Final Music Video

Update on draft

Today we updated our music video again from the feedback we received from our last draft. 

Here are the changes we made:

• During the part when the photo is in the sink, ripped and thrown away we added fire overlays to break the shots up and to make it look more dramatic as it builds up with the music until the instrumental when the fast cuts and flashes represent the girl having a breakdown. Also, it is a binary opposite with the water and fire.
• Fixed the timing as the lip syncing was slightly out of sync and adjusted the timings for the fast cuts.
• Changed the coat shot to footage of the main girl walking past as it was more interesting while the previous shot seemed like it dragged on.
• We slowed down the shot of the holding hands as the insert shot of Elsie broke the flow.
• On the word 'stop' we cut to black as it fits the natural pause of the song and makes it more dramatic for what is going to happen next in the narrative.
• We corrected some colour correction with the sleepover having more of an orange tint while the narrative side having a blue tint. We corrected the shot when the girl got home from finding the boys shirt as the camera adjusted to the lighting, so the footage needed a sharper tint of blue as the footage looked a bit grainy and we wanted to make the colour correction more evident.
• We changed the fade out at the end of the video as it stopped a bit abruptly and we wanted it to be smoother.
• We fixed the shot of Elsie clenching her hand by cutting it to a correct moment, duplicating it and putting it in reverse, as it looked a bit anti-climatic and did not fit the song. 

We got a teacher to watch it to get a fresh view on it, here is some improvements they suggested:

first draft of final music video

Here is our audience feedback:

Glitch effect

We added a glitch effect on the last shot before the instrumental because it segways well into the quick cuts of Elsie having a breakdown as it initiates the broken shots. 

Here is a screenshot of how it looks on our video:

Here is a tutorial video we watched on YouTube about how to do the glitch effect:

More ideas for the front and back cover

Elsie thought that it would be a good idea to add our band members to our CD's front cover (as it is quite common for artists to appear on the front of their albums, as it is a way to promote themselves). In a previous lesson, I had the inspiration to have our band members face the front of the front of the cover and the back on the back cover while doing my analysis of a band website and seeing a similar concept for the McBusted album cover. Therefore, Elsie came up with a rough idea, where on our own CD, the band could be facing forward (although a lot of their faces wouldn't be shown, due to them not really being shown much in our music video). She then though that it would be a good idea to then show the band on the back cover, as if they were facing away. Elsie then went and drew a rough draft of this idea to see how it would look (and she thought that we could incorporate this into our CD by having the band looking upwards towards the falcon (one of our previous ideas we have talked about) on the front cover, and then the band looking at the track list on the back of the CD.

Here is the rough sketch that Elsie drew of this idea:

Sixth day of filming

Today we filmed from 3:30pm - 5:30pm and remembered to book all the equipment we needed (DLSR 4) along with the props (black dress, white cardigan, picture of boy and small box).

To begin with we re-shot the girl opening the box with a picture of the boy in it as we found it difficult to match the lighting with other shots in editing. The reason for this is the original shot was shot at Elsie's house in natural lighting while the shots following it were shot at my house in which we used un-natural lighting.

Next we moved on to redoing the shot of Laura throwing the picture as we found that the original shot was quite blurry as it was too fast, so it was not noticeable and did not have the impact that we wanted when adding it to the music. To fix this problem we decided to do a variety of shots from a close up of Laura's hand before she throws the picture and a long shot of when it is in the air.

Finally, we re-shot the close up of my face for the beginning shot at the sleepover, as when comparing it to the shots of Elsie and Laura we found the lighting was different because we had a much darker background while our faces were lit up. Meanwhile, my original shot was lighter with it being more fully lit due to other lighting than the torch such as the lamps in room. To fix this problem we made sure that we got rid of some of the lamp lighting we used before filming so it did not interfere with how bright the shot was overall. We also tried to put the torch I was holding in a variety of places to see where it would look best in showing the contrast between the bright light and dark background to create a spooky atmosphere.

Here are some screenshots of what we filmed:

Sixth filming schedule

Behind the scenes and outtakes

Here is a quick vlog showing some behind the scenes footage and outtakes from our final music video. 

Day five of filming

Today we filmed again at my house from around 4:00pm - 6:00pm. We remembered to bring all of the props and costumes that we needed (black dress with white cardigan, bag and flannel shirt), along with the equipment (DLSR camera and tripod).

What we filmed:

• We filmed the long shot of Elsie running up the stairs again, as in editing we noticed that she had forgotten to carry the bag (which would cause problems with the continuity within our narrative).
• The close-up shots of Elsie punching the wall is also something which we filmed again, as the previous ones that we had filmed did not look like a smooth match-on-action shot.
• A mid shot of Elsie sliding down the wall.
• An extreme close-up of Elsie clenching her hair in frustration.
• A close-up of Elsie clenching her fist.
• A close up of Elsie's teary eyes (we used mascara here, and decided to smear it down her face to make it look as if she had been crying).
• A long shot and an over the shoulder shot of Elsie throwing clothes down the stairs in anger.
• We then decided to shoot some stop motion footage that we had planned to match to the lyrics 'Ugly is the'. For this, Laura drew a silhouette of a girl holding an umbrella with the rain pouring down (while each rain drop will appear in each frame, to make it look as if it is raining on her).
• Finally, we decided to film the lip syncing part for Laura and me again. We wanted to do this as in editing we found that when it came up to linking up to the music, it looked as if we were both saying different things.
• A shot of Elsie turning the torch on (which will be used for the instrumental at the beginning of the music video, before the singing starts). 

Here are some screenshots of what we did today:

Fifth filming schedule

Fourth day of filming

Today we did our fourth filming meeting from 4:00pm - 5:00pm, booked all the equipment that we needed (DLSR and tripod) and remembered all the props needed (flannel shirt, black dress with a white cardigan, and the bag).

Here is all the shots that we filmed:

• We redid the mid shot of the coat for the lyrics 'Leaves her coat' as we realised when editing that Elsie, who is playing the main protagonist, walks past the coat, and this wouldn't make sense as the main girl character had already gone outside.
• We then did the long shots of the main girl rushing up the stairs and going back to her bedroom. 
• Next, while in the bedroom we filmed a close up of her dropping the bag on the bed, a mid shot of the girl on the bed with the shirt and then her lying down holding the shirt and looking upset.
• After that we filmed the instrumental parts where the main girl breaks-down with worry and stress as she does not know where her lover is. Shots we filmed include a close up of the girl hitting the wall and leaving a hole in it, a long shot of the girl throwing the shirt and a pillow, and a mid shot of her looking sad and frustrated.
• Finally, we filmed a close up of me and Laura holding hands for the lyrics 'to the sound of love'.

What went well:

We were able to film everything we planned on the shooting schedule, and we remembered all the props and equipment needed to film the shots. We used a range of different shot types and angles to make sure that it wasn't boring to watch.  

What could be improved:

 We need to make sure that we've cleared everything in shot as there was a poster in the background of one of the shots and that could make it look less professional. Also, for the shot when Elsie punches the wall we need to improve the match-on-action as when we put the shots together in editing it didn't look like one swift movement. To improve this I will make sure that I don't change the camera angle as much when we go to re-do the shot. 

Here are some screenshots of what we filmed:

Fourth filming schedule

Here is the filming schedule for our fourth day of filming. There is everything that we want to film on it, so we can tick it off when we have finished the shot.

Updating our social media accounts

After yesterday's filming, Today my group and I decided that we should make sure that we keep our band's social media accounts active (like how real bands would keep fans updated). 

On Twitter, Elsie added a screenshot of some filming that we did on day 2 and I posted some photos that I had took behind the scenes 

Furthermore, Elsie then started to post on our band's Instagram using photos from each filming day.

Here is how it looks:

Third day of filming

Here is an update on our third day of filming and how we have developed our final music video. Today, we filmed shots including the 2 friends 'ripping' and 'drowning' the photo of the main girl's 'lover', the girl leaving the note, and all of the outside shots using the equipment we had booked (DLSR camera, tripod and shoulder mount). Because we were mainly filming outside we all made sure that we were prepared by wearing suitable footwear, warm clothing and bringing all the probs we needed with us including the boy's shirt and the girls bag.

The shots that we filmed in order consisted of:

• A close-up of the tap running
• A high shot of the boy's picture in the sink
• A close-up of the picture being ripped by of the girl's friends
• A shot of the picture being thrown (which we had to do a couple of times to make sure that it was in shot. We also had to do this with a new photo that hadn't been wet, so as we were able to get it in the shot without it being too fast).
• Close-up of the girl opening the box which she keeps the photo of her lover in
• Extreme close-up of the girl's (Elsie's) eyes which fit to the lyrics 'I'm stunned'. Here we wanted the girl's eyes to look angry, so we took a fairly long shot to make sure that we can pick out the best part when we are editing it.
• Extreme close-up of the main girl's mouth lip syncing to the lyrics 'people marching to the drums, everybody's having fun to the sound of love', which we did to make sure that we still had some conventions of a music video (making sure that it didn't entirely drift off into something which looked more like a short film etc).
• A long shot which we filmed outside of the girl walking away from her home, as well as a mid shot of her turning around and looking back at her house.
• Long shots of the girl walking to a bench (outdoors). We then used a shoulder mount to film a shot of the camera panning around her while she was sitting on the bench.
• A long shot and a mid/close-up of the girl looking around the woods for her lover
• Long shot of his shirt hanging on a tree
• A low shot of the trees
• A mid shot/close-up of a globe spinning (we ended up using a different one than the one that we talked about in our props blog due to not having the access to it at this particular time).
• Long shot of the view from the window
• Ranges of different close-ups of Elsie playing the guitar
• A close-up of Laura marching from three different angles. (This fits with the lyrics 'People marching to the drums, everybody's having fun'. We did this to try and follow a convention of music videos with the visuals matching the lyric

Here are some screenshots of the filming that we did today:

What went well:

We filmed everything that we had planned on the filming schedule. 

Also, with regards to the weather, we were lucky as it was forecast to rain but it didn't so we did not have to worry about lighting or finding a way to stay dry.

What could have been improved:

We need to make sure that we remember all of the props as we had to use a different flannel shirt and globe. 

Furthermore, we had to think about how to throw the picture of the boy as we soon realised it was too light and damp to throw with force (after 'drowning' it). However, we did fix this problem quickly by crumbling a dry version up and using that.

Updating music on our band website

We have decided to name our band's album 'Transylvania', after the band's single that we are creating the music video for. We also thought that to make our CD be more realistic, we add other songs on to it. Therefore, Elsie did some research and found the website www.purple-planet.com/ which allows you to use music from other students school projects (so all credit goes to them).

While updating the music on our band website, we added the rough draft of our album cover (however, this will change once we've finished it).

This is what the latest updates look on our band website:

Here is our album, along with the different songs that we are adding on our album.


Music page part 1


Music page part 2

Third filming schedule

Here is the filming schedule that we made for filming on Saturday at Elsie's house.

Second day of filming

Today my group and I focused on our second shooting our music video from 3:30pm - 7:30pm at my house again. For this we booked a DLSR and a tripod. As this was something on our 'what could be improved' part last time, we also remembered to take 2 batteries in case one ran out (giving us more time to film). Also, with regards to costumes, Elsie bought her dress and I had the onesies (which we all wear in our music video).

We used the shooting schedule more this time around, as we found that it helped us keep on track of what we needed to get done (we ticked off what we did as we went along). The first parts of filming we did included the quick cuts of the girl before she leaves the house (which in editing we made into quick cuts to create the dramatic effect that we wanted to achieve). Other shots that we filmed included a long shot of the bedroom, close-ups of a mug on the bedside table, the TV being left on and a mid-shot of the dressing table. We then filmed a mid-shot of the main girl packing her bag, opening the door using a close-up, then a long-shot of her going downstairs for the lyrics 'she plans to run away with him forever', and finally a mid-shot of her leaving her coat for the lyrics, 'she leaves her coat in silence'.

We then filmed the footage for more of the sleepover part of the narrative. This included us filming a long shot of us all sat on the bed, but since looking at it we feel that we will need to make it darker in editing to keep the 'spooky' theme going. We then shot a quick close up of each of us with the torch being held underneath our faces (to once again keep the spooky theme). We also shot the extreme close-up shot of me blowing out the matchstick (after I lit the candles in the bedroom).

Finally, we decided to film me and Laura lip syncing again, as before we felt that it didn't work as well as it could have, because the lighting was not quite how we wanted it. We were able to improve the lighting by switching the main light off and using a torch on our faces. Also, we remembered to take down the posters in the background, so it looked more professional.

What went well:

We believe that our time management went well as we were able to get most of the shots done that we were planning to do. Furthermore, we started filming shots from the other side of the narrative (the 'spooky' story). What also went well was the fact that we were able to improve the shot of me and Laura lip syncing.

What could have been improved:

We feel that we probably needed to set up quicker and make sure that we had everything that we needed was ready for filming. For example, we were going to film the shots from the 'spooky' story narrative of the girl opening the box and looking at the picture of the boy that she likes, as well as the shots of the girls friends destroying it. However, there were technical problems so we weren't able to print out the picture, so therefore we will have to film it at the next filming day we have at my house.

Here are some screenshots of what we did on this filming day:

Second filming schedule for final music video and website update

On Wednesday we will continue filming. Here is the schedule we did so we knew what needed to be done:

Also, we added information to the ABOUT page on our website, with a review on the band from

a magazine and some general things about what the band have been doing.

Updating the website

Today Elsie added the wristbands that Laura made yesterday to our band website and duplicated the 'Buy Now' buttons next to them so that they all matched. We decided as a group to make the price £2.50 as usually small merchandise is cheaper than clothing and we made sure to make the button the 'Price' button was the same.

Then we needed to complete our social bar displayed at the top right hand side of our website. This involved creating a YouTube channel and changing the profile to our band logo and the background of a tree to show our theme of trees. After that we created a Instagram account and did the same thing that we have done with all our social media (same profile band logo, description and with a link to our website if possible). We then linked both of these to our social bar on our website.

Youtube page:

Instagram page:

Finally, we added in the contacts for the 'CONTACTS' page. The contacts included: management, PR and booking. This involved coming up with fake names and emails.

Updating the wristbands for the websites

Today our group thought it would be best for us to update our wristbands for our bands merchandise line for the same reason we updated the clothing to make it look more professional. We thought Laura would be the best to design these with her artistic abilities. Laura came up with doing a falcon icon on the front of 2 of the wristbands, as well as adding the band name and some of our singles (Transylvania) lyrics on 2 of them. Then on the last one Laura decided to draw a simple tree design (to fit with the theme we have on our website and social media and also the CD design idea we came up with), and with the band name on the back.

Here is what they look like: