This is Prezi presentation about the equipment that the group has available.
*The full name of the video camera that we are going to use is the JVC GY-HM150E
*The full name of the video camera that we are going to use is the JVC GY-HM150E
Saturday, 21 February 2015
Editing Software
We had three main options as to what we were going to use to edit our music video. Adobe Premiere Pro, Windows Movie Maker or Final Cut Express. The major differences between the options are that Premiere is installed on most computers in the school that are running a copy of Windows, whereas Final Cut is only available on the few iMac computers that the school owns. Windows Movie Maker is a free piece of software that I have installed on my laptop at home.
Either options has advantages and disadvantages. Premiere Pro is installed on far more computers meaning that there will almost always be a free computer to work at, as well as this, Premiere is the editing software that I personally, am more familiar with.Premiere also has a fleshed out suite of tools to enable me to edit the colours of a piece of footage as well as the brightness, contrast, lens flare and many others. This means that I can fine tune the footage to be exactly how I want it to be. However, Premiere can be a resource hog and since the school computers that I would be working on are significantly under-powered Premiere can be unreliable, prone to crashing and can cause work to be lost.
Final Cut is only installed on the schools iMac's, of which there are only two. This is less than ideal because of how there are three people in our group and if they are taken by other students then we wouldn't be able to edit. As well as this I have no previous experience with both Final Cut or the Mac operating system, meaning that I would have to learn how to use them, which takes time that could be used to edit. The advantage of Final Cut over Premiere is that it is far more reliable. This is because of how Final Cut is designed to be used on a Mac and interacts with the hardware far better, resulting in far less crashes and lost work. Final Cut has a similar amount of features as Premiere, however, I would need to learn how to use them all.
Windows Movie Maker is an interesting option, I have it available at home, however I am not familiar with it. It also lacks features that will prove useful and is very much a 'bare-bones' piece of software since it is free to use. As well as this since I can only work on it at home, I am not able to get advice and feedback on my work from my group.
Our group has decided to use Premiere Pro as our editing software of choice due to our familiarity with it and the extensive options that it provides us when editing our music video. The instability can be worked around with backups and saving often.
Either options has advantages and disadvantages. Premiere Pro is installed on far more computers meaning that there will almost always be a free computer to work at, as well as this, Premiere is the editing software that I personally, am more familiar with.Premiere also has a fleshed out suite of tools to enable me to edit the colours of a piece of footage as well as the brightness, contrast, lens flare and many others. This means that I can fine tune the footage to be exactly how I want it to be. However, Premiere can be a resource hog and since the school computers that I would be working on are significantly under-powered Premiere can be unreliable, prone to crashing and can cause work to be lost.
Final Cut is only installed on the schools iMac's, of which there are only two. This is less than ideal because of how there are three people in our group and if they are taken by other students then we wouldn't be able to edit. As well as this I have no previous experience with both Final Cut or the Mac operating system, meaning that I would have to learn how to use them, which takes time that could be used to edit. The advantage of Final Cut over Premiere is that it is far more reliable. This is because of how Final Cut is designed to be used on a Mac and interacts with the hardware far better, resulting in far less crashes and lost work. Final Cut has a similar amount of features as Premiere, however, I would need to learn how to use them all.
Windows Movie Maker is an interesting option, I have it available at home, however I am not familiar with it. It also lacks features that will prove useful and is very much a 'bare-bones' piece of software since it is free to use. As well as this since I can only work on it at home, I am not able to get advice and feedback on my work from my group.
Our group has decided to use Premiere Pro as our editing software of choice due to our familiarity with it and the extensive options that it provides us when editing our music video. The instability can be worked around with backups and saving often.
Research into Industry
The music industry is a vast and complex topic to try and analyse, therefore I will focus on music videos since this is what we are going to be producing.
Generally there are two big divides in the music industry; The famous, mega budget superstars that make millions from each single and the obscure indie groups that work on micro budgets with unique songs that gather a cult following. Which ever generalisation that an artist/group falls into directly affects the type of music video that they would produce, with the main difference being the available budget.
An artist that falls into the former category would be able to have expensive lighting, equipment and production team which should, in theory, produce a superior video with higher quality overall. However, this isn't the case. Often, having these high production values can cause the video to lack direction and emotion, instead showcasing a male power fantasy.
Indie groups differ from this due to not having a huge budget to afford every luxury. Instead they have to rely often on a single actor and camera. This forces innovation. Most music in this genre have an overall message or meaning which, due to constraints, are creatively implied via the imagery and emotion in the song/music video.
This relates to our music video because of how we fall into the latter group. Since we have no budget, and the only equipment available is what is given to us. The locations we have access to are limited by both our ability to travel, if the location is free etc...
We are forced by these limitations to think outside the box and come up with interesting and creative methods of storytelling. To this end we will focus on aspects such as mise-en-scene, lighting as well as setting to give the viewers a sense of what is happening in the scene as well as the emotions and motivations of the main characters.
Generally there are two big divides in the music industry; The famous, mega budget superstars that make millions from each single and the obscure indie groups that work on micro budgets with unique songs that gather a cult following. Which ever generalisation that an artist/group falls into directly affects the type of music video that they would produce, with the main difference being the available budget.
An artist that falls into the former category would be able to have expensive lighting, equipment and production team which should, in theory, produce a superior video with higher quality overall. However, this isn't the case. Often, having these high production values can cause the video to lack direction and emotion, instead showcasing a male power fantasy.
Indie groups differ from this due to not having a huge budget to afford every luxury. Instead they have to rely often on a single actor and camera. This forces innovation. Most music in this genre have an overall message or meaning which, due to constraints, are creatively implied via the imagery and emotion in the song/music video.
This relates to our music video because of how we fall into the latter group. Since we have no budget, and the only equipment available is what is given to us. The locations we have access to are limited by both our ability to travel, if the location is free etc...
We are forced by these limitations to think outside the box and come up with interesting and creative methods of storytelling. To this end we will focus on aspects such as mise-en-scene, lighting as well as setting to give the viewers a sense of what is happening in the scene as well as the emotions and motivations of the main characters.
Friday, 20 February 2015
Similar Products 2 - 'Stolen Dance' by Milky Chance
'Stolen Dance' is a song written and performed my a German duo called Milky Chance. The song was released in Germany in 2013. It reached No. 1 in several countries such as Austria, France and Belgium.
The reasons that I wanted to analyse the music video for this song were that it offered interesting contrasts and similarities with both the previous video that I analysed from Mumford and Sons, as well as what my group plans to do.
As with Babel, this video features the artist performing the song. This is in contrast to what we would like to do. The interesting thing about this video is where the artist performing the song in the video would usually show emotion or tone, here is the opposite. The performer shows very little emotion while singing, instead opting to use the imagery to portray the tone.
The method of showing this emotion is where this video links to our idea. Images of what seems to be the performers childhood and fond memories are projected onto the set. These images give the tone of what is being sung. These images are also what portrays emotion in the video. The reason these projections are similar is how instead of using a performer or artist to show emotion, imagery will be used. This is what I take away from this music video.
Another way to interpret using imagery is a sort of 'silent storytelling' where no dialogue is used. Instead the story is told entirely visually, relying on the music for tone.
An example of how the video uses visual methods to portray tone and emotion is through the colour pallet used. In Stolen Dance, a lot of greens and reds are used when the music swells, showing how these are happier times, giving the music some energy. This is contrasted by grays and dark blues during transitions when the tempo slows down. Using this idea, we know that Far Away is a sombre, slow song. To show this visually we would use darker, grey shots. Introducing some colour to show some emotion from the characters.
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Genre - Indie Folk Music
In music, a genre is a style or category of music. It is used to group together songs so that, for example, should a listener particularly enjoy classical music, they can easily find songs that sound similar that they may also like.
In the case of Far Away, the genre would be known as indie folk. Indie folk is a melding of two genres that has characteristics of both. José Gonzalez is predominantly an indie folk singer. Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from musicians in the indie (independent) rock community influenced by folk and classic country music. Indie folk combines the catchy melodies of indie rock with the acoustical sounds of contemporary folk music.
Examples of artists in this genre are; Jose Gonzalez (obviously), Mumford and Sons, The Magnetic Zeros, Bon Iver, Noah and the Whale, Of Monsters and Men, Milky Chance and The Dodos.
Examples of artists in this genre are; Jose Gonzalez (obviously), Mumford and Sons, The Magnetic Zeros, Bon Iver, Noah and the Whale, Of Monsters and Men, Milky Chance and The Dodos.
I will analyse their work to see what I can take from it as well as to look for inspiration that would help with the filming.
Wednesday, 14 January 2015
Mise-en-Scene
In film, Mise-en-Scene (MeS) is defined as being everything that appears in front of the camera. This applies to costume, props, lighting, composition etc...
MeS is very important for this project because of how there is no dialogue, the story is completely visual. I have had several ideas on how to to use MeS to give some more information about characters and events. Such as having an empty bottle of wine just peeking in at the side of a shot to show the parents alcoholism or having a guitar and keyboard near the son's room to show he has musical interests.
Put simply, MeS is that everything that is on camera tells a story. I need to make sure that everything in shot works with the story and nothing is out of place.
Sound
My project is rather unique in that it is a music video. This means that no dialogue or diegetic sound is needed, all audio in the project will be the song (Far Away). Luckily I have done some similar work to this before, giving me some experience on how to make a piece without any dialogue.
The main thing that I have to remember when making a film with no dialogue is to focus on the characters actions instead of their words. The audience has to be able to see how a character is feeling and what they are thinking simply by their expression and how they are behaving. Since we do not have access to world class acting talent the physical side of the characters has to be much more obvious and exaggerated, while also not looking silly. This will be one of the main challenges for us when we are making the music video.
Traditionally, music is used in a scene to help dictate the tempo and the mood. I want to try and carry that over to our project, showing a sun kissed vista when the music swells and a damp and dark night when the tempo slows back down.
The main thing that I have to remember when making a film with no dialogue is to focus on the characters actions instead of their words. The audience has to be able to see how a character is feeling and what they are thinking simply by their expression and how they are behaving. Since we do not have access to world class acting talent the physical side of the characters has to be much more obvious and exaggerated, while also not looking silly. This will be one of the main challenges for us when we are making the music video.
Traditionally, music is used in a scene to help dictate the tempo and the mood. I want to try and carry that over to our project, showing a sun kissed vista when the music swells and a damp and dark night when the tempo slows back down.