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.