CH - Editing continued

Left is a shot I directed and Josh filmed. This was part of a plan to recreate the illusion of a photomontage effect; a 360 degree pan of a 'still image'.
I directed everyone to stand in a row, as if we were all walking (as our characters), talking to one another; we then froze where we stood, and Josh panned around us, with a range of shots from L/MS to CU.

This not only helped anchor our characters, but also gave us an artistic shot to fill any space left during editing. Upon editing, I cut this shot. Taking 0.5 second gaps, I cut the footage into chunks, then removed every second section, creating a jump cut in the footage similar to that of stop motion. This fit well to the music, a fast-paced cutting rate that still retained the necessary movement of a music video yet without losing the quality of image given from a still shot.

The shot right is another piece of footage that I filmed and edited. Taken on location in Hastings, the shot followed a casino slot machine as it rolled through the iconic slot images; I took this shot to anchor the indexical signs of that particular sequence, which involve gambling, money, teenage rebellion, fun, and comradery. The social myths surrounding these include the cult of youth and anti-capitalist rebellion (through the use of gambling and other non-work related money gain).

Even though I edited this shot to only last a fraction of a second, it lends the video all these indexical signs as well as building on the aesthetic theme and atmosphere.

Right is another shot that I edited into the sequence from 1:30 seconds to 2:30 seconds (approximately), which include the 'bad boy' sequence, the interlude and the final choruses.

It was vital that this sequence be visually stunning, as it closed the music video and thus had to leave a stirirng image in the mind of the audience. To best achieve this we used a majority of our Hastings footage, as this was the best aesthetically. We also had to remember the fast-paced cutting rate and to include a wealth of movement and different camera angles, as towards the end of the video is a crucial period so as not to begin to become boring and lose the attention of the viewer. I cut the footage into a rough edit for this entire period, and now all three of us are helping to sharpen the editing.

RC - Editing (5)

Yesterday, due to the absence of both my collegues, I carried on with the editing process. This lesson mainly consisted of audience feedback, where a lot of my fellow class mates watched our production piece and kindly gave comments on how to commence. At this stage it is crucial to be critical as time is of the essence and critique is of the most importance if we want to create a piece that is of the best standard and therefore the comments that I got were reassuring. People seemed to think that our video showed potential, despite the obvious gaps, and seemed to like the concept. Obviously we still need to make many improvements if we want to reach the top of of level 4, which is what everyone agreed on.

After this there was not much time left to make a huge start on the editing and therefore I only managed to make a few additions, one of these additions included a MLS to a MS of all four characters walking along the street, I decided to add this part into the last section of the video. I also added a shot into the second band sequence which was a MS to a CU of the lead singer. After this I only managed to amend more of the synching.

RC - Editing (4)

Today and yesterday I have been carrying on with editing whilst the other two have been working on their print texts. In these last couple of days I have only made a few modifications, primarily focusing on improving the synching of the sound track with the video track. I have been successful in some places with this, although it is difficult to sync everything when not all of our footage has been edited or is in the right order. This meant that in some cases I had to cut some of the clips so to allow the music and visuals to be synched correctly.
I noticed that there also some gaps in the soundtrack and in the visuals, which have been caused by our use of the splitting device when doing our editing. I felt that to convene with our editing in the most effective manner it would be best get rid of these blips. I decided to clear the soundtrack from the part where the first split is and to then stretch the left over soundtrack so to go back to its original length. I then had to delete a part of one of the bad boy shots, as I noticed that there was an unintentional jump, where it seems that a part of the clip is missing. I am unsure as to why this occured but I have now altered it.
I added a shot at the very end of video, which I felt would be quite successful as one of our ending shots. This is a clip of all of the four characters together, who have clearly just been out and are now walking home in a drunken nature. I think that a shot of all them together is essential in order to end our narrative in the most effective way.
I have also added a shot to one of the car sequences that comes after the first band sequence. I decided to use a clip that we had filmed on a previous reccie in Tonbridge, as the shots we acquired on our real shoot did not include enough recordings of the car journey. I felt that I could do this because in this shot there is no presence of characters and therfore was no risk in using it. This shot is simply a recording taken from inside car and can be described as a POV shot because it is of someone looking out the front car window. In order for this shot to fit in with the rest of the video I had to adjust the time stretch so that it would fasten considerably. I do think that the inclusion of this shot is successful, although I will have to ask for the opinions of the rest of my group.

CH - Analysing a video (continuing editing)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOqua-Cny4g

Above is the link to a music video by the band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. This band are an alternative, indie-rock band that I admire for their musical prowess.

During editing, it is easy to loose sight of our goal; ensconsed in the technicalities, we as a group could begin to forget the purpose thus.

The video is performance/narrative, much like ours; the use of lighting in the video is very cleverly used to indicate an oppressive environment yet retaining aesthetic value; this ties in with the lyrics, describing a victim of domestic abuse. The lighting is soft, yellowed, casting heavy shadows and lending a sepia tone. As an audience we associate these with the past, and a particularly relevant social myth surrounding the past is the subordination of women.

The use of camera and editing is very typical of a music video. The framing left indicates the rule of thirds, as well as being a CU meat shot of the main singer in synced performance.

As the song is very emotional, it is suitable to include a strong first person mode of address, so as to fully include the audience. The cutting rate is fast paced, with an average of two shots every five seconds. This rivals our own, with our instrumental section averaging a similar shot count.

I really liked the performance in this video. It fit the tone of the song perfectly, the grain of voice emotional and passionate; the performance similarly so, enthusiastic yet sincere. The social myths that are construed with such a performance from such an artist include that of heroism, dominant vs passive in the gender debate. This indicates that, by consuming this music video, the audience is also heroic and the indexical signs (for instance, protective body language).

CH - Final Shoot evaluation

On monday, Rosie, Josh and I took our two actors, Max and Ben, to shoot in Hastings. These shots are primarily filler, designed to bring our storyline together and build on our concept as far as indexical signs and social myths are concerned.
The shoot convened immediately after school, finishing around four hours later; in this time we had to travel to the site, therefore the time spent actually filming was less than this. However, this said we gathered an amass of footage, so much so we were forced to remove shots from previous rekkies in order to save storage on the SD card.
This is an issue we have come across maybe three times in our filming so far, and it is proving difficult. Even though filming with an SD relieves us the task of time-consuming reading the film through a firewire, it also means we have no hard-copy of the footage we have shot, whereas in the past we have carried tapes and been reassured of a constant backup.
This issue aside, we managed to get unprecedented amounts of film that is not simply workable, but is far higher standard than the majority of our previous efforts. This may be because we are, as a team, now accustomed to the technical capabilities of the equipment that is available to us, or because we are working together more productively after prolonged teamworking activities.
Below is a list of examples of shots we gathered:

1. ECU over-the-shoulder of Ben turning to face the camera whilst walking into the arcade
2. MS of Max leaning against a pub
3. MS/CU pan of Max jumping through the window into the car
4. MS of Ben/Max on a dancing game at the arcade
5. MS of Rosie laughing whilst playing a game of air-table-hockey
   

Left is an example of a MS taken of Ben, the Good Boy character.
Here, I was filming; I wanted to focus on the use of lights, as the footage so far has been relatively dark, and in this fantastic location we were granted wonderful lighting opportunities. The bright, colourful background lights connote wealth, power, fun, danger; many of the connotations associated with money.

This shoot was fun, and amusing; many of the shots were genuine, rather than acting; in my opinion, this gives a better inclination of 'real life', and helps the audience to relate if the storyline, and actors thus, are believable.

RC - Looking at a music video for editing inspiration

It is easy for anyone to get too immersed in a project you are working on; an aspect that I am concerned may happen to me and the rest of my group. This is why each one of us have taken it upon ourselves to commit to something that works outside the box that is our music video. In order to keep an open mind I am going to analyse a music video primarily looking at the editing techniques, which will enable me to be inspired and to potentially offer new ideas for the editing process of our production.

I have decided to look at the music video 'VCR' by The xx:

The xx are an indie/rock band from London, England.

My initial reason for choosing this video was out of my own liking, despite the fact that this band is similar to The Enemy, it was then after watching it that I felt it would be relevant to the development of our video.

Recently we have been discussion over whether our music video should be converted to black and white due to some of our footage lacking the quality that we originally desired. This suggestion could be one that is put into action particularly because our deadline is now quickly approaching and there may not be a chance for us to re-shoot the parts we felt were of a lower standard. Personally I was not keen on the black and white effect as I felt that some sections in our video needed the impact that colour would provide, however, this video proves that using black and white can be just as effective, although it is clear that this is dependent on the brightness and contrast of each shot.

One other aspect that could relate to our work is the how the beat of the track seems to match the cutting rate of the footage to great effect. This is definitely something that we need to work on ourselves, because although we are aware of the song's beat in terms of the cutting rate, some areas need to be cut more efficiently so that none of our shots are stationary.

I personally like how the order of these shots provide the basis for a good storyline; one key aspect of our video is building narrative, as concept is the foundation of our video. The XX's video has allowed me to investigate into how narrative is built effectively.

RC - Editing (3)

Yesterday, after capturing the footage from our Hastings shoot, I took it upon myself to make a start on the editing so to incorporate the new shots.

At the moment I do feel that editing is going good, even if some parts are slightly messy and the deadline is quickly looming. In discussion with the rest of my group and our teacher yesterday we decided that our editing process needed more structure to it, as it seems that there is a lack of organisation to the way we edit. We played around with the idea of starting a new timeline, however, we felt that what we had so far would be a shame to waste in terms of time and quality. Therefore we came to the conclusion that when one of us is doing the editing and is not sure what another has last edited we should fill in the gaps by editing the band sequences, as these shots are the thread through our whole music video.
Now that the bad boy shots are available to us I decided that I would begin to compile the bad boy sequence. My first task was to go through all the shots that were relevant to this sequence and to split them so that they were of the right time length and did not include any uneccessary footage. I then had to decide which shots were the best in terms of what we wanted to include in our bad boy sequence. Our aim was to create a continuity sequence or atleast similar to this...
Here are stills taken from the bad boy sequence:

I then began to compile (with our new footage) another car sequence that would be placed on the timeline where the chorus begins to play. I started with a sideways MS of myself (the good girl) in the car, banging my hand onto the steering wheel so that it coincided with the lyrics of the song where it says, 'yeah, yeah'. I then added in a few other shots, which included:

• a MS of the bad boy waving his arm outside the car window
• a pan shot (whilst driving) of the outside of the arcade
• an over-the-shoulder shot of myself driving

RC - My contribution to our production piece

Throughout the produdction process all group members have made a considerable and an equal amount of contribution. When shooting each of us take it in turns to direct and to film and even when one of us cannot film due to featuring in the shoot we still make a contribution.
In terms of organisation it is my role to fill out the call sheet and the risk assessment in order to be allowed to take the equipment, it is also my job to collect and to return the equipment; we agreed that it would be easier for me to do this because I have a car.
So far we have all assisted in the editing development, with the initial editing done by Josh.
From this it is evident that as a group we seem to be working collaboratively in the evolvement of our music video. However, if I were to suggest one improvement it would be for us to communicate more when it comes to editing because it is hard for a group of three to each have a turn at editing individually because once one person has edited another may take over without realising what the other has done. Working like this only slows the editing process down, so communication is key.

RC - Shoot evaluation

Last night Casey, Josh and I completed our final shoot, which was situated in Hastings. Our aim was to film the last part of our music video, which would include shots of all four of the characters together enjoying a night out in town — primarily in the arcade. We wanted a series of footage that would contrast nicely to what we already had, in terms of lighting and setting/location. We then also had to complete the last sequence for our character profile shots, which would be of the bad boy.

In reference to our storyboard there were a number of shots that we wanted to achieve and quite a volume too, although are prime concern was to film filler shots. Therefore we decided that we would film the arcade section first being aware that these would take the longest. However, because we knew that the previous shoot we had been on was the one where our bulk of footage was filmed we weren't as daunted about filming this time.

We all took turns in filming and directing, however, because Casey and I were mainly part of the performance scenes Josh did a lot of the filming. This worked out quite nicely as the roles were reversed in our last shoot, being that Josh was performing for most of the shots.

Looking back at all the shoots we have been on I do feel that we have all contributed equal amounts to our music video in terms of performing, directing and filming, which I believe is the best way to go for creating a product of the best standard and diversity.

It was our focus when it came to filming in the arcade to record a range of footage that really captured the essence of a group of youths enjoying a night out. Despite thorough planning on our part for this shoot previous shoots proved that improvisation can also aid our success,

therefore as well as abiding by our storyboard we allowed ourselves to embrace any moments of filming inspiration; personally I think that this element to our filming really helped our video to cross over from being slightly contrived

to realistic. This genuine appeal to our shots allows audiences to relate to the storyline as well as the actors, and as a result makes our video more believable due to the authentic feel that is created. We found that although acting is a necessity in producing a music video, filming when the actors are not completely aware is also beneficial.

Here is a list of a selection of shots that we completed on our shoot:

• Over the shoulder shot of the bad boy aiding the good boy into the car boot (filmed and directed by me)
• MS of the bad boy stumbling out of a bush (filmed and directed by me)
• ECU of one of the arcade machines
• Moving, MS the good and bad boy on the dance machine (filmed and directed by me)
• MS/CU pan of the bad boy standing and drinking outside the pub (filmed and directed by me)
• Moving MLS of one of the arcades from inside the car
• Moving MS of the good and bad boy playing air hockey.

We knew that with a music video you need continuous movement and for that reason we ensured that we were constantly moving when filming and tried our hardest not to have any static shots. I took this into consideration when filming the bad boy outside the pub, where in one of the shots I began with a pan that started from the bad boy's feet and made his way to his lower body, this then developed into a 180 pan that reached his face, where I then zoomed in to a CU of his face. This type of movement aids the narrative as the camera work allows the audience to really connect to the character in shot, giving you insight into the type of person he is. From the beer that is held in his hand you can see that he is playing the role of a young lad, who is up for having a good time; possibly drinking to fit in with the crowd? However, his solidarity in this shot suggests otherwise, where it can be believed that he is a young man who is in trouble or faced with troubles to explain why he would be drinking alone. Whatever the case may be each of these interpretations fit the characterisation of the bad boy. His stance suggests confidence, where he is leaning against the pub wall, it seems that he is comfortable in the place that he is in; this implies that he goes to the pub often. His attire is casual and accentuates the nonchalant attitude that he exudes, further enforcing his bad boy persona.

The variety of readings that you can get from this shot only proves how important camera work is in building narrative, which is why we made this our top priority in our shoot.

Overall, I was happy with the filming that we did in Hastings, considering the effort, time and money it took to get there. Altogether we filmed for about 2 and a half hours, excluding travel time, and despite this lengthy amount of time we did manage to accumulate a wealth of footage of reasonably high quality. This differed from our previous shoots where if we filmed for long amounts of time it would result in the lower quality shots, this was an effect that we could not afford to do this time around. Our only concern, prior to filming, was the how much space we had left on our SD card, taking into account that there is only about 2 hours worth of storage space on the card.

JM - Shoot Evaluation

Last night (22nd Nov.) Casey, Rosie and Myself went to Hastings in order to complete what we hope will be the last part of our filming. In Hastings we had a few criteria to complete:

1. Complete group shots
2. Complete car shots
3. Shoot 'Bad Boy' sequence

During our shoot, which lasted about 2 and a half hours I feel that as a group we managed to complete all of these tasks in a good amount of time. This is because we were properly prepared, all the actors were there and they all understood what they needed to do, and we had all the equipment. Also we had a good idea of where we wanted to go in order to film all of our shots, this being due to an earlier reccie completed by Casey and Rosie during the planning of our production.

I don't feel that we ran into any problems during our shoot, possibly only minor problems with lighting which were quickly solved with use of the camera torch or change of location. Also I lost the scarf I was wearing in other shoots, so if I manage to find it, it would be an idea to get a shot of me throwing it away, in order to maintain continuity.

Having hopefully completed all the filming now, I am confident that we should be able to complete all the editing of the footage in time to meet the production deadline on December 3rd.

(Pictures to be added soon)

RC - Advert for music video (mock up), continued

After the construction of my preliminary advertisement I received feedback from the rest of my group and the rest of my class; all comments seemed to be quite positive, considering that this was only my first attempt. However, I knew that much more development was needed to be made in order to create a promotional text that reached the A grade standard...

With my first advertisement the image that I had incorporated was one that was not actually of the band and therefore did not provide this product with a verisimilitude effect; an appearance of reality. Including an image that is of the band was one of my top priorities so I took it upon myself to capture a number of photographs whilst filming the band performance sequence. I took advantage of the fact this was most likely going to be the only time that the band members were all together and in the right clothing.

My aim was to take a photograph that captured the essence of a typical indie/rock boy band, so I asked the members to do a series of poses in order to produce a wealth of images that would provide me a range of aesthetics that related to the genre of the band.

Here is a small selection of the photographs I took:

In the two photographs below I specifically asked the boys to pose with their bodies turned away from the camera because I was trying to replicate one of the designs that Casey had come up with for the digipak. However, it did not turn out as effective as I would have hoped, which I think is down to location. I also think that this sort of pose does not allow audience connection, and although this can be considered as a feature of the indie genre some audience connection is necessary for a print text to have impact.

Although this photograph is rather dark and the band members faces are not clearly visible I do really like the concept of this image, as it relates nicely to one of the still shots we took from a previous reccie of the band sequence.

I like the idea of the band being spotlighted, as it gives their image a strong element of fame and recognition. It is clear that editing, through the use of Photoshop, is needed for this image to be of the best standard and if I decide to use this image I will go ahead and do just that. However, in terms of genre-specific ideology, this could be seen as going against the conventions of an indie band, who are most commonly known for denying the advertising aspects of the music industry, opting to deny any funds from huge conglomerates that would take away their indepedence; indepedence being an element that is of most importance to them. Most bands of this genre view music videos as a work of art and not as promotional texts, therfore I do not think that this image would be completely appropriate for the band's advertisement despite the pleasing aesthetics.

I quite like this photograph and I think it will be a lot better after being edited in Photoshop; using the crop tool will help improve the background and I think that the brightness/contrast needs to be adjusted so that it is more enhanced. I think it is highly likely that I will go ahead and use this photo to see if it will work in a print text, if not my second choice will be the photograph above this one.

RC -Shooting

Tonight Casey, Josh and I are filming, which we hope to be, the final part of our music video; this is on the basis that nothing else needs to be re-shot (which is highly likely to happen if we want to reach the A grade standard).
Our aim is to film the 'night-out' sequence of our video, in order to bring a conclusive ending to our concept. On a previous reccie that we went on we found that the arcades in Hastings would be the perfect location for recording this section, particularly because of the bright lights and the busy atmosphere. We felt that this setting was very much youth-related, and also had a urban/edgey appeal to it; a visual that we are striving for in our video.
We also need to shoot the bad boy sequence, in which we see this character stumble out of a pub and make his way, in a 'laddish' manner, to the rest of the group who are in the car. This will then lead into the last sequence, which I have mentioned above.
We need to ensure that this shoot goes well because this particular location is one that is very difficult to get to, in terms of travel and money, so we have no time to waste.

CH - Shoot evaluation

These are photographs of our band performance shoot, completed on wednesday.

We three all took turns taking photographs and filming footage during the two-hour shoot; these images are all examples of shots I took myself.
The shoot convened at 3:30, after we had set our staging area with the props we needed; two guitars, a drum set, four amps, a microphone and leads to give the impression that it was a genuine performance. In reality, only Max and Joe were performing the song on actual instruments; Josh was singing the words into a mic not connected, and strumming on a bass amp (to give verisimilitude to the Enemy's actual band members) that was plugged to an offline amp.
We all thorougly enjoyed the shoot, because we felt it gave us a wealth of footage that was all aesthetically pleasing. We ran into few problems, and after a few minutes of practising we were able to begin filming and photographing properly with technical skill (an example of which being the pull-back-focus shot of max on drums below).
Below is a list of shots we managed to undertake throughout the shoot;

• CU of all performers
• CU of all performers from high angles
• CU of all performers from low angles
• MS of all performers from low angle
• MS of all performers from a mid angle
• M/LS of the band playing together
• M/LS of the band playing from an over-the-shoulder POV
• M/LS of the band playing with Josh in the foreground
• CU/MS of Joe performing, moving along his guitar (see photograph)
• CU/MS over the shoulder of Max performing

We made sure to ascertain that all the shots contained some degree of movement, to keep with the conventions of a music video. Coupled with fast-paced editing, we can achieve the professional yet indie 'look' we are aiming for.
However, in future, by way of improvements we need to think about changing the lighting for more than one shot, as it could become mundane. Also, many of the shots were only taken once, maybe twice, as it was very difficult to achieve the same moving shot twice of a band mid-performance. Luckily for us our footage is all suitable and we are all pleased with it, moreover if this was not the case we would be considering a reshoot which would be very technically challenging within the time limit imposed.

CH - Editing

As agreed, Josh has taken on the role as majority editor in our piece, with Rosie and I as primary directors and producers. However, Rosie and I have both been engaging in editing segments of the video to help impart our ideas into the video.
The image left is a screen shot of my editing process in Premiere Elements.

• I downloaded all the clips from the 'good boy' shoot into our directory.


• I roughly pasted a sequence of these shots into the appropriate timing
• I finely cut these clips to fit the fast-paced cutting rate
• I experimented with lighting and contrast (eg. turning them both up to give higher definition of image)
• I experimented with black and white, to give higher definition without degrading the image quality into pixelated
• I cut some of the clips from the original edit to sync with the track more appropriately

The image right is a screen shot of one clip that I chose to edit. I directed this clip, of Josh (acting) running along the road and jumping around a lit sign.

I liked the aesthetics of this and directed it thus, because I feel it adds to the chaotic nature of our video (from extreme darkness to entropic light and colour). Also, it builds on certain key signifiers, such as the cult of youth and the indexical signs of rebellion (as it portrays a young man here acting in a manner that is not expected of society. Also, the use of a safety sign rather than, say, a wall, gives the impression that this youth has little care for authority and disregards societies rules).
Here is a shot example from our shoot on wednesday of our band performance. I also began to edit the band shots into our first chorus, and currently the sync effect is working nicely.
Josh gave a very promising performance, but we may need more shots to prevent repetition; we currently have about three minutes of performance shots, but cut down to workable footage we may find this is not enough.
The aesthetics of the band shots work really well, however. They contrast nicely to the conceptual narrative.

RC - Shoot evaluation

After school today Casey, Josh and I filmed the band performance scenes in our school's drama studio; using our storyboard as a foundation we managed to film the storyboarded shots as well as improvised ones in order to provide 'filler shots'. Due to Josh performing in these scenes Casey and I took it upon ourselves to do the filming (if one of us was not filming then they were taking photographs with the digital camera). This made sure that each of us had a role, with us all also directing.

In preparation for this shoot I emailed the two other performers stating what we wanted them to bring and wear to the shoot:

We managed to gather a variety of footage, whilst also taking this shoot as an opportunity for capturing photographs for our advertisements and digi-pak.

Here is a small list of some of the shots we filmed:

• Sideways CU of the lead singer singing into the microphone
• Over-the-shoulder shot of the drummer drumming
• A pull back focus shot; a symbol clear in the foreground and the drummer blurred in the background
• Pan up of the lead singer
• A 'moving in' CU of the guitar
  

Overall I think that this shoot went consdierably well because we did manage to accumulate a reasonable amount of footage that showed diversity and provided a wealth of denotations and connotations.
Our main aim was to film whilst continuously moving because we were trying to avoid any static shots, however, I do feel that looking back in hindsight the performers themselves could have been a bit more lively with their movements. The lead singer Josh was the only one really getting into the performance and that is why the shots we have of him are of better quality.

RC - Editing (2)

Today in class, when looking at our footage (more specifically the good boy sequence), we felt that the lighting was very poor in the location that we filmed in and although at the time we realised that lighting may be a problem we thought that the light on the camera would be helpful enough, as well as the aid of the street lights. However, we were proved wrong. Casey played around in class today with the brightness of the shots that were of poor lighting but found that whilst doing so we lost the quality of the shots. Our teacher suggested that maybe using a black and white filter could be a resolution, however, we are still debating if whether or not we want our video to be in black and white, as we feel that we may lose the impact of specific shots. We may have to consider re-filming this particular sequence...
Despite this, we are filming the band shots in the drama studio today, so hopefully this shoot will go well...

JM - Advert Mock Up

In recent lessons I have been working on a mock up for the band advertisment. This particular advert is designed to run a full page of a rock magazine, most likely NME. I wanted to feature as many of the band members in my ad as possible and using pictures from the internet I created an ad featuring the lead singer and the bassist, as there were not many clear shots of the drummer. This is the ad I created:

Taking the two original images from below, and a plain black background I set about by first removing the bakgrounds of each image of the band members. I then used a brush behind them to create a smokey effect and removed the colour on each band member to make them black and white. Next, I burned round he edges of the band members to make them merge into the background more seemlessly, before adding all the text on the page using standard fonts already on the system. Finally I got logos of all the record companies that The Enemy were associated with at this time to make the advert look more authentic.

RC - Editing

Yesterday, after Josh's initial editing, both Casey and I had a go at editing ourselves...
We all worked collaboratively to analyse the edited footage we had so far and we came to the conclusion, when refering to our storyboard, that the order of shots were not completely correct, so I decided to mess around with this myself. I felt that in the beginning sequence there were not enough character profile shots of the good girl, as they had all been used in the good girl sequence, therefore I took a couple of the shots from this sequence and incorporated them into the beginning montage sequence, one of the shots incuded the ECU of the good girl putting on lip-gloss. I then added in more shots of the lead singer, in order to build upon his part in the narrative, these included a mid-sideways-shot of him walking, and a mid-frontways-shot of him walking towards the camera. I also put in clips from our animatic of the shots that we wanted of the bad boy, as we have not filmed his sequence yet, so to give us a clear idea of where we wanted them to go, these shots included an ECU of the bad boy banging down his drink and a MS of the bad boy inside/outside the pub. When putting in the ECU of the bad boy's drink I felt that after the lead singer jumped and hit the sign post this would be the perfect place to put in this shot, specifically because it fitted in so well the music track, where at this part the sound had a banging effect. After making these alterations I then had to make sure that everything was still synched and although the amendments made were only minor I felt that they did help slightly.
I look forward to editing again soon.
(still shots to be added...)

RC - Shoot evaluation

Yesterday evening Casey, Josh and I continued filming for our music video after our first shoot in the half term. It was our aim to carry out the majority of the shots that we had storyboarded, including shots that we wished to re-do from the last time, this resulted in thirty-six shots needing to be recorded; with this aim in mind we knew we had a lot to do.

We had arranged to meet at Casey' house (the good girl's location) at 5pm for our first round of shooting; we decided that it would be easier to convene with the shots that we wanted to re-shoot first, these consisted of the character profile shots of the good girl getting ready to go out, so to be compiled into our opening montage sequence.

After editing the footage we had filmed over the half term we knew what shots needed to be improved and the shots that needed to be expanded on; we followed our storyboard religiously and also referred to our call sheet as a way of aiding us. This ensured that we completed all the necessary shots and also made us aware of how many filler shots were needed as well, in order to avoid a lack of footage.

With the re-filming of the good girl sequence the shots that we amended and added included:

• MS of good girl looking in the long mirror with the lead singer singing in first person mode of address in the corner of the shot
• as above ^ but from a different angle
• ECU of good girl putting on lip stick
• ECU of good girl picking up keys
  

We knew that with these shots we had to pay close attention to the mise-en-scene because we found with the previous shots that these aspects did not work particularly well due to the lighting being too dull and the surrounding props in the bedroom (i.e., the poster behind the mirror) making the shots look too cluttered, resulting in a distracting effect.

Here you can see the old shot compared to the new shot; although it is not completely clear the mise-en-scene in the right image has been made to be minimalistic (only including the props we felt were essential to the shot) as well as the lighting being slightly brighter; altogether this combines to make an image that is more aesthetically pleasing.

Obviously I could not film this part of the sequence as I was performing, which goes for Josh as well in a lot of these shots, this meant that this sequence was mainly filmed by Casey.

On top of this we decided that we would also film the character profile shots of the bad girl getting ready but in a different room from the good girl. These shots included:

• ECU of bad girl putting mascara on
• CU of bad girl putting on shoe

Both Josh and I filmed this sequence due to Casey performing, we all took part in the direction.

Using CUs and ECUs are very common in music videos, so we felt that the use of these types of shots were essential in producing an effective video. We came to the conclusion that by using CUs and ECUs we would also avoid the risk of any distracting mise-en-scene, especially when filming the house shots, as with this sort of location it does tend to have an amateur appeal to it.

In the same location we then moved onto filming the good boy sequence, these shots were situated in the study, as we felt that this room would be perfect in aiding this character's profile, where we purposely placed the good boy in front of a book self so to underline his intellect.

These shots included:

• CU of good boy doing up his tie
• ECU, low angle shot of good boy sorting out his parting
• CU of good boy putting his musical instrument into its case
  
  

It was then our aim to use Casey's corridor to carry out the 'backward shot' sequence of the lead singer (Josh) putting on his coat, so that it had the effect of the coat flying onto him. We felt that by carrying out this particular shot we would be challenging ourselves when it came to editing, something that we felt was needed to be done at A2 level. Due to Josh performing in these scenes both Casey and I filmed this part, with all of us directing.

After completing the shots in Casey's house we finally made our way outside so that we could film more of the lead singer, particularly the shots of him making his way to each location. I would say that we found these shots quite difficult because of the lack of lighting, even when using the light on the camera. However, whilst filming this part we found a church in Tonbridge, where the lights in the church car park provided a silhouette effect, which we felt looked compelling aesthetically. The presence of our actor during these scenes was very useful because he provided an extra set of eyes; helping us to play around with more ideas. We have to be careful not to become too closed in in this project, as it is easy to get too engrossed and to forget that other peoples feedback and opinions are essential in the creation of our video.

After this we drove to our next location, which was our school in Tunbridge Wells, it was here that we had planned to shoot the good boy sequence, with the intention of presenting him as an intellect and a 'do-gooder'; making sure to follow the stereotype of a good boy.

Some of the shots that we had planned to record at this location included:

• ECU of good boy looking at his watch
• CU, pan-up of good boy waiting
• MLS of the car with the good girl, bad girl and lead singer inside, pulling up to pick up the good boy
• MLS of car pulling away

We all took turns in filming this section, as well as using a tripod for the shots that we were all in. These particular shots proved rather difficult in comparison to the previous ones, due to the inclusion of the car; trying to position the car in each shot correctly proved difficult when everyone was in the shot. This could suggest that if we were to film this part again we might need to consider having an extra person on site, other than us or the actor(s), in order to provide another set of eyes.

Overall, I do think that this shoot went well, considering how long we were filming for and the wealth of footage that we did manage to capture. Although some areas did prove problematic, we found ways (in most cases) to creatively overcome them, even coming up with potential shots on the spot. I think that this element of improvise has been developed from the number of reccies that we went on before carrying out the real shoots. As a group I do feel that we worked collaboratively, taking it in turns to film, direct and perform; it was obviously harder for Josh to film since he was performing in most of the shots, despite this, when he did film he did do a good job. I have a feeling that lighting may manifest to be a problem, as we were filming very late at night and even though there were lights I do not think they provided enough visibility. However, I don't think we can fully know how our footage is going to turn out like until we get to the editing stages...

CH - Shoot evaluation

Last night we arranged for a shoot, aiming to shoot storyboard shots 1 through 30 and a select few others for re-shoots.
Granted, this was a huge workload to undertake for the whole group; this shoot spanned three locations in two towns, planning to include all three of our members and an actor.
We convened at 5pm at the first location. Proceding through shots 15 to 27, we met few issues; lighting was regarded in more detail this time, leading to better aesthetics throughout our work.

Also, the mise-en-scene of the locations were under careful consideration, all three of us choosing the specifics of the props and what elements are included in each shot.
Moving on to our second location, we were able to improvise many shots spontaneously; working through the first 10 shots, we discussed the artistic possibilities open to us on scene. Our actor, Ben, was very helpful, as a fourth pair of eyes to point out a shot idea the three of us may have missed. Through working as a team, we designed three or four excess shots using sillhouettes which we can now use as filler shots or to achieve a higher-paced cutting-rate.

To evaluate, the shoot was very successful in my opinion. We ran into a few issues in using a car for significant shots; stunt driving is difficult to achieve under a time limit, and many of our shots had to be re-shot as certain elements proved to be problematic (such as almost driving off-shot with the wrong character in the car).
Besides these minor issues, the filming ran smoothly. We gathered a wealth of data, and managed to inlcude many unplanned indexical signs (such as the use of mise-en-scene in the 'good boy' shots, deciding to film against a backdrop of a book case for added social myths representing that character as an intellectual)
This leaves us with only a number of shots to finish, and by the end of the week we will have a rough cut completed.

JM - Cancelled Shoot

Unfortunately we have had to cancel a planned shoot in Hastings on Monday 15th November, due to the unavalibility of 1 actor. Due to all actors being needed for this shoot we have decieded that we will have to re-schedule for another time, hopefully Thursday 18th November.

CH - Digipack first image finalized

This is the final image for the front cover of my digipack. The original image is below. Using this image, I manipulated it in photoshop;
- Cropped the image to square, removing the left hand brick wall
- Turned the brightness and contrast up to nearly as high as possible. This created a posterized effect
- Manipulated the colour saturation to be slightly below original image. Coupled with the contrast/brightness settings, this gave an overall effect of old British television.
-Posted the word 'TECHNODANCEAPHOBIC' from the website http://www.dafont.com/ and manipulated it to fit the banner
- Created a black square to black out the characters eyes. This became an indexical sign of rebellion, authority.
Overall, I am very happy with the effects created here. The original image was promising but still not fitting the specifications, and after maybe an hour of photoshop time I was able to produce the image to the left. Rosie and Josh were both happy with this image also.

RC - Updated plans for filming

SUNDAY 14TH NOVEMBER
-filming more of the good girl seqence at Casey's house (arrive at 4.30pm) - film the good boy sequence in Tunbridge Wells (outside school) - film the bad boy sequence (pick up the actor from church at 8.30pm) - take pictures of the band for digipak and advertisements.

MONDAY 15TH NOVEMBER

-filming the arcade shots in Hastings. Everyone needed for this shoot will drive back with me after school and then we will make our way down to hastings at about 5pm.

WEDNESDAY 17TH NOVEMBER

-band performance shots in the drama studio after school.

We need to discuss with the other people featuring in the music video if they can make these days.

RC - Cancelled filming

Today Casey, Josh and I had planned on filming the band performance section of our music video, however, knowing our luck our plan did not follow through.
We found out yesterday that one of the band peformers could not make it due to an orthodontist appointment therefore we had to arrange a last minute replacement; luckily Casey managed to do so. Despite this, when meeting up today to commence with the filming we found that one of the other band members had forgotten his guitar and due to not reminding him to bring in the right clothing he forgot that too. Obviously without these we could not go ahead, however, we are hopefully going to re-book the drama studio for tomorrow.

RC - Our animatic

We used our storyboard to produce an animatic so to create a strong foundation for our music video. The purpose of this animatic is to help us have a clear image of what it is that we want to do when it comes to filming, in terms of different camera shots, movements and angles. By including the music track it also allowed us to work out how long each shot would need to be filmed for. Obviously our final outcome is not going to be exactly like our animatic because things are bound to change when it comes to filming, and it also essential that we film more than what we have planned, as it is crucial to have 'filler shots' when it comes to making a music video.

JM - 1st Editing Sessions

Having been on the first shoot in half term, we have now got that footage into Premiere. I have now spent some time getting this footage edited together and to fit the timing of the song. The early signs from the first shoot are promising and all of the group are pleased with the results in Premiere .So far I would say that we have aproximately 30-40 seconds of footage, which leaves us with 2 minutes worth of film still to shoot. However with what we have planned for shooting in the near future ,e.g. band performance, I feel that so far we on trak with our production.

RC - Analysis of my advertisement mock-up

The reading path for this advertisement seems to be one that starts from the top so that you are drawn into the name of the band, 'The Enemy'; this then takes you down to the main image of the band; taking you further down to the bottom right where you look at the smaller image of the cover of the band's single; after this you move left onto the text that states that the band has a new single out; eventually you reach the smaller text, which give us a couple of reviews of the band's music. However, this is only how I read the advert; when asking a few others to do the same they came up with a different path. One person was drawn into the main image first (specifically the zebra crossing) and was then led up to the text, 'The Enemy'; She then followed a path down to the text reading, 'New single out now'; making her way next to the image of the single's cover; finishing at the critics' reviews.

Looking at both these reading paths they are quite unconventional as they do not seem to follow one straight path; both paths seem to have a criss-cross pattern.
The rule of thirds of this advertisement seems to take your eyes to the main image of the band because this image is placed quite centrally and is of a bigger size compared to the other elements included in the advert. The impact of the band image is a dominating one; accentuating that the rule of thirds conforms to the 'norm'. However, the other image included also has quite a powerful presence even though it appears on the bottom right; this is because you would expect this image to be smaller. Despite this, I think that the unconventionality of this layout is an effective one and could add to more audience readings.

Many iconic and lingustic signs are present in this advertisement, which all help to construct band image. Looking at the linguistic signs, the first one that I am drawn to is the band's name, 'The Enemy'; these two words provide many connotations. In previous analysis' that I have done it seems that the word 'The' has come up a few times, and to me it always has the same effect; it provides an element of definitiveness. The use of the word 'the' also puts more emphasis on the word 'enemy', as it singles it out giving it more of a dominating presence because the word has been given the role of authority. The coupling of these two words remind me of sayings such as 'the devil'. The word 'enemy' has a prolonged impression due to it being a three syllable word (differing from the word 'the', which only has one syllable) with all the letters having a soft sound to them, particularly with the use and repetition of the letter 'e'. This impression contrasts greatly with what the word actually denotes; this word implies a hatred for someone of something and when you think of an enemy you think of an adversary or an opponent. Emotions and actions that surround this word include hatred, anger, rebellion, and revenge.

Another lingusitc sign is the name of the music track, which is 'Technodanceaphobic'. This is obviously a word that has been made up by the band, and it appears that it is a combination of three original words; 'techno', 'dance' and 'phobic'. Each word has a meaning of its own; 'techno' is described as a style of fast heavy electronic dance music usually without lyrics; 'dance' is described as 'to move one's feet or body, or both rhythmically in a pattern of steps, esp. to the the accompaniment of music'; and finally 'phobic' is a word that describes when someone suffers from a phobia.

(to be completed...)