Rejected shots

I filmed a whole range of different shots that I thought might be effective in my music video, however some of these did not work as according to plan. an example of this was when I filmed a pair of light up speakers that changed colour with the beat of the song being played out of them. I planned to speed up these up and use them in the climax of the song, however the pace of these changing in light was too slow and even when sped up didn't look fast enough. Because of this, I decided against using them in my music video.  

Another shot I rejected was one shot of lip syncing, I tried some full face shots of Liam saying the lyrics 'it doesn't really seem to make a change, it didn't really seem to matter' however this clip looked to long, as I only wanted to use snipped of lip syncing. I also edited this footage with a negative filter to add a strange effect to the clip, I didn't like the effect this gave and I didn't feel like it worked with the lip syncing at this part needed be clear and not overshadowed with heavy edits. 

Applying Goodwins theory to my rough cut

Previously I looked into Goodwin's theory in the planning stages of my video, I now want to compare his theory in relation to the rough cut of my music video to see how closely I have stuck to it and where I have drifted away from his expectations of music videos. 


Point 1 - Genre characteristics 
Goodwin states that music videos should include a demonstration of genre characteristics, for example in pop videos there is usually some sort of dance routine performed by the band or artist. I think I have recreated elements of this by using fast pace editing which are used constantly throughout house music videos, as well as the use of lighting to create a certain mood to the video; which almost recreates club lights,where this style of music is usually played the most.  


Point 2 & 3 - A relationship between the lyrics and the music with visuals in the video
This theory also states that there should be a relationship between the lyrics and the images in the video and also between the visuals an the music, I feel I have successfully stuck to this expectation by filming shots of small amounts of money to play on the lyrics ‘change’ in the song, as well as using shots on a clock to portray the change in time. In addition, I have demonstrated a link between the video and the music by editing each shot to change with the changing of beat, so the link between the video and the track and is consistent. 


Point 4 & 5 - The notion of looking and the demand of the record label
Point 6 - intertextual references 
Other points I challenged is the use of intertextual references; I decided against linking my video to any TV or film as I wanted my video to be completely unique and strong within its own category. I felt it I linked this with other areas of media or already existent music videos it would take away the exclusive and distinctive feel of the video. 

However I also challenged this as he also states that music video should have a notion of looking demanded by the record label, involving the a number of close ups of the artist so the audience can familiarise their self with them. I haven’t followed this as I have included no full face shots of the protagonist in the video as I wanted the sense of mystery to remain around him, which is un-typical of a music video for a upcoming artist but I thought it would not only be unusual, but effective. Although I did use an element of this by filming point of view shots, particularly in the first sequence of the video, allowing the audience to see what the artist is seeing; this lets them understand shot from a subjective view.  

Audience feedback from my rough cut

I asked my peers to evaluate my rough cut in order for my to recognise what I needed to change about it; the comments made very mainly positive which I was pleased about because I knew I was going in the right direction and my concept was working. The thing that my peers like the most was the fast pace editing at the start of the video and how each shot changed when the beat of the song changed, this was said to be very effective and didn't need any improvement. 

However I was told that I needed to use more edits on shots to make it link more with house music genre, as a lot of the shots by this point didn't have filters or any contrast in the brightness. Another point made was that I needed to continue to use faster shots in the build-up the song instead of slowed down lighting that was used in the middle sequence; it was said it was a bit of an anti-climax and didn't really fit with the music. This point was the key point that I took on as it was the completely wrong effect I wanted to create for the music video and I knew I needed to change this as soon as possible.   

One peer also said I needed to include some kind of lip syncing in the video as there was none at all, I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to include lip syncing as it wasn’t very typical to the house music genre, however I did consider it and tested it to see what it would look like and a number of people said it was a huge improvement. This convinced me I needed to use a small snippet of lip syncing just to break up some of the shots, I also wanted to include this to show the quality of my editing skills.

Another comment was made about the concept of my video, a few people didn't understand it fully.  They saw the link between the lyrics and the visuals through repeated shots at the opening of the video but said it needed to be clearer as this stopped as the video continued.  The feedback I got from showing my class my rough cut was heavily influential to the development of my product, and I went away feeling confident about my idea, but also apprehensive about capturing a range of new shots to cover all the issues raised.

Rough cut

This is the rough cut copy of my music video, I plan to use the majority of shots in the copy with similar if not the same edited style including overlapping shots, filters and edited speeds.

Filming schedule

I aim to film my music video within a 2 week period, this will allow me plenty of time to decide which clips I want to use as well as editing them all. I chose to give myself more time for editing over time for filming because house music video's are focused a lot more on the editing rather than the shots themselves. My filming includes one person, Liam, I will need to arrange times that fit in with his personal schedule so he is available on the day I want to film. I feel only having one person to film within my video will make it very easy because I won't have to arrange times with a group of people who probably wont be able to get together all at the same time.

November 2nd - This is the first day I planned to begin my filming. I began filming the walking shots in a range of different locations, I wanted to get this all done in day so the weather looked the same throughout. I filmed all of these from a point of view shot at a mid length, I needed to ensure I kept the camera at the same arms length so they shots flowed effortlessly with each other. 

November 5th - On this day I filmed the traffic scenes on Mansfield Road, I needed to wait until it was dark outside before I could do this; I walked to this location at around 8pm so it was no longer in day light, on the way to walking to this road I filmed some more filler shots on the way, such as street lights and some walking shots in the dark to contrast the one shot in the day time. 

November 8th - On this day I planned for my protagonist to do the lip syncing, however he wasn't available on this day so I had to re-schedule. this was a minor set back to my original plan but I knew it wasn't a big issues and I could work around it. 

November 13th - On this day I filmed all that shots I could that needed to be indoors, such as the ticking clock and the light up speakers. I feel by this point I had gathered all of the shots I needed t in order to put them together collectively and create the first cut of my music video.  

Props for my video

I didn't plan to include a lot of props in my video as I felt I wouldn't need them, because of my shots of scenery and transport and also because the main focus of my video was my editing skills. however I did include a few to break up some of the shots, ensuring it was interesting and enjoyable to watch. 

The first prop i used was a clock, this clock featured heavily in my video as i wanted t play on the lyrics of 'change' with shots of the time changing on a clock, running both clockwise and anti-clockwise to link to the lyrics of the song, showing even through the change in time, nothing really seems to make a change which is quoted in the lyrics. 

The next prop I used was small amounts of change (money) to play on the lyrics 'change' in the song, I did this to conform to Goodwins theory of having a link between the lyrics and visuals in music videos. 

Location shots

I had considered a number of different locations to shoot my video in, I knew I needed a wide range to get enough shots to fill the first sequence of the video were a different location is shown every time the beat changes. 

I simply filmed with camera help up to my face of me walking on a range of different streets surrounding my house, this was convenient to me as I didn't have far to travel and it didn't take  long amount of time because of these location were close and easy to access. I wasn't crucial that the scenery looked any specific type of way as long as each one looked different to one another. 

One I had filmed streets and paths I then moved on to filming in Arnot park which as again close to my house so was convenient, this gave a different effect to my shots as there was a lot more greenery which created a clear contrast between the two types of location; one being very urban and the other being slightly more rural. 

the next main location i filmed was Mansfield road, this is where i filmed the moving transport shots; i filmed here in the night time to get a contrast between the bright lights on the cars, street lamps and traffic lights to the darkness surrounding it. I filmed these shots on a tripod so the camera was steady and so i could also pan it to follow the movement of some of passing cars