Rough Cut Feed Back

To try and find what our strengths and weaknesses of our project were we decided to show our music video to some people and get some feedback. We wanted to know if the narrative that we were trying to portray of the music video was easy for everyone to understand. We also wanted to know what were the most popular aspects of our music video and bits that people thought that we should change. Here is some of the feedback that we got:

Evaluation of our Rough Cut

During our rough-cut process we have faced a few issues, one of the main being choosing which shots to use. For example sometimes the artists become out of character and ruin the illusion that they are pop stars. Therefore whilst cutting I had to choose their best performance bits only. Another issue was to do with timing and choosing where to cut; we tried to make it as slick as possible, zooming in and trying to find the correct beat to cut on by listening to the music in slow motion. This was particularly tricky right before the drop in the music, as there are lots of fast beats; we decided it would look good to cut to every single beat. This proved to be difficult and time consuming but in the end it looked professional and slick.

I felt that I was good at picking the correct shots that made the artists look like real pop stars. I also managed to edit very quickly meaning that I had plenty of time to go back over the shots and find mistakes or something that doesn’t quite fit or look right.

I definitely feel that it is relative to our original plans, of course it does not exactly stick to our storyboard, but the concept and scenes we planned are all in the video. The only thing we had to adapt was the speed of the cuts compared to our storyboard. Our cuts are now much faster to keep the audiences attention,

Our only postproduction work so far is to edit the song to more appropriate length, around three minutes ten, so that our viewer’s attention doesn’t linger towards the end.

Evaluation of the Shoot Day

For me, the day prior to our shoot was mainly focused on organization. I spoke to all the cast members so they could show me their costume to check it was appropriate and their makeup plans, also giving them a schedule of the day. I also checked I had all the necessary props, and that all the items of the set were in place to set up.

Before we began shooting, I helped construct the first set, black walls all round and some blinders behind the artist. We did find a different DJ table, a box that held lighting equipment in, which looked far more realistic. We also had  to do the artists makeup, and direct them and explain what we wanted them to do in each scene and placed them in the space ready for the camera.

Each scene that we shot worked very well and felt that the shots we got really embodied how we had imagined the video looking. We found that the performance element was slightly away from our vision, but was in fact better, as it gave us more of a range of shots, as we could play around with lighting.

Throughout the day my group played various different roles. I was directing the people in front of the camera and motivating them making sure they were lively and confident. I also worked on filming, making sure we had enough interesting and usable shots for edit. I mainly used extreme close up, medium close up, wide shots and tracking.

I felt that my directional skills were particularly good. As a dancer I was able to physically show them what it was exactly that they needed to be doing. Therefore they were never dull to watch on camera and always had something to do. This made them feel more confident therefore their were more convincing as their character.

The main issues we had on the shoot day were to do with costume and the amount of people we were working with. We had issues with costume not staying on or being too uncomfortable, these were soon solved with safety pins and slight alteration to the material or a change in outfit, the other issue with the amount of people in a small space meant that they were difficult to keep control of and not distract the people who were currently on camera. This took effort from our whole team but eventually they were co-operative and we were able to direct them well in the auditions and party scene.

I think that the most successful part of the shoot was the performance element. Our female singer was a great performer and easy to direct. We got lots of usable shots very quickly and finished that scene ahead of schedule, setting us up positively for the rest of the day.

I felt that we could have got more shots of the auditions, as there were so many cast members to get through we did not spend much time on each member individually as we wanted to fit them all in. therefore we may not have got every person in detail as much as we had hoped.

I felt that we worked very well throughout the day and prior. We split our duties, so one of us as on camera and directing, another monitoring the cast, costumes and props, and the other organized the schedule and planned the set, making sure that everything ran smoothly.

We can now add pictures form the shoot day to our website for ‘fans’ to see. We also got the artists to take ‘selfies’ to go on the website. Whilst they were performing we got a photographer to take pictures, so they look professional. We will put them in black and white and use them as backgrounds and covers on the site and twitter feed. 

The Animatic: Feed back and process notes

We received some really useful pointers from our immediate feedback from our other class members, regarding our animatic, such as...

•   They noticed our re-use of shots, meaning that when it comes to shoot day we need to keep this in mind and not go by the story board, and try to get as many shots as we can.

•   When the rapper comes on the scene needs to dramatically change so we see something completely new, to mirror what the rapping does to the song.

•   In the song a clear single line is "Goon Rock, are you ready?” The point was made that we need to identify which person (the rapper/ DJ) Goon Rock is.

•   There is a section where there are 12 quick claps within the DJ section, a suggestion was made that we make quick cuts in time with the claps to give impact and suspense towards the drop.

We also received some positive comments in which we need to keep up

•   Our quick cuts are good and make it feel like a professional shoot

•   The narrative was very clear, and easy to follow

•   The cutting was very much in time, and fitting with the feel of the music (however did slack towards the end).

•   They liked the idea of the auditions and then judges reaction and felt that it was going to be a very amusing video.

Throughout the actual process we learnt a few things that we will take with us when editing the actual video.

•   The main thing that we realized was the amount of recycled shots. We therefore had to strongly acknowledge that even though our storyboard was large, we hadn't enough substantial and interesting shots and angles in which we could use.

•   We realized we needed far more ways of filming the auditions rather than just wide shots; however felt that this would come on the day.

•   The music was dramatically cut to fit to the common pop song 3 to 3.30 minutes.

•   We need to think about more implications to show that the set is being put up, besides a smoke machine lights and a time lapse.

Here is a video of the immediate feedback after they watched the animatic.

Storyboard

Our Set Design

For the auditions section we'd like them to be in this set

For the casting directors/band we'd like them to be casting from this kind of an environment 

For the waiting room that the audtionees wait in, we would like it to be minimal but drab

For our "music video" scene this sort of a set with a projection of the bands logo would be ideal, with smoke machines, microphones and a dj booth 

Album Cover Inspiration

This album cover has a very modern look which we really want our album to have. By looking at the album we can get the idea that the music is probably electronic and pop- exactly the genre of music that our video is. Although if we were going to do something similar to this we would have the artists photos instead of figures because it will be there first album and its important that people can recognise the artists. 

TThe best thing about this Avicii album cover is that it really stands out. Its something very different which pulls your eyes towards it. I think that thats important for an album cover because it may persuade people to have a look at the album or even buy the album. I think the use of bright colours are great and the direction we would want to go for our album as well. he best thing about this Avicii album cover is that it really stands out. Its something very different which pulls your eyes towards it. I think that thats important for an album cover because it may persuade people to have a look at the album or even buy the album. I think the use of bright colours are great and the direction we would want to go for our album as well. 

The reason we like this album cover is because the use of colours and how they all seem to come together and the effects which are done on the artists but still being able to recognize her. The album cover has a slight trippy feel to it which relates to electronic music. 

We like this idea for a album cover because it involves bright colours but mostly because of the picture of the artist in the middle. We thought that we could do something like this and have the three different artists positioned the same with the girl in the middle and the two male artists by her side. 

We really like the modern electronic feel to this album, how it shows all of the artists in a classy way. And shows elements of their personality through small objects that they are wearing or carrying. The only thing is in our album cover we would like to use more colours.