First attemp at an edit

After storyboarding my music video, I decided to go straight into filming the whole video in one day using my chosen actors. For my first edit, I didnt want to add and sort of special effects. It was supposed to be rough with some simple colour correction. There are no sound effects either, however I focused all my effort on putting every clip I filmed into a narrative. This is the outcome:

https://vimeo.com/53435328

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done. After a long think about what is missing to make it convincing, I realised what it is. Not only is this film too similar to my last video, but also I didnt think the acting was good enough to give a convincing role.

Main points to take from this edit:

• I need to film at night time. This will fit with the song more and give it a more tense atmosphere.
• The actors need to be changed along with having 3 instead of 2. I have changed my idea significantly. I want to still have a stong female lead, however I only want her to show up at the end and be a mysterious figure. I will have a similar story but the chase will be between two men who are both angry at each other instead on one who is simply chasing one. This means the I will need two weapons.
• One of the new actors will be a professional MMA fighter, this means that the fight scene will be far more convincing. This is the scene that will be the hardest to get right. Also, I need to make the fight longer.
• The gun recoil need to be more realistic, it doesnt look powerful enough. I will need to research realistic gun recoil from internet videos and try to get in contact with some weapons handlers.
• If I use CGI, I can easily practice on the footage I have filmed.
• Re-filming will be easy as I have already filmed most clips. Nothing will be down to chance.
• The two characters have to be equal in skill and both have to be chasing each other. The female lead will only show up at the end. She will shoot her henchman as she does not need him anymore.

I will be getting on with the re-filming and second edit as soon as possible.

First day of filming

I decided to get filming as soon as possible when I finished my storyboard to a point where I could improvise a lot of it. I didn't know how long it would take to film and I knew that I only had my actors for a few hours which wouldn't be nearly enough time to film everything, however I got as much done as possible in the time available.

These are some behind the scenes shots of the day:

I wasnt able to get too many pictures of actually filming as there was no one to take pictures, however on my second shoot I took a few, but again I was short on people to take BTS picures.

Overall, we spent around 4 hours filming on this day and got around 1 min of footage. It was a fun day and became relatively productive.

Gun Tracking Effect Test for Music Video

In my free time, I decided to see if I could really pull off the effect where it shows the amount of bullets in the gun. I did this because you obviously cant show bullets in a magazine of the handgun as it is an airsoft gun. This is the video I made (I added SFX also):

https://vimeo.com/53033139

In my opinion, the effect works quite well. Much better than I though it would. Here are some behind the scenes of the editing:

I used AfterEffects CS5 and Illustrator CS5 in order to pull it off. I filmed the gun with my Canon 600D and 100mm Canon L.

Actors

Actors I will be using:

Before I get anywhere with this music video, I need to pick my actors. Last year, I used me, my father and a family friend. I dont want to use the same cast (even though my father and friend are incredible at playing henchmen) so I decided to use two of my teachers who I thought would fit well. One of them is my media studies teacher who has seemed very keen to be in the film for a while. The female part is my form teacher who has agreed to be in it.

This is a picture of both of them (Holly Hames on left, Samuel Cullis on right):

 This is not what they will be wearing in the video, in fact they will be wearing quite the opposite to this.

Target Audience

Target Audience:

In order to create a successful music video, I need to know who my target audience are going to be. I need to be able to aim my characters and storyline at a certain demographic of people so that I can produce the best possible video.

What my audience is:

·      14-30 year olds

·      Male and Female (due to female protagonist)

·      Urban, international

·      Dress normally, wears hoodies and other casual clothes.

·      Enjoys a good action film and some fighting

·      Appreciates heavy drum and bass

·      Doesn’t mind quick action and fast paced editing

·      Can keep up with a quick single strand

·      Music video watchers

·      Not fans of generic pop music / music videos

Essentially, people like me.

Pre - Storyboard Narrative

Essentially, this is a idea sheet of how my music video is going to pan out. It took a while to do due to the fact I had to bring all of my ideas into one narrative, but from this I am very happy to do a storyboard for it. I still need to find some better locations however.

Incase you cannot read the handwriting:

• Begins with a buildup to the chase scene, one of the henchmen has been killed (means for revenge), henchman checks his gun and realises that he is low on ammo.
• Hook kicks in, chase starts
• Chase continues for about 1 min until calm (mid) of the song
• At calm, the hiding of the MP (main protagonist) occours. Fits with the song.
• Continues hiding, trying to devise a way to get rid of the henchman
• Noises
• Fight/chase starts slow-mo intro, zooms into the eye of the henchman then cuts to the eye of the MP and zooms out.
• Hench uses gun and shoots at MP, misses all three times and so is out of ammunition
• Throws gun in last effort, hits her/his foot
• Trips MP, fatal mistake for hench
• After a bit of time, MP picks up the gun and gets ready to strike
• Cocks arm
• MP shins hench, hench falls to the floor
• MP swaps gun to the other hand, pins him down and in the same motion swings gun at henches head
• END