Video Progress - Post 7

We have edited most of out initial draft of the video and have presented this draft to some people who would be part of our target audience, this is the feedback that they have given us so far. The first draft did not have any effects added to the video, it was simply the green screen clips and narrative clips placed in the correct sequence with the sing played over the top. This was the groups feedback:

“Looking great so far. The band members moving at different speeds caused us to rewind and rewatch those parts over and over again, it was so smooth and so eye catching, we love it. The storyline and characters are great too and you can really notice the difference between these two in their attitudes from their clothing to their behaviour, i mean, the male is clearly the responsible one here, he dresses smart casual and is seen to be trying to keep the female character under control. We cant wait to see the final edit!”

So we appear to be appealing to our target audience so far. We will keep going in the direction we have intended to go in as our ideas seem to be working out correctly and hitting all the right points with our intended viewers.

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Video Progress - Post 6

We have just finished filming the narrative shots for our music video. It took about 3 hours to film in its entirety and we got many different shots in different locations however only a select few will be used for the final video. We used the camera handheld to add some natural shake to the video footage to represent how unsteady the relationship between the two characters are and how unstable especially the female character can be. If necessary we can emphasise this once we get the clips to the post production phase.

Also an update on the green screen video clips. We have fully edited these clips and removed as many imperfections as possible. We have also implemented the idea for the double speed and half speed video band members and the results so far have been very promising.

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Video Progress - Post 5

After messing around with some of the green screen clips we have been coming across some issues with lighting issues between the guitarist and the bassist. The guitarist clip appears to have ideal natural lighting and accurate skin tones within the video, however the bass player appears to have warmer colours in his entire clip, including the stage etc. However with Final Cut Pro X’s colour matching facility built into the editor, we were able to colour match the bassists clips alongside the guitarists clip to get a better colour match. We were then able to fine tune this colour match to get a more accurate colour tone throughout the clip. However what we will have to do is crop some of the video in order to remove some of the imperfections at the feet of the band members as they could not be fixed by the colour correction tools.

Also as mentioned in an earlier blog post, we have noticed a small amount of flicker caused by the difference in the lights operating at 60Hz and our camera filming at 120 frames per second, however this is not a major issue and does not affect the video.

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Video Progress - Post 4

So after a troublesome day with rebuilding the green screens yesterday after the disastrous destruction they suffered, we successfully filmed all of the band videos. We now have all of these video shots completed. Editing will begin on these parts to ensure accurate colour correction throughout the video clips and also that the green screen effect has worked successfully. Once we get these clips imported into Final Cut Pro X we will be able to mess around with the Chrome Key effects and see what we can get out of these video clips.

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Video Progress - Post 3

So, we arrived in the morning after completing our green screen build, to find this..

It became apparent that the green screens had been moved and accidentally torn during that process. All but one of the green screen were completely ripped and some frames were broken too. So we immediately worked hard over several hours and restored the green screens the best we could. They are slightly crumpled and crinkled from the damage but we don’t think that should be much of an issue for us when it comes to filming. Also starring in this shot is our backdrop which was painted by several A-Level Art students. This is the logo we created in Photoshop from the original black and white band logo.

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Video Progress - Post 2

So after building our green screens we decided it was time to paint our backdrop for the music video. The school kindly donated their large canvas sheet that they used for the school musical and allowed us to paint over it. They also kindly donated some paint materials and equipment from our art department as well as 3 of their pupils to assist us in painting the backdrop.

As seen in this image, this is the original painting on the backdrop:

We used the projector in the assembly hall to project the logo we designed onto the canvas and then painted over this in order to create a perfect recreation of the logo. We started off by painting the entire canvas sheet in black paint, but left small, almost seemingly accidental patches of the previous paint work coming through to enhance the grunge texture and appearance on the canvas. When this coating was dry, we painted over the projected image to add the tape and wings logo as well as the band name. Bands are so often seen performing either live or in music videos in front of a backdrop with the band name, logo or even album artwork. We wanted to follow this convention within our media product and this was the end result:

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Vide Progress - Post 1

We are now well underway into the build of our green screen sets. We started by first of constructing the poles and their feet  of each green screen. We got some square wooden poles from B&Q. These measured 2.72m x 0.05m x 0.05m. Because of their small surface area at each square end. We cut some triangular feet from MDF wood and screwed these into the wooden poles, ensuring a tight and secure fit.

After these parts were constructed, we had to move the pole and feet assemblies to the school assembly hall stage because the entire assembly would be too big to manoeuvre throughout the school building. We took the decision to finish the assembly of the green screens on the stage.

This part involved constructing the MDF wooden boards to the top and bottom of the poles. The green screen paper would be attached to these parts providing more of a surface area for the paper to be attached to the frame which will create a stronger and therefore safe assembly. It also allows us to line the paper out as evenly and as straight and tight as possible to minimise creases on the surface which will allow our green screen to be more effective.

This photo shows the sheer scale of the build…and there’s 3 of these:

Once the boards were attached to the bottom and top of the frames, it was time to add the green screen paper. To do this, we started on one side, and lined up the green screen edge to be straight and parallel to the edge of the pole. We left a bit of over lap on this side to give us some extra room to work with and avoid leaving any fuzzy edges from the paper being cut. We then used a staple gun to attach the green screen paper to the wooden frame. We started along one side, ensuring after each staple the paper was still running parallel and even across the frame. We paid a lot of attention to this as it was critical to the success of these video parts. 

Once the green screen paper was attached, the green screen panel was finished! We just had to repeat the entire process 2 more times… And these were the finished results!

Not too shabby, not too shabby at all.

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