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.