27.11.12 - 28/11/12 Yesterday we filmed some performance shots for the music video. We filmed against a white background instead of black as we felt it looked better. However after putting them onto the editing suite we have decided that we are going to reshoot these and either do them against a black background like originally planned, or have Laken wear brighter clothes so she stands out against the white better. She is wearing a pale pink top in the videos we shot and her and the background just seem to blend all together and nothing really stands out.
We also shot a few shots against the green screen so we could see if adding in the pink background looked ok. After reconstructing beyonce, countdown we didn't like the green screen but for this video we didn't really light the green screen as well as we could of. So we tried to get a flat light on the green screen wall and we are going to try and add a pink background. If this doesn't work very well then we will be reshooting these shots with a pink background rather than the green screen.
Today we started editing, we put the first few performance shots together and so far they look ok. We are going to carry on editing with the current shots we did yesterday but eventually reshoot to get something of a higher standered.
Below are some images of us shooting against the white background and the green screen:
The set up for filming against the white background.
Artist (Laken)stood against the white background
Shot of Laken lip syncing on the white background
Close up image of Laken on the white background
Green screen shot, testing out the background to change to pink, not happy with the result.
26/11/12 This week we are going to film the performance shots against the black and pink background. We are going to be using the green screen initially but may go back and change it depending on what it turns out like and if we are happy with it. When filming in the green room we are going to make sure that we light the room as best we can so when it comes to editing and adding in the coloured background it works well and we can combine them together without any parts of the green screen being left in the video.
Me and Laken are both working together on this music video and we thought that it would be best if she was the artist for it. Laken was also the artist in our Beyonce - Countdown reconstruction and performed well in that so we thought that she would be well suited for this video as well. We both considered other options for the main artist but other people had less time to meet up and film where as with Laken we had a lot of time to plan to film the video. Laken is going to be portraying the character, Mini from skins, Mini is one of the main characters in skins and wears quite bold and sparkly outfits so Laken will be wearing bold costume in the music video.
Extras
Name: Amy Mumby Age: 17 Subjects studying: ICT, Geography, Psychology Amy is going to be portraying the character Grace in the music video. Grace has quite a simple and girly style, Amy is going to recreate this style. We want her to look like she is having a lot of fun in the video and is shown having a night out with friends. Amy is going to be wearing a black dress with her hair down and other outfits include jeans and a leather jacket which makes the style a lot more casual and fits the character she is portraying well.
Name: Hannah Billaney Age: 17 Subjects studying: Textiles, English and Law Hannah is going to be taking the part of the skins character called liv. We want her to be stylish but also dressed quite casual.
I have been looking on the internet at various website to try and solve the problem about filming at night. Some tips that were mentioned were:
Try not to use the zoom on the camera, if I want a close up shot move to the artist rather than zooming in. This will keep the light distribution even and keep the quality of the shot to a good standard.
Make as much use of artificial light outside as you can, we tried to use lamposts in the shots that we tried outside but these gave the video an orange colour which we didn't want. We need another light source, maybe a portable light.
We could try filming just as it starts to get dark and then edit the video in the video editing software to be slightly darker, however this would mean that we wouldn't have a long amount of time to film what we need.
We could choose a busier place to film where there is more shops and buildings with lights but there is more of a chance that other people will end up in the shots which we don't want.
Below are the videos we shot on the night as test shots that we don't think worked very well, A portable light source will be useful for these shots so we can see the artist and everything it clear without the orange colouring.
We tested out some shots before filming the shots that we will use for our music video. We tried out the night time shots, which didn't work very well, we are going to come up with a solution to this problem soon.
This video is an example of the pace of editing we will include in our music video. The majority of shots last for around 2 to 3 seconds each, and they are all straight cuts. The longer shots in the video tend to be around 5 seconds long, which is similar to the length of a lot of our shots in our music video. The music video has fast paced editing, Rhythmic editing (edits to the beat ) and tends to change when the artist sings a different line of the song. Our music video also edits to the beat of the song, we want it to be quite a fun video, which also goes with the pop genre, music videos of this genre are generally quite fun and show people having fun and at party's etc. so an editing pace similar to this will really help us get the fun message across to the audience and goes with the pace of the song as well.
In this music video, Little Mix - Wings, they use the split screen technique which we want to use in our music video.We are using this for a few of our shots,to show the artist lip syncing and also have other things happening in the same shot. It is really effective in this music video, mainly because there is four girls in the girl group and it allows them all to be in the same shot and lip syncing rather than having them all stood in the same shot. It looks interesting on the screen and I think it is really effective. We are using it in our music video because we want to put a lot of shots in one screen. We want to have split screen with four and also with two, they use both of those in the Wings music video, we can show performance shots and then also shots of people dancing and having fun on the other side, which helps to get the message of the song across well.
In this music video they filmed at night, using mainly light from outside (street lights), when we filmed some test shots outside at night the shots had an orange colouring to them from the street lights which isn't what we want. so we need to find a light that will light up the shots better so you can see the performance and people clearer in the video. In this music video the shots do have quite a lot of orange in them but their faces are very clear and you can see them lip syncing the lyrics clearly where as on our test shots you can see them lip syncing but not as well as this. We need to get the lighting outside correct, it is very important as we want the music video to flow well and everything to be how we want it, so lighting is a problem for the night time shots.
In this video Usher uses the projection of lights over the top of him lip syncing, this is our inspiration for the shots were we involve a projector to put an image over Laken, we are using city lights similar to the ones Usher uses. I think that it looks really good in this music video. Usher uses two different ways to overlay the image on top of the video. The first is a projection onto Usher which works well, we are filming it this way first and as long as it works we will be using that technique in our music video. The second way that Usher uses the video of cars in the video is overlaying it on top of the original shot of him dancing and lip syncing. This is what we are going to use as a backup if the first technique doesn't work very well. When filming it we need to make sure that you can still see the artist face clearly and the projection isn't too much on top of them. I like the second way usher uses the lights but I don't think it is as effective and interesting as having it projected onto the setting. I really like the way different videos are layered on top of each other in this video.
05/11/12 – We practiced some of the shots outside at night
to see what the light would show up light on the camera. Wasn't happy
with the lighting in the shots, going to find a different location or change
ideas to make sure there is enough light to film with. Below are a few pictures that we took while we was filming.
