Peer Assessment- SMART Target

In discussion with the rest of our group me and Daniel were given feedback on the current progress of our music video. We were given feedback in regards to a SMART Target.

Specific- Part of the footage, part of video to be improved
Measurable- Can tell when it has been completed
Achievable- Making sure each advice/adjustment is achievable with the recourses and time limit avliable
Realistic- Not filming new footage, no explosions etc
Time bound- Can the targets be done within the time limit given (1hour lesson)

We were given some targets from our music video in its current state:

1) For certain clips used rather than placing the clips on the brat of the soundtrack, change this and place them on the syllables of the lyrics as it works better with the sound along with the footage. For example, when we cut between the two shots of 'Joe' in the audience, make the cuts on the syllables of the words instead of between the beat as it looks too jumpy and runs too fast.

We changed this element within our music video. As you can see below, we used markers at points where the syllables fell and put the clips in time with the markers.

2) With the effects that we have already used within the music video try and only keep them on specific memorable parts of the song such as the chorus so the effect looks more effective and stands our more rather than within the whole music video.

3) Not to use over the top effects, and over use the same effect, keep them on particular sections. An example of this is the blue filter used in the 'sail' clips

Editing (23/01/2013)

During today's editing session I was decided to edit a piece of footage which looked very easy on the eye and where only part of the footage was needed. To improve this clip and make it more effective I used 'image+wireframe' which when clicked appeared with a cross through the screen, allowing me to move the clip. My aim was to use the same clip showing three times on the screen. I needed to crop the footage from top and bottom to show on the screen the intended arm movement. I then put the same clip again in the second video track using the same crop dimensions and shortened the clip so it came in after the first one. I did this again with the third copy of this clip, putting it in the 3rd video track. 

I moved them on the screen using the image frame making sure they were inline with each-other and had an equal distance between them. When it played through, the clips appeared when it fell on the beat which looked really effective.

Editing Progression

Yesterday (22/01/2013) myself and Daniel continued with editing our music video we had the first 30 seconds sorted with the music but within this there were some minor issues we had. We had a 'gap' of no footage at around 0.17 seconds which also fell with the first major beat in the music. Both me and Daniel knew that we couldn't leave this gap empty with just a blackout, first of all we tried to use a transition of fade to white to give the 'gap' some effect but we felt that it was too much of an important beat not to put footage on. We kept watching over the introduction we had and then realised that the clips we used, the lighting was off and we had previously used footage to show lights going on, therefore we moved the clip of the lights going off and added them into the gap. After watching this, we made the light turn off on the beat of the music and it looked much better rather than filling it in with an effect.

There were two shots that we were using which when we recorded were not 100% thought about, this was the shot of joe (our actor) unclipping the bag on the table and when he slammed his hands on the table. In order to put these shots next to each other which is what we intended to do within the video, we couldn't because a jump cut was created. Joe's hands in the clip of him opening the bag were still in shot and when we put the clip of him slamming his hands on the desk, the hands jumped to a different position which created a jump cut. Because we couldn't go out and film this again, we tried different things to overcome this, firstly we just left a gap and decided it didn't work effectivly. We then looked through all if the footage taken and decided to add in a clip of the audience members in the lecture. Firstly this clip was really short and it jumped through the 3 clips really quickly, we cut down the beginning of the last clip (hands on the desk) and made the audience clip longer which then overcome the jump cut.

            Hands in the footage at the end of the shot.

Hands changing position at the start of the next shot.

We left a gap within the two shots which didn't work effectively.

Added a clip of the audience over the top and it looked good.

We decided that the two column storyboard that we created in our planning wasn't a good piece of documentation when creating the music video. The document was good whilst we was filming as we gave it to the actors and they were able to follow what we was filming and the shots we needed but we  are now aware that during editing is has become less useful. It is apparent to us that we overestimated the amount of time we had for each section of the song and the clips we can put in. For example, the instrumental at the beginning is 18 seconds long and we suggested to put in only a couple of clips but now during editing, that time is too long for only a couple of clips so we have moved everything along, now we are unable to follow the storyboard for specific shots and times.

Initial Editing Problems

Today we started editing our music video, since putting in the first couple of clips we have come across a couple of issues. The main issue is the order of shots and the jump cuts between the different shots we have use. This means that the video comes across 'jumpy' and doesn't run smoothly, to overcome this we have placed another shot between the two. We had two shots of different people walking in the doors, when we put them together to make them run next to each other, it was clear that the positioning of the camera had changed and therefore a jump cut was visible. We put a shot of the lights turning on to take the obvious cut away, this was the best possible solution which makes the footage run smoothly. Before we added the shot of the lights turning on in we did try to use a transition but this didn't go with the music or look right.

Another issue that we have come across today is with the lighting of the clips. When we was filming, through the camera the lighting of the footage looked fine, now we have put it into final cut and have started editing, the lighting is not how we expected. Some of the shots have come out really dark and possibly too dark to use in the music video. We tried to adjust the brightness of the clips to see if this would change and brighten up the shots, below is a before and after shot of the brightness change.

The brightness does change and it makes the clip brighter, you can see the actors face and costume, but rather than just sections of the footage it brightens the whole clip up. This doesn't make the clip look good as it doesn't look natural, me and daniel have decided that using the brightness in the way doesn't look effective and are aiming for find another solution to make the clips look better.

Update

First lesson back from half term and we have discussed where we have got up to with our music video. As all of our footage has been filmed we are now ready to start editing. Our group decided to split into pairs to make two separate versions of our music video with the same set of footage. This would let each of us have an equal chance to edit rather than sharing the editing process between 4 people. Me and Daniel decided to work together and Becky and Stevie are working together.

We are going to start editing once our footage has been uploaded from the camera this lesson. We have already checked that all our footage had been captured before we go ahead and upload it, without this we would just have to edit the parts we have even if they are incorrect rather than going out and wasting editing time to re-film different aspects.

During the editing process me and Daniel aim to keep as close to the conventions of the electronic genre as possible, using as much genre research we carried out to help us meet this. Along with this we are aiming to keep synergy throughout the music video and the other platforms (webpage and digipack).