Thursday, 12 September 2013
Research
Now that I have finished my "A Day In The Life Of..." my focus is to research music videos and short films to help me decide which I would rather do. I still have no idea and so I know that my research will be beneficial to me.
A Day In The Life Of Evaluation
In the process of making my one minute video I learnt a lot of new skills and vital information which will play a key part in my final coursework piece.
The most important thing that I learnt was that I need to be organised and give myself as much time as possible. I decided on my idea about a week before the deadline and so it was a mad panic to get all the filming and editing done in time. Allowing myself to repeat this when making my short film or music video would end up in a complete and utter disaster. Therefore I need to brainstorm all of my ideas early on and get them down to my best one very early on. This way I will have plenty of time to make several drafts and refilm any alterations and improvements that I come up with along the way. I'll also have more time to edit in a lot more detail and fine comb my filming to make it to the highest possible standard.
I learnt how to film using a camera which is something I've never done before. I found it quite intimidating at the beginning as I didn't know how to set the camera up or where to position it to get the best shots. I own a tripod so I used that in order to stabilise my camera and steer clear of wobbly hand syndrome whilst filming. I stuck to basic angles and shots for this video but when it comes to my coursework filming I'm going to push myself to experiment to make my filming as unique and interesting as possible. I used a Fujifilm JX500 to do my filming which is not made for taking high quality videos. I'm hoping to use either a Canon or an Olympus when I film my coursework so that my video looks more professional and is to a much higher standard.
To edit my video I used Final Cut Pro which I've never used before and so it was something else that I learnt how to do. It more straight forward than I was expecting but my editing was pretty basic for my video as I was getting to grips with the programme. I'm definitely going to try out some of the more interesting techniques in my coursework so that my video has a different level to it and would be more appealing for the audience to watch.
Overall I would say that I'm pleased with my video as I got the effect I wanted, especially seeing as I didn't leave myself much time in which to complete it. In order to improve it I would give myself longer to film, use a better camera and be more creative when it comes to editing. I've learnt new skills which will be beneficial when it comes to my coursework and I know what I want to try and test.
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
My Music Video Genre
My chosen song, and therefore video, fits under the Indie Rock Genre. Indie Rock itself appeals to quite a large demographic, although the bands that make up the genre have quite niche audiences. It is a genre that is starting to become more popular as the bands are becoming more "mainstream" and well known, but the bands themselves are unique and tend to go against the traits people associate with musical artists.
Indie rock is a rock music genre that emerged from the independent music underground in the 1980s and had become widely popular by the 1990s. The term referred to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style, or simply the independent, D.I.Y. ethos of punk rock, which laid the groundwork for indie rock in the late 1970s. Indie rock consists of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most indie bands' commercial success was limited in comparison to other genres of rock and pop music at the time, and most acts remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, indie rock entered the musical mainstream and many indie bands became commercially successful.
Indie rock is a rock music genre that emerged from the independent music underground in the 1980s and had become widely popular by the 1990s. The term referred to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style, or simply the independent, D.I.Y. ethos of punk rock, which laid the groundwork for indie rock in the late 1970s. Indie rock consists of music that differs greatly in terms of its sound, its social context, and its regional roots. Most indie bands' commercial success was limited in comparison to other genres of rock and pop music at the time, and most acts remained signed to independent labels and received relatively little attention from mainstream radio, television, or newspapers. With the breakthrough of Nirvana and the popularity of the grunge and Britpop movements in the 1990s, indie rock entered the musical mainstream and many indie bands became commercially successful.
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Editing
Even though my video only had to be a minute long there was still a lot of editing involved!
To edit my video I used Final Cut Pro, which is a programme I've never used for so it was quite a daunting prospect for me at the beginning.
The first thing I needed to do after uploading my footage and putting it in the right order was to cut it down as it was around 6 minutes long. I left quite long gaps at the beginning and end of my clips so that I could easily get rid of me telling my model to start and stop as well as any camera clicks. The harder part was cutting down some of my clips to make sure that they'd fit! I took around 20 clips of different ideas and in my final video I only used 9 including my fills. In order to cut down my clips I used the "Blade" tool. I placed it where I wanted to cut it and pressed, splitting the clip in two. I could then delete the part of the clip that I didn't need.
I decided to experiment with my video a little bit and so I decided to reverse my dancing section of it so that it played backwards.To do this I clicked on the clip and then to "Reverse Clip", which was a lot easier than I was expecting. Looking at it there's only a few moments when you can tell that it's been reversed and it adds another element to my video.
Although it was sunny when I took my video it looked a bit dull and grainy once I'd uploaded it. Therefore I increased it's saturation and midtones to make it brighter and more professional. It took a lot of time to do this however as I had to get the levels just right so that it didn't look overly edited or distorted.
Possibly the hardest part of finishing my video was putting a song over the top. I removed the audio from my clips and chose to use "One Way or Another", the One Direction Cover, as it fits in with the One Direction element at the beginning of my video. However, the song I wanted to use was 2:37 and so it needed cutting down. I uploaded my song and placed it over. I then cut out the middle verses using the blade tool, leaving only the first verse, chorus and the final chorus. I sped up the first verse by fitting it to the clips which led up to the dance, which is almost the climax of my video, so that it could all play but faster than the original version. I then left the chorus at it's normal pace as it fitted perfectly in time with the dance clip, which I think is more luck than anything else! In order to round my video off I put the final chorus as my model was going back upstairs so that they both finished at the same time which I thought was a good conclusion.
To edit my video I used Final Cut Pro, which is a programme I've never used for so it was quite a daunting prospect for me at the beginning.
The first thing I needed to do after uploading my footage and putting it in the right order was to cut it down as it was around 6 minutes long. I left quite long gaps at the beginning and end of my clips so that I could easily get rid of me telling my model to start and stop as well as any camera clicks. The harder part was cutting down some of my clips to make sure that they'd fit! I took around 20 clips of different ideas and in my final video I only used 9 including my fills. In order to cut down my clips I used the "Blade" tool. I placed it where I wanted to cut it and pressed, splitting the clip in two. I could then delete the part of the clip that I didn't need.
I decided to experiment with my video a little bit and so I decided to reverse my dancing section of it so that it played backwards.To do this I clicked on the clip and then to "Reverse Clip", which was a lot easier than I was expecting. Looking at it there's only a few moments when you can tell that it's been reversed and it adds another element to my video.
Although it was sunny when I took my video it looked a bit dull and grainy once I'd uploaded it. Therefore I increased it's saturation and midtones to make it brighter and more professional. It took a lot of time to do this however as I had to get the levels just right so that it didn't look overly edited or distorted.
Possibly the hardest part of finishing my video was putting a song over the top. I removed the audio from my clips and chose to use "One Way or Another", the One Direction Cover, as it fits in with the One Direction element at the beginning of my video. However, the song I wanted to use was 2:37 and so it needed cutting down. I uploaded my song and placed it over. I then cut out the middle verses using the blade tool, leaving only the first verse, chorus and the final chorus. I sped up the first verse by fitting it to the clips which led up to the dance, which is almost the climax of my video, so that it could all play but faster than the original version. I then left the chorus at it's normal pace as it fitted perfectly in time with the dance clip, which I think is more luck than anything else! In order to round my video off I put the final chorus as my model was going back upstairs so that they both finished at the same time which I thought was a good conclusion.
Friday, 6 September 2013
Locations
Now that I've chosen my film idea I need to come up with a location/s.
I've already chosen to stay within a home and so my ideas are:
- Living room
- Conservatory
- Garden
- Kitchen
- Bedroom
- Hallway
IDEA CHANGE
I decided that my original idea of filming a cat or dog could actually turn out to be pretty difficult as neither my cat or dog will stay still for more than 5 seconds. Therefore, changing my idea would benefit me.
I spend quite a while rethinking my idea and decided on 'A Day in The Life of A Teenage Girl'. As a teenage girl myself it'll be my advantage focussing on this as I'll be able to refer to stereotypical things that a teenage girl would do in their average day.
I've chosen to make comedy based so that it's amusing to the viewer as well as slightly more fun to film. It will also make editing and song choice more interesting if I chose to use them.
I spend quite a while rethinking my idea and decided on 'A Day in The Life of A Teenage Girl'. As a teenage girl myself it'll be my advantage focussing on this as I'll be able to refer to stereotypical things that a teenage girl would do in their average day.
I've chosen to make comedy based so that it's amusing to the viewer as well as slightly more fun to film. It will also make editing and song choice more interesting if I chose to use them.
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