Lesson Reflection

Single camera tracking shot based Music Video try-out.

On our first lesson back to college, as we were learning about music videos we were asked to create a scene from a music video that was a single camera tracing shot. In our group we had Me, Ethan, Stella and Ben. As a group we decided to try and recreate the song sunday from Easy Life. This was because in our group Ben was our actor, Ethan was the camera person and me and Stella were the directors and this was a song that ben knew the words too. We decided on using the green scren in the media studio and have Ben stand infront lypsyncing to the song so we coould match it up to the dong when editing it on later on.

The clips that we managed to get were not the best as we didn't use a dolly to place the camera which would have stabalised the camera and made the shot very smooth. Instead We decided to make our own music video using just a tipod and not include a tracking shot. I think we should have included a tracking shot as that was the whole purpose of the task, and if we had the option to try this again we would definitely use a dolly to add this shot into the music video.

The first youtube vidoe I included is Stella edit to the video and think this is the best edit as she added in alot of backgrounds on the green screen and synced the music well. However, in one of our previous projects we did cover tracking shots and got some footage of Grace going down the corridoor. We recorded this on a camera which was attached to a tripod which went round a persons shoulder. The shoulder tripod isnt as smooth as the dolly but it does give the effect which was wanted in our music video.

Music Video scene recreation project

codes and conventions

In this lesson, we were looking back at different camera shots and angles we learnt when we first started our course. These shots include, High and low angles, Dutch angle, establising shot, full body shots and eye level. Different camera angles and shots are specifically chosen in media to give a paticular effect to the audience. We all of these shots, in our group we had to choose musci videos which featured these shots in them and then go and find a space in the college to be able to recreate it. For example in the Gangnam Style video there is a shot of two men in a lift and one is on the ground with another on top dancing as the elevator door closes. With the college lift we recreated this as a full body shot. I really enjoyed this task as were able to try and match the video completely and we got alot of shots done in this task. I have a page dedicated to this task called codes and conventions whihc featurers all of the original videos and our ones next to it. I also wrote underneath them all what the shot is used for.

Editing to beat tutorial in Premiere Pro

A technique that has been used in music videos is editing the video to the beat of the music. In this lesson we learnt about this technique and some exmaples of videos that have used it. An exmple is stormzys big for your boots which I wrote about in the Technical and symbolic section. In lesson we were given a load of clips which were random footage of a women dribing her car thorugh a city. It had close up clips of her face and the gear stick, it had shots of the outside view of the car and her turning the wheel. With these clips i went through and i cropped the small clips out which were the best and put them all into the timeline randomly. We were then given a sound file of an upbeat song which could be used for a car chase scene. We were asked to edit the footage to the beat of the music, so I played the song and made a key at every beat which is where the clips would switch. Then i made sure that the clips fitted in to every section. I didn't get time to do much of the footage but I exported it onto you tube and added it in here. I think it was good to have a go at doing it ourselves as we got to see how it was like. I found it very satisfying to do and watch.

Creating a B/W effect/tinting your footage/slowing down or speeding up footage/fake stop-motion FX

In this lesson, we were asked to go back onto premier pro and get up the previous scene we edited. This was because we were going to be learning how to add Black and white effect to the footage, how to tint the videos, and how to slow down and speed them up. In the clip I have added in below, I have added in the Black and white filter and also edited the tint a little bit. This is an effect on premier pro that could be helpful in the future if for example I wanted to create for example a Black and white music video.

Creating stop motion footage

In this lesson we were learning about stop motion and how you can create a music video by just using loads of pictures and putting them all together. Me and Ethan went into the art studio and used an umbrella to spin. We used my phone for this on a small tripod and just took hundreds of pictures. I think this could have turned out alot better if we had used a proper camera and tripod so that the quality was better and it was also more stable. As this was a stop motion video the camera needs to be very still to get the best effect. Although our tripod stayed put, it did move a bit which made the footage not look as best as it could. Once we had taken all of our images I uploaded them onto one drive and then imported them in premier pro. I then selected all the photos and set the duration time to 00:00:05 so that when they were put into the timeline, it was very short and the small duration time on each picture made it look more seamlessly like a video and wasnt so jumpy.

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