We found this piece realitvely easy, though there are a few niggles that we do have with it. Over the past week, we have been shooting around school with the narrative (the storyboard recently posted) around school as we could relate it to our choice of song by the Counting Crows: She Don't Want Nobody Near. This song is a lighter area of our genre that we have chosen, thus its slower and slightly a step away from the conventions that we truely want to explore - yet it was relevant to the availability of shooting within school unless we went off sight in our own time; in light of the situation, we decided to take the quick route, simply to explore. Shooting began last week and was acomplished this Tuesday, were we had gathered in total over 20 clips (some ranging over 7 minutes) to make sure we had a wide collection of shots to explore in the piece, and enough to cut to. Editing started on Tuesday night, were we worked over Skype and Teamviewer to sync up the lyrics to Reece singing. Editing was accompished this morning (Friday) in our free, where we played with a couple of the shoots and their visual effects; mostly adding contrast or darkness/brightness to give the peice that 'edge' we felt it needed. As a result, we have a few intresting bits in the piece. The opening in particular, we intensed the contrast by nearly 50% so that it gave its glowing effect (later relating to the piece in contunity quite well when I'm lay on the floor) and that gleam we wanted it to have. Contrast and darkensses was also added to the shots including me (the girl), particularly when I walk into the common room, turning the lockers white and making the door an intense black, showing (in conventional relation to the lyrics) the struggle that occurs between the song of wanting to be alone and not wanting to be alone (if you listen to the whole song). More so, this visual mise-en-scene that we had created, gave off the appearance that there was a sense of wanting to be away from the darkness (again, in contunity and leading the narrative further on, when I'm lay in the light surronded by darkness).
The long shot where I am lay in the corridor, was orginally a good naturally lighting shot in itself, it was luck and taking what was there at the time. Saying that though, I also intesnified the contrast and darkness, to make the light shining down on me more intense, to create mise-en-scene as the darkness contrasts, as though creaping in - this particularly relates to he lyric later on 'don't you wonder what her face looks like in the light?'
The camera work was a simple process really (though we weren't really out planning in detail or thinking in depth as we would with a final project) as me and the boys came up with some interesting shots. I orginally came up with the idea of the extreme long shot of the corridor, which was speeded up by 200% in time stretch in Adobe Elements 4 to give it its sense of time passing and ultimately, being alone. The 'keep clear' shot, was interesting - again we took what were giving in the light of oppotunity as we explored the campus, and realatively, we made it fit in well, considering as the songs lyrics are about the girl wanting to be alone (more so as we return to the corridor later on).
For once, we really stuck to the storyboard in depth. The close up shot, panning shot that goes over Reece's face was an intersting piece, that creates that conventional motion that is introduced in music videos. The movement (albiet slow, and could have been more paced or more explorative) creates adn replicates the sense of pace in the song, as well as moving along the piece in both live peformance and narrative. Seeing as the song is slow itself (as compared to others) it fit somewhat well. Personally, what bothered me about this shot is the lack of visual mise-en-scene, whilst the lead singer is being shown, the background is dull, and there could have been more emphasies on his face whilst he is singing (e.g. intense lighting on his face, to create contrast between the singer and the surronding mise-en-scene). Saying that however, we have followed some traditional conventions of a rock music video: we first show the artist singing in live peformance realatively quickly, establishing the iconography of the band, more so as it is a close up, this engages with the audience and boosts up this sense of creating an icon - the panning and movement in the shot, adds depth to it as well.
Although I'm reatlively happy with this mini-trail, there are a few niggles for me; firstly, the trancistions. Whilst I've never been fond of cross-trancitions, I believe they work okay within the opening, yet the fade itself seems a bit uncalled for, but presents the trancistion from radio edit to actual song. The editing itself, isn't sloppy from us, but could have bee more fast pace and the shots held for shorter intervals of time (although we had a fair decent amount of clips, we couldn't really instigate much else as we didn't have a lot of narrative produced, and when we did so, we felt too jumpy). I believe that is one of the reasons why a faster pace song as our final project, will be more effective than this slower style or rock (we were orginally thinking something from The Dammned Thingsb as it presented a heavier, agnst, angry and energitic song to edit and create a good narrative too; which we are still working on to get a premission piece to use).
In terms of editing however, I am extreamly happy with the syncing in the piece - from the close up panning shots of Reece, it does look as though he is singing the song, and when I am drumming (focusing the shot on the high hat and snare to obsecure my image as to not break the line between narrative and live peformance) - the piano piece however is not intentionally there to be synced up, it was just a mini cut-away shot for that just in case moment in case we felt we needed that extra quick push, which we did.
Explaning the corridor shot however, shows the trancistion between the social interaction of people, and isolation; this is as to why I am lay on the floor alone, more so the composistion of my body in the shot (the focual point of the logn shot) breaks the starkness between this point and the opening of the piece.
So, in the process of production, we've learnt a few things: #
- We know we will put more effor into the final piece, our plans more concise, locations more diverse and the narrative more extensive
- We will use a faster passed song, such as something from The Dammned Things or Nickleback: something with an aggressive or powerful lyric base to create a narrative too
- Our editing will have to be faster paced, and shots held for longer to aid the motion in the piece
- Have more tracking / panning shots, to again create the conventional motion that is needed
Idealistically, we're already composing a list of what we would need, such as a band for live peformance, and possible a live audience - locations is something we're struggle with, but in reality of props for mise-en-scene, we're more or less instantly sorted as I am and know several musicans, although we don't have to play, as miming is realtively simple as we have demostrated here. We will have to take into consideration camera work slightly, though editing and mise-en-scene (particularly visual effects such as lighting) will be one of our main points of focus. Prephas even sound, as we create a multi diverse narrative that pauses the song and adds that extra depth and engagement (possibly even iconography by combining the two) to the piece, much like 30 Seconds to Mars music vidoes.
In the mean time, we will further research into the conventions and examples of music vidoes and begin to plan and (hopefully) gain premission to use a song over the summer holidays. In this way, we will be prepared to shoot when we get back, and editing before christmas.
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