Rotoscoping Work-in-progress

 

Basically I started on the rotoscoping seeing as I was ill yesterday and thought I should contribute, it was time consuming to start with but I soon found a quick pace. So far I think it's turned out alright, I have a lot more animation to get on with though. It's also worth mentioning that the video is kinda squashed up on here, and its not as good quality as the actual video either.

Editing the stopmotion

The one directly below is more like the stroryboard however i dont think its as interesting as the second one. The second one looks more artistic so this would appeal to our target audience. I have used a sepia filter over the second one which i like, but may have to change depending on how we edit the rest of the video. The top video is left without a filter which doesn't look bad although i don't think it is as interesting, nor does it relate to the 80's style, whereas i feel the one below it does. Let me know what you think!

Stop motion

today i did the stopmotion for the scrabble board (documented by sofie), whilst jack and our friend hattie took some shots of the location we're using next time we film. The stop motion was fairly easy to do as i had prepped the letters and knew what i was doing from the practice, i experimented with the letters moving off of the board and them being added individually, so i will use iMovie to create the shot and then decide what works best to use. (please excuse the hideous photo).

Day 3 of filming

Today we went to the church to take the photographs for the stopmotion of the scrabble board. This job was assigned to Lily and myself, Jack and a friend (Hattie) came along to assist and give imput. Unfortunately, Owain was ill today and couldn't come with us :( This task didn't seem to be too time consuming and went successfully (Lily will explain in detail how it went)

I recorded several videos on my iPhone, as I was without my flip, but the videos sadly won't load into my editing software to be put together and uploaded as they don't seem to be compatible.

DAY 2 - filming

today Jack and I had to film jordan, as we are really limited on time and jordan's got a very busy work and college schedule. the shoot went fairly well, we used Jack's SLR which had HD video recording, the shots turned out extremely well and the quality was fantastic. We only had a limited amount of time to film today as Jordan had a driving lesson at 5pm, after filming as many shots as we could for the graveyard scenes we went back to jack and jordan's where Jack uploaded the footage on to iMovie, I then picked the clips that we would be able to use for the video, and dragged them up in to the editing suite ready to import to After Effects. We will edit the clips tomorrow in the lesson as much as we can, but Jack said he will edit anything we dont do at home as he is familiar with the software.

I have put together this short video of footage of us creating the music video from our first day of filming. It is mainly us setting up and some clips of Jordan acting for us. As we were quiet rushed and strapped for time, I didn't have the chance to get everything I was planning to on the flip cam, so the next time we film, I aim to get some interviews and vlogs with each member of our group and also Jordan.

Location for today and tomorrow

The location we are filming at today and tomorrow is the church in Broughton Astley. We decided to film here because of it's close vicinity of our previous location. 

We will make sure to be prepared early in order to have enough time to get the clips we want. 

Preparation for day 2 filming

As Jordan has a really busy work schedule it's crucial we film today. We will start filming some shots in the church, which we can finish in tomorrow's lesson. As most of the stop motion shot is filmed inside, the weather conditions should not be a problem.

We will film the footage that will be pieced together with the stop motion Lily is shooting tomorrow. I think as long as everything is carefully planned, then it should go smoothly. 

Tomorrows weather conditions: 

Because tomorrows weather conditions does not look too good, we really need to film as much as we can today, whilst the weather holds up. 

Tomorrow - Stop Motion

Jack and I are going to start making the stop motion, I was assigned to do this as i created the test shots and i came up with the idea originally so i have clear idea of what it will be like in my head. Jack's letting me use his SLR and will assist with the lighting and positioning when we are at the church, as he is in charge of location. We will use tomorrow's media lesson to go to location and start taking the photo's needed to produce the stop motion. I will then start editing it tomorrow night on iMovie.

First shots

Below is a screenshot from a rough edit of the first shot we filmed, and its respective part from the animatic. I think that it looks a lot like what I originally drew, so it is going good so far.

Rotoscoping - saving group time

To save time and cut down the amount of footage that we will have to film as a group, I've had the idea of filming myself performing the actions of Jordan during the sections where it will be rotoscoped. As I can do this any time, with no scheduling required, this will save a lot of time as we can then focus on the live action sections with what limited time we do have.

This idea may seem strange to begin with, but as I am just drawing over footage, I can make it look however I want, regardless of what was actually filmed. Therefore I can draw Jordan's face and outfit over mine, and it will look like he performed it, despite not being there. The footage of me will only be used as guidance for the general movement and lipsyncing involved, and won't be seen in the final video.

Our location number 1

This is our first location of our music video. I really like this location because of it's size, and desolation. It's also good because it's very close to my house, so if we need anything it's not much trouble to go back and get it. It also means Lily doesn't have to drive us around with a lot of equipment.
The size of the field adds to the importance of the character in our music video, and the rural elements of the location add to the indie genre, and intertexuality of other music videos, such as Mumford & Sons:

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KCg_QEHtkY

I think the use of instruments in a rural area is a quirky thing to do, which is what we've been aiming for. I like the use of vignetting also, which I included in my 'Experimenting with location' post. 

I think it would be a good effect to consider when it comes to editing. 

 

First Day Of Filming

Today our filming went really well, we've pretty much covered the shots we needed in the field, we are meeting up tomorrow after school to start filming the grave yard shots. We will use today's prop list, as we had more than enough props today so hopefully that will get us through the rest of the shoot. Jordan worked really well with the acting and most of the different shots worked well first time so everything went very smoothly and we got it done within the hour and a half we had. The only problem we came across was getting across the brook at the bottom of Jack's garden, in the end we created a bridge using a ladder and wood, as the bridge Jack made previously had disappeared, this took up some of our time but we still had over an hour to film. I'm hoping that tomorrow's filming will go as well as today's as then we should hopefully only need two more sessions of filming in order to complete the needed shots.

Here are some photo's of Jordan when we were on location, which i took using my camera, I think the costume I picked out works really well, and it really compliments the indie genre creating a really effective part of the mise en scene. Tomorrow we are filming at 4 o'clock until 5 which is a bit later than the filming we did today (1.45pm-3pm) so hopefully the position of the sun won't be too different from how we filmed it today. Luckily we are using a different location (the churchyard) so there will not be a continuity error with the day light as it is a different shot from today's.

Filming Day 1

Today we started filming for our music video. We left college during our lunch and filmed through our media lesson.

I think today's filming went well, however I think it's proved to us how much time and effort is needed to produce our video. I think we need a whole day of just filming in order to get to a place where we feel confident that our video will be completed by our deadline.

Problems we faced were crossing the brooke with all our equipment (which we anticipated in our risk assessment), and the constant change of shadow caused by the sun setting early. In order overcome the shadow problems when it comes to editing, and duplicating 'Hewitson', we will have to use the feather tool in order to make each shot blend together.

For friday's lesson, we will edit together what we have shot today, because our actor isn't available to film. By editing our first shots, we can get a feel for timing and how much more footage will be needed in our next shots.

Shot/Prop List

Shot + Prop List

checklist for wednesday's filming...

• Acoustic Guitar - Lily
• Costume - Jordan (styled by Lily)
• Scrabble - Lily/Owain
• Transportation - Lily

• Drum - Jack
• Small objects to use as markers (e.g. lego) - Jack
• Costume & Prop prep - Jack's House (also somewhere for Jordan to get ready into costume)

• Camera & tripod - Owain
• Laptop with relevant storyboard shots (churchyard/field) - Owain
• Scrabble - Lily/Owain

• Camera for documentary - Sofie
• Flowers - Sofie
• Bike - Sofie (for Filming in Leire, may take place on Friday depending on time)

The weather is forecast to be light showers, filming should hopefully be able to go ahead and if we're lucky the weather will be dry. 

Filming Schedule

Wednesday: We're going to film during lunch and through our media lesson up until 3:10PM - We're filming the church scenes, and field scenes. There will be a mini animatic of the shots we need to get on wednesday. As Jordan does drama, we are hoping to get most of the shots done in minimal takes.
Thursday: We're going to film from about 4PM till 5PM. The issue we are faced with is the weather, and the lighting being different.

Sunday: Meeting outside church at 4:00PM to set up ready for Jordan to finish work at 5. However because of the clocks going back, it's going to be dark earlier, So we might loose some time to film.

School Week: We will try and fit as much as we can during the school week, because sunday may be limited as the lighting will not be optimal conditions.

Location Slideshow

We decided to travel to different locations and take a few shots with our actor to get a feel for the style we are looking for.

The weather in the photos/videos is what we're looking for. If the weather isn't like this, then we'll have to adjust the the colour in editing.

experimenting with print

I was looking back at the band prints I found and really wanted to experiment with photoshop so i made some rough posters, i wanted to test out the lomo effect that can be created on photoshop by created a vignette around the edge by altering the levels, and then adjusting the curves. I then created an opaque black layer to go over the photo. This was easy and i like the effect! i also experimented with the text and some frames.

 the original photo

after lomo editing

adding the typography & itunes logo, the itunes logo creates realism, as most bands sell their music via itunes, so i think this works well, as it is easy and believable.

experimenting with polaroid backgrounds:

I like the hardness of this polaroid frame, as it looks more realistic. I think the polaroid gives the poster a vintage effect which really compliments the style we are going for in the video and makes it a bit more interesting. 

i like this frame however i feel it is a bit opaque against the image. I like the rugged vintage look it has and think it looks effective, i think the tape gives it that something extra making it more interesting!

New posts

I have several posts lined up, including work we've done over half term, however because I don't have the Internet, I'm only able to post off my iPhone. So I cant post the videos and photos me and lily have of the location. I should have the Internet back next week some time, so I'll upload everything we've done when I get back on Monday, when I can use the schools Internet.

Looking at props

 As I am in London this week I have decided to look around Camden Market to see if there are any props at the vintage stalls that would look interesting in our video, I will take photos of anything I find which may look effective and if it is a suitable price and size for me to bring back for filming, jack and I thought of old radios, clocks and trinkets as they will add a vintage mise en scene to the video.

Here are some of the pictures I took...

I visited different vintage shops and found some really good props, but i didnt think any of these (left) would be appropriate.

 I really like these old vintage keyboards, however they were £100 + and i have one at home from when i was younger so would prefer to use that if we were going to use one. however I dont think we should use one as it would not fit in with the genre or style of the music.

I like these old camera's and the satchel, I have an old SLR camera at home, and Jack and Sofie both have vintage polaroid cameras, although we would have to discuss whether they would be appropriate to use in the video.

 I thought these guitars looked really cool, however the one we already have looks just as effective and means we do not have to fork out any extra money. I think this stall would look really effective for a photoshoot for when we are making the prints, as the wall of different guitars looks really interesting.

 This may also make an interesting back drop for when taking the photo's for print, however we would have to arrange a trip to camden which may not be ideal, we could however create something similar.

I really like the old suitcases, i have a couple of these at home which were my grandfather's, they would make interesting props in either the video or the scene for the print photography.

i

Camden market had a really good selection of vintage bikes! they ranged from £90 to around £200, which would be far too costly for the video, so we need to find an alternative, my mum has an electra bike which is in a retro style, however it is pink so may take away the vintage mise en scene we are trying to achieve.

Crystal Castles Graveyard

I like the way crystal castles have used the graveyard here! it's different to the effect we want but it is still quirky and interesting! i really like the way the colour's been corrected it creates a really nice cinematic style effect!

Location with the actors and costume

Today me and Lily drove around several locations looking for the perfect place to film. We decided to go back and pick up Jordan, our actor, so that we could get a feel for mise-en-scene.

Today the weather perfection condition for filming. We want the weather to be overcast in order to portray the desired pathetic fallacy.

Costume, props and location

Today jack and I took Jordan to various possible locations after dressing him in our chosen costume. This helped us get an idea of what would work well together and allowed us to have more of an idea of what the end result will be.

We also found some really nice vintage props that jordan owns, and took lots of pictures of the various locations we visited. Luckily I can drive so getting to the different locations was easy and allowed us to have more of a range of where we went.

I have made this video with Jordan in full costume at some of the places we visited, holding instruments. I used stop motion which allowed me to familiarise myself with it more. I have taken more photos so I will upload them soon.

Schedule

As Lily is away for the majority of the half term week, we are only all available to film on Thursday and Friday (21st & 22nd). We aim to film as much as we possibly can during these days and any more that needs to be shot can be filmed after school and weekends in the following weeks. On Thursday we plan to film the graveyard footage in Lily's village, and then the footage of the field and bridge in Leire on Friday and we will begin as early as possible to ensure we have as much daylight as we can. As a lot of our footage is repeated in the video, if we work hard we could get everything filmed within these two days.

Working together

As mine and jacks tasks are fairly similar we've decided to pair up so that we have a right hand man. This way we can get different perspectives on our ideas and the way the shot should be presented. Our tasks compliment each other so by working along side each other we will hopefully make the best decisions for each shot. Mr smith suggested we split off into relevant pairs so as jack and i are doing scenery related tasks we went together, and sofie and owain are directing so their jobs are also very well suited.


Planning with jack on skype...

Props

Today Owain and myself went through the storyboard shot by shot and noted down the length of each shot and the props that we will need in order to film it. The main props that we need are as follows:
Acoustic guitar- provided by Lily
Drum- provided by Owain
Flowers- provided by Sofie
Green screen- provided by Jack
Bike-
Scrabble Board- provided by Owain

Assistant Director and Documentor

My job during filming will be to assist Owain in directing the music video, by checking that the set and shot matches the storyboard and if it doesn't, report back to Jack, our set dresser, to fix it. I will also be documenting our filming on my HD flip cam, doing interviews with our group members and also Jordan. This will help us when we come to evaluate our coursework. As well as this, I will take photographs of the set, shots and of us working for the purpose of our blog.

My job - Director

As director, my job will be essentially to make sure we film the right shots with the right amount of footage at certain times in order to make the shot look how I drew in the animatic. My duties will also involve mostly operating the camera because I'm most familiar with the way that the camera we are using works and because I worked out some of the effects that I drew in my head and it may to be hard to communicate what I want filming. Sometimes though it may make more sense to allow others to operate it if I'm busy with something else, like checking if we have enough footage to create the effect we need.

Props and Costume Director

It is my job to organise the props and costume making sure they are the same in each scene. I will do this by taking photos of Jordan once he is ready for the first shoot so that we can get it identical for every shot after.

I will meet with Jordan to pick out the clothing needed for the costume and will research into what props we have available for the shot. I am hoping to get vintage and modern props so the video can relate to both eras. To make the shots perfect i will work closely to Jack as our jobs are both to do with the overall scene, so we need to get it perfect so that there are not any continuity errors if we need to film at different locations or re-film a shot again.

Set dresser

This job involves making sure each shot of the video looks relatively like the animatic.

I will start by making all props and location is subtable for shooting. I will take into consideration the weather and time of day to ensure consistency.

I will need to work closely with the prop & costume director, Lily in order to make sure the shots are perfect each time.

Assigning the jobs

Owain: Director

Lily: Costume & Props

Sofie: documenter & assistant director

Jack: Set dresser

80's Props

I found this Mark's and Spencer bag at my nana's house, and I thought it looked cool, so I took a photo and uploading it to here.

On saturday I'm going to go around my nana's house to carry on looking for some 80's props which can add to the mise-en-scene of our music video.

I think it's interesting how we are going to be using old props, such as vintage acoustic guitars juxtaposed with modern editing, such as AfterEffects cloning, and rotoscoping.

Importance of mise-en-scene in the narrative

I believe that the mise-en-scene of the video adds to the authenticity of the artist in several ways, one of which is through the use of props, in this case, instruments. By having several instruments all being played by our artist (often at once), it makes 'Hewiston River' seem more like an actual musician is behind it, and adds credibility. It gives connotations of musical ability just by having them in shot.

The background setting also adds authenticity to the artist. The old rural setting is one that is popular in many music videos from the indie genre, as it creates an old or vintage feel, perhaps one that is rough and unfinished. This is purposeful as it distances the artist from another who may have a more extravagant video that is more flash and professional, in the pop genre for instance. As it is perceived by some people that pop singers don't have talent, a video that discards all of those conventions may make an artist seem more creative and unique for their artistic talents rather than their looks or possessions.

The mise-en-scene helps to establish setting and relationships. However, as there is only one person in the video, it could be said that the relationship made is with the viewer. The gravestones obviously help to establish that the artist is in a graveyard, and when combined with the action i.e. Jordan seemingly ignorant as to where he is, acting happy and so on; a love/hate relationship between him and the audience is created, there are obvious reason to dislike his persona at that time due to his disrespectful behaviour, though it is still (hopefully) entertaining to watch so the viewer is interested in that way.

Experimenting and practising with editing

I used iMovie and took the stop motion video i created earlier, and experimented with some effects and editing techniques such as altering the speed, reverse and using filters.

When creating the music video we will obviously not alter the speed of the song, i just wanted to experiment with some of iMovie's features.

Stop Motion Practice

Today i found my mum and dad's old scrabble, it looks really old so i thought i'd test it out and do some stop motion practice! some of the pieces were missing so i had to improvise. I used iMovie to edit it together and put a filter over the top once i had finished editing each shot. I had to crop each photo in order for them to fit on the widescreen. In the final piece we will need to ensure of excellent picture quality we can do this by using my mum's SLR camera. For these photo's i used my 5mp iPhone camera which explains the quality of some of the shots. I really like the scrabble idea and think stop motion will look really effective. I think the use of the filter gives it the 80's vibe turning modern stop motion into something vintage, which is what we want to acheive from our video, something modern yet with the 80's vibe, so it can relate back to the origins of the song and the smiths. The scrabble could also relate to  Morrissey's love for literature, as letters make obvious connotations to literacy which is the source of all novels.

Some of the original photo's before the editing!

Before Adding the filter...



After Filter Was Added...