Music Video Filming

    As of today, we have concluded all our filming. The footage has been shot and imported into Pinnacle Studios, with zero complications. Luckily we had no technical issues and no problems getting the footage to load, the files didn't change unlike last time, and Pinnacle Studios kept running until we had finished importing. With that said,  we had no issues following the plan either, we filmed on the eighteenth of November just as intended but I, unfortunately, was unable to make the trip there. We as a group rearranged the roles, as a result, of my absence, having Emily film, Victoria and Andrea act. With everything covered I delegated myself the task of editing the footage in order to still contribute my fair share. I was able to get updates about the filming luckily but only to the extent that I can retell what the others can recall.
    From what I was told, the middle school location held up quite nicely. There were no issues using the grounds and we were able to film wherever we pleased. The stage we had planned to use, unlike the one at our school, was in the cafeteria and it took some looking around to find but there was ample space to film. Both inside and outside the building of the school suited our needs for filming so the scenes we had planned weren't affected in the slightest. In terms of the actual filming, the scenes were again shot separately,. I know this first hand because I got a chance to review the footage. Since I would be the one editing, I made sure everything could be used to tell the story as close to the storyboard in which Emily made.
     The filming was divided into three. There were essentially three locations in one. There was the stage, the outside walking area, and then the outside seating area. The stage was used to shoot the dancing scenes. The walking area was used for the playfull 'transitional' scenes between. And the seating area outside was used for some scenery shots and concluded the film. With all that, the scenes were shot and the day ended. The only scene that is in the film that wasn't shot at the location would be the opening scene of the radio. Emily was able to take the camera home and shot the scene of her turning on the radio. The footage came out nicely, in all,  I'm not sure if a tripod was used, but it looks to be a lot less shacky. My absence may have actually benefited the group. The fact that I wasn't there allows me to fully focus on editing now.

Music Video Storyboard

    In the storyboard, we start off with an establishing shot with a radio. This severs as a opening and an introduction to the music, having the overlapped sound act as diegetic. We then fade to curtain, to introduce the subjects as the music starts playing. The two subjects come out from the curtains and begin to dance, as they dance we then transition outside. Running the two subjects exit stage left, and begin explore the grounds, holding hands. We then have a sequence of jump cuts, featuring the two running, playing, and skipping. We then have some transitional shots of the sky to tie the outdoor feel together, ending with the subjects again to concluded the film.

Music Video Plan

    For our location. We conventionality ran into an opportunity that allowed us to shoot at a local middle school. We plan to use the school's stage while shooting some scenes outside. As far as a back up location, not much thought has been put in to it, seeing that our main setting has already been secured with no sign of complications. If we had to, a reasonable back up would be the beach, especially since it fits with our goal of creating a clique love story or sorts. I personally like the idea of shooting on the stage because, it the closest we have to an actual speakeasy. While it may not be as classy as one, I hope the scene can be set within reasonable parameters. That with the outside shots, a nice composed film should be easy.
    For props, I don't see us using any. At the very least, I don't see us bringing any props to the set. If we manage to get our hands on some musical instruments at the school, we could defiantly use them, otherwise we won't have any props in our final film, other than the radio used to open our film. For costumes, we'll have the two subjects wear dresses, similar to the dresses worn to time of the Song, the 1950s. The possibility of makeup is there, but we might cut it out. It's a tad extra, in my option.
    In terms of our schedule, we plan of filming November the eighteenth, and editing until December the tenth. We thought that the sooner we film, the longer we'd have to edit and everything, especially since we had so many difficulties editing for the commercial. Technical issues are to be expected and we want to take this music a step above our commercial. In order to do that we wanted to jump start our project and film as soon as possible and get editing just as fast. Over the course of time we plan on figuring out ways to turn our footage into black and white and also figure out some transition effects we could use to better the quality of our film.
     With all this said, since we are filming on our own time, we did have to consider health and safety. We, as a group, do not have any health obstacles to over come. Our location is safe, being that it is a school, and there will be numerous facilitators present on the grounds while we film.  We do not plan to have anything on set that would cause us harm, chiefly because we do no plan on using props at all. If we end up filming on the beach, we all know how swim so we wouldn't be subject to drowning. Nevertheless, we would make sure to film near a life-guard tower, even though we don't plan on implementing the water into our film.

Moving in to our music video

    Today, we have officially moved on to our music video. From our commercial, I found that storyboarding didn’t really work for me. Personally, having pre-planned our project helped but it ultimately had a smaller effect than I thought it would. I thought having our thoughts on paper would be effective but the plans ended changing and while we keep a majority of the storyboarded material, it didn’t all translate on film. Storyboarding made us as a whole feel attached to the scenes we had already thought of and it made it harder to move away from them, even though they weren’t working out.
    We chose the song “ Fly Me To The Moon” by Frank Sinatra. We chose this song because we want to create a controversial story. With Frank Sinatra being a staple for the 1950s and 1960s, it more than actually depicts the time scene we want. We’re thinking of having a pro-homosexual theme, based around the time period of the song. We’re thinking of placing it in a classy dance hall, jazz in the background and instead of the classic love troupe of a man sweeping and wooing the woman off her feet, we want to replace that we two men or two women.
    This idea mainly comes from the time period but also goes against the common conventions of  Jazz. Through the few music videos made for the Jazz genre, the overall premise of each made by the artists is the same. The video made wouldn't even be considered music videos. They were either just videos of the band performing normally, or a recreation of the band or a band for a film.
   
    For the purpose of our music video, there are six guides to stick to.
 
   Number one, Costumes. In the time period of 1950 and 1960, the act of wearing fancy dresses and such for a night out was common. Women wore flowy dresses that spun as they did, while men wore collared shirts and suits with the notable bow tie.
   Number two lighting. The scenes that Jazz was often played in were bars, pubs, and restaurants. It was lit in a way that centered the band, yet we’re dimmed to the point where the whole room would not always be seen.
   Number three, acting. In films where Jazz is featured, the acting can be only described as cheerful and upbeat. The acting often centered around how the people responded to the somber sound of Jazz.
Number four, makeup. The makeup around this time was very light, with blush and nude shades of lipstick were common with some times red and velvets used to highlight a woman’s attire.
    Number five, props.  Any props used would most likely be interments or anything related to music like mics and speakers
    Number six, scenery. Scenery, Jazz music often took place in fancy areas that men and women dressed up just to attend.

Editing Our Commercial

     Today we actually edited. Despite everything, we put together our footage quite nicely.  This said it wasn't without its various issues though. First off, we were divided in our first half of editing. Victoria was homesick and Emily was home due to the recent passing of her uncle. With me and Andrea on the scene, we went through our many takes and picked, sorted, and ordered them to illustrate our story. Out of nearly thirty takes, seven were chosen. Unsurprisingly, not many takes would be, what one would call, "perfect". The seven chosen were just the best out of the worst. This is more of a self-critique more than anything else, but. many shots could have been shot better.
     In terms of the issues we ran into; we faced many technical difficulties. Oddly, when importing our footage from the desktop, the files somehow changed. This wouldn't have been an issue if our instructor recognized the file change and could fix it. Needless to say, she did not. We were advised to switch programs since Pinnacle Studios couldn't read our files. For a while, we did attempt to use the secondary program. I forget the name, but I believe it was Microsoft Editor. We did, at the same time, also attempt to continue using Pinnacle Studio since we'd already achieved so much. While trying to play our ordered footage Pinnacle crashed. Luckily, with the self-inflicted shutdown, Pinncal miraculously started to read the footage and all was well until it was time to save. When saving we were again advised, this time advised to upload our film onto Google Drive, and somehow, it saved as an audio file, switching the files yet again. We had to trust that saving it on Pinnacle would be enough and left and the conclusion of the class.
      In the second half of editing, taking place a day later, we took our ordered footage and started taking out unnecessary scenes and splicing them and connecting altogether. This was more of a challenge rather than an issue, but worth saying none the less. When editing, Victoria and I ran into the issue of making a smooth transition in each of the seven shots. Since they were all separate, they all had different perspectives angles and camera movements. Like I speculated before, it was rough. We ended up combining some shots outside the chosen seven to fill in some gaps we had. I would like also to say that, because of the separated shots, the film feels fast, despite it being a little under a minute long. To me, it antiquity tells the story we had envisioned but seems rushed in a way. Overall I think our film is coming together nicely, we're doing all we can and I feel like it'd be something both myself and my group members can be proud of.
     

Editing (Or not)

   Today we were supposed to edit, but unfortunately, there was a problem with the pinnacle application. Throughout the thirty or so computers, the application wasn't working. We had the footage ready and set on the SD-card but the images wouldn't play, nor would the application open. We were instructed to move the footage onto google drive or a flash drive. I wonder how this will set our schedule back. I would rather not miss a day to edit. For the most part, the edits we have to make are scripted in the storyboard. We maybe have to adjust somethings, but that is' to be expected. I already pointed out the issues we had but it doesn't hurt to reiterate. The fact that we took each scene in its own separate shot means we have to edit in a way that isn't choppy. I don't think it's going to be completely smooth, but as long as we can get from one frame to another with relative understanding, we'll be fine. I wouldn't have objected if we were given the opportunity to film again today. But alas we weren't even prepared for that option.
    Rather than editing, we had a little fun. We weren't completely slacking off, but we were talking up quite the storm. We discussed all the editing we wanted to do, and how the storyboard would translate into editing. We when over the best times we had to work outside of school and who'd be the one taking the charge. In reality, we'd all participate in the editing, but there is only one person suitable to be behind the computer. We all decided that Victoria would be the one to click and drag our decisions on the actual application. Her work with computers excellent. Every presentation I've ever seen from her is so professional, if I didn't know better I would assume an adult made it. She's also very creative and probably has experience working with software like a pinnacle.
     The fact that we cant edit today is bad, but I don't it's that bad. We had a chance to sit and talk. Talking allowed us to cement some ideas and map out a direction for our editing. It's good to have a plan before in my opinion. Sooner or later we would have to have talked it out. Planning now saves time in the sense that, the next opportunity we have to edit well be ready to jump straight into it. We have a general plan and that is honestly more than what I've seen from others. As a group, I'm sure we'll be able to pull through, despite the complications we've had.

Filming

    Today, we filmed, and it went fairly smoothly. It didn't go exactly as I had envisioned it but that's to be expected, seeing that one, I wasn't working by myself after all, and two, nothing ever goes exactly as planned. We were prepared and everything was in order as they should have been. The area we had picked out did have more groups that I thought but it didn't impede us from the film the scenes we needed. Speaking of, we successfully shot all the scenes we needed, the weather was clear and posed no threat to the equipment or the film. The only issue was that the day was a bit cloudy and the light was in a constant state of change due to the sun being covered and uncovered. We got around it but seeing that we haven't put the footage together yet, I'm unsure how it's going to come out. The finished product is kinda unpredictable right now. I hope that it'd turn out fine but I have a reasonable suspicion that we'll have more than one hiccup during the editing process. We might even have to reshoot.
     It's not like we didn't cover all bases, if just that, for our first time filming, we might have to pull a bit more weight stitching together our work. Since I was the cameraman, I took all the shots; minus three. Under the advisement of another group member, Emily, we decided to take all the shots separately and in threes. I wanted to do a full take and split it after, but I was overshadowed. Personally, I think taking three full takes would have been better but what's done is done. Since I did have a part in one scene I did temporalty relinquish my position behind the camera so I can't speak for every shot. For every other one though, I feel more could have been done. The pans in the storyboard, to me, didn't translate well with the constant stopping. With that, the relative positions of the subjects are going to be off. Since all shots we're taken separately, the subjects in each won't be in the exact place they were when taking shots that have angle changes or a change in apparel.
     Amongst this, we did have one technical issue. It wasn't really an issue, but it's worth mentioning; since it puts into context the time constraint we had. Following the procedures laid out to us beforehand, we got our equipment; this was before we started filming of course. We took, (if I'm not mistaken), a good thirty minutes to leave the room once we got our things. We had to switch out a camera due to its low battery life, but once we got that sorted, we were out. We finally get to the track field and I, since I was carrying the equipment, set up the tripod and prepared the camera. I did all this only to figure out that the piece needed to connect the camera to the tripod was missing. I had to run back to the room to get one, taking up a good ten minutes altogether. In an hour and thirty-minute class, taking out a wasted forty minutes, we only have forty minutes to film, seeing that we had to return within the last ten minutes of class. We got a lot done, but our time usage wasn't the best. This may seem hyper-critical, but its the truth.