Rough Cut Progress

So far our rough cut editing has been going well and we have been very pleased with our progress. We have now realised how our previous experiences with lip syncing practice have been particularly useful as we know how important this is in making our video look authentic and have a high quality final effect.

All group members have had a large input at this weeks production meetings and by combining all our ideas and skills with the footage we have managed to produce 1.30 minutes of high quality video.

When it comes to our final cut we have a few details we are considering changing, for example:
- the lighting on certain layers of the split screen needs to be adjusted
- we also need to adjust the shot to make the ground level, as at the moment its slightly tilted
- the borders between the shots on the introduction could be possibly removed.
- add the zoom effects onto the singers lips in the introduction.
- add effects to the narrative sequence. For example, reversing the footage, increasing speed etc

We are also thinking ahead for the future for the production of our DVD cover and poster and have been brainstorming ideas based on the behind the scenes photographs we took whilst filming. For example, the shots involving the two characters and the car.

Currently we feel that we have a sufficient amount of footage but this could possibly change.

Album Ideas: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What I'm Not

I chose to analyse The Arctic Monkeys album cover as they are an indie band, and that is the type of music we have made our video to. The band is an all boy band and the music is mostly fast paced with many guitar and bass solos. The boys are all messy and the style of clothing is edgy and indie, with skinny jeans, shirts and messy hairstyles. Although the Arctic Monkeys dont have a leading female singer, I thought their music was similar to Be Your Own PET - Girls on TV.

The album cover is interesting because the band arent on the picture and the photo of the man doesnt indicate anything about the album. It is totally random but it somehow has relevence as, to me, it shows the man being a rebel by smoking when everybody knows its bad for you. I think the Arctic Monkeys have chosen this image to show they dont care and just want to have a good time and do what they want, and the man in this photo demonstrates this perfectly.

The black and white effect is effective because its different and shows the simplicity of the photo. It makes all the attention go straight to the man in the photo and also works well with the text which is also in black and white. If there was colour there would be too much going on and would look slightly messy, so they have done the right thing. It also makes the album cover look old, as if it was taken with a camera that is years old, as when photos were first taken they were all in black and white. It adds a touch of vintage to the cover and shows that the boys have wanted to make it edgy.

The background is also simple; it looks like grey curtains, which also shows the minimalist effect. It works well with the man in front as it looks as if he is in contrast to it due to the brightness on him.

In conclusion, it looks like a low budget album cover as it is minimalist and looks as though there haven't been any effects used, therefore it is successful as it is memorable without having to do much to it or change it in any way.

Editing for Rough Cut

We have now begun our editing process. During the last few lessons we have been watching our footage (which is in total 26 minutes long) and working out which shots we need for the music video and where we need to put them. We have a good idea of where to put our shots as we have our storyboards and shot lists to guide us. As some of the shots were on a running camera, we had to cut a lot of the shots to make sure we gave some variety to our video, and doing this means we are cutting down our footage but still ensuring that we have plenty to play around with.

Poster and DVD cover Pictures

While filming we also took some photo's that we could use for our poster and DVD cover which is also an element of our coursework. These are the photo's that we took and will look through and edit later:

Filming

During our filming we took a few pictures to show the progress. We had a bit of trouble because there was building work going on, this caused a few cars to drive across our shot, meaning re-shooting a few scenes.

It was also really really cold, so we had to do costume and make-up inside our cars.
Also after shooting when we looked through our footage we thought that the lighting was too bright, in final cut we will put a filter over the footage to make it look darker in the day.

Test Footage Of Intro

Here is test footage of what we plan to do for the introduction of our video. The still pictures will be video's of the actual performance when it comes to the final cut.

Panic! at the disco - I write sins not tragedies

I have chosen this video to analyse because the costumes are the sort of thing we are hoping to dress Tom in. There are mimes, each with different looks; some look scary, some eerie, some sad etc. We are hoping to pick a mime and make Tom look as close to it as possible.
The first shot of the band member is a close up from above, looking down on him from under the hat. We are thinking of introducing a shot into the shot list of Tom doing a similar thing, with the similar kind of shot. The whole theme of the music video is eerie and we are hoping to achieve this with Tom as closely as we can. When I thought of a video that would show different types of costumes and clowns to give us inspiration I thought of this video. There is a wide range of styles and make up techniques we could use so we have a variety to choose from for Tom.
In the video, the mimes are all happy in the beginning. Then as things start to go on and chaos arises their make up is changed and they are made to look sad. We are looking to do this with Tom to show the different types of emotions through the music video; as he will have a lot of paint on his face, there will be no other way to show his emotions then to keep wiping off then reapplying face make up with a different emotion on it. This will be quite difficult and time consuming but it will look effective, just like it does in this video.
The close up shots in Panic! at the disco's video make it easier to see how to achieve the look and use the make up effectively, and it will be easier to do it stage by stage, slowing down the youtube video so we can see exactly how the make up was used in the music video so we can use it for Tom.