and......

Just to add, the video is in HD, just to make it that bit more amazing! ......yeah as you can tell we are very excited over the finished music video.... :)

The End!

GUYS!!!!! It's over! Well done to all the members of ELJAF Productions for putting this music video together! We all worked very well in the group and believe we have produced a very professional and successful music video alongside our individual ancillary texts. 

Others Takes On Our Music Video

Below is a comment made after I posted the final video on Facebook.

Alex Bawden - "maybe you could extend how long the phone appears on the screen? its a bit hard to read it really quickly but other than that it is AMAZING i cant believe you guys did it!!! it looks proffessional!"

Connor Wood - "Thats actually very good, I say actually because I started watching it thinking "oh lol media videos these are always funny"

Our Music Video [Completed] :)

Below is our final completed, finished, finito, lovely, done, music video. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we have enjoyed creating it! ............the end of a very good production era with the group members of ELJAF Productions! :')

Our Music Video [Draft 2]

Below is the second rough cut of our music video. This cut was shown to our teacher. She watched through this cut and she thought that overall it was very good, very well edited, performed and put together. There were some small issues which she felt were in the video, these are listed below:

• 00:51 - Sitting on the floor - possibly longer
• 01:00 - Centre the shot
• 01:12 - When she is going down the stairs she should progress further
• 01:35 - More of the artist
• 02:00 - Maybe change the shot
• 02:20 - Zoom in closer
• 02:50 - Maybe change the shot
• 02:55 - Zoom in or make the shot longer
• 03:00 - I think this part is slightly out of sync

Our Music Video [Draft 1]

Below is our rough cut which we showed to our media class and some other sixth form students. As you can see when watching the video there are some small parts missing and some clips in the wrong place, however these can be easily ironed out and corrected.

Meeting

Today we decided to finish our music video. We managed to get all the clips into place and will put transitions and effects on the clip in tomorrows lesson and after school. We have also planned the evaluation answers for the four questions and will be completing this too tomorrow, in order to met the deadline. Once everything is completed we will upload the video to YouTube in full video and audio quality and embed them onto our own blogs and the group blog.

Evaluation Of Our Day Of Filming

Earlier today we filmed the performance, however not in the drama studios as planned. Once again the drama studios were busy with GCSE performances and rehearsals. As we only have about a week until the deadline we needed to get the filming finished by the end of the week.

After hearing about drama we decided to look in the main school hall as this too has black curtains and a black flooring on the stage, luckily enough it was free.

We set up the camera and filmed both Faye and Elliot in a number of different shots and was finished in just over an hour. Tomorrow we will import the clips onto the computer, convert them and edit them into our nearly finished music video.

The only issue we had today was that halfway through Elliot's performance the SD card became full as we have been filming in 1080p. We solved this by deleting some of the early clips we have already imported.

Day Of Filming

Straight after the showcase we decided that we would stay behind after school and film some more performance shots as this was the main criticism we received during the showcase. We planned to do the filming in drama as it is all black and fits in very nicely with our genre and song track.

Plus Faye and Elliot had already brought in their performance costumes and Jamie had brought in the microphone.

Showcase!

Today was the showcase! All of what we had created so far was saved and shown to our media class, teachers and some other students within the sixth form. During our showcase we gave every person viewing the music video an evaluation sheet which explained how we wanted people to evaluate and criticize our music video.

The overall response was very good. Almost everybody liked the edits and the sound quality of the music video however some told us that some of the performance shots were too long and needed to be cut into something else.

We have taken all the feedback on board and will be tweaking the music video over the next couple of days to create our final professional looking music video.

Filming the Performance

The only thing now to complete the editing process is to film more of the performance for the video. To do this we have all decided to stay behind school tomorrow (Wednesday 30/3/211) in the drama studio and film; within in this we shall film extreme close-ups, close ups, mid shots and long shots which are all conventions of music videos.

Woooooo we are all really excited for the filming tomorrow!

Meeting

Today we had planned to film the last little part of the performance in the drama studio however the room was busy and also Elliot was not in. Instead we decided to look through all the performance we have already recorded and look what we could do with the footage we had already. As the deadline for the music video is very soon we didn't want to wait to get the footage, instead we decided to make the most of the footage we already have and if we get a chance to record more of the performance then we will import it.

Meeting

Today we imported the entire performance of the field into the Final Cut Express timeline. We did this to fill in all the gaps in the timeline, we then watched the music video through and noted down where we wanted to add the narrative.

Editing - Effects

Today we continued editing the performance for our music video. While we were editing Faye had the idea of adding a black and white effect to the beginning of the video and then gradually adding colour. We decided to do this as it makes the audience aware they are watching a music video. *SPOILER ALERT* Also the beginning shows the girl going into the bathroom where she later kills herself. As this is the most emotional and important part of the music video we wanted to emphasis it. *END OF SPOILER*

What We Have Done So Far

Well Done guys! I think we have done really well and all that is left to do now is to finish the performance side of the music video and edit it into the video using Final Cut Express! We will be able to finish by the original deadline and look forward to show everyone what us as a team have created!

Meeting

Today we planned to finish the performance part of the music video in the drama studios. However Elliot was not in today therefore Faye and Jamie decided that we should convert the forest performance and put them into Final Cut Express, ready to be edited.

Instead we are going to film the rest of the performance on Friday as this is the next available day when we have a media lesson.

Evaluation Of Our Day Of Filming

Earlier today we had planned to film as much of the performance as possible. We had planned to film in the drama studio and field using a wide range of different shots which can be edited together and used in parts of our music video.

However we found out that the drama studio was being used therefore we decided that we would film the field performance today and the studio performance tomorrow. Overall we managed to film the entire song with Faye being the lead singer in a number of different shots. We filmed her from a low angle as this is a convention of music videos and also a mid shot and close up. These shots edited with the drama performance will make the music video look professional and unique.

We were all happy with what we had filmed so transferred and converted the clips into Final Cut Express ready for editing later on in the week.

Day Of Filming

Today we decided that during our two hour media lessons we would film the performance part to the music video. As we only had a two hour time frame to get as much performance as we could we decided that we should stay on the school site to film. Two places we thought would be appropriate would be the drama studio as it has black floors, walls and curtains which fit perfectly with our piece of music and genre, and also the school field as this can represent freedom and getting away from the reality of her life. This also links into the narrative and ties the two together nicely.

Meeting

Today we carried on editing the narrative and have almost finished putting all the clips into place. We decided that tomorrow would be a good time to finish filming the performance side of the music video. Tomorrow we all have a double media lesson which we can use for filming and after school. After tomorrows filming we can convert and put together the rest of music video which we believe will be completed by the end of the week.

The Narrative Clips and Final Cut Express

Today we finished converting all the narrative clips and placed them all in the Final Cut canvas in folders to keep them all organised and ready for when we come to editing and piecing together the music video. After we placed these in the canvas we decided to place the MP3 of Bring Me To Life into the timeline as the A1 track and render it to save us time later when we need to constantly render all the video and audio tracks. When rendering was finished we saved the Final Cut project to the desktop of our group account so all of us have access to it.

Meeting

Today Elliot was unwell so both Faye and Jamie decided to continue to convert the MP4 files to MOV in order for them to be ready for editing in Final Cut Express. We wanted to have all the narrative clips converted by the end of the week so we could focus on the filming, converting and editing of the performance clips next week.

Meeting

Today we decided to go to media and start converting some of the narrative clips we had from an MP4 file to a MOV. This needed to be done so the clips will not need to be rendered as often when we edit the footage as a group in Final Cut Express. Tomorrow Faye, Elliot and I will be converting the rest of the narrative clips and also be further planning for the next shooting, the performance, which will be filmed sometime next week.

Meeting

Today we planned to have a meeting, however Faye had to go for drama rehearsals and Elliot was ill. Therefore Jamie decided that he would organise the clips we currently have and have a look through the storyboards we have created to see how we can use our clips with our plans.

Evaluation Of Our Day Of Filming

Earlier both Elliot and I met Faye at her house and filmed parts of our narrative. We looked through our storyboards and filmed what we needed. We decided to give each clip an extra three seconds either side so we would have more to edit with and if some of our timings in the initial storyboards were not correct we would be penalised when editing all the footage.

Today we managed to film all the house footage and also had time to film the forest scenes as we were very close to Claybury Park.

Some of the video we filmed was the bathroom scene, bedroom scene, receiving the text message and the depression scene. In total we had a lot more footage than we would use. This was purposely done so we had more footage to look through and play with when building the music video.

Filming finished at approximately 6:30. After this I took the footage home and transferred it onto a USB which I will take to school tomorrow and give to both Elliot and Faye so they can have a copy of all the clips.

Overall today was very successful and I believe we should be able to use a lot of the footage we have captured to produce a professional looking and successful music video.

Next we need to plan and shot the performance of the band. We will then use both the performance and narrative footage to create the finished music video using Final Cut Express.

Equipment used:

• Xacti Full HD Camera

Places filmed at:

• Faye's House
• Claybury Park

Day Of Filming

Earlier in the week we decided that Sunday we would film some of the narrative for our music video. Looking back at our storyboards we have decided that we will film the house scenes of the narrative and we would do in Faye's house. We decided to meet at Faye's house at 3:00pm.

Narrative Ideas

First Filming Session- Classroom Scene

Tuesday 25th is when we started filming for the narrative of our music video. We decided to film the classroom scene first, these shots consisted of:

• Over the shoulder shot
• Shot from the front/Low Angle
• Shot from the side
• Panning of the setting
• From the teachers point of view

Over the shoulder shot

This shot allows the audience to see what the character is writing, which highlights their frustration as they write the lyrics/title of the song down in anger. We purposely chose to write in red ink as this codes the anger the individual is feeling, and it is a conventional colour of the music genre rock.
Over the shoulder shots are frequently used in music videos and in films as they give the audience the idea of being involved and watching the action occurring.

Shot form the Front/Low angle shot





Low angle shots are used frequently in music videos, this reminds the audience that they are watching a show/performance. Also by using this low angle shot allows the audience to see the characters facial expressions.
When filming, shown in the first and second video, we had some mistakes. Firstly Elliot was so eager to be in the film scene that he made a suprise appearance in two of them. Also in the second video Faye wanted to show off her amazing throwing skills and knocked Jamie (the camera man) out with the ball of paper.

Shot from the side



We like the idea of this shot, as it reflects that no one is surrounding her emphasising that she is alone. Also in this shot it clearly shows the action and emotions of the character.

Shot from the front



This shot is slightly high angle, this gives the sense that someone is watching her every move and judging her.

Teacher's Shot





Classroom Pan

Costume

Now that we have a good idea on what will be happening in the music video we decided to think of some of the costumes that maybe used in the music video.

One idea we were certain on was that we will try to keep the colours to a minimal and only use dark colours, preferable black. The reason for this is because the colour black is code for misery and sadness and fits perfectly with our track choice, Bring Me To Life.

We are not going to have very big, outrageous costumes...like Lady Gaga, as we feel it does not fit in well with our music video and the genre. We will have the main artists wearing normal dark clothing, with some jewelery, such as rings and necklaces.

The necklaces and rings would be suitable if they had some kind of gothic symbol on them such as a skull, bones or red roses. When we come to shooting we will insure that we check what every artist is wearing to insure it is appropriate because we want this music video to turn out perfect!

One more thing would be red or black nail varnish as this again is code for misery and a convention of the gothic, rock genre we have chosen.

How We Keep in Contact

For times that we are not in school and can not get in contact with each other, I have created a facebook group for us members of ELJAFproductions. By creating this group we can post ideas, photos and arrange filming times, and for it to be used like a blog between us three. 

Faye.