by Jenny Pham Vo -

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.

by Jenny Pham Vo -

EIGHTEEN – THE COW IS COVERED WITH FLOUR

So last weeks comments and today’s editing session were crazy. I saw Rohan today, which I didn’t expect to happen. It’s a Wednesday! but perhaps he already arranged to be meeting up with the other groups there, since I saw a few myself. Going in with Jon to finish off the grade was an experience. We finally did it though, and the post about that will come later on when we know Abby is happy with it, but today I wanted to talk about my first time grading something.

It was wild from start to finish to keep things simple. Jordan had already gone through the beginning of the video with some edits, but I found them too much and distorted too much. His addition of a yellow layer didn’t fell right to me, and Jon who was with me felt the same way too. So while I was there I made an alternative edit, with the raw being the basis and popping up the green a little to emphasize the beautiful scenery we had in the gardens.

 

A/N Update 24/2 – This post was cut off while I was transferring stuff from tumblr back to here. I think I go on to say things along the lines of, “I wasn’t confident in my ability, but at least I tried it.” and the music video I linked was Meryll Streep’s Last Midnight from Into The Woods movie.

by Jenny Pham Vo -

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.

by Jenny Pham Vo -

SEVENTEEN – ANY MOMENT

So this is going to be a short one guys.

First of all, our fine cut is due tomorrow and I am slightly worried. We didn’t receive a lot of good feedback last time Rohan saw our group, and Maggie has been stressing me out in the edit suites. I mean I get it, sitting in small rooms and sharing that space for long periods of time can take a toll on people, but I just want this to be over soon.

In other news I’m also excited to share what we have with everyone again. Our principle editing is done, and now our grade is all that we need to focus on. That’s been the part where I am completely and utterly useless. I have had no experience playing around with colours before, but I am still super eager to try. I’m thinking of just letting Jordan do his thing and me sitting there watching every single step he does. I found that’s the best way for me to learn, it’s how I learnt to edit in premiere with a friend last semester, and hopefully this technique wont fail me now.

Anywho (I think I’ve said that too much) I am going to leave here with my worries in my head, and my life in the classes hands. I respect everyone’s feedback from last time, so tomorrow let’s hope for more awesome advice, and more great edits like Nikki’s group with their magical floating head. Not gonna lie that bit where his silhouette just started moving along the sides got me good.

by Jenny Pham Vo -

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.

by Jenny Pham Vo -

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExVtrghW5Y4

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.

by Jenny Pham Vo -

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.