The beginning of research and planning.
I'm going to begin this blog by stating the codes and conventions of music videos, as for the A2 Meida coursework we are expected to research, plan and eventually create our own music videos, while working in groups. Also I am going to describe the music tribes which are famous and give examples.
Here are examples of music tribes:
Here are examples of music tribes:
I have had to look into the differing music institutions which support different artists and bands, here are the main four.
Looking into the codes and conventions of music videos
Narrative:
Performance
Mixture
Update
In order to understand music videos better, my group and I have had to make a detailed study into a music video taking into consideration the codes and conventions. Our music video is Lady GaGa’s ‘Bad Romance’, and as a group we have to make a presentation analysing it in front of the rest of our class. Our specific challenge was to create a presentation which is professional and interacts with the audience. Doing this by having the inclusions of activities, in our group’s case we have the inclusion of putting the stills from the video in the right order, as well as a final quiz on certain topics of the video. We are placing our notes into a Power Point presentation and getting ready to present our work now.
More news on the presentation
Now we have completed our presentation and finished all of our research into this particular music video in detail. We have also now presented our presentation to our class, including the activities provided and it appears to have been a success. I shall post our presentation on this blog along with the link to Lady GaGa's Bad Romance music video. Also I shall include the video of our groups presentation.
Our presentation on Lady GaGa's music video for 'Bad Romance'
Research into Plastic Pop
Progressing withe the planning of our music video
My group and I have been spending lots of time trying to decide upon the song which we would like to use for our music video. As a group, we have come to the conclusioon that whatever song we decide to use, we want to make it our own by altering perhaps the lyrics or speed of the song. We have been compiling lists of song ideas and are trying to come to a primary choice os song and one back up choice, if all doesn't go to plan.
Update
We have made our decision for our primary song choice and that is L.O.V.E. sung by Nat King Cole, my group and I have started to change some of the lyrics and have decided that one of our group members are going to play the song live on the guitar in our video recording, as then there shall be no problems when it comes to the editing later and lip-synching. We are currently discussing a couple of options for our back-up choice, one idea is the song Love Fool by The Cardigans, but we haven't decided properly yet.
We have now finally decided our back-up song and it is More than words sung by Extreme, similarly we have begun to change the lyrics and the speed of the song on the guitar, to make it our own. In order to use one of these songs our group needs permission from the record label saying that we are allowed to use it, so we have now written our two letters. One letter to each of the record labels responsible for each song, so if we don't get permission to use the one song, we have the other to fall back on.
Permission
EMI Headquarters,
Wrights Lane,
London,
W8
23rd September 2010
Dear Sir or Madame,
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter as we know you must be very busy.
We are a group of four early entry A level media students, from Holy Trinity Catholic Media Arts College, in Birmingham, England. We are writing to ask you for permission to use the song L.O.V.E. sung by Nat King Cole for the completion of our A2 music video.
We have already began putting ideas together for our music video, and would be much obliged if you would allow us to use it. We may change lyrics and perhaps rhythm to the song but require your permission to do so in order to gain our full qualification.
If you allow us to use your song, our music video will be destroyed after the examination process and will not be uploaded on to any social networking sites, such as Facebook or Youtube. If you do not reply to this letter within two weeks we shall assume that we have the permission to carry out this task with your song.
Thank you so much for your time.
Yours Sincerely,
Sophie, Natalie, Emma and Anisa
Permission for back-up song
Universal Music Publishing Ltd.
20 Fulham Broadway, London,
SW6 1AH,
United Kingdom
23rd September 2010
Dear Sir or Madame,
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter as we know you must be very busy.
We are a group of four early entry A level media students, from Holy Trinity Catholic Media Arts College, in Birmingham, England. We are writing to ask you for permission to use the song, More than words sung by Extreme for the completion of our A2 music video.
We have already began putting ideas together for our music video, and would be much obliged if you would allow us to use it. We may change lyrics and perhaps rhythm to the song but require your permission to do so in order to gain our full qualification.
If you allow us to use your song, our music video will be destroyed after the examination process and will not be uploaded on to any social networking sites, such as Facebook or Youtube. If you do not reply to this letter we shall assume that we have the permission to carry out this task with your song.
Thank you so much for your time.
Yours Sincerely
Sophie, Natalie, Emma and Anisa
Definition of a music video
A filmed rendition of a specific song, the video often features a piece of performance footage with the star lip-synching to the song in question and is often accompanied by a small narrative. A music video being a common choice of marketing and promotion for the artist and song itself in the music business.
This is how we altered the song L.O.V.E. originally sung by Nat King Cole to create our own new version
In order to change the song as my group and I did, we had to look at the original song and it’s words and decide what type of alterations we wished to make in order to comprise a more modern sound and a different narrative. The original song L.O.V.E. sung by Nat King Cole had a very romantic story to it, the narrative about being desperately in love, with a very positive attitude when it comes to the words. My group and I wanted to stay away from this theme as this song is renowned for these lyrics and no one seems to have changed them thus. So to begin with we had to decide what we wanted the new narrative to be about, so we decided it could be more of a negative approach to a love story. Concentrating on a break up rather than meeting someone, for instance. Therefore we proceeded to alter the lyrics in small ways in order to create our new narrative. To begin with we changed the first line from “L is for the way you look at me” to “L the way you used to look at me”. We did this in order to initiate a familiarity and similarity to the original song, while at the same point, setting the scene for the new narrative for our song. Keeping with this theme of setting the scene, we changed the second line from “O is for the only one I see” to “O if only your love was a guarantee,” this therefore informing listeners of the storyline of the song from early on. We kept the third line “V is very, very extraordinary” the same in order to relate and portray familiarity to the original song, so perhaps people who have liked that song in the past, people of the older generation who perhaps were alive when this song was first released by Nat King Cole would be interested in listening to our version of the song. The next line in the original song “E is even more than anyone that you adore and” we changed slightly to “E, It was even more until you went for the girl next door.” This line really develops the plot, and it in turn becomes clear what the disappointment of love in this case is. That a guy has left his girlfriend for his next door neighbour, this common saying of ‘the girl next door’ is a very popular phrase which has been said from Nat King Cole’s era to modern times, which links to both periods bringing them together, an effect which we have tried to achieve throughout the song.
The next verse of the original song begins with “Love is all that I can give to you” and once again we altered it into past tense “Love I wanted to give just to you” This, therefore keeping in with the theme of the song in order to make our music video work. “Love is more than just a game for two” was replaced with the line “You played your games and now we’re through,” this line we used with the intention of the listeners being able to sympathise or perhaps empathise with the girl in question, to portray how she feels that she is at the end of her tether and no longer wishes to fight and object to what has happened. My group and I only very gradually changed this next line from “Two in love can make it” to “If two in love can make it” which portrays an air of uncertainty and questioning, as if this person is isn’t sure about anything to do with love anymore, we wanted to exhibit these emotions to portray this girl’s initial reaction to being dumped by her boyfriend. The next line, of both the original and our new version of the song both sound a bit more wary the original being “Take my heart and please don't break it” and my group and I’s version “Why did you take my heart and break it” so while one line (the past version) is talking about breaking up in the future, our version is describing it happening in the past, how it has already happened. So the perspective views upon the two versions of the song differ vastly. The final line of this verse originally was “Love was made for me and you” once again this line is incredibly positive and looking forward to the future. In comparison to our line which only differs gradually to the original, questioning how things have turned out “If love was made for me and you”.
In the space of the instrumental, there will be a video sequence cutting between the performance and narrative sections of our music video. We have kept the musical interlude only it shall inevitably be played on the guitar rather than as an instrumental piece.
This section of the song is all about how the person in question begins to move on and realise that she is much better than the guy that left her. So while in the original song, the first verse is repeated here, in our version of the song this verse changes, to show the change in emotions and feelings. The first line of this verse is “Love Like you ever cared for me” this represents our character finally realising that this romanticised view of her ex-boyfriend is false and that she truly is better off without him. In this verse we are still going to keep the acrostic of LOVE, as the first letters of each line in this verse. The next line is “Over from your cold heart now I’m free” the use of these certain words in this line portrays how our character is feeling better within herself and doesn’t feel trapped by her unhappiness of being left alone anymore, alas is beginning to move on. The next two lines are sung differently than how they would have been sung in the traditional version as they are sung in the time it would to take to sing a single line rather than double. “V your voice has gone from my head, E no second chances” these lines go back to the traditional written way of writing the letters and associating a word with them. The final line of this verse is “Love not made for me and you” which reinforces how this person is getting over this guy who dumped her. She has come to realise this fact.
In the final verse the second verse is repeated in the original song, but once again for our song we have created a new set of lyrics. “Thought it was the end when you were gone” This line reflects on how it used to be in her relationship to make it clear how our character was thinking during this time, creating sympathy. The next line is a bit more positive “So now I realise I have to move on” showing how she’s not going to be full of sorrow any longer as she knows that it’s not a good idea to remain bitter and wallow in the past. The next line being “I know two in love can make it” this line shows how she has developed confidence throughout the duration of the song, from “If two in love can make it” to this line. It portrays that she isn’t questioning love any more just the guy who left her as an alternative. The next line “need someone honest not to fake it” portrays how she doesn’t love him anymore and doesn’t want to get back with him because she realises that he cannot be trusted. “Now I’m stuck to him like glue” this portrays how she has gotten herself another boyfriend and isn’t looking back at how her last relationship ended. The final line is repeated three times “So love was never made for me and you” it is repeated this many times as it is done so in the original version, we kept this so it could still be linked back to the song and it wouldn’t be too different from the original song. However the line’s meanings are completely the opposite, as the original final line was “Love is made for me and you” which obviously differs hugely to our version.
This is also how we have altered the song More than words originally sung by Extreme in order to make it our own version
More than words originally sung by Extreme is our back up song as we all felt that it had a really nice tune to it, and considering there have not been many versions of it, it would be a good idea to use. We began by talking about how we wanted to change the lyrics of the song to make it different from the version that every one already knows. We came up with the idea that both of our songs could have the same story line, so that the ideas we have for our music videos and for the subsidiary tasks could be applicable to either song. We changed the first verse from
“Saying "I love you"
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It's not that I want you
Not to say, but if you only knew how easy
It would be to show me how you feel
More than words
Is all you have to do to make it real
Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me
'Cause I'd already know”
Our new version which rather than being based upon being in love, was based upon a break up and falling out of love. Our new version being:
“Saying I love you,
The words I used to love to hear from you,
but then you stopped telling me,
Stop caring ‘bout me acting so untrue
How easy
It would have been to show you how I feel,
If more than words,
Had been enough to keep you here with me,
Instead of finding someone new and replacing me,
With the girl next door.”
The first line of the song we have left the same in order to create familiarity with the original song, but with the second line you begin to see how the song differs to the original version. Our song talks in past tense showing how love is gone, or lost in this situation. These starting lines lead on to the rest of the verse where more changes are apparent, depicting the story of how this girl was dumped by her boyfriend and how she feels about her current situation. The next verse which is the bridge differs from the original:
“What would you do if my heart was torn in two
More than words to show you feel
That your love for me is real
What would you say if I took those words away
Then you couldn't make things new
Just by saying "I love you"
More than words”
This verse is similar to our new rewritten verse as, the original version shows a bit of uncertainty about this relationship being referred to and about representing one’s feelings. It is similar to our bridge:
“What would you do if your heart was torn in two?
Do you tell her how you feel?
Lie and say your love is real?
What would you say if I told her you would stray?
Cause then you couldn’t make things new,
Just by saying I love you...”
This verse really portrays how our character’s uncertainty has changed slightly from sheer sadness to annoyance. Once again asking questions about relationships and knowing whether or not to trust someone when it comes to love. Finally rather than having a very long song, we had to shorten it in order for it to remain under three minutes and so only have one more verse. The original verse was:
“Now but I've tried to talk to you
And make you understand
All you have to do is close your eyes
And just reach out your hands
And touch me
Hold me close, don't ever let me go
More than words”
This verse is all about being content in the relationship and being happy, which is fairly similar to our version of the verse, as it portrays how our character is finally moving on with her life and finding someone else to be with. Our version of the verse goes:
“Now that I realise,
Just the person that you really are,
I know that from what I need,
You are so uncontrollably far, far away,
Played your games,
Now I’ve found someone to be true,
More than words,
Then I’ll be stuck to him just like glue,
So now you’re out of my mind,
Free from your cold heart, cause we’re better off apart.
No more than words”
Our character has decided that she has to move on and begins to go out with another person, with whom she is much happier. This is her true realisation as she doesn’t need to be told that the guy who let her down in the first place wasn’t worth the bother. The last line of this song differs to the original as, rather than saying “More than words” it’s says “No more than words” this line can be read into one of many ways, one of which could be the idea that our main character realises that her ex-boyfriend wasn’t devoted to her, it was all words and no feeling, and their relationship on his part was no more than words.
Update
We are currently making decisions about what is going to occur in our music video and are beginning to shoot some of the scenes to use for the production. We are sorting out our characters and trying are making schedules about the settings and content of the scenes.
Update
We have now heard from Universal Music group, saying that in order for us to use the song More Than Words, originally sung by Extreme, we would need to fill out a form and post it back to them. However, as this song is our secondary choice we have not sent a reply as we still haven’t heard anything from EMI music group saying that we aren’t permitted to use our preferred choice of song L.O.V.E. originally sung by Nat King Cole. So presently we are proceeding with our original plans and ideas for the song L.O.V.E.
Here is the letter which we recieved from Universal Music Group
Ideas for the music video
The main idea for our music video is of a girl who originally starts out with a guy who she has been seeing for a while, at the beginning of our music video she loves him, but you can see that he doesn’t appear to feel the same way. He eventually breaks up with her in order to go out with someone else. The new girl that we see, appears to be quite different to his original girlfriend, more mature. The story progresses from this to show how this girl feels when she has been dumped and how she tries to cope with what has happened to her. Our music video will cut between her and him with his new girlfriend portraying the differing emotions. In addition to this in our music video we shall portray the girl’s memories of the way their relationship was before, he dumped her. The transition from this relationship to when our main character gets a new boyfriend is the final scenes of the music video. This is the basic idea of our music video.
The first story boards
Shooting scenes
At the moment my group and I are in the middle of recording our music video, so far it has proven to be a tricky task as we are all having to take into consideration the vast array of camera angles, the lighting and having to make time tables and schedules for the different recording dates. It’s a completely new and refreshing task to be partaking in as my group and I have never made a music video before, however it is enjoyable as we are all learning new techniques for camcorders.
The scenes that we have shot so far include the dialogue scene which would be featured at the beginning of our music video between our main character and her boyfriend at the time. This was a fairly tricky scene to shoot as it was quite difficult for the actors not to laugh and remain straight faced when she had to ask him if he still loved her. This scene did turn out quite well despite the difficulties that we faced and sets up the storyline of our music video well. We have shot most of the flashback scenes which tell the story of the character’s relationship before the break up, how they once did get on very well and how as time went on he started to lose interest and how he eventually ended it. We have shot a scene which symbolises their relationship before the loss of love, this scene is supposed to be quite early on in their relationship, and he seems to be more devoted to her then. The next flashback scene we shot was of the two of them a bit further on in their relationship. They are still together and going out but it becomes apparent that he is not as dedicated to her as she is to him. He turns up late and she is left waiting for him. We still need to film another flash back scene to show the two of the arguing. We have also shot the break up scene where our main character recieves a text from her boyfriend saying that he has met someone else and doesn’t want to be w ith her anymore. We filmed that scene on a flight of stairs to show her running down the stairs in unhappiness to try and use a high angle shot of her running away to portray how low she is feeling. Other than those, we have also finished a few scenes of her ex boyfriend and his new girlfriend and how they seem to be happy at the moment as they have only jus began to go out together. Finally we have also been shooting scenes ofour main character by herself between boyfriends as well as scenes of her with her new boyfried. The filming so far has been quite tricky to accomplish, but, it has been a fun process and I am looking forward to continuing and finishing the filming we haven’t done yet.
Our secondary storyboards
Update
We are thinking about starting our edting at the moment and have started by wrting up an edting list containing the name of the scene, the seconds of the scenes to be featured and how much time all of the footage we have written down so far takes up of the song. We have still got more information and scenes to add in, for example those that we havent shot yet, plus we still need to sort out the sections of animation which are to be featured in our music video. My group and I still need to converse about the final editing sections and filming is to be done.
Beginning our editing
My group and I have now begun our editing for the music video, and so far it has proven to be quite difficult and time consuming. Up until now we have completed the editing for about six seconds and it has taken a long time to get that far. We have now pieced together the dialogue scene and are trying to composite the other scenes we require. We are editing our music video on final cut, a software which none of our group have used before, so it is proving to be a trying task that we are slowly getting through.
Editing continued
As my group and I have been continuing with the editing of our music video, we are finding that as we grow more familiar with Final Cut we are able to use the software much easier. We have been doing more editing, while taking into consideration the video transitions and being conscientious of the time each scene takes up. We are very happy that, as a group we managed to make an editing list before we started using Final Cut in order to be certain which parts of our footage we wanted to use, it’s duration, it’s position in the storyline and which camera angles and takes we wanted to use. As we have been following our editing list, it has been much easier to pin point where all the clips are supposed to be. Altogether there are going to be about 23 scenes and so using our editing list is, going to be, and already has been very beneficial.
Animations and editing
We decided when we first began to plan our music video, that we wanted an animation or two, to be featured in it, in order to make it appear more interesting, to portray the emotions being felt at the particular point in the video and to learn more skills while using differing technology. To create our animation we have had to use Adobe Flash, which caters for these types of video exhibitions. When my group and I began working on it, we were initially concerned about trying to get to grips with another programme that we were unfamiliar with. However, it wasn’t as difficult as we had expected. We knew what we wanted our animation to be of, and that was a heart which would draw itself around the kiss featured in the final scene. So we began by drawing the heart with a brush tool in a nice bright shade of red, so that it would stand out. We then had to use the rubber tool and erase a little portion of the heart in each of the key frames so gradually we were working backwards to erase the heart, copying the heart into the next key frame to then erase even more. We eventually ended up with a small piece of the heart in the first key frame so that when we played the animation the heart drew itself. Now we need to reach the final scene of the editing in order to try out the heart animation in our music video. We are currently also discussing the exhibition of a second animation in our music video.
Update
My group and I are very pleased with our progress as now we have completed most of our editing. We have also completed all of our scenes, while considering the duration, camera angles and transitions. Now we need to make final decisions about the exhibition of a second animation. We have begun to brainstorm the idea of a heart breaking, but have not decided finally upon the plan for that yet. We have now added the animation of the heart drawing itself in the final scene of our music video and are very pleased with the outcome, although it was quite a time consuming task. In order for us to import the animation we had to ensure that each of the key frames are in the right file format and then drag the file into the layer above that which contains our scenes so that the animation would appear over the sequence being portrayed on the screen. We had to alter the duration of each key frame so that it didn’t go on for too long and then had to ensure that the heart was a big enough size by dragging the size of the heart out at the corners and then finally moving to whatever position, in order for this task to be accomplished we had to repeat this for each and every key frame, and there was about twenty of them, which took quite a long time. However, my group and I are pleased with the outcome.
Update
Our group have been discussing further and have come to the decision that, we do not wish to include a second animation, due to the fact that we feel that it is unnecessary to include another one. We felt that the exhibition of a heart breaking and the representation of a heart being formed again were repetitive. We have now finished adding the filters and other effects, and are finally considering the idea of adding a more interesting background, on to the performance footage.
Filming and scheduling
We found that while we were making the music video, a crutial part of the construction was the planning and scheduling that took place before the film shoots and the meetings as well. We came up with a detailed schedule to keep track of all of the different scenes that we had to shoot.
At the moment my group and I are in the middle of recording our music video, so far it has proven to be a tricky task as we are all having to take into consideration the vast array of camera angles, the lighting and having to make time tables and schedules for the different recording dates. It’s a completely new and refreshing task to be partaking in as my group and I have never made a music video before, however it is enjoyable as we are all learning new techniques for camcorders.
The scenes that we have shot so far include the dialogue scene which would be featured at the beginning of our music video between our main character and her boyfriend at the time. This was a fairly tricky scene to shoot as it was quite difficult for the actors not to laugh and remain straight faced when she had to ask him if he still loved her. This scene did turn out quite well despite the difficulties that we faced and sets up the storyline of our music video well. We have shot most of the flashback scenes which tell the story of the character’s relationship before the break up, how they once did get on very well and how as time went on he started to lose interest and how he eventually ended it. We have shot a scene which symbolises their relationship before the loss of love, this scene is supposed to be quite early on in their relationship, and he seems to be more devoted to her then. The next flashback scene we shot was of the two of them a bit further on in their relationship. They are still together and going out but it becomes apparent that he is not as dedicated to her as she is to him. He turns up late and she is left waiting for him. We still need to film another flash back scene to show the two of the arguing. We have also shot the break up scene where our main character recieves a text from her boyfriend saying that he has met someone else and doesn’t want to be w ith her anymore. We filmed that scene on a flight of stairs to show her running down the stairs in unhappiness to try and use a high angle shot of her running away to portray how low she is feeling. Other than those, we have also finished a few scenes of her ex boyfriend and his new girlfriend and how they seem to be happy at the moment as they have only jus began to go out together. Finally we have also been shooting scenes ofour main character by herself between boyfriends as well as scenes of her with her new boyfried. The filming so far has been quite tricky to accomplish, but, it has been a fun process and I am looking forward to continuing and finishing the filming we haven’t done yet.
Our secondary storyboards
Update
We are thinking about starting our edting at the moment and have started by wrting up an edting list containing the name of the scene, the seconds of the scenes to be featured and how much time all of the footage we have written down so far takes up of the song. We have still got more information and scenes to add in, for example those that we havent shot yet, plus we still need to sort out the sections of animation which are to be featured in our music video. My group and I still need to converse about the final editing sections and filming is to be done.
Beginning our editing
My group and I have now begun our editing for the music video, and so far it has proven to be quite difficult and time consuming. Up until now we have completed the editing for about six seconds and it has taken a long time to get that far. We have now pieced together the dialogue scene and are trying to composite the other scenes we require. We are editing our music video on final cut, a software which none of our group have used before, so it is proving to be a trying task that we are slowly getting through.
Editing continued
As my group and I have been continuing with the editing of our music video, we are finding that as we grow more familiar with Final Cut we are able to use the software much easier. We have been doing more editing, while taking into consideration the video transitions and being conscientious of the time each scene takes up. We are very happy that, as a group we managed to make an editing list before we started using Final Cut in order to be certain which parts of our footage we wanted to use, it’s duration, it’s position in the storyline and which camera angles and takes we wanted to use. As we have been following our editing list, it has been much easier to pin point where all the clips are supposed to be. Altogether there are going to be about 23 scenes and so using our editing list is, going to be, and already has been very beneficial.
Animations and editing
We decided when we first began to plan our music video, that we wanted an animation or two, to be featured in it, in order to make it appear more interesting, to portray the emotions being felt at the particular point in the video and to learn more skills while using differing technology. To create our animation we have had to use Adobe Flash, which caters for these types of video exhibitions. When my group and I began working on it, we were initially concerned about trying to get to grips with another programme that we were unfamiliar with. However, it wasn’t as difficult as we had expected. We knew what we wanted our animation to be of, and that was a heart which would draw itself around the kiss featured in the final scene. So we began by drawing the heart with a brush tool in a nice bright shade of red, so that it would stand out. We then had to use the rubber tool and erase a little portion of the heart in each of the key frames so gradually we were working backwards to erase the heart, copying the heart into the next key frame to then erase even more. We eventually ended up with a small piece of the heart in the first key frame so that when we played the animation the heart drew itself. Now we need to reach the final scene of the editing in order to try out the heart animation in our music video. We are currently also discussing the exhibition of a second animation in our music video.
Update
My group and I are very pleased with our progress as now we have completed most of our editing. We have also completed all of our scenes, while considering the duration, camera angles and transitions. Now we need to make final decisions about the exhibition of a second animation. We have begun to brainstorm the idea of a heart breaking, but have not decided finally upon the plan for that yet. We have now added the animation of the heart drawing itself in the final scene of our music video and are very pleased with the outcome, although it was quite a time consuming task. In order for us to import the animation we had to ensure that each of the key frames are in the right file format and then drag the file into the layer above that which contains our scenes so that the animation would appear over the sequence being portrayed on the screen. We had to alter the duration of each key frame so that it didn’t go on for too long and then had to ensure that the heart was a big enough size by dragging the size of the heart out at the corners and then finally moving to whatever position, in order for this task to be accomplished we had to repeat this for each and every key frame, and there was about twenty of them, which took quite a long time. However, my group and I are pleased with the outcome.
Update
Our group have been discussing further and have come to the decision that, we do not wish to include a second animation, due to the fact that we feel that it is unnecessary to include another one. We felt that the exhibition of a heart breaking and the representation of a heart being formed again were repetitive. We have now finished adding the filters and other effects, and are finally considering the idea of adding a more interesting background, on to the performance footage.
Filming and scheduling
We found that while we were making the music video, a crutial part of the construction was the planning and scheduling that took place before the film shoots and the meetings as well. We came up with a detailed schedule to keep track of all of the different scenes that we had to shoot.
Update
Finishing the editing
My group and I are pleased with the way in which the video has turned out. We found that adding the lip-synching was quite a difficult task when trying to perfect the timing, to ensure that the lyrics matched the words that the character of Jane Wesley was singing. It was a lengthy process to complete, but we are happy with the way it looks now that the editing is complete.
As I previously said, we felt that the performance footage was a bit plain due to the fact that the background was plain and appeared a bit boring so as a group we decided to re-shoot the performance footage, so that the character of Jane Wesley would be featured lip synching in the music video in the domestic settings and main places where the scenes were set. For example, as a flashback is shot in a certain living room, so are some of the lip synching scenes, we did this to portray familiarity with the settings and hopefully add a unique and different quality to our music video. We came across certain difficulties while completing this task, one of which being the fact that we had to be very careful of the timing. We played the song so it would be in the background while we were filming to reduce timing issues, so it would be synchronised when edited together later. I feel that we did quite well and completed these scenes quite efficienctly.
