Editing structure

Editing a music video is a crucial part of producing a music video as it makes lip syncing and a good quality music video possible to produce.

To have the actors lip sync perfectly with the imported music track, we used a tool known as a 'marker' which proved extremely useful as we could mark certain of the videos and the audio track to keep us aware where the music actually began in the music video and most importantly of all, where the lyrics actually came in. Doing this, we could easily match up where our actual singing began while recording and could match up the two to make a perfect lip sync.

During this task, it was important that sang out loud to the camera while recording and sang the whole song through on each go. This helped us with the editing part after on as it meant that we could listen/watch through our recordings and mark where our singing actually began and also which part of the song was where. Singing the whole song through each time helped us as we could easily split certain parts of the recordings and be able to easily replace them with one of the many shots.

Using the razor tool, we could split certain parts of the videos and cut out certain parts while keeping the rest of the clip.

Using audio effects, we could easily mute certain parts of the clips or in this case, the entire audio track. Furthermore, with this tool, we could fade in/out the music track to create a better overall feel to the music video and have the music fade in/out instead of it cutting in/out suddenly.

Narrative Workshop

"Music videos are simply an extension of the lyrics"

How could you prove/disprove this

One could watch a music video without the lyrics, then with the lyrics and finally, the music video itself with lyrics. Doing this, the test subject can make a judgement weather the music video meant anything alone, added anything to the final outcome and/or was parallel with the lyrics so that without listening to the lyrics, one could understand the main idea behind it.  

What does it mean?

Music videos show a visual meaning of what the lyrics interpret from the directors/artists perspective.

What is the main idea behind this?

Lyrics can simply be replaced with 'ideas' and this quote can simply be linked with Stuart Hall, and then be interpreted with his theory of encoding and decoding. For example, one can look at the lyrics of 'Miley Cyrus - Wrecking ball" and visually picture one thing while the artist/director could want them to picture another thing. In this case, the lyrics are completely parallel to the music video and when there are lyrics involving her on a wrecking ball. So basically, music videos can be seen and related with Stuart Hall's theory of preferred reading as the lyrics basically give you the freedom of constructing these lyrics (ideas) into visual thoughts of what the lyrics may be trying to portray. And similar to a book where you (the reader) create the scenes in your mind, the films that usually follow them construct these ideas for you and show you what the author wanted you to see.

How significant is this?

This is not so significant as we already know that music videos do not take anything away from the lyrics making them a simple extension.

What evidence can you already present for this?

The idea of reading lyrics of a song and portraying it one way in your mind and then watching the music video created for the lyrics to then compare the differences and see what the artist wanted you to see.

Do you agree with this? Explain your answer

I agree with this because music videos are extra to the lyrics and so cannot take away from the lyrics but can only add on as an extension. 

Writing Reviews of the Workshops

To improve my composition and framing knowledge, I took part in a workshop. First we got split mostly into small groups or split into individuals and got given a theme to work with. I got put independently and got given the theme 'Life and death.' For the start, we got given 25 minutes to go off and take 4 unique snapshots presenting this theme in a visually exciting way. I was not given any knowledge of composition and framing for the first shoot and this is what I came out with:


After that, we came back into class and presented our shots for the class to try and guess what the theme is from the images. Furthermore, I also had feedback on shots and found that it was not 'visually exciting' due to the lack of composition/framing techniques.

We then investigated certain techniques for improving composition and framing. For example,: negative space - a photo can be made more visually appealing by simply shooting the point of reference off centre with little visual distraction from the side.

We then got the opportunity to reshoot from the knowledge we had gained. From the pictures with comparison to the photos on top, I now feel like I have a much better understanding of how to create more aesthetically appealing footage.

Skills Development

Research & planning

Throughout the research and planning stage of my AS Portfolio Blog, I developed my skills to research and planning with the use of modern technology (the web).  From this, I was able to access a whole range of different products similar to my own ideas. Through this and can now, not only research in similar products but also compare my ideas/product with others similar to my own.

From this, I have learnt just how important the research and planning stage is. I have learnt that it is very important to research the conventions for the genre as it allow you to plan properly so you have open and clear ideas to what you are filming and the choices that you have. This then results in more time for production which I found to be crucial as the time scale was not very large.

Ensuring that everything was planned before production (props, location, etc). Was really important because this meant that less time was spent on this during the last minutes which then created more time for production and as everything was already planned (ready) things such as props where not forgotten and this also meant that I was not in a rush and always ready to film whenever the weather was good.

Creativity 

Creativity was not a huge issue for me considering that I also do Music Tech but my creativity was not great. As media really helped in improving my creativity and ideas by improving how I research and present my ideas. I used a various amount of websites such as 'Prezi' to present my ideas in a more organised and interesting way. 

Post production

At the start of the year, my biggest worry was the actual camera work (photography) as my skills/experience in this section was not great and so Media in AS really helped me improve in these areas thanks to little tasks/assignments and a preliminary tasks.

My skills in editing where already quite good but also could of done with little improvements as my knowledge in Premier Pro was not perfect. I had already spent a lot of free time creating/editing videos to be shown on the net (Youtube) and had a lot of practise in Adobe After effects CS6 and some broad knowledge in video editing programs such as Premier Pro.

Creating/choosing/editing music was also not a worry as I had already had good knowledge of this area due to a Music Tech course I was already doing. This had helped me use/edit diegetic/non diegetic sound in order to make my film opening more appealing and exciting to a wider audience.

My ability to work as a group and act as leader throughout the production was not a huge worry as I was already part of a national basketball team which required my skills in these areas. Although my experience in these skills where good, my experience within media production was not and so I had picked up a lot through small tasks and preliminary tasks we had done.