Final Cut
Production Equipment
The equipment used within the production of my Music Video are as follows:
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Cast used in the video
The main cast who will appear in the music video are Gabriel, Saif, Adham, and Daryll.
Constructing the music video
Within the production of my music video, there was a process which I had to follow in terms of acquiring footage and producing my video. The found footage which I utilised within my music video, was accessed through news coverage of the Black Lives Matter Protests on YouTube. I also used portions of old footage from a scrapped music video project (e.g. the guitar riff overlay at the start of the music video) in order to add more complexity to my music video. Buttons which link to my footage from filming my scrapped project, as well as my current project, can be accessed below.
The intro to my music video was formed through inserting a handful of found footage from the Black Lives Matter protests (news coverage and civilian recordings), and placing live footage of my guitarist over it. The live footage of my guitarist was made semi-transparent, through adjusting its opacity within Adobe, and the audio of both sections were completely cut and replaced with the song. I used no transitional effects within the section of news coverage, as I wasn't looking to complicate the intro too much. However, because the translucent Guitar footage stays constant, the cuts feel smoother and less jumpy for the viewer. The text that appears on this intro is placed in order to identify the video as my artist's work. The entirety of the music video has been produced on Adobe Premiere Pro, as this software has been provided by the school and is highly efficient in producing stellar pieces of film. My found footage has been arranged in a montage-like style, and the cuts to different pieces of footage are purposely done to take place in beat with the song (as fluidity within the music video will appeal to the viewer and further retain their attention). The first set of footage concludes as the lyrics begin.
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The button below directs to a video of my first Music Video draft for "Where is the Love". This video contains only the inserted videos of existing footage on the Black Lives Matter protests. All sections of the video which are completely in black are where I intend to insert footage of live performance. This is only a draft, and the chances are I will change a major amount of the video after I receive feedback for my first full draft.
I've submitted a full draft of my finished music video, incorporating various visual effects and footage in order to produce a complete video. This full draft of "Where is the Love" has taken a while to make, and I've used footage from my scrapped projects, existing footage of BLM protests, and recently filmed footage of live performance in order to make my video more well rounded. I've made various adjustments to my performance clips, such as reducing the opacity and correcting the exposure of the videos. This video contains edits of live performance and found footage, in order to keep the audience's focus placed on my video. Once again I will reiterate that this is a draft, and once I receive feedback for this I will definitely be changing most, if not all, of the video.
Audience Feedback
The overall feedback from my peers was positive, and they admired the use of live performance in combination with existing footage. The only points to improve which I was offered by my peers was to add a wider variety of filming locations for the live performance. The useful feedback that I received from external assessors stated was that my music video had too much found footage being used. News reports, footage from BLM protests, and other videos which I found had relevance for the production appeared for the grand majority of my music video. The feedback given to me recommended that found footage only appeared for at most 10% of the video. Because of the points that I've been given to improve on, pretty much all of my music video will be redone in order to meet with the criteria.
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Post-feedback work
After receiving feedback I've made a number of changes to my music video, and my overall coursework. This has included reshooting and making giant changes to the entire music video, making vast changes to the social media page, and altering the song list on my Digipak. I have made improvements through using many different locations to film the video, including my house's roof-patio, a living room, and all around MQ. There is high certainty that I will also film within the filming studio in BSM, as I plan to film there for the song's chorus' as well as the outro. I've constructed another portfolio full of all the footage and photography which I've acquired during my recent production, and the folder can be located below:
The new plan for my music video
As one of the original performers for my music video (Gabriel Mendez) is unable to film at later dates, I will substitute his role for a different actor (Damaq Zain). This ensures that I can rely on my cast to make it to filming schedules, and also ensures that my music video project won't crash and burn. Saif's still able to film, so I'll be using him for the role which he played in my earlier drafts.
Acquiring Footage
After filming a set of footage to replace the verses of my music video's song, I export the files of every single recording and photo into a google drive folder. This ensures that I have the videos organised into one area, and that the files can't be lost (since Google Drive is an online storage system rather than something like an SD card which can be lost). The footage that I've recorded after receiving feedback has been placed in a folder called "NEW WITL FOOTAGE", which is done to help further organise my work by separating pre-feedback footage from current work. Outtakes and usable footage can all be found in this folder.
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Editing Footage
In this section of text I'll explain, surprisingly, the editing processes of my music video. Acquiring footage from my google drive folder is relatively easy, as all I have to do is look for the latest recording of each segment, and download it. The footage which I acquire is then placed in accordance to its position within the song, and edited from there. On the right are a series of images, labelled 1 to 5, which will be used to help demonstrate an example of part of the editing which I put into my music video. Some of the footage which I produce is initially out of sync with the song itself, and I fix this by doing the following:
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Colour-correcting Footage
Another major aspect of editing within my music video project is colour correcting, especially as the exported footage is initially too bright when placed into the premiere pro project. I eliminate the brightness in my footage by lowering the exposure in the colour effects option, and sometimes also adjust the whites, highlights, and saturation, in order to make sure each scene from the music video has the same tone and visual atmosphere for the viewer.
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Filming around MQ
MQ was used to film establishing shots in order to introduce the main characters in my music video, as well as add variety to the locations present within my project. This location is effective in performing the criteria which I aim to achieve as the sunlight makes the shots appear cinematic, and when paired with my camera, efficiently create a spotlight to place focus on my main cast.
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Filming around Villa 1928
Villa 1928 was used to film the main verses to my songs, as this was the location where I acquired a location permit to film continuously. Because of this, I could reshoot multiple scenes in order to obtain multiple takes or in case the lyrics were performed incorrectly (which happened much more often than not). The location was highly useful as it allowed me to also control the lighting and place higher focus on the subject/subjects.
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Mise-en-scéne of my shots
The main mise-en-scéne and style of my music video's footage will revolve around focusing on the performers' performances of the song. This means that there will be few props or objects to distract the viewer from the main cast during the verse performances, and that the performers will have exaggerated expressions in order to keep the viewer's attention. The other main trait of my music video's mise-en-scéne is the clothing of my main performers. They will wear clothing which makes them stand out from normal people, and also clearly differentiates them from each other in order to make the two individuals more memorable.
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Outtakes
The presence of outtakes caused a notable hinderance when it came to actually constructing the video, as it was hard to differentiate the outtakes from the usable footage. The stark number of outtakes mainly resided from the fact that Damaq was brought into my production at a very late stage, meaning that he didn't have any time to revise the lyrics to Where is the Love. Damaq's late introduction to his role was due to the fact that my main performer couldn't make any of the filming schedules which I had planned. My solution to this obstacle was to categorise each video according to their thumbnails, as takes from different scenes often had the same style of thumbnails. After this, I'd look for the latest video of each section and use that footage for my music video project.
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Performance amendments
I have replaced the verse performances in my previous draft with new footage, as the new footage contains much more interesting settings and has a better atmosphere in comparison to that of the previous performances. I have redacted the chorus' footage as it was deemed to rely too heavily on found footage.
Final Music Video
This is the final cut to my music video for Where is the Love. I have incorporated various styles of colour correction, filters, transitions and visual effects; this is to 1, keep the viewer's focus on my video and 2, display the techniques which I have learnt and developed over the course of this project.