Music Video Milestone: First Edit

I have now completed the full 3 minutes of my music video. Additions from the two minute mark: Footage of a car driving down a road is mirrored and is sped up and played backwards and forwards. This footage is graded purple which is a recurring colour in my music video. After this there is sort of montage of time lapsed cloud and trees, a murmuration of birds in the sky and time lapsed smoke pouring out of a chimney. All of this footage changed colour and hue in time to the music and when the piano keys in the music fade so does the grading (by using key frames in Adobe Premiere Pro). Kinetic typography spells out the lyrics in the same way that has been done in previous parts of the video. 

Amongst this montage and as the music slows down is footage of a girl which is mirrored and changes with the drum beat (in a similar way to the aeroplane composition). The grading is dull and darkened, the girl looks back into the camera as she walks away (looking into the camera is conventional only to music videos) and the lyrics of the song at this point is "get the [fuck] out my house". It is for all of these reasons that my peers have told me that the girl seems angry or annoyed or even assertive.  I haven't attempted to encode this part of the video in any particular way. The only way in which I want this section to be encoded is through gender balance; I have already featured males in the music video so I wanted to give females a relatable point in the video because the genres of electronic dance music are dominated by male disk jockeys and producers. Therefore they could seem to exclude females. This is an issue that arose in my target audience survey. Many women in the survey said that they do not like the sexualisation of women in music videos. I have been sure to address this issue in my video. If the audience reads the representation of this girl as assertive then it is a better representation than what is usual for music videos (especially dance music), objectifying or passive.

The very last part of the music video is made up of a kaleidoscope, in which features a graphic of the word BUNK repeated over and over. This is an intertextual reference (Goodwin) to Jackal's DJ collective, Bunk Collective. Many of Jackals more dedicated fans will know this, but other fans or audience members won't. I aim to create this kind of confusion as a sort of promotional stunt. I want people to ask 'what is bunk?' and they will then research it, leading them to further information about the artist.

Experimenting with Colour

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Music Video Milestone: 2 Minutes

I have now reached the 2 minute mark in the construction of my music video. The editing is coming along nicely and I think the video had clear structure. Before talking about the new additions to the video, I will talk about the changes that I have made to the existing parts of the video.

I have in fact only made one change to the previous video so far. It was a change suggested by a respondent in my hot desking activity. The person said 'The lyrics that are typed around 00:30 could perhaps be more successful if they were overlaid onto existing footage'. I value this person's opinion as they are also studying media A level so I know that they have adequate knowledge to provide helpful comments. By taking this comment into consideration as a re-watched the original version of my music video, I could completely see what this person meant. This prompted me to alter the way the lyrics here are presented. Originally they appeared on screen over a background of solid colours which dissolved into each other. This was not very stimulating to look at, especially for a house music video such as mine which I aim to use interesting visual graphics in. For this reason I removed the dissolving solid colours and replaced them with mirrored footage of a car driving on a road which also changes colour. I believe this is along the lines of what my peer was inferring in my hot desking feedback. I also believe that it is much more aesthetically pleasing than the original composition.

Now to talk about the new additions. When the compilation of kaleidoscopes finishes at about 1:10 I have added a short section featuring footage of an aeroplane and it's vapor trail in the sky. I have changed the sky purple to add to the manipulated theme of the video. The plane can be seen to change direction, speed and it is mirrored in various ways, changing at each beat of a drum. This is all done whiles the lyrics are typed over the top in the same way as the first set of lyrics. I have made this section because the music becomes momentarily slow. I have emphasised the pace of music which gradually slows down by gradually dissolving the sky from blue to purple.

Next I have emphasised the way in which the pace of music suddenly slows and then dramatically speeds up again by fading the aeroplane composition to black and then introducing a pink circular audio spectrum which visually outlines the music waves. Over the top of this is more kinetic typography which, this time, remain and fill the whole screen until the verse is over.

The last four seconds of this edit features broken up footage of two teenage boys who are seen through a triangle that is cut out of a kaleidoscope. I see this part of the video as a window looking out into the real world from the crazy psychedelic world that is this music video. I chose to blur the footage of the boys because I wanted to get minimal human representation in the video; it is supposed to represent and emphasise a computer generated genre of music. This section of the video was originally not blurred and didn't have any kaleidoscope in it. I thought this made it look too real and I changed this just before uploading.

Audio Spectrum

Kinetic Typography

Hot Desking: Music Video (1 Minute 10 Seconds)

Music Video First Milestone: 1 Minute 10 Seconds

This is the first edit for my music video. As you can see it is rather short and incomplete, and missing about 2 minutes of the songs. This is due to the nature of my production which relies on a lot of experimentation with visual effects and careful synchronisation with the music. This process is, therefore, very time consuming which results in the whole of post production taking much longer. The 'first edit', therefore is just a synoptic demonstration of the finished edited parts of the video which I have uploaded in order to gather some audience feedback.
There are three main parts to the video so far. The first part takes up about the first 30 seconds and it consists of a compilation of footage, edited with the music, which I have experimented with various video effects in Adobe Premiere Pro such as colour correction (RGB) and mirror. The second part is a section involving the first lyrics of the song and it presents my first attempts at using kinetic typography with the lyrics. The final part is a more psychedelic compilation of footage which I have transformed by making a kaleidoscope effect in Adobe After Effects. 
I believe the psychedelic effects and interesting visuals to the first part of my music video will appeal to my target audience, as the video is very similar to suggestions that were made in my audience research survey. This is especially definite because of the way in which the visuals are edited in time to the beat of the music; it puts emphasis on the hard, fast nature of the song which is a defining feature of house music. This all ties in with Andrew Goodwin's theory that a music video convention is to have a relationship between the music and the visuals. This is especially apparent with the kinetic typography, as Goodwin also said, 'there will be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals'.

Kaleidoscope

Experimenting with Mirrors

Telephoto Lens

I have began to test filming with a 55-200m telephoto lens which I have attached to a Canon 600d. This lens is cable zooming 2 times the standard 18-55mm Canon lens. I have also used a Jessops extension lens which allows a further 2 times zoom, totally in 4 times the standard lens.

I plan to use this lens in filming the wide, open countryside, sky and Norwich cityscapes for my music video. This lens allows me to view, in detail, far away objects. I have taken a picture of Hardley Windmill to demonstrate and practice the lens' range. This picture was taken over a mile away from the windmill and as you can see it is still quite detailed.  When practicing with the telephoto lens I have learnt that that it makes the front of the camera quite a bit heavier so it is more likely to weigh itself down when on the tripod so it is important to lock the tripod in place or hold it steady.  As well as this, I realised that when zoomed in to the extreme a small jolt or wobble of the camera is exaggerated which means I must avoid moving the camera quickly when the lens is zoomed in.

Call Sheets

Call Sheet Norwich

Recce Checklists

Recce Checklist Yare

Recce Checklist Norwich

Risk Assessment Forms

Risk Assessment Form Norwich

Risk Assessment Form Mill

Music Video Storyboard

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Seeing as I plan to produce an entirely conceptual, montage style music video for Static (Get Out My House) I found it difficult to design a traditional storyboard because there isn't any real narrative (apart from change in visuals following change in music). So I decided to divide the song into 3 sections, depending on the sounds, lyrics and speed of the music, and construct a mood board for each section (each section is around 1 minute long). The mood boards contain found images of location and shot types that I am planning on using in my music video. This will give me a reference to look back on as I go along and is a useful way of visually producing my ideas. Also, as I have created these mood boards virtually (using thinglink.com) it will allow me to edit them and add new ideas as and when they come to me. Hover your mouse over each individual image to read the link.

The first section is the introduction and build of the song, it is mostly instrumental and the pace is slow and light with a calm mood.  Section 1:

The second section of the song is a lot louder, faster and has heavier bass than the first section also it contains a lot of repetitive lyrics. To link this music change with the visuals I want to speed up the pace of editing and use a lot more visual effects in this section. Section 2: 

The third and final section of the song slows down again and the music and instruments slowly fade out. To form a relationship between this and the visuals I want to make the shots last longer and editing pace slow back down. Section 3:

 

Location Ideas

Green Screen Testing

As a class we decided to test filming in a green screen studio. We did this to practise our skills in front of and behind the camera and also to get more understanding of how to film with green screens convincingly. Some of us already had some experience with using green screen but not in a professional studio. Previously we had to paste an image onto the green backdrop manually using the chroma key tool in Adobe Premier Pro but in the studio we used computers which did this automatically.

When filming with green screens we learnt that it is important to keep the camera still, otherwise it looks like the object in front of the camera is flying around. We also found out that getting the object the right size in relation to the background is vital for the shot to look realistic, this can be done by zooming the camera in or out, or moving it closer or further away.

Music Video Proposal (second draft)

Seeing as Jackal reproduced the song for me (to make it shorter and remove swear words) I have had to re-do the Production Treatment and Proposal. I have added in new ideas, updated the schedules and adjusted the timings of the visuals. With the new drafts of the Proposal and Production Treatment I have a secure base to plan my music video.

Music Video Production Treatment (second draft)

Time Lapse Testing

This short video is an example of time lapsing. Whilst researching the use of the Canon 600d I experimented with the use of the exposure and ISO functions. This video clip's original duration is 15 minutes. I changed the duration in Premiere Pro by 5000% which means it is now 17 seconds and appears to pay a lot faster. This is what a time lapse is. I am planning to use this application in the post production of my music video, so this research exercise has proven extremely useful. The experimentation with the ISO and exposure functions on the camera was beneficial because I found that the higher the exposure was, the brighter the picture came out because it effects how much light the lens lets in. This video has very low exposure because I was filming the sky which produced a lot of light so the lens doesn't need to be too sensitive to light. This meant that the camera was able to see the clouds in detail which gave a nice effect as they moved and transformed across the sky, especially when the film is time lapsed.

Camera Lens Testing

Here is a compilation of several test shots using different styles of camera lens and filter filmed by me and friend, Fraser. Explanation of each lens or filter is in the video. 

 I found that a lot of the filters we tried were not the kind of thing that I am looking for in terms of quality style and effect in my music video. For instance the sand filter did not appeal to me because it hides a lot of the shot, if I want this effect I can create it in post production. Also the multi image lens (as we wrote in the video) is quite retro and 1970s, this is not the style that I am aiming to create with my music video.  I think the reason for my disappointment with these filters is because they are intended for still photography, not filming.  Therefore some of these filters prove inadequate for this project.

Audience Research

In order to create a realistic view of my target audience which I have collected some data using a online questionnaire courtesy of surveymonkey.com. This will aid me in the design of my promotional package, as I now know what my audience want from their musical experience and I can use this information to best market my product. Below is an example of the questionnaire and the results of the survey in the form of infographics. Hover over links for annotations.

UK House Music Audience profile

This my target audience profile for UK House music fans which I created visually on Pinterest.com. I have included examples of common favourite food, drinks, media, clothes/shoes, accessories and pastimes of male and female young people and teenagers, which is the target demographic. This mood board demonstrates the type of person that I must have in mind when planning and constructing my product and I will use it as a reference to remind myself of this.

Final Edited Song Choice

Here is the edited version of Static (Get Out Of My House), the song that I am going to use. Jackal uploaded the new song to the file sharing website Zippyshare.com in order for me to download it. He has shortened it for me as I requested which was a huge help to me because producing a music video for a song which was 4 minutes, 55 seconds would have been a difficult task considering the short space of time that I have to film footage. The new length of 2 minutes, 59 seconds is much more realistic to film and edit a music video for.
  Jackal has added pig snorting and cow mooing sound effects over the swear words that were preventing me for using the song to make a music video for. This helps me get over my problem and adds a little humour to the song which is good for my music video planning because I didn't want my video to seem to be too serious. This also makes the song distinctive because not really conventional to have animal noises in songs. The funny sound effects suit the youth subculture who like humour and like to find ways of deviating from the status quo.

Conversation With the Artist

 

Here are some screen shots of a Facebook message conversation that I had with the artist, Jackal (Jack Wright), about shortening the song Static (Get Out Of My House) from 4 minutes 55 seconds to around 3 minutes and also censoring the swear words that the song contains. I was relieved that Jack was willing to edit the song for me because I have already put a lot of work into planning a music video for this song and of his songs it is the one I would like to produce a music video for the most, the only problem was the swear words and the length.

Music Video Analysis: Tiga

When researching existing music videos that are a similar genre of music to the song of the music video that I am going to produce it is important to look at common themes and styles. Also to try and examine why the directer chose to do what they did in their music video. Looking at music videos from different theoretical perspectives also helps to understand the cinematography and imagery. I have chosen to analyse the music video for Bugatti by Tiga, which is a song from a similar electronic dance music (EDM) genre to Jackal's Static.

Music Video Analysis: Boston Bun

The genre of music that my music video will be is UK jackin' house/garage so I need to do some market research to find out what sort of music video is made for this genre. Being an 'underground' type of genre, meaning niche or catering a small audience, there aren't many UK house/garage music videos. This is because most house/garage songs are not produced by large record labels and therefore don't have the extensive promotional package that comes with mainstream songs. Also this genre is a type of dance music so house/garage songs are designed to be played in nightclubs and not watched on MTV or YouTube. However with the right promotional package, house/garage songs do make it onto the mainstream. Which is why I am going to produce a promotional package for Jackal's song.

Boston Bun is an artist of a very similar genre to Jackal. He makes French nu disco/electro house music. Boston Bun is signed to the French electro house label, Ed banger Records, who are famous for 'post-cartoon' imaging in their music videos. Boston Bun's music video for We Got Soul ft. Bear Who? is particularly interesting because it is entirely computer generated and conceptual but also follows a weird and wonderful sort of narrative (which is a hot-dog walking through a mashed up landscape of famous landmarks and pop culture). Jon Gow (1992) would without doubt fit this music video into the special effects extravaganza category.

Music Video Production Treatment (first draft)

Music Video Proposal (first draft)

Developing Filming and Editing Skills

 Here are some films me and a few other classmates made to demonstrate and practice our continuity editing skills.  Continuity editing is when a shot change looks seamless and the action that is being filmed logically continues as the shot changes. This is quite an easy editing technique to get right, especially if the filming is good quality, and can be quite satisfying to achieve a good sequence of continuity editing.

We experimented with a few different types of shot such as shots using a mirror, low shots and close ups on different parts of the body. It is important for us to practice using different types of shot because they will come in useful in the production of our music videos because music videos often use unusual shots.

Another important part of our filming we learned was to use the 180 degree rule. This is where the camera must never film anything over an imaginary straight line to simulate an audience sitting and watching a stage performance. However in filming our music videos it is okay to break this rule because music videos often defy pretty much all conventions of filming.

During the editing of Toilet Trouble II: The Sickqual we thought about the codes and conventions of music video editing. A basic convention in music video editing is to time cuts and movement with the beat and pace of the music.   We managed to time a lot of the shot changes and titles in time with the beat of the music. One piece of editing we are particularly proud of is the close up of the toilet door locking which is in time with a single piano note at about 0:13.

Song Choice Process

When I needed to find a song to make a music video for i realized that the song needed to be unsigned to a record label or I needed the label's permission to use the song. This is so i can upload the completed music video to YouTube without worrying about it being taken down again by the record label for copyright infringement.  With this in mind I decided to ask my friend who produces music under the alias Jackal. He gave me permission to use his songs and to upload a copy of the song to YouTube.  Jackal usually produces music which fits into the genre of UK house/garage/bass, this is also a genre of music that I am interested in therefore I am happy to make a music video for Jackal.

Here are the song choices that I narrowed it down to: 

This song Space ft. XL-Love has repetitive lyrics, which I am looking for in a song because I think it is important, it is also a nice, short length.

I like Static (Get out Of My House) because, again, it has repetitive lyrics. I prefer it to Space ft. XL Love however it is quite a bit longer so it will be harder to film enough footage to make a music video in the time I have for a song this length. This song also has a few swear words in. This is unfortunate because it is the song that I want to produce a music video for the most. I may have to ask Jackal is he would be willing to edit the song to remove swear words and make it shorter. I Can't Feel ft. XL Love is one of Jackals most popular songs as it featured on the well known House music YouTube channel, Certified Jackin'. It would be a good song for me to use because of the repeated lyrics and interesting beat, which sounds like it would be good to edit in time to. if I choose to use this song I also may also have to ask Jackal if he could shorted it. This song would be my backup option if I am unable to use Static due to the complications.

Song Choice Process: "Repetition invites us into music"

During the thought processes that I have been going through when deciding which song to produce a music video for I came across this TED Ed Lesson, by Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, about the reasons for humans finding repetitive music catchy. I have taken this into consideration when choosing a song because I believe that it will be easier to make a enjoyable music video for a song that is catchy and likable.

As it is backed by psychological research and evidence, I consider the message in this video to be important in helping me understand the cognitions of my audience. After all, I think the psychology of the target audience must be taken into consideration in the research. Also I am beginning to sway toward the House Music genre. Being an electronic dance music genre, House Music is typically repetitive which is probably one of the reasons that it is so popular.

  

The video mentions the psychologist's term 'The mere exposure effect'. This means that being exposed to a certain thing (even if we don't like it) over and over again many times will result in us beginning to like it.  This is relevant will food, shapes, and smells, as well as music.  I believe that this can be applied to the visuals in a music video.

"Repetition connects each bit of music irresistibly to the next bit of music that follows it"

I will base my music video structure around this new knowledge and Andrew Goodwin's (1992) theory that typical music videos have a relationship between the music and lyrics, and the visuals. I plan to produce a music video that has somewhat repetitive visuals (in shots, editing pace, flow of visuals and video effects) which have a relationship with the repetitive music. I am sure this will enhance the song and result in the audience liking it even more.

Music Video Definition

The purpose of a music video is to pride visual accompaniment to a song as part of a promotional package.  Therefore they play an important part in marketing and promotion in the music industry.

'A videotaped performance of a recorded popular song, usually accompanied by dancing and visual images interpreting the lyrics' (Oxford Dictionary).

The development of sound in cinema (talkies or soundies) in the 1930s gave was the beginning of the process which lead to the creation of the music video as we know it today. Especially with musical films such as St. Louis Blues (1929).

The Internet Accuracy Project credits J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson, a disc-jockey and singer, as the first to coin the phrase 'music video', in 1958. Around the same time as promotional video accompaniments to songs started becoming common for the most successful artists such as Elvis Presley (Jail House Rock, 1957).

Music videos gradually came into production in the 1960s by more artists such as The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Then in the 1970s from artists such as David Bowie, Don Williams and Pink Floyd.

It was in the 1970s when BBC's Top of the Pops began showing music videos on televion as well as other programs. In the 1980s to 90s the US television channel, MTV, played a huge part in the increasing popularity of promotional music videos.

Now music videos can be viewed on many television channels but mainly online on websites such as vevo, YouTube and vimeo.  Music videos are a multi-billion dollar industry with production companies such as Seven Pictures and MRB Productions dedicated to making music videos.

Directer Study

Damon Albarn’s music videos for Heavy Seas of Love 2014 and Lonely Press Play 2014 interest me because they are entirely conceptual. He filmed and directed these music videos himself, with editing by Matt Cronin, using his iPad in the different places he visited. I particularly like the way he has superimposed two video clips over the top of each other:

Here Damon has superimposed film of a large red moon and a heptagram against film of waves breaking on a beach. There is no performance or any particular narrative in the two music videos; they are essentially a compilation of footage that appealed to Damon.  I like a lot of other editing techniques that are used in Lonely Press Play such as the mirror effect and the chromatic aberration or refracted light effect:

The genre of these songs is considered to be ‘folktronica’ or ‘trip-hop’ because of the use of electronic sounds and slow tempo. The style of the videos reflect the electronic vibe with the psychedelic visual effects and the slow paced music is complemented by the slow paced editing.

Damon Albarn has influences from a lot of world music. In 2002 Damon produced an album of African music, inspired by an Oxfam trip to Mali, called Mali music and later produced Maison des Jeunes on a returning trip to Mali in 2013. Albarns interest in different cultures from around the world is seen in footage he used in Heavy Seas of Love with a lot of filming seeming to take place in mexico.

The record label which released Heavy Seas of Love and Lonely Press Play on the album Everyday Robots was Parlophone. Who Damon has worked with before with Blur and Gorillaz, so he has had a long relationship with the label. Which means Paraphone were comfortable to let Damon work on the music videos himself. Also he was approached by the label and asked to make a solo album and asked for it to be autobiographical therefore it made sense for Damon to have control over the music videos.

Parlophone has worked with notable artists such as Coldplay and Lily Allen and has given them a lot of say in the production of music videos which shows that it is important for the label to let artists visualise their songs.

Damon’s use of electronic music comes from his work with his band virtual ‘trip-hop’ band, Gorillaz. He co-created the band with Jamie Hewlett who was the illustrator of the band’s characters and music videos. Gorillaz’s electronic music suits their slightly psychedelic cartoon music videos.  I like the use of cartoon images in Gorillaz’s videos, especially the use of cartoon against photographs of streets and buildings in the video for Tomorrow Comes Today.

Transition to A2 Music Video

Our A2 induction project was to film and edit a lip-sync music video. The objective of this task was to introduce us to how filming and editing works and also to get us thinking about the processes and conventions of music videos. Lip-syncing is a basic feature of a music video, with most videos having some aspect of performance it is important to make sure get it right so early practice is important. Another paramount skill we earned when making this demo is using a camera. We used a Cannon 600D and a JVC GY-HM100 ProHD these are quite sophisticated camcorders which you need a bit of practice to master, for example we learnt that it is vital to make sure you focus the camera before each shot otherwise the quality of the video will be poor.

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