Editing the Music Video

     A couple days ago we edited the music video. If I’m going to be honest, Rafael did mostly all of it. He does have the most knowledge about editing then me or Angelo. I’m not sure how he knows what he does. In this blog I will be talking about how our music video was edited.
     First came putting all the scenes together. This wasn’t too difficult. Since most of our shots didn’t have too much excess footage it wasn’t too long. We obviously had to sort the scenes in chronological order. This was based mostly on the storyboard. Since we diverted from the origin plan it doesn’t link up completely. We also didn’t film everything from first scene to last scene. In fact, the first scene we filmed was the last scene. After we joined the clips together, in the correct order, we edited extra parts out. These include me saying start or go and any extra time the actor took after I pressed record. When filming we made a lot of background noise. In the clips you can hear talking and laughing. There were also a lot of directions in the audio, this helped a lot during the filming process. Ultimately, from the beginning we know we were going to edit these sounds out. This was quite easy all you had to do was mute the audio on all of them. Next came putting the song over the scenes. Each clip had its own part of the song it was supposed to go with. The song was layered over the original muted audio. From here we cut down the scenes so that they would correspond with the lyrics. This proved a bit more time consuming than expected. It’s a good thing while filming we made the shots while playing the music. This really helped to ensure a clip was not too short. This would have really messed things up for all the scenes. After this came the transitions. We decided on them being short and somewhat abrupt because the song is like that, it shifts from one second to the other. For others, we did fades. I wanted to add filters over the video to differentiate each scene even more. However, I brought this up rather late and my teammates felt it was unnecessary. Overall, I feel our music video is pretty mediocre. The whole process itself is a lot harder than I thought. The part I feel is the hardest is filming and the shots coming out not looking like a bunch of kids who’re just trying something out. I wanted it to look and give a more professional feel. For my next filming project I will try hard to make it better.

Filming the Music Video again

     During the second day of filming the whole music video was reshot. Me and my group right after school got to Mariapaula’s house and waited for the sun to set. Before it set, we determined who’s phone we will be filming with. I then took their phone and recorded the sun but used a brightness bar to start it at the darkest possible shade and lightening it up. This was for the part of our song that goes “brighter than the sun.” While the sun was setting, me and my group popped a confetti popper and collected the confetti. We then placed it around the bathro ou om. Mariapaula did us the favor of pretending to be passed out on the floor. I tried being the cameraman but I didn’t like the way the shots were coming out. Because of this I asked Rafael to step in and record. We then began filming the actor (Angelo) walking in the house. However, before this we spread more confetti around the floor. We played the song during the shots to make sure the length of the walk to the door was long or short enough. It proved more difficult than originally thought. The timing had to be precise for it to go along with the music. I then filmed Angelo walking into the house, when he hesitates to open the door. I captured it from a low angle and had to take many shots. It’s rather amusing because the first take done was really good but I hadn’t pressed record. After this Angelo didn’t do as well. We finally got a good enough shot. I sweepers hope all the confetti on the floor and moved onto the next scene. This would be the scene where angelo is in the house and looks over at the lover also played by Mariapaula. There was a short debate on who should play the lover but I honestly feel very uncomfortable on camera so I decided to ask Mariapaula. We has to discuss and change the lighting a lot on the house. We went from turning off and on one to the other to a different color LED light around the kitchen counter. I then filmed them walking to each other from multiple distances and angles. I was trying very hard to get a good shot. Best came all the arguing scenes. This was pretty annoying. Mariapaula kept laughing in them and a lot of them looked fake. Honestly, I just settled at the end and gave up on those scenes to be perfect, we were on a clock and had to finish soon. They didn’t come out too bad but the scene where the lover is falling looks pretty out of place. Lastly we filmed the fire and confetti scenes. Mariapaula’s dad lit the fire and I recorded many shot of it. These shots include tilts, aerial views, and high and low angles. The absolute last scene we took was the confetti scene. Overall, I like the idea of this shot a lot, I liked the setting, the confetti falling, and affect it gave. However, I think that affect was washed out by the bad quality the camera gave. Lighting was a big problem by the fence we decided to do it by because, well, there was none. We had to use camera lights to try and brighten it up. This didn’t work and the colors didn’t come out vivid, like I wanted. We also couldn’t redo the scene because we didn’t have another confetti popper. Finding a way to fix this scene up isn’t going to be easy. I had a lot of fun filming this music video mostly because a lot of the stress from the previous filming day was gone. We did get pretty distracted and ran somewhat short on time. This is something that I need to work on for next time.

Filming the Music Video

     While filming this music video the number of the problems that surfaced is insane. To provide more context for what happened, I must first restate that the filming was going to take place at a friends house. Before filming out music video me and my team were going to help them with their music video. This took approximately 3-4 hours. While we were helping them with their music video we were expecting our third teammate to arrive. Around 12 he texted saying he wouldn’t be able to come because of an emergency one of his close friends had. Neither of us replied and kept on helping in anyway we could. When it came to our turn we were in need of a male actor. However, when we needed one the other two from the other group had to leave. At this point I was extremely annoyed because they used up quite a bit of the cameras battery (which we were sharing) and weren’t going to help us. This led me and my partner Rafael to steer away from the original storyboard.
     We debated several options. One of these options was changing the gender roles around because we had two girls (including myself) and one male. Rafael didn’t like this idea very much so we fell back on an idea presented a lot earlier which was to film the whole video from a point of view and have Mariapaula be the man. We had to wait until it was dark so we filmed the inside scenes first. We began with the shot of the bathroom and decided to add a person passed out in it. We popped a confetti popper and collected the confetti in a bag and spread it in Mariapaula’s bathroom. After this we began rehearsing the scenes of the “lover” in the bar turning around. These scenes made me very unhappy, not only because I hated the way I looked in them, but also because I wasn’t getting the affect I wanted. We improvised by changing the scene to just her eyes looking at him with annoyance.
     We continued to do the scenes from a point of view perspective. We waited for it to get dark outside to film the beginning of the music video. We took multiple shots of the man walking to the “bar” but didn’t like many of them. We also played the song to know how long the scene had to be and so that it went with the beat. We also realized we had a blank spot where we needed to add a scene. We decided to add the man hesitating to open the door. (26) We decided to leave the scene with the campfire for Tuesday. The last scene we filmed was a confetti popper going off and it falling down gently with a white fence in the background. This is probably my favorite scene from the whole music video. We then cleaned up the confetti and Mariapaula’s house. I didn’t think the scenes we took were that bad; although, we were a bit rushed, Mariapaula was tired from filming all day and I felt she wanted us to leave. Overall, Filipino out commercial took about an hour or two. We got into class today after getting all the clips onto the computer and we’re very surprised. The footage was extremely grainy and bad quality, I wasn’t happy with any of the scenes. We will be filming again on Tuesday and not on the school camera but with our phones. Hopefully things end up better this time around.

Music Video Storyboard

The Storyboard for the Music Video

     My group and I are filming our music video on the song “We Are Young” by Fun. We wanted to relate the lyrics of the song to our video. The costumes our characters will be using are generally dark colors such as black, dark blue, etc. Our costumes are completely dependent on our setting which is at a bar. The apparel matches the location and time of day. We will use both bright and dark lights to focus on our characters, but to also give off the feeling of a bar. Additionally, we’re using naturally lighting because we plan on having an area for a fire in our music video. The actors will be strangers and suddenly stumble upon each other. They start off good but quickly the cookie crumbles. Our characters won’t be using makeup for the most part except the girl. She might wear minimal makeup, but this is still not guaranteed. Some of the props we will be using are sunglasses, shot glasses, and bar stools. The setting we will be filming at is for the most part at the bar, but we will also film certain scenes in the bathroom, and outside where the fire is. Our set is the biggest factor in our film because it affects so many of the aspects we need to cover. For instance, it affects our apparel, lighting, acting, and camera shots.

            The equipment we are using to record is fairly standard. We are using a camera, tripod, etc. that is provided by the school. We are going to use a variety of angles to get the perfect scene. Examples of the angles we will be using are high angle and low angle. My group and I are also trying incorporate a multitude of different camera movements. The main movements we would like to use are tilt, pan, and zoom. We think the different movements will help elevate our video to the next level. We will also capture various different shots. Our video will consist of close ups, long, medium, and wide shots. These are the main ones we utilize, but we will incorporate more.

              The editing will be similar to my groups last project. Rafael is the best with computers and programs so he leads us in editing. We will assist with what he needs help with like sounds, cutting the film, and choosing scenes. Although the main sound will be the song, we are going to attempt to include other sound effects to enhance our video. We plan to finish this project efficiently and as a team. We are working together everyday and learning new techniques and skills to help us become better film makers.

     

Planning the Music Video

1) Location
          We had a variety of locations to choose from: the park, the beach, and etc. Our friend offered to let her house be used as a filming setting, primarily her backyard. We plan to film at night time since the song emphasizes a dark setting. The location and time of day will be essential since we are going to utilize a bonfire. We will also film in her dining room for bar scenes.
2) Health & Safety
          We will carpool to the location so kidnappings is not an issue. We will be very careful with the bonfire. Our friend's dad will ignite the fire and we will have a fire extinguisher on standby. We will also have first aid kit ready to be used in case of any accidents. We will also make sure to use the fireworks appropriately and effectively.
3) Props
          We may use fireworks, the small kind. It will be a cool subject to film in slow motion. We may also use drinking glasses and/or solo cups to create a night-time party atmosphere. We will also use our phones in the music video as a way for the characters to communicate. The bartender will have a cloth rag to clean up the bar.
4) Costumes
          The characters will be dressed up for a party. One of the characters will have sun glasses on because it will fit with the lyrics in the song. The 'lover' will have subtle make up on. The man will have jeans and a button up. The sun glasses character will wear all black.
5) Schedule
          This blog and the storyboard blog will be due on Thursday 11/21. We will film on Saturday, 11/23 at our friends house. The first filming blog will be due on Monday, 11/25. It will have our experience of filming for the first time off campus. If we need to re-shoot, we may film again over Thanksgiving Break. Then our second filming blog will be due Monday, 12/2.

Research Blog for the Music Video

In my media class we have now finished the commercial. We are now starting a new project, a music video. In the process of making the commercial I learned how to properly use a camera. I also learned how to properly plan for something I will be filming. Learning how to use the camera and capture certain angles and create certain effects will help me a lot for the music video. Learning how to plan and planning showed me how important it is to think of absolutely every variable that will be in your film. Now that we are starting the music video I hope it will turn out even better then the commercial.

We picked the song We Are Young by “Fun.” We discussed what song we were going to choose for about an hour. We all liked this song over the others we talked about. Hey ya! by Outkast was also a prominent candidate. We honestly just liked We Are Young more. We liked the upbeat music and decided not to do Hey Ya! because We are Young is more descriptive and we had better ideas for it. We Are Young is a son that was popular when we were about 6 years ago and felt nice to reminisce on that time so we chose it for our music video.

Conventions in pop music videos are very similar to each other. They all use identical strategies to convey their message. Most camera angles were eye level to fully capture the face of the singer. There were numerous close-up shots of the singer's mouth while they were mouthing the lyrics. Lots of sound effects of that emphasize what is going on in the music video, like glass breaking. Handheld shots where the camera is a bit shaky to immerse viewers into the video. A great deal of pop music videos used slow motion to make more actions more dramatic.  

The apparel worn in the majority of pop music videos is modern and trendy. They wear outfits that match the scene and the lyrics of the song. Also, lighting is a big factor in all music videos. The lighting used is similar to a spotlight pointing out the performers. The lights are bright and used to enhance the scenes quality. The acting done in the videos are generally just the artists singing, and dancing. Sometimes directors hire actors if the song represents a story or actions. Almost all people used in a music video wear makeup to hide imperfections or to enhance their role. They also match makeup and lighting so the two compliment each other. Props utilized consist of instruments,  mic stands, and items that connect to the song; props should also relate to the character that’s is acting. The setting used is completely dependent on what the director thinks is best. Some songs assist deciding the setting because they have an upbeat or sad vibe to it.

(Actually) Editing the commercial

     On Monday we got into class and the computers still weren’t fixed. However, we now had a laptop cart available to us. We got to work quickly seeing as how short we were on time. Rafael did most of the editing. He had the most experience with technology and we wanted our commercial to be good. He composed all the scenes together. Once he did this the commercial was really long. We hadn’t expected that our commercial would be way too long. Rafael had the idea of fading the scenes in together. This only cut off 17 seconds. We were still at a minute and 30 seconds. Angelo was getting the music to use for our commercial. After we shaved off 17 seconds we added the music he picked out. I was really happy with that very lengthy commercial. However, I knew we were going to have to take while scenes out now. Rafael asked me what he should cut out. This led to the discussion of which scenes are actually important. I really like the scene of the actors walking in, I felt like it added to the commercial as a whole. However, it look up 7 seconds and didn’t hold any critical knowledge that helped the viewer understand the commercial. We sadly had to cut it out. After this, I told him we should cut out the scene where Darwin (the principal) throws out the students. We had added it for dramatic affect. The face Darwin made after he caught the students was enough to understand the consequences that they were going to face. From then, Rafael sped up all the scenes and the commercial was still too long. At this point most the filming we did on Day 2 was cut out. We obviously had to keep the scene where Rafael lists the consequences of vaping. We kept the scene of Angelo coughing in the commercial. Rafael then decided the ending wasn’t clear enough. Because of this, I had to record a voice over that would be added onto the end of the commercial. After adding the voice over our commercial was 31 seconds long. This proved to be rather annoying. However it was solved quickly when Rafael sped up the voice over. I’m not happy with the way it sounded after it was sped up but it was necessary. Overall, I am satisfied with our commercial. I did like the longer one but the final one is just fine.

Editing: the commercial

     One might think by reading the title of this blog that it was going to be about how I edited my commercial today. However, that is not the case. I came in on Friday and our editing software was not working. I thought it was going to be resolved by today. Our teacher told us that it would hopefully be repaired soon. I even went to study hall yesterday and a representative came in and told us that the principal said we will be getting new equipment. I’m not angry or anything. I’m grateful we got to reshoot some scenes we needed for our commercial. To begin with, we came in and after we realized the computers were still not working we signed out the equipment. I then checked the tripod and Rafael checked the camera battery. Once we began to film I took the role of the cinematographer again. I had to reshoot the actors going into the bathroom again. The footage somehow got lost in the transfers from SD cards to computers. We reshot that scene about three times because we were not content with the replay. We changed it from a pan to the door to a handheld shot of the actors walking in with a zoom in on them. Shortly before this it had been raining so the atmosphere in our clips might be different. When viewing the footage before we noticed that one of the actors, Angelo, had put their headphones in off camera. Because of this we had to shoot a scene that incorporated him putting in his headphones. Rafael has also changed his hair in the second day of shooting. We decided to have Rafael put his hair up and Angelo put his headphones in, in the same scene. I also shot this scene handheld but without the purpose of it being shaky. The scene we decided to put these features in was the reaction scene from when the actors here someone coming into the bathroom. Before we shot this we also had to reshoot the inside view of the actors walking in. This scene was taken multiple times because we tried multiple angles. I was frustrated because this scene was just fine the first time we took it. I was also annoyed my actors hadn’t realized their appearance wasn’t the same on the second day. There were also criticizing my camera work and were quick to move onto the next scene without rewatching. Once this scene was over, the tension calmed down and we shot the last scene we needed. This was the scene where we accommodated the changes in their appearances in the film. This scene only needed two or three takes and we finished. We packed everything away and came back up to the class room. I signed back in the equipment and am now writing my blog. Hopefully by next class we can edit.

Filming the Commercial

     Today in my media class we did the filming for our commercial project. It was honestly one of my favorite days in this class. As soon as I walked in it was go time. I asked my partner Rafael for the sign out paper I asked him to hold for to me to immediately get started on getting the equipment. It was already mostly filled out so I just joined the line. My teacher gave me the camera, SD card, and tripod and I headed back for my table. At it I have the camera to Angelo so he could check that it was charged and working while I checked the tripod. I finished filling out the sign out sheet with the corresponding number on the equipment. I then told Angelo to put it in the folder by the door. After that Mrs. Marchionne gave out the filming passes and I went to get one from her quickly. I signed it out on a different sheet of paper and then went back to my table.
     Once I went back to the table we got everything we needed and headed outside. We first went to the bathroom by the upstairs media center but quickly saw there was many other students filming in that area. So after that we went to the downstairs bathroom and saw a lot of people going in. However, we decided that was where we were going to film anyways. I set up the tripod with help from Angelo and then tried screwing the camera onto the top. While doing this there was a malfunction of sorts. The screw got stuck and wouldn’t unscrew. My whole team was kinda at a loss because we were thinking we just didn’t know how to do it right. We finally decided Rafael and I would go upstairs to ask Mrs. Marchionne while we left Angelo guarding the equipment. We went upstairs and asked our teacher, she said it happens “one in a blue moon” but the screw got stuck. She fixed it with a scissor and showed us again how to properly screw it in for good measure. We then went back downstairs and put the camera on the tripod and began filming.
     The filming was really fun. I wasn’t In our shots at all but I recorded all of them. We first started filming outside the bathroom and I had to learn how to use the camera quickly. I took multiple shots of that first scene of just walking into the bathroom because playing back the footage made us realize we didn’t like what we originally planned. We just changed the direction the camera moved. I would also let my actors know when to start by saying “1, 2, 3, go.” After filming the first scene we moved into the bathroom and began to shoot the other scenes. I had to restart the tape multiple times because one of my teammates was a little nervous and messed up a little. It was my job to position the camera in over the shoulder shots correctly, so that I wouldn’t come out in any background mirror. I also showed my team members the replay of the shots I took to make sure we all agreed what we had was okay, to move into the next scene. It was my first day so I did accidentally keep pressing the record button too many times because I thought I hadn’t stopped it by pressing it the time before. I also changed the time and date on the camera since it was wrong. When it was time to go back to class I packed up the tripod with help from Angelo and carried everything back to the room. Once we got to the room I put the tripod back immediately and gave the camera to Rafael. He needed an SD card to dump the footage onto the computer so I asked our teacher for an SD reader. I had to wait on it because they were all being used but then I got one and signed it out. I gave it to Rafael and also returned it when he finished. I also told Angelo to get our sign out paper and put it in the proper folder. I also told him to get an empty sign out sheet for next class. The last thing I did was fill that out and put it away. We didn’t get to finish out filming today but will hopefully finish next class. Overall, it was a good day in media studies.

Commercial Storyboard Blog

Angles

• Over the shoulder
• High 
• Low 
• Eye level

Shots

• Establishing Shot
• Medium Shot
• Extreme Close up
• Two Shot
• Three Shot
• Medium Close Up
• Medium Long Shot

Movements 

• Pan
• Tilt

Editing

• Eye-line Match
• Reaction Shot
• Voice Over
• Jump Cut
• Cut Away                                                                                                            
  

Editing Lesson Blog

     Today in class we learned how to edit and how to properly prepare to use a camera. Mrs. Marchionne first told us to set up the tripod and then put the camera on it by detaching what’s on top and screwing it in. Then when you’re done recording you do the opposite. When you’re ready to dump the footage you plug in the SD reader into the computer. Then,  you go to pinnacle studios after logging in and save the footage to begin editing it. You import the footage onto pinnacle studios by pressing import then the + by desktop. You then press on the clips you want to edit and press start import. This will get the raw footage ready. Raw footage is unedited, untouched material. Mrs. Marchionne then told us that when were editing we’ll need to put the title first then the film and then the music last. If the title is not layered on top it’ll be covered up by the video.
     For cutting clips you press on the razor button. You then select the footage you want to delete and make sure it’s shown in orange, if you make a mistake to press file then undo. If you want to speed up, slow down, or reverse a shot you right click. To do any further, more detailed editing, you go to open affects editor and all the possible options are shown. Here you can change the lighting and  contrast. To do a voiceover you mute the section you want to have a voice over. Then you get the voice clip and remove the video. You can also add titles. You can change their color and font. Once you’re done editing you save the clip similar to how you save a word document. You then render your final product, this makes it smooth. When you’re ready to export you press on file. After that you adjust the setting to MP4 SD best quality. Lastly, I learned some new vocabulary. One of the words is dumping which is when you put the footage on the computer. I also learned importing is when you upload the file to what you’re using to edit. Exporting is when you send your final product. Rendering is putting everything together to make it go through smoothly, this should be done before exporting. Basically what we did today was learn how to edit since we will be editing our future projects. I look forward to toying with all the features.

Commercial Planning Blog

 Planning Blog

This blog is being made to explain what we will be doing and outline what the steps we will take while making this commercial. We picked anti-vaping because we immediately came up with ideas and thought it could be funny. We thought humor would be a good way to appeal to the viewers that vape. They might replay it or show their friends because it’s funny. At the same time it’s making fun of people who vape and sending out the message that vaping doesn’t make you look cool and in reality a lot of people make fun of it. This could motivate them to stop or not try vaping at all. 

Props

• Cardboard cut-out of the vaping devices
• Cotton for fake smoke/vapors
• USB 
• Skateboard/ picture of one
• Backpack

Costumes

• Hoodies
• Popular clothing brands
• Headphones/Air pods
• Towel/Shirt Hair
• Chain
• Baseball Cap
• Earrings

Schedule

• 10/11 Planning Blog
• 10/15 Storyboard Blog
• 10/22 Filming Blog
• 10/24 Editing Blog

Location

• Mural in between Senior Patio and Office
• Media Center Boy's Bathroom
• Building 17 Boy's Bathroom
• Stairs by the Senior Patio
• Under the Building 5 stairs
• Outside hallway in front of the band room 

Back Up Plan

• If those bathrooms are closed, we will try Building 21, 5, 8, and etc.
• If raining, we will film inside the Buildings' hallway
• If Emily is absent is absent, Rafael will film solo shots of Angelo and vice versa.
• If Angelo or Rafael is absent, Emily will (against her wishes) be in the commercial.
• If both Angelo and Rafael are absent, Darwin will sub in for both of them.

Commercial Research Conventions & Codes

Our AICE Media Studies group decided on the Anti-Vaping PSA commercial

Some negative health consequences from using e-cigarettes and vaping devices listed in the article "THE BIG REVEAL 10 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT E-CIGARETTES"  https://www.centeronaddiction.org/e-cigarettes/about-e-cigarettes/10-surprising-facts-about-e-cigarettes include

Damage to the brain, heart and lung

Cancerous tumor development

Preterm deliveries and stillbirths in pregnant women

Harmful effects on brain and lung development, when use occurs during fetal development or adolescence

Here is an example of an anti-vaping poster used to dissuade high school students

• The poster uses the color RED to emphasis numbers and subjects that require special attention.
• The poster also uses different SIZE TEXT to also draw the readers attention to certain words
• The poster uses figurative language like the oxymoron "A Big Problem... A Small Device" to keep the reader thinking of that saying throughout the day.

An infomercial called, "Vaping is an Epidemic | The Real Cost" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYuyS1Oq8gY uses many film techniques that goes as follows:

• They use CGI to exaggerate the effects of vaping on teenagers.
• They use Action Match and Dissolves to make the video flow better.
• They Voice Overs to explain the actual chemicals like 'formaldehyde' that go into your body when you vape.
• They use Graphic Match on the teenagers faces to show how vaping can affect anyone.

Introductory

     Hi, my name is Emily. I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I go to Fort Lauderdale High School. I’m 15 years old and I’m in the 10th grade. I’m currently taking AICE Media Studies and that’s why I’m making this blog. I’m just gonna tell you about myself quickly. To begin to answer the basics my favorite color’s green. I listen to a lot of music. I don’t really like pop and country though. I also like watching shows on Netflix like American Horror Story. That’s enough about me.
     Moving on, I’m going to talk about how I feel about my school. I like it enough, even though  the people are somewhat lame. All the teachers are pretty good at their job. The schoolwork and homework homework are getting pretty stressful especially this year. I get so much I usually have to spend my whole weekends doing them and don’t get a lot of free time. Last year I didn’t get as much it was mostly all from global perspectives. Hopefully as the year goes on I’ll learn to manage my time better and divide the work in a way I get more time to myself.
     Lastly, since these blogs are for me media class, I’m going to talk about it. It’s only October but so far I like this class. The teacher is nice, it’s pretty laid back and it’s a nice break from all my other classes. I would say it’s one of my easiest classes. I like that there’s not homework everyday. However, I’ve been having a bit of trouble remembering the types of editing and sounds. I think I might have camera angles and mis en scene down though. I have like 5 people I regularly talk to in that class so being with them is pretty fun as well. So yeah, this is my first blog and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be more so thank you for reading.