Email

We emailed Maxine and told her we are no longer doing the new idea and struggling for a new idea, she replied with:

Feedback

The most frequent answers were:

Positive:
• Very good lip synching
• Interesting decorations
• Writing of the lyrics

Negative:
• Have more variety of shots
• That star lights sometimes block Casey’s face
• The handheld shots do not work
• Confused about the storyline
• Have more locations

Rough cut

We produced a very basic rough cut of our video so we could collect some feedback from our target audience. Once we have their opinions we will try to apply it to our video so we make it more suitable for our audience.

We will post this on facebook and ask fellow students to watch it and give one positive and one negative comment on the video.
Below is the video:



Brief description:

The video has a hint of the Cinderella theme as when it gets to 12'o clock things turn horrible. The dinner party bit is the 'ball' with the prince and instead of having a happy ending, the prince has left without 'Cinderella' hence the lyrics 'you went away, too fast to say, goodbye and hold my hand'.

Complex effects

During the editing process we came up with the idea to add a "sin city" effect to the shot of the balloons around Casey and Dean. We wanted to show the balloons in colour but Casey and Dean in black and white. We found out how to achieve this look by watching a tutorial on YouTube. Below is the video we found:



This became complex as there was so many different colour balloons, for each different colour balloon we had to add another clip ontop of the one we had. This is how we applied it to our shot:



This is what we had to do when picking out the balloon we wanted to be in colour:

Some problems we had when doing this was; when we wanted the blue balloons to be in colour it would make the sky in colour which did not make the shot effective, so we chose not to have the blue balloons in colour. This is our end result:

We are not sure if we will use this effect, but we still learnt how to do this and allowed us to experiment with complex effects.

More Editing

This is what our music video looks so far in the editing process:

Digi pak ideas

We have been thinking about what our digi pak will look like, we researched "digi paks" in google and amazon and these are some we like:


We then thought about adding photos of the artist; Maxine.


While we was editing today we thought the following still images would look good in our digi pack:









However, we also liked the idea of using the lights image as a continuous shot for a more simple take on the digipak:



I did this on paint to show a simple example of what our final digipak might look like.

Editing

Today we looked at our footage and began editing the first 12 seconds of our music video. The first thing we did was import the song and locked the layer so we do not have any problems in the future. We then edited the 4 shots of the shoe changes, this took us one hour and a half to do as we wanted each shoe change to start and end at the same time. We then added a dissolve effect between every shoe change to make it look smoother. We realise that it took us too long to do 12 seconds but it showed us how long the process of editing is. In the future as we become more familiar with final cut express this will mean we will be able to work faster and get more done.



This is what we achieved by the end of this lesson:

Filming

The following pictures show us filming on location:

This shot is of me filming the shoe change, this was Casey walking and for every step we would have the camera move along and the shoes will change. Each time I moved the camera I kept it the same distance away from the feet.

This shot is in the garage location, this was a great place to film as it created the quirky atmosphere. We did many shots in this location, including point of view, over the shoulder, close up and extreme close up.

Time was against us, and it got dark quicker than expected, this meant we needed to hurry up filming which was a disadvantage as we did not get as many angles as we would have hoped for. In this shot we are trying to get Casey to throw the ballons at the camera.

We filmed this shot at night so the lights look brighter.

This is the last shot we filmed, we had Casey's hair and make-up a mess and the lights on the floor to show everything has fallen apart. We tried many different shots in this area.

First day of filming!

We decided to take a photo of our location to show how it looked like before we added props.

First location: Garden


Second location: Garage


Originally, we had planned to use the trampoline as a table and cover it with material but on the day we decided it was too big and would take up most of the garden which limited our filming space. To resolve this issue we decided to put two garden tables together to create one perfect size table.

Another issue we had was we took too much time deciding the costume; this took up more time than expected. This effected us as when we started filming we were an hour off schedule which meant it got darker quicker and we did not get as much footage as we would have liked.

Also we decided to close the shed as it would have taken us to long to clear it out and put up the lights, instead we set up the lights outside the front of the shed which we think turned out better.

Unfortunately, as the time was against us we did not get as many shots as we would have hoped. We will look back at the footage on Monday and organise another day to film to capture what we didn't manage today.

Setting up

These pictures show us setting up our props to get ready to film:

This is me doing Casey's eye makeup:


Making sure our lights were working:


Casey blowing up the balloons:


Setting up the table with accessories:


Putting up the lights on the shed:


Finishing touches:

Deciding costume

We had many options for costume which meant it took us longer to decide who was wearing what.

Casey: Option 1



Option 2



Decided on:


+


Robin: Option 1



Decided on:



Dean: Option 1



Decided on:



Overall I think we chose the best costume to fit with the theme of our quirky style video.

Prop List

We made sure we included the following props in our video as there were key items to indicate the theme of our video.

Pocket watch:


Candle holder + Ballons:


Jug + cups


Picture frame

Plan for the weekend

Saturday:

Location: Garages

12:00-1:30pm: Set up props, equipment, make-up, costumes and setting.

1:30-2:00pm: Practice run of the shots we want, and practice the song.

2:00-3:00pm: Film boy scene with casey and 'other girl'

3:00-3:30: Change location to shed

3:30-4:00: Set up props, equipment, make-up, costumes and setting

4:00-5:30: Begin filming the shot of Casey in the shed

5:30-6:00: Pack up

We realise things will not go to plan but we wanted to have a rough idea of what we must achieve in the day.

Weather Forecast

Before we start filming we must check the weather forecast as we will be outside. As we are coming up to winter, it is harder to find days that will not be raining. I looked on BBC weather website and checked the forecast for this weekend:



Luckily the weather is 'Sunny' on saturday but we realise it is not 100% accurate. The weather for sunday is 'Light Rain' so we will work hard to finish any outside scenes on saturday.

Just to clear up

We discovered that making a video is very hard. It took us many goes at trying to make the story board as we wanted it to include ideas that we both feel will work.

While trying to document these ideas on our blog it has made the overall blog look unclear as to what the video will show.

We began with a "vintage" style video but thought this was not enough to achieve an interesting music video so we decided to embed the vintage style and turn it into a quirky style with a hint of the "Cinderella" story. This allows us to have a main focus which we can concentrate on showing the audience.

Animatic

We made this animatic to show our storyboard in an interesting way. This animatic shows a simple version of what we hope our video will look like. Some of the shots last a long time, within these long shots we will show other interesting shots but we just wanted to highlight the locations and a rough idea of our video.

Our storyboard has taken the concept of "Cinderella" but with a twist. The changing of the shoes at the start of the video hints at the idea of Cinderella's "glass slipper" which is an important part of the story. The video will then go on to show the pocket watch which is at 12 o’clock, this turns everything dreadful for Casey as her hair and makeup begin to get ruined. Instead of the happy ending in Cinderella we have chosen to take a more sinister ending by having Casey watch her "ex-boyfriend" walk away and move on with his new girlfriend. She sadly turns off the light of the lamp which ends the video.

I am aware that our finished video will not look exactly like this as we might change ideas when we are shooting due to not being able to reach the shot we hoped, or we both decide that some parts of the video simply did not work. Hopefully things will go our way and we produce something similar to our original plan.

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

We were inspired by this video of "cosmic love" and we liked the idea of being surrouded in lights, we will think about using this idea in our video.

Inspiration

We researched more photos that fit in with our concept and style. We found these photos from a friend on Facebook who was doing an art project. She kindly let us use her photos to show different location shots we was thinking to use, also to stimulate more ideas.

We used this photo as we wanted to create a similar flash back shot of Casey remembering "the good times" with her "ex-boyfriend".

We liked the location of this shot and we want to use it in our video as it will create an interesting shot.

In the same armchair we will have the "ex-boyfriend" and his new girlfriend to highlight he has moved on.

We used this photo as we would like to find a similar location.

Health and Safety Risk Assessment

1) No filming in inappropriate locations.
2) Check safety of locations e.g. roads.
3) Minimise risk of theft of equipment
4) When filming on location ensure teacher or responsible adult know where you are and have telephone number and when you will return.
5) Check all equipment is working before your leave.
6) Ensure you have permission for filming if necessary.
7) Always film with at least one other person.
8) Ensure you have the permission of those you are filming.

Fairytale- Cinderella

We researched some editorial Cinderella themed photographs so we had an idea of how we can interpret our vintage concept to a Cinderella themed video storyline.
This is what we found:

Research: Nina l'Elixir Advertising

We came across this advert about the new Nina Ricci perfume. I thought this was a great video as it shows a fairytale theme that we would like to include in our video. The costume is very princess like but with a modern twist, also the scene in the wood and the mirrors add to the fantasy fairytale like theme. We hope to embed this idea for our music video.
The advert is below:

Wordle 2- Lyrics

We put in the lyrics of 'Come on over' in Wordle and this is what it created: