Now completely finished and given the stamp of approval from Rohan, I’m going to talk a little bit about my group Hawaii Five-Oh’s music video for Pockets‘ latest single “Ten Different Names”.

The concept for the video was born out of a few listens to the song and some wild ideas tossed back and forth between the group. One of the initial unspoken concerns was that all of the ideas for the video were a bit up in the air – all interesting in theory but possibly a bit of an ordeal to execute (often a situation I find myself in). Rohan didn’t originally seem completely sold on the idea either.

I have to thank Nikki for getting the ball rolling – she was the first to actually go home, produce something and share it with us. What she did go home and produce formed the basis of the entire intro and first verse of the finished result – a quietly psychedelic milk-meets-paint swirl. This served as the catalyst for a myriad of experiments to follow, including Steph’s layers of coloured paper, Luna’s smoke-machine rave effect, Yuxin’s gentle paint+water effect and my explosive stop-motion colours.

The original idea was to follow the band’s silhouette-based design and have the vocalist as a silhouette singing against psychedelic effects, which would build in intensity and vibrancy as the video progressed, eventually followed by similar effects being produced within the vocalist’s silhouette. A lot of this was ultimately produced but a few things here and there changed as we came up with different ideas in the production and post-production processes. We ended up ditching the idea to produce effects within the silhouette – admittedly at first because it was a bit of a stretch beyond our capabilities, later settling instead on the reasoning that it was a smart move conceptually to keep the figure completely blacked-out.

Other than that, most of what we pitched in the third project brief is what came to be executed in the finished product. I think this was due to us having a simple idea that we stuck to from the moment we came up with it and communicating with each other/being organised throughout the process. We also made sure that we were aware of everyone’s unique skills that they could bring to the development of the video in order for us to work well collaboratively. I think the video works well stylistically in comparison to the band’s image and logo while also fitting really well to the song sonically as well, which we took great care to achieve. Some of the effects that we attempted in the video are perhaps not 100% the most awe-inspiring thing you’ll ever see but I think they are attention-grabbing and do effectively stand out from a lot of music videos you see these days.

The work feels equally informed by Tame Impala style visuals (see “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”) as it does iPod commercials circa 2001. Given the feel of the song itself, I would say this is a pretty accurate blend of references. I’m really pleased with the end result and if called upon again by the band for more visual work I would gladly rise to the task.

Summer School has now come to an end. In these past 6 or so weeks I actually feel like I’ve possibly gotten more out of this class than I have any other so far. I’ll be sad to see it go, although I’m totally pleased with the way it came to an end and what I achieved in the class.

The two-day-a-week timetable of The Great Belgian Egg Hunt worked really well, it neither felt overwhelming or lacking. I felt that the subject was paced perfectly throughout the semester and that each aspect of the course was given an appropriate amount of time. The first three project briefs all served as phases in the development of the final project brief so I didn’t feel rushed in producing the music video itself as I had appropriately prepared.

We viewed and discussed the extent to which the music video medium could be explored, and as a result I was exposed to some auteurs and ideas that I may not have been had I not applied for this course. I became truly aware of the impact of the music video on an artist’s brand, message, character and legacy. I also discovered the significance of the music video itself, and how important it has been for music to be given a visual platform and context. To us today, music videos are to be expected and are definitely no surprise; seldom do we think about the layers they add artistically and commercially to an artist’s work and the extensive possibilities for narrative, .

This class gave me the opportunity to exercise my ability to work in a group and collaborate effectively. Obviously there was a degree of luck here, being that my group was full of keen, driven people, but I think we all played to our strengths and didn’t try to control or sit back too much. This made for a pretty easygoing production process and ultimately enabled us to complete a product we are all proud of.

I’ve also most likely required more practical skills from this class than any other yet. Being behind the camera for both my group’s shoot and the live performance practical class allowed me to practise filming on the fly. I’d never shot and produced green screen material before, so working in the green screen studio was an interesting experience, with care having to be taken with basically everything, such as ensuring that the lighting lit the green evenly to make the keying out process in post easier and more effective.

My editing skills, particularly within Premiere Pro, have also greatly improved as a result of this course. Luckily, Steph in our group has had plenty of experience with the program and was able to show us the ropes. I picked up a lot from watching her breeze through with different shortcuts and techniques and as a result feel a lot more confident with the software and my ability to produce something with it.

Coming out of this class, I’ve produced a video that was initially well out of my comfort zone technically and have accrued a number of new skills that will have extensive application for the rest of my course.

After screening our rough cut to the class today we got some useful feedback from the class and Rohan along with what was admittedly a really positive reaction which we didn’t actually expect. Maybe because we’d been editing it yesterday and this morning and have been overexposed to it we’d downplayed the quality in our minds.

A lot of the suggestions from the class and Rohan were minor technical things. For instance, keeping the figure fixed in a position at points where it jumped slightly, suggestions for colour grading, etc. Nobody had any issues with the creative direction of the video though which was a relief seeing as our video was probably a bit of an outsider in the class in terms of style and aesthetic.

Rohan seemed particularly excited for us to keep the ball rolling which was a great motivator. Hopefully we can continue to deliver some interesting and different visual ideas.

Today I headed in to the studio to begin my shift of work in the editing process for our music video. I arrived at 11am, where Steph and Luna had been toiling away since 9am. They’d been problem solving since the morning and had discovered how to clean up matte issues when changing the size of the green screen footage, among other fixes.

I began working with them and we put together solid material for the intro,  first verse and chorus. This was a painstaking process mind you, as I really came to realise that Premiere Pro is very delicate territory. One incorrectly moved keyframe can wreak all sorts of havoc. Nevertheless we managed to get through that chunk and Steph had to head off.

Yuxin arrived at around 12:30 and the three of us decided to revise some of the parts we’d already gone over to make them more rhythmic. Through gruelling repetition, my understanding and competence in editing tools and shortcuts has greatly improved and I feel that I can get into the groove of things now. After Luna left, Yuxin and I began to loosely plot out the material for the remaining sections in the song.

Now that we’ve put together a rough cut of the song, I’m starting to feel more confident about the project. In a sense I feel like we’re held back by not knowing how to do a few things, but I think that simultaneously prompts us to explore different ways of approaching the way the video is presented. Since we began conceptualising this music video we agreed that we wanted to embrace simplicity, so I guess some of these restrictions force us to find power in simplicity. Admittedly we’re getting some kind of Gondry-esque effects with what we’ve done so far so can’t complain!

Today we headed down to the editing suites to make a start on the rough cut for our music video. We slowly began to realise that this truly was the most taxing part of the process for us, and that this will be the first of many sessions to get this thing right.

Luckily we all have a bit of prowess in operating Premiere Pro so we were able to fill the gaps in each other’s knowledge. Once we all had a grip of how to key the green out, produce and manipulate keyframes, and apply different shortcuts to speed up the process, our vision began to come together more fluidly.

At the same time we became aware of our limitations as well. While initially planning to have some arty experiments happening within the silhouette itself, we found that this wasn’t something any of us knew how to do. So we agreed on a vision within our capabilities and began working towards that.

This prompted us to discover that, without establishing a system, five people working towards a common goal can be a bit overwhelming and a bit of an obstacle in itself, especially when trying to edit and particularly seeing as we are all fairly evenly skilled at Premiere Pro. After toying around with some effects and seeing what sort of look was possible, we decided to invest trust in each other and reconvene the process tomorrow in shifts of pairs to speed up the process.

Tomorrow we’ll put together a finalised rough copy to submit for Thursday – hopefully we can get a decent amount of the heavy lifting done.

On Friday my group got together to compile the green screen rushes for our music video. We assembled at the RMIT green screen studio at 10am and began playing with the lighting scheme, camera configuration setup, etc. Our subject – Dan, the vocalist of Pockets – was set to arrive at 11am, which ended up being a worthwhile arrangement seeing as it took us a good hour to work out how to get the lighting and camera setup right.

Once we’d finally managed to arrange a nice, consistent green and a lighting state that would produce an appropriate silhouette we were good to go. We spent 10 or so minutes bouncing some ideas around about directing Dan’s performance and the props we could incorporate. Dan arrived around the 11:15am mark and we jumped straight into it. Although we had had a bit of discussion and pre-conceptualisation surrounding how Dan could perform in front of the camera this only very loosely guided the process, and as it tends to go the best material was improvised or planned immediately before the take.

We captured an array of performances, from Dan giving us a consistently still portrait to harnessing the stage presence of Jimmy Barnes. We experimented with Dan wearing a number of different hats to represent the subject matter of adopting multiple personalities in the song “Ten Different Names”. Some of these hats were quite conventional – caps, wide-brimmed hats – while others were quite bizarre and produced an interesting effect where only seen via a profile silhouette, my favourite being a set of fluffy headphones rotated 90 degrees on his head which somehow produced a very convincing image of a mullet.

Dan was great to work with and was willing to run along with suggestions and come in with a number of his own. He was admittedly put through a series of moderately athletic trials: a lot of falling forward, falling back and bobbing in and out of frame. He delivered each of these movements with a great energy that I think will lend itself well to the aesthetic of the video.

We experimented with some strange transition techniques which may or may not come out very well, the one that was the most time-consuming involved throwing a sheet over Dan’s head as he ducks out of frame. Playing with different props and utensils around the set and that we had brought in created a number of different effects that we will be able to alternate between in the video and hopefully create an energetic and suitably playful video.

From this experience I have gained a slightly higher level of competence with the camera and configuring lighting. It affirmed to me that having a comfortable level of initial preparation is important, while at the same time being open to the inclusion of happy accidents can be very beneficial – we had a moment in our shooting where Dan’s hat fell off at what will be a hilariously well-timed moment and will almost definitely be worthwhile including.

I now also have some insight into the process of shooting in front of a green screen, not at all complicated but also something I’d never done so I’m happy to have that one ticked off the list!