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Our music video for Arctic Monkey’s “Fluorescent Adolescent” incorporated the codes and conventions of already made media products throughout the video, poster and digipak. I knew it was incredibly important to use previously made conventions from the indie rock genre to be able to make a suitable music video for the audience, which would obviously fit within the genres style.

We used conventions of many music videos in our cinematography of the final piece. The style of our cinematography was purely bases upon our research products from established bands videos, most indie rock music videos use various shot throughout, however the not common are the close up and medium shots. These are typically used on individuals or to illustrate the band together. Close ups are also used on instruments and other cut aways, for example feet keeping the beat. We attempted to incorporate as many of these techniques into our music video as possible. The close up on individuals is used predominantly to capture facial expressions, showing passion and other emotions such as happiness and determination. These are vital aspects when making a music video as it emphasis' the lyrics and/or put the lyrics into real life. Certain close up could also determine the bands appeal towards the audience, creating a vibe to the band. The medium shots allow both the drummer and singer to appear as one, creating a more solidified cohesive nature to the band. This breaks however when there are drum solos which then show individual talent. Furthermore, we mixed the camera movement throughout the performance aspect (On and off tripod) , giving the performance an edgy atmosphere which illustrates a sense of unpredictability and perhaps wildness about the song, which in fact coincides with the lyrics. Artists such as The Bulletproof Bomb and Catfish and the Bottlemen also use this technique to portray these conventions of edginess and unpredictability but also potential mystery within the narrative, which is then implied through the performance side. The static shots allow the performance to be built up in a smooth manner and don’t over complicate whats happening. Getting the contrast right was important in making the performance. The off tripod also has strong connotations to the DIY feel. As many indie rock bands carry the DIY approach we decided to link the notion of DIY within ours.

The narrative structure is obviously one of, if not, the most important conventions regards to music videos. The group and I decided upon a very clean, linear narrative, very common within our specific genre. Our narrative was based around a middle aged woman, who is frustrated and essentially bored with her tiresome lifestyle. The narrative then progresses onto her remembering she has a school reunion party coming up, she therefore decides to iron her dress, get her shoes and jewelry out, and then put her make up on and do her hair. The music video ends with her leaving the house. The linear narrative approach is the most obvious in this genre as the whole production is based around the music. Not the music video, however, having such an easy narrative is useful as the audience can easily follow the actions, while still maintain the level of engagement. This narrative clearly follows the structure set and reinforced by Todorov. He claims that all narratives have a equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to mend disruption and finally a new equilibrium, making the narrative a 5 piece story line. Our music video doesn’t have a defined new equilibrium; however you could argue that it’s her breaking the wall between her present and past self. We watched several music videos from several music video genres. As i’m more into rock and indie rock already, i found it relatively easy to pick up on simple narratives that could be the influence for our own one. However rock tends to be only performance with little effort the narrative. For example Green Day’s Longview music video’s narrative is portrayed through performance. You see the band singing about how life is for a teen aged boy through the way their house is, the condition and then these images are exaggerated through the use of the lyrics. The hardest part about the narrative was thinking of a linear narrative that worked with our lyrics so that the visuals weren’t random or had little association with what te song was  about. We decided that the mise en scene of the video would be most important when portraying such an easy and free narrative.

Editing is also a pretty important aspect when creating music videos. The main editing technique we used was cross cutting back and forth between the narrative and performance throughout. The cross cutting adds a degree of pace and action that engages the audience from start to finish. This then allows us to vary the shots distance, length and what we show within a shot. At the beginning of the song, there are no lyrics, just an instrumental for around 30 seconds. This allowed us build the narrative to a suitable point before the song had actually started. The use of cross cutting was also used here to show the duo getting ready and the protagonist developing the narrative. The pace of shot here is relatively slow with each cut lasting around 3 seconds. As nothing much is occurring, the editing is very continuous, allowing the narrative to be built before lyrics are introduced. As the music builds up and the narrative and performance is both cross cutting, the pace of shot picks up, and so does the frequency of cross cutting. This further develops the video, reinforcing the vital role that cross cutting has within music videos. We, at first, found it very hard to get the right balance of performance and narrative as the typical split is 50:50. We didn’t want to cut out parts of the narrative, as that’s the part telling the story. We also had the whole song in performance too. Allowing u to use whatever part of the performance wherever. In rock and indie rock, it’s common to have a 70:30 split in favour of performance as I said before, the narrative isn’t as important in this genre. However, we played it safe with 50:50 and the balance worked out really well.

Mise en scene is also another key component when making music videos. Thinking about key conventions with the indie rock genre include examples such a instruments and specific clothing worn in the music video. These also allow for the bands image to be build up, also potentially creating iconic costumes. For example Angus Young’s school uniform when performing live and in music videos for ACDC. We did a lot of planning into this as creating a band image is important for the audience. We used Pinterest to assemble the style we were looking for, as well as props for the performance. We then talked to our actors, who already wore the majority of our ideas, for example overcoats and bomber jackets. Stereo typically, bands wear blues, browns and blacks when performing, these are heavy conventions used and allow for the band image to exemplify the genre. The Fratellis, Arctic Monkeys and Grizzly Bear all follow these connotations in their work. We also allowed the facial hair and hair of our actors to be whatever. We didn’t care if it was clean or scruffy. Reinforcing the DIY style of the production. With the props, it was predominantly just instruments and a microphone. Many music video in our genre have the band playing in a “live performance” style which indicates raw talent and produced music. The instruments also provide a sense of realism, the band actually play the drums for example. In pop, it’s common for the performance to exclude the use of instruments as the video is purely just about the artist. We included the drums in as many cuts possible as it links to the notion of talent, struggle and determination. All 3 very common narratives with our genre.  The ability to be able to play drum indicates a passion for the music that’s being produced, linked with the lead singer and his microphone completes the full circle that they want to be successful and developing their music.

My digipak and poster also includes a range of media conventions that are suitable within our genre. The majority of the pictures were taken with the studio we did our performance in, resulting in the same kind of appearance with both the video and digipak panels. However, i like this look as the same location and costumes allows the audience to relate to the video with relation to the digipak. Furthermore, the bands image is developed even more by using thi technique. For my digipak, i put the drummer and singer together, making them come across as one. They bosth own the band and the responsibility and power is therefore split in 2. Having them come across as equal to each other is important and done very often within most genres. The audience will recogonie the band based as a duo and not just by the lead singer. This further develops the relationship between the band members and could potentially illustrate their friendship is important to the bands image also. I also decided to have the text of the band bigger than the album name. People will be more interested in the bands name than album name. Likewise, in the future other generations will relate to the music based upon the bands name and album cover, opposed to the knowledge of album name. The colours for my digipak compliment each other suitably with no real struggle to read. The gold also represents wealth and power, which implies a confident and edgy band personality.  For my poster however, i decided to use a white coloured font. This exemplifies purity and passion. I decided to have different coloured text ass i felt it would look too golden if i included that colour into my poster as well as my digipak. The white i very abstract from the rest of the poster, promoting the band and album is a crucial element for the poster and the white captures the notion of that very effectively and subtly. As the key information is white, it allows for the textto stand out over the rest.

In terms of development for our music video, it was fairly difficult to develop the performance’s mise en scene and cinematography as we wanted to use key codes and conventions so instead, we decided to focus on developing the narratives conventions. The editing was pretty straight forward however, we developed the idea of jump cuts in relation to both aspect to the video. Jump cuts show the passing of time and can create anxiety or a sense of mystery. We used jump cuts to enable to cut to the beat technique to work efficiently and successfully. This technique make the piece look more professional and creates a more of a flow and rhythmic tempo to the narrative. The jump cut can also make a boring scene have pace and urgency about it. For example, when the protagonist is seen walking up the stairs, a couple of jump cut are added to make it seem like she’s either in a rush or that her lifestyle is boring and time i going slowly. Jump cuts only really worked in the narrative side of our final product as incorporating them into the performance would miscue the lyrics and lip sync . We were able to counter this problem by adding camera movements. Towards the middle of the song, the pace really picks up a the music is now fully established. Jump  cuts allowed for the narrative, which seemed to be pretty boring to run with the pace of the music without looking out of place. The jump cuts made the entire piece less tedious and without them, the narrative would have dragged.

For the digipak and poster, i developed the idea of a theme. Many indie bands are portrayed with a black and white theme or appeal. This is a heavy connotation within the genre which easily identifies the artists. I decided to change it to a blue theme, I decided on blue as the band is new and appealing to a wide audience. The blue reinforces their edgy image and puts them out there; reinforcing this is the band’s name. I use “The Run Ups” to demonstrate the grind and passion to wanting to be a successful band, the album name “millennials” indicates their age and implies they’re still very young. Therefore standing out from the crowd is vital in order to becoming a popular band. On all the panels with Josh and Pete on, I made their heads be a different colour, other than blue. This makes them two more obvious and allows them t be center of attention. Using the clipping mask tool, I was able to put the image in a circle and then put the original image behind them. This allowed me to change the clipped image to any colour I wanted without altering the blue under layer. This was also a vital tool when making my font. I downloaded a gold texture and clipping masked that over my font. This gave texture to the words and made it more appealing to look at.

We also  challenged codes and conventions of indie music videos with the use of a female protagonist. Seeing  female protagonist is quite rare within the genre as males are usually the preferred choice in regards to narrative, however we felt that a woman was vital to use as the lyrics are about a woman reminiscing of her lively childhood, we did plan to use a male protagonist to start with but it was proving difficult for the lyrics to represent what were were showing. The lyrics are about having wild teenage years and how that life now contrasts to a tedious, tiresome lifestyle he now possesses. The use of a female character also allows the lyrics to relate to the woman and so an obvious link between lyrics and visuals is established.

We further challenged codes and conventions with the use of VHS footage from the 80s. Through audience feedback, we were influenced to add snippets throughout to just reinforce the overall narrative idea. The 80s footage is authentic and realistically, a middle aged woman would have had the majority of her teenage years through the 80s. The short clips add the extra needed context that allows the audience to determine what’s going on. Subtle details also worked very well in relation t this. For example we show the woman applying makeup and the next cut is a flash back scene to a woman applying makeup. This associates the characters together and illustrates that they’re the same person just different time periods. It also allows the idea of the reminiscing to actually happen as she’s doing the exact same stuff she did back in her childhood, portraying that she may still have her spark within her. These second long snippets throughout the getting ready phase builds the narrative to some extent and just informs the audience what’s actually happening. We didn’t add loads in either, this would of caused a potential misunderstanding for the audience who wouldn’t know what was happening.

My digipak and poster didn’t challenge the genre to excessive amounts as it’s vital to keep key codes and conventions as these are what pulls fans and the target audience to the product. This enables the band to grow and depending on size and status, is a crucial step within the industry. Thesrefore my digipak was heavily influenced by previously made codes and conventions.

However, i did think that a difference within the overall theme would challenge and potentially develop at the same time. The theme for my poster and digipak was blue. As the most common way forward is black and white, i though that changing this would be the easiest thing to alter, hence developing it. However, the colour blue is typically undermined and never truly used. I thought the blue could add some kind of atmosphere to the piece coincided with the colour within the circle. The piece has challenged common album digipaks. The blue results in reinforcing the DIY and self made aspect of the whole piece with emphasis of standing out and being different. With the unique colour, it allowed me to create the bands image and characteristics. I also challenged the typical front panel. Within our genre it’s extremely common for the front cover to be a logo or illustration of something that associates with the band. For example Ratboys sketches, Arctic Monkey’ terrace houses, Oasis’ front room and Grizzly Bear’s abstract wall all associate with the band straight away. Instead of a logo, i used the duo on the front cover. I did this to illustrate the members, as it’s their first album, publicizing them is important for their sales and progression within the business.

How close was my digipak to my planning?

I think i did a good job in capturing mu initial ideas of the pictures into the panel. The majority of the pictures i had planned to look like that and therefore i only had to think of a suitable theme. I also believe that my poster is realistic and suits my genre of music fairly well. It would have helped if i had previously thought about it as it played a bigger role than i had expected. The video also came out really well an i'm very happy that the new narrative worked, also by incorporating the 80s VHS into parts, it gave the video more of a flow and meaning. Over all i'm very pleased with the final product. Not only have i complete the coursework, i have also learnt about the music video industry and codes and conventions of indie rock and how to music influences videos. Learning Photoshop has also been very rewarding as i can now use it in the future.

Music Video - Fluorescent Adolescent

Our Finished music video

Digipak Complete

Digipak

Poster

Digipak Poster

The poster was the last thing i edited and i didn't have any plan for what i was going to do. i felt that it was imperative to use Josh and Pete on the poster as they're the band. This became rather challenging to make as i took all my pictures of the pair in landscape, the poster need to be portrait. Luckily, i was able to re scale the landscape picture into this poster template. The text was also a crucial role played, in determining how good the poster looked for the normal person. As the golden text blended in with Josh and Pete, i decided to import a black box and put the majority of my text n here. The gold compliments the black, making it incredibly easy to read and stand out from the picture. I also got PNGs of Spotify and Apple music and added them on to give it more of an advertising look. This poster also didn't have the circle edit present as i thought it would look weird on the poster.

Poster

Digipak Back

The back panel was hard fr me to start initially. At the studio, i didn't take enough picture for my digipak that i thought were suitable for the final product. This was obviously a huge drawback as i needed to keep the same theme throughout. I decided on having a tree in the center of the square and have 6 songs on each side of the trunk and then applying the circle edit onto it. However when taking pictures of the tree, i had found that it really wouldn't look right. The other panels are inside the studio and by having a random tree would lack in continuity. i then decided that some kind of light would perhaps work and if i almost made it feel like it was linked to the studio it could work. Near my house, there's a subway underpass. The lights in there worked particularly well, as the location is yet unknown. It looked authentic and fits with the other panels nicely. However, editing the original image was proving quite the task as changing the colour of a white light is difficult. I decided to make the image yellower, giving it some kind of retro feeling to it. Which coincided with the Amp panel as well as the drum kit. Like the other panels, it was predominantly blue, i liked the overall outcome as the blue is light and dark, the further down the wall you get. For the back cover, you also need all the codes and conventions of a typical back cover. The barcode, digital disc and record label were all very easy to obtain from Google. Their size made it very easy to experiment with certain positions and being able to move them with ease, The binders were very fiddly to create as the text also had to be legible and easy to read. Considering i didn't have a very good idea for this panel, i think it's worked well and fits with the other pictures. The track list took an extremely long time to complete. As i wanted to use the same font as all my other text, with the gold texture. I needed to use Dafont.com. This website has thousands of free fonts that are easy to access and are clean. I got 12 random songs and typed them in the same font. However, to make them work i needed to screenshot the page and erase everything, bar the font. This was an extremely tedious task as i just repeated the process over and over. I then re scaled all 12 text to the same size and made them all one layer. This allows me to move them with ease and means i can add the gold just the once, instead of 12 times. In general i'd have like the text to be bigger, but the gold blends in with the yellow circle making it impossible to read easily.

Digipak Josh and Pete

This panel is my least favourite from them all. Admittedly, it was this picture of another one of Pete and Josh i wasn't too keen on. The format is there and this is how i imagined it to look, however, editing this image felt tedious and i was very unmotivated to edit this one. The main reason is because they are far away from each other and because the picture was taken in the studio we filmed our video, the backdrop is just black. I was thinking on cutting the pair out and moving them onto a different canvas but it wouldn't look right. As the picture was so bright i decided to attempt to keep it that bright using cyan and other light blues. However this made Pete's head glow blue. I couldn't make the circle stretch over both faces as it would look too big. Like the front cover, i made Josh's face slightly more tanned than it was just to add a more realistic depiction to his face. The picture lacked everything, editing it was hard as nothing in the picture influenced my ideas. I needed to do something so i added a paper texture, which is somewhat visible, the dark rectangle is part of the effect. It just made the picture look a little better, i later added the mist and changed it to be green. It adds another dimension to the image but i'm still not very pleased with the image on the whole. I did start to edit a microphone to take the place of this panel, however i felt that i needed Josh and Pete on more than one panel as they're the artists. I think that if i was able to go back to the studio, i'd have really thought about this picture and made it work a lot better. Instead of them being located next to the wall, maybe the drum kit or the mixing desk. Even though i'm not impressed with this pnel, i believe it still fit with the digipak as a whole and works. The lighter blue implies the range of shades i've used.

Digipak Front

The front panel was also just like the other panels, the same theme is constantly ran throughout. Furthermore the different shades of blues on different panels allow the project to have a different feel to it. I believe that having the same colour outside the inner circle would create a tedious looking digipak that only carries different pictures. This was the first panel where i used text and all the editing techniques. This took the longest to create, as i expected due to its importance. Being the front cover, i had to create an engaging and bold atmosphere that would realistically attract customers to the album. When i started editing the blue on, i noticed the brightness of Pete's jacket and Josh's overcoat, they coincided each other very nicely. This could hint to their different roles within the duo perhaps. Little concepts like that can really develop though processes and question the position of other edits. I also liked the thought that the drum sticks bring the 2 images together. The image within the circle was darkened and i added a hint of orange to the overall image. Making them both look quite tanned. However it looks realistic the orange compliments the outer blues. In the bottom right, i added a splash edit and converted it into a light purple, the darkness of the overcoat and the vibrant purple adds necessary depth to the picture, as well as the mist. I interpret the mist as sort of a cloud, this is relevant as the band is called The Run Ups, this was totally a coincidence. I strongly believe that the golden text is suitable and easy to read. I had encountered a problem when deciding the type of colours i want that coincide with blues, i tried silvers, whites and greens before thinking of gold. deciding what side the album name went was my next task. I attempted going center under The Run Ups, however the M was hard to read from the white jumper Pete was wearing. I didn't want the text going across the top of the image either as it would look k=like the name of the band instead of the album. I attempted to add the element of blue flames across the bottom to hide the white jumper but this made the piece look childish.

Digipak Disc

For this panel, i didn't really know what exactly to do as i didn't want to have the same theme as the other panels, for example the circle. Finding a suitable CD template was easy, however unlike the other 5 panels, this one is a circle, consequently, it's more fiddly as it all has to fit within a curve instead of a line. i decided to have a blue background, that wasn't a solid blue as that would look boring and very unprofessional. At first i found the background that i wanted. It was a blue and black that fitted very nicely with my theme throughout. I had to think of something to add to the disc as the circle element wasn't present. I decided, as my first option, to have the album name " Millennials " repeated around a silhouette of Josh and Pete. However, this was a lot harder to make than i had expected and the final piece looked as if it was placed randomly. I then decided to put the album name at the bottom of the disc  4 times and make it 25% more visible each time, causing a gradual progression. This looked really clean but yet again. It didn't look right, the disc was missing something. I asked around my class mates and they thought that i could add an image of Josh and Pete. I used the image from another panel, which was already edited blue, and put it over the blue and black background. As the picture that i used cut the top of Josh's hair off, I decided to put a gold bar through the middle. This not only covers up the photo graphical mistake but gives a clean and sophisticated feel and look to the disk. I used a gold bar as my text was also gold. Using the same technique i used for creating the circle. I was able to re purpose it for text. This gives another dimension and layer of texture to the text and piece in general. As for deciding where the text goes, i found this challenging. In such a tight space i had to include both " The Run Ups" and "Millennials" I originally decided to locate The Run Ups at the very top, smaller than the Album name. However when i conducted audience feed back, i was advised to change the positions. I am very happy with how this panel has turned out. It has also developed my knowledge and understanding of how to get already made projects into a different file and how important it is to get text in the correct places. This was my favourite panel to create as the overall look is the best, in my opinion.

Digipak Amp

For the Amp panel i wanted to manipulate the colour of the amp quite a lot. The original colour allowed me to experiment with a huge range of colours and brighnesses. I decided to locate the circle layer of center, and over the VOX. This gives the image something else instead of just the diamond pattern that was located on the front of the amp. I'm very happy that i decided to use the amp as a panel as its relevant and looks crisp. The original colour of the mesh was a light red, the diamonds were gold and so was the bar, dividing the 2 half's. I introduced the saturation element to the amp picture and it caused the colours to stand out more. This coincided with the enhancing of the colour red leaves a some kind of 3D fuzz on the golden diamonds. I then applied the " Create clipping mask " to the amp and changed the size of the circle. I don't want to have the same size circle, same location of circle and same colour blue throughout. As the indie rock genre is typically very diverse and DIY. I thought it would perhaps work with the specific theme that my panels offer. After dragging on the amp again, i went for a dark and light blue look to the overall picture, this was influenced through the use of a lens flair. I took the picture with flash on as the room we hot in was generally dark with inconsistent lighting. The flash therefore was reflected off the golden bars of metal. However it wasn't that identifiable as a reflection. It wasn't my plan to add the lens falir to begin with. However i was playing around with one of my last panels and came across the effect under "render." At first i attempted to have the lens flair as bright and as obnoxious as possible. Howver this only ruined the picture making the right hand side unidentifiable as an amp. I then descaled the flair and the intensity down to around 30%. This accounts for a much more realistic flair that's appropriate. I didn't know what kind of effect i wanted for this image as i thought it looked very good with out and edited image, However i found some kind of dust or smoke effect that i linked subtly into the bottom right of the amp. I lined it up to fit perfectly in the corner. However, when i was making this panel, i didn't account for the final product to be in a square and therefore, the right hand side has been cut. The smoke still works in my opinion but it doesn't look as good before i cropped it. Like i said i didn't want to go other the top on this one, this has resulted in me barely editing the image. Overall i am very happy with the outcome of this image and even though i've not added anything massive to this panel, i've used new types of adjustments creating an unique and fresh look through the lens flair.

Digipak Drums

After completing the drum panel with the original idea, i found that the picture doesn't really look edited and therefore my marks will be sacrificed. Instead i thought of another creative approach to the same theme i had about having two layers with a shape in the middle to add depth to the image. I decided to start with the image of the drums as it was one of the  better images and if the theme didn't fit the drum then i could change themes easier than if i had edited a panel with Josh and Pete. I started of with the original image of the drums and instantly thought that the original image is too light and vibrant for my ideal image. I changed the brightness, Exposure, Vibrance, Hue/Saturation and colour balance. These all come under "image" on the top bar, making them very easy to access. These allow you to edit the colour of the whole image. I had also learned from my friend how to make an image go inside a shape. This was initially very hard and confusing to get my head round but after a few attempts it became easier. This editing technique saved me huge amounts of time on all 6 panels. I edited the first layer ( The layer where the circle was present ) and made the drums more golden and dark, my desired idea. It gave a crisp and rich feel to the picture which wasn't there when i took the picture. I really liked the layer and was proud with it. I then Imported a cirle from Google and dragged it over the part of the first layer that i wanted to have inside of the circle. I then right clicked on the circle layer and pressed " create clipping mask." This then cuts the Image down into the size of the circle. Then all you have to do is drag the original image across from files and you get the theme i wanted from the start. I decided to apply the black and white affect but i knew it would be too simple and to be honest, i didn't like it that much. I wanted to keep the "indie" feel about the project and so i thought about appropriate colours other than black and whit

e. The first colour was a light pink but this didn't look the part, the pink didn't compliment the circle aspect very well, the pink was also extremely faded and washed. I decided to look around on Google to see what colours work throughout the indie rock and i didn't see many blues. So i decided to see if a darkish blue worked, created in the same way as the first layer through colour balance and what have you, and i ended up with his. I was very pleased with the overall look. I asked for audience feedback and on the whole they thought the blue theme worked very well, but they did want me to add more textures to deepen the textures of the picture. The circle aspect had one unexpected positive in my opinion. As it was technically a different picture, if i located that layer at the top and then added more effects to the blue layer. The edit would not enter the circle, creating an effect that looks better that what it actually is. I then added 2 more images from Google into the image, these were added to introduce more textures. I added a frosty texture which lightened the overall image and also gave a somewhat gritty and papery effect, i then decided to add a smudge effect, I'd then filter that to a light cyan colour so the light and dark blue would compliment each other. However it was too visible so i later reduced the fill and opacity to incorporate it subtly.

Starting my Digipak

Over the weekend, i started my first panel for my digipak aspect of the project. Using photoshop from home was a new experience as i've only used it on the macs in school. There were many things that i found challenging with the software which restricted my development of skills on the software. I started out with the basic idea of having a picture of a drum kit. I'd duplicate the original image so i could alter one and then keep the original without and adjustments. I wanted to make the duplicated layer black and white, a common theme in the indie rock genre, and have the coloured one underneath it. My plan was to edit the bottom layer and then erase a square of the black and white layer, exposing the coloured box. I did this with relative ease as i've not used photoshop in this way before. Learning photoshop is key for this project and i need to develop my ideas somewhat more. After browsing indie rock digipak, i came to the conclusion that the imagine in my head was suitable and highly realistic of already released album covers. I then decided to play with the colours of the bottom layers a bit and just get used to what different tools and adjustments actually do to a picture. In tomorrows lesson, i will ask my peers for any feedback, i'm expecting a lot to be said, which will further aid my judgement on my overall theme, which will hopefully allow me to gain a few more marks. As a beginner i'm glad we chose to do indie rock as the editing of the digipak won't be as drastic as on a pop album or a disco.

Editing Catch up

This week, after the holiday break, we came in with our new narrative footage which we intended to edit. On Wednesday 3rd, we uploaded all the footage and started to put it together and organise the files on iMovie. We had to delete all the footage on there already because of our new footage. We did this fairly efficiently and we had 2 hours to edit. By the time we had sorted everything out and started to bring the new footage in, we only had about an hour left. In this hour, we started putting the early clips in, sieving through all the footage and editing them down. We had filmed some things after they happen in the video, which was annoying because we had to keep going up and down on the footage in the top left. As there's 3 of us in the group we all want different things. This can be frustrating because if i edit something, the other 2 may not like it and they will change it, although, as we have filmed it, we discussed how we want to edit the majority of the video so it should be okay with hardly any arguments. As we have used iMovie before, it was easy to get back into the editing and everyone is comfortable using it. On Thursday and Friday, we just continued to edit everything together. One thing we struggled to do was to edit all the clips together and make them shorter; in a music video, it is ideal to have shots of no longer than 4 seconds so the video is nicely paced. Our shots are quite long so we have had o edit what we have got up to with a lot of  jumpcuts, which suit the codes and conventions. However, wit this means we are struggling to get the lip syncing spot on with the actor.

Editing

After reviewing our new footage, we have came to the conclusion that we don't have to re film any parts with my mum. This is great news as it'll allow us to get straight into editing, this will also allow more time to start our digipaks, which will take me longer to become accustom to as my experience with photoshop is extremely limited

Film Day (29/12/17)

Today we filmed the new narrative at our house with our mum. We didn't know how it would end up as our mum was made to act, as she has never acted before, we were nervous as she's an amateur, who's never acted before. We thought she would over act or not act at all, both outcomes would have been a flaw as it would have looked scripted and possibly not authentic. In general everything went well, we could use the tripod and camera properly and without confusion, my mum acted normal and looked as if it was real. the lighting was possibly an issue as like the performance aspect, it's somewhat grainy, as this occurs due to low-key lighting. We decided that it would make the most sense if we filmed it all in the one evening instead of carrying the filming over 2 nights, this was because once we got into the flow of things, we just wanted to get it all done and completed. Also the availability of group members and my mum was also not 100% for the following evening so we gave ourselves enough time to capture everything in the one evening. At the point in filming, my little brother was home and was playing xbox with his friends. Luckily, he didn't interfere without recording as, even though you cannot hear the diegetic sound in the music video, he would have gotten in the way and made the filming harder. i believe we could have improved the preparation of the mise en scene. The upstairs rooms were cramped and extremely hard to get a variety of camera angles as the room was particularly small. Instead of finding different angles, i came up with the suggestion that we use the cramped area as if it's blocking the camera, in a few shots i have on purposely excludes some parts of the acting for bag straps for example and it's different and unique.
In my opinion, this more linear narrative was the reason our filming went so well. It was easier to film, prepare and rely on actors. The simplistic idea worked well and we were able to pull it off. we also checked all the clips we recorded on site and made a judgement between the 3 of us if we were to re do a shot. This will make it easier to edit and means the chance of refilming on a different day are kept to a minimal as we are running out of time, and fast.