In the past couple of weeks I have exported my final draft of my music video, taking a lot of care in ironing out all the finishing touches and ensuring it has a professional finish. I also did this with my digipack designs, and applied them to different 'real life' situations, e.g. a bus stop advertisement and a CD signing with the artist, to make them appear more authentic. I am currently working on writing and producing my evaluation, which I will present in the form of a video.

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Constructing my Digipack Designs

Here is some Camtasia footage showing a breakdown of the layers of my front cover.

Using Filters

Here are some screenshots of my music video in After Effects, before and after I applied the 'Indie film' filter. I think the filter makes such a difference to the professional finish of my music video, and just gives it a generally more polished final effect.

Here is some footage of me editing the multicam sequence for my green screen.

And the editing begins...

After shooting the chorus sections of my music video, I have began to put it to music. Synchronising the singing to Laura's miming took time in order to get it perfectly in sync, but once this was done, I chose my four favourite shots for each chorus and used the multi-camera monitor to easily change between the shots while listening to the music. It took 8 attempts at this before I was completely satisfied with the order of the shots and the way they looked, however I found the multi-cam a quick and easy way to experiment with the timing and shot sequences. I have uploaded a section of what I have done so far in this process.

A Diary Entry

I can finally say I am completely confident and happy with the concept of my music video. My location and actors are finalised (documents will be scanned and posted shortly!), and I have completed a mood board of images that inspire my idea, and also that compliment the dreamy feel of the song. In doing this, I have become increasingly inspired myself, and have began to enjoy considering different costume and prop ideas, and have been keeping my eyes open for interesting props when out and about, for example vintage style teacups in charity shops, or doll's houses in toy shops. The next step for me is to film my green screen sections, which will feature close-ups of 'Alice' singing the bridge/chorus of the song, in front of a lace, spinning background.

Experimenting with Test Shots and Editing

Last lesson we took the cameras out an about to try and film some test footage. This would benefit us through getting used to using the new cameras, exploring interesting shots and angles, and would give us the opportunity to practice editing footage on Adobe After Effects. We filmed many different sections of film, especially so that in the editing process we could use techniques like multiple exposure and reverse footage. For example, we filmed Laura pulling the petals off a flower and dropping them to the floor, and after putting it into reverse in After Effects it gave the impression that Laura was conjuring the petals between her fingers and putting the flower together. In the editing process we also experimented with speeding up footage, slowing it right down, and changing the colours. I changed the saturation of the flower footage so that the pink of the flower was the only thing in colour, and also experimented with a piece of footage of my eyes, making them bright and fluorescent colours. After practising this, it has made me more confident in approaching the editing process of my music video, and that there are many effects I could possibly apply.

http://www.musicvideotheory.com/

This is quite an interesting website which showcases the work of music video producers, and some of the ideas have inspired me, artistic things like using body paint, animations, and simple settings such as a black box drama studio with spotlights.

Diary Entry 5

After considering a more thematic approach to my music video and creating a video very specific to the lyrics of a song, I've decided that the idea I have been thinking about would be much harder to give a professional finish. Doing a song by a girl band would be difficult as I would have to find between 3 and 5 girls that look like a band together, and would be able to move in some sort of rehearsed routine. So therefore, I'm going to go back to my original idea of using Aaron and the song 'Accidental' by Olly Murs, as I think that it will be more versatile when it comes to locations, props, costumes and narrative.

Annie Khalid Music Video Shoot

On 11th July 2011, I had the opportunity to witness and participate in an actual music video being filmed, courtesy of record label Anniemouse. The first location was the 'O Bar' in Soho, a trendy bar with a basement dance club, which was used to film the dance routine sequences in the video. Naturally, as I am only 17, I couldn't go into this location, however the second location was also very important and interesting. The main narrative part of the video was filmed at Dean Street Studios, Soho, a professional recording studio where the likes of Kasabian and Snow Patrol have recorded. The narrative saw the protagonist, Annie Khalid, as a cleaner overlooking auditions happening at the studio. Myself, Laura and two other extras participated in this part of the video, we lined up outside the studio and were filmed waiting for our 'auditions'. One by one we were called into the studio to mime to the song, followed by the 'director' shaking his head and rejecting each of us. After this had been repeated 4 times, Annie Khalid puts down her cleaning equipment and tries her luck at auditioning. Of course this leads to her stardom being 'discovered', showing her transition from a low status character to a superstar. Here are some pictures of the location and the day.

Video Diary 1: Initial Ideas

Initial Idea Video Blog 22/06/11

After choosing a song and performer, I've been giving the concept of my music video a lot of thought, and below is a video blog summarizing the idea I would like to develop.

Summary of my initial idea:

• romantic, 'cute' narrative
• story follows the lyrics
• about boy who wants to get a girl's attention by setting up coincidences ('not accidental')
• follows boy going about his day setting up things like hearts on the trees in the woods on the route she walks home, and playing her favourite song on a record player/playing it on the keyboard
• he will be dressed with a 'nerdy' persona for this
• nerdy alter ego - current in music, fashionable to have alter ego e.g. Katy Perry aka Kathy Beth Terry
• parallel storyline of him dancing in the studio and singing on green screen - 'cool' persona, fashionable, binary opposite of nerdy image

I have been looking at a lot of different music videos, which has helped to develop what I want to have as my concept for my own video. I have uploaded a video blog talking about my initial idea, which you can find on the Initial Ideas tab above.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my A2 Media Studies Coursework blog. I will use this blog to record all of my ideas, research and progress throughout the creation of my coursework. Use the page tabs above to view different areas of my work!