October 25th 2016:
I decided to get all my filming done in one day during the Autumn half term holidays as not only would it be easier for my actors, but it ensures that all my filming is done in bulk and any other necessary filming and required shots can be carried out after the editing process has begun. We spent the whole day at the location from 10:30am to 5:00pm, which was two hours longer than I had planned. This is because I had forgotten to include lunch breaks for my actors and did not give enough leeway for filming each shot. I also did not anticipate that my actors would not be fully safe in their knowledge of the song's lyrics.This meant that I had to spend more time than I had planned to making sure the actors knew what they were doing and knew the lyrics well enough to film lip syncs, which, unfortunately, takes up a big bulk of my music video.
This is some of the footage that I got on the day. It shows how I was directing my actors, both Callum and Zak, to trial shots that would only require one person. I did this because I knew it would help me during the editing process as I would have a range of footage to choose from and therefore ensuring that my music video turns out the most professional and the best it can be within my limited resources.
November 2nd:
Today I began my constructing process and the first thing I wanted to do was consider the conventions of editing in both my genre and artist. I think this will be beneficial to me during the rest of my editing process as it will allow me to stick to the codes and conventions that will make my music video successful. By doing this, I have each convention clearly shown and thus easy to follow. However, in some cases, I think it is appropriate to stray from convention if the style of editing fits the actual song well and satisfies the audience's Uses and Gratifications (Blumler and Katz).November 4th:
Today I started the real editing process. I have decided to use the editing software 'Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum' as this is a professional editing software that I believe will give me an overall more professional look. In comparison to previously used software, such as 'Serif Movie Plus', this editing suite will allow me to create effects on my footage, such as slow motion, which I was not able to do with other methods of editing. This means that I will be able to create a final product that is conventional and fits the visuals I had in mind.
I started by watching through all the footage I gathered on my day of filming. I went through each piece of footage I filmed and renamed all the files so the editing process would be quicker and easier. This also means that I will know what specific file has what shot in so without having to search through hundreds files and watch them all again. I referred back to my written and animatic storyboard to ensure I had filmed all the shots I planned to capture on that day and the shots I required for my final video.
November 5th:
During my editing today I decided to experiment more with the effects that Sony Vegas allows you to do on the software. I focused mainly on the 'gradient map' and 'brightness and contrast' alterations. This was because the footage for my video focuses heavily on coloured lighting and I wanted to see how altering these setting would help emphasise this.
November 8th:
Today I decided to focus my editing on the final chorus/ending of the song. It was at this point where I had to consider the mise en scene.November 11th:
During editing today I decided to focus on the beginning of my song(first verse to first chorus). At this point I was very considerate of the facial expressions used by actors in the shots as I wanted them each to portray passion and a lot of emotion, something I knew they would do well at due to their past acting experience. On the day of filming I was certain to ensure the boy's facial expressions match the lyrics or my intentions behind the music video. This is something I need to consider during editing as I have to make certain that the facial expressions are appropriate. For example, I decided to use the long shot of Zak (red-themed actor) lipsyncing at the start as the facial expressions he used were excited and happy which perfectly reflect the song's themes of love and the joy of relationships.
November 15th:
During editing the main lyrical parts of my song today, I noticed that I had captured some shots in which my camera movement wasn't completely stationary and still at all times. I believe this may have been to a lack of stability of the camera on the tripod, this meant that at several points during filming of certain shots, I had to adjust the camera's angle and position to ensure the main focus of the shot was central. Whilst compling my footage together during editing I have to be certain to not include the footage in which this lack of camera stability is evident. My current concern in this matter is that I will not have all the footage I need. This is because a lot of my music video is lip sync based, therefore if the camera is moving whilst an actor is lip syncing I will not include the shot. This may mean that I will have to refilm some shots in order to ensure that I have shots for each lyric in the song.
Today I experimented with adding a certain effect to the footage I had already edited. This was the effect of adding flashes in particular parts of my video to match and emphasise the beat. This is something I had never done before and thus I decided to experiment with it before I added it into my final video.
During my editing today I finished my first draft of footage. However it is not my final first draft as around 20 seconds of shots still need to be edited in. But, knowing that rendering the video into an Mp4 on sony vegas would take 5+ hours, (it ended up taking 11 hours) I decided that it was best i transferred what I already had into an mp4 file so I could share it with my class next lesson and get some valuable feedback.
November 17th:
Today I experimented with adding a certain effect to the footage I had already edited. This was the effect of adding flashes in particular parts of my video to match and emphasise the beat. This is something I had never done before and thus I decided to experiment with it before I added it into my final video.
November 19th:
During my editing today I finished my first draft of footage. However it is not my final first draft as around 20 seconds of shots still need to be edited in. But, knowing that rendering the video into an Mp4 on sony vegas would take 5+ hours, (it ended up taking 11 hours) I decided that it was best i transferred what I already had into an mp4 file so I could share it with my class next lesson and get some valuable feedback.
November 21st:
I wanted to get some essential feedback from my class about mky first draft which means that I will be able to improve my final product according to their views, if they suggest good ideas. I decided to show the video to my media class as I knew they would approach the video with a foreknowedge of music videos and the process behind making one. Therefore, i assumed that the things they suggest would come from a more knowledgable person. However, I would also like to get some feedback from my target audience once I have a complete first draft.
November 28th:
Today I carried out an experiment and gathered images that may be used in my magazine advert and digipack.
Here are a few of the images I gathered during the experiment.
Here are a few of the images I gathered during the experiment.
November 30th:
Today I decided to focus my time on editing and manipulating some of the images I have taken for my ancillary tasks and experimenting with how I would want them to appear in my final products. When editing these images I will be using the Adobe photoshop software as I think it will allow me to create products that are professional and convey my preffered reading (Stuart Hall) to my target audience.
Like i did in my music video editing, I decided to experiment with the brightness and contrast of my images to see if it would enhance the colours, which it did.
I then experimented with the 'levels' editing feature in photoshop.
I experimented with the hue and saturation, however, I found that it either made little difference or was completely different to how I want my images to appear (as seen below).
After the process this is one of the images I finished with:
before 
after I wanted to keep the slight pixelation in the hands as it adds the slight imperfect and untouched feel to the image that is often conveyed in the digipacks and magazine adverts of my genre and artist, such as the ones seen below.
December 5th:
Today, I decided to further edit the images that I am going to use for my digipack and magazine advert. I have limited access to the photoshop software therefore there are only certain days that I can use the software. I chose to experiment with the heart images that I captured and used similar effects to those used on November 30th.
Although those two images look very similar, there is a difference in darkness and lightness. The left is darker whereas the right is lighter which effects the way the colours are portrayed and how obtrusive they are. At this point I like the darker hues as it fits more within the brand that I am trying to portray throughout my range of products. My inspiration for this symmetrical image came from one of Gambino's digipacks covers:
I also decided to experiment with making the images extremely pixelated and manipulated to the point where they looked dark and manipulated. This is something I have seen frequently throughout my analysis of my chosen genre which is why I thought it would be useful to experiment with how it would appear. However, overall, I do not think that it is most fitting with my brand identity or the themes evident in the actual song. But, in general, the effect of this is cool and something I believe my target audience would appreciate. I aim to get some audience feedback on my editing process thus far.
I also decided to experiment with the image of the individual red lighting on the heart stencil and creating a black background. I thought this would be in line with my music video as during the entirety of the video the actors had red/blue lighting faced on them against a black background. Thus, editing an image to have a similar effect would embed the concept I am trying to convey to my audience and thus be more successful. Furthermore, the dark red heart against the black creates an almost pained and dark mood, which could be related to the taboo and dark subjects and themes that are covered not only in Gambino's music, but the entire hip-hop genre. This could be an image that I use for the inside cover sheets of my digipack, or it could be used as a front cover. As to not distract from the image and the ideas it is trying to convey, i would not add any words on this image, which would also be conventional to my artist and genre.
I tried the same effect with the blue lighting on the heart stencil image.
December 6th:
Today I experimented further with my images in photoshop and hoped to gain some direction into how I wanted to form my final ancillary products.
During the editing process, I discovered that if I tweaked the exposure settings of the image, the lighting became more circular. I think this type of image would not only be conventional of my artist, but the simplicity would. Because it includes use of lighting and colours, it is also on brand for my
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I also practised, creating a digipack front cover, which I hope to get some critique on next Media Studies lesson.
7th December:
Today I received feedback from my digipak drafts that I manipulated yesterday. This helped me outline a few key aspects of my current drafts that could be altered as well as assist me in finalising my ideas and deciding on one key concept. Through this peer critique I was given direction as to what font to use, what type of image I should use and what text I should feature on the front cover of my digipak.
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