Rough Cut Feedback (Audience)

I asked 2 students who do not do media to watch my rough cut and I asked them what they thought about it.

I could not find the video through blogger so here's the link -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vv4b0l56bs

Reflection Review Blog

Since we started the coursework I have a have learnt how to use a wider range of technology and also not to use the most obvious ones and try out other ways, e.g. using go animate. I think I went into good detail especially when I needed to analyse. I'm al right with my individual blogging, I still think there's more I can do and with the rest of the blogging and I can do that. 

Blog review

Having taken on board the advice given to me by my teachers I have pushed myself to use an even bigger range of technology. I have used more gifs in my work and even used Camtasia for one of my posts. I don't mean to brag, but I am ahead of my group in terms of blog posts and this because I do extra research to make sure I reach my target grade. I feel my posts have improved since the start of the year and are much more detailed as well. :)

EVALUATION: Notes and Ideas for Q1

Question 1:
In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Forms and Conventions
Vernallis' Theory
 - Camera moves in time with music - the camera is moving all through our video, it is never static.
 - Jump cuts and obvious edits  - one place in our video where we have used jump cuts is at the beginning of the third verse (Dionne's) - going back and forward on two different shots, both being close-ups of Dionne with a similar background, but it is obvious that they are different shots. There are three or four jump cuts between these two shots.  We also used slow-motion in parts of our video, which is often seen in music videos.
 - Use of base tracks - our video uses several base tracks, both of all 3 girls together and individual base tracks. In order to have a base track, we needed to film the whole song in one go - and select the parts of the base track we wanted to use or not as we were editing.
 - Rules of continuity editing are broken - As we used base tracks, the video showed the performers in different locations, but these locations would each appear again several times in the video. There is no narrative to our music video, no continuity - it moves between locations and focuses on the performers, not on a story.

Goodwin's Theory
 - Artist image - the three performers are the focus of our video - their image is created through the use of a lot of close-ups on each performers, and the group identity is created through many different group shots.
 - Style of the music video - the structure of our music video is very similar to other videos of girl group songs, and the way it is edited to the beat is very specific to the pop genre - the editing makes the video dynamic.
 - Ignoring narrative - our video does not follow a narrative structure, but focuses on the performance, and viewers are free to have their own interpretation of the video.
 - Importance of lip syncing - in our music video, the performers are lip syncing most of the time and they do this while looking straight at the camera, which allows for the audience to feel included and to relate to the performers.
 - Technical aspects - the editing is done to the beat; the colours and lighting are similar throughout the video, creating a strong and consistent mood for the whole song.



Breaking conventions
The music video we created follows a lot of the rules and conventions, but we also have a few features which challenge these convention:
 - Costume changes - one of the most widely used feature in music videos, especially in girl group pop videos, is the change of costume - girls often wear at least 3 outfits throughout the video, usually very colourful. While at first we wanted to follow this convention and change our costumes, only breaking the convention by them being monochrome, we decided to only have one set of costumes in our video, which challenges the convention.

Skills Development (Editing)

In As, for the thriller, I didn't do much editing so I forgot a lot of the skills. At the ending of AS we learned how to Base track edit and also learnt how to add filters as the video we did a remake for was in black and white. When we first started editing we reverted back to editing in the style of a normal video but afterwards we noticed and changed it. Another thing I learnt how to do was colour correction which I didn't actually do but I saw how it was done and I could do it again (hopefully) and another thing is adding slow motion to some parts of out music video.

Gif - screen shots of base track editing and colour correction.

Production - Progress Review

I think my blogging's been better, I believe I've certainly taken my targets into consideration like more Supplementary posts, however, I think my biggest improvement has been consistency, I've managed to post all my blogs well before the deadline - I'm quite pleased with myself.
I think my research & planning are really detailed. I think this is because post-production in particular has been intense so everybody in our group's been working together. Though I could've made more supplementary posts for my research and planning process, I think it's detailed adequately enough so that viewers understand the process of my music video. I think it would be a good idea to go back and edit some of my blogs.

Improvements - Before Deadline

There were 3 main things that we wanted to improve with our video:

Editing to the beat
Editing to the beat is one of the key conventions of music videos and our song has a nice beat and base and we really want to bring that our through editing. 

Getting the clips in sync with the music
It is essential that the video is in sync with the actual song otherwise it will look incredibly bad and messy.

Colour correction

We want to use colour correction in final cut so we can bring out the makeup and accessories  that we have in the video. It will make our video look better and go with our pop theme.

Reflection on filming

Production - Upcoming Lesson Objectives

I did a video highlighting the changes my group would have to make in order to finish our video. Luckily we did later that morning. But regardless, check out what I had to say! :)

NOTE: Password is 'CANDI' - Enjoy!

Upcoming Video Objectives from Anthony Fissler on Vimeo.

Production

We've finally finished our final piece and it feels good considering we the first group in the entire year to finish. The final product should be available on the blog once we get the green light. Until then, keep safe!

Happy, happy, happy!

Production: Twitter Account for the CandiHearts.

We decided to make our project seem a bit more realistic that we should create a twitter profile. Artists usually do this plug new music and products whilst also connect with their fans and the public. Below are a couple of screen shots of the CandiHearts twitter profile. It has been updated so people can see the latest events including when our video is made.

Production: How our video links with Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Below is a powerpoint presentation I created showing how our video ties in with Goodwin's theory.

Production: How our video links with Carol vernallis theory

In our video:

• The camera moves in time with the music
• jump cuts are used
• there are some obvious edits, like slow motion
• base tracks are used
• continuity is broken

These are what Carol observed in videos and our music video completely follows this theory. Our video also helps to create the artists identity and brand image.

Camtasia showing the Rough Cut feedback.

Here we decided to create a short Camtasia showing some of the feedback. Group member Larah did this in class and used ideas from the others to create this. Below is the final project.

Production - Notes For Evaluation Question 3 & 4

For this task, I thought how I intend to answer these two my questions deciding what piece of technology I would use and what I would talk about in particular:

Question 3 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
(For Question 3, I intend to use Flickr to display annotated photos, Camtasia to convey the process of making my advertisement, Quark showing how I constructed my digipak & TimeToast to display our production schedule)
I think my main focus will be a slideshow in which I talk about the following technology used for the process: 
- Camera/Memory Cards/Fig-Rig
- Blogger (research, planning & production)
- Apps used in conjunction of with Blogger (Vimeo & SoundCloud)
- Social Networking (Twitter/Instagram)
- Research Sites (YouTube)
- Final Cut Pro 
- Embedding of my animatic & digital storyboard
I intend to add a couple more slides based on the process of my ancillary work

Question 4 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I intend to take a Flip camera to the screening. There I will ask my peers what they thought about my group's music video. 

Using Colour Correction in Editing

We used the Colour Correction 3-Way effect in Final Cut in order to make the colours more intense or adjust the brightness of the music video.
We found that these adjustments really improved the way our accessories and make-up looked, as they became much more intense and really stood out in the shots.

Here are some screenshots of the editing process using Colour Correction:

Before effect

After effect

Before CC

After CC 

Before CC

After CC

Production - Evaluation Notes - Q1

For this question I'd really like to do an interview or perhaps a Q&A Sunday in which I answer a couple questions based on my ideas for my music video. I thought I'd make a short animation using GoAnimate. Because I've haven't started my Digipak, I thought I focus this animation on the filming process only. 

Evaluation - Q1 by Anthony Fissler on GoAnimate

Rough Cut - Audience Feedback

During an editing session, I asked Quddas to watch our music video. I wanted to find out whether having a costume change would matter, based on his opinion and the fact nothing was mention about it by our class-mates during the rough cut presentation I would've thought it doesn't matter. I uploaded his reaction and thoughts on Vimeo. The password for this video is 'CANDI'

 

Rough Cut Feedback from Anthony Fissler on Vimeo.

My opinion of our Rough Cut.

We had a couple of shots which were not in synch and also a couple of jump shots which needed to be sorted out quickly, but overall I thought our rough cut went well. We got good feedback from our peers and teachers and we also know how we can improve on our editing. We still have the Colour correction to do so our accessories and make up will really stand out, but that will all be done before the final deadline. :)

Production: Editing Skills from AS

Although we edited films last year and not music videos and although we did not do base track editing, there were a few skills I was able to transfer from AS to A2.

• Correcting the framing a little.
• Moving shots
• Cutting shots
• Making shots longer

These really are just basic skills, however, they are very much needed for editing.

Production - Editing To The Beat

Dionne & I took this video using Camtasia during one of our editing sessions. Because we had pieced together our sequence for the rough cut, I attempt to edit some of the footage to the beat, however, a lot of it was already complete. Next week I intend to upload another video in which I go through 3-way-colour-changes

Filming - Session 3

This is a short video shot using the flip cam after we'd finished filming at a walkway in the Barbican.  As well as the walkway we filmed by a garage and in an estate. The sections of the song that we filmed were, the last verse (My verse) and the ending of the song which is the chorus repeated. On this day we did not have a fig rig or a top light but instead we had a tripod and a dedo light, because of this Anthony decided to film handheld even though Trevor showed us a creative way to use the tripod, Anthony preferred to do it handheld. The dedo lights were powerful but it ran out quite quickly so within the first half hour of filming one battery had ran out and the other was not working properly. The weather on that day wasn't the best as it was filming, luckily it wasn't raining while we were filming but it was a bit of a hazard for, Me, Larah and Anca as we had to perform in heels and the ground was wet. Filming on the walkway was the trickiest part for me as I was in heels and it wasn't concrete and quite slippery but no one hurt themselves (phew).

Session 4 - Barbican

Session 4 by Slidely Slideshow

We thought we had all the shots we needed but after a review of some of our shots by us and Mary there were a few problems:

• Some of the shots weren't framed correctly
• Mise en Scene - There were people walking around in the background and some of  out locations didn't go with the video (offices in the background)
• There wasn't enough cohesion between the group

We decided that we should go back to the barbican to film to get the right shots and also to film a few more base tracks. Filming went really well that day, despite the cold, we got all the shots we needed and also found another interesting place to film, while filming Anca's base track on the walkway which we didn't initially plan to do.

Filming - Session 2

Session 2 by Slidely Slideshow

The next filming session was at my house and the part of the video that we're filming is the second verse and chorus and in this part of the video we are at home showing a different side to our lives, when we're not out 'doing our thing'. The second verse is Anca's verse so she was on camera the most and we did some chorus shots of the whole group and some individual shots too. Overall it went well, even though some of the shots we did, I felt, didn't link with our narrative but it's good to get extra shots just in case.

Rough Cut - Feedback

We showed our rough cut to our media class and got some feedback on it. We found out what is good in our video and also what needs improving.

Flickr of my costumes.

yearwoodlarah's photostream on Flickr.

A flickr of my costumes. These are the costumes I actually wore in the video once we discussed how it would look.

A fun Flickr!

yearwoodlarah's photostream on Flickr.

This is just a flickr that we created in class. It has shots of all of us in it. Just a bit of fun! :)

Filming - Session 1

Filming Day 1

The first filming session went well. We decided that we'd only film the first verse and chorus so that we'd have a lot of time to get all the shots we needed, so this meant that Larah was going to be on camera most of that day. this part of the song is us coming back from a night out in the early ours. It was quite cold that day and it was spitting but that didn't affect our ability to perform and film. As we were not used to being on camera it was a bit weird and awkward and we kept on laughing but we soon got over that and got the shots.

Production - Behind The Scenes

Here are a few behind the scene videos from The CandiHearts.

Production: Costume choices

After cutting out a couple of base tracks we don't have a costume change in the video. We do feel however that the costumes we were wearing reflect the partying lifestyle which is what we were going for. Below are a couple of shots of some of what we actually wore.

Production - Re-Film

After watching all the footage and listening to the feedback we re-filmed some shots. This time we paid close attention to the mise-en-scene and the framing of the shots. We also had more direction in our shots so we looked more in-synch with each other. We were then able to transfer this footage to final cut where it all looked alright. The shots were also more in focus as well which is great.

Production: Things we added/changed in the video

We decided not to use the night time shots, as they were too dark. Also, because of this, we no longer have a costume change in the video. We felt with the shots we had the day time scenes would be good enough for the video. We took the house scene out of the video too as we felt upon reflecting this footage that it didn't really go with the narrative or the video. Below are a couple of screen shots of the scenes we did use.

Production: Reflecting on footage

After reviewing some of the footage we decided we didn't have enough and that some shots were too dark, so we decided to film again and use more lighting equipment. We did, however, agree that we had a range of camera angles and that the performers looked alright also. We also decided to re-think some of the mise-en-scene so that nothing looked out of place.

Production: How editing went

Whilst editing we noticed a number things. Here is the list below:

• Some shots are too dark
• Mise-en-scene is a little weird
• Framing is a little dodgy

We are going to re-film to correct these issues. We also decided to use colour correction so we can really bring out some of the props we used, like the gold necklace below.

We also did base track editing for our music video. There are a few shots of this below. The screen shots show the base track editing from Final Cut Pro we did. We were able to cut away bits of the base tracks we felt didn't fit with the video.