Evalution

Final Evaluation 
Music Video- Birdy, Deep End


For my music video I looked at the idea of loss and the memory of having someone, but that person not really being there. I like the idea of having different shots and one minute someone being in the shot and the next time them disappearing, to get the idea of having lost someone and reminiscing the memory of someone. I feel that this worked well (discussed further below under strengths).

When first listening to the song, I had this vision of it being in the forest and having high key lighting. I have a few ideas that I thought that I of how I could create the video.

This is my favourite shoot, of when Daisy disappears, I like how its a different camera angle to the rest and I feel that it works well. I chose to have a bird eyes angle and having the camera above them, as I thought that this would be different to be my other shoots. I found that it worked well with when Daisy is in shot, they are both happy and enjoying each others company and then when Daisy goes out of shot Ellie is looking sad and looking into the distance. You get this idea of Ellie missing her and Daisy not being there. Which works with the concept.

When filming for the video

I wanted to film using the soft focus lens, to get have soft lighting and to have a soft feeling to the video, however the soft focus lens wasn't available for me to be able to use. I still went with having high key lighting and tried to see if I could get the soft focus feel into the video. However this didn't work, in reflection I could have got a filter for my lens or use a shallow depth of field or shot into the sun to create a lens flare.

I also tried to film without the lens, I tried to see if it would get the outline of someone, however this didn't work because I had the lens too far away from the camera.

Planning

For planning I looked at Andrew Goodwin and Carole Vernillis and there theories, this helped me when looking at music videos and seeing the way that they are edited. This helped me for when I analysed the music videos.

I then looked at different music videos, looking at the genre of pop. I looked at the codes and conventions for the videos and this included the use of low key lighting in the macklemore, Same Love video to reflect a very sad and emotional mood. I added this into my video, when Ellie is watching the TV by herself, with the only light coming from the TV.

I looked at images on Pinterest, looking at soft focus and high key lighting. This worked well for inspiration, I started to have a clear idea of how I wanted my music video to look. I create a visual mood boards with all the images that I found, this made me think about different camera angles and different shot types that I could get. This was good to look back on when looking before going out to film.

Editing 
When editing I tried to have the split screen, however this didn't work very well, this was because the background and sky didn't match up. The clouds were moving fast and this meant that when Daisy was out of shoot and Ellie was in shoot, you could see the line of the split screen. I had to find a different way that could get to have someone there and not again. I added the dissolve effect, between the two clips that I wanted. I found that this worked well and it looked similar to having the split screen.

When editing I looked at the different ways in what colour I would have my video, this was looking at where to have it in black and white or colour or both. I looked at One Directions music video, History and I like of how they had the memories in black and white and them performing in colour. I feel that this worked well, and I wanted to see how it would look in my video. However in my videos, this didn't work as well because I felt that it jumped for one to the other and it wasn't clear between want wasn't the memory and want was. One Direction stay in the same location, for when they are performing. I tried all of the video in Black and White and I felt that this worked well, and it fitted with the music. However when putting some of footage into black and white, they went over exposed. I needed to have edited them and make sure that there was a contrast between the black and white.

Problems that I had;
Problems that I occurred at the park were;
Another problem that occurred was that on the first shoot my camera battery died very suddenly. This meant that I didn't get as much filming as I would have like to get. There was a problem with my camera battery, and it was struggling in the heat. To make sure that this doesn't happen again I will make sure to take a spare battery incase something like does happen. This also meant that I couldn't get some of the shoots that I had planned on getting.

Another problem that I had was that the tripod wasn't very stable when at Bradgate park, the ground was very unsteady, this meant that I had to find more even ground or find a way to get the tripod to stand up. Even where adjusting the tripod to have some legs smaller to fit with the ground, the tripod was still uneven, this meant when I wanted to film them both together I had to find places that where the tripod wouldn't wobble. Also when going up the hills, it was getting more windy, this again was a problem when filming, I had to try to keep the tripod steady to get more movements.

Things that I could improve on;
My videos narrative isn't very strong and its very hard to understand the story that I was trying to get across. I feel that before filming I need to have a more stronger baseline, to start the narrative and to give the video a start, middle and end.

I could also have done with another shoot, and getting other footage to fill in some gaps where I need it. I had to repeat some of my clips a few times and it would be better if I had other clips. I could have filmed more close ups and more of them being together and not being there. For my next project, I will make sure that I film a lot more then what I need to, giving me more to work with.

Also I could improve the edit, some of the edits are to long. It would have been worked better if they were shorter, as it gets a boring with them being to long. I feel that it this goes back to not having enough footage, so I have had to make the footage a been longer that want I would normally do. Having faster cuts would definitely help improve the video.

I could also have had more close up of Ellie, a key code and convention for the pop genre is having a lot of close ups of the artist. I feel that I need more to conform to the genre more, so when someone is watching they straight away know that they are watching a pop music video.

Strengths

One strength of the music video, I think is the was getting the idea of loss across. Even thought the narrative isn't that strong, you get the idea of loss across. This is done with the disappearing of Daisy, which I think was worked really well. I wanted to try and challenge myself in this project and I feel that having the two shots and making sure Ellie didn't move worked well.

Overall I'm really happy with how my music video.

Shooting Plan 2

Shooting plan 2

Idea
For this shoot I will be looking at getting close ups of both Ellie and Daisy and these will be done inside with artificial lighting. I'm thinking about using the light which comes from the TV, as this will give a give feel to the rest the footage. I will also be doing more shots of having someone there and disappearing. I want to get different camera angles, for example looking at getting a Birds eye shot.

Equipment 

5D Mark 111
70-300mm Lens
50mm Lens
Tripod
Compact Flash
Spare battery

Lighting 

I will be using the lighting from the TV for the close ups, to look at adding in another light source. I will also be using natural lighting, when filming Ellie and Daisy together.

Audio

I will be filming no audio for this shoot.

Little Brother Client Feedback

Little Brother Client Feedback

Project planning

The purpose of the project was to work with members of the Museum team and students from King Edward VI College, to create a short animated film based around the concept of how someone might legitimately protest about something that concerns them. This could be through the students working as individuals, sharing personal concerns, or in small groups exploring wider ideas.

The students would be working with a professional animation artist, Chris Bradley, in the conception and final production of the film.

The film could be informal and fun but must include, as its central learning point, the concept of how an individual might find their voice when considering making a protest and discovering how their protest might make the most productive impact.

The film was to form part of a museum temporary exhibition focusing on the history of protest.

The project brief was outlined to students in October 2016. The timetable for completion was challenging, requiring 7 workshops and a final completion for early December 2016.

Strengths

Strong and encouraging ‘buy in’ to the project from the beginning from the teaching staff who were quick to vision how the project would benefit their students.

Generous allocation of teaching time and flexibility to allow students and teachers to attend workshops.

The challenging timescale of the project gave the students an authentic taste of producing material in a ‘client based’ scenario.

The professional animator, Chris Bradley, was exceptionally skilled in keeping students focused on the project. At times the rate of production slowed, due often to the intricate nature of stop motion film production. Chris, with his experience, was key in keeping things running to a timetable with a completion date looming ever closer.

Despite a small drop out rate, the students working on the project were committed and hard working, many spending their own time in completing elements of scriptwriting or model making in their own time to avoid over run.

Weaknesses

A great deal of the initial allotted workshop time was taken up deciding which direction to go with the protest theme. In hindsight it may have been better to get the group to decide this at the initial brief stage and come to the workshops with a consensus.

The delay in deciding the nature of the ‘protest’ to be animated inevitably pushed back time on developing a script and model making. This put pressure on the remaining time and inevitably led to an over run. In retrospect, as the concept of ‘protest’ was quite wide and complex, it might have been better to give the students some pre selected areas or suggestions in order to make adoption of the theme for the protest far quicker and easier.

Production

The initial problem with production was establishing the concept and vision for the film. I think there had been an underestimation of how complex the students might find this. Once this was resolved, script writing and model making could commence.

Chris was instrumental in keeping students focused and the commitment of the students was great, particularly once they could see the direction the project was taking.

The tight timetable for the project was ambitious. If we were to do this again a few more workshop sessions would be programmed in. As it was the students showed wonderful commitment in giving their own time to ensure things were completed on time.

I believe that the students benefited from their work with Chris. Working with a professional animator they could see the amount of planning and production required for a successful project. Chris was skilled at developing a bond with the students, helping them with planning and designing all elements of the project as well as demonstrating how to achieve a professional result.

For the students to be involved in a project from conception to launch, I believe, was very rewarding. I also believe that the practical skills gained were significant, from model making, script writing, sound recording and stop motion photography. This was certainly a broad base of practical skills with a wide application for the future.

Project launch

It was fantastic to see so many of the students attending the launch in their own time. They obviously felt real pride in what they had achieved. The quality and significance of their work was echoed by Councillor Ian Lloyd, Portfolio Holder for Arts and Leisure at Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council. The film was enjoyed within the exhibition it complimented and appealed to a wide audience, both children and adults. Many visitors commented on the high production values of the film which I think is testament to Chris Bradley and the students involved.

For the Museum & Art Gallery it was an important project. We wanted to engage with a traditional ‘non service user’ audience, using our collections in an inspirational way and getting students involved in a meaningful project. I hope their experience was equally positive and rewarding.

Postscript

The Museum & Art Gallery were delighted that Jakob Morrison created a small exhibition of the props used in the production of the film within our Community Showcase. We can conclude with his words:

“Working on this project was really rewarding and taught both myself and the other members of the group so much about film production. The museum team gave us the brief for the film and a deadline for completion which was really challenging. Working with the artist was amazing because we got to see all the different layers that go into film production, from developing a practical story, script writing to designing sets and sound editing.

The level of detail that goes into a production like this went beyond what I’d imagined. The filming of the stop motion, making the tiny adjustments for just one shot took ages and this was just for a 4 minute film.

Everyone benefited from the project and I’d like to see how I can use what I’ve learnt by doing my own productions.”

Research Evaluation

Research Evaluation 

For my Music Video Production unit, before filming began, I knew that I needed to undertake substantial and effective research. This would give me a better understanding of the codes and conventions that I needed to utilise for my chosen genre to produce my music video. I started by researching Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, who provided well established music video theories, looking at how the videos are positioned, filmed and edited for defined audiences. I took notes, during my teacher led seminars for selected background information and approaches to employing music theory; this gave me a general overview to base my research upon. From this primary research information I built an idea of how to conduct my secondary research. Using Andrew Goodwin’s ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ and Carol Vernallis ‘The Kindest Cut’ allowed me to assess the usefulness of analysing existing music videos for technical codes and conventions and also narrative techniques.

Having looked at the theories my next method of research was analysing music videos, this was important as it provided me with ideas of how to understand what codes and conventions of different genres of music require.

Some Codes and Conventions for Pop genre are;  
- Artist in mainstream outfits.
- Often relates to teenagers, who are the main target audience.
- Close up to show the artist, star image. This also helps with advertising. 

Questionnaire 

To get a better understanding of what other people would like to see in a mainstream pop music video, I created a questionnaire on survey money. I sent the survey out to as many people as I could, to gather as much information as possible before I started to compose ideas for my own production. This research method is quantitative and relies on facts and figures. It provides statistical data that would help target specific genre related audience appeal and production techniques to make my production successful. Overall my questionnaire reached 45 participants, not as many as I had hoped for. Nevertheless, this was sufficient enough to justify the techniques I intended to include in my own mainstream production.

This research method mainly offers data reliant results; some of my questions did allow for quantitative results though, where someone could go into more depth and what they actually thought about mainstream pop music videos and their production techniques. These were the most effective type of questioning that I employed. The purpose of the questionnaire was to see what others thought about these types of music videos and what they would want to see in a similar music video production. Examples of questions that were effective included; ‘What do you expect to see in a music video?’ and ‘What type of music video do you prefer?’ I hoped from the questionnaire that I would get a lot more information and this as it would help with developing further ideas and inspiration. However, this didn’t happen because not all of the answers that I got provided that much detail, and some of the replies where far too short and brief. This could have been because some of the answers were multiple choice; this might have affected the results and made the questionnaire not as reliable as I had intended. Providing more choices rather than limiting the responses might have affected the answers, it therefore would have been better to allow them to give their own opinions to strengthen the results.

Focus Group 

The focus group gave quantitative research results from a primary source; this was done within the HNC class of 12 participants. This was helpful because it provided valuable and reliable inspiration and ideas from a focus group who would be producing similar productions. The also had knowledge that I could rely upon and that would not be biased towards one genre or another. By conducting this qualitative research, I knew that I could get results that would validate my initial research and enabled me to make the correct choices when it came to selecting techniques for my own production.

From my other research methods, I had some ideas of what my music video could be. As a class though we went through everyone’s ideas and we were able to expand these to develop productions that would target our target audiences with more purpose. We went through the ideas in more depth, we conducted the focus group to get qualitative data from a primary source. This face-to-face communication was highly effective and I would argue that it was the most beneficial approach I used.

 

The focus group was very helpful as I had a more structured idea of how to produce a mainstream video and was able to develop my production with a far better knowledge. When I presented my idea, I asked for feedback and suggestions about what else I could add into the video. I found that this was helpful because it meant that I could come up with some different and more innovative ideas.

Conclusion 

Due to the production of the music video, I needed more quantitative research, however when doing the questionnaire, it gave me far too many quantitative results. This is because the responses that I received didn’t go into depth of information that I required, which couldn’t help with ideas and inspiration. I found the focus group to be most effective method as the ideas were in more detail and I got far more from qualitative results. Writing better targeted questions with a ‘follow up’ suggestion option would have been a better method.

The theories that I researched, Goodwin and Vernallis, were extremely beneficial as it gave me a very sound framework to use for my production. This was valid and justified my mainstream production techniques.

My analysis of existing videos was useful, but I could have gone into more depth in regard to the specific technical codes and conventions of my chosen mainstream pop genre. My posts on similar genre related videos lacked depth and discussion. Identifying key camera, lighting and editing techniques would have added to my research overall. I tended to take too much for granted, rather than break the production down to the more technical aspects of production such as cinematography, performance and editing.

Improvements that I would recommend for further research:

• ·      Record the audio of the focus group to allow myself to recall the results that I received. This would give me far better information to base my production upon.
• ·      Create a questionnaire with text boxes, where they can go into more detail. This would allow for more depth in the responses and also give more qualitative results as well as quantitative.
• ·      More detailed analysis of the codes and conventions of music videos and looking at different artists and genre. This may have given me more knowledge of existing videos that I wasn’t aware existed.
• ·      A more detailed analysis would have also helped me to construct a better narrative for my finished production. Visually the piece works well and is produced to a good standard, however producing something with more narrative would make it more appealing to my target audience. Mainstream pop audiences tend to appreciate a story that they can relate to with the interpretation of the lyrics. This is something that I concentrated upon in my analysis of existing music videos.

Questionnaire

Music video Questionnaire

Below is a survey that I did about music video, which has given me information about music video. It has given me an idea of what people like, the genre, if they watch music videos and what they like to see in a music video.

Below are screen grabs of the answers that I got given;

Shoot 1 Evaluation

Shoot 1 - Evaluation 

For this shoot I went to Bradgate park, with Ellie and Daisy to film. I started off with the idea of having someone who isn't truly there, I found that this idea was working but at the same time not. I found that footage was very

One problem that I did find when filming was the tripod kept moving with the wind, I found that this was a problem. As we were climbing up the hills it was getting really windy, I found that it was hard to keep the tripod in the same place. One thing that I did to get around this problem was to hold the tripod are one of the legs, this meant it was more stable. I was careful to make sure that it didn't move.

I found that when I was looking through my footage that everything was looking very much the same. I wanted to be able to change this is some way, I feel that for my next shoot I will go somewhere else and to see how this will look.

I did a lot of handheld shots as it wanted to be

Editing

I looked at putting the 'memories' in black and white and everything else in colour. I didn't like this and found it to be very confusing. I changed it to having everything in black and white, as this fitted with the music better.

When editing I had a problem with the split screen, to resolve this I have had to put use the dissolve effect, which worked well

Ideas for next shot 

- Close ups
- More of the disappearing screens

Editing music Video

Editing music video

Dissolve 

I want to be able to have split between two clips, however this didn't work as I wanted it to. For example in one clip the sky wasn't the same, and you could see a line between the two clips. I had to think of another way in which I could get the same effect. I did this by putting the clips next to each and adding cross dissolve in the middle, I have found that this has worked for my clips and I 

I changed my clips to black and white, I did this by clicking and dragging it to the clip.

Here is how I kept all my footage neat and tidy. I put all my footage into a bin so that everything would be day to find and I wouldn't get confused about what was what.

Little Brother

Little Brother



Here is the finished video that HNC class worked whilst collaborated with the Nuneaton Museum and Art gallery and Chris Bradley, who is a professional animator. The theme that we were given was about protest and we could come up with anything that fitted under this. This was were we came up with the idea of the big brother society.

Matt who works for Nuneaton Museum and Art gallery, who gave us the brief, blogged about the project. Below are screen shots are what he has wrote and photos that he took.

Location scouting

Location Scouting 

For my music video I will go to Bradgate Park in Leicester to film, I wanted to go somewhere different and somewhere with a lot of open space. 

Music Video Treatment

Music Video Treatment

Working Title
Birdy - deep end

Genre
The genre for this music video is indie pop.

Duration
The duration of the song will be how long the music last and that is 3:37.

Target audience
The target audience for this video is fans of Birdy, as I'm using her song. The audience will mainly target females, but will target some males, the age range will be 10-20. My video will attract this age group because of the people in the video, who are in this age bracket, they can relate more to someone who is the same age.

Outline
The outline for my music video is that idea of thinking you have someone, but there aren't there. The outline of the video with having an imaginary friend, who someone thinks is there and them talking to the friend and then the friend going. It will be based in a park with the idea of escaping reality and having

Visual elements 
Lighting: For the video I want to have high key, natural lighting, I want to have a soft focus feel to the video. I want the footage to look very dream like and for it to look like going into the pass. This could be using soft focus for where they are together and them changing to jus high key natural lighting when they aren't. I feel that this will work well with music and looking through Birdy's other music video, I feel that it would fit nicely with them.

Camera movements: I want different camera movements and to have handheld shots. I want to have the handheld shots when not having the two people in the same shot and when they are have still shots. I want to have tracking shots of them walking, to get the idea of them walking to somewhere where they might have a memory with the person. I hope to have close ups of them, to show how they are feeling and to try and get the idea of 'loss' into the video.

Audio elements
The audio elements of the video is the music, this will be the only audio element of the video. I might look into film some audio for the start and end, and depending on what works will depend on if I want to use it. I will make sure that the footage that I film with fit with the footage.

Rationale
I have chosen the song 'Deep End' by Birdy, I really like Birdy and I thought that it would be different to do this song. I thought that the idea of changing the lyrics to mean something else, would work well and would be challenging to create the video.

Primary and Secondary research
Primary research: I have watched different music videos and analysis them, I have looked at the pop genre to give me ideas of what I can add into my videos. I have created mood board of what I want to include in the my videos, I have got these from music videos and Pinterest, I got images that would inspire me and would should clearly of the ideas that I have for the video. I will print these out and take them with me, this is if I'm struggling with what to film and this can give me a few ideas.

Secondary research: For second research I looked at Carole Vernallis 'The Kindest Cut' and Andrew Goodwin 'Dancing In The Distraction Factory'. Looking at these theories have me an inside into music videos and behind the music videos. I also could understand the code and conventions of the music video. This helped me when looking at my music video I knew what to include.

Requirements and resources 
The equipment that I will need for this shot, is;
5D mark 111
70mm-300mm lens
50mm lens
tripod
Soft focus lens

Constraints and contingency 
A problem that I might find when filming in when to shoot, I will have to make sure that I can find time for both of them to film and make sure that I'm getting as much filming done as possible. Another problem that might occur in lighting and looking at how I can get this 'dreamy effect' into the lighting and how I make sure the lighting is good enough to do this.

Budget 
For the music video, there will be no budget, I have anything that I need to film the video.

Shot Types and Equipment list

Shot types-  Different shot types and camera movements that I will be using when filming for my music video.
-Close up
-Mid shot
-Long shot
-Tracking shot
-Match on match action
-Bird's eye
-High angle
-Low angle
-Pan
-Tilt
-Two-shot

Equipment list-
5D mark 111
70-300mm Lens
50mm Lens
Tripod

Grantt Chart

Gantt Chart
Below shows my plan for my music video and shows everything that I need to get done, to collect my music video. This gives me a time frame of everything that I need to do.

Music Video planning

Music Video Planning

Song - The song that I have shown to make a video for in Birdy- Deep end.



Lyrics
"Deep End"

Someone told me that I want more

That I'll feel half empty, ripped and torn

They say there'll be plenty other hands to hold

Now I wish they'd told me long ago

Ooh, I don't want this to break you

Ooh, but I've got no one else to talk to

I don't know if you mean everything to me

And I wonder, can I give you what you need?

Don't want to find I've lost it all

Too scared to have no one to call

So can we just pretend

That we're not falling into the deep end?

You've gone quiet, you don't call

And nothing's funny any more

And I'll keep trying to help you heal

I'll stop your crying and dry your tears

Ooh, I don't want this to break you

Ooh, but I've got no one else to talk to

I don't know if you mean everything to me

And I wonder, can I give you what you need?

Don't want to find I've lost it all

Too scared to have no one to call

So can we just pretend?

Ooh, how do we mend?

Ooh, I didn't choose to depend on you

It's out of our hands

Maybe it will work out in the end

I don't know if you mean everything to me

And I wonder, can I give you what you need?

Don't want to find I've lost it all

Too scared to have no one to call

So can we just pretend?

Don't know if you mean everything to me

And I wonder, can I give you what you need?

Don't want to find I've lost it all

Too scared to have no one to call

So can we just pretend

That we're not falling into the deep end?

Ideas

-Imaginary friend
-Writing letter to this friend- Idea of thinking you have someone , but them not really being their
-Escaping reality and leaving reality behind. Only sees the friend when not in reality.
-Going to a place to meet friend
-Friend leading them around
-Ending in realisation of them being there or them not being there- leaving it to the viewers mind.
-I have this idea of having someone there and then in the shot them not being there, this idea of having someone but them not truly being there.
-When with the friend use have it in black and white and the other bits in colour.

Ideas of how to film

-High key lighting
-Soft focus lens
-Filming without the lens.

Trying out ideas 
Here I tried out the idea of not filming with a lens, I like the look of getting the high key lighting and having everything out of focus. I want to see if I can add this into the video and see if it works with the everything else.




Shooting with someone in frame and then leaving frame
Here I tired the idea of having someone and adding someone into the same shot and I like the effect that this has given. I want to use this effect to show the idea of thinking that you have someone there but there aren't truly there. When filming for my music video, I need to make sure that the camera doesn't move, as the effect of adding the other person into the same won't work. When filming this short clip below, I very slightly knocked the camera and when editing this you could tell.



How I did the split screen: 
The way that I did this was by filming 2 shots, one where Frankie was on the left and then one where Frankie was on the right. I then imported both of the clicks into premier pro, add them into the sequence, the shorter clips was over the top of the long clip. I then cropped the small clip so that the screen was split, an example of this is below. This then create the look of the other person coming into the screen.