Music Video Evaluation

Music Video Evaluation

Overall, am I happy with my submission, no. Did I challenge myself, yes. Did I try my utmost, I think I did, but it still doesn’t feel like enough.

Want Went Well:

• First time

This was my first time undertaking a production on this scale. It was definitley a massive jump from making a 30-second video. There was a lot more pre-production to be done, especially in the story-boarding department.

• Challenged myself

I feel that I have definitely challenged myself and this, in turn, has taught me a lot about Adobe Premiere. It was a bit of mental headache to work out when the candles would ignite, when they would flicker etc.

• More Organised

This task has taught me a lot about the vast organisational skills that are needed for a video production. Separating A & B Roll, shot lists, how to lay out Premiere etc.

The top is the initial timeline and the one underneath was the one that I did when the idea was tought out in my head. Yes, it could be even more organised but I feel it definitely progressed from the initial one.

• Software

Not only did I learn a lot about Premiere, but I also learned just how much-moving image manipulation can be done in Photoshop.

• My mood during this project

I’ll hold my hand up and admit, I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy this project at all when you consider everything that has been going on this year, I thought I’d be praying for it to be over, I guess I still am to a certain extent, but in a funny way I’ve actually enjoyed this brief and I really didn’t expect to say that

• Audio

I learnt a new skill, which is audio syncing. Audio is a skill that photographers are repeatedly been asked to be good at.

• Critiscm

This is definitely the project where I have received the most criticism. It was very honest and constructive and it really made push myself to try and produce good work.

• Running out of time

My final timeline actually came out of a massive panic. When I had a tutorial with Matt on Tuesday, he wanted me to add black video clips to flicker the candles on and off. With the timeline I had, the organisation was so poor that it would’ve been a very tough task. So I essentially blew my timeline up and started again from scratch. I feel this has led to a better video, just a shame it still doesn’t appeal to me.

Even Better If:

• The End Product

As mentioned, I’m not happy at all with my end product. After doing nine edits, I still wasn’t to find a combination that I’m happy with. In the final edit, I’ve got one which works well but I feel it could work a lot better if I had more time and a lot more footage/locations to play with.

• More Research

I think my initial research was very weak, I think I should’ve done a lot more and this would’ve helped me come up with a better idea

• Continuity

There are a few continuity errors in the B Roll. There are some shots where Josie has her sunglasses on her head and then in the next shot she doesn’t, or her phone miraculously appears out of nowhere on the table. Of course, if I left more time to record, this hopefully would not have happened.

• On Paper, But on Film?

In the pre-production stage, my concept did actually sound pretty intriguing. But then again things always sound great on paper. But on film, it was very boring. Another case of over-promising and under-delivering from myself.

• Ten Edits

I think this is more of a negative than a positive. I had to do nine edits before I got a video that I had the slightest bit of confidence in.

 

 

 

 

• Should’ve shot more

Even though I’m very happy with the shot I used of Hayden singing, I think I should’ve shot a lot more as I only got four shots of him and it could’ve very easily backfired down the line

• Weekly Journals

I wasn’t able to keep up with the weekly journals for this task. I managed to do one for the first and second week, however, it started to feel like I was repeating myself with the blog posts I was writing in the first place.

How my music video progressed

How my music video progressed

Click here for a link to a playlist of how my music video progressed from the first to the final edit.

I am disappointed at the fact that I haven’t been able to produce a music video that I’m happy with. That is the price I’m going to have to pay for leaving it to the last minute.

Below is a quick summary of the progression:

• Draft One:

Candle blowing to the camera, place holder footage for the time lapse

• Draft Two:

Shot all the footage but it was very boring and dull

• Draft Three:

Added B Roll but it’s still the same problem as the second draft. It focuses on something for too long. Locations need to change to keep it engaging

• Draft Four:

Better than draft three but it is now very repetitive

• Draft Five:

Different sequencing of shots. Added cross dissolves for when I’m cutting between location and studio

• Draft Six:

Definitely heading in the right direction as we are now showing a conversation between Hayden and Josie. Seeing on how there both dealing with the same situation.

• Draft Seven:

Start playing with the flickering of the candles

• Draft Eight:

Fine tune the candles, trying to get to the beat

• Draft Nine:

Colour graded, tried to give a cool tone to the B roll to compliment the warm tone of the A Roll. However I wish I spent more time on that aspect as I don’t think it has come across.

• Draft Ten:

I went back to the video and adjusted the brightness and contrast because I could see the black videos for when the candles flickered.

Fifth draft and tutorial with Matt

Fifth draft and tutorial with Matt

On Monday, I sent a third draft of my music video to Matt. I had added the B Roll which was vital for this video to have any suscess. We both agreed that this video was in a much better place but still had a long way to go before it was good.

When I sent the video to Matt, I also listed what I intended to do next

So, today, I went back to Matt with a fifth edit. I did have a fourth one but when showing it to classmates Lauren and Chiara, they felt I should add cross dissolves, rather than straight cutting between studio and location.

The first thing that Matt said was that he was envisioning cutting between Hayden singing and Josie’s narrative. Rather than the candle flickering and Josie’s narrative. This is something that I misunderstood whilst reading Matt’s message.

He also felt that I was still experiencing very similar problems that my second draft had. This is all about finding the middle ground. The A Roll is too long and boring, the B Roll is far too repetitive. We jump back to the same location around seven times and it just gets dull eventually.

Matt felt the other thing I have to do is play around with the sequencing of the candles, this could be another way of keeping the attention of the viewer. I asked what would be the best way to do, painting out in Photoshop or using After Effects. Matt felt there was a much easier way.

This was creating a black video in Premiere and sizing it to the size of the candle and simply copy and paste it on the timeline when I want the candle to disappear.

For this to be feasible, I had to address my timeline. It was in an absolute mess and it would’ve proved tricky to remember which layer represents which candle. So I blew my sequence up and started again.

The timeline on the top is what I had before Matt’s tutorial and the one underneath is what I assembled afterward. It wasn’t perfect but it was definitely in a better way and there was a slight chance of understanding it.

B Roll

B Roll

On today and Sunday, I recorded the B roll for my music video.

On Sunday, I went up to London with my friend Josie who played the role of Hayden’s love interest in the video. Going about mundane tasks but constantly being distracted [thinking about Hayden] I think this shoot was relatively successful as it feels like I’ve got a lot of content. The only problem was that I forgot to zero out my camera in the morning and I shot half of the footage on a flash white balance. But this provided a nice colour scheme with Josie’s jacket, but was the opposite of what I wanted.

Today, I went to Greenwich to record more B roll to set the location, this shoot was a failure because there was virtually no movement and they felt more like photographs rather than video.

Plan for the cut-aways

Plan for the cut-aways

So my plan for the cut-aways of my music video is to spend two days recording up London. I plan to spend Sunday recording B-Roll, similar to Seamus Murphy. This B-roll will set the scene for the sub-plot that I intend to record on Monday.

The sub-plot on Monday is going to see me follow my friend Josie [if she’s availabe] up to and around London. Recording her doing some simple mundane tasks like:

• Staring out of a train window
• Having a coffee
• Picking music on her phone
• Singing along to the music
• Reading a book
• Writing in a diary
• Picking up an object that sparks a memory [maybe a candle]

During all of these tasks, her mind are going to wander as she is everly distracted by the thought of the artist [as explained in my previous post]

One of these tasks, probably the writing in the diary, I’m hoping to use the Power of Three. This will hopefully help the viewer connect the dots.

I want to use my friend Josie because A. I’m low on time and B. She did her Final Major Project in Foundation about how we day-dream and our mind wanders so this might help in pushing the narrative in very short clips. There is every possibility that there could be location permission problems but that is the price I’m going to have to pay for leaving this so late.

Below is a very rough storyboard and then when this subplot is finished, we go back to the initial storyboard.

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Of course, I don’t know if everything will fit as the sub plot can only be around 25/30 seconds but this is a guide of the type of stuff I want to create. Maybe the subplot can be continued after the chorus

Second draft of my music video and tutorial with Matt

Second draft of my music video and tutorial with Matt

Today I had a tutorial with Matt about my music video. I think it’s fair to say it was a bit of a wake-up call. I expected there to be a significant amount of work that needed to be done before my video was in a good state but this tutorial made me realise just how much was still to be done. After watching the 2nd draft, I very nearly asked Matt “Is there improvements to be made, or is this a lost cause?”

The first bit of feedback I got from Matt is that it is boring. I had a feeling that it didn’t engage the viewer. The first shot, in particular, went on and on with very little movement and didn’t do the music any justice. This was something I expected to hear. Me and Matt both knew that my music video needed something to keeps the viewer’s attention.

One potential solution is a subplot. This song is ultimately about the spark between let’s say a man and a woman. We can see how Hayden is thinking about the woman when he is singing, so as a subplot, there should be cutaways with a girl. Matt thinks I should record a girl going about simple mundane tasks, so sitting on a train, reading a book, drinking a coffee, maybe writing in a diary and during every task, the woman is distracted and her mind goes elsewhere. Maybe shes constantly stirring the coffee, maybe shes daydreaming out of the train window, maybe she can’t write in her diary. Maybe she walks up to Hayden’s house. This will provide the viewer with a good narrative to contrast the Hayden scenes. Also, bright cutaways will compliment the dark setting.

Jumping from studio to location and back to the studio would be better than cutting studio to studio to studio. It is very repetitive in its current state.

On a positive note, Matt liked the work that I did in Photoshop sequencing the candles. He thinks I could go even futher and have them flicker on and off in beat to the music. This could be another way to keep the viewer engaged.

So overall, still a lot of work to be done but I’m glad that I had the tutorial with Matt because if I didn’t, my music video would’ve been very embarrassing on submission day.

First Draft of my Music Video

First Draft of my Music Video

Below is the first draft of my music video. I still have to record the time-lapse sequences which will play during the chorus. At the moment, they are substituted with cropped footage which has been sped up and looped.

I am considering reshooting the candle sequences and try to follow the candle flickering we’ve created on Hayden’s face with the LED lights.

Overall, it could be a lot better but it doesn’t feel as bad as I expected it to be

Permission from Hayden Brenen

Permission from Hayden Brenen

Hayden Brenen Shoot

Hayden Brenen Shoot

Yesterday, Hayden came into Ravensbourne so I could record him singing to the camera.

I’ll admit, I do regret the fact that I’ve only recorded him four times. I’m starting to think I should’ve tried even more lighting setups, maybe introduce the light at different parts of the song.

Below is the lighting diagram, I had to use LED Sola’s instead of litepanels so had to use orange gels to get the colour temperature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The biggest challenge of the shoot was emulating candlelight, a couple of days ago, I came across this video on Youtube. Candlelight was achieved by firing very narrow LED [through narrow barn doors] onto a golden reflector which was bounced onto the subject. The reflector was tilted from time to time to achieve the flickering.

However my assistant Tiana had another idea. Instead, she changed the power of the key light. I think this gave a very good effect.

Shooting the candles for my music video

Shooting the candles for my music video

Yesterday I shot my candles for my music video. This was a very tough process as I was shooting every candle individually, so I really had to plan when each candle ignites, when it flickers, when they extinguish.

You can see that there are two MP4 files. These were created in Photoshop and this is how I created the candle sequences. I layered the images in Photoshop and used layer masks. This would’ve been a very long process if I didn’t have a shot list. The shot list means I simply open the video, I don’t have to take the time to preview it.