Feedback after Final Cut

Feedback was all very positive, not very different from feedback at the rough cut stage as the video had not changed drastically.

Pete mentioned that the ending of our video reminded him of the ending of the french new wave film '400 Blows'(Francois Truffaut, 1960).

Ending of 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups)




Another student also said that it reminded her of the beach scene in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (Michel Gondry, 2004). However I could not find this scene on the net.

Sam

Final Video!

Its done now...

Feedback On Roughcut

Feedback

Areas for improvement:

-Middle section seemed slow
-In some areas could be darker in terms of brightness
-Could have more close ups
-Could have some more time lapses
-Could have a longer ending

Things people liked:


-People thought that it was a very good idea
-All the shots were well framed and chosen
-Time lapses fit in perfectly
-Locations were good choice
-Looked like an emotional journey
-The wide screen fitted well, made it look more focused
-Looked like a 'European art house film'
-Tie fitted with the beat at the start
-Costumes and colours chosen are good, represent the mood
-Dramatic, leads to a climatic ending
-Good range of shots

Reflection on Rough cut

So far very good, but one thing to take into account when watching it in youtube is that the music's to loud again like with the rough cut of our thriller. We need to lower the DB on the sound track before exporting the video for the final cut.
Also one of the transitions at the end (on the beach) has a larger sized shot underneath (widescreen is larger than one on top) this is the shot of me running up the hill on the beach with Sam following me.

Sam, Lewis and Tom will have to correct this in the next few lessons.

Antony, Tom, Sam and Lewis.

Rough cut!

Basically finished.

Antony, Sam, Lewis and Tom

Great Yarmouth editing

Continuing on from the Cambridge shoot, we are now coming to the end of our rough cut footage were Anthony finds himself on the beach and cast the stone back into the water and collapses with emotion.

Rough cut nearly finished......

Tom

Filming - Antony's house

Today we (Antony and Sam) filmed at my house, we filmed some footage that we will put at the very begining of the video. We filmed me waking up and going to get a shower then getting dressed, having breakfast and then leaving the house for work.

We got a lot of nice shots today; one was from inside the closet as I opened the closet doors to get my suit. Unfortunately we did not have a tripod, but managed easily without it. The fact that he is getting dressed at this point in the video is a good contrast to the majority, where he is removing his clothes.

Antony and Sam.

Bittersweet symphony scene

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

Tuesday 12:25-13:55

This is what our field scene is the most similar to as Antony (the main character) bumps into me as he is walking along, and remains expressionless whilst I react in the way any other person would, stunned and angry.

We took lots of shots from loads of different angles so that we had a range of shots to choose from, including long shots for me and one for Antony, close ups of me and Antony and a range of other shots that will help us to decide which one the most effective.

Lewis and Tom

Update

New ideas/shots

We have had some new ideas for our video, as we thought it might be a boring in some places as the whole video originally would just be the character walking. We first decided to put more timelapses in to break up the walking and also we filmed the laptop smashing scene a while ago but also on top of this we decided to film the character bumping into a random person on his journey as it would add a bit more to the film than just walking.

Also we may film the character getting ready for work, e.g. Shaving, getting clothed etc.

We will either put this all at the start of the video or cut it up so as the video goes on you see bits of the character getting ready as it goes on.



Antony, Tom, Lewis and Sam

Filming - London, Blackfriars bridge area.

Today we filmed in london from 12pm - 4.30pm

We took the train from Cambridge after first lesson as me and Sam had finished for the day, we took the underground to blackfriars and we filmed some footage by the river. We filmed me taking off the tie and throwing it to the ground and a timelapse of the river with people walking past the camera. We also got a shot of me unbuttoning my jacket,
and a shot of me walking out of my work place. this was quite successful. we went into an office buliding and asked the receptionist if we could film there and she allowed us.

Antony.

Extra shooting schedule

Monday 1st October; London, Antony and Sam.

Tuesday 2nd October; Cambridge, Antony, Lewis, Tom and Sam.


We have decided to shoot some more footage and also to put in some timelapse during the long walking bits to make it less boring. We will be shooting a field bit before the forest which will include lewis and tom as civillians who bump into the character.

Antony.

video

This video has a lot of parallels with our video such as the man in the suit and how he travels somewhere and the video also has the theme that the man seems fed up with his life.

Antony.

Editing

Today we are editing the footage we have already filmed to give us the upper hand and put us ahead for when Sam and Antony go to London.

By doing this now it saves us time and stops us getting swamped by lots of footage and having to edit it all at once, this way we can edit our work to the best of our ability and improve it further to fit each transition from setting to setting e.g. suburbs to forest.

We are also editing the beginning of our video, the laptop scene, to adapt the filming in London we will need, as this will give us a better idea of what camera angles and shots we need and will prevent the filming of lots of footage we don't need.

We have also come up with the idea of starting the video with the sound of our character working and as he destroys his laptop the music will come in, giving it the sense escapism for the character, so by him destroying his work object it gives him freedom to go and achieve what he wants to.

Tom & Lewis

Progress Update

We have moved all of our video and our editing so far to the college computers so we can work on the college computers as well as at home (If needed) Today we just cut down the video each time the shot changed and organised it into folders named, forest, great yarmouth etc.

We also began to put together the forest and great yarmouth shots onto the time line after the suburbs bit, after we have done that which should take us about one lesson possibly two we will begin to put together the start shot (Laptop smashing scene) and then on monday 1st October we will go to london and get our very final few shots.

We will leave college at about 10.35am to go to the trainstation and to london kings cross.

Antony.

Filming 24th September

Today we filmed in the college in Petes office upstairs in D block. I (Antony) was dressed in his full suit (Tie and everything) and was sitting at a desk with a laptop. Sam was once again camera man and filmed me slamming my fists on the laptop and then throwing on the ground, stamping on it, kicking it about and then storming out the office. We borrowed a camera from the media office so we could use their camera and Sams to get two angles as it would not be possible to do two takes.

Antony, Sam, Lewis, Tom.

Filming - 23rd September

Thetford Forest - 12pm-1.30pm

We did our first bit of filming today in the forests; Tom drove us (Antony and Sam) down to teftford. We parked on a layby and went into the forest, we got some nice shots of my walking into the forest, stepping over logs, wading through the bushes and grass. Tom suggested a very good shot from on top of a hill of me walking towards the camera, I suggested a blair witch kind of following shot as I ran through the forest.

We got some shots of me throwning off my jacket and close ups of the character looking at the stone.

Great Yarmouth - 3pm-5.30pm
We finished our filming here for the day were we filmed our ending for our video. It involved me walking up the grassy/sandy hill and looking out over the sea, Antony would jog towards the beach and take off and sling his shoes to one side and begin towards the ocean were he waded in to about knee high and threw the stone back into the sea. For the final shot I fall down to my knees in ocean. A wind farm on the horizon made a nice addititon to these shots.


Antony, Tom, Sam, Lewis.

Update

Slight idea change

We have decided to change our idea because after editing some of the footage we got from Girton and Girton overpass we realised it might seem boring if it is just walking for 3 minutes.

We will include the laptop smashing at the begining of the video and we have also decided that the character as well as getting tired as it goes on gets more determined and agitated; he begins walking fast with more purpose and when discarding clothes rather than just throwing it of he slings them at trees, throws shoes around and also he falls down because he's walking with such pace rather than tiredness (Old idea).

Editing

On the 22nd September we edited footage we got on the 13th and 18th together, we got alot of footage in those days (40ish minutes all together) of which we used about a minute; we cut it down so much as it would get boring if he were in one place for longer than about 30 seconds and we had to compensate for the rest of the video we will film today (23rd September, Great Yarmouth and Teftford), Monday (24th September, Office location - College?) and next monday (1st October, London).

Plans for today

Today we will be going to Great Yarmouth and Teftford, We will be going up to fenstanton (Antony and Sam) and Tom will meet us up there and drive us to Teftford and Great Yarmouth.

Antony.

your animatic

There's not enough of it to comment much, but its clear that your plans overall have come on a lot. The timeline activity next week may help you to structure a bit more of it. Going well guys ! keep going

pete

Analysis of Student work - Antony

camera/editing/setting/performance/genre conventions

I think this video is done really well, it fits with the genre of the music; It has performance video which fits with the indie genre and it also has a clever begining.

The lead singer also lip syncs very well, the instruments fit with the song as well, all the other performers do well also and the costumes fit well with the genre.
The use of costume changes and change in scenery is good and helps keep the video intresting, the setting is intresting and well thought about.

There are alot of nice shots in this video to; the shot of the lead singer from below as he goes through some branches of a tree is very well shot. And close ups of his face in profile are very well done.

It is edited very well with the cuts fitting with the music and genre; there was no use of uncessary effects it was all done nice and with simple cuts.

Antony.

start:
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
via:
end:
Thetford, Norfolk
total distance: km ( miles)
total distance: 33.99 miles (54.70 km)
est. duration: 45 minute(s)

to see the directions and journey go onto:

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?t=r#t=r&map=52.31588,0.44597|11|4&route=GB,0.12240:52.20800;0.75160:52.41290,0|Cambridge:Thetford|Cambridge,%20Cambridgeshire:Thetford,%20Norfolk|lang=en_gb


start:
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
via:
end:
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
total distance: km ( miles)
total distance: 83.04 miles (133.64 km)
est. duration: 1 hour(s), 45 minute(s)

To see the journey and the destination go onto:

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?t=r#t=r&map=52.43163,0.94298|10|4&route=GB,0.12240:52.20800;1.73100:52.59800,0|Cambridge:Great%20Yarmouth|Cambridge,%20Cambridgeshire:Great%20Yarmouth,%20Norfolk|lang=en_gb

Lewis

Animatic Feedback

'Good stuff, keep it up :) good story fits well with the song, the pace is good so it fits with the genre'

'Some shots really interesting but as you said we didn't really understand it'

'Pace was good if it can be kept throughout the whole song. Very cool ideas'

Over all the feedback is very positive, the drawings are not very clear so some people may find it hard to understand but as in the first comment when it is filmed it will be a lot clearer. The comments on the pace is very helpful as the video needs the correct pace to fit with the music.

Lewis Tom Sam Antony

These are some of the images that will help us find a location for filming our 'walk in the woods' sequence. This location is ideal for what we want in our location as all of the tree arrangements are man-made, they are all in line, so it will be very good for the effect we are going for.

Lewis & Tom

Some more ideas for shots.

Forest sequence - The transition between forest and beach will involve the camera following Antony as he goes past a tree, the view will be blocked by the tree and as the camera goes past the tree it will become the beach.

Field sequence - Shot from the floor looking up as the suit jacket is thrown down onto the camera

Beach sequence - Shot coming from close up walking away from Antony as he kneels in the sea (sped up using final cut)

Some more panning shots on the beach and field etc

We have also thought of a new sequence near the begining, it will be shot in an office environment.The character will be in his office and will be on a laptop, he will breakdown and begin smashing and throwing the laptop around until he eventually walks out of the office.

We will be using an old broken laptop (Antonys) and we will use two cameras to get more than one angle.
We may or maynot use this, we will see if it fits with the song/story.

Antony.

Test filming/shots

13th September - Girton overpass practice shots
18th September - Long pathway practice shots

13th September - 10am-12am
In this filming Antony was wearing the full costume for the role (Minus the tie and brief case as this will be thrown away in the earlier stages of the video) and Sam was behind the camera. These first shots were done on the Girton overpass, the suited character (Antony) was leaning over the rails of the overpass looking out over the motorway. We took some close up shots of Antony's hand and shoes and a extreme close up of his face in which we tried an effect of shooting with the lens closed and then opening it so it went into focus. We got some shots of him walking away from the overpass and walking down a more suburban street, we tried some ambitious panning shots around the character while he was standing there and also when he was walking; one of these panning shots was from the right side of his shoes panning around his back and panning upwards in once to the left side of his face.

18th September - 3.30pm-6pm
We filmed just off Huntington road, again Antony was wearing his suit minus the tie and brief case and Sam was once again camera man. We got some more nice shots; a good shot was one from high above the character as he walked down the long pathway. Another one was from a very voyeuristic kind of view from behind some bushes like someone was watching him.

Over these two days of filming we got some great shots that might make the final cut.


Antony, Sam, Lewis, Tom.

Anamatic

We have uploaded all the pictures of our anamatic and imported them into final cut, there are a few shots and scenes that we do not have. Such as the forest scene and the beach.

Today we are editing our anamatic, getting all the pictures in time, cutting them down and also adding effects so it looks like the camera is moving etc.


Heres the anamatic;

The anamatic is based on some of our shots we have already taken. It was hard to portray the concept with the anamatic.

The concept/story of the video is a normal business man who is bored with his life and comes across a stone (derived from lyrics of song, the wishing stone) he ignores it but it keeps coming back (again from the lyrics), in the begining the character smashes his laptop (we did not story board this as we only just came up with this idea), the character proceeds to walk through various locations discarding his suit and getting dirty and tired. When he reaches the sea he casts the stone back into the sea and falls down with exhaustion.
The stone is meant to represent the burden of his frustaration with his meaningless money driven existence. This ties in with the lyrics.



Antony, Sam, Tom, Lewis

Props, Locations and shooting schedule

Props

Full suit for character

Stone that the character finds

Locations

Cityscape - London

Suburbs/Motorway - Cambridge shots, Girton overpass and possibly some outskirts of London

Field -

Forest - Theftford Forest

Sea/Beach - Great Yarmouth

Schedule

Location Scouting;

13th September - Girton overpass shots (Done)
18th September - Huntington shots (Done)
17th - 21st September (Looking for locations to shoot for village, field, forest and some more suburbs) (Done)

23rd September - Great Yarmouth
24th September - After First lesson - London (If suit is cleaned by then)
If suit isn't cleaned;
1st October - London

Editing
After College editing;
25th Sep - 1st Oct - Editing of all shots minus London
2nd October onwards - Editing London into video

Antony, Sam.

Full Idea

Antony will be dressed in a suit (which he has already). The video will start in London. The character will leave work and begin to walk through the streets. We will then cut to shots of him walking through suburbia. He will discard his tie and continue to walk. through villages and fields, dumping his jacket on the way. Then he walks walking trough a forest and then to a beach where he throws his shoes away. All the while he will have a stone in his pocket which he will occasionally get out. At the end of the video he wade int the sea and throw the stone in. The beach will be sandy so it is clear that he brought the stone with him. He will then collapse into the sea. We may end with a shot of ripples on the water.

this concept is based loosely on some of the lyrics in the song.

More References

Unkle feat. Thom Yorke - Rabbit In Your Headlights. Dir. Jonathan Glazer



This video focuses on a central character who does not sing the song. He walks through a tunnel, being hit by cars regularly. As the video continues he strips off some of his clothing. We want to use this idea in our video, with the character in a suit, walking and removing his tie and jacket etc. The ending of the unkle video is amazing but we cannot hope to achieve effect, instead we will refernce the clothing element.

Mark Ronson - Stop Me



This video also focuses on a character walking through a city, not singing the song. What we want to take from this video is the way that it is shot, a good range of shots are used and edited well together.

Shot List

List of possible shots

Cityscape - Overview shots of London from- Parliament hill (Hampstead Heath)

Shots of central london - Busy Streets, sped up until people are blurred

Character still e.g on bench people around sped up

Shots of character on busy roads e.g Girton Bridge A14. Cars sped up- Dynamic Movement

Shots in town, cambridge cars and people vary speeds within shots.

Shots in more village like areas, possibly forests and the beach/sea.

Close up of splashes from rock thrown into the sea and close ups of waves.

A Character will be included in most shots. A man in a suit walks from london to the sea e.g. london - Suburbs - Village - Fields - Forest - Sea.
As the character walks from one place to the other he will lose/throw away some of his suit and clothes, he will also get more dirty as he goes along.
Some landscape shots may be used as transitions as he changes location.
Character shots-
Closeups of hands, shoes face, tie. Midshots of character walking through various locations.

Ideas of shots and story of video;
London
Man comes out of work looking slighty tired but not too bad, he has neat hair and looks very professional. He walks on for a bit and steps on a stone. He ignores it and walks on, he steps on the same stone and looks back and the stone he stepped on before has gone, he kicks this one to the side and goes on. Once more he steps on the stone, he picks it up and he is controlled by it in some sort of spirtual way.
As he picks up the stone and puts it into his pocket he throws his breif case away and begins walking out of London.

Later on as he is getting further out of London he will also get rid of his tie (This could possibly be in the suburbs scenes).

Suburbs
The tie is possibly thrown away in this bit, he is getting slightly more tied and his hair begins to get scruffier. His jacket of his suit is also unbuttoned during the motorway scenes, his shirt also untucked.

Village
This could possibly be inbetween the Fields and Forest or intercut between them. The man would look even more tired and walk slightly slower, his overall appearence would be the same however.

Fields
Here is getting even more remote and natural, he begins to fall over with tiredness but gets up soon after his falls and carries on. This results in him getting more and more dirty

Forest
This will be filmed in Thetford forest on 23rd September before we film the beach scene.

Sea
This will be filmed in Great Yarmouth and will be the climax of the video, where the character falls down into the ocean after casting the stone into it.

Relation to Lyrics/song
The idea of the random stone the man comes across is from the lyrics, "another wishing stone to throw".
The idea that the stone won't go away also is influenced from the lyrics;
"You try to protect me
But just let me go
And if you throw it out again
You'll see my reflection come floating back in."
This can be read as the person keeps coming back again but we might portray this as the stone, like it is their soul or them.

More lyrics that tie into the video concept are;
"And I'm walking faster
And losing my breath
But it takes me farther than here."
As the stone portrays the "singer"/persona in the song and the lyrics tell of how it takes me (the stone/soul) farther than here(where they begin in the video); this relates to the journey from the workplace to the sea.

"And I'm walking faster
And losing my breath." Also have relation to the mans tiredness on his journey.

Also the lyrics at the very end are;
"And I'm falling over
And wasting my time
But it takes me farther than here."
Our idea for the end shot is the man falling over into the sea after getting rid of the stone or with the stone in his hand.


Antony, Sam

Howling Bells - Broken Bones



This is a previous video for Howling Bells. It is performance based, but with a twist, it is cut with footage from old westerns. The band have had around three other videos, all of which include performance. We feel that it would be possible now for the band not to appear in their video and it would be stupid to replace them with teenagers.

Teacher comments

Great research so far ! I still think you need to be wary of too much timelapse and atmosphere but I think if you can integrate some element of performance this could be excellent.

Pitch

'Wishing Stone' by Howling Bells

The track is relatively slow and melodic, paying homage to Radiohead, but with a twist of PJ Harvey provided by the female vocals of Juanita Stein. Like many songs, this track does not merit a purely or conventional performance based video, as that would retract from the feeling of the song. Therefore our pitch will be based around a non performing central character and will used some timelapse photography. Several locations will be used. The imagery created by the lyrics themselves will help to influence our ideas.

An example of a video we will reference for timelapse landscapes:

Guillemots - We're Here



This video for the track 'were here' by British band The Guillemots was directed by Chris Cairns uses timelapse techniques, to bring epic views of the Scottish countryside to life. The video fits with the pace of the song. Which is in many ways similar to 'Wishing Stone'. It also uses water to great effect, someting which we hope to use in our video, such as a river rushing.

We will also include shots filmed with cities, which will be sped up until the figures of people become blurs, rushing around. We will use time stretching within singular pieces of footage to make the public surge forward and backward with varying speed. This will reflect the pace and rythmn of the track. A trip to London might provide better locations for these ideas.

An example of a video in which these techniques are used to great effect is Slipknot's Video for 'Vermillion' (we dont like them) but the video by Tony Petrossian is a perfect example of the kind of concept we have for our video.



As you can see this video hardly focuses on the band and does not include them performing. Although it does focus on one central character who is not performing the song.

Sam, Tom, Antony, Lewis

Initial Ideas

The song we have chosen is wishing stone by Howling Bells. It is very different to other songs as it is slower and more melodic. We feel that it will be a challenge. The song doesn't seem to suit a performance based video. It is too slow and would therefore be unsuitable for a video which hinges upon a performance of the song. However we have had many ideas about using timelapse filming and photography to create interesting and exciting video, which is cut to the pace of the music and uses appropriate and carefully shot imagery. We may also include a charcter in the video.

Lyrics

Another Wishing Stone to throw,
You try to protect me
But just let me go
And if you throw it out again
You'll see my reflection come floating back in.
And I'm walking faster
And losing my breath
But it takes me farther than here.
Another stormy day I know
The clouds turn to dust
And the water to snow Another messenger is dead
He falls with an arrow in his heart instead.
And I'm walking faster
And losing my breath.
But it takes me farther than here.
I'm falling over
And wasting my time
But it takes me farther than here.
Another messenger is dead.
And I'm walking faster
Losing my breath
But it takes me farther than here.
And I'm falling over
And wasting my time
But it takes me farther than here.

The concept of this video will hinge on the quality of the shots and we will therefore reference photographers. Once we begin to develop more ideas about the direction of our video we will begin to pick out photographers whose work will be valid as references into video.
Short films will also provide input into our video. In this short clip from Lynne Ramsay's 'Gasman' (1997). There are som more unconventional character shots, such as those concentrating on feet and hands which are of interest.

Short clip from 'Gasman' (Lynne ramsay 1997)

MUSIC VIDEO PROJECT 2007/8

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