Production - Inspiration + Research

Following our storyboard

As the deadline for the final cut of our music video approaches and we continue editing, we are still constantly looking back over our planning, as well as new sources of inspiration. In yesterday's lesson, myself and Poppy continued to do the majority of the editing, which wasn't a lot! The editing process is much more tedious than I anticipated, and I think it's time for me to stop being a perfectionist and worry about that a couple of weeks down the road or we'll never have a rough cut, let alone a final cut, produced in time! Mustafa and Charon were on hand to give their input on our decisions (and to settle any squabbles between me and Poppy, haha!) whilst they also started looking at digipak ideas. Mustafa described to us an example that he researched that opened up in all directions, which we though could be a nice idea, and would mean that we would have more panels to work with (which could be both an advantage and disadvantage).



As we went on selecting clips to work with, a snippet from the base track we filmed of Poppy sped up with the wolf projection stuck out for me and reminded me of a music video I had seen. The scene in question shows Poppy's hair flying in slow motion (after we slowed it down - at this point the lip syncing had not begun), with the slow motion + billowy hair effect featuring prominently in the video for Cocoon by Alpines. Below you can see a photo I took comparing still shots from the video and above the video itself. It uses a pretty simple concept in terms of the composition, with no location shots, but the intricate editing shines through and made us realize that we must be very careful if we are to use any special effects.

We also toyed with the idea of at least two of us spending time editing out of lessons, and whilst doing so, creating multiple versions of our Final Cut project file in case other group members suggest different ideas and we must revert to previous editing. This was suggested by our teacher Annabel as we only have three weeks from today until everything to do with the music video production is due, which isn't as long as I imagined. Therefore, we drew up a schedule of when each of us didn't have lessons and were free to edit (including most lunch times). This will begin on Monday with myself and Poppy coming in at lunch (Charon and Mustafa have other commitments at this time, but we'll be seeing more of them during the week.)

Production - Editing the Music Video

After returning the filming equipment yesterday, myself and Poppy began putting together all the base tracks that we filmed. Poppy copied all of the footage onto our hard drive, before we imported it into Final Cut Pro and began to sort through the vast amount we have. I suggested that we categorize the videos into three folders - daylight, night and fairylight scenes - to make things easier for ourselves. We then placed every base track (twenty-three in total!) on different points on the timeline and synced them by following the tutorial we had back in the summer lessons on music video editing (see blog post about it here).

In today's lesson and with the group now together, we began to look at the footage more and to think about our editing ideas. For example, we tested our jump cut idea to show Poppy walking behind a tree, before emerging from another and so on. We also added markers to the beat of the song, again following the tutorial we had in the summer lessons, and then cut all the tracks up along the markers. We were then able to experiment with deleting different sections at random to produce a quick sample of what part of our music video may look like, which you can see below (minus the audio). Next lesson, we will begin to continue this further, but thinking carefully about what scenes we want where, repetition of shots according to the music track, etc. Looking at the Final Cut project file with all our base tracks is a bit daunting right now, but we are thrilled with our progress so far and are ready to give our best shot in bringing the vision we have for this music video to life.

PRODUCTION: Filming Day 1

On Friday 21st October during our 3 hour lesson, we began production on our music video. As we were in college and only had a short amount of time to record, we decided to begin recording the projection shots. This involved projecting an image relevant to the mise en scene of the music, onto the artists face (Poppy). Below is a short clip showing the preparation, production and afterthoughts of the shots we conducted.

This is an image showing one shot we recorded using the projector. As you can see, the camera is focused directly onto Poppy's face making sure the edges of the projector are not in shot. We made sure that Poppy can see herself while we were recording so she can make sure she consistently stays in shot and can adjust her positioning if she needs to.

We recorded many different base tracks to ensure we had enough footage to choose from when be began editing. As you can see, there are two different projections in both the images. The top image has a projection of a wolf relating to the mise en scene of the music and the lyrics as we are doing the song Howl, by Florence and the Machines. The second image shows a projection of a video we recorded in Queens Wood Park, and projected that video onto Poppy's face. On camera, this projection looked well as it looked as if the audience was seeing Poppy's imagination in the background while she performs.

During production, we recorded all of the shots using the tripod. This was because we attempted to record a shot without using the tripod, however while the projection was being shown in the background, the final outcome looked unprofessional. The lighting and image quality of the projection compromised the overall shot if we used handheld shots which is why the tripod was used throughout. Also, when we attempted to record freehand, we kept on getting the edges of the projected image in shot and again, it looked unprofessional.

The tripod was used throughout in various different camera angles of Poppy herself. Our shots varied from extreme close ups of her eyes to medium shots. This allowed us to choose what clips we want to use when it comes to editing. During the base tracks, we made sure that each shot was shot correctly without errors first time round. If there were mistakes, we made sure we recorded the track again.

While recording, Nick had a brilliant idea to record the song in half the speed. The purpose of this was to make Poppys movements look abnormal when the clip was played at double speed, which would make the song play at its normal tempo. The song is initially about 3:30 minutes long, however, it took us over 7 minutes to record the base track where we halfed the speed of the song. Poppy had to adapt to singing at half the speed so when the speed of the clip was doubled, Poppys lips matched the song lyrics, but her movements were abnormal.

Planning - Photos for Ancillary Products

Above you can see a collage I created consisting of 25 shots we took during the filming process of our music video. I selected these photos as I think we should definitely consider using a few for our ancillary products, as they would link back to our music video through the distinguishable costume, make-up and lighting, and in turn help build our artist's image. Below I've added the original sized versions of some of my favourites.

 

Production - Behind the Scenes Photos

Projection Shoot

Fairylights Shoot

Woodland Shoot - Day

Woodland Shoot - Night

You can also view all the photos directly here.