Filming and Editing

We filmed the video over the course of one afternoon using a single Canon XA10. The process went smoothly with pretty much every required shot taken. On the negative side, one group member forgot to bring the Shooting Schedule. As a contingency, we used a combination of the Shooting Scvhedule with shot sizes, and the one with numbers. We missed about two shots, but after editing I think they likely wouldn't have made it into the final video. Next time I would also spend more time getting perfect focus on everyshot. There is a bit of differential between certain shots and the one with perfect obviously look much better. In all I was happy with our footage, especially in black and white and all the effects and lighting choices we made payed off.

The editing process was the longest yet. This time, the amount of footage taken has probably doubled anything we've done before and trawling through the footage was tough. I think some sort of document where we tracked which shots worked and didn't would have been helpful to delete for faster processing and also to find quicker in the editing suite. Thanks to key planning though I knew pretty much exactly how the video would play out shot by shot, so actually building a sort of skeleton of the video was easy. As the music is broken down into various stages, I used these as kind of Kubrick esque chunks for the video:

Moving In
The Party
The Romance
The RevealI like working ins sections as by definig how each section ends and begins, you get lots of little editing victories which stack up to make a punchy story. I used a lot of shots repetively to firstly make sure the audience were anchored back to previous moments of the video and also to convey the idea of repition in the characters actions (he moves from one romance to a next, similarly to the circularoty of the main characters actions in Shame. Steve McQueen. UK. 2011). I also wanted to punctuate certain moments with a split second cut to black. The audience is used to this technique as it is constantly used in movie trailers. It also really to make certain sections jump out as if they were just two rushes platyed into each other it could be too seamless and the audience wouldn't take in that information. By clearly marking it out with harsh black transitions it forces the viewer to see them and is also great for cutting to the beat.

We we're really pleased to carry off a practical effect to make it look like there were far more people in a room then there actually are. Using our group of 3 as extras we filmed the same shot twice with us on the left first and then on the right in the second. The key to carrying the off the effects were firstly lighting and secondly the line of sight of the camera. Both of these relied on location. We chose a very tight, windowless corridor in my house. This meant, when closing all extra doors and turning off all lights except for the ones we wanted. The placement of the camera relied on there be a clear defining line. This would mke the effect easier and we could also tell ourselves that we can't cross this line otherwise it won't work. In Premiere you can layer the 2 shots over each other and use the "Crop" tool to crop one of the clips to that defined line from earlier. Wehn you play it back, there appear to be 6 people in the room as opposed to 3.





Effects Breakdown

 
Another handy technique was using the quality of the footage to make it seem like different shots were taken. By transforming an image to full size, the quality doesn't change but you can focus on a different part of the image. By reducing it to it's normal size later you can make it seem like you are using a completely different shot than before.

It was a decision made late into production to switch to colour at the drop. After using some of the footage from camera phones, not blown up to full size, we decided after some input to make the whole sequence looked as if captured on a Smart Phone camera. It is a modern homage to the "Super 8 footage of memory" sequence from Submarine. Richard Ayoade. UK/USA. 2010. This helps it also helps it key into the dangers of the internet which was a face value theme of the video (which itself is a metaphor for human behaviour in genral). I also referenced Submarine in the run up to the drop, to capture the importance of a single physical touch between the two characters.This mimics many sequences from Submarine where Oliver and Jordana touch and their is quick, puncy editing to show how important this to the main character and how he over exagerates things in his mind.

Submarine: Stylistic and Structural Inspiration

My motion graphics was one of the first elements to go in. This was key as one of the sequences was lip synced. I think I struggled most with lip syncing the animation. I didn't have to do it at any other point in the video, so it was key that this bit worked. Unfortunatelty I still think that the timing is a bit off. This is probably from constant 'Speed/Duration' changes and putting extensions and extra frames on the end to make a jitter effect. In the end I'm hoping the style of the animation will distract the audience from the slight innaucuracy.

I'm New Here: Motion Graphics Sequence

Thumper: Initial Inspiration for Graphics

My final video is embedded below:

Stage 3 - Creating and Obtaining Assets

The week before we shoot, we need to make sure we have created and obtained any extra assets needed for production. In the case of our work, we need a number of digital assets for shooting as well as motion graphics.

Firstly, we needed footage of Gil Scott-Heron singing the samples for the song. these will be later altered into moving sketches using Photoshop and Flash. Using "YouTube Downloader" we obtained the footage from the web as FLV format before converting it to AVI. AVIs will be the format of the rushes when we convert them to their final format. These will be taken into Flash. To create the animation, each frame needs to be taken into Photoshop, the singer will be selected and the bacgkround deleted, the cut out filter be applied and then the image replaced in Flash. This created a vary cool effect in Flash that looks like a kind of flip book. It's a creative way of combining performance and motion graphics.

We will be using the same technique for existing shots of the Dj. These will be taken from the footage for Jack's ident. This will svae us time and resources, and then animated in the same way as the rushes of Gil Scott Heron. This can be imprecise as we like. It only has to lightly mimic the sound of the piece as very few people watching will know if the actions are accurate. In other words, the Dj is actually playing something different but we have placed it in a way that the audience will never know.

Lastly, we need a countdown clock. This will be timed to the drop of the music. This will be the easiest to create of our digital assets, and will be created again in Flash. To complete this, using a text box, every 30 frames, the number will countdown. A number of sequences will be done for this. Midway between each number change, the seperating dot will flash on and off like a digitial watch.

Any other digitial assets will be taken from the footage.

Stage 2 - Developing Ideas

We are now in groups, starting to develop ideas. New ideas and thoughts have come from looking at the purposes and existing examples of music videos for the report. With this in mind we came together to compare are favourite videos, their devices and themes. From this we formed the idea I will briefly lay otu later.

I already had a basic narative for a paticualr track which I thought was very visual. The song was "I'm New Here" by Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX. The song goes on quite a journey, from th initial section, to a more phycadelic section, to a heavy drop back to the original samples. This had circularity as well as variation. Considering this, and given that I am heavily influenced by the non-linear, experimental narratives of Christopher Nolan, I thought perhaps we could intergrate some sort of circulatory, or restructuring the end to mirror the musical journey.

I was inspired for the narrative by a random post I saw on Tumblr. There was an artist, who's speciality was to find random pictures of people on the internet, from brouchures, promotinal shots, tumblr posts etc and draw them as a model. I thought this was a dark knid of hobby. I knew this had potential for a story, and matched with the song, I knew it could be dark, and also link the themes of the musical artist in the lyrics to the visual artist in the story.

All of these initial thoughts were before the brief, so once we'd recieved the final rules and regulations, and had to consider motion graphics, we started to work towards the product you will see when the project is finished. We tried to take inspiration from other videos that we liked as a group. Jack mentioned the video "Show Me a Sign" by Modestep, where real world objects and characters suddenly turned into comic book style, animated drawings. We thought this kind of effect could be recreated using the resources at our disposal. The client suggested the Cut out effect on Photoshop. I thought this could be effective, especially when only applied to select objects or moments in the video. Also changing the sliders per frame could give a kinetic, ever changing look, and really make it come to life. We knew we wanted to use this but it was hard to pin point where. Just before starting the Production stage of our schedule, we decided that we could use this for the perfromance of Gil Scott-Heron. As it is, we weren't ever going to be able to get first hand footage of the artist so we would be using the exisiting, pre remix official video. Also this artist has now passed away. We decided that the Cut out effect would be best applied to the footage of GSH. We could then make him look like a sketch on the artists paper coming to life. This fits in with the themes and ideas of the video (the artist character knows no bounds between his work and his life, GSH is bought back to life with music and visuals, the people in the portraits are no longer among the living etc etc).

Josh's favourite videos involved cause and effect, such as the work of OK-Go. Moments where a sound or action sets off another. As we knew the general structure of the video, it was hard to add in cause and effect. The story lends itself to a kind of reverse cause and effect. Instead later into production, we considered infusing motion graphics. The way to do this would be for a lyric to be heard or said onscreen and for an animated word to appear. Nothing tacky, something that responds to the sound and image. I looked at Pulp fiction for inspiration. I liked the clean, front on, solid colour, subtle animation, and also the typography of the title.



Pulp Fiction: Simple Motion Graphics + Cause and Effect

 At time of writing we are thinking of using a simple animation on the word "Everyword" to add emphasis to it and to round off the use of motion graphics with the cut out and the countdown clock (as referenced in production work I came up with the clock idea early on as not only does assure people that something cool will happen when the clock hits zero, but also will be used to anchor the audience when we jump backwards at the closing section of the video.

The addition of these features helped us round off the story and script. We had an idea of the themes, the intertextuality etc. The story would feature the artist, moving into a new studio in a new town (I'm New here, can you show me around?) He starts drawing a picture of a computer image of  girl. He works away at it and is invited to a party where he sees the girl (I met him at a party). They have a worlwind romance and he becomes obssesed. One day she stumbles upon his studio, entering she sees the portrait, and finds a stack of similar ones, before she is attacked by a stranger (presumably the artist). The narrative returns to the start where we see that he actually has looked up random girls on the internet, started drawing the girl from one of these images and then happened to bump into her at a party. He then moves on to the next town, and it's revealed to the audience she is just one in a sequence of girls.

Over the remaining days of pre-production we will go about finalising details, both creative and practical for the shooting, as well as going about the task of creating assets and obtaining props for the shoot.

Stage 1 - Music Video

Our final project, the music video, has started. We will be producing a video for the Global Beats competition, selecting a track from an exisiting lsit or pitching our own.

We started looking at existing student music videos. There were certain techniques that I liked which made certain videos stand out and look less like a student video, and more like a real video. The standout video for me was the Lulla Violet video. This featured heavy use of strobe lighting. This is something which gives a look of high production value, but was presumably easy to come by. This single technique, matched against the harsh, underground setting and mis-en-scene suited the track, but also took best advantage of the resources avaiable. Another video composited a motion graphics onto everyday objects and locations. This again shows how they are getting normal thigns we all have access to, and putting a spin on it to rise it above it's un-cinematic origin. Many of the videos had tried to recreate mainstream techniques and style, but the standard of the cameras and the lack of any adaption for resources made the more creative choices stand out to me.

These kind of decisions will effect my intial ideas. I will try to base ideas around plausability and making something creative out of something available to us.

I have started looking at my favourite videos as inspiration for the ideas we will concieve when in groups.

I like the black and white, heavily urban style of The View from the Afternoon by Arctic Monkeys and it's use of everyman architeture as some sort of grand setting. It's also quite ambiguous and each viewer could take thier own meanings from the video:


One interesting example I am also a fan of is probably not classed by everyone as a video, but in You Think You're (John Fucking Lennon) by Glassjaw they use a one take perfromance in what appears to be some abandoned squat. I like the fact that this captures the DIY, spur of the moment attitude of the band and has swagger even with minimal production value and completes the purpose of a video; to show a visual representation of a song:
Lastly, You've Seen the Butcher by Deftones, is heavily ambiguous, over stylised but importantly has a controversial and evil third act. This sees the band playing amongst loads of half naked girls, a convention of boasting rapper videos, but instead, everyone and everything is showered in blood. There is alot of subtext in the video and again, it's up to the viewer to make a decision on the meaning. It also perfectly represents the epic, heavy vibe of the song:

Week 4 - Assets and Animating

I have now started creating or obtaining my assets and animating them together into the finished project.

My main method of creating graphics was to use Adobe Illustrator to live trace graphics made on Photoshop. As the majority of my graphics were typography, it didn't take long to source these, however, being at college we couldn't add fonts to the system. To get the American Purpose font I print screened the Dafont page (where you can preview the words you want. You can then import these into Adobe Illustrator and use the Live Trace tool. This vectorizes the image and makes it appropriate for use in Adobe Flash. They can then be broken down and re-aranged at will.

The other important asset was the 'horizontal sripe moving layer'. This consisted of a very long canvas. Using Adobe Photoshop, I did the time consuming task of drawing a horizontal line, duplicating that line and moving it a small gap to the left, grouping that layer and repeating. This creates a long pattern, which I then imported into Adobe Illustrator to Live Trace. When it is vectorized like this it can be broken down and the automatic white background removed. I animated this banner moving under the logo word shape. I wanted this to look a little smoother but still slower so altered the frame rate down slightly. I then animated a large block running over the shape. Initially this just ran from left to right at a constant speed. To make this look more appealing and more like the video game style loading bar I had envisioned in my storyboard, I used easing to go from fast to slow. This makes the animation ease to halt near the end of the tween. It looks more natural and dynamic. After all the animation is done, you then put the mask layer on as once it is masked, the layers beneath are locked.

I mainly used simplistic wipe masks for the remainder of the animation. This kept it clean and simple. I didn't want to over complicate the animation with any trasformations of transitions as firstly they often don't translate to web and also the wipe style was inkeeping with the simple bold font. Using mask wipes made it quick, fluid and simple, which is something you need for dynamic web graphics.

Week 3 - Designing the Animation

I have begun designing and planning the final product of the project. I have decided to stick with the idea of kinetic typography, but alter it slightly. The effect and method of kinetic typography is not very complicated, and doesn't really use any advanced techniques. To make the animation more interesting I will be using mutliple maks to create a varied and kinetic effect.

I have planned both simple and more advanced animations into the animation. For instance some words will use the conventional animation, quickly expaning from very small to big in a puncy style. Others will use more advanced techniques envolving masks. For instance, shape will be defined as masks and then other shapes will pass under the mask. This will allow things to be presented differently and more creatively. I have developed a story board that plans the animation action by action.

Using the style of the website, including taking backgrounds from that site, the existing logo and by using the American Purpose font, as well as the exisitng yellow (#ffcc00), grey, white colour scheme, i will keep the animation in the theme of my site. This also means i can cut down on the amount of original assets I need to create, but more importantly it will make my website seamless and professional.

I have decided the animation will be a welcome page. The animation and the web page will share the same background to fit seamlessly with each other, and in theory by clicking on the web animation, it will take you through to my site. 

Week 2 - Developing Ideas + Inspiration

I have started to formulate ideas and designs based on my current designs for my website. This will involve using similar imagery and style as well as bringing over elements such as logos and specific fonts.

To start this I have gathered a range of visual inspirations and started making a moodboard. As I myself am the focus of the website, the visual style must be influenced by and show off my visual inspirations. I started an A3 moodboard, which although currently unfinished, shows some the of influential graphics and imagery. the moodboard currently features  comic book and sci fi influences and will also feature music and sporting design styles.



Unfinished Moodboard

 These influences apply also to my web designs. The thing that influenced me most was using bold colours, thick typography and using stipes/lines for definition. This took influence from American sports designs similarly to my Designs for print.

This is the kind of inspiration that led me to my logo and text design. Using the previously mentioned AMERICAN PURPOSE font, the exisiting brand name Voltage Workshop and a sports style logo I made my logo.

Given the brand name and the bold design, I wan't an animation that is also striking. With this in mind I have started looking at Kinetic Typography. This is a type of motion graphic that is growing in popularity and starting to become part of our viusal vocabulary. Popular examples include the Comedy Central idents. the basi concept involves fast moving text appearing , often forming larger images or structres and  often in sync with a spoken word section.

I think I will use this, or atleast include aspects of this form of presentation as I think it best represents my brand and some of the ideas of the site such as high speed of use and the rolling of one ask into another. These concpets can be bought into a animation, using kinetic typography, as individual events can roll into one another and be fast and impactful.