Ive been thinking a lot about what case studies could possibly help me in further developing my installation idea and every time I think about what I want to achieve I find myself thinking about the beardyman video, it is so well constructed. I will talk to David about possibly using it as a case study as I think I can take a lot from it.
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Monday, 28 January 2013
Some more inspirational videos/installations
I absolutely LOVE this kinetic installation, its so elegant and graceful in the way it moves. the sculpture is an artistic visualization of the process of form-finding in different variations.
You can read more about it from here: http://www.artcom.de/en/projects/project/detail/kinetic-sculpture/
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Installation
Ok so after a few days of mulling around I have done a lot of thinking about my project. I really want to persue my installation idea. SO What will I need to do:
Find a track- This is a big part of this semester, I need to find a track that can be engaging and have enough complexity to break apart and compose in a visual form
Get permission- I will submit my idea to Clare Brennon, but it will be entirely up to her and the people involved with the exposition to decided. Although, if I dont get the installation space what I will do is make a mock up of what I would want the installation to look like so I am not too worried about this as I have a back up idea.
Content for the videos- So apart from the track, another huge part of my final project will be the content. I plan to have at least 3 media tests done for crit week so that will give me time to experiment with different theories and artists techniques to play around with an develop my own.
Find a track- This is a big part of this semester, I need to find a track that can be engaging and have enough complexity to break apart and compose in a visual form
Get permission- I will submit my idea to Clare Brennon, but it will be entirely up to her and the people involved with the exposition to decided. Although, if I dont get the installation space what I will do is make a mock up of what I would want the installation to look like so I am not too worried about this as I have a back up idea.
Content for the videos- So apart from the track, another huge part of my final project will be the content. I plan to have at least 3 media tests done for crit week so that will give me time to experiment with different theories and artists techniques to play around with an develop my own.
Friday, 25 January 2013
installation inspiration
Here are some nice examples of installation that infuse together audio/visuals together
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Second Semester!
Ok, so after a very short break between hand ins for 1st semester and second semester, I seem to have hit a brick wall. I don't really know how to progress? I kind of want to see what my results for concept development and pre production are before I move on. I really need to organize a meeting with my module tutor but I have not been very well the past week so hopefully I can get better and get full steam ahead for next week. Ok so here is where my thoughts are at just now:
I would really like to develop my installation idea with the TVs but, there could be a problem with actually getting the space that I would need/want. But I will try my hardest to pursue this idea. If it cant be achieved then I will make a video to impersonate what I wanted with the installation.
As of now, until I find out if I can or not, I will increase my research significantly in kinetic installations and in general installations that relate to what I want to achieve. I will also advancing my editing skills by sitting and taking the time to complete more complex editing tutorials that I can learn from and be able to add more skill to my videos.
I would really like to develop my installation idea with the TVs but, there could be a problem with actually getting the space that I would need/want. But I will try my hardest to pursue this idea. If it cant be achieved then I will make a video to impersonate what I wanted with the installation.
As of now, until I find out if I can or not, I will increase my research significantly in kinetic installations and in general installations that relate to what I want to achieve. I will also advancing my editing skills by sitting and taking the time to complete more complex editing tutorials that I can learn from and be able to add more skill to my videos.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Summary of Semester 1
So it is hand ins tomorrow and there is nothing more that can be done. So Im just going to post a summary of things I have done, what I have learned and what I am looking to do in next semester.
So I started off this year with an idea of expanding my previous 3rd year project of visualizing sound. Through the research process I have learned so much about visualizing music as well as improving my filming, editing, directing and producing skills.
In week 8 in my crit presentation I said by the end of the semester I wanted to create three main types of videos (as well as a lot of smaller media tests to further develop my ideas). Those three videos have been completed: The music video (daniel and lewis), a visual cue/ textural video (my video with the 1st year soundtrack) and a transitional video (the Gaelic video). Each video has taught me different things.
I would also like to point out that since releasing the music video "im done" on youtube, it has had 5000 views in a week and we have had a massive positive response. A company even wrote an article/review about it 2 hours after it was uploaded. (see here :http://www.ljrandco.co.uk/daniel-muir-dee-new-and-oh-so-talented/).
My editing skills are unrecognisable, at the begining of the semester I was googling "how to cut a clip in premiere pro"... yes.. it was that bad. Now I am a lot more time effective and dont struggle to find simple tools.
In terms of my project's development. I have now explored extensively the areas that I intended to explore and I am ready to take semester two on. I still dont EXACTLY know what my final project outcome will be but I will defiantly use the key points that I have established in my research proposal: Colour and note association, musical and visual characteristics, and creating a greater aesthetic for the eye and ear.
So I started off this year with an idea of expanding my previous 3rd year project of visualizing sound. Through the research process I have learned so much about visualizing music as well as improving my filming, editing, directing and producing skills.
In week 8 in my crit presentation I said by the end of the semester I wanted to create three main types of videos (as well as a lot of smaller media tests to further develop my ideas). Those three videos have been completed: The music video (daniel and lewis), a visual cue/ textural video (my video with the 1st year soundtrack) and a transitional video (the Gaelic video). Each video has taught me different things.
I would also like to point out that since releasing the music video "im done" on youtube, it has had 5000 views in a week and we have had a massive positive response. A company even wrote an article/review about it 2 hours after it was uploaded. (see here :http://www.ljrandco.co.uk/daniel-muir-dee-new-and-oh-so-talented/).
My editing skills are unrecognisable, at the begining of the semester I was googling "how to cut a clip in premiere pro"... yes.. it was that bad. Now I am a lot more time effective and dont struggle to find simple tools.
In terms of my project's development. I have now explored extensively the areas that I intended to explore and I am ready to take semester two on. I still dont EXACTLY know what my final project outcome will be but I will defiantly use the key points that I have established in my research proposal: Colour and note association, musical and visual characteristics, and creating a greater aesthetic for the eye and ear.
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Essay Grade!
I am SO happy, I got my essay grade back on Thursday and guess what!! I got a A-, 18/20. That's pretty darn good, I am over the moon as I have never managed to achieve an A in my essays, so to get one in 4th year, I picked a very good year to get an A in my essay. To be fair though, I did work really really hard on that essay and obviously it has paid off. Gives me great hope for my dissertation as has motivated me even more!
Saturday, 12 January 2013
What have I learned from this music video.
Green screening
-The subject must be better lit, taking out every shadow
-I wont be getting the subject to wear white, that was a big problem for reflections
-Box out an area for the subject to move so that they don't go in front of the over head lights and change the lighting on their face
Outside shooting
- Invest in portable lighting equipment
- If the lighting is back, probably shouldn't shoot there
- Have back up locations
Over all
-Film more, even thought I had almost 40 minutes of footage for a 3 minute film, I still struggled to find really good stuff to use.
-Making sure the shots are perfect before moving on to the next
Good things
-I have gained experience working with clients, taking into consideration of their style, genre of music and target market.
- I have developed knowledge in cinematography and composition when filming
- It has significantly improved my editing skills
- I have learned how to polish and make a video look more professional.
- I have learned the basic green screen and editing process
-The subject must be better lit, taking out every shadow
-I wont be getting the subject to wear white, that was a big problem for reflections
-Box out an area for the subject to move so that they don't go in front of the over head lights and change the lighting on their face
Outside shooting
- Invest in portable lighting equipment
- If the lighting is back, probably shouldn't shoot there
- Have back up locations
Over all
-Film more, even thought I had almost 40 minutes of footage for a 3 minute film, I still struggled to find really good stuff to use.
-Making sure the shots are perfect before moving on to the next
Good things
-I have gained experience working with clients, taking into consideration of their style, genre of music and target market.
- I have developed knowledge in cinematography and composition when filming
- It has significantly improved my editing skills
- I have learned how to polish and make a video look more professional.
- I have learned the basic green screen and editing process
Friday, 11 January 2013
FINISHED!
YAY finally finished, here is the final piece, like I have mention in previous posts there are still things that I am not fully happy with but I have addressed those issues and I know how to improve on them next time.
I hope you enjoy!
(This is the link to Daniel's youtube video)
(And this is the link to the one on my page)
The only reason I have put two links up of the same video is that, Daniel and Lewis have had problems with people reporting their videos for no other reason that they dont want the boys to do well, so I was worried that it might get taken down and you can see it and therefore I cant be marked on it so here it is on mine too.
Working long into the night..
Another late night is on the cards, I have just finished the second edit fixing the problems in the first edit and adding in the night scenes. I think the night scenes really help to break up the black background and add a better aesthetic to the overall music video.
P.s the edits 3+4 got added very quickly as it was just a few adjustments
Right just one day left of editing so here is the list of things that I have to alter tomorrow
1. close ups at 23 sec are too dark
2.transition at 33 seconds is too quick and then the timing is off
3. transition at 45 is too jumpy
4. transition at 1.14 doesnt work and after the timing is off
5. 1.30 timing is off
6. 1.41, blackness comes in slightly before lights
7. 2.16 transition could be smoother
8. 2.24, blackness comes in before lights again
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Tonight's escapades
RIGHT! I am just back from shooting, jeez what a night, for a start when I got the location it starting raining so I had to take refuge in a pub. So I have been playing around with the effects to optimize the footage I took and here are some tests.
The first of probably many re-edits
Ok so I finally finished my first edit at around 5.00am this morning, I am POOPED but it was worth it. Ive gotten some sleep and taken a look back at the edit.. yea I need to work on it more.
1. The mp3 quality has went down hill quite a lot, I think that has something to do with rendering, I shall sort that out.
2. There are quite a few lip syncing issues
3. Some of the shots are a bit too jumpy.
Also around 5am this morning when I watched the video back, I noticed a lot of black space. This was intended as it is a song about heart ache and you don't want it all cheery but there is just TOO much, so to break it up, I am going to go out tonight and film some cars on the motorway and it would tie in the introduction. The reason for the cars, its just to symbolise going somewhere and it this case, its moving on from the relationship. I wanted to shoot at dark so there was still a moody and sultry atmosphere.
The first edit
1. The mp3 quality has went down hill quite a lot, I think that has something to do with rendering, I shall sort that out.
2. There are quite a few lip syncing issues
3. Some of the shots are a bit too jumpy.
Also around 5am this morning when I watched the video back, I noticed a lot of black space. This was intended as it is a song about heart ache and you don't want it all cheery but there is just TOO much, so to break it up, I am going to go out tonight and film some cars on the motorway and it would tie in the introduction. The reason for the cars, its just to symbolise going somewhere and it this case, its moving on from the relationship. I wanted to shoot at dark so there was still a moody and sultry atmosphere.
The first edit
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
The old building footage
So I was a little bit worried about the building footage as the lighting was AWFUL! but I have given it a go at restoring the footage and here are the results.
To restore them I played around with the contrast and brightness, colour balance (which in the end I made the building footage black and white as it looked better), Noise and grain remover,sharpen and the saturation.
Before
To restore them I played around with the contrast and brightness, colour balance (which in the end I made the building footage black and white as it looked better), Noise and grain remover,sharpen and the saturation.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Green screen editing- keying out and the problems I had
Ok So yesterday I was trying to correct the old building footage, now was the turn of the green screening and keying out the colours.
I had saved the tutorial sheets that I was given on the channel 4 day so I hunted them out, It was great help!
I had saved the tutorial sheets that I was given on the channel 4 day so I hunted them out, It was great help!
It told me how to do it step by step and I wasn't wasting my time looking for a youtube tutorial.
Here is my first green screen test:
I think it worked really well! I was happy with the results from this test and so I am now starting to put this music video together and I'm hoping to have the first edit done tonight!
Then as the night progresses, I start having REALLLL problems with some other green screen footage. Then dont work as well and the boys still have a haze of green to them, I couldn't figure it out, I even started writing down all the numbers so I could copy them to the other video.. still didn't work.
Here are screenshots of places that the green screen didn't work out so well
green haze around daniels back and lewis's hand is not refined enough and green shade under armpit
green hand and haze around head
green haze around side, green shadow and unrefined arms
green shadow all over face
even thought I believe this to be my most successful green screen, there is still a small hint of green in the shadow
huge green shadow on face
I was really annoyed that the old build shots didn't work out so I tried to put daniel in the picture, this worked quite well, I made him the same shade and tones as the background but it is not fully conceivable
unrefined hand
slight green haze around the body
Light reflected off the size of Lewis's eyebrow and ear
BUT
Baring in mind these errors only occur for a small part, this is just me trying to pick at my faults. I have realized where I have went wrong:
LIGHTING
I never lit the green screen properly, if I had more lights, it would have removed the shadows off their faces and I would not of had the problems that I did. But I learned from the experience.
Then as the night progresses, I start having REALLLL problems with some other green screen footage. Then dont work as well and the boys still have a haze of green to them, I couldn't figure it out, I even started writing down all the numbers so I could copy them to the other video.. still didn't work.
Here are screenshots of places that the green screen didn't work out so well
Parts of fingers are missing at the sides.
Light reflected off the size of Lewis's eyebrow and ear
BUT
Baring in mind these errors only occur for a small part, this is just me trying to pick at my faults. I have realized where I have went wrong:
LIGHTING
I never lit the green screen properly, if I had more lights, it would have removed the shadows off their faces and I would not of had the problems that I did. But I learned from the experience.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
And the editing process has begun!
Ok so I got up bright and early ready to edit today and woke up with a stinking cold...typical! But I have been playing around with the footage that was shot in the building to see if I can save it or not.. Here a video of the original footage to see what I was up against.
I took about 5 different takes in this possition but in the end, after my attempts, this shot was just not salvageable. I have other shots though that only have one of the boys in and this meant that I could get the other boy to hold a light.
I took about 5 different takes in this possition but in the end, after my attempts, this shot was just not salvageable. I have other shots though that only have one of the boys in and this meant that I could get the other boy to hold a light.
Monday, 7 January 2013
FILM DAY!
What a day! Everything that I was worried about all went well! After nervously waiting for a lecturer to give me the thumbs up for the green screen and worried that we wouldn't be able to shoot at our location, everything worked out surprisingly well! The only problem was the rain, BUT its Scotland, and there is nothing that can be done about that! I will start the editing process tomorrow and were going for a Friday 6pm release. But I plan to have a first edit finished by the end of Wednesday and then however edits may follow to give time for iterations and polishing. here are some photos of the day!
The only problem that occurred was the lack of light in the old building. Not to mention it was very over cast so I am a little bit worried about the quality of the footage shot there but hopefully some touch up in the editing process should fix things, fingers crossed!
Sunday, 6 January 2013
Tomorrow is the big day!
Well, tomorrow is the big day..shooting Daniel and Lewis music video. My brain is going mental with so much things to organize so I thought I would right a blog post A. to clear my mind and B. so you lovely people can see what I'm doing! OK
First of all tomorrow could go really well or well, bad. Because we couldn't find a suitable day before the Christmas break, I didn't know if we were going to get the video completed before hand in. But we managed to get a date for tomorrow but by that point uni had closed for Christmas, and the lecturers aren't back until the 7th.. tomorrow so I couldn't email them and expect a reply. BUT Robin emailed me back saying that although he wouldn't have time to properly timetable me a slot, he may be able to get me the room informally. So we still have a good chance of getting the room. Which is why I will be at uni at 9 on the dot to try and find Robin or another lecturer. FINGERS CROSSED.
List for Daniel and Lewis:
3x sets of clothes- No green
Any jewelry they need/want
Portable speakers
Copy of the final edited song
Props, eg Microphone, headphones- if they want
Umbrella
Waterproof jacket
List for myself:
Camcorder- Fully charged
Camcorder charger (for green screen shooting)
Camera- to take behind the scenes pictures
Tripod
Umbrella
Waterproof jacket
Storyboards for reference
SD card
Extra SD card
Black bags (to sit on if shoot location is wet)
Paper
Pen
Route map to get to location
Bus times for the 22
Order for the day:
7:00- Amy Get up and get ready for day
9:00- Amy go into uni and find lecturers for green screen
11:00- Pick up Lewis and Daniel from the train station
Depending on the rain situation, if it is dry when they arrive at 11, then we will go straight to the shoot location, but if it is raining we will go shoot the green screen scenes and hope the rain will stop.
6:00- 7 shoot night time footage
Link to weather for Dundee on Monday the 7th : http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2650752
Potential problems for tomorrow:
1. We cant get the green screen room ( option 2, go buy a very big bit of green material)
2. We cant get into the location (Resort to back up locations)
3. It rains all day- which may cause bad lighting for the camera (result of shooting in Scotland)
4. Boys miss their train-haha!
I think that is it from now but I will probably be on here in a mad panic about something else for tomorrow!
First of all tomorrow could go really well or well, bad. Because we couldn't find a suitable day before the Christmas break, I didn't know if we were going to get the video completed before hand in. But we managed to get a date for tomorrow but by that point uni had closed for Christmas, and the lecturers aren't back until the 7th.. tomorrow so I couldn't email them and expect a reply. BUT Robin emailed me back saying that although he wouldn't have time to properly timetable me a slot, he may be able to get me the room informally. So we still have a good chance of getting the room. Which is why I will be at uni at 9 on the dot to try and find Robin or another lecturer. FINGERS CROSSED.
List for Daniel and Lewis:
3x sets of clothes- No green
Any jewelry they need/want
Portable speakers
Copy of the final edited song
Props, eg Microphone, headphones- if they want
Umbrella
Waterproof jacket
List for myself:
Camcorder- Fully charged
Camcorder charger (for green screen shooting)
Camera- to take behind the scenes pictures
Tripod
Umbrella
Waterproof jacket
Storyboards for reference
SD card
Extra SD card
Black bags (to sit on if shoot location is wet)
Paper
Pen
Route map to get to location
Bus times for the 22
Order for the day:
7:00- Amy Get up and get ready for day
9:00- Amy go into uni and find lecturers for green screen
11:00- Pick up Lewis and Daniel from the train station
Depending on the rain situation, if it is dry when they arrive at 11, then we will go straight to the shoot location, but if it is raining we will go shoot the green screen scenes and hope the rain will stop.
6:00- 7 shoot night time footage
Link to weather for Dundee on Monday the 7th : http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2650752
Potential problems for tomorrow:
1. We cant get the green screen room ( option 2, go buy a very big bit of green material)
2. We cant get into the location (Resort to back up locations)
3. It rains all day- which may cause bad lighting for the camera (result of shooting in Scotland)
4. Boys miss their train-haha!
I think that is it from now but I will probably be on here in a mad panic about something else for tomorrow!
Saturday, 5 January 2013
How to make my videos look more professional
Seeing as I am doing the music video for Daniel and Lewis, I want to make sure it looks as professional and as polished as possible so here is a great tutorial that shows how simple adjustments can improve the look of your footage.
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Storyboards for music video
I started to try and storyboard for the music video that is not too far away but it was basically impossible. As I have never been to the location I can predict what shots I can take, So what I have done instead is mocked up shots that I plan to take and know I can.
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