We spent much time on sites like unsigned.com trying to find
a band or singer we liked and had usable production ideas for.
There were several key components in how we selected our
musical artist, the most important of these was how well the music could be
applied to a visual medium. In most music videos the music must be able to be
translated into a visual medium by lending itself either tonally to performance
or lyrically to a narrative in order to let a set of visuals be easily built up
around it. Eventually we chose Kristen falconer an artist on unsignedbands.web
for her pop tones and how easy it was to construct a narrative and ideas for
performance around it.
We then attempted to contact the artist through this website
but did not receive a reply for unknown reasons. We also saw a pre existing
video for this song on YouTube, given that it was not produced under the eye of
a label it did not have large amounts of revenue behind it and was obviously
produced on the capital of the artist rather than a production company. By
being able to easily view the video on sites like YouTube and Vimeo we were
able to easily pinpoint the features that helped make the videos popular and
the flaws that were its shortcomings such as the scene transitions being few
and far between. In addition to this early research we also used YouTube to
conduct research into similar artists and bands that helped to influence our
techniques and processes. We were inspired early on by artists such as Lady
Gaga and Ke$ha who have personas that revolve around being artists dedicated to
their public images as exciting pop musicians and party girls. Aesthetically
and relating to technique we watched videos such as “Don’t You Want Me Baby?”
by the Human League and Ke$ha’s Tik Tok which both convey the type of visuals
and narrative we want to see.
Of course the most important piece of equipment we had during
filming was our camera, the standard media studies Sony DCR SX34. This camera
was the same on we used during our thriller shooting and it’s high quality
image capture and the excellent adaptability of the video it produced were
essential to producing the video at a near professional level. The camera was
also extremely important during our planning stages as we needed to map out
what its exact limits were concerning zoom and range.
It was important for us at the advance of A2 from AS to
expand our range of technical skills. This included developing our technique in
regards to movement of a camera during shots which needed to be improved given
that we did not have any professional equipment such as cranes or camera
dollies. A music promo required a different set of shots to a thriller opening
given that we needed to induce a different set of emotions. We needed to use
shots that showed a singer in full view and hid nothing unnecessarily. The most
important skill we developed was the ability to choose shots appropriately
during planning and apply them in the field.
It is important of course to note the large difference in the
set of skills required to build a music promo as compared to a thriller
opening. The editing in a promo is different in many regards not least the
inducement of emotions required, whereas in a thriller the idea is to induce
the emotions of fear and bewilderment a promo is meant to excite and interest.
In no area besides subject matter is this more apparent than in editing.
Although a thriller has few edits from shot to shot in order to take time in
establishing things a music promo must have lots of fast edits and excellent
special effects in order to bring in an audience. The biggest difference I have
found in editing the two pieces is in regards to lip synching. Whereas in the
thriller this was unnecessary due to the spoken word being recorded in
conjunction with the action, however as the music video is required to sync up
many shots with one long continuous track lip synching is one of the most
important skills needed in both our actress and our editing team.
It was most fortuitous that we had apple Macs to work with,
using programs such as iMovie and Final cut allowed us to utilize editing
techniques such as transition and layering that would have been impossible to
use otherwise. We learnt many new skills that were not essential in the
previous unit such as how to use scene transitions and titles to their full
effect and how to perform certain editing special effects such as using image
alterations to affect problems we had during shooting in regards to natural
light.
We also learnt much during our shooting such as how to
overcome problems in regard to space and lighting. Often we were faced with the
problem of a shooting space not being what we required of it. We were called
upon to rearrange props and learnt much in regards to stage lighting which
helped us immensely whilst filming interior scenes. We needed to learn how to
overcome many problems involving lighting such as when we filmed outdoors
having to rely on natural darkness which during winter can be rather
unpredictable.
During production of our ancillary tasks we used programs
such as Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher to produce our magazine ads and our
Digipack covers. We found both products invaluable in our production given how
easily they allowed us to edit images in regards to subjects such as light and
contrast.
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