Colour Correction

Using colour balance setting I changed the
exposure, brightness, contrast and colour
tones to the footage. I saved this 'present' so
I could later apply it to all of the clips. 

The original footage was quite lit and bright, which isn't conventional of
music video for a heavy metal band. 

I had to basically match the colour of the footage to the colour of the worst quality camera. The worst camera had a kind of green tone to the footage, I did actually quite like this look as it further added to the dystopian effect I was looking for. This was want my final set 'present' looks like on one clip. 

Although I added the same 'Present' to all the clips, due to changes in light and camera quality and other factors I couldn't control it didn't always look the same across all footage. 

So using the colour balance tool again I made slight changes to the 'present'. You can see on this footage of the drummer, is very, very green once the present was added to it. 

So to counteract the green tones on the original footage, I added some pink tones as they are opposites on the colour wheel, so counter balance the green tones. 

I originally wanted to keep the scenes outside the original colours and brightness, however after watching the footage with the inside of the 'studio' matched with the scenes outside it was too much of change in colour. So reduced the exposure and brightness of the clips, so it was still lighter than inside the studio but not as light as the original.

The footage inside the studio gets steadily darker as well, as I wanted to impose the idea of the zombies bringing in the darkness so for that idea to be consistent, the zombies need to have the darkness outside which they bring in with them as they enter the studio.

First rough cut

morrighan media first final rough cut from morrighan humpleby on Vimeo.

I have recently finished my first rough cut of the music video to show to my media studies class, my band but also the focus group I have put together.

I will add the feedback I received in a following post.

There are issues I am aware off, one of them being that the colour of the footage changes from camera to camera. I don't mind that the quality is different, as I previously stated I feel like it makes it look more grungy. Its just that some of the clips have a different colour to them and have a green tint to them, which I need to either change or make all the other clips like that too. In addition I am aware that I want the whole thing to be a little darker as it would create more of a dystopian feel to the music video, which is the scene I wanted to set for a zombie apocalypse.

I will create a questionaire for my audience who I wont meet face to face to answer. Whereas for my media studies class I will ask them the questions and film their responses.

Here is the link to survery I created that I will give to the band and the focus group, with the questions I will ask my media studies group.

feedback from morrighan humpleby on Vimeo.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7HK578P

Below is a Emaze presentation I created analysing the answers that I got from my audiences.

Make up for my production

A good friend of mine, Ellen Archer studies Media Hair and Make Up at city college. I will be using her to do the make up for my production. I have given her rough sketches of how I want the make up to look. On set she informed me that she was also interested in creating the costumes for the zombies too, so she could add the whole group of zombies make up, hair and costume to her portfolio.  Ellen ripped the zombies costumes where she felt appropriate and I told them I wanted them to be scruffy and muddy etc. They then went outside and they rolled in the dirty to get the messy look I wanted. Following the drawings I made for my make up artist, she created wax wounds on their faces/bodies, added fake blood to the wounds and their clothes. I wanted the zombies to have pale faces, pinky eyes and back combed hair.

This was the final outcome of my zombies hair, make up and costume. Below are close ups of the wounds on the zombies faces.

I was very, very pleased with the outcome of the zombies make up. as it was very convincing and effective. I particularly like the fake wounds on the models faces and bodies. 

Although the band didn't require any make up for their scenes as a normal human band, they needed to have make up for the zombie scenes. Ellen(my make up artist) followed the same idea of make up and hair for the band when they are zombies. As shown below(I apologise for the faces in the pictures, the band are never serious)

Here is the group shot of all the band members in their costumes. I didn't want to change their costumes and make them dirty etc for continuity reasons. The original zombies came from outside so them being dirty makes sense, however the band members never left the building they were playing in, so would have no way of getting dirty. 

The Shoot On Saturday 20th

On Saturday 20th was my final shoot for the music video and this is what I took with me. I was staying at a friends so took my laptop to do work on the footage when I got to his. I also took the final cut pro handbook we were given to help me with the editing, I also took four packs of face wipes, a white face paint pot, all my SD cards just in case, my camera dies, face sponges and also the two cameras I borrowed from school and then I also borrowed one from my friend. All the cameras other than my Canon were taken to my friends before the shoot to prevent me having to take so much stuff on the day of the shoot (hence why not in the picture). I also took two full length tripods and my gorilla-pod. Although I had access to four tripods I knew I wanted to use my own Canon as the main camera, and the other cameras as back up. So the majority of the time I was only using 3 cameras so didn't need three tripods, and held the Canon by hand. 

It turned out that my make-up artist had lots of face wipes and face paint so we hardly used any of my make up and wipes. 

I am aware that the quality of the cameras will be different, but I do think this will add a nice effect to the video. I don't want it to be 'perfect' like some music videos, but instead have a more grunge feel to it all. The change in quality of the cameras will assist to add this grunge feel to the video. 

add reflection - why this list / was it enough / did you use it all. also have you got on location shots?

The Plan For Equipment on Saturday

Planning The Shoot

I learnt from last year that planning the shots and camera angles precisely is very, very important. And as I'm directing so many people and need to use so many cameras, its even more important. On my production last year I used 2 cameras but mainly 1 the majority of the time. However this year I will be using 3/4, and will be getting some other people to help me film it is key I have it planned so well. 

Below are a few pages of very detailed plans I created to use on the day for camera angles. Not only does it help me consider where the cameras will be, I can ensure they won't overlap other cameras and get them on film too, but also the physical camera angle, what they will film and how they will film.

I have also considered keeping one camera person in a position from shot to shot so they don't have to move too much. To ensure the best continuity, ideally the camera man shouldn't turn off the camera but will obviously need to move at one point but can't be caught on camera by the other camera men. So the prevent this happening I have planned it so that the camera men don't have to move a huge amount.

I have an intention to get some coloured tap and tape the floor where I need each camera man to help directing them easier.

Filming

Something I will need to consider is the time at which I film the video. I needs to be dark, but as I learnt last year the time I choose to film has to be planned very rigorously, last year we had an issue with the quality of the filming ruined due to how dark the it was when we filmed. This year it should be a little bit better as I will be filming with a camera or better quality but I still need to be careful as to how and when to film.

Todays date is the 30th of December and I intend to film within the next two weeks. Today I checked the sunset times in Norwich;

As you can see the sunsets at 3:44pm, school finishes at 3:25 so if I were to film after school I would be cutting the filming very, very fine as I would have to get all the actors dressed up and with all there make up, set all the cameras up etc. Which probably wouldn't happen, as I will also have to film it before the sunsets as it will be dark and have the same problem as last years filming. However, on Friday December 19th, it is the end of term at school and we have a half day so finish the day at 1:15. This would then give me time to get the actors to the location, do their make up then sort the cameras and lighting out. This means that I could make sure all the actors know what they are doing for the filming outside atleast, then start filming, hopefully before 3:44, so around 3 ideal.

December 21st is the shortest day of the year so the sun will set later and later from that date onwards meaning I can film later as it will get dark later and later.

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Planning the music video

I recently put together a rough planned list of what I want to happen in the music video. Following the opinions of what the band requests of being cheesy and follow the conventional lines of horror films to set the scene. 

I am very keen on the idea of the radio situation, with the announcement but the member having headphones in so wont hear it. So I will need to also record a radio announcement to then add as non-diegetic sound later in the post editing process. I will also need to record the band professionally in a studio or use a recording they have to add over the record and implied diegetic sound as when recording the music video, I will be directing over the top of the band playing. 

Equipment Update

I have recently bought a new £700 camera, that also has a filming function on it. It is a 20.2 mega pixel camera, with the ability to film in full HD 1080p quality.

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_70D/

When it comes to filming my product the main camera I use will be with my own camera due to the high quality. I can also attach a microphone to make the audio quality better. http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-Video-Shotgun-Microphone-Pentax/dp/B003TTMFM0
However this isn't massively necessary as I will probably remove the sound from the footage and add the song in later, as they quality won't be perfect, but I will also been directing and probably talking over the filming of the footage.

When I bought the camera it also came with two lens adapters to add to the end; a telephone adapter and a wide angle lens adapter. The wide angle lens is used a lot in music videos, particularly heavy rock or punk music videos where the singer often leads close into the camera.

As you can see from the screenshots of Blink 182's music video First Date. You can see if also adds a small level of distortion to the image, it gives it almost a slight fish eye effect to the video; which is also an effect I can achieve built into my camera. 

The standard shooting setting on my camera gives and image that looks like this, you can see it isn't distorted at all.     

As I said, my camera comes with a fish eye setting and this is a photograph taken on the weakest level of fish eye. As you can see there is some level of distortion but not a huge amount, just has a slight bend on the walls if you look closely. 

The is the camera set to medium fish eye. As you can see it is much stronger and has a fairly high level of distortion. 

The is the camera on the highest fish eye setting and you can see it has a really high level of distortion to the image.

I also got a wide angle lens adapter for my camera. When it is zoomed in the distortion isn't that high, similar to that of the fish eye setting on the lowest setting- there is only a small bend on the edge of the walls and door frames. 

You can see when the camera is zoomed out the distortion is much stronger and adds a kind of fish eye effect to the view. But does also result in a vignette effect over the photograph. 

Animatic

A good way to consider and plan and visualise films is to create an animatic. In year 10 we did a unit in Media Studies where we planned a music video so created an animatic.


VTS_01_1 by morrighanrocks

As you can see it does demonstrate what my intentions for the music video have been very clear in the animatic. Although it doesn't show all the detail in terms of camera angles and lighting etc. But I could have then develop my animatic later to show these details.

Once I consider the story to my music video more, I will create a story board that I then animate later to show the story of my footage better.

Finding Actors

Although I'm filming the band for the video, I will also need lots of actors(bit parts) as the zombies in the video, so the best way to do that is to ask on social medias. I have 760 people on my Facebook, so theoretically they will all see my post requesting actors. But also the lead singer of the band i'm working with is also in my Media Class and always uses a website he found where up and coming actors request jobs, so I will also post the advert on there.

I decided that making an event and adding everyone who promise to come, and the make up artists is the best idea as that way getting the information to everyone is easier, but it also means I can constantly check who is ok to do what days and who is actually coming. The more people I have the easier, but on the other hand, as long as I know if I dont have loads. It gives me an opportunity to consider how I film it to make the most of however many people I have as actors.