Equipment - Filming, Editing and Props, and their effect on my production.

For my Music Video project, I used different equipment to film and edit my piece. For filming, I used a Sony HVR-HD1000E Camera with Tape, and then my iPhone 4S with Hyperlapse. For Editing, I used Final Cut Express on a Mac computer. I also utilised a wide array of props to aid the narrative and discuss different ideas as well as create intertextuality. 

Filming

Equipment: Sony HVR-HD1000E Camera, Standard Definition Tape, iPhone 4S, Hyperlapse Application 

 

Reasons: I used the Sony HVR Camcorder as it was easy to use, and was provided by the college and so was practical. I could film in 480p with the camera with although not ideal was still good quality and allowed for smooth, steady shots to be filmed, and it is manoeuvrable so it would be easy to film in the main locations and capture some interesting shots. For smaller, impromptu shoots when the main camera was not avaialble, I switched to my iPhone 4S' camera. This camera shoots in 1080p which is a higher quality, but is less stable and more susceptible to smaller movements and other subtle changes in the composition of the image. Hence, I downloaded and used the application "Hyperlapse", produced by the makers of Instagram, which automatically stabilises video footage with the purpose to make time-lapse videos, but with the option to slow the video down to it's original speed. This allowed me to film both time-lapses for the start of the video and then shots from smaller shoots that were simply dropped into my timeline on Final Cut as the core of the shots were there from the main camera. The downside of this was the constant rendering of these clips, but it was far more practical and at no loss of quality.

Props

• Mobile Phone

• Notepad & Pen

• Posters & CDs

• Bible

• Beer Bottle

• Car

• Textbooks and Essay

• Vase of Flowers

I used each of these props to convey different aspects of the video through the mise-en-scene. The Mobile Phones were pertinent to the narrative and hence contributing towards understanding the characters relationships and contact. Without conversation, as the sound in a video is almost entirely the sound, the phone indicates conversation occurring without the presence of both characters and the audience recognizes this. The Notepad & Pen are used to convey Elliott's character's state of mind, and the way in which he conveys his emotion, and they also are a fitting expression of his rage in the penultimate section of the video. The Posters & CDs in both rooms lend themselves towards the significance of intertextuality and allow the target audience from my audience research to identify with the characters through their music, TV and film interests. The Bible is a fitting prop in the Church section and fits in with the lyrical themes of losing hope, in the religious context of the song/band, and Elliott closing the Bible is perhaps indicative of a loss of faith. The Beer Bottle shown at the start is another interesting prop I use to create a sub-narrative- half drank, it is depicted during the lyric "I've got a real bad habit", indicating a potential drinking problem, discussing an issue of modern society which is alcohol abuse and the reasons for this, which, as conveyed through the other props and narrative, include hopelessness, depression and self-depreciation. Regarding Tom's character, the car is a useful prop as it resembles the lengths to which his friends will go to find him and also creates a link between locations. Regarding Ria's character, the textbooks and essay is shown before the last chorus as she discards them and looks at the vase of flowers, pertinent to the narrative, as by this stage we assume that they were given to her by Elliott's character and that she cannot concentrate due to the preceding argument. The props used throughout strongly aid the narrative and allow the plot and ideas to be clearly or subtly illustrated.

Editing

Equipment: Final Cut Express, Mac Computer

Reasons: I used Final Cut on the College Macs for my AS project and found the interface easy to use and organised with a variety of extra editing features to enhance my project. I was familiar with the software and hence did not have to learn how alternate softwares like Adobe CS6 After Effects operated. The clips from the Sony Camera did not need to be constantly rendered and re-rendered, making it easy and quick to create, and I only used the iPhone shots for supporting shots which would render quickly.

Here is a screen grab of my project in Final Cut. As you can see at the bottom, I locked my audio layers so that adding in new clips did not move the clips around, and then locked video layers as sections were completed. The top left displays a "Bin", or folder in Final Cut, where I store clips from a specific shoot, the one in question here is the shoot with Ria.

Above here are a further two screenshots illustrating the organisation of clips into "Bins" for the shoots in the main window in the top left. Clips were all renamed so I knew what they were as soon as I imported them into the Library, making them easy to access and organised. I felt this worked well as I could simply drop clips in where there were gaps, and the quality is turning out well.

I also made use of other editing features in my project. I used a variety of dissolve transitions throughout where jump cuts were not neccessary due to the pace and nature of the instrumental, and then preferred the use of jump cuts in the faster section. I also made use of make-shift transitions by adjusting the opacity of clips over time- the screen grab to the left is from when Tom's character is in the tree during the first chorus. In this section, I also adjusted the scale and rotation of the shots to make sure that the transitions did not cause the central tree to move, and only Tom's character warped around the shots. I also used audio effects like Gain and Colour Levels to enhance specific aspects of the shots, i.e. I had a Gain on the diegetic noises of the seatbelt and car starting up.

Overall I feel that the filming and editing process was very successful and that I have progressed from AS, leading nicely on to the evaluation section of my blog.