Editing the Music Video

          Just like the last project, I was mainly in charge of editing. Emily and Angelo don't have the level of knowledge that I have when it comes to editing. That is not a bad thing though. Emily is great at using the camera. Also, Angelo can get an Oscar with his acting. I'm ok with my main job being editing. Plus I have lots of fun editing. The first thing I did was dump all of the footage from my phone onto the laptop. Then I put the raw footage into the editing software. Since it was a music video, we didn't need any of the background sounds. So what I did was highlight all of my footage and ungrouped it all. By doing so, I could separate the audio tracks from the visual footage. I then deleted all of the audio tracks. After that, I downloaded the audio of our song off of YouTube. I had to download it in order to insert it into the editing software. I then cut down the song to a minute and ten seconds. We are not using the whole song for our music video so we do not need the rest. Afterward, I cut down each scene to fit with the lyrics they represent. Some scenes were too long so I had to trim them down. Other scenes were too short so I had to slow down the footage. This proved to be the most time-consuming part. Every time I would edit a single scene, it would desync all the scenes after it. I'm sure there was a more efficient way to handle that, but what's done is done. I also added a cool little transition for the bridge connecting two scenes. It made the end of the fire scene fade out while I made the start of the sun scene fade in. Then I overlapped the two scenes together to make a cool effect. The fading happens at the lyric, "We can burn brighter, than the sun!" I think the effect fits very well with the lyrics. I also added a fall-off effect to the song's ending. I made the volume at the end of the music video gradually get lower. I made it this way because it would be awkward for the song to just abruptly cut-off. 

Filming the Music Video Second Attempt

         On Tuesday 11/25, I went out to film for my music video again. Like I explained in my last blog, my first attempt at filming went... poorly. One of our members was a no show. We didn't film everything that we needed. And all of the footage that we did shoot was deemed useless because of its android quality. Thankfully, Tuesday went by much better. At the end of school that day, we meet up at a designated location. We then all carpooled in Mariapaula's dad's car and went to her house. Just like the first time we filmed, we got there a little early. We were able to record one shot of the sunset, but that was pretty much it. We had to wait for the sun to come down to begin recording. So while we waited, we decided to help Mariapaula with one of her shots for her music video. When the sun was pretty much down we reshot the bathroom scene. I was the one who recorded it since Emily couldn't get the framing of the shot down. It took like twenty takes because Mariapaula couldn't drop the cup in her hand convincingly. I found it to be hilarious but she was getting pretty annoyed. When the sun was finally all the way down, we filmed the rest of our shots. We made many changes to the music video from the first time we filmed. Since we had Angelo with us that day we had more freedom. Also, we decided to make Angelo the main character of the music video. I became the guy with sunglasses. It makes sense why we made that decision. I'm more of the type to be behind the cameras instead of in front. Also, Angelo is way better at acting than me. I'm more attracted to editing than acting anyways. To get back on topic, we had many two shots and over the shoulder shots. Our music video has lots of "dialogue" of the characters talking. We plan on doing shot/reverse shots for most of the conversations. Also, the first shot of the music video is a tracking shot of Angelo walking into the "bar." Overall, my group and I had a much better time filming on Tuesday than Saturday.

Filming the Music Video First Attempt

      I filmed portions of the music video on Saturday 11/23. Things did not go exactly according to plan and the end result was a bit of a mess. Like I stated before, I was planning to film the music video with my group at a friend's house (Mariapaula) who was not a part of the group. I had Emily pick me up at 11 am and carpool our way to Mariapaula's house.  When we arrived at her house, our third group member Angelo, unfortunately, said he couldn't make it. He told us that an emergency happened with one of his close friends and he would not be able to arrive. This was a shock to both me and Emily. This put us into a bit of a bind. Angelo was going to be one of our main actors. Because of this forlorn event, we had to improvise on the spot with what we had. 

     We decided early to film our scenes at night because of the original music video and lyrics referencing a bar at night. Since we got there well before sundown, we decided to help Mariapaula and her group with her music video. It took almost the whole time the sun was up for them to finish. Since Angelo was not able to make it, we decided to borrow a male from the other group to help us film our music video. However, when it was our turn to film, he had to leave for church. We needed two males for the music video. The characters in the music video are the man, the lover, and the guy in the sunglasses. We only had me, Emily, and Mariapaula left. We decided that Mariapaula can pull off a semi-convincing tough-guy act so we went with that. She dressed up in a hoodie, sunglasses, and pulled her hair over her head. 

          When we finally started filming, it wasn't dark outside yet. Because of this, we decided to film the inside scenes first. The first scene we filmed was a bathroom scene. I popped a confetti popper in Mariapaula's backyard. I shot it into a plastic bag so that we could carefully scatter it in the bathroom to not make that big of a mess. That plan failed, like many other things during that day, because the confetti popper blew a hole into the bag and made a mess all over her backyard floor. Anyways after the sun came down and darkness fell upon the Mariapaula household we finally filmed all of our shots. I was pretty happy with our takes, even though they were just a bit rushed. However, when we got into class and finally looked at our footage, it was horrible. There was a very bad grainy effect on all of the shots. It looked like it was recorded on a potato. We are returning to Mariapaula's house on Tuesday to reshoot, hopefully, we have a better time than Saturday.

Storyboard for Music Video

My group and I are filming our music video on the song “We Are Young” by Fun. We wanted to relate the lyrics of the song to our video. The costumes our characters will be using are generally dark colors such as black, dark blue, etc. Our costumes are completely dependent on our setting which is at a bar. The apparel matches the location and time of the day. We will use both bright and dark lights to focus on our characters, but to also give off the feeling of a bar. Additionally, we’re using natural lighting because we plan on having an area for a fire in our music video. The actors will be strangers and suddenly stumble upon each other. They start off good but quickly the cookie crumbles. Our characters won’t be using makeup for the most part except the girl. She might wear minimal makeup, but this is still not guaranteed. Some of the props we will be using are sunglasses, shot glasses, and bar stools. The setting we will be filming at is for the most part at the bar, but we will also film certain scenes in the bathroom, and outside where the fire is. Our set is the biggest factor in our film because it affects so many of the aspects we need to cover. For instance, it affects our apparel, lighting, acting, and camera shots.

The equipment we are using to record is fairly standard. We are using a camera, tripod, etc. that is provided by the school. We are going to use a variety of angles to get the perfect scene. Examples of the angles we will be using are high angle and low angle. My group and I are also trying to incorporate a multitude of different camera movements. The main movements we would like to use are tilt, pan, and zoom. We think the different movements will help elevate our video to the next level. We will also capture various different shots. Our video will consist of close-ups, long, medium, and wide shots. These are the main ones we utilize, but we will incorporate more.

The editing will be similar to my group's last project. I am the best with computers and programs so I will lead us in editing. We will assist with what he needs help with like sounds, cutting the film, and choosing scenes. Although the main sound will be the song, we are going to attempt to include other sound effects to enhance our video. We plan to finish this project efficiently and as a team. We are working together everyday and learning new techniques and skills to help us become better filmmakers.

Planning My Music Video

1) Location

          We had a variety of locations to choose from: the park, the beach, and etc. Our friend offered to let her house be used as a filming setting, primarily her backyard. We plan to film at night time since the song emphasizes a dark setting. The location and time of day will be essential since we are going to utilize a bonfire. We will also film in her dining room for bar scenes.

2) Health & Safety

          We will carpool to the location so kidnappings is not an issue. We will be very careful with the bonfire. Our friend's dad will ignite the fire and we will have a fire extinguisher on standby. We will also have first aid kit ready to be used in case of any accidents. We will also make sure to use the fireworks appropriately and effectively.

3) Props

          We may use fireworks, the small kind. It will be a cool subject to film in slow motion. We may also use drinking glasses and/or solo cups to create a night-time party atmosphere. We will also use our phones in the music video as a way for the characters to communicate. The bartender will have a cloth rag to clean up the bar.

4) Costumes

          The characters will be dressed up for a party. One of the characters will have sun glasses on because it will fit with the lyrics in the song. The 'lover' will have subtle make up on. The man will have jeans and a button up. The sun glasses character will wear all black.

5) Schedule

          This blog and the storyboard blog will be due on Thursday 11/21. We will film on Saturday, 11/23 at our friends house. The first filming blog will be due on Monday, 11/25. It will have our experience of filming for the first time off campus. If we need to re-shoot, we may film again over Thanksgiving Break. Then our second filming blog will be due Monday, 12/2.

Researching Pop Music Videos

         The anti-vaping PSA is finally completed! I learned a lot from that project. I learned that planning is really important to using my time wisely. If I didn't plan ahead, I would have been very confused and the project would have been a disaster. I also honed my editing skills, so I have new techniques for next time. After the commercial, the class is now doing a music video. It will also be a group project and I am with the same group that I did the commercial with since we did so well together last time. 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it!'

          We picked the song We Are Young by “Fun.” We discussed what song we were going to choose for about an hour. We all liked this song over the others we talked about. Hey ya! by Outkast was also a prominent candidate. We honestly just liked We Are Young more. We liked the upbeat music and decided not to do Hey Ya! because We are Young is more descriptive and we had better ideas for it. We Are Young is a son that was popular when we were about 6 years ago and felt nice to reminisce on that time so we chose it for our music video.

          Conventions in pop music videos are very similar to each other. They all use identical strategies to convey their message. Most camera angles were eye level to fully capture the face of the singer. There were numerous close-up shots of the singer's mouth while they were mouthing the lyrics. Lots of sound effects of that emphasize what is going on in the music video, like glass breaking. Handheld shots where the camera is a bit shaky to immerse viewers into the video. A great deal of pop music videos used slow motion to make more actions more dramatic.

             The apparel worn in the majority of pop music videos is modern and trendy. They wear outfits that match the scene and the lyrics of the song. Also, lighting is a big factor in all music videos. The lighting used is similar to a spotlight pointing out the performers. The lights are bright and used to enhance the scenes quality. The acting done in the videos are generally just the artists singing, and dancing. Sometimes directors hire actors if the song represents a story or actions. Almost all people used in a music video wear makeup to hide imperfections or to enhance their role. They also match makeup and lighting so the two compliment each other. Props utilized consist of instruments,  mic stands, and items that connect to the song; props should also relate to the character that’s is acting. The setting used is completely dependent on what the director thinks is best. Some songs assist deciding the setting because they have an upbeat or sad vibe to it.

Actually Editing the Commercial

On Monday we actually started editing our commercial. I was the main one in charge of the editing. I used Pinnacle Studios to make the commercial more enjoyable to watch. I’m not gonna lie, our acting was a bit stale and cringy. I attempted to add funny sound effects and music to give the commercial more life. When I finished my first draft of the commercial, it was a minute and thirty seconds long. That was way to long for the final cut. The final commercial needed to be twenty-five to thirty seconds long. I was stuck and didn’t know what else to cut out. Emily personally helped me shorten scenes. She also gave me advice on what footage we could cut out and what we can leave in. While we were cutting stuff out of the commercial, an idea popped in my head. At this time currently, the commercial’s scenes would abruptly cut from each other. I had the idea to fade out the ending of a scene and fade in the beginning of a scene together. When I did that, I chopped off fifteen seconds from the commercial. I was pretty proud of thinking about that. Emily suggested to cut out the bit where the ‘principal’ kicks out the boys from the bathroom. Instead of the principal telling the boys their consequence, we could do a voice over. Emily recorded herself saying, “The boys got a five-day suspension. Be a mate and don’t vape.” I added the voice over onto a black and white picture of the principal’s shocked face. I also added the words she said on a piece of word art. Angelo helped out with the audio. He obtained the background music that played during the boys’ conversation. The music is called ‘Dansez – Fashion’. It fits really well with the commercial. I am very glad Angelo got that piece of music. He also got the little sound effect that played when Boy 1 whipped out the vape. Lastly he obtained the dramatic sound effect that played when the ‘principal’ looked at the vape in Boy 2’s hand. I match the timing of the zoom with the timing of the ‘DUN … DUN… DUUUUUUH’ so it flowed better. I made sure all of the audio he collected was royalty free. You never know if our commercial will be viral.

(Not) Editing the Commercial

(Not) Editing the Commercial

          On Friday, after we shot all the takes of the day, we entered the classroom. In it, was pandemonium. The students were running around looking for working computers. The teacher was trying to settle the class down. The computer cursors had the "spinning blue wheel of death" (loading wheel). It was absolute chaos. The computer, all of them, did not have the editing software. When I went to my computer, I loaded it up. It took about 10 minutes just to see the windows home screen. And to confirm to all of the panic of my peers, there was no Pinnacle Studios application on the top right of the home screen. Thankfully, the teacher claimed that today none of the class will be failed because of a technical difficulty. I was relieved because this situation was literally out of our hands. We couldn't do anything. All we could do was stare at the Windows logo and wait for a miracle to happen. I, for one, started to work on my Filming Blog. It was the last one I posted. I, like always, waited till last minute to turn it in. It was assigned on Monday and it was due Friday night. So since the computers did not have the editing software, I did the only reasonable thing. I think I was the last one to blog. On Tuesday, I walked into class ready to edit. Since I already know how to edit I was pumped. I use an editing software at home called Sony Vegas Pro. I use it to make funny videos of my friends like Jimmy who has AICE Media Studies 5th period (I have it 2nd). Anyways I walked into class and felt stagnate air in the room. It felt foreboding and I immediately anticipated bad news incoming. And to my surprise, the teacher told us the bad news. The computers still do not have Pinnacle Studios. The teacher said that we will soon get a laptop cart that will allow us to edit. And that for now, just blog about how we did not edit at all currently. So that is why this blog is called (Not) Editing the Commercial. Also since no one was editing, it allowed our group to go back out into the campus and re-shoot some failed shots without being behind the other groups. I always try to look at the bright side. Every gray cloud has a silver lining.

Filming my Anti-Vaping PSA

          So I was an actor for our Anti-Vaping PSA that we filmed on Wednesday and Friday. I played the part of Boy 1, a proud person who vapes. In the commercial, I peer pressured one of my friends into vaping, a common occurrence among the high school demographic. One of our actors, the Principal, was unavailable on Wednesday. Only me, Boy 1, and Angelo, Boy 2, were the ones there that were being in the film. Emily was our camera-women are was very much against being in the commercial. So I decided to shoot all of the shots that did not require him. I also came up with the idea to film all the shots of one actor at once in the conversation. That means I say my lines all at once without Boy 2 responding once. Then afterward, Boy 2 will say all his lines. When I edit it, I will cut the scenes side-by-side so that it will flow nicely. 

          On Wednesday, we got to filming a little late. First of all, the upstairs boys bathroom by the media center (the one we decided to film in ) was taken by another group. So we decided to use Plan B, the downstairs boys bathroom. Then when we got down there, the bathroom was being used by the people who actually needed to go, so we waited for them to leave. Then when we finally got the camera out, the screw connecting the camera to the tripod was stuck. Emily and I went back to the classroom and got Ms. Cats to help us get it unstuck. When we finally got into the bathroom to start filming, I had some trouble remembering the lines. It took me at least 3 tries to get my lines right. Which is kind of funny, since I was the one who made the script the day before. I believe though that I did an alright job on the acting front.

          On Friday, we filmed all the scenes that we were not able to film on Wednesday. That meant, however, I had to wear the same clothes on Friday that I did on Wednesday. It would be pretty weird for our clothes to change mid-scene. For one of the takes, Boy 1 was to be forcefully kicked out of the boys bathroom and knocked to the ground. It was hard to fall over convincingly because of the fear factor. But after a couple of tries and dustings off, I think I did a pretty good job. After all the filming was done, I was the one to dump all of our footage on the school computers both days. While I was dumping though, I noticed some alarming things. The shots on Friday, Angelo had Airpods in and I had my hairstyled a different way. So we may have to retake those shots again later.

Storyboard

Angles

• Over the shoulder
• High 
• Low 
• Eye-level

Shots

• Establishing Shot
• Medium Shot
• Extreme Close up
• Two Shot
• Three Shot
• Medium Close up
• Medium Long Shot

Movements 

• Pan
• Tilt

Editing

• Eye-line Match
• Reaction Shot
• Voice Over
• Jump Cut
• Cut Away                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Editing Lesson Blog

Editing Lesson Blog

          So today the whole class learned how to edit footage using an editing software called Pinnacle Studios. I already know how to edit since I have Sony Vegas Pro 17 at home, but I am unable to use it for this project. In this blog I'm going to talk about what our teacher taught us. First our teacher taught us how to 'dump' our footage onto our computers. We have to make a personal folder dedicated to this project on our school desktop. Then we plug in our SD card reader in to the computer. The SD card reader already has our SD card and footage in it. We then highlight all of our footage and drag it on to our folder in the desktop. This whole process is dumping. The definition our teacher taught us for dumping is, "transferring footage from our SD card or camera onto the computer via a personal folder."

          Now we finally get into the actual editing software. Our computers don't have it right now, but the will eventually have an icon for Pinnacle Studios, the software we are using. I have never heard of it before, but we our teacher opened it up it looked very similar to Sony Vegas Pro 17. It only had more lag and less features the Vegas, but I guess I will have to make do. Anyways, back on topic. Once we open up Pinnacle Studios, we have to make sure we are on the 'Edit' tab. There also may be a sample or preview video loaded in Pinnacle Studios. Our teacher said that it was there to attempt to teach new users the various ways to edit videos. If the preview is there, we simply just have to hit 'File' and 'New Movie' in order to get a fresh, clean slate. The first then we have to do to start editing is to import the footage from the folder into the editing software. Click the check-mark next to desktop, find the folder and the footage, then click start import.

          When that is done, we can see our raw footage in the top right of the software. Raw footage is the actual takes taken by the camera. Raw footage has no editing done to it. That includes any cuts, speed ups, slow mo, and etc.... Then we highlight the raw footage to put into track 2 in the order we want. The tracks have specific things that will go into them. Track 1 will have the titles. Track 2 will have the footage. Track 3 will have the music. And Track 4 will have the voice overs. After that we can edit all we want. We can add special effects, transitions, cut our footage, reverse our footage, and so much more. I will go more into detail in my next blog when I do the actual editing. When we are done editing we will save the project onto our folder. When we are done with all the editing, we will export it as a MPEG4 file under SD best quality settings. When we export a project, it renders it so all flows nicely as a coherent movie.

Planning Blog for Anti-Vaping Commercial

Planning Blog

          This is the planning blog for the anti-vaping commercial. We picked anti-vaping because it sounds like something our group is capable of making spectacular. We decided to make this commercial as light hearted as possible. We know that teenagers are also being bombarded by various different commercials warning them about the dangers of vaping, so we are trying to make it entertaining and educational. An 'Edutainment' if you would. We want to be funny and kind of make fun of people who vaping using modern lingo to be hip with the kids, dawg.      

Props

• Cardboard cut-out of the vaping devices
• Cotton for fake smoke/vapors
• USB 
• Skateboard/ picture of one
• Backpack

Costumes

• Hoodies
• Popular clothing brands
• Headphones/Air pods
• Towel/Shirt Hair
• Chain
• Baseball Cap
• Earrings

Schedule

• 10/11 Planning Blog
• 10/15 Storyboard Blog
• 10/22 Filming Blog
• 10/24 Editing Blog

Location

• Mural in between Senior Patio and Office
• Media Center Boy's Bathroom
• Building 17 Boy's Bathroom
• Stairs by the Senior Patio
• Under the Building 5 stairs
• Outside hallway in front of the band room 

Back Up Plan

• If those bathrooms are closed, we will try Building 21, 5, 8, and etc.
• If raining, we will film inside the Buildings' hallway
• If Emily is absent is absent, Rafael will film solo shots of Angelo and vice versa.
• If Angelo or Rafael is absent, Emily will (against her wishes) be in the commercial.
• If both Angelo and Rafael are absent, Darwin will sub in for both of them.

Research Conventions & Codes

Our AICE Media Studies group decided on the Anti-Vaping PSA commercial

Some negative health consequences from using e-cigarettes and vaping devices listed in the article "THE BIG REVEAL 10 Surprising Facts About E-Cigarettes"  https://www.centeronaddiction.org/e-cigarettes/about-e-cigarettes/10-surprising-facts-about-e-cigarettes include

Damage to the brain, heart and lung

Cancerous tumor development

Preterm deliveries and stillbirths in pregnant women

Harmful effects on brain and lung development, when use occurs during fetal development or adolescence

Here is an example of an anti-vaping poster used to dissuade high school students

• The poster uses the color RED to emphasis numbers and subjects that require special attention.
• The poster also uses different SIZE TEXT to also draw the readers attention to certain words
• The poster uses figurative language like the oxymoron "A Big Problem... A Small Device" to keep the reader thinking of that saying throughout the day.

An infomercial called, "Vaping is an Epidemic | The Real Cost" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYuyS1Oq8gY uses many film techniques that goes as follows:

• They use CGI to exaggerate the effects of vaping on teenagers.
• They use Action Match and Dissolves to make the video flow better.
• They Voice Overs to explain the actual chemicals like 'formaldehyde' that go into your body when you vape.
• They use Graphic Match on the teenagers faces to show how vaping can affect anyone.

My First Blog!

      Hey, this is A Feral’s first blog! Yip Yip Hooray! Obviously, my name is not a Feral, but I would like to keep my identity anonymous. Anyways I am a high school sophomore currently taking AICE Media Studies and making this Blog is a required assignment, which is kinda tough. I’m not very comfortable writing about myself and the events that happen in my daily life. So, this whole thing is a learning experience, which is a good and bad thing. Good because … learning duh, but bad because I might make mistakes along the way. That’s okay though since making mistakes is a part of learning.

     Speaking of learning, I am currently attempting to obtain the Cambridge AICE Diploma this year. I have completed 3 AICE classes last year: AICE Marine Science, AICE Global Perspectives, and AICE General Paper. This year I am taking 4 AICE classes: AICE Thinking Skills, AICE English, AICE European History, and obviously AICE Media Studies. In all honesty, I am only taking Media Studies for the AICE credit, not the actual material. I have little interest in film and photography, but maybe this class will change me. The things I have learned so far in the course are basic stuff that I already noticed while watching movies but did not know the exact vocabulary words for; like ‘Dutch Shot’ and ‘Diegetic Sounds’.

     Anyways, enough about the boring stuff and more about me. Like I said before, I am a high school sophomore and currently 15 years young. I identify as male, I am an Asian-American, and both my parents were born in the Philippines. My birthday is on July 28, 2004 so that means I have a summer birthday! My sign is a Leo for anyone who cares about that stuff (I have friends that do). My favorite color is red, and my favorite subject is Math. I plan to go to the University of Florida and become a Microbiologist in the future. That’s pretty much it, and hopefully, this blog is the beginning of a somewhat medium peak into my life! This is a Feral, signing out.

BTW, A Feral is an anagram for my actual first name.