Thursday, 17 February 2011

The Editing Process

After I finished filming all of the footage over a period or around 2-4 weeks overall I started editing on 9/12/10 .

I created a plan of where to put certain footage after it has been captured into Final Cut Pro and this in the long run helped me a lot when decided what footage to put where as it was very easy to search .

So I started of by putting all of the clips captured into Bins which are folder but within Final Cut Pro .

I had 6 Folders

Chase Footage
London Footage
Greensceen Footage
Back Drops
Outside My House
Street Footage

During the importing process I went through each clip and placed it into one of these several folders .

After this I then starting putting clips into the timeline based on how I wanted in to look like . I had always planned to have London footage in my introduction as I wanted the Red Bus to have the text of the song name ' Last One Standing '

I completed my rough cut in the matter of around 3 hours but certain things needed to be added such as visual effects , sound effects , more advanced motion editing and tittles . All of these things would be completed within Final Cut Pro , Motion 4 and Soundtrack Pro to create everything what I wanted to achieve for my video .

After completing my rough cut I started slowly correcting small things that I felt were out of place and fixing certain slight timing issues that were wrong .

I then started working on the effects such as the tracking on the tittles 'Last One Standing' on the number plate of the taxi which just only took around 2 hours to complete to the way I wanted it to look .

After finishing of the titles I then started on the green-screen work which took several hours to complete to a high standard.

All of the green-screen work was completed in Motion 4 for a professional quality look . After finishing of the effect in motion it was then moved over to Final Cut Pro for placement editing so I could put it in order of the song . To do this in a correct way takes a long time to achieve .

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Evaluation Questions

Evaluation :

In what ways does your media product use , develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ?

My media product represents real media products in a similar way to completed music video in real video production
One Convention I decided to use was the quick overall cuts that create brilliant tension and excitement within each frame of the music video . The genre of my music video can be considered rap as the singer Example has the certain style about him that most rapper do in the music industry as a whole . As rap within the music industry is quite popular I had to follow similar conventions in my music video to make my video as successful as other popular rap videos . So quick cuts were used and lip syncing in different locations which really gave my music video a very special edge to an extent . The narrative in my video is quite simple where a man doesn't pay for his cab and throughout the whole video there is a chase on which leads to the storyline of the video to the last one standing who turns out to be the bad guy in a way as he committed an offence . This can also be seen as a slight role reversal as normally most story lines finish as the good guy being the winner and everything finishing on high note overall , this is where my video is different .

My Artist is heavily involved in a lot of the scenery that takes place within my video . For example he is used as the man running away from the cab which very much sets the whole storyline . This makes my artist have a on screen relationship with my audience as the audience can relate to him more as he is the main character in the narrative . In my video I wanted people to put the artist first before anyone else or even the music video itself . By doing this it means people / audience who watch the video will regonise the talents of the Artist . If my music video did not contain the artist then the relationship is lost between the audience and the artist which is massive in terms of reputation for the artist . This also allows the artist to have his own trademark within the industry . For example Michael Jackson and the 'Moonwalk' everyone knows the Moonwalk as Michael Jacksons move .

The way in which I developed my music video was by use of certain color contrasting techniques , special visual effects and by using of creating a particular look of green screen image . In my music video I have created a contrast effect where I make the bus red and take away the color of the whole background . I did this to make the bus stand out in the crowd and make it the main image for the audience . I also used certain visual effect with my artist by making him on the screen in several different costumes at the same time which took a while to complete to the way I wanted .

My aim of producing this music video was to keep the audience 'on there toes' and keep them unsure about how the video would end . This is so there will be tension passed on to the audience as thought my music video my ending will never become predictable to them at any stage . I did this by creating crescendo type of feel near the end of my music video . Which involved a serious of reaction shots and close up's so the audience can gather a greater insight to my artists body language .


How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts ?

The main storyline of my music video is that of a chase that goes on thought my music video which has an unpredictable ending to the audience . Therefore I wanted to illustrate this in my digipack by using certain images of what I feel is the most important storyline image of my music video which is the beginning of the chase.

In my digipack I decided to not use any shots near the ending of my music video .I choose to do this because I didn't want my audience gaining any insight in to what may happen at the end of my music video before even watching it . I want my music video to have a special feel towards it of complete unexpectancy to the audience and by adding picture of this it would ruin the ability to do this .

In within my digi-pack there was also the tittle of my song and the lyrics on the song . To be able get my audience to fully understand and comprehend my music video I decided to print the lyrics and contain with my digipack .

The front image on my digi pack contained the artist and the taxi driver who are the two main characters within my music video as the taxi driver is chasing my artist as he didn't pay the fair . So I feel that the most important characters should be on the front cover from the start so the audience can retain my target of my storyline.
The shot from the front cover of the digipack was taken using my SONY HD Camera in the park .

In order to create a professional digi pack it is vital to use the best possible equipment and so I used Adobe In Design on the state of the art iMac's .

In order to promote interest in my artist there is information relating to his background and history and his accomplishments in his long term career .


What have you learned from your audience feedback ?


The feedback I have had from people that have seen my video has been interesting and overall very constructive . The main positives I have had was that the music I choose was current and very relevant to the theme . The use of overall color and color contrast retained the audience interest and built the crescendo to the end of the video .

The many different visual effects illustrated the use of the main character in the story . Several people commented on the fact that the certain backdrops I used with my artist in after being green screened in were very impressive because they seemed to be very real and stood out as a result .

People also commented on the fact that the locations I used within my music video could be seen as locations used by the local community and this was a storyline that could take place in any local community and this helps my audience relate to the video as a result .

I also had constructive criticism that I could have prepared my camera shots in better positions and therefore the angle of the shot would have been better . Also a few people suggested that the cuts before certain choruses could have been better to achieve an even greater crescendo before the chorus occurred .

Also possibly I could have chosen another actor to be my artist as my artist lack real expression to his body language and the audience lacked a small bit of trust within the artist . Also the audience did not always notice my artist mouth opening full with some words .

Overall I am delighted with the positive' and appreciate consturcutive criticism that I have received which I will ensure I take on board for my next project .


How did you use media technologies in the construction and research , planning and evaluation stages ?

Thought the making of this video it was interesting to me how the use of media technologies became so beneficial to me in the construction , research and planning . stages . In order to build this video it was vital to use the most efficient and up to date software and equipment available . Whilst at school we were able to make use of an iMac , the tripod , the greescreen , a lighting kit and the camera it was hugely beneficial to me to be able to use my own equipment which allowed me to use extended time in the construction of the video . The software at school was Final Cut Pro and Adobe In Design which personally I did not need because I had both of these software packages on my iMac at home . At home I had a running iMac which had Final Cut Stdio running on it which allowed me to edit into the long hours of the night . Also I Used a software pacakge called Motion 4 to help me create very clever visual effects on the greescreen .

The kind of things I needed to research in the making of this video was background information on the artist , to include other songs he has written and performed . I also wanted to look at other music video's to gain a greater in sight on how to prepare and construct my music video . For the background information on the artist I used Wikipedia where I was able to view and understand his biography which is on my blog and also on my digipack . I also you used the internet to access Youtube which allowed me to look up and understand other music videos out there and by the same artist to gain ideas for my music video .

In the planning stages of my music product I made extensive use of my blog . On my blog I listed all of the requirements that I needed to effectivlty produce a successful music video . This turned out to be a vital tool to me in creation of my music video as I was able to refer to it constantly thought the making of my music video .

I was able to use the blog to assist me in planning the information which I wanted to include in the digipack such as Background information on the artist . I also used Microsoft Word in order to create a professional looking shooting schedule in order to keep organised and stay in track of time . The shooting scheldue came a work in progress enabling me to be flexible and plan different shots according to various conditions such as the weather or an other serious commitments .

In order to evaluate this project I used Microsoft Word in order to create questionnaire to be filled out by the audience so I could gain valuable feedback about my music video

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Editing Process

After we finished all of the filming and then decided to slowly build up the editing process

I personally believe that you should never decide to edit any footage before you have filmed completely filmed everything together because if you start editing early you may need to put footage in that you filmed at a later date which makes things a lot more confusing and the editing process lot harder .

I first started editing at 9am and ended editing around 4pm with 20 minutes brakes every few hours .

I started off with the most simple ruff cut possible to make things easy to understand in my mind .

There are several processes that you have to include while your editing .

First of all the rough cut needs to be completed so that took time and then after completing the rough cut

After completing the rough cut I worked on the special effects and tried to create a visual image in my head on how to plan them .