Reflection on Editing

Realising how difficult it was to make my sisters miming sync with the song, mainly because she didn't know the words, I decided to change the song to one she may find easier to memorise.

KATY B - EASY PLEASE ME

The one I have chosen is by the same artist so that the style remains the same and the target audience. It is the same tempo of song so I can use the same type of video, the same styling, the same digipak and poster ideas. I will be able to use some of the clips I have already taken that don't include her miming any words because I am still using the same idea. This will also give me and oppourtunity to film more clips of her in my favourite outift that I wished I had more shots of her in. By chosing this song which is a bit livelier than the first, it even more accurately fits the theme I wanted associated with my aritst.

My new song choice

Reflection on Premier Elements

The first time I used Premier Elements was when putting my video of my pitch together which gave me a chance to get used to the programme and practice cutting the different clips.
It was a completely different story when I then started editing my video as I then I had to take into account alot of other things, like it being in time to the song, the most difficult part being the syncronising of the lips to the words. I also then had to consider whether things looked good together, what order to put things in, what clips to choose over others, and regardless of the fact that I believe myself to be creative and know exactly what I want my video to look like, it is very difficult to make decisions about what to do next!

From this practice, I found that it would be a lot easier to already have chosen the best clips so that all I had to do was order them. I made folders named "Dance" for the clips of my dance shots, "Lyrics" for the shots in which my actress mimed words and named each clip after the words she said, and "Time Fillers" which mainly included shots of my actress walking which I will be using to fill time in which no lyrics are said and a dance clip has already been used.

I also learnt that I should have saved my video at various point along the way, naming them slightly differently when I thought what I may do next may completely ruin the video so that I could go back to the last saved point.

Poster Photo

Whilst filming, I also gathered some images for both the digipak, which were landscape, and the poster, which were portrait. My favourite photos for the poster are underneath but I was struggling to decide which to use so I weighed up the reasons for each.

 

 

The one in the middle was the one I chose to use. This is because I thought that the one to the left, although had the right composition with space to the right for writing text, looked more like something from a magazine. It was more personal, like a behind the scenes shot, but the poster is supposed to look professional. I loved the one to the right because I thought my model looked really nice but this had no particular composition and didn't leave the space I wanted on one side for the text of the poster.

The photo on the left, I think, would be better suited to a "behind the scenes" type of page, maybe an interview with the artist as it has a more personal feel, her feeling comfortable and relaxed as she talks to the interview and, in turn, the reader who may be one of her fans that are getting a chance to find out more about their favourite singer, this photo giving them a glimpse of what she would be like in every day life. The photo on the right may also work for this reason but I think looks more like a photo for a clothes shoot.

 

I think that the photo in the middle was the right choice as my model looks cool and calm, her clothes look fashionable, her face is pretty, and all of these elements add towards the image of the artist and her reputation of being an attractive young girl and give the target audience, which in this case is young girls, a role model or inspirational woman to look up to and aim to be like which is what this age group like to have. The leg against the wall adds attitude and works well with the video and digipak because they are all done in the same setting. The colours are vibrant in the background and match the greens, whites and yellow tints in her clothes, giving the photo a colourful, cheerful feel.

 

I am going to edit this photo to make it brighter and bring the saturation of the colours up so they are even bolder. I am going to airbrush her face to make it look clearer and more professional and also the wall behind as there are some large dirt marks. On top of that, I am going to change the composition by making the wall blurred in the background and slightly darker than my model to bring more attention to her and express the glow that I want the audience to feel coming off her, as it does in the video with her beautiful clothes contrasting to the ugly setting.

Initial Digipak Ideas

After seeing this album cover I decided this was the effect I wanted for my own digipak. It makes the artists name so bold and easy to read whilst at the same time also including her face. I think it looks so modern and matches her style of music which is punk, having a font that makes an impact and looks professional. The colour against the black and white photo makes the colour bold and therefore the album title "Pink" Friday stand out more.

 

I would similarly like to have the text overlapping a photo of my artist that is translucent so that you can see the image underneath. I am not going to have my photo in black and white as the key point of my branding is the many colours included and I would also like to have the text in various colours to add to this.

 

 

EXPERIMENTING

These are a few ideas I came up with just after looking at Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday album;

I was experimenting with the ways I could include a heart in the word. Origionally, as you can see in the top left corner, I wanted to use the heart instead of a B as I think that when it's tilted to the side it resembles the letter but when I asked my classmate what they saw, they didn't argee. Although my favourite of the 4 at the moment is the one in the bottom right corner, I don't think this one is the best idea as the line cuts through her face, making her fall even further into the background. But all in all, I love this general layout and the way the colours work together to acheive the exact look I was aiming for.




After reviewing these 4 ideas, I decided I wanted all the letters to be different colours instead of just pink. One reason for this was that I couldn't match the colour of the heart and the letters which, although looks good in number 2 because otherwise the heart would blend in, I don't like the effect it gives in the others, especially number 1 where the heart is supposed to be considered a letter too and therefore should be exactly the same colour. So I tried all of these 4 layouts again but instead used 3 or 4 colours and I think these were alot more successful and suitable because I wanted to include more colours in the first place, this way the image looks more vibrant and girly like most of the other digipaks by pop artists which are attractive to young girls who like them. I will be improving upon one of these ideas for my final idea.. which one it will be? I haven't decided yet..

 

Reflections on Dance Shots

When put together with the footage I filmed of my sister, the shots I filmed of myself dancing using the tripod, they do not look how I wanted them to. Even though, using the tripod, I was able to position the camera exactly as I wanted, thinking this would be a good method, I wasn't happy with the footage in the end after I saw how noticable the handheld camera effect was in the shots of my sister and how it completely contrasted to the completely still shots that I cut to of me dancing.



By using my friend Chloe as my dancer now, it will allow me to see the shots as I film them and adjust them as I go along. I will also be able to move around with the camera rather than just staying focusing on one point for each shot. Now I will be including some camera tilts, pans, some tracking and some more handheld effect shots to create a variation and the exact look I want.

Relection on Cast

I found it easy to think of lots of dance moves to include, some routines for long takes and other short clips to fill spaces in the video. I also played most of them back in slow motion to make sure they looked how I wanted and I they worked well. I'm quite pleased with this section of filming and but am not sure how this will look all together with the slow motion tracking shots of my singer.

Knowing that my sister didn't know the song very well when we had only just started filming, I didn't try to make her lip sinc too much. I gathered lots of shots of her walking and moving, including various shot types and angles that I will cut to throughout and use to fill gaps when not singing. My sister did this very well, even though at points she struggled to keep a straight face when trying to take it seriously (right).
The outfits looked really good too so not only did it look good in the video, it helped her to feel confident and therefore she also looked good and did exactly what I wanted. Perfect.

Reflections on Locations

I purposely chose these locations because I was considering Blumler & Katz's theory of uses and gratifications, my favourite being that people use media to make personal connections and to find someone on the screen in a similar position to themselves, offering them someone to either judge or to aspire to and feel as if are similar to them. I did this by choosing a location that is widely populated, an urban environment that I think the majority of people live in, especially my target audience, choosing streets and alleyways that children/young people "hang out" in and would recognise as somewhere they spend a lot of time.

By filming my music video here, it puts a positive spin on the life that comes with these kinds of areas, council estates and alleyways that are usually populated with lower class/working class people. It supports the Marxist theory that the media, commercial companies full of the ruling class, attempt to make everyone beleive society is equal and that everyone is happy in their own lives. By having my actors dressed in glamorous clothes, dancing and singing as professionals and ignoring the fact that most people are scared to walk down the street in these areas, it fits into Baudrillard's theory that people often enjoy watching things like this that are hybrids of social realism but commercialised as it provides a hyper reality, better than their own.