Production: Adding Effects

I have now begun perfecting the first 2 minutes of the first draft of my music video. 

I have been using many different effects and editing techniques. The approach I have taken for my video is to present it as half real-life and half cartoon like and so I have been trying to have different cartoon elements in my film. 

However, I came across a problem when I discovered that my editing application, Final Cut Pro X, is not compatible with moving GIFs and this was a huge issue for me because it meant that none of the cartoon images that I wanted to insert could be moving. However, I have worked a lot with keyframes in order to give some of my images movement to make them look as lovely as possible!

Near the beginning of my video I have inserted a PNG of a rainbow. I used transitions to make it slowly wipe in from the left to the right, and then fade out just before Max runs across the screen. I carefully used the transform tools to alter the scale and position of the rainbow and line the flat edge up with the roof of the house. This also involved changing the angle of rotation. It looks great with the blue sky!

Also, I added a cartoon sun in when Max sings "look how the sun shines brightly". Again, it was originally motionless but to make it look slightly more part of the frame, I added a 'flashing' effect to the sun. I had to alter the intensity of the effect so that it wasn't too overwhelming. I also added a 'spot' effect to the shot of Max so that it looked like the sun was beaming onto his face and this fades in when the frame tilts upwards!

My favourite cartoon addition so far is the cartoon birds I have used later on in the video. I used keyframes in order to move the birds up and down flying across the screen. When sped up it looks like they are actually flapping their wings...especially the blue one! I am really happy with this effect.

The final effect I have added is in the shot with Jak lying on the grass. I added different cartoon flowers that I found online. Again, in order to give them motion I used key frames, but this time in order to alter the scale of them as opposed to the position. They all grow at different times and paces throughout the frame.

One problem I did have with the flowers was the fact that because the shot was filmed without a tripod, since I had to hold the camera vertically, it was quite shaky and because of that, sometimes the flowers went on top of Jak. Therefore I made use of the stabilisation tools. I set it to automatic but turned the smoothing up to 3.0 in order to make it as least shaky as I could. It now looks a lot more steady and the flowers stay growing around him as opposed to on his face!

Overall I am really happy with the effects I have added so far. Some may need a small amount of alteration but I am planning on gaining some audience research shortly and will see if there is anything that they do or do not like!

Research: Magazine Adverts

For my first ancillary task, I have opted to design a magazine advert for my song. I researched into what music magazine adverts look like in order to try and get some inspiration for my own.

Production: Guitar Solo

The guitar solo is filmed! We decided to film the solo from three different shots:

Long shot of guitarist sitting on the ground.

CU of fretboard.

CU of guitarist playing. 

Of course, I edited these shots so that they looked more shiny and summery than a dewy November morning. It's safe to say it was more difficult than my other footage to alter because the sky was darker and the whole shot just looked less bright! But after messing around for a little bit, I managed to get a balance that not only looked nice but looked the same as the rest of my video.

I then added in a glitzy transition between Jak hitting the post and Micky playing the guitar solo.

And finally, I added my favourite effect - Bokeh Random - to just make the whole scene look more bubbly and fun.

Here is the  video containing the guitar solo. I have now completed my filming up to the end of the second verse.

Production: Update 10/11

I am planning on filming the guitar solo for my music video tomorrow. I am going to film the solo a few times in different ways:

• Long shot - showing guitarist as a whole playing the solo. 
• CU - showing the guitarist's fingers playing the guitar.
• POV - showing the guitarist's point of view playing the solo.

I will then use these different versions and create a compilation of these videos for the guitar solo section of my music video. I am hoping to film and edit it into place by the end of tomorrow!

I decided to change the CUs for the "Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why" because I have decided that some people may find my video slightly...well, disgusting...having mouths so close up. And of course, this isn't the kind of reaction I am going for. Thus, I edited the shots so that they are particularly cartoon and abstract. They suit the theme of my video a lot more and helps to get rid of any close-ups of less comforting body parts!

 Although I am still filming my music video, I am also beginning to look at receiving audience feedback for my music video. I am going to ask a small focus group of my target audience to watch my music video and give their feedback for how I can change or improve it. 

Production: Update 07/11

Today I have begun to create the next part of the video after the guitar solo. I have found a guitarist, Micky, who I have arranged to film next Tuesday so I am going to miss that bit out for now!

I continued to alter the colours to make it look as bright as possible. The lip syncing is a lot more noticeable with the footage I have for the next chorus and this could potentially be a slight issue. However, I have decided to leave it for now because arguably, the video is particularly informal and so the lip syncing doesn't quite need to be perfect. Is This The Way To Amarillo has a very similar feeling to my video and it is quite obviously lip synced! 

Below is another video of where I have got up to with my music video. I am yet to film the guitar solo yet and so the screen goes blank during it at the moment! It is beginning to come together slightly.

Production: Update 05/11

I continued with some more editing today trying to perfect the first part of my draft. Firstly, I decided that the first part (before Max and Jak start performing) was particularly long and needed something else to keep it lively and entertaining. Therefore, I found a YouTube video of some beautiful clouds. 

I downloaded this clip and then added it into the first part of my video. To make sure it remained as bright and happy as possible, I altered the opacity of this clip so that my beautiful colour-altered sky that I filmed myself was still very obvious with the clouds subtly moving past in the background. I think it looks a bit nicer now it has some clouds drifting across the sky.

I decided to try to use animated cartoon clouds as well and see if it looks any good and it worked! I found a cartoon video of clouds online and I think it gives my opening a lot more quirkiness and character. I definitely like it more than using real life clouds!

I also continued to use the colour alteration tools to make my video as bright as it can be. However, some shots were more difficult than others. For example, in the shot of Jak and Max sitting on the bench, there were a lot of different colours in the sky and plants that meant it was difficult to edit the colours without them spilling. Therefore, I had to make many different, but very similar, corrections.

Production: Update 04/11

Today I imported my first lot of footage into Final Cut Pro. I had enough footage to then begin to piece together all of the video up until the guitar solo, allowing me to see if the lip syncing was good enough and seeing if I had sufficient footage for the video to flow nicely! It is a first draft and so, is nowhere near perfect.

I am very happy with my footage so far. I definitely do not see the need to refilm anything at this present moment in time - I think it is all of good enough quality to leave until I have filmed the rest of my footage before I begin making minor improvements.

I then began looking at some of the effects that I could use in my video in order to make it as beautiful as possible. I know that editing is going to be the most impressive aspect of my video, and so I am using this opportunity to experiment with the program and see what I can do. My favourite discovery so far is the colour adjustment tool. This means that I can select a colour (or set of colours) which I can then manipulate into whatever colour I like. With this effect, I can make the sky look a lot bluer and the grass a lot greener! Because I think my video should be very abstract, I am fine with it not being completely realistic.

I have also found a great Music Television logo that I am planning on using at the beginning of my music video in order to make it look more professional. It is a .png which means it has no background  and so I am put it over the blue sky that I filmed. 

I also created my own Mr. Blue Sky logo on Adobe Photoshop that I exported also as a .png and inserted into the same part of my music video. It looks great with the blue sky!

I also stumbled across a fantastic video effect for the very first part of my video, when the old-fashioned fuzzy noise thing is happening. It looks really well and almost looks as if you are 'tuning into' the music video...I really love it!

I have also added light leaks into some of the frames in order to make them look more happy and summery. They have worked really well but I am not using them in every shot as I think they could be easily overused!

Below is the work that I completed today. I only edited up until the guitar solo and a lot of the frames have not been edited at all yet. I simply used today as an opportunity to see what I could do using Final Cut Pro!

I am planning on filming some more (the green screen part, different people singing) next week so that the week after, I can begin to piece together a completed first draft.

Overall I am very happy with my progress and because I am slightly ahead of schedule, this gives me a great opportunity to continue experimenting with what Final Cut Pro can do!