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
I was heavily inspired by the aesthetic and music of the cartoon show "over the garden wall". I love the autumn look to the show and plan to colour grade my piece to make it look autumnal.
The music I also really love. To me the music of the show has a familiar yet creepy vibe to it, the music has the exact same feeling that I want my film to have.
This is one of the songs that I feel really had the creepy yet familiar tone which I particularly love.
There is a song called "Left brain Right brain" by Bo Burnham. It's a comedy song so the lyrics themselves did not influence my ideas to much. But the message behind the song of an argument between the two halves of the brain was exactly the message I'm going for in my piece. The song helped me to understand and explain to myself what I wanted to do.
Initial Ideas
Monday 13th September
Today we were set the “self portrait” projects and I already am starting to have ideas. I am really looking forward to going through the process of creating it.
Rough Storyboard
Wednesday 22nd September
I have progressed in my “self portrait” project. I have now created my base story and drawn some rough storyboards. I plan to get the proper storyboards done by the weekend.
Mind Map
Mood Board
Thursday 23rd September
Today I have done my mood board and mind map which will help me with finalising my official storyboards.
Proposal
Thursday 23rd September
In the second half of today we continued planning our “self portrait”. I’ve now completed my proposal and started my official storyboards. On top of that I have done my mood board and mind map which will help me with finalising my official storyboards.
Production Schedule
Friday 24th September
I’ve finished my official storyboards now and they will help me greatly when filming my final piece. Additionally I’ve completed my production schedule which means when I actually film, the filming should be able to run a lot smoother.
Risk Assessment
Tuesday 28th September
Today we continued working on our Self Portrait project. I completed my risk assessment and now all I have to do is my location assessment before I can move onto production. I feel confident moving onto production and believe I should be successful.
Location assessment
Wednesday 29th September
I also went down and scouted my location today. I was happy to see it was just as suitable as I believed and it was also public property just as I thought. The outing was successful and I have now been able to successfully complete my location assessment.
Storyboards
Thursday 23rd September
In the second half we continued planning our “self portrait”. I’ve now completed my proposal and started my official storyboards. On top of that I have done my mood board and mind map which will help me with finalising my official storyboards.
Friday 24th September
I’ve finished my official storyboards now and they will help me greatly when filming my final piece. Additionally I’ve completed my production schedule which means when I actually film, the filming should be able to run a lot smoother.
Costumes
Costumes was a big thing for me. I wanted the characters costumes to reflect their personality. So for left brain I put him in a black shirt with a white tie. And for right brain I put him in a white shirt and black tie. I was going for a ying and yang sort of vibe, with both characters being very different but having a part of each other. This is represented by the tie. I chose majority white for right brain as he represents the more pure and innocent side whereas left brain has more black as he's more threatening and controlling. I hit a little road block when I couldn't find a perfect white tie. In the end I settled with a light beige tie, which I was a bit disappointed with at first but now after seeing it on camera I think it looks fine.
Props
I already had many of the props readily available. The cups and chair I already owned. The golden frame which is used at the beginning and end of the film, was actually re-used from when I made it for a year 10 photography shoot.
So the only props I had to make were the masks. I searched online and found ones I thought were suitable. Then once they arrived, I used felt tip markers to draw on the emotion each mask had to represent.
I also had to make a brain that the characters could hold. To do this I printed off a photo of a brain onto photo paper, which gave it the right glossy look. To then give it depth, I stuck it onto a square of foam and then carved it out. This allowed the actors to more easily hold it as well as meaning it wouldn't get bent or blown around in the wind.
Logged Shots
Monday 4th October
Today I logged all my shots that I took yesterday. I’ve realised that some of my shots are annoyingly a little bit over exposed, but this should be easy to fix in post production. In the future I need to remember that if I’m shooting outside I constantly need to adjust for the drastic changes of light. Additionally, two of my shots have less head and foot space then it looked like they had when I took them on the camera. It’s nothing too drastic but I’m considering to possibly reshoot those scenes. Aside from that I was very pleased with my production. I’m now currently in the process of putting together a rough cut.
Some Raw Shots
Sunday 2nd October
Today I filmed my Self Portrait project. I used my own DSLR camera and tripod. It took about two hours to do all shots and I’m confident I’ve got all the shots I need. I almost hit a big road block when it started to rain a little bit. Luckily, after covering the camera, after about 5 minutes the rain stopped. I was lucky this time, but I have to keep in mind for the future that if it does rain or if the weather is not what I need then I'll have find a possible way to shoot my production inside.
Movie Poster
Music
Wednesday 6th October
At home I designed a poster for my short film as well as starting work on my core skills checklist.
Friday 8th October
Today I continued editing my Self Portrait project. Annoyingly the piece of music I had originally planned to use (which you can see in the inspiration section), I felt it didn’t go as well as I thought it would. However I found a new piece of music and discovered something very cool. So, for the second half of my piece I needed a creepier piece of music. So by reversing and pitching down my first piece of music I created something that gave the right sense of creepiness. Additionally you could still tell it was the same piece of music which I really enjoyed. I also used sped up segments of the original piece to signify when a close up of right brain fades into the video, this creates a motif piece of music to the shot which I really like
Monday 4th October
Today I logged all my shots that I took yesterday. I’ve realised that some of my shots are annoyingly a little bit over exposed, but this should be easy to fix in post production. In the future I need to remember that if I’m shooting outside I constantly need to adjust for the drastic changes of light. Additionally, two of my shots have less head and foot space then it looked like they had when I took them on the camera. It’s nothing too drastic but I’m considering to possibly re shoot those scenes. Aside from that I was very pleased with my production. I’m now currently in the process of putting together a rough cut.
Tuesday 5th October
Today I continued to edit my Self Portrait project. I’ve figure out how to control scale and position keyframes and I now feel I can put them to great use. At first I really struggled with these keyframes. I was able to use the opacity ones fine, but I struggled with these. What I eventually discovered was that there were multiple ways to adjust the keyframes. At first I was trying to adjust them on the sequence itself. But with scale and position the sequence control was way too sensitive so my image kept being way too zoomed in. Eventually I discovered you could control the keyframes in the effect controls. This allowed me to be more exact with my keyframes by being able to put in specific measurements. This helped greatly and let be get more exactly what I was trying to do. John also introduced me to premiere’s built in filters which should help me to better accomplish the autumn look that I want on my finished project.
Thursday 7th October
In the second half of today we continued editing “Self Portrait”. I got to colour grading my piece and I was very pleased with the final look of it. After some more touch ups I think I’ll be ready to start looking at sound design. To colour grade my piece I first colour corrected each individual shot so that when I added the filter they would all look good under it. To do this I adjusted things such as exposure and contrast. Once they all looked good, I applied the filter to one and also adjusted it so it looked good. I then saved my adjusted filter and applied it to all the other shots in order to get a uniformed look between all of them
Friday 8th October
Today I continued editing my Self Portrait project. Annoyingly the piece of music I had originally planned to use(which you can see in the inspiration section), I felt it didn’t go as well as I thought it would. However I found a new piece of music and discovered something very cool. So, for the second half of my piece I needed a creepier piece of music. So by reversing and pitching down my first piece of music I created something that gave the right sense of creepiness. Additionally you could still tell it was the same piece of music which I really enjoyed. I also used sped up segments of the original piece to signify when a close up of right brain fades into the video, this creates a motif piece of music to the shot which I really like
Monday 11th October
We continued with our Self Portrait work today. I added in some rough sound effects which included syncing clapping with the video and adding a voice line into the part where the screen cuts to black. To make the voice line, I took a recording of me saying the line and then pitched it down in premiere. This adds to the creepy factor of the piece and also means my voice isn't recognisable.
Tuesday 12th October
I synced my sound effects a lot better today as well as changing the voice line. Originally it said “You think you’re in control” but now I’ve changed it to say “I’m in control” which I think fits better with the mood in that scene.
Wednesday 13th October
I feel I'm very close to finishing off my editing so today I was thinking about what I would add to my piece to make it better. My piece was currently about 1 minute 57 seconds long so I knew I couldn't add too much more to it. However after working on the Core Skills Checklist I had identified some things which I didn't know how to do. One of these things was graphics and titles in Premiere. So, that gave me the idea to add a short title screen to the beginning of my piece. I found a good YouTube video to help me follow through. However, while following the video it led me to the Essential Graphics window. This window had lots of preset automatic titles. They were really cool and there were several that I really liked the look of. In the end I settled on one that glitches the title in and out. It's a little bit shorter than I would like but I only had around 3 seconds to fit it in so I can't complain. I really like the title and I feel it adds something extra which really helps the whole piece.
Core Skills
Friday 8th October
I started looking at my Core Skills Checklist today, mainly focusing on the number rating.
Monday 11th October
I also did more work on my core skills checklist. I had already done my number rating so today I put in the evidence for it, mainly using past experience as my form of evidence.
Thursday 14th October
Today, I’ve completed my core skills checklist by adding in what I will do in order to improve it in the future. I’m mainly going to focus on continuing to use the skills I’ve learned so far as well as trying to learn things I’m not so confident with at the moment.
Textual Analysis
Thursday 7th October
I’ve also thought of a possible film for this task, being Baby Driver by Edgar Wright.
Monday 11th October
I also planned my textual analysis work after watching the film the day before.
Tuesday 12th October
I’ve additionally fully planned my textual analysis work which I plan to write over the next few days.
Wednesday 13th October
Additionally I’ve started writing my textual analysis work. The brief says I need to write 500 words but I fear I may go quite over that. I’ll have to check with Danny tomorrow what they’re looking for
Thursday 14th October
I also wrote my first draft of my textual analysis work.
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Friday 15th October
After writing my first draft yesterday, I checked through it and fixed any spelling mistakes as well as adding some more analysis. I then added pictures to it to help better illustrate what I was talking about. I've now finished the textual analysis and I'm happy with it.
Control-A short film by Josh White
Friday 15th October
Today is my deadline for my "Self Portrait" project. I've exported my project and I'm extremely happy with my final result.
Interpretation
Obviously, the piece is able to be interpreted different ways to each viewer, and I think that's the best way to be. But for me, this film was a way for me to express what I've felt in the past. I was always good at the academic subjects such as Maths and English, but I always preferred and enjoyed creative subjects such as drama and now filmmaking a lot more. And so for this film, I used the characters to represent this. Our antagonist in the black shirt, represents the order of the academic world and keeps our Protagonist in the white shirt, in a constant loop of order. Our protagonist then starts to break free of this order which represents when I decided that the creative way is where I wanted to go in life. But in the end both characters are together. I realised that even in the creative world, you can't just abandon academics, and to be good at anything you actually need both sides.
Evaluation
I'm really happy with how I've done in this project. I've learned a lot in all parts of production. I now better understand how to craft an idea and see it through to the end. I've learnt all the sides of pre-production and how to properly complete risk and location assessments. In the shooting stage, I've gained experience and now know what a real shoot is like. Post production is where I feel I've improved the most. I've learnt so much, from more accurate keyframing to colour grading and audio editing.
However, I hit a couple of road bumps that have helped me learn.
After coming back from my shoot I realised many of my shots were slightly overexposed. I had been adjusting setting such as ISO and aperture during the shoot, but the mix of the forest and the sun changed more over time than I thought it would. From this I've gained experience of shooting in outdoor locations and also learned I need to pay more attention to how my surroundings have changed, especially regarding sun and shadow change.
I also hit several bumps in my post production stage, including having to learn how to use tools and adjustments I had never seen before. For example I had no idea how to colour grade. But with the help of some useful tutorials and some recommendations from my lecturers, I was able to figure it out. Now my colour grade is one of the things I'm most proud of in my piece.
Additionally, I had to learn more developed keyframes as well as adding a title to the beginning. The keyframes, I struggled for days to get right as I just couldn't get the sensitivity I required. But through investigation I discovered the effect controls panel, which helped me with keyframing as well as dozens of other things such as stationary positioning of each shot. Now that I know more about these panels I'll be able to use them more effectively in future projects. I'd also never even realised Premiere had a built in title feature. This helped me so much and means in the future, I'll have access to even more types of title screens as well as overlays.
In conclusion, I'm really happy and proud of the work I've done in this project. Before coming to college I'd never used Premiere Pro, and now I've discovered that the editing process is one of my favourite parts of filmmaking. I'm excited to continue developing my skills and create even more creative work.
