Ask Me To Stay - Etta Bond Promo Video (Final)

Final viewing (feedback)

This was the feedback from our final viewing of the music video, with our peers we had them feedback on what they thought of the video now that we had fixed the previous faults they had seen. We ulltimately got praised, as it seems that we incorporated all the necessary changes within our music video. They especially liked that we had incorporated quick cuts which sped up the action of the video as well as adding to the climatic nature of the song.

Finished editing the first draft of music video

Before releasing the final version of the music video, we decided to show the unfinished version to our peers for constructive criticism. This session proved to be very useful, as it gave us valuable information of what we needed to improve on.

•  One of the major problems of our video appeared to be its pace. More than one classmate commented on its incongruity with the music, mainly because the video is not as dynamic as the song. What our peers suggested was to add quick, abrupt cuts in order to fasten the pace of the video.
•  Another suggestion was to increase the pace of the shot itself (specifically in the bedroom scene where is pushing items off of her desk). This was also suggested  to make the protagonist more "aggressive", as she does not appear to perform energetically enough during the "breakdown" stages of the video. 
• The lip syncing was not in time with the music and we were told to adjust it, which we had done however in some shots it was impossible to do so we replaced it with the studio shots. Although for some of the shots we did speed them up to get the mouth in time with lyrics.
• Last but not least, one of our peers felt that at the beginning of the video, the protagonist appears to hold an object that for too long. however the over peers debated on this as it shows her as thinking and remembering the past therefore when it came to finalising it we tried the video with a quicker shot.

Beginning editing

After uploading all of our footage on our Mac computer, we finally got to edit and review our shoots. We therefore started to sort all of our footage and decided which ones could work for our music videos. We also started to name all of our footage as we believe it would be easier to edit this way. Thus, the names would guide us which footage we decided to use and subsequently make us edit the video faster. Although we did not begin to make the music video, using the first lesson to get acquainted with final cut pro helped me greatly. Although the teachers showed us the basics of the program before, being able to guide my partner for the entirety of the lesson helped me become more patient in order to familiarise her with the software without the stress of time. This helped her with becoming more productive while editing.

Finished filming

We have finally finished filming, which was scheduled for two nonconsecutive days. 

Because the first day of filming consisted of shooting most of the music video, we decided to start filming from 8 o’clock in the morning. The weather was very sunny which surprised us. However, because we knew that the weather would be mostly cloudy, we decided to film the outside shots that were set for daytime first as we didn't want to miss the good weather, which consists of the protagonist’s memories from when she was happy with her boyfriend. The fact that the weather was very nice worked well for this part of the video, mainly because having pathetic fallacy in the video helps with making the audience engage with the characters memories. 

After shooting outside, we moved on to filming all of the other shots that had the actor playing the boyfriend. This is because we knew that the actor couldn’t stay for the entirety of the day, and thus we prioritized all of the shots in which he had to be in. Thankfully, we got to film all of the scenes in which he had to be in just before he left, leaving us with the night scenes and the scenes in which the protagonist is packing her bags and having a mental breakdown. Although we tried to film as fast as possible, we did encounter technical difficulties, mainly because the batteries for the DSLR cameras did not last for a long time. We charged the batteries during lunchtime, however, we still lost a lot of time in which we could have perfected our filming experience. 

By the end of the day, we had to film the night scenes in which the protagonist leaves the house. The weather was slightly cold; however, we did not encounter rain. The filming went as planned, and we finished earlier than we expected, which was a surprise since the night scenes were one of the most difficult ones from all of the locations we decided to shoot as we had to change the frames to suit the surroundings i.e the wall to a bus stop instead. 

Last but not least, the second day of shooting consisted of our protagonist performing in the studio. The idea behind these scenes was to confuse viewer in the end, in order to leave them asking questions about whether they got back together etc. The performance scenes went well, and although we had to film three times (close up, medium shot and long shot), we managed to finish quite fast, which was both satisfying and relieving.

Filming

To make sure that the filming will go as planned, my partner and I looked up the weather forecast. As shown in the video above, the weather in London for 9th of November 2013 is mostly cloudy, with 9 degrees Celsius. This information helps up greatly, because it allows us to film the entire video in a day as planned. Although the weather might not be sunny the fact that we know about the cloudy weather not only gives us an idea of how to dress but also tells us that we have to shoot the scenes outside very fast as the abient light 

might not be very powerful for the entire day. All in all, this information is extremely valuable because it prepares us how to film in order to not break the videos consistency.

The above shots are of me explaining what we had wanted the male role to do and how we wanted him to do it, this had me showing him some examples in order to get him in to the role and comfortable in front of the camera.

These images are from the bedroom scene where the protagonist is ripping the photograph of her and her ex boyfriend, capturing the behind scenes to demonstrate the amount of times we had to attempt this scene in order to get it right.

These shots are from the last bits of the day filming, about to step out in order to do the night time scenes, captured Alex wrapping up warm as it was a bit chilly. As well as that we had hard copies of our storyboards handy so that we could easily see which shot was next.

Auditions

Due to the withdrawal of both of our characters from the shooting of the video, we decided to find new people who would fit the criteria. Thus, my partner and I decided took it upon ourselves to hold auditions for the role of the girl, mainly because the storyline is told from the girl’s perspective; hence we have to make sure that the actor playing the girl is fit for the role.

I was not able to be there for the actual audition due to circumstances but believed my partner would do fine with actress. Before the audition, she made sure to explain the storyline of the video, as well as the emotions of the main character. Because the storyline touches on an extremely touching subject – the breakup of a couple – She had to make sure that Aleksandra could easily slip into the role of a heartbroken girl. To do so, we talked about relationships, and presented her to the 5 stages of loss (Denial/Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance).

After discussing about the storyline, the  lyrics of the song were presented to her that we are going to use for the music video. To get her used to it, Alex decided to sing with her in order to make her feel more relaxed about the situation.

The final part of the audition was to get  Aleksandra to act out the opening of the video, which consists of the protagonist packing her bag and going out of the room. Although that was the most we had time to fit in to the audition, we found that she suited the role, mainly because of her facial expressions.

After this my partner had shown me the video of the audition in which she recorded Aleksandra and i believed she was perfect for the role. 

Call sheet for 16/11/13

Call sheet for 16/11/13

 

Lesson - 1st October

This lesson we began storyboarding our music video so far we've done 3 pages worth of storyboards, giving our shot by shot explanation of each lyric. We decided to start off by writing what would happen in each scene first and then add pictures to go with it.