Feedback On My Music Video Construction

I have gained feedback on my music video production for Talk You Down. I showed my video to a group of people who could all be a target audience due age. In general the overall feedback was very good with the group commenting on how the video matches/cuts to the beat, the video goes from still images to moving images when the pace of the song picks up and also the video transistions work very well as they correspond with the music and beats. On the other hand the group didn't like the lyrics on the cards as they felt these looked amateurish because they could also see the person holding them. However they did like the lyrics on the card footage due to the movement of the camera. This was because the lyric 'Maybe I Can Talk You' was on one line and the lyric 'Down' was underneath so I use a pan and tilt movement to reveal the word down.

I have taken these comments on-board and I have thought a few alternatives for showing the lyrics visually on the screen. I am going to use letters from a scrabble and I could also use alphabetic fridge magnets. Another option is to write the text on a white board. To do any of these alternative ideas I would take a photo of each letter and keep the framing of the shot exactly the same throughout and then edit these together in Final Cut Express to give me the whole word/lyrics.

Alternative Music Magazine Advertisement

I have created a music advertisement which is different to the one I have been currently working on. I used an image of my cast as the main layer and used the filter-sketch-stamp effect to get this look of the image. I then added text to the design and also my artists music labels, the magazine logo and my digipak front cover. This allowed me to get an overall look of the advertisement and I think it looks very professional and would be appealing to The Scripts target audience.

Ways To Get Lyrics On The Screen

I have been researching ways to get the lyrics from my song choice 'Talk You Down' onto the screen so they are visual as well as audio. Currently all of my lyrics are wrote onto cards and onto paper. I like some of these lyrics the way which I have shown them however it doesn't always look very sharp and eye catching. I like the idea of using fridge magnets to spell out the lyrics or scrabble letters and this would be very easy to do. I also like videos which have computer generated text in them. I could do this by using Livetype and this would look sharp and modern. I will look more into these ideas and I will be likely to use at least one of these.

Altering My Music Magazine Advertisement

These screen shots show me working on my music magazine advertisement. I decided to alter the colours of the pool table (main image), from its original pinky/red colour to a vibrant blue colour. This colour will be more suitable for the band as they are males and pink or red is seen as a more feminine colour. I also think by changing the theme colour to blue it means the music logos are more eye catching.

Filming Using The Clamp Tripod

Today I completed my session of filming. I filmed my female cast member by using the Clamp Tripod, which I had used before to film myself but my female cast member was ill so I framed the shot exactly the same and filmed her. I also got a very high angle shot of her by attaching the camera to the tripod and by holding the bottom of it, which gave me an extremely high angled shot.

Editing A Shot With Effects

This screen print is of me editing my music video by adding in a shot of myself walking past the camera, which I clipped onto the side of a door by using the clamp tripod. From using this piece of equipment I have managed to get the effect of a CCTV image by framing the camera in this way and also by using a canted angled shot. I then desaturated the shot so it was in black and white to make the effect more realistic and also to reflect the mood and feel of the music video. I also wanted to make the image a bit fuzzy and less sharp to try and get the effect of a CCTV camera but I am unsure how to do this so I will research this.

Overlaying Two Shots

These screenshots show two different shots which I have filmed of my female cast member and then a digital clock. At first I just had the digital clock in the shot on its own however I thought that this looked too plain so I added a shot of my female cast member and framed this on the left side of the screen. I think this has worked well because both shots, when filmed had very dark surroundings. This helps to draw all the audiences attention towards the two images on the screen as there is nothing going on in the background.

Identifying Key Parts To Film

During the process of editing my video I have realised from this that I could do with some more footage for various parts of my music video. I will mainly need to film my female cast member as I have noticed that the scenes which I filmed of her during evening hours are not very good because they are to dark and also she is wearing dark clothing so this makes her harder to be seen. I will film on thursday and take these shots again but when it is lighter. I will also use the clamp tripod for some of these shots as I want to get some high angle shots and this will give an effect of a cctv camera depending on the angle of the camera and height of the shot.

Experimenting With Effects And Transitions

This screen shot shows me using effects and transitions to try and make my video look better. I changed the opening shot to black and white because the music is slow at this point and it is also a sad emotion which I am trying to portray. However I think that the scenes look better as it was originally, and this still looks good and gives the impression I wanted it too as I filmed it with a dark background behind my female character.

Editing: Altering The Speed

This screenshot shows me modifying the speed of one of my shots. I did this because I wanted the train in the shot to be faster so it was more suited to the musics speed. To do this I cut the clip into smaller multiple clips so I could change the speed of the sequence by increasing it by stages e.g.; 100%, 150%, 200%, 250%. I think after modifying these scenes the sequence looked but better as it runs in-line with the track.

The Scripts Existing Music Adverts

This is the only existing music magazine advertisement I could find for The Script. I think that this advertisement is quite plain and empty compared to others which I have seen. I believe advertisments which are busier look better as thereis more going on on the page. I do however like the close up shot of the hands and I could use an idea similar to this. When producing my CD Digipak one of my classmates produced me a Digipak of somebodys legs and feet and this may be better suited on a music magazine advertisement. This design also use the same effect of reflection.

Practicing My Music Magazine Advertisement

This is a print screen of me producing a Music Magazine advertisement for The Script. I used my photo of the dartboard and dart and then I added a picture of my cast. I aimed to try and make it look like the picture of The Script had been pinned up to the dartboard by the dart however I still need to work on this. I need to get a separate picture of the dart because the photo of my cast is currently on top on the dart when it needs to be the other way around to make it look realistic. I also added a frame to the picture so it looked like had it been a professional photo.

Taking Photos For Ancillary Task

I have taken some photos for my music magazine advertisement. I took a few photos of a dart board and pool table. I chose to do this because in a couple of music videos from The Script they have a bit of a pub type of atmosphere, eg: drinking, smoking and socialising so I thought this would be a good idea as a theme. I also think this would be suitable because it would be extremely eye-catching due to the bright colours of the pool balls and dart board.

Three Key Priorities Over the Coming Weeks

My three mains tasks to complete over the next few weeks are:

• Complete the remainder of my filming for my music video


• Complete music magazine advertisement


• Continue to edit my video

Postponing Filming

Today I have decided to cancel my session of filming which i'd had planned to carry out and am going to re-schedule for next thursday, this is due to the weather conditions today. I was due to film more point of view shots from the males perspective however I do not want these to be filmed whilst it is dull and raining. I want these shots to be taken in sunlight on a bright day so I then have an alternative option of footage to use in my production istead of the point of view shots filmed at night.

Editing

Today I have continued to edit my music video. I added a shot of a clock which is at 3:00 am and also a couple of shots of a point of view shot from within a car which is traveling through a housing estate. I put this shot in here because it is supposed to connote that the male is searching for the female.

The editing around this part becomes quicker due to the speed of music and I am also planning to leave this footage as I filmed it without any effects when constructing my video. My reasoning behind this is because this footage is bright due to the digital display on the clock which is in an eluminous green colour and also the footage from inside the car travelling down the street because of the street and car lights. This should work well with the darker shots before these and also the change of speed in the music.

Completing My CD Digipak

I have been working on my CD Digipak for my artist which is The Script. I used a range of effects and filters on my images such as poster edges and greyscale. I did this to give the Digipak a more professional look. I used the picture of the Cube in Corby on the front cover, a picture of a set of bollards and also a picture of my cast as The Script.

I aimed to create a 'billboard advertisement' like effect on the front cover. I did this by altering the image of the Cube by desaturating the image so it turn into a black and white image. This made the window on the image turn white, which meant I had a plain background to work on. I then used an image of my cast which I took against a white wall so I could then easily edit this onto the image of the Cubes' window. I added a pixel effect to the image of my cast which made the bottom half of the image pixelated. I then added a text layer onto this image to make it look like a billboard advertisement and I also added a text layer at the top of the front cover in bold white text so it was eye-catching against the darker background.

I used the image of the set of bollards on the back cover because it has a good depth of field to the image as the bollards run from the foreground into the background. I also like the bold blocks of colours on the wall in the background.

I decided for the inside cover I'd have one image of my cast stretched across both inside covers and I also included the groups name in a signature like font on the right cover. The CD tray will also be on the right of the inside too. I used the poster edges effect on the inside image so it almost gave a stamped effect of my cast.

Filming & Uploading

My filming last night, of a cigarette burning away in an ash tray went well. I first filmed the cigarette lit and burning away. This looked good because I framed the shot so there was a black table in the background so the smoke could be seen. I then filmed the cigarette once it had burnt out. I will now upload the footage and add some of these scenes to my music video production.

Continuing To Film For My Video

I am planning to film for my music video on Wednesday 4th January. I am going to film a single cigarette in an ash tray which I will use in the chorus. This shot will correspond with the lyrics and will also be representation of the people in the music video as they are also single because they break up.