Music video- instamental Coldplay- Fix You

editing to sound

evaluation

I decided to do a found footage music video, showing the difference between man made and nature. I chose an instrumental version of fix you by coldplay because it had the right slow tempo and had the same pace as i wanted the video to have. If i had more time i would have liked to add more of my own footage because i found it difficult finding the kind of clips that i wanted,  near the beginning there are 3 of my own clips. I didn't feel like the clips were that high of quality which brought the quality of the video down. The video was supposed to have a message of what we are doing to the Earth but re-watching the video that isn't all that clear. I made my video experimental by putting the clips over clips to try and emphasise my point by comparing them both. Editing was quite easy as it was very simple to cut the clips that i wanted to you as then adjust the contrast so that you can see both clips.

Some of the images are grainy and the quality of the clips that i have found are low quality, also because they are found footage the clips are not all the same size, so when editing i had to change the size of my clips so that they are all the same size, so it doesn't look off when i have put them on top of each other, however it means that there are blank space around the clips because not all the clips were big enough to fit the screen.

It doesn't look that good but, i think the clip go well with the music because of the slow pace and saddened tone. I had to cut the song down to 3 minutes from it's original 6 because of the struggle of finding the clips for a video that long and because of the subject of the video is not all that interesting, the clips are similar to each other, if i had more time i could have came up with a more interesting concept and maybe a more original song. I did rush to find the clips, find the music, find a concept and edit, so it isn't that good of a job, i could have done a better job if i were to give myself more time and had a clearer idea when i started the project of what i wanted to do.

I attempted to have a little bit of experimental by having clips come in at different parts to the music, this happens at the beginning, the clips don't take up the whole screen and there is a bit of blank space around them but the clips are not there for long so that i feel like i can get away with the amount of black space that i have.  

I have a lot of layers to work with because part of what makes this found footage experimental is the layers ontop of each other, so you are seeing the clips at the same time on top of each other. The amount of layers i had at times did confuse me because i wanted certain ones over certain clips and so  the layers did confuse me, if i had been more organised with my layers, it would have been more simple.

Health and safety

When filming the promotional video in the Hays we had to follow some guidelines and the Hays is a public space with meany visitors through out the day, so anyone on camera, we had to get content form, as they would be featured in the video which will then go to the internet. We also had to fill out forms that gave us permission to film in the Hays as it is Government property. Because the Hays can get very busy, throughout the day of filming we would always keep an eye on any and all equipment as some was rented from the college so to this was to ensure it wasn't stolen or damaged, it was never left unattended, we also made sure when we used wires etc, that nothing was left on public path, for someone to trip over.

As most of the equipment was rented we made sure that the equipment when it was not being used was it it's proper casing and boxing and when we used it we held it properly, not to drop it. When the equipment was in use we had the boxing on had for when we was done and double check the equipment was in working order before use. When using equipment like a tripod we made sure it was all securely attached and in the proper perdition and had the correct support, in order not to damage or break anything.

filming permission slips form the Hays

updated promotional video

Hartshill Hayes Promotional Video from Willow Collins on Vimeo.


Editing.
We had some trouble originally with the software and the files because we lost some of our clips when transferring the files from SD card to the Mac computer but we had backups so that it was easy to get the clips back. We did waste a whole day trying to put files imported to premier pro, because we originally was just working from a hard drive, we then had to put the files onto the computer then to premier pro because working of the hard drive slowed things down. When going back through the footage and sound, mainly with the interview with he ranger, because the mic was constantly being moved we had a lot of unwanted sound that we couldn't fully edit out. Because we didn't use a tripod in a lot of the shots we had to use the warp stabiliser which in some shots didn't fully work, so we had to be brutal with some of the shots so that only the best possible shots were left. When editing the interviews we found that we had to cut out a lot of fillers, when people spoke there were lots of "errs" and "umm" so we had to do a lot of chopping in order to have what they are saying flow. We didn't realise how long the interviews were going to be, so first we edited and hoped to what was usable and we felt like we needed to include. We then later had to cut more of the interviews out to keep the video shorter. If we did this again, i would make sure to label and organise the clips before we start editing because when we were editing, one of the hardest things was going through the clips to find which one to use, we should have labelled and sorted out to get a general idea of what clips we could use when to add more structure to the process and possibly save us more time. We also found when editing that we had to colour correct a lot with he clips because on one of the cameras the white balance was off this also slowed us down because we had to make sure that the clips matched with he exposure and colours. What we did well was cutting all the unimportant clips that, although was nice didn't add anything to the narrative and would have made the video longer than it should be and the music that Willow wrote went really well with the video, as it set the right mood for the video with was calming and relaxing. During the edit we also checked that we had everything that the client asked for, like logs, fonts and that we mentioned certain parts of the Hays. We had a lot of technical difficulties, during the several days of editing we lots some clips and so there are parts in video where we had clips over the interviews, which no longer exist, so we submitted a second draft to meet our deadline, we are able to re-shoot and salvage footage for a final draft when our client comes back from holiday in 2 weeks.

We made the interviews the main component in our video, this is to show that Hartshill Hays is a place for people and to get different insights of the different age groups around the hays to give a more realistic insight. We also had people walking around or playing in the park as apposed to just showing the empty spaces because it makes it more realistic and better to show the parks main spots being used, so it looks better than just empty spaces when people are talking about them. We had a lot of footage, so in order to shorten the film to a watchable length, we had to cut out a lot of it, which include cutting the umms from the interviews as they added more time and made the interviews more boring so we edited them out. We adjusted a lot of the colours so that all the footages white balanced match to make it look more professional and so that no shot stood out because it was a different colour that didn't go with the rest of the video. We each had our own ideas for this video, in order for the ideas to be shared and listen to we assigned jobs roles in which we could express our own ideas within the set job role, mine was filming (this allowed me to take shots that i felt would work within the video, it helped in the previous years at college that i took photography so i was well experienced with the camera and experimenting with different angles), Conner was directing and communication and Willows was Music. We all assisted with the editing as it was a big job, too big for anyone to do alone, so we worked as a team when editing taking it in turns and listening to each ideas and trying them out to see what would work and what didn't.

client response

We had a response from our client. they liked the final video but asked us to make a few changes, we did and have resent the video.

We had a positive response from Wildlife Kate, one of the people we interviewed and she really liked the video.

Final video

We had a question to ask our clients about footage of wildlife taken in a similar area to the hays which isn't the hays by someone who has cameras around different woodland areas, who we have interviewed. The top image is our email that we sent and the second is out clients response.

This is a part of an email we were sent from our clients, mentioning what they want in the video. The crossed off lines are what we managed to include, we couldn't include the bluebells as they have no yet seasoned.

This is a to do list, of what we need to do in order to finish the video.

These two images show the editing we had to do to one of the videos colours, as when we did one of the interviews, one of the cameras had an off white balance and so the footage was more golden than the others, so we had to change the colour of that video to fit the others. In the preview screen of the screenshot the image on the lefty is the video that needed changing and the one on the right was the video we needed thew other to look more similar to.

Editing

Sequence 01 from abbie on Vimeo.


This is one of our shots we got when shooting the promotional video, i used this to experiment with the warp stabiliser as in the first editing draft of our video their were shots that we used the warp stabiliser on, which didn't work and the effect messed with he video making it look not good. So experimenting with some clips to see if we could use this video editing effect in the final draft. The clip shows two shots of a stream, the first one is shaky with no effect and the second is still with the warp effect. It worked a lot better on this clip

sending in our first draft

Editing the audio

willow as she had the most experience in editing sounds, she edited the audio to the interviews, so that we could get rid of unwanted background sounds and make the audio easier to use and better to hear.

first edit (draft) and response from client

This is our first draft, we sent this to our client, we explained that it wasn't finished and that we still had a lot more footage to take and use, but this is the general direction of the video. They replied with...

The video isn't finished yet, but we hope to get is finished by the deadline and as Mrs Cheesman is going on holiday, and will be way during our deadline we have some extra time before the deadline just to go over any little imperfections before sending it to them and them hopefully using it on their website. In the meantime when it comes to the deadline as we won't have the client feedback we need, we are hoping one of our teachers could give us some feedback on our clients behalf.

Footage placement

We have gathered up all the footage we have captured so far and put it all on the same hard drive, so it is in the same place for when we start editing.

Tour and interview with the ranger and technical difficulties

These are images from when we had a tour from a ranger called Mike at the Hartshill Hays, he gave us lots to use in our video and gave a very good, informative interview. We had two camera when on the tour, so we could get what Mike was talking about and Mike taking about it. We also had a Mic recording the whole time, so we have clear sounds with plenty of footage.

During near the end of the tour, one of the cameras we had died and one of the SD card became full. So we had to switch the SD card with space still let on it, to the camera with the battery, however during the interview the camera malfunctioned and struggled to record for more than 30 seconds at a time. We had to keep taking the battery out to reset the camera and try and keep recording. We missed out part of his interview but we had a H1 Mic that recored the whole interview, so we can use what Mike said as voice overs instead of visual footage.

Conducting interviews

This is our setup for two of the interviews we conducted, in the hays, we got both participants to sign a release form saying that we can use them in the video, the young boy is under 18 so we got a parent to sign on his behalf.  the pictures show the interview as we captured it and the set up to get that shot.

weather issues.

Due to the weather it is difficult to shoot, as we can't capture the Hartshill Hays in it's best light when it's raining, so we have to wait on days where it's not raining to shoot. However this could easily put us behind schedule as we won't have that many days which we can shoot on. To try and get around it, we have been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts and planning and being prepared for the days when the weather forecasts say it's noting going to rain.

Contact with the rangers

This is a screenshot of when we contacted one of the rangers at Hartshill Hays country park to try and scandal and interview and/ or a tour around the park for the video. We are still waiting for a response from the ranger.