Second rough cut

This is the second rough cut of our music video. We need to make the colors more vibrant to fit with the genre characteristics of our music video so we looked at color corrector on final cut express. We adjusted the hue of the video clips and found that it changed the colors to bright and vibrant colors. This meant that we could work through our music video and make the whole video much brighter and more interesting. We went through the video and adjusted brightness and contrast so that every clip was clear and defined. We also experiments with repeat shots and reverse shots. We still need to add in one more section but this is the second rough cut of our music video.

Filming Day 5

For our last filming session all we needed to do was to film some close up shots of the car wash scene, the falling of the milkshake and throwing of the ice cream. We wanted to use the video on our blog of things smashing as inspiration for part of this filming day. We used four different glasses filled them with milkshake and smashed them on a white sheet so that it was possible to see the full effect of the glasses smashing. To get the intended angles we had to use two cameras, both being in different positions when filming as we only had 4 glasses so therefore we had to be  precise to get a variety shots. The next thing we had to capture was the throwing of ice cream at a wall, which we planned  in our post - it storyboard. To achieve this we again used both cameras at different positions and captured the same footage at different angles. we found that by spraying the wall with water before throwing the ice cream gave the best effect as it would allow the ice cream to melt down the wall and splatter once thrown. Finally the last things we had to film was the close ups for the car scene which was quick and easily done as we knew the car wash sequence already. This day of filming was very successful  as we managed to get every piece of footage that we needed to be capable of finishing our music video. 

Changes to album cover

After looking at many CDs we decided ours was missing a few things such as; a blurb including the rights to the music (which we do not hold) more songs (as it has two CDs and we had five versions of the same song!) we also included details about the songs such as timings and featuring artists.

We also realised we had made the small mistake of not including the artist's name on the cover! Here is our improved version.

Our favourite part is that if you use an app on your smartphone that can scan QR barcodes to scan the barcode on the bottom right, you will be taken to our blog;

uvproductions.blogspot.com

-Click the image to enlarge and see it the way it should be seen-

Props

Here are the props we used within our music video:

This is an image of a cocktail umbrella which we used at the start of the film as it is eye catching and creates mystery of what is going to be included in the video.

We also used strawberries in the video as it was used within stereotypical shots which portray sexual elements.

As the title is 'Milkshake' we decided we must include milkshakes within the video. This prop was used throughout the video to keep relating to the title of the song and to remind the audience.

This is an image of food colouring in water, we used food colouring to create a certain effect which matches a certain part of the music. It goes well with the music as it is a slow movement which goes well with the slow paced section in the song.

When the music slows down we decided to film a crazy daisy squirting water.

Champagne is another prop used which is used for a champagne fight in the music video. It creates comedy within the video.

We needed to use props for the car wash scene to make it realistic so objects such as a sponge, bucket and hose was used.

In this picture you can see all the props used in the car wash scene, also you can see the car that we used. This again was needed to be realistic for the audience to watch.

Ice lolly was a prop we used as we wanted to create an intended effect with it which was to show the ice lolly melting but in fast motion, to see the whole melting process.

We decided to follow our post it note storyboard and shoot ice cream being thrown at a garage door. For this we needed the prop of the ice cream. 

We wanted to try and experiment and use the images that we have used for inspiration and video colored paint dripping down a white page. 

We also covered the camera in cling film so that we could spray silly string towards the camera. 

To end the music video we used the prop, being a part popper. This shown popping at the end of the song shows the ending of the video.

At the moment we are playing around with the magazine advert, here are a few of our ideas.

We are not sure whether to go with the split album cover or the normal one, we are happy with the background as it fits in with the conventions of our music video and our album cover. The benefits of the split album cover are that it looks different to the album cover and shows that is more of a themed product than the same thing simply put on a different sized background. It also shows that we can use photoshop properly more than just plonking an image on another. However, many people we have asked have told us that the first image looked more professional and more like we are promoting an album, this is because it follows the conventions of other album promoting magazine adverts. Our final choice is still in contention.

Filming Day 4

We have looked at the footage that we still need to film and have split them into two filming sessions. The first one being filming day 4, we decided to film the crazy daisy and the morphing section of our film. We took the crazy daisy outside into the garden and set up the camera under a waterproof sheet to protect it. Our aim was to film it in a swinging motion to slow down in time to the beat of our music. We filmed three different angle of the crazy daisy and experimented with how the water came out of it. The second part of the filming session was to film the morph. We set the camera up inside so that we had a plain white backdrop. We had to make sure the camera was the same distance away from the wall at all times so that each image looked equal to get the full effect of the morph once on the editing suite. We used a post-it note as a marker to show the actors where to stand for each shot. We raised the camera in stages so that we had photos of each part of the body showing a feminine figure and a hairy manly figure. Overall, the filming session went well as we got the footage we needed however we did suffer some costume faults but dealt with them in the correct way. The original camera we wanted to use ran out of battery however we had a back up camera available. We also decided to film a zoom of a hairy belly button as we needed this footage for a short part of our music video. This was successful.

Costumes

Dancers Costumes:

The first image shows the leotards that the dancers wore. We wanted to have them in theses costumes but the time we had until the filming day was minimal, so therefore we asked a gymnast in our class to bring in three leotards. The reason why we wanted them in leotards was to show off sexual feminine figures as this is a common trait within dance music videos. The second image shows the footwear the dancers wore being black high heels. This was again to enhance the sexual figure as this is more appealing for a male audience.

Males Costumes:

These are the costumes which the males wore for the car wash scene. We decided for them to wear shorts and a bikini top, both being female clothing. We did this because it is contradicting and therefore creates comedy within our film. It emphasises the irony we are trying to portray being that normally within a dance music video it would be females within this scene, not males.

This is our final digipak, we chose to carry our theme through all of the features of the pack, experimenting helped a lot, many of the things we used in the pack were developed over time from our primary ideas, the wispy background was inspired by the part of our video when we dropped ink into a bowl. The faceplay was pure experimentation, we also kept to a specific font, 'Helvetica' throughout the pack.

The cover and other pictures were singular images which were originally some of our ideas, this was then all put together into a template, we wanted it to look as professional as possible. Many ideas were put in after the template was involved, an example of this is the 'MILK SHAKE' on the CDs themselves. The CD parts could be CDs or the part that holds the CD.

UV Productions Audience Feedback 4/1/12

- Maybe use boys at the start as well as the end and put some of the girls towards the end.

- Really good, I like the tye dye effect used in the water and the dancers fit in well with the song.

-Big contrast between inside and outside shots, brightness changes too much.

- Needs more close ups of Luke and Jack in the car scene.

- Zoom into the colour in the bowl because you can see the hands.

- I really liked the choreography, loved the humor, melting ice lolly was good and can see the representation of genre.

- Could do a shot from inside of the car when there washing the windows? - really good though!

- Good choreography and I like the melting ice lolly.

- Reshoot the car shots and out of focus shots.

From this feedback we have gained knowledge on what to improve on in our music video. We will be reshooting certain shots to make them more clear and to improve the quality of certain shots. Also we are going to add some more shots which include close ups to achieve a variety of shots within the video.

Photoshop practice and album design drafts

At the start of the project, one of our ideas that did not get storyboarded was the 'eyedea' of changing eye colour, we trained ourselves to be pro at this, however it only worked well with a subtle colour change such as this radiant purple, the bright colours are not subtle enough so they look obviously photoshopped, these were used in the video as they are less noticeable, the slightly subtler colours were used in the album cover, and to make it look more real we put a slightly transparent brush over the top in pink, this gave the whole front cover a rosey tint, almost as if you were looking at it through 70's sunglasses. 

The process of changing eye colour on photoshop is very simple to do, however it can be done sloppily. The stages of changing the eye colour are:

1- get a photo which has a close up or good quality eye (preferably a lighter shade)

2- when in photoshop, use a cutting tool to cut around the bit with the colour, layer via copy. 

3- cut out the pupil, layer via cut

4- select the layer in which the coloured eye is.

5- go to image- adjustments- colour balance

6- fiddle with the bars until you get the colour you desire.

Music video - Rough Cut

We are very pleased with our progress so far, if this is watched alongside the storyboard sequence you may be able to notice a few things, we have made a few minor changes and we are missing a few small bits from the video, this is due to the fact that we haven't filmed some bits yet. We are not pleased with the image quality at the moment, this is mainly due to the uploading process, (blogger reduces image quality) so we will upload it to youtube or vimeo when it is finished and embed it- vimeo offers the best image quality and hd sound. We are refilming some things due to feedback we have received, including the food colouring in water, which will be filmed from a better angle in HD.

Experimentation with text

Here we have experimented with some text fonts and have tried to create a visually interesting background which could be applied to either our music album or magazine advert. This was created using photoshop which was an easy tool to use to make this effect. In order to create a successful magazine advert and album cover we as a group are aware that they must be eye catching and interesting to look at which will grab our target audience.

Developing album covers

This was one of our primary ideas to play on the boy/girl and voyeuristic theme, sadly it didn't look as good as we thought it would, changing the background behind a person is not only hard but can lead to problems later when you try to change it, it was way too time consuming, we decided to explore different paths.

This idea had it's flaws, too. We developed the idea of the dripping milkshake from a tutorial on using text with dripping blood, we decided to make this effect pink to go with our theme, this was neither the album cover or the magazine advert. We were using the liquify tool and got carried away or angry, that's open for interpretation, and due to a fluke, this effect came about.

This was our final dripping text idea, aspects of this image were used in our album cover, we are pleased with it.

Learning Editing Skills

Since Luke had taken on the role of editor for last years coursework of a film opening sequence. Sarah and Sophie decided that this time we would learn about editing and take full control of editing to make sure that it was done to the best quality that we could get it too. One we had some footage filmed we loaded the footage onto final cut express and watched it all fully through and pick out the best shots filmed to fit within our music video. The tools on Final cut express were really useful in making our music video overall a better quality. Over this music video process we hope to learn more about what we can experiment with final cut express but we are glad that we chose to take control and learn more about editing.

Group Meeting Ten

Today we gathered as a group to discuss what needs to be done in order to complete our music video. We have almost finished filming however there is still one more filming session to complete. The editing is also coming along well as we are happy with how the video is starting to look and develope. As well as editing our sequence w are also designing a variety of album covers for the video. Things that now needs to be completed is the final filming session which we are going to pick a near date to do so and also to be efficent with the editing of all our footage.

Third Filming session

We had decided to use the drama studio to shoot the shots that involved the dancers. We got permission to shoot during a lesson and had artificial lighting that worked well with what we shot. We managed to get hold of three dancers and three leotards and high heels the girls put the adequate amount of make up on and we made sure that the lighting was correct on them so that we could see them through the camera. Sophie had brought along some milkshake and cream the we used as props to dance with. Sarah then taught the dancers a routine that they could perform to the music. The dancers practised the dance and we set up the camera in the correct position. We then experimented with different angles and the footage came out really good. We had shot more than we needed and were really pleased with how we had used the time. The lesson after the shooting was media so we uploaded the footage onto the computer and began to edit it into our sequence.

Filming Session 2

For this filming session we wanted to film the shots of, the falling strawberry into milkshake, eating of a strawberry, silly string, drinking of milkshake, ice lolly melting and party popper. To achieve this we went to the location of Sophie's house as this allowed us to use the facilities of the kitchen. Although this was an advantage there was a disadvantage due to the lighting available. We managed to get all the shots that we intended on doing although once the footage was imported onto the editing suite we realised some of the shots were out of focus so as result we plan to reshoot parts. 

Filming Session 1

On Wednesday 30th November we had arranged to film for the first time. The meeting point was at Sarah Groves' house at midday. We began filming with the two actors and the car at the garages behind the house. We arranged the film set so that it looked like a real life car wash and not an artificial car wash. The actors changed into their costumes and we set up the camera and prepared to film. Unfortunately one member of our group was late so we had to film without the tripod. We coped well with this and tried to keep the camera as still as possible. Apart from the missing group member and tripod, we were very organised, with a selection of bikinis to choose from, a car ready to clean and two actors open to anything. Once all the group was there filming we was then able to do more shots of the car scene using the tripod which allowed us to get the intended shots that we needed. Halfway through the day we decided we needed to go away and buy champagne, this coincided with our lunchbreak (vital part of the day for crew) and the group members went to a supermarket, opting for three miniature bottles of champagne. The champagne felt very similar to a scene from a modern war film because we only had one chance to do the shots, there was a lot of pressure to get the shots just right. We had many cancellations with our second actor, this calls for more solid plans and a strong brief, so both us and the cast know exactly what to do.

Filming Sessions

First filming session (30th november 2011) - Shot no: 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35

Second filming session - (6th December 2011) - Shot no: 1, 2, 8, 9, 10 11, 14, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42

Third filming session - (9th December) - Shot no: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13

Fourth filming session - Shot no: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 40

Storyboard Sequence

This is our developed storyboard sequence, which we created using final cut, it helps us convert our storyboard ideas and shots into an edited sequence including the use of key framing to get an idea of framing and movement. It is now a lot easier to put things in perspective, timing and our final edit.