Problems

During my time in the media suite on Wednesday, I was suffering from technical difficulties from the mac's. It seemed to bring an error each time I begun editing the video clips. I came to the conclusion that it could have possibly been because there was "too much" footage in the iMovie file, meaning that it would have such a large file size to process that it couldn't handle it.

My way around this is to possibly use some software I have on my home pc, or to work with a smaller amount of footage. At the end of the day, it might have been just from the computer I was on, suffering from the server with all of the other colleagues processing files at the same time. Hopefully it won't create this problem for me again next time, or it could lead to a slow down in the editing process of the music video.

Problems although progress is still being made
We looked through what we managed to put together and it looked promising. We agreed that I would focus on the chorus's for now and he would look at the first verse, possibly the second too if he has time, and then on Wednesday we would look over it and then make any last minute ammendments and aim to finish the editing on time. The intro is one of our problems, but the artist is taking a visit to London this weekend so hopefully he was able to take some effective still images for us to use so that it is similar to his inspired track by Tinchy Stryder.

Update 16th November

As I was unable to use the media suite today due to me being elsewhere I decided to show the current stage i'm at with the editing, and the possibilities that will need to be done from now on, considering that we have less than two weeks left now to finish the editing. Last week was spent to put the clips together so that they had a caption with them as to where they will be placed along the timeline with the music, which was cut at certain points such as the verses and choruses. This took less time than we had anticipated, as it was all done by the Wednesday afternoon. It was important that we did this, as it would mean that we would delete footage that was of no use to us, as we took several scenes more than once. During this stage, I had soem experimental phases where I tried out some of the effects within iMovie, to try and change how the certain video clips were shown. One in particular, where ther artist is made to look like he is lying down, and then gets up and begins to rap to the song. I decided to try and change this one because in the clip he looks upside down which is unfortunate, but the camera rotation to then be upright and steady when he begins rapping is really effective. I tried an effect called 'mirror' to try and rotate the footage so that instead of being upside down he is looking up so that when the rotation is done it will look right. Instead of this happening, I was given some kind of abstract pattern effect. Whether this was accident or not, the outcome was quite effective.

(Click image to view full resolution)

As you can see, the position of the artist has been fixed here, so at the beginning it does look as if he is lying down, and then the rotation gives off a sense of confusion, as he seems to be upside down, but an abstract visual appears to fix it, so that he is looking to be standing up in the right angle. I would say that this was worthwhile, despite how it blew me away that it seemed to do an effect that I wasn't intending on happening as the final outcome of it.

(Click image to view full resolution)

As you can see from the image above, the footage has been split up into three sections, which is for the different sets of footage that we have, which did total to over two hours of footage!
The clips that we have decided could be used have been put with the music and captioned as to where they start from, so that we can add each bit that we need at the right moment, and have it lip synchronous to run smoothly with the video as we edit the clips together.

From now on we'll need to focus on decideing where to cut each clip, and which ones to put in each part with the lyrics so that it is lip synchronous, and it looks good. Once this is done we can figure out if re-filming is needed, or additional footage, and to decide on whether special effects could be included anywhere to enchance the final image.

Proposal - Junk Star Kids

Samuel Kenny aka Junk Star Kids is a new artist targeting the grime/indie genre. Intending to bring back the retro feel to grime and rap, Sam hopes that the video will do so in terms of the footage used and effects shown. Due to his genre there will be a huge audience that would like his music, and want more from him.

The music video itself will not contain a narrative, but will focus on the scenery to make it ideal for the grime genre, and will be synchronous to the beat rather than to a story line. The locations will more than likely be quite dark to suit this grime feel, then focusing on the little light available to help emphasis on the effect that grime videos give, showing isolation but yet we will be attracted to watching this artist during the length of the video. Several special effects will be used to give it a modern feel, but will then contrast with the old scenery that will be chosen.  As always, the video's sound will be of the actual soundtrack, but there will be one or two extra special effects that will be included to enhance the video. The music video that will be created has been inspired by the well-known artist, Tinchy Stryder, who in his video “Your not alone” walks off at the end of the video. The intention is that Sam will also do this, but with placing his headphones onto his ears and walking off. There will then be a special effect with the audio to make it sound slightly distorted, to then emphasis on the fact that he has put his headphones and we are now hearing it from them too.

A lot of zoom shots will be used with the camera being handheld, to give the idea of the retro feel, but to also show that it is a grime music video, and not a mainstream rap or pop video. There will be some special camera shots used at certain points within the video, such as the “La Roux tilt”, which involves a 90 degree turn of the camera as the artist moves to give the idea that the artist was lying down and has stood up, when in reality they were just leaning against a wall. A few PoV shots (point of view) have been considered, to give the audience the feeling that you are with the artist, like you know him, as the artist will be shown at eye level, rather than looking up to him.

The artist will be represented as the typical grime artist, although there will be a twist due to him being slightly aimed towards the indie genre also. By indie I mean a kind of retro feel, which will be different to the normal grime videos, that tend to use mainly green-screen footage, and the artist standing there rapping to the camera. The intention in this music video however, is to make it look almost like a live performance, with cuts to seeing the artist in other locations as we walk with him.

Sam is currently without a record label, but ideally he would be signed to labels such as Boy Better Know, Parlophone records and Konvict Muzik. The reason for this is that artists that are in the same genre are in these labels, such as JME who is in Boy Better Know, Tinie Tempah who is in Parlophone records, and record label, Konvict music. Konvict music is however more mainstream, but has artists such as Akon and T-Pain who could possibly in the future be artists that he could relate to.

Depending on the success of the creation of this music video, Sam could soon become a well-known artist, due to his dedication and love for music, but also with a good quality music video to back him up, to then have it advertised on web 2.0 websites such as Facebook and YouTube there is no reason why it can't be a success. It could then lead to several music channels such as Channel U and Viva hearing about him and then being able to have his music video displayed on there, which would be ideal for him as a new artist to the scene.

New scenary for footage 02/10

Tonight myself and the artist went down to a location by a multi-story car park, which had a large area of space which looks like it was used as a private storage area. The lighting was perfect, and there was so many places which we could take shots from which would be ideal for the video. We spent a good hour just filming the area with some shots, trying to create some variety for our video of the camera type shots, and also the locations. Because the lighting was ideal for us this time round, it may contrast with our previous footage, but each location's lighting is different. I will post up some footage of the location on Wednesday when I upload the footage in the media suite.

During this shot I decided to practise some crash zooms, so that it was synchronous with the beat, and the lyrics, but not 100%, so that it then had some variety rather than being crash zooms throughout. It was hard as the beat to this song is fast, and to do good crash zooms isn't something that will happen all of the time that you use them. The shot itself is really good, a lowshot of the artist creates a sense of PoV shot as if it's a live concert, as the artist is always on a stage higher up.

(37-50 seconds)

Within this footage we attempted a reverse shot of the artist jumping off from a ledge, so that when reversed, would look like he jumped backwards onto the stage, which would be shown to the lyrics "Super high......." so that it is expressing the lyrics visually. Personally I think it worked well, as when we artist reaches the stage after jumping backwards, his hands are still movign to the beat, so it carries on. For a reverse shot, it was very effective.

(10 seconds onwards)

The mise en scene for this shot was ideal for the whole grime theme. Only problem we had though, is that the lighting wasn't too great for the camcorder to deal with. We did our best, held on out through until the shot was complete, and added some brightness through iMovie to enhance the visual so that we could see how it was. Personally I think it's okay, obviously it's not great, but that's due to the lighting and there isn't too much we can do to fix that, apart from re-filming if we have to do so. The low lighting is however effective in giving off the emotional side of the song showing his inner feelings and showing his icolation, his feelings.

Progress week ending 1st November

Half of the week was taken from us to make any progress as the artist was away until Wednesday. We then had to step up our game and make the most of the few days in which we had left. We ended up filming in the evening due to us both having other things to attend to. A location that we used the most was in fact a car park. You wouldn't believe it though due to the shots that we used, we were able to take shots from areas to bring across the theme of grime, along with the orange lighting which was dominant here.

We came up with some last minute ideas when we were in the middle of filming some of the scenes, including a still one-take which would form a cut of shots to make the artist appear in different locations on the shot, as if he is teleporting around the screen to the best. When it is cut down to fit the beat it should work really well.

All in all, this week wasn't as successful as we had hoped, but the footage we did take was of higher quality in terms of the lighting and scenary for the mise en scene. It gave us an insight to what else we need to get done, and any other ideas that we could include, possibly involving other people in the shots, and locations we should try to film in. Hopefully we will be visiting these locations tomorrow evening, as we need to make the most of our free time to get more footage than we will use. We have around one hour of footage so far, so we are making alot of progress on our ideas and footage taken.

Tasks for this week

Plans week 26th October

We intend to get the last few scenes for our music video completed by the end of this week we are now in. Unfortunately the artist I am working with will not be available until atleast Wednesday, so we will need to make sure we are well organised for the last few days we will have. If we manage to get the filming done by this week, then we should be on schedule and be making steady progress to then be able to be ready for editing it all together.

Update to progress

Wednesday 21st

Myself and artist Sam Kenny went down to Shildon to visit the tunnel that leads down to the beach "Smugglers tunnel". It is an ideal place to shoot some clips from, due to it's appearance and lighting, giving the perfect grime scenary. It also had some graffiti on the other side of the tunnel which we took advantage of in our filming that took place. We only faced one major problem while filming there, and that was the wind. We didn't expect it to be so strong in there, but it was something we had to deal with, and I think that we pulled it off with the shots that we were able to take. Here's a few images of the tunnel;

Our most adventurous shot which we took on this day was the 90 degree tilt, copied from the idea of La Roux's video "Bulletproof", as I have spoken about erlier in my blog. I had to prop the camera against a wall so that the camera was still while I tried to hold it against the winds. I then had to turn the camera as the artist moved away from the wall, to give the impression that he was lying down, and then begins to rap to the song. When I uploaded this footage onto the computer and then added the music to play ontop of it, I thought that this was successful. The only problem I felt is that he is upside down in the shot, although I think it works anyway, as it gives the idea of confusion when you watch it. Here's the clip I am talking about;

Thursday 22nd

The next day we decided to visit a recently abandoned business area, which was about to be tidied up in preparation for the take over from another company who have recently bought it. The location is ideal aswell for this video, having stone and rubble scenary, with trees and bushes in the background, perfect for a grime-based music video. Here's a few photographs of the setting;

The footage that we took looks nothing like these images, as we decided to film there at 8pm until around 9.20. It was quite dark, so we had to make use of the lights that we had around us, such as the orange street lights, and a hand-held bright white torch that I brought with me. The footage was more structured than the day before, and we decided to do some different angles and shots. Here's an example of the footage taken. We took this chance to also produce another piece of clothing for 'Junk Star Kids' which I managed to make before we met up at this location in the evening.

The only priority of things to change with this footage from our second location is to make the visual slightly brighter so that it is easier to see the artist performing in the location, which can be done by a simple fix in the effects option in iMovie.