Feedback: Blog

Above is the feedback given by the course tutor of my overall work on this blog. I have tried to do more work on my blog this time as my previous feedback was not that good. At the moment, my blog is a 'C/B' grade which is a bit low for what I want. I am trying to aim for a 'A' so I need to make sure that I am relating all the practical work I do on the music video and relate it to the research and planning. This is essential for the grade to increase and for my work to be at standard I am happy with. Overall I am very pleased that the improvements I made from last time have counted this time and I am going to carry improving my work on this blog.

Journal Four

This week we have started to filming our music video. We have gone through major decisions with regards to what our video will consist of due to the practicality of the idea. As a group, this week, we made the decision to not incorporate the 'Britney Spears' spoof in our video as it has a too ambitious dance routine and the locations and costumes are to hard and expensive to recreate. We started the filming process with the shots that did not need a difficult location or require lots of equipment. This was therefore why we chose to shoot the Queen spoof. We started to film the shot as a four but found it was to awkward to get the right position and record it at the same time. We resolved this problem be shooting the heads individually and putting them together in the post production stage. This proved to be a success as the final outcome was really good. We then decided to start  filming the green screen shots. This happening to be the Justin Bieber spoof. We wanted to make the shots we captured as identical as the real shots used in Biebers video so that the audience could easily make the connection between the two. Once we had done this we choice to take this footage straight to the time line in final cut pro to experiment once again with the green screen chorma key. The final product from the experiment we excellent and what we hoped we wanted. Once we had complete the small section of the music video, we decided to show the subject leader and asking her for feedback. She said that the look of the shots was very good, but the performance was not as good and she thought it could have been over exaggerated a little more, to make look more like a spoof video. The next stage of the production stage is to get all the shots we need then go back and re shot the once that need improvement.

Digipac Idea - Covers

Editing Testing - First Footage

Above is the footage that we took today, which was a response/spoof of the Queen video. We decided it would be easier to shot the footage in single parts so it would be easier to shot. I made this decision as a director but with a lot of help for the cinematographer Aaron, to change the way we where going to accomplish the shot. We then had to talk with chief editor Luke, to see if it would be possible to put the clips together in post. Then we import all our footage onto Final Cut and start to experiment with the positioning.

We found that we could overlay the images to recreate the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' sequence by queen. W had to also crop our footage, so we could put the videos closer together. Making it look even more like the original. We also wanted to use the clips on there own which is why we filmed it like this.

Above is the final shot composition for our video, the shot has come out really well and will work amongst the final video. The theme of our video is to spoofing to a high standard, which this does really well. The comparison with the original below shows that we have accomplished the shot we wanted.

Job Role within the Group

Me: Director

My role in the group within the group id director. This is on of the most fundamental job to the videos success. I have the responsibility to overlook ever stage of the process across, pre-production, production and post-production. I need to be organized with in my role and ensuring  every thing that happens is well throughout and planned. I will also need to make sure I am communicating with the rest of the group  as it is essential, as we need to be sure we all know what exactly is happening with regards to filming and other practical activities we need to do to accomplished our final music video. My main duties include casting, shot composition, shot selection and editing. I will also need to be making sure that the performance is of a high standard.

Jason: Costumes & Blog Management

Jason has decided to take the role of costume and blog management. The Costume role is responsible for the design, fitting, hire, purchase, manufacture, continuity and care of all costume items on the production.The Costume Department is also responsible for jewelery, footwear and sometimes wig-work. Costume is integral in defining the overall 'look' of the film. It provides the audience with information about the period, culture and society the Actors inhabit and, on a more subtle level, the underlying themes of the film itself. Due to the fact that Jason's Blog was quite good last year then we decided that he should overview the blogging that happens within the group and making sure that all the blog posts are up to standard and are saying the right things. To clarify though we will not be copying each others posts, this job role means that I will only make sure that we are writing the correct things on our blogs and that all of them are up to date and merely offering suggestions as to how we can improve our blogs.

Luke: Locations Manager

Luke decided he wanted to take the role or Locations Lanager. Location Managers must combine the creative ability to visualise a Director's ideas with excellent organisational skills.  Luke should also be well organised and good communicators. We all decided that we would go to Woolwich Polytechnic and one of the drama rooms, so it will be his job to take location shots of the places that we are going to film or places that we consider so that we can finalise a decision on where we will shooting our final video.

Aaron: Director of Photography

Aaron decided to take the role within the group of DoP or Cinematographer. The role of the Director of Photography or Cinematographer is to provide a film with its unique visual identity, or look. Lighting is one of the fundamental elements in filmmaking; the way in which light falls on an actor's face, reveals an interior space, or illuminates a landscape, can create mood, drama and excitement for the audience. The ability of cinema to entertain and emotionally move an audience is the result of a highly collaborative process which encompasses performance, editing and music. Aaron's role within the group is cinematography and this may mean that he has to work out the shots that we are going to use in the music video, he will also have to work closely with Luke Hewitt when we are choosing locations as we will have to consider the camera shots and how the location will look on camera and whether it is practical.