Single Shot Analysis

I find this one of the more interesting shots included in our production. A Sim card is dropped into a sink of water, and Becci is shown singing ‘I’m all messed up’. The original shot of the sim card swirling around the sink did not seem to make enough of an impact, so the shot involving Becci was super-imposed onto it. Each shot was obviously taken separately before being super imposed over each-other.

First we thought about the framing of Becci before filming. The camera was placed behind a glass paned door leading to Amy’s living room at a medium shot. We did this because the two wooden panes both sides of Becci act as a good frame and obey the rule of thirds. They also separate the lighter and darker tones of the room. With the black painted walls either side of Becci and lighter aspects in the centre behind her. The shot is fairly symmetrical, and I believe it is one of the better examples of camera-work because of this. We had to be careful as a mirror stands directly behind her. If the camera were any higher it would be in view, so we had to take a slightly lower angle of view. We wanted the room to be fully lit, so the lights were turned on, and lamps placed about the room to light up Becci from all angles. This helped us to obtain a clearer shot. There were a few framed photographs towards the edges of the shot, but these were deemed as unnecessary to be removed, and so were left in place for the sake of ease.

The harsh contrasts of the room match the attitude of Becci’s clothes and hair. The colour scheme was a big contribution towards the success of the shot. The dark make-up Becci wears also contrasts with her blonde hair. The opposite colours in shot emphasise each other and make for a more dramatic outcome. There are several hues of red within shot, such as pictures on the mantel piece and a canvas to the left of the shot. These somehow help to keep the sim card relevant as they both share angry red.

The sim card is shot close up from a high angle and the camera follows it directly as it swirls around the sink. This was merged with the shot of Becci for good reason. As Becci sings ‘All messed up’ she makes a swirling motion around her head with her hand. Combined with the sim card’s swirling, it gives the impression that she is stirring the water. It may also be seen that there is an essence of intersexuality in this shot. The film ‘Psycho’ is well known for the focusing on the base of the bath as swirling water and blood heads down the plug hole. Referring to the film in this manner establishes Becci’s appetite for revenge on an aggressive level. The plug-hole drifts into shot as the sim card swirls, establishing a greater relation.

Becci’s expression provides an insight as to how she feels about the situation. She maintains a mischievous grin throughout the proceedings, and this situation is no exception. Becci’s smirks and grins allow the audience to judge her character more clearly, perhaps deeming her as sadistic whilst the boyfriend’s life and possessions are broken down.

First cut feedback from Mrs Allison

Amy, Perry and Marianna
First cut feedback

• Use of static at the start is a creative solution to your tape problem
• Love the whip pan – technique works well here – still don’t like Amy’s knee in shot
• Band location and lighting is effective
• Burning the photo sequence doesn’t work well – no drama. Consider a burning of effects on an outdoor barbecue
• The shot of the 2 girl singers in the garage goes on too long
• Lovely reaction shot from Becci when she drops the sim card
• Revenge would seem stronger if the sim card flushed down toilet!

Editing session feedback

We were hoping that the burning photograph problem would slip by unnoticed, but obviously, yet again it didn’t. Mrs. Allison picked up on it immediately, and we explained that we were also not happy with this clip and it needs further editing. We were credited for the sped up room trashing, and the slowed down paper throwing, and we now have a feathered pillow in our possession to throw out of the window.

That bad shot aside, the swirling sink was seen as an achievement and we were pleased that an experiment we weren’t 100% sure about got thumbs up from friends also. It was noted that the video was better as it was faster paced and so we are now well on track.

We now need to edit further when we are all able to spare time once more. We are obviously prioritising this for each other, so all should go down fairly smoothly.

Editing the second set of filming - Part 2

With the absence of group members now starting to take affect, it’s important that we set our sights on editing as opposed to filming the last sections needed. Today we massively trimmed down each shot to really make it flow, and to good effect. We sped up the trashing the bedroom scene, and slowed down the section in which Becky throws loose papers into the air. This worked much better than we expected it to, however we are having trouble trying to edit the burning photograph sequence together. All in all that sequence lasts about 20 seconds, and we need to get across what is happening in about 4 seconds. We tried speeding up the burning, but it looks very un-natural and obvious that it has had a speed increase. We also tried fading parts and forced jump-cuts to pull the clip along but it still does not work and still doesn’t look right. We have to decide what to do about this when all group members are next available.

Apart from the burning problem, the editing is going well. We edited about 40 seconds of film to a standard we were all satisfied with, this met the time that we were aiming for, and so now there is much less of a panic surrounding getting the editing done. One interesting thing that worked well was the sim-card swirling around the sink. There is a section of the song that goes ‘I’m all messed up!’ At this point, Becky makes a swirling motion around her head with her finger. We faded these two clips together and it seems to work very well. It’s almost like Becky is stirring the water with her hand as the sim-card follows the basic flow of her arm.

We now just need to keep up the pace and bear in mind that we need to yet film the two remaining scenes.

Feedback for this session's editing

The static idea at the beginning of the video was approved as a good idea, and this et our minds at rest for the rest of the editing process. Whilst the previous editing session we had tried to make the video quite quick paced, it was clear that it needed to be faster. With more cuts and less time hanging on each. The teacher and other groups picked up on this also, so we need to really start trimming the fat off of each clip. Rather than roughly edit the whole song and work on bits, we are now trying to work only on small sections at a time, but completely finish them in the process.

Whilst a majority of the work we had to show was approved, it’s clear that we need to have more editing done soon. We are currently at about 1 minute of film time in total, but the song itself is around 3 minutes 40 seconds long. We are now aiming to get around 30-40 seconds of film fully edited with each session using premiere pro, and we have arranged for each of us to dedicate time to the video. We need to make sure that each of us edits roughly the same amount as the other.

There were concerns among us about the amount of time that each of us could dedicate, and the groups co-operation as a whole. After a few calls and a short meeting, our worries were resolved, and we are still able to carry on working successfully as a group.

Editing the second set of filming - Part 1

The film from the previous set of filming was captured without a problem, and so the black bars were no longer a problem. We edited more film into that which we had previously edited, and made sure that the lip syncing was as accurate as we could make it. We found that as parts sometimes needed to be faded over each other, that it was necessary to utilise layers. Before now, we had just had maybe 1 or 2 layers, but we are now making use of about 4. This actually makes the process easier, as only film on the uppermost layer at any one time will be displayed, so we can still keep film ‘underneath’ these layer to be used at later points in time. We have about ¾ of the film we need all in all, and now we just need to film the Bike and Pillow scene.

One of the shots we wanted to use had a lot of black bars at the beginning, but we used this to our advantage. We set up a camera in front of a television, and tuned it so that only static was displayed. We captured the film and edited it to the start of the video. This combined with the black lines at the very start, gives the impression that a channel has just been changed, or a video been played from the beginning. This fixed the problem with a much needed shot’s black lines and also covered the instrumental at the beginning of the song. We agreed that this was now final.

One scene (that we had previously filmed the same morning outside of school) of Marianna and I walking through the trees together, cut short by about a second longer than it needed to be. This was fixed by increasing the speed duration of that shot by about 15% so that it lasted for the period of time needed. The difference in time was so small that it flowed well and looked natural. We went about then trying to cut each shot to quite a small size, and lining the mouth movements of the performers up with the lyrics of the song. We still needed to edit in a wider variety of shots that we had previously taken, but this was to be done another day.

Filming - Day 2

The second lot of filming was done at Alanna’s house. We chose this as a location because of the big garage, and typical brother’s bedroom. This gave us a great number of shots that we could take. The garage was where the first lot of filming was done. The door was lifted and the lights turned on to really make sure that there was now dark ‘haze’ on the tape. The camera was first positioned at the opening of the garage, with Becky stood in front and Amy and Becky stood behind at the sides, holding guitars. This obeyed the ruled of thirds, and served as a good standard shot that took in most of the garage. Footage was taken from this position a couple of times.

The same routine was performed, but with the camera place at different points around the garage, including different angles of each performer. We also held the camera, and walked around the performance area, zooming in and out on faces and guitars whenever necessary. Regarding dynamics, these shots will be very useful in making the final cut as visually interesting as possible.

The wrecking of the boy’s bedroom was mostly filmed too, but we still have to get the pillow from Mrs. Allison to throw out of the window. The bedroom was shown neat and tidy, and the two girls entered, making a mess. We filmed for a couple of minutes, things getting thrown about and trodden on. We will probably speed sections of this up, so that the process is shows, but without taking up the whole length of the song. Paper was also tossed around the room, which would serve as a substitute for the pillow at this time. The camera was placed facing different objects and places that were to be trashed, such as a high angle shot point at a chest of draws that then hand its contents taken out and wrecked.

Scissors and old clothes played quite a big part too. The girls were filmed cutting parts of the clothes up, and then pulling them apart together. This ended up being quite symbolic as the fabric was pulled thin and finally, snapped. The bathroom was involved in shooting the phone and sim card scene. The sim card was filmed floating around it the water which can be used at a later time.

The photograph was burned in front of the camera, a ‘signed’ gesture from Wayne Rooney. Whilst this provided a perhaps bigger impact, it is still the bike scene which will be the ultimate result, so we really do need to find an old bike soon. Finally, a shot was taken of Amy and Becky walking down the road with a guitar over one shoulder. This will be used at the end of the song as a statement to the boyfriend ‘I’m done here’.

Feedback of first editing

We set about capturing all that we’d filmed the previous day, and to our dismay the black bars weren’t just a fault with the camera, they showed up on the exported version too. This meant that it was the tape that was the problem, so we made sure to throw it away and set our camera up with a new tape.

Whilst the footage with the bars was obviously unusable, we were lucky in the way that it was note present the whole way through, and so we were able to forage a lot of film from the faulty tape. We edited out a majority of the black lines, and stuck the unaffected shots together to be used later on. We roughly edited chunks together that matched the animatic to the parts of the song required, although we were aware that their position was likely to change as editing went on.

None-the-less we each took it in turns to clip, cut, and crop the film together, so we were refreshed on how to use adobe premiere pro. We also experimented with clips we did not need by adding effects and such. This was handy, as we now have a good stock of techniques we can apply to the video and music that none of us knew about before. Particularly the increase and decrease speed functions.

We had to make a decision whether to re-shoot the scenes with the static or not. We decided that we should, but rather than film in the same location, we would just take parts from different areas of future filming, and stitch them in place. We agreed that if we wanted to stick to the schedule we has made that this was the best thing to do.

Editing the first set of filming

We set about capturing all that we’d filmed the previous day, and to our dismay the black bars weren’t just a fault with the camera, they showed up on the exported version too. This meant that it was the tape that was the problem, so we made sure to throw it away and set our camera up with a new tape.

Whilst the footage with the bars was obviously unusable, we were lucky in the way that it was note present the whole way through, and so we were able to forage a lot of film from the faulty tape. We edited out a majority of the black lines, and stuck the unaffected shots together to be used later on. We roughly edited chunks together that matched the animatic to the parts of the song required, although we were aware that their position was likely to change as editing went on.

None-the-less we each took it in turns to clip, cut, and crop the film together, so we were refreshed on how to use adobe premiere pro. We also experimented with clips we did not need by adding effects and such. This was handy, as we now have a good stock of techniques we can apply to the video and music that none of us knew about before. Particularly the increase and decrease speed functions.

We had to make a decision whether to re-shoot the scenes with the static or not. We decided that we should, but rather than film in the same location, we would just take parts from different areas of future filming, and stitch them in place. We agreed that if we wanted to stick to the schedule we has made that this was the best thing to do.

Filming - The first day

(Images to be uploaded when site is working)

The first day of filming was shot at Amy’s house. The appropriate scenes were filmed mostly with ease, and it was a productive day. The first shot we decided to film was the master shot. Amy and Becky was seated on the bed in Amy’s bedroom, with a curtain swooping either side of them. The room was quite dimly lit, and so the curtains were drawn open and the lights turned on. The bulbs were white, which was handy because it meant that there wouldn’t be an ugly ‘indoor’ glow to the final cut.

This was to be the opening singing shot, and involved the two of them lip-syncing the song the whole way through. This actually got done very quickly. Amy and Becky had learnt the words to the song early on, and so were comfortable with singing it the whole way through. The camera was originally positioned directly in front of them, so as to show them both symmetrical. This looked good in my opinion, and so we filmed the whole song through a couple of times in this position. The more takes we had of each shot, the easier it would be to edit, so we tried to vary the set up a little each time, and give a different attitude to the actors performance.

The dynamism of a music video is in our eyes the most important part, so as well as standard shots at textbook angles, we also experiments with camera techniques such as whip-panning and Dutch tilt. We also filmed a close up of each singer’s face so that they could be used appropriately in the music video to add a bit of variety.

We discovered that whenever any red was in shot, the picture on the camera would flash. We could not sort this problem out, so in each shot we had to try and keep as much of the wall out as possible. This was very tricky. As well as the flashing problem, when we played the tape back on the camera after each shot, a stream of black bars would appear on the screen every so often, and we hope this is only the camera and that they won’t shot up after we’ve imported the video.

We then filmed a few shots in the living room. The style of the room suited the music video nicely, with classy black and dark hues. This matched the ‘rock chick’ feel, and so we experimented with this room as much as possible. We filmed Amy and Becky sitting and moving into different positions around the room whilst lip syncing to the song. Again, this will come in very handy when we need to draw on a range of dynamic shots during editing.

Marianna also pointed out that as the living room door was fitted with glass panes, we could fix a shot of the girls through one of them, as it worked very well as a frame and would add nicely to the visuals. We filmed different variations of this and it went very well for an off the cuff idea. However the black bars on-screen still persisted.

As well as the scenes in which lip-syncing is need, we also filmed shots that are relevant to the revenge story line. First we filmed what was needed for the laxative scene in the kitchen and the living room. We took several shots of Amy and Becky laughing holding a box of laxatives, and then me drinking tea in disgust. To top it off we film shots from several angles of me running down-stairs and making a dash for the bathroom. I think that these shots will work well for invisible editing.

The computer also played a part in the day’s filming. We turned the lights off in the room so the chiara scuro lighting had a big impact. We were wondering how it would be best to film the information on the screen, as sometimes when filming screens with the school’s camera, grey bars flash up across it. To tackle this, we downloaded a free screen recorder from ‘cam studio’ and set it to record different areas around the screen. This worked to a degree, but we have yet to export and capture the video to use in our production. We need to do a bit of a crash course in editing this kind of video format before taking it on.

We’ll capture the video during our next media lesson.

Locations

This is the set of stairs used in the laxative scene. We chose these stairs because the bathroom is directly next to it. It made for a nice fluid shot of me running down the stairs. It's obviously not the most exciting shot in the world, but hey the camera wasn't going all satanic on us at this point so it worked.

This is the sink that the burning photograph was dropped in. I really don't like this shot, it seems very unlikely that if you're going to burn something for revenge, you would then take the precautions of dropping it in a sink full of water. We need to rethink this.

This is one of the better shots in our production. It's probably the most relevant shot set-wise. The cluttered (sorry Alanna)

This is the computer which Becci will type vengeful emails and deliver them to her friends on. Whilst we wanted the abience to be quite menacing, we decided to film with the blinds closed. However, being so dark it meant that the quality of our filming may be negatively affected. We tried our best to set up a good balance, and in fact helf a lamp up in the room whilst filming.

This is the fire place which becci will dance in front of for one of our shots. We don't yet know exactly how to set the camera up, but we all agree that there is great potential for anything filmed in this room, as the mood and colour scheme matches that which we are trying to imitate. The rose on the wall sspecially emnates this. Becci will wear a black dress at the time of filming, so she will suit the room nicely.

This is the bathroom which the sim card will be abused in. The phone's simcard will be pulled out of the phone, and dropped in either the sink or the toilet. I think that if it was dropped in the toilet it would be a more fitting display of revenge. The indorr yellow lighting may affect the quality of the shots, but we are using as much natural lighting as possible in order to counter this.

This is the final location which will be invluded in the filming. Both Becci and Amy will be sat on the bed with the curtain either side of them as they lip sync the llyrics of the song. I think that this will be a difficult shot to pull off. As both girls need to be sat down, a lot of energy is lost from the performance. An energetic attitude is essential to making the song work.

Production schedule

It was brought to out attention that in order to arrange when group members were free, and to film on those days, that a schedule was needed. Certain members could only take part on certain days, and so we had to take this into account when drawing up the planned dates. Amy, Becky, and I had quite a limited number of days with which to film. Becky is currently studying at college and so could only manage to meet up on Wednesdays. I then had plans to go abroad, as did Amy. We decided that rather than try and type this all up in excel, that the easiest thing to do would be to print out a rough schedule, and then alter/ write around it in order to hold down the days on which we could get some solid work done.

We had to print it off a few times in order to keep making changes and to avoid it getting too messy, but in the end we produced a schedule we all could read and work with. The numbers of days left before a rough cut is due are looking quite thin, so we really have to work at every opportunity we can.

Props

I AM HAVING HUGE PROBLEMS UPLOADING PHOTOS. AFTER TRYING FOR AN HOUR I'M GIVING IT A REST.

There are quite a few aspects we need to include in our music video. Here are the props that we will be using thus far.

Rock clothes

To set the style of the video.

Guitars

For the girls to be holding during the garage scene

Computer

This will be used as a digital method of Becky’s revenge.

Laxatives and tea

The girls will show the box to the camera after a shot showing the boyfriend dash to the bathroom.

Feather Pillow

Will be thrown out of the boy’s window for visual effect

Sheets of Paper

These will be thrown about the boy’s bedroom.

Old clothes and scissors

We will find some material that can be cut up, which will take the place of the boy’s clothes. This will be cut and torn.

Phone and sim card

For the shot in which Becky dismantles the phone, and drops the sim card into a sink full of water.

Signed photgraph and matches

This will be burnt in front of the camera.

Old bike

We’ll take the bike apart for the last scene, and arrange it as if it’s been involved in an accident. This is the final act of revenge.

These are all of the main props that we are going to include in our production. This list is likely to change if more ideas are introduced or some are replaced

Music Video Crew

Those involved in the group and their contributions to the music video:

Amy Horsley(IMAGE)

- 1st Girl taking revenge
- Editing
- Props
- Music

Marianna Theocari(IMAGE)

- Girl whom boyfriend cheats with
- Editing
- Camerawork
- Loctions

Perry Allen (me)(IMAGE)

- Unfaithful boyfriend
- Editing
- Camerawork
- Visuals

Becci Taylor(IMAGE)

(Becci isn’t a part of our media group, but kindly agreed to help out quite a lot)
- 2nd girl taking revenge.
- Lead singer

Alanna Petty(IMAGE)

(Also not a part of our media group, but again, agreed to help us and let us use her house to film in)
- Band member
- Guitarist

Animatic Feedback

Because of the music video nature, we needed to play the track over the animatic. This was difficult to do as a music video needs to be very dynamic. As a result there are several shots such as a scene in a garage, and of the two girls sitting on a bed which needed to be referred back to a multiple of times. It would have been pointless to draw out each of the small changes for every few seconds passed, so we panned the camera to different shots to fill parts such as the chorus and instrumentals whenever nothing of significance was in shot.

It was mentioned that the animatic wasn’t clear enough in areas and the group and me agree. It’s difficult at this point to offer precision above that of stick men and simple sentences. Whilst we have a good idea in our minds of how the video will turn out, we’re unable to fully get the idea across without more detailed text and imagery. The scenes are explained in text boxes next to each image, but for the short amount of time each image is in shot, it wouldn’t be very helpful to see unreadable text fly by.

For shots where their are to be many quick cuts and invisible editing, we wrote down next to each frame ‘Shot compilation, quick editing, etc.’ Although this isn’t majorly demonstrative, not even we know yet of all the ways we will be filming on the day. Judging by where we are filming, we will undoubtedly find many different angles and camera positions that were not known of before-hand, and we shall use this to our advantage.

The animatic also failed to include a few more recent ideas that we came up with after filming it, and so these will be explained closer to filming. It was not uploaded straight away because of errors uploading the file, and so with the fourth time in trying, it successfully uploaded.

Animatic- The Veronicas, Everything I'm not

Pitch - Feedback

The main aspect that was missing from our PowerPoint was the lack of imagery. There were points that a textual explanation couldn’t cater for, so more images were added before it was uploaded.

It wasn’t initially clear how we were going to get the aspect of revenge across. We at first thought a could idea would be to display a messy bed-room as if it had been wrecked. However, it was brought up that it could just be a teenager who’s room was always in this state, so we would have to be a bit bolder with how we went about this. The first decision was to actually show the girls wrecking the bedroom. Not just making a mess, but actually breaking tearing, and burning his belongings. This should be enough to give the impact we’re looking for.

There would also have to be one definite moment to mark, a point in which his prized possession is destroyed. We decided that a mangled bike would do nicely, and we continue to look for an un-used bike for this reason.

As well as a bike, it would be good to have something with a real visual impact also. It was mentioned that a feather pillow thrown from a window would look decent, so we stuck with this. If we could play this in good quality slow-motion this would be better. Along with the bike and pillow ideas, we drew up a list of alternate revenge tactics that we could use at different points in the music videos:

- Burning photographs.
- Cutting up clothes and toys.
- Dropping electronics into water.
- Digital revenge (via Facebook, e-mail, etc)
- Leaving the boyfriend a video of their destructive acts.
- A dose of laxatives.

We will need to decide the props and locations we will be filming in. The ancillary tasks that were shown are fully pictorial, and so not a lot can be said about them. We’ve chosen to display our work in the form of a magazine cover and a CD cover for this section, and I’m confident that this won’t be a problem.

Analysis of a Professional production- Sitting Waiting Wishing- Jack Johnson

It’s difficult to place the role or personality of the performers shown in the video, as they are present in the video for such a short amount of time. The one thing that is clear is they are all very casual. The main performer, Jack Johnson, is in a green shirt with denim jeans and a shaved head. He seems very casual for the lead performer of the group, and this is an interesting take on such a lead role. He is also interestingly barefoot, which gives his on-screen character a fairly natural feel. Other performers such as the drummer are dressed in equally earthy colours such as brown and black, which adds to the overall laid back feel of the group. Jack Johnson actually remains smiling through all of the parts in which he is seen singing, which helps to portray a happy-go-lucky attitude, even when his life isn’t going so perfectly, as the song entails. The impression made is laid back and natural. This is aided with the absence of any hair-styling or make up. I believe that the idea of such a casual appearance is to relate to the audience in a more effective manner. The song itself is based on how a he can’t be always waiting and wishing for things with his partner to change, so with such a common storyline this may be the best way to present the performers and characters included.




One thing that isn’t immediately obvious at the beginning of the video, is that the performer’s routine is shown entirely reversed. This seems like an interesting gimmick at first, but I began to appreciate the difficulty of the video, when Jack Johnson is shown singing the song as it is actually being played. Whenever a musician is on screen, they also play in the right direction, at the right time. This means the scene would have to have been rehearsed with Jack Johnson singing in gibberish, which when reversed appears to be the song sang correctly. This is an excellent demonstration of lip-syncing and timing on the musician’s behalf. The performers are shown doing quite random things, such Jack Johnson reading a burning book, the drummer riding a skateboard, and the bassist playing basketball. These events don’t directly link to the lyrics themselves, but they help to add to the chaos which the song is presumably relating to.

The song has less of a story, but still heavily relates to the idea of a journey. The camera opens on a close up of a dirty water-covered floor, and pans over a troubled Jack Johnson, wiping his face of the muck. This establishing shot presents the events by starting at the end, and the reversed passage will explain to the audience how the room ended up in such a dirty mess. It’s a unique take on building to a point, as we are actually first presented with a climax, and then brought back to the start. As the characters enter and leave (or rather, leave then enter) the room starts to retake its original shape, bits of watermelon fly up into the air, lights fix themselves and jump to the roof etc. Also, a picture begins to put itself back together behind Jack Johnson as the video comes to an end. As the camera zooms in, he places the final picture frame, and the image is completed. He then jumps to the ceiling and exits. The final impression left is of the many picture frames creating the image of a tree, which is actually the album cover artwork.




I believe that the image piecing itself back together and the room returning to normal is quite effective at making a statement. The lyrics describe a man whose world has been turned upside-down by his partner. In a metaphorical sense, his world is then seen reverting back to how it was before, and the final piece of the puzzle is assembled. It’s like he is retracing his steps in a literal sense to put his life back together. As the final ‘piece of the puzzle’ is a tree, it relates even more to the natural focus of the video, almost symbolizing his life as it has a heavy significance. The character that enter do not in my opinion relate to the lyrics, but they do signal when an instrument enters, or has a brief solo. This is most evident with the man holding the snare drum and the pianist. Both assume position, and begin playing their instrument whenever it is audible in the music. This gives the video a sense of structure, and helps to tie in more with the song.


The song is very acoustic, which the video relates to nicely. The instruments seen are very organic. A single drum, an acoustic guitar and bass, and a wooden grand piano in the corner of the room help to emphasise this. The video is far from realistic; however the message given is believable, simple, and quite clear as the video comes together. All of the characters give a down-to-earth take on the genre. There are only the absolute necessities, instrument-wise, on screen and only when they need to be. The characters are casual, and despite the picture on the wall and a basketball hoop, the walls are bare and plain. It is evident that it has been made out to be a simple song for a man with simple needs.




The camera-work is what really holds the scene together. It is clear that editing was a problem as the camera records in one continuous shot. The only editing that needed doing was the reversing of the film. However, the camera moves very smoothly, gently zooming in and out to frame different aspects. It’s very fluid and gives an effective link between different events that are happening. Such as zooming out from a close up of Jack Johnson, then panning left to reveal a smashed light, putting itself back together, relighting the room, and attaching itself to the ceiling. The camera follows moving characters and objects to further demonstrate dynamism. When the man with the basket ball enters, the camera tracks him, and as he passes the ball to Jack Johnson, the camera gently zooms out and pans to show him catch the ball. Although there is a lot going on, and chaos about the room, there is still a sense of linked events, and a smooth transition between them.




The scene is set in a small white room, but all of the odd items that find themselves splattered and shattered around the room are too many to list. Objects such as fruit put themselves back together, and bouncing balls leap off of the floor. However, the main props I took note of were the instruments of each musician. As previously mentioned, these come into shot for the duration of a section of the song that utilize that instrument. It helps to emphasize more subtle changes in the music. I also took note of the props that allows for the camera to smoothly follow from one place to the next. The camera following the skateboard when the drummer enters is a good example of this. I believe the room is small and plain to make a point. Such a small niche room does not need much in it’s presence to appear crowded and cluttered. This is how it looks at the beginning of the song, as there are objects laying all over the floor, and splattered up the walls. Interestingly, the room is completely dark, save for a few areas that are on fire. This symbolizes the mess his life is currently in. By matching the room to his current state of feeling, a journey can then be made which takes the viewer on a ride to see how the room and the man once were, plain and simple.

At the start, the room is in darkness, but as the song picks up, the light ‘falls’ up and the full lighting resumes. This symbolizes turning point, as everything now clearly begins to move and gather itself to resemble what it originally was and where on screen it belongs. It’s a metaphorical representative of the light in his own life once again showing the way back. Apart from the part in which the room is dark, the lighting is very simple, and all objects and characters are lit up in good white lighting. I can’t make out any shadows wither, which suggests the lighting is present from all directions.

I believe that the overall message of the video is clear. It’s obvious as the video goes on that the world needs to fit back together, and that Jack Johnson needs to get back to where he started. This is marvellously thought out, and the act of retracing ones steps is even better carried out with the use of film reversal. It must have been a challenge to play the instruments, and sing backwards, but it adds to the dynamic and impressive visuals, which this videos relies on to make a lasting impression on the audience.




The unique selling point of the video is what makes it so successful. It is a refreshing idea that is carried out very well in this video. The fact that it is all done in one take adds to the amazement. The feel good nature of the song is quite a contrast to the subject, as usually some form of more aggressive music is a more likely culprit to such a subject matter. The only other recognisable video that was done in the same manner was Cold play’s video for ‘The Scientist’ (2002). Similarly shot in one take and reversed to the beginning.

I think the video’s originality is what made it a roaring success, being nominated for Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan ceremony in 2006. If we are to have a smaller scale form of success with our video, I think a similar approach would be necessary. Make interesting and original sections in the idea, and really experiment with the situations and visuals to tie it all together. The video should be able to match, if not triumph over the song itself. With limited tools and media at our disposal this may be hard, but we should still aim to include areas that leave the audience thinking ‘wow, that was clever’.

The Pitch- the Veronicas- Everything I'm not

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Our video evaluation

Evaluation

Adobe Premier pro has been giving us problems with the exporting of this file. We are unable to edit with the school computers at this time, and we will upload it as soon as possible.

Final Cut

First Draft Presentation and Feedback

Seeing as our piece is a comdedy, the main object was to make the audience engaged and to get them laughing. In this way the project succeeded, as on the planned occasions our classmates found it funny. However, from a technical point of view there were still many areas to improve.

The majority of the feedback was about how to clip the scenes together in a more seemless manner, so that the match on action is correct, and the storyline doesn't appear to jump from point to point. There were also luckily no jump cuts with any of the film stitching.

The voiceovers were also said to be the item that brought the piece together, however, the ection where the lip sync is off is visible to a majority of the class. However, there are other things that need our attention at this point, and so we may not be able to get around to recording it again.

There were also a lack of titles. We decided to add these at the end as the main title itself is planned to appear at the very end of the opening, so it only made sense to do it in this manner. There were one or two voice-overs that needed to be added or clipped, and so this will be fixed by the time the final cut is made.

With the poor lighting in the section where a low angle shot is used, we did our best to manipulate this and make th lighting more balanced. We increased the gamma, and then the contrast so the colours din't look too washed out. This worked to an extent, although it was still brought up that the lighting could have been better in this section, and it needs a little further manipulation to make sure it doesn't look out of place.

The music we were told fitted well and was turned down at the correct points to allow the voiceovers to be heard. Without the voiceovers the piece would have been no-where close to it's initial impact. There is a section in which Enrice' Estavan Julio bumps into Jimmy and says 'Get out of my way.' At this point the music stops completely, and it was said that this seemed very unnatural, and broke the flow of movement. The sounds of the filming are should also be muted at this point, as the birdsong and noises of nearby cars take a surprising amount of impact away from the impression that this section is supposed to carry.

The mise-on-scene was said to be a uncontrolled in the ways that it didn't fit the story line as well as it could have, and the danceposter looks out of place on a black, white wall. I agree that he mise-on-scene was lacking, especially in the way of Sam's costume that we didn't organise properly, but with the dealine nearing we decided that the mise-onscene- would have to stay as it was, as we felt the other positive aspects of the piece far outweighed the need to film multiple scenes again.

With the deadline a few days away, we are very close to finishing comfortably within the alotted time, and having the video file exported. We agree that the project has the potential to end very well, but we are also wondering what things about it may be holding us down, or any unforseen major problems may arise in the final days of editing. All we can do now is hope for the best, and keep saving as we edit.

Adding Voice-overs

This was the part we were all dreading, as it was either going to make the whole thing come together or ruin it entirely. luckily we were able to record and stitch them together to a decent standard so it went to plan. The process of recording the voiceovers was quite difficult, as we had to find a quiet area, script it, and for certain parts we had to try and make a good job of lip-syncing.

The lipsyncing was by far the most difficult. Obviously it can only be done whilst watching the actual video of talking, and so we recored it on a phone camera, and did our best to talk in time with the video. It's very hard to do without the presence of a timer, and we had to watch the video, and record the voice-overs many times before we performed at a half-decent standard. In watching the edited video, you can tell in which oarts the lip-syncing is done as the voices are unnaturally loud, and have the tendancy to speak out of time with the mouth. There is only one instence of this, so perhaps it will not be as big a roadblack as we thought.

Otherwise the voiceovers worked well. They made the piece really, as they were the only thing that explained the plot and character's background to the audience. Our worry was that with so many voice-overs needed, it would seem either crowded, or they would clash at parts. Fortunately this was not the case, asall sound aspects are mangable, including the volume, so the music could just be turned doen when the voiceover's occur.

Some of them needed to be recorded a second time, as the boom mic picked up a lot of air hitting it with constenant sounds like 'P', so that was irritating to fix. In most places we turned the volume down for a fraction of a second so the sounds are nheard, and don't ruin it.

Whilst editing, it was a common occurance for the editing prgram to give up and crash. Whether this is a fault of the software itself, or a hardware failur we are unsure. Eitehr way it was still unfixable at that moment in time, and it did a fair job of slowing us down. We had to keep saving our work every minute or so, as the crashes could occur at any point. Whenever it happened we would usually lose about 20 minutes of editing time, and have to repeat the process again. At certain times the program was near unusable, and we restarted the computer in the hope it would fix itself. It did not.

When we spoke, we had to try and restrict what we said down to about 10 seconds. Anymore time, and the camera would change to a different, unrelated shot, and so the voiceover would clash with the other and hinder the continuous flow of action.

When we had completed this, we could then insert the last of the music, and adjust the volume accordingly.

Sound

The editing of the sound at first was quicker than we thought it would be. All of the music was from a reliable noncopyright source, and it fitted the action surprisingly well. It was also very different to handle than video footag, and so took all of us some getting used to before we could really handle it.

It was a learning curve when managing it, and so now we are prepared the next time the need for music and sound arises. We couldn't specify a point for all areas where the music would change without the voice-overs present, and so we have to wait until they are edited in before we can finish off the last of the music.

We didn't use many music tracks when editing, we instead used certain parts from each song and applied them to the fitting section. I think this was a better idea than using lots of different tracks, as a similarity in the music can be heard and a theme is better established with each character.

The excersice routine was really the only music situation we struggled with. Obviously Eye of the Tiger is under copyright so that wasn't an option. The tracks on the website we got the music from were plentiful, but unfortunately not quite what we needed here. After about 40 minutes of searching, Laura and Sophie finally found a fitting track named 'Tough Titty' to use. The seperate roles we played whilst editing worked well. Laura and Sophie were searching for music and sounds for a few lessons, whilst me and Sam focused on editing.

We should have switched roles more often to ensure that we all improve in different areas, but with time being of the esence, and getting too comfortable with what task we were each trained to, this didn't cross our minds very often.