Adding Effect's Rough Cut (Production)

The effects is my favourite thing in the video, I think they are really cool and love how we have such a wide range of effects we can use in our video. We said from the start of the video that we was going to use some effect's as we never really got the chance to play with effects last year. The main effect's we our going to use in our video our reversing and some transition. The first thing that we done was we made used the transition effects and made some clips fade in and out from one another, in the parts where the song is much sower then the rest. 


We then made some of the dancing scenes to be reversed backwards as we wanted our video to be an disjuncture and we wanted it to be very abstract and mind boggling. I was kinda surprised on how easy it was to even use this effect all we had to do was go onto speed of video and click on the reverse bottom and there we had it. We added some slow motion to some parts of the video as the slow motion effect is used a lot in regular music video's. 

While we was playing around with the other effects we bumped into the glow effect. I remembered Stephanie talking about how she wanted our video to have some type of glow effects so this was perfect for her. We decided to use the glow effect on the water fountain clip we had we had, not knowing what to expect we where kinda hesitant. The final effect was awesome it just made that single clip a hundreds time better and really captured your eyes and had the wow factor. Here is a link to when we added the glowing effect on final cut pro Adding Glowing Effect Using Final Cut Pro
  

Rough Cut Editing (Production)

Compared to last year when we made our thriller's, we are going to end up editing more then we have ever done. I feel like when we was editing our thriller we did not spend as much time as we did editing then we are now. Music video are complete different there are more cut's, more shot's, more scenes and believe it or not my thriller last year was filmed in two scenes compared to the 6 or so that we filmed for our music video.


For our music video we really had to make sure our editing was on point because even a little slip can cause our video to go wrong. We have now started to put all the base tracks on final cut pro. The first thing we decided to do was to put all the clips in the sequence that we want them to be in our music video. The editing process is really frustrating as sometimes we put things in place and the we realise that the shot is not good and everything had to run on the beat every clip must change when the beat hit's so we have to be persistent with everything. 

As hard a sit has been editing it has also been fun as we got the chance to use some editing devices that we have never used before. So it is great learning new skills and using new techniques to make our video the best it can be. The thing about editing is sometimes you feel like you are doing the right thing but then your teacher comes and tells you that you have to change or think about certain things we do. I think we changed the begging of our video like three times because we had to decide what was the perfect way to start the video. We decided not to add all the effects yet for the rough cut as that would take way to long but we did add a couple. We also tried to add all the shot's of the singer just so we can have a variety of  shot's of her in our video

There where some shot's that I filmed for the video but they did not  make the cut I will not lie I was kinda frustrated about that but we followed the advise from our teacher who said having building in the start of the video is not a great way to promote the artist to her audience it is just promoting the Barbican Center instead. So we edited that our and put close ups of the artist instead. 

Things We Stumbled Across On Our Way (Production)

We have finished all our filming PHEW! Now I'm just going to look back at some of the things that we stumbles across on our day's out filming. 

• On the first day of filming I had a little accident. While dancing I some how ripped my jeans, I know I planned on wearing something I can dance in but I really thought I looked good in them jeans dame I wish I did not wear them now here is link to the video of me ripping my jeans.http://candipop11group22.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-of-music-video-outtakes.html
• While filming for the dancing scene in day 1at the Barbican we was stopped by the people who worked at the Barbican as we did not ask for permission to film in the space. (Here was me thinking the Barbican Centre was a public space #Oops)
• On the second day of filming we planned on making a time lapse of our artist in the streets while people walked passed her. After filming her for 10 minutes we discovered that the shot came out way to dark for us to use, and this happened through out the day. Filming at night was way harder then filming in day light.
• We also stumbled across a man dancing in the streets of Piccadilly circus. We intend to use some parts of his dancing in our video just for some wow factor as he is a very skilled dancer you can watch him dancing here Click Here To Watch The Guy Dancing

Day 3 Filming (Production)

For The third and final day of filming we wanted to put our main focus on the artist. The artist is going to play a big role in the video we want to try and capture her the best we can as we are trying to sell her to the audience so everything has to be on point. We met up extra early at the Barbican Center we locate dit there as we used it for the opening shot's and dancing scenes and thought they should all link we met up early  because we learned from the first day of filming that it begins to get dark early so we gave ourself extra time to film in the day light. 


The first thing we done was film the base tracks for our video. These where the most important shot's as they would run from the start to the end of the music video. We got the artist to lip sync to the whole start from start to finish as we would be cutting from her to other scene sin the video. We got her to walk towards the camera, we got her to perform next to a fountain which looked beautiful as it made it seem as if she had wings and that whole scene just added to the mis en scene and made everything very angelic like the singer's voice. We also found a great spot at the Barbican that had big long leaves and we got the artist to sing in there and we got some extra shot's of her walking around inside, we done this because it looked like a completely different place when you step inside it was really enchanting and it contrasted with everything else and I think the more different scenes we have the more interest our video will have on our audience and viewer. 

Here are some of the pictures from day 3 of filming 

  

I think we left the best till last because the day went really well, we got to shoot all the shot's we wanted we even had time to try out some experimental shot's and got some extra shot's of me dancing too. The clips of the artist really looked impress and I thought the close ups of her face looked really professional and high quality. I loved it when we filmed her walking in the leaves as it looked really striking and something that you would see in a real music video today. If we had to film it again I would have commented and told Stephanie to really sing out loud and make bigger mouth gestures while singing because sometimes it looked like she was whispering the lyrics but she did a great job remembering the whole song and singing it over and over and over again without getting annoyed I know I would have. We have now official finished filming now all that is left is editing now here is where most of the work will have to go in =]


-Prince 

Rough cut is out! anyones thoughts on it?

The rough cut video is out after numerous times of editing. Prince, Stephani and Kehinde all great hard workers were exceptional even though we had a few disagreements, but what a boring video it would be if we would all have the same ideas? Editing was long although was very good, as Kehinde, Stephani and Prince and me are happy for what we have got now as a rough cut. One of the changes was the fact that we showed buildings at the start of our video, which was not advised due to the fact that we are not promoting the location but the artist. In general it was a good day and i would like to thank my lovely group for being such hard working and dedicated students as without them our ideas will be nothing but a waste of time. However work is not done yet! but looking good so far.

Day 2 Filming (Production)

After the Success of day one of filming our music video we was all excited to film. We filmed these night part's on Friday 4th November. Our first location was going to be angle and that was where we all met up for the shoot. What we wanted to do was film crowds and car's driving by so that later on when it came to editing we can add effect's to them either slow them down or fastened then up or even create some type of time laps. We tried to get shot's of cars and people but they did not turn out well so we deleted them. Then we had an idea of putting the artist in the middle of the pavement and have her stand there while people walked pass her. We was then going to speed it up so she would  look like she is standing still while everyone and everything around her was moving. We filmed this for 10 minutes but when we looked back at the shot we discovered that is was way to dark for us to even use the clip in our video. So we kinda got stuck and just talked about what else we could do as we did not want to end the day with no shot's. I told the group we should go to Piccadilly circus in the west end of London. My group were not really up for it as they thought it would be a waste of time, but I told them that we should go as it is a great night location as it is so busy and there are lights and lots of people walking by and it fit what we was going for and plus I said when we was planning for the video that we should shoot some scenes there after a few minutes of talking I managed to persuade them so we left angel and headed for Piccadilly Circus.

The Mis En Scene in Piccadilly Circus was perfect it had everything we wanted it gave us that city vibe that night life and everything was busy and moving. We started filming our artist in an alleyway to be honest with you I did not like the idea of this as I thought the lighting was dark we could just see our artist and I thought it was random. After that I got Stephanie to walk towards the camera in this little island in the middle of the road. I thought the shot look really well as we had cars driven by and we had all the lights from the cars and traffic lights everything fused together in one. And then we had our artist walking down in black so mysterious it was really captivating.

                                                                                                                                                                             We filmed her doing that for a while after that we got her to do some lip syncing. At first Stephanie was really scared and uncomfortable about lip syncing while the public walked pass her but the group comforted her and told she she can do it and she did really great. We had her stand against a white wall under a construction bridge that everyone was walking by. she lip synced the second verse and It looked really good as she was singing and people where walking by and some where watching her so it looked a sif she was on her own lost and confused and was hopeless worked really well. After we where done with that I took the camera and got random shot's of the location we where in I tried to get people walking pass and cares and buses driven by and the piccadilly light's but to be honest they where really poor because I did not use a tripod so they where all really shaky but I just left them just in case. While doing this Mehdi saw a man dancing in the street, the man had a big crowd surrounding him and watching him danced and the group said I should get him dancing and so I filmed him for a while dancing. It was kinda ironic because he was dancing to dub step and we was there filming for a dub step video.  

DAY 1 Filming (Production)

HELLO!! It's prince here to update you with what has been going on in the last few weeks. I know I have not been blogging and updating my blog but it was all for a good cause as me and my group have been SUPER busy with filming and editing for our music video. Now that we are on track and I am less busy I have decided  to give you a FULL update starting from day one.


Our first day of filming was on the 30th October 2011 seems so far away but I can remember it like it was yesterday. We decided we wanted to shoot the dancing scenes first because Eleni (The Female Dancer) was not a part of our group and she also done media and we did not want our video to effect her schedule. Not all of our group could attend this filming day but we still pulled through, I met up with Stephanie and Eleni at the Barbican where the dancing scenes were to be located. When we first got to the Barbican the first thing we done is that we just walked around and got used to the surrounds as this was the first time any of us have been to the Barbican, The first thing that hit me when I was at the Barbican was the beautiful architecture, I remember when we was planning for the video I told the group that the first shot's should be an establishing shot of the Barbican. So what I did was I quickly grabbed the camera and literately ran across the Barbican capturing different shot's of buildings, object's, fountains from different angles. I done this so we can have many shot's to choose from and we all know that we need as many shot's as we can get for our music video.

After a few minutes of running around and trying to get different shot's of the Barbican I returned to the other's who thought I got lost. I then told the group I found a great spot while I was away where we could film the dancing scenes. For the dancer's costumes I wanted them to wear less clothing because I really wanted the audience to be able to see their body move while they dance. So I went topless for the dancing scene and wore black skinny trouser and shoes while Eleni wore a bandu and a black and white harems pant's. You can wee the picture of what we wore on the picture on the right, I think we looked very edgy and interesting and with the mis en scene and us placed there it made a great shot. The weather was not on our side as it was cold but after we began to dance our body got warmer and we could not even feel the cold no more. 


The first thing we done was we shot a scene where me and Eleni ran towards each other and when we met I picked her up onto my shoulder's, we done this because we thought it could add to the meaning of the song and create some kind of plot or a new meaning to the video. We filmed this from different angles we got a shot of me running towards the camera and one of Eleni doing the same. After this scene we then started to film the main dancing scene, me and Eleni had some move we made before the day that we wanted to use for the video so we quickly practised and played the music to see if the moves suite the music. 


Here is a link to the video of me and Eleni practising the dance routine http://candipop11group22.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-of-music-video-little-video.html

After we filmed our dance routine we decided to try and get some shot's of us free styling to the song so we can get some extra shot's we can use for the music video. We had to do this really quickly as it was getting dark. We got a shot of both of us dancing and some shot's of Eleni free styling. we just wanted as much shot's as we can get as possible so we experimented shooting Eleni though a gate we got shot's of us laying upside down, shot's of me jumping in the air and more. Some shot's will be used in the video and some shot's will not we wanted to get the best quality ones, some shot's the lighting was really poor or the angle we shot it in was not straight but we got some great shot's .


We was really productive this day we filmed and worked from the moment we got there until we had to leave as we could not film no more as it got too dark. If we could do it again I think we should have known how to use the lighting we got given, as we got stuck when it came to using it (IF) we did know how to use it we could have even gotten more dancing shot's and even some dancing shot's at night. But I was still happy with the final outcome of the day could not wait to film again, 


- Prince