Milky Chance Practice Music Video

In order for us to get familiar overview of the production of music videos, we thought it would be a good idea to create a rough edit of a music video. Due to this video being a practice, we took a section from the song 'Stolen Dance' and produced it in 48hours. This task has allowed me to learn a wider range of camera and editing skills. i.e producing a linear wipe transition (an example of this can be seen at 1:26 - 1:32).  

MY POSTS FROM NOW ON WILL BE MY A2 COURSEWORK

Evaluation Question 7 | Final Task

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt multiple techniques that allowed me to progress to the full product. Since the preliminary task, I have learnt how to create much more high quality and 'professional' looking shots by using the same camera (Canon 700D). One technique that I learnt is how to shoot in a flat profile picture style. Shooting in a flat profile is very beneficial as it enables the camera to pick up more detail into the picture. This is because all of the contrast and saturation has been taken out of the picture. This means that when you come to colour correct in post production, you can add your own contrast and saturation accordingly. 

Below I have created a comparison video of the rough cut and the final version of Anonymous to show the difference between a flat profile picture style and a fully graded piece of footage.

Also since my preliminary task I have been able to widen my creativity with the use of camera shots. For example, at the start of the sequence the journey of the bag needed to be fast paced and not time consuming for the audience. This meant that, when the bag travelled from cookham to London we had to show this as quickly as possible. The most traditional way of showing this is the use of adding a transition between clips (which implies passing of time). Due to growth and confidence in the way I can film and edit since the preliminary task, we added physical transitions instead. This is a very effective technique as the transitions are within the footage, which therefore keeps the flow of action.

Moreover, from looking back at the Preliminary Task I have learnt that when creating a text you need to meet all the criteria that is asked. I know this sounds straightforward but it is easier said than done. When shooting a film, it is easy to fall into the trap of making something that its not. For example, if we edited 'Anonymous' differently and made it into a montage sequence, it could have easily looked like a trailer of a film. This is the same with our preliminary task. We had no conversational dialogue between the two people in our continuity sequence, because we wanted the interrogator to seem powerful. However this ended up not working in our favour as we didn't meet the criteria of having a two way conversation, which therefore meant that we didn't execute our piece at a high-standard. 

Another aspect in which I feel I have improved is my progression of time management and planning. I have improved this by making sure I meet deadlines. To make sure I met these, one of my improvements that had to be made was editing more efficiently on Premiere Pro. This was done through the use of editing as much as possible. For example, we edited a few videos before our final task, i.e. the Audience Research segments, which allowed me to widen my skills on the platform. Planning was also improved by organising more meetings with my group outside class. In addition to this we set up two social media group accounts (WhatsApp & Facebook) which also allowed us to constantly communicate with each other. 

Since my preliminary task, I have also understand a range of institutional tasks, e.g. producing storyboards, risk assessments and shooting schedule. These tasks are vital in the industry as it allows them to follow the pre-prouduction stage effectively. For example, risk assessments need to be done to ensure that all safety measures have been put in place. In our preliminary we were relaxed when it came to the risk assessment, e.g. looking after our property at all times. However, developing this into our final task, we made sure that we kept hold of all of our equipment at all times, especially when we were filming in London. These safety measures were put in place to make sure that we didn't lose or get any of our belongings stolen.

Here you can see two shots (One from my preliminary task & one from the final task) where I feel that I made a marked improvement in my use of framing and decision making. I feel that I've shown a improvement in this particular shot as I thought through exactly why the shot was needed. In this case we needed to this Point of view shot type as I wanted to create a clip where you see a courier looking into the red bag and the audience recognising his reaction. This therefore shows that, the specific shot that we used, applied well with the opening as it would naturally draw the audience into wanting to watch more. Whereas in the preliminary task, we purely used this shot type for an effect. The framing of this shot is also unique as you can clearly notice that the he is looking into the bag through the use of having the edges of the bag around the frame. Moreover through the use of the bag getting zipped up, improves on the uniqueness that we created in the preliminary task. The zipping of the bag acts as a physical transition to the end of the opening titles.

Evaluation Question 6 | Final Task

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This screenshot to the left shows the post production stage of Anonymous. In this instance we can see the fundamental aspects that has been put into the overall 'look' of this shot. For example, in the effects control panel you can see that this particular shot has been colour corrected.  A leave colour effect has been added and a garbage matte has been overlaid onto the clip. It must also be said that I also put a 'change colour' effect to this clip as the colour of the bag differed to all of the other shots in the sequence (this is due to control of light when filming in public!). This process simply consisted of pinpointing the colour of an existing clip and placing the exact RGB colour code onto this clip. This would therefore increase continuity throughout the sequence. 

Alongside the video which I made, I have also written a post on the equipment that we used throughout the process of creating Anonymous. Here you can see why each piece of equipment was needed and how it allowed us to create the results that we did.

Equipment Breakdown for Anonymous

Other Technologies Used

Social Media

Throughout the development of the final product I have used multiple social media websites which have enabled us to showcase, market and organise our project. One main website that we used was Youtube. This platform is great for uploading videos as you can create a channel for youtube members to subscribe to which will inevitably allow you to build your audience. We created a channel page for our media group as we wanted a space to put all of our work onto. This is more effective than uploading our media project onto personal youtube channels, as we wanted to build a audience based around our production company. Moreover, Youtube easily allows you to flip back to your personal channel within the same account. 

We also used Facebook frequently during the process of creating Anonymous. We mainly used it for two reasons; planning & marketing the film. From the beginning we set up a private group page for us to all communicate between lessons. This allowed us to organise anything that had to be done before each lesson or before a shooting day. Screenshots of our group page can be seen here. 


In addition to this, when we released the opening sequence to our film we wanted to promote the video to as many people as possible. Off the back of this, we have set up a Facebook Page for users to like and keep updated with the movie. Currently we have over 152likes, which is very beneficial for the promotion of our film.

Another resource that became vital for our project was Blogger. Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows users to create your own blog and post whenever you like. This was useful for me as I could upload anything onto my blog, from videos to written posts. One aspect I liked about blogger is that I have learnt how to embed posts from other websites, such as Youtube. This therefore integrates all of my resources together and makes the upload process much easier! 

Evaluation Question 5 | Final Task

How did you attract/address your audience?

Planning notes for Evaluation Q5 | Final Task

Evaluation Question 4 | Final Task

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Matt Bartlett. He is from London and is 21years old. Matt is a website designer and based in Soho. He enjoys playing rugby and is a big fan of Chelsea FC. Matt lives in the heart of the city with his girlfriend, who likes to spend time with when he's not working! Both are huge film fans, especially thrillers, and regularly attend the cinema. Matt's favourite movie is 'Taken' because of the sheer terror and tension throughout the film. Matt is a perfect example of our target audience because he fits right into the age range as well as having high interest of the genre itself. Both him and his girlfriend are fans of Ben Howard and recently attended his gig at the O2 Apollo. Anonymous is about suspense and suspicion and these interests of Matt's are the reason why he becomes the ideal audience member.

Institutions follow this concept and method for their marketing process so they can more effectively target audiences. This means that they create opportunities to undergo synergy with companies that match their target audience. For example, Skyfall went into synergy with Heineken, because they both had the same target market.