Task 1
Research/ Journal enteries
Sizzlereel
The video to the left of this text is a sizzlereel I made so I can use to visualise what I'm picturing when it comes to the video I am trying to make. I started off by playing the song, whilst watching certain clips of the video to see which ones suit it the best. I collected around 12 bits of footage to use within the sizzlereel, using roughly 8 or so to make sure the tone and style I am aiming for was achieved. I also edited every clip within the video so that they further suit the style I wanted for the video, along with making them more visually appealing.
RESEARCH
The videos above are a few of the ones I watched to take Inspiration from and that I also added into my sizzlereel. These are all music videos and their concepts I believed would also suit my music video, as well as they suited to what I am trying to make. as I believe is evidence by the sizzlereel I made using these clips along with others. After watching multiple music video with tags such as "experimental music video", "paint music videos" and "puppet music videos". I came to the conclusion that the use of art, paint and other types of arts and crafts will suit the theme of the song and the bands image. I also believe using similar techniques such as reverse paint dripping down someones face, making someones visible when paint is applied to them along with using neon paint. I feel like these images will suit the video because I can show a complicated point or an opinion by using as little resources as I can. This is called minimalism. Minimalism is defined by Collin Dictionary as "Minimalism is a style in which a small number of very simple things are used to create a particular effect." The point of these videos is that he's missing something which can be shown in the video where he's invisible until the paint went on him. This makes him look empty but slowly becoming more whole. Along with the paint going up someones face is showing something uplifting psychically and metaphorically. I want to be able to show these emotions the song wants you to feel such as suspense, emptiness and hopeful. I want people to feel these emotions by looking at my imagery. I am aiming for more of a metaphoric style of film making.
The video to the left is a music video that I looked at for research. When I was coming up with the concept for my music video I looked up multiple different types of music videos. I was unsure of what type of style and concept I was going for. I knew that I was going a music video for the "LOSERS." and that the song was going to be "oblivion". I knew I wanted the video to be visually appealing and something what hasn't been done before. So I looked up about doing something with Puppets. I thought a love story with one of the love interest was a puppet to give it the impact I wanted but I eventually decided to go with a larger use of colour.
The sound track to the left of this text is the song "Oblivion" by "the LOSERS." I asked them if this song would be a good choice to make a video for and they said it was a good choice and that I have permission.
The notes above our some ideas I originally had for the video. I was originally going to do a narrative for the music video and make the song a love story about two main protagonists. Because the song has elements of a break up song. I was going to do a simple story about it because I though a simple approach would work well with the song. I than began to experiment more about adding puppets into the video to get more of a surreal type of feeling into the video. I also talked to my lecturer about what he believes would suit the video more. A concept, performance and narrative. He recommended to me about going more of a concept route and how that will be better matching the song. I looked into his the idea of making it a concept by playing videos while listening to the song to see what will suit the most. I came to the conclusion that narrative wouldn't be the best idea so I decided to have it more concept based with paint and I ended up scrapping my original idea.
The link to the below is a link to the Celtx script I made about my original concept about my music video. This was given out to a number of my actors but I decided not to go with it because I didn't think a narrative would be beast suited with the song. I gave the script to the actors and had them read it so they understood the original idea before I scrapped it. I decided to write this script differently than a normal script because none of the characters talked within the video because I wanted to keep away from that idea of having speaking when you are unable to hear it. So I wrote the characters names with their actions below. I did this because I thought it would be easier for the actors to understand when reading it and so they know what they have to do within it.
The screen shots to the left of this footage are a few of the actors I talked to about being in my music video. I knew them last year at Bridgwater and Taunton college at Bridgwater centre. They study performing arts which is the reason I thought they'd be the best to ask for help with actors. I originally had a mutual friend message them to see if they were available. They got back in contact with me saying they'll be happy to help but with some dates being harder than other which was originally a problem with the narrative but now that I'm doing more of a concept. that means I can film with certain actors in their spare time. Rachel who studies performing arts has asked her friends and classmates to see if any of them will be interest with being in my music video. A number of people got back to me about it but the one who seems most keen about being it it and the concepts is Brandon Filler. After talking with Brandon and Rachel they both are okay with the experiments that I'll be testing out for the concept of the video.
Minimalism
The video to the left is a music video centred around minimalism. Minimalism is where you try to show a complex point, through using very little practical elements. An example of this is when an artist puts an object in a plain white room. They do this not for it to be visually appealing but to stand for something. But the reason it's in a room with all the walls white is because they want you to only pay attention to the object in the centre of the room. The music video I am basing my music video on and taking inspiration from, has many elements that I like and think I can add to my video and use their elements effectively. One of these elements I am fond of and I think I can add to my video in an effective manner is the use of mes en scene. They use plain/ blank backgrounds. The reason they do this is the same reason as someone would put an object in a plain white room. This is because the director of the music video wants you to only pay attention to what he's showing you in the video. This is because the director wants you to feel a certain emotion and what he's showing you on screen is how he'll be making the audience feel emotions, either by colour theory which Study.com describes as "Colour theory is a set of principles used to create harmonious colour combinations pleasing to the eye and senses. It provides us with a common ground for understanding how colours can be used, arranged, coordinated, blended, and related to one another. Colour theory is about why some colours work together aesthetically, while others do not. Thus, it's about colour mixing and the visual effects of colour." and threw the use of metaphors. So instead of telling the audience the story and meaning you can show them imagery so the audience can assume the meaning and interpret the content in anyway they seem suitable so people can bond with the imagery more because it has more of a personal touch.
music VIDEO
The video to the side, "Brain Pain" is a music video I created with the help of two of my class mate, Shelly Marshall and Lucy Fudge. We started off by making a concept for the video. We were originally going to use glow sticks to make skeletons but we found that Stick men were more achievable even though we kept the skeleton element in the video which is shown in certain character designs. This video has a lot of elements I liked and wanted to do again for this video because I think it'll be suited to the content better. Brain Pain has a lot of minimalism within it. We had the background blank so the glow sticks can stand out more. This works because the audience can only see the stick men on screen and we made them do certain actions and shows as certain colours so that the audience will feel certain emotions that we wanted them to feel and interpret the colours and actions as. Another element of this music video that I want to focus more on in my new music video is colour theory. Within Brain Pain we wanted to use a lot of green because it can stand for wealth and growth along with the yellow stick man standing for fear to show the characters emotion at the beginning but then becomes the emotion for the audience to feel. Because I am planning to use paint for this music video I am making for the LOSERS. colour theory is really important especially because the song wants the audience to feel a number of emotions so the colours I can use within the video can also help the audience to feel the emotions the song wants you to feel.
Colour theory is where you use colours to make the audience feel certain emotions. This is used in all different types of media such as photography as well as film. Colour theory which is also known as colour psychology can be used in smaller ways such as tints. Films often put tints over their footage to improve the look of the film. Tints can also be used to make the audience feel emotions. If you are watching a sad scene the audience are more likely to feel sad when they see a dark blue tint over the footage rather then a bright orange because warmer colours are seen as happier colours compared to colder colours being considered to be sadder colours. Tints can also edit the sharpness, brightness and contrast. This is more to improve the look of the film so it suits the style more or it can improve the quality of the footage because it'll be more visually appealing to the audience. Colour theory is also used with mise en scene within films. The back grounds, sets and costumes have a lot of use of colour theory within them. Jaws had a great use of colour theory within it. An example of this is the beech scene in jaws, the character who dies within this scene has red shorts to show danger while the whole scene has a lot of yellow used within it to show fear a long with it being a warning like how bees have yellow on their body, to be a natural warning.
cOLOUR THEORY
oVER-CRANKING
The video to the side is over-cranked to build on emotion. Having the performer signing while being slowed down makes it very slow and calm. This suits the romantic genre because is slow and not being rushed. The video going from night to day while he's signing in slow motion is a cool effect and adds more the emotion of it. This is a low budget and easy to create film. Hes walking forward while signing extremely fast while as the camera is recording at half of the frame rate. So they can slow it down by double the speed. This makes the audience feel very calm, with the waves slowed down in the back ground it to make it seem more gentle and calm to build on the emotion the video is trying to make the audience feel. The mise en scene is used to add to the emotion and to use convention of a the romance genre. When people think of a love song or a romantic setting a lot of people will think of a beach so starting the scene in a beach setting and having it at night with stars make it very romantic suiting the themes of the video. His costume is a rain coat with scruffy hair this could mean he's been out looking for his partner for awhile, this point is also backed up because of the transition from night to day and the fact rain isn't shown with the video but he's wearing a rain coat.
Over cracking is when you film is filmed at half of the frame per second. So instead of filming 50 frames per second, you film it at half 25 frames per second. TV tropes describes over cranking as "over-crank means that the frame rate at which the film is being shot is higher than normal, so that when played back at a normal speed the action is in slow motion. Normal frame rate is 24 frames per second, so if you over-cranked to 120 frames per second the action would be shown at 1/5 its actual speed. This shift can be intentionally obvious, to emphasise the dramatic note details of a scene; it can also be used as a background effect — for example, in movies featuring Godzilla and similar monsters, over-cranking adds a sense of ponderous weight to the monsters' motion. If someone's running, expect to hear the main theme from Chariots of Fire or The Six Million Dollar Man, at least in your head. This trope is also present in almost any shampoo commercial.
Modern slow motion footage is shot with digital cameras that have a very high frame rate, rather than film, but the principle is the same, the footage is slowed down to 23-30 frames per second where it plays in slow motion"
Under cranking is where you record the footage at double the frame rate, where with over-cranking you its half. So with under cranking during editing you have to speed it up by double. This makes the video faster and can be used to make the audience feel emotion. TV tropes describes under cranking as "The opposite of over-cranking. Under-cranking involves filming at a slower frame rate so that the action is sped up when played back. Sometimes witnessed in car chases, especially on the 1960's Batman TV show. In the days when film cameras were hand-cranked, most operators were trained to slow down slightly whenever a punch was thrown, so that the blow would seem faster than it really was: almost all of Jackie Chan's martial arts movies make use of the same basic principle during the fight scenes to make the action seem more exciting. When shooting video, where the frame rate cannot be manually controlled mid-shot, a similar effect can be produced in the edit suite by selectively deleting a single frame here and there.
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During this video to the side of the text is a music video where they use under-cranking in order to make a sense of action. The video is very much based on old kaiju films. Have a giant robot facing off against a giant monster. They also cut back and forth between the giant monster fight and the people on the ground dancing and signing. The people on the ground are the signers and they are the ones mostly doing the under-cracking. As they are walking around and dancing they use under cranking to move faster. This is a convention of faction being fast movement and giant monsters fighting. Kaiju moves also tend to be cut into an A and B story line where ones about the monster and ones about the human characters. Its also very much of the sci-fi genre as well. With the giant robots and scientist showing that its of the sci-fi, action genre and it makes this clear with the final shot of the robot blasting into space and with the under-cranking used to keep the fast paste of a fight scene while they dance and move from one area to another. Their costumes were chosen to make a story that everyday type of people getting involved to help save the day, explaining why they use the public areas within the music video and the builders outfits to make it look like they're just normal everyday type of people.
Evaluation of my over-cranking
I made this video with Shelly Marshall as practice for over cranking. We decided to test our skills and practice by making a small music video and use over-cranking within it. We made the music video to Happier by Marshmello. We were only meant to do it within an hour but we had a lot of trouble with it. We didn’t start to get on with it until later that day, we also had to go out and re-film it because we changed the shutter speed and not the frame rate, so we had to go out to re-film it correctly but because of the fact it was so late, so many people couldn’t stay behind to help us out so we had to get new actors and we had to try to finish it before the last bus so we were under a lot of pressure to finish it before that. So after messing up with the camera setting we went through it with our lecturer to make sure that we understand how to alter the setting by going into menu and that it has to be at half the frame rate and can’t be anymore any less, which we’ve gotten wrong before while we tried to do this in the past. While editing we tried to get it in time with the beat but while going through it we realised we made a lot of mistakes. We tried to do a beat edit but we didn’t do an edit to every beat, we experimented with film dissolves at beats but only decide to keep a few in because the cut to the beat is really effective, happier is about three minutes long so we only used a small part of the sing because we didn’t need to use all of the sing. We also wanted to add a number of other shots into it such as a close up to when the hat is stolen but we couldn’t because we didn’t have enough time. We wanted to go back and re-shoot a lot of scenes because they didn’t make sense as a larger piece of work, we had to zoom in on scene we didn’t want to because his hat is on the frame, or because a shot of him standing still there we should’ve been walking and an ending bit of them walking off being happy rare all shots we wanted to do but couldn’t because of all the issues what made us have less and less time. We also tried to use colour psychology within the video by making certain bits dark blue while we made others bright colours so when people watch it they see the visual ques to feel certain emotions I want them to. There is a shot where it fades from one colour to another which I think I could’ve made that more cleanly and look better. While filming us had other issues which made it more difficult, such as no one being able to lip sync which made us have to use walking shots instead which I feel like they don’t have the same amount of impact. We also couldn’t walk back fast enough to get a good shot so we asked someone else to walk backwards while film and while it went off fine, the camera did shake a lot and even after being slowed down it was still very shaky which is worse at some points rather than others. We also did research into over-cranking and under-cranking, which we had to find out information about over-cranking and under-cranking where we found out the definitions of them, how they work. We also analysed music video and talked about how under-cranking can be used to help keep the fast paste going and be used to create action. While Over-cranking can be used to add emotion to a romantic scene to make it more impact-full.
During film we can across a number of problems. Such as filming the frame rate wrong because we didn’t understand how to change the frame rate, we also had other issues such needing to do re-shoots but didn’t have the time to retake the shot, not being able to walk fast enough backward so we ended up having shaky cam. Those and other issues made it a very stressful process. I honestly didn’t feel 100% with the final product but I did learn the necessary skills for us to use during our music video product. The only thing I felt comfortable about was the research we did into over-cranking and under-cranking because I was very confident on what I found out and even used websites for references to use to back up my points and I felt very confident that what I mentioned within the evaluations of the music videos I looked up are valid and well thought out. I was not happy with the use of mise en scene. I felt that I could’ve done better such as making everything is tidy and looks better, we did think about mise en scene by putting the official happier music video in the background to be a nod to the source material but within that scene there the camera bags on the floor in the shot, we also tried to zoom in but that didn’t look good at all and was out of focus. What we should’ve done was to take more care while film or go out and re-shoot. I also got very stressed while filming because of all of the problems we can across. That also made me very hard to work with, I was stressed because of the time restraint and with everyone else finishing their project and we weren’t able to because of the mistake we made or technical issues. But I do feel comfortable that I know how to use over-cranking and that I can apply the skills I’ve learned to apply it to the music video.
Even though I enjoyed editing, doing the research and making the over-cranking video there was a number of things what went bad within the video and project it’s self, Even though there were mistakes such setting the shutter speed instead of frame rate and are other issues what happened which aren’t our fault such as when we were editing premier pro crashed and while editing it again it kept not responding while trying to save. But our use of mise en scene and attention to detail during the video. The mise en scene could have been improved, we wanted it to be brighter outsider but because of the time we had to do it we couldn’t do that. We also had couldn’t risk going too far away from college because we needed to get back to edit before the final bus so our locations were also very rushed. We also wanted more people in our class to be within the advert, we wanted to do a shot of him sitting alone in class with other people sitting opposite him having fun and talking, we also wanted it when he’s walking, we wanted to have people go past him to show how lonely he is and have them having fun to make it the reason why he needs to be happier. It was meant to be about him being lonely and at the end someone comes over to be his friend but the plot now is that someone is bullying Ethan who is why he’s sad but at the end his bully comes over and they make peace, but I’m worried that the plot didn’t reach the audience. We should’ve improved our attention to details because there are points you can tell it wasn’t shot in chronological order. Because in some shots his sleeves are rolled up and in others they aren’t so it doesn’t make much sense through a story stand point. Even though a lot went wrong while we made this, a lot of it went well. Even though I am worried the story didn’t make sense to everyone who watches it. I could’ve made the story clearer but I am happy with the final story and I think it suits the song very well and we tried to use different colours to show the different times. We are also happy with getting the edits in time with the beats. We didn’t edit to all the beats because we didn’t want it to be too fast we wanted it to be slow to build more on emotion.
I am confident that the mistakes we made while filming this won’t happen again. I know exactly how to change the frame rate now and I am aware of the differences between the two so when I next do over-cranking or under-cranking I’ll know how to do it, we didn’t make any mistakes in editing, we learned how to fade from one colour to another to improve the use of colour psychology but I would like how to make it more natural and less force. I also learned a lot of useful tools within premier pro which made editing a lot easier to do such as being able to copy and make adjustment layers easier and to drag footage without music. But something I have taken away from this which could apply more in the future such as when I’m making the music video. I learned that the music video doesn’t need to have the singers within it to or have anyone signing for it to still be effective with it giving an emotional impact. I’m also going to remain more calm and my time to make sure every little detail is so where I’m happy with it. I also won’t be scared to go out for retakes and I’ll plan ahead for it.
When I next do this I will make sure to make it as best quality as possible, I won’t rush anything, I’ll just do more in the mean time and plan it out better and then I could test other things rather than just over-cranking, I could practice camera technique and use of lighting. But I can still practice that now but it would’ve made the video a lot better if I remained calm and went slow while filming or planning it better. I will defiantly work better with my team and any communication issues we have had while filming and editing this will be sorted. For the most part we worked well but it can still be improved and that can happen buy the group communicating more. I will defiantly research into music video techniques more. We watched the original music video but we didn’t take much from the video. We could’ve looked up other similar music video, by the same artist or other songs that have similarities to it so we can use it as inspiration but we mostly used a very generic plot and because of that it doesn’t feel very unique. But I think if we did more research into it, it could’ve looked and felt a lot better even though I am happy with my final version and its final story
These videos above are fan made music videos I made by using images from Crypt TV and the sound by Panic! at the disco. I did this to test my editing skills, I was unhappy with my knowledge on primer pro because I didn't use it before this course so I wanted to get better at editing and to test my skills so I found short films and edited them to a song what suited. I started off doing bad cuts in my opinion. There was a shot where I didn't cut it down enough so it showed a different a different shot for a quick second so it looked very out of second and made it seem a lot more amateur which I didn't like by I was confident after making the first one because I edited two episodes together without it looking out of place or anything. The next two videos I am really happy with because I got to make a longer story line using both of these videos, the first couple of seconds are made from three different bits of tents such as two short horror movies and one music video. I felt that I made good silent cuts that people can't notice without it being pointed out but in the second video I did make a mistake that I didn't cut one of the clips enough so it did show a different clip for a couple seconds which is hard to notice but when you do notice it. It becomes very hard to miss and takes the viewer out of watching it. The last video is the one I'm most proud of. Its a continuation of the story from the one before. I feel like the cuts were good because you don't notice them and that a lot of the action within the scene go well with the beat and the lyrics. I also found out how to use adjustment layers by doing this and doing this makes me feel more confident with editing the final music video.
The video to the right of this text is my editing skills doing a beat edit. This was done with the song "Brain Pain". Because I am planning on on doing a beat edit by editing the footage so it has different types of effects to appear when the beat drops I thought it would be necessary to learn more about beat edits and to practice to improve my skills. Beat edits is when you edit the footage in time with the beat. This is done because it becomes more visually appealing and the cuts and effects feel more natural and less artificial. This can imrpve a piece of work if done correctly.
For my final major project I want it to be an experimental music video. I want to use paint for my video so it has a metaphorical meaning such as paint covering someone who is invisible so that the paint is showing him becoming more whole for when he was literally empty before. I am also planning to have the background to be a plain colours so that peoples attention don't get distracted and are only paying attention to what's on screen. I feel this will create emotion. Such as if the background was pitch black and the paint was white it shows clarity within the darkness.
The notes above are my thoughts and feelings about my final major project. The notes are about colour theory, which type of music video I should make such as performance, narrative and concept, mise en scene, story board and other thoughts such as a mind map. I made these so I can have a better understanding of what I am trying to create. Writing the notes within a book helps me to remember what I am trying to do in certain bits of the video. This helps me to get the best quality for my video. I also wrote many ideas down so I can remember which ideas I should test and go with for the video and which ones I shouldn't. Most off these ideas and notes are basic but it's so I can have a base understand and so when I go back to it later on I can remember what I wrote and expand onto it. It also helps me when I come to filming I an get out my notes and go by them so it helps me to stay calmer and have a better understanding while filming.
The video to the right is my first successful test. I was testing the concept of my music video where I made the person invisible except where the paint is on the person. So I tried to create that. I was originally doing it wrong by using the wrong coloured paint. My lecturer helped me to create it by using green paint with no green in the frame except the paint and then ultra key it using the alpha channel to get only the paint to be visible on screen. The other test was if effect was relaxed or if it is't. I also inverted it so that the black is the back ground and the white is the paint. This has a metaphorical meaning showing there's hope/ clarity in the pitch black.
The video to the left is the intro to a Netflix original show. I am taking inspiration from the video to turn into a music video. I feel if I can replicate the concept of the video I can use colour and colour theory to create emotions. during my video and if I can have it look like this video instead of black and white I feel it can create more emotions. Even though this is 3D modelling so it's created on computers I would like to create it by using practical effects and editing. Maybe with the use of colour balance I can create a similar look to this intro.
The video to the side is a failed test for my final major project. I was originally trying to ultra key out out all of the colour in frame and until only the coloured paint remains but this didn't work because I couldn't edit out the shading so it has pixels over the screen to give it a low quality look. I also used the wrong paint because I used yellow paint but this means I couldn't ultra key out the yellow paint because it would also get my skin tone as well so I couldn't ultra key and alpha channel to get the effect I want but I couldn't get that effect because I used the wrong colour. This test didn't work how I wanted it to and I was unhappy with it so I decided not to go with this concept for the final major because of the look being to jarring. I tried ultra keying out colour but because you can only ultra key once I had to export and import the footage over again multiple times until the colour in the frames are gone.
The video to the left is a test shot of using colour for my music video. I experimented with putting colours on them in different ways. I also will probably change the colour so they suit the same better when it comes to the final edit. The way I put colours on to the were by inverting them red, blue, green and other ones to the look I wanted. I also changed the colour by using the colour wheel. This changes the colour of the paint and the background so it resembles more accurately the dare devil intro sequence which I am trying to emulate with practical effects rather than CGI. The use of colour theory and minimalism here can also be used to create emotions such as if the background is black and the paint is dark blue it can create the feeling of despair and loneliness. The same effect can be used if you make the background white with the paint red to create a feeling of anger and danger.
The images above are screen shots taken about from survey monkey and Facebook poll. All of the survey is about the black and white test footage (https://youtu.be/qesrBQizyZo) I wanted to know which one is more appealing to look at. I sent the video with a block of text into two group chats explaining why I am sending it to them and why I need feedback. I then created a group poll and asked people which one is better. But the results were the same for test 1 and test 2. So within my family group chat test 1 and 2 had exactly the same results and the poll within the group chat had the same results throughout so I decided I would have to open it up to more people so I created the survey and while the feedback was good to know people like the bolder shades not that many people took it and test 1 and test 2 had the same results again so this shows both are good concepts but I feel if I show the concept with context so it can make a more of an emotional impact it would help with defining which one would suit the song most. I can do this by having the song in the background and using the concept is a larger and more of an imaginative way but having someone being invisible and then becoming visible as the paint spreads. But the results were still useful because the comments said they liked the white standing out on the black background. This is something I can learn about and use other colours on a black background to see if it'll get the same result.
The video to the right is a test shot I did experimenting with editing to get a shot experimenting with a neon mask I have and used Photoshop to edit everything off from the picture of the neon mask I took, then edited it so that it would be a different colour to stand out more and edited it so the black bits stick out more so that it's more visible and so the colours are also brighter. I then layered them on top of each other. I also had to adjust the size and area it was it so it would look more natural. I then cut it up so it would only be on screen for a small bit and so it would have a glitch like effect. I also edited the image underneath to then make the two bits of footage have more contrast by adjusting the shadows and brightness
The video to the left is a test for my final major project. I tried to put glowing x's over my eyes. I did this by taking a picture of a neon mask I had and used photo shop to edit out the rest of the mask. I then opened premier pro and put the edited mask and a picture of me in the editing software. I then put the x's over my eyes and cut up the footage of the x's so I can have a glitch like effect with the x's reappearing and disappearing. I also had to crop the x's slighting so that it won't show the corners of the x's. While I did like this test there were elements I didn't think it was good enough. That's why i created the video above as an improvement.
The video to the right is a test for my final major project. I tried to test with colour in this test. I also put music in the back ground and used the paint to have my hands being slowly revealed more as the time goes on. I thought if I used music and showing the concept with how I want it to look so that the audience could get a better understanding of how the concept would look like and feel like. I also experimented with colours. This helps me out because it teaches me how to add colours to these images and how they can be used to create emotions.
The video to the left is a test of me using colour. I experimented by changing the colour of the hand and the background. I ended up getting a range of results. a couple of them I am proud of and I think they have potential such as the clips with white background and the paint being pink and blue. I like these especially with the white background. Think it looks nice especially with the music in the background. The reasoning why I think it looks appealing is because the white background is clear and can be shown as peace and clarity and with the colours such as pink meaning love and care and the blue meaning a low and darker emotion. The last two I prefer are the ones which are black and white. They have been layered on top of on another and had the hard mix as the blend mode it gives an animated like look.
research essay
Research essay
For my final major project I decided to create a music video for the band the LOSERS. So I decided I would do research into other similar music videos to find inspiration from. The song is Oblivion and sounds very much like a break up song and has a lot of different emotions the song wants to the audience to feel throughout. I originally looked into the video being narrative based, it was just going to be a love story which ended up with them falling out of love and moving on with different people. But I felt that it was more dull and bland than my previous work so I tried to give it a more surreal feeling. I looked into songs such as “hey look ma I made it”by panic at the disco’s music video. It had a simple narrative but the lead was a puppet instead of a character actor to make it feel more surreal but this didn’t work with the song when I put footage of similar concepts over the footage so I decided it would be good to change the idea. I started researching into other ideas. Such as I looked up about experimental music videos, paint music videos and Neon paint music. Until I could come up with a different concept for my music video that I was comfortable with. After I looked on YouTube at different music videos I came up with the idea of using different colours and with paint for the concept for my music video. I originally wanted to use paint to pour over someone’s face and in editing I could layer it on top of itself and the put the blend mode to hard mix and invert the top or bottom. I found this out by editing footage I thought would suit the song. I also put it in reverse so that the paint is going up to the persons face; this has a more of a metaphorical meaning. With the paint going up someone’s face it is psychically uplifting and the audience will see it and will relate the emotion I want them to feel for when they see it. Another concept is the use of neon paint. A lot of surreal music videos do use neon paint. I previously created a music video using glow sticks which has a very similar concept so I don’t want to base my music video heavily on to this idea but I feel that it can have a character with red neon paint on their chest so it looks like they have had their heart ripped out, this with colder colours I to their hands and face. However the concept I am most interested in expanding on is by the song by “maroon 5”. During this video they have the people hidden into the background but are slowly revealed as they cover themselves with clay until they are completely revealed. After looking into this concept I tried to replicate this but using green paint and over my skin. I recorded it with a red head light so that shadows aren’t a problem while filming. I then edited by ultra keying the green in premier pro so that all of the green has then been blacked out. I then used the alpha channel so that the background is blacked out and the one colour which is visible was the green I ultra keyed out. I then tried to use different colours, by ultra keying out the hands and then put a colour matt underneath to so that the hands would be the colour of the hands, I also inverted it and inverted it in different ways by using the colour wheel and inverting the footage either with red, blue or green. I also started to look into the style of the video. I want the video to be based on minimalism. I did this because when I looked up other video that use minimalism, the backgrounds would be one colour and would usually be black or white, I like this because after looking up what minimalism, which it’s described as making a complex point by using simple techniques or by using small amount of elements to create the point. The mise en scene, lighting and colour theory will come under the minimalism I’ve researched. For an example of this the mise en scene will have to be one colour, this also comes under colour theory as well. If I make the background black and the paint white it can stand for the light standing in front of the darkness which I believe goes well with the song because of the songs darker tone near the beginning and end. Also after testing this concept I’ve learned that I would have to aware of what lighting I should be using while filming. An example of what lighting I should be using is with a soft box or a ring light. Colour theory is the use of colour in film to create the emotions for film. An example of this for the music video I am working on it sounds lower and builds itself up. So I can use blue and other darker and colder colours at the beginning and then build them up to more warmer and happier questions.
While I was coming up with the original concept for my final major project I felt confident. The story was simple and I felt comfortable with creating it but I felt it was too simple and needed something else to make the video more interesting because the simple premise could be seen as too dull. So I wanted to make the concept more interesting. I decided looking into a puppet for the concept but it didn’t suit the song so I decided to do a different type of music video instead of narrative. I started writing ideas for each style of music video. Narrative, performance and concept. After looking in to other music videos to take inspiration from I decided to do a concept based music video. After looking into paint music video I felt confident that I could create a concept music video using paint. I was originally only planning to use a range of colours with different styles but I felt this wouldn’t go together well so I wanted to make one where the same style was used throughout, so I look inspiration from one of the music video I watched by “maroon 5” and wanted to recreate it with my own style. When I was originally testing this idea I felt overwhelmed and didn’t feel confident that I could do it because I was struggling with the use of colours but after my lecturer helped me to test this concept and so I know how to do this concept in the future. He taught me about the lighting position and how I can use a red head light which creates shadows to have a little amount of shadows shown on screen so that I didn’t have to worry about the green paint being covered by shadows. When I was editing the test footage I was indecisive weather or not what I was creating visually appealing or not. I liked many different tests that I’ve done when I was applying colour such as the ones with the white background and red and pink as the paint colour. I opened it up as a survey to see if my worries were real or not but I found out that the majority enjoyed the video and test 1 and 2 were exactly the same. After seeing the survey results I felt confident in my editing ability and in what type of look I want for the music video moving forward.
During researching and testing my ideas I had good experiences and bad experiences. An example of some of the good experiences are the fact the concept works the way I was expecting, When I was first testing the concept of having someone invisible slowly becoming visible as paint goes over their skin. I put green paint over my skin while using a red head to minimise the amount of shadows on the paint. I then ultra keyed out the green and used the alpha channel as well as inverting the footage so that the background is black and the paint shows up white so that only the white can be seen on screen. I also tried to use colours with the footage. But inverting it in different colours by using blue, red and green. I also used the colour wheel to add colour into the footage as well as ultra keying the footage after nesting it with itself. I then put a colour matt underneath it to add colour to the part what was ultra keyed out. I also layered the footage on top of itself after copying and then set the blend mode to hard mix to give the footage an animated type look which I think suits the style of the song well. However there were difficulties while attempting to create the concept. I was originally trying to get the green paint to be the same colour as the green screen background so I talked to an art department lecturer and asked her the way she would recommend me doing so. She recommended me mixing a dark green with a lighter green while adding yellow into it. However this didn’t work the way I was expecting and I decided not to do this idea because I was mixing the paint by doing it into a dish and because I did it like this I couldn’t pour the paint over anything because there wasn’t enough paint. I then tried to use the yellow paint to pour it over my skin. But when I tried to ultra key out the yellow it got rid of all of the yellow on screen and because I put the paint onto my skin it also got rid of my skin tone as well. The next time I tried to ultra key out the light green but premier pro got confused and ultra keyed out my skin tone as well. I also had problems with the lighting. Because I was using a red head and not a soft box it made shadows sharper and more prominent on screen. But this gives me good experience that I know what to do while filming from now on. I also tried other tests such as putting red x’s over someone’s while on screen. I took a picture of some red x’s on a neon mask and used photo shop to edit the rest of the mask out, I then put the red x’s and the footage I was putting them on in premier pro and put the x’s on the footage over the footage and then scaled the x’s so they were over the part I wanted them to be and then cut up the footage so they would disappear and reappear as a glitch like effect. I like this but I don’t know how I will add it into the story naturally.
As a conclusion I was extremely happy with how things are going for my project. I feel confident with how everything is going for my project. I know the style that I want for my music video. I will cut back and forth with different style through the video so that certain bits will suit better than other. I will be going for the white background with black paint on screen with the animated style look that I can create by layering the footage on top of a copy of itself and then putting the blend mode on hard mix. I am struggling to decide which colour will work best with which part of the song and the results from the survey were indecisive so I will use colour theory to know which parts will need which colours for. An example of this is for the beginning of the song with the slow beat and the low tone I will use colder colours to edit with. The paint will be a darker colder colour while the background will be a lighter darker colour. I’m feeling confident that my idea of having people and objects invisible and slowly becoming revealed as the paint covers them is accomplish-able and I feel that know I know how to edit it correctly I will be able to pull it off as long as I use the correct light such as a ring light or a soft box.
Even though I am happy with my research, I felt that recreating a new idea was the best for my music video. The narrative wasn’t the best I could do and remaking the video as a concept will be better. I am also happy that I’ve learned how to pull off the concept using the editing techniques I’ve learned. I think using this technique will improve my work highly. But if I was to do this again with the knowledge I already have I would use the experimenting with layering footage on top of itself and then setting the blend mode on hard mix. This can give an animated look with clearer colours. I believe this makes footage look more appealing so experimenting with this concept could have made my work more appealing. Also looking into lighting from the beginning would’ve also been helpful because of the importance of lighting with my music video. But I am very happy and comfortable with how my music video has been going and I am confident that the client will be happy with how the music video will be going.
The video to the right is a video saying the basic tricks of lighting in film. An example of this is for the project I am doing I will be ultra keying out the green so if shadows are shown on the green paint, premier pro won't be ultra keyed out. For the test shoots I've already done I used a red head for the lighting but the problem with that is a red head is used to create shadows so that cased black patches to appear on screen and to grow and random point. But for the final shoot I will be using a soft box or a ring light to stop the amount of shadows and to give enough lighting through out.
Lighting
shoots
To the right of this text box is a video that I will be using for my music video. I thought about doing stop motion for the reason that if people don't understand what they are looking at because the paint will be covering the person, I thought I would make it easier for the audience and show them. The stop motion paint going someones arm is so they can see the edges of the arm and hand to know what the video is showing the audience. Because this was stop motion I had to take one picture at a time and then after I finished taking the pictures I had to go to each frame and then ultra keyed out the green paint and used the alpha channel along with invert to get the imagery that I wanted.
The video to the left is footage my final major project. I had someone write the word oblivion with green paint as I recorded them writing, I will cut up the footage and put it throughout the video so that the words being written or unwritten will appear through out. However this wasn't my first take. Because I made a mistake and didn't start to film after I stopped the recording so we had to restart. While editing I had to ultra key out the green and then use the alpha channel and then inverted it. I then copied the footage and layered on top of itself. I then edited them in different ways with different effects. After I got one which I thought looked visually appealing and exported it.
Mise en scene
The mise en scene for my video is very heavily influenced by minimalism. The black background with the white paint (or any other colours I might add to create emotions) The reason why I want the paint to be mono colour is because the song is simplistic and relaxed. So I want the video to show this style so the video suits the song with both of their art style in minds. I also want to add certain effects into it such as inverts and colours but this will create a contrast between the rest of the video which is mostly or completely black and white but with colours added into it at certain points to mimic 1980's and 1960's style paintings. This might not suit with the video and might be too much effect for the video. Especially with the fact the video is influenced heavily by minimalism so I will have to come to a dissection if the video needs more colour to create emotions then I will add these effects. The song does have a number of lyrics that I could use for audio cues I could use to introduce colour. An example of this is when they say about beating back the dark I could use an invert to have the background a different colour than the black one so that what you're seeing and what you're hearing is matching.
SHOOTS
I originally set out to do a test shoot with pouring paint over someones face. However after testing this footage I found out I could do a number of effects to change the image, which will change the emotions it creates as well. After this I decided to add it into the final major project. Doing this I can focus on other shoots which gives me more time to edit and film. This releases me off the stress and gives me more time to find other actors or use the original actor for another scene which speeds the editing and film process.
Lighting
We had a lighting test. We got into groups of 3 and tried to take pictures or video such as the ones in the image to the right to learn more about lighting. However because the images are too big it wouldn't let me add them on to this wix page. We used a red head light instead of a soft box because we couldn't get a soft box in time. Similar to lighting for my work where we should be using a soft box but have used red light to get a good enough out come. We used the lights in different places because that creates different emotions depending on what you want the audience to feel. Because of my project I need to minimise the amount of shadows to make it easier to ultra key the green and blue paint out.
Edit/ Shoot
The videos above are comparison video. They are my final major project, music video without any effects. The video on the left is a version without any effects. Because I edited each piece of footage in different premier pro and I would then add the edited footage into the FMP edit. Because of this I could go back and takeaway the effects. I had to get the unedited raw footage and edit that together. The video to the right is a a comparison video showing the no effects footage besides the final product. This shows the level of importance of editing in my music video with the two pieces of work being the same footage but are extremely different and some shots are unrecognisable because of the amount of editing in this project.
Shoots
The video to the right of this text is a edit for my music video. As I mentioned earlier I edited all the footage for my music video in other premier pro accounts and then add it into my FMP edit. This is the footage I filmed during one week. I spray painted objects like teddy bears and Stuffed hearts green so I could ultra key out the green to have only the objects appear on screen I then poured blue paint over it so that it would look like the object would be going invisible. I also had an actor put paint over her arms and face. I did two edits for each on of these so I could still use the colour from the red and white one and still have the black and white one as backup.
The video to the right is a shot I was planning on adding into my music video. I edited in the same way as all of the rest by ultra keying and then using the alpha channel and then layering on top of each other by using the hard mix blend mode. This was meant to be filler. I was trying to get the paint drop in slow motion so you can see the paint drop while falling. However I couldn't get this to work because premier pro doesn't have the ability to slow down in that scale. I then decided not to add this filler like cut away into my video because I wanted to stay away from using filler.
Problems solving
The pictures above was a failed attempt at crating my concept. I tried to use green paint to ultra key however the way I went around it wasn't correct. I tried to get the screen paint within the images above to match to match the green screen within our studio to get the design I was looking for. I went to the art department and talked to the head of the department and asked them how I should get the paint to match the green screen to make ultra keying easier. She gave me 2 different shades of green and yellow. She said that if I mixed them together it should give the colour shade I wanted. I tried to mix the paint within the class room to get the paint to match however the colour didn't change enough to have it create the look I wanted. I wanted to ultra key out the green so only the person could be seem. I also painted a few objects so I could pour the yellow paint over them to have the object disappear. While this test didn't work the way I was expecting because of the editing mistakes I made. This was one of the few ideas which I had while testing which made it into the final result. Because at this point I didn't have the editing technique right. My plan was to ultra key out everything and only have the coloured paint on screen. So by having the background the same colour as the paint it would make it easier. However this idea wouldn't have worked because the paint would disappear with the background. I spent a number of hours in the day trying to mix the paint however the colour wouldn't change. I then attempted to use the yellow paint and ultra key everything out and used zoom ins to make the amount of I had to ultra key smaller. However this didn't work and the amount I ultra keyed gave it a low quality look. After failing to create the look I eventually gave up and started to think about using glow in the dark neon paint instead. This would be different than my original idea but would still centre around paint, use of colours and minimalism. However my lecturer informed me of an editing technique which would allow my original idea to work. We used the green paint I spent most of the day mixing. We then poured the paint over my arm and then used the premier pro to edit ultra key out the green paint and then used the alpha channel to get the intended look which is shown in "test 1".
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Peer Production
Our class (medial level 3 film and TV) had the opportunity to swap work with the graphic design year 2 students. We then had to mark each others work using the grading matrix. This is a good way of getting none bias feedback. The person who marked my work didn't give me a grade below merit. Because I'm only studying as year 1 I am only being marked on the first four criteria. They marked me as distinction in "context" and "problem solving". They didn't give me any comments or feedback on these topics however on research and planning and production they marked me as a merit. They didn't give me much in the way of feedback. However they mentioned for research that I should look into multiple topics of research. So I talked about minimalism other experimental music video along with a number of other topics to do with my video. They also mentioned for planing and production that I should add more to it so I extended them with more ind depth analysis.
Target Audience
The target audience for my music video is the same target audience as the band has. The bands target audience are young adults, aged 18 to early 20's. I have the same target audience as the band because it's the same audience as the song is aimed at and if I have chosen a different target audience than the song it would have given an uneven feeling and wouldn't match and would have lowered the quality of the video in total. However I don't believe I matched the target audience perfectly. I used paint and bright colours along with black ad while because I felt that paint and bright colours will suit the younger part of the target audience because I feel it will keep them more engaged and entertained and will create a more emotional impact. I then chose the black and white to build to the colour for the older part of the target audience because they aren't as interested in bright colour so using black and white to create a metaphorical meaning to then create an emotional impact because the audience are ore mature they will be looking into the meaning more and would not be as entertained by the bright colours.
Referencing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU8B4XDI3Uw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUqKTtmgJiM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8yqoKpUbUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDCLR0oX2OY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoouJr8dl48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsPaeSfzpUI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpgz3uQ58U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fodhGYUIa0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt0g4dWxEBo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCNrNPVJwU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKNxeF4KMsY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fxgyc3Q4rQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORYO0atB6g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE87rQkXdNw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPM7tTDeAng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D9gy6vj7dA&list=PLfarU_76noqoH0wLZHyvomLJyKfkYhip1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5rzxhsZBGA&list=PLfarU_76noqoH0wLZHyvomLJyKfkYhip1&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFVTWMEExVI&list=PLfarU_76noqrXOtRzGBBOxPuTyoxcwVo9&index=19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRbZdUHhlCs&list=PLfarU_76noqrXOtRzGBBOxPuTyoxcwVo9&index=25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHAXsSrtTwU&list=PLfarU_76noqrXOtRzGBBOxPuTyoxcwVo9&index=26
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfarU_76noqrXOtRzGBBOxPuTyoxcwVo9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clBT7O3A3wI
disco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qFF2v8VsaA&list=RD7qFF2v8VsaA&start_radio=1&t=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFYFh8w4758
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y6bB86HmdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFiP-E1zTRc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM3fSaAKprw