Effects And Ideas

I was off ill for one lesson and so was unable to come into the media lessons. In those lessons Amber took screen shots of different effects in various music videos that we want to do similar versions of. below are the screen shots and our ideas of what effects and techniques we would like to use:

The picture above is from 'Sexy Chick', the effect shown is of lipstick over a mirror and the camera angling as to see the writing and to see the man through the mirror in his reflection. we would like to use this effect in our media work as it is a fun and effective way of showing there has been a party, also it is a creative way of having writing in the video other than that imposed on top of the image.

Above are stills from 'Who's that chick', they all show different types of text added to the video. we would also like to use a similar method, writing some of the lyrics in different fonts and styles over the top of the video when they are said. Above they have used several different fonts, styles, colours and have put them in different places around the screen, however, they still manage to stick to a theme which we would like to do

These snap shots from 'Super Bass' and are examples of the different camera angles we want to use. we thought in order to create an effective music video we should include several different camera angles as seen in most music videos, as otherwise it would look to dull. also have a wide variation will give our recordings the 'messiness' that it needs in order for our ideas of what we want to portray to be effective.

At home I wrote up a permission slip for people to sign if they do not mind being part of our recordings. A picture of this form is shown below

[ consent form ]

Editing

To begine with we chose all of the footage that we thought would work well in our music video and moved it onto our project, after this we went through putting it all in the order we thought would best tell the story. In the begining we decided to make several stills of me in the bath, asleep, in different positions and used a bluring effect in the stransactions between them to show the passing of time.
next we edited in a overhead shot of me standing up and walking out of the door, then across the hall and into the room where i collapsed onto the bed, we decided to match me sitting up shocked at the word bounce on the mirror to the work bounce being said in the music. we found that in order to do this we had to cut some footage out and so we made the parts of me stumbling out of the bathroom quicker to make it look more frantic (also helping with the timing) and we also cut out the section of me walking across the hall as it was not necessary.
With me in the same possition of me sat on the bed we added in a high angled shot and with the camera in the same possition throughout, filmed the room without me in it and then the room empty, to show the transaction between these we used various ripple effects. i then walk back into the room and begine to drink walking around the room, to edit this we deleted the sections between me being in different possitions so that it jumps from me drinking in one place to another. we thought this was effective as it puts more emphasis on how much i am drinking.
next there are several angles of me getting ready, which we cut to make shorter and sped up as it is a relevant part of the video but would be incredibly boring to watch at normal speed. after this i have to change into my costume, in order to show as little as possible and take the main focus off of me getting changed, we sped up the section of me (facing away from the camera) taking the dressing gown off and replacing it with the top half of my clothes, this then put more focus on the fact that i then picked up a bottle before leaving the room as this is the moment the footage slowed down again. we matched the door closing with the main chorus of the song coming in, we did this by making different sections quicker and slower and cutting parts out, untill it was perfect.
We then edited in footage from the social, this included different shots of dancing and lights which we edited by turning the contrast and saturation up and the lighting and exposure down, this made the colours tand out more and made things look darker and more hectic. Amber then found a scrap book effect which would be perfect for our footage as it has bright contrasting colours, we then used this in the transactions between different shots of the paty, the nature of the effect is that it zooms out of one picture and across into another, when it zooms out is has up to five smaller picture holes with different stills from throughout the video.
The chorus beat then repeats itself again and as more party footage would get boring quickly we deciede to edit in our bottles, editing them so that it looks like they move from one place to another on their own. we then decided that as the background is all white it looks a little boring and out software does not enable us to change the colour of the background. Fortunately, we found out how to put coloured filters over the pictures and so made each shot of the bottles moving a different colour of filter to make it look more interesting.
We have had some problems with the scrapbook as where it zooms out and shows the other smaller picture holes, the stills had dissapeared and had just turned white, we are unable to get them to go back to how they where before, as every time they are changed they revert back, on the other hand, previously we where unable to figure out how to add a picture to the scrapbook title page and it just had a blank grey box, amber has figured out how to do so and we have gone through pictures to choose the best one. Lastly on this, i had the idea of titling the project 'A "Bounce" Production'.
Before the holidays we continued to edit our chosen footage. after 
When coming back after the easter holidays we have been putting the final touches to our project. as you would expect, a lot as managed to go wrong and we are working on copying and pasting the footage into a new video project as we have discovered this is the only way to make the effects work again. Because of this we are behind on our video compared to other groups.
We have also sat down and finished editing the rest of the video addting in randon images of me blowing bubbles and dancing around the room, these add a little fun and variation to the video so that it does not get tedious to watch and it is not continualy one thing for to long.

The Party Scene

December 2011

On the 8th of December was the 6th form social. Unfortunately we where not as organized as predicted and neither of us had the clip in order to attack the camera to the tripod, this meant all recordings had to be done by hand. We decided that in order to make this work and to distinguish better between the party and other scenes, we could make the footage quite blurry, by doing so the hand help jolted footage would look more authentic and realistic, as if someone at the party was holding the camera themselves. This worked to our advantage as it adds a messiness to the scene as well as showing a contrast in effects between the party and the other scenes which will be recorded outside of the party.

In our first lesson after the social me and amber went through what we had which only came to 9 minutes in total. In our second lesson, as we was unable to get everyone’s signature at the social (due to drunken people and various other problems) we have sent an email to everyone in the foreground of the footage saying that if they do not mind to contact us back and if they wish to see the footage to come to the media room on Monday at lunchtime. I decided to edit the footage separately to amber as I had some ideas that I can have a go at without messing with the actual editing so far.

The 'Bounce' Idea

Bounce - Calvin Harris ft. Kelis

25th November – 2nd December

From the start of the school year on the 7th of September we began watching horror film. We did this for two weeks and then discovered that we could choose to do a music video. I decided I would rather do this and so did Amber Knight and so we formed a pair. We had studied horror films all September but when watching previous coursework on music videos we had both decided we would be able to do this more effectively. We began watching and studying music videos from the 5th of October up to the 19th. After this on the 19th and 21st of October we began jotting down some ideas and effects that would be good to use in a music video such as having blurred lights and using rewind in sections of the film.

On the 4th of November I came up with the idea to do ‘Bounce’ by Calvin Harris. We sat down and began to story board this idea on the 9th and 11th of November. We decided that we would do something slightly bizarre in the middle of different parts of the video to make it interesting and surreal. Because of this we decided to do two storyboards. One would be the story line that runs through the video, which we had already planned, and the other would be a list of random bits to be added in throughout. We started planning these on the 16th and the 18th of November.

For the main story we decided to have a Girl (me) waking up from a night out. On the first lyric of ‘bounce’ she sits up abruptly and begins to look around the room. On the second ‘bounce’ the camera zooms in on the word bounce written in lipstick on a mirror, we thought for this bit we could try to change the blur so it changes from the lipstick to the girl. On the third and last 'Bounce' it zooms in on the girls face lip sinking the words. After this we decided we could do two different ‘scenes’ mixed in to one. By this I mean that we will film parts of her getting read and film her singing the lyrics. When editing we will mix these together. Next will be a shot of closing the door and walking down the street, after this we will film outside the club. We will try to edit these together so it looks like a smooth transaction of places. Next we decided to film various shots inside the place, such as from on the stage, moving in-between the crowd, from the floor filming upwards and people’s feet and we will hopefully be able to do a bird’s eye view. The last thing on the main storyboard we have decided so far is that the music video will end on the beginning of the film like ‘sexy chick’ By Akon.

On the second storyboard we began on the 16th of November, we wrote down parts we could put in that weren’t included in the story line. We started off by coming up with an idea that had no relevance to the story line that was strange and could be added in the middle of the party scene as otherwise this would get boring. We came up with a strange idea of the girl dressed in strange clothes, which we are undecided about as of yet. We would have her sitting outside drinking a cup of tea with an umbrella up even though it is not raining, bouncy balls would then falls from the sky, the girl being completely unresponsive to this. Other parts we could add of the same nature would be just having the girl in the same clothes spinning around in a field or riding a bike, we some of the over obscure ideas we thought we could use. The second storyboard also included parts that could be added in to the other scenes. When in the bedroom in the first shot we could fill the surrounding alcohol bottles with food coloured water, we would keep freezing the camera and pouring different amounts in and out of the bottles, when editing we would then change these to fit the beat of the song. A second idea similar to this was to slowly scrunch up a piece of paper freezing and un-freezing the camera, in the end the paper opens with the word ‘Bounce” written inside. Lyrics repeat throughout the song, we decided that on one of these we would have different people saying each line.

[picture of story boards]

In November we also wrote a list of props we will need for both storyboards. This is as follows.

• Bouncy balls

• Streamers

• Party poppers

• Bubbles

• Empty alcohol bottles

• Fabric (to cover the walls of the bedroom in bright colours)

• And costumes which are still undecided

Also on the 23rd we finalized an idea to use the 6th form social event as our club and had to find out what we would need to do to gain permission to film there. We went to talk to the head of 6th form and he said he would write a letter to the country ground confirming that they had no problem with this although he said it would probably be fine, however, he did mention that we would need a written consent from everyone included even in the background of the filming. There was two ways we could go about this. We could wait until after filming and go around to everyone separately asking for permission or we could stand on the door asking people to sight a document we will write out before they enter. We decided to go with the second option but we will watch the footage after and if anyone is missed out we will have to go and find him or her

The 'After' Scenes Plus New Ideas

January 2012

After the Christmas holidays we had picked out all of the footage from the social that would be useful to us and we began to film what will be the beginning and the end of the film. we started off by collecting the props for the scenes. we gather together three empty crates and several empty bottles, also amber brought streamers, party poppers, glitter, bubbles and balloons and i contributed the fabric to make the room look messier and more colorful.

When beginning to film we decided to start off in the bath, covered in balloons waking up after a night out. in this scene i had to wake up, looking around, crawl out of the bath and stubble across the hall into my bedroom. when in the bedroom which had previously been covered in streamers, balloons and bottles etc. i picked a bottle up from the side and collapsed face first on my bed, i then slowly rolled over and abruptly sat up when seeing the word 'Bounce' written on my mirror, later this would be matched to the work 'Bounce' in the song.

We decided to film this all from different angles, to begin with in the bathroom the camera started of at mid height and got higher to an almost birds eye view as i sit up to get out of the bath, after this the camera changes so that is it high up in the corner of the room to watch me leave, the camera then watches me walk across the hallway from behind. when inside the bedroom we thought it would look better to have the camera looking at me through the mirror. the camera was positioned so that once i collapsed onto the bed you could see this through the mirror with bounce on it. after this it changes again to a high positioned shot as to see the whole room, we then filmed the room without me in the shot and the room from the same angle when it is all cleaned up. At this point we could not film me getting ready for the night out as it was already to dark and it needed to be light when i come in to get ready to leave and gradually get darker as i do leave, this way at the end we could use the same shots of me in the in the morning and it would look like a continuous loop.

The other parts that we filmed on this day was the moving bottles and the paper scrunching up. we are going to try to incorporate these somewhere in the middle of the film. Also we did not have to props to do the strange scene in the middle so it had not yet been filmed.

In out next lesson we began to edit the footage and decided that we could have several stills of me sleeping differently in the bath at the beginning with different fades in the middle, we chose the ........ fade as the blurring out and in makes it look like it is changing to different periods of time throughout when I'm sleeping.after this we had to speed up the parts of me getting up and going into the room otherwise the 'Bounce' did not match with me sitting up in my bed, however, it looked better this way as there way not much happening and it was lasting to long that we thought viewers would have got bored waiting for something to happen. After editing this section we thought it would look better to add the ......... effect over the beginning stills as it puts a fine cloud around the edge of each image and gives it a dream like effect which fits in with the purpose of the stills.

The paper idea did not work out so well and we have decided to re-film it at a later date and as with the bottles we put them in time to the music and decided that as we could not have different colored liquid in the green bottles we would put different colored filters over the top so that they look more interesting.  

In February we have decided to film other people lip sinking to the music as well as the bizarre scene, the paper scene and the in-between scenes of me coming in and getting ready to leave.

The 'Before' Scenes

February 2012

During half term Amber was busy and so i decided to film the rest of the footage from my house alone. i filmed me walking into the room and starting to drink, i filmed this from a high place in the corner of the room so that the entire room was then visible. i moved around the room drinking in different places with the intention of the middle parts being cut out so that it jumped from one place to another, also showing the passing of time.

I then filmed me getting ready from several different angles; from the side so that the camera was looking into the mirror and at the side of my face, from the back of the room so that all of my body was visible and me in the mirror, and lastly of the camera in front of the mirror so that it looks like the camera is the mirror.
As we had decided by this point that the 'bizarre' scene of the video was not appropriate i improvised by shooting some random shots after doing my make-up, such as blowing bubbles into the camera, twirling around with streamers and bouncing with the camera help above my head which i believe gave a nice effect. these parts could be added into the video at any time and are parts that do not need to be chronologically ordered.

After this i needed to change from my dressing gown into my costume that i am seen in in the footage from the social. i wanted to do this without showing to much so that it did not look sleazy. in order to do this i put the camera back in the corner of the room, although not to high up so that it was still focused on me, i then turned so that my back was to the camera, pulled the jumpsuit up my legs, took the dressing gown off and continued to put the rest of the costume on. i believe this worked effectively and would probably be sped up in editing. After this i put my shoes on and left the room. i tried to do this from a different angle and put the camera on the floor with the shoes in the center of its vision, i walked over as i did in the original shot, put the shoes on and left the room.

Lastly, i filmed me coming back from the party just in case it could be used. i simply closed the curtain so that it was darker, (not causing any continuity errors as they where never in the shot) walked in and collapsed onto the bed.

After half term i took the footage i in and began to edit it with amber who had collected research for the poster and magazine advertisement. When editing the footage we first picked out all of the things that we would like to use and began putting them in order. we decided that, from where we got up to when the room became empty, i should walk straight back into the room, showing it is the following day. we then started sectioning off parts of me drinking around the room, cutting them down until they where all the same time length, making sure i was in different positions each time. this worked out really well and we decided it was better without any effects in-between but to just go straight from one place to another. After this we chose all of the make up parts that we thought would look best, we decided that only the close up shots (not the medium long) should be used for the make up section of the scene as the other did not show much of what was going on and if sped up would look blurred, we did however, decide to use the medium long shot for when i was doing my hair, as you could see what i was doing from every angle, it also gave a new perspective on the scenery and more variation.

There was some problems with the footage of me getting changed as it did not quite fit with the song, also we could not use the shots of putting shoes on from the floor as you could see the reflection of the tripod in the mirror, this could easily be solved as it was filmed from different angles however, to make sure i had left the room and the door shut at the right time we had to cut parts out of putting make-up on to make it a lot shorter, which turned out to still be effective, also we cut down the part of me getting changes so that you can only see from taking my dressing gown off. Lastly, we decided to cut a part from nearer the beginning where i stumbled from the bathroom across the hall, we changed this so that it went straight from me leaving the bathroom to entering the bedroom, which made little difference to the understanding of the story line and meant that the door closed just as the main beat of the music came in, so that we could cut straight to the party scene.

When continuing to edit the footage in further media lessons i realized that a title was needed before the music video started, Amber found some scrapbook style exchanges and titles and credits which are colorful and would fit in perfectly with the style of the film, when adding this in we realized that the music was out of sync with the footage again and so to solve this, amber dragged the music clip further along so that it started under the first clip of the video, easily solving out problems. After doing this we added in the scrapbook style exchanges in-between clips so to carry on the theme throughout. Also we found there to be different styles of words that ca be added in over the video, we decided to spread some out throughout the first section of the film saying some of the words of the song when they came on, We tried to use as many styles and fonts as possible to maintain the random nature of the music video, continuously using bright colors as to stand out and bring color to the scenes. Lastly, i found that by adding a light filter of color over the party scene, it makes the image more vivid so that it can be seen better, while enabling it to still be dark and fuzzy.