Target Audience Feedback (Between Rough Cut and Final Piece)

In between our rough cut and final music video, we request some feedback from our target audience (young people aged 15-30) to get their opinion on what they liked about our video. Here is some feedback we gained from a 17 year old girl who is a member of our sixth-form and also an ex-media student. We thought this would be helpful as her expertise would really allow her to be critical of media techniques such as pace of editing and camera movement. We were really pleased with her comments. Upon watching the video again, she sent a further text explaining that in the section where the camera is held at a mid-shot of the artist and her friends laughing (1:16), the camera is a little unsteady. We have since corrected this by using a different clip when the camera is held at a much steadier angle, thus improving the quality of our video.

The Editing Process – Adobe Premier Pro

We are currently editing the indoor scene for our music video on Adobe Premier Pro. We feel confident in the software we are using and believe it is giving our music video a higher quality finish than a more basic software such as iMovie would do. As well as using Adobe for the basic features of our video such as cutting clips, we also intend to use more sophisticated aspects of the programme such as colour filters and in certain places we have used a small amount of slow-mo in order for our shots to fit the time frame. Using this programme has allowed us to be very critical of our shots and we have consequently scheduled several reshoots in order to allow our video to be to the highest possible standard.

Reflection Upon Filming Outside

Overall we were happy with how our shoot went outside, however due to forces beyond our control such as the weather, an additional shoot is needed to get our final shots. We feel that we have no captured the shots that perhaps were the trickiest such as the use of sparklers which proved very unpredictable! Upon reflection, we now need to make sure we capture the performance aspect of our video as well as filming some extra atmospheric shots of the party. I have already devised a shooting script in order to make sure we are efficient when filming and our actors aren’t standing around for too long! Overall we are happy with the lighting we used which was an initial worry of ours and shall keep our three point lighting system the same when reshooting. We felt that the clarity of our shots was good and the additional sources of light such as the fairy lights and the sparklers worked well illuminating our subjects whilst still being atmospheric. We were also happy with the performance from our actors who we felt looked natural in most of our shots and thus this has given our video a sense of realism, something we hope to bridge when re-filming. Below are some shots that we feel worked particularly well with the lighting structure we had in place:

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Rought Cut Feedback

Here is a soundcloud of a discussion with our media teacher about our rough cut. We found this analysis incredibly helpful as it has allowed us to recognise the positives of what we have produced so far but also areas for improvement which will essentially allow us to achieve at a higher level if corrected. Following on from this, we have made some key focus areas for our video and perhaps what needs to be changed.

IMPROVEMENTS TO BE MADE:

1. Quicker editing cuts in certain places
2. Removal of dress shot and replace it with hairbrush
3. More atmospheric shots from party (emphasis on it being natural and not staged)
4. More camera movement in certain places (e.g. pan up artists leg near the beginning)

Rough Cut – Don’t Stop

Due to the fact that we are missing quite a significant amount from our music video due to personal issues, this is a detailed plan of action which tells us what shots we need to shoot and when we plan to do this in order to produce our final cut (hopefully) for Monday the 9th of December.

Filming the Outdoor Scene

Today we are filming the outside ‘party’ scene. This is one of our most technically challenging pieces of film that we have to capture which means that we have had to be extremely prepared. All our research towards filming in the dark, preperation in terms of gathering the props and lighting will all come into play as we film tonight.

All the props we planned to have by today have arrived, including the lanterns, sparklers and the fairy lights. We are pleased to be oragnised with all our props as we feel it’s an extremely important element in portraying a particular atmosphere and connotate hidden meanings behind our chosen song.

The research towards filming in the dark will be used a lot as we film today and we will be taking on the advice of James Paul in order to get the lighting we use in our shots as even as possible. The addition of fairlights and laterns will also illuminate the shots which will also bring a warmth to the shots.

We plan to get all the party shots done today whilst we have all our actors/actresses with us and hope that it will just take us the one night to shoot due to the fact that it won’t take long for it to get dark.

Although most of the things we have organised have gone to plan, we have also had a few difficulties. Due to the fact that Ellie is moving house, it means that we can no longer have a fire in her garden which means that we can’t throw the photo’s of the artist and her ex into the fire. However, we have come to a compramise and decided that we can use matches in order to set the photo’s on fire as the arist watches them burn which will give the shot the same effect as we previously planned.

Risk Assessment For Filming 18/11/13

In order to make our filming as efficient as possible, we foreshadowed some potential problems and risks and discussed how we intend to overcome these. This is vital in ensuring that we are as organised as possible in making sure there risks do not become reality.

Weather Forcast for Today’s Shoot

Today is one of the days we have planned to shoot the shots in our music video containing just Isabella-Grace herself. Some of these shots include being outside. As you can see from the forcast, the weather isn’t looking to great, however it does look like the weather will perk up a bit later around the time we plan to begin shooting. If worst comes to worst, we will have to leave the outdoor shots till the shoot on Thursday. We have also considered using lighting outdoors to brighten up the shots so the weather appears brighter than it actually is.

Professional Lighting Advice

Steady Cam tutorial

After completing our first trial run of filming and performing the verse and chorus to our song and watching it back with our teachers and peers we decided to use a steady cam to film our video instead of a tripod, this will help to provide more movement to our shots and bring the narrative to life. It will also help to stop our shots looking staggered and stiff as was noticed in our trial video. After deciding this, our teacher gave us a tutorial lesson on setting up and handling and shooting with the steady cam.