Research Phase
The start of the unit began with a research phase of existing music videos to gather both inspiration and ideas on how to construct our video. Firstly, being the largest video streaming company, I used YouTube to view and analyse similar music videos to the one that I wanted to create, considering both genre and visuals. During this I used in-depth analyse to examine the way videos were constructed using mies-en-scene, acting, editing etc. To present and give evidence of what I found, I screenshotted parts of the video to show what I was explaining. Moreover, as I was using a MacBook Pro, I used the shortcut of command +4 to select the part of the screen I wanted to take an image of. Another aspect of the research phase was gathering information about our artist regarding their genre of music and the target audience. To begin with, I researched iTunes and Amazon music to gather information on the genre of the artist as this then allowed me to search for similar artists who make the same type of music.Planning Phase
The beginning of creating the video came with attempting various shot types that we could use in our final product. For example, my partner and myself decided to test out three shots: jib shot, over-cranking and trombone shot. For the jib-shot, we used a jib and a Canon 550D to attempt to create an interesting effect. However, this shot wasn't featured in our eventual product. The over-cranking experiment we tried was very successful and so made this a part of our final piece. This involved fastening the pace of the song up twice as much so that the lip-syncing could be played in slow motion and still fit the lyrics in the song. We sped the song up using Virtual DJ as this offered a simple yet effective platform that was easily accessible off the Apple App Store, and then used Final Cut Pro to slow the visuals down to match the song. Finally, the trombone shot consisted of a camera moving towards a subject physically, and then zooming outwards as the camera gets close. This shot was first used by Alfred Hitchcock in the film 'Vertigo' and we thought this could work well in a music video. To keep the camera steady throughout we used a tripod that created a stable platform. Moreover, the basic storyboarding of the video outlined our plans on how we visioned the video to look. We created an treatment task to accompany the storyboard with the aim of making it more visual the audience. For this, I used Microsoft Powerpoint to combine images in a slide format on what types of props and outfits might become part of the final video.Construction Phase
The construction phase or the video creation stage, used a variety of technology to achieve a professional looking piece. When constructing the video we used a professional equipment that would give the video a high definition feel. To film, we used a Nikon D3200 DSLR camera as this could film in 1080p HD meaning that the film would look crisp and vibrant to the audience. Also to accomplish the first person POV shot, we used a GoPro camera as this not only filmed high quality footage but is also primarily used for this reason of filming in first person. When we had gathered all the footage we were going to use, we put it into Final Cut Pro for the editing phase. We chose this program as it was fairly easy to use and understand and also because of the vast amount of features available on it that we could use to perfect our video. The editing included adding cuts and transitions that would improve the overall fluency of the video and making it look more appealing. The colour catcher setting meant that we could add the interesting effect that's present in our video with the darkness contrasting against the vibrant orange. Another piece of software I used was Adobe Photoshop to complete both ancillary tasks that accompanied the main product. This became crucial when constructing my digipak and magazine advert as I could combine many layers of images and text to form an attractive piece that looked professional and contemporary. Similar to that in Final Cut Pro, Photoshop offers a host of effects and options that helped me to make my piece as good as possible.Evaluation Phase
Next, the evaluation phase came at the end of the unit, summarising what improvements we made throughout and what we found successful. For the evaluation questions I had to complete, I used a range of presentation software to demonstrate my ability to operate a variety of software. To present two of my questions, I used slide format software with Microsoft Powerpoint and Prezi. Prezi uses a combination of animation and slides to create an engaging effect that looks neat. After I made the Powerpoint presentation, I used iMovie to make the slides into a moving piece and then uploaded the subsequent video onto YouTube where others can view it. One of the reasons for uploading it onto YouTube is so a wide range of audience can use it and because of the ease of embedding it into Blogger where I present all my work. I did use Blogger for another question due to its simple word processing ability, and the the ease of uploading other media types such as videos and images. Finally when it came to evaluating our rough cut and final video, we used software such as Survey Monkey to conduct a review on what people thought of each. We then used the results from this to make alterations to our video in order to improve it.
