Introduction

Welcome to my A2 media Blog, I'm Josh Stevenson (0796) and I'm in Group 2 with Harry Kettenis (0390), Matthew Romo (1660) and Ysabel Hudson-Searle (0331). Use the labels on the right to navigate through my blog, with the A2 labels relevant to my current course. You can access the main music video blog aswell using the link.

Here is the live link to Group 2's Facebook Page.

Thanks.

Music Video

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Sunday 20 July 2014

Prelim Edit

Audition Video

My Costume

George Daniel, like the rest of the band, is dressed mainly in all black throughout the video; he does occasionally wear a leather jacket with beige sleeves on it, but that is the most colour he or any of the band wears.


He has this whole indie look about him, looking slightly edgy without going overboard; with his skinny jeans, long sleeve black shirt and all black converse. He essentially embodies the meaning of being an indie performer, being cool, calm and collected.

There are still some items that I find absolutely impossible to find; pieces such as a leather jacket with beige sleeves. No matter where I look I cannot find neither hide nor hair of one, it may be that I may have to
borrow someones leather jacket and stick some beige coloured material to the sleeves to create the look.

My Role

In the music video I'm playing the role of George Daniel, the drummer, which is great for me because it allows me to incorporate my acting skills into the video, as well as having a small lip-synch at the start with Kayvon who plays Mathew Healy.


My role as George Daniel is is basically me being extremely energetic when it comes to my drumming and totally disregarding everything else that is happening around me. Even when the female drummer comes and sits on my lap while I'm performing, I just need to act as though nothing has happened and continue with what I'm doing.

When it comes to being energetic and primarily focussing on the drum kit I'm definitely not going to have a problem. As long as I get really into the role, then there is no reason as to why my energy would drop or my concentration should break. When it comes to performing with the female actor on my lap it may be slightly awkward, but that is solely because I rarely talk with the actor playing the female drummer. It may actually be beneficial for my role if I were to start a dialogue with her and try to lose some of that awkwardness.

Personal Achievements

From the A2 prelim, I really want to improve my ability to perform in front of a camera. Being an actor I'm used to over exaggerating my performances and making them much larger than needs be, it is going to be a real challenge for me to make the lens of the camera my main focus and still make my performance believable.

In this music video lip-syncing plays a major part, in order for the video to look believable to any degree I need to work on my lip-synch capabilities as it is something which I do find difficult at times, especially getting my timings correct.

Considering that the next task on the A2 course is to conceptualise and organise a music video of my own, this will be a great experience as it means that I will be able to instruct any actors in the music video in a more constructive and meaningful way.

This task is also a great opportunity for me try and gain a few contacts with people who already have experience in the media industry and possibly be able to use them in any future projects I undertake.

So far, through workshoping, my ability to lip-synch had greatly improved and I now feel that if I were asked to perform a role in which lip-syncing was essential, then I would be able to deliver a performance that doesn't look forced or fake.

Question 1- Did You Enjoy The Workshop Day? What Were Your Best Bits And Why?

The workshop day was extremely enjoyable, it was cool seeing how all of the staff's prior planning and the crew's rehearsals came together in a practical sense on the day. In all honesty I though that everyone, cast and crew, would be pushed to the limit in terms of our stress levels. However, because of the relaxed atmosphere and organised day created by our crew, in particular our director Dom and 1st AD Chris on the day, we were all able to focus on the task at hand and get the best performances out of each and everyone.

Cast are calm and relaxed while not on set. Spending time watching others performances and providing support when they are not needed.

It was was really interesting seeing how all of the set was created on such a minuscule budget and still managed to look so close to that in the professional video. While helping with some of the set we came into some troubles with getting the look just right, but because we had no other choice but to make most of the set, I got to see how the crew got past these problems by using what was made available to them.




One of the sets that required the most work was that for the poolside scenes. It was really bright and full of colour, meaning that if anything from the set was missing it would be noticed straight away. However I think that our version of the set (below) looks extremely similar to the version from the video (left).



So much attention went into the smallest of details, one our producers even went to the extent of folding the towels seen just in the left of the shot, because she felt they weren't folded in just the right way. Which I found to be quite amusing, if it were my video would have been left the way it was. However, it just goes to show how thoroughly you need to scrutinise your set in order to make a video of decent quality.

The most enjoyable part of media for me is getting stuck in with the more practical an technical side of production. Even though my role in the prelim task was as a cast member and I couldn't have had more fun in that role if I tried; I still got the chance to see how the crew made their decisions on lighting and cinematography as well as what the end results were.

All of the cast got stuck in with the running of the workshop day as much as possible.

Question 2- What Have You Learnt From Participating In Each Of The Prelim Tasks?

The Audition:
Auditioning for a role in the prelim taught me a lot about how to lip sync to a song in a way that is both realistic and comes across as confident. This is something that I was able to draw on when it came to shooting the music video because I had a small amount of lip syncing with the lead at the start of the video. To a certain extent, I was able to work on my editing to time skill because of my approach to the audition video.


Rehearsals:
While rehearsing a part of the workshop, I learnt how to maintain an performance while still making the camera my main focus. It's something that you wouldn't think requires much effort, but it's much harder than most would believe. As well as this, I learnt how to fully become my character an took on board some of his mannerisms; such as tilting my head back every now and again when I really get into the beat.

Costume:
I was surprise how difficult it was to find certain items of clothing for the costumes, some of the most illusive costumes were some of the most simple. By participating in the prelim I got the chance to see how resourceful everyone was when it came to finding costumes that were suitable, many of the items were brought in by members of cast, because they know what suits themselves best. I also learnt that not having the exact costume you wanted isn't the end of the world, because you can always substitute it for something else and come to some form of compromise that everyone is happy with. Another thing that ways made apparent to me, is that there is no point in having a costume that you may feel is perfect, but the person who has to wear it doesn't feel comfortable in. I know know that if you want the best performance out of someone, one of the best ways to do it is to make them feel comfortable in the way that they look. That's because if they feel like they look good, then they won't have any inhibitions when it comes to their performances.

This is an example where a compromise was made to accommodate for any personal preferences in costume choices. Our costume for the girl's band (left) is much less revealing than that of their counterparts in the actual video (right), because the actors made it clear that they would prefer to be dressed more modestly, as was to be expected.
Shoot Day:
The day of the shoot taught me so much about how all of the cast and crew work together to be efficient and organise amongst what most would call "chaos". I now know that keeping to times is crucial in any shoot, not only so that you can get through all of the shots that you'd planned, but also for the overall morale of everyone. We actually managed to finish ahead of when we had expected to, by moving around certain shots and keeping strictly to our schedule.


Cast were constantly aware of when and where they were needed, to keep the day running smoothly

There were various moments when members of the cast had nothing to shoot for prolonged periods and as such were left waiting around. Rather than acting in an unprofessional matter, it was great to see that everyone remained engaged with what was happening; either watching what was being shot via the playback monitors or helping out the crew with anything they needed doing.



I think that they key to keeping everyone engaged on a shoot is to provide them with opportunities to get involved with the production, both in front and behind the camera. This is something which many would overlook, but that i will be taking into consideration when my time to run a shoot comes next term.

Editing:
Syncing our footage with that of the music video provided one of the greatest challenges for me while editing my version of the music video. Because a large amount of the footage ha someone lip syncing in one form or another, at times I had to compromise getting the footage that fit best with the actual video for finding footage with the correct lip sync.

As well as this, I was able to build on my skills in colour correction and grading, using "three-way colour correction" and "procamp" in Premier Pro.

Some of the setting used in procamp

Colour correction used in some shots
Something which was completely new to me, is the know-how to adding camera flashes into my footage. It was much simpler that I had anticipated; all it required was for me to use key frames and adjust the brightness and contrast at each key frame to give the impression of a camera flashing on and off.


Question 3- Are You Pleased With The Footage And Your Edit? Is It How You Expected It To Look?

The footage from the shoot was great to work with, for the most part we replicated all of the shots down to the smallest of details. In any case where it wasn't possible to have a set that was exactly the same as the one in the actual video (e.g. not having a car for practical reasons), we compromised as best we could to provide a set that worked best (using a smaller moped rather than a car).


Our version (left) using a moped rather than a car as seen in the real video (right)

There were quite a few shots where the footage was much darker than I would have liked, but that's nothing that can't be fixed in post production. It only means that I get my grading skills pushed slightly further than they would have been. All of the cast's performances are convincing and worked well on camera; thanks to our performance coach and choreographer this seemed to come naturally to everyone when they were in front of the camera and this came across very strongly when watching all of the footage back. Although it was made apparent when editing that the timings for some of the actions in some shots was out, causing some complications in the edit.


Our performance coach an choreographer filling us in on what they want from us

I think that my edit went quite well, the shots that I chose to use fit with those use in the real video with some compromising in certain areas because of issues with timing in some of the footage. My grading of the footage gave the right feel to the video and easily corrected any issues in the colouring of shots. An example of where I am most please with my grading  would be in the white scenes, because if you were to look at the original footage you would see a very dark outline in the corners of the shot. I managed to fix this for the most part, without affecting the colours of the actors in the band.

Obviously, I am still learning and there are various thing I would improve if time was no problem. Specifically the shots of the lead with a yellow background; in most of these shots his skin was bright orange and it is something that I could not leave as it. I tried to do as little to the yellow background as possible while still making Kayvon (lead) his normal skin tone; unfortunately this lead to either having the background turn green or having him look grey and lifeless. I feel like I came to a good compromise in these shots and the grading of the footage was done to an acceptable standard.


Question 4- How Do You Think Your Prelim Experiences Will Impact On Your Approach To Next Term's Music Video Coursework?

There are various skills that I have learnt from the prelim task that I will be able to apply to next term's project:
Lip syncing: 
This skill is something that is essential when making a music video, as in many cases it is the lip sync that makes a video believable. If the lip sync is out even by a fraction of a second, it can mean that the entire performance is seen to be staged and non-convincing.


Organising costume: 
You need to be as flexible as possible when it comes to making decisions on the costumes for each actor, because your preferred option for the character may not be all you thought it would be when it comes to seeing the actor in it. The costume chosen needs to fit the part, but also complements the actor wearing it as much as possible so they feel comfortable wearing it.

Organising the shoot:
Those organising the shoot planned out the day giving each shot a time allocation within which to be filmed, leaving contingency time at the end of the shoot for any pick ups that may be required. In my opinion that is probably the best way to organise my shoot next term, as it means that we get every shot that we plan for filmed on the day and do so on schedule. If there were any shots we got stuck on or weren't quite happy with, then it isn't a major problem because we would have allocated time for such an event.

Performance:
Through the prelim I was able to build on my confidence when performing in front of a camera by learning various techniques from our performance coach, meaning that next term when my group and I are deciding on actors for the video, I will be more than willing to put myself up for the role. It also means that if the choice is made to include anyone not in my group in the video, then I can confidently work with them to get into character and bring out a believable performance.

Editing:
Editing a music video is totally different to the type of editing I have done in the past, it requires very different skills an techniques. From the prelim I now have the knowledge to do so in an efficient manner, editing a performance bed while keeping a loose narrative that doesn't overshadow the music itself. Since a music video can be quite abstract, if we choose to have a narrative, then I would be confident ensuring it is maintained even when broken up by performance shots.

Editing to time was another skill that I acquired while editing the prelim. Some of the shots in the chosen music video were timed to fit in perfectly with the beat of the music. The main examples of this in our video is the shots of the 4 cigarettes and the floral lettering. This gives me more options as to the choices my group make when planning out the shots for my music video next term.




Make-Up:
The make-up required for a music video differs greatly to what you would see someone wearing during their everyday lives. A lot more time needs to be spent both clearing up the skin and making any features more prominent than I had previously thought so that the right things are highlighted on camera. Throughout the shoot day, the whole cast were getting their make-up touched up regularly so that it looked perfect for when they were needed on set. A bonus that I got out of the prelim is the opportunity to network; I made sure to get the contact details of the make-up artist we had on set as they made it clear that if we needed any help with the make-up on our shoots, that she would be more than happy to help. This is great for me and my group as it is one added stress that we hopefully will not have to contend with.


Props:
When it comes to props the key is to plan ahead as far as possible, so that if there are any issues you can sort them out well before these issues get that chance to affect your shoot. Being resourceful is also another important lesson I've learnt, most props can either be found by asking around or even by making them from scratch. In exceptional circumstances things may need to be bought, but there is generally a way around that.

Giving the actors a chance to practice with the props saves a load of time, because they get the chance to become familiar with the props and get an idea of what they need to do when it comes to the times of their shots.