Monday 20th May – On this day I did more to the edit. I put extra clips in it that I was recommended to and just polished it off. I didn’t do much else other than that.

Tuesday 21st May – On this day I did more to the edit, I messed around with the audio a lot and still had more issues. In the afternoon I watched over people’s videos, it was nice to see how they did them and how they edited, I took a few notes on it and will remind myself for my future projects.

Wednesday 22nd May – I finally finished the edit on this day, the audio was really bad and Scott gave me some help with it and now it’s good. It can definitely be improved but also it’s good now.

I showed my video to my tutors and class, I was a bit nervous but in the end they seemed to like it, although they did give feedback and I also gave out a feedback questionnaire and they all seemed to say the same stuff, that the audio can be improved, how the pacing was good, how the story was interesting and also that the story didn’t really have a conclusion. It just ended, which I agree on, I spent ages trying to find an ending but just couldn’t think of one. And then just assumed that the interview was good enough. But it wasn’t, so now I know for next time to actually think of a true ending that is satisfying for all.

Although I didn’t do a lot this week, I still got things done and was able to get quite a bit done for the little time I had.

Monday April 13th – This day I spent the entire time looking for music to add into my edit, I spent about an hour looking for some songs and justifying them and decided to make a few drafts of different songs, I finally found a song and put it into the video properly, I watched it many times with the music on different volume levels, wasn’t sure if I wanted it to be louder or quieter, I picked it to be quiet first but watching it without earphones I couldn’t hear it from the speakers. So i turned it up a little bit more.

Tuesday April 14th – Weren’t able to do anything today as I was helping a friend film his video.

Wednesday April 15th – Only able to work half the day as I was helping again, but I added some more polishes onto the edit, changing the sound mixes and some clips, rendering it to see if it looks good enough in the video and just getting a little more feedback for to polish it.

Sunday April 19th – Here I did my evaluation for my editing, I did it from the start, the middle and the end. Showing what changed, what I originally wanted, what I felt about it at the end and how I could improve next time, what went wrong and what techniques I used during it to make it as good and entertaining as possible.

 

 

Tuesday 7th May. On this day I started to edit my video, I looked over all my rushes and picked out all the good ones, at first I was a bit worried how I would lay it out as I had this vision in my head of what it wanted it to be, but still unsure if it would work. I started with the first scene part after the intro, I had two angles for this one scene but it was quite hard to mix the two with the same audio as I did some improvising whilst talking so it was a bit hard to actually edit it together, but I will keep trying it to make it work.

After I got a decent edit of the second scene, I started listening to the voice over audio and realised that all my parts weren’t that good, I definitely needed to re-shoot. So, I asked Zac and Scott if I was able to use the recording studio whenever I could but it was all full and they weren’t in on the Wednesday. So, Zac gave me a mic set up I could take home, which I thought would be easier for me as it would just be me talking into the microphone, which was one of my issues while doing the other voice overs is that people were outside listening to my voice, but really I had a lot of issues recording this, it was so uncomfortable to record, it took me awhile to actually get it right, but in the end it turned out pretty good,

Wednesday 8th May. On this day I had my new audio so I re-listened to that and cut it into what was good, what was decent and what wasn’t good at all. Then started editing it into my video, while doing this I needed footage of the photomode and HD photos of old and new photos, which was tricky as most of my older shots are very low quality and had to do some minor editing to make it look decent enough, may have to change it along the way though. I could fake some old shots but that wouldn’t be authentic for me.

While editing, I had to cut my voice a lot as I kept breathing in very loud and it just wasn’t good, and I thought that I may have to re-record my voice again since it was only coming out of my right ear piece but luckily I was able to make it come out of the two with the help of Amanda. The part really fits well with the footage and pictures included in the entire video, I am actually quite happy how it has turned out so far, just not big on editing myself, it’s very new to me and quite uncomfortable.

 

I missed out on Monday as I had a dentist appointment, so I didn’t do any work on that day, but I made up for it by doing the entire edit log as I forgot to do so when I was filming. This helps me a lot since while I am editing, I will know which footage to use on, which footage is test, a fail one or even if the clip hasn’t got a good start but we didn’t do a new take on that shot. so the ending will be a good part. So I am glad I did so.

On Wednesday, I did my voice overs with Tyler and Harrison, they were very kind to help me with the voice overs and after this I can finally start the edit.

I also did my own voice over for the video too, much longer than I thought so too as I added a part in after doing the script. Which I wasn’t comfortable doing in the actual video itself, plus realised also that I needed more voice over in my video as it is cinema vertite, so it makes sense to.

Because it is so long, I will have to cut a few things, especially from Harri’s voice over as the interview I was given was very long and will not fit the length of the video, which is fine as again, I’ll cut it and some of my parts as I don’t think they’re good enough.

I need to improve on my speech a lot whilst doing voice overs, I just didn’t feel comfortable but I am getting more comfortable as I get along, which is progress. Which is the main reason I wanted to do this.

 

I didn’t do much through-out this week as I did all the main parts I needed to do over half-term last week. But I did make sure to analyse the survey I got people to do.

Before doing the survey I was told I needed at least 20 people to take it, which I haven’t done before this one, my last one I got 5 people as I was rushing it. But now I didn’t and made sure to get over 20 proper results.

Before doing so, I made sure to make at least each question having a reason for it. Making it have a purpose to actually do my documentary itself, I also wanted to know people’s thoughts on what they thought it was when they didn’t. It’s something I was always curious about.

I analysed each question in detail, going over what I found interesting, what I didn’t understand about some answers and what I realised when analysing. It was good to figure out what people mean or meant.

I also did pie charts on some of the answers to give a clearer result. As many people just voted for their own thing, which that in context meant there was only one vote so I put all the singular ones into the category of “other” as I didn’t want everything else to be cluttered on screen.

 

Monday 15th April – I drew my storyboard, at this point I wasn’t too sure of what shots I wanted exactly, as I like to think about them as I am filming myself, as I get random ideas in my head. But I put a few down on there of what I had in mind. So, not all the shots are on there, plus I only brought one page with me, I forgot to get the others while in college, which was my fault.

Tuesday 16th April – Although I didn’t do any work. I realised that my laptop didn’t have an SD card slot to transfer the footage, since I may need to give my equipment to another class mate next week, so I needed my footage on a USB. I then asked my friend if I could use his laptop to transfer the footage, in which he said yes. So no worries.

Wednesday 17th April – This was the day I filmed my main parts of my documentary, the dialogue scenes and friend interview, as spoken about in my BTS and test shots, I had a few problems but they weren’t big at all. The camera battery was somehow on two bars when we started filming, so we only had 2 hours until it died, which we did get most of the footage done then. So then I decided to charge it for an hour or so and then go back into filming, after that I needed to record a long-ish segment of me talking about various styles I have within different games, but really didn’t feel comfortable talking about on camera, so I decided I will use that segment in voice over, where I can use my voice to express what I am doing. And because I am doing cinema verite mode, I am able to switch between the two. I also filmed the friend interview of their thoughts about my shots, style and development and I think it turned out good. I just wish I was behind the camera in every scene. But this was good to come out of my comfort zone, which is one of the main reasons why I wanted to be in front of the camera.

Although I was in front of the camera, I changed all the camera settings and had my friend sit where I would be in order for me to frame the shot, as I still am very passionate about using the camera only, so I made sure to do that.

Also, as said in the BTS and test shot write up, I did have one location I wanted to film but didn’t really like how it turned out, I said that in the future before filming, I would take greater care of which area I need and actually want in order to have little to no issues in locations.

Thursday April 18th – On this day, I recorded all my scenery shots of my photos in various places, I originally wanted to do so in my house, but then realised that I filmed all my other footage in there, so I wanted to change it up, I went to a little wood area near my house and because it was a nice day, the sun was out. I placed all my photos in different, random areas that i thought looked cool and this will add into my video very nicely. I did this on this day and not yesterday as it was getting late and the sun was not out as much as it was, so I saved it for the day after. I didn’t have any issues while filming this other than the wind blowing my pictures away at times.

Friday April 19th – On this day I wrote up about all my footage I filmed from the previous two days. I wrote about the various locations I used, thew equipment, the camera settings and what happened on that day.

I also finally had enough people for my survey, so I decided to also write up about that in my research part of the blog.

On Monday, April 8th, I added more research into my context and research tabs on my blog. I looked more into Cinema Verite and found out about its origins and how it can be used today. This will help me for my project as it gives me an understanding of the main mode I am doing, how to format it and how to follow a character. I also finished off my proposal with references and more detail, adding to my research log.

On Tuesday, April 9th, I did my pitch, I already done an actual reflection on it but I think it went well, I added new things whilst talking and took in some feedback that I’ll definitely add into my project. I stated that it is a personal story and that it’s something new for me, it is going out of my comfort zone and that’s what I want to achieve.  I also stated that I didn’t want to talk about the controversies too much surrounding it, which is why I will now do a very short introduction at the start of the video defining what virtual photography is, and talking about that also. I think my speech was clear and people understood me. Next time, I would put in more detail about my production schedule as I only spoke about the first few weeks as I forgot what I was going to do.

I then also started doing my script, I wrote the first start until Amanda showed me an example of one and how it was written out, so I started to use Celtx for my script-writing. Added some new things I didn’t know before and from previous research on script writing, I have somewhat basic idea of how to write one. When writing, I didn’t want it to feel like it was scripted, which is why when I am filming, i will add my own stuff into it to that won’t be on the script. I had in mind that because this is a personal story, I wanted it to feel and be written as I would think of it in my mind or by talking to myself, which makes sense as it’s a documentary.

Wednesday, April 10th – I finished my extended proposal this day, added more detail than I did with the first one and with the pitch. This shows reasons why I chose certain parts and made changes to the production plan.

I also had a speak with Amanda, she said that I may have to share my equipment with another student through half-term, which would give me less time to film. but I wasn’t planning on filming for the second half. I had a talk with the person who would need it and they said that they are going to check if they can use a different camera, but if not then I will have to meet them. So. it’s all fine now.

I also did most of my script, although the main part of the script is only really a foundation of what I am or want to say, I will mainly improvise whilst in front of the camera, but it is good to have a foundation and it’ll give someone a clearer message if they were to read the script.

I also forgot to book the studio with Scott, so I also did that. But I am unsure if I will be free on either the first week back or the second since I am helping J film his video. I asked him if I could have two possible dates to record just in case I am missing one week or the other.

Monday I re-read the brief and the to-do list to give me a better and clear idea of to make sure I don’t miss anything else, I will keep doing this as I go along to not miss anything at all.

The week before, I wrote up my proposal for this project, first it was kind of tricky deciding what I want to do for the assignment, I originally wanted to do another music video, but after just finishing one I don’t think I could do another one. I then wanted to do a trailer, but couldn’t exactly think of an idea I am happy with. So, I thought about ideas for a documentary and figured that the virtual photography subject is a very small, non-known subject that I could cover. I thought of ways I can structure it but I am still thinking.

I then went over all 7 units I have done and explained what I learnt and how I can add that into my final project. This helped me overview what I actually learnt from this course and how I improved over each assignment.

On Monday and Tuesday I did my original idea pitch, showing the 4 segments and how I can add them, although I will soon do another pitch as I have a few more ideas of how to structure this.

On Tuesday I was told more about the BBFC and how they rate films, what a film has to have in order to stay in that category. I learnt that films that are also around 12/13 age ratings can have certain things in them like violence, death, drugs but it has to be very obscure and is not the main part of the film. It also helps if it’s in context.

I also did more research by myself about it, learning many things such as an 18 ilm can be cut or censored into having a lower age rating. Which some companies like 20th Century Fox has done with Deadpool 2. This is just good to know for myself for future projects when I am deciding to make a more darker video.

Through-out this week, I had a think of what I wanted to tell in the story, what was the question? Who am I following in this story? Instead of it being all voice over with footage and other clips within it to engage a better story for the audience. I decided to follow my story, as the subject is very obscure and there aren’t any other people near me who do this, apart from myself – so it will follow me and my experience with the question “Why Virtual Photography?” which will explain itself by the end after talking about my journey, explaining some of my personal favourite photos I have taken, talking about the start of this journey, how I improved. And then by the end add a little segment that will be a few written interviews of a few people I know online who do this and give their opinions on my journey or their journey. Just to give a better reach with the subject.

I did the final version of the pitch and proposal, the first two being of the older story with 4 segments. It was too long and would’t add a lot into my documentary, making it boring. So in conclusion, I am happy with this story and I am sure it will work fine and make an interesting video.

I was learnt about the different modes within documentaries, learning about; Grierson “Voice of God” mode, where there is just voice over the footage. which I wanted to do originally.

Then there was Cinema Verite, where the filmmaker is present. Which is what I am doing now to engage to more people and make it interesting.

And finally, the Direct Cinema, where there is no filmmaker, no voice over, just letting the edited footage tell the story. Which definitely was not for me.

 

For my evaluation, I will be going through many steps we and I did as a group to help make this video.

First, I did my DP Pitch, I didn’t  really know what I wanted here but still did my best for all music videos, although I did have more of a style for the Usher video. I explained why I would use certain colours and how they were used, same with camera angels, clothing, etc. Overall, I think my pitch was good and had a different taste to the video.

Then I was within my group for Usher, we were worried at the start as this would be a pretty tricky thing to pull off, he had many meetings deciding what equipment we needed, cast, locations, plot. And all agreed on them, we had an overall budget at first we were worried about for around £100, this included a small laser light box, smoke grenades, LED curtain lights, a fake plastic chain and a fog machine. All estimated around £100. We knew we couldn’t reach this budget ourselves but we all still put in our own money but had to remove the fog machine off the list as we weren’t sure if it would be windy on the day plus it cost too much. To gain the money back, we all originally thought a cake sale would be nice to gain some money for the video. But then thought that we would put all the effort in for cakes and not many people buying them, plus we would have to sell a lot of cakes. So we then just did a “gofundme” page and actually raised around £50. Which didn’t help us all to get the money back but we all took a quarter each and it was a little boost. It was a good process to cut a few things from the budget and not doing a cake sale. It would’ve just taken more time to do and more unneeded effort whereas we could be putting that somewhere else.

Now, that we have the two locations we need, I will talk about the filming because on the first day, because of my fault, the footage we had was not good at all, it was out of focus, the ISO and Aperture was too high, it all looked grainy, the tripod we had was not very good, we could see plugs and especially the tracker. I made sure to do a better job on the next two days of filming, it was kind of like a test run the first day.

The car-park scene I wanted myself didn’t turn out too. My original plan was to have both red and blue smoke grenades to the next of “Usher” like the lights are in the Big Room. But the smoke bombs didn’t work as we thought and was pretty windy, but we still filmed footage, and again, my fault that the footage was grainy. But I don’t think i would’ve used it anyway as I didn’t like the overall look of it. If I were to do this again or what I’ll hold in my mind for the next time I film like this is to make sure the camera is always in focus, the ISO is good with the aperture and shutter speed, to test any prop we have before to make sure it works. Which I did take into mind for the next two days, I think the footage we got for the 2nd and 3rd day look awesome, the lighting, focus, framing, camera movement and just the look was a definite better version of the first day, which is why I am kind of glad that the first day footage was actually bad, because it made me more worried for the footage and made me put my absolute focus onto how it looks. So I appreciate that.

Now, for the actual editing itself, I know I am not that good at editing since I am very new to it, but still wanted to put in my best. I showed a few people the first draft of my video which does have a lot of issues, but they said that they were able to see some out of sync lip action, a few minor milliseconds where the frames are black, and one tutor told me to blur out the doors at the start of the video, which I did. I polished it up more, added different clips in, made it more synced, a few faster cuts and took away the black frames. While still not perfect, I think for my editing skills it is decent. Although I know my strong suit was being the DP/Cinematographer. If I were to improve or do this again, I were to get as much footage as we could, even at some random weird angles, because while filming you think you have a lot of footage but going in to edit some, you realise how little you have, but thankfully for all the lighting we did and tracker moving it all didn’t look all the same which did help a lot. I would edit to the beat more as I didn’t do that often as it was very hard and I couldn’t figure out how to do it properly, and when I tried it didn’t look right.

Feedback –

I made a very quick survey on Survey Monkey and asked people what they thought of my Music Video;

Question 1

Here I asked what they thought of the video style as the brief said that although its a naughties song, it has to look modern. Which all people said yes to, which means I did my job as a DP to make sure the lights and camera movement/angles were all on point.

Although, in my opinion. I think that although the visual look of the video looks modern, the starting segment and dancing is kind of reminiscent of that time period which can both be good and bad. Good because it’s sort of a nod to that time period yet because that doesn’t look modern, it sort of means that we didn’t do our jobs right. But I think that it’s more good than bad.

Question 2;

Here, I asked them that if they could tell that the difference outfit changes were different people?

Here there’s actually more “no’s” than “yes'” which means we either did something wrong or they didn’t pay attention to the clothing. We had Usher in white clothing and then Ludacris in black clothing to obviously show it’s two personalities but also meant to be the same person.

Next time I will try and make sure that we make it more established that that’s meant to happen.

Question 3 –

Here I asked them what they thought about the camera angles and lighting and if they thought it was suitable for this style of song as I am the DP I want to see what people say.

They all agreed so, which makes sense as I looked into a lot of research and gave meaning for my colours but made sure that they fit into this style. They liked the lighting especially with all those flashing lights.

Question 4;

And finally, the final question was about the editing. They all said they enjoyed it and thought that the pace was well done and along with the lip syncing. Which I do agree on although I know my editing isn’t that good so I am not specialising  on that but I do enjoy it for the most part. I think the editing is modernised with all the fast cuts and speedy pace.

 

Screenshot 1; The Start

Here we have my first shot for my editing process, I like to do a three step process with this, the start. middle and end. Here is the start, as you can see I have started putting a few clips together, which are all the first segment of my music video. Here the director wanted a corny lame dance where one guy was trying to get the party starting but the others where just not bothered. You can also see that I already have 4 different audios being used. One if the first “Sexy and I Know It” song, the other is a record scratch, the other is a heaven sounding track for when “Usher” opens the door in a silhouette and then finally of course there’s the Usher – Yeah! song.

My thoughts at this point and the image of the music video in my head was that I wanted it to be fast paces with quite a lot of fast cuts too, but for it to not just rely on that, to make sure people get longer glimpses of the actor, lighting and camera movement.

Screenshot 2; The Middle

From this second image we have the middle process of editing. if you look closely you can see a lot of cuts and small boxes for a lot of clips, from what I said in the start I wanted this to be fast paced with a lot of cuts, but wanted it to not be too much – which I tried to keep to my word here. You can see I also have a top layer for one clip around the start which is actually a duplicated clip for the blur out of the silhouette scene, the doors had “do not open” written on them so I blurred them out.

Screenshot 3; The End 

For the final picture, it’s basically the same as the second one but with a lot more clips involved, which again, is keeping to my word of fast cuts. You can also see a lot of black spaces between them and that is for part of the song when a certain beat drops to add more effect. For the end of the chorus I wanted it to very quickly cut into black while it’s into the beat to just make it stand out a little bit more.

If I were to redo this video again, I would mess around with the colour grading more, I felt like I could’ve made the colours stand out more than they already do but because the song is 4 minutes long and the song is very fast paced, the editing process had to be that which makes it harder. If I were to redo this I would find more time to edit and plan better than previous.

I would also like to mess around with any special effects that would somehow work their way into this music video, not sure what I could do with it but just experimenting with all types of special effects to bring it more attention.