MUSIC VIDEOPRODUCTION LOGROBBIE HICKMAN

FILMING• Technical – I borrowed a camera and tripod to use during filming my music video in and around the college from the

media department who would have been able to also supply me with a steadicam rig; however I did not bother with using one. I had to borrow the aforementioned equipment three times in one week so I could film on the three days when it was possible i.e. if there were no lessons. I used three SD cards to save my footage and enable myself to get the footage onto a computer so I could start putting it all together in Premiere (and Sony Vegas Pro 11). I used the cameras to film my lip-sync and the tripod was also used to hold the camera steady and enhance quality. I could not use the green screen for production, however I was able to utilize the backdrop which proved to be somewhat effective when it came to editing the aspects of the frame (which consisted of myself standing in front of the backdrop). There are a number of issues I came across during filming; on the first day, the battery for the camera ran out mid-filming; therefore I was required to use a different camera and place the SD card I was using inside it.

• Logistical –The locations I chose to film my music video at worked really well. It was a good idea to film within the college building and on the field because there were a variety of different places to shoot footage at e.g. empty corridors. The choice of location benefited my music video because in the same place, I could obtain equipment to use easily and free of charge, just as long as I was responsible with it. I thought the idea of a music video revolving around the struggles of a student in education was well-imagined and a massive place like York College was a key location to convey a sense of utter helplessness and frightening atmosphere (due to its size). This benefited my video overall, and the decision to film in a different location proved to be effective, not only because it provides variety for the music video, but also due to the fact that it helped the video convey the theme of hopelessness more effectively i.e. even if the student did manage to ‘get out’ he would still find himself lost. It also added to the eerie feel of the music video. I did not have any access problems; the places I planned to film at were not restricted in any way and the only form of distraction that came about was a few students/teachers who happened to be passing by. Due to the fact that the classroom planned to film at (2F065) was not available due to a lesson taking place on the second day, I was required to use the one next door. This didn’t affect my video too much at all. Whilst filming on the hill (the alternate location), I did not have to worry about access problems because the area is a public footpath with a scenery of the countryside (which I included in my video). During the night filming session before day one of filming, it rained and therefore I was forced to come back at a later time when it had stopped raining.

FILMING Personnel – My cast/crew consisted of Richard A, Richard B. and Matthew P. They seemed willing to help out and I only had to ask. I can understand how daunting it must have been for them to film for hours at college; my music video was set almost entirely in that location. Also, they were required to come in on Monday which is usually their day off. However, they did not complain and were willing to help with my music video, bearing in mind that I helped them as well/would have helped them. I think they handled the few times in which they had to either act or lip-sync really well and with confidence, which benefited my music video. They did not let me down and I couldn’t really imagine how I will have been able to complete the filming of my music video on my own. I managed to get their help through the call sheet I had to complete in lesson time which had their phone numbers on it. I sent them text messages informing them to come into college to help me film my music video, and all three of them were able to turn up. I appreciated their help.

Planning – I think my visual planning, which consisted of creation of storyboards and shot lists, as well as location scouting and structural visualization of the song had a significant benefit on how my production went and how my overall video turned out. Due to the fact that I was given a suitable amount of time to plan my music video carefully and methodically, I was not stuck for ideas during filming and I knew exactly what I was doing. I am aware of the fact that it is always a good idea to plan ahead and have an idea regarding what it is you hope to achieve. I was able to relate to this. I think my shot list helped significantly because I knew exactly what I had to shoot and for what purpose, and my storyboarding made a contribution to how my video looked in the end. It also provided a basis for the action that would take place in my video. On the whole, I think my planning could have gone slightly better in terms of choosing more places to film at as there were points in time during post-production where I had to ponder on how to fill in any gaps in the timeline. My planning could have benefited even more if I considered how I was going to accomplish certain scenes that were difficult to film e.g. the scene where Student 2 (the hooded character) pushes over Student 1 (the innocent character). If I did this or even practiced before shooting with someone else, the scene might have been easier to shoot. It may have also looked slightly better and more intense.

Next steps – I don’t think I need to re-film my music video or reconsider my planning. My finished music video is almost exactly how I thought it would look and how the action would take place with the song. I will not need to film any more because I was able to fill my timeline up in the desired order I wanted and this was successful. I did not change my music video; if I did do this it would have been because I was dissatisfied with the finished product which I wasn’t. I did add effects using Sony Vegas Pro 11 e.g. the blending effect and flash transitions as shown in my video. I also altered the saturation of a few scenes to enhance the quality of my video as some parts seemed to be of a low quality. There was also a shot in which Richard B. can be seen holding the camera; in a reflection in a window, therefore I had to tone down the lighting so the viewers couldn’t see his reflection.

FILMING – PRODUCTION STILLSThese are stills from when I was filming on Chapel Hill in Pocklington. This was my first period of filming; it took place away from the college and before the three days of filming that took place there. The shots from alternate locations to the college itself were taken with the intention of including more footage in my music video so as to provide a variety of locations for the audience to identify, rather than just the college.

There was a fair amount of shots collected throughout the afternoon as well during as the evening. My decision to film at nighttime (at around 9:00PM) was influenced by the fact that the music video would benefit through lots of contrasting aspects e.g. scenes within the college, outside the college, and at night. I think this sense of variety enhanced the quality of my video and it might have increased the chances of the viewer desiring to watch the video again.

The shots I collected in this location would be added to the timeline amongst the fast-paced shots e.g. the student running and the band playing instruments; this could provide a sense of juxtaposition due to the presence of calmness (shots of countryside) and aggressiveness (the band performing) together in the same section of the song e.g. the chorus. The shots I intended to obtain proved to be effective, and it was a good idea to collect more just in case anything went wrong with the other footage. This could have included failure to save on the camera or other issues on Premiere/Sony Vegas such as incompatibility.

This shot shows my reflection from a puddle on the ground. I positioned the camera so that it couldn’t be visible on-screen later on. An impression of a low angle shot is created of the ‘antagonist character’.

As it began to get dark, I filmed a few more shots of certain aspects of the hill e.g. trees, fences, pathways as well as the scenery of the countryside from the hill.

At night-time, I filmed a few shots of myself providing lip-sync to the chorus of ‘Modern Way’. I had to use the ‘night option’ which proved effective in ensuring the things I wanted to film were visible in the darkness.

EDITING – FILE MANAGEMENTAfter I had obtained the footage I needed for my music video (as indicated in the Shot List), I was required to save all my footage onto a computer so I could begin to organise it in a timeline on Premiere. Because there was a high number of shots taken (over 100) from college and in my own time altogether, I needed to know what each shot was called and make sure I had actually saved them onto a computer.

I organized my footage into multiple files (four different ones called MV Footage 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.). The number of shots I obtained proved to be too much to fit into one file folder, therefore I was required to use multiple files as a means of storing the footage effectively. I needed to have a clear understanding as to what each shot was called; I accomplished this through keeping in mind the order of footage taken in relation to my Shot List. In other words, I placed my footage into each folder in a certain order so that I had an idea regarding which shot was which. This was especially important when it came to logging footage and placing it into the desired timeline with the track ‘Modern Way’. I had already converted the song into an MP3 file from a YouTube lyrics video and dragged it into the timeline as the first aspect of work within Adobe Premiere during the production of my music video. I saved this Adobe Premiere document as ‘Modern Way’ by Kaiser Chiefs and inserted it onto the desktop of my computer. This proved to be effective as it enabled me to find my document easily and reduce the chances of having to create a new project again.

I inserted the audio track as the first aspect of work on Adobe Premiere. This provided a ‘starting point’ for the post-production process for my music video.

Each file had a name that did not help me to identify the exact pieces of footage I obtained and placed into a certain file. I had to rely on the numbers e.g. M2U00002 MPG to determine what the file was i.e. which piece of footage it was that I had taken.

It was also difficult to determine where a certain piece of footage was located. It was quite time-consuming to locate the file I was looking for among all the others I had inserted into the folders.

EDITING – SETTING UP PREMIERE

I utilized Sony Vegas Pro 11 to complete the more complicated areas of my music video and also because I was more familiar with Sony Vegas. I was able to set up a new Premiere project easily because I worked on the program previously during the production of a practice music video in which I had to work in a group to lip-sync the song ‘Who is It?’ by Talking Heads (1977). In the past, I have also worked on similar programs e.g. Final Cut Pro and Pinnacle Studio to create videos in relation to coursework in the previous Level 2 Media Course, as well as in relation to interests of my own in the past (for YouTube).

I set the frame size to 1440 by 1080p. The time base was 29.97 frames per second; this will have ensured my music video ran at an appropriate speed that would only change if I wanted to achieve Slow motion, accelerated motion etc. by altering the settings of a single clip myself. The display format was Feet by Frames 35mm and the sample rate was 32000 hertz. I set the preview file format to 1 frame only MPEG. This format will have ensured the video played smoothly. This ensured that if I wanted to see how good the video looked e.g. no disruption to the flow of action, I could view my work in a high quality within the preview window.

The video in my timeline that I put together was named Sequence 01. I saved my Premiere Pro Project to the desktop of my computer and named it ‘Modern Way’ by Kaiser Chiefs. The work I completed on Sony Vegas Pro 11 was also named ‘Modern Way’ by Kaiser Chiefs. I thought it was a good idea to use more than one editing program to make my music video, especially because of the fact that I was more familiar with Sony Vegas.

I named my Premiere Pro Project ‘Modern Way’ by Kaiser Chiefs and saved it to the desktop of my computer. This was an effective place to save it because I could simply drag it into the timeline if I messed up the first version of the same audio track during editing.

I set my music video to 29.97 FPS; this would ensure my video played at an appropriate speed. The pixel aspect ratio was set to HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333) and I also activated the ‘Upper Field First’ setting. This was in regard to the video layer of the timeline.

I set up the timeline easily; all I was required to do was place the song into the audio track. However, the dark overlay took up the video layer, so I had to unlink the video from the audio, and then delete the video. This was very easy for me because it is something I have done before in other programs. I set up my Sony Vegas work in a similar way, and I also named it the same thing.

EDITING –IMPORTING FOOTAGEAfter shooting all the necessary scenes for my music video, I was required to transfer all this footage to my computer. Due to the fact that the large amount of footage taken could not fit into a single file folder, I was required to use multiple folders (up to 4) to store my footage. It was quite time-consuming, especially when it came to ensuring I had all the necessary shots I wanted to include in my music video (as stated in the Shot List I made during the pre-production process).

I managed to import my footage onto Premiere so I could place the shots I took into my timeline in the order I desired. I had to import the footage in each file folder. Because of the amount of footage in each folder, it took a fairly long time to import all the footage I wanted. However, the process will have been quicker than if I decided to import all my footage at once. I had to important the footage from the first folder, then the second, and then the fourth. There were different amounts of footage in each folder; the fourth file folder had the least amount of footage stored within it, therefore importing the shots from this will have been quicker than the process of importing footage from the previous three.

After downloading the YouTube video ‘Kaiser Chiefs – Modern Way + Lyrics’ (see video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRqtPeLlYhE) and converting it into an MP3 track via YouTube Converter, I saved the track to the desktop of my computer and shortly after, I inserted it into the timeline of my new Premiere Pro Project so as to provide a starting point for the post-production process of my music video. I did this before filming my music video, and I already had a track to match the footage with as I began importing my footage. The footage I stored in Premiere for selection during the insertion of certain shots into the timeline was located to the left of the Premiere Pro timeline. I thought this place was suitable for my footage because I could simply drag and drop what I wanted to my timeline; and didn’t have to drag too far across the workspace either.

The Bin on Premiere where I stored all my footage after importing it. The clips I had inserted into this area were the ones that I would place into the ‘Sequence 01’ Timeline. A thumbnail identified which clip was which, therefore making the ‘drag and drop’ process a lot easier than it would be if I only had to rely on the names of each clip. It would be very time-consuming to preview each clip to identify the one I wanted.

Fourth File Folder: this is where I stored the footage I had obtained on the last day of filming at college; these files are the places where the footage on Premiere was imported from. As shown in the image of the contents of the folder, I organized the footage in a tidy way, only storing the ones I knew I was going to use in my video.

Music track: I organized my audio track in an effective way; I only had to convert a YouTube video into an MP3 file folder and import it. It resided amongst the other clips within the bin on Premiere.

EDITING –WORKSPACE

Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing software, therefore it is quite easy to imagine the key aspects of the workspace e.g. timeline, preview window and audio. I have used programs like this before e.g. Pinnacle Studio. However, despite my own experience, I found it quite difficult to get to know the workspace of Premiere and overall I found it seemed slightly more complicated than any other program I have used e.g. Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas as well. There are many errors that can occur and these can be frustrating. For example, sometimes a piece of footage in the timeline will remain in a certain place and cannot be moved, and the ‘cutting tool’ which is used to decrease the size of clips cannot be deselected, therefore preventing me from dragging the clip to a different, more suitable place on the timeline. It was hard to get used to this program and it was definitely easier to work on Sony Vegas.

Preview Window: I found this aspect of Premiere useful because it showed off how my video looked when I played what I had arranged into the timeline. It also allowed me to see how my overall music video would play, as well as to monitor my own progress during post-production.

Audio levels: If I wanted to use different forms of sound, I could place these sounds in different layers; the audio track wouldn’t be ruined and I could edit these audio tracks in an entirely different timeline.

Tool Bar: this was located to the left of the timeline and audio levels; it provided me with the means to select, clip, mark or alter the size of a clip in an efficient manner. This wide range of tools to select had a unique use during production, and each tool also had its own distinct use.

Timeline: I was able to alter the audio track so that the volume would be increased in some areas, and then decreased in others. I was also able to provide a marker which indicated the end/start point of a clip (as shown by the red line).

Playback Window: the playback window allowed me to see what a piece of footage would look like following refinement; this proved useful for analysing the clip and making sure it would look good in the video.

Settings: I was able to alter the quality of my video and change the dimensions of the preview window by choosing from a wide range of options e.g. custom or different types of quality like 1080p x 40. I was also able to determine what aspects of the workspace could be shown on-screen.

Bin: this is where my imported footage was stored; I could select any piece of footage I desired from this area and drag it to my timeline.

Track: I was able to save the track ‘Modern Way’ to the desktop; I would then drag it to my timeline as the audio track for my music video.

EDITING – ASSEMBLY EDIT

After importing all my footage, I was free to drag the shots I wanted to the desired areas of the timeline i.e. in order so that all my footage will be in sync with the video exactly as I had planned during pre-production. I had all the footage I wanted, therefore I had little trouble when it came to choosing a shot and dragging it to the timeline. Premiere benefited my music video because it not only showed my footage gathered in a certain area (to the left of the timeline), but it provided a thumbnail of each piece of footage so that I could identify each one easily and not get confused over which shot was which; this was the case for Sony Vegas in which there were no thumbnails for each piece of footage. If there were no thumbnails in the program, the process of attempting to select the right clip will have been quite time consuming as I would be required to click on each one so as to view them in the preview window to identify which was which. Considering this enables me to understand the pros of Premiere. In this program, each clip was previewed and I could move the mouse over the thumbnail; this would result in the image in the thumbnail altering according to the content of the video e.g. if it was me running, the image would show different areas of the video with me in different positions (getting ready at the start – gesturing for crew members to stop filming). I dragged each clip to the timeline in the order in which I wanted. The post-production process seemed quite complicated, especially because I had to trim each one in a different area from where I wanted it. The reason for this was because if I placed a clip above the audio track, the audio layer for the clip would ruin the music track; this resulted in some problems at first until I realized why there were gaps in the music track; each time I deleted a clip I did not want on the timeline; the audio track would delete a small part of the music track as it deleted itself. As I dragged each clip to the timeline, I had to make sure the clip was positioned after the music track. I would then trim the clip in order to make it smaller (so it fit with the size I wanted) and cut the audio layer before dragging it in place next to the other clips already arranged at the start. For the different sections of my music video, I dragged, trimmed and arranged a series of clips together away from the music track; and once I had arranged enough clips together, I would drag them all to the left so that they connected to the main arrangement with the music track. However, this did result in complications, however. For example, one of the clips was too long, therefore I had to drag them all back out of the main arrangement again, separate each piece of footage, and then re-size the clip before re-arranging all the clips and moving them into the desired place above the audio track so that they matched the song, specifically in regards to the lip-syncing. I did a lot of this during filming and I had to make sure I positioned each piece of footage carefully so that my lip-sync would match that of ‘Modern Way’.

At this point of the song, I lip-synced ‘of getting out of here’ in the door of the classroom. I was able to perform quite well, despite the fact that several takes were needed just to make sure I had something to work with if one lip-sync didn’t match with the song, for example. My lip-sync matched with the song and I was able to arrange it within the timeline so that my performance was in-sync with the actual track. As shown above, all I was required to do was drag and drop to the place I wanted, and then I had to play the clip to see if the lip-sync actually worked. This was the case for all the other lip-syncs I did.

I was able to assemble all my shots in the manner I desired. There were a lot of shots, therefore I had to be considerate when it came to positioning them carefully; if something went wrong in a single place, I would be required to take the timeline apart.

EDITING – REFINEMENTAfter completing my initial sequence edit, I had to use colour grading, black and white and alterations of lighting so that all the clips in my music video took on a more visually impressive appearance. For example, by altering the lighting, I gave an eerie appearance to certain areas of the college where I filmed e.g. the corridors or the field.

The visual appearance of each shot looked quite different in comparison to the way they looked after I had logged them onto my computer to begin importing them (see comparison on the top right). The difference between them shows just how successful I was when it came to refining the shots of my music video so that they would match my pre-visualization and concept boards; I had originally planned for my music video to take on a drearily dull and slightly eerie appearance and I was able to achieve this by using Sony Vegas to change the tones of the video. I utilized Premiere Pro for the easier sections of refinement. The clips within my initial sequence edit took on the exact same appearance as the ones that I had filmed; this was not sufficient enough to match with my initial idea generation. I was able to use Premiere to remove aspects I did not want. A good example of this is when one of the crew members’ reflections could be seen in a window; therefore I used low key lighting to make him less visible.

I was able to use high-key lighting and black and white colour grading to change the visual appearance of my music video. It took a fair amount of time on Sony Vegas to perfect every clip I desired in my music video. It was successful, however in the end.

This is the manner in which my clips looked as I imported them into Premiere and Sony Vegas. They are a reflection as to what the things I filmed e.g. myself would have looked like in real life.

After changing the lighting and saturation, most of my clips took on an eerie atmosphere. I wanted to accomplish this because I initially hoped to create my own unique interpretation of ‘Modern Way’ which would be set in a dark and dreary location. Use of high key lighting allowed me to ensure that bright tones predominated within the clip(s). This is an example of how I achieved a different look and feel for my music video through alteration of saturation and lighting.

Colour Saturation Tool

EDITING – COLOUR CORRECTION/SFX I was able to add special effects to my music video and use colour grading to improve its overall quality even further following the process of refining each shot one by one. The special effects I added consisted of colour saturation; this technique allowed me to alter the colour tone of a certain shot e.g. a corridor. I could alter the colours, both dark and light respectively, into red, blue and even green. This will have resulted in connotation for my music video e.g. red represents anger and green represents nature. However, I intended for my video to look dull and quite depressing to match with the emotional nature of the track ‘Modern Way’, therefore I wasn’t going to use a lot of colour to make the video look bright and happy. I did experiment with colour grading, however, as shown on the right. I had the option to alter the saturation of the image, the gamma, the offset as well as gain. These would result in darkening of the image, brightening of the image, colours looking deeper etc. Using colour correction in this manner had a benefit for the scenes in my music video as I could decrease the saturation to a level considered appropriate. For example, I did not want black and white so I had to be careful and take into consideration how much I was changing the image on-screen. I was also able to provide s great deal of special effects for my music video, even though I hadn’t really planned to use any. I thought it was a good idea to experiment and play around with certain special effects Sony Vegas could offer, and as I altered a certain clip to an almost visually impressive and professional standard, I thought placing it within my music video would improve its overall quality. As shown below, I created the impression of a spotlight using Sony Vegas, after I had altered the lighting so that dark tones and shadows predominated in the shot.

Colour Saturation Tool

Experimenting with colour correction on Sony Vegas during production proved to be helpful because I was able to work in a more confident manner than before; I was able to use techniques e.g. adding hues to my clips. This will have allowed me to understand I wide range of techniques to employ in regard to improving the quality of my music video to an almost professional standard.

EDITING – EXPORT

The final part of the post-production process was rendering my completed music video and, after the process of rendering the video in a suitable way e.g. with 25 frames per second and Custom Range Settings, viewing my overall music video and ensuring that there had been no errors during the fairly long process of rendering the file. Because I was working on two alternative programs; Premiere and Sony Vegas, I was required to export my music video twice in two different time periods. On Sony Vegas, I set the project to render as an AVCHD file with a 1440 x 1080 – 60i format. The audio was set to 182 kbps (kilo bytes per second), 45000 hertz, 24 bitmap and ACS/Stereo. These options will have enabled my music video to render in a high visual quality, as well as possess clear and coherent audio in the finished result. Due to complications that arose (mostly due to my system being low on memory; I was working on my own computer at home with Sony Vegas) I took multiple attempts to render my music video. It was a frustrating process; and as soon as the rendering process was at 30% - 50%, an error message would come up stating that the file cannot be rendered. On the third or fourth attempt, I managed to render my Sony Vegas Project to 100%, therefore it succeeded and I had finished my music video. There were little to no errors, however as I viewed the finished product multiple times and watched closely, I found a few errors in production e.g. reflections of the camera and tripod which could potentially decrease the quality of my video. On another day, I was able to correct small errors like these by using low-key lighting so they weren’t as obvious upon viewing the finished video. I rendered the music video again, this time with additional areas of refinement and colour alteration which improved the quality of the product, in the same file format. Upon viewing the video again, I realized that there could be some other areas worth improving e.g. quality. On Premiere, I imported my finished music video and added it to a new timeline so that I could export it using the file formats stated on the board in lesson time. I made a few small adjustments to my video e.g. alterations of lighting in some places and colour correction in others before rendering the file as a VLC Media File. It rendered successfully over the course of 20 minutes. As soon as the finished file was provided, I named it Modern Way by Kaiser Chiefs and saved it to my memory stick. The file size was 414,378 KB (as shown below). I thought saving it to my memory stick was a good idea because there was always the chance of me losing my work due to the desktop of the college computer being wiped or the file being erased in my documens due to an error. If this occurred without me saving it to a USB device beforehand, I would be required to export my video file from Sony Vegas again. I thought this file name was suitable because it enabled me to identify my work easily and the name seemed sophisticated and simple; it also reflected the fact that I was recreating my own interpretation of a music track, and also highlighted which track I had chosen.

I encoded the sequence successfully. It took a while to render, but in the end it worked.

My video was set to a maximum quality settings in Premiere, therefore the overall quality of my music video was improved and this can be considered a benefit.

I

I was able to understand the suspected dimensions of the file after I had rendered my work and I had the option to alter the width and height of the video frame. I had set the audio to 450 + 10, 29.97 frames per second, and to Stereo (which highlights the level of quality

On Sony Vegas, I was able to understand the impact the overall file dimensions of the completed product would have on my own free disk space. There were a lot of options provided for me in terms of what file format to choose to render my project as; this puts Sony Vegas at an advantage because the formats were provided for me and I was only required to choose one that I assumed would be suitable. The formats of the audio and video were already set, therefore I wasn’t required to alter them like I did in Premiere.