Final Animatic

Here is the final animatic for our music video, the process of creating this video has given the group and I an insight to how to make the actual music video. This is because we had to edit the shots to the music and add effects in such as fades, the time it took to create the animatic has also given us an idea to how long the actual video will take, as editing film will be far more complex than editing still image.

We shall use this animatic to hopefully give us a clear guide to what shots we need to film for the video itself, and hopefully using this will save us time when actually filming the video.

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.