Tuesday, 8 February 2011
I spoke to Amy at break time today to catch up on things. She said that neither her or Sophie had done any editing or group posts as they didn't want to do anything without me. I then said that I thought that we should film tomorrow, and as the weather has been improving and exams have now finished we could film some outdoor footage. Amy agreed and said that she'd organise booking a camera as her form room is in the media block. I facebooked Sophie once I was home as I hadn't seen her around school, and told her our rough idea about filming during our double media lesson tomorrow, and arranged to meet her in the common room after period one's lesson.
The next lesson, period 4 on Monday 7th of February, I was absent as I had an interview for Oxford Brookes so later on today I need to find Amy and/or Sophie to see what progress they've made. I also intend to suggest filming tomorrow morning during our double lesson; similarly to last week. I know it's last minute so they might not be able to make it, and even if they can we might not have access to a suitable camera, but it's worth a try. If not we can continue editing the footage we recorded last week.
In addition, I'd like to suggest going to see a drama teacher as soon as possible to set a solid slot for us to use the drama studio, with the guarantee of access to appropriate lighting.
In addition, I'd like to suggest going to see a drama teacher as soon as possible to set a solid slot for us to use the drama studio, with the guarantee of access to appropriate lighting.
(02/02/11)
More Filming
Today we have organised two more filming sessions. Sophie unfortunately has a psychology exam over our double lesson on Wednesday, so me and Amy are taking the entire morning to continue filming in her bedroom, and hopefully outdoors in the field as it's becoming sunnier.
(07/02/11)
Overall, today was productive.
(08/02/11)
Filming Session 2
On Wednesday morning, the weather was unfortunetly far too cold to film outside, especially as the clips were supposed to take place during the summer. My costume for that involves purely a thin white dress - so it was a no-go. Instead, we continued recording in Amy's bedroom, and managed to complete filming footage for the lines:
She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it
I think her ever present frown is a little troubling
Sophisticiation isn't what you wear or who you know
Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go
But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity
She's not a saint and she's not what you think she's an actress, woah
She's better know for the things that she does on the matress, woah
Ha ha
That Wednesday afternoon, Amy had a free period so she went to the media department and transfered our morning's recordings to our designated imac work station, so that the footage was ready to convert and import early the next morning and we could focus more on editing rather than all waiting for the data to transfer - wasting time.The next morning, me and Sophie converted and imported the videos to Final Cut Express. This ended up taking the majority of the lesson as the files had combined with our old files so we tried seperating them again, and converted and imported some, before realising we'd missed some vital footage. Then, we decided to start from fresh and convert and import all the files so that none were missing. This was more thorough but time consuming. By the time this was done, we only had time to view the videos and begin cutting and editing a few lines, and not to the standard we're aiming for.Just these eight lines took approximately four hours to produce. We had to reconstruct the mise-en-scene to look identical to how it had been at our previous session; details from which dresses go where, to my hair being curled in the same way, etc. This took long enough; then figuring out how to transfer our ideas to reality wasn't all smooth. We had planned for the line: Sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know, to take place infront of the mirror, with a sequence of jump cuts to create the impression that the outfits are changing in sync with the music - a post-modern idea in the hopes that it's preferred reading would be that the main character is trying on different outfits; adhering to the stereotypes and ideology of gender - females are forever trying on clothes - materialistic society.
Thursday 10th however, it turns out, is being used for A2 drama rehearsals and performances so it's unavailable to us being media studies students; meaning that we'll be set back another week.In order to keep things going and continue making progress, we have agreed once more to continue filming at Amy's house on Wednesday 11th to hopefully finish off our need for that location. If the weather is warmer, hopefully brighter, and more promising, we will take advantage of it by changing our plans to film the diary footage over some open fields situated near by to mine and Amy's houses. Our next filming session had been booked for later that day after school, Thursday 3rd February, however as Sophie at the last minute could not make this session, and there was a chance that we may not be able to access the lighting needed for an ideal construction of our "live performance" footage we decided to postpone it until the following Thursday.
More Filming
Today we have organised two more filming sessions. Sophie unfortunately has a psychology exam over our double lesson on Wednesday, so me and Amy are taking the entire morning to continue filming in her bedroom, and hopefully outdoors in the field as it's becoming sunnier.
(07/02/11)
Overall, today was productive.
(08/02/11)
Filming Session 2
On Wednesday morning, the weather was unfortunetly far too cold to film outside, especially as the clips were supposed to take place during the summer. My costume for that involves purely a thin white dress - so it was a no-go. Instead, we continued recording in Amy's bedroom, and managed to complete filming footage for the lines:
She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it
I think her ever present frown is a little troubling
Sophisticiation isn't what you wear or who you know
Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go
But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity
She's not a saint and she's not what you think she's an actress, woah
She's better know for the things that she does on the matress, woah
Ha ha
That Wednesday afternoon, Amy had a free period so she went to the media department and transfered our morning's recordings to our designated imac work station, so that the footage was ready to convert and import early the next morning and we could focus more on editing rather than all waiting for the data to transfer - wasting time.The next morning, me and Sophie converted and imported the videos to Final Cut Express. This ended up taking the majority of the lesson as the files had combined with our old files so we tried seperating them again, and converted and imported some, before realising we'd missed some vital footage. Then, we decided to start from fresh and convert and import all the files so that none were missing. This was more thorough but time consuming. By the time this was done, we only had time to view the videos and begin cutting and editing a few lines, and not to the standard we're aiming for.Just these eight lines took approximately four hours to produce. We had to reconstruct the mise-en-scene to look identical to how it had been at our previous session; details from which dresses go where, to my hair being curled in the same way, etc. This took long enough; then figuring out how to transfer our ideas to reality wasn't all smooth. We had planned for the line: Sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know, to take place infront of the mirror, with a sequence of jump cuts to create the impression that the outfits are changing in sync with the music - a post-modern idea in the hopes that it's preferred reading would be that the main character is trying on different outfits; adhering to the stereotypes and ideology of gender - females are forever trying on clothes - materialistic society.
Thursday 10th however, it turns out, is being used for A2 drama rehearsals and performances so it's unavailable to us being media studies students; meaning that we'll be set back another week.In order to keep things going and continue making progress, we have agreed once more to continue filming at Amy's house on Wednesday 11th to hopefully finish off our need for that location. If the weather is warmer, hopefully brighter, and more promising, we will take advantage of it by changing our plans to film the diary footage over some open fields situated near by to mine and Amy's houses. Our next filming session had been booked for later that day after school, Thursday 3rd February, however as Sophie at the last minute could not make this session, and there was a chance that we may not be able to access the lighting needed for an ideal construction of our "live performance" footage we decided to postpone it until the following Thursday.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Monday, 10 January 2011
Filming Session 1
Yesterday we filmed for the first time. Unfortunately Sophie couldn't make it, but she said that me and Amy should make a start on things without her. We reserved the entire day for filming, as we were unsure of the time frame it would take.
The first part we filmed was at my house, for the lines:
I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey,
You might have him but haven't you heard
...
Do you still feel like you know what you're doing
We decided on this part first as this was the only part Amy needed to be in costume for, so we wanted to get it out the way. This was our first time using the equipment properly - the new camera and a different tripod to our preliminary video. It took me a while to get used to the equipment, i accidently recorded the floor for a while, however once I got the hang of it the rest worked well. We closely followed my story board for this as it had been carefully choreographed for the teddy to be hit on "roll", and for Amy to be on the phone at "haven't you heard". We found it difficult to start on time and for Amy to walk and perform each action insync. We hadn't planned how her phone was going to ring at the right moment, so at the last minute I grabbed my sister and asked her to call Amy. We changed my sister's name in Amy's phonebook to "Guy" - Rhys' character's name. We knew it would be a small detail and would probably go unnoticed, but we needed it to be professional, accurate and to build a sense of realism in this scene.
Filming Amy walking down the stairs didn't work as I'd planned, however it ended up better. I'd hoped to track her walking down the stairs by using zoom on the camera, however, the camera went extremely blurry. Instead, I decided to follow her myself, downstairs and stopped as she approached the door. This resulted in bumpy, jolted camera work, which can in fact be good and look intentional in music videos - luckily!
Yesterday we filmed for the first time. Unfortunately Sophie couldn't make it, but she said that me and Amy should make a start on things without her. We reserved the entire day for filming, as we were unsure of the time frame it would take.
The first part we filmed was at my house, for the lines:
I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey,
You might have him but haven't you heard
...
Do you still feel like you know what you're doing
We decided on this part first as this was the only part Amy needed to be in costume for, so we wanted to get it out the way. This was our first time using the equipment properly - the new camera and a different tripod to our preliminary video. It took me a while to get used to the equipment, i accidently recorded the floor for a while, however once I got the hang of it the rest worked well. We closely followed my story board for this as it had been carefully choreographed for the teddy to be hit on "roll", and for Amy to be on the phone at "haven't you heard". We found it difficult to start on time and for Amy to walk and perform each action insync. We hadn't planned how her phone was going to ring at the right moment, so at the last minute I grabbed my sister and asked her to call Amy. We changed my sister's name in Amy's phonebook to "Guy" - Rhys' character's name. We knew it would be a small detail and would probably go unnoticed, but we needed it to be professional, accurate and to build a sense of realism in this scene.
Filming Amy walking down the stairs didn't work as I'd planned, however it ended up better. I'd hoped to track her walking down the stairs by using zoom on the camera, however, the camera went extremely blurry. Instead, I decided to follow her myself, downstairs and stopped as she approached the door. This resulted in bumpy, jolted camera work, which can in fact be good and look intentional in music videos - luckily!
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Iconic Image
At home one evening I shared a conversation with my sister about Taylor Swift, as she'd been to see her before in concert. She mentioned that she plays the guitar and usually does, and that she always has the number 13 on her hand. My sister didn't know why; so interested, I googled it and found out that it is because 13 is her lucky number. I told Amy and Sophie what I'd discovered and strongly suggested that we should feature it in our music video, even though it's subtle it is iconic and could be decoded by dedicated Taylor Swift fans. It's always good to have detailed aspects of music videos that perhaps not everybody would notice or decode with the preferred reading right away. It makes the video interesting to watch multiple times.
Iconic ImageIn order to compose a successful, believable music video, we recognised that we should use alusions to reference taylor swift. I googled her to see what would come up, but there was nothing very iconic that stood out. I then thought about her in her music videos to see how I'd picture her. I pictured her with curly hair and in a white dress. I then googled this and realised that she is primarily dressed in a white dress. I made sure that I shared this with the others and added it to a costume list. I ordered a white dress online (right image) as I didn't have one already, and I made a mental note that I should curl my hair for the video. Featuring these two subtle costume ideas should transfer the iconic image of Taylor Swift to our audience.
Organising filming sessions
In order to organise dates and times in a way that we can all comprehend easily, I decided it would be a good idea to do things in a typed up format. Therefore, as we all have each other on Facebook I created a message to get the ball rolling. We had discussed details of dates, times and locations in class, but with all three of us coming up with a muddle of reasons as to when and why we can't do things, and with exams and revision being important to factor in, it hadn't really be very useful. By using Facebook, we selected the day with no problem and a time followed even more easily. It was a successful way of organising ourselves.
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