Filmg competition

Well today is the last day to vote so I have been pulling out all the stops to get people to go and view my video. The local paper wrote an article about me and someone else wrote an online article, so I've had a ton of support from the local community which is great. 3 weeks today and I will find out the results :)

Online article can be viewed here : http://personals.ljrandco.co.uk/luke/my-friend-amy-the-gaelic-short-film-competition/

More info about the Awards Ceremony

BBC ALBA and FilmG

Well as you know I entered my Gaelic film into a competition and well GUESS WHAT!?!? Ive made the shortlist!!! Im so excited! The awards ceremony is on the 22nd of March in Glasgow, soooo I will just have to wait and see what happens. For the mean time, you can go and watch my video on here and if you like it, please vote and I could win the peoples vote award! Thank you :D

Click here to vote for my video

Gaelic Music video Finished!

Well that it all finished and ready to be sent away. I am so so happy with the results. I think it compliments and enhances the music while staying sympathetic the melody.

What I wanted to create

-I wanted to create a part abstract film about a lazy Sunday walk playing on the fact that the song is a modern take on a "walking" style song
-I wanted to have shots that provoked a nostalgic feeling to symbolize the past/happy memories
-I wanted to include movement to symbolize travel and loved ones that aren't close by
-I wanted to create a airy, silky piece of visuals that harmonized with the melody.
-As Gaelic is a small language, I had to make sure the visuals conveyed the essence of the song so that non-Gaelic viewers could understand the song.

I feel I have accomplished everything that I set out to achieve. I have learned so much in after effect and premier pro through trial and error and good tutorials.

So here it is...hope you enjoy it.. and lets hope that I win :D

Nostalgic test-take two

After an unsuccessful first try at making some film look nostalgic, I feel I have achieved the aim a lot better with this video. I simplified it down from the last test. Adding black and white, increasing the contrast and adding an ever so slight blur to it so it wasn't full hd quality. 

Creating an old nostalgic feeling

I want to have parts of the music video with a kind of nostalgic feeling, like a visual of what someone imagines when thinking of the past in their minds. I have been playing around with colour tones, noise and grain effects, scratches and dust effects and roughing the edges. Here is a test

I am not too happy with the result. It looks far too grainy and I am not very sure on the rough looking outline. Ahh well, back to the drawing board with this one..

Smoke test

I had already had smoke tests that had been shot during a drawing class in uni but I didn't really have anything to do with them, and they were a little bit boring on their own. So I thought it would be great to incorporate a windy, airy feel with some smoke. I played around with the effects in after effects and applied a cartoon effect which gave a really nice soft graphical edge to the video. I also added a tint of blue so the smoke could stand out better.

Cars distorted

This is another media test for the Gaelic music video. I wanted some parts of the video to be quite abstract and just simply to follow the similar characteristics of the song. This was some footage that I had take of cars just when I was walking home one night. I played around with the distort, warp, delay, and blur to create this piece and adjusted the speed so that it was flowing with the music. It works really well with the music and creates a feeling of slowing down time. 

Train media test

So I have been playing around with the train media test and I wanted to add a nice flow and soft textured look to one of them so here is the test. I have tried it with another track just to see how the atmosphere is affected. It was just a test but it will be going in the Gaelic music video (minus the soundtrack)

Train Footage

I was on the train the other day and thought it would be a good idea to take some moving footage of the landscape  I think it will work really well with the Rhythm of the Gaelic Song. Here the videos I took. Hopefully they will edit in nicely to the video to symbolize traveling to visit her family.

They have a nice soft feeling of time passing by, with calm colour tones.

Gaelic Music Video

Ok So I'm going to start on the Gaelic Music Video Competition. Firstly, here is a link to the song to listen to. Its down at the bottom and entitled " Clann a’ Ghreusaiche". The whole song is in Gaelic but non-Gaelic speakers can enter too. I have a copy of the words in English and its about the island that she loves, Raasay and her family even though they are far away.

Here are the lyrics:


1. Take my greeting over the Sound
Over to the green island that I love

Near the misty mountainous island (Skye)
Dun Caan is under the clouds

2. The little island is so famous
Raasay is my love

Clachan, Oscaig, Manitoba
Fladda, Torran, up to Rona

3. Clan MacLeod will be there forever
The Shoemaker’s clan are my family

After the war you took the land
There was no one in the area left wanting

4. Sorley, spread you poetry
The Cullins and Hallaig

Calum, come up the road
From the castle up to Arnish

5. A big family, of high standing and renown
Three sisters, six brothers

We are spread throughout the country
But our blessings and our greetings go to the island

Its a beautiful, soft song with a sweet melody and silky voices. I want to have a similar effect in the video. For this video I plan to focus on Timing, Rhythm, Harmony that has been applied in constructing the song and apply these characteristics to my video.



Link to song: http://www.feisean.org/en/projects/project.php?ID=11

Mindmap!

This is a mind map that I created for jotting my ideas for the Gaelic Music video.