Editing Experiment 1

I decided to edit together some footage from my iPhone that I recorded over summer. I never intended to edit these together for my coursework, but as I needed some clips to experiment with I thought I would use this footage. I did not consider the shot type when I was filming these, but I have tried to use the crop function well on iMovie to show some close-ups.

To edit this video I used iMovie on my Mac. I would have preferred to use Final Cut Pro , but I do not have access to this at home. I find iMovie very easy to get used to and quick to use. iMovie has the option to 'show advance tools' and I did not use these to edit this video.

I have tried to make the clips suit the music, so I used a very upbeat indie song as I felt this would reflect the mise-en-scene (Bowling, bright colours) in the footage.

When you watch the clip, you'll see that I faded in the first shot with the 'fade to black' transition. I felt that as the music didn't kick in until a couple of seconds in, this would make it a much more calm start to reflect the music.
I experimented with editing to the beat of the music to make it flow better, I think that I could have used shorter clips to fit more tightly with the song.

On the shot with the basketball game, I used iMovie's crop button, with the 'Kens Burn' feature. This allowed me to give the impression that I was zooming out when shooting the clip. I think that if I used a higher quality camera, the close up shot would not have looked so shaky.

The last shot of the clip, I have used the reverse option. I thought that this would look really interesting, but I think that the reverse function needs to be used very effectively to look great. As i've only used it on one shot, I think that the viewer could be confused as to why I have used it. I think that the reverse function suits more quirky videos, as it is not very conventional.

As my first attempt at editing a video, I have seen that iMovie is a quite easy to use, yet it has limitations in comparison to different softwares. I think that I could improve on my editing skills by using more planned-out shots with different framing, and with a tripod. By using a tripod, the quality of the video is increased and the viewer is more comfortable watching, unless the video is purposely made to look unconventional and shaky. 

Potential Songs For Music Video - Bombay Bicycle Club

I think that this song would suit a very upbeat and positive video. The original video is very unconventional as it has no band performance, but elderly couples dancing to the song.
When hearing this song, I imagine a band performance mixed with a simple storyline. e.g. the band playing in an interesting place with the story of a couple behind it.



My first thoughts for this song were a simple performance video featuring a couple. The Man would be sat on an old, rickety chair playing guitar and the girl would be stood up opposite.
Though the concept of this video is quite simple, I would try and make it more interesting by paying more attention to the mis-en-scene, props and shooting in an interesting setting.

Music Video Research: Kodaline (Director - Stevie Russell)

 

Kodaline's video's really stood out to me when I first watched them as they are very detailed in the storyline of the characters in the video and as a viewer, I felt like I had a emotional connection to the characters after watching the videos. This narrative approach to their videos is very unconventional, and usually an artist/band would keep the narrative code loose or suggestive to keep the viewers attention.

I think that these videos are either an example of Illustration or Amplification in music videos. I think that All I Want is more Amplification as the main character is unusual, but he acts like a normal person. I analysed this video in my Introduction post.

High Hopes is again, a narrative and follows the story of a runaway bride who is now with another man. This is quite unconventional of a narrative, as usually the artist/band will try and keep the viewers attention by referring back to the band throughout the video. 

Music Video Research: Indie, Low Budget

Swim Deep's Orange County.
I have read on their twitter feed that the band filmed this video in one night in their hotel room. I like the idea of a flexible approach to making the video, but I might be limited on research and planning.

But I think this song would suit a summery, tour-diary-type video, with shots out of a moving car, and some lip-syncing in a live performance.

Jaws' - Stay In is also an example of a low-budget production that could be easily replicated. In the description it says 'Filmed in a garage somewhere in the town of B'.



The Maccabees - First Love

Music Video Research: Quirky Dancing

I like the quirky-style of these videos. I think the simplicity of one character, in one shot lip-syncing and dancing in The Black Keys video is a more lighthearted approach to the video.
Willy Mason's video is a little bit more complex as there are more shots. You could say that this makes the video more interesting and keeps the viewers attention.

An Introduction To Music Video

Video's I Evaluated:

A2 Preliminary Evaluation: Post-Production

The program we used to edit our preliminary video was Final Cut Pro.
I felt that this program was easy to use as I had used iMovie before and it is very similar.

We found that we did not use the storyboard very effectively whilst shooting, as we were missing a lot of shots that were on the storyboard. This became a problem, as we had to use some of the same shots twice and we were missing a lot of the lip-syncing as well.

'Orange' looking shot

I think that another type of shot that we could have done with more takes of are the lip-syncing shots. This is because we were struggling to sync Meg's singing accurately to the singing on the song. We could have solved this problem by asking Meg to emphasise the words when she's lip-syncing, as sometimes you can't clearly see that Meg's singing the lyrics.

A problem I tried to correct using this editing software was the colouring of the clips. I thought that some shots looked very over saturated compared to other shots. This was because we used different lighting and positioning whilst shooting the video.

I think that when I'm editing my future video, I will ensure that I have all the correct shots from the storyboard to cut the editing time massively. Also, I will watch the clips back during the shooting to assess the lighting to check that it's going to look consistent on the final product.

A2 Preliminary Evaluation: Production/Shooting

Whilst shooting our preliminary video, our priorities were to make sure that we made the most of our time in lessons to shoot and trying to stick closely to the storyboard.

During the shooting of our video, we encountered numerous problems. Most of them involving the mise-en-scene. We often found that we couldn't shoot in our location as we had not booked the hall out in advance, this is something that I will learn from and make sure that this does not happen on the filming of my video, as this wasted a lot of our time.


Also, another problem that I thought was effecting our productivity during shooting was if we were missing costumes of the actors in the video. This meant that the costumes throughout the video were not consistent and that we had to shoot different shots instead of the ones we were planning to do, which again, wasted time.

Yet, as a group, we were very well organised when it came to getting all the props there at the beginning of our shooting time. We found that the drums were very difficult to get to and from the music room where we were borrowing them from, so we ensured that we had plenty of time at the beginning and then end of or shooting time to move them.

In conclusion, I feel that the shooting did not go as smoothly as it could have. When I shoot my video, I need to establish a thorough schedule which will help me to make sure that I am not wasting mine and other people's time.

Indie/Alternative Artwork

Folk/Singer-Songwriter Artwork