Editing and time management update

Today we have been editing our music video on 'Final cut express'. We have been following our storyboard to create our planned sequence of shots.
We want the cutting of our music video to be fast paced, emphasising and reflecting the upbeat sound of the song (and also abiding by Andrew Goodwin's theory that the music and visuals are linked in a music video).
In these early stages of the editing production we have focused on creating a rough cut which allows to select the shots that will make it into our music video. An example of the selection process is demonstrated in picture 2; whilst filming we often filmed multiple style numbers for the counting sequence so today we have been faced with the task of choosing which numbers to use. We have decided to go with the four with the purple background as we feel that the feminine pastel colour will work well with our overall mise-en-scene and appeal to our female audience.

We have also made similar decisions on different shot types to use out of the variety of performance shots we filmed. We have decided to discard most of the performance shots which are long shots and have decided to use the various close up shots instead. We feel that close ups of our artist will create a much more relatable artist image for our audience and will clearly present our artist in a protagonist role. (a characterisation typical of our genre)

Here is my time management table for November. It states that by the end of this week we should have completed a rough cut. I feel that we will easily achieve this target as today we finished roughly editing together our shots. In tomorrows lesson we will work on adding the audio and configuring the timing between the song and the visuals of our music video.

Creativity

What is creativity?
The dictionary definition of creativity is: 'the use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.

How can we be more creative?
In order to be more creative we need to continue to learn and explore new ideas. Learning about new things can often spark new ideas. Research into an idea or brainstorming an idea can also help us become more creative. TO become more creative and come up with ideas we need to be inspired by others using their idea as a stimulus and merging with your own ideas.

Where does creativity come from?
Creativity is a natural ability that everyone has. It is however argued that education increases creativity.
Creativity plays a huge role in the production of media. The success and originality of the aesthetics and functionality all depend on the creativity of the idea. Creativity is used throughout all aspects of the the production; in primary ideas, decision making and evaluation. The level, use and refining of creativity in the production of a media product are all vital in order to achieve a successful finished product.

This video by 'How Cast' suggests that there are 5 steps that must be take in order to become more creative. The steps are:
1. Sleep- Scientists have proven that the REM sleep cycle improves creativity and problem solving.
2. Exercise- Exercise stimulates creative thinking
3. Daydreams- The video explains that whilst allowing the brain to wonder many great creative ideas are realized.
4. Continuous education- Learning new things can help you come up with new ideas
5. Challenges- putting the brain in nerve-racking situations stimulates creativity.





















I personally agree with the education point. I find that I am most creative and come up with new ideas when I am exposed to new information or the ideas of others. One idea that is not included in the piece which I personnally find creatively stimulating is looking at other visual sources. I often find inspiration by looking at visual products like magazines, books, and TV programs.

Costumes

Our chosen mise-en-scene for our video is very vintage, feminine and whimsical look. We feel that this feminine image, with a vintage quirky edge, will appeal to our target audience of eccentric, creative and fashionable young females. We have began putting together images of costumes ideas for each actress in our video. The clothes are mostly pastel shades and have vintage inspired designs. The costume choices are a hugely important aspect to consider in our planning process as we are trying to appeal to an audience who are very interested in clothes. Good costume choices can be used as a very effective promotional technique for our specific target audience. I have put a board of images together on 'Pinterest'. This allows me to see all of the potential costumes together in order to decide which work  well together and successfully create a consistent mise-en-scene that will appeal to our target audience.
Pinterest board:

Filming update: Filming finished

We have now completed filming. Yesterday we filmed the performance section for the video which was very successful. We are now beginning to evaluate and choose the shots we would like to edit into our video through the capturing process.

Filming update: casting changes

We have now been filming our music video for three weeks we are on schedule to finish filming at the end of this week. We originally planed for Jess Cooper to play the role of our performer in the music video but unfortunately Jess is not available to film at convenient times for our group. We have therefore made the decision that as a member of the group I will be cast as the performer. Although this is a compromise on our original plans we feel that the change will have advantages as I understand the look and identity we are trying to achieve and I am also familiar with the song and artist.

Filming update

We have been filming our music video for two weeks now. We are on target to finish filming next week. We have completed these shots. I have written small evaluation of  problems we came across in filmingsome of the shots:
- Phone:
When we began filming the phone (a very simple shot with little movement) we decided to place the phone in front of a floral background in order to be inkeeping with our overall mise-en-scene that will hopefully appeal to our target audience.

- Numbers:
We are really pleased with the variety of different house numbers we found around Ludlow and feel that they will look very effective when edited into a fast sequence.

- Snakes and Ladders:
 The snakes and ladders board we have used is brightly coloured and looks exciting and fun. It therefore works well with the overall tone of our video.

- Glue

- Tap

- Cupcakes

- Back of heads

- Walking on pavement

- Hat

- Lyrics on cards- Filming the lyrics on cards took a lot of trial and error as we had to make sure the lyrics could be seen and understood clearly. We completed this succesfully and feel that the jump between characters holding the cards will really relate and appeal to our young, female audience.

Next week we are planning to film the performance section of our music video with our actress Jess who will play the part of our performer. We were hoping to film this section on the assembley rooms stage but because of scheduling problems this is not possible. We have worked around this problem and decided to use the smaller stage in the old school room at college. This is availible on the day we want to film and will be convenient as it is in college.