Rough cut feedback

Once we managed to put our video onto the blogger and youtube we also put it on facebook, as you can see from the screenshot below. We used facebook to get feedback from people online we knew that did media studies, from here and different schools.

As you can see from the above screenshot we did get a bit of feedback on Facebook, most of it positive online mentioning that the editing for the chorus was good, and the music matched the video well. Feedback from my family and girlfriend was also positive. They liked the way the story was structured, the way the masks left the characters annoymous, the use of effects and certain camera angles shown to the left. Negative feedback was a lot more constructive however, as we showed the video to a lot of media students at school who were very critical. Most of their issues with the video was about the audio heard in the background that is non-diagetic to the video. This will be easily corrected, however we still want the sound of the television smashing at the end of the second verse, so will have to work around that. There are a couple of editing errors that also need to be corrected, and most feedback was about including more effects, as music videos feature a lot of special effects to make the video more interesting to the audience. Apart from these few corrections though I am proud of how our video looks so far. 

Rough cut

Below is the rough cut of our final product. We found several things wrong with it when watching back such as other sounds apart from the audio tune in the background, and missing ut on some effects in the chorus. The next step will be to get feedback and corret our mistakes for the final product:

Editing and description of process

We started editing the footage we got from Upwood a while ago on Premiere Pro CS4, gradually filling in bits as we got more film. The biggest problem that arose was actually syncing the footage to the track. The first verse is a build up, as reflected in our rough cut, then the second verse is more explosive, before the third verse is calmer before the last chorus. Our original storyboard didn't take this into account, so when we started editing the second and third verses were originally the other way round. We easily corrected this, whilst filling in the other verses; however the timing of each verse/chorus was more difficult to sync to the track. The opening and closing credits were made easily on Premiere Pro, as was adding the dissolving effect used at the beginning and end. Our other effects include a mirroring, which shows the same clip four times on the screen, and a brush stroke effect. These two effects fit in with the music video style, and the brush stroke perfectly ties in with our brand for Scarlet Harlots. For the chorus we wanted something fast and continuous, such as other artists artists tracks we looked at in research and planning. We filmed one continous shot of us moving around the TV before cutting it up, and then speeding up the clips, as we did with much of the other footage in our video to fit it in and create a sense of speed that the song does.

Description of days filming

Looking back over my blog it is hard to distinguish when we went filming and what we achieved so have decided to summarise our filming here.

The first time we went down to Upwood was obviously a location scout, where we took lots of pictures and made a mental map of the place so we could draw up a shot list. We took the bat incase we wanted to film anything, but a member of the cast broke it so we had to replace it with a metal pole we found through the video.

The second time we filmed the middle of the video, as well as some of the shots from the last verse including the long corridor one. This day of filming was difficult as just before we left we established the content of the storyboard for this verse would not fit in with the music, as the last verse is slower than the second. We decided to improvise and film the characters smashing everything up in the second verse, before then having the third verse slow as the characters run to escape what they have done.

The third time we went to Upwood we filmed the first verse and last shots. This went a lot smoother and the storyboard and shot list made this day so easy we were done in about an hour. We continued to get more shots that wern't on the storyboard incase we needed anymore footage, but whilst editing we found we already had tons of shots. Below is some pictures of us filming during this filming session:

Filming the chorus yesterday was also easy. I had a clear idea how the chorus should look thanks to the use of effects we found on Premiere Pro CS4, so the shots were easy to create, especially in school, and didn't take too long either.

Filming and editing

Yesterday we filmed the bits missing from the verses and the end, and filming went very smoothly due to us using our storyboard and shot list effectively. All that is left now is the chorus, and we plan to film this tomorrow in order to get all our clips done. Today I started editing our piece together on Premiere Pro CS4 (shown below on the left), and already the music video is taking shape. Here we found an effect that would suit the chorus too called 'brush strokes' also fitting in with our brand identity. When editing I made a timeline to know what part clips need to go in different bits of the song, and this is very helpful as we have so much footage I would not know what clips go in at certain times. We got the track off a youtube to mp3 converter on the internet, and I am just putting the basics of the clips together at the moment before adding effects later on. Below on the right is the basic timeline I made.

Filming Again and shooting the ending

Yesterday the weather wasn't right and one of our cast members car had to go for it's MOT, so unfortunately filming didn't happen as we couldn't all fit into one car. We have re-scheduled filming again, and up to the time when we film our group will discuss more shots we could get and look over the shot list and storyboard to ensure filming goes as smooth and as quick as possible. I have been editing the footage we already have and have noticed gaps in the story, and more angles to get when filming. Below is a shot-list summary of clips we will be re-filming and adding in when we go back to RAF Upwood:

More specifically I have been thinking how to end the video, as there is a very strong storyline to it. I think an appropriate ending of the characters leaving their masks and sense of anarchy behind, would be fitting for the song, so I added this onto the end of the storyboard and will film it tomorrow.

Filming tomorrow

With the rough cut now finished tomorrow we will travel down to RAF Upwood, hopefully for the last time as the deadline looms closer. It is the only day this week when all of our cast are available to film, so we have discussed costumes again for continuity, props, and taking all appropriate parts of the storyboard and shot lists. We are hoping that shooting will not take long, and once this is done we can edit together our film for the final product. We will take more pictures of us filming tomorrow.

Rough cut not ready

After working all day on our rough cut it still wasn't ready for our teacher to see because we took so many clips, but instead we used the time to be finishing this film and established shots we needed to get next time we go filming. Hopefully we will only need to go back one more time to get the shots we need, then will have to find somewhere more local to film the chorus.

However, we showed the teacher our digipack, which he said was excellent, and commented that we had to make sure brand awareness linked all of our three tasks, in order to achieve a high grade we desire. So far we have the running theme of masks that link our medias: