Music Video
Skills Audit
Demo Work
Demo Work
Demo Work
Contents
Demo Work
Contents
> Theoretical exploration of the purpose
and application of research
> Secondary research into
music video genres, codes, conventions,
techniques, and theories
> Primary research with the
client to inform ideas development
> Focus group presentation of ideas for
feedback and review via questionnaire
survey
Moving Demo
Wednesday 1st December
We went back to doing Pre-production work in class today. I’ve now finished all my pre-production after completing my production schedule in class today. It’s also now all uploaded onto my WIX page as well. It’s good to get my pre-production work completed slightly earlier as it means I can focus on the other aspects for production. I have messaged one of my friends and asked if them and any more of their friends would like to be our fake band. They have the right aesthetic for a rock band so using them would be really useful, but I am currently waiting for a reply.
Finally, we’ve planned that if Kieron doesn't get back to us by Friday on the Sundial Theatre then we will go down and see if music’s rehearsal space is suitable. It’s getting a little bit tight before production to still not have a proper confirmation about the Sundial Theatre, so at least we’ve got this back up space just in case.
Thursday 2nd December
The first half of today was focused on project 2. I had already completed my context and theory last week so I handed it in today. So, I then went on to look at the next part of the assignment which is research into WIX itself. I spent the lesson finding lots of videos and articles which will help me when writing it up properly. I plan to have the full write up of WIX research completed by the end of this weekend.
After that we went onto project 4. The brief was finally uploaded and so I read and made notes about it. I will start planning it over the coming week as in next weeks lesson we will be given time to start writing it. By having a pre made plan beforehand it will allow me to use that time to full use.
Friday 3rd December
Today was the last day we had dedicated to pre-production for music video. The Sundial Theatre man has still not got back to us about our booking, so I have sent him an email myself asking for an update. If we never get a response then we've planned for my teammate to go down and scout out music's rehearsal studio space on Monday, as the other two of us are on a trip on Monday. This will allow us to location and risk assess this alternate location before production if it turns out we must use it. If we end up having to use the studio space then we will most likely space out our filming a bit more, as out time in the studio space will not be as limited than if we were filming in the Sundial.
In the remaining of the lesson, I finished and tidied up all my pre-production work that was already on my WIX page. This included converting and formatting it for the phone as well as fixing any minor problems such as making sure the buttons are all aesthetically similar. I also added descriptions to the buttons that lead you to the different sections of Music Video. I've also created an on-set instruction page for myself. This compiles the most useful bit from my shooting script and production schedule that I would need to know on set during production. I will make sure to have this printed out and with me on the days of production as it will allow me to always be able to check what I've done and what I still need to do. This will allow my production time to run a lot more smoothly.
Finally, when I returned home, I focused on my Project 2 work and started the research into WIX and its capabilities. This is good to get started now as I want to get it completed by the end of the weekend so doing some now will alleviate the amount of work I need to do over the weekend. After I had finished that, I moved onto project 4. I started by reading the project brief once again. Some exemplars had been uploaded onto google classroom so I then read over those to help myself better understand the content and the way I must structure my own project. Finally, I made some initial notes for how I plan to write my own project 4. I hope to have a full plan by my lesson next Thursday so these initial notes will help to fuel the eventual final plan.
I’ve just received an email from Kieron who looks after the Sundial. It is now not possible for us to use the Sundial Theatre next Tuesday. This is extremely frustrating. We will have to use the rehearsal studio space. Luckily we had planned for this which means my teammate can still go down there on Monday, but it means I will have to complete my location and risk assessment in one night the day beforehand. Additionally, the rehearsal studio space is definitely not as big as the Sundial so that doesn't bode well for using the ride on dolly. I have sent a message to my group as we need to discuss it ASAP.
Tuesday 7th December
This is the first week of production and I am very stressed. The Sundial fell through which is really frustrating. Tomorrow when Nigel is here, I will ask him who I need to contact to look at booking the Sports Hall. This would be the best place after the Sundial. In better news, I have booked out the studio for tomorrow between 9 and 12 in order for me to shoot my audience shots. I decided the studio was the best place to do it as it gives me access to lighting equipment as well as it being a small room, I can make the audience look bigger. I will have to complete a location and risk assessment for the studio this evening in order to be ready to shoot there. This location and risk assessment is super important as I need to get the filming done tomorrow. Due to changing locations and dates, I have also had to update my production schedule. This was not too complicated to do as I just had to change the date, time and location as the shots all stayed the same.
Additionally, I have pretty much completed my PowerPoint of research on WIX for project 2. This is good to get out of the way now as it'll allow me to progress to the next part of project 2's over the next couple of days. Finally today I did a little bit more planning on my project 4 in preparation for starting to write it this coming Thursday.
Wednesday 8th December
Today was my first day of shooting. I had booked the studio out from 9-12am and I planned to get my audience and some of my BTS shots done during this time. When I arrived at college, first I gathered my equipment. I had booked out a legria camera, two tripods and the large slider. I chose the legria camera as it has autofocus and as I was planning on using the slider, I thought autofocus would be very useful. When I got into the studio itself it took a little time for me to set up. Ash (the technician) helped me set up the slider as it's very awkward to do by yourself. Our first problem occurred when we realised one of the tripods, we were using was the broken one. The leg of the tripod did not lock into place properly which meant it would slide down, causing the tripod to lower. Luckily, we noticed this before filming started so we were able to go and retrieve two different tripods which we knew for a fact would work. Once we had set up the slider on the new tripod, I was ready to go.
Now that I had all my filming equipment ready, I needed to set up my lighting. I decided to only use two light stands as I wanted the feeling of a concert and I felt having too much lighting would make it feel fake. I borrowed one of my teammates to help set up the lighting and that ran smoothly. But then we hit a little problem. The Legria camera doesn't have as much control over its own ISO and aperture as a regular DSLR camera, so at first the lights we were using made the room look way to bright. Through some adjusting of the lights as well as delving into the camera's functions, we were able to adjust the camera so that it would take in less light. This finally gave me the look that I wanted to achieve.
The last thing I had to do before filming was find my audience. Me and my other teammate headed down to the cafeteria and were able to find four people who fitted the aesthetic of the crowd. We were then able to borrow five more people from our own crowd. Now that we had our crowd, I was ready to film. When bringing them into the studio I had them all write their names on a piece of paper, so we knew who was in there in case of any COVID related incident. One of the people we borrowed from the cafeteria actually fit our aesthetic so well that we've asked if he'd be interested in being one of the band members. We've exchanged Instagram's, and he said to contact him when we would want to do it.
So, finally by about ten o'clock I was ready to film.
For my audience shots I took a total of four shots in the end. Although this seems less than I had planned, I did this on purpose. Each of my individual audience shots are only a couple of seconds long, so instead of filming each one individually, I shot four different shots that are each roughly a minute long. Three of the shots are using the slider from different angles as well as incorporating zoom. And the last shot is handheld. This way I have about 4 minutes of audience shots that I can go through to pick out the best bits. I've reviewed the shots and they all look relatively good. At most they'll need minor colour adjustments just to get the lighting absolutely perfect. Once, I had finished the audience shots, we let out actors head out. But this wasn't all the shots I had planned.
I've planned to incorporate behind the scenes shots into my final piece, so to gain some of these shots, I had one of my teammates follow me handheld while I packed away all the equipment. This resulted in another roughly 5 minutes of footage for my behind the scenes. Just like the audience shots, I can go through this footage and pick out the best parts.
Finally, by about 10:45 my shooting had been completed. I was quite surprised at how efficiently I actually completed the work, and I'm feeling confident about the shots.
When I came home, I started on logging the shots as well as going through them to find the best bits. This is very important as finding the best bits now will mean my post production can run more smoothly.
I then moved onto my other projects. First, I did some more planning of my project 4 in preparation of starting to write it tomorrow. I started to think about things that I can actually talk about when writing the proper thing. I'm still not very confident with project 4, but I'm hoping that properly starting it tomorrow will help calm my worries.
Finally, I continued with my project 2 work. I feel pretty confident about the research I've done into WIX, although I'm planning on asking Danny to read through it tomorrow. So, then I started looking at the 300-word research summary and conclusions. Similarly, to project 4 I planned out what I was going to talk about as I think I will write it in the lesson tomorrow.
Thursday 9th December
The first half of today was structured around Project 2. I started off by writing my 300-word summary based off my WIX research. Thanks to the structure plan I had devised last night, this ran pretty smoothly, and I ended up writing 389 words, which is enough to suffice. After I had completed my first task, I went back to My WIX research and added one more Interactive Authoring page, focused on the additional apps that WIX provides. And finally, after doing that I went through the complete WIX research PowerPoint and adjusted all the text and images to make the PowerPoint look nicer and easier to read and understand.
Once I had done all the hard work, I looked at uploading it all onto my WIX page. I started by embedding the PowerPoint onto WIX, I had done this before, so it wasn't too hard. I hit a little problem however when it came to converting the website for a phone. My problem was that the PowerPoint was way too large for a phone screen. Luckily, I knew that to embed the PowerPoint, you first have to select the size of the PowerPoint you want embedded. So luckily, I was able to go back and embed a smaller PowerPoint for my phone website. Annoyingly, it's ever so slightly too small for a phone screen, but it is a lot better than it was before. Finally, I copied my 300-word summary over to my WIX website, added a couple titles, anchors and buttons, and my project 2 research was finally complete. Unluckily, Danny was ill today so I wasn't able to get him to review my work, but hopefully when I see him on Monday I can ask him then.
In the second half of today, we moved onto project 4. I knew I needed to start writing it, so that's what I did. Normally, I would've liked to write the essay in chronological order, however I know that when I write part 1 that I want to be able to have the films to hand. So instead, I started on the first half of part 2, which is looking back on my previous work. I decided to look at my Self Portrait project as I feel that is the project I have put most effort and though into so far, especially considering I'm still only in production for my music video. So, for the first half of part 2 I looked at analysing my Self Portrait project, specifically looking at Editing conventions and techniques, Form conventions and techniques and Representation. I actually finished this first half in lesson, which I was quite surprised about. So, when I returned home, I proofread it, fixing any mistakes, and adding on anything more that I felt was relevant. My goal is to ask Lainey to read it through in tomorrow's lesson and get some feedback. Hopefully, if I know that what I wrote in this section is good, then I will feel more confident about writing the rest going forward.
Friday 10th December
Going into today, I knew I needed to have my next shoots fully planned and organised by the end of today. And I have managed to do that. I began by looking at times when the studio is free, I found that limited me to the Thursday and Friday being the 16th and 17th of December. I then contacted my friend who I'm using them and some of their friends as actors. They let me know what times they'd be free and unfortunately; they are busy all day on the Thursday. This was slightly annoying, but it still meant I could do the Friday, so I've booked the studio between 12:00-14:00 on the Friday. I then checked and the studio was completely free on the Monday after, being the 20th. However, that day was technically out of our designated production period. So, I asked my lecturer if it was possible for me to extend my production period by a day, and I was granted permission. After confirmation from my actor, I booked the studio for 12:00-15:00 on Monday the 20th of December. The shots I have left spread across these 5 hours should be easy to achieve.
But there was one last thing that would either make or break these production shoots, the instruments. I emailed the music teacher, informing him of the dates and times that I would be filming. He got back to me pretty fast and confirmed that all the instruments I needed would be available. This was absolutely amazing news. It means all my production shoots are now finally planned.
After a great start to the day, I started looking at practicing some effects that I want to use in my eventual final piece. I started by experimenting with a VHS look on one of my audience shots. I followed an instructional video, and I was quite pleased with the results. When it comes to the final piece, the shots would be colour corrected beforehand, so the final outcome would look even better.
After the VHS effect, I looked at my multishots that I want in my final piece. I started by getting two shots and minimising their scale and positioning them on either side of the screen. I then had to follow an instructional video on how to curve the edges. The instructions work fine and when rendered and exported the curved edges turn out fine. But annoyingly while in premiere if you play the video, the curved edges become chunky which makes editing slightly harder. Once I'd curved the edges, I downloaded an old film stock reel and placed it onto the background of the video, which really helped to bring the effect to life more. I felt one last thing was needed though. So, on YouTube, I found a film reel video. I masked the video to fit around the curved shots and changed the overlay to make it look like the original shots were on film. This made it look so much better and really elevated the effect. Just as the VHS effect the final shots would be colour corrected and graded beforehand, so the final effect will look even better.
Once I returned home, I added my production notes from my previous shoot as well as some photos onto my WIX website so that I could keep up with my work. I also sent the first part of my project 4 essay to one of my lecturers and once they've read it, I will receive some feedback from them. Finally, I looked at project 2 once again and did some more planning on how to continue with the ideas development.
Over the weekend, I will most likely start this project 2 work. Additionally, I need to do a green screen test to check my idea for band shots will work. My problem was that because the Sundial fell through, I still needed shots of the whole band. So my current idea is to shoot them separately on the green screen and then edit them into the shot together. However, this idea will be tested with my green screen test over the weekend.
Monday 13th December
I started today, by adding some more detail to my logged shots. This included showing what was good and bad about each shot. Detailing things about the focus, movement, lighting and more. This will help when it comes to editing, as I’ll be able to find the best shots faster.
I then moved onto practicing my green screen plan. Yesterday, I had taken several shots of me in front of my green screen, pretending to play the instruments. Today I then chroma keyed the green out and edited the videos onto a stage. Obviously, it doesn’t look perfect, but that’s fine as this is only a test for the final piece. This is useful as it has confirmed to me that my plan will work, which is really good to know.
After this test, I looked at doing some of my project 4 work. Today, I focused on the second part of part 2, which is looking at what I will do in my future work. I wrote that whole segment up in lesson, and I'm planning to ask Nigel to read through it when I next see him. It’s good to get these segments out of the way now so that I can get the rest done in great detail over the holidays.
I finished up the lesson by catching up with the rest of my group. One of my teammates had shot yesterday and they seemed fairly happy with their shots. They had forgotten their SD card today but hopefully I’ll be able to see their shots tomorrow. I honestly don’t know what’s going on with my other teammates production. I’ve offered to help but they need to let me know when and where they’re shooting. Finally, when I got home, I added to my production section on my WIX website, by showing off the test shots and edits that I had done. Finally, I finished off by doing my ideas development summary and the mind map for project 2. I hope to get the mood boards completed over the coming days.
Tuesday 14th December
I started today by watching some of the shots that my teammate had taken over the weekend. Of all the shots I saw, they all looked like they had potential, so I’m confident she’ll be able to use them well when it comes to editing in post-production.
I then spent the rest of the day on my project 2 work. I started with my mind map, detailing the four subtitles of Functionality, Interactivity, Design Considerations and Content Considerations. I covered multiple points that I could change and create for improving my website.
Finally, after I finished my mind map I made my first mood board which was on functionality. I used my previous experience from making mood boards for projects so this one was relatively similar. It’s good to get one of them done tonight as they all need to be completed by Thursday. I plan to get the rest completed over the next two days.
Wednesday 15th December
I was away from lesson today as I had a dentist appointment, so all the work I did was from home.
I started on project 2 and completed the rest of my 3 mood boards. These are good to get done tonight as I am helping my teammate shoot tomorrow so I will not have any time in lesson to get these completed. I’m satisfied with the work I put into them and I trust they will help me in the rest of the project. Once I completed them I then uploaded all of the idea’s development section onto my WIX website, this means my WIX website is now up to date with all my work.
Finally, I ended the day by checking in with my actors to make sure that everything is ready to go for Friday. And then after that I booked the appropriate equipment that I need for Friday, so now I’m completely prepared.
Thursday 16th December
When I first got into college today, my first job was helping my teammate to shoot. I thought I was helping behind the camera but in the end, it turned out I was being one of the actors. I played the drums for his filming and after that I was done. I'm very confused on what's going on with his filming, as he seems to be using different actors than I am, which I feel will make the piece seem disjointed. However, he seems to be under the assumption that it will be fine and apparently, he's talked it over with the lecturers and they've also said it's fine. But I feel as though he's not communicating very well, as I feel I do not know enough about his segment, compared to what I know about my other teammates section.
In the rest of the lesson, I moved onto project 4, looking at part 1. I started by planning my analysis of the 1903 film, The Great Train Robbery. I did research into the seven subheadings, using my past work as well as websites to plan out what I will write about when it comes to properly writing part 1. My plan is to create these detailed plans for each of the 3 films. Using these plans, I will then write out each film's subheadings separately. Then, once I've got all sections written, I will compile them together as well as adding additional links between all the segments at this point.
Finally, at college, I booked out my equipment for tomorrow.
When I got home, I continued with my project 4 plan as I plan to start writing it in the lesson tomorrow. I then printed out all my information that I will need for tomorrow. This included the on-set instructions I had created specifically for the shoots as well as the production schedule. Hopefully, having these in physical form tomorrow will allow my filming to run more smoothly. I ended my day off with looking at the pre-production segment of project 2 and analysing what I will need to do over my Christmas break. This'll help me be better prepared for when this deadline approaches.
Friday 17th December
Today was my day of filming, but I wasn't filming until 12 o'clock so I had lesson first. I took this lesson time to work on my project 4. I used the plan I had written up last night to write my first bits of part 1 which is focused on The Great Train Robbery. I spent quite a lot of time writing it and I'm quite happy with what I finished with. I sent the work over to Lainey, so I'm hoping to receive some feedback on it. The only problem I feel I have with it is I may have written too much. The minimum word count for the whole of part 1 was 1000 words. For just this first section, I have already written just over 1300 words. This shouldn't be a major problem, but I'm just hoping that this doesn't mean I've dragged on a bit.
Once the lesson was completed, I set up for filming. Luckily, the drums and guitar was still in the studio from yesterday, so all I had to do was go and collect my microphone as well as the camera and tripod.
With all my equipment and actors I then began shooting, starting with one of my guitarists as they had to leave earlier than the rest. I shot all the wide shots first and then the mid-wide second. Since the camera was still in the mid-wide position, I then shot my singer and other guitarists mid-wide shots. I then put the camera back to wide and shot their wide shots. I finished with all the drummer shots as the drums took the most time to set up.
I shot each shot multiple times which should mean I have at least one good shot for each section. The shots I took today were all for my whole band shots. I have videoed each person separately on the green screen and I will then edit them together in post.
When I got home I reviewed my work and started my logging. It’s good to get all this logging done as early as possible as it will reduce the time I have to waste doing it later when we’re editing.
Finally, I created a very quick band green screen test when I got home. The green screen worked well, although more of the floor stayed that I would have liked. However, this is possible to get around. On the singer in my test I created a mask around the bottom of the shot. This allowed me to cut off the floor around their feet. All in all, this test helps to prove to me that my idea will properly work.
Monday 20th December
Today was my last day of filming, but I wasn't filming until after lesson so first I completed some other work.
I had completed my logging over the weekend, so I did not have to worry about that. I started with cutting down my audience shots to the time codes I had specified. This'll save me time later when it comes to my proper edit as I will already have these cut down to the useable segments.
After this work, I went on to my WIX website and created pages in preparation for uploading project 4 work. These will act as bases where I can present the journey of writing it as well as the final piece when I complete it. Finally, on my WIX I updated my navigational pages, adding images to my project 2 pages as well as adding and updating the buttons on my projects page.
As soon as the lesson finished I went down and collected all my instruments. At this point, I was slightly worried as my actors weren’t there. So I contacted them and waited for a response. While I was waiting, I set up the slider on the two tripods, with the camera, and then the drum set. Finally, while I was still waiting I set up the lighting around the drum kit. At this point I only just got a response from my actors.
Turns out they had forgotten about it. This was extremely frustrating. Only one of them could actually come now and by the time they arrived it was an hour later than I had started. This meant I had wasted a huge amount of time by waiting. Additionally, the fact that only one of the actors could come was also very frustrating.
However, this was my last chance to get all my shots so I had to work with what I had. Luckily, the one actor that came was the one playing the singer which meant all the singing shots could still be done normally. But, I had planned to do some long shots, especially for the guitar, which would not be possible if I had to use the same actor as the singer. So instead I had to adjust the long shots and adapt them so that the actors face couldn’t be seen. I made more of my shots close up to extreme close up to replace the long shots.
Luckily, I’m still confident with the shots that I took. I was able to get all the shots I needed which is really good to know and some of the shots I felt looked very good. I’m confident that using all the shots I’ve obtained, I can make something really good for the finished product.
Finally, when I returned home, I started all my logging for my shoot today. This means that I can start my rough cut and proper editing over the coming holiday.
Tuesday 21st December
Today, I finished all my logging from yesterdays shoot. This finally means that all my logging has been completed. This is great news as it will allow me to move onto proper post-production and editing. I plan to have a rough cut and possibly some effects applied by the end of the winter break.
Tuesday 28th December
I’ve done several pieces of work over the last couple of days. I’ve now written all my sections for part 1 of project 4. This is my analysis of the three different films. All I need to do now is part 3 and 4 which I plan to do by the end of this week.
Today, I started on my rough cut for music video. I’ve inputted all the clips that don’t require any initial editing. This is all my shots except for the band and multishots. Finally, having it compiled together is really useful, it’s helping to show to myself that what I did is going to work.
Wednesday 29th December
I finished my first draft of my project 4 essay today. I wrote up my part 3 and part 4 for it and then compiled them into the first draft I had already. To then finish it off I added my bibliography.
So far it’s sitting at just under 9000 words and about 20 pages. I feel this is quite a lot, so I hope when my lecturers read it, they’ll feel as though all the information is important.
All I’ve got to add to it is pictures, but I don’t think my first draft will have pictures as when it gets reviewed, I may need to add more information to it.
Friday 31st December
Today I edited and inputted all my green screen shots into my rough cut. At the moment they don’t look very good, but they’re also extremely rough so I don’t mind that too much. After this, I need to input my multishots. This will allow my rough cut to be fully complete. Once that is complete I can start improving the look of the whole cut,
