Feedback from the artist (rough cut 2)

Shown below is a screen shot of the email I recieved from Alison regarding the rough cut (2) video of my music video:

Crystal Poison (rough cut 2)

After looking back over the feedback i recieved yesterday I set to work on ironing out the errors within the first rough cut, and also set to work on editing the footage that people said needed re-editing.



Here is a brief description of what I have done to the first rough cut of Crystal Poison :

- I have re-editited the contrast on some clips such as the tree, stop-motion shot which makes the tree and Alisons hands more visable within the shot.

- I have added a dream world / glowing effect to the cup (hill) scene and also to the woods scenes, which i believe brings out the whole atmosphere and adds to the spiritual nature of the song & surroundings.

- I have adjusted the sound levels on some clips within the sequence as some parts were louder than others.

- I have also added a glowing effect to the sky in some clips, for instance the tree touching scene has a glowing / sparkle effect in the sky which gives it a sun shine type look which once aain adds to the mysteical magical theme of the music and nature surrouding the location in the woods.

- Finally I have adjusted the ending of the rough cut and also the music track so taht they fade together and also Ive adjusted the audio track because it did infact end to abruptly on the first rough cut so i faded it out sooner to avoid the abrupt ending to the track.


Shown below is the 2nd rough cut for 'Crystal Poison - Alison' :

Rough Cut 1 Feed Back

I have recieved feedback from a range of people, overall i have recieved feedback from 5-6 people but i hope to increase this number when i recieve more views on the video on youtube (from college students within my class etc)


Shown below are the comments I recieved and also whom said them:


Paula ( Mother ) : "I love the way you have made it look all wierd, by making Alison jump / jitter from one point to another, very good!"


Paul (Father ) : "Really good music and the effects reflect the lyricks well, overall very impressive video & song!"


Lee (brother / on-set photographer) : "I really like this video! I dunno what it is about it, but i felt everything just worked well together and made a brilliant video!"


Pete (Teacher) : "Wow, This video reminds me of Bjorks music video by Michel Gondry! The footage used in yout music video is almost exactly the same as Bjorks music video 'Bachelorette'!. Very good video only needs a few adjustments here and there!"


Nick (Teacher) : "The fades work well within the video and add to the old fasioned look of the video, overall a good music video, I would suggest adding a few more colours and some effects to bring it out a bit more, but overalll very good music video"


Alison (Artist) :

( here is a screen grab of the email i recieved from the artist - Alison )
- Click to view in a seperate window (Full size)





After looking back over the feedback I have recieved from people, I will now go back over my rough cut for Crystal Poison and make amendments where needed in the sequence. After doing the suggested fixes to my music video i will then save / export it as another rough cut so I can make sure i get the best possible video done for the final cut version of the music video for the song Crystal Poison by Alison.

Crystal Poison (rough cut 1)

For the rough cut video i have put together the opening scenes and closing scenes of my music video which i filmed over the past weekends or so. The footage i shot in both Burwell and Babraham have been very succesful in my mind, and suit the music very well indeed. (as i hoped for in the begining) The fact that the footage was good as it was and was visualy suited to the music there was not mushc to do when it got to the editing stage... or so i thought...

When i got to the editing stage i was first faced with a problem, which was getting the photos from the slr camera and onto my computer in order to do the stop motion stuff, but this problem was soon over come by simply taking out the SD card from the camera and placing it into my coputers SD card reader slot, this then allowed me to gain quick acess to all the photos I and Lee had taken during the shoots. (both on set photos and photos for the music video stop motion etc..)

Editing the footage was a simple task and i sepnt around 2-3 hours working omn the editing of the footage by using sony vegas. I started off the editing by simply importing the clips i wanted and deleting / snipping out the bits i didntwant to use within the final sequence. Once i had completed this i moved onto applying the efffects to each seperate video, these effects were placed on in the following order:

1) I firstly placed a black and white effect onto some of the clips (after / during Alison drinks the poison) and then onto the ending scenes within the woods.

- I chose this effect because it makes the video seem more errie and strange, also it represents the poison going into Alisons body as the screen turns into black and white stage by stage.

2) I then adjusted the contrast on all the clips. (made them slightly darker and more refined)

- I decided to change the contrast of each clip to make the video look more refined and professional, also the contrast change gives each clip a certain look which adds to the strange theme and suits the music track very well

3) I then placed a faded frame around the edge of each clip

- I decided to use the faded border around each video as it gives the video an old fasioned look to it without using the sterotypical old fasiond filter / sepia look which i wanted to avoid while editing as i believe it is over used within music videos and student videos in general.

4) I then went back to the photos for the stop motion parts of the video and editied each photo ready to be placed into the video sequence and made into a stop motion sequence.

- I decided to use the stop motion effect when Alison is touching the things in thw woods and turining them to colour because i believe this also adds to the old fasiond look and also reflects what i said within my pitch about the flip book kind of styel, which the stop motion represents quite clearly to the audience

5) Once this was done I then went back over the whole sequence and made sure it was all in time with the music and was looking good etc.

6) After looking back at the rough cut I decided to cut even more clips out from each video.

- During the clipping stage i decided to cut the clips even more because it gave each clip a jumpy / old fasiond footage look to it, yet again without using the sepia / scrates etc which is sterotypical of the old fasiond look within videos, but i believe that by clipping little bits out of each seperate video is enoug halong with the contrast change to give it the old fasiond effect and means I didnt have to use the sepia / scratches within the videos when editing etc...

7) I then renderd the video as an AVI file and then uploaded it to youtube to show peple for feedback on the rough cut of crystal poison.

Overall I believe my rough cut as shown very clearly the kind of effects and film I discussed within my pitch to the class. It also shows and expresses to the viewers how the artist Alison is in real life and also how she wished to portray not only her music but herself through the video. So overall I am very pleased with the way in which my video has turned out in this rough cut, or though of course there are a few changes that I may make in the final video (dependant on what feedback i get on the rough cut tomorrow in class etc).

Shown below are some screen shots from the editing stage of my rough cut music video:

Shown Below are some photos of me working on the editing stage of my rough cut video:

Shown below is the actual rough cut video for Crystal Poison by Alison:

Sunday 18th October

Today the weather was better, and the sun was out, which meant the woodland area in Babraham was lit up enough for the filming of the 2nd half (last part) of my music video (rough cut). I was unable to start when I wanted to which was at 10AM because I misplaced the tripod clamp (which attaches onto the camera bottom so that it can be fixed onto the actual tripod) When I realized that the time was fast going by I decided to just use my other tripod, the only down side to this is that there is no control lever which meant that I would have trouble panning / moving with the camera on the tripod, but due to time constraints I decided that this option was all i had.

Once I had the equipment ready I then made sure that both Lee and Alison were ready for the film shoot in the woods, for example made sure that everyone was wrapped up warm and also that they knew exactly what they had to do prior to going into the woodland area in Babraham.

We got into the wood and started filming at around 12AM (Aprox). I got a variety of shots based upon my story board (some shots were not based on my story board due to the simple fact that I decided to change some shots around due to the location etc..)

Overall I believe todays shoot in the woods went well, but could of gone better if I was more organized with the equipment and if I done some prior equipment checks again last night then today it wouldn't of been so hectic, but I believe I coped well with the situation and soon got my other half of the music video produced.

My plan now is that tomorrow instead of traveling to Coleridge to edit my footage for the 2nd half of my music video, I will work from home on my own computer. This is mainly because the software I need to edit my footage on is installed on my own computer and not at Coleridge.


Here are some photos from todays music video shoot in Babraham woods (Taken by Lee Kemp) :

Saturday 17th October

Today i was planning on filming the rest of my music video with Lee (on set photographer) and the artists (alison).Due to the weather today i was unable to get the final shooting of the music video done for the rough cut. The weather conditions today were cloudy and because of this we were unable to film in the woods beacuse it was to dark and gloomy to film the rest of the video.


After looking at the BBC weather website i have notied that the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow (sunny) so i will hopefully shoot the video tomorrow with Alison & Lee. (Weather permitting)


Here is a screen grab from the BBC website (weather)




Here are some photos of the sky today (to show the weather conditions)

Friday 16th October

In todays lesson I have worked on a draft version of the possible CD cover for Alisons song 'Crystal Poison' For when it is burnt onto disk and placed into my digi-pack along with posters and promo material about the artist (Alison). 

Or though the CD cover is not complete I believe it will not take me long to complete this project, and it will give me something to do when I am m in class at Long Road (as i am doing most of my video editing etc at home) 

The process of making the CD cover: 

1) First of all I searched online for a CD cover template, after looking at a variety of websites I found that DA (deviant art) website was the best for templates to use on Photo shop. 

2) Once I had found a good quality template I set to work on finding the best image from my blog of Alison to be placed on the CD cover (or though the image I found may or may not be changed for the final product) 

3) Once I had both the template and image I set to work on editing the images together (put Alisons image onto the CD cover template)

4) Once i had done this i set to work on the title for the CD cover

 (This is as far as i got with this project so far but will carry on when i am in lessons at Long Road)

Here are some screen shots from todays lesson: 

Progress Report 2

After looking back at my shooting schedule I realized that I am behind on my shooting of footage but only slightly. I was unable to shoot the other rough cut footage as i was to busy with other work such as the junction visit etc.


I will hopefully be shooting some footage this weekend in order to complete my rough cut for my music video for next Wednesday. I will also be re-recording the song 'Crystal Poison' at some point this weekend, as the other recording ends to abruptly and cannot be changed, unless i re-edit the whole song, but it would be easier just to re-record it, but i will see what time i get this weekend.

Junction - Thursday 15th October

Today at the Junction I was an extra / actor in Dave's music video. While i was waiting for the blue screen to be free with Dave i was overlooking other peoples music video productions. I was really pleased to see my green and blue screen up in a lit studio where they can be used to their full extent for others music videos.

There were a variety of music videos being produced in the music studio at the Junction, overall i think there were 3 or 4 groups, one of which had a crowd of about 20 people so the studio space used for the videos was a fairy big area. with full lighting equipment and stages (including the green and blue screen)

At around 3.40 (Aprox) me and Dave were able to gain access to the stage, whereby i acted within his music video in front of the blue screen. Dave asked me to act as if there was a ball of light in one hand and i then throw the ball into the other hand in an arch, after doing this i was then asked by Dave if i could lip-sync a line from his song which was 'Gotta get it on board'.

Overall today was a bit of a drag as the stage was in use most of the day and we could not get access to the blue screen until near the end of the day, but i found that it was exciting and gave me an insight into what i can actually achieve with my blue and green screen.

Here are some images from today at the junction:

Web Banner to promote my music video

In todays lesson i created a web banner (using photo shop) to promote the music video for Alisons song ' Crystal Poison'. 

The process that i went through in order to complete this task was as follows: 

1) I found an image which best represents my music video and Alisons song on flicker, and i made sure it was copy-right free (Creative Commons) 

2) I then pasted the image into photo shop to edit it into a web banner (to promote the music video) 

3) Finally i exported it as a JPEG file format so it can be posted onto the artists website (which i will create at a later date) 

Overall this task was fairly straight forward and I found it simple to edit the image into a web banner, if I could change anything about this task it would of been the time. Due to not having enough time on this task I did not get the web banner I imagined, and after I created it it was not as professional looking as I wanted it but overall I believe I done quite well on this task and im proud of what i have created today, especially considering the time we had (which was very little) 

Shown below are some screen shots from the research into the image (finding the image) and the editing stage of my web banner : 

Here is my completed image / web banner : 

Lesson at Coleridge

In todays lesson i over-looked and now and helped dave in the production stages of his test footage, which he done on after effects.

The test footage was to show the posssible light / particle effects that Dave wishes to use within his music video, he has also asked me if for one part of his music video, weather i would like to act / perform in it. He will at some point later this week discuss when he wants me to act / perform in his music video, but as Dave briefly described to me today he will most likely want me to perform during college time so this wil not clash with my shooting schedule for my music video.

Overall todays lesson went well, but i feel as if i wont use the type of effect Dave showed me today, as it is to diffrent from the genre / type of music for my Music video due to the techno feel of the effect and the classical theme of Alisons music track 'Crystal Poison'

Here are some photos which i took in todays lesson

(They show the work station / Mac that me and dave were working at)

Test footage (possible effect for music video)

Shown below is a test video which shows the effect I am hopefully going to be able to use in my music video.

For this test footage i asked Lee (on-set photographer) to take a series of photos (in sequence) of Alisons hand touching some flowers, so that i could later on edit these in order to show the effect i am hoping to use in my music video.

For the editing i used two programes the first one taht i used was called picassa 3, which i used in order to change the colour, contrast, and brightness of each photo. I had to edit 30 photos into black and white / colour which took me 10 ins (aprox). After i had editied all of the photos i then exported them from my computer to another computer, which had an editing software installed on it called 'Serif movie 5'. This programe alllowed me to put all 30 photos (edited) into a 6 second sequence which gave the photos movement and made it look morel like a video rather than a slide show.

Overall this task took me just over 20 minutes to do, and i realise that if i wish to edit more than 30 photos the time for this task would increase a fair bit, so therefore i will keep in mind the number of minutes it took for me to complete thgis task, whicle on the next shoot of my music video (which should hopefully be next week at some point)

Here are some photos of Lee taking the photos of Alison:

Here are some screen shots from the editing stage of the test footage / sequence :

Todays film shooting (test shooting)

Looking back at my shooting schedule I realized that I could not do the test footage on the thursday like i wanted to due to weather and time constraints.

Therefore today i done a few test shots for my music video. The location that we decided to film in was in Burwell due to us being closest to this location Than Babraham.

Overall the filming went Ok today and we managed to get a variety of shots filmed.

The shots that we managed to get shot were as follows:

- Entrance to the woods (opening of them music video)

- A shot of Alison next to a shire horse in the woods (may not use this for actual video)

- The drinking of the poison scene (near to a river / stream)

- The *death* scene on the top of a hill

I will hopefully edit these shots tomorrow in order to get the beginning of my music video complete as much as possible. then this will mean that i can film the rest of the video in babraham next week some time

The shots taken today may just be used for my rough cut and not the final music video (depending on the quality of the clips)

Another thing is that the Heath and safety points had to be changed in order to reflect the type of environment it was that we filmed in (steep hills, and slippery surfaces near to the river side, also filming near the horse in the woods. The horse could of became aggressive towards alison or even attacked her)

(Unfortunately Lee (On-set photographer) was unable to attend the video shoot today due to us being in a different location to him, and he was unable to get to us in Burwell (Fens)

Here are some screen grabs from the opening to my music video (rough cut) :

(Shown below is a photo of Alison next to the shire horse, this image / video will most likely not be included in the final music video, but the image of Alison next to the horse will maybe be used for a CD cover for the song 'Crystal Poison')

Health & Safety for production of my music video

Health & Safety

Issues

During both the filming of my music video and editing my music video i will make sure i stick to the following rules / regulations

Filming:

During the filming process of my music video i will keep these health and safety points in mind:

- There is a risk of falling / tripping when filming within the woods

- Weather may change such as it may rain therefore the ground within the woods will become slippery which will lead to a fall

- Within the woods there are many dead or dying trees due to the season so therefore a lose branch may fall and cause injury

- The general woodland enviroment will be dangerous if we decide to explore further such as if we diecide to climb over walls or tree stumps etc there is a risk of injury to myself or others around

- Another thing is that the journey to the woods involves crossing a road so we will be carefull and look out for both vehicals and pedestrians

- In BOTH locations the above h & s points apply

- The river side and hill side will be dangerous such as the slippery surface near the river and the steep uneven surface up the hillside

-Filming in the woods close to where a horse is (horse could attack the artist)

Editing:

I will keep the following health and safety points in mind during the editing stage of my music video :

- Generally the only health and safety that will be involved here with the editing stage will be the health and sfaety while using the computer, and these points are as follows:

Protect yourself : computer Health and Safety issues

The information in this guide will help you to develop good working practices
when using a personal computer or workstation.

Adopt a good posture

• Your back is supported.
• Your head is up.
• Your upper arms are relaxed.
Your hands and wrists are most comfortable when:
• Your forearm is nearly at a right angle to your upper arm.
• Your wrist is in a straight line with your hand and forearm.
Adjust your seating position

To prevent the onset of fatigue, you should have a break, or change of activity, for about 10
minutes after every uninterrupted 60 minutes of computer work.

Short, frequent breaks are more satisfactory than occasional, longer breaks.
If possible, breaks should be taken away from the screen.
In between breaks, look into the distance and stretch occasionally.

Junction - Thursday 9th October

Today we visited the junction again. This time we had a session where we learnt about the marketing within the junction and how they operate. 

Here are some general notes from the meeting at the junction : 

What is marketing? 

Marketing is basically telling the right people about the right things at the right time = Profit 

General notes : 

- Really busy job 

- Only have 2 days in the year with nothing on (xmas period holiday etc) (bank holidays) 

- Each event is marketed differently 

- All companies / venues work together (corn exchange, arts theater etc)   

- Xmas time is the hardest time of the year 

- One off events such as (dance workshops with a dance performance and arts events) 

- Main target audience (13 - 30) 

- Convince the people to buy things they don't need! 

- Research is KEY to the success of selling the tickets! 

What the job actually involves: 

- Emails to EVERYONE about what is happening that month (staff etc) 

- Take from emails what information they need for the promotional items for the events etc 

- Type up information for brochure then send to designers ready for print 

- Tell box office to sell the event 

- Must not put tickets on sale too early or too late!

- Tickets on website (same as above) 

- Work out how many posters etc are needed for the event 

- Work out who to contact about event / promotion (Band members / artist etc) 

- Sort out local press / extra promo stuff 

-  Check everything after sale (ticket sale numbers and work out what to do next month) 

Job (order of work) 

- Put everything onto the website 

- Put info on other websites such as twitter, face book, and myspace 

- Print posters (promo material) 

- Start on brochure for next season 

- Email with all information about what events are coming up 

- Monitor ticket sales 

- Improve ticket sales / events for next month = make more profit 

Evaluation of the day 

Todays visit helped me to understand how an industry / music venue works both inside and out, this has also helped me to understand what it is i could do for my music video in means of promotion / music CD cover etc in order t attract the correct audience towards the artists music (Alison's music)   

Software and equipment checks

Over the last couple of days i have been double checking both the equipment and software which i am going to use during the production of my music video.

I followed The following checks for equipment & software :


Cameras :

Make sure they were all in working order (lens cleaned, contrast settings, etc)
Make sure that ALL camera batteries are charged up and ready to go (not half full)
Ask lee to prep his camera for outside shooting (contrast, lens check etc)


Other equipment / costume (s) (carrying bags for cameras, tripods, costumes etc) :

Mark sure the costume is all ok and prepared for ali (Double check with ali etc)
Ensure that the tripods (both for the video and SLR camera are in full working order)
Ensure that both carrying bags are ok for holding the cameras etc


Software :

Make sure that all software is subscribed / downloded onto computer
Ensure that all the programes are in working order
Make sure that there are folders for the footage / photos after the filming etc