Thursday, December 5, 2019

Music video editing

  Hellooo! My group and I are so ecstatic that we got to work on this music video project. After filming and editing it I don’t think we could’ve been more proud of how it turned out. In the first filming project we did we used our school’s camera and editing program, Pinnacle studios but this time we decided to try out something different.  We all agreed that it would be more convenient to shoot all of our footage on our phones.  Additionally, we decided to use iMovie on our phone to put together all of our footage and edit.  We all have much experience using this tool and thought it would be to our advantage to use this instead.  Which in the end we feel was a very smart decision.  Not only did we save time by not having to dump or risk losing footage we also were able to edit at any time not only when in class.  So after we filmed everything we needed we began to edit.
  To begin our editing process  I started by opening up the app iMovie and clicking on the import application.  My group and I collectively watched through all of our footage and favorited the ones we wanted to use and put it into a separate folder so that they would be easier to find. After that we went to YouTube and searched up the clean version of Hollaback girl by Gwen Stefani. Then I screen recorded and saved the audio so that we could input it into the background of our video.  I added in all of our clips and watch them all the way through to see how they looked together.  One of the most important parts of us editing was making sure the audio and lyrics from the song was aligned with our actors lip-synching.  So we cut , shortened,or stretched  all of our clips to make sure it matched up perfectly.  Along with that it was important that we kept track of the time of our footage and edited them to make sure it fit our limit and overall aligned.  Another aspect that we had to take into consideration what is our transitions.  Now, overall I don’t believe that our clips look choppy with how they are put together and we did not want to go over our time limit so we decided to leave it how it was without any special transitions.
   Prior to begin editing I thought that this process was going to be more of a hassle and at times stressful than it was, which I was very pleasantly surprised by . I think the fact that we used iMovie was a big part of this. I was comfortable with using it because of all of my past experience which helps for my group and I to bring our editing ideas to life.  I did have a good time editing this project I find editing very fun and a great way to make our footage really something special.  There wasn’t anything that really went wrong during editing which was good.  I’m excited to edit in the future and learn different techniques two edits above and beyond an average video. My whole group worked very well together not only in the editing stage but in planning and filming as well. There wasn’t much editing that need to be done in all honesty. However with what we ended with I feel definitely gets the job done. I cant wait to edit more and get better and better.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Final Filming Music Video

  Hello! Last week was the start of the filming stage for my group and I’s music video. We were so excited to begin filming and bringing our visions and ideas to life to create a great video. We had put lots of thoughts and planning into how we wanted this to turn out. Lots of brain storming and putting it down on paper to be more organized. We knew we wanted all of us to contribute and be present in the video and do our best to make it look very professional. The filming process was the part I think I was most excited for. The first day we filmed we stayed after school and walked over to our school’s track and soccer feild because that was one of the locations we had decided to use. As I said in my previous blog my group and I made sure to check with the coaches first so that we didn’t disrupt anyone else but thankfully the coaches were super understanding and let us film. We then started filming our opening scene which is the main person, our protagonist, confronting the antagonist for bad mouthing them. In our original plan I was supposed to play “Gwen” or our protagonist but after shooting the first shot a few times we collectively decided that it would be better if Ava was the main protagonist and I became the antagonist.
  The first few seconds we filmed on that day was our extra played by our friend Mila and I bad mouthing Ava while she is seen in the back of the frame and she walks over and slaps me in the face to tell me off which sets the assertive dominant tone of this song. We filmed this about 5 or 6 times to get it just right. Then the next part we filmed was Ava lip syncing to the chorus with Jake and Morgan dancing and lip syncing in the back, while I recorded and directed. During this time Jake also filmed a reaction shot of Mila and I after Ava had hit me. The shots that we got that day were very good and we were satisfied with them. But after we had left we realized we missed out on the ending dance shot that we needed for the end of the video for combination shot that we had invisioned to use. So the following Tuesday my group went back to the same spot. We just needed to get a shot of some of us dancing to the ending chorus that we planned to cut and edit to put it with a combination of all of our locations like we have seen in video edits. We decided that it would be a good idea to go on the bleachers to film which had the soccer feild in the back. We filmed this part multiple times trying out multiple different ideas and angles so that we had many options of what we wanted to use for when we began to edit. I directed Jake, Morgan, and Ava on what to do while they came up with various dance moves to do to make the video more fun. Then I recorded some extra clips of Jake and Morgan lip syncing on the track just to have if we wanted to implement them later on.
   Although we had all of that footage we still weren’t done. We still needed to film at a grocery store and park. So my group and I safely with seatbelts drove over to a nearby grocery store. Prior to filming we checked in with the manager to get permission to film in the store which we were kindly granted. We stood in the aisle and had close ups of Ava and I filmed where we planned to have it go back and forth between us to give off that competition “Vs.” vibe. We filmed this shot a couple times to make sure we had a good enough shot. Then we made sure to film the dancing scene that we needed in the grocery store for the montage at the end. We also made sure that it aligned properly so that when we put it together it looked very clean and smoothe. Then we packed up our equipment and headed over to the park to film. This was the last location we needed to film at. The next part that we needed to film was for the part of the song that goes “I heard that you were talking shh and you didn’t think that I would hear it.” So Jake Morgan and I took turns recording and being in the shot with Ava as we did a tracking shot of us walking through the park and lip syncing. We shot this a few different times as well. Then we also had another part to film becuase we planned on shooting a flashback of what initially started the fight of the video. After we decided what we had was good we went to film the dancing for the ending montage. We referenced the dancing footage we already had to decided where to film and what to do. At the end of all these filming days I think it’s safe to say that my group and I did a great job of working together and bringing our ideas together to create this project. We all had so much filming this and can’t wait to work to finish it up.

Short Film CR

         A common element that my group’s short film Possessed took part in was the representation of a certain social group and social issu...