Editing

After hours of researching the net, asking people how to join clips and spending time trying to join our clips we decided we would give up on joining them as we did not successfully find out how to do this on the iMovie. Therefore, we concluded with adding in transitions between the clips making the noticeable jump not so obvious. After clicking on "set themes" on the transition section me and Sarah discovered a "photo album" theme which we thought would be relevant to our music video. After adding in the transition, our music video began to look more like a video with different 'RnB' conventions. Once we watched our music video, making sure the "photo album" we had added in flowed well we realised the jumping clips no longer jumped as the application allowed the clips to flow. Below are pictures of how the application has changed our music video.

Recording

Previously, we attempted to record the lyrics to our song however, we faced some difficulty producing a clear recording. Due to background noise we decided to record the lyrics for the second time onto the iMacs. Today at lunchtime we was able to record over our track we created from Garage Band. At first we noticed a tapping sound whilst recording which caused a problem once we played our recording. After minutes of playing around with the iMac we realised the tapping sound came from the Garage Band software. We had our Garage Band recording software set on "Female Vocal" which was causing the tapping sound as once we deleted this effect we succussfully recorded our song. Now we just need to add the recording onto our music video on iMovie!
Recording on Garage Band with the iMacs

Editing

In todays lesson me and my peers worked on editing our video. After previous sessions on editing, we found the opening of our video too continious. Therefore, in order for the beginning to not look or feel incessant we filmed extra bits to add in at the start of our video.

We began by adding in the title of our music video. We chose a simple and efficient title where the words and flower design grows onto the page. The use of italic writing follows the conventions of an 'RnB' music video and this is why we have included it in our video.
Above you can evidently see the green background behind our clips. This is due to us adding in our backing track from iTunes. We are able to view our video now with the music we have made from the Garage Band software.
Here are the extra bits of filming we have included in our video. We filmed pictures from the main characters bedroom in order to reflect her happy times she has had over the year with her friends. We changed the colour settings of the clip to black and white as this mirrors the characters feelings at this point of the video, it is not until the very end where there is a colour clip reflecting her mood.

Editing

Having had a free day off school me and my peer decided to work on our editing, as our deadline is approaching. We worked on specific adjustments that needed fixing, trimming out unnecessary bits of filming, speeding some bits and adding in a few transitions along with pictures.

Above we agreed on adding in the "circle open" transition. This transition has enabled our music video to speed things up, permiting two clips to work together at the same time. As our video was too long, using the "circle open" successfully allowed some time to be reduced

Here we have used a meduim close-up, this gives a clear perspective of the scene and lets the audience have a clear understanding on who the main character is in the video. Evidently we see Sarah puting on mascara, this supports the conventions on an 'RnB'video as many show the female character getting ready usually in her bedroom.

An over the shoulder shot has been used here to place the audience in the characters position we see from behind. This medium long shot allows all three characters to be seen in one scene creating a tense atmosphere as the audience are aware the person who has caused the argument is watching.

In order to allow the audience to understand the text message from the characters perspective, we decided the best shot to use would be a point of view shot. Those who will watch our music video will be able to clearly read the text message, understanding whats going on and also will be able to feel as though they are in the characters place.

Once again, as our video was beginning to get too long we had to add a transition in in order to speed the clip. This allowed the clip to go at a faster pace. This is a conveniant transition to use as the audience may get bored watching the same character walking, having used the wipe transition this stops the audience from loosing their attention from the video

After loading and playing our clips we realised our filming was too fast and did not fit the speed conventions of a music video. Therefore, we had to select the clips and slow them down choosing a specific number, as seen in the pictures above.

We added in pictures to create a mood like effect. We had to split our clips to place the pictures inbetween them. Our pictures are in black and white as it is meant to reflect back into the past. To reflect this we slowed down the speed of the clips as this makes the mood we are trying to portray more realistic.

CLC Training (Monday 14th December 2009)

CLC Training

My group and I on the 14th December attended a CLC (City Learning Centre) training where we made use of their equipment, help and advice offered to us. With the help of one of the workers their, Andrew we was able to recieve aid with editing our footage. During this training, we learnt to use the new versions of editing with the iMac, as it has changed since last year. Andrew taught us to extract all audio in our footage in a much quicker way, copying all our footage at once and removing the audio at the same time. Splitting our clips was another editing technique we learnt about at the CLC training, this is a key editing technique we learnt as it is going to be used alot whilst producing our music video.

Andrew managed to help us with blending in two of our clips together, making sure it suited our genre of 'RnB'. He introduced us to the "wipe" transition which we found very useful to our footage. As a group we applied this to our footage where our girl character is getting ready, here the wipe allowed the clip to flow quicker, giving us more time to our music video.

Overall, this training helped me and my team gain some knowledge with the editing techniques available on the iMacs which will be great use later on in this production.

Filming

Filming - Tuesday 8th December 2009

We filmed our second part to our music video on the date above. This included filming our girl character, Sarah walking into the town meeting her boyfriend and following them through the town until they argue and both go there seperate ways. As we filmed this we found in order to gain the best result, filming without the tripod would be more conveniant as it gave us a better result. During the conversation between the couple, we had to stop and take the shot from different angles as this will allow us to edit our clips into shot-reverse-shots making the conversation look more realistic. We managed to use more than one editing technique we learnt from our previous Media Studies course in year 12 whilst filming, these include zoom, follow shot and medium close-ups. Once we finished filmling this scene to our music video, we uploaded our footage to the iMacs and began to work on a few clips, erasing unecessary footage that was not needed for our video.

Filming

Filming

Our first bit of filming consisted of our girl character getting ready to go and meet her boyfriend in the local town. As we filmed her preparing her make-up in the mirror we found the camera reflected on the mirror causing the filming to be unclear. In order to conquer this problem we decided to remove the mirror in the shot. On monday 7th december we uploaded our footage to the iMacs. As a group we have agreed to upload our work each time we have filmed something as this allows us to notice any problems in the filming we may have to re-do. Having uploaded this part of our music video we aim to edit the clips, allowing them form together creating a much more realistic effect.

Recording Our Song

Recording "If I Had My Way"

As we have decided to create our own music for our video, finding someone capable to sing our lyrics was our main goal. As a group we decided to ask a talented and gifted colleague to take on this challenge. Having given a copy of the lyrics and a few days to think about it, our colleague happily agreed to sing for our music video. With her approval to the group, the next step was to record her singing it after hearing several replicates. Using a camera, we recorded her voice, intending to extract the audio once we uploaded it onto the iMac. However, due to background noise and slight disturbance the audio we uploaded did not give us an outstanding result. Therefore, on the iMacs we have found a quicker recording facility where we aim to record the song through the iMac, this time taking into consideration the problems faced the first time.

Monday 23rd November 09- Lesson Evaluation

During this lesson, as a group we took our filming equipment and went to our filming scene to film the basic outline, as we did not have all our characters with us at the time. Having filmed a brief outline enabled us to suggest more ideas on specific camera angles which may be used whilst filming. However, when filming we were stopped by one of the security guards of Palace Gardens shopping centre, as it is private property. After discussing our situation with the manager, he agreed to let us film providing we each had a risk assesment done, as this proved we are responsible for our actions, whilst filming. We intend to have our assesment done to avoid disturbance towards our video.

Pictures

Having thoroughly structured out storyboard as a group we decided to go to our location we intend to film our music video in and take pictures. These pictures help is to set the scene exactly when it comes to us filming our video and also helps us with deciding which camera shots we intend to use to give the best portrayol.

The picture above is the beginning of our filming. The girl above, Sarah will leave her car in the main town car park and walk towards the pay point. We will use a follow shot follwing her movement.

Both pictures above are still following Sarah as she walks to the hut to pay for her parking space. In order for the audience to understand exactly what Sarah is doing at the Hut we will zoom in with the camera to make it easy for the audience to understand what she is doing.

The first two pictures above is the local town were most of our filming will take place. However the town in both pictures above does not look busy due to these pictures being taken in the morning, we do intend to film in the town during the afternoon were the location is much more busy. The third picture shows Sarah walking towards the town where she will meet her boyfriend and then shop together. We have in mind to carry on with the follow shot, having a med shot of her as she waits for her boyfriend.

Above is where Sarah will wait for her boyfriend to meet her. To help the audience make acquainted with the character we will use a mediuim shot as this will show the subject in more detail whilst also allowing the whole subject to be viewed by the audience.

When taking the pictures we did not have our boy character with us, therefore Sarah is shopping byherself in the photo above. We will use a wide shot here making the subject take up the full frame. Here Sarah and her boyfriend will look like happy couples, enjoying themselves together. With permission from the shops we intend to film inside.

The three pictures above will consist of alot of close-ups, mediuim close-ups, cut aways, two shots and over the shoulder shots. The three pictures above is where the audience witness the relationship fall apart. Both partners walk there seperate ways, portraying the end to their relationship. Over the shoulder shots here will enable us to look from behind the characters perspective, placing the audience in the characters position.

Above Sarah makes her way back to the car park distraught and extremely upset. The camera will then go back to a follow shot and close-ups. These pictures have deffinately given us a range of ideas of exactly how we will shoot our music video, in what angle we will choose to shoot specific shots and different types of shots we intend to use.

Storyboards

As a group we have spent three lessons working on our storyboard. We have included which camera shots we intend to use, explaining what effect it will have. This storyboard will enable us to follow a structured plan which will then enable our filming to flow. Our ideas may change as we progress into our filming, however this is just a prediction.

Storyboards