Final Video

Video Filters

The are the video filters that we used in our video.

• Posterize
• Brightness and Contrast
• colour balance
  

Picture house feedback

I think that our video had a warm reception at the cinema. people seemed to like it and we got many cheers at the end boii.

Feedback of final version =)

The general opinion of the rest of the class was that our video was had lots of good elements and a couple of areas that some people thought could be improved.
People liked the Jesus Green skate shots, the special effects, colour distortion, made our character look slightly more sinister as he was in great contrast to the surroundings.
People also liked the Gas Mask idea saying it fitted with the dark moody feel of some parts of the song.
The ending of our video was praised for fitting in with the fading out of the music and the black and whiteness of the skater jumping over the camera and the skateboard rolling rounded off the song well.
The dark and moody atmosphere of our video fitted in very well with the music, and the piano shots synced up well and fitted in well when played alongside the piano parts.

Some criticism was that we needed more lip syncing, although this opinion was not shared by all and some people thought the minimal amounts of lip syncing worked effectively to fit the mood, style, and genre of the music.

Someone also said that we don't have any personality to our video although again others thought that this was a positive aspect of the video and not a negative element.

Footage

Today we went out and filmed some extra footage of hands playing on a piano so we can add to our music video. We do not think we need more footage for the narrative but simply to fill empty gaps between our character's journey.

Footage

After editing today, our group has concluded that more footage is definitely needed. We found out that all the footage we filmed that included cigarettes or tobacco could not be used in our music video for legal reasons. More of our footage we previously thought acceptable, we have now agreed are not really suitable for the genre of music or the style of video we are making.
We need to book our camera for next week but unfortunately our entire group is not present today so we could not do this.

Today we are continuing our editing process with one member of the group working on the video, while another helps him with ideas and works on the blog at the same time. One member of the group is away. We have come up with a lot of new creative ideas for editing and are putting them into the video although it is becoming more clear that we are lacking in footage and could do with filming a lot more when we get a chance and have arranged it with all of the group members. To do this i think we will use some new locations such as under a bridge that is covered in artistic graffiti near college, and some close ups of lip synching without the gas mask for a few bars. We are lacking particularly in primary shots to cut back to as the main shot and also could do with a couple more activities for the main character to take part in to make the video more visually interesting.

Editing

Last week we began the editing process on our video, We have got lot of footage that needs to be cut leaving us with a little less footage than we would have liked. We will continue to make the video as best as possible and then we will film more footage when we get a chance.

Feedback

The overall opinion of our class about our video was that the camera work was good, our props and locations are good, and mostly our dancer was good, (One group disagreed-we don't like them.Nor do we find their opinions valid amongst normal members of the long road society).

Areas that need improving are things like editing, less boring shots, more special effects such as saturation and using more transitions.

Other groups claimed that too much of our video is our character walking around. In an attempt to remedy this, we will shoot more shots so that we have more footage and can be more selective about the shots we include in our final cut. In particular we need some lipsynching and more locations and activities.

Problem

We were unable to find a suitable Darth Vader mask for our video. They were either too cheap and unrealistic, or they were much too expensive. So we've decided to alter our plot slightly by giving our main character a gas mask instead.
We got our inspiration for this idea from a movie called "Dead Man's Shoes". Below is a clip from the film to show where we got our ideas from.

Animatic

This animatic contains only half of the storyboard we wanted to include in it and so the shots don't truly represent the timescale that we would like the actual video to follow. The rest of the storyboard is drawn up however, so we can follow it closely when we start filming.

Steps Forward

Here is a list of things we need to get done over the next week.

• Complete and upload Animatic.
• Decide on times to take camera out and film.
• Add more posts to the blog and edit some older posts to add more detail.
  
• Purchase props and arrange times for filming with actors.
  

101 Pianos- Lewis Parker

We forgot to upload our video at the start of our blog...so here it is.

Lip synch test shot

We filmed a test video of George lip synching a couple of verses from our song. The attempt was unsuccessful due to the fact that George was listening to the song through headphones. This created a problem because we now have no music to synch it up with and therefore we can not get the timing right and so have not included it in our blog. We will try it again before we start filming and hopefully will upload it at a later date if we get a chance.

Feedback from our reviews

After carefully going over our feedback for our blog, it's clear that a lot still needs to be added in the way of detail and more lengthy posts. For one thing, the storyboard and Lip Synch test still need to be uploaded. Much planning is still to be done, such as more shot lists and a time line. We also still need to plan when, and where exactly, we are going to film.
The feedback is not all bad though, the style of video people agreed was suitable for the genre of music and some of our ideas for shots could work well if filmed correctly.

• Upload test lip synch, time line, storyboard.
• Re-do Lip synch video.
• Research more on our shot locations.
  

Bittersweet Symphony

Location shots.

Prop list:

• Darth Vader mask
• Small hand held piano with 101 written on it.
• Skateboard
• Phantom of the opera mask.
• Spray cans
• Cardboard
• BMX
• Tracksuit
• Adidas trainers
• Skate ramp
• Lots of people

The Plot

A mysterious character dressed in everyday clothing (Sports Tracksuit) except for a Darth Vader mask. This character walks through the rough streets of Cambridge waving his arms to the rhythm of the beat, as the video progresses, our character will adopt followers, in a pied piper fashion. His followers do not wear masks, simply normal clothing. However, some do randomly start break dancing. Our character walks along the river until he reaches a skate park. There he takes a skateboard off a skater and starts skating across the ramps. He leaves this location and walks over a bridge and up a hill. This leads to his final destination, Castle Hill. This is where he meets his friend who is holding a small keyboard, he is the one who has been making the piano sounds throughout the movie, at a point during the song when the piano stops, this character chucks the keyboard to Darth Vader. When the piano starts again it is Darth Vader playing at which point our other character at the top of the hill starts break dancing in the moonlight. This part of the video fits in well with the songs samples. Finally we have a last shot of him cycling down castle hill road into the sunset.

After carefully viewing this video, we have decided that although it is a strange, unusual style of music video, it is similar to the final video we would like to produce. It is similar in the style, and narrative we want to achieve in that it is a person walking the streets with no destination, in a costume. The length of the shots is roughly what we are aiming for as well. It is also a similar genre of music as it is a surreal type of old school hip hop.

Timeline

In total, our track is 3.05 mins long.
0.00 > 0.04= strange background echo sounds.

0.04 > 0.08= Piano melody introduced

0.08 > 0.54= beat introduced shortly followed by lyrics 4 first verse.

0.55 > 1.00= beat and lyrics stop, piano melody, slight play with volume and a crackle.

1.01 > 1.47= beat and second verse introduced with different voice, (beat pauses briefly at 1.20)

A second pause with just piano.

1.55 > 2.20= chorus come in with some vynil scratching,



1.55 > 2.30= womans voice being distorted(scratched n mixed) placed on top of the beat and melody, few silences, one or two words from parker.

2.31 > = womans voice continues but beat fades out but piano continues.

Having presented our pitch to the rest of the class we have decided to make a few alterations to our original idea for the video, although the general idea seemed to go down well. Based on some of the feedback we received we decided it might be a good idea to not conceal the main characters identity for the whole video as if we have some shots of him lip syncing it could increase our marks for the video. We also must make sure that we maintain a constant mood and continuity of theme in the video that fits in with the genre of music. In todays lesson we are drawing up a storyboard for our video so we will try to incorporate these ideas into the storyboard and into the final video.

We chose the song 101 pianos- by Lewis Parker because it is a genre of music that we enjoy and we thought it would be interesting to create a suitable video for the old school uk hip hop genre. The beat is not too fast and so making a music video that fits the genre and the slow pace of the beat should not be too tricky as long as we approach it right. We plan to film most of our video in a built up urban area. The video will be composed of different shots of our main character walking along, dancing, and making actions as if hes lip syncing but we don't see his mouth because he is wearing a Darth Vader mask. The action will cut away to another person in a mask in a remote setting, possibly castle hill, playing the piano during the chorus and at other intervals where the music in the song changes slightly. The two characters could maybe meet up at the end of the video. The guy walking could go past Jesus green skate ramp in the mask and ask for a go on someones skateboard. Although we don't hear them we see the exchange and we see the character doing tricks on the board before leaving to continue his epic journey. We will not tell the skaters what we are doing so the reactions will be real like the Fatboy slim video where they are dancing in the shopping mall.

This video also uses a factor that we want to use in our video, the focus character being masked and his journey through the night.

This video is useful to our project because it uses a piano melody throughout, this fits in with the genre of our song.

Focus character has a Darth Vader mask to conceal identity as well as to suit the artists genre and style. To emphasize the piano used in the melody, our character will carry round a small keyboard and play it while he visits the various urban areas. To suit the star wars/fictional theme, we will edit the footage into cartoon style, perhaps black and white.

This jurassic 5 music video, shows that comedy can be incorporated into the musical performance. It also keeps the identity of the performers secret, this is something we aim to do.

Jonna, Toby, george

Location- We are aiming to have 4-5 different locations, which will alternate throughout the video. These locations include: Jesus green skate park, various urban built areas around chesterton to give a city life image.

Welcome to GROUP 48