First Shoot

Today we had our first shoot which took place in the drama room. We decided to use the session as a practice to see how quick we could set up and pack away the lights and cameras and tested different lighting. We decided to use a blue covering over the lights to make the scene purple which makes a simple standing shot more visually interesting. The following shots are some screenshots taken from the footage we took during the session:

When editing the footage into a short piece I noticed that the medium shot cannot be edited next to a similar shot like the medium close up. It disturbs the flow of the song as the jump cut makes the lip-syncing jump forward. This is something I have learnt and will know to avoid when making the final video. Unfortunately we did not manage to film more than 6 shots (as several other contained behind-the-scenes footage) and when editing the sequence I had to use a cut as described above due to the lack of footage. However the lighting effect matches the feel of the song and this was a good chance for me to practice my editing skills when syncing the song to the lip-sync.

 

Editing the Lighting Workshop

In today's lesson we started to edit the footage we filmed during the lighting workshop. We had to make it interesting and different by changing the green screen, using effects and experimenting with the different camera angles. I think this exercise is a good way to practise my editing skills and to learn some effects that I could potentially use in my own music video. I worked on the lip-sync first as I wanted to match up the music and the lip-syncing and merge them together so I can edit the clips apart later on and use different camera angles.

Lighting Workshop

Today (15/09/15) the class went to do a lighting workshop. We went to the drama room, as the black interior would make the lights brighter and better, to setup the green screen, lights and cameras. We had 3 tasks to complete during the workshop: lip-syncing in front of a green screen, reciting a horror narrative with dark lighting and an interview scene. However before we could start any of these tasks we had to setup.

After we had completed setting up we went straight into the first task: the lip-sync. The person lip-syncing would be singing "California Girls" by Katy Perry and could do whatever felt natural to them. We had two classmates do this, one lip-syncing and the other dancing with some props, in front of the green screen. The green screen would allow us to make the setting match the song lyrics (or not if we decide something else) rather than having a plain background.

Next up was the horror narrative which I had to perform and despite not being the best actress I think the effect makes up for my acting! The effect darkens half of my face to create a mysterious look which matched the script I was reading. As I did not get to see the effect until we had finished filming I was surprised and happy with the outcome. I would love to use this effect in my own music video, if we choose to have a dark theme or song.

The last task was the interview scene. We decided as a class to have the person being interviewed in front of the green screen so we could change the background, similar to the lip-sync. We had the interview off-screen so only there voice could be heard and the person being interviewed would have to make up the answers which were perfect. Overall effect was really clear and nice and it will be interesting to see how this piece is edited.

As an extra task we were ask to make a lens flare effect however we ended up making a silhouette which, in my opinion, was even better! A classmate held a rainbow coloured umbrella behind her and in front of the camera so the colours glowed and created a silhouette. This technique would be really good to use in a dark themed video as it creates a sense of mystery and the unknown.

All of the footage that we collected today will be edited together so we can test our editing skills. We can edit images into the green screen and use Adobe After Effects to make the sequence more exciting to watch.

Overall I have learnt a lot about lighting and how much it can impact a shot. There are so many techniques that would be interesting to use depending on the song of the music video. Lighting is something I will defiantly keep in mind whilst shooting our music video.

Finished Lip Sync

We have finished our lip sync task! Our sequence was to 'Let It Go' and overall I think it was good. However some of our footage did not quite match the song but it could not be fixed because the mistake was made while filming. This is the end product:

I like that we never used the same shot more than twice as this gives our sequence more variation and makes it more visually interesting to watch. If I were to do it again I would get even more shots so we have more options when it comes to editing, that way if there are any filming mistakes we could replace them with another shot. This would also make the editing process easier as well as finding a shot that matched the lip syncing would be easier as we could choose the shot that best matched the lip syncing rather than spending a long time trying to make it match.

Lip Sync and Editing Practise

We were given a task to create a minutes worth of footage where someone must lip-sync to a song of our choice. My group decided to go for the hugely popular hit "Let it Go" from the Disney film Frozen's soundtrack (however it is a mash-up version) as we feel as though it has a lot of potential shots and themes. One requirement for this task is that the actors must sing out loud so the footage looks more realistic. Our goal is to use various locations and never use the same shot twice as the sequence is only a minute long. This is also a good practice for our editing skills. The music has to match the lip syncing of the singer in order for the sequence to look realistic which makes the editing process a bit more difficult but also a challenge which I will enjoy.