After seeing our video on the big screen at the Cambridge Picture House, we can finally call our video complete.
Unfortunately, our video had a few issues! The reversed sections were really stuttery, which of course, ruined that element of our video.
Secondly, the actual music sounded very flat and lifeless. This really damaged the mood of the video, and was especially strange as three other songs by the same artist sounded good.
Nevertheless, we received a strong applause and also, members of our group were complimented multiple times by people that had seen it.
We were told that we had good locations, such as when i was sitting by the lion.
There were some impressive shots as well, such the zoom in when Scott was on top of the car park.
Most of our video involved lip syncing and the feedback said that our lip syncing was solid.
At the end of the video you see me (Matt) strum the last chord on the guitar and then walk past. The camera then slides past and the screen goes to white. We were told that this was a good way to end the video and it was liked by everyone.
The song is fairly fast paced and we edited the video to go with the pace of the song. Towards the end of the song we increased the pace of the editing. The feedback said that this was really good and fits well with the video.
Our constructive criticism was that Scott was a little bit random in the video. Some people could not understand why he was included in the video. Perhaps if we hadn't had shots of us singing together it would have been more understood.
Overall we are happy with the feedback we have received because it was mainly positive.
After watching the final edits of each group in our class, we have seen a few techniques we could have applied in our own work. The majority of effects that were different to the ones we used were spooky and eerie effects. Thus we would not use them. Still, a few videos did manage to incorporate effects we either did not have enough time or footage to implement appropriately.
The main effects we would like to have been able to utilise are:
Slowmotion - As seen in group 47's video for 'Texas'
Breaking things - As seen in group 48's video for 'Lewis Parker'
Also, we feel we could have used some more striking motion effects to better create a dynamic visual assembley of colour and shape, which could better grab an audiences interest
Here is our final project file, with our entire timeline in view. We used nine video tracks in total, and two for audio (Left channel and Right channel).
We ensured we colour corrected every single clip to allow for the effective and attention grabbing effect we detailed in our original plans.
Positives: -The walking backwards/reversed shots looked really good. -Lip syncing is very good and some nice camera angles. -Lighting was good and good ideas (especially the cat) -Good settings and extras -Transition to shot of Scott on roof from Matt in corridor looks professional
Areas for improvement: -Vary the shots -Shaky camera looks bad even if the tilt was intentional, perhaps a cut to the tilt would look more professional. -Timing is out on some shots. -Matt stops strumming while the guitar is still playing in the song. -When Matt is in the window the light is behind so, Matt looks dark. -Cant see the lip syncing in some of the window shots. -Camera tilt looks unprofessional. -Possibly use camera effects. -Go back to the original idea of having some of the singing sped up then slowed down to make it seem slow.
During our editing we have decided that we probably have enough footage and will not need to film anymore. We have had a small problem with our editing, whenever we moved ANYTHING we had to render the whole video, start to finish. this gets annoying because we want to watch the video through every now and again. It takes about 10 mins to render the video each time =@.
We have decided not to use any slow motion shots because we are not sure if it will fit with the video and we also believe that we have enough suitable footage already.
Thus, we are abandoning our roughcut plan to use slowmotion while still lipsynched, and instead will be using footage that is only at normal speed.
While we have been editing we have tried to have lots of cuts in the video. Because the song is so upbeat, we have decided to mirror this and use many cuts and shot changes, along with zooms, to allow the pacing to fit the music.
So he was born on June 23 1977, he was raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia. He released his first album in July 2004 titled "Waiting for my rocket to come" On July 26th 2005 he released his second album titled "Mr A-Z" In November 2005 he opened for The Rolling Stones on 5 occasions. Mraz's single "I'm Yours" has been #1 on AAA radio charts in the US for 3 weeks as of 6/15/08.
Studio albums
* Waiting for My Rocket to Come (2002) #55 U.S. (Platinum) * Mr. A-Z (2005) #5 U.S. * We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.[11] (2008) #3 U.S. #110 UK
Awards and nominations Year Award Result 2002 San Diego Music Awards - Best Acoustic Win 2003 San Diego Music Awards - Artist of the Year Win 2003 San Diego Music Awards - Song of the Year Win 2005 Grammy Award - Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Mr. A-Z Nominated
Jason is a 'raw foodist' which means that he eats all his food raw and does not eat anything which has been cooked or processed. [10].
Jason currently lives in San Diego, CA, with his cat Holmes.
We previously sent Jason Mraz a message on both Myspace and Facebook and have still not had a reply. It would have been really helpful to get a comment back from him so we could have some ideas on what he wanted the video to look like. Nevertheless, we will link Mraz our final video.
We had a rather eventful time whilst we were filming. The first event happened when we were setting up for our first shot of the video, we were on limekiln hill and had the camera in the back of my car (so it wouldn't get wet). Then out of nowhere we heard a voice saying hello, both Scott and i turned around to see a police officer standing at the side of my car. "What are you doing then lads" he asked, so we explained to him that we were simply filming for our A2 media music video project. He said " Well that seems like an honest answer seeing as you have a camera in the car". He then went on to explain that there has been a history of drug misuse in the layby where we had parked. We told him he had nothing to worry because we had nothing of the sort on the car, at which point he left us to carry on filming. The second, more traumatic event happened on the second day of filming. Scott and i decided we would film in Cambridge, it had been pouring with rain all day so i had to drive with my lights on, this weather was perfect for the video but not so great because nobody wants a wet camera. We therefore decided that the best place to park would be in the grand arcade car park. So we parked, took the equipment out of the car and went into town. 3 hours later we came back to the car, happy with how filming had gone. I put the key on the drivers side door and went to unlock the car, my door unlocked but none of the others did. We thought nothing of it so, we loaded up the car. I put the key in the ignition and turned it. Nothing. The car wasn't starting. I glanced at the switch for the headlights, it was in the on position. I had left the headlights on for the past 3 hours and guess who had a flat battery. ME! What do we do now? we tried to push start the car but because there was a slight incline in the car park i we couldnt get the car moving fast enough to get it started. Luckily the nicest man in the world drove past and had jump leads. What a hero.
So overall our filming went really well but, there where some eventful moments!
Editing in the music video is almost as essential as the shooting. Unlike normal film-making, editing is what creates the rhythm and feel. Accents in the music need to be represented visually, with sharp cuts and eye catching images. Choosing what to place where is what helps gives the video a personality parallel to the music.
In this video, the song begins with just a low beat. In the video the editing is very slow and steady, showing the setting and the people. When the song begins to pick up and intensify, the video starts editing very quickly in between the setting. Toward the end of the song, there is a low quiet breakdown in which the motion in editing becomes a lot slower, making the returning chorus a lot more effective.
These video focus a lot more on the performance aspect of the video. The first video is rhythmically very odd, and usually one shot will be reveresed and played forward in rapid succession to create the unease of the music. When the rhythm becomes more straight-forward, the editing stays with just one shot and becomes steadier. Toward the end, the huge distorted wall of bass comes in. This is where juxtaposition of a slow motion shot helps to create an odd contrast in the song.
This video has simply one setting and a number of performers. The simplicity of the video is really what gives it its charm, and the rhythm in the performance is what emphasizes the song.
This helps us to understand that performance in the video can be just as important as the editing.
Editing, however, is going to be a big part of making our video. As we have had a very accelarated shooting schedule, it is difficult to focus on any smaller aspects of performance. I imagine shooting will be simply performing the song in one whole take at each time, which means that cutting these together will be key to creating the best video possible.
This is a picture of some punts in Cambridge. For one of our shots we were thinking it would look good to have me playing the guitar while standing in one of these.
This is a picture of the windmill in Fulbourn. In one of our shots i will be standing in this field singing the song. We think this is a good location because it fits in with the song.
This is a picture of the lion statues outside the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge. For one of our shots i will be sitting on the lion to the left. I will be playing my guitar and singing the song.
Overall our feedback was largely positive. We were given a 21 out of 30 for our 'overall assesment'. The main points re-enforced our current targets with our blog, and have motivated us to add more posts and resarch we have done.
The main points were:
Location shots More Posts Conventions Shotlist
We will now attack these and will have completed our research and planning phase before the rough cut deadline.
After gathering feedback from the other groups regarding the quality of our blog, we have come up with 3 targets as a means to improve our blog.
1. We intend to include more technical detail. Much of the feedback talked about the lack of emphasis on the technical design of our project, as in not including enough shots in our planning, or how we were going to achieve the motion effects. In the production and post production process, we shall hopefully discuss these more emphatically.
2. We will make the visual element of the video clearer to see. What we have missed from much of the blog is talk of props, costumes, locations in favour of examining other music video and Jason Mraz websites. Hopefully, it should read by the end of the project as instructions on how to make the video exactly the same.
3. We will keep a continuity to our posts. There is an element of drifting from focus in the blog. For example, a post about locations could be followed by a post about our visual influences. If more frequent, concise posts focusing on our progress are published, then we should paint a better picture of how the video will be.
In our sequence we will require few, if any props. Hopefully the locations that we choose to shoot at will create much of the visual feel for us. We will, however, need some props to help propel the mood of the song, and obviously give something for the star of the video to interact with. We have some concepts and ideas we may wish to use in our final piece.
Props-
-Camera -Umbrella (If it raining, this will help us to get the watery/light effect we desire but we obviously do not want the camera to get wet, so this essential) -Guitar (Potentially important to represent the musical elements of the song visually.One shot we were hoping to get was a slow motion shot of a guitar being smashed, but this type of shot would only be achievable out of the luck of finding a guitar which we can use, as they can be very expensive.)
Most of the aesthetic should come from the more organic elements of the surroundings. As long as we shoot plenty of footage which may simply show the surroundings and the environment, the trick of getting the video right will be in the editing
This video is going to be a strong influence on our own. Through watching this we have anchored the idea to use lots of motion in our camerawork. We will also use slowmotion and lots of cuts and shots, almost at random to best tell our story and make our visual stimulus the strongest it can be.
As we were beginning to bring our ideas together, we took a variety of different influences from other videos. The difficulties of visualizing a video is creating an aestetical template to work around, or having a guide line to follow in order to make it seamless.
One artist we though had a similiar music style to Jason Mraz was Jack Johnson. Johnson, however, has a more thematic writing style which he usually puts into his video. Themes such as surfing and beaches are commonplace in his videos. Although this does not directly influence our video, it is clear to notice a motif or continuity in his videos, and these patterns are things that we can take influence from.
We also watched a lot of Parkour videos. The interesting aspect here is the way the city and urban buildings are used. We are intending to use or film around urban buildings, and the dynamics that are in the parkour videos reall exhibit the environment well.
Jason 's Myspace is mostly cream in colour, featuring a minimalist aestetic and simple design. The page shows drawing and a 'sketchbook' feel which fits well with Mraz's acoustic sound.
Mraz has a large number of tour dates up, along with a sizeable number of page views. This shows that he is a popular artist. The myspace layout compliments this by being easy to use and simple to find information you might be looking for. Jason also has a music video of his on his myspace, which we will analyise to further develop our own ideas.
Scott has used a video as a potential example of how we would like to edit and pace our own video. This video is his friend Teg's latest Parkour video, the parts in question in paticular are the opening and first song in general.
This is the Bridge Of Sighs in Cambridge. we think that its archaic architecture and rustic quality would make it a good setting for parts of the video, possibly with whoever will be miming on the bridge, but shot away from the bridge.
This is the exterior of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Similiarly, this has a very natural, relaxed feel yet has a modern quality. We feel that this will make for a good contrast to the bridge.
This is the whale skeleton at the Zoology museum. This setting will look visually very different from the others, completely differing from the bright, vibrant settings of the other two.
Bridge Of Sighs - St. John's College
Fitzwilliam Museum Trumpington St Cambridge, CB2 1RB
We have now uploaded our animatic for the first minute of our video "On love, In sadness" by Jason Mraz.
We then analysed 'Wonderwall' by Oasis to see how many cuts and shots are in a professional final music video. In the Oasis video in the first 55 seconds (the same length as our anamatic).
16 individual shots 26 cuts
When we first watched our animatic back we realised it doesn't look like a proper music video. It doesn't seem as if there is enough happening but now we have done some research we have found that all we have to do is add more cuts and a few more shots.
Our original anamatic had 10 shots and 10 cuts, no reusing any shots.
To rectify this we have re-edited our anamatic with a few more visual effects and repeated shots, just like how in our video we will be re-using angles in different parts of the song, just like a professional video would.
To film this we may record the ENTIRE song for a majority of our shots, so we have complete freedom for editing, this may cause problems; however, as we may have TOO much and difficulty editing to a concise and concentrated piece.
Here is our revised anamatic.
Shots 10 Cuts 14
While 4 extra cuts may not seem like a lot, the pacing of the anamatic is remarkably better and the production feels much higher quality.
Now we have re-edited and with the use of motion and more cuts and repeated shots we have made a more dynamic anamatic which can better reflect what we wish to accomplish with our final piece.
Slowmotion: After undertaking our water droplet test, we deliberated and analysed what we could plausible do with the cameras. Unfortunately, our cameras cannot shoot fast enough to capture the slowmotion footage in a format that would be suitable for us, thus we are forced to abandon this idea. We still hope to utilise similiar principles yet without such striking time effects.
Reverse: We also planned to use a thematic from the Pharcydes 'Drop' video, in which the song is learnt and the video recorded backwards, then when the footage is reversed, the artists appear to be singing in normal time, with the rest of the world in reverse. We reversed the song yet found it to be too warbled to attempt to learn in reverse, so instead we will use the idea and peform reversed shots, just without lip synching. We can then use these shots either in instrumental parts of the song, or over lyrics and then simply have only certian shots with lip sync, as it is not mandatory to lip sync every shot.
One idea for the opening shot was to have a water droplet on the opening beat. We found some really good slow motion videos of water droplets on "youtube" and then we decided we would do a test shot for the water droplet. We found that our camera couldn't go fast enough to film the water droplet and then be able to slow it down to look as slow as we wanted.
Here are the videos of the water droplet which we tried to copy and the water droplet test.
Heres the video we got the idea from of having things in slow motion. Seeing the shape of the balloon in the water made us want to try and recreate this in our video.
We made a storyboard and then scanned it into the computer. Using Final Cut, we animated and timed this collection of images into an anamatic which we can use as a rough guide for our piece, so we have a stronger direction of narrative and theme.
Opening Shot- Water running into a drain then comming back out.
Shots 2&3- A shot of a droplet of water falling and splashing (hopefully in slow motion if we can make it work)
Shot 4- Main character (singer) walking towards the camera whilst singing.
Shot 5- Main character walking away with his back to the camera.
Shot 6- This will be the first shot when we play with the speed of the music. We will slow the music down, the singer will sing along to it when its slow with traffic on the background. We will then speed the shot up again and hopefully it will look like the singer is singing at normal speed while the traffic is moving really fast behind him.
Shot 7- This is the shot where we poor water over the camera and have the singer walk infront of it. We could play this is both forward and reverse, this way the water will go back up the screen.
Shot 8- In this shot the singer will be filmed walking backwards through a busy street (not singing*), We will then reverse the footage so it will look like the singer is the only person walking in the right direction. *We decided that it would be too difficult to learn the words backwards and would waste time also we thought it could come out really badly if we dont get it right o we think it would look more proffessional if we dont sing in this shot.
Shot 9- This shot hasnt been fully decided yet becuase it coul cause a few problems. Our original idea for this would be to smash a guitar on the floor and play it in slow motion. There are a few problems with this. We would have to buy a guitar only to smash it again, we would only get one chance to shoot the shot and would have to get it right, we have done some tests with slow motion and have found that our camera doesnt have a fast enough framerate.
Shot 10- We have a guitar in the singers hand and drop it on the floor. This will then be reversed so it looks like the guitar is flying up into his hand.
One initial idea was to have Scott jump into the river, akin to the James Blunt video for "You're Beautiful". However, in further research, we discovered that: For students' own protection, Clare College has banned entry into the Cam from any college property, including the bridge and river banks. In May 2006, there was a terrible accident in which a student nearly died after falling on to a broken punt pole hidden below the surface of the river. Students should recognise that the river is potentially extremely dangerous, because it contains submerged bicycles and other objects, is muddy and weedy, and can carry diseases; the risk of drowning is especially high after eating or drinking alcohol. In addition, it is illegal to swim in the river along the Backs apart from places that have been specifically authorised by the Cam Conservators; jumping into the river from a bridge or a boat is also illegal if it causes annoyance or risks injuring anyone. As this is a major health and safety issue, any transgressions will be regarded very seriously.
Due to this, we have decided jumping in the river is not a good idea.
What i think is most important to the music video we are creating or any music video is the visual representation of an artist and his song. I feel that some music videos which go for a narrative approach over a unique look generally fail to create a memorable image that can primarily exhibit and secondarily advertise.
In this music video for R.E.M's Losing My Religion, director Tarsem Singh and band frontman Micheal Stipe are the creative source behind the composition. Stipe envisioned a mere performance video of the band, whilst Singh wanted to bring a more exotic look to the video. What is evident here is the isolation and closed-off mood of the song, which is shown through a plain room in which Stipe sings. Yet, we also see a lot of Indian imagery, undoubtedly a product of director Singh's nationality and influences. The video is artistic without being overly flamboyant, but really carries through an edge which parallels perfectly with the song.
One big idea for our music video was to have a water theme. I think this is the perfect opportunity to express the colour and reflective nature of the song. Because of the unpredictable way in which water moves, we can use it to create interesting light effects with the camera. I would say that the song has a similiarly fluid nature and the water will work well as an rhythmical counterpart
This stock footage shows the way in which a bright light becomes completely twisted and distort by water. It makes for a really eye-capturing motif in music videos, and i think will work well in ours.
Another idea of the video was to shoot in slow or fast motion, syncing words to the track slower or faster and then returning the footage to normal speed. Obviously, the video will not be a stop motion video, but may look similar to this:
Stop motion often creates a completely unnatural feel to footage, and is extremely eye catching. If we can re-create these effects with live action, we will have the perfect chance for something more standout.
Our feedback was largely positive, our main point to develop was our narrative and locations. This is what we anticipated and we are pleased that our core idea is suitably executable. Good ideas which came from feedback were: Use rain in the video and make it either slower or fall backwards. Use a river so the water looks like its not moving very fast. Use busy roads to film traffic and make it go faster or slower. Use a busy street and walk backwards so when you replay it in reverse it looks like everyone is walking backwards except for the main character. We think using water in the video would be a good idea because there are lots of references to water in the song.
For this production we plan to use an eclectic mix of camera technuiques, hopefully to allow us to create many effects and atmospheres in one video. Secondly, using such advanced camerawork will allow us to create a profressional piece, especially once coupled with costume and narrative.
Our Target Audience is mid-teens of both sexes. We aim to use a smart/casual fashion style to better identify with said audience, and will employ relaxed framing and lighting to make our video easy on the eyes, yet we plan to use lots of colour and contrast to give the video a more attention grabbing thematic.
This effect is achieved by lip syncing at 200% speed of the song, then playing the song at 100% speed and the video at 50% speed. Thus the video is slow motion but the song is lip synced correctly.
Here are the lyrics to the song. Scott has learnt the entire song and Matt knows the vast majority of it. As Tom will be filming he does not need to learn it; however, chances are he will know some of it sooner or later.
On Love, In Sadness Lyrics by Jason Mraz & Jenny Keene
Sing about that oh love it's a brittle madness, I sing about it in all my sadness Not falsified to say that I found God so Inevitably well it still exists. Pale and fine I can't dismiss And I won't resist and if I die well, at least I tried
And we just lay awake in lust and rust in the rain And pore over everything we say we trust Well it happened again, I listened in through hallways and thin doors Where the rivers unwind, rust and the rain endure. The rust and the rain so thin Well I'm in like Flynn again (I'm in)
So go on place your order now cause some other time is right around the clock You can stand in line well it finally begins oh just around the block You can have your pick if your stomach is sick whether you eat or not And there is just one thing that I almost forgot
Oh, see, you and me, we lay awake in lust and rust in the rain And pore over everything we say we trust Well it happened again, I listened in through hallways and thin doors Where the rivers unwind, the rivers unwind so easy Oh, these are the comforts that be
You see, well, I'm feeling lucky oh well, maybe that's just me Well you'd be(so)proud of me oh well, if you could only see How we're gonna grow on up to be, Ah yes we are thick as thieves
Sing about that oh love it's a brittle madness, I sing about it in all my sadness It's not falsified to say that I found God so Inevitably, well it still exists so pale and fine I can't dismiss And I won't resist and if I die well at least I tried
And we just lay awake in lust and rust in the rain And pore over everything we say we trust Well it happened again, I listened in through hallways and thin doors Where the rivers unwind and the rust and the rain endure The rust and the rain endure, I'm sure.
Because I'm insofar to know the measure of love ain't lost, love will never, ever be- Insofar to know, the measure of love ain't lost, love will never, ever be- Insofar to know, the measure of love ain't lost, love will never, ever be lost on me
Oh not tonight, said love will never ever be lost on me. (Love will...) never ever be lost on me (Love) will not be Love will never be lost on me Love...will...not...be...lost..on...me.
Our group is Tom, Matt and Scott. The song we are planning on doing a music video for is the song On Love, In Sadness by Jason Mraz. Alternatively, the other option is to do 101 pianos by Lewis Parker.
We have no solid ideas yet, but we were thinking of possibly filming in town, around the streets, going for style over story.
Jason Mraz
