Category: Music Video

NINETEEN – THE LAST MIDNIGHT

FINAL MV REFLECTION

Abby loved it! and not only that she shared it on Facebook and with all her family and friends and to be honest it’s the most satisfying thing to hear that your work can be appreciated. So what now? Well I need to vent out and reflect on the end product. So here is a list of things I have to comment about the video.

1. We didn’t get to convey our princesses to the best of our advantage. Rohan had warned us earlier that the concept may not be interpreted well enough, and sure enough people had no clue what I was talking about when I said the characters were princesses. It’s a shame but it’s not too bad. Most people so far think it was quirky and cute, the only downside to this though is the constant questions about Rapunzel’s wig. In all the beautiful natural scenery and then to have her wig pull you out of the fantasy was the biggest critique I’ve had so far. But we did still keep the romantic fairytale feel to the entire video, especially the ending.

2. Cutting out scenes was hard for me. Initially the plot was already very thin, with Rohan again giving us encouragement to make things more grand or to just find ways to fill the space, but what we found was that we ending up with too much space in the beginning and had to cut some scenes. Most specifically all the scenes with Cinderella and Elvis hair dude. The reason why we had to was because of time, but also due to the poor way we shot the scenes. It was unfair of us to use the shots to both Abby and Alaine who had both their own representation being distributed by us. We wanted to put out a flattering video and the majority of her scene just didn’t convey the right tone or fit stylistically with the rest of the video. I know I commented on this in a previous blog, but it is a shame that we couldn’t get more of her in the video. As a friend I feel like I did Alaine a dis-service for making her come all the way out the the Royal Botanic Gardens to only be let down and have 3 shots dictate her whole entire story. We did find out that by the time we came around to her character the fact that we shortened her scene helped the flow of the story, but it still hurts to cut out anything in a project. Thank god Maggie was there to be the bigger person and know what we needed and didn’t need. If I had my own way I would have made a 13 minutes extended directors cut with more scenes, and proper dialogue.

3. The last thing I want to comment on was the colour grade we ended up with. In the beginning stages we wanted to have a vintage feel to the video, with Jordan making mock concept photos of what the aesthetic style for the video would be. We later found that it was too much to make it more rich in purple and would actually hurt our footage to go so radical with the colour grade. Then Jordan had begun his process of making things more yellow and supposedly warm, but I then went in and went the complete opposite by making it more green. Neither of us were wrong in doing so, since it all was down to aesthetic preferences, but in my final product I ended up over-exposing one of the shots and completely overlooked it in the editing process. So what I had thought was the final final video, turned out to be faulty and with very little time left to fix it, we had to fallback onto the raw version of the video to submit. It was unfortunate and I personally and disappointed that I didn’t pick up on it sooner. But fear not, we have expressed to Abby that of she wants it we can create a different version for her to upload to YouTube.

So with that being said, as you can see I haven’t got a YouTube version for me to send out and link here. Once Abby has uploaded what she is happy with I will definitely come back and share that with everyone who joined me along this journey. So with this the final blog post should be up soon, and it’s definitely going to be in celebration of the end. Goodnight guys.

TWENTY – FINDING TREASURE

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten.

And then let all your worries go away because I have just finished my first successful studio for this course. I mean, this is assuming I pass, but… IT’S DONE!! And I am so happy. This is the last and final blog post that is required from me and to be honest the past 6 weeks have been great. I’ve been reflecting on the last month and a half (although I did move to tumblr now) and can proudly say I am coming away from here with a new-found appreciation for the art of Music Video. I mean anyone can slap together a montage of heartwarming and emotional clips, and paste a song underneath it anyday, but to do what we did takes hard dedication and work. I’ve learnt a many things from the class, especially the production aspects of it all. There is a lot that goes into pre, post and principle production that I would have never been able to try out by myself. Also shooting something on location without a proper AD or director can be concerning.

I’ve also realised that collaboration can come with a double edged sword (is that the saying?). I mean I said at the beginning that I wanted to work with more people, and not have to burden myself with all the work, but with that comes to trust and depend on other people, specifically other people who I have never worked with before. It took me a while to find proper friends in uni, and to be thrust into our group was a bit of a shock, but I think I’ve adapted enough. I’m not sure if we will come out of this BFF’s but at least we’ve made professional ties to each other.

Another thing is that I can appreciate an artists view on things. It didn’t matter that this work was made for a class project, it was first and foremost a product made for a client. My personal opinion could have changed and been divided between having it perfect for myself or perfect for class, but it ultimately falls on whether or not the artist was happy, and Abby was definitely happy.

I think the most I can say is that not everything can come easy and not everyone has the same vision. I’m proud of what I made, but I’m also sad that we couldn’t accomplish everything we set out to do. In the end we made a great video, and that’s really all that mattered.

SIXTEEN – THE CAPE AS RED AS BLOOD

So today’s class, which I was totally late to again (I’M SO SORRY ROHAN), was interesting and informative on how colour grading a video can change how you read it. With Goldfrapp’s Tales of Us series it made them all seem linked, but not really. Each video we watched had it’s own small contained story, some sinister and others very perplexing. To be honest I was just captured by the colours, or lack of them, in the videos. They had this soft quality to them, since most of them had very little harsh blacks, but ranged from white to a mid grey. The aesthetic choice to do so was fantastic. I went home today and totally watched these music videos again and deducted that this one below was my favourite.

Today’s class got m e excited to start officially playing with colours in out video, especially since we have a lost of beautiful green in these shots. We may be moving towards a softer yellow as well, or could possibly stick to our original pitch idea and make it “vintage”. In all honesty even if we handed in our video just raw it would still look impressive, Jordan made sure of that. Anyway enjoy my little gallery below, it’s only three videos today, but it’s still worth watching.

1. Drew – Goldfrapp

This haunting video makes me melt. I’ve already said it’s my favourite one in her cinematic series, but I’ve realised it’s because the way the beach doesn’t come across as flat, even though there would have been very little colour in the raws makes me happy. There’s something in dimensions about this video that I hope we can replicate in our video maybe, especially with our big wide shots.

2. War of Hormone – BTS

I know, weird song title, but still a fun video. It’s definitely not the first of it’s kind to make everything else dull except for certain colours. But what I like about this one is that the red kinda matches with the rest of the grade. It doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb, but blend along with the blacks and greys. Plus cute boys dancing and touching their butts are one of my weaknesses my friends.

3. SOBER – BIGBANG

This video is my personal inspiration for how I would like Abby’s music video to look, but obviously we didn’t have a fog machine on site to capture the same effect. Although I have heard it is easier to soften up our shots similar to this degree. And yes guys, more KPOP, I thought you would be used to it by now.

FIFTEEN – MAGIC BEANS

So I was watching a bunch of my favourite music videos to help me find things to talk about, because it is seriously hard to blog about things on a regular basis! So I’ve previoiusly mentioned how I’m a sucker for one takes and very smooth flowy music videos. I know that sounds vague but the music videos I link later will kinda clear up what I mean. Anywho, I found out that a few of them had been created by the same man by the name of Hiro Murai. Now I didn’t know who this man was, but I realised that I recognised a lot of his work and his style. At the time I wasn’t sure I was projecting my thoughts and seeing all these music videos as similar, but to hear that they were directed by the same man made me realsied why I liked them all. They share that flowy movement in music videos which I love seeing. It’s sometimes rhythmic and it almost always is shot and edited in a way that makes you want to believe it was all in one take. Below a few of his works which will help you understand what I’m trying to convey (what am I trying to convey?).

Well without further ado the list of my personal favourites and videos under Hiro Murai’s name which I believe everyone should watch is here.

1. Gold – Chet Faker

2. Sweatpants – Childish Gambino

3. 3005 – Childish Gambino

4. Do You – Spoon

5. She Wolf – David Guetta ft. Sia

Yeah, I forgot to mention that most of his works end in weird ways. Sorry about that, but hey I didn’t want to spoil anything for any of them.

FOURTEEN – YOUR FAULT

Now after hours of watching our raw footage for the music video I’ve come across some lack-luster parts in both acting and Abby’s performance. In some areas she shines, seemingly infatuated with this Elvis hair guy, but then there are the in between moments, where she stares at the camera wrong, or just looks bored and unenthusiastic. It’s concerning how familiar I am now with not just her face, but the faces of all the cast and crew that make appearances in our rushes.

Now this blog is a reflection on the fact that we seem to be the only group going with the straight narrative route for their music video. Earlier on Jac and Elle’s group had mentioned they too were going to have a semi narrative going on in the background of their video, with a big reveal at the end that it was all in his head or something like that. I was happy to know that my group wasn’t alone, but alas after seeing the rough cuts today I believe that we are now well and truly alone.

So more on the rough cut feedback today. Well we learnt that it’s not exactly hard to make a story, it’s just hard to make a story make sense in less than 4 minutes with no dialogue and shotty acting. Our group seemed to be the most put together, but it didn’t mean we were done. We walked away from today with the most concerning advice, we needed to cut out a characters section, or at least cover it up. The character was Cinderella, and the reasoning behind it was that her shots just didn’t fit well with the rest of the story. Her scenes just weren’t shot well, and looking back to shoot day I realised that yeah her scenery wasn’t great and her acting was too exagerated. Some of it is my fault for telling Alaine to over act and be comedic, but another aspect could have been Jordan’s cinematography and composition of the shot. I’m not going to blame anyone though, what’s done is done, and with 2 weeks left to hand this bad boy in we can’t look back and regret. We can only move forward and think of ways to fix it.

That’s what I realise I will get out of this experience at least. How to cover you ass if something doesn’t turn out the way you expected it. I’m not going to be a negative nancy, and instead I will continue on with the project and shift things around like Rohan suggested. We can pull through this situation and we can sure as hell make a badass music video.

So speaking of things that don’t turn out how you expected it, I’ve linked below Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” music video because let’s all be honest and admit that when the video starts out you don’t think of how she will turn into a crazed psychopath hoping to kill her boyfriend. It’s also got a lovely location, and a whole bunch of great editing points that I’ve chosen to be inspired (very) loosely by.

THIRTEEN – WITCH’S LAMENT

So today was pretty awesome. I’ve worked on live productions before, but never had to record a live music performance, aside from crappy concert fancams which don’t really count. So today was very educational. I knew the obvious pointers from Georgia, like making sure that crew set up and are briefed well before the artist does, and to make sure that said artists have water and access to a bathroom. Those practical points came easy to my floor manager mindset, but the one thing I didn’t account for was her nervousness. It didn’t occur to me how the artist would feel in the environment, so I didn’t account for her sudden mistakes, and sometimes non complimentary performances. That’s not to say she didn’t perform beautifully, Georgia’s voice and songs are beautiful, but as Rohan had warned us earlier she hadn’t had a lot of practice in a while. So as a professional we had to take into account her comfort and make sure that we could present an environment for her to perform her best. It’s definitely eye-opening, and now with this small experience in my pocket I can use this knowledge for future projects and remember that although it’s not always practical to treat the talent as royalty, we should still make an effort to let them feel comfortable.

Now to follow with this weeks live recording, I have decided to share three videos that showcases some of the qualities of recording live performances.

1. Hate To See Your Heart Break – Paramore ft. Joy Williams

In it’s simplest form it is a behind the scenes kinda video, showing us clips of the studio process of how the song was recorded. It blends both artists as intricately as the song does, and doesn’t shy away showcasing these two amazingly talented women singing. As a video I find it to be charming, especially with how it doesn’t detract any attention from the emotional song. Their delivery is heart-wrenching and just watching their faces as they sing the song lets us connect with the artist much more than we would with a different form of music video. Also they’ve used a lovely filter effect which I believe to be just candles being waved back and forth in front of the camera, which is very similar to Rohan’s technique of using sparklers in one of his videos. It’s just a cool thing I didn’t even pick up on on the first viewing, but after Rohan’s enlightening talk about music production I can appreciate it’s effect and how simple it is to execute.

2. One – Ed Sheeran

So what do I have to say about Mr. Sheeran that hasn’t already been said about his live talent. Not only does he do all his shows solo with just his guitar and loop station, but he does it without fault. This music video just highlights how truly angelic his live shows can be, and it’s especially effective in it’s ability to position you like you are the only one (see what I did there) in the stadium. With the inclusion of a few clips from places around the main stage, it captures the real experience one would have at his concerts. Like hearing his voice slightly distorted to match along to the fact that you’re in a location that isn’t directly in view of him. Upon first viewing, I thought it was all lip-synced to the original audio, with filters used to distort the song when they edited the shots, but after a little sleuthing, which is to say I compared my album version to the music video version, I found that the audio they used for the video must have been recorded on location. The studio version has more instruments that come into play and layers of backing vocals that just aren’t there in the video version. Since that discovery I have watched the clip over and over again, and would argue that this choice to have only live music makes the experience of watching him more intimate, or even voyeuristic. It’s like we are intruding on a rehearsal, or a personal moment for Ed and just gives the video a bit more personality than just a simple clip of him lip-syncing to his song.

3. WHO YOU? – G-DRAGON

This final music video is one of my favourite fan collaborations out there. In the KPOP world fan-cams are abundant, with almost every single live show and performance recorded in some form or another and then uploaded to the internet. G-Dragon and his crew here embraced the culture completely, and invited fans to practically shoot this 2013 release for him. It’s a genius idea which not most can pull off, and it also works to showcase the power fans have in GD’s career. The video also proves that again you don’t always need the fanciest of camera’s to create something special.

TWELVE – THE WITCH’S TRANSFORMATION

No you didn’t just watch the prequel to Everything Is Awesome, but The White Stripes’ super cool music video directed by Michel Gondry. It’s another one of those videos I love because of how small the budget could have been, and again gives me more hope for my future inevitable success. Now I’m not entirely sure how big animation is in the music video industry but I feel like it never get’s enough credit for it’s art. So this is my appreciation post for all things animation in a music video.

1. Funny Hunny – Orange Caramel

So if you haven’t gathered by now, I like KPOP! and not just because of it’s more upbeat and catchy tunes, but also their completely refreshing humour used in music videos. Orange Caramel aren’t a group to half ass a music video as well, with some really head scratching and clearly not-to-be-taken-seriously concepts. So when they came out with Funny Hunny die-hard fans, including myself, were delighted. They always seem to be having fun no matter what form they are in and this music video gets a nod from me for just being purely and genuinely funny.

2. Do I Wanna Know? – Arctic Monkeys

This mesmerizing gem is almost orgasmic to watch. The first them I watched it I got Tame Impala vibes with it’s almost psychedelic feel but now I know better. Now I know it’s the most accurate incarnation of the song and Alex Turner’s voice out there, with the animation fitting perfectly with every element of the song. It is a true compliment to have such amazing animation capture the essence of a song in such simple lines. And when the last chorus kicks in and everything just shifts and changes before your eyes so fluidly, you know that it could only have been executed through animation.

3. Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz

Now I couldn’t talk about animation without mentioning one of the few musical acts out there that, well only appear as animated characters. The Gorillaz don’t actually exist as a band in our “real world” but that doesn’t stop them from giving us bomb as music videos or live performances. There’s not much I could say aside from great it is that music doesn’t always need a ‘real’ face behind it to make it enjoyable. Like the Arctic Monkey’s video the animation just compliments the song and compels you to keep listening as things progress/

4. Talk Is Cheap – Chet Faker

Don’t worry, Chet is fine. He eventually awoke from his hibernation and is walking among us Australians alive and well. But that video right? I’m always compelled to ask my friends how they think it was done. Like we would be sitting there theorizing if he actually sat in ice, or if it really is all animation. I think it was a combination of stop motion, after effects and possibly a little method acting on Chet’s behalf, but I wasn’t there so I could never know (Unless you worked on the video, then by all means feel free to tell me how it was done so seamlessly). But putting questions aside I find this music video just relaxing to watch. The stop motion gives it a very slow paced burn as the song builds up and just keep a consistent feel of propelling forward, but not quite dying as well. It’s a weird way to explain something, but like how the video constantly shifts and flows into the next season building up more layers, the song doesn’t let up and yet still contains the same qualities from before.

Maybe I’m looking at it completely wrong and just interpreted it poorly but alas there is my animation appreciation post. Goodnight people, I’ll probably write tomorrow.

ELEVEN – CAREFUL MY TOE

So movement in a video can be very crucial in some aspects. On such a small screen any hand gesture or foot movement draws the attention of the audiences eyes, and it’s up to both the artist and editor to make it look good and purposeful. It’s like when you’r at gig and the artist isn’t sure where to put their hands, so they flail about hoping that no one notices that all their dance moves are unscripted and slightly awkward. But it can also be a part of their brand, and the artist just owns it like a badass. So here is my blog post exploring movement and dancing in music videos.

1. The Trouble With Us – Chet Faker & Marcus Marr

With very deliberate and repetitive actions, this music video gets audience’s intrigued but also amused by the scenes that unfold. It plays with movement in a fun way and is synced so well along with the song that it feels natural. You almost expect someone to break away from the supposed norm created in the actions, and I was actually disappointed that no one strayed in the end. Despite that one small personal thing it is seriously just a fun video to watch.

2. GROWL – EXO

These lovely boys are EXO, and they sure know how to bust a move. They have a whole entire playlist full of performance music videos but I’ve chosen to share this one because of it’s pseudo one-take style on shooting. To capture what was shot, the camera man would of had to rehearse this for hours and hours, and make sure all 12 members (one for every month) were exactly in the right place at the right time. It also is a great colarboration between the cinematography and choreography, with the company’s choreographer keeping in mind camera movement and incorporating that into the dance. When the focus is on half the members for a few minutes, the rest prepare and get ready to jump in and mirror the other half. It’s what all good KPOP videos aspire to be, focusing just on the overall dance and performance of the artists.

3. Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde

With her little T-Rex arms flailing about with passion burning in her eyes, Lorde’s dancing is an acquired taste. Personally I think it’s wonderful. She’s so into the music and comfortable in her own self that she doesn’t care how she appears. When I mentioned earlier that some artists can just get away with moving weird, I know people thought of Lorde. Her dancing is something we can all relate to and it isn’t something we can just overlook as over-acting. It’s almost a message to all her fans and haters that she doesn’t care what you think, this is how she is and she is showing it with both her music and movement. Her strange dancing has become a staple for live performances already, and so to incorporate it into a music video just emphasizes her rebellious music video for the Hunger Games song.

TEN – BACK INTO THE WOODS

SET REPORT

Well what happened today?

Let’s see, as usual I was late, but not because I wanted to be. We even pushed back our meet-up time from 9am to midday due to weather concerns, but it still didn’t help me. The gardens are huge, and parking was especially difficult to find. Yet the start of my day was not deterred, and while walking around I got to immerse myself in how beautiful our location truly was.

We had a good shot list prepared the night before, not detailed heavily, but it outlined what was needed. The sequences were supposed to be shot in reverse order of the linear timeline, so the first scene of the day was the last scene in the music video. This was so we could get all the big scenes with lots of people out of the way, and then as the day progressed people who were done with filming could go home. The only people who were definitely not allowed to leave early were Abby and Jon.

Right I completely forgot to introduce our cast for the video, but whats the point in spouting out names now, when you can’t exactly see them yet. Or can you. For now lets enjoy this image of Jon Miranda.

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A man who has helped me my entire uni life, albeit still a short lifespan so far, and has been a lifesaver for my degree time and time again. The whole crew were pulling at strings to find a suitable “Elvis Hair Guy”, and I realised that Jon would always be open to help me.

But anywho, more about shoot day. Well, since we went from a full 9hr shoot to half that time and started at 1, we didn’t plan any catering for cast and crew. It was mainly because we didn’t think we’d be able to squeeze in the time, and trust when I say that our biggest concern was time. Since we were technically only allowed to legally shoot till 6pm we knew that we had to work extremely fast. Maggie was the badass boss that with kept us on track, and with Blair and I acting as production assistants that only left the wonderful and amazingly difficult job of Director of Photography to our esteemed Jordan.

Below is a few more photos from today taken from various individuals. I can’t remember who took which because we all just shared them in our group chat to have a bit of a laugh.

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As you can see the shenanigans were a plenty. Also this posts music video share is one that shares our fun vibes. Paramore’s “Ain’t It Fun” made me smile, laugh and is one of a kind, breaking the world record for the most word records in a music video. I would have definitely loved to be a part of this production, I mean you can just tell they had a lot of fun, just like we did on set.

NINE – THE SLIPPER FITS

S o our pitch went well. Or as well as anything could be. We finalized our ideas and presented them so they have to be good. Rohan and Georgia were concerned for our modern Disney theme, which I admit could be hard to translate, but it’s too late to back out now since we shoot on Sunday!!

So now class has got me thinking again. If our initial ideas don’t pull through what will happen. I mean, our entire video isn’t depending on this one aspect, but it was a critique that Rohan had about out narrative. He said we needed some meat to our fish, and we had scrambled to settle on out Disney idea, but will the video fail if the middle fails. I like to believe that we can still tell a decent story, even if our princesses won’t interpreted well. I mean he can just be a genuine human being and help random ladies out. It’s not too hard to pitch a video like that, I guess we just needed another push to get something up and running that wasn’t just moving from point A to B.

To reflect my ideas of telling a romantic fairytale-esque story, I will look no further than Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” today. It is the epitome of a simple princess theme and hopefully we can get something across that resembles it.