Week Three: Music Video

 Week Three - Day One

This week, our task was to create our very own music video. Music videos can range from genres including anything they want to, whether it is related to the lyrics of the song or not - it is completely up to you what is included in a music video. But what is the actual definition? A music video is a short film that synchronises a song with imagery for promotional artistic purposes. 

At first, I was overwhelmed with the possibilities of what my music video could have and did not know where to start. Luckily, my tutor, Pete, showed some examples including a quote extraordinary one by "OK go" just to show how wacky music videos could be:

Although quite weird, it was a great example of how music videos not only can be anything you want but can also be one long shot, no cuts at all. For that reason, I was more confident in starting my research.

I thought it would be quite useful to search what type of music videos there are, and google gave me a list:

This gave me a starting point of where to begin my research, along with the codes and conventions my other tutor, Paula, supplied us with in our brief.

After our break of the day, Pete showed us some really handy editing techniques that would speed up our editing process:

1. Adding markers to pinpoint the beat by pressing "M" on the keyboard in Premiere Pro
   
   
   
   
   
2. Changing the settings on the trim tool so the clips around the one you are shortening/lengthening are shortened/lengthened around them too, which also stops clips from blocking other clips
   
   
   

 Week Three - Day Two

Day two was a research heavy day, really going into depth about music videos and what they involve whilst following the codes and conventions. I did all of my research on Miro as usual (Miro board):

What I picked up on:                                  

• The majority of music videos include the actual artist, occasionally performing and dancing to the song
• The music video doesn't have to relate to the lyrics or music at all, it is completely up to the artist what is shown in the music video and what isn't
• A lot of music videos follow a narrative or story
• Some even involve animation, or a combination of animation and live action together
• They are massively varied, each one unique to their own

Even after doing my research, I had no ideas on what to do. That's until the music was released for this project - Rocking Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee. I asked around to see what other ideas people had to see if it would inspire my own. My friend, James, said he had an idea for somebody to be performing the song with back-up dancers in his own edit. Thus, I agreed to be the performer if I could also use the footage for my own edit as well as his, and he agreed. We both wanted this to be crazy, full of colour, exciting, joyous  and full of lights just like Christmas is.

Over the weekend, we were talking about what props we would need (Christmas tree, Christmas headband, tinsel etc) and got all of them prepared ready for Mondays filming.

Our main idea was to use the Christmas tree as a microphone, of which James filmed some test footage with his sister to see if it looked okay:

Week Three - Day Three

Before we started filming, we got our ideas down on a storyboard to make our ideas clear on on paper just to make filming smoother knowing what scenes were to be done next:

And so, we booked the studio and got everything ready with the cameras, lighting equipment, tripod and a dolly (to move the camera back and forth smoothly).

Problem One

We couldn't use the green screen because of some decorations on my antlers and the Christmas tree I would be using throughout the duration of the video

How did I problem solve?

Paula gave us a blue screen to work against instead.

On reflection, this did come in handy however the blue screen was very limited in its space. However, we still managed fine.

 

Problem Two

When it came to reflecting the lyrics onto the screen from the iPad, the lyrics were mirrored so they were backwards making it difficult and unable to read

How did I problem solve?

Paula was able to flip the video of the lyrics so they mirrored correctly onto the screen.

Upon reflection, this made filming so much easier and made the process flow smoother.

When filming, I wanted to experience with lighting and gels mainly for the dance sequence that required no blue screen. To achieve this, I added a green gel over one light and a red gel over the others, red a green for classic Christmas colours, which also made two shadows behind me almost making me look like I had two back up dancers. Personally, I think this worked really well in my final edit and I loved the contrast of chromakey to a background of just coloured lights.

After a couple hours or so, we finished filming and uploaded our footage onto our computers. Before I finished for the day, I put all of my clips in order on Premiere Pro ready to begin day four.

Week Three - Day Four

Day four was focused on editing my footage on Premiere Pro, a software I have used many times before but also gained more experience on using the chromakey and transitions.

To start off, I synchronised all of my footage to the track which my tutor, Paula, showed us an editing technique to speed that process up:

1. Press shift on your keyboard and keep a hold whilst you select both the clip and the track
2. Right click and scroll down to "Synchronise"
3. Choose the "Track 2" option and it should synchronise quickly and easily whilst moving your clip/track only slightly

Overall, this made the editing process efficient.

Week Three - Day Five

Starting day five, my first job was to find a background on Pixabay, so it was't copyrighted, and use that as my background.

I had no idea how to remove the blue screen. That's when my tutor, Pete, gave us a tutorial on how to chromakey:

1. Type "Key" in effects
2. Select the "Ultra Key" option and drag that to your clip with the blue/green screen
3. Use the colour selector tool to select the colour of the blue/green screen
4. The screen should disappear, replaced by the photo you have chosen as your desired background (make sure the photo is above the clip)
5. Alter the settings slightly to try and remove as much screen as you can

Problem Three

Because the blue screen wasn't a perfect blue throughout the entire screen and had folds in the corner, a red or green photo would still appear to have hints of blue in.

How did I problem solve?

To get around this problem, I chose a photo that was predominantly blue so that any of the screen could be cleverly hidden or barely seen to the viewer.

Upon reflection, I was very lucky it worked and it still looked okay. However, in the future I will make sure the screen sone solid colour to avoid this problem.

Whilst learning how to chromakey, Pete gave both me and James a very useful tip: if the image you choose isn't 1080 x 1920, you can always add "Gaussian Blur" to your photo to disguise the pixels once you have scaled the photo up. This, I also had to do and, personally, I think it disguised that pixelated look quite effectively.

Once my background was all set and my clips were al in time, I watched it back and decided it needed something to elevate it more. Hence, I messed around with some transitions that were already presets on Premiere Pro. Looking back, they definitely made the overall video more dynamic and more engaging to watch. The transitions, luckily, weren't too hard to grasp and were easy to add and use. Finally, I altered the colouring on the dance sequence to make it brighter for it so stand out and pop more, which is something I previously learned from week two in the TV advertisement - this helps to catch the viewers eye more in my opinion.

Watching over it one last time, I was finished! 🎉

Reflection

How did I find this task?

In the beginning, I found it extremely difficult to come up with any ideas - my mind was completely blank however, as I started to progress into the week my mind came up with more and more ideas on what to add and how I could make this a decent music video. Collaborating definitely helped me during this task.

What did I find out/learn by undertaking this task?

It is actually quite tricky trying to come ip with an original idea for a music video when they are so varied. I also learnt how to use chromakey and add in transitions on Premiere Pro which I think will come in handy in the future.

What would I do differently next time?

Next time, I think it would be a good idea to follow a story like the majority of other music videos. Pete also mentioned using higher quality cameras to gain better colouring in our filming which I am interested in using next time also.

Forward Plan

Moving forward, I don't think I'll make a music video - it was this project where I was the most unmotivated and uninspired.

The Final Product 

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

Let me know what you think! 😀