Final Production

Here is a copy of our final production for our music video to the song "New York City" by The Chainsmokers:

Focus Group Feedback:

Phoebe: "I think the girls have made this video look really cool! The corrections which were needed after the first and second drafts have been made, the final product looks really refined the concept is definitely there."

James: "The quality of the final product is understandably a lot higher than the first two drafts. I really like the transitions used and the reversed sequences. I like the fact they've gone off path from their plans in order to avoid continuity issues as I think is shows how versatile they are as a group."

Alex: "This is still completely different to the storyboard but it works. The girls have obviously worked hard and spent time on fixing the issues and I like that they kept putting new ideas in there. I really understand the concept and storyline of the music video and it fits well with the song."

Scarlett: "It was a promising first draft and an even better second draft, this final product is an even better outcome. The audio goes with the visuals and you can see that links are being made. I am really glad the jumpy cuts have been fixed and the music video is more visually enjoyable now."

Ben: "I really love the emotions Phoebe is portraying in the music video and it goes really well with the song. The whole concept works really well and I can easily understand what is going on. I like the use of different shots and angles to portray different messages and meanings and I really like the underlying messages which have connections with the song."

Teacher Feedback: 

Mr Kerrigan: "I like the idea behind your narrative; there is a clear sense of progression, and it ties-in well with the song. The idea of a literal journey that parallels an emotional journal is a well-established convention of story-telling, and it works well here. I particularly like the night-time shots; they match the tone and mood of the song. There is a nice transition between the day-time and night-time scenes; the use of speeding up the footage in post-production editing works well and is an effective way of time-shifting. I like that there is a sense repeatability in your video; whilst the story makes sense after the first viewing, subsequent viewings allow the viewer to pick up on subtle details, which allow for a more developed understanding."

Personal Reflection:

"I really love how the final product has turned out. I think the storyline and concept is there and the different shots show the meaning and messages really well throughout. I like the colour throughout as it is really natural and un-manipulated. I like that when we encountered issues such as the lip-syncing not linking up we used different editing skills to fix the issue. The transitions have been fixed in some parts and other shots have been recut in order to make the video appear more fluid and natural. I am really proud of Phoebe, our actress, as her emotions both facially and bodily were expressed successfully throughout and really fit with the song. I am proud of the links made between the visual and audio as it was something we considered really important when planning the video. Overall I am extraordinarily happy with how the video has turned out and how our editing skills have developed as the process went on."

Second Draft of Final Music Video

Here is a copy of our second draft for our music video to the song "New York City" by The Chainsmokers:

https://youtu.be/XLgVNqtle_4 

Focus Group Feedback:

Phoebe: "I think the girls have made this video look really cool and it is getting better and better! The corrections which were needed after the first draft have been made, there is some refining to go but the concept is definitely there."

James: "The quality of the second draft is a lot higher than the first. I really like the transitions used and the reversed sequences. I like the fact they've gone off path from their plans in order to avoid continuity issues as I think is shows how versatile they are as a group."

Alex: "This is still completely different to the storyboard but it works. The girls have obviously worked hard and spent time on fixing the issues and I like that they keep putting new ideas in there. I think it is almost at completion but will look even better with refinement."

Scarlett: "It was a promising first draft and an even better second draft. The audio goes with the visuals and you can see that links are being made. I am really glad the jumpy cuts have been fixed and the music video is more visually enjoyable now."

Ben: "I really love the emotions Phoebe is portraying in the music video and it goes really well with the song. The whole concept works really well and I really look forward to seeing how the final product turns out."

Personal Reflection:

"I like this draft even better as we have fixed a lot of the issues we faced and were left with in the first draft. I like that the transitions make viewing a lot smoother and more enjoyable. I really like the reversed footage as I think it successfully shows a reflective theme which occurs in the video. We still have to fix a couple of issues and make the overall quality a lot more refined, but it is definitely near completion and is on the right track."

First Draft of Final Music Video

Here is a copy of our first draft for our music video to the song "New York City" by The Chainsmokers:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go-g_XZ1o40

Focus Group Feedback:

Phoebe: "I think the girls have made this video look really cool and as its first draft there are obviously corrections which need to be made and the shots are all quite jumpy but you can see the concept is coming together."

James: "You can tell it is still only a draft as there is a lot of refining to be done. None the less I think the sequencing is cool and works. The lighting also works well and I like the fact they've gone off path from their plans."

Alex: "This is completely different to the storyboard but it works. It is obvious the girls ran into a few problems and have solved them well. I like that they have new ideas in there and I think it is coming together nicely and will look even better with refinement."

Scarlett: "It's a promising first draft. The audio goes with the visuals and you can see that links are trying to be made. As the work progresses hopefully you will be able to see them more clearly and hopefully the jump cuts will be fixed."

Ben: "Phoebe looks awesome as the actress in this music video and I think that the instruction from the group during filming has really payed off because it has resulted in a strong product. There is more work to be done which is quite clear but none the less it looks awesome so far!"

Personal Reflection:

"For a first draft and considering we were thrown into the deep end with a new editing software, I think it turner out quite well. There is a lot of refining to do but I think it is on the right track. When we first started editing we faced a lot of problems and had to recreate a plan as we had to flip our storyboard to avoid continuity issues. We need to fix a couple of visual parts so that they sync with the audio and we can make the lyric-visual connection. However, I am very pleased with the direction in which our music video is taking."

Editing Journal + Reflection

DAY 1:

Day one of editing was actually quite stressful. We had initially wanted to use Final Cut Pro 7 as our editing software however the computer we were using didn't have it downloaded, therefore instead of moving computers we chose to use Adobe Premier Pro as our editing software. We started off by uploading all of our footage to a folder on the desktop and then proceeded to transfer our footage to Adobe. We spent a long time going through all of the different takes before coming to a decision over which shots we were going to use. When inserting the clips onto the timeline in our initial planned order we realised we had a lot of lighting issues and this would have an impact on the consistency. Therefore we came to the decision to flip our storyboard and work with the lighting we had instead of panicking and refilling - something we didn't want to do unless it was an ultimate necessary. We did try to link up the lyrics and visuals in the lip-syncing in the forest however it didn't work as Phoebe's mouthing of the lyrics wasn't clear. Therefore we decided to just leave it for now and come back to it another day where we had a fresh head. We also finished constructing a preliminary timeline, with no clips cut, just so that they were in order.

 

DAY 2:
During our second day of editing which consisted of two hours, we were a lot more optimistic regardless of the issues we were bound to encounter. We started off by cutting the rest of the clips in the timeline to the time in which we wanted them and filled in any gaps we had in the timeline. In order to stick to our plan and not just throw footage in to kill time we manipulated the speed of the clips to either go faster or slower, depending on the clip and the context in which it was. It was also important that the visuals fit with the lyrics and audio.
When we came back to the lip-syncing we decided to use the longer clip we had twice and reverse it the second up.
An idea we had from the very beginning was that we wanted a time-lapse included at some point in the video because we thought it was a cool feature and would fit in the song. The time-lapse was relatively difficult to make because we had to edit the length and figure out a way to jump the shot type without it looking weird on the screen. We did have a mini-freakout as a group because we were worried be didn't have enough footage, but by going back and manipulating the speed again, our worries were unnecessary. When we were filming we did have brainstorming sessions where we came up with new ideas to go in the video. As our theme was all about Phoebe (our main character) getting over her breakup and going on a journey of self-discovery and her trying to get back to being independent we came up with the concept to do a reverse recap which was roughly 25-30 seconds long and it showed the significant parts of her journey throughout the video, however we manipulated the clips to be shown in reverse in order to make it clear to the audience it was a reflection not just a repeat.
As a group we came to an agreement regarding the ending shot and cut the music because it had unnecessary silence at the end and just didn't work in relation to the visuals. Once we did this we came to the decision that we had completed our first draft, which can be viewed here:
http://katiehowarda2mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/first-draft-of-final-music-video.html

We received feedback from our teachers and focus group as well which can be viewed on the link above.

DAY 3:
Still feeling happy that we had completed our first draft we went into day three of editing and decided it was time to tidy up the shots and not make it as jumpy or hard to watch because of the lack of consistency. Therefore we inserted a transition shot in response to feedback from our media teacher Miss Pierce. The transitions were inserted in between shots we decided had a too jumpy a cut and
Inserted the video transition shots in between the shots we decided were too jumpy a cut, the lip-syncing had to be fixed again because we inserted another shot before it and therefore messed up the timing of the video. We quickly resolved the issues and went on to fix the timing during the rest of the video, especially in the "saw your face in my rearview" line as it was really important for us to make a visual-lyric connection.
Once we did this we came to the decision that we had completed our second draft, which can be viewed here:
http://katiehowarda2mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/second-draft-of-final-music-video.html

We received feedback from our teachers and focus group as well which can be viewed on the link above.

We also decided to pause the editing process for our music video after the completion of our second draft as we needed to focus on producing the digipak and poster.

Day 4:
What turned out to be our final day of editing we came to with fresh eyes and and a clean approach to fix the issues we had. We decided to fix the issues straight away and also fix or change anything that we didn't like. Sometimes when we cut a shot it left a gap in the footage so we had to manipulate the speed once again in order to to fill the gap. We tried to make the video as neat, tidy and professional as possible before declaring our project finished.