Rough Cut

After we shot all the footage we needed, we were asked to create a rough cut on Final cut pro. The duration of the rough cut had to be between 30secs-40secs long, the reason for the rough cut is that it's a propsed idea of the actual music video itself and also we could get to grips with editing ideas . Once we uploaded all the footage we captured off the camera we started to play around with editing techniques and write up ideas we could use for our final music video piece. Every time we watched the footage back it forever changed in our heads as to what looked even better- editing technique or the placing of the scene. 

We all agreed on having a fragmented linear as it links in well with our hip-hop/rap genre. So as you can see at the beginning ; the character Nia is walking over a bridge and holding her arms out to the sun this is to represent her being free, this also links with Aim's lyrics 'runaway' her being free is essentially her being put at peace so this will be put in the first scene of the music video to show what happeneds at the end. Following on we edited the contrast to make it brighter so it gave that peacefull heaven like feel.

This scene is followed by a black fade out into a short panning shot of pigeons flying upwards. This shot is known as a cut-away which means filming something else other than the subject ( characters) we used this because cut-aways are used alot in hip hop/rap music videos, so we wanted to include this and it looks really effective and it also represents being free as a bird  linking to the meaning behind the artist's Aim lyrics - wanting to get away from her bad surroundings.

Filming our music video - Still shots

During filming for our music video, myself and my group decided to take some still shots of the process so it was understandable how certain images were achieved. For our chorus', we wanted to use direct address and miming to make the words seem more believable. My group used 2 of our friends as actresses and one of ourselves, to mime the chorus separately. To do this we all listened to the 'Sunshine' song and ensured that we all knew the lyrics. Each time we took a shot, we would use a piece of cardboard with the lyrics as a prompt. Moreover, each time we would talk through each line together to make sure that we were in time with the song.

In this Shot, one of our actresses Carmen, is using direct address during the chorus. We ensured all the actors knew the lyrics to our song at the chorus, therefore we could mime the lyrics to the camera aiming for a more realistic approach.

Here is one of our actresses Carmen dressed in 'Urban' style clothing. We used colour clashes and rough hair to make it seem as if she wasn't concerned with her appearance.

In this 'Behind the scenes' shot, Carmen is holding a piece of cardboard that we wrote the lyrics to the chorus on. We used this piece of cardboard for prompting the actresses, yet we also incorporated it into our video.

This still shot shows one of our group members ( Leila), acting in our music video using direct address.

Again, Leila is using direct address. Furthermore, we can see that Leila's choice of costume reflects the 'Urban' style that we want to achieve with our hip-hop genre.

Here is a still shot of the location that we used. It was behind the back of a shopping centre to add to the 'rough' element of the storyline. You can see Chloe and Leila in the shot. ( Leila acting and Chloe filming)

This still shot shows were Chloe was whilst filming

A still shot of the chorus - direct address

Risk Assessment

                                                     RISK ASSESSMENT

What was the risk ?	How did we respond to the risk?	What action was needed?
Tripping  hazard over tripod	Make people aware of the positioning of the tripod.	Make sure someone stands by it at all times.
Getting run over by a car	Make sure we are all strongly aware of each other and other people commuting into and away from our location in their cars.	To look around , and warn each other of cyclists and other vehicles.
Filming at night	Make sure we kept warm and had torches and kloe’s car headlights on.	To be aware all the time of other people and ourselves.
Physical harm In a lot of our scenes Nia gets pushed around and laid on the concrete floor , and in a ‘’fight’’	We ensured that in the fight everyone kept at a distance when pretending to punch her. When she’s pushed against a door we stuffed clothing under her coat so she wouldn’t get hurt. When she’s laid on the concrete the cast ensured they would lie her down gently.	Stuffing clothing to ensure comfort and shouting freeze! When Nia wants us to stop.
Dropping the camera	The camera could  break and postpone us from filming and also destroy school property So we had to be careful.	Ensuring that the camera’s protection cap was on and holding the camera up right and not swinging it.
Reversing car into a river	Here is a dangerous hazard of drowning and getting stuck We had 2 people behind the car signalling to kloe how far she could go.	2 people to near the car to ensure kloe how far back she could go.  We did this by using communication skills.
Clothing	-Laces -scarf’s  Making sure none of the clothing restricted speech and tripping over or choking … even for the filming crew.	Made sure that laces were done up  and scarf’s didn’t restrict speech/dialogue .
Rubbish	-          Tin cans -          Cigarettes Rubbish can harm local residents nearby so we must tidy up after ourselves leaving the place as it was.	Ensuring that we carried a plastic bag with us to collect all the props in a particular scene that we used.

Consent Form

One of our locations for filming was Premier (a corner shop at the end of Windsor High Street). Because we wanted to film in the shop we asked for permission and had the owner sign a consent form to allow filming to take place inside. The owner was more than happy for us to film inside his shop and we filmed for approximately 25minutes.

editing techniques so far

At the moment, these are particular editing techniques that we have used on Final Cut pro with our music video

- adjusting contrast to fit with the conventions of hip-hop. Creating 'Black and White' direct address scenes to fit within the conventions of the hip-hop genre. Also, it switched up some of the full colour images.



'Lil B- Black and White
- adjusting contrast to fit with the conventions of hip-hop. Creating 'Black and White' direct address scenes to fit within the conventions of the hip-hop genre. Also, it switched up some of the full colour images.
'Here is a Hip-hop music video that uses the black and white effect and this helped us throughout our research.

- Manipulating speed to show repetitions or delaying actions. For example, we used a decreased speed and some repetition when showing particular shots of the main character walking. This created emotion for the audience as it encouraged them to feel as if the character had a boring, repetitive lifestyle, involving drug and alcohol abuse in some shots. This is usually a difficult process to break from when someone is in the grasp of an addiction, therefore we wanted to display the circles of stress and struggle that our character experiences. This demonstrates that it is difficult for our protagonist to escape.


'Eminem- Toy Soldiers'
Here in Eminem's video, the viewer can see that he has used a manipulation of speed by making particular moments slower than reality. This helps the viewer understand the actor's emotions and motives in a clearer sense and this is the effect that we wanted to achieve.


- colour wheel used to darken or brighten particular shots again to fit within the conventions of hip-hop.

- Contrast was played with when we were creating s 'CCTV' shot. We changed the opacity of a particular effect which started of being completely opaque black and white dots ( like a television with no signal). Once we'd played around with the effects, we changed the opacity to being less concentrated and it gave us a good effect of a CCTV camera. This meant the image was slightly dotty, but the image of the character's could still be seen clearly.


'Dizzee Rascal-Sirens' . Here at the very beginning of this video, the artist is seen to be observed by a CCTV camera whilst he climbs a fence. There tends to be a trend of the CCTV catching deviant moments. In our music video we caught a deviant moment involving drug taking, this was likened to our research such as the Dizzee Rascal video,

- fades were used between one of the first scenes. It displayed an image of the sun on one image fading into the background of a sky on the other image. This appeared creative as it brought two scenes together whilst playing with the image of 'Sunshine' - the title of our song featured in our music video is called sunshine

'Ghetto Gospel- 2Pac'. Although it is a slight part of the video, here we can see that in 2Pac's video there is the use of sunshine and an element of hope. This is what we wanted to achieve with our editing techniques. We also incorporated religion into the sunshine aspect and this can be seen at the end of our video.


- split screen was used to show two characters meeting at the same place. Furthermore, this was used to add suspense and creativity. Again, split screens fit into the convention of hip-hop.


'Keri Hilson- Knock you down'. This music video, like our own, uses a split screen imagery. This fits the convention of the hip-hop genre. Again this music video was very helpful with our research towards fitting the conventions.

Changes we have made to the video and themes

As we progressed creating our music video, we came across numerous issues and potential problems. In order to avoid these problems we had to make some relevant changes. As you would be able to see throughout the start of our blog, we were intending on using a girl named Laura as our main protagonist. There were many reasons for changing the main character but in the end we decided to chose a member from our group ( Nia) in order to ensure the time was well spent whilst filming. Our beginning concept did involve Laura as a child, explaining her development through childhood. However, we discovered it would become difficult to portray Laura's childhood with an absence of baby photos and footage. Furthemore, we began to rely on when Laura was available and this became difficult as we struggled to fit Laura's schedule in with our own. As a result, we decided promptly that it would be realistic if 1. We used myself as the main character - this would make it easier for filming and 2. We would adapt the concept that originally involved Laura's childhood as this was far from our reach. So in the end we ended up using Nia as a main character and still using Laura for extra scenes. We decided to move on from the childhood concept as it would be very confusing to portray and we wanted our music video to come across as realistic. This is when we decided to use the image of religion as our stronger image as it fits in with the hip-hop conventions more comfortably also. This way we could keep a constant concept throughout that would stick to the conventions and be more easy to film.
As we weren't going to use baby photos for the opening scene, we decided to replace it with an image of Nia in a cross shape, representing religion. Furthemore, we were able to bring in the image of 'Sunshine' into this scene simultaneously which worked well. This way the audience could interpret the religious aspect of the opening scene and learn that it would potentially be a huge aspect throughout the entire sequence.

Where changes of location were concerned, we decided to film the 'Fight' scenes outside the Windsor Leisure Centre. This way the scene appeared realistic and threating for the scene and we could avoid putting ourselves in a dangerous environment at the same time. Our battery on the camera ran out in the middle of filming, however as we were so close in proximity to the Leisure Centre, we were able to charge up the camera inside the building, again keeping safe. If we weren't close to any major buildings, then filming would of commenced there and then and we would not have had the footage that we needed. Therefore, this was a positive for us that we had chosen this location.

Costumes for filming

The style of clothing we went for in our music video would be considered urban/street. We felt this represented the Hip Hop genre of music well.



Stills from Lil Kim's music video 'Lighters Up'

These images are examples of 'street/urban' clothing from a Hip Hop artist's music video. You can tell that their style of clothing isn't 'the latest fashion' but they do still dress well and present themselves in a certain manner.
We have tried to allow this to influence our costumes for our own music video. After we had come up with our storyline, we attempted to style our cast accordingly to they could represent Hip Hop in the way we wanted.

 Analysis of Costumes from our music video 

As you already know our music video is under the influence of the hip hop/rap genre , so as a group we took the ideologies from this genre and put them towards our Costumes. The image you see is a spilt screen of the two characters the main protagonist Nia is on the left. Her costume altogether illustrates a thuggish devious look , she is dressed head to foot in dark colours with her scarf hiding most of her face which is very common in hip hop music videos to show their loss of identity. The logo on Nia's hoodie is  ' G-Unit'  they are a renowned hip hop rap group , we wanted to make reference to this to show similarity to the music video genre.  the left side of the image is Christina she is the 'villain' of the narrative. Her style of clothing has more variation with touches of more colour . she wears a dark green trench coat over a white hoodie we wanted her to contrast with nia, again a scarf to conceal her face to discard her identity which makes her seem threatening. in comparison to Nia, Christina has more layers of clothing to buff her up to justify her stronger character.

Here Nia is wearing the same pair of black trousers because she is on the streets and has a limited amount of clothing . However she does have a white hoodie, the main colours here are white and black which represent darkness ( this links to the harsh gangster life she leads) and the white represents purity and freedom ( this colour illustrates her desire to be free from what she is now and can link in with a religious element so her outfit is juxtapose.

Here is an image from our first chorus in the music video , all chorus's are in black and white although colour of clothing was not important here the shade, style, form and shape was. Leila here is wearing a over-sized, worn denim jacket and leggings and red mining boots. We chose this particular style because it was suited to our urban-like theme.The denim jacket makes Leila look big and strong this links to most rap/hip hop artists making Leila look threatening and gives her a powerful attitude. 

Here Nia is wearing a black fitted beanie hat with a grey coat and burgundy coloured trackie bottoms with worn black trainers. The hat gives her a thuggish image, hats and caps are portrayed a lot in hip-hop   videos it can represent class and status.

Location shots in relation to particular scenes

The final scene location

Problems within this scene

This scene was the hardest to shoot i think one of the main reasons was it was at night and at a busy time when people around us were commuting back and forth to the Windsor Leisure centre itself ,so we made everyone aware of the hazards we could run into. Furthermore timing was a big issue , it had to be perfect so if the car came in too fast or too slow in contrast with Nia's walking we would have to shoot it again.

The cameras battery itself was slowly dying so we charged it in the Windsor Leisure Centre otherwise all hope would of vanished.

Questionnaire for target audience

The following questions are to help us establish our target audience and also to use their opinions of the genre and create ideas from it. We asked 10 students and just below are the results.

Questionnaire for target audience for the genre hip-hop/’rap

Please answer and put one tick in the following questions

1.)    Male [ ] Female []

2.)    Age ______

3.)    On a scale from 1 – 5 ( 5 being your expected to see a lot) rate how often you expect to see these in a Hip-Hop/Rap music video

Crime-

Gangs-

Parties-

Drugs-

Drink-

Sex-

Meaningful messages –

Bright Colours-

Religious symbols-

4.)    Where in your surrounding area would you expect to set a hip-hop music video

5.)    Do you think direct address ( directing to you!) is a effective way to connect to the audience?

6.)    What makes you want to watch a music video all the way through? ( is it the linear storyline or abstract images perhaps).                                                                                                                                        

7.)    Would a good music video make you want to listen and watch more from this particular genre?

The results 

We concluded that the majority we asked were both male and female, with an age range between 17-25. They were most likely to see criminal activity, gangs, parties, drugs , drink, sex and religious symbols. They thought the location for a hip-hop/rap music video would be in an industrial environment i.e slough. They thought that direct address was very effective in a music video for our particular genre, The idea of a fragmented linear was appreciated very much furthermore if all of the above was included in a music video it would make them want to listen to more of this particular genre so it would open up a bigger audience and not just aimed at a niche market.

Contacting the artist

This was a message that we tried to send AIM (Amy Houck), who is the artist of the track 'Sunshine' that we are creating a music video to. After looking for various ways to try and get on contact with AIM by seeing if it was possible to speak to her through Youtube.com or if she had her own page on Facebook.com, we came across her own Myspace page. Unfortunately, when we attempted to send the email asking for her consent to use the song, Myspace did not allow it to send to AIM none of us are Myspace friends with her. I have sent her a friend request so until AIM has accepted, an email will not be able to received on AIM's behalf. Although we have attempted to send one.

story boards

These are the storyboards that we created for our music video. As you can see, if you compare the order of the shots with the actual video, we have progressed and altered the images. The start of the shots we have decided to keep the same as they made sense to our genre and eased the viewer into the video production. For example, we thought it would make sense for the video to start with the slowed shots of me walking over the bridge and stretching into a cross shape. We felt that this way we would introduce the viewer into the religious theme that was about to follow. Furthermore, we didn't want to jump into the action immediately, we wanted to build up the suspense of what was to follow.

The direct address that we originally put at the end of the video, we changed to be put in the middle of the storyboard instead. We felt that this way the consistency of the direct address would be more understandable rather than clumped together at the end.

Star analysis

.

Jennifer Lopez

This music video by Jennifer Lopez is from 1999 by her management company Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

Jennifer Lopez has many aspects that help her into being such a successful selling artist. Her target audience would be young girls to older women, not necessarily directed at a particular race. As she is Latin, Jennifer Lopez has the ability to direct her videos at a larger multicultural target audience. Moreover, her female friendly persona makes her seem more approachable.

-Her feminine persona reaches out to young female audience members, whereas her confidence can appeal to a male audience
-Her videos tend to keep to the trends ensuring she has a large target audience
-She intends to keep to her Latin roots with her pronunciation and the beats and tempos of her music. This maintains her solid fan base as she stays consistent
-Her videos tend to be linear and tell a story to draw the viewer in
-Her friendly persona reaches out to audience members encouraging them to feel as if she is talking and singing directly to them
-Her fashion trends stay modern and up to date which will tackle new members of her target audience regularly.
- She sticks to a 'pure' image a lot of the time ensuring that she does not offend any members of her target audience
- She sometimes incorporates young children and older adults in her videos to maintain a broad target audience



This video again by Sony BMG was produced in 2004. This uses the imagery of small children again to ensure a lighthearted video that reaches out to many people.


This video is again by Sony from 2011. This demonstrates her ability to keep up with the current trends and  keep a modern image.

Editing techniques

Editing can have a transforming effect on a music video and it is key for fluidity and creativeness. Without editing, moving pictures would be rough around the edges and frankly quite dull. Editing can bring a music video or a moving picture to life literally. Editing combines audio and visual materials.

A roll and B roll
A roll is the primary footage that has been filmed and the B film is the security footage for non narrative film.

Continuity Editing
Continuity is essential whilst filming and editing in order to creative realism and easy viewing

Cross - Cutting
Cross cutting is a technique that involves consecutive shots alternating between different action events. Cross cutting is meant to imply that two or more scenes of action are occurring at the same time. Cross cuts don't have to link together, they can symbolise two scenes of significance or contrast to the viewer. Cross cutting can also be used when special affects are lacking: Such as a man running away from a train in one shot and the other shot being the train, this implies what is going on. Also, cross cutting can be used at different tempos to add tension to a scene.

Cutaway
A cutaway is an interruption in one shot with another image, this usually ends up with the original image being shown again at the end of the scene or shot. These are generally used in dramatic films to adjust the pace of the main action. This can be an artistic affect breaking up continuity.

Dissolve
In a film, a dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. This is a smooth transition but it is quite dated and rarely used in contemporary images.

Fade
Similar to a dissolve, a fade is a smooth transition dissolving into a solid screen usually of a black colour.

Jump Cut
A jump cut lacks in continuity by leaving out part of the action.

Montage
Montage is a collage using a series of shots which are edited in coherent sequence. A montage can help viewers reach a conclusion from the action that they have experienced.

Split Screen
This is one of the effects that we intend to use in our music video. A split screen splits the main screen into two separate images ( usually with a line of separation down the middle) where different actions occur.

Wipe
Wipe is a gradual transition from one image to another where the original image is replaced. Usually a distinct shape is used such as a circle or turning pages. This is also quite dated.

Disstort
Distortion is another effect of editing that we intend to use. This literally distorts the camera's eye and makes the image appear blurry. We will be using this when the character is drunk or potentially on drugs.

Deciding storyline and fitting conventions

Today Leila and i decided to pull together a storyline for our music video. So far we have note form so i will discuss our potential ideas. We have decided to fit the conventions and stereotypes of Hip-Hop music. As the music isn't very aggressive, we are relying on our character to portray some anger and intimidation as this is one of the stereotypical conventions of Hip-Hop music. Another convention a lot of Hip-Hop music videos include are concepts of religion, therefore we have decided to introduce an aspect of religion within our character to show the audience her faith and religiosity even though she may be committing some unforgivable crimes. Furthermore, Laura's costume will be appropriate to the conventions of Hip-Hip genre, being loose fitted and dark. As we aren't fully concluding the ending of our music video we decided to stick to the stereotypes and conventions of our chosen genre so we can avoid confusing our viewers anymore.

 To open with we will take a clip from the end of our music video which involves Laura lying on the floor after a fight, we are hoping to incorporate some red flashing lights into this scene and the rest of our video, this will add a continuous red and blue theme of the law throughout.Then the next scene will involve layered photographs of our main character as a baby and child. This is to display the fact that she had innocence at some time in her life.Following will be side Close Up shot of Laura smoking a cigarette displaying tension in her face. We will cross the road across the street and film another shot of Laura from across the road. As a car passes we will develop onto the next shot involving Laura walking into a shop. ( We will ensure Laura purchases a bottle of a drink ) Laura will symbolise stealing the item from the shop to show a darker side to the viewers.
The next shot will involve filming a church, Laura will walk into the wide shot and walk up to the church. Before she enters the church, we will change the angle of the camera to high angle looking down on Laura, this will help the audience to understand that there is a certain 'godly judgement' on her as she goes to worship. The shot afterwards will involve Laura back on the street praying. This will indicate the character's religiously to viewers and reinforce the conventions. As Laura is sat on the street it will be a mid shot, however we will squat down to catch peoples legs walking past to add to the effect.
As the day progresses into dusk, Laura will act out taking a drug and shortly after she will laugh and pass out. We thought to be realistic and creative, as we show Laura regaining consciousness the next day, we will use a Point of View shot of the camera lying on it's side and sitting up, acting out the movements of a person. This will help the audience see through Laura's perspective and maybe feel slight sympathy for her. We will use distortion for this effect. We want to ensure that the character is approachable

The ending is undecided but we want to repeat a motif of Laura visiting a church to demonstrate her faith throughout her hard times of living on the street.

Different types of shots to experiment with

There are various shots that we can use during filming. Here is some research on different shots.
We are also interested in using split-screen and distorted shots for our filming. Majortiy of the shots will be mid -shot and Close up shots.

Close up ( CU) Feature takes up most of the frame

 Cut in - Shows specific part of feauture in detail

                                                                                                                Extreme Close Up ( ECU) Feature shows very close image



                   

                                                                                                                  Extreme Wide Shot ( EWS) Subject isn't even visible

Two Shot - Shows two people in the frame

Wide Shot (WS) Subject takes up whole shot

                                                                                                         Point of View ( POV) Image seen from subject's point of view

                                                           Over the Shoulder Shot ( OSS) Image of subject seen from over the shoulder of someone

Very Wide Shot (VWS) Subject is barely visible

Initial costumes for our main character - Laura

As Laura's stereotypical character has urban, ganster imagery, i decided to brainstorm some ideas to do with potential costume ideas.

-Dark Puffa Jacket to make her appear more padded out
-Baseball cap ( this may cover the characters' face and emotion however)
-Trainers
-Dark jeans or tracksuit bottoms
-Bandanna

some influences for this costume:

This style is more masculine Hip-Hop esque. This gives us a rough idea but we will be aiming for somehting more feminine for Laura.

This style is more urban which is what we are aiming for with our main character

Test shots

Today we continued filming for the test shots. There were a few shots that we played around with and eliminated any potential problems.
For example we want to include a split screen shot during our piece. The split screen will involve Our protagonist walking past the camera coming from one side of our location and the other characters coming from the other side of our location walking past the other side of our camera. The characters would be displayed separately through the split screen, however once they meet a central location, the shot will go to a wide shot displaying all the characters meeting. This is where the fight would occur between the characters. For a split screen we realised that throughout all the filming we need:
- fluidity of the characters' walking
- An equal level throughout filming so angles don't appear wonky or jolty
- to count the amount of steps the characters take so they can inevitably join in the middle point
- A long shot instead of a wide shot to enable the audience to see the whole of the character and their movements
- differentiation of costume and make-up to display stereotypes

For the fight scene we continued from the split screens into a wide shot. Here we experimented with different angles of Point of view, direct, high and low angles. We took the camera off of the tripod to experiment with numerous handheld angles which proved to add excitement and realism to the shot. There weren't as many difficulties for this scene but in order to change the shots and add variation, we had to ask the actresses to freeze their actions at certain points in order to capture the next angle, whilst keeping the shot continuous. This proved quite difficult at the time, however the editing will neaten the messy parts of the shot.
Other aspects that we had to consider were issues to do with lighting as we are considering filming at night. Moreover, the day was quite sunny therefore it affected some of our shots. This could prove to be a potential difficulty for us during filming.

We began editing the shots we had captured using Final Cut Pro. We added text slides in between shots to make it clear. We used a range of each other's knowledge, and the knowledge we had gathered from our teacher to work around the programme. We did come across some trouble cutting at the beginning and working out how to cut the end of a scene.