Camera Choice

For my music video I chose to use a low quality hand camera. The picture quality of the footage was not something I worried about, because of the theme of my music video. This is why my music video is grainy, and slightly blurry. Although, this may at first glance look to be a budget problem, I decided  to use a low quality camera for specific significations.

My intention was to design my music video in such a way to appear quite amateur, to create a more realistic feel to the video. This is also the reason I captured many hand held shots. Using hand held, shaky, footage I am connoting a sense of realism. The effect is created because the scenes appear more real, rather than set up shots. The shaky camera can even give a slight documentary vibe to the music video. A prime example of a shot to signify a more natural scene is the tracking shot of the protagonist as he walks up to the table. In this shot I walked behind the protagonist, holding the camera. This represents the protagonist as more relatable, as the audience can more easily imagine they are him walking up to the table. The shaky camera work represents his anxiety as his walks towards the table.

The grainy footage connotes a gritty vibe to the audience. The setting of my music video is an underground gambling den. These places are not regulated, and usually illegal. This is why the atmosphere is far different to a casino. If I was to create a music video in a casino I would use the highest quality camera possible, but I have done the opposite in this video. Usually in the media gambling is glamorised with bright colours, and a crystal clear picture. But I have attempted to do the opposite of glamorising gambling, and connote it as being gritty, risky, and dangerous.

    28 Days Later

I have found inspiration from the film '28 Days Later', which was filmed on a low quality camera. This zombie film uses the camera to connote a sense of realism that most zombie films do not have. The low quality camera represents the film as more realistic, as the audience do not think about the number of cameras which would surround the actors. This film turned out very successful, and so it is a good film to take inspiration from.

Editing Music Video

Originally I started using Final Cut Express to edit my footage, as this is the editing software on the Apple Macs at school. I used this program to edit for several hours, but during this time I experienced a number of issues. These issues included the computer crashing, the software not loading, footage becoming corrupted, and the file not saving properly. All of these issues lead me to change editing software. I decided to change to Windows Movie Maker, as it is the editing software on my home computer. Movie Maker is a much more simplistic editing software with far less effects, however it does have its benefits. Apart from the fact that Movie Maker did not have the issues I experienced with Final Cut, it is a simple program to learn and use, as it is very user friendly. The drawbacks of Movie Maker, such as fewer effects. In addition, no spacing can be left between clips in Movie Maker, which is a difficulty when aligning lip-syncing to the music. This means that I cannot choose to edit a later part of the music video before editing the beginning. It is a slight annoyance, however it is fine if all the footage has been captured.

The main effect that I used whilst editing was speed changing. I made some clips faster, and others slower. Slow motion for some clips was good as they were to short, and it makes the video more dramatic. In addition slow motion complemented the song choice, as it is slow at times. I sped up certain clips such as the shot of the a playing card on fire, as it was burning far too slow.

Matching the lip-syncing with the music was probably the most difficult part of editing. This was because there were certain shots that had to be scrapped, such as ones where the protagonist sang slightly out of sync, or looked away from the camera without realising. The difficulty was having the music sync with the singing, so that it looked as if the song was being sung by the protagonist. Also, certain lyrics in particular did not look right when synced with the music, even though they were sung properly.

Contributor Release Forms

Split-Screen Testing

Above is the video edited with a split-screen which makes the protagonist appear twice in the same shot. I did this by keeping the camera still in one position, not even touching the button to start a new shot. After setting up the camera I gave the protagonist the direction to sit on the bench and sing to the right side, where I was holding the lyrics, where he would have to imagine that he would also be. When the song was sung we then kept the camera rolling and the protagonist sat on the other side of the bench. This shot was about 5 minutes long, where I then cut it down into two separate shots. I then used the split screen effect with one shot on the left side, and the other shot on the right side. I am quite pleased with the effect outcome, and am confident in using the split-screen overlay.

Filming Progress #5 (Complete)

I have now captured all of the required footage. The last filming I had to film lip-syncing of the new song I have chosen. This was done as one long take with the protagonist standing in front of a plain white wall and singing into the camera. I wanted all of the singing to be directed at the camera, so it is as if the character is singing to the audience. This took a few takes to complete, but we managed to complete the lip-syncing in about half an hour. I have been editing with the clips I had before I captured this last shot, but I had reached a position where I needed the singing clips. With all of the planned filming complete I can now finish the editing.