Mini-vid editing complete!

Today Rob and I finished editing our mini-vid after starting to piece it together on Thursday. The track 'The Box' by 'Orbital' was completely instrumental therefore we produced a concept video which is one of Goodwin's 3 types. Our version of the video is approximately 41 seconds long. This fits the criteria of video having to be between 30-60 seconds.

We filmed the video in BlueBell Woods, Ilkley. The concept of the video was that two masked men were roaming through the woods as well as there being a narrative enigma over their identity. If we were to go onto shooting more footage for the video and finish the song we would cross cut between these two men and an ordinary pedestrian who would get captured by these two unknown figures.

In this video we have used footage of the HD cams and also footage off an IPhone. The reason we did this was because the battery ran out on the HD cam. Editing in Final Cut Express gave us the first chance to play around with multiple video layers. We used effect twice in our video.

The mini-vid is a learning process and the biggest thing I've learned is the need for shot variation and short takes. We were creating a video to a dance track and we had around 20 shots to work with. In our video we have used long takes which for the concept we have thought up works to a degree but really needs to be shorter takes and more shot variation.

There is a possibility we may go back and tweak this the video however we feel that it is finished and that we've created the best video possible with the footage we had. This has been a valuable learning process and something that we'll definitely remember when producing our music video for this years coursework.

If I were to do this again there are a few crucial things I would do. Firstly plan a lot more, it is vital to do this so you know exactly what you are doing and fully know the purpose of each shot and allow you maximum efficiency when filming as you can be often under strict time constraints. Secondly you need to shoot probably double the footage you may have planned for, the use of short takes in music videos are so important and that is the thing I've learned most from doing this mini-vid. Shot variation is vital, even if it's the same shot just from a different angle it is sometimes enough, you must make sure you have enough shots. The one thing that was stressful last year making our film openings was re-shoots. So this year I'm determined to plan for a huge array of shots.

Here is our edited mini-vid. (please excuse the black space after footage finishes, we accidentally left the excess of the track on at the end so the video does officially end at 41/2 seconds.)

Editing Mini-vid

Yesterday myself and Rob Shaw began editing our mini-vid for the track 'Orbital'. This is a practice music video ranging for 30-60 seconds. We made a bit of progress editing around 15 seconds of the footage so far.

Since our Final Cut tutorials, we had forgotten some things so once again at this stage of year it was another useful learning process. Such things as importing footage of a Phone took up a bit of time as we failed to import it correctly. Other thing such as suffering video lag was a problem and slowed the process down. Overall it was a productive lesson and we got some good footage edited.

Rob and I are working well together especially on the editing side of things after we together produced the car park section of the Britney video. Now we will be looking to finish this second project by Monday. Unfortunately I'm ill today so Rob will have to solider on without me.

Click here for a link to information on our mini-vid.

Vodcast of Media Day (Britney Car Park scenes)

As well as the main filming of our shots in the car park we were given the task of producing a behind the scenes vodcast of the day trying to capture small moments that summed up the day. Asa Newmarch and Kyle Meeson spearheaded the vodcast footage. They filmed this on the camera's we used for our AS Coursework as we only have 2 HD Cams in school.

This behind the scenes footage documents our day in full, including some dance practise, lipsincing practise along with a few interviews along the way.

Britney Car park scenes edited!

This is the video of my groups Car Park scenes that we filmed on Tuesday. Myself and Rob edited this in just shy of 2 hours and we were very happy with the result of our section of the the music video. We volunteered ourselves to edit our groups section and what we were most pleased with was the ease that we used Final Cut. It is so offers so much more. We also felt that we synced the song very well and for the most part our lipsincing was perfectly in time with the track. It was a really good experience firstly filming it and secondly editing it. The official car park section of the video is seen in the bottom right corner.

Britney Spears Remake

Today we were split into 4 groups to remake Britney Spears 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'. My group including Rob, Mel, Kyle and Asa. Emily and Charlotte were also assigned o our group but were absent. Because the numbers of people in each shot outweighed the numbers in our group we called upon extras from the Corridor group.

In P1 we practised lipsincing, this was slightly awkward despite being in small groups as singing is not a lot of peoples strong suit is. Moving into P2 we tried to do rehearsals of some shots and sort out which extra's would be needed when.

We were taking vodcast's throughout the day, we took some early footage of some dancing up at our car-park location. It was challenging to teach certain people the choreography and to give actual direction. We came back in P4 after lunch and started to rattle through each shot with the help from the messiah Dave!

Through the use of many extra's we were able to re-create the shots with some very unique dance moves. We found it was very challenging as we had to direct so many people all try to do things that don't come naturally. I think everyone agreed that when you loosen up and forget how ridiculous you may look the funner and easier it is to do.

After rounding out all the dancing shot we went to a different location and shot our CU's in someone's car. This required lipsincing but given that we were seasoned pro's at this now it was a just a matter of finishing off.

Reflecting on it now, the lack of a detailed on our call sheet was a major stumbling block and made it a challenge to overcome. Overall we should of planned better but with a lot of effort we got the job done which was good. I think everyone enjoyed it which was the main thing and we all learned a lot about the process of making a music video.

Digitisation

Digitisation has completely revolutionised the way Media products are made now. In the past when camera's needed tape and were a lot bigger and not portable therefore costing so much more to set up. Nowadays there are no excuses for not pursuing an idea. Portable camera's and easy to use edit software such as; Final Cut  make it increasingly easier to produce products on the cheap and getting more unlikely that we will be seeing huge blockbuster budgets for Film and Music Video, just because it isn't necessary.

This is why we will see a mass increase of fan made videos e.g. MGMT - 'Kids'. This was a video made by fans and is now the official for this video. This both benefit's the band and the fans. The band get a quality video and it shows they are interactive with their fan-base.

Media Day

Tomorrow is Media day and we've been given the challenge of remaking the famous Britney Spear's video 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'.

We have been split up into 4 groups between 2 classes and there are 4 locations to shoot on, Classroom, Corridor, Carpark and Gym scenes, these location have depicted our groups.

I'm in the Carpark group and we will be collaborating with the Corridor group to provide extra's for each other. I've taken upon the role of Cinematographer in our group. There are other areas that people are managing such as; Director, Producer, Costume/Make-Up, General Manager and Choreographer.

One of the main challenges we will have tomorrow is lipsincing. We will be practising early on in the morning along with rehearsal's of any dancing etc. We obviously want to get it at as close to the original version as possible whilst having our own uniqueness to it. One way we will be achieving this is by having everybody involved playing the part of Britney in at least one shot. The use of our extremely attractive, stylish blonde wigs will help us full off Britney impersonators.

It will be a lot of work with numerous speed bumps sure to trip us up along the way. I think it will be a lot of fun and most importantly give us a sense of the sheer volume of work that has to go into producing a music video.

Last year's A2 students did this last year, and as we are never going to reach the heights of the official video this is our bench mark.

Initial Idea for A2 MusiVid

'The Starland Vocal Band' - "Afternoon Delight" this song was released in 1976 and hit No.1 on the US charts. The song does have a video along with the track (see below). It would be OK too use despite already having a video for the song as it over 30 years old.


The popular comedy film 'Anchorman' starring Will Ferrel made a rendition of this classic hit playing their own characters in the video (see below). This comic joke version of the video offers an interesting angle to work from. If I was to proceed with this idea I would definitely consider playing off these characters in something that would hopefully include that comic edge.


The other option would be to play off the lyrics and tap in to the true meaning of the song. The original video is all performance as the band plays on an open stage in the street. Therefore it opens the possibility for a concept/performance or narrative video.

Censorship on Music Vids

MTV has come under fire for being to sensitive by censoring too much of their programming. They have often altered or removed shows from the channel's schedule. A case of this is was the show 'Beavis and Butt-head', in wake of a child burning down his house after allegedly watching the show, producers moved it from it's 7p.m slot to a late-night 11p.m slot.

In the 1980's the PMRC criticised MTV over music videos that 'supposedly' had explicit imagery of satanism. Since then MTV have developed a strict policy on refusal to air an videos that depict anti-religious bigotry.

MTV also heavily edit a number of music videos to remove references to; drugs, sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia and advertising whilst completely removing swear words. A few examples of this are 'Michael Jackson' - "They Don't Care About Us", 'Lady Gaga' - "Poker Face" and 'Maroon 5' - "This Love" etc.

For a company with so much power and funding, they seem to be very weak. Music is an art that is expressed which MTV doesn't seem to embrace. Despite them being massive, there are several case of them giving in to pressure from the public or certain groups such as the PMRC.

First attempt at a music video

We formed groups and the task was to shoot 30-60 seconds of footage for a chosen track. Each group were given 3 tracks, one was Rock another Pop and the final track was a Dance track (no lyrics). Our group chose the Dance track 'The box' by a British dance band 'Orbital'. 

We initially brainstormed the our various idea's and as their was no lyrics to go on, it was up to us to come up with a concept. We decided to set our music video in Bluebell Woods. This would be the setting for the mysterious activity of two masked, well dressed men. We planned to cross-cut these shot with a regular man walking down the street. This could be interpreted in many different ways as it is polysemic.

Our filming went well for a first try at music videos. It was a helpful learning experience as the camera ran out of battery as we failed to properly turn off the camera... Oops! This meant we had to finish filming the last few shots on an iPhone. We are still waiting to edit the footage which will allow us to see if we shot enough variation. The new challenge of creating music videos comes with the pleasure of new software and hardware; Final cut editing software and HD camera's.

Goodwin's 3 types

There are 3 key forms to a music video and they usually overlap within one.

1. Performance
2. Narrative
3. Concept

Performance is the artist performing in the actual video, this can be from singing to playing instruments. This is a key factor in a music video as it allows the audience to see the artist performing whilst creating a sense of live performance.
Narrative is whether or not the events within the music video have a meaning, is there a fundamental story to follow? A key convention of this is by one character being tracked.
Finally Concept, this is when their is an overall idea within the video, despite the fact that it may not have a storyline or fit in with the lyrics.

What is the most viewed musivid ever?

This is an intriguing question and one that is very hard to generate an answer for. However I'm going to have a go. There are several reason why people watch music videos, some videos are powered by the song itself, however focusing on the sheer content of the video, it may be the use of SFX or it could be the use of performance from the artist/s.

MTV the giant network which screens music videos which was launched August 1st 1981 screened it's first music video The Buggles, "Video Killed The Radio Star". Is this classic the most watched music video ever!? NO. For a video that has relatively long takes and doesn't confront the male gaze theory it is astonishing how this video is still regarded as one of the most viewed videos ever. After 30 years this historic video is still being watched.

Now to what I believe to be the most viewed music video EVER. The industry now has a key primary target audience of 15-24 years of age (youthful). Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory effectively states that women are used as objects on screen to attract a male audience. Britney Spears, "Womanizer" is the perfect example of this and according to MTV is there most viewed music video. This video starts off with Britney naked in a sauna which would attract a broad male audience. The use of short takes as Britney lipsincs the song whilst dancing in revealing clothing typifies Mulvey's theory. Whilst the artist and song is targeted primarily at a female audience the video was strongly created to attract the male audience which explains the reason for the popularity of this music video.

First thoughts on MusiVids

Music videos are all over the world. Through the use of MTV stereotypes and signifiers of the Western world (USA) reach smaller nations, therefore creating their own videos carrying many of these stereotypes and signifies however with a completely different meaning (narrative) e.g. Albanian music videos displayed the common theme of gangster rap commonly associated with US music vids whilst trying to get across that they were Albanian nationalists, this was done through the use of; guns, national flag etc.

Key conventions usually found in music videos;

Short takes and fast paced editing to appeal to the youthful audience because they are the primary target audience for music videos.

Male Gaze theory, having an attractive woman in the video to appeal to the male audience and immediately engage them.

Performance, having the band or artist performing in the video e.g. live footage, singing in shot etc.

Narrative, having a basic story line.

SFX.

These are just some of the key conventions used in music videos and things I will be delving into deeper as the course goes on to develop my knowledge and understanding which will help in the process of creating my own music vid.