Group Feedback Questionnaire - Group Six

Our final feedback sheet left us with only positive feedback; they thought that the video was very professional and suiting to the chosen genre, again their favourite part was the newspapers being thrown and enjoyed the variety of shots. They didn't leave any comments as to how we could improve the video.

Group Feedback Questionnaire - Group Five

The next feedback sheet left us both positive and negative results, they thought that the actress was perfectly suited for the genre and video and enjoyed the variety of shots, however, they believed that some shots could have been shorter. As a group we slightly agree that a couple could have been broken up, but when editing couldn't find any suitable places to do so as the lyrics of the song as so tightly compact and fast.

Group Feedback Questionnaire - Group Four

Just like the previous group, on this feedback sheet they too favoured seeing the people hit with newspapers, and also thought that the shots were nicely framed. They too, didn't leave any ways of improving the video.

Group Feedback Questionnaire - Group Three

The next feedback sheet was very enthusiastic towards our video; they particularly enjoyed the sections where people were hit with the newspapers and found it quite comical. They didn't leave any negative feedback at all and felt that it was very suitable for the artist and genre.

Group Feedback Questionnaire - Group Two

This feedback sheet was our most harshly marked questionnaire. They felt the music video was a bit over the top, however we do not see how it is as we kept it fairly simple and fitting the genre. They also said it was not easy to watch and it didn't hold their attention. To hold their attention, we'd probably need more narrative, however they said it was bit over the top and maybe more narrative would make it even more dramatic.

Group Feedback Questionnaire - Group One

From looking at this questionnaire feedback, we can see that we have received negative as well as positive feedback. Our music video seemed to hold their attention, and we think having both performance and narrative in the video helped this. The first criticism they gave was that it didn't sell the track or artist to them, however they didn't leave any reasons why they thought this. We think that this is simply their opinion as maybe they do not like this genre, as we have stuck to the typical conventions in an anti-folk music video. Their favourite part of the video seemed to be the tracking of the bicycle and we felt this was also our favourite bit as it was smooth and looked professional. They also said that they felt the camera angles and framing needs to be improved. We also agree, especially as we thought the walking parts were badly framed.

Audience Feedback - Average Score

After showing our completed music video to our media studies class, they marked us out of 40, giving us exact scores and the level boundaries in which our scores lie in. Here are our marks:
31
34
40
38
36
34
35
30
34
29
32
28
36

When we added these numbers together, we had 437. We then got an average by dividing it by 13 to get 33.6 which we rounded up to 34 which is our average mark out of 40.

Finished Music Video - Positive Feedback

Now we've completed our music video, we can give ourselves feedback on how we feel the final product looks. This negative (previous post) and positive feedback (this post) is not a thorough evaluation and is simply a few thoughts on the completed music video. Although there are a few things we do not like about the video, there are many things that we are happy about. After watching other members of the class' videos, we noticed that some of their lip synching wasn't completely neat so we spent a long time on making sure ours was on time and looked convincing. We feel that the lip synching is actually one of the strongest parts of our music video, and we are very happy with this. Whilst filming, Rosa was always singing along with the soundtrack so when we decreased Rosa's volume on iMovie, it looked as if she was singing Kimya Dawson's lines. Another positive thing we noticed from the video is the cycling parts. Although originally we felt that it may be difficult to get smooth shots of Rosa cycling, we feel that actually the bicycle parts look very effective and smooth. The setting also contributed alot to the video, and we feel that it has made the video more effective and interesting.

Finished Music Video - Negative feedback

As you can see from the previous post, our music video is now complete. We are very happy with final outcome, however there could have been improvements if we had a longer amount of time on the project. Firstly, the walking parts where rosa is delivering newspapers whilst singing, turned out very jumpy and not smooth. Although this gave the more personal effect as if you were part of the scene, I would have much more preferred it if we hadnt have used a monopod and maybe something to get a smoother shot. We did, however, run out of time to film and we ended up sticking with it. This problem was not major, yet it would have looked more professional if it was done differently. The second problem was the lighting in some of the shots. The indoor shots were slightly unclear, and although we made sure we focused the camera, it was a bit dark compared to the outside shots as we did not have the natural sunlight. This also happened because Rosa's bedroom did not have a ceiling light so the only light produced in the room was from her bedside lamp. Maybe if we had filmed again, we would have placed another light in the room to make the shot more clear.

Final Video

We have finally finished our music video (fully edited version above) we are all very happy with the final project especially with all the time we've put into planning, filming and editing  it.

Editing

During Tuesdays lesson we more or less finished editing our music video, a few clips seemed to have slightly moved out of place as we had dropped clips in so we had to tighten everything up and make sure that the lip syncing was perfectly in time, as well as the stop motion and shot transitions.

To end the lesson we added on the saturation and sepia tone to the new clips that had been added in that day and rewatched the video to see if there was anything else that needed to be done, small things such as making sure the volume on the clips was down but up in the right places on certain clips, and slightly moving a few clips to get the lip syncing back in time were all that we could notice that needed to be adjusted so we planned to come in on Wednesday/Thursday to do so.

Filming

As I previously said, Jacques went out on Monday to film the final 40 seconds of our music video, apprehensive about this shoot being so close to the deadline and with the stroke of bad luck we seemed to have before, I was worried that something would end up going wrong; however after going in to media in a free period and importing the footage it was clear that the footage was brilliant.

We chopped all the clips into the different shots and started to edit together our introduction, we were hoping for two different narratives to run alongside each other (with Rosa leaving her house on the bike and walking) but as we had too many shots to fill the 14second introduction we came up with the idea of starting the song later, having her shut the door and get on the bike all before the song starts. We cleverly had the introduction start as her foot pushed off on the bike as this felt a nice time to begin the journey.

There were a few sections of musical interlude in which we decided that it would be good to fill with shots of her feet cycling, ringing the bell and throwing newspapers, all of which fit brilliantly.

Beginning

For the beginning instrumental of the song, we had 14 seconds with no footage. After getting some shots and putting them in, we realized that we had too much footage and we didn't really want to delete any of the shots. To overcome this problem, we have put some shots, such as Rosa shutting the door, before the song starts so we dont have to delete anything we wanted originally.

Editing

Today, we came in to media studies early in order to put some extra time into editing and sorting out our video. After importing the footage from our last filming session, we decided to split the whole 30 minutes into various shots so we could just put them in place in the video. Although we didn't use all the footage from yesterday, we've been through and chosen the best shots and kept the others just incase. The video is nearly complete in the sense that we have inserted all the clips we need, however we still need to edit them (saturation and sepia tint) which we will do in our next lesson.

Filming

When we originally filmed the cycling bit a few weeks ago, we had many problems such as Rosa not being able to cycle properly. As this happened, we had to re-shoot it, as well as the introduction to the music video. This time seemed to go so much better as Rosa seemed smoother and more confident on the bicycle. To fill the interludes and other sections where we feel the shots are too long and need to be broken up, we incorporated a few close up shots such as Rosa 's feet cycling. These produce variety and make the video seem more interesting. From looking at the footage, I feel that yesterday's shoot went extremely well, and the only problem we had was that some of the first shot was cut off when we imported it onto the computer.

Weather Report

Before heading out to film I double checked that the weather would be fine as previously we have had to film in not so good conditions.

As you can see the weather is the best today in relation to the time I am filming.

Class Poll

For one part of the song we've left the volume of Rosa saying 'Hello' on the phone and when the people get hit in the head with the newspapers up, one line of the song is 'I'll show  you who's the best', originally we'd left the volume down and synced her saying it in time to the music however Mike suggested we turned that up as well, as we were unsure we asked people in the class what they thought, 12 people said that we should keep it up with only 7 saying to turn it off; going on the result of this we have decided that we will keep it up like the other clips.

Editing

During our free period this morning we came in to edit part of the music video. We cut down and added in two parts of Rosa throwing the newspaper to hit different people. Also to distinguish between narrative and performance we added a slight saturated effect onto the performance clips giving them more colour and life, and a sepia tone to the narrative clips, giving them a sense of age.

Using the monopod

On Friday 13th we went out filming on the estate opposite college, we decided that as our actress wasn't too confident on the bike that we would take some shots of her walking (still delivering newspapers). As none of us drive we had to find a different way of taking the footage, trying to walk steadily backwards in the classroom and as a result having very wobbly shots we tried out using the monopod. This gave us a much smoother shot - it attaches to the top of you jeans and so moves with you - taking it out onto the estate we tried different shots, filming one long one of her just walking (without singing) so that we could later edit them in for some of the musical interludes. As I was the only person wearing jeans and had the steadiest hand I filmed the footage. At first it was rather hard to keep the camera still whilst having a nicely framed shot but after trying it several times i eventually managed to walk lighter.

Sometimes Rosa walked too fast meaning that she was too close to the camera and I had to keep reminding her to slow down as every time i tried to walk faster the shot wasn't as smooth.

The final footage was thankfully usable and now creates a second storyline alongside the other making it more interesting.

Rescheduled filming

As we were unable to film on Saturday and with the deadline looming over us we are in desperate need of filming the last 47 seconds worth of our music video. Originally we weren't free to film today as me and Sophie have a lesson last and Jacques had a driving lesson so we arranged to film Tuesday afternoon. However, Jacques has been a life saver and cancelled his driving lesson, meaning that he's now able to film! So rather than waste valuable editing time during tomorrows lesson, Jacques will film this afternoon meaning we can still edit during tomorrows lesson.

Editing Status Update

These past couple of weeks, since we got back from Christmas we have been aware that the deadline draws near. Anticipating this we have always made sure there is at least one if not more of the group is continuing to edit what we have over free lunchtimes and free periods. Obviously from our last blog post we still have filming to do but hopefully fingers crossed we will have edited everything else by then and the newly filmed stuff we can just slot in.... that's the plan anyway

Filming Result...

As this was the opportunity to wrap filming up finally we were rather excited about filming yesterday. Unfortunately as i arrived in Wollaton i heard that Rosa's sister had had to go to the hospital and she couldn't make it to the shoot. Obviously without an actress there wasn't much we could do and the shoot was a no go.

This result has now put us seriously behind what was turning out to be a successful video and we are stressing now about when we will manage to get 45 seconds worth of footage before the deadline on Thursday...

Filming some more...

Being as the deadline in dangerously close and still having footage too shoot we have arranged Saturday 21st as the time we would finish up all the shooting. We chose Saturday because it was one of the only times left before the deadline we all had time off from work or activities to film. The plan is to get Rosa back out on a bike in Wollaton and have another go at what didn't turn out so good last time.

Editing Footage

As we begin to bring our music video together we recently put together a short series of photographs in quick succession to match up to the lyrics for "Employee of the month at seven different shopping malls". Initially these were simply just photos, so in order to make them work in the video we added a frame around them in photoshop, put the text we wanted where we wanted it and then dropped it in. After this didnt work I re-edited the photos to give them a black boarder and make them all the same size. This time when we dropped them in they did work however i then cut the clips up and put a video effect on them so they would fit accordingly.

The final 2 second clips that we have of this we do like as although it was fiddly and took some time it is effective and works out well for the nature of the video.

Reshooting

Previously I went to Rosa's house to film the section of her waking up and looking into the mirror, as we found out in editing that we were unable to add text and for it to still appear realistic I had to go back and shoot it again. Along with filming different angles for the section where she is playing the guitar in bed.

Having edited them in during todays lesson, here is a preview of our music video so far, this contains the stop motion, photos and all other editing we have done up to this point. Because we always had a version of the song she could sing along to with us, although tricky at first, the lip syncing wasn't overly as complicated as we thought and at the moment its completely in time with the song playing underneath.

Filming the Walking Section

After deciding we were going to film Rosa walking aswell as cycling, we went out to the estate next to college and filmed on a monopod which attaches to your jeans and keeps the camera steadier than if we simply handheld the camera. Although watching it back it seemed wobbly and not as smooth as the cycling parts, we have decided to use it because we quite like the fact its slightly jumpy. This effect gives it a quirky fun feeling and makes you feel as if you are part of the action. To film this section, we had Rosa learn all the lyrics then filmed her singing the whole song various times in different camera shots. Overall, this filming shoot went well and we feel as if we are getting somewhere with our project.

Editing

Over the past week we have been editing our footage together for our final video. Although the most important part of our footage hasn't gone to plan the editing has been very successful. We have managed to edit the majority of the footage (from what we have) including part of the stop motion in which I was originally concerned about working.


We plan to film the new section in which Rosa is walking rather than cycling during tomorrows lesson on the estate outside of college.

Filming The Bicycle Section

On Saturday Jacques & I went to Wollaton to film the sections where Rosa is riding the bicycle. We gathered together around 6 extras which we first individually filmed having a newspaper thrown at them then did the tracking shots when Rosa is riding the bicycle. The individual shots worked out really well, however when we started the cycling parts, it went very wrong. The first problem we had was that Rosa had difficulty actually cycling and throwing the newspapers, and she often went off of the camera. A few times she nearly fell off of the bicycle. Although we'd previously asked her if she could cycle and
she said yes, I think she just had problems getting the newspapers out of the bag and throwing them furiously towards the extras. The car idea, however, worked really well and was smooth in how it moved with Rosa cycling behind. As the cycling idea seemed to fail on several occasions, we have decided to have parts where Rosa is walking instead of cycling as this will be easier for her. These will be two separate occasions on two different streets. Also in the introduction we will have her leaving the house and getting ready for her paper round twice, so the first one will be Rosa getting on the bicycle and cycling down the drive and the second one will be Rosa slinging the bag over her shoulder and walking down the drive.

Filming

Last week I went to Asda with Rosa to film the short scene of her 'at work' stacking shelves. As we already had permission we simply had to sign in and find an empty isle. Filming was easy as we went around 7pm and so the store wasn't too busy; we took several shots, from different angles,of her both working and also sat around doing nothing.

As the end shot will only last for 2 seconds we weren't there long and so didn't get in the way of anybody shopping.

Filming

Last night I went to Rosas house to film three sections of the video; filming went well and we managed to get it all done without many problems occuring. One section we were filming was the stop motion part, where tear drops appear down her face. At first i was slightly worried about doing it wrong and so after we filmed the section before i made sure that she didn't move from where she was; we asked her boyfriend to draw the teardrops on so that each time one was added, both her and the camera were in the same positions as before, so i look forward to editing this section once back at college to see how it turns out.

Christmas update

Before we broke up from college we had planned to film the majority of our music video before Christmas, as this would then give us the extra time afterwards to reshoot if needs be; however as Jacques was on holiday and our actress was busy we were unable to do so. So on Thursday 29th December we arranged to meet in Nottingham to discuss when we were all free to get the filming done. We all agreed that these dates would not be changed again, as it really needed to be done.

We planned to film the scenes in the girls room (princess section and sitting on the bed singing/writing) to be done at our actress, Rosas house as her room fitted the desired look the most and shoot this on Monday 2nd January. With the scene of her stacking shelves in Asda to be filmed the following night, Tuesday 3rd.

During Fridays lesson (the 6th) we plan to film the YouTube commentary section and take the photos in the photography studio which will be used for the seven different 'employee of the months'.

The final part to our filming is to be done on Saturday 7th January, as this is the largest part to film we agreed on meeting in Woolaton at 9am so that we don't miss the daylight needed to film. Hopefully after filming on these dates we won't need to go back out and shoot much of it again and we can get on with editing our final video!