End of editing and final video

After receiving no reply from our artist Meg we discussed wether to go out and shoot some more shots of concentrate on finishing the editing. As we didn't have a lot of time left to go out and get some new shots we decided to just finish editing the video and finish it with the shots we already had.

I used colour correction on Final Cut to finish of the editing of the video and decided to add drop in text of the song and artist and the beginning and end of the video. I decided to add this in as many other music videos of this genre does this and thought it would make it look a little more professional.

3P2 GROUP 5 MUSIC VIDEO FINAL from Long Road Applied Media Diploma on Vimeo.

No reply

So far I have not had a reply from Meg (our artist for the music video) so we will either have to keep the footage and work with that or go out and film more without her in the video, overall this is not what we wanted but I am also quite happy with the shots we managed to get on recording day.
As it is currently half term I don't have access to a video camera to go out and shoot extra shots but I will see if we have time when we go back to do this.
The main problem with the video so far is that it is boring to watch all the way through...if we don't get the chance to go out and shoot some extra shots to liven it up I feel as if we could try make up for it with the editing, perhaps going into after effects or trying out different filters in photoshop.

Feedback on rough cut

Today I have been receiving feedback on the rough cut from fellow students, my teacher and a couple friends.

The all agreed that the editing and shot types used were very good. The only constructive critism I got was that It needs an extra shot of the artist for the video to be interesting and take it up a level. By this I don't intend to get another shot of her lip syncing but more shots of the artist walking.
Something that resembles the lyrics 'Whats going on'

Fellow students told me that my editing and cut aways work well with each other and that my lip syncing is all in time. There are certain points in my music video rough cut where I don't agree with this..there are still a couple of clips I have to shuffle ever so slowly one way or the other to get the perfect timing.



This could be hard to get more time with Meg(The artist who sings the song) but hopefully it is possible.

I had the idea of having Meg walk up a hill (perhaps castle hill) then have her looking over Cambridge. We could include POV(Point Of View) shots with this which is a shot I haven't yet included with my video.

Another idea is if we can't get the artist for more time to shoot then to film some of Cambridges main attractions to add to the video. This wont be as good but would fit into the theme of our video.

Recording again

I have emailed our chosen local artist via facebook after receiving feedback.
I realise it may not be possible to get her again to shoot the video and it was our mistake to not get the extra footage on filming day.

Editing

The editing process:
I used the pen tool on Final Cut to cut in and out of clips. I decided to not use any transitions between the clips and cuts as there would be so many and I don't think it would look right.
Most music videos change the camera angle around every 2 seconds, which is a lot. I think my rough cut changes around every 6 seconds so I may try to add in more cuts but I have also tried to keep to the beat of the song. The song is slower than some so the fact my cuts aren't every two seconds might work better as it could seem too fast for the song.

I used the 'Razor Blade' tool to cut some of the clips where there shots were no good to use.

I have also been working on effects I can put over the music video, I particularly liked the 'Sepia' effect. This gave it a sort of vintage feel...the downside to this effect is that it takes the colour away from the grass and scenery.
I also tried the the filters 'Tint' and 'Threshold' but I liked the natural light and effects of our shots more so decided against using these video filters.

Rough Cut

I was given the job to edit the whole video. This is a rough cut of the editing I have done so far. I plan to get feedback on this to improve what I have already done.

I used Final Cut to edit. My biggest problem was lining up all the video shot types so that they played at the right time to the track.
This was particularly tricky to shots we had done where we had only filmed half the song or a little bit of the song.

I decided to keep some of the shots of ducks and cambridge scenery. The brief was to film a Cambridge artist or band, we wanted to make our video as 'Cambridge' as we could.

Day of recording

Today we went to collect cameras to shoot the music video.

We met on Parkers Peace a local green area in Cambridge.
It was only me and Tom filming as Christian has been ill. We originally got 2 cameras and a tripod but the second camera ran out of battery after just the first shot in the first location so we only used 1 in the end.
We took turns to film Tom, I think I came up with some good camera angles when shooting and did all the hand held camera work. Tom did most of the tripod shots.

Before going off to record I made sure I printed out directions to our chosen locations and the track on my phone to play out loud.

We recorded at a few different locations. The first was at Mill Pond by the river, we did 4 different angles, 2 being hand held with a verity of crane shots, low angle, side angle and panning round.
For the shots on the tripod we only used the mid shot and close up for the first locations.

Our second location was by a big tree by queens back in Cambridge. We filmed here as the background had a road and path with lots of people walking and cycling by getting to their jobs. We wanted this effect as the lyrics go 'give me a little attention' we wanted to give the effect that no one was giving her attention in the video.

Our third location was on the side of Christ green in Cambridge town, we chose this because we wanted to give a darker shade to the locations. This shot was done in tree's. Although thinking this would be a good location before, after watching it back I think this location was a mistake and we should have found somewhere better.

Artist

The artist we have chosen is 'Meg Scully'
Meg is a solo singer who lives in Cambridge and goes to local sixth form Hills Road.
Meg has also played in Bands but the song she has chosen for us to film is a solo song.
We gave her a choice out of any of her songs and she chose 'Whats Going On'

The song starts with a funky bass line with the drums and guitar coming in at 7 seconds.

Locations and ideas

I came up with the idea of spelling out the song name and artists name at the beginning or end of the video with spaghetti letters using the program 'Istopmotion' I think this would add a more comical effect to the video.

These are a list of the locations we are planning to film at
1. Mill Pond by the river
2. Christ Peice in the trees
4. By a big tree by Cambridge colleges/road and path
3. Town near the market.

We will each need to bring money to pay for the punt on the day of filming, from my research it costs £20 per hour. There are 3 including me in my group so if we all bring £7 we will have enough.

We will also need some Ipod speakers to play the track for Meg(the artist) to lip sync at these locations.

Our task was to find an existing band or artist in Cambridge, punting is big in Cambridge and we thought filming some of the shots on a punt would make the video feel more 'Cambridge' as anyone watching it around the world would recognize that the video was filmed in Cambridge itself.

Storyboard

We were planning on filming the music video today but the artist had to drop out and prospone until next Wednesday for filming. Despite this being a set back it gave me a good chance to look at the lyrics more deeply and find inner meanings on the song.
None of my group turned up yesterday to lesson so I managed to work out the words to the lyrics of our song 'Whats Going On'
It was hard to figure out some of the words by listening to the track but I managed to get the basic idea about what she is singing about in the song and the main words used.


We were originally planning for a shot with her playing guitar but today I found she only sings in the song. This could be seen as a set back as we wont have a shot of her playing just shots of her singing. After watching other music videos of female singers most of them don't show the band..only the singer lip syncing her song in different locations.

video analysis - Arctic Monkeys

Research, Analysis of the video 'I bet you look good on the dancefloor'

The music video of Arctic Monkey's song 'I bet you look good on the dancefloor' is purely performance based and only has one location.
They have the whole band performing live at a venue that has a similar set up to the junction(where we shot our video)This was their first single and was released on 17 October 2005 by the label Domino. The song went straight to #1 on the UK Singles Chart, beating Sugababes and Robbie Williams. 
This video has quite a few different camera angles and there is a cut every 2-3 seconds changing the angle which keeps your interest. 
At 22 seconds it has a close up of Alex Turners(singer) guitar as guitar is the main instrument at that point of the song, 
Even though the song got to number #1 it doesn't look like a high profile budget video as there isn't a story line and you can see back staff and the camera man on the stage at some points in the video. But that could have been what they were looking for in the video? We shall never know.
I think the reason that i like this video is because the timing with both the lyrics and the music is spot on! 
That is definitely something we need to try do with our video as what we are doing so far my lip syncing doesn't look entirely in time all the time but we have a lot to edit so we shall try do this.

Locations

We hope to film the video in an open space such as the Gog Magogs in Cambridge with the sun shining. The weather has been raining everyday for the last 2 weeks so we will be lucky to get sun. 

We thought it would also look good to start of filming in a coffee shop. 

I have the role of camera man in my group. I have already been thinking of many shot types for the day of shooting.

I will be the main editor with help from the other two in my group at certain points. 

I've been playing around with filters and think the Sepia and Black and White filter could look effective with our finished video if we get the lighting right. Fingers crossed it will be a sunny day for natural light. 

Chosen Track

As a group we have decided to use a track from local singer Meg Scully.
Her track is called 'Whats Going On' which has funk style bass, guitar and drum beat.



This is a screen grab of an email I sent to see if she was free to fit in with the schedules of others in my group, if not I will try make my group compromise with the artist we chose.

music video analysis - The Strokes

Research. Analysis of the video 'Under Cover Of Darkness.

In this video by The Strokes there seems to be around 4 different set ups but all seem to be in the same building which is interesting. There are various takes of the band rocking in the posh building with a 4 class meal.
The whole band are wearing suits with their own different styles of doing so with the singer when in the location of the leather sofa wearing a leather jacket and sun glasses which looks very rock'n'roll. I like that the band keep perfoming at different places in the same building in this video, my favourite being on stage at the theatre with a guy composing as if it were a classical peice.
I like the tracking shot from the posh red chair all the way back to the table of candles to the band playing. I think this shot is effective because it comes in just as the lyrics and vocals to the song start so you usually expect to see the singer but this is different in a good way. 
All the editing in this video is spot on with the beat and usually at the end of each bar or roll complimenting the music.

music video research

Research. Music Video's

Today I have been looking at all different kinds of music video's on youtube.
Ones of well known bands such as Arctic Monkeys, ones of not so well known bands such as Egyptian Hiphop.
R&B video's such as Jason Derulo and Justin Beiber, and also some classic pop such as Britney Spears.
It seems some bands have a mix of different kinds of music video's and some seem to stick to the same kind of mise en scene, such as the band Late of the pier, who's video's all seem to be very weird and abstract with some clever bits which show what the song is actually about.

Number of cuts in other music videos

Research. Number of cuts

I counted the number of cuts in the video Granade by Bruno Mars and got 140,




I also attempted to count the number of cuts in Katy B - lights on music video, from what i counted there was roughly 145 cuts during the video which is 3 minutes and 26 seconds long.

Video practise

This is a video I shot in my own time to practice different shot types for our actual video. Doing this gave me a lot of ideas for what shots look good and which ones don't.
It was shot with an Ipod touch as I don't have a real camera at my house. I played around with effects and filters on final cut which I think I will also do for the video we will be shooting and editing.

This video is purely performance based, I feel as if this could get boring to watch for the whole song so adding some verity to the locations or even adding a narrative could be a good move for our video.

Music video shots

Research. Music video shots

This is a shot from the metros video 'Education Part 2' that i think is cool because it has the lead singer walking in a corridor of a typical school. The band are young in this video and look as if they fit into the school with the clothes they're wearing etc. The song is about education so doing some shots of the video in a school is a clever idea.

This is my favourite shot of the video Brainstorm by Arctic Monkeys. I like it as the song is drum based and they have Matt Helders(drummer) larger than the others in this shot. I like the smokey lighting effect use and the fact they all have their backs turned away from the camera which creates a sense of mystery.

I like this shot from the video 'Radio Ladio' by Metronomy because it has all three of them on keyboards and they're a keyboard based band so i think it sums them up well. They have a bright background and all of them are wearing smart clothes with bright colours that don't really match....i also like the fact that their faces are painted a certain colour a bit like ompalompas from willy wonka and the chocolate factory.

This is a shot from the video Hummer by the band Foals. I think this shot is clever because of the dark blue lighting used which makes it almost seem as if they are underwater even though they're quite obviously not as they're wearing tennis clothing, acting like mummies and wearing goggles.

I like this shot from the video 'In One Ear' by Cage The Elephant because it has Matt(Lead singer) going mental dancing to music while singing. This sums up the band Cage The Elephant as every live show they play their lead singer goes crazy!

I like this shot from Stevie Wonders video 'I just called to say i love you' because it has stevie singing the lyrics on the phone while sitting besides a paino which he plays very well...along with 293894 other instruments!

This is my favourite shot the from video 'Killing in the name' by Rage Against The Machine. I like it because the security has come on to control the crowd. The video is just Rage playing live, with the crowd moshing to the beautiful sound and going crazy to it, the shot with the security is a clever one as the band fight for freedom in the community and security coming on stage perhaps states that.

Music Video day 1

Today we have been put in groups of 3 to 5 people and set the task of making a music video for a local artist who has recorded music.
I have been researching many Cambridge artists and bands, I am lucky to know a lot of bands so it would be easier for me getting in contact with these bands and artist.

We created a shortlist of artists that we could potentially film.

My concern on this is getting the bands together as I know a lot of local bands are very unorganized and don't turn up to soundchecks and radio slots when they have been booked.

It would be a lot easier to shoot a solo artist as it would only be one person to shoot for the day.

My shortlist includes:
Lewis Mokler - Acoustic artist from Cambridge, he is very reliable so would be good to shoot but works a lot of the time.

Total Emergency! - Indie Rock band from Cambridge, this is my band so would be easier to film as I could organize the day of recording and have a large range of professionally recorded songs. The con of getting my band is that our guitarist is at UNI but would be able to come home for a weekend and our bass player works until late but is free on Thursdays and Sundays.

Alice Wilkinson - Pop/R&B singer from Cherry Hinton Cambridge, professionally recorded songs and would be reliable as she is a solo singer wanting to make it in music business.

Voilet Bones - Indie rock band, the guitarist used to work at our college so we have contacts with him.

Prince Among Theives - Indie rock band from Cambridge, recently released a music video for one of their songs and are looking to make another. Not sure how reliable this band is at turning up.

Fair and Square - Comedy acoustic band from Cambridge, two of us in my group know the guys in the band but they can be unreliable as when I played a gig with them they didn't turn up to soundcheck. Would be fun and different to create a music video for them as no one else would be creating a video for a comedy band.

The Running Mayfairs - Indie band from Cambridge, some of the guys are at UNI so it would be hard getting them all together to shoot the video but they have experience of being shot in music videos in the past.

Drawing and creating the background

Once I had drawn and chosen what movement I want my character to have I started to draw the background for my character. The movement I chose was a fast run, I created 5 different movements for my character adjusting the position of its arms and legs to make it look as if it is running fast. 

After creating a background for my zombie to run on I started to make it in photoshop with 5 different layers

Zombie horror animation

For this lesson we got into groups and chose the film 'Plaque of the Zombies' We each had the challange of creating our zombie characters from scratch. I had quite a few idea's, I found it hard to draw the side and back angle of my character and ended up drawing a more human zombie as the original looked very cartoony. I also chose my more human zombie no one else in my group had drawn a cartoon like zombie so it wouldn't have fit into the animation as well. 

Character Design

First I drew out some different idea's for Zombies. I mostly drew more cartoon like figures which didn't look so human which I was intending on using but in the end didn't. I used my drawing of a human zombie with skull legs in the end as my cartoon ones didn't fit in with the others I was working with as they were all using human zombies, mine would have looked out of place.

I next drew a side, front and back view of this. I found this tricky especially the back view as It was harder to workout what the back of him would look like. I then chose how my character would move for the horror sequence of 'Plague of the zombies'.

Pixar

On Wednesday I watched 25 key moments in Pixar, this programme takes a look at the highs and lows of the multi award-winning animation studio Pixar as it celebrates its 25th birthday, and discovers the secrets of how to make a Pixar movie.

I am now researching Pixar and this was a help with some of the research telling me interesting things. 

Blu Style Character Loop

This is the video for my 'Blu style character loop'.
I used the same animation as character loop but changed the way he moved and also made the character more transparent on photoshop to create a different effect. I also think this made it more interesting to watch.
I went out into long road and took a few pictures of various surfaces that i thought would look good for my character to move on. I decided to use the photo of the wall outside the art block.
After putting this as the background I copied and pasted the clip a few times on final cut to create a 'loop'. After this I went into garage band and experimented with music. I thought the drum beat i chose sounds good to my little loop.

Character Loop

This is my character loop video, I think that I could have made the video look more professional by using colour and making the animation do a casual move as it looks a bit random.

Character Loop

I first started drawing ideas of my character on paper when creating the character loop. I got influences from images online and graffiti books for my drawings. My favourite was a toaster with toast popping in and out...the toast has a mouth which changes as he moves in and out of the toaster. Despite this I decided to use an image of a round person who would move around using his arms and legs and tounge. 

After making my mind up on the design of my character, I started to draw the frames in the frames in the flipbook we were given. Once I finished this i scanned the fames into the computar i put them into photoshop and lined up all the frames in the same photoshop page. This was the first time i got to see my creation animated, the next stage was to export the animation from photoshop into quicktime and import into final cut where i copied and pasted the clip around 6 times so it was on a loop. 

JAN SVANKMAJER

He currently lives in Prague and was born there in 1934. From the years of  1959 to 1954 he trained at the Institute of Applied Arts then he studied puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. 

Since 1964 Svankmajer has made some of the most memorable and unique animated films. He has a reputation as one of the world's foremost animators, influencing film makers from Tim Burton to The Brothers Quay.

He used quite dark and twisted imagery in most of his films, he experimented with clay morphing body parts, strange things in jars and still managed to create slight comedic effect because the themes are so abstract.

I feel that the animations he has made are great and will be around for years as every shot has so much detail. This an extract from is his first Feature film ALICE, an adaptation of alice in wonderland made in 1987.

Svankmajer uses a mixture of live action shots and stop motion animation to make the stories blend together. He also uses lots of different camera angles and shots including close up's where you can see the detail of the craft which i think is very clever. Every sound in his videos are pre-recorded effects. The objects and characters are made of a variety of materials from clay to fabric and toys. Jan Svankmajer's next project is set for release in 2015.

Love Spin

I watched a video called 'Love Spin'. The video was a really good way to show so many possibilities than you can have when working from stop-motion animation. 

The video has a rotating platform with a plant and pot, while the platform rotates the setting goes slowly into a countryside to a village into a city all from different props around the plant pot. The videos last shot is a figure walking out from the city towards the country side to sit down where he started at the start of the video only with a female figure there too. I will be sure to watch this video again to help me with my future animations. 

The Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club: Love Spin from SPDSC on Vimeo.

Lemon Jelly

I have been watching the music video to the Lemon Jelly song called 'The Shouty Track'. This video shows an animation to that we have been creating. I think the animation is clever because it shows a lot of eye catching ways to animate the characters although they look like they are fairly simple to draw, the track must have taken so long to finish! The Style looks as if it was drawn on a flipbook animation but the animation is actually computar generated. The Music video shows a lot of very interesting ways to animate characters which will help with ideas when creating animations.

Finish Limerick Video + Evalution

This is the final video of my groups animation. I created background, mountain, sky and mall sign for this. I also contributed to the sound effects and also the movement of the man during the animation sequence.
I am quite pleased with how the sound effects turned out as they sound quite comical. I think the footsteps could have sounded a little more realistic we tried stomping our feet but it didn't sound quite right so we settled with hitting or hands against the table in a footstep like fashion.
I think we portrayed the limerick well. I made the background the Peru flag to show that it was in peru with a mountain and there are a lot of mountains in Peru.
I like the way a bigger shoe knocks the other shoe off the edge of the mountain as well.

Limerick

Wee were given the task to create an animation from a Limerick. First we had to story board the limerick that we were given.  Our Limerick was "There was a man from Peru, who wanted to live in a shoe, a size 6 was to small, So he went to the mall" 

Blu

Jan Svankmjer, who was born in Prague in 1934, is one of the world's foremost animators. He studied at the institute of Applied Arts and an Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in the 1950’s. Jan made his first film in 1964 and created some of the most unique and memorable animations today. His objects (often made of clay, as in Darkness Light Darkness) come to life using stop-motion.

Many of his films use live action alongside Stop motion, such as his 1988 feature-length film of Alice (which won the 1989 Annecy International animated feature film award). One of his trademarks is the exaggeration of sounds, and he also often uses fast-motion sequences for people walking and interacting. Although many of his animations appear to be from a child’s perspective, they can also appear a little aggressive and disturbing. His most recent animation was released in 2010 and called Surviving Life and he has another project due to be released in 2015.

 BLU is an Argentinian street graffiti artist who became known for his spray paint artwork, carried out in the suburbs of Bologna. Although he began his work with spray paint, after a couple of years he began experimenting and started using house paint and large rollers which enabled him to create artwork on a much larger scale. He often works with another artist called Ericailcane. Blu is good at drawing characteristic human figures, and Ericailcane draws typical animals. Around the same time, (in early 2000), Blu also started experimenting with (stop motion) animation. His potential was noticed, but Blu declined requests to attend collective shows in art galleries, preferring to stay unknown. In 2005 Blu began to travel to different countries, spreading his horizons. He painted a large wall with a human figure created from bananas when arriving in South Africa. The painting was dubbed Hombre Banana, or Banana man, and it was particularly significant, reminding those who lived there of the time when workers went on strike on Banana plantations.


Blu went on to visit countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica and Peru, making his mark in each country. In 2007 in Bethlehem, Blu together with other artists including Ericailcane, Banksy and Mark Jenkins, painted part of a watchtower on the wall that separates the West Bank from Israel. The artwork shows a man using his finger to try to tear down the "open air prison".

Today Blu is well known for producing stunning artwork, particularly in the form of stop motion animation in the same style as his wall murals. Instead of using a blank canvas to paint each frame onto, Blu chooses to paint on walls and pavements. After drawing a single frame, he blanks out the previous frame, painting over it in a neutral colour such as white or grey. The process is time consuming, and the passing of days can be seen when looking at his animations, with changes to daylight and the colour of the sky.

SumoScience

Sumo Science specialize in animation work. Aardman Animations have Ed Patterson and Will Studd making up the team. The styles of animation that they have used include 2D, live-action, stop-motion and Puppetry. They have also made commercials, most recently with Gulp animation for Nokia. Other companies that they have created commercials for include Weetos, Johnson’s Baby Wipes, Innocent Orange Juice, P&O abd Hellmans.

The inspiration for the recent Nokia commercial with Gulp came from their award winning previous work on Dot (also with Nokia). Dot was the smallest ever stop motion character, and at 9mm it earned a Guinness world record. Dot was also credited with 15 major advertising awards. Aardman Animations came up with idea for Dot after being asked to create an animation to celebrate Nokia’s new cell scope and phone. Dot was created when they realised that trying to animate blood cells might prove tricky. A day’s work resulted in 4 seconds of animation footage, building gradually to create an animation that lasted for 90 seconds. It proved very popular on Youtube, with 3 million hits.

From Sumo Science’s award winning smallest-ever Nokia ‘Dot’ animation, came Gulp, the largest ever stop-motion animation. One particular scene (filmed on Pendine Beach, South Wales), is over 11, 000 square foot. Filmed using a Nokia N8, it too is becoming extremely popular, particularly online. Unlike Dot, who was created using a 3D print, Gulp uses an actual person, who is moved, joint at a time, in a similar way to that of a puppet.

Gulp is an animation about a fisherman, who after catching a fish becomes the bait for a larger fish, setting off a chain reaction. It was shot outside, with the help of a large team of animation graduates, over a period of five days and nights. Every 20 seconds of animation took about 16 hours of work to create. Stills are played back at 25 frames per second to show the motion. 

Nokia 'Dot' from Sumo Science on Vimeo.

My bouncing ball animation

This is the bouncing ball animation i created. This exercise was our classes introduction to animation. We first were given a sheet which showed the balls movement from start to finish and was given a flick book for us to draw the balls in. I started from the back of the flick book as the pages were quite transparent to trace the line and ball from one page to another. After this i went over in pen so the lines would stand out more which made me more happy with my drawings. Next i used the program IStopMotion to take a shot of each page in my booklet. I connected a camera to the laptop using a usb cabel so that IStopMotion would recognise the camera to be able to take shots of my bouncing ball book. After this i had to take a shot of each page by pressing the space button and turning the booklet making sure that my hand weren't in any of the frames. I then created a soundtrack in Garage Band which imported into my final cut video.

Box Animation

This is the box animation i created after getting inspiration from watching an animation video from the Czech filmmaker, 
JAN SVANKMAJER was born in 1934 in Prague. We used IStopMotion and had 206 frames. Our animation consisted of a pack of cards which came out of the tin, shuffled and then went moved back into the tin, After this we created the sounds for the video we used the tin against a table to create the sound of the tins lid moving and we flicked the cards onto each other to create the sounds of the cards moving. I thought this was effective.