Molly La Fosse's Media Blog

Today we had a lesson with Matt where he ran us through the editing process and gave us some top tips. Firstly, he told us the proper order in which to edit our music videos... First sync up all footage Do the performance cut Do the narrative cut Do the effects cut Do the colour grading He also showed us the two different ways of syncing the music and footage together - picture syncing and sound syncing :  Picture syncing Bins - camera - double click 1st video Click on the left screen at the same time as shown on the iPad and then click the same time on the bottom right on the track and drag the film down to the bottom right timeline Check that it is in sync Sound Syncing. (this should only be used as a fallback, if the previous method doesn't work) Listen to clip, waiting for the loud drum snare in the audio clip - when you hear this, press space to pause and then use left and right arrow buttons to find the exact point.  Press t...

For Vickey, our lip syncer For the bed shots and the stool shots... - A pink silk slip dress - Accessories : pink crystal hoops For the Brighton shots... Flared denim jeans, Pink top. For Zoe... Pink trousers and fluffy pink crop For Lara... 'illustrated people' trackies 'LOVER' pink t-shirt Accessories : small gold heart shaped hoops. Makeup - Subtle pink eyeshadow - Glossy pink lips - Subtle pink blush - Fresh, glossy skin - minimal face makeup

We made a production schedule to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day. 

Anais made this call sheet in case on the day we need to urgently contact one of the crew or cast. It includes everyone's number and email address.

I made a contact sheet for us to look at on the day of the shoot to remind us of the kind of shots we want in our video. We felt that a visual representation would be better than a written shot list.  I have printed out a physical copy to take with us on the shoot day. 

Today we held rehearsals with 3 members of our cast, Vickey, Zoe and Lara. The point of these rehearsals was to get them feeling more comfortable in front of the camera and to practice Vickey's lip syncing. We filmed Vickey lip syncing as practice. We did this a few times, making sure she was always singing out loud to make it look more realistic when we edit it. We also took the opportunity to re-arrange the girls in different positions in order to see what kind of different shots and angles we can use on the shoot day in order to keep the music video interesting and engaging. We  took photos to make sure all the arrangements looked good on camera.

1. What? Rehearse lip syncing with Vickey - get her to sing out loud and video it. When? Thursday 19th October, in our free period. 2. What?  Rehearse lip syncing with Zoe and Lara. When? Either Thursday 19th October or Monday 30th October. 3. What? Find an outfit for Josh. When? One evening I will sit with him and go through his wardrobe to style an outfit for him. 4. What?   Work out how to edit images/clips into the swirly pink effect that we included in our test shoot. When?  Before half term I will have a play with the editing programme Final Cut Pro because I know it has a lot of useful editing tools and effects that we might be able to use to create this effect. 5. What?  Film water and love hearts to see how they'll look when edited like so : When?  I will do this during half term. 6. What? Collect all of the cast's signed blue card and give them to Phil. When?  Before Friday the 20th October

Today we showed our test shoot to our class and got their feedback on it.                                                                       Our test shoot. In the class we discussed the concept of a prototype and how we have to be willing and open to adapting our prototype depending on the feedback we receive. It is important to get audience feedback from our class because their opinions offer a fresh perspective on our idea as they are a new set of eyes. Sometimes it is easy to become blind to any flaws or problems in your products, especially if you have spent a lot of time watching it during the editing process etc. Therefore their feedback and criticism was very welcome and helpful. It was important for us to do a test shoot rather than just a storyboard because it is in the same media form as our...

In today's lesson we uploaded all the footage from the test shoot onto iMovie and edited it. Below is the finished product.

This week we filmed a test shoot, the purpose of which is to give us some practice at dealing with a cast and checking if our ideas translate well on camera. Next lesson we are going to edit it to at least 2 and a half minutes long.  Unfortunately one of our actresses, Zoe, was unavailable for our test shoot so for the purpose of the shoot so we made do with just two actresses for the bed shots. We used an iPhone to film. To re create the parts of the video that will be set in Brighton we filmed in various locations around our school, mainly on benches. We used a boarding house bedroom for the bed scene. For the real shoot we will have plain white sheets. We tried to create the window set that we'll have for the real shoot day by using a semi transparent board and placed it behind the singer, as shown in the pictures below. The recreation wasn't perfect but I was happy with the way in which we worked with what we had in our environment. In hindsight, we co...

Today we had a talk from the top music producer and director, Phil Tidy. He has produced music videos for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Spice Girls and Oasis. Here are some of the key points I picked up from the talk : The music industry is worth 4 billion to the UK Over 150k people employed in the industry Essentially commercials for songs that are going to be released. all about how bands are going to be 'sold' and seen to the public Music videos really born in the early 80s with the inception of MTV The landscape has changed - 31% of all music now consumed on youtube Michael Anderson - 'they came along in the early 80s and unblocked a constipated film industry, a creative playground of experimentation and fun and a proving ground for talent.' Showed us one of his music videos for the beastie boys - narrative  Environmentalist filming - working with what you have in the given environment. 'Music videos are a film making proving groun...

Pavilion Buildings and Gardens Beach huts/Pastel coloured houses Pastel coloured houses on Blaker Street

                                           

Today we met with two art directors and Matt to further discuss the sets for our video. They suggested that whilst we can still go one weekend on our own and do some filming in Brighton, we should try to shoot a whole music video in the studio at school so that if the footage from Brighton isn't great then at least we'll still have enough footage for a whole music video. So the strands in our video that can be set in the studio are... The three girls on the bed, the girl in the middle is the singer. For set design we have been advised to just 'create' a 'bed' in the studio, keeping it all on a low level, so we'll probably just have a mattress on the floor with duvets, cushion etc - rather than trying to create a whole bedroom ourselves. Wooden stool in front of a fake window with a sheer gauze curtain (which the set designers will help us create in the studio). We'll create fake wooden floors. Main girl perched on the stool. Really soft, spun ou...

A quick mood board I made, comprising of screenshots taken from music videos featuring couples, as well as music videos set in Brighton... http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/2_9EMLNU/share

So that we are fully prepared for the test shoot (and the actual filming day), we created a specific timeline of all the different shots and the order we want them in... 0:00-0:38 = Zoom in from above, girls on bed, different shots of their faces - close ups, side shots etc. The soft feminine lighting. 0:38- 0:48 = Boy and girl in Brighton. Mid shot. Boy is facing camera, girl turns to look at him, lip syncing. Probably set on bench ideally with funky colours/wall. 0:48-0:58 = Quick cut on the beat to different background - couple in the same position, just different location. 0:58-1:19 = Girl alone on stool, perched. Wooden stool, wooden floors, soft pinky white lighting (like the Bella Hadid photo). She's in a delicate pink slip dress. Idea of sensual vulnerability. Lip syncing. 1:19-1:29   = Under the cover, lighting creating shadows and textures. Main girl is under the cover, playful, 1:29-1:39  = Back in Brighton. Walking along, she holds his arm, rests h...

We had a meeting with Luke and Matt to show how our idea has progressed since our last chat. He and Matt had great ideas and luckily were able to imagine our ideas and the aesthetic we were going for. They were also very helpful in pointing out any logistical flaws in our idea and answering questions we had. Our various questions, and their solutions, were as follows... Q : Are we able to recreate the pink lighting that we want even if we are in a boarding house room? - We showed them photos of the lighting we meant - taken from the works of photographers Petra Collins and Mayan Toledano - which I have included at the bottom of this post.           A : Yes, we are still able to, but they felt that what would look better is a soft white light on the actual characters rather than the pink light being directly on them...we could still have a soft pink light in the actual room but not concentrated on the girls - this will achieve the...

On Tuesday we held auditions at school with the cast we want for our music video. The purpose of this was to see how they all looked on camera and to make sure that Vickey, who we want as the lip syncer in the video, is comfortable with being filmed singing along to the song and that she fits the proposed aesthetic of our artist. As a singer herself who has a very fresh, pretty and feminine look, she fits perfectly with the type of image we want for our video. We were also happy with how the rest of the cast looked and acted in front of the camera. Our current proposed cast list is... Vickey Barnes as the singer Lara Partridge and Zoe Morris as her two friends. Josh Woolford as her boyfriend, whom the song is about. We took photos and videos to illustrate our ideas and see how the cast looked together, which are included below : Silhouette Dancing Strand Girls on the bed