The Journey!

Below is a post of entries of the process of making the music video:

Preparation

Choosing the song/ getting permission

I choose the song green lights my Edubble as I was aware of him previously. He produced good free music for content creators to use. Green lights had very few swear words/derogatory terms and an upbeat feel. It had an equal amount of singing and rap making the song easier to memorize. I found the easiest method of contacting him was through twitter. I proceeded to contact him on twitter asking for permission to use his song and he replied saying yes.

Memorizing the song

After I had received permission for the song I began to memorize it. To do this efficiently and as quick as possible I began by listening to the song multiple times in a short period of time. This gave me a 'feel' for the song and learn the beat which would help me in the future. The next day I started to sing along to the song using memorable parts of the beat and lyrics as points which triggered my memory. The next day I found the lyrics online and wrote them down re-enforcing my memory of them. I then began to recite the lines verse by verse and within an hour I had memorized most of the words. The next day I used the lyrics to sing along to the song and then again without the lyrics in front of me. Shortly I could sing along to the majority of the song. I then kept singing along to the song and then without the song playing until I could sing it on beat without the song playing. This process took a few hours over a period of a week until I could successfully sing the song on point without the music playing.

Overview

Learning the song off by heart allowed my lip syncing to match in the future video produced. There was also no way of me playing the song as we recorded the clips as we did not have the necessary equipment and my cameraman phone's speakers were fairly quite; one my phones speakers was faulty and did not work. Therefore they was too quite to hear outside with the noise pollution and as I was singing out loud.

Filming

Day 1

We (me and the cameraman) set out to film. The only free time we both had to film that was in the evening around 6pm. At this point it became very dark. We found a pot under a street lamp against a brick wall where we could film. However there was a road by the side where cars were frequently passing by. Multiple problems occurred at this point. We test recorded a small segment to check lighting etc. We identified that it was too dark, it was hard to see my face and the picture quality was poor. The camera was too far away as it had to be placed on the opposite side of the road as the pavement in front of the background (brick wall) was narrow, otherwise we would of have to place the camera in the middle of the road. As cars were frequently passing we realized they would interrupt the video. We decide to give up on that spot and look for a different place to film. However at this point it began raining. We were not prepared for this as time was wasted trying to make the previous place work with the video. We decided to go home meaning today was unsuccessful. Although for future reference we now know that we need to film in the light and clear weather. However this may be difficult as daylight is fairly short at this time of the year and the weather is not looking to promising.

Day 2

The second day of filming. Through looking at the forecast we found we had a 2 hour window of opportunity in which we could both attend and film. It was fairly sunny as we reached the place of filming. Another problem occurred, the lighting was poor so we traveled looking for another suitable place to start filming. With no luck we headed back to the place we had found the other day a decided to accept the poor lighting as we had a very limited time period to film as most days where foretasted as cloudy and/or raining or we both was not available for that specific point of time. We then filmed a segment of the music video in front of the brick wall and were happy with the outcome. At this point the cameraman had to leave as we lost time due to an unsuccessful search of a new location to film. I then proceeded to film the next segment of the video (the sky shot) by my self as I could not get a new cameraman at such short notice. The overall time of filming today accumulated to a total of around 20-30 minutes. Due to the future weather I can no longer film outside although have a sufficient amount of film to create most of the music video with. Although I want another scene for my music video so I have decided to film the last segment in my house.

Day 3

Filming in my house. As part of the song talks of waking up and 'shaking the yawns' I decided to film the last segment in my bedroom as it has good lighting and the background wall is a simple, plain colour. Yesterday I experimented with the lighting in my room. I recorded a small segment of me sitting on my bed in front of the wall at separate times; morning, mid-day, sunset, in the night. I found that in the night with the lights on provided the best possible lighting out of all the options. Using this information I started filming after it became dark outside. At around 8pm I started to film. I recorded 3 segments of lip syncing (close up, low angle/medium shot and extreme close up) as well as other random segments I can use as fillers. Over the night I accumulated around 15 minutes of film.

Overview

After looking at the footage, I am happy with what I can produce from it. I have multiple varied locations and shots allowing for a complex video. However I would have preferred different shots of the brick wall as we only filmed 1 main shot in the time we had at our disposal. If this becomes a problem when creating the video we can film more of the location. This also applies to any filming I feel is necessary after the start of the editing.

Editing

Day 1

I uploaded all of the footage from the tape onto the computer and into final cut express. I then proceeded to sort through the footage choosing the clips I wanted and the clips I had no use for.

Day 2

Today I started the editing process. To make it easier for me I went on to add the main lip syncing segments on to tracks giving each different segment a different layer. I cut of the beginning of the clip and synced the beginning of the song to the lip syncing within the video making sure it matched to the best of my ability. To do this I identified the exact point where the lyrics started on the track and exact point of each segment where I began to sing. This was a long tedious process made even more difficult due to the rap within the song. After viewing each segment separately, I ensured that the lyrics and the movement of the lips matched perfectly otherwise I would have to film that segment again. Thankfully I did notice any significant problems and was happy with the lip syncing so I finished editing for that day.

Day 3

I listened to the song and then watched the different clips multiple times to identify and noted key points in which I wanted a specific segment of the video to match that specific part of the song. I then proceeded to cut out the key parts I noted, of the video. Then working from left to right I started to cut out segments of the clip listing to the beat of the music as a guide. I finished the first verse and chorus, and started the editing of the second verse of the lip syncing clips. I realized that the short amount of shots for the brick wall location meant that the plan of that location being used for the first verse of the song had to change. I then went on to focus on the bedroom scene for the first verse as it had multiple varied shots oppose to the brick wall location. I then decided I would refer back to previous locations as the song went on oppose to my first idea of completely different locations for the separate verses and chorus, which worked better for the overall video.

Day 4

Today I finished cutting the clips into segments, specifically the 2nd verse and the last chorus. I decided to cut out the last repeated chorus of the music to reduce the time of the video to the 3 minute mark. After I started to add the random segments I recorded and replaced the lip syncing segments I was not overly found of and where I thought they would add to the quality of the video. Although I did not want to overpower the verses with these clips as I wanted them to focus more on the lip syncing. After I was happy with the majority of the music video I began playing around with transitions and effects that I had at my disposal which were added where I thought they could be useful. I then went on to seek advice on what needed to be improved upon. The beginning of the music video was noted on suggesting that the cuts were not fast enough and did not complement the beat of the music. It was also stated that the first verse had to much lip syncing of the same location.

Day 5

I took note of the constructive criticism I had received and altered the video accordingly. I made the cuts in the intro segment match the beat of the song, and replaced some of the lip syncing in the first verse with other locations. The idea behind the video was to switch locations starting from the first location in the 1st verse, to a different location for the chorus and another separate location for the 2nd verse. The previous locations where referred to throughout the video increasing the number of locations as the video goes on. Therefore I could not change the location for the first verse of the video meaning I had to 'tease' the next location (which became more frequent as the first verse got closer to the chorus in which it completely switched). I then went onto polish the video ensuring the lip syncing was excellent and switching out any segments I didn't believe should have been there as they did not work well in the overall video. The video was then rendered and uploaded to Youtube and my blog.

Overview

The process of editing was tedious at some points however was overall very enjoyable. Through 'playing around' with the software myself and the aid of the Internet and I was able to learn multiple techniques that I was unaware of before I began the editing process.