Music Video - [Style]

The video above is a quick example of the 'look' that I want to achieve. The reason behind this is because I think that it helps the 'flat image' problem and helps focus attention on the performer. The technique isn't too complex and subtle hints towards the film 'Saving Private Ryan' therefore linking with conflict. To pull this off I have to make sure that the only blue in the scene is the performer and that it is well lit to avoid grain, The style allows me to have a different take on 'Film Noir'. I would create a rough cut like this but I only have limited footage to work with I want to shoot some more footage that will be used in the final product.

Other Project - School Promo - ISO Help

While making my music video I had to make school advertisement, the only catch was that I had a day to not only film it but edit it. This helped me learn a lot about time management because I had to get as much done in the small amount of time I had. Furthermore I learnt about soft outdoor lighting because at 00:28 I had to interview someone outside. The main problem I had after shooting was this video is the reason that I found out about the camera settings. The grain that is seen throughout was because of the 1600 ISO, this was very frustrating because I couldn't reshoot but it did help me figure it out in time for my music video shoot.

My EUREKA moment! - New camera settings [Research]

Within media I am often faced with challenges I set for myself or that arise while I am making my media projects but I had never realised how something so simple could have such a vast effect. While I was editing my test shots and experimenting with the VFX I noticed that my videos were infected with 'grain' or 'digital noise'. I thought at first that it was because my footage was not rendered properly but that was not the case, so I then thought that it was because I did't have enough lighting so that cause the grainy look but that was still not the case as shown by my test shots. So I was left frustrated with my camera for not performing and went to the internet in search of answers or people having the same problem. I spent hours trying to find someone who could give me an answer but still no luck... but then, while I was shooting a promotional video for the school I realised the problem. The reason my camera was performing so badly was because of ISO and various settings, which I must have tampered with. This led to me going into extensive research into camera settings. While researching I learnt about using the camera's manual mode to set the camera to film as flat as possible, you can achieve this by either film in RAW or using the camera settings that I now use. So now before I film anything I am always checking my settings and learning about different ways to achieve the style I want before post production, which has improved my ability within filmmaking by miles.

Evaluation Questions - [Progress]

The evaluation requires the following questions:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
2. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? You may have noticed that there are less questions compared with your AS evaluation. However, the expected response to each of these questions should demonstrate a far more technical and detailed approach.

In approach to these questions I want to be able to confidently answer them throughout. The reason for this is that I want to constantly improve my process, this means that every shoot will become smoother and smoother. By having confidence in the way that my shoots will go it'll help me become more ambitious therefore help the music video improve.

Lighting Technique - Film Noir

This is a rough sketch of how I am going to solve my problem of depth. The plan is to add more lights to the traditional lighting setup, the two lights in the background will be there while the performer raps. The reason the lights are going to be within the framing of the shot is because I don't want to have to spend loads of money on a hairlight, instead I will use two lights I already have as part of the mise en scene. This will kill two birds with one stone in the sense that it will act as a strong hairlight because there are two and this will further help with my problem of depth because it will create a barrier between the background and the artist.

More Edited Test Shots - Evaluation

These are the majority of shots that I have edited to see what I can improve for the future shoots. Aspects of the sequence I will be checking include: Lighting, Mise en Scene, Lip syncing, pacing along with a variety of visual effects. Firstly the lighting was meant to present film noir, this is because I wanted to see if I could create the contrast between black and white. I believe that I had achieved the film     noir style but there are still improvements that have to be made. For example at 00:07 the two characters are not lit at all, we only had a reflector but it didn't do a lot because of the weather. This lead to the shot looking very bland and flat because they aren't being lit separately to the wall. I feel that in future shoots I will try and light my subject using a standard three point lighting setup but use a strong key light and a strong hairlight to create the harsh shadows. To further improve this shot I will use better aspect ratio's in order to provide a modern wide screen look, without the gaps to the right.

This shot at 00:13 was constructed using a poorly lit white screen, it worked surprisingly well and I was happy with the result however I would want to refine the 'Trebor' mints wrapper by get closer shots of the packaging or creating my own version in illustrator to stop the shot looking so out of focus. Furthermore I will be adding more camera shake onto the image because this makes the video more aggressive instead of the shot being bland. However in order to do this I have either move all the elements separately or I have to put them all into a single clip, kind of like merging the layers to form a single entity. Going back to the white screen, I may change this to a better lit green-screen because it allows me to cancel out the white boarder around the character.

The next shot at 00:19 is a shot that I like because it really gives the sense of filmnoir because of the lack of light in it, which illuminates the Dan Bull logo. However I would like to take a shot like this and apply the three point lighting setup in order to distinguish the rapper from the background instead of him just blending in. This is because I want to add depth to this shot and because it will increase the contrasting lines that I am trying to achieve. I am looking into using a further two lights to illuminate the face more but light create a low key light look. Lastly I am going to be adding a little camera movement in post that will add to the overall aggressive vibe of the music video.

This shot at 00:26 is probably a shot that I will not be using in the actual product because it doesn't show enough of the performer. However I wanted to point out that the use of the light adds depth, which is distorted by the VFX  and this is why I am either getting rid of the VFX on the shot or the shot its self. The reason the VFX don't work well is that they are not intergrated with the scene but instead put on top. Furthermore this shot isn't lit properly because we wanted one light behind the performer to see if the 'hairlight' would create a strong outline. Instead what we found was that we need a stronger 'hairlight' and 'keylight' in order to create the harsh shadows. In future shoots I while bring more lights to the scene.

The shot by the tank at 00:31 is probably the shot where our location was right and it really helps with the mise en scene. Furthermore the cameraman zooming in really help get that dramatic movement towards the artist. The lighting on the artist could have been better however I feel that with some colour correction tweaks I could make this shot look good enough to go into the final edit. I may try and re-shoot this scene or find another vehicle for this shot because I would like to get more shots of the vehicle. I will further be using this handheld technique for the majority of other shots.

For the shots of Fraser's character at the begining of the music video I really wanted to push the idea of film noir in this music video. Furthermore I wanted to add depth using the camera to focus harshly on Fraser's face and then upping the blur in post. I only brought one light with me but I was fairly pleased with how this test shot has panned out. However for the actual shot I will be in a different location at a different time to avoid people walking in the background. This is because it can distract the audience from the character's emotion. I may further try and improve the shadows on his face by having a stronger key light.


This shot is another VFX shot that I wanted to try. It takes place at 00:?? and worked really well in terms of the visual effect, I thought that it would be a lot harder to pull off but by keeping it simple and not moving the camera it worked really well. However I want every shot to be perfect so I do have some aspects that I would change and some further things that people pointed out to me when I asked them for their critical opinion. I personally would change the framing of the shot, which was a view further expressed by others. This is because the shot doesn't focus on the flashback as much as I thought, which means that by the time the audience realise whats going on the action has already disappeared. Another mistake that was shown to me was that the light I used was reflecting in the window of the door, which overall distracted the audience from the narrative. On the topic of lighting I would light the scene better in terms of lighting the outline of both 'Fraser's' to provide an outline to them, separating them from the background further creating depth.

Lighting [Research] - Film Noir

This is my basic plan for achieving the film noir look, I want to take the standard three point lighting display and modify it to create harsher shadows similar to chiaroscuro. I want to adopt the low key lighting setup to create these harsh contrasts between black and white in my music video to create depth and atmosphere in my shots. I have researched into lighting my music video outdoors and indoors furthermore I have looked at how to 'light the dark in order to avoid the grain.