Grace: 

For our A level coursework we made a promotional campaign which consisted of a digitally edited music video, a photoshop design Cd digipak and Wix web homepage for the artist Neveah.

 This commentary will focus on the use of digital technology we used in the production day for our music video and the post-production editing process.

 Dom:

At the beginning of the shoot day we had to create the set by draping large sheets for the top of the studio, as well as prepare the digital image projectors, so that they were positioned correctly, in focus,  and were able to project the images with good image quality and resolution. 

 

For the images of earth water, fire and air, we found footage on a specialized stock website.

These images were sourced using the website called Video Hive.

 

These images were high quality 720 pixel quality – good enough for a semi-professional music video shoot.  These copyrighted images were purchased and downloaded prior to the shoot day.

 

India:

The camera we used for the shoot was the Sony FS-100 HD camcorder, which was filming at 50fps, so if we wanted to in post-production, we could create the slow motion effect – which we later on decided not to.

 

The camera had an interchangeable lens system, so we used an 18mm for wide shots and a 25 mm for mid shots. We also had a 50mm for close-ups and extreme close-ups.

 

At the start of each take we had a playback, used to help match the audio with the footage in post-production.  This was a time saving device which enabled us to match the visual to the beat of the song.

 

Grace:

In post- production the first step that we made was uploading the footage to computers with Mac software installed.  The editing software we used was called Adobe Premiere Pro.

 

We transferred  the footage onto Premiere Pro via an Sd card, and sorted through what we got.   We decided to put the footage we got into folders (Bins) and  this let us organise them them into shot types (e.g wide shot, close up, mid shot and tracking shot) to start an offline edit.  We also organised them into what elements they

were (e.g fire, water, air and earth), this would help us when we needed to edit the video and find shots quickly.

 

The selected shots were then laid onto a timeline and these matched the time code on the digital clapperboard in shot on each clip to the same time code imported with the track into the project.

 

Dom:

We also created markers, allowing us to cut our song to the beat.  Using the razor tool we could effectively trim and cut footage in a very precise way matching action and lip syncing the video –for example on the chorus when we had a close up.

 

The use of the timeline and different layers in editing enabled us to cross-cut between a dance performance and the artist –an important technical convention of the music video. The offline edit was a way to be creative and disciplined at the same time – cutting a wide imagination of shots technically to the beat of the song – a truly digital innovation!

 

Premiere Pro enabled us to easily edit out video and put the footage to the music, we were able to easily sync up the footage because of the clapper we used (which was an iPad) in production. 

 

India:

In editing  we also had to color balance this was to make sure all the shots looked the same, we put a blue tint on our video and upped the contrast so the projections stood out more.  This provided consistency to the overall look of the video.  Using the color selecting tool we were able to grade across different shots – making the product fit for purpose.

 

This process has enabled us to become more confident prosumers of media texts, we can see this by the fact we were then able to export the file and upload it onto YouTube for our audience to see.

 

Through the process our creativity had developed through some of the decisions that we had to make when it came to set; costume, lighting, as well as trying to incorporate the star image thought-out. We feel that all of us have become more technically skilled are now more comfortable with the concept of being a prosumer.