Audience Feedback, Further Editing

Upon completing our rough cut of the video, we decided to start getting some audience feedback on the work. We asked our classmates to watch the video and provide their feedback in the form of "Likes" and "Dislikes". This allowed us to work out which parts of the video we needed to work on. This was helpful because we found that by working on it constantly for so long it became difficult to see which were the weaker parts and which were stronger. Obviously we already had an idea but with the audience feedback we were able to agree as a group on what we needed to change.

We were now able to enter our final stage of editing, bringing us closer to our final product. Jacob came into his own here, and showed how well he could use the Final Cut programme. He was also able to provide some screen grabs of the editing in progress. We had agreed that he could work on the editing as much as he wanted while the rest of the group worked on the ancillary tasks.

We all suggested a kind of overlaying affect across the whole video, possibly a slight red, to go with our running theme. Jacob also achieved this on top of the other editing work.

Before:


After:


As you can see the difference wasn't massive but it was enough to fit in with our running theme, and add a level of professionalism. Here is the way Jacob configured the effect:

Rough Cut

After tireless editing and reworking we finally managed to get a rough cut of our video completed. It was by no means a total success, because there were several mistakes and weak points. The good point was that we had enough of a structure to go on, and we now had a solid base to build the rest of our video on. We asked some friends to watch the video so we could get some audience feedback, which was extremely helpful. Below is the rough cut of the video

Rough Cut from Jake Clements on Vimeo.

Practice Magazine Advert

In preparation for the final piece of our ancillary task I decided to make a practice magazine advertisement, just so I could get a feel for the way in which we would have to make it. My work is below:

Editing Progress and Ancillary Task

Editing is coming along nicely, and we are all happy with the progress being made. This time we have enough good quality footage to be working with and the video is working well. However, we have all been putting increased effort into making progress on our ancillary tasks. We have made practice pieces and such, all in preparation for the final pieces. Below is the album front cover Tom has been working on.

Editing

After looking at our final day of filming, we can see that what we have is enough to have a real go at editing. My personal favourite parts are our ending shots, which we have a variety of. Not only that, but they are particularly strong and interesting. We decided to make the section more intense with closer shots and maybe some softer lighting. This would go with the music, which drops pace significantly, and this needs to be reflected in the editing. A good idea was also be cross fades and fades to black, which would slow the pace of editing more than simple cuts.

For the editing, we need to work together more than ever before. Everybody needs to take up their own workload of the editing in order to get it done, because time is still an issue. Admittedly, not everyone would be as good as others in their editing skill, but as long as everyone makes an effort it should be fine.

To make sure we get it done, we have donated time outside or media lessons to work on the video. We have all used study periods and after school sessions to edit, and this has helped us greatly. It means we have been able to get a lot more done in a shorter period of time. Pictures of our progress will be uploaded shortly.

5th Day of Filming

Time was running very short so we decided that the 5th day of filming needed to be the last, and we needed to get everything we needed on that day. Together we planned heavily and we came up with a definite list of shots we needed, colour coded. The colour code was for which member(s) of the band were in the particular shot.

Here is the link to the scanned images of the list of shots on Jake's blog page.

Below are some images of the group in action on the final day of filming. Unfortunately, due to illness and work commitments, I wasn't able to join them, but I gave them my ideas to use and was available via phone throughout the session.

More Filming

On the following Saturday we returned to the Red Lion to film again. The footage we shot before was good, but because of time restraints and issues with the setup, we didn't have nearly enough. This time we were a lot more confident in what we were doing. We had our actors and our equipment, so we could get straight into it. This time, we also had a set list of shots that we needed to get so that was fairly structured too. The problem came upon arriving, we didn't stick to our list of shots enough. This was perhaps largely down to me.I took over control with a lot of the filming myself, with then others acting in a more directive role. I didn't do it on my own however, Jake did some as well, as did Jacob. Tom was very effective as a director, surpassing any of us. This is when I first noticed that we worked very well as a team and I was personally impressed.

The other thing I noticed was that we were working much more professionally. We were using much more media-specific terminology in our casual speech, and working with the set in a much more professional manner. We obviously realised that mise-en-scene was much more important than we had thought in our first shoot. Back then, we had thought nothing of random items appearing in the back of our shots, but now it caused us genuine concern.

However, as I have mentioned above, we didn't stick to our shot list or script enough, and having one person doing the majority of the filming probably wasn't the best idea. So,while we got a lot of good shots this time, we didn't get enough of what we needed, and we got a lot of unnecessary footage.We would have to go back again.

Filming

With our plans ready to go, we got filming straight away. The location we chose was a scout hall in Sutton-at-Hone, Kent. We thought this would have the space and facilities we needed. When we got there we found that it matched up to our expectations fairly well. Despite a few minor problems with camera placement, everything worked well. The safety aspect was also well catered for, there were fire extinguishers on site and we had enough of our own equipment to make sure we were safe.

Final Planning and Filming

Upon meeting with the group again, I found that the others had similar ideas to me, and that my own personal contributions were well received. The vision for the video was to have an older man, performing the piece, but also, reflecting the message of the song by attempting to be young again. To achieve this we decided to have him performing actions traditionally associated with children. We hoped that this would look comically ludicrous and reflect the vibrant feel of the music. By this point, beginning our filming was becoming a massive priority, so we decided to start as soon as possible. After making our final plans, we agreed to start filming on January 23rd.

Our initial filming was riddled with problems from the very beginning. By leaving it so late, we weren't available to get together to film, with our actor, until 3 o' clock. This meant that we couldn't film any exterior shots, because it would get dark very quickly. So we decided to start filming an interior performance shot at our first location. This location was a cellar used by a friend of ours as a music studio. The room seemed to have the right feel and was available when we wanted to film. However, more problems arose as soon as we arrived. Due to a limited amount of lights and space, it took a long time for us to set up our first shot. What we managed to shoot was fairly good, but we simply didn't have enough time to shoot a suitable quantity of footage. So, we returned to school with what we had, to see if we could do anything with it.