Filming

My group spent weeks preparing for the day to film. We have already discussed on what we wanted to do exactly throughout that day. We talked about ride issues, what time we were going, and other little minor things of this sort. It seemed as everything was going to go perfectly as planned. But everything went quite the opposite. The class before the day we were supposed to film it’s as if everything went left. Starting with everyone’s schedule, all of a sudden two people had last minute things that’s they needed to do. One person had to study for tests and the other had to run some very important errands with their mom. We ended up canceling things and no long was able to film. Although I am an understanding person I was highly disappointed because I was ready to film. 

Towards the end of the day we begin to think of when we were going to be able to film again. This time make sure that everyone was available for sure. The first option was going to be this weekend, November 30th. However this was not fit into my plans because I was going to be spending my whole break in Port Saint Lucie with my family. In addition, I wouldn’t feel as if it is the most appropriate thing to do in a weekend where we are supposed to be spending it with our families. The second option was do it on the weekend right before it was due, but this would not give us a sufficient amount of time to complete all the editing and re-filming if needed. The last option I came up with was to film on the PSD that we had coming up. December 5th, it was a little close to our deadline but it still gave us time edit and do anything else. I haven’t mentioned it to everyone in the group yet except one person. But I feel like this will be the best choice in the few days we have left. 

Due to the fact that we are filming so late the best thing we could do right now is review our storyboard. There is no more time to waste. From now on everything we do has to effect the way we film in a positive way. In a result of having a smooth filming day. One group mate reviewed all of the notes we took. She made sure everything was what we agreed on. I reviewed the storyboard. I made sure everything was good by checking each of our 6 second boxes and making sure it aligned with the song. The last thing we reviewed was where we wanted the song to start and stop. After reviewing everything I then made sure that our ride for everything was in place. Because everything was revised, our filming day should be a piece of cake. 

Storyboard for Music Video

          After finishing the commercial project, my group and I were eager to start on the music video. We brainstormed so many great ideas together that would make our music video creative and outstanding. We were so excited to begin putting all of our wonderful ideas together for this music video. After lots of thinking and planning we finally agreed what each scene would consist of and put it onto the storyboard paper. After we finished the storyboard we had to go back and determine what shots, camera angles, camera movements, costume, lighting, sounds, and editing techniques to use in each scene.
          Firstly, we discussed the camera movements, angles, and shots we would use. We made sure to think of what would make the scene the best to ensure that each scene was as perfect as we had planned it would be. We chose to use high angles, long shots, close ups, two shots, and a point of view shot. The high angle would be used to show that someone has superiority or authority over someone in that scene. When using long shots in our scenes it will show a view of the person full body so that the audience can clearly see the full costume. Close ups will show just the actors face so that the audience can clearly make out what emotion that character is trying to show. The 2-shots will be used to show more than one actor and how they relate to the main message of the song which is meeting someone at a location. Lastly, we will use a point of view shot to show how the other actor will react to what the other actor is doing. For example, we will show how the man reacts in our music video to when the woman expresses her feelings towards him.
        Secondly, we discussed costume, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and the setting. The costume throughout our music video will include very casual clothes like how any teenager would dress. The lighting of each scene will depend on what is being expressed in that specific scene. For example, in a scene where the character is heartbroken or is showing a flashback the lighting will be much darker to indicate sadness or a flashback. When the scene is happy or current time the lighting will be lighter and brighter to indicate happiness or current time. Some of the props we will use include sunglasses, hats, and beach equipment such as an umbrella and a surfboard. Lastly, the setting will take place on the beach. The beach makes a perfect setting for what the message in the song we chose portrays. We wanted to do the beach because it makes such a beautiful background and will contribute so much to our music video.
          Thirdly, we discussed how we planned to edit all of our footage after we were done filming. We agreed on using cutaways, fade outs, fade ins, and flashbacks. We will use cutaways to show  the main actor and then cut to the scene when she sees her significant other with someone else. This is an important scene because it contributes to the main theme and message of the music video. Next, we will use a fade out to end out the music video. It will go from all the actors in the film and face out to a black screen to signify the end of the music video. After this we will use fade in towards the beginning of the film to signify the start of the film. It will fade in from a black screen into the actors in the first scene. Lastly, we will use flashbacks to show the actor in the past thinking about this man that she used to love. This helps the audience have a better understanding of who the main actor has been thinking of in all of the scenes.
          The final thing we discussed was the sounds we would use throughout the music video. The first sounds we will use is dialogue. We will use dialogue to show the female and male actor communicating about their current location. Next, we will use diegetic sounds from the sounds of the waves or the wind. These sounds will allow the scene to seem more realistic and natural. After this we will use non-diegetic sounds which include the music we will add in and any sounds effects to add suspense or allow the audience to understand what it going on. Next we will use the score which is the actual song that we will edit in to the background. The score is specific to the song location in album that Khalid released. Lastly, we will use ambient sounds to allow the audience to interpret the hype of that scene. For example, we will increase the beat of the song to show the audience that the scene is more exciting or something is about to happen

Planning

Location: As a group we collectively decided that we would film our music video at the beach near where we live. The beach makes a perfect scenery for the background with the sand and waves crashing in the background. Not only is the scenery beautiful but the waves, wind, and dialogue from people nearby create great diegetic sounds that can be used in the background of our music video. We chose the beach as our location because of how fun and cool the vibe always is. Everyone at the beach is always having fun or enjoying themselves and we wanted our music video to be fun and exciting for us and the audience. The beach always has such an amazing vibe and we wanted to ensure that we included this throughout our music video.

Health and Safety: Our health and safety along with the people around us is so tremendously important. We want to ensure that the environment we are filming in is very safe for everyone. We will be very cautious and will take some protective steps ahead of time to ensure that everything is safe and goes as planned. Firstly, while filming at the beach we will ask any lifeguards or workers on the beach if it is okay and safe to film in a particular location. We would not want to cause any danger to anyone around us, safety is extremely important to us. Secondly, we will also make sure to film on a public beach so that we are not trespassing on anyone’s private property. Finally, if we plan to go in the water for any reason we will have life vests with us and we will alert the life guards because our health and safety is our number one priority.

Props: Props are an essential part of any music video. They allow the scenes to come to life and reach the full potential that they can. Props also allow the audience to better interpret what is going on in that scene that the director wants them to understand. Some props that we will use include any type of beach equipment such as chairs, umbrellas, and surfboards and also sunglasses, hats, sweatshirts, and and cell phones. We will also used some advanced technology along with our camera, such as a drone and a GoPro. These props will allow us to make each and every scene look so realistic and really come to life for ourselves and the audience.

Costumes: Costumes are also very important to a film. They allow the audience to understand who the person is and what they might be feeling in that scene and throughout the music video. Costumes represent who that person is and what the directors of the music video portray that person to be. The costume in our music video is very casual and how a teenager would usually dress. The costume is nothing fancy, it’s very relaxing and chill clothing. The costume represents that persons interests and how they feel.

Research for Music Video

After a couple of long dreadful weeks of completing the Gatorade Commercial we were presented with a new project. Although the previous project was quite hard on us we expected way different for this one. Music videos are something you are just prone to. Whether is was watching a ABC video is listening to nursery rhymes on youtube we’ve been watching music videos from a very early age. Music videos are excited to watch because it incorporates you music of choice and an interesting way to watch the actual video. Directors always make the videos entertaining for purposes of keeping the targeted engaged. It’s very hard to look away from something when you enjoy both aspects of the production. 

As soon as we turned in our previous project to our instructor she suggested that we should start to brainstorm on what song we would like to do. My group had a group facetime call to agree on one song. Unfortunately I was sleeping when the call occurred but even though I missed the discussion I was informed with everything that was said. The final choice turned out to be the song called Location by Khalid. This song was the best choice for our group because it combined all our interests into one with just the soundtrack. The song is very calm, catchy, and has a sense of authenticity. As for the video, not too much was done but just the amount to match the tone of the music. 

The genre of the song Location is contemporary R&B. Contemporary R&B combines rhythm, Pop, soul, hip-hop and electronica music. This is evident because of the use of instruments in the song. This includes bass and beats, and lots of keyboard. Khalid normally wears casual comfy clothes and his music videos. He does this so that his audience can relate to his songs and music videos. So instead of him wearing an outrageous bright outfit that no one wears on a regular day, he wears outfits,that any normal person would wear. In a lot of Khalids music videos the lighting is very dim which gives off a relaxing mood. Even if he is outside, they edit the lighting to make it look more dim to give off that relaxing vibe. When it comes to actors Khalid is normally the only person in the music video, and if he isn’t he is alongside a woman. The actors usually go along with the storyline, and play a big role in the message of the video. For make up, Khalid’s face normally is bland and has a little to no products. This is again to give across the relatable message, especially to most male listeners. For props Khalid normally uses regular things that you can see and find in every day life. This includes cars or phones. The props normally add to the storyline as well. And lastly, The setting is always a cool and empty place. He is normally the only person there, and the place is not crowded. And Khalid does this because he wants the audience to see him and his emotion. Khalid normally uses standard camera movements and angles because us he wants his videos to be calm and not exaggerated to again give off that relatable feel. The sounds and editing is also mainly basic and neutral, because he doesn’t want to add exaggeration.

Editing Blog

With the frustration that came from the last attempt of editing my group had high expectations that this time it would work. We had laptops this time which made the situation seem better. However our expectations were crushed when we were told that the laptops were limited and we would have a shorten amount of time to edit. We then realized that the software was still lagging which made things worse. Our instructor told us to just continue editing and that when the film was exported it will be fine. Although we did begin to edit the lagging was making the process very slow. We begin to worry because we had a limited time to complete the task. After about 10 minutes we made the decision to just use iMovie for this particular project since pinnacle studios was not fully cooperating.  Everyone in my group had an iPhone so we were all familiar with iMovie. We begin editing on one of our phones; the editing process went relatively quick. 

Since we decided to use iMovie instead we had to then get all the videos on our mobile devices. Luckily for us I already uploaded all of the footage onto my google drive. I then had to save every video I felt would be used in the commercial, then we started to edit. In our commercial we had 4 different scenes but the idea was consistent throughout the whole video. We wanted each take to go into a black screen then go to the next take, this got the effect we wanted across. At first my group mate did not know how to complete this effect and since the editing was being done on a phone it was a bit of a hassle. After asking a few other classmates and playing around in the app we figured it out. We started with the track scene. Sooner or later our limited time came to an end and class was over. Out of the 4 scenes we completed 1. 

The following class my group mates had to complete editing the other scenes. I was not in class so I do not completely know what went on. My group did have some issues adding the audio onto the video. This was because the were editing on a phone, on a Mac it would’ve been easier. Therefore I was sent the video and I began the process of adding the sound. I started by getting the audio we needed for each sound. I then went onto an online mp3 converter and put each sound into it. I then saved each sound in my downloads so i could access the sounds through iMovie. I opened up the app on my personal laptop and begin editing. I dragged the edited video onto the film slot. I then added each sound for the appropriate part of the video, after I adjusted it a little our editing process was complete.