Editing Pop Video

During the process of editing we have spent so far 2 weeks and around 20 hours on the whole editing process. All in all our group magaged the editing we as we all had a go at editing, some morethan others due to time spaces but we managed to each have a fair chare overall. Working in both our media lessons, free time and prep time.
The equipment that we used to edit or pop video was a software called 'Final Cut Pro' with accoasional adobe after effects. This software is one that we have all used previously do shoot not only or pop thriller but also our preliminary task in AS so each one of us had a fair understanding of what we had to do. Final cut pro is a software produced by apple that is for editing and composing media videos of all types, it is particually easy to use and we develop or videos using mac's.

The whole process of the diting is usually guided by the storyboard, as our storyboard was different to out final idea, we had to change the way we did it and just build up on it. This became to be easier that we had first anticipated as it allowed us to be more free willing with what we wanted to do and aslo to experiment further with various different shots.
Here is the link for the Hurtwood House Media youtube page, the music videos will be up in January which includes our video This Little Kitty By The Toy Hearts.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hurtwoodhousemedia

Our groups aims in terms of selling our pop video and establishing the brand/image were to make them appear similar to the type of music that they wrer, as oput group was a 'bluegrass' genre of music they had to be dressed appropiate so that the audience immediatly realised the type of video they were going to watch. We also decided to use mire shots of the girls as they were more vusually pleasing to llok at on camera althought the banjo, to our suprise looked highly pleasing on camera and as a result we used more shots of thouse 3 than of the other band members, this wasnt beacsue of personal prefrence but merely because they looked better on camera.

These are some screen grabs from our pop video so far .....

Story Of The Pop Shoot Day

For the pop shoot day on Monday 22nd November, our group all met in the studio to discuss the days plan. Whilst the lighting team set up the appropiate lighting from our lighting plan we all collaborated with Luc and talked about the initial idea that we were going to do and what was needed from each group member. I voluntered myself to do the play back, which is when you get the music to the right time frame depending on the shot, i had to say ' playback in 3,2,1' then start the music. Whilst waiting for the band to arrive we then started to set up the set, adding chairs and props where needed. Once the band had arrived we then directed them to an appropiate place for them to get changed and make-up done. The band brought along there own clothes and make-up artist which made the day alot smoother for the band and us. The roles that each production group memeber had was divided and shared between us all.. because our set was closed of due to the way of shooting, only one member of our group was allowed into the set whist the other 3 either did playback, photography or lookig after the bands belongings. For a majority of the day me and Josh Gorman shared the roles of playback and photography and Ben Norris and Josh Jackson shared the role of filming and 'watch out', although we did all in turn get to help out with shooting, these were the main roles of each. The cameras that we used was Sony NX5 with a wide angle lense. Throughout the performacne we didnt do any tracking shots as our camera was spinning in circles, as to subvert the stereotypical image of a music video. Doing this process was quite hard, but the overall outcome of it was very interesting to watch. After this we established fixed positions for the band members under the five pools (spots) of light surrounding the camera, and used electrical green tape to mark these positions. We ran a brief test run with members of the crew whilst standing in the markers to identify any problems with the camera and to see if the spots that we had allocated would work. Once all of this was finalised and ready we then did the following

• Shot a wide of the whole band, whole song. We then repeated this but got the band members to move around behind the camera and switched positions so that when the camera had done a 360° rotation - there was someone else in the same position. This proved fairly difficult as sometimes people weren’t in position before the camera reached them again or they had not stuck to the markers and were not in sufficient light.


• Shot of the whole band, mid shot


• Close-Up of whole band/whole song


• Fiddle Player


• Guitarist


• Banjo


• Lead Singer


• Introduced the Jukebox with the band playing in front of it


• Shot mid of whole band, whole song


• For the final shot, we constructed a raised stage and hung stage like lights that flashed consecutively above, and positioned cinema like seats in front with extras sat in them to simulate a ‘gig’ atmosphere. Problems that we cencountered on the day were things such as, playback timing. Sometimes we needed to change the timing of the playback, i.e instead of playing the track from the begining, t needed to be from 2:35 etc. . in order for us to get the right shot. Other problems that we encountered were that only one of our group memebers was allowed into the set to shoot, whilst the others had to stay outside in order for the shots to be done easily. Other problems were that the band was slightly late which therefore meant that we had to wait a little bit longer and also p[ossibly shoot later in the day than initially expected.

Shots that i felt worked were the final shot with the band playing and an audience looking up atthem and also the shots of the 'bar' to give it a more reaslistic approach. It fitted very well with the music, as there is a feeling of movement throughout the song.

Another shot or sequence that i felt worked well, was the close up shots of the various band members and instruments, as they are not conventional 'band' instruments, including a banjo, fiddle and a double bass. Due to the song being rather fast paced, it meant that the shots were very tight and the image it brought of was very successfull.

A shot that maybe didnt work as well was the close-ups when on the stage and also some of the close-ups of the double bass as well, for me wernt as succesfful as the others as some of the shots were shaky and also slightly out of range , as you could only see someof what was actually being played. And i think if we did this another time then i would change that.

Overall i was very happy how the day went, the band were alot of fun to work with. The overall feel before the day was quite hesitant due to use loosing our initial location a week befoe, we were slightly worried about thisidea and outcome, but having said that the day couldnt haver gone better.

‘The structure of the music industry & how my pop video fits in”

Musical taste can be a controversial topic, almost at the point of tribalism. Music is at the epicentre of culture. Not only to the extent that an individual can derive a sense of identity, but also that music can completely change a global community. It is continuous because not only does it define personality, lifestyle and popularity, but also signifies it as well. However all commentators agree that music has its trends, from social groups i.e. Goths, Jocks, Dancers and Politicians to people more influenced by other forms of music, they all have a link between them. Some critics believe that music and industry are in many ways incompatible term, this could be because it Is seen as industry V art, and that a lot of today’s music is commercial and not from proper ‘ethnic’ backgrounds. They want artists to have to work for the job/talent that they have rather that just being given it in a sense.

It is the dynamic tension that exists between the artistic and commercial forces of underpinning the success of this vast media business. It can be seen as a tension between the organic and synthetic e.g. the band that our group is doing ‘Toy Hearts’ is an organic band because they are ordinary people, wear there own clothes whilst performing or shooting a music video and an ‘On your own’ band, whereas bands such as spice girls and girls aloud are synthetic because they have been ‘manufactured’ chosen because not only there vocal ability but also there image i.e. height, weight, hair, colour etc.. As well there are TV shows that show such qualities such as Simon Cowles ‘X Factor’.
Another feature to consider is the music industry synthetic connections with other media alliances, such as with our band we would ideally like them to perform on Jules Holland, although this is possibly not as realistic, it is something that we would probably aim for.

Although the pop video is only one strand of an often multimedia campaign, it is also a very important factor to consider from an image and marketing point of view. This is when we use the likes of synergy.
Within the music industry there are also different trans national corporations such as
• Universal
• Sony/BMG
• Warner Bros
• EMI

These are known as MAJORS, these are the companies that will support/sign big bands such as Rhianna, Take That, Eminem and Miley Cyrus. They will be willing to spend more on marketing and more on the production of their music video. Spending up to £/$500 million on one shoot. Most of these ‘Majors’ own a licence of a string of smaller subsidiary companies in order to explore different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genres.
These would be called ‘Major Independents’. These would spend money but not as much as ‘Majors’ maximum being about $/£50,00 and would include artists such as Lilly Allen, Amy Winehouse and Mumford and Sons. Finally there are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors, and these would often focus on a small number of artists, within specialised niches in the industry. These are called ‘ Independants’

The industry as a whole has a complex relationship with a number of different media purposes,
• Radio
• TV
• Print Media (Newspapers, Magazines etc …)
• Film
• New Media (youtube.com etc …)

This is the idea of selling the band, marketing it so well that everyone wants a ‘piece’ of it. Brand of the Band . This idea would look at the process of synergy and symbiosis, synergy looking at the energy between different medias and symbiosis looking at how to establish a band that is true.

Current threats to the music videos of today are things such as
• Internet- Downloading
• Manufactured programmes with live feeds where it woukd be a live stream of a concert and member of the public would pay a sum of money such as £10 to watch.
• Music television becoming more mainstream such as MTV

But to us this puts us at an advantage, where we are getting to listen and watch are favourite bands for free or for a smaller sum of money that paying them directly. Although this is a real strain on the music industry to make money, especially with programmes such as dirpy.com and limewire.#



Miley Cyrus projects her image -

CALL SHEET IMAGES

These are some scanned images of our call sheet -

CALL SHEET

The call sheet is the most vital thing in the whole production of a music video. It has every peice of information in the pack possibly needed. It helps the production team and cast members know what will happen on the day and is also good for any information that the group will need to refer to. Each memebr of a group and cast as well as the production managment team gets a copy of the call sheet.

The contents of the call sheet is -

1. Title Page (Name of song, date of shoot, names of production group)


2. Contents Page


3. Production Team


4. Cast List


5. Equipment List


6. Studio Set Plan


7. Set Desin


8. Lighting


9. Props


10. Wardrobe


11. Lyrics


12. Schedule


13. Shot List

Attached are scanned images of our groups call sheet -

AFTER DISCUSSIONS WITH THE BAND

After having feedback from the band via email, they told us some music veidos that they particulary liked and were inspired by for there pop video. One of which was Mumford And Sons song Little Lion Man.

Above are the set design and lighting design plans that we developed to go with our ideas, and the groups idesas for the pop video. These plans tried to give the director and camera man a solid idea of a physical layout that we need to make the pop video work.





We then got an idea of what kind of set the band would like, this lead us to look at places such as.

Unfortunattly, as with the other places there was no success as stated in previous blogs.
We therefore discussed, with 'Dan' a professional set design technician, pottentially recreating a similar 'feel' with our studio. We played him the song so that he could get an idea of what it was about and the overall feel of the atmosphere. He offered us the idea of buying to scale plastic moulds, cast in recogniseable theatre architecture such as columns, which we could paint and dress the set with. He agreed with our lighting plan, and although we were making a steadily progress, we all knew we would not be able to achieve what we could with the location. Luckily, there was good news from Dan a couple of days later, that he had found a lactaion and was free of charge and just what we were looking for.

CAMERA TEST- TOY HEARTS

A camera test is a run of the band playing in order for us to see if they will 'look good' on camera and to give the director and producers clarification as to whether the video has been corectly cast.

For our pop viodeo we are lucky to be shooting a 'real' pop band, instead of us having students to mime the lyrics for a song we have a band with the bands song. We will be producing a music video for there new song 'This Little Kitty'

we have found performance and promo, images and videos of the band.

NEW LOCATION

Location is one of the main important things to consider when making video of any kind.
Without the location you wouldnt be able to make a video, so the importance is pretty basic.

The group contacted a number of possible locations,however this was more difficult than we had anticipated. For a start the date was an issue for us as many places weren't available for that date, due to this we encounterd a number of problems. Another problem that we encounterd was the cost, where we would have to make a settlement for location we needed.
We also found that some locations were not willing to let us use the location due to our status as students rather than big production companies in which could promote them as a business.

Below is a list of locations we contacted, all of which turned our request down:

Wilton's Music Hall, London


The Barn Theatre, Oxted


The King's Theatre, Southsea


New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth


Cranleigh Arts Centre, Cranleigh



Here is a copy of an email in which we wrote to The Barn Theatre, Oxted:




To Whom It May Concern,

I am a student from a sixth form college in Surrey and am studying Media A2 level. For our coursework in the A2 year we are required to shoot a pop video, for our video we are shooting a band called They Toy Hearts who are an up and coming band who have just got home from touring in America. I am working in a production team of four people in total. I have visited the Barn Theatre recently to watch The Happiest Days Of Your Life and really liekd the look of the theatre and think it would look really good in our video. We would like to shoot the video on the 22nd November for a whole day. I would just like to know how much it would cost and what conditions you have. A quick response would be greatly appreciated so we can make alternative arrangements if necessary.

Thanks
Josh Gorman

We did however, eventually gain access to a good location named Grange Park. We got access to this through our Lighting Director, who works for them several months of the year in the opera house. Grange Park is located just outside of Winchester in a rural area. It is an old grand house with a derelict interior,t his is exactually the location that we were looking for to shoot in. The exterior of the house looks very typically English, which in a way is subverting the image of the band. We are visiting the location on the 5th November.

Here are some exteriror shots of Grange Park

SET DESIGN PLAN

Set designs are also important for the set designer, it allows them to see what is going to be feathured in the set and how many (if needed) flats we would need, spacing. It also shows the props and layout so they can see what they need to do and what we need to do as well as getting an overall feel of what we as a group are going to do.

When drawing the set plan we had to go into alot of detail, it proved to be quite a challange for us as each individual thought of differnt things. We drew the props that we would need, the look/feel that we were trying to portray and the places of all the band members when performing.
We had to be very articulate about where the band members would be placed and whether when shooting a long shot, that they would be seen. We created a brief about what else may be included in the set and possible props that we may have needed. We also needed to state what kind of mood we wanted to create and what kind of feeling we wanted to be portrayed.

Unfortunately, because our locations kept changing due to accessibility and other external factors we did several set design plans. But attached is a copy of our final design.

LIGHTING PLAN

A lighting plan , like anyother plan is vital to the team. It shows the set designer what lighting is appropiate for the shoot and how its going to light up the bands face. It also shows the arrangment and location of the lights so the design team know where to place which light where. it is vital becuase of external and internal shots, for outside there might be daylight or a strong light at night, whereas in a studio it would purely have to be conventinal light.


Due to our group changing the location quite frequently this presented us with some issues as to what lighting plan should be made, to either do one for each location that we had thougth of our one for our inital idea.

our lighting will be either low key or high key. it may have different effects such as a red tint or silhouetted. In our music video we wanted a low key lighting style, to create a more seductive but also edgy look, this could be portrayed by a red tint to it. This means we will need tints on the redheads we use. For our video in the studio we were thinking if using 3 redheads in the form of a flood, spot and fill. We also plan to silhouette the other 2 members of the band. and the idea of placing spotlights on the female members of the band to illuminate adn hightlight their faces as they are more aestetically pleasing and look attractive on screen.

Attached is a copy of our lighting plan

MY STORYBOARDS - This Little Kitty By Toy Hearts

STORYBOARD

Storyboards are vital. In the storyboards we worked out the types of shots we were going to use, camera angles, the colours and shapes, the mise en scene, the camera movements, the framing and the way we would edit. So in the storyboar we work ebverything out, we plan, we test, in the real world the storyboard artist costs alot less per day than the £1 million plus that the movie would cost.

So woth our storyboard we are trying to visulize, to work out what is on screen. If it works we will then shoot it and then we will edit it together just like putting a puzzle together.
Unfortunattly our plan kept changing from our timeline to our storyboard. This meant our storyboard kept changing right up to the day of filming.

The storyboard builds on the timeline to visualise the shot and work out what lyrics would go well ith what shot and the timing for each shot that works with the image and lyrics. The storyboard shows and represents much more information about the way our music video is going to be produced than any other documentation we have.

In storyboaring you have to do lots of different shots to show ideas that you might have, these would include

• Wide Shot
• Extreme Closeup
• Closeup
• Mid Shot
• Long Shot

These would emphasise certain parts of the body or instruments to make the audience understand what is happening.

For example in one of our shots we have chosen to do an extreme close-up to show a somewhat fallic symbol and also to emphasise that it is a female singing and also to give her a sexy image.We would have about 10 closeups of the two girls that would show there attractive image, this would possibly chaneg the target audience to more male dominant than female dominant.

We would have about 8 closeups of the two girls together, showing that they both are yet again attractive and that they look good on camera, also to show sex appeal and unison between the two girls.

We would have about 5 shots of just the man, because unlike the girls he is older and male, and as our initial target audience was male orientated, the shots of women would appeal more to the audience than others.

In tracking we are to film the band playing in the studio and track with a table and a bottle of Jack Daniels, allowing us to see the band through the bottle. This would give the image that they are possibly in a concert or pub and people are watching them. We choose to use a Jack Daniels bottle as it was made in Tennesse which was the country that the group wanted to mainly target.

In editing for example when the man is playing the guitar in a long or mid shot we would then cut to him in an extreme or close-up of his fingers strumming the guitar to let the audience know what is happening, and why.


Here is an example from You Tube about how to storyboard-

TIMELINING

Timelining is the act of using words and times as a first try at linking images, words and music riffs. This helps the group understand the timings and the lyrics and how they might possibly work in the music video.

So with the timeline we can test out which line has a performance element with it, which one has a narrative image with it and which one has something else.

An example of this is that we will have close ups of the instrument being played during the various instrumental breaks. But we can see that with fifeteen intrumental breaks this might be too much , and so we would only continue with five of them. In our song there are around 7 guitar riffs and clearly 7 closeups would be too much, as the audience would know what was next and it would immediatly make the sequence rather boring.

Another example would be that our group has two females that sing and are young and attractive, therfore more appealing for the image that we are trying to portray. The third memeber of the group is a 50 year old man, which would not be as appealing to our group to film multiple shots. So it our timeline we could plan to be more centered on the two girls than the older male who is the instrumentalist. But the man has a very intersestuing face visually, and we might end up shooting lots of shots with him, in the final edit.

With the timline you can see wether images will hold for the time that we have given in the song. So if a line in the song is seven seconds, and you cut on the beat at the end, you need an image that will hold the seven seconds.

I attach copies of my timeline.

COMPOSITION RULES

There are over 100 composition rules for film making. These are very usefull for us in three ways. We shall try to :

• Use 10 of them at least once in our pop video.
  


• Write about each of them, with images, in our blog.


• Use a number of them (not all ten) in our exam essay as examples of our improvments in knowledge skills.
  

COMPOSITION RULES

All start from what we are trying to say, out hypothesi, our meaning.

• Different type of shot size



• Camera position and Angle (up shot, down shot)



• Camera movements



• Lighting
  


• Rule of thirds



• Leading the eye
  


• Colours



• Shapes and lines
  


• Detail arrangment in the frame



• Editing styles

STORYBOARDING COMPOSITION RULES- FILM MAKING

There are over 100 composition rules for film making. These are very usefull for us in three ways. We shall try to :

• Use 10 of them at least once in our pop video.


• Write about each of them, with images, in our blog.


• Use a number of them (not all ten) in our exam essay as examples of our improvments in knowledge skills.

COMPOSITION RULES

All start from what we are trying to say, out hypothesi, our meaning.

• Different type of shot size


• Camera position and Angle (up shot, down shot)


• Camera movements


• Lighting


• Rule of thirds


• Leading the eye


• Colours


• Shapes and lines


• Detail arrangment in the frame


• Editing styles

Here is an illustration from 3 of the conventions -

Different shot types : There are a variety of different camera shots that can be used , the most commonly used are these.

1. Extreme Close Up


2. Close Up


3. Mid Shot


4. Long Shot


5. Wide Shot


6. Very Wide Shot

Extreme Closeup - This would be used to emphasise a part of the body i.e an extreme close up on the eye to show wherabouts they are looking or of someone painting there nails showing that they are care about there appearance. Close Up - This would show detail in the face and emotions that a star would have i.e a close up of Tom Cruise crying

Mid Shot - This is a comfortable shot that is most commonly used.

Long Shot - This is a shot used in action and to show the props and costumes surrounding the actor and the landscape/ setting that the film/ scene is in. Wide Shot - This is used as an establishing shot and to show the context. Very Wide Shot- This is used to show the landscape and / or would be used to show space. CAMERA MOVEMENTS - This would be either tracking,crane, tilt, dolly, crab or possibly panning. Tracking is when a movement which stays a constant distance from the action, especially side to side movement. Crane would be when a camera was put onto a crane making swooping images and quick bird like feel. Tilt would be vertical movement of the camera angle i.e pointing the camera up and down. Dolly is when the camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a very small movement. Also known as tracking shot. Crab again is a less common term for tracking. LIGHTING -

This is when the actor/band/performist has to be lighted in order for the audience to aknowledge who they are , they have to be lit from 3 different angles. Each angle has a different name;

There are also certain colours that have to be used in order for you to reflect to the audience your emotion/personality. Rule Of Thirds - The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your shot becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it. Film makers use the composition rules to put over there meaning, especially editing, tracking and types of shot. We will try to do this.

FIRST PITCH

There are a number of basic conventions that you find in most pop videos.

COMMON GENERIC CONVENTIONS OF POPULAR MUSIC PROMO VIDEOS - KEITH NEGUS

• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artists 'image' (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption.





• The featuring of the atrist (almost without exception)


• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement.


• Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconongraphy (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)


• A possible narrative structure

• Possible performance element



• The flexibility to diregard Realism


• Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track


• Use of special effects ( lighting, animation, CGI'S in Camera Effects)


• A carefully constructed mise en scene appropiate to the content and tone of the track


• High impact instantly ! ( dont forget that competition for airplay on that main music channel outlets is intense)

We shall try to either imitate or subvert ot change these for our music video.

On friday 17th of september, out group pitched our music video ideas to luc.

The ideas that we pitched were -

• In a scrapyard, smashing up bits of cars and then band on top of cars singing etc .. lots of slow motion clips would be used. Song used would be up in the clouds by Darwin Deez. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loXxn7dMQYE)
  
  
• Shooting in a council estate, man in hoodie, walking around. Never see his face just his lips when needed to sing. Song used would be



• Labrynth idea, running around in a maze, getting lost. Someone acts as if they are controlling them. Song used is Byenter Shikari. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wngyXhTx4pc
  

Once pitched, luc then told us about the problems that might occur.

With the scrap yard idea, there would be some fall backs in if a scrap yard would allow it and also the various health and saftey issues, also findin

With the council estate idea, there , some quarrels as to if an estate would let us film and also if it was 'moroly' safe for us to film there as well .

With the Labrinth idea there was a problem that the group thought it could come across as quiet tacky looking and also quite hard to make a labrinth or find one in the surrounding area.