Getting To Grips With Final Cut Express

The main piece of software needed to create the storyboard and music video was Final Cut Express. This software is used across the film making and editing industry which meant we had the best technology available in making our own short animated video. The program allows the user to add clips of film or still photos and create a video. It also gives the availability of adding transitions such as cuts and fades to the video made, this can give a more professional look when making the music video, and a clearer view of what our video will look like on our storyboard.

Here is the interface of Final Cut Express. When first opening the program it looks a confusing piece of software. However after watching numerous videos on the internet (here, here and here) and we finally got our heads round the concept of Final Cut Express, however Matt seemed most comfortable so we decided he should be the main editor. The right hand side screen is a preview of the final clip which will be created, and the left hand side screen is the editing screen. This means when editing transitions or adding effects the left screen shows how the editing and the right the final clip once you have finished editing the clip or photo.

The lines shown at the bottom of the image above are the guides of long the song is, this allows the user place an image in this case for a set amount of time before cutting to the next shot. There is also a vertical gray line which runs across the horizontal bars, this line shows where the song is relative to the shots. This enables us to set the shot we want with the correct lyrics easily, as well as plan where certain fades will be evident in the final video.

Story Boarding

During the past few weeks the group and I have been making a storyboard for our music video. This was a long process which needed many ideas and sketches for the video itself. Myself and Jay were in charge of creating the storyboard as Matt was editing the song as it was rather long and repetitive.

This is a photo of Jay and I creating the storyboard. This required listening to the song constantly so that we could illustrate our video to certain lyrics and timings. We often decided to take on certain stages of the song separately so we could complete it in the quickest time possible, we would then show each other our ideas and give feedback, this enabled us to change or keep certain points of the video we felt were necessary. The idea of using this storyboard is so that when filming we know exactly what we are going to film and where, which will save us time in the long run production of the music video.

This image is Matt editing our storyboard on Final Cut Express, this software allows the user to add transitions such as fades and decide how long each shot will be. Getting to grips with this software proved difficult to Jay and I so we thought Matt would be better suited as he was relatively comfortable using it. Although Matt was editing the majority of the storyboard, Jay and I also used it as we wanted to be familiar with the software in case Matt was unavailable to edit our work during the process of creating the video.

Here is an image of our storyboards once finished. As it shows there were many sketches drawn for each shot which was fairly time consuming. However the process was made slightly easier as in some parts of the song we intend to have the same type of shot, so we didn't need to draw each one as they were the same. The idea of creating a storyboard at first seemed unnecessary and just another complication, however now it is complete the group and I can see why doing it was worth it as it gives us a clear idea of what we need to do. It will also save us a huge amount of time when actually filming as we will know exactly what shots we need to create the music video.

Recent Videos With These Conventions

The conventions of music videos are still seen today in modern music videos. Here are some examples of modern videos which follow the conventions set by Andrew Goodwin.

Example

The image above is from the music video of Example - Stay Awake. This video was produced in 2011 so is very recent, the idea of using close ups is therefore still a popular part of music videos today. The ability to use close ups allows the artist to make eye contact with the audience which may enhance audience interaction, thus causing more people to want to watch the video.

Rizzle Kicks

Music videos either correspond or contradict the lyrics of the song, this is shown in the video to Rizzle Kicks - Down With The Trumpets. The chorus is the title of the song and at this part of the video one the artists is seen with a trumpet, this therefore corresponds to the lyrics. The way in which this video corresponds to the lyrics is through narrative and live performance shots.

Swedish House Mafia

This shot is from Swedish House Mafia - Save The World. It portrays a sense of voyeurism as the restaurant the man was working at was shoplifted. As the song shows a pack of dogs save the people or catch the criminals involved. The man is therefore watching the dog run after the criminals who attacked the restaurant. This notion of looking adds to a sense of the audience watching the artist perform, which adds exclusivity to the video. However in this particular video the artists are not visible, but the dogs which are acting as the artists are.

Eminem & D12

This shot is from the music video Without Me - Eminem. It portrays Eminem dressed up as Osama Bin Laden and surrendering to the other members of Eminem's band D-12. This shows an Intertextual Reference which is a typical convention, although this one is slightly controversial. The reason for him dressing up as the terrorist is a patriotic move towards his fellow Americans, as the video was made in 2002; mid flow of the war caused by the 9/11 terror attacks. The reason for this could be to increase the views the video has, as usually a controversial or memorable video is popular as people want to see it.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

A famous author named Andrew Goodwin writes in a book of his called

Dancing In The Distraction Factory

about the typical conventions of music videos. His theory is apparent in old and recent music videos which means his theory was correct. Music videos also use either performance or narrative, in more recent music videos both styles are used to entice the target audience to watch it.

The first music video created 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles shows both narrative and performance, although this style is now around 30 years old it is still used in many recent music videos today. Some videos, more towards the Rock genre now use solely performance style videos as this shows the technique used to make the music as well as it being live as it evokes a more exciting atmosphere to the song. Other genres such as RnB tend to use more narrative than performance, as they are generally about love so the videos show parts of a love story or relationship between two people.

One of the most used Conventions of music videos is seen by the music video called 'Video Killed The Radio Star', this means the video either corresponds or contradicts the lyrics of the video. In this image below it shows TV's pushing radios over which corresponds to the chorus to the song as the TV's are essentially 'killing' the radios. This may show the music video was made to become a more popular way of listening to music than on the radio.

The convention of having many close ups is shown in this video through-out, this is due to the record company wanting to promote the artists as much as possible. This theory from Andrew Goodwin proves correct as so many music videos in recent times follow this trend started in the video to 'Video Killed The Radio Star'.

The final convention of music videos created by Goodwin is that there is a sense of voyeurism, this is evident within this music video as the actual music video shows the artist on a TV. This notion of looking is used through-out the music industry as it enables the audience to see the message behind the video, it also makes the video more exclusive as it shows how people are watching the artist. This may help the promotion of the artist.

Jack's Music Skills

Below is a mp3 player which shows a short audio clip of Jack playing the guitar. On the basis of this clip he is a talented musician which is a good sign for the video, as he can therefore actually play the guitar instead of pretending.

After listening to this clip the group and I need to make sure that Jack learns the lyrics to our song, if he can learn to play the song on the guitar that will create a more professional image for our video. However learning the lyrics are vital for the video as it needs to match the audio, otherwise the visual and the audio will not flow continuously. Luckily our chosen song has relatively simple lyrics, so learning these should hopefully prove easy for Jack.

The song's lyrics are shown above which shows some simple lines, this is due to the chorus 'What a life!' being a main feature of the song. We may however, edit the song so that it is not the full length, as the ending lyrics of "woo hoo" may be too repetitive which would prove difficult to have different shots.

The London Eye

During our time up London on the 30th November we decided that filming the London Eye for a whole 360 degree movement then speeding the film up would be effective. We took some photos of the eye itself from two different angles to see which would look more effective for the video.

Once the photos were taken we then thought we could have our artist standing in-front of the eye singing in normal time, with the eye itself moving faster as we would have sped the footage up. This idea however proved difficult to create in reality, so we thought again amongst ourselves as we still wanted to film the London Eye. After discussion we thought filming the Eye from across the River Thames would be ideal, as this could show pedestrians walking by, thus emphasizing the idea of time going quickly as they too would be under-cranked. The lyric to this visual is "Some say you might lose your mind", the idea of the Eye being under-cranked would therefore illustrate the concept of someone losing their mind as time is going by much faster than normal.

Filming the Eye from this angle would portray a sense of loss of control as the movement of the wheel would be easily distinguished, the cloud movement shown in the footage could also create the idea as the clouds would be moving faster across the shot. Using this location to film the shot would be ideal as the shot would solely show the Eye's movement along with the clouds. A second idea would be to shoot the Eye from a bench which is a few meters from the side of the pavement which could include pedestrians walking past to, this may however over-crowd the shot.

This is the second possible angle we could film the Eye from, it is located on the bridge by the Royal Festival Hall which therefore gives a higher angle to view the Eye. Filming from this angle could show the movement of the Eye as well as the cloud movement, we did however think the Big Ben clock tower in the background of the Eye was an effective shot, as it illustrates another famous landmark of London. This photo was taken at around 4pm which in Winter means the sun is setting, under-cranking this shot would therefore show the sunlight disappearing which could reference time in the song, as the time of day is moving on as would the song.

Leake Street

On Wednesday 30th November the group and I went to London to find some ideal places to film our video. We planned to go to Leake Street which is near Waterloo East train station, this street is dedicated to street art and it therefore holds some very creative work on the walls.

We took some photos of the location which are seen below:

Leake Street will therefore be evident in our video as we all decided it portrayed some of London's finest street art, as well as it being relatively busy which could prove to be an ideal place for a busker. It also follows our idea of the artist coming in from one end of a tunnel, and walking out the other at the end of the song. The tunnel itself portrays a range of cultures, with the street art representing a younger generation of people, and because the tunnel is near Waterloo East many business workers use the tunnel which could show the higher class people of London. There is also a car wash company near by the tunnel and therefore more working class people are seen there, thus showing a varied amount of people use Leake Street.