-MICHAEL IKEJI-
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Evaluation - How does our project challenge real media texts?
Our music video does challenge most music videos of the same genre as normally with in RnB music videos a narrative is not normally displayed. Within an RnB music video we normally see ritual celebration and the objectification of women but we have not included that in our music videos therefore we are challenging real media texts. Our video takes a more sombre tone and to a certain extent a depressing feeling as it corresponds with the song. Also I believe our video challenges other music videos as it is of a longer length. Normally RnB videos are of a short length mainly due to their non-narrative content but ours is around 5 minutes long meaning it is of a significant increased length compared to other RnB music videos. Moreover we had a significantly lower budget than normal RnB music videos meaning we had to make do with the supplies we had. Because of the lower budget sets and props were not as elaborate as normal music video and we were not able to achieve effects that required specialist software. However overall I think our music video is similar to a lot of RnB music videos already produced as we mostly tried to keep with the aspects of generic music videos.
-BYRAN FERROL-
Friday, 17 February 2012
Construction - Day 9 of Editing
The 9th day of editing proved to be the last. The last clips that were filmed were of the couple in their home and their relationship problems. Most of he clips were made black & white to emphasise the fact that its a flash backs. A section of the song that was cut was filled with a montage of the couple arguing. The additive dissolve effect was used to create fragmentation within the scene emphasising the chaotic undertone.
This editing day also saw us add in intertextuality. We filmed the female lead watching a television. We were then gonna overlay a clip of the male lead singing and place it on top of the screen so it looks like the female is actually watching him on the screen. However while we filmed this the camera moved slightly which means the whole illusion would be compromised. To overcome this we instead used a still image so there was no chance of the camera moving. We then placed the desired clips on the screen to achieve the effect. It took a bit of time to overlay the clips to make sure it loked like it was actually appearing on the screen. The finished outcome was very clean and professional and it was hard to tell that it was a still image with the clip placed on top of it.
After this the music video was then finished and ready to be exported. We exported it as an flv so it was in a suitable format to be placed on Youtube.
This editing day also saw us add in intertextuality. We filmed the female lead watching a television. We were then gonna overlay a clip of the male lead singing and place it on top of the screen so it looks like the female is actually watching him on the screen. However while we filmed this the camera moved slightly which means the whole illusion would be compromised. To overcome this we instead used a still image so there was no chance of the camera moving. We then placed the desired clips on the screen to achieve the effect. It took a bit of time to overlay the clips to make sure it loked like it was actually appearing on the screen. The finished outcome was very clean and professional and it was hard to tell that it was a still image with the clip placed on top of it.
After this the music video was then finished and ready to be exported. We exported it as an flv so it was in a suitable format to be placed on Youtube.
-BYRAN FERROL-
Construction - Day 8 of Editing
The 8th day of editing started with the new green screen idea being produced. Our new idea was to place Michael on the face of a clock and speed up the clock to show time passing. This was successfully achieved on after effects. A video of a clock face was downloaded then sped up usind Adobe Premiere. It was then imported into After Effects. The footage of Michael was also imported. However the green had to be color keyed out. This was a lengthy process as there were shadows on the green screen meaning there were different tones of green on the green screen. The different shades of green then had to be selected individually until all the green had gone. Once this was done Michael was then placed on the clock and the effect of the clock actually being in the backgorund was created.
Problems arose when the clip was ready to be exported. Many of the files we exported the clip as made the clip appear blurry when imported onto Adobe Premiere. We repeated the exporting process 4 times until we eventually found a high quality format that was suitable to use for our music video.
When the green screen was imported into Adobe Premiere we then made it black and white, an effect that we had used previously in our music video. We placed the clip right before the very end scene to indicated that time had passed before the end scene took place.
As well as this another part of the music video was changed due to the groups weariness towards it. After much analysis we did not like the "supposed" death scene where the clip stopped on Michael's face. We then changed this to mysself appearing afterward where Michael had previously been. A cross dissolve was used so my body dissolved into the scene then dissolved out. The finished effect was favourable among the group.
After this day of editing there was not much left to edit of the film. The only bits that were missing were scenes of the couple.
Problems arose when the clip was ready to be exported. Many of the files we exported the clip as made the clip appear blurry when imported onto Adobe Premiere. We repeated the exporting process 4 times until we eventually found a high quality format that was suitable to use for our music video.
When the green screen was imported into Adobe Premiere we then made it black and white, an effect that we had used previously in our music video. We placed the clip right before the very end scene to indicated that time had passed before the end scene took place.
As well as this another part of the music video was changed due to the groups weariness towards it. After much analysis we did not like the "supposed" death scene where the clip stopped on Michael's face. We then changed this to mysself appearing afterward where Michael had previously been. A cross dissolve was used so my body dissolved into the scene then dissolved out. The finished effect was favourable among the group.
After this day of editing there was not much left to edit of the film. The only bits that were missing were scenes of the couple.
-BYRAN FERROL-
Construction - Day 7 of Editing
The 7th day of editing was mainly dedicated to green screen. This meant that instead of using Adobe Premiere we had to use Adobe After Effects as the is the programme used to achieve the green screen effect. We had filmed a number of different green screen shots so we were able to make a decision at a later date of which one were going to use in our music video. The idea which I edited this day was an idea put forward of the artist being placed on a money note. No major difficulties occurred the only difficulty being setting the colour. It was hard to get the right balance as changing the tolerance lead to the footage becoming blacked out. However after this it was very easy to get an image of the money bill then placing Michael on it. However after this day of editing we are not sure whether this will be used so our next days of filming will involve filming other ideas that can be used for the green screen.
-BYRAN FERROL-
Construction - Day 6 of Editing
Day 6 of editing pretty much involved the same process as previous days of editing. We had filmed new clips in the same location as the previous days of filming. Our video was nearly complete meaning that the clips filmed were clips that needed re-filming or “filler” clips. The editing day also proved to be long and strenuous as still a high level of editing knowledge was needed to achieve our intended effects. The most difficult clips to edit were clips that saw Michael jumping off a bridge. Because Michael couldn’t actually jump off a bridge editing was needed to give off this effect. The way in which we filmed this was a shot from the side and from the front of Michael jumping over the safety bar and a POV shot of the camera falling towards the water. This had to be carefully edited so the desired effect could be portrayed to the audience. After many attempts of trying to create the affect all these attempts proved futile as the footage wasn’t good enough. In the end what we decided to do was was to partially scrap the POV shot as it did not look “real” enough then just use the side shot and front shot. We then stopped the front shot on a particular part where Michael’s face could be seen. We then cross dissolved footage of the water over this stopped clip and added a splashing noise indicating to the audience that he had jumped into the water. I believe that this was a success as I feel that the audience will still get the idea that the artist jumped without physically seeing it.
Another part of editing which was perhaps more difficult than this was trying to lip sync and create a split screen for a particular part of the song. The effect we wanted was to have “two” Michaels on screen having a conversation with each other while lip syncing a certain part of the song. The filming day before saw Michael finding it very hard to lip sync this part of the song so when editing came a long there were many of the same type of clip which proved to be a lengthy task finding the correct one. After the correct clips were found we then had to lips sync each clip to the corresponding part of the song. This was successful even though Michael had trouble lip syncing we were still able to fit together certain parts of the clip and the music. After this was done the split screen effect then had to be created. This was unsuccessful as it could easily be seen that the two clips were separate where as the split screen effect means it looking like it was all filmed at once. Because of this we decided we could not use it in the video leading us to completely scarp the idea of the split screen effect. We then tried to come up with other ideas of how we could film it but no ideas came to fruition meaning we cut that section if the song out of the music video. Instead of just completely cutting it out we downloaded the instrumental of the song and matched it up to the correct place in the music video then had that playing instead. This helped in cutting down the length of our music video.
Another part of editing which was perhaps more difficult than this was trying to lip sync and create a split screen for a particular part of the song. The effect we wanted was to have “two” Michaels on screen having a conversation with each other while lip syncing a certain part of the song. The filming day before saw Michael finding it very hard to lip sync this part of the song so when editing came a long there were many of the same type of clip which proved to be a lengthy task finding the correct one. After the correct clips were found we then had to lips sync each clip to the corresponding part of the song. This was successful even though Michael had trouble lip syncing we were still able to fit together certain parts of the clip and the music. After this was done the split screen effect then had to be created. This was unsuccessful as it could easily be seen that the two clips were separate where as the split screen effect means it looking like it was all filmed at once. Because of this we decided we could not use it in the video leading us to completely scarp the idea of the split screen effect. We then tried to come up with other ideas of how we could film it but no ideas came to fruition meaning we cut that section if the song out of the music video. Instead of just completely cutting it out we downloaded the instrumental of the song and matched it up to the correct place in the music video then had that playing instead. This helped in cutting down the length of our music video.
-BYRAN FERROL-
Contruction - Day 9 of Filming
The 9th day of filming was what we proclaimed the final day of filming as our objectives was to film the remaining blanks that are in the video. The filming on this day consisted of scenes involving the couple in the video where the footage obtained will be used as narrative in the video. We played with different story lines and camera shots and angles which included filming a blank screen which in premiere will be used to add another scene into it in order to replicate intertextuality.
The final day of filming occurred with no problems as i feel that we were very determined to make that day final and we were pushed for time as myself and my co-star could not attend filming for any longer than 3 hours due to other activities. We knew that we had to rap things up within 3 hours which made us i dare say the most focused we've ever been.
After 9 days of filming equilvalating to about 2-3 months of production, Elite Records are proud to declare that all footage for our project has been filmed with no other needs for filming days. Throughout the whole experience there are definitely a number of things that we could do better if we were to go through the process again, this includes time management, organisation and communication between groups members to allow an easier experience.
The final day of filming occurred with no problems as i feel that we were very determined to make that day final and we were pushed for time as myself and my co-star could not attend filming for any longer than 3 hours due to other activities. We knew that we had to rap things up within 3 hours which made us i dare say the most focused we've ever been.
After 9 days of filming equilvalating to about 2-3 months of production, Elite Records are proud to declare that all footage for our project has been filmed with no other needs for filming days. Throughout the whole experience there are definitely a number of things that we could do better if we were to go through the process again, this includes time management, organisation and communication between groups members to allow an easier experience.
-MICHAEL IKEJI-
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Construction: Changing Image from Google
In order to change the image i used, i first looked for an image in google. of a broken heart and inserted it into the program photshop.
The image was then edited by altering the brightness and contrast using the adjustment layer. The Contrast/Brightness tool can be found under Layer/ New Adjustment Layer/ Contrast/Brightness
Or on the layers palette (accessable in Window/ Layers) click on the half white & Black circle and choose "Contrast/Brightness"
What comes up is perhaps simple pop-up window in photoshop. The concept is very straight-forward, the top slider adjusts brightness, and the bottom one adjusts contrast. Once i played around with the contrasts, i was happy with the shade of blue i had obtained as well as the fact i was able to eradicate the shade of grey behind.
Or on the layers palette (accessable in Window/ Layers) click on the half white & Black circle and choose "Contrast/Brightness"
What comes up is perhaps simple pop-up window in photoshop. The concept is very straight-forward, the top slider adjusts brightness, and the bottom one adjusts contrast. Once i played around with the contrasts, i was happy with the shade of blue i had obtained as well as the fact i was able to eradicate the shade of grey behind.
Construction - 8th Day of Filming
With the deadline getting closer every day, we decided to film during half term and due to unforseen circumstances, jeremiah could not attend. The objective for this day was to near enough finish the remaining footage neeeded excluding the green screen which we wanted to do aswell but the facility needed was closed.
Unlike other flming days done in the passed, nothing went wrong for us as i kept the equipment over the holidays so i made sure the camera was fully charged, the tripod was appropriate and we had enough memory. We were able to film almost all the remaining scenes and we were very pleased with it. The only negative that i could think of that day was that we only had 30 minutes filming time so we had to time our scenes wisely.
After this day, i can say that we will only need about 1-2 days of filming left which is just green screen in order to complete the video.
Unlike other flming days done in the passed, nothing went wrong for us as i kept the equipment over the holidays so i made sure the camera was fully charged, the tripod was appropriate and we had enough memory. We were able to film almost all the remaining scenes and we were very pleased with it. The only negative that i could think of that day was that we only had 30 minutes filming time so we had to time our scenes wisely.
After this day, i can say that we will only need about 1-2 days of filming left which is just green screen in order to complete the video.
-MICHAEL IKEJI-
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