kcabdeeF ssalC

A summary and yet also a more 'full' way of putting our Feedback would be to say that everyone liked how well we managed to get the lip syncing pretty much exactly in place. The class enjoyed how well our narrative fit with the lyrics and also that the editing was pretty good, the clips we had, moving them around, we managed to get them on time almost all the time. The actual band time or 'as live', can easily be said that they liked it. Another thing that the class enjoyed was how much we varied, when looking at the band, each member got their own 'screen time'.

The 'bad stuff' or 'improvements' that we could do would be to make some of our shots last less long and perhaps a bit more narrative, as for some it could be hard to understand just what we were trying to put across. And finally it was 'requested' of us to plan our props better, more so in the as live areas than in the narrative.

!!DEHSINIF

Finally we are done. Annie made a great bit at the end of music video. A small clips using some of the time where I (Josh) think we were mucking around during making the footage. Either way it looks good. So this lesson Annie finished off the video and then we are uploading it to quicktime twice, the first time with the extra footage, this one is going onto youtube and then the second time will not contain the extra footage as it would just generally be safer without.

Gnitide

Implementing Narrative into the footage.

Where we need the narrative:

- post-its fluctuating
- TRacking into the center post its.
- Then input the narrative afterwards.

All of the footage of the post its was postboxed, so there were areas of the shot that belonged to other footage in the same area on the time line. Unfortunately, we now have to zoom in, 'pull' the footage. This lessens the picture quality, and is just too tedious.

After much trial an error, they've done it =D woooo....yeah, like a ghost...


And now, just continuing with more editing, as per usual these past few days.

You guesssed it

Ricky gave back some more of our footage that he had been converting. Lots of drummer footage whoo! and Yay!

So far we've just been viewing the footage and searching for footage to put in the otherwise ...'empty areas'. Looking at the amount of footage we have nearer the beginning, and then nearer the ending, the ending looks rather plain, but still good in my opinion.

With the roughly four minutes of new footage, over the top of our already 4 minutes long video, its frustrating to time each piece, all over again.

Some of the footage cannot be used, for the pure fact that you can see what we did to the drums. We put a tea towel on one to lessen the noise.

Yet more editing.

I'm not sure how much we have left to do, but I can tell you that it looks brilliant so far.

However the day has not started off in a good way. The Mac managed to crash in some way. No blue screen, just a black one. Hannah came over and we shut it down, left it off for a moment.

It's back on now, hopefully it will work for the rest of the session.

Looking at the timeline I(Josh) can see lots of clips in all areas, I remember when I first started off, and used like..2 lines of video? So far we've managed 6 lines of footage, each with markers and such to time it to the right position and so we can lip-sync it properly.

Today, Annie brought in some more shots that she had taken. So they(Annie, Dan & Aidan) will work on implementing them into the footage.

At one point there seemed to be a problem rendering, as one piece was placed they had a problem, and then the same with another.

Unfortunately we seem to have lost some footage, regardless of searches. The memory stick or original computer seems to have lost our footage.

Continued Editing.

Today the group has been editing the footage, as would be expected. At certain points, when trying to get things in, we have had some pure luck. Placing down or deleting/editing parts of the footage and they have come out brilliant, some ideas we didn't think of and some that we did. Namely 'ghost footage' which I (Josh), thought most interesting.

And now for the long awaited production shots.

I took most of these photo's myself (Josh) but a few were taken by Annie, when we were doing the original idea of someone wanting to be a punk (shown below.) That idea was scrapped, along with the idea of Aidan being the person that would look like a woman. (Also Below.)

Here Josh and Leo are setting up the drums, the drums started off being too loud, so we put masking tape on the sticks and linen on to the drums, so that the noise was quiet or non-existent.



This next one shows the end product.



Our makeshift dolly, until we finally found one at the back. And in the end, I don't think we used either of them.



As refered to above, this next picture shows me(Josh) being someone that wants to be a Punk.

Here are the two guitarists practicing their parts.

Rough Cut Contents

Our Rough Cut will only be able to contain the Guitarist and the narrative

Because of the setting it takes smages to write- ARGH!

Rough Cut in Process

Annie and Dan have been working on getting a few shots sped up. They finally found a tutorial on youtube and the results were, to speed up the footage either:

command + J

OR

Modify - Speed


***
Edit
***

The problem has been rectified, we have now managed to speed up the footage.

Final Shots

So yesterday we all but one met up at the band footage location. We had our 'back-up band members' stand in for the real band and we shot a lot of footage, I will be uploading some of the photo's I took 'production shots.'

Our ideas have changed around a bit. As we have scrapped one idea of someone being a clown that wanted to be something else. (the song is based on peoples dreams.)

The footage, I think I heard Annie say, consisted of one hour. Some of this will be the 'as live' and some will be preparing, some of Me (Josh) and Aiden as the two 'dreams'.

Test Footage 2

So we went out again today, shot some more test footage. Using me (Josh), Leo, Tom and Sam as the band. We shot the footage first 'as live' by the hall. And then some narrative shots in the quad.

More shots in the quad included the band rocking out and singing. It was ...organized mucking around, but it came out really well.

Dan is, as I write this, editing the footage and putting in the real song. He and Annie are adding in the animatics to fill in missing areas in the test footage.

Blogging t3h f33db4ck

All our posts are efficient.

"There is a lot of information on location and equipment and they have obviously put a lot of effort into their project"


"A fair bit of information, but some we couldn't understand.

Further Costs for Costume and Props

Saturday is Park Time. Whoop.

Ballerina shoes: £0, to borrow from a friend (who WON'T let me down)

Lawyer suit: £0, to borrow

Builder: £0, actor

Clown costume: approx. £30 -http://www.jokeshop.co.uk/cgi-bin/sitewise.pl?act=det&pt=&p=3585&id=jokeshop

Lights: for a rack of rhythm co-ordinated lights, approx. £15

Travel for the rest of the group to location: £5 each

There are so many more things yet to take into account, but we are taking things as they are.

**
Edit
**

We decided to scrap those ideas, and do some new ones, including a wig and some make-up. Which made Aidan look fabulous (pictures later.) So the costumes changed, the general dreams changed, and we didn't do the lights

Also, we were going to use this guitar originally. It is Aidan's custom-built Gibson and it does cool things with lights. However, the idea was scrapped due to the lights not being used and the fact that he'd have to take this ultra-valuable one-of-a-kind guitar on a BUS!

We have the dreams, but do we have the talent to fulfil them?

Simon Cowell says no- WE say yes. Do we get a prize?



Aidan and Annie will be in the camera pit and on stage, filming during the real performance and sound check, also, while other songs are performed will will be gathering cut-aways.

Aidan has just gone home as he is ill, but Josh and I will be filming test shots.

Animatic

Teqneekes

For the video we will be using the split screen technique, at least for some of it. The screen will be split into five screens and the images in the screens will be alternated between the band members and the extras.

One Polaroid on the wall, up to 100...fluctuating back and forth almost like stop motion.

We have also thought of another technique which we may use, for one or two of teh performance shots we may blur the movement of the band to kind of create a ghost trail behind them.


Added by Annie on 20.09.08:
Although I love the power standing behind the camera gives me - editing is by no means second best! Music is music and video clips are just lots of pictures joined up, editing is like nothing else. Not only are we desperate for this video to be successful in the way that it's punchy and impactful, more than anything we want to iliminate ANY chance of continuity error. In the past, this has been trickier than we originally thought.
However, in this blog, we'll talk about techniques which will keep our audience's eyes glued to the screen, such as:
(As Dan and Mynnion said) Split screen
Stop motion
and for the 'as live' footage, a blur effect

We're excited as can be after getting really good marks in our Thriller projects last year. We'll be using the same software- Final Cut. I'm completely stoked as I've been waiting for an excuse to use all the features again. Obviously, for synching purposes we have to use the roll, ripple, slip, slide, and of course razor blade tools (although we might use flash synching anyway)

There are a few techniques we are really biased against this time, a shorter list than the tools we DO want to use. As we would particularly like the editing to suit the song's message and there aren't any slow bits, we don't see the song as fade-worthy. As yet we have thought a lot more about the ideas for shots in the performance stage, instead of the narrative side of things, which I assume may lead to improvisional editing methods and a slightly more abstract feel.
Although we have been advised to follow a strict plan of action, playing the song repeatedly from different angles in different locations, if something looks particularly shocking and is thought to suit a certain part of the song, we may use it as a cutaway and stick it in where we like.

We're all aware of the importance of knowing the song inside out before the editing stage. I hope we're all free for the shoots, but if not, I'm sure the song will be a fantastic annoyance to us all forever more! I don't doubt it will be overplayed.

After capturing the footage on Final Cut, we'll use Opt+ Cmnd+W to see the wave forms and the marker to clearly represent moments in the song which will carry us towards the rough edit.

I've thought about using the colour glow tool to accentuate light flares, if any. Just to add a little sparkle. I've also thought of a few ideas about bringing Photoshop into the equation, adding keying layers and creating a unique feel.

Wow, this went on a long time. Now, to other school work!
What a Saturday night.

C/P/L

Costumes are currently:
Band in Civies
Extras:
In costume related to their stereotypes.

Props:
-Polaroids
-Chair
-Ropes/chains

Location:
-Annie's garage
-Newmarket Memorial Hall
-(outside) bench perhaps in the botanical gardens

Anything

Here are a couple of videos that have similar concepts to our general idea.

We don't need a title. We're just cool like that.

Soup, /b/?

We've decided on none of the songs on the list because we're too good for them. However, we've used our ultra-mega quantum-band links to get the authorization to use a super-special-awesome track by Man on Earth called Lazy. They have even said that if they like our video enough that they'll put it on their myspace page- how freakin' 1337 is that? We will win some internets if they do.

We have sort of started to think about pitching, but first we have to transcribe the lyrics. This is hard because we are still upset at not being able to do 'Poo Through My Ass' by The Left Rights, which would have been much easier to pitch due to its specific lyrical content.

Since the song is about a failed relationship, expect something cheesy and Nickelback-esque. Hmmm... cringeworthy! Well, it would be nice to break away from this formula of ph41lure, but the video has to be depressing- people like to be afraid or depressed in our bizzare post-9/11 world. Oh yeah, I went there.

In other news, a man tried to break into my house last night, so I proceeded to whack him over the head with my fold-up chair until he was 'unconscious'. Upon inspecting him after my assault, I found:

-A torch with no batteries
-A half-empty packet of fig rolls
-Instructions for The Simpsons Monopoly
-A pack of used matches
-An elastic band

Upon further thought, I have suddenly thought to myself;

'Oh my God, I killed MacGuyver!'