This blog you can find the work I did on how to edit with multiple cameras. My group filmed the footage, but I edited it myself. My teacher provided a template for the blog post.
What is Multicam Editing? Multicam editing is the process of editing footage of a single scene or subject recorded from different cameras and angles. Showing the same scene or subject from different angles helps make the video more dynamic and visually captivating for your audience
Shooting
Our subject, a classmate, stood in the centre of the room and did a short performance. My group stood around the subject to record the performance from different angles. You can also see members from other groups because we did this lesson as a class. To make it easier to synchronise our cameras, the teacher clapped at the start of the scene. This allowed us to line up the video in the editing process and ensure that the transitions would be smooth. Without this simple action it would have taken a lot longer to sync the videos.
Behind the Scenes
Here are the raw videos from my group members:
My Editing Process
Upload the videos to the editing software (Capcut Pro)
Muted the clips
Sync/Line up the video files together through visual cues
Cut where I want the edit to happen
Don't delete the clip, just lower the opacity. This way it can be used again later
Here is my final edited video:
Self-Reflection:
With our previous task to making a mini music video, my team and I got to try out multicam technique but I found that this task was a very insightful as I got to learn a different way of editing a multicam scene. Since I previously edited by deleting unnecessary scenes, I found the opacity trick taught by our teacher to be extremely helpful since it would be harder for me to accidentally move clips out of sync. Although, I am not sure if I enjoy the technique because it overloaded the workspace in Capcut with cuts and clips which would sometimes confuse and overwhelm me. I think knowing this method now will definitely be helpful as I may consider using this in the final project
Some challenges I faced were with the synchronization of the videos. I did recall, based on my previous experience, that Capcut does not automatically show the audiowave (it requires me to detach the audio) so I decided to experiment with syncing the videos through visual cues instead (based on the movement of the star) as I believed it would be easier. However, this was a bit time consuming since it needed to be exactly the same movement in the same timing. With the limited time we were given to edit, I didn't have the ability to research a better way of this so I think I'll look into more efficient methods.
This post contains a mini project that helped us learn how to shoot a music video. We shot our verse as a group and then created this post together as a group (Me, Aurel, Cheryl, and- a temporary member of our group due to her missing teammate at the time- Jocelyn).
Our teacher gave each group a verse from the song “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles where we had to plan a scene which included various camera work and edits. The goal was to enhance our technical skills through practice and experience so that we have an idea on what we should be doing, learn from our mistakes and avoid making them in the future in order to create a better quality product for our component 3. In addition to that, doing this helps us learn more about each other’s skills and our team’s dynamics so that we can function better when we record our actual music video.
Pre Production:
Our instructions were to create a music video from the verses we were given. We were given 2 verses (both chorus below) and had to consider the instrumentals since we were told to film from the end of the last verse until the start of the next verse.
We started by creating a storyboard that allows us to communicate and outline our ideas
Here is the storyboard for scene 1
Description: The camera would push out from a crowd to a side-shot of the actor sitting down and lip syncing then cut to the front-view as they get up to walk away.
For this storyboard, I (Aurel) thought about a nostalgic approach. This was because, since we had no actual sun due to the rain, I wanted to figure out how I could still incorporate the meaning from the lyrics into what we were displaying as a music video. I thought that a metaphorical sun would work better. I choose to associate this with youth as they are often associated with brightness and cheerfulness much in the way that the sun usually is. Therefore I wanted to make it appear as though it were like the star was reminiscing over their youth. This was particularly advantageous too as we were shooting in a school which made it more easy to make the connection with youth.
Additionally, as this was the first verse, I wanted something that could act as an introduction to the music video and help easily transition into the next verses. I felt like my idea for the scene allowed for a lot of room for whatever could come next as it could look like the rest of the star’s youth days.
However, since we only had 10 minutes to work on 2 storyboards whereas other groups only had to work on one, I rushed mine and tried to get it done as soon as possible as I wanted to focus on communicating my vision. This resulted in my storyboard appearing less professional than I would have liked. I also now realise that perhaps I should have focused on the storyboard more as it would've helped communicate my idea better.
Here is the storyline for scene 5
Description: Actor walking under canopy with a smile on her face, camera turns to reveal rain and irony between song lyrics to mise-en-scene.
For this idea, Me(Regine), Cheryl and Jocelyn were playing around the idea that the song our teacher had choose had coincidentally contradicted our current weather (heavy rains). To roll with this idea, we made a storyline of a "delusional" person who's always looking for the positives (sunny weather) and completely disregarding the actual situation (rainy weather). Since we only had roughly 10 minutes to storyboard, our sketches were simple and we relied more on verbal communication to discuss our ideas on the acting, camera angle and movement.
Production:
During our production process, we started by shooting the 5th verse as it required the rain as well as less people despite the fact that in the beginning, we were supposed to shoot under sunny weather to correlate with the meaning of the song, the weather had other plans and started pouring. So, we decided to turn the rainy weather into an advantage by playing on that irony to result in a light humorous video, subverting from the song’s original meaning.
We filmed the 1st verse immediately after. For this verse, we gathered a few of our friends to act as background actors, talking and laughing, to create a natural and social atmosphere. This verse conforms to the meaning of the song about hope but later we unexpectedly found that this mise-en-scene made the star appear more isolated and less like the nostalgia approach we had hoped for. If we had the chance to reshoot the scene, we believe we could have overcome this issue by filming outside in the school field as the outdoors often connote freedom rather than isolation.
Post Production:
All the clips we had filmed were piled into a google drive for us to be able to watch through each one together and start the editing process.
Jocy and Regine chose one chorus each and they edited the clips (Regine did the 1st verse and Jocy did the 5th). We noticed that the start of the song (the instrumental at the 1st verse) had to be filled in with a recording, however we did not do that and only filled the singing part of the chorus, so Regine filmed shots of our friends in class to fill in that gap. With the editing itself, we didn’t have much complications other than being in a time rush because we had to retake the shots for the 5th verse a few times, however it wasn’t that much of a problem either as we got the editing done in time and the only thing we had to do over the weekend as homework was this blog and reflection.
For scene 5, there were several shots where the timing to which the background actor had to act their part was off. The runner would come on the screen too late from what we envisioned. This may be due to the large distance from the place that she had to start running from, to where she had to be (the spot which was in the frame of the video). Additionally, with the rain, we couldn't risk the runner to sprint because the area was slippery and she ran without shoes (to avoid getting them dirty)
We didn’t manage our time to record both scenes efficiently. During recording scene 5, we spent way too much time there due to the retakes and thus had to quickly move on to scene 1 where we had only little time left to record. This led to a lot of rushing and possibly a lower quality of the end product.
For scene 1, it was quite difficult to direct the large group of background actors. This is as we had to do a lot of coordinating in such little time including communicating the idea and what they had to do, as well as preparing their position in the frame.
Solutions:
To solve the issue in scene 5 with the runner not being able to cross the screen in time, we decided to instruct the runner to begin at a closer distance. instead of running from one end to another, the runner would begin at a midpoint (pool locker room). Moreover, our teacher advised us to verbally send a signal to a runner than to use a hand gesture since the original audio wouldn't be heard anyways. We believe these two combined helped us get our intended shot for the final video by making the directing process much smoother
To solve the issue of directing the background actors in scene 1, I (Regine) found that it was best to explain to the actors our intentions and plans so they can carry it out. Since we only needed them to talk to each other and act like friends, I explained what the idea was for the scene and they picked it up immediately. Everything went smoothly then.
For scene 1, we also did a dual-shoot technique where two phones were used at the same time so the scenes were the exact same during editing.
We completely forgot to film parts to fill out the instrumental section for scene 1 so I (Regine) quickly went out to film establishing shots of the area (school building, classmates, etc)
Next time:
Our main struggle was managing the time to record both scene 1 and scene 5 within the given period of time. Thus next time, in the case where we have limited time but more than 1 task to do, we should prepare a thorough plan and allocate the amount of time we need in advance. The planning should help smooth the process of directing the actors. We should keep track of the time using timers. In addition to that, if possible, we should divide the team members to work on different tasks simultaneously (directors, camera operator, music operator, etc). Therefore, we can more or less finish at the same time, attaining extra time in case there are needs to fix or redo certain parts.
Self - Reflection: My role in this task was mainly director and star. For verse 1, I took on the role of director since I was originally not intended to be the star but when the star decided to drop out from the role, I quickly stepped in to fill the vacancy. For verse 5, it was planned that I would be the star, so we went over what kind of emotion I would be showing during filming. I found that, despite my camera-shy personality, I really enjoyed taking on this role. It's possible because of the low stakes of the project, I got to enjoy the process of being a star instead of stressing for perfection. I was also an editor for verse 1.
I think this task will be helpful in the final project because I got to experience the role of the star and see from their perspective. This may help me understand them better to direct them more effectively. Additionally, this was my first time learning to edit a multicam scene from verse 1, which was an interesting and new editing technique I had yet to try out. I think knowing the basics of the technique now will greatly reduce any mistakes in the future for my final project
Here I will be learning and reviewing about how technical elements such as camera, mise-en-scene, sound and edit can affect audience interpretation based on their connotations.
Literally means 'putting in place/stage' and refers to intentional composition and design of visual elements within a frame or a scene, such as the way actors and props are chosen and arranged, to potray meaning and mood.
Consider the; Mood of the scene; Atmosphere (empty, somber, exciting, etc.) should be reflected in the setting through mise-en-scene for audience to pick up and feel the intended emotion. Character; set design externalises the internal state of the character to give audience a look into the character's inner state, such as their mental or psychological state.
Theme; Communicate the deeper meaning or subtext of a narrative.
Hair, costume, makeup, clothing, build, body language, acting/performance, etc
Should be reflecting their personality, ideology, values
Should hint at how audience should perceive a character/dominant reading of a character
Props
Accessories, weapons, gadgets, items, etc
Represents character's personality
Can be used to aid in building the narrative world to make the world seem believable and real to audience
Set Design
Locaiton, dressing, space, time of day, light, environment, weather, etc.
Informs time, place, and story while also communicates intentions, obstacles, themes, narratives and characters
Church - audience may expect a professional, quiet, respectful scene
Mcdonalds - audience may expect a casual conversation taking place
Colour
Colour psychology states that colour evokes certain emotions in audiences because of their connotations to certain feelings. Here is a colour psychology wheel I found on the internet;
Notes from video above;
Red - connotes danger, threat, scenes with emotional intensity, passion, love
Orange - destructive colour like fire, high energy
Yellow/Gold - opulent and grandiose
Green - natural, symbols for life and death
Blue - somber, guilt, sin
Other elements include;
Lighting, helps in determining mood of a scene, provide insight to character, or guide viewers eyes. Here are some common terms from this video;
High-key lighting - low contrast ratio where background and subject lit evenly, often used for happier and brighter scenes
Low-key lighting - high contrast ratio where difference with light and shadow is large, often used for darker, dramatic scenes
Chiaroscuro - high contrastt ratio, enhance mysterious and dangerous qualities of a scene
Hard light - Directional light that creates stark shadows, used for dramatic scenes
Soft light - Diffused light and creates less shadows, used for happier and romantic scenes
Dumb/broad side - lighting the side of the subject closer to the camera
Smart/short side - lighting the side of the subject thats farther from the camera
Blocking and Staging, refers to how characters move through a scene and the camera's position which helps to draw the audience's attention to what's most important in a scene while making a scene interesting.
Could also be used to display power dynamics
(Rack) Focus, adjusting the camera's focal plane to reveal information or signal a change in scene.
Controlling the eyes of the viewers with a more focused direction of scene.
Adds depth to a scene while clearly helping develop links between two subjects.
------- Sound ------
I have only noted sounds that may relate to a music video rather than all sounds mentioned in the video.
Diegetic
Sound originating from inside the world
Immerse audience into the scene/world, thus adds a sense of realism
Non-diegetic
Sound originating outside of scene, characters could not hear
Adds ambience, sets tone of the scene or adds extra information for the audience
Dialogue, what the characters say
Tells audience about character and their behaviour or reveals information/context
Score or Soundtrack
Ambient, naturally occuring sound from location to add realism
Silence, gaps in sound to draw audience attention or add tension
Volume, affects perception of scene, such as higher volume can add drama and excitement.
Parallel Editing (Cross-Cutting) : cut between two different scenes that are happening at the same time in different places
Cutaways and Inserts : takes viewers away from the main action to give extra context and information. May create more tension and foreshadowing.
Jump Cut : cut that pushes forward in time thats done within the same frame
Match Cut : cut between twoo scenes with similar compositions to give context and continuity and pushes it in a certain direction without disorienting the viewer.
Crossfade (Dissolve) : signify a passage of time or if there are overlapping “layers", shows that multiple stories are happening at once
Cut to the Beat (Rhythmic) : cuts are made to the beat for a more energetic look
SplitScreen : similar to parallel editing, but overlap different shots into one panel
J or L Cut : L cut is when audio from clip A continues when clip B comes in. The J cut is the opposite.
Theories
Here is my teacher's slideshow detailing all the theories we've learnt in class
Reflection : This entire blog post was the most dreadful task out of all my other preparations. Despite understanding how important it is to recap our understanding on technical elements and theories, I believe this task felt utterly endless to me because I had to look back into my old notes and type each note down. Doing extra research did help expand my ideas on the uses of technical elements, which I may take advantage of to find new creative solutions to our current problem of how we can potray the passage of time in various ways.
Problems : No major problem other than the time consumed to make the entire blog
Solution : I gave myself a set deadline and multiple breaks to help motivate me to get it done as soon as possible while also keeping my ideas fresh by occassionally taking time away from the task
Here is our filming schedule across November 2024 to January 2025
Self-Reflection: I had found this template for a filming schedule online and implemented it for our own schedule since it had a clear and organised look while still having a good amount of information within it. I found this filming schedule to be quite redundant as its name suggest that it would function as a plan with details (on who, what, where, when) of filming but it instead served as a tracker as my team and I would end up updating it after the shoot was over. This was mostly because majority of our planning was done in our groupchat in Whatsapp as it was much easier to discuss between the 3 of us directly on such details like who was available during a certain date we wanted to film. Its possible that due to the small team we had, we didn't rely on the filming schedule because miscommunication was rare.
Here we will look indepth of our song choice 'Catch Me In The Air' by Rina Sawayama (2022) which was done by my group and I together
Catch me in the air by Rina Sawayama does not currently have an official music video but does have a official visualiser. A visualiser differs from a music video by being less focused on storytelling and instead simply being an abstract representations of music that enhances the experience through dynamic visuals.
1. Song Background; Genius.com, a lyrical database and digital media company, has provided a small description of the song “ 'Catch Me In The Air' is the second single from Rina Sawayama’s Hold the Girl album. The song details Sawayama’s relationship with her single mother, and how they have supported each other through difficult times."
Rina also introduced the song on her Dynasty Tour with "I wrote a very special song and it's about my relationship with my mom who's a single mom. [...] I just wanted to write the fact that we have caught each other when we're falling, and so this song is called 'Catch Me in the Air'." (information found on a website called the Rina Sawayama Wiki)
We can conclude that this song is about the relationship between a single mother and her child as each other’s support system and how their relationship has evolved now that they’re both on their own.
2. Why we choose it
The song was suggested by a friend who's a fan of the artist. We liked the song as it had consisted of a narrative that we can easily follow and develop upon. The song is also really heartwarming which will allow us to more easily invoke an emotional response from our audience, making it easier for us to keep our audience engaged as they will have a stronger attachment to our music video. In addition to that, since the artist does not have an official music video, we have more freedom to experiment and create a narrative based on the meanings we capture from the lyric. These reasons are why this song in particular stuck out to us among all our other options.
3. How your music video will be different
Genius contributors mentioned the first verse of the song is written in the perspective of Rina's mother but we plan to subvert this idea by exclusively sticking to the artists' point of view. This way, it will put the audience in the artist's point of view and would create a stronger emotional reaction more effectively.
Additionally, we choose to subvert from Rina Sawayama's usual style. In the music video she is seen wearing more modern chic clothes, which is a convention more strongly associated with pop artists, whereas we choose simpler rural-like clothing which is more frequent in indie pop artists. This is because our star's persona conveys her more as a simpler girl, keen on keeping close to her roots. Furthermore, in comparison to how her video consists mostly of visual performances taking into account that it is an official visualizer instead of a music video, instead of following that, we'll be creating a storyline.
Reflection: I had wished I'd done this task much earlier as I felt like it would've aided in the planning the narrative when I had fully understood the lyrics and meanings behind all the lines. Writing down our plan on how to subvert from conventions was also a great addition to the task as we could refer back to it before the production phase to ensure our music video will stand out amongst others.
Problems: As ridiculous as it was, I was the only one from my group that was present during the distribution of this task by my teacher. I was worried because of this, I would have to take over a lot of the tasks while my teammates were occupied with other matters.
Solutions: I had done a part of the tasks that were given to me on the day and left other parts empty. I informed my group on said tasks and asked them to complete it on their own time, whenever available. I think this was great since we were all able to take part in this song research while also adding our own opinions could broaden our imaginations, especially with how our music video will stand out.
This was helpful for me as it gave me a general look into how a screen test work
We were able to get around 20 and more people to do our screentest, including myself. I felt as this was beneficial as I learnt to get a better understanding of what I was looking for in my own artist.
It was time efficient to have us in a line as it took approximately 10 minutes of class time in total
Our teacher encouraged all of us to sing despite not being on screen which could have helped in easing some people's nerves being infront of a camera
Disadvantages ;
Going through all 20 plus students meant some may have not gotten as much screentime as others thus I couldn't determine how well some students performed
To some students who didn't know the song and the lyrics, it was obvious that they wouldnt be able perform as well as others who did. This may have been a factor to some people looking uncomfortable infront of the camera.
Reflection: It was overall quite a fun and lighthearted activity to do in class and became a nice break from the project work we've been doing however, I felt as though none of the people in this screen test really fit the image of the artist for my group. Furthermore, me and my team has already had people in mind prior to this screen test so we will be having a screen test for them instead.
Problem: Finding the person that fulfills all of our requirement was quite difficult as it was quite specific (such as having childhood footage related to performance, to be similar looking to our child actress, being comfortable being infront and singing to the camera.) thus it took a lot to find the right person that we all agreed on. Not only that, we weren't able to get her screen test on time to submit this project for school report grading due to our schedule with the actress not aligning.
Solution: We had asked her to record the screen test during a break period in school to get it done as quickly as possible.
Here are the locations our team considered as well as their risks, written by Cheryl. Cheryl chose to embed the document in order to not ruin the formatting of the table and make the content unclear.
Here is a link to the document in case the embedded link do not work:
Reflection : As this task was given to Cheryl, I did not have much hand in writing out the location scout and risk assessment. I offered my help in other ways though. I suggested places we could use on certain scenes to Cheryl, such as a friend's house for a childhood home as we were both familiar with the place and agreed it had the exact cozy style we were looking for or utilising our schools stage in the Assembly Hall as a setting, and assisted in brainstorming of the advantages and disadvantages of a scene. Despite this, all credit goes to Cheryl who gave a more thorough evaluation and assessment of each location.
This is a lyric sheet that my group used to discuss our vision for each verse.
For this task, we started with a paper of the lyrics provided by our teacher where we discussed the general idea/narrative we wanted. Here are some of our notes from when we did this during classtime.
However, we had a limit of 10-20minutes to discuss this during our classtime thus we decided to continue this at home through canva. I had been the one to write down all our ideas, give them some more detailed visuals and transferred them to canva whiteboard. This way we could all share ideas and comment on each other's idea.
Although there might be slight changes and features (videos, clear images, comments and their reply) that can only be seen in the embedded link, I also included our whiteboard in the form of images.
Aurel had commented some great questions and ideas to add on the whiteboard, however most our discussions were done within our groupchat on Whatsapp. I felt as though we were able to expand a little bit more on our idea. Not only will it make our music video stand out, but also ensure our vision is aligning as a group.
Because of this discussion, we were more inclined to ask our teacher for feedback on the current storyline. He informed us on his concern over how well we would be able to communicate the different flashbacks/timestamps that were happening since we did not have access to actors of different ages, which prompted him to suggest a different approach of one flashback and a continous display of the artist's journey through her career from the mother's camera perspective. We, as a group, all agreed to this new narrative as it felt as though our message could be delivered more clearly and readjusted our previous planning to fit towards it.
Reflection: This task was a good way of agreeing and compromising on all our ideas into one. Similarly to the moodboard, we were able to discuss our ideas and combine them to one with this task which ended up aiding in the storyboard process since I had a clear vision on each verse. Other than that, I thought doing this task was very helpful in allowing my group to connect more as we begun developing ideas together.
Problems: Tweaking our narrative in such short notice means we need to have it done so we can move on to the production phase. We aim to complete this before December
Solution: I'll be approaching my group to discuss the change once more and splitting the task between all of us. Ideally we get the new lyric sheet done before our semester break to be able to approach our teacher once more and get his approval.
Here is the process of making the storyboard for my group.
A storyboard, defined by Teachfloor, is said to be "a visual representation of a story, often in the form of illustrations or images, arranged in a specific order to show the sequence of events in a film, video, etc."
I had taken the time to learn a little more on storyboards and what is expected through this blog by the BBC - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2vrhv4/revision/2 - however my teacher had ended up providing us templates to aid in our storyboard process. It included 2 templates, one wth 4 large boxes for detailed and another with 8 smaller boxes. Our teacher had suggested us to draw out the scenes from a singular location rather than planning the cuts between a performance to a b-roll, with the intention of reducing confusion in the narrative. Because of this, most shots did not have a defined duration, as it can vary depending on where it will be placed in the editing phase.
In these first few pages, I had used 2 pages of big boxes to draw out my ideas in detail, however, I will be switching to the pages with smaller boxes moving on to be more time-efficient. Since I would focus less on detail, I will be able to spend more time in ensuring the ideas all throughout the video will be comprehensable (due to the limited space to write descriptions) to both my team members and my teacher. This is the continuation of the storyboard.
There are still some scenes missing, which include the scene from the bridge as my team and I had not been able to have the time to properly discuss our next plan of action and realign our vision. Thus there will be more to come. However, for the sake of the due date, this will be all to submit at the current moment.
Reflection : This is my first time making a storyboard for a video and I found it so incredibly fun to work on. I enjoyed taking part in what will be the first few steps to get to the production phase. Although hearing our teacher suggest a different approach to our narrative due to its confusing timeline was soul-crushing initially, I think I was able to make a storyboard that can easily be understood even without the music because of the change. I believe this storyboard will be useful in the future to reference during our production so we don't stray too far off our original plan.
Problems : The significant shift in plans regarding the narrative that caused us to alter our proposed visuals was the largest issue. We had to delay doing our tasks to quickly recap our teacher's comments and discuss what direction to go from there. This meant spending more time to reorganise our scenes, find ideas and inspirations from other music videos, suggest filler visuals, etc. The only other problem was the lack of paper provided by my teachers since my storyboard took 4 pages plus, yet I was only given 2.
Solution : The biggest helped my group received would definitely be our teacher who sat and suggested ideas for specific scenes, which I believed became a foundation to how I had built our storyboard around. Regarding the amount of paper needed, I simply photocopied more copies of the templates.
Here is the moodboard my group had made to aid in aligning our visions with one another. We had made 2 pages of the moodboard as there will be 2 very different settings that we plan to have. The first page is set in a rural area while the second is in a urban area (cityscapes, city, metropolitan areas, etc)
Reflection : This task was quite easy and required very few minutes to complete because all it took was to look through images that fit with our ideas and place them in our moodboad. The task overall is a very good way to get an understanding of my teammates ideas and vision on the music video. This meant that we were able to find a middle ground where all our visions combined together and so we can move on to the production phase with a lack of miscommunication.
Problems : There has been changes to our narrative so our moodboard will need to reflect this. Luckily with our initial 2 pages for both rural and urban areas, we already have a set idea. Expanding this into each scene could be more beneficial however.
Solution : Adding more on this is on my to-do list for this week.
Here is the statement of intent for component 3, music video project
Reflection : My team and I surprisingly got majority of the statement of intent done within a day as we prepared for it prior to the class starting. We were able to work up a small plan earlier to get the general idea of what to add in our statement of intent. I think this really helped as it reduced the time needed to go back and forth on discussion. Instead, we were able to give the main idea for each section and would bounce off of each when it came to details. For example, we had established that we were going to target the southeast asian, young adult women demographic so during the class time, we simply added onto it by crafting ways in which we will appeal to them.
Problems : We had plans to split the task to do the statement of intent equally, however, Cheryl was absent that day because she wasn't feeling well. Therefore, me and Aurel took on more work during the class time.
Solution : We were able to communicate to Cheryl through chats and thus was still able to organise ourselves into different sections to work on writing down the main ideas. Because we had finished majority of the points during school hours, it took less time at home for me to polish up our statement of intent by turning our points that were written in bulletpoint form to cleaner paragraphs.
Here is the discussion me and my team had to pick our song.
Before we can even begin to plan, we had to pick a song for our project. Since the very beginning, it was clear we all wanted to do a pop song and agreed to avoid romantic narratives as we didn't feel too comfortable with the idea of it. Aurel had been the first to suggest her list in our Whatsapp groupchat which included of;
I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME - Leave Me Alone
Pavement - "Harness Your Hopes"
Will Wood - Tomcat Disposables
girl in red - rue
We shared our thoughts on this in regards to the visuals that would be paired with the audio. In the meantime, Cheryl and I also suggested some songs.
By discussing this back and forth, we were able to eliminate most songs, leaving it to 4 options. Here I will detail each option and their reasoning for their consideration, rejection and approval from the team:
Tulus - Tujuh Belas [REJECTED]
An Indonesian song popular amongst teen (especially highschool seniors) thus would be directly targeting our ideal target audience
Song related to highschool life, would be very easy to film as we have access to a school setting. However, our teacher had told us we'd be filming during our break thus we might not have access to the school building during that time.
girl in red - rue [REJECTED]
A song we all enjoyed
We weren't too sure on how we would subvert from the already-existing music video
Pavement - "Harness Your Hopes" [REJECTED]
A song we all enjoyed
We weren't sure of what narrative to take and did not want to take the risk of a vague storyline that may confuse audiences
Rina Sawayama - Catch me in the air [APPROVED]
A song we all enjoyed
Clear idea of the narrative in mind that we all agreed to
We believe the song is within our capabilities (in terms of ability and budget)
In class today, we studied the theory of stardom by Richard Dyer. Here is my summarised understanding of the theory.
Dyer says that celebrities are constructed by companies to target a demographic. By representing themselves as 'real people' , they are able to attract audience and sell products such as films or music.
REEL persona : curated version of a star, designed to fit expectations of audiences (shown through performances, music video, social media)
REAL persona : authentic personality of the individual (shown through interviews, documentaries, behind-the-scenes footage)
Celebrities are appealing to audience for 5 reasons:
Love : fascination with the love lives of stars, or because we feel romantic affiliation with them
Ordinariness : fascination with them doing routine things, living normal lives
Success : fascination with the idea of overnight success, failure before success that appeals to our sense of fair play
Consumption : fascination with huge material wealth brought by media success
Downfall : fascination with the exploitation of their misery
Here are my classroom notes about a celebrity me and my team had chosen (Beabadoobee) to analyse their reel and real personalities according to the theory.
This is my research on music genre and the conventions of their music videos
Genre (in terms of music) is easily explained as the type of music. It helps us categorise different musics to different "kinds" based on similar themes. According to Steve Neale's theory on genre, genres are instances of generic codes and conventions being repeated in media products (music and music videos) and that genres are constantly evolving with each new addition.
Each genre of music videos have different common themes which can be understood by looking into the type of music videos.
Style of All Music Video:
1. Narrative
Narrative music videos tells a story (either in a linear or fragmented manner)
Narrative often correlates to the lyrics of the song
Actors act according to the music
Visuals align with lyrics/music to help viewer understand the lyrics clearly
2. Conceptual/Concept-based
Based on a specific concept of theme (could be magic, supernatural, historial, religious, scientific, etc)
The videos often attempt to intrigue a specific target audience. The use of unusual content also attracts audiences
These are not easily understood and are more difficult to produce
3. Performative
May include shot of the artist's performance (could be live or in a studio)
Sometimes artist appears to perform (band or lipsyncing) in unusual settings - empty buildings, fields, etc
May include closeups of the artist, particular visual style (costume, prop, etc.) that follows with the artist's aesthetic
Here is my research into the genre me and my team had picked - Indie Pop
The indie-pop genre can be defined by its charactertics which include a small audience due to its niche, combines guitar pop with DIY ethics, melodic, less abrasive and angst-free compared to Indie-rock. My team and I concluded these conventions in a list:
More towards the narrative style, sometimes implementing performances (often lip-syncing or playing instruments)
Camera angles vary from establishing, long, medium shots and close-up. There are lots of focus on the surroundings with these shots
Camera tends to stay at the eye-level to maintain sense of realism while high and low angles aren't as common
Tracking, static/stills and hand-held movements are common
Sometimes features the use diegetic sounds to add to the realism (such as parallel sounds that match the mood, tone, atmosphere of a scene)
Often subverts from cut-to-sound editing by having the video be out of time with rhythm of sound/doesn't fit the pace of the music
Editing attempts to keep scenes organic-looking but professional with clean cuts and shaky shots so balance of the look of amateur and expert shots.
Sun is the main lighting often used, while artificial lighting is used indoors
Costumes reflects the setting of the narrative (time period/era, season and weather, age range, etc.) while often being subtle to allow more focus on the actor and surroundings
Produced by: Nicolas Muñoz (the artist himself), Erik Thorsheim & Esteban Muñoz
Distributed by: Self-uploaded to Youtube
Genre / Sub genre:
Indie, pop
What conventions does it conform to?
This music video conformed to the pop genre by showing a mix of performance (lipsyncing and playing piano) than the narrative (love story). The narrative is simple and a digestible storyline that did not draw in too much attention. The mise-en-scene of the music video also had conformed with high key lighting and a colour grade in the post-production to give the video a brighter and saturated look to follow the joyous atmosphere of the song.
What conventions does it subvert?
This music video did subvert from the pop genre by leaning into the indie genre that often has contradicting conventions. However, the artist did a great job of finding a balance by having a low budget aesthetic which included a simple setting (outside setting), casual clothing/costumes, minimalistic style (few props used) as well as simple camera angles and movements like static shots, handheld camera motion, and zooms. Furthermore, the mundane acting makes the scene seem authentic that fits the indie genre. The usage of slow paced editing also subverts from the typical fast-paced editing of upbeat, pop videos.
What representations are there? (people/places/events)
The music video represented young (teenager to young adult) love to be innocent, silly, gentle and sweet. The representations of men and women in a relationship could also be suggested as the man is seen as the romantic protector while the woman is depicted as pure. Additionally, the landscape/location was also represented to be quiet and peaceful to enforce the portrayal of tenderness in the relationship
What technical elements are used to give meaning to the representations?
The mix of technical elements forms the representation found in the music video. Camera angles such as closeups show intimacy and closeness of the couple in while long shots display their action and how connected they are by always facing each other, hugging or being overall affectionate with one another. Mise-en-scene supported this by always showing the couple in bright, warm, natural lighting which implies a genuine and pleasant relationship. The sunny and spring weather also can be seen as a symbol of the blossoming of a relationship with the addition of the lush nature background and the roses placed on the piano have direct associations with love and romance to further build on this sense of passionate love between the couple.
2. Sunny Day - Beabadoobee (2023)
Produced by: Ground Work
Distributed by: Vevo
Genre / Sub genre:
Indie pop, bedroom pop
What conventions does it conform to?
This music video had a mix of performance and narrative storytelling that was typical of indie pop videos. With the unusual concept and weird visual elements, vintage/cottagecore aesthetic as well as bright colours, it heavily conforms to the indie genre that utilises unconventional ideas to attract niche audiences. Costume and clothing of the artist were fairly casual that further proves to be a feature of indie music videos. There were, however, elements that conformed to the pop genre such as closeup of artist performing and possibly a high budget set (as it included moving elements).
What conventions does it subvert?
The DIY and authentic look of the music video subverted from the standard high-budget produced visuals of the pop genre in which they normally use CGI on the details of the settings, however the artist took to having physical/man-made items (such as mushrooms and the dancing frog) instead. The song and music also aligns more with upbeat, optimistic tone of pop compared to indie. Not only that, the music video included choreography that's more of a feature of pop music videos than indie
What representations are there? (people/places/events)
Representation of women shown in the video is quite complex as it conformed to the potrayal of women to have some quality of purity, beauty and grace however also diverting the stereotype of women being overly sensitive and repelling things often seen as "gross" such as snails. This complexity could mean how the two statements can coexist with one another
What technical elements are used to give meaning to the representations?
For the former point on conforming to a stereotype, the artist was also depicted with ethereal qualities using post-production editing that gives her a radiant light and glow on her skin or the use of backlight to give her a shine, making her seem angelic ontop of her gentle demeanor implied by her soft smile, makeup and smooth skin. Props like butterflies and flowers can also suggest a fragility thats common in the representation of women in media. The artist can also be shown in poses that show vulnerability such as laying down on her stomach or side.
For the latter point on subverting from the stereotype, the female artist is potrayed to not be disgusted by insects and or mollusks by being unbothered by the presence of them as well as growing mushroom (which may imply mold). A closeup is used in the shot of the artist holding an insect with the intentional blocking to put focus on the insect by using a blur. Despite the blur, audiences are still able to tell the artist's expression of captivation or fascination by her eyes following the insect and her smile shown through the blur. A long shot was also used to show the artist walking past the mushrooms that confirms her indifference towards things that are typically disturbing.
GENERAL RESEARCH
1. ETA - NewJeans (2023)
Genre/Sub-Genre?
Pop, K-pop
Target audience, and how are they appealed to?
Mostly teenagers and young adults (11-23 years old) using visually engaging content such as bright colours, high/upbeat energy, summer party aesthetic (contributed by bold costumes, props and pool setting) with the potrayal of dramatic relationships in their narrative that makes their music video intriguing to younger audiences.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
A lot of the elements that I liked from the (such as changing film sets, chaotic visual elements like confetti detail and fashion) will not be replicable as it requires a high budget however I find the use of a dramatic narrative interesting to explore in a music video as it invites the audience to follow along the story by listening to the full song.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
I mostly enjoyed a lot of the elements of this music video, however would need to adjust them to my capabilities since my team and I would not have the budget nor time to create an elaborate and detailed video for our project thats in a similar style to this music video.
2. Juna - Clairo (2024)
Genre/Sub-Genre?
Indie Pop, Bedroom pop
Target audience, and how are they appealed to?
Older teenagers to adult audience (15-28) as the video has an interesting constrast and juxtaposition theme of the calm, stillness and delicacy and chaos, movement and strength of the artist staying still while performing and the chaos happening infront shown through multiple camera angles and movements such as closeups, pans, long shots, tilts and much more. The violence shown may be more suitable for more mature audiences.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
I like the video's usage of a slowed down footages by filming at a higher frame per second. It gives the music video a much more smoother finish as well as contrasting well with the quick, powerful movements of boxing.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
I may avoid the violent theme as it would not be suitable for the audience I intend to target despite that how I enjoyed the humourous aspect of it, especially with the contrast to the singer being depicted as sweet, still yet silly.
3. Mama's Boy - Dominic Fike (2023)
Genre/Sub-Genre?
Indie Pop, Alternative Pop Rock
Target audience, and how are they appealed to?
Male teenager to adults (15-28 years old) due to the slight horror aspect to the video and how majority of the video was focused on the male artist, thus the lack of female representatives would make it harder for female audiences to relate to the video. The blue colourgrading that turned most values in the video to blue could also have been used to target a male audience since blue is stereotypically a universal colour for boys in addition to setting the mood of the music video.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
I enjoyed the use of mise-en-scene and colurs to depict a feeling of being absent, lost and glum which intensified the mood and atmosphere of the whole video. I also found the use of long scenes done in a single shot really interesting as it would draw out the scene and made it suspensful therefore, engaging for audiences.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
There was a huge focus on the narrative of the story incomparison to the perfomance of the artist which, although made for an interesting story, I would like to avoid since there is a requirement to have a performance in my project.
4. Room For You - Grentperez (2023)
Genre/Sub-Genre?
Indie Pop, Bedroom pop
Target audience, and how are they appealed to?
This music video most likely targets teenagers (both male and female) of ages 15 and up with psychographics that align with the romantic and caring characteristics.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
I enjoyed the low budget feel of this video with the amateur camera techniques and movements like quick zooms, harsh tracking, and unpolished filming. The mundane activities of the two artists, in casual outfits, done in suburb locations used as b-roll also added to the authenticity.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
I quite enjoyed most of the elements featured in this music video and don't have much criticism other than the lack of performance by the artist.
5. Tek It - Cafuné (2022)
Genre/Sub-Genre?
Indie Pop, Indie rock, electropop
Target audience, and how are they appealed to?
Children to young adults (11-26 years old) as the animation is drawn in bright, neon, colours with a style of animation that is reminiscent of anime which all may appeal to younger audiences than older audiences.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
I did enjoy the use of animation in the video as it stood out from music videos featuring the artist in real life, however I am not able to replicate it for my own project due to the lack of budget. Other than that, I did not like most elements and themes of the music video
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
I would definitely avoid the neon colours simply because I cannot envision it to fit my ideal target audience of older teenage to young adult audience as well as my personal opinion that I am not a huge fan of the style and feel as though it would be straining to the eye if not done carefully and intentionally.
6. Then It All Goes Away - Dayglow (2022)
Genre/Sub-Genre?
Indie Pop
Target audience, and how are they appealed to?
Teenagers to young adults (12-28 years old) with the use of appealingly, loud visuals using the bright blue sky and bold costume colours such as the yellow and innovative angles like fisheye angle and low angle, almost the opposite to an aerial shot, that is an uncommon and fun angle which would peak the interest of younger, more tech-savy audience. The cheery atmosphere with multiple actors doing random things in the same angle also makes for an engaging watch as there are many things happening, without the feeling of it being overcrowded and chaotic.
What would you like to use in your music video from this?
The use of colours and angle was definitely the most interesting part of the music video. It allowed the artist to look directly and perform to the camera without feeling awkward by pairing the shot with dancing and moving. This does improve the engagement of the video ontop of the intense colours displayed. It also matched well with the lively and optimistic atmosphere of the song.
What would you like to avoid in your music video from this?
There is not much features of the music video where I'd avoid it since I like all visual elements as they all match well with one another
Reflection: As much as I dislike doing repetitive tasks, I quite enjoyed this particular one. I found it entertaining to watch music videos from different artist as I got to experience a wide range of artistic vision that (most of the time) were created by the artists themselves rather than big companies. Alongside the bonus of listening to some of my favourite songs, this entire task was insightful from learning how certain themes, representations and messages are built through technical elements. This would definitely be helpful to act as advice on what my team should consider during our production to ensure our message can be deconstructed as intended
Problems: The biggest issue with this task was how time-consuming it was to analyse a music video. It required long pauses to really take in the scene and to slowly dissect the representations shown and how they subvert or conform to audiences expectations.
Solution: There was no solution to this, only a preventative measure to ensure this would task would not be due late when needed. By keeping a reminder on my phone to remind me every few days to add more research, it made sure that the task was completed whenever my teacher required it to be graded.
Here is a video that was suggested by my teacher on the fundamentals to making a music video
Reflection : This video was the first step as a class from planning to starting the pre-production phase. The tips and tricks given were helpful and I believe will be considered as we move along with the process, especially with the trick to record atleast one performance video to fill up any empty spaces during the post-production phase.
