Organising To Shoot The Video

To prepare the filming for my rough cut, I had to organise a date which my two cast would be available on, and the best way I knew of arranging group events was through a social networking site such as Facebook. Therefore, my first step was to create the event and invite James and Lauren so they can tell me their thoughts and opinions as we go through filming. 

Here, shows the event that I created to my cast. It will enable us to interact with one another with ease and arrange dates, times, and meeting places. 


There will be roughly 4 different locations to shoot- some will take longer than others and some will be repeated more than others. It will need a lot of planning and patience but I know we'll get there eventually.

Risk Assessment

On the days of filming there will be certain hazards that must be taken into consideration and approached with caution. I have come up with some possible risks and solution. 

My Pitch

My Pitch

At the beginning of the video it shows the aftermath of a party that happened the night before. As the main character wakes up he witnesses the aftermath of the night before- all of which he does not remember. As he gets up to try and remember what has happened he sees himself in a mask- the mask represents the other side to him and portrays a slightly schizophrenic-self. 

After witnessing himself in the mask he tries to remember what happened by going upstairs to change. This action gets distracted when he sees there is some unknown female in his bed, confused and aggravated he leaves his room and goes down stairs to drink his tea. As he places the cup back down a wave of realization comes over him as he remembers the night before and begins to get wound up by his actions. 

The lyrics contradict his actions "Yeah, yeah and it's ok" when it is obviously the opposite. "I tie my hands up to a chair so I don't fall that way, yeah yeah and I'm alright...I took a sip of something poison but I'll hold on tight". This part of the lyrics refers to suicide and ironically not being "alright". The main characters actions will portray this. 

As the percussion of drums, bass and guitar begin in the bridge of the song, the main characters motif is displayed as he strolls along the river front as a way of releasing his anger.

"you play the game but you gotta cut, 'cuz you're comin' down hard, your joints are off stud" this part of the video is when he selects his prostitute and they exit down the alleyway together, the lyrics fit the actions perfectly. 

As the main character returns from the alley he has lipstick down his face and looks particularly scruffy. He composes himself and the regret sets in and anger starts to well inside of him. As the chorus begins again, you see him unleashing his anger in numerous ways.

After this he returns to his home- again walking past the river front. Before he steps through his door he hesitates and the camera starts to do 360 degree shots all around his head displaying his emotions and eventually showing him in the mask, before eventually walking through the door. The hesitation is because knows in himself he will end up doing something else he regrets. 

As he walks in he heads straight for the cupboard where he keeps his alcohol, he places everything he owns out onto the counter and debates where to start first. He begins to binge drink downing almost anything and everything. Stumbling around, he decides he should leave again. The final shot it him walking off into dark on the river front. 

Effects I Like For My Video

After completing my animatic, I now have a clearer understanding of what I want to include in my video in the way of effects


Slow Motion


After reviewing some other music videos based around a similar genre I have found that the use of Slow Motion is a very popular effect. My personal opinion on it is that I believe it would go well with my own video and that I would incorporate such an effect into my video, in places where it would be best suited. For example, I would use this effect where the main character got angry, upset and violent. The slow motion effect would accentuate the anger and highlight the moves to make it look more emphatic.

Angles

Angles often show power and emphasize emotion. A low angle shows power, superiority and importance(1). A high angle usually represents that the person is small, insignificant, unworthy, vulnerable or less superior to that of another. (2). 

The idea that these angles portray different things could work work in my video could show the audience these different sides to my main character- one side being vulnerable, the other, powerful and fearsome. 

(1)

(2)

Cross Dissolve
This is a transition where  one image overlaps the other with a lower opacity then the image beneath. This gives the effect shown below, yet this is using 3 different images. It is an effective effect to use as it catches the audiences attention and makes them focus on the situation more. I would consider putting this in my own video, to emphasize certain scenes.

Focus Pull /Push 
Another effect that catches the viewers eye and makes them more concentrated on the situation. When the camera is out of focus you try and figure out what the image is until the image becomes focused. A focus PUSH is when the images goes from  focused to unfocused. A focus PULL is when the image goes from unfocused to focused. I would like to include this into my video as I feel it could highlight different scenes and keep the audience/ viewer entertained.

Editing my Song

Using a nifty little program called Garage Band I was able to edit my song to suit my music video perfectly.

Garage Band Logo

Showing my Song in Garage Band at the end of my editing 

The original length was 4 minutes and 27 seconds long, I cut it down to be 4 minutes and 9 seconds long which enabled to work around the new length with ease. I first cut out the beginning 8 seconds of the song as the intro I believed would have been to lengthy for my idea, luckily as it was a riff I was able to cut it in half. I then used the remaining edited seconds to cut off of the end of the song as the ending- like the intro- was too long for my song. Instead I used a volume adjustment which allowed me to decrease or increase the volume within the song at a particular point that I chose.

This shows my volume decent near the beginning of the song to add extra effect on the video 

Volume decent at the end of the song

Animatic

This is my animatic, where I produced a total of 76 different frames to make up my video.

I made the frames by drawing them onto squares to represent the video screen. Drawing out a total of 76 frames proved to be a lengthy process and it was not long before I realised how much care and attention will need to be taken into consideration when I begin to film my music video. It was a very helpful process though as if I had not taken up this task then my video would not have been as prepared as what I can now make it, as I now know what is required to make my video look effective.

The video was made in "Final Cut Express",  here I was able to edit and rearrange the audio and the images accordingly to the timing of the song. I also gained skills such as importing, exporting, rendering and organising.



Please note: Some of the frames are the wrong way round, although attempting to correct this, I failed many times as it did not work. 

Showing Final Cut- all operations

Image Bar

Music Bar

Imported images waiting to be used

Video Area- Where the selected area in the Music and Image Bars are played in collaboration.