Reflecting Back - Lip-syncing & Photoshop

In the summer lessons, we had an introductory look at editing lip-synced music videos and creating digipaks. Pictured are some real-life examples of digipak albums that I own.

The key tool needed for successful editing

First of all, we were introduced to editing a piece of live music footage using Final Cut Pro. Micky showed us how to import the separate footage into Final Cut and to place a marker in the same position of each clip (done by looking out for a recognisable lyric or beat in the song each time). After this, we were able to place them on different layers of the timeline, making sure the markers were aligned, thus syncing the different camera angles. This allowed us to add markers throughout the whole track to beat to the song, and then use the Razor Blade All Tool to split all the tracks along the markers. Next, I chose and deleted different parts of the clips, creating a quite dynamic piece of editing covering different angles of the performance. I found this skill easy to develop, as following Micky's tutorial was straightforward. The hardest part of learning to sync the video was probably choosing which clips to delete, as it takes a while to play with the angles enough, in order to create a continuous and fitting video.

In Jo's lesson, we got ourselves into groups and were given a song that we were to lip-sync to, film, and edit ourselves. This was a step up as we had to acquire our own footage instead of using what we had available to us. We had difficulties as no one wanted to lip-sync to the song, so we had to change it. Eventually we began filming and quickly realized that it was hard to film continuously for the whole song, especially due to the time we wasted to begin with. The track was also hard to hear through the MP3 speaker, and we were only able to rewind all the way to the beginning of the song. When editing, we did not use base tracks, as we didn't have sufficient footage. I was also not in charge of editing, so our practice video was edited in a more 'traditional' way (i.e. without adding the markers, etc.) However, I was quite pleased with the outcome (which you can view below), as we were able to use the footage we did have pretty successfully (we did however have to cut the song down to two minutes).

Next, Marisa gave us a basic tutorial on how to use Photoshop Elements 4.0. This again was easy to grasp as I've used Photoshop CS3 quite extensively in the past, and thus was able to transfer those skills to this similar software. What she did teach us, however, was to (whilst using a 'digipak template'): change the background colour using the Paint Bucket Tool, add and modify the font/colour of text (Horizontal Type Tool), and to add images via either the Marquee Tools or Magic Wand Tool. We again sourced images that were ready for us to use (including a selection to use for the cover, as well as additional album-related graphics such as barcodes and record label logos).

My completed preliminary digipak design

I chose to use the light-bulb image for the front cover purely for aesthetic reasons. I added the image by using the Magic Wand Tool to select the areas around the bulb (whilst holding the shift key to add to selection). This then allowed me to delete the background. Next, I sourced another light bulb image from the internet, resized it to the same size as the original by going to Image > Transform > Free Transform, then layered it on top of the existing image by changing the opacity to 20%. Furthermore, I used the Custom Shape Tool to create the red explosive shapes in the background, again playing with the opacity of the layers. I created the text by duplicating the text layer and changing the colour/size to give an outline effect. I also added an eye-catching sticker using the Rounded Rectangle Tool, and added text on top (I also slightly rotated it to give a more realistic effect).

The original image I used for the
back cover

On the back cover I sourced another two images from the internet - one of a man with his arms outstretched, which I was able to remove the background from and fill with a single colour to create a silhouette, another of a grey textured effect which I placed behind the tracklist. For the barcode I inverted the colours to match the background by going to Filter > Adjustments > Invert. I further added a copyright excerpt at the bottom of the back cover, in addition to the logo of a record label.

Strengths of digipak:

• Consistent colour scheme
• Shows artist name prominently
• Features barcode, record label logo and copyright info which you would find on a typical digipak
• Sticker gives a realistic touch

Weaknesses:

• No album title?
• Texture on the back cover does not blend with the black on the right and where it meets the barcode + label logo, which gives an unprofessional feel
• No image of artist shown; this is important in order to allow for recognition (however, this imagery commonly does not appear on artwork for non-vocal music, e.g. techno, so genre must be taken into consideration)

My practice digipak vs Real examples

Lip syncing tutorial

01: Brief overview of the lip synching tutorial.

In the first lesson of the lip synch tutorial, we were taught by Micky. In this lesson, he showed us the basics of editing a music video. He did this by using old clips of a band playing, with several shots from different angles recording them play the same song. He then chose three different shots and placed them underneath each other.

Then using the 'M' button to mark the clips in synch to the beat (Micky also told us that we could choose a word if it made it easier for us).  He later on then used the marks on the clips to help him cut the clips on each shot. He then randomly deleted some of the cut shots in the three lines. The looked something like this;

From this, when you played the shots through, they would cut at the beats and all be in synch with the music.

02: Some of the tools I learnt to use were the following;

-The 'alt' button whilst clicking the arrow buttons to move the clips into place much more delicately than using the mouse.

-Using the 'mute' button on the left hand side of each clip, which, helped me connect and synch the words with the singer easier.

-I learnt to use the 'M' button when 'marking' the shots to mark where I want to cut them.

-I also learnt a personal skill to listen carefully and learnt how important the actual beat you choose to follow with the music video is to the outcome of how good the cuts will be.

03: Brief overview of the filming and editing.

When trying this out for ourselves, I first found it very frustrating and I was unable to synch the song with the words. But after a couple more tries, it soon became quite simple. All you need to do is to know the basics and have a lot of patience when things go wrong.

The hardest part when learning how to use the lip synch of FCP was actually getting the lip-synching perfect. That was the hardest part of the whole project, but once that’s done, it was fairly simple.

After we edited our own video using the shots from the computer of a rocky genre band, we were put into groups and given a song called 'Surfing USA' that was sung by 'The beach Boys' In the early 70's. We were then given the appropriate filming equipment and told to film our own lip synching video. Un fortunately, for our first try at this, we did not understand precisely what we were supposed to do and so we ended up not actually filming any of us lip synching the song. And so we had to re shoot the next lesson in an empty classroom of us all lip synching separately and then all together.

Whilst editing the bass track I followed the same techniques Micky used and didn't do anything different from what he showed me and how he edits the music videos. E.g; Cutting shots, synching bass track etc.

Over all I was very proud of my final edit of the music video, it was upbeat and in the end even the shots that we first took went in the final outcome, which made it more creative and look 'fun'!

04: A brief overview of the Photoshop tutorial.

During the next lesson we were taught by Marisa to show us how to use Photoshop for when we start using it to create our Digi pack. She showed us the basics such as how to use a 'Magic wand' to crop out a figure from an image.  As well as teach us the importance of the layers.

Custom shape tool, effects that you can put on the pictures such as changing the contrast and brightness of the images. Out of everything, I found this the most testing when it came to my patience and had to stop myself from screaming with frustration numerous times due to the strictness of limitations of changing from one tool to another which then, if done wrong, will effect your entire project instead of just the selected part that you wanted. As well as wanting to drag an image, which then drags everything with it, etc.

05: This is my finished Digipack:

I chose these images because they reflected the genre and the vibrant scenes in the music video. I chose to place them in this order as it seemed to fit perfectly to have a joyful image as the front cover and then a more plain yet still eye catching blue coloured background for the playlist and then a playful and bright image of the members of the band in the background of where the CD will be. Getting the images onto Photoshop were a simple process of just clicking 'insert' and then choosing an image, you then edit the image around and choose what colours you want to change or how small or big you want it to be. When you were finished and happy with the image you just dragged it to the 'Digi pack' base and it then proportion it to the size and place where you want it on your Digi pack.

 06: List different tools you used during the creation of your Digi pack.

1. Text tool

2. Hand tool

3. Ellipse tool

4. Zoom tool

5. Pain bucket tool

6. Crop tool

07: Over all view on finished work.

Overall, I am pleased with my finished work. I believed we could have done better in the actual lip-synching if we had had more time to practise and learn the words so we could annunciate more clearly. for us to see when we were editing the film to try and put the lip synching in synch with the  bass track.

I would also have prepared more, by bringing in props to use and probably have had more backgrounds and mise en scene that actually related to the song. For example; 'Surfing USA' maybe have had a person in a wetsuit singing. Or someone holding a surfboard up next to them as they lip-synched. 

RESEARCH: Previous Student Video

I watched a previous student's video based on the song Thrasher by N.E.R.D. I identified many references which can be associated with Andrew Goodwin's theory of illustration and amplification. Firstly I noticed that the opening lyric, "Every once in a while there is some a**hole, giving you sh*t" is followed by a few shots of a man (the boss) yelling at a young man thus making his life stressful. This amplifies the meaning of what the artist is portraying as an "a**hole". There are also references of illustration and disjuncture; when he says "usually I walk away" the camera cuts to a man walking away. What makes this great is that instead of the person walking away being the young man (who is portraying the artist), it is the boss who is walking to the young man and giving him issues. This contradicts what they lyric says as well as illustrating it.

There are a few points in the video which can be associated to disjuncture. An example of this is when the artist is riding the bike and doing a few tricks with it. In context with the lyrics, this has nothing to do with the song itself. It's just a mere act of showing off which has no reference to the lyrics what so ever. What I do like however is the way every time a certain lyric such as "a**hole" is said, it jumps straight to a cut of the boss. I also like the jump cuts used when the boss is shouting at the young man illustrating that the boss shouts at him often and therefore giving him (as the lyric says) "a bunch of sh*t."

The song is narrated by the artist singing the lyrics, but it is also illustrated by an actor showing what the lyrics mean. The mix of amplification, disjuncture, and illustration make this video very pleasing on the eye to watch due to its clear ideas and ways of presenting the meaning of the lyrics to the audience.

Surfing USA music video.

This is my old media group's lip syncing lesson. We created a lip syncing music video to Surfing USA by the Beach boys.

Digipack.

heres the final result of my tester Digi pack that I created before the summer holidays. 

The Promo poster that promotes the artists upcoming live concerts as well as advertising their album. 

We edited the images that were screen shots from the music video that we film during class. 

Research - Gender Representation

Laura Mulvey’s ideas of the representation of gender are as follows. In a society of stereotypes and sexism, males and females are divided in their representation. The male is portrayed as dominant, whilst females are sexualised. ‘The male gaze’ projects fantasies onto the female body, and females in turn dress to fit those fantasies.

Keeping this idea in mind, you would expect sexual representations of females in videos through revealing clothes and suggestive body language. I can imagine this being specific to genres such as pop, r&b, and hip-hop, although in this day and age I wouldn’t be surprised if it cropped up in other genres too. However, there are still artists out there challenging this, a significant example being Adele, who has recently achieved worldwide fame for her voice and music alone. Other less mainstream female artists, such as Laura Marling and Bat For Lashes, also continue to make music without sacrificing their female integrity, so it is fair to say that genre plays an integral part in the way an artist is portrayed.

Clockwise from top left: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine), Ellie Goulding, Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes), Laura Marling

I feel Mulvey’s opinion is definitely still relevant to today’s society, maybe now more than ever. Female artists seem to continuously push the envelope in terms of sexual and provocative videos to the point where it’s become mainstream and almost normal to see women represented as mere objects of desire.

Mulvey further explores the idea of the female being ‘dismembered’ in the media, i.e. the fact that there is a focus on specific body parts (such as breasts, legs, etc), instead of the woman as a whole. This in turn affects the public and can influence women into obsessing over wanting certain parts of their body to be a certain way. On the other hand, Mulvey argues that men are portrayed ‘whole’. This is very much evident in many popular music videos today. With pop music arguably becoming more ‘manufactured’, every aspect from the styling of the artist to the narrative of a music video is carefully planned. As these representations become ‘the norm’ for music videos, the public becomes familiar with particular depictions of gender in certain genres of music and artists.



In the video for ‘Sweat’ by Snoop Dogg vs David Guetta, females are portrayed in a derogatory way, with the camera emphasizing different parts of their bodies, and nearly never showing them as ‘a whole’, except in a few establishing shots. Furthermore, the males in the video admire their bodies and are very much seen as ‘in control’, whilst the females have no problem with getting into sexual poses. Therefore, we can tell that this video fulfils the fantasies of the ‘male gaze’.



In contrast, the roles are reversed in the video for ‘Super Bass’ by Nicki Minaj, where focus is placed on men’s muscular bodies. However, the video still plays into stereotypes in terms of the artist’s suggestive body language and clothing. If we compare countless videos like these to say, Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’, where, for the most part, it is just the artist sitting in a chair and singing, we can see two very different types of music videos.

Research - Carol Vernallis' Theory

Carol Vernallis carefully looks at and discusses the camerawork and editing of music videos in her book ‘Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context’.

She noted that, in comparison to film, editing in music videos is used significantly more often, stands out in order to attract attention, and is discontinuous, with jump cuts frequently used. Base tracks (or master shots) are used to form a basis for the video and enable the other shots to be ‘built’ around it. In music videos, the song is the most important thing, camerawork may move or so cuts/edits may appear rhythmically in time to the music.

A music video that illustrates Vernallis’ idea of substantial editing that stands out is ‘Who’s That Chick?’ by David Guetta featuring Rihanna. The transitions are very quirky and additionally features parts of the lyrics edited into the video.



‘Poker Face’ by Lady Gaga is an example of a music video that uses jump cuts and slow motion to great effect, especially in the opening sequence which makes it dramatic and instantly grabs the viewer’s attention.



Editing is used in ‘Moves Like Jagger’ by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera in a way that matches the rhythm of the track. Nearly all the cuts in the video are in time with the beat of the song.

Research - Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin holds several ideas on the structure of music videos, as detailed in his book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture’.

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Goodwin believes that the pop video does not present a traditional narrative structure, as in the kind you would expect from a TV drama, for example (i.e. the typical ‘normality > conflict > resolution’ structure). This is mainly due to three important reasons. Music videos are built around the songs that they are trying to promote, which rarely tell narratives in the conventional ways we’d expect from other media. In addition, the artist is often portrayed as both the narrator, telling the story through song, and the character. Furthermore, the artist engages directly with the viewer by looking directly at the camera in a majority of shots.

Goodwin also expresses how pop videos place emphasis on repetition, whether it’s done visually or through certain verses or lines in the music being repeated. In addition, he states that the music often builds up to a climax and how this ultimately transfers onto the music video (see analysis of ‘Bad Romance’ which creates a climax designed to leave a lasting impression).

With all of this in mind, Goodwin outlines the three main types of videos you are very likely to identify:

• ILLUSTRATION - the video illustrates the narrative by closely following the lyrics (and can incorporate dancing to express the emotion and/or mood of the song). An example is ‘Deeper Understanding’ by Kate Bush, which fits into this category as the visuals adapt perfectly to what is sung. The lyrics tell the story of the relationship between a person and a computer, and the video reflects this by portraying a man becoming attached and addicted to a computer program and thus separating himself from his loved ones… “As the people here grow colder, I turn to my computer, like a friend”



• AMPLIFICATION - the videos create new meanings that do not contradict but add to the lyrics, thus ‘amplifying’ them. ‘Replaced’ by Kate McGill, which is an example of this type of video, portrays a man who wakes up from a coma forty years later. The lyrics do not specifically refer to this, but do not contradict this storyline either… “You know I used to know you well, I'm staring at the spot you fell”



• DISJUNCTURE - the video has little or no connection to, or contradicts the lyrics. For example, ‘Velvet Elvis’ by Alex Winston – whilst being aesthetically great, especially when it comes to the editing which utilizes jump cuts and sped up motion very well – has no narrative or any imagery related to the theme of the song. Pretty much all of Lady Gaga’s videos also fall under this category.

Research - Music Video Analysis

As part of my research, I will be analysing the music video for Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. What I feel makes this a great music video is that it follows pop video conventions, whilst breaking others, and contains strong examples of editing and mise-en-scène.

The video begins with an establishing shot, with the artist sitting on a throne in the centre of the frame, surrounded by men and women. The camera slowly zooms in, cuts to a closer shot, then a close-up of the artist’s face (all whilst continuing to zoom in). This is an example of how the shots in music videos are rarely static, but what I found interesting is that ‘Bad Romance’ combines a significant amount of static shots too. For example, nearly all the shots during the opening sequence (where the white latex wearing women rise from their ‘coffins’) are static. Yet the editing plays a significant role in keeping things moving and bringing energy to the video. The fast cuts utilize ellipses of time, whilst accompanying shots of the artist keeping eye contact with the camera engages the viewer. Speed editing is also used which is a frequent feature of pop videos, for example there is quick shot towards the beginning that is sped up when the music begins, and a slow motion sequence before the climax.

Many base tracks are used, possibly more than your average music video (which gives the video a busy but exciting feel); significant ones include: close-up of the artist singing to the camera with a white background and minimalistic make up, the artist dancing with back-up dancers in front of several men (which seems to be following Laura Mulvey’s thoughts on the representations of gender in music video), the artist with big cartoon-like eyes (most likely edited in post-production) in a bath tub, etc. Another major example of obvious editing is present during a particular scene where the artist is surrounded by diamonds/crystals suspended in mid-air, whilst the camera revolves around her.

The transitions throughout are constant, until we reach the climax of the video where fades to black are used in quick succession whilst the scene cuts back and forth between different base tracks. The mise-en-scène is consistently futuristic, with white being a predominant colour for the setting and costumes. In the climax of the video, the artist and dancers are introduced in a new scene with red clothing that contrasts with the rest of the video. The video ends with a dramatic shot as the camera zooms out. This is the only time throughout the video that a zoom out is used which brings the video to a fitting close. All of this seems to be putting emphasis on the closing scenes of the video, and I am given the impression that this particular focus is placed to leave a lasting impression on the viewer.

Research - Initial Copyright Clearance

In the summer break before the start of A2 lessons, I got into contact with the record labels of different British artists, asking their permission for the possible use of their music. The preliminary ideas for songs I had and their respective labels are as follows...

• Starry Eyed - Ellie Goulding // Polydor Records
• Sunday - Hurts // RCA Records
• The A-Team - Ed Sheeran // Atlantic Records
• Hands - The Ting Tings // Columbia Records
• Up All Night - Alex Clare // Island Records
• Paper Forest (In the Afterglow of Rapture) - Emmy the Great // Close Harbour Records

I sent letters to the record labels of the first five songs, whilst for the other I emailed them the request as I could not obtain a postal address. I received the following replies from representatives of Hurts and Emmy the Great (the latter of which after I was referred to the publisher of her music, BMG) giving me permission for the usage of their respective songs.

Research - Function of the Music Video

As part of the A2 Advanced Portfolio, we will be working towards producing our own music video as part of a promotional package for a new British artist. In our first lesson we were introduced to a more in-depth look at music videos...

The main function of the music video is to promote the musician and sell the song to the listener. In this day and age, where the majority of us are exposed to our music through the internet, sites like YouTube are dominating over the ‘old ways’ of listening to music (e.g. via radio or CDs). Music videos have become much more important than say twenty years ago so – in effect, music videos have become a requirement. As a crucial factor for the success of today’s modern popular music singles, music videos must grab the attention of the consumer to entice them into watching it again and again. This in turn means that, due to repeat exposure to the song, there is a much more likely chance of the individual parting with their money for the music – this is vital, even more so with the increase in music piracy and file-sharing over the last decade.