Practice Editing

In order to feel confident and to further grow our understanding of Final Cut Pro X when we begin editing our footage for our music video, both Charlotte and I thought to prepare we would practice lip syncing and fading footage from one colour to another, in this case from black and white to red.
As it is seen on our storyboard we wanted to fade some of footage from black and white into colour. As you can see here, after experimenting with different techniques and effects on Final Cut we achieved this by using the transition 'Cross Dissolve'. After realising how to achieve this we felt extremely confident when using Final Cut and will be able to replicate this skill when it comes to actually editing our product.

Completing this task also refreshed our memory from AS, for example importing media and creating a new 'project' which further grows our confidence and means the editing process will occur at a faster pace.
In terms of the lip syncing both Charlotte and I learnt new techniques and abilities by practicing this. Due to this being a new aspects of media and Final Cut it was very challenging to complete this in a professional way, both of us found it hard to import the music itself in as we had never had to add a full song on final cut as we only have experience of using sound effects. However, we used the skills we had gathered from using sound effects to figure out how to import music, this took the majority of our time but is an extremely important skill to learn as we will be doing this with our raw footage for our video so we were determined to complete this.

This has also allowed us to collaborate together with our suggestions and learning from one another's mistakes, for example the angle in which we have filmed this footage due to it being filmed vertically rather than horizontally in order to avoid the surrounding black background. This is a common mistake we also made within preliminary tasks at AS, however, identifying this problem once again before recording and editing all of our music video footage will prevent us from repeating this.

Research into Montages in Music Videos

montage

noun

noun: montage

1. the technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole.

After the Production of our storyboard, we have decided to include a montage therefore I thought it would be fitting for me to do some research into montages featured in current existing media products. This will be extremely helpful as it means I will gain an understanding of the use of montages and how they affect the audience. 

Lorde - Perfect Places

This music video immediately introduces the montage by cutting to different settings; this allows us to view the artist, her costume and the genre in which this music fits into. This is helpful to acknowledge as I can mirror this within my own work in order to target certain audiences and allow them to decode the video at its beginning. Lorde's 'Perfect Places' video only features herself in a multiple of shots, ranging from close ups, long shots and mid shots which connotes to the song itself as there is not the one 'perfect' shot like there isn't a 'perfect place', this is further established through the use of different settings, for example, the beach and the forest. This is an example of how Barnes' Symbolic Coding is shown within some music videos.

Interestingly, she uses a point of view shot which allows the audience to follow her and almost be in her shoes, this engages the audience into the video itself allowing them to relate to the artist (Dyer's Star Theory).

The montage of settings are linked together through fast cuts and some of the setting angles are changed on the beat on the song, for example from a mid shot to a head and shoulder shot to then a side angled shot, this places a lot of emphasis on the song but also the setting and the artists facial expressions from different angles.

Lighting is very varied throughout this music video but mostly is very high key and always lit through natural lighting, whether that is daylight or a fire. There is no dialogue or diegetic sound other than the song itself. This is helpful to learn as it means we can challenge these aspects, for example incorporating diegetic sounds within our video or do some of our video in artificial lighting.

Halsey - Him & I 

This is another example of the use of a montage in a music video however this is more of an unstructured video. By this I mean like an everyday 'video blog' of their relationship. A filter has been placed over the footage in the video in order to make it almost like a recording making it retro and stand out from other videos within this genre, the originality however also conforms to the genres conventions as uniqueness is an important factor within the alternative genre.

The different settings and videos are fast cut between one another in order to follow the tempo of the song; this helps the audience to engage with the same and also follows Barthes' Enigma Code as it creates mystery for the couple feature in this video. The camera comes across as if it is being handheld which adds authenticity to the editing and makes the audience feel like it's real to engage further and relate to the couple shown. The video once again features a great number of shot types to portray the couple in different ways and angles. This then allows the audience to view the costume, in which is very basic and follows indie conventions, by doing this it gives the audiences a role model to follow and identify with (Dyer's Star Theory).

An edgy tone is placed upon the video through the low key lighting, it creates tension and thrill to the narrative (Barthes' Enigma Code) as it almost means the audience can't view the couple fully placing a barrier over them as if connoting the idea that we don't 'understand' the what seems to be dysfunctional relationship. However, the use of the montage allows us to see a great deal of what goes on within the couple's relationship as this montage features short cuts of their time together kissing, being reckless and driving. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggested by Blumler and Katz can be applied here as this narrative and the montage provides entertainment for the audiences by allowing them an insight into these two peoples lives which suits individuals needs upon Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Talent Release

Filming Schedule

Final Storyboard

After the change of our artist and parts of our narrative, we felt it was suitable to create our final storyboard. Due to the fact that out previous storyboard was hard to read and follow as group we decided it would be helpful for us to create this storyboard online. We have featured a variety of shots within our music video alongside the different settings. Through our collaboration of ideas within the storyboard we decided to map our choices to certain theories to explain our reasoning behind them and how they will especially impact our target audience and also follow conventions of the alternative genre.

Location Shots

Afflecks Palace

Afflecks is an indoor market in Manchester in the city's Northern Quarter. A large number of independent stalls, small shops and boutiques operate in the one building. As a group we decided that not only is this an assessable place to go, it conveys originality and creativity which fits in extremely well with the Alternative genre. By filming here it will allow us a variety of opportunities in terms of filming and also add a unique element to our music video.

My group and I went to Afflecks Palace in order to take a look and create some ideas. This also allowed us to be experimental with our photography and videoing. We decided that our actors will be shopping and enjoying each others company throughout the narrative in order to capture them happily conveying the 'love' they have for one another which is suggested within the song.

Streets of Manchester (Northern Quarter)
In order to bring realism into our music video my group and I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate shots on the streets. Despite the fact that there may be some challenges that follow with doing shots in large public place, it will hopefully allow the audience to relate and associate themselves with the actors.

Clothing Shops 
Throughout Northern Quarter in Manchester there are a variety of unique shops that my group and I thought they would fit perfectly with the theme of our video, being original and different. By featuring such clothing it could further allow the audience to see our actors as role models which would allow them to relate to them in more ways. This is very important as it means younger audiences will be attracted to the Alternative genre, expanding our target audience. When recording in this location our actors will show a more 'fun' side by trying on clothes together, binding them further as a group and establishing the love aspect within the song again.

Updated Ideas

Due to a change in our actors it means as a group we had to alternate our ideas in order to fit other actors. However, the role of our actors within the music video will stay the same and have the same impact on the audience.

We began to look back at our older research into the conventions of the Alternative genre and found that not a lot of music videos feature a group narrative, we also thought it would be interesting to focus upon the love brought through friendships as well s couples.

This will take place within the Northern Quarter in Manchester, the locations that will be featured are Afflecks Palace; it features indie stylings and traditional vibes. Also we will feature other clothing shops which will allow us to be creative and feature different elements in our video.

The narrative itself will consist of a variety of shots in order to show our target audience the life/memories of a group of reckless teenagers.