Filming blog

 Last class on friday I checked out a camera and tripod in class in order for me to film over the past weekend. When I checked out the camera I  first had to fill out a camera rental contract then turn it into a folder. Then after that I got the camera and the tripod. It is a simple process and takes no longer than five minutes. I then carried the equipment back home.  I was able to fit the camera into my backpack but, I had to carry the tripod. Once I got home I plugged in the camera to charge. It can take a while for the cameras to fully charge so I wanted to make sure I gave the camera enough time to charge. The camera stayed charging overnight. My two friends, Ana Mazin and Kol Bennett were coming to my house later that day to film the commercial with me.
They arrived at my house around one o'clock in the afternoon. When they got to my house we gathered the equipment then went outside to my backyard to start filming. When I opened the camera I checked the SD card slot and I realized I did not have one. I made a huge mistake of not checking inside the classroom. Since we did not have an SD card we couldn't film on the camera. But, we decided to film on my phone. Using the phone was actually easier then the video camera since we were all more comfortable with phone cameras anyways. Some shots took multiple takes since it was hard for us not to laugh or make mistakes. We were able to film mostly all of the commercial but we did not finish. They both had to leave around three thirty so it was kinda hard to film all of the commercial in just a few hours.
We are planning another time during the next few weekends to get back together to film the rest of the commercial. We do not have that much last and should not take us more than a hour to complete filming. Tomorrow I will return the camera and tripod to class. I will have to check out the camera again when we decide on when we are filming again. I can't just keep the camera at my house in case anything happens. After we are all done with the entire filming process I will move the footage to a computer then begin the editing process. Then it is time for mid terms then winter break! I am looking forward totwinter break

storyboard

 For the first scene it will be an eye level shot. The lighting will be natural lighting outside. The acting is in the facial expressions since it is a music video and we cant speak. We will be wearing no makeup and our costumes are just everyday clothing. There will be no props in this scene and our setting is outside in my backyard.

From the first scene to the second scene the only thing that changes is the camera angle. In this scene we will be using an over the shoulder shot instead of eye level.

 Again the only thing that changes going into the third scene we will be using a pan shot. Everything else stays the same.

Going into the fourth scene we have a few more changes. The setting is now inside the bedroom and the lighting is harder. We will be using a low angle since the actor is sitting. Everything else stays the same

The fifth scene is back to an eye level shot. The setting is the same as in scene four

In the sixth scene everything is exactly the same as in scenes three and four.

Now onto the seventh scene we will be using a tracking shot. The setting now goes back to the backyard. The lighting goes back to the natural lighting from before. Everything else stays the same

The eighth scene is the same for seventh scene expect for the shot  Instead of a tracking shot we will be using a wide shot and a zoom in to get the emotion from that scene.

The ninth shot- Everything stays the same expect for the angle. The angle for this scene is waist up

The tenth shot- We will be using an eye level and medium shot. Every thing remains the same

For the eleventh shot we will be using a zoom and eye level shot like the previous scene

For the twelve and final scene we will be using a eye level and mid shot. Scenes six through twelve everything stays the same expect for the angle and camera movement. The costumes and makeup is constant throughout the entire video.

Planning Blog

The location for our music video is my house. I choose to do this as the location because our story line takes place at school. Since we are not allowed to film at school we can set up desks and chairs to look like a school setting. We will be filming in my backyard which has a pool. For our health and safety we will have a flotation device near in case somebody falls into the pool. We also all know how to swim in case of an emergency. We also have a first aid case if anyone trips and falls outside. We have water so we do not get dehydrated when we are outside. Our video is very safe and we are not using any weapons or doing anything that is dangerous. The safety precautions are very general.  

For our props we will be using folding tables and chairs as desks in a classroom. We will also be using stationary such as pens and paper. In  addition we will be using a cell phone as one of the props. We will be using very little props in the video. For our costumes we will be wearing everyday clothing such as jeans and t-shirts. Since we are simulating a school scene by wearing normal clothing we will be able to show the school setting more convincingly. By having intense costumes would take away from the school effect that we are trying to create. Since no one generally wears intense clothing to school. 

Our final music video will be submitted on December 9th. But in between now and then there are many things we have to do before the final product is ready. Today the 18th of November I am doing the planning blog.  Next class I am doing the storyboard for the video. We are filming the video this weekend. After we film we will have to edit. The editing process will take a few days. Next week is also Thanksgiving break so I am trying to get as much as I can done this week so I do not have homework over my break time. In addition after every step in the process I have a blog due. The planning blog and storyboard blog is due on Thursday the 21st of November. 

music video reaserach

Intro 

The commercial was a very interesting experience. Some things I was very good at in the commercial was following the storyboard. We were very good at staying on track. I am very good at staying organized and on top of things. Something we could have worked on was the editing process. For both me and my partner this was our first time editing. Especially adding the music. I had a very challenging time turning the music into a MP3 file. For the music video I hope the editing will be more of a smoother process since we will have a little more experience with Pinnacle Studios software.

Song

We are doing the song Roar by Katy Perry. We are doing this song because it is a very upbeat and energetic. Roar is a very popular song so we can connect to people with the video due to the popularity of the song. It has a very inspiring message in the song of standing up for yourself and not giving up.

Conventions 

 Genre- The genre of Roar is pop song. Pop is a very upbeat and known for using electrical guitar, drums, keyboard, and bass. 

Camera angles/ shots- Many of the angles in the shots in the pop genre are close up or mid shots from the waist up. There is not a lot of pan or tilt shots

Sound-  Much of the pop genre is upbeat and has a strong beat following. The mood of many pop songs is energetic or a party song

Editing-  In pop a lot of jump cuts are used. In addition a lot of times the editors will use cross cutting and reverse shots.

CLAMPS

Costumes-  In pop videos the costumes are usually fairly simple. Many of the "costumes" is just normal everyday clothes such as jeans and a t-shirt.

Lighting- Much of the lighting in pop videos is bright lighting. As well as much of the lighting is soft.

Acting- Pop music videos usually have little acting. Mostly it is everyday moments such as walking or talking.

Makeup- Much of the makeup in pop videos is natural makeup. No intense eye makeup or bronzes. Just basic concealer and maybe a little powder. To make the effect of not wearing any. The natural makeup is so the singers and actors do not look washed out by the lighting. 

Props- Many videos do not have intense props. Just everyday items such as a cell phone or a wallet

Setting- Pop video's setting is everyday setting. From a city setting to a country. The setting in the videos changes according to the story line of the video

Editing : The final commercial

Today in class I put the final touches on the commercial. The final touches included any last minute edits and adding music to the commercial. When I got into class today I grabbed my laptop and plugged in my flash drive. You have to make sure to grab the same laptop you used before since all the footage is on that one computer. The entire editing process was a lot easier than I expected. I expected editing to be very difficult. The time I have edited in the past I found to be challenging, but using Pinnacle Studios was fairly simple.  There was pretty a button to do everything such as cutting or detaching audio. The only hard part was adding the music.

To add music to the commercial there are many steps you have to take. You first must look up a copy right free music from YouTube and find one you like. Then you have to convert it into an MP3 file. To do this you copy the url from the video and paste it into a MP3 converter. There are many websites that are  MP3 converters. But you have to be careful some of the websites contain virus. This actually happened to us, and weird ads were popping up on our computer and we could not get rid of them. Next class I have to talk to my teacher about the problem. Hopefully this virus doesn't affect any of the work I did.

Anyway we were never able to download the audio we wanted to use. But we found an old audio already downloaded into Pinnacle Studios. We liked it so we ending up using it for our commercial. All we had to do at that point was drag the audio clip onto the first bar on the editing page. We were able to cut the audio to fit our footage. It worked out perfectly. I am still worried about the virus on the computer. I do not know how to get rid of it or how it got there. The last step in this process is our critical reflection questions. They are a few basic questions about our experience with the entire commercial. The commercial  doesn't look like a nice, professional commercial you see on TV but I am very proud of what we accomplished.

Editing

Today in class I had to film a little bit more of footage. Once again I was in charge of pressing the record button and directing the actor. I was actually in one shot though, I was acting as the coach looking at her stopwatch. Once we got back into class we dumped all of our footage onto the same computer as last time. Once we dumped I moved all of the footage from today and Thursday onto a flash drive. This process took about 10 minutes since the files are so large. I got all the footage we need for the commercial and won't be filming anymore. I am moving onto the next stop in the commercial process: editing the footage. But unfortunately the program we use to edit, Pinnacle Studios, crashed on the computer. Meaning we will have to postpone the editing process until the system is fixed
The commercial is being put off until further notice. During the time we might be starting our next project. Our next project is creating a music video. But we might not do the music video either since the music video also needs editing. I am not sure what we are doing next or when the system will be back up. Our teacher is extending the deadline and will not penalize our grade. I will continue writing blogs every class period. I am hoping the editing software will be open again soon. I have never edited before and I am looking forward to being able to use it. Once the system is back up and we finish editing the commercial will be finished and uploaded.
I am not super surprised that the system crashed. Our computers are very old and slow. They still work okay but when many students have gigabytes worth of footage trying to upload all at once, the system can not handle it.. I think the school system should invest in brand new computers. Living in a society that is technology dependent schools need money for software.  But I also understand that school budgeting is very tight and there are more important factors to spend money on such as structural problems in schools. For the money the school board has the computers are the best they can get. I'm guessing the software will be back up and running again in 1 to 2 weeks.

Filming

Today in class we started to film for our computer. I had the job of filming with the camera. The first thing I did when I got to class was get the camera sign out contract. I filled it out and got all of my equipment to start filming. The equipment included the video camera, a tripod, and a SD card. Once we got our stuff we headed to the track to start the process. When we go onto the track we unpacked our props and set up the camera. For our props we had two bottles of Gatorade, an American flag, and fake medals. To set up the camera you must place the SD card into the camera then place the camera onto the tripod. Extend the legs of the tripod and make sure to tighten the screws on the legs.
When we were filming I was in charge in moving the camera and pressing record. It would take almost five to seven takes for each shot. We were on the track filming from 9:25 to 10:25 so about an hour. We did not complete the whole commercial yet so we are filming some more on Monday. At about 10:30 we went back inside the media classroom so we can dump our footage onto the computer so we wouldn't loose our stuff. Dumping means moving footage onto the computer from a camera. In order to do this you need a SD card reader. Once you get the card reader you place the card into the reader then into the computer. Open a folder onto the desktop and open the reader on the computer. Transfer the stuff into the folder. We actually had some trouble doing this. My partner Kol and I could not find the footage on the computer so we transferred tthe footage onto our teacher's laptop and she put it on a flash drive for you. Afterward we were able to transfer the stuff onto the computer we were using. Make sure when you a dumping give yourself plenty of time because there could always be problems with the computer and it takes sometimes up to ten minutes to download onto the computer.