Production Plan Unit 36

Plan for Music Video Production

From my research unit I am taking influence from my analysis of Britpop music video and taking imagery from there to create my own product inspired by it.

Continued from my development of ideas I moved on to my plan for production and listed the equipment I would needed and discussed availability of my actress for filming.

I created a hand drawn Story Board during this time of the process, the image board gave me a structure for production as well as it being a resource I could show to my actress for her to get an idea of what it is I am aiming for:

I arranged for two shoots originally a little over a week apart, whilst I was available for other and more times I communicated with my actress and two Tuesdays were chosen as she was free then. The day before the first shoot I gathered my equipment borrowed from the store charging the camera and making sure the tripod was functional all was in order and ready. When shooting began however the camera would stop recording after a very few seconds this became an obstical that was halting the shoot. After a diagnostic we found out the cards write and read speed was too low for the quality of film information we were recording in. An order on line and a few hours later we went out to get a replacement card which when testing worked and we went outside to get some footage as the original plan of getting the interior shots out of the way was no longer an option due to people being back in the places I wanted to record. Production outside went well for a good hour before the sun had set too much and plans for an interior shoot were added for that Friday. From that more detailed discussion and the mix between relaxed and informal with the determination to not have things get in the way again the next two shoots went well with equipment returned afterwards.

A release form was signed by the actress in following good practice so all of the footage I used with her in it was allowed.

Snapshot into Editing Unit 36 Music Video

Editing My Music Video

 Here I edited in a spin on to a clip within my music video. I did this by accessing the properties menu in the top left corner selecting the second tab available. In this list there is the option to rotate which after a couple of key frames are placed you can free rotate with each cycle of 360 decrees being added on. I had to scale up my originally framed recording of the grit salt bin because the rotate effect cut through the corners. I scaled up the clip using the scale value and slid it higher until corners off the frame would no longer show. I did this to emphasise a guitar sound heard in the music track as that sound rings the object spins which links in with looking at moments in music video using Andrew Goodwin's theory. This was done because of my influence of Brit-Pop videos occasionally having affected editing to show humour for an example Blur's Parklife has a spinning man sped up but I instead had my clip to spin. It did not work as well as expected because when capturing the original footage I did not take into account the framing and so the scaled version is too close to clearly see what is being recorded. With future edits in mind I would avoid doing this unless at all unless it fit a comical/lighthearted production. If done in future I would be careful of how I captured the footage making sure that the object is central with enough of the frame around it. In editing I would have considered a tighter or rather more precise cut either side of the clip to achieve a better effect, listening closer to the music, perhaps checking frame by frame to cut along side the music track.

 Here I edited to the rhythm of the song track and added a dissolve transition to end the piece. Andrew Goodwin and his book Dancing in the Distraction factory highlights the effect that having edits and cuts to the rhythm of the song and also looking into Eisenstein's rhythmic montage I can create an audience friendly music video. In the above edit screen shot whilst I have more precise cuts to the songs beat but here you can see the peak in audio and that my cut is close to incorporate that rhythm. I used the "m" button to create markers to help at key changes in the music and in this closing section it has rhythmic hits that straight cuts to the rhythm gives them meaning. The dissolve was added by accessing the transitions menu after placed I stretched its transition time to match with the end of the audio signal. It is a simple, effective way to end a production as it clearly shows the audience that the information is over. The pace of the fade was rather important as too fast it comes out of nowhere and the audience may miss it or expect more if too slow it appears as a mistake feeling awkward. I feel I have got the balance right using the end of the audio track to be the end point of the footage and the end of music as the start of the fade.

 Here I attempted a match on action shot between two shots of my character closing the door.

looking at both frames that I used in and out points with I have captured the best frame to transition on where the character turns to close the door. I was lucky in the fact the character closed the door the same way. If done again I would have planned for that rather than happy accident but my choice of cut was good it follows the process of natural action by utilising this editing skill used frequently in the golden age of Hollywood.

Ideas and Development Unit 36

Music Video Ideas

Brit-Pop Themes and Conventions to use

• Urbanised areas - terraced housing, tarmac roads, shops (high street)
• British Culture - Iconography, Public transport, Tea, Post offices.
• Male centred - Lads mags, Beer, Pub, One guy walking around sultry.
• Narratives - Having fun in Britain, Every day life, Commentary of the general situation
• Band and star imagery - Having band members play or involved in the music video, Costume quite sporty urban mixed with casual jackets, sunglasses.

Examples from Sourced videos

Walking down streets - Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve)

Getting ready - Charmless man (Blur)

Humorous affected Editing - Parklife (Blur)

Ideas of Home - Morning Glory (Oasis) There's No Other Way (Blur)

Male Gaze - Country House (Blur) Boys and Girls (Blur)

British Cultural Imagery - All of the above

Deliberation of Ideas

I have looked into what I could possibly do in realistic terms and I have got one actress on board which would change my focus on what I will do. My original idea of a few male characters on a Lads' night out, showing getting ready walking to a venue seeing a British band and some stereotypical imagery of tea, beer, raucous behavior and a male gaze view at women. This would have fit in quite well with what information I garnered from my research making it an energetic lively youthful piece filled with British culture and a narrative many young persons today could relate to.

I decided to cut back a lot on this first idea after learning through previous units what I could get done in similar amounts of time. My narrative would now follow the songs title and structure having my character getting ready before traveling down reasonably empty streets. I looked into various streets near a couple of locations to find suitably urban homes, streets and shops that could give British symbolism. This helped further my ideas and linking it back to the codes and conventions of the genre I realised a lot of what was there 20 years ago was there to be found today. The mise-en-scene would become a focus informing on production ideas of deep focus or just shots of the environment.

Looking back on Ideas, how they developed into the product

I created a story board with my new intentions in mind featuring a series of long shots to incorporate New Wave film techniques and with the shot of a street face on with my character I tried to channel Bittersweet Symphony's aesthetics. The first day of shooting was done in the evening so we had some lovely bright shots with the low sun eventually turning blue which only informed more ideas after reviewing the footage in editing the next day and I thought it would make a good end to my narrative having the day end but the streets not to. Second day of shooting brought around the house focused stuff I decided to get a lot more of the getting ready routine than I had originally planned for good practice of more footage is better when looking for those extra few seconds. Things went well and the shots captured included some genuine reactions of my actress that I used in the final product. The third shoot not much was developed except by happy chance in the streets that I had looked at for recording it was bin day and there were a fair bit of road works helping my get a few symbolic shots referencing The Verve and Blur. Ideas were developed into the editing stage where following Andrew Goodwin's rhythm and thematic editing I increased the length shown indoors and a moment in transition was informed by the lyrics. There is a mention of catching the 5:14 to a station now rather than a train of a plane which seemed to be described I used footage of a bus as the public transport being caught by people. By my finished edit the piece had evolved into a product that had elements of my learning and work up to this date including information from my research of Brit-pop and the New waves of cinema that I studied nearly a year ago. It all came together in a piece with many varying yet complimentary themes.

Music Video Unit 36 Evaluation

Evaluation and Analysis of Music Video - Unit 36

My music video has new wave techniques (long takes, jump cuts and improvised life with non actors in background), evidenced of applied genre codes and conventions as well as reference to my biggest influence blur through their Modern Life is Rubbish and there being various imagery of rubbish.

 My music video has a pacing problem in various parts of the production the shots were too long and there should have been tighter cuts in its edit. The tighter cutting would make the piece flow more and give a consistency to the piece, with the faster pace we would avoid some of the tension that builds with my longer edits. The finished product feels basic, it could be improved by building on the good use of camera angles and adding in some depth with more substance. Substance that would work well to improve the piece would be more codes and conventions of Brit-pop music such as in Parklife by Blur we have many interesting moments from the window salesman at the start knocking on the door to cuts to over acting and over edited actors shaking their head. Editing in the final piece was lacking in this furthering of experimental or jovial editing in another example from Blur's Country House the speeding up of the point of view having Matt Lucas' hand chasing ladies like Benny Hill. This could be said it was attempted by the edited spinning of the bin but it didn't work because of the out of the blue element of it and that the original footage was incorrectly framed to be scaled and spinned. My recommendations for improvement would be to experiment more with a variety of footage, perhaps not on a major project or include it if it doesn't fit but for the style of Brit-pop it would have and may have improved the music video. There was very little intertextuality and what there was, in terms of bins and rubbish being linked to a Blur work and the first roadworks appearance is reference to The Verve, was not that clear and would only be addressed through similar deconstruction I did to the genres music video examples. I would revisit British works gone by and pay homage in shot form or in the miss-en-scene to make clearer intertextuality rather than going on vague inferences, examples of this would be Blur's Country House with the Benny Hill and the Bohemian Rhapsody shot by Queen.

My preproduction skills for this unit was lists and a story board. They both helped and for my production it was with that where I could run with the rest of it, the research was there in my head and I had my actress on board and equipment hired out. I understood though from seeing others work and trying different approaches to preproduction that a combination of all of them are needed for a coherent planning process. I had relative ease with production bar getting started with a insufficient memory card so I would improve that process by checking all my equipment not just in general but a test on what I want to use the equipment on.

The music video starts with audio from my footage taken played at a lower volume my production on the sound was taking the ambient sound on the in built camera. This worked for this but the quality is not brilliant to improve this I would take a Zoom mic in future to gather clearer ambient noise making sure that I had a dead cat to block out wind of course. I used a shot of a street with my actress in the distance at the start of the music video, this was a mistake as the first few shots are the start of my narrative of a morning in Britain where then we cut to inside the characters house, the feeling of morning is shown by going from a dim blue to a grey sky. I thought this would not be noticeable during editing as she was so far away it would appear as someone else but by editing on a half sized screen compared to the video dimensions I recorded and exported in it is clearly noticeable. I would improve this in future by taking more ambient footage for these establishing shots and also for cutaways. The additions of extra ambient footage would offer more clips to edit and could nicely break up a sequence that may have a wildly different take or in transition.

The track kicks in and I immediately cut to the kettle in my indoor shots. These shots are long and I didn't have multiple angles whilst I did have multiple takes this helped in getting a better shot but it meant that I had no complementing shot to cut too leaving me with the choice of holding on that shot or cutting to something new earlier. My productions skills did not shine through in this respect and my recommendations would be to alway grab at least two clearly defined angles.

When leaving the house I have shown some good production skills in my editing creating a temporal overlap with my actresses hair flick and also accomplishing a good match on action shot when closing the door. I achieved the temporal overlap by taking the same part of the movement in three takes and cutting so we see the flip three times, whilst I didn't have multiple angles. My improvement would then be to include more angles which I tried to remedy by zooming closer each time achieved throughout editing on the second clip whilst the third was already focused in more so it was finding the balance with the second. I have discussed the match on action in a different post.

Leaving the house we get the the second and main part of my production whilst this part takes approximately two thirds of the piece it makes it feel as if there should be a third part or that the time allocated to each parts should have been different. In my production I followed in editing as I felt and how the narrative would flow, so from being inside the house we leave outside to the streets and then it gets dark, in regards to the music. I did well in the production by having various elements happen in time with the music such as first showing the roadworks when the first break happens and in adding jump cuts to the longer takes that would happen in time with the music. I would improve this by allocating my space better within the track, have enough footage to fill in the changes and then to tie it together with a stronger destination. This would allow the audience the most enjoyment and information packaged with the visuals and music.


Product
Production skills

Unit 2 Bibliography

Bibliography of Information Used Throughout Presentation

• "What were they?" Slide - Various previously known background information dates checked through www.google.co.uk search engine using Wikipedia pages e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_discography
• Andrew Godwin - Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) MINNEAPOLIS
• Laura Mulvey - Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema (1975) 
• Blur, Parklife (Music Video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSuHrTfcikU (1994)
• Blur, Charmless Man (Music Video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM8agr7_TxE (1995)
• Blur, Country House (Music Video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci0fyRAw21Q (1996)
• Oasis, Morning Glory (Music Video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr7MSSPNH9o (1995)
• The Verve, Bittersweet Symphony (Music Video) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lyu1KKwC74 (1997)

Research and results collected and gathered by me through audio and written work for Focus Group and by email and document for Questionnaire.

Unit 31 Development of Editing Technology

Development of Film Editing Technology

The technology we use for editing film has progressed greatly from the early days of cinema. Today we use non-linear digital editing soft wear such as Premier Pro and Final Cut editing with high quality digital recordings a long way from where the story of editing began.

Cutting

The original editors back in the early years of film learned most of the editing techniques used today through accident and through experimentation. Originally you had no hardware to help you with editing apart from light that you could shine through your film and a scalpel or scissors to actually cut the film. To get increase accuracy or the chance of it lenses could be used like microscopes and magnifying glasses to look closer at the space between frames. The only hardware was physical tools and adhesive this was tricky and film was often laboured over or damaged this way. Film splicing became easier as time went on as some of these inventions helped alignment and attachment.

Moviola

The Moviola was the first widely successful editing technology created by Iwan Serrurier in 1924and allowed for better viewing and editing. It was an upright vertical editor that had magnification and precision when it came to cutting film. Its key features that made it very popular until the 1970s and the dawn of flatbed editing suits was its accuracy and portability. It had a far reaching influence being snapped up by major Hollywood film companies in the 1930s and used throughout the 2nd world war.

Flatbed Edit Suits

In the 1970s a flatbed editing system was developed by companies like Steenbeck since the 1930s was released and started to replace the old Moviola machine. Using wheels and magnetic tape the flatbed editor worked more like a work table being able to edit film and audio easily by locking tracks an finding frames through a stamped number system. This system became popular and more prominent in studios due to its accessibility but was not portable.

Linear and Non-Linear editing

There were two main ways to edit film which were linear and non-linear. As the names suggest linear was the method of editing from one roll of film onto another having the edited roll copied in its order to the second through flatbeds or kinescopes one after another. This way of editing although common for a time had the draw back of being hard to arrange even after the introduction of the equipment in 1963 Ampex Editec and the 1967 system of SMPTE which assigned each frame a number in terms of hours minutes seconds and frames eg. 01 12 34 16. Non linear is associated today with modern digital editing but is closely related to the original cutting of film. Non-linear editing is to cut and move pieces of the footage without damaging the rest of the sequence slicing where you see fit and manoeuvring the film to its desired space without strict timing codes to work. CMX 600 in 1971 was the first machine to use non-linear editing and had the bonuses that came with it of no degradation as there would be no copying transference as there is in linear editing. Becoming easier to learn and use Non-linear is now the way digital stations let you interact with your footage.

Online and Offline Editing

Offline editing is when you are editing with a copy of your footage but at a lower quality so you can be bolder with your cuts and shift until you have made your editing decisions which will then be applied to your high quality original footage. Early machines that could do this were talking a step toward the digital and the lower quality scans would not only be for ease and comfort in not damaging the original but because of the limits in computing technology at the time.

Online editing came into play after the mid to late 1990s where computing power was strong enough to handle high quality compressed formats of footage where by a high quality version would be digital and could be edited on. From the early 2000s it became possible and more common place to record and edit the entire film project digitally without the use of film what so ever.

The Digital Era

From the late 1980s systems like that of the AVID started to inhabit the digital space. The AVID was an editing system that was created for the Apple 2 computer and quickly shook up the editing world the problem was the system was expensive. There technology was soon repeated and further by competitors during the 90s running the prices lower and lower as the quality got higher. Digital workstations such as Final Cut and Premier Pro were in there infancy utilising such progress such as Inter-compression grouping digital signals and compressing them to save memory space allowed for wholly digital editing creations

Modern Editing Platforms

Editing now is so intertwined with the limits of computing that with every new discovery comes soon after the furthering in quality digital workstations can produce. Today many professionals use tools such as Final Cut and Premier pro to create films at quality of 4k resolution. With the advancement of digital editing technology the accesabillity too has increase with free basic software found through download to low end software used every day with the likes of movie maker. The future of digital editing looks bright now as the digital can fool our minds past the reality and on towards hyper reality.

 

Unit 2 - Reflection and Furthering

Reflection on Research Unit

From the start of the unit until now I feel as though I have learned a fair amount about research, it's terminology and practice. This unit we applied research techniques to a genre of music video to gain knowledge and to know how to get other opinions and proof of ideas. I employed a few sources go primary (original or own sourced) and secondary (Websites, books, interviews etc.) sources to find the themes of my chosen genre Brit-pop.

The original analysis

Good points I found multiple video examples to analyse from the appropriate time and genre, Had to leave out a few as they did not fit (either before Britpop era or after) Anallysis was quite noticed. Challenges as far as it goes I need to include more discussion of technical aspects, by looking at types of shot and the framing as well as lighting and sound would have improved it.

The theorists

Looked at the theorists and gained a base understanding of them But not of Versallis. also needs to find sources for quotes or reputable secondary sources. by finding more sources I can give evidence that I have read the theory although the understanding of that would only be shown through analysis of video. Be more in-depth with the theories too with out losing conciseness of points.

Theorist analysis

application to the videos using theory is good and already has helped boost my knowledge of the genre and of its validity. the validity is starting to be shown as these are conclusions drawn by utilising experienced professional theorists and drawing similar conclusions from my own basic analysis. Improvements would be to criticise the theories and there appropriateness to the task at hand.

Quantitive Questionare

The questions were linked to the units tasks and were closed but showed options suitable for ease of users answering questions. difficulties arose when it came to the amount of people who would take the questionnaire as the known pool of people that would also fill in the form was small. taking small sample size into account the answers were that which could be represented which was good. improvements, more refined questions would be more appropriate and give some information but again only some. get a larger sample pool by online or postal means.

Qualitative Focus Group

Good planning and questions to be asked. nerves whilst asking gave garbled on non answerable mess. group used was not too interested and were not willing to answer when prompted. With better control over nerves, clearer questioning and a more willing or focused group would have helped immeasurably the results from this were only salvageable thanks to some written answers which again only gave vague ideas. I can improve by gathering a better aimed group of people based on age more appropriate to a movement 20 years old and structure the sheets given with a frame work encouraging answers linked to the questions I would decide to ask.

Unit 2 - Outcomes of Research

Unit 2 - Research Outcomes

The outcomes of my research came in three parts:

• That of my original analysis
• Results from my applied research
• The Correlated results

My original analysis of Brit-pop music video brought forward themes of British stereotypes, local British accents and visualisations of the youth in Britain. Technical aspects tend to be quite low when produced giving it an almost amateur feel but that then high tens the british feel as we kind of feel home made and seeing a street that could be any in Britain is interesting.

Second exploration into the music videos when applied to Theorist such as Andrew Godwin Laura Mulvey or Carol Vernallis garnered more information. The results I found to be evident is that the videos didn't follow the music fully very often, some of the narrative was generally connected to the song with maybe a theme on the musicians miming a performance. Technically the cuts were not always tight with the music following the flow of visuals primarily. 

From my Questionaire I gained these results - Younger participants felt energy was very important older ones knew more of the subject and gave opinions on the elements of music video and Brit-pop. I drew from this that if I were to aim it at older people who lived through the movement my analysis starts to line up. My questions can be improved by choosing a better set of extended questions framed more openly using prying and stimulant words the Why does this effect you? keeping them open ended. In my reach for participants printing and collecting may be more appropriate to gain the audience who would have knowledge or experience of the genre because they will not only have an opinion they will have their own strengths, weaknesses and preferences.

From my Focus Group I Gained these results - The key elements were that younger people are a lot more technically focused and were baffled by some of the things shown in my presentation. They were not receptive in what I was asking them but that was because I was feeling nervous and had recently abandoned my prearranged questions. They caught the themes of Intertexuality which lined up with my own research which I am taking on board and hope to include some of my own. What was wrong was that my prepared questions were too specific like what was the fashion of the British youth in the mid 1990s when whilst it would help in costuming for my music video I should have been open and talked about the character or band visuals. Band imagery would have linked back in with my analysis using theorist Andrew Goodwin and how it was included into the music videos.

Correlated from the compilation from these results have resulted in the conclusions Brit-pop video should include a range of its themes and conventions.

Unit 2 - Process of Research

Research Process

For this unit we were tasked with following a logical procedure to research, analyse, gather data, correlate and synthesise ideas to inform and influence my own music video production. Along the way we were required to investigate and show evidence of what we did, what we learned and how we could improve on future research projects.

To look into a genre of music video first I decided on what to look at. After careful consideration at what genres I already knew a little about and what I liked, knowing it would catch my interest more, I decided to look at Brit-pop. The first part of knowledge gained was the historical context of the genre, looking into musical influence timelines; the culture of the artists and by knowing when the videos were made. The name "Brit" references Britain and "Pop" is a nod to the popular culture this movement was a celebration of things that were British. 

What was gathered next were some examples of music videos through internet resources although the content was near 20 years old and the medium of release would have been. I then reviewed the content for its suitability for purpose, analysed the music videos to find common themes and conventions. This was evident in textual and subtextual themes in which many videos had a load of stuff that can be considered narrative. 

In order to gain a deeper understanding I looked into a couple of theories looking at internet sources again. The secondary sources that I used helped with more general understanding and application of the theories. 

Then I applied the knowledge learned through theories to the Music videos again to have a differently structured analysis for the topic. 

I then wanted to have some of my conclusions validated and to do that I decided to employ both Qualitative and Quantitative research. I created a questionnaire based on what people would expect to see in music video, what would engage with them today and what they would believe would be included in a Brit-pop inspired music video. I handed it out and e-mailed it to various people I knew and waited for results, pursuing them after a week. For the Qualitative research I did a focus group in which I would show them clips from Brit-pop music videos, particularly those of which I had reviewed, to gather more in-depth results to correlate to my inferred beliefs and to validate my interpretations.

Qualitive Research - Music Video Focus Group

Qualitive Research –Focus Group

The Britpop Music Video

These are to be the questions that shall be asked to the Focus Group.

11.     What is Britpop? (Do you know what it is? how would you describe?)

22.     To know more about Britpop we must know where it emerged from (The Smiths, Stone Roses – Influences. Shoe gazers, Grunge e.g. Nirvana roots and reaction to) knowing how these acts were like how would you expect a Britpop band to be? (Chipper, still with angst but finding refuge in our more pessimistic humour)  are the themes shown visually in the music videos?

33.     British culture and that of a more urbanized British youth are represented how? (Red white and blue colours, Lads.)

44.     The sound of the music is quite familiar but what features make this? (Local accents, Influence from previous British musicians)

55.     What are the themes shown visually in the music videos?

66.     From what I have shown there is a lot male gaze and perspective, what elements of this could be used to create a new music video and why does it grab your attention?

77.     From What you have been shown, what are the kinds of locations that would be typically used in Britpop Music video?

88.     What fashion is being portrayed or even promoted to influence the British youth?

99.     There are references to past creations is a postmodern way how are these portrayed? Did you get the references? (Jovially and Queen the Beetles a Clock work orange)

110. There is usually a contained narrative progression to the music video what has been employed to quickly give you some story progression. (Stereotypes)

111. Using this brief barrage of information on Britpop music video what would you say are the key elements that must be included to create a reflective British young feel?

Music Video clips:

            Blur –There’s no other way (British family meal stereotype)

            Blur – Coffee and TV (Street scene, British Location)

            The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (Intro – Street location, Narrative refrence musically to old Rolling Stones song.)

            Oasis – Don’t Look Back in anger (2:18 short British Imagery)

            Oasis – Morning Glory (City life scenery)

            Blur – Girls and Boys (Male Gaze)

            Blur Country House (male Gaze Stereotypes)

            Blur – Parklife (Stereotypes, Intercontextuality)

These questions were overly specific and when it came to the actual Focus Group I had less time and simplified to these semi-improvised question topics.

Questions : Themes, Music, Editing, Lighting, Modern Application.

Focus Group HNC Research Unit 2 from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.

Above is the whole focus group session. From it I got responses about the videos contained British stereotypical and intertextual references. Whist not the most agreeable session there is some information that I can take from this mainly from the employment of sheets given out for some written answers. The validity is supported by this above video of my self conducting the focus group but its reliability is not as strong. The focus group consisted of young persons aged 17 and 18 who were not born at the time of Brit Pop and their knowledge of the genre was little to none. There was useful information although most of it negative the fact that we can infer this movement of music does not interest this sample of the age group and that music video of this kind is not inspiring or interesting to them. The usefulness of the information is limited also by the lack of answers linked to my evaluations of the codes and conventions of Brit Pop but what answers I did get challenged them and there was very little agreed between their opinions and my interpretations. there was some negotiated points as mentioned before, on the sheets and briefly mentioned vocally there was acknowledgement of the intertextuality of older media in homage but no linking to movements like post modernism which can be cited as certain inspiration to some of Brit Pop's work. An example of this is in Blurs Country House Music video in which Damien Hurst was its director (a Post-Modernist artist) and it contained references to Mousetrap the board game, Benny Hill in a chasing sequence (featuring Matt Lucas from then Shooting Stars fame) and a reference to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (with the four floating heads).

Old Editing and the Development of Skills

Basic Early Editing Film Techniques

Film Editing techniques that we take for granted today were formed in the early years of cinema as it transitioned from filming life or theatre to a form all of its own.

• 30 Degree Rule
• 180 Degree Rule
• Cross Cutting
• Kuleshov Effect
• Match on Action
• Shot Reverse Shot
• Temporal Overlap
• Montage

The 30 degree rule

This rule is a minimum amount of camera movement around the action that should happen. When followed it gives a movement that feels natural and progressive. With an angled move of less than this recommended rule you get a jarring feeling conveyed to the audience. This is because the change is noticeable yet too small of a movement to seem logical and we see it as a twitch or a jump cut.

180 degree rule

Here is the upper end limit of most camera action can follow without confusing the audience. This is mostly followed when following at least two objects or characters in a scene as the audience will position them along a 180 degree line. The camera must also follow line so in a shot reverse shot a character facing left positioned at the right side of the frame continues to do so up until the full 180 degree arc limit is reached. This imaginary line can be crossed but must be shown to be crossed through a take and not by cutting. Any other crosses of the line cause confusion as characters appear to have reversed positions whilst it was the camera that had moved.

Cross cutting

Cross cutting is the editing technique of going from scene that the is the focus to another scene that also will be happening at the same time or has information relating to the original scene and cutting between them. By having two scenes going on at once you can cause tension that will lead to cringing or embarrassment in the audience or a build up of action and fear as two things draw together all by giving the audience both sets of information.

Kuleshov Effect

The effect is named after Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov and is the editing technique that exemplifies the importance of context. It is when a piece of reactionary footage such as a smiling face is placed either side of a another clip, it is this filling clip that informs the audience information. If the middle clip is that of a child petting a dog or a cat then we know this is good the smiling character also has good morals. If the clip is of someone being pushed we see the smile as sinister or vengeful and the smile footage didn't have to change.

Match on action

Is the editing technique when the cuts of the film match the action that is going on. Examples of this were found very literally in the golden age of Hollywood where it was believed the audience needed to see most of the journey a character makes in order to enter new scenes or transitions into a different action.

Shot reverse shot

An editing technique that allows for two perspectives of a conversation to happen with the camera on one side of the 180 degree line showing object A in the left side of the screen pointing towards the right side, then cut to, Object B in the right side of the screen pointing towards the left side. With an example set up like this we could substitute objects for actors and cut from the shot, to its reverse and back again to get a tennis like feeling of looking at who's talking in a conversation. It can be slightly manipulated to show maybe an over the shoulder shot of an actor as long as the reverse is shown we still have a shot reverse shot.

Temporal overlap

The Temporal overlap is an editing technique where the same action is shown again happening at the same time but from different perspectives. This is a technique that messes with time by showing the same instance over and over again and can be utilised in key action moments such as a bomb explosion in an action film to an important handshake. What this gives to the audience is another chance to really see the action and coupled with perhaps slow motion to gain the most information that they can from a spectacle.

Montage

Montage is a series of cuts that shows the footage in a passage of time but the way that it is cut will give a different effect to the audience. Early film maker Eisenstein stated that there were five types of montage:

• Tempo (follows a well paced montage of clips consistently giving a tempo to the audience)
• Rhythmic (follows beats to the music and imagery the video has a pulse)
• Ideological (exemplifies a theme or ideology throughout it such as the sadness of war for example)
• Tonal (these montages have a mood or tone to them and is kind of a blend of Ideologies and Rhythms or half step towards an overtonal montage but more simple and informative than questioning)
• Overtonal (brings all elements of montage together to make a complex and interesting sequence designed to make the audience think)

Finished Product of Editing Techniques

The Review

In our team of three we had a few triumphs and a few problems when it came to our editing technique video essay. The start of the project was understanding what each of the techniques were in order to acquire cinematic clip examples. After reviewing each of the techniques we all split off to find examples in already made cinema. In finding these clips whilst we may have had more minds searching we were spread too thin and were looking in the same channels and the same topics so we would have been better to be gathered it together. In order to think ahead and save time on the editing and creation of content for the video essay for some editing techniques we used one cinematic and own example to explain many like for the five types of montage.

Editing and Bins 2

Logging and Bins for the Editing Techniques Video

Bins

Product Evaluation Unit 32 Unit 6

Promotional Video Evaluation

The Promotional video I created was to promote a card game designed by my client. After a discussion and a questionnaire we created a brief that I was to follow to create the finished product. I endeavoured to follow the brief in full but in time, the things agreed on couldn't all be achieved and the finished product does not feel tight. Here I shall go through my product against my agreed criteria.

An evaluation of structure: the brief wanted a video produced of over five minutes in length with content to include an overview of the game; setting up the game; the three main phases of gameplay and resolving winning and losing. I created a piece of visual media that was of thirteen minutes in length which was a challenge yet was shorter in length than example videos I had watched. It could have been longer and gone into more depth by pausing of key frames, editing to have titles and overlays or added voice over. I thought though it would have started to feel an even heavier piece than it already does with the increased reliance of listening to instruction without the interaction an experience user of the product could give. In showing to a couple of friends and family, whilst polite, many commented on its length and how they could feel that time. Going forward I will be tighter with my editing, keeping timings down but would say that its slower pace added to some clarity in understanding with the audience. 

Going on the structure, I believe in my succeeding in giving a brief flavour of the product. My narration explained quite clearly the concept and setting of the product without going too much into the games lore which would be inappropriate of the video's purpose and its target audience of general card game players (although it can be contested that above the games mechanics of a team deck builder, it is the flavour the setting brings which can bring the most to the game). I did not however succeed in conveying the games other products as only briefly mentioning the expansions available for purchase I only gave a website address at the end of the video. This could have been increased by making it more of a marketing video rather than an information video by increasing the mention of the game for purchase and a break down of what can be bough and for what price. With the given information a google search for Bulwark card game does offer links to the card printing store. My greatest success in the video was the structure for the game set up. The inclusion of the cut away clip gives a sense of continuity, coupled with the title - to which I added a fade in and out. The narration adds a clear and informative divide between the different sections. This could have been furthered throughout the rest of my production and if I use such an implementation again I shall consider its use fully throughout the piece.

When it came to sound the Client wanted royalty free music and voice over narration to give the video some depth and a good way for communicating the information directly. I liked that idea, quickly agreeing to it the narration would give the information and I knew that music would be an addition in terms of atmosphere, covering any dips or, in the likely case of edits, in sound. The client commented on my use of self-created music for the piece as interesting but the effort need not to have been made mentioning there are professionally done royalty music available at a search that could be harnessed for this piece. I would state that I wanted to create a theme for the product even if only a basic one that could give the beginnings of an identity to the product. The narration was created in three settings which meant it was harder to edit as each had not only a different ambient sound from the minimal studio conditions using a cardioid condenser microphone to the headset at my home whilst I was stuffy and ill. I felt confident in my cutting though and from the end testimonials to the narrations, I located the key information and the best usable take for the project. A note on my editing skills with the audio handling I cut as much as possible before and after the signal to have the least ambient noise. For the voice over I was selective over the natural noises and the slurs that blurred words together. I wanted a natural clear voice to follow what my clients guidelines were for the voice over to provide information which would be easier for an audience clearer but also more natural sounding if not bordering on conversational.

Main production was done on a couple of days over two weekends, it was a short schedule which motivated me into getting all that was needed captured. The client was available and happy to film over these afternoons and was also pleased with the footage captured. I would perhaps improve the production by taking multiple angles of the interviews which, was pointed out to me, looked very flat - although I didn't redo them at the time due to availability the flatness reflects that of the card game and in keeping with the rest of the production. My production skills in the filming of the example of gameplay were improved on from my test shots earlier and the stills I had taken before filming. I would say this was from examining the media and how my client reacted to it through his reactions I gauged how I could capture the footage he needed. My client wanted a top down view of the area of play which I complied with. I would improve even now by incorporating better lighting into my production as the captured video is very grainy due in part to the insufficient lighting and high ISO settings.

I managed to film my short interviews at a small games and table top meet where people there were players and customers of the clients game. I found this to be a good decision from me and the client as we were able to attract enthusiastic and positive people with knowledge of the game. In my editing of these short vox pops I had to be very hard on the cuts as a lot of the interesting views slurred into other sentences and sounds. I faced another challenge when deciding on where to position the visuals as it was pointed out to me one of the shirts an interviewee had on it a copyrighted logo. As this was the one Unit where we were required to have permission of all things used rather than omit this persons valuable input I opted to experiment and have during my cuts a change in zoom. I did this through the options menu where I could magnify the image and reposition it to align with the rule of threes in cinema to keep its comfortable feel. I kept this aesthetic with the other interviews making a change in position and zoom as without it the changed clips would stand out. In order to have a more natural feel to the interviews and to play agains such harsh cuts I added in muted reaction shots before most new questions which showed expressions of thought and amusement. I think that it was pulled off quite well this was not mentioned in the original brief so there is not much criteria to go off. The client was happy with this as with the production as a whole but he and I both share the same opinion that it feels slightly comical with its cuts.

The target audience was for a general audience displayed in a style that would be familiar and comfortable to competent players of card games. I think this was adhered to in the use of some in genre jargon but the simplicity of the discussion of game so that it was not bogged down in the details which as mentioned by the client are represented in written media. I would improve my focusing with the general audience side by using what I have already produced to see if that would, attract them to my clients game and if they found the video helpful information wise.

Unit 6 Set up and Using Equipment

Set up and Using Recording Equipment

As a part of gathering footage the set up is the key step before actually using it. 

I have previously gained some experience in using lights in a few places.

Making sure that for safety they are plugged in with the socket switched off; Wires are known of there location (secured with duct tape and wrapped around light stands); beware of the heat the lights produce and wait a good amount of time for lights to cool before disassembly. Using good lights to good effect would depend on the situation in a previous post I show studio lighting set ups for the face. Position two or more lights for Ideal conditions at angles which illuminate the subject.

Setting up for camera is something that can be apart of the DSLR's settings and it's positions angles and weather or not it it is on a tripod or other equipment. You set the white balance first in order to get the balance of colours right then onto the three modifiers of light information: ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed. When using tripods you need to make sure that the camera is securely attached to the tripods sleeve and locked in on the top. Before recording you must position the tripod at its right angle and place making sure that the camera atop is stable and preferably level.

Here is my set up for the close up on cards used for my promotional video. You can see the tripod supporting the camera is extended and the angle of the camera is top down vertical to get the cards on a flat surface. In the background I innovated my use of lighting to a small desk lamp which would fit in my workspace. 

Setting up for sound in a studio environment requires that you know which inputs are used for your microphones and for safeties sake having leads on the mic stand wrapped around them. In my uses of voice over throughout the course I have used a condenser microphone with a phantom power electrical current used to power it. With a pop shield attached to the stand I was ready to record whilst someone in the mixing room (or vide versa) has the signal levels tested and inputs into the mixing desk and computer system are ready for record.

My use of Video and Audio equipment is seen throughout my promotional video with cameras positioned with good framing and the use of voice over.