice with the tracking behind the spectators of the fight whilst
the fight was happening. This makes the video look very professional and look
like an industry example. When editing the pace of the video matches with the
music and the quick cuts matches with the music and the rhythm of the music. I really enjoyed directing this project and working on different and
ambitious shots with everyone involved.
Final Music Video
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