MiniVid: Final Cut

Here is my final version of our minivid 'Jolly Roger' by Adam and the Ants:

MiniVid: Editing using Final Cut Pro

Selection of effects to chose from 

Despite there being 5 members in our group, we all individually edited our own cut of the final video, to allow ourselves to gain more experience and experiment with different and new effects. Although we have used this software before, we have not been introduced to the hundreds of effects available, so by individually editing the video we can all see for ourselves what we can use to make the video as effective as possible. Whilst editing my video, I used many different effects that I had never used before. Before I began to work towards the final cut, I had a play around with the different effects by layering them up on multiple shots, to see what they looked like when applied to a clip. Once I had an idea what these effects looked like and had learnt how to edit them once they were applied, I started from scratch, and added the effects that I thought were effective to the edited clips.


This screenshot from the software Final Cut Pro shows how I added 2 effects to this clip. I added the 'Isolate' effect, which has distorted the colour and has given it a dull, greyish effect. I then added the 'Earthquake' effect, which adds a slight shake to the shot. I thought these two effects worked well together, as the dullness and shakiness signify the pirate theme.

Selected clip and the preview

Here is a clip with the 'Sketch' effect in use. After this screenshot was taken, I reduced the intensity of the effect, so that the effect was faded yet still visible. I used this effect multiple times throughout the final cut, on the other clips of swinging on the ropes, as I thought it worked well on these shots. It took me a while to decide upon this effect, but once I reduced the intensity it looked much better so I stuck with it.

Editing the effects

This is the panel which I used to edit the effects. There were two effects added to this clip, 'Keyer' and 'Indie Red', however I have removed the 'Keyer' effect, which can be seen here as the box has been un-ticked. I decided to remove this effect and add the 'Indie Red' effect as I thought it looked better and fitted well with the rest of the video. Whenever I added an effect, this panel would be shown, and this is where I reduced/increased the intensity and edited the colours of the shots. When I first began the editing, it all seemed slightly complicated as it was new to me, however once I got into it, it became easy to navigate and the tools were easy to use.

Final track and video 

This is a screenshot of the final edited video, with the track added. Some of the effects are still rendering, but after this rendering had finished, I exported the video.

MiniVid: Shoot

Our shoot took place on Monday the 14th pf June in school. We filmed our required shots in 2 hours before lunch time, in 2 different locations. We began filming in the gymnasium, using the ropes to swing on and the blue mats, for the effect of moving water. We gathered a lot of shots from this location, including shots for the whistling at the start, and lip syncing for the lyric 'It's your money that we want, and your money we shall have'. We spent about 1 hour at this location, before moving down to the swimming pool.

At the swimming pool, we used 2 kayaks to act as 'pirate ships', and Ben and Curtis were the ones who were in these boats. It took longer to decide what to do here, as it proved more difficult than what we first anticipated. Many shots of Ben and Curtis in the kayaks were taken, and we also had 2 extras who came along to help out.

Whilst filming, we tried to link our shots with the lyrics, for example we filmed shots of Dom, Curtis, Ben and myself pulling on the ropes to accompany the lyrics 'Hoist the jolly roger'. We also had people skipping along, which we anticipated to link with the dancing lyrics.

EG3: Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait

ACT: Mumford & Sons
TRACK: I Will Wait
YEAR: 2012
DIRECTOR: Fred & Nick
GENRE: Indie Folk
MAIN AUDIENCE: 15+
LYRICS: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mumfordsons/iwillwait.html

VIDEO:

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUALS + LYRICS:

The band playing on stage

Because the band are singing live, it automatically creates a connection and link between the song and the band. Their passion for the song can clearly be seen through the way they perform and how they interact with the live audience in front of them. There is no other narrative inter-cut into the footage, which, unexpectedly, helps to keep the audience engaged as it draws you in to the performance. 

PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE + CONCEPT:

There is no narrative followed, but the concept is a concert, with a simple set up in an arena and a stage. 

PERFORMANCE STYLE:

Audience

The video is a live performance of the song at a concert. The band are shown playing their instruments on the stage, and a a crowd of fans is shown dancing along to the song. The video achieves verisimilitude as the set-up and location is realistic, and it has the effect of imagining yourself there and joining the crowd dancing. When the camera's aren't on the band, they are either on the instruments to demonstrate the live gig and music, or the audience, enjoying and dancing to the song. 

Country Winston

STAR TREATMENT:

Marcus Mumford

Marcus Mumford is the lead vocalist of the band, and he takes the lead role in this song. Because he sings all the verses, and the others sing in the background, there are many close ups of him. However, there are close ups of the other three as they sing too, to signify that the band are equal in what they do. 

AUDIENCE:

Because the set-up is a live concert, an audience is incorporated into the video. The audience are all dancing along to the beat of the track, which represents the audience and fans of the band and their music. 

PACE:

Close ups of the instruments

As the pace of the song speeds up during the chorus, so do the shots. Close ups of the hands strumming the guitars and playing the piano increase the effect of the fast editing and pace of the music, which engages the audience. As the verses are played, the shots tend to be longer and long shots to portray the whole atmosphere, rather than the quick intimate features of the instruments. 

LOCATIONS + MISE-EN-SCENE:

The video is all shot in one location whilst the song is being played, however before the song begins, shots of a road in a desert are shown whilst the words 'The Road to Red Rocks' appears followed by 'Mumford & Sons, I Will Wait'. There is then a 2 second clip of an aeroplane landing, although this is the only time this location appears in the video. The main location is some kind of arena or theatre, with high rise seats and a stage. 

EG2: Lana Del Rey - National Anthem

ACT: Lana Del Rey
TRACK: National Anthem
YEAR: 2012
DIRECTOR: Anthony Mandler
GENRE: Trip Hop
MAIN AUDIENCE: 15+, mature teens/adolescents
LYRICS: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lanadelrey/nationalanthem.html

VIDEO:


RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUALS + LYRICS:

Lana Del Rey stars as Jacqueline Kennedy and herself throughout the video, and during the song she is shown lip syncing as both characters. This creates a link between the narrative of the film and the lyrics. 

Reenactment of the Zapruder film
- after the shooting

INTERTEXTUALITY:

Signing 'Happy Birthday, Mr President'

Before the song starts, there are intertextual references from the famous video of Marilyn Monroe singing 'Happy Birthday, Mr. President'. Lana Del Rey is singing the song in the same set up, and the film is in black and white, like the original video. In the music video itself, there are intertextual references to the president and his wife's love life, with Lana Del Rey and ASAP Rocky reenacting their relationship in various home video reenactments. There is then another reenactment of the Zapruder film at the end of the music video, when John F. Kennedy was shot. 

Reenactment of the Zapruder film -
driving before the shooting

Shot of the happy family
 together

PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE/CONCEPT:
There is a clear narrative in this music video. Two characters (Lana Del Rey and ASAP Rocky) are portrayed as John. F Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, and the footage displays a perfect, happy relationship. There are various set ups of this relationship, with shots of the family with the children and the couple on their own, until the president (Rocky/Kennedy) is shot in a car. 

Signifies the intimacy

PERFORMANCE STYLE:
There is no dancing in this video, and the only artist performance engaging with the song , aside from the narrative, is lip syncing. The footage is shot mainly in the style of home video, so the majority of the shots are slightly shaky and out of focus, but this effect works well as the video as a whole does achieve verisimilitude. The set-ups and narrative is convincing, and engages the audience as it is passionate and intimate. Close up shots are used to signify this desire to be together. 

STAR TREATMENT:
ASAP Rocky and Lana Del Rey both feature in the video as John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. ASAP Rocky stars in the video at Lana's request, which incorporates a modern element into the relationship and life of John F. Kennedy. Lana lip syncs when she is shown on screen individually and at some points when she is with Rocky/Kennedy. 

PACE:

There is no structured pace to the shots in the music video, although towards the end as the tempo of the song slows down, and in the video when the shooting occurs, the footage becomes slow motion, so the audience can feel and see the emotion and destruction. 

In the rose garden

LOCATIONS + MISE-EN-SCENE:

Wearing the blue dress hugging
 the stuffed rug

At the start when Lana is singing 'Happy Birthday', she is on a stage wearing a long sparkly dress and there is a podium with a microphone on it, like the one which Marilyn Monroe used. A crowd of men is shown, who are all wearing suits to signify their importance. There are various locations used throughout the music video itself, but the majority of shots are filmed in the garden of a large house by a lake/the sea. When Lana is shot individually lip syncing, she is either in a dark room wearing a blue dress with pearls, hugging a stuffed rug of a big cat, or is in a rose garden, wearing the same outfit. 

MiniVid: Research and Planning

Pirate costume

For our selected track, there is no original video. This meant that we had to think of the narrative by simply listening to the lyrics, rather than gaining inspiration for an existing video. We knew the the song entailed a pirate theme, so we felt it necessary to fit this in to our video. We researched pirates and what they look and act like, to try gain a better understanding of what we need to perform in our video. From this research, we can then know what we need to buy for our video.

MiniVid: Group Planning/Concept

After everyone had pitched their ideas, we split up into 2 groups. In our group there is Tilly, Ben, Curtis, Dom and myself. As a group, we firstly narrowed our choices down to 'Jolly Roger - Adam and The Ants' and 'U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer', pitched by Tilly and Curtis. After consideration, we have eventually decided to go with Tilly's idea for Jolly Roger as our final video.

Tilly's idea consisted of a pirate theme, to link the narrative to the lyrics. To enforce this theme, we have decided we will need pirate costumes/attire to signify the theme clearly. It would be best for us to wear full costumes when on screen, but due to cost, we think it may be easier to buy small props such as eye patches, hooks, hoop earrings and a bandanna, which will signify the theme just as well.

The time scale we have been given is also quite small, which means we will not have much time to travel far to locations. We have asked a teacher from the P.E department for use of the swimming pool in school, and they said that we could use it with supervision, so this is one location sorted. As our second location, we think it would be ideal to use a vacant classroom or the gymnasium, if it is not in use, as it has ropes, which will connote the pirate theme as well. We plan to film the entire video on Monday the 24th of June during corresponding free periods, to make it easy and quicker for the whole group. 

EG1: Chris Brown - Turn Up The Music

ACT: Chris Brown 

TRACK: Turn Up The Music

YEAR: 2012

DIRECTOR: Godfrey Taberez

GENRE: Electronic Dance

MAIN AUDIENCE: Young teens

LYRICS: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/chrisbrown/turnupthemusic.html

VIDEO:

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUALS + LYRICS:

There is a lot of lip syncing in this video, to engage Chris with the song. The lyric 'Turn up the music' is repeated many times, and during the chorus there are fast dance sequences which are very effective. 

Solo dance routine

GENRE CHARACTERISTICS:

Because the genre is dance and pop, there are many choreographed dance routines in the video, and people drinking and dancing. 

First shot of Chris

PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE + CONCEPT:

The first shot is of Chris Brown himself drinking something, but the bottle is inside a paper bag so it cannot be seen to the audience. At this point there is no music, only the diegetic sound within the scene. He then calls up a taxi, however the taxi is a hover car, with neon lights on the outside. He gets into the car and the driver turns up the music on the radio, which is the point where the track is introduced. The driver then turns around and is wearing a horse mask on his head. Chris Brown then gets out of the car onto a street filled with people wearing animal masks, dancing to the beat of the song. 

Taxi driver wearing a horse mask

Close up of Chris Brown

STAR TREATMENT:

No other characters or stars are shown in this video, and there are a number of close ups of Chris when he is lip syncing. This is because he is the one and only star, and because he is also attractive to many younger girls, the close ups attract the female audience.

AUDIENCE:
The track is a dance pop track, so would attract a typical teenage audience, who like to go out and party. The set-up reflects and represents this clubbing audience, as there are many scenes with older teens dancing to the song, and drinking. Although, the song also attracts younger teens because Chris Brown's music is upbeat and happy to listen to.

Chris Brown shirtless

FE-MALE GAZE:

During one of the dance sequences, Chris Brown is shot without a shirt on, and this reflects the fe-male gaze, to attract a female audience. Because the audience for pop like this is younger girls, this works in keeping the audience engaged throughout.

PACE:

Slow motion editing

Slow motion editing is used whilst the dancers are doing back somersaults, which makes the move more effective, and draws the audience in. During the rest of the video, the editing is fast paced to match the upbeat tempo of the song. 

Chris Brown at the end of the video

Entering the room 

LOCATIONS + MISE-EN-SCENE:

Towards the end of the video, there is a change of costume, so that the set ups in the video are varied. At this point, he is wearing a vest top, so that his arms are on show and once again this is for the female audience. The flashing lights and fast editing throughout the video is extremely effective, as it makes the audience feel happy.

MiniVid Pitch: The Pixies/Debaser

The song that I have chosen is 'Debaser' by The Pixies.

Original music video:


Vodcast version of the pitch:


The pixies are an indie rock band who formed in 1986 in Boston and had a significant impact on the alternative rock boom of the 90's. All the members were from different musical backgrounds so they all had different musical influences, but their music tends to include many subjects such as extra terrestrials, surrealism, incest and biblical violence.

Debaser is the first song on their album Doolittle, which was released in 1989. The lyrics are based on a surrealist film called Un Chien Andalou, which opens with a scene in which a woman's eye is slit by a razor, and this scene is referenced in the song with the lyric 'Slicin' up eye balls, I want you to know'. The title of the song also refers to the fact that Un Chien Andalou debases morality, meaning demeans.



First shot

 

The original video begins with the word 'Pixies' flashing across the screen, in a blue and white sans-serif font against a black background. The next shot is a shadow of a figure playing the guitar. The shots then become a montage of random shots which don't appear to make much sense. The camera occasionally shoots back to the band playing their instruments, and then it will once again show a mixture of shots. All the footage is dark, and the colours are mostly greys and browns. There are a lot of fades and cross-overs, and many of the band shots are close up. Writing is constantly flashing across the video footage, although it is unclear whether it says something or is simply there for effect. The editing is also fast paced, to match the tempo of the music.

Second shot

Because the song reflects the theme of a particular film, I think it would be best to construct a new video similar to the original. This would be easier because the lyrics tend to be repeated very often so there is no anchored story line behind the song. I think it would be effective if references to the film were also made in the video, and although the shots would be random in no particular consecutive order, they would still need to work well along with the song, otherwise audiences may lose interest quickly. It would be ideal for many different locations and props to be used, and I think layering in the editing process would make the overlapping shots and fast paced editing look effective.

Montage of shots

Montage of shots

Montage of shots

Montage of shots

Last shot

My Track Choice - The Pixies/Debaser

The track that I decided upon was Debaser by The Pixies. I chose this track because the video is fast paced and there is a lot going on, so I felt that it would be easy to film and come up with ideas for the different shots. The shots in the original are random, and do not make much sense and my idea is similar to this in the sense that there will be a number of various shots, all in different locations. The video is dark and gloomy, to go with the lyrics, but my idea would be a more happy approach, with comical elements.

Here is the video and song:

My MiniVid Track Choices

The band that I was given were The Pixies, and I had 4 of their tracks to choose from for my mini-vid:

Caribou:

(No official video released)

Monkey Gone to Heaven:


Debaser:


Gigantic:

(No official video released)

The Mini-Vid Task

The Mini-Vid task is to create a partial music video based on research and planning into a selected track. The final outcome will be a music video of at least 30 seconds in length, and a maximum of 60 seconds. The aim of the task is to advance our understanding of the factors behind song selction, and to practice editing a music video.

The Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following options:

1. A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package).
2. A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).