Mini-vid - Rebecca Black 'Friday'

We created a short music video for part of Rebecca Black's Friday. Here is our edit of Friday by Rebecca Black.

Class Vid Idea - I Want to Break Free by Queen

My idea for the class video is to replicate the music video for I Want to Break Free.

In the original video the band members are dressed up as characters from Coronation Street, so we could do an updated version of this. Filmed in somebody's house, we would dress as the characters of today's Coronation Street. This would especially suit Will who enjoys wearing a dress.

At 1:10 in the video Freddie Mercury opens a door which leads to a coal mine. We could do something similar to this but it would lead to somewhere else which would have to be discussed with the rest of the class.

Using HD Cameras

The HD cameras that we are using this year are much better than the mini DV cameras we used last year. I first used one of the HD cameras when we filmed the Jason Donovan 'Too Many Broken Hearts' mini-vid and I found it easy to use. The quality of footage is really good and this will be useful if we need to enlarge a shot in post-processing, so we wont lose much quality. Its also easier to get the footage from the camera to the macs because they use SD cards. When the footage is uploaded it is already split into different takes which didn't happen with the old cameras. This should make editing quicker and easier.

WL - Getting Footage For The Mini Vid

On tuesday we went out to get footage for our mini vid task. We decided to go up to Ilkley moor for the shoot due to it's nice scenery and because the original video being set on moorland. Also in the comments of that video someone mentions the fact that videos set in the countryside are timeless. We used the camera hand help to save time setting up a tripod. We did struggle at times to keep it steady, however it did save us  a lot of time. Overall the HD cameras where easier to use than the mini Dv as we didn't have to worry about tapes or filming over footage. 

We experimented with different camera angles and zooms. We took performance footage and some scenery of things like ducks and flowers fitting in with the genre. It took us around 45 minutes to get all the footage as we had to go to different locations on the moor. We took shots from low angles and different distances using pans across showing moorland. We managed to sync most of the song well due to having the lyrics sheet on us at all times.  We had a few problems filming due to random people walking around the tarn, but there weren't that many people around which was good.

WL - Editing The Mini Vid

We used Final cut again for the editing of the mini vid and developing our skills using layering and effects. The first challenge was syncing the video clips to the original song and matching up the footages. We used keyframes to animate certain shots to zoom and spin into the flowers. We also synced certain parts with the beat of the song. When the drum machine makes a fill the shots cut in time with the song. Overall the editing went well We attempted to keep the cuts fairly fast to engage the audience. We used layers to make the scenery shots more interesting.

My Role in the Mini-Vid

My role was to do most of the camera work and film the mini-vid. I also had to be in the video so was playing guitar in the background at a couple of points. I thought that the shoot went well and we got some good footage, but I think next time we need to take a tripod with us as the footage is very shaky which doesn't suit the tranquil mood of the location in the music video.


I also helped edit the video with Sean and Will, where we added some layering and effects to improve the footage and make it fit with the song.

Past Student's Blog - Richard McLachlan

I looked at Richard Mclachlan's blog from last year.

His group produced a music video for 'Like a Match to an Arsonist' by Sunburnt in December. The video they made is inspired by the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London.

Richard's blog included:

Digipak - this is a style of packaging for the CD. They created all of the artwork for the digipak and updated and added to it throughout the blog before coming up with the final digipak.

Final Front Panel of the Digipak

Magazine Advert - A magazine advert was created to promote the digipak. Additions and changes were made to this through the blog and it has been made to connect to the theme of the video.

Final Magazine Advert

Genre Research - Richard looked into the history, culture and trends of the genre and also sub-genres of metalcore. He especially researched the bands, songs and music videos of the genre.

Music Video Deconstruction - Richard looked into and researched music videos of different bands and different genres. In these he wrote background information of the songs/videos (ie release date and video director) and commented on their uses of conventions of music videos and he deconstructed the camera work and mise-en-scene.

Podcasts and Vodcasts - In these Richard's group discussed their video idea, the genre and provided behind the scenes footage.