Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

CLICK HERE for evaluation question 2.  
'How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?'

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Evaluation Question 1

"The One I Crave" Christina Grimmie : Completed Music Video

Construction : Post Production - Editing Process Pt.3

 

For part of my music video I had the idea to have my artist in both the 1940's and present day in the same shot singing together. To do this I had to find the crop tool - which I had previously used  while testing out green screen footage - to crop the footage for both, so they could fit in the same shot. 

I did this by going on to the effects and searching ''crop'' then, dragging it on top of both pieces of footage.

Then, by going onto 'effect controls' I was able to crop the size of the footage, and the move said footage around the screen; so that they would both fit into the same shot.

Construction : Post Production - Editing Process Pt.2

While editing my music video in Adobe Premiere Pro, I found that while editing I would have to keep rendering my work so that it wouldn't lag.

This was important because I had to match my lip syncing to the music, and to do this I had to constantly keep rendering, so that I could be sure that both the music and the artist matched.

The first thing I did when I started my project on Premiere Pro was to import my music into the project, and then move the track audio into the timeline. This is so I could edit to the music, this allows me to cut on the beat and many other useful things while editing a music video.







I decided that I would first add in my 1940's footage to my music video timeline first. This was simply because this mainly a performance based part of my song, thus meaning the footage linked up to the lyrics of the song, showing the story of my artist.

-9.0 brightness, and -22.0 contrast

Once I had added this footage in, I used and effect from Premiere Pro called 'brightness 
and contrast', from this I played around with the numbers to see which of them increased the quality of the footage, I settled with -9.0 for brightness and 22.0 contrast. As you can see- from the screen shot on the right - the footage looks much better quality and the colours stand out more.

Change of the opacity

However, I found that on some of the black and white footage, that 22.0 contrast is too much, so after altering the numbers I finally settled on -9.0 for brightness and 9.0 for contrast. This allowed all my 
footage clearer and of a better quality.


Next I started adding in my present day footage, this was to be added into the chorus and bridge of the song. During my planning I had this idea of a bonfire clip, this had changed during the production of my music video.

So, while I was editing this footage I decided to layer it with the footage of my artist preforming. By layering it on top of this footage I was able to change the opacity so that the main focus of the video was on the artist, with the vague sparks and flames of the fire on top her.

This I found to be a very powerful effect, as it's quite different and does make the artist herself stand out.

Construction : Post Production - Editing Process Pt.1

 After I had imported my raw footage from the camera, I started to edit it. The first thing i did was separate the footage for the 1940's part of my video and the present day footage.

I then started a new project in Adobe After Effects, Importing all my 1940's footage into it. 

Firstly I selected the footage of my singer lip syncing the song and changed it to black and white - the image to the left is the measurements I used for my black and white. 

I did this to make my footage look more authentic for the 1940's part of my music video.

The next thing I did was to make film grain and dust. I did this bay layering things on top of my footage.

'Fractal noise' contrast 100.0

I firstly added a new layer as a black solid on top of my footage - naming it 'Grain'. This is the layer that I added the film grain to, I did this by adding the 'fractal noise' effect to it (this is what the picture on the left is). With this I adjusted the contrast up to firstly 100.0, but I didn't like this look so I increased it even more. I decided that I liked the look of the contrast a at 640.0

'Fractal noise' contrast at 640.0

I decided that the 'fractal noise' contrast at 100.0 was not striking enough for what I wanted which I why I changed it to 640.0.

I then changed the 'fractal noise' brightness to -200 to try reduce the white area. After I did this I decided that there was still too much white space in my grain, so from here I decided to make it more negative.

'Fractal noise' brightness at -200.0

To the left is the brightness at -200.0, From -200.0 I increased the negativity to -250.0 after looking at this and getting a second opinion from someone from my target audience, I decided that I still needed to get rid of some more of the white space, as it may negatively effect the authenticity of footage. Therefore I decided I needed to go more negative again.

'Fractal noise' brightness at -250.0

From -250.0 I went to -260.0 for the brightness to create less white spaces, but still enough for there to be noticeable grain on my footage.

'Fractal noise' brightness at -260.0, with 'curves' added

Then to increase the contrast even more I added the 'curves' effect. With this I played arought with the brightness and the contract within the effect for a while, until I got the ''perfect'' brightness and contract of the grain itself without editing the size or rate of the grain.


To make the grain move within my footage, I went to the 'evolution option' and ''alt''click on 'random seed'. Then I typed in ''random()*100'' to generate a random number between 0 and 1 and multiply that by 100 to create a new random seed, which will create a new set of random values. Thus making the grain move on top of the footage.

The application of 'random seed'

Finally, I right clicked to 'pre-compose' the grain calling it ''Grain'' and changed the blending mode to 'add' so the grain would be white marks on top of the footage.

I nliked what this finally came out as because it looks realistic and the footage is still clear. I think this would appeal to the target audience because it looks more authentic, than fake.

'Pre-composing' the footage

After editing the footage, I shortened the grain to match the footage and then rendered the footage, so it could be exported as a .mov file and then I could import the footage to Adobe Premiere Pro. 

Final edited footage

Also with 'pre-composing' the grain it meant that it could be copied and pasted to my other pieces of 1940's footage, so that all I would have to do with them is change them to black and white and make sure all the measurements for that fit my original one and then render them for export.

These show how I pasted the grain top of my other 1940's footage and added the black and white. Then finally rendered the footage.

Planning : Shot List

Planning : Location

My location planning is very important, due to the fact that I have to do modern and 1940-50's so I have to find a suitable place to film the 1940-50's era that looks believable enough to be authentic, as well as keeping the modern location as interesting.

For my 1940-50's location I have decided to film the 1940's part in is a retro american diner - 'Cool Scoops Diner':

I have decided that I will use this because it is an American diner near where I live and also I believe appropriate for my music video. I have booked it to film, and will be filming in the bottom corner, the projector screen will be up, so it looks less modern.

My next location is my garden, where I plan to film a small part of the 1940's part, and some of my present day - for example the bonfire.

I have decided that I will film the bonfire at the bottom of my garden, where as the rest will be filmed at the top of my garden. I decided this as it looks as though it could be two different places.

The final place that I will be filming is at my local park, as it is a large open place and will give lots of natural light to my filming, making it look more natural and realistic. 

Also by filming here I can get some more natural beauty into my footage, and this can link back to the fact I want it to look like seasons are changing in my music video and I plan to film on a sunny day, thus meaning it could be related to summer.

Planning : Lighting

Poor lighting will drastically change the feel of the music video and drop the quality of it almost immediately. This causes a lot of problems when filming; I need to be able to control this so that the footage doesn't look too exposed or have distorted colouring due to the lights. To stop this from happening I will be either using natural light outside, but with extra help to make sure that the actors faces are well lit and while inside I will use bright light to make sure, once again, that everything is well lit, as bad lighting can end up with results like this:

Furthermore, I can control the level of lighting and keep it constant to ensure that the footage looks the same and that there is no sudden changes to the levels of contrast. In addition, I can adjust the lighting so that I am able to test out colour effects e.g. blue, red or green. However, I will be making the 1940 part of my music video in black and white, so i must assure that the lighting is right for this, which is something I will be testing.

Planning : Casting

Casting is very important for my music video, because I have to use someone who you would expect to see in a pop music video, as well as someone who is able to lip-synch well and convincingly. For this I have looked at many people and photographed the ones that I thought were the most likely candidates that will fit with the genre conventions, and be liked by the target audience.

Female Casting:

This is Evie. I have decided not to use her in my music video because I found that her acting was not very convincing and that her lip syncing was hard to follow, which is hard to edit, therefore I have found her unsuitable for my music video.

Here is Agne, I have decided not to use her in my music video because she is easily distracted and seems unenthusiastic and uninterested; even though she has the perfect 'pop' look, her unenthusiastic approach would most likely mean that the footage would take longer to record and that it wouldn't be that convincing.

This is Amy, I have decided that although she is what I am looking for as an artist, she isn't very comfortable in front of a camera, therefore I decided that she would not suitable for the main part in my music video, but would be more comfortable as a background character used in the 1940's part of my music video.

Finally, I decided that I would use Weronika because she is very confident in front of the camera, she is also available to film when I want; which will cut down filming time. She is also quite good at acting which will make the video better, as it makes it more believable if you have someone who acts. Also she has blonde hair, which is what I wanted my artist to have, thus making her perfect for the part in my film.

Male Casting:

For my male cast members I first looked at Jake to act as one of the males in the song. However, our schedules clashed, thus meaning that I couldn't use him as an actor. He also isn't very confident in front of the camera, making me using him as an actor pointless, as I would not get any confidently filmed footage from him.

This is Jack, I soon decided that he was not appropriate as one of the male characters in the song; as he was unwilling to wear the costume. This, as well as the clashing schedules made me realise that Jack would not be good casting as he would cause problems with the miss-en-scene by refusing to wear the costume.

This is Steven, I have decided that I would cast him as one of the male characters in my music video because he does drama, thus meaning he is very comfortable in front of the camera and can portray emotions better to my target audience. Thus meaning the target audience can connect more with the video, giving it a more emotional value. The only problem is that Steven isn't very available, thus meaning I had to use him for one of the smaller characters in the music video.

I then chose John to play a part in my music video because he is a great actor and very confident in front of a camera - coming from his experience in drama. He is also the most available for filming, which is another main reason why I used him as the most reoccurring male character in the song. So, overall John was perfect to play 'John' in my music video.

This is Oliver I have decided not to use him in my music video because his acting is too stiff and unbelievable, which in a music video is not what you want. I especially wanted my target audience to be able to identify with the characters, which they wouldn't have been able to do with Oliver - thus being the reason I didn't cast him.

This is Josh, I have decided to cast him in my video, but as a very small part. This is because although he can match his schedule to meet the filming schedule, he isn't very comfortable in front of a camera. This is why I casted him, but put him as a small part in my music video.

This is Jayden, I chose him to be in my music video because he is very confident in front of the camera, and does drama- making him a very competent actor. However, I had to give Jayden a smaller role as he hasn't got much free time and could only film one day, which made me put him as a smaller part, although his acting is outstanding.

Planning : Costume

I will need to do several different costume ideas for the mise-en-scene, as I will have multiple people in my music video. I also have to do different outfits for different time periods - ones that make it believable.

For my main character/lead singer she will wear this is the 1940-50's sections of my music video :


For her present day scenes she will wear :

Also the four different guys will wear this in the 1940-50's part of my music video :

The shirt and suspenders, but not the tie.

I have decided to have the guys wear the same/similar outfits due to the fact that these were the fashion for lower class men in the 1940's.
In the present tense there is only one guy which is 'John'. He will be wearing :

For the other girl in the video in the 1940's section will be wearing these : 

Finally the girl in the the present time will wear :