P8: Produce and edit footage in line with the production plan applying any final effects
Importing
Audio commentary of how I imported and labelled up my shots for use
Audio commentary of how I imported and labelled up my shots for use
Editing
audio commentary of how I went about my editing process with visual effects
audio commentary of how I went about my editing process with visual effects
Audio
Commentary on how I added audio to my edit
Commentary on how I added audio to my edit
Offline edit
M2: Export the final footage into the planned or final format
The finishing touches on my project and exporting:
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Final Project:
D2: Justify the creation process against the original production concept plans
The strengths and weaknesses of my finished project
Quality of finished piece:
Personally, I believe my final piece came out quite successful. The shots of the band filmed in the Netherhall TV studio using the blackmagic 4k production cameras came out beautifully thanks to the super high quality of the cameras, the quality of lighting used to illuminate the actor. Alongside this, use of the three separate cameras hooked up to the vision mixer allowed for switching between different angles and shots during recording to match the pace and transitions within the song/riff. This not only saved time in the editing process, but it also came together to create a very aesthetically and viscerally pleasing sequence that was of a high quality, professional standard.
The handheld shots were a stylistic choice, and in my opinion added a more suspenseful atmosphere to the shots that I wanted to have this effect, such as most of the night time shots, and many of the shots of the masked figure. This improves many of the shots in my opinion, and many shots would have been less interesting as more static shots using a tripod. However, I would say that there are some shots that lack in quality due to a combination of bad/unsteady handheld cinematography and poor lighting. For example, the shot of the sign could have been improved if it were a steady tripod shot, and if there was better lighting on the subject in the shot. I could improve this by using portable lighting units, and finding a place to mount the camera on a tripod for this shot.
The quality of the visual effects also could have been improved to make them more realistic looking, for example adding more detail to the lightning effects, or using better software and being more thorough when creating the sky chromakey effects. Overall though the quality of these effects are good for a first time student project, and are still mostly quite aesthetically pleasing, so I am happy with the quality of the finished project.
Personally, I believe my final piece came out quite successful. The shots of the band filmed in the Netherhall TV studio using the blackmagic 4k production cameras came out beautifully thanks to the super high quality of the cameras, the quality of lighting used to illuminate the actor. Alongside this, use of the three separate cameras hooked up to the vision mixer allowed for switching between different angles and shots during recording to match the pace and transitions within the song/riff. This not only saved time in the editing process, but it also came together to create a very aesthetically and viscerally pleasing sequence that was of a high quality, professional standard.
The handheld shots were a stylistic choice, and in my opinion added a more suspenseful atmosphere to the shots that I wanted to have this effect, such as most of the night time shots, and many of the shots of the masked figure. This improves many of the shots in my opinion, and many shots would have been less interesting as more static shots using a tripod. However, I would say that there are some shots that lack in quality due to a combination of bad/unsteady handheld cinematography and poor lighting. For example, the shot of the sign could have been improved if it were a steady tripod shot, and if there was better lighting on the subject in the shot. I could improve this by using portable lighting units, and finding a place to mount the camera on a tripod for this shot.
The quality of the visual effects also could have been improved to make them more realistic looking, for example adding more detail to the lightning effects, or using better software and being more thorough when creating the sky chromakey effects. Overall though the quality of these effects are good for a first time student project, and are still mostly quite aesthetically pleasing, so I am happy with the quality of the finished project.
Conventions of visual/special effects:
Music videos, even within the same genre are quite varied, and vary greatly based on the band and directors different creative visions. I did analyse other metal and other music videos that I enjoyed and found a few things about the conventions of the visual and special effects within these. Here is what I found:
Music videos, even within the same genre are quite varied, and vary greatly based on the band and directors different creative visions. I did analyse other metal and other music videos that I enjoyed and found a few things about the conventions of the visual and special effects within these. Here is what I found:
- Dark/cold atmosphere: I found that in a lot of metal music videos, as the songs usually have quite dark subject matter, the videos attempt to go for quite a cold and dark "metal" aesthetic. this can be done in a number of ways, such as lighting, filters, weather effects, shooting at night, etc. To achieve this same atmosphere, I made of use of darkening and noise filters such as a "night" filter, and a "bleach bypass", which are conventional to the kinds of filters used to create atmosphere in metal music videos. I also used snow effects paired with this to accentuate the cold and make it appear as though it was snowing in the scene. This is conventionally used within music videos to create snow effects, as it means that the actors don't have to wear lots of layers of clothes as they would filming in real snow, nor does it mean that shoots depend on the weather being snowy. Overall I think my video conforms to this convention, as it is successful and creates a good tone. much of my video also subverts this, as it is set during the day and uses bright imagery like colourful space and natural bright settings such as the white chalk pits. This could be seen as a con, as it takes away from the atmosphere that has been created with the dark effects, However it could also be seen as a pro, as it makes the video more subversive and therefore less generic and predictable A weakness of the use of the snow effects in my case is that they aren't particularly the most believable, despite my best attempts to blend them in with the shot using filters, darkening, etc. This is because I am inexperienced with the effects software and am still learning this. It works for my purposes, but perhaps using a special effect such as artificial snow, or getting more practise with the software would contribute to a more realistic effect.
- Sky replacement: One thing that I noticed when looking through and analysing other music videos was the use of strange bright colours, specifically in the use of chromakey sky replacement visual effects within modern hip hop music videos, such as the ones directed by Cole Bennett. I thought this effect was quite aesthetically pleasing, and wanted to conform to the convention of using this by adding something similar to my video. One strength in my video of conforming to this conventional effect is that it is quite aesthetically pleasing to look at it, and makes shots that would otherwise be quite static and boring have dynamic movement (the fading in of the sky replacement/space effect) and something to draw the audiences attention. Another strength of this in my opinion is that while it is conforming to a convention, it isn't exactly generic, as it is overall subverting the "dark and serious" convention that is typically seen in metal videos, which is the genre of this project. this as previously mentioned keeps things interesting and unique for a metal video. A weakness of this effect in my project is the fact that I am not as experienced with visual effects as an industry professional yet, nor do I have all the resources ad software required to efficiently create and edit visual effects to a high industry standard. Therefore, the effect seen in my video, while stylistically sound and aesthetically pleasing, isn't as high quality or believable as I would have originally liked it to be. I would like to practise this effect, and add more dynamic movement and advanced editing to create a more believable effect.
- Pyrotechnics: As music videos are intended to be aesthetically pleasing and viscerally pleasurable, many music videos over many different genres (especially metal) utilise pyrotechnic special effect to create a viscerally and aesthetically pleasing effect, as well as to bring in the attention of audiences. These range from big explosives and fire based pyrotechnics to simple small explosives to kick up dirt, or smoke machines for effect. As I had to include a special effect in my video, and I wanted it to be something flashy and eye catching, I wanted to use some sort of pyrotechnic within my project. Initially I wanted to do something like a small explosive device, to create a controlled explosion which would kick up dirt and create a spectacle, perhaps exploding an object of interest of some kind. unfortunately this would have required more special permissions which I doubt I could have gotten as I was filming in a public environment. It also could have been dangerous as I, nor my crew are trained to deal with pyrotechnics like this safely. This would have posed a large risk, which wouldn't have been approved by those who I sent the risk assessment to to ask for filming permission. This is one weakness of my project, as my lack of interesting pyrotechnics due to unprofessional/amateur student set up and lack of experience means it's not as eye catching or interesting as I would have liked it to be. Instead, I settled for coloured handheld smoke grenades that could be held in the hands and set off, creating a cool stream of colourful smoke that I thought would look cool for some aesthetic shots. These shots worked out well overall, and I think the use of the smoke grenades by reversing the footage to create the impression that the smoke was flying back into the grenade worked out to be a great looking and interesting dynamic shot. This is a strength of my video in my opinion, as I utilised interesting looking pyrotechnics (colourful ones) to create an interesting effect, as opposed to just a mindless explosive or something along those lines. However, a weakness of my project was the budget relating to this, as I could only afford two small smoke grenades, which allowed for minimal shots, and didn't quite create as much smoke as I wanted in the video, so I didn't get as perfect a shot as I wanted to because of this.
Comparison to the original idea I had: Generally I think my initial script and storyboard are very similar to my finished idea, as I used the storyboard as a template while I was out shooting, so that I could get all of the key shots that I wanted for my project. I think this is a strength of my project, as I stuck to my storyboard, which would be good for a client, as they would see that I am reliable and follow through with ideas presented early on. It isn't exactly the same however, as certain shot times, angles etc. are different from what I wrote down originally. This was simply done as I realised while filming or editing that these shots worked better this way as opposed to my initial ideas. I think that while this could be considered a weakness, I would consider it a strength, as it shows that I am adaptable in my editing/recording, and it means that my final project looks as good as possible, as opposed to looking worse but sticking entirely to the original idea. As preciously mentioned, I did initially plan for different pyrotechnics, which I couldn't follow through with. This is a weakness of my project. I also added some more shots that I thought were fitting/aesthetically pleasing, as well as more visual and special effects that I hadn't initially planned on using, which in my opinion is a strength as it improved the quality of the project and added more interesting aspects which are enjoyable to watch. An example of this would be the scene where I use a security camera effect, or the scene where instead of walking over, the actor appears from the sky using a magic black mist effect. These changes all enhance the project, and as such are strengths in my opinion. It might not be considered a strength to a client who only wanted what was presented initially however.