Rough Cut

This is out music video rough cut for Echosmith's "Cool Kids"

Feedback on rough cut:

We asked a group of students in one of the other classes if they wouldn't mind watch our music video rough cur and giving us some feedback. 

The other students feedback allowed for us to know objectively what was going well in our video.  Over all they had a really good opinion on our rough cut although they told us that they preferred the second half of the video as it had better pacing and said that the first half needed some adjustments. They suggested that some of the lip syncing shots at the start of the video weren't of the highest quality due to Shelby not knowing the song as well as she did at the end because of this she made a few noticeable mistakes also for these shots they said that the background didn't really work with the rest of the video. However they really did enjoy the second half and said that the end worked brilliantly. Also in the middle where me and Shelby appear on the escalators needed adjustment as it seemed to be a bit to long which bored the viewer and took them out of the experience a little. 

Because of this feedback we decided that adjustments needed to be made to fix some of the glaring problems we also decided to cut down some of the shots in the first half to fix the pacing issues. As for the lip syncing issues at the start of the video we attempted making adjustments with the colour on premiere pro however the lip syncing really didn't work and the adjustments didn't make much of a difference because of this we decided to re-film some of this footage to get better shots. 

Now we just have to make these changes and add the footage we plan to film next lesson. 

Editing day 2

The second day of editing consisted of us making sure the rough cut was finished so that we could move on to fine tuning the footage. We then used this as the foundation for our final music video, and began to make changes. We took the extra footage that we had filmed because of the feedback and started to insert it into our timeline to replace the old footage that we found unusable. Once everything was in place and we were sure all the footage was how we wanted it we were able to move on to adding transitions and other effects. 

We started by adding a few different transitions testing them out to see which worked best at different points throughout our video. We decided to stick with dissolves and swipes. We then moved on to some colour correction as some of the footage had different exposures which gave the overall video a messy look as it meant that not all of the footage looked like it went together.  After the colour correction all of the footage worked better together as they now all had the same feel to them. 

Once all of these basic elements were out of the way, it was just a case of scrutinising our video to see if we could pick up any little details that we'd missed. This allowed us to make some small tweaks which for us made all of the difference with the way that  footage flowed, and fit in time with the music.  Although after awhile of watching the footage over we had watched it too much and  we were now unable to pick up on any of the problems. Due to this we asked some other students if they would watch the footage over  so that we got an objective opinion that could pick up on any of the things that we had missed. Unbeknown to us there was a section of footage where the lighting could be seen in shot, the other students picked up on this where we had missed it therefore we were able to make some changes by rearranging the footage so that the light that had been in shot was no longer visible.  

Here is a view of the timeline once we finished our edit.

Editing day one

The first day of editing consisted of us uploading our footage and begining to organise it. We went through the footage and began to put it into folders so that it would be easier to find later in the editing process.  After this was completed we started to piece the best of the footage together to make a rough cut in order to get a rough idea of our final video and also to see if there was any additional footage that would need to be filmed.  When editing our rough cut we layered the footage and cut the shots that we wanted to use. We also got a sense of what needed to go where and the order our footage needed to go in. 

Our first day of editing was fairly successful as we managed to organise and put together quite a lot of our footage and figure out what else needed to be done and if any additional footage was needed. 

Day two of filming.

For the second day of filming we were focused on getting shots before and after the transformation as such we shot both "unpopular" shots and "popular" shots. This was possible as we planned in advance to have me and Shelby bring two sets of clothes and some make up so that we would be able to change in the public toilets part way through the day. 

 

The first part of the days shots consisted with me and Shelby as "unpopular" kids as we browsed through shops and purchased makeup and clothing items which we would later use in the "make over" segment of our music video. We decided to do the "unpopular" shots first as it was easier to change from "unpopular" to popular than it was to attempt the procedure the other way around. There were shots during this part of the day where our director of photography Louis decided to shoot some candid shots of me and Shelby shopping in a clothing store. This was brilliant as it helped add authenticity to the shots making the footage more natural so it would look better for the audience. 

 

After this me and Shelby went to get changed and we started shooting the "popular" footage. In this me and Shelby can be seen entering Lakeside and coming down a set of escalators. This scene also contained shots of the conventional "popular" kids that have appeared previously in the video mocking Shelby staring in confusion as they passed us on the escalators. This took a few attempts as it was difficult to organize around the general public and at this point we were working with a larger group of people. But in the end this was successful and pretty fun to film.  

During our second day of filming we attempted to incorporate a variety of different shot types. Although due to us having to be inconspicuous with our filming we were only able to take our camera with us to lakeside because of this our footage at lakeside is all handheld which we feared might compromise the quality of our footage as it may not be completely stable, However after revising the footage this does not appear to be an issue at this time.