Music Video Editing Blog

Today we begun creating our music video. We started the method by looking over all of our Shots. I started by choosing a couple of of the clips of jake playing with the puppy. After that I found ones I needed to utilize. We looked at those to begin with since we needed to go in arrange with our story board. After we chosen on the few shots of those we needed to keep we moved on. Another we looked at the shots with Jake beginning to disregard the dog. These scenes are vital since they appear the dog’s motives for running away and are a portion of the story. We looked over a couple of and we chose some of him watching tv and one with the dog dies running away. We chosen to select these as they turned out good. We at that point moved on and started editing. We looked at the scenes where Jake looks for his dog and for when she gets back. After we were done with narrowing down the takes to choose some for each shot we put them onto the editing program. It was around this time that one of our course mates had to use our computer with their video on it. We gave them the pc considering the fact that we hadn’t began but and got a brand new laptop. We put all the pictures we had decided on on the modifying software. It took some time for the software program to start operating. After about 15 minutes we may want to in the end begin. We put the pictures on AV track 2 and started cutting down the clips. Lots of the clips had greater lengths so we in reality needed to shorten them.

      It took a few minutes before we finished cutting down the clips. as soon as we were completed we noticed that our video was too long. We had to reduce our a few clips to shorten the video. We chose one of jake neglecting her because we had already established that by using then. We then started including special effects. We used a few however not enough to make it an excessive amount of. There had been some zooms and we are considering adding a black and white filter out on a few photographs at the beginning. we will decide on that later. we are nearly done enhancing the video, we downloaded the tune and added it on AV song 3. I did a top notch task enhancing and we will finish soon. 

Music Video Review Blog

Last week me and Jake recorded our music video on Gary come home. We were happy with the final product. However we have not looked at any or the footage together yet. that is what we will do this week. This way other members of our group can see it. We will have to look over all of the footage and edit it into a cohesive story. It will be interesting to see how the clips really turned out. Over this past week was Thanksgiving break , so it was good we finished because filming over the break would be hectic. We got our filming done because we may not have time over the next few weeks. Filming was a fun and interesting experience and I am glad we did it. We recorded the weekend before for almost all of Saturday. The only real issue we ran into was the camera's battery.
      While recording we had Daisy, Jakes dog as the Main character. She surprisingly worked well and didn't bark or run around during scenes. , I recorded scenes with Jake playing with her and petting her. Daisy represents Gary in the song. So that would make Jake Spongebob. I had the idea to record Jake neglecting her with video games TV, and a phone. She then "runs away." We had to look for her after this. Jake made posters and put them outside. We blew on them to make wind. He then got really sad thinking she was gone for good.
      At the door is Daisy, who came home. This is the end of all our clips and it may end up over a minute. This video was very fun to record. We followed out story board very closely when doing it as well. I will be editing it to be as sad and dramatic as possible. I most likely will spend a long time editing to learn how to use pinnacle studios. We likely wont need more shots, but it is possible and we have more time if we do. If we do we will borrow a camera this week and get the few shots we need. If not we should be finished this week. I am very excited to Edit.

Filming the Music Video

        We decided to film our music video on Saturday November 23rd. It did come with some roadblocks however. We met up to film at Jake's house at 12 pm. We then started to charge the camera and set-up the tripod. After getting our props and costumes etc, we waited for the camera to charge. The issue was, it took 3 hours for it to have enough charge for two scenes. What we decided to do was to keep it plugged in while we filmed our scenes. The first scene we filmed went smoothly, as we just did it in the living room. The next was much harder as the protagonist was chasing the dog outside. We made sure to take multiple takes of each bit.
         The clips we could film near an outlet were fast and easy to get, but some posed a challenge. We used dog treats to make sure the dog would not walk away. We also had help from some other people in a few shots. This process went smoothly, and the camera started charging faster. After taking a break, we went back and shot the scenes where the dog was being ignored. For these scenes we made sure to follow the storyboard exactly. We tried to make the dog, walk away at the end of each scene. That took a while as he wanted to be around us though. The next scenes were quite fast as the dog was not in them. We took more scenes then the recommended amount of footage just in case.
       After that we took some scenes outside. One memorable scene was where we made a help poster. After making the poster we put it in a tree with tape. Not scene on camera, we had people blow on it to make it seem windy for effect. It even fell off because of blowing. Overall, it did not take very long to film the clips. We have a lot more than last time, and more room to work with. I think that this will be much better than the previous project. With the multiple clips we took filming our video we will have lots of opportunities for editing. I incorporated some things like shadows in the raw clips to make editing easier. I want this music video to fit in with this music, so I will spend a lot of time editing.

Music Video Storyboard

Gary Come Home by SpongeBob (Sad Ballet) Script-

0:00 to 1:10
 (0:05) The main character can be seen petting and playing with dog. This is with a High Angle and I will probably edit it with a grey filter.
 (0:10) Shows the Main character chasing the dog and cuts to a clip of dog walking out through doggy door for shadowing the dog leaving. We chose this because the lyrics point out that the dog left the singer. Cut with an over the shoulder of dog, and wide shot of Mc(the main character) chasing the dog.
 (0:15) Goes back to him chasing the dog. Still keeping grey filter showing it’s a flashback.
 (0:20) He continues playing with the dog but is interrupted by a parent giving her a son controller parent is off-screen. Wide shot, shows dog being cut off and ignored by the owner.
 (0:25) Shows him playing games and cuts to a dog looking at him playing games. Wide shot of him playing games. Low shot next to the dog during the scene with the dog looking at him. This shows the dog wanting attention, but being ignored again.
 (0:30) Shows dog looking at an empty dog bowl while MC comes in not feeding or paying attention to the dog. Low shot, with dog bowl prop.
 (0:35) Color comes in from the grey filter (which was a flashback) as it shows a clip of dog leaving. Wide Shot. Also with dark lighting or shadow effects.
 (0:40) Shows MC looking for a dog and MC shocked to find an empty dog bowl. Low shot near dog bowl. Dark lighting effect. This is an important scene as it relates a lot to the story.
 (0:45) Shows MC putting up posters looking for the dog. Medium shot. Props poster and stapler.
 (0:50) Shows MC sitting on the couch holding a phone to symbolize him waiting for dog. A long shot with a phone prop.
 (0:55) Shows empty bowl, phone and a game controller showing what went wrong. Close up.
 (1:00) Next, we have the main character opening the door after hearing knocking. Wide shot.
 (1:05) Shows close-ups of the hand near door and MC reaching for it.
 (1:10) Shows a dog on the other side of the door. Close up and the song ends.

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 Costumes: Casual clothing or informal wear jackets normal t-shirts but clothing will change as video goes on symbolizing time. We may have specific clothing for a parent's hand. We might also include them looking more stressed as time goes on.

 Settings: Living room, Bedroom, Den, and front yard line. We may go around the street to put up posters or in a public place like the school.

 Props- Dog Bowl, controller, posters, stapler, and phone.

 Camera angles- Wide Shot, Long Shot, Medium Shot, and Low angle, Over the Shoulder (possible), Medium close up, Close up, Slow pan.

 Editing- Cuts, Greyscale, Good transitions, clips relating to audio cues. I want to make the editing a lot better this time around.

 Makeup- None, we don't need anything special other than them to look sad.

Planning for Music Video

Now that we have a song for our music video, we have to plan. At the beginning we didn't know where we would film. We are going to film at our group members house. This is because his dogs will be there. We may end up shooting some shots outside. Luckily, all of our group can meet up at the house to film for two days. In case it rains outside we have an extra day to film. We may also film in a populated area, as we search for the dogs in a clip. We will be safe around his dogs so nobody gets hurt. The dogs are small though so it wouldn't be an issue. Everyone will be safe outside also and take care of the camera. The props we will use are the dogs, fake posters we make, dog treats, and special lighting. Costumes will be casual clothing. We will probably switch clothing on our main actor a lot. to show the days change. Also have him wear a jacket on a gloomy day. I don't think we need anything special for the costumes. Maybe some makeup to make our actor look distressed. We will film the weekend of November 23rd and 24th. We could also film at the school for a few scenes during the week. We will have a lot more time to get better clips this time. This means we will have time to edit. Last project I couldn't encorporate many things I wanted to add because of timing. With the film process we will knock out some editing things. Such as lighting, zooming in, etc. We may have to end up changing the date if someone cannot make it. Hopefully everything will go to plan when we film. We already have an alternate plan if it rains so we should be prepared. This will be a much better project then the last one. 

Intro to Music Video

       After we finished or commercial we had to choose a new project. I had a lot of fun overall, filming the Gatorade commercial was very fun. We had Sean run in slow motion and it ended up looking really good. However, in this project we have replaced Sean with a new member. He will be better because this assignment is recording outside of school and Sean lived to far to travel to where we live to film with us regularly. He did help a lot during the commercial project. After all the issues of exporting it was finally over. I learned a lot from the commercial project, and will be able to use it for this one.

       Today in class we started a music video. The first thing we had to do was find a song with meaningful lyrics. We decided to choose the song "Gary come home". It was a sad song about a man losing he's best friend, which is a snail. We have a lot of good ideas on how to make a music video. The song has direct lyrics we can express through our video, which will definitely help our story. After listening to the song I can identify the genre as a sad ballad. These genres usually express a story of a lost loved one. They usually are regretful and have a slow tempo, which makes the listener feel sad and depressed. They usually have rigid camera angles, and slow moving rig shots. The editing relies in slow transitions and overlays with opacity turned down so you are watching two clips at once. For our song, the only sound will probably be the music. 

          Here are some conventions for these type of songs. 

1. There are not many costumes for a slow ballad like this one. It would vary on the story and message of the song. 

2. Lighting usually has dark shadows to represent a sad mood. It also usually has a defining light source in a dark room rather than a bright room. 

3. Acting is someone being sad or resenting doing something in the past. There may be a flashback in which they act out what happened to cause this problem. 

4. I wouldn't say there is any of specific makeup to wear for acting in a ballad. Some uses include makeup wearing off when crying in a flashback. 

5.  For props actors may use a fireplace to set the mood, and lose a significant item in a flashback. For our idea, we may use a dog as Gary and some other props.

6. The scene for our ballad could be in a large or small room, to represent loneliness or claustrophobia. This would help a story. 

Editing the Commericial

       Today we finished editing the commercial. The first thing we did while editing it was put all our clips in the editing timeline. Then I organized all the clips as my group mates told me which ones looked best. Then we started cutting. The commercial had to be less than 30 seconds long so I had to cut a bit of the clips, but it worked out. We had to make it short and sweet. I next added some color correction to a clip and more shadows. This was to create suspense at the beginning. Next I made some clips slower because it looked better slower. I then added fades to a few clips. A fade in at the beginning really helped set the mood! I also added a fade out after the Gatorade splashed. 

             I then added some text of a classic Gatorade slogan at the end. I Dont think it looks perfect, but it will do. I then found the music by myself, and added it. My group mates were arguing about it but we decided to keep it. It was time to export and pinnacle studios was having a ton of problems. Because I am a veteran to editing I was the one trying to fix the problem. While I was frantically changing settings and looking up if anyone else had the issue, my group mates were playing games. I got minimal help so we could not export it. I do not think it was a good idea to have us use a super old editing software. 

          The editing process was very fun and went smoothly. However the exporting process was hell and I will try and find a solution. I think i should have added a Gatorade logo at the end. I also could have added some smoother transitions. The biggest barrier was having to do all of our editing in a 2 hour time frame. This was hard because nobody had any experience with pinnacle studios. Frankly, the lesson about it and the notes didn't help. I hope we will have more time to email our projects to our teacher. This has been a hectic experience.

Planning to Edit the Commercial

Today is October 28th and we looked over out footage. We had 19 clips overall and chose which ones were the best. I personally liked the clips with a lot of shadows. This is because it will help with the theme of the commercial. Most of our clips actually had really good lighting. This is surprising because there was a lot of glare outside that day. We had a pretty good place to film on the track. I think everything worked out. Dumping the clips onto the computer did take a while. This was because other groups were using all the SD Card adapters. Once we got it on, we made a folder called "commercial" to save the clips. The next thing we did was make sure the clips were correct and and put it on Google Drive.

     On Google drive I made another folder called "AICE Media Studies". This will be for all future clips we put on there. I organized the clips in order of time for the video. I also made sure they were all there. The clips were the right length but I think we will have to slow some down. Because Pinnacle studios wasn't up today we decided to plan our editing process. I think that we should go with an emotional theme. Possibly like the theme of never giving up.

     I think at the beginning we should have shadows and slow the clip down. This is because Sean walks fast it in and it doesn't convey the right theme. In other clips I need to add more shadows on seans face while he runs. and to slow down the race for it to be comprehensible. On the clips where Sean drinks Gatorade I need to color correct and make the Gatorade pop on the screen. I also need to put it in slow motion when he slams it on the ground. I think that the music choice will dictate the theme so I will spend a long time planning it. I also want to make the medal we give Sean more noticeable. This can be done in many ways but I think the best is to use some color techniques. I think we should mainly use jump cuts but we do need some variety. I am excited to edit the commercial next class. 

Filming the Commercial

Today the 24th we filmed our commercial after planning it for a few days. The main character was Sean from my group, I was one of the runners in the commercial. Tim was another runner, and Jake was acting as the coach. Our equipment was a tripod and a camera with an SD card. We took a while to find a place to start filming because it was crowded at the track that day. There were people from other clubs running around it! As we got our spot, we changed a few angles from the storyboard but did not stray too far off the path. For the first scene, I had to stretch as Sean walked up to the starting area for the race. We did 3 or 4 takes of this scene. For the second scene, I held the camera because we went to one of the last scenes. This scene was where the coach hands Sean a Gatorade to drink. We used the tripod for this one so it did not shake and ruin the scene. For the next scene I helped Jake record a closeup of the Gatorade splashing on the ground, for effect at the end of the commercial. We were running out of time, and the camera battery ran out so we had to act fast. We borrowed a battery from another group, for a few shots to finish the film. I ran ahead of Sean for a shot because it has to look like he is losing in the beginning. The next shot, Sean poured water on himself to act as sweat and we got a closeup of him running. For that take, I helped place the actor to set the angle. The last take we needed was all of us running, and Sean barely winning. I feel like I slowed down a bit early but it still worked out as Tim almost beat Sean. I think the clips are not very good by themselves. But they will be really good when I edit it. I am planning to do the majority of the editing as I am experienced. We used a bigger Gatorade bottle then planned, and decided to move the whistle to edit in post. However, for the shot where Sean is handed the Gatorade; he is also handed a medal. This helps the viewer understand that he won. This is because there is no definitive finish line on the track at the time. I feel like I did a good job acting. I wish I was able to use the camera more, however, I was in a lot of shots. I am excited to finish up this project!

Storyboard

We started brainstorming our storyboard today in class. We have an idea of what we want to do for a Gatorade commercial including 3 racers and a coach. We might also incorporate some background fans cheering. We spent a while planning the idea and have created a good film plan. At the beginning we will have a shot behind our protagonist walking up to the starting blocks. We are thinking about having a voice over explain how he is washed up. The next thing we will do is tilt up to above his shoulder. This will show the other racers stretching. I think it well help show the importance of this race to the protagonist. 

The other racers will be wearing racing clothing so the audience can understand. The next scene will be a flash pan to the protagonist on the starting blocks in the foreground of the wide shot. We will have the other racers be unfocused in the shot to capture the protagonists emotion. We will have the race start and our protagonist lag behind. We will then have a close up of our protagonist sweating and looking serious. After that it zooms back out and he barely wins the race after pulling ahead. This will help the audience feel an emotion and be invested in the commercial. Next we will have a medium shot of the Protagonist given a medal and a Gatorade by his coach. There will be people cheering for him. 

The final shot will be the Protagonist slamming down the Gatorade after taking a drink and the camera closing up on the drink. In the background will be people cheering. I think this storyboard is practical and will be good for character development and investing viewers. I think it will keep people interested in the drink. We might end up making some changes to the storyboard. I think it would be cool to have gatorade references in the background. I also think that it would be good to have the logo come up at the end in classic commercial style. We will also be wearing costumes to represent what part we are acting out. I think we will make a good commercial because we have planned it out for a while. 

Editing Blog Lesson

Today we had a lesson about editing and how to use a camera. The first thing we learned was how to connect a camera to a tripod. For this specific tripod  there is a plate that you can connect to the camera and the tripod interchangablly. Flick a lever and the plate pops off. There is a knob on the plate to tighten or loosen it to take it off. Finally the very cool thing I learned, was there is a lever to change the camera height. This is special because it doesn't need to extend the tripods legs and is its own special thing.
       The next thing we learned was the editing process. We have to use pinnacle studios to edit our videos for everything we do this year. On our computer we can create a folder on the desktop. This will be used for inserting the SD Card information into the folder for use. After this, we can search for our footage as it is sorted by date and time. If the footage isn't in DCIM, it is probably in AVCHD so I have to remember to check both. Dumping is the term to dump footage onto the computer, which is an important keyword to remember. Importing is bringing footage from camera to computer which we do with the SD Card. Always remember to import all of your footage as you might need other ones later. This raw footage is the clips you will use to create your film when editing. Once you put your clips in the editing bar, wait for them to render in. If you do not wait it could cause massive issues so this is a good point. If I want to create effects, there is an effects panel which includes transitions, special effects, and more. Right clicking a clip also gives special features like the ability to speed it up. If I want to add text, there is a button with a capital "T" which will add text to overlay my editing. I think this can be useful because it can be a title during my commercial. By using multiple tracks I can change which clips are over another. This is used to create useful effects like split screen and other things!           
           Editing takes up the bulk of my time, so learning how to do it efficiently will be very useful. There are a variety of keyboard shortcuts I can use to make my life easier. For example, using ctrl z to undo an edit and k to start watching. Once I finalize my edits I will start exporting the project. Exporting is taking footage from Pinnacle Studios, and moving it to the desktop. Using Mp4 format with best possible quality and high render, are the best settings. Than you can start rendering your footage which is the final step before you can turn it in. Rendering combines all your clips and makes them smooth out, which is imparitive for the final product.

Planning Blog for Gatorade Commercial

    Today, my group is going to plan for a Gatorade commercial. We already know common tropes of what a commercial should be like and will integrate that when creating our plan. Our current idea is to have the setting be focused around the track at our school. This is always up for change, if it rains we will have a back up plan. The first thing we are doing is starting to watch Gatorade commercials, as we can recreate the types of angles and lighting they use. Our current idea is to have 3 of our group members be in a track race. Our protagonist, Sean struggles, and wins the race as he has prepared and looks serious on the blocks. Coach hands him a Gatorade, he drinks it and slams it down; amplifying the effect. The camera focuses on the Gatorade as we celebrate in the background.

1) Props- Lime Gatorade Bottle (Normal Size), Water (for sweat), Whistle, Medal.
2) Costumes- Sweatbands, Track-like Clothing, Running Shoes, Polo shirt.
3) Schedule- On October 19 we will storyboard our scenes for the commercial, On October 21 we will film our commercial from the rubric of the storyboard and get multiple scenes of everything we need. On October 23rd we will edit the commercial in class and add our overlays such as pictures and special effects. On October 25 our commercial will be done and will be turned in for grading.
4) Location- We will be filming on the track at our school, and on the bleachers.
5) Backup Plan: Actor buys Gatorade from school vending machine, goes to work out in the weight room or the stairs, and slams the Gatorade down to show effect as he works out and is sweating.

 

Research blog: Commercial Conventions

             My group is interested in making a commercial based on Sports drinks as we see a lot of potential in it, but that is always up for change. Advertisements are used today to promote and sell a product/service to the audience. The main conventions I see from commercials such as Gatorade are: specific camera angle and shots to make the item looking very appealing. The iconography of Gatorade is really special and they overuse it in their commercials to ingrain it into your mind. The editing for them is usually pretty simple, but with something flashy at the end such as a football player running into the field as in the Gatorade TV Commercial "Make Your Rival Your Fuel".
           The lightning uses drastic shadows to amplify the sweat and tiredness of the athletes who are drinking Gatorade in the videos. In all ads, there is a common theme in all sounds such as the music, or special effects. If it is an intense ad, then it is connected with intense music and loud, flashy sound effects. Computer graphics, such as text written over the ad, normally appear at the end of an ad to display information. However in Gatorade ads, the text usually includes inspirational quotes to make you feel accomplished and satisfied with the ad.
          Depending on the ad, special effects can be used heavily. Gatorade ads actually use very little special effects, mostly relying on actors emotions as seen on recent ads. While ads based on medicare, usually use green screen and overlays many times throughout the ad. I learned a lot from this research and did not initially realize how much work goes into a short ad.

Introductory

I am Kyle Weiner and I joined AICE Media Studies for my passion of the subject and I am excited to learn more about the class. I always loved editing on Adobe apps and want to expand my skills in future projects. I hope to make a good film project that blows the graders away on the final. I am excited for the future and hope to make fun projects. Last year I did TV Production and it was one of my favorite classes. So far I have learned the same things and more, such as: camera angles, shots, editing terms etc. If I could, I would have taken this class last year. I worked on a film studies class for Duke TIP two years ago, and I plan to do it again this year. I am excited to watch and analyze films in this class.
          My favorite films are The Truman Show and The Usual Suspect. I like these films because they are very pleasing to watch, and have a unique ending that I wouldn't have guessed. I want to watch more films and am excited for new ones to come out. So far we have analyzed the Charlie Chaplin film, City Lights. I thought it was really good for its time, and how it did not use sound was really unique and the start of Chaplin's style. Another project that was very cool was learning how to Storyboard and the process of how a film is produced. I was interested to learn how long each part took, and how important film festivals are for smaller films. Movies like the Dark Knight and other Dramas are probably my favorite. You could say my favorite genre is Drama, and Action, as I look for many aspects that make the film my favorite. The most important aspect in my opinion is character development. This helps you see the film through the characters eyes and makes it much better.
         The best thing I did last year was create a commercial that was around 3 minutes long. It was a blast to record and it turned out really good after I edited it. This makes me excited for the commercial project that we will do soon in the class. I hope to do something that I did not do last year and that will help me learn more about film studies. My favorite part of film is the editing process. My favorite editing tool is Adobe After Effects. I spent most of my summer learning how to use after effects. I will be very happy, and excited if I am able to use it for the videos we film this year. Overall, I am very excited for the future of this class and what we will do.