Anxiety Project Outcome

I decided to stick with the test shoot for this project, mostly because i feel like being in an enclosed space on your own looks a lot more claustrophobic then the shoot with the crowds. Also, when i distorted the sound, it made it sound like the go pro sound so it just seemed to be a bit shoddy really.
I distorted the sound by panning a lot, mixing in the breathing and then adding some varying white noise.

I then synched it with the footage in audition as a reference for when i took into premiere.

After i'd done this, i decided to make sure the waveforms were ok, but apart from that i didn't want to go too crazy on colour grading. It felt natural to be natural so i kept it so. I did however add on the Turbulent Displace function around 10% to give the footage a sense of dizziness. I think this really makes the piece look a lot more strange.
My only worry about this project is not filming entirely in focus. This was the intention when filming to give the slight sense of the person feeling light headed, but in the end i think it makes it look a little bad. I also don't like the angles that i shot in due to just not handling the camera well. I think this adds to the dizzy idea too but from a cinematography perspective, i think this piece is mostly sound centric. 

I have tried to come up with ideas of making a booth for this project. The first idea was a box which you looked into to see the video with headphones available. The second idea involved purchasing a swing for the frame and hanging fabric over it so that it became a little booth in which to sit. These ideas were just not feasible in the time i had so i have decided to just present on the projector, or if i can, put onto a tv so i can use headphones. 

Photography outcome

When i went to my grandparents for the music video, i decided i wanted to try and focus on nature photography as i know a lot of places near home that are good for wildlife, and even in their back garden, they have a lot of birds visiting. I sat taking photos of birds for around 6 hours, while family were having a peaceful sunday afternoon around me. I caught quite a few photographs that i like.

My grandparents were meant to take me to a few places while i was there but there were a few complications and we didn't go anywhere in the end. Also, i was so busy with the music video that the photography ended up taking a back seat unfortunately. 

Once i had come home, i was thinking about how i could still do something to do with photography. I tried to think of ideas but once again, it didn't feel comfortable for me to come up with concepts before i take the photos. If it's a subject then i'm ok, but concepts just seem strange because i don't know if i will end up with the photos i am wanting to produce and it feels forced.

I decided i would try and process the film of photos i had taken while in Brighton, and proceeded to do so at the university with help from Tamara. I ended up with an empty film because there must have been some problem with the camera i bought. This meant i still didn't have any final photography.

I realised quickly that time was running out and i had to think of what to do. I take photos all the time outside of university time, and the process of it being accessed seems to make them not only worse then usual, but i usually dislike the ideas behind them and the entire process. I decided that 1. Since i didn't have any photos to show for and 2. I feel more comfortable about my photos outside of assessment, i decided to compile together photography i have taken in the far and recent past and make a showcase of what i can do as a photographer.

I thought about how i could do this, and the first idea involved a collage on the wall. I then decided about a photobook, but quickly realised that if i wanted the photos to be printed onto paper, it would be quite a complicated thing to do with such a short amount of time. I didn't even have time to get one made in a shop.

I decided to make one in a scrapbook style, sticking the photos in. I would get them printed in a shop and buy a pad that i could dismantle and then use to make a homemade bound book that would present my photos like a portfolio.

 I am very happy with my finished photography work. Not only does it show my photography but i feel like its presented in a different and elegant way. My only issues are my horrendious hole punching skills! And the fact i had to cut a few of the photos down & only had scissors. But i'm happy that i was actually able to make something.

Editing the Music Video

First thing i started with in post was trying out editing on offline because my computer is quite slow and i wanted to see if this would help the lagging. I followed some youtube tutorials and managed to get the low res footage to work with, linking into premiere to re-link at the end of the project.
I started editing the video while still in the company of my brother, partly for a second opinion, but he also wanted to make sure all the instruments were synched and used in the right places. Sometimes the band were miming wrongly, and he said that he's seen that happen a lot in music videos so he just helped me with that since he knows a lot about the song.
Once we had lined up the tracks & sorted out bad shots from the good, i started to arrange them in a way in which i felt flowed nicely between band shots and Suzy. I kept each band shot on each seperate video track to make sure they were synched, chopping out bits i wanted and putting them onto the top track. This helped me be able to flick through shots easier and keep things in an organised manner. I also labeled each track.

I spent a few days just checking and re-checking the edit by exporting low-res versions. This helped me be able to watch the video without distractions and possible lagging from premiere and it meant i could show different people for opinions. I also uploaded a version to show my brother once i had come back to Farnham.

I wanted to colour correct using Da Vinci Resolve but unfortunately it couldn't work on my computer and i was unsure what parts of the university i had access to. I did search a few open buildings but none of them had the software i needed. I decided to just stick with premiere pro, and try to find tutorials on how to correct and grade my footage to a good standard.
I ended up re-grading my video so many times, i think this was partly due to me not knowing the grading software completely, but also because i have made and edited the footage so i am just focusing on the bad points instead of trying to make it look good. I have decided to keep the video simple, just correcting the colours by using the waveforms and RGB waveforms to correct the footage & then give a little grading to Suzys parts. I wish that i could have given the video a 'look' and i might try to before uploading for the band, but for now, i feel like it would be better to keep it simple for the assessment.

Shooting The Video Day 2

We ended up shooting Suzy's parts on 19th April since Adam wanted to help out/drive us around and he was busy, plus Suzy was available anytime so it was ok.
I didn't have that much time to play around with the steadicam before shooting, and i really regret this now, i ended up getting very frustrated at trying to work out the balancing before shooting, and we didn't have anymore time to sort it out so i decided i would try and work with it, but if not, i'd have to deal with stable shots.
We decided to just keep stopping in different locations, spend 5-10 minutes just doing simple walking shots, and then focus on the 'story' shots like the beginning and end shots, plus station etc.
We decided to use a phone instead of the letter idea, since it made more sense to us and it meant it being a little less confusing and cheesy.
We started at 10am and ended around 2pm, just trying to get as many shots as possible. I even decided to film her as we were walking to and from the car, just in case i needed any more shots.
I did end up using the steadicam, and i think the shots are ok but i know they could have been a lot smoother. There was a lot of problems with wobbling from side to side and it is frustrating, but  i do think using it was a lot better then stationary shots. We started with the tripod and it just didn't feel right.

Shooting The Video Day 1

I travelled up to Lincoln on the saturday so that i could discuss what was going to happen with Adam ( my brother) and also just to make sure everything was gonna go smoothly.

We met with the rest of the band on Monday afternoon since Aaron had to work, and we decided to set up around 5pm in the West Common. It was a sunny day so we thought it would look nice with the sunset. We spent around half an hour setting up the drums and just making sure everything was ok.

As soon as we set up, Terry ( the drummer) decided to test out the noise levels on his drums since we were a bit worried about annoying anyone. He hit a couple of drums and cymbols and as he did this, the horses which graze on this land decided they were interested. We didn't think the horses would be too much of a problem since its a massive plot of land and they are spread throughout the whole of it. Where we had set up, we could see horses but they weren't close enough for us to think there would be too much concern. They are used to people and dogs walking on this land, so they're pretty tame. We also thought if they were concerned about the noise, they would just walk away from us. We were wrong. Most of them decided to walk and then run away from us, but a couple were more intrugued and came towards us, this then made the rest of them become interested and they all came towards us. We were a little concerned, but they didn't seem too angry. We decided that it just wasn't a good place for the drums, so decided to pack up. The horses were very interested in the equipment though, so it took us a while. A woman came up to us as she owned a few of the horses & put us at ease that they were just interested and made sure we didn't scare them or upset them.

 

 

Aaron works at the Bishop Grossetette University Student Union so he decided to get in touch with them to see whether we could record the video there. They had lighting that Aaron had authorisation to use, and a stage and space for us to get up and film. It was also quiet since it was the holidays. They said it was fine so we went down there to set up.

There were a few complications when filming. One was that the lights i had to use were LED lights that caused a rolling shutter on my camera, but me and My brother's photographer housemate Arron worked it out after a while. I also had some concerns as to where to film the video. There was a bar and a few spaces to film but i felt it best to just stick to the stage area. I did think this would look a bit crap on camera, but as it was our only option, i decided to work with it and i think i got a good result  out of the problems we had. The other problem was because i only had a couple of 4 lights on two stands, it caused a few shadow issues which i don't think are too noticeable on a few shots, but are a bit frustrating since i wanted to show my skills with lighting and there are imperfections.

Shooting took from around 8.30pm to just after 11pm.

 

 

inspiration

Since the video is about movement and walking, i decided to look around for music videos that already used this motif in their videos for an idea as to how to film it. I realised quickly that most of them involved the camera moving with the person, and i felt this would look a lot better then stationary shots to i decided to invest in a steadicam to hopefully make the video better.

 

 

I also decided to look up videos in terms of post production and colour grading. I want to explore grading with Resolve in this project, so thinking of how i can enhance the shots in this way is helpful. I like how videos and films can colourise to the extreme but also make more cinematic and just give a better feeling.

 

 

Music Video Update - Big Changes

My brother was having a lot of trouble trying to organise the video with his band for quite a while before he told me, so that's why it was getting later and later for me to organise it with him. He was fully co-operative with me, it just wasn't happening for the rest of them. Brother decided since he so happens to be in two bands, that he would use the other band since he thought they would be a lot more suited to making the video and also the music.

I was concerned about this since it was getting late in the game to have such a big decision, and for a day or so, i said to him i no longer had faith that the video would go ahead. I did change my mind in the end, but said to him sternly that things had to get a very quick move on otherwise the video just wouldn't happen, and that would be bad for my assignment.

Him and his singer Aaron quickly discussed concepts for an idea to a song they had, and put out a post on facebook asking for actors to be involved since he knows quite a lot of people from a drama background. I quickly got sent a concept i felt was ok and doable considering the time and the fact it's just me doing the shooting. The concept;

The song is called "Worlds Away" and they felt this idea was simple and put across the message in a simple but effective way. The only concern was whether it would look cheesy, but i felt that if it was done right, it wouldn't be. This concept will be coupled with shots of the band playing in an outdoor location.

My brother decided on some locations in Lincoln, since he knows the places better then me, and also he had to think about locations in terms of travel (parking) and the practicality and he would be able to understand and research that more than me since he was in Lincoln.

He decided that West Common would be a good place since it was a vast landscape with lots of potential places to set up, plus the views behind were of Lincoln and the Cathedral so he felt that was a good representation since the band are from Lincoln.

He contacted the local council and they said it should be ok to film on there since it's common land and it's a fairly rural location. He did mention the problem of instruments but they seemed ok with that. The only thing was that he never got written permission which is an issue.

 

 

He decided on his friend Suzy to be the actor, and we decided the best date would be 12th-13th April.

This ended up being moved to 14th April because i had to compile the paperwork together and it gave us more time to organise it.

 In terms of equipment and my part, i decided to storyboard & put together a general idea of how it would look. I decided to use my own equipment partly because of practicality and also because it was in the holidays and it would be more complicated to obtain equipment so i felt it was just less stressful. I do feel like it would be better with better equipment, but as long as i have a video, it's better then faffing around with equipment and also carrying on trains etc.