The Apple Mac has become an absolute treasure. I do not know how anybody could cope with this course without the software that I have thankfully had the opportunity to use. Becoming familiar with the Adobe Suite last year was one of the best things about the AS Course. I felt capable of using Photoshop and even Indesign (at a push) but learning that we would need to use an entirely new software was daunting. Even the name Final Cut Express filled me with fear. However, after beginning to experiment with the software I realised that it wasn't actually that bad and the more comfortable I got with it, the more I enjoyed discovering new tricks to do with it and the bigger the sense of achievement I gained.
The camera that we used for our filming was a Sony Handy-Cam which enabled us to get a good quality picture while being as portable as possible. This camera was so lightweight and elegant, we could carry it around for such lengths of time and not feel burdened.
The camera itself was interchangeable however as all of the school's cameras are of the same make and model, it was the tape with which our footage was filmed on that was the one thing that could not be changed or swapped. We guarded it with our lives. The camera was accompanied by a tripod to ensure stability with each shot, and also a charger because the battery is rechargeable. We found the battery to charge surprisingly fast which was good because we could do some filming, top up the battery whilst discussing what next to film and by the time we had done this the battery life would already be a lot longer. Other than that we only needed a DV Cable to get the footage off of the camera and onto Final Cut Express, ready to be edited. Uploading the footage from the tape to the Mac was really fast using the DV Cable. Half an hour of footage could be uploaded within a minute, ready for editing.
Without access to each and every one of these products our video could not have become even a fraction of the quality that it is now. If we had not have been given access to a tripod our video would have looked shocking. Despite the tripod not being technological as such, it was absolutely incredible for our video-making. Without the use of our tripod, our shots would be blurred, jolty and clumsy as each movement of the hand is magnified when the footage is watched back. Only a tiny minority of songs would be appropriate to be filmed using no tripod and ours was without a doubt not one of them.
The Internet has been absolutely vital throughout the entire planning process. Initially, we found potential songs to create a music video for using Safari. In particular, YouTube was pinnacle to finding a song choice. The brilliance of YouTube is that it automatically gives a list of suggestions to similar song choices down the side of the webpage as you listen to a song or watch a music video. This meant that once we had found a genre that we all appreciated, we could just explore all of the given automatic suggestions.
Once we had found and all agreed on our song choice, the Internet became our key to researching the target market and the likely listeners to songs of that caliber. Using the UK Tribes website, we began to understand the likely audience. UK Tribes is a brilliant website. It is potentially controversial due to its labelling nature but that is definitely a huge advantage when using it for the purpose I have been!
We then found ourselves interpreting the lyrics of the song, especially trying to learn the potential meanings behind the conceptual lines. We obviously grasped the not so subtle idea of the song being based upon death, due to the song title of 'The Funeral'. We then began constructing a storyline of a young girl, driven to suicide somehow.
By researching on the Internet the issues from cyber bullying we found a quotation that inspired the making of our video. 'Depression is the inability to construct a future'.
This quotation, however simple it may be, really did influence the way we went about creating this video. For us, a large part of knowing what shots we were going to do was based upon us imagining we were in the character's footsteps, experiencing exactly the same things. We had to understand how depression affects the lives of the sufferers and how they would see the world during such a horrible time. The use of the words 'inability to construct a future' really affected me as the thought of not seeing a future, not seeing a life any more and not aspire to be anything or anyone any more is horrible. A life without ambition is senseless.
Depression however, was merely the beginning of the brutal suicidal adventure that the lead character was taken on.
Anyway, more about the technologies we used. Final Cut Express was the software that we used to do the editing of our video. The complexity of this software is insane, there is so much film technology at your fingertips it becomes overwhelming at times. Each portion of the footage from our tape was captured and placed within the window on the top left-hand side of the screen. Final Cut Express is so clever that it provides an image of what the footage within that shortcut looks like. So despite the disorganised appearance, we knew exactly where each piece of footage was kept.
Overlaying footage allowed us to show two happenings at one given time. This example shown above complements one another as both shots show a harmonious atmosphere- one in motion and one still. It is also very apparent that the two characters within the overlay are the same person which is extremely important for this particular clip.
Overlays are quite commonly used in music videos as they are brilliant at creating a euphoric confusion in fast-paced songs and adding harmonious feelings in slow-paced songs.
This is one of the overlays used within Scarlett Johannson's video for her song 'Falling Down':
The chroma key allows a desaturated image to appear to have one element or object with colour, normally an illuminous colour. It does this by creating a duplicate layer of the image and dragging it into the row above the editing row upon the timeline. Then by selecting the range of hue that is necessary (in this case reds) a 'magic wand' style tool appears allowing the user to select whereabouts within the shot they would like the colour to appear. This leaves the copy of the footage on the bottom row of the timeline fully desaturated and effectively the chroma key tool has cut out a hole the shape of the coloured object allowing that to overcome the desaturated background.This tool worked really well within our video and it really helped to emphasise the importance of the rose without wasting more screen time on shots of purely the rose flower.
Using the chroma key tool was reasonably risky as not many music videos are suited to using such a tool. However, we thought we should experiment with it and ended up liking the result.
In the 'Take On Me' music video by A-Ha, they use a tool of a similar caliber which gives almost the opposite result:
The hand in the centre of the frame is in black and white and glows against the colour nature of the remains of the frame. It has a similar effect to the chroma key tool, yet gives the exact opposite result.
In the evaluation stages of our group's music video, we have used the Sony Handy-Cam to film students giving us feedback on our final cut of the music video. This adds both interactivity and detailed answers to our feedback. We also tried to cover as many mediums as possible on our feedback by photographing written notes from our peers about our rough cut. Clips and screen grabs from Youtube have enriched our research and so I felt it necessary to provide these within my evaluation to show the extent of research that was paramount to have been done.
No comments:
Post a Comment