Editing Process

In the editing process for our music video we used the professional editing program Final Cut Express that allowed us to do many things including the easy uploading process of video clips and video-audio manipulation that covers sound transitions, colour correction and conversion to a Quicktime file for easy viewing. Over time we gathered quite a lot of clips that we had filmed and slowly pieced them together on the timeline.

On of the many effects we included was the colour corrector that we added to many clips to make them look more interesting and to appeal to our target audience more:

This is probably our most anticipated shot of the music video. To achieve this we put two of same clip on the timeline and turned one black and white and the other we put a chroma key effect on it to make everything except the subject (the main character) their natural colour. We made the character black and white whilst the elevator interior remains green.

Within our final edit it is made up of a lot of elements including video and audio clips and the song track and sound effects/transitions. This all combines to give a professional piece of work that has had many hours spent on getting perfect and up to A-level standard.

With our music video there have been many edits and cuts that we have worked through to either try certain things or to see how the video editing process has progressed. Looking at the original and first edit, a lot has changed and decisions have been slowly made to improve certain elements including re-filming some things and re-arranging clips so they look better.

This is probably our most anticipated shot of the music video. To achieve this we put two of same clip on the timeline and turned one black and white and the other we put a chroma key effect on it to make everything except the subject (the main character) their natural colour. We made the character black and white whilst the elevator interior remains green.

Within our final edit it is made up of a lot of elements including video and audio clips and the song track and sound effects/transitions. This all combines to give a professional piece of work that has had many hours spent on getting perfect and up to A-level standard.

With our music video there have been many edits and cuts that we have worked through to either try certain things or to see how the video editing process has progressed. Looking at the original and first edit, a lot has changed and decisions have been slowly made to improve certain elements including re-filming some things and re-arranging clips so they look better.

Our video features three main people that is the lead singer/performer, the main character and his boss. The balance between the main character and the singer was heavily maintained through the video and we made sure that they were able to connect with the audience. The boss only has a small part so it may be hard for the audience to grasp his role as the person who receives the letter of resignation from the main character. Also important in the edit is considering the ordering of events as we tell a narrative story as well as featuring performance based elements.

The main character is shown in the intro on top of a car park and we lead the audience to think he might be jumping off and essentially ending his life. However through the edit we see him on a journey and the audience is made to believe that he quits his job and wants to be a free person to do what he wants. This is in fact true as we go back to the rooftop in the ending to show the characters journey and the audience expecting to see him jump. In the edit we make the ending similar to the intro to reinforce the story to the audience and show him drop his letter of resignation and walk off into the sunset as it were to start a new life.

Directors Commentary- Group Work

Introduction- Welcome to our Director’s commentary, we are Bradley, Ryan, Connor, Jacob.

In the opening sequence we immediately put the audience in the action by showing a clip of the apparent ending, this creates atmosphere, which is amplified by the mise-en-scene, with dark clouds and the urban setting.

This is immediately contradicted by transitioning with bright colours of the rising sun, followed by naturalistic shots involving the main character.

We continue the naturalistic shots placing the audience with the main character using lens flares and natural lighting to improve the realism as well as establish a setting. The initial lip-synching begins still including the main character and some aspects of a natural environment.

Jacob: The variety of lighting displayed on the shots with the contradictor shots to produce contrast and immerse the audience within the world, the chroma keyer was also relative to our digipacks and relating back to our advertising. The lens flares and ECU’S help to draw in the audience with the conceptual based elements.

Ryan: We first start to see the main character signing letters and conversing with a boss figure, we have done this to give the connotations of being fired from his job and a more natural progression when linking it with performance based shots. We also decided to use a variety of natural and abstract shots with varying location environments such as rivers changing into shots of London, we also included Jump cuts to progress the story quickly and yet keeping the audience immersed within the narrative.

Bradley: Here we decided to include a variety of colour effects on the shots to improve their power over the audience as well as fitting in the performance based shots to the song with the megaphone section being sung in an untraditional manner with shadows and blur effects to give a different style to the shots. However we continue to progress the main characters story still included within performance and making the music video slightly conceptual based, the high angled shots of the main character help to make him seem vulnerable, this combined with the singer being shown in an exciting way to showcase the singer such as a producer would.

Connor Part 2:  The idea behind these shots was to increase the tension with the audience by increasing the speed and abstract style of the shots as the music video progresses towards the climax. These shots offer the audience with more entertainment and excitement with the reversed shot creating confusing followed by the 5-millisecond shots of scenery and walking to make them more interesting and creates interest in the storyline.

The colour effects are repeated with the sky made to stand out followed by the close-up with good framing and is different to all the shots produced before to help build up to the climax.

Ryan Part 2: We begin to include time-lapses to give the connotations of the world changing around the main character and giving the connotations of this frustrating him, this is a good early hint towards the following shots of the release of anger with shots lasting less than 1 second to show all of the action in a quick pace with an overlay of the shots to give the blue effect. This sequence of shots was a good genre signifier due the action, which is directed towards the rock genre however the abstract nature of the shots signify the indie genre.

Finishing of the music video returning to the beginning of the music video gives the audience more of a build up of tension and finding out the true reasons behind standing on the rooftop, with the colour transition of the same colour of the sun and faded effects to make the audience interested in the story without being bored.

Analysis of Digipack

Updated :Pane one: We decided to give the first pane a simplistic nature to it with the band name and the song standing out and making sure that the audiences attention is drawn away from the importance of these feautres, the lens flare placed over the F also give the effect of being something special in which makes will give the connotations of being a very important album and the audience will be interested with the combination of the effects and simplicity 

Pane two: The second pane does not keep in touch with the style of the neon style font, however we chose to follow a different style. We have placed our lead singer in front of a brick wall, and by creating a work path in photoshop, wrote text following the outline of his head. The text is used to promote the product, as the is simple but very effective.

We believe it is important to put a face to the brand name 'Esum', and this keeps in touch with digipak conventions as more often than not, the artist will appear on their products.

Pane three: We used a photo that we took during the filming process as the backdrop for our CD case. The audience can create parralels between the music video itself and this pane, as this particular shot was used in the video.

Pane four: We decided to use the brick walls as a motif for our digipak.  We found a stock photo that was the sharp corner of a brick wall, and then based 2 columns of writing on each side of the corner. Both sides of the brick wall vary in darkness, and we chose to colour the font corresponding to the shade of darkness (dark= white font, and vice versa). We believe this has created an interesting visual effect, and boosts the overall look of the pane.




Final Version

After gathering audience feedback we done some changes keeping the overall theme similar to the original neon glow how keeping a level of constancy with the neon text and genre signifier's throughout our product. An example of this which is the most important is the neon glow which is meant to be upbeat, however with the darkness it seems more professional which is similar to our music video. The neon glow on our products help to target our audience of 16-24 because it is associated with clubbing which may be a hobby of the older end of our target audience as well as having a slightly 80's style vibe which relates back to the songs history and when the original version was first released. On the second pane it is very simple but effective with the lyrics behind the text making the product effect however some things may be added to make it more appealing. With this been said the other panes help to improve the overall effect with nothing necessarily be needed on the second pane other then the band profile however this wouldn't be in-keeping with our house style and would ruin the colour scheme.

With our finished neon colours we took some inspiration from the ministry our sound with our third pane, this was used to give our band more identity. The writing around the side of the wheel is a similar effect into which we added in our draft of our digipack which we all enjoyed prior and decided to keep this effects because of the same reasons which is that it is simple but yet effective.

Final Music Video

Draft digipak Design

Final Poster Design- Analysis

The first thing we took in to consideration when making our poster is the brand identity and house style of our band, which is similarly represented on our digipak. The neon glow is a juxtaposition (at first glance) of our video but it soon becomes clear that this represents our video accurately. The plain background takes its cue from simple backgrounds for concerts and shows that are seen plastered around places like London.

The quite flat and dull background makes the text really stand out and the alignment of the text is pretty much perfect for catching the eye with the important information in bold. However, some of the text isn’t too clear, particularly the ‘L’ in Feeling Good and although it still is legible. The text for ‘ESUM Presents’ is faded but it’s not a major problem in the grand scheme of things as it’s not the most important piece of information.

The neon text will instantly appeal to the audience because the connotations for it are exciting and energetic and this will most likely appeal to our target audience of 16-24 when looking at similar products it is obvious that colour is an important advertising tool and this was one of the first things we looked at.

Details on the poster such as the website is seen as more appealing to the younger target audience whilst also being a mainstay of the media so the obvious convergence gives the band and product more weight. This is also backed up by the mention of the music magazine Kerrang which would, again, appeal to a certain audience.

Overall, we feel that the poster is in keeping with our house style and brand identity whilst using certain conventions of a poster (website etc) whilst also reflecting on our video and album.

Filming Update: Croydon 2 Friday

After visiting Croydon for the first time we realised that it was a really good location to shoot on, with certain shoots needed to be redone after having to change the initial singer from Jacob to Connor due to feedback from other groups and associates. We decided to have a variety of different shots included within the location so not simplifying the camera work and making sure that each shot was interesting for example rather than fitting with the exact style of shots before in Croydon we decided to visit different area's of Croydon to give the video a different sense of location and a different feel to the shooting. Whilst there we also used the time to shoot some photo's of samples for the digipack's of what could be used and some shots which were just good for examples of what we could do however in better quality, for example shots of Connor standing against a brick wall with the shot back-light to give the impression of a silhouette. Overall we managed to get approximately 3 and a half hours of filming done with a good idea of how each shot can fit into the overall product but also keeping an open mind just in case certain shots don't fit into the final piece.