Editing Process.

Some see editing as the most crucial stage of production, it involves  is assembling shots to create a sequence.  

In our first session, we went up to the edit suite and watched all of our footage since we filmed the video. We were surprised at how good it looked. This is all we done in this session as we didn't have a lot of time. We done this organise the clips and to see which ones we would like to use and which ones we wouldn't be using. 

In the next session, we picked the footage that was best and what we liked most and then we added them to the time line and synced them up. The time line is a way of laying out the clips to make it clearer to view and edit. We began messing around with the order of our clips and decided that we wanted to show the girly set first. The music track was the first thing we added to the timeline as it made it easier to sync up our clips so the lip syncs are also in time. In this session we also renamed our clips to make it easier to see what was what, for example, we called one of our clips 'close up girly set' which was a close up of the artist in the girly set. 

In the third session, we began to cut our footage, we cropped shots so they were in time with the song and also some shots had parts of good footage, but the rest of it was, for example, accidentally filming or when she got the words wrong, so we cropped the good parts out so they were still usable. We thought this was going to be quite easy as we had already lined up and synced the our footage onto the timeline, so we thought it would just be a case of cutting and moving clips around. However, it proved to be more difficult than that. It was very hard trying to find a clip to use at the start as we didn't want to give away all the sets, so we were just going to use the girly set, but in the intro our artist wasn't moving, so it looked like the video had froze, we then tried to use clips from another set, However, she wasn't moving in them either. We used the razor tool to cut our clips. This also helped us with composition as it made us realise that going from a long shot to a close up wouldn't work as it looked wrong and out of place, so this really made us consider the order of shots we were using. 

In the next session, we decided to leave the beginning as we were wasting our time trying to find something to put there, so we began using other footage and editing that to the rest of the song. Originally, we just picked shots and laid them on the timeline but to try and organise it, we put them in order of shots we thought we would use first, but this was a bad idea. Especially as once we had finished our rough cut and re edited it, this order completely changed so that was a waste of time. 

So far, we haven't added any effects as we have just finished our video today, so I am sure that within the next week, we will be adding these. We also didn't add any effects such as cross fade of dissolve when editing, this is because our song is very fast paced and upbeat and we wanted to cut to the beats, so we used straight cuts to re in force the beat in the track. However, at the end of the video, we used a fade to black to create mystery. 

To film the video, we used a Canon 5D and to edit the video, we used Adobe Premier Cut on a mac computer. 

Showing our focus group our Rough Cut

We got a focus group together to show them our rough cut video and ask for their feedback. Below is our rough cut.

Below are the videos of our audiences feedback:

We asked a group of both girls and boys to watch our video. This is because we thought our video would mainly appeal to younger girls, However, to clarify that, we asked some boys to watch to hear their opinions, which we found out were that it is more appealing to younger girls. They thought it didn't appeal to boys as it was too girly/feminine and as it only features girls in the video, they thought it was more about female empowerment, which is what we thought originally although they didn't think it was cliche and was still visually appealing. 

We asked what they liked about the video, the girls really liked the upside down shots of Sasha, our artist, on the chair as it looked quite artistic and the boys thought that the cuts of the UV shots worked well, we also like the cutting of these shots between the blinders set, so in our next cut we are going to try and include more of these cuts and also include much quicker cutting as the audience felt some of the duration of the shots were quite long and went on for a lot of time especially as it is a fun up beat song, it becomes slightly boring watching the same thing for a long time. We already thought this before we showed them our rough cut, However,we didn't have enough time to cut the whole video and we also just wanted to get a second opinion incase we cut it all and the audience felt it didn't look right. However, someday said it might be a good idea to do a lot of quick cuts together, and then one long duration shot to allow the audience to soak it up, so this is something we can try and experiment with to see if it works or not.

Our feedback group also felt that our artist had an appealing image, which is what we were hoping for, they thought this was due to the female empowerment with using all the pink props and costumes, the throne, the crown, the flowers,the make up etc- they all contribute to making her appealing.

Our group also said after seeing this video/hearing the track, they wouldn't go and buy the album but that was just down to their music taste but they thought other people would defiantly buy the album. Overall, our feedback was very positive.

By doing this feedback group, we got to clarify a lot of things we already thought, but we also got to hear different and opinions that we can experiment with to try and make our video better and more appealing. 

Name Change.

The original name for our artist was ISIS, this is as it meant the goddess of flowers/nature, hence why we decided to include the crown and the flowers in our girly set. However, since filming our video, the tragic events have happened in Paris so we have decided to change our name. 
We still wanted to keep a short name, so after researching for a while, we came across the name Isadora.

My DigiPak Album Cover Idea.

My Idea:
This was a photo I found online that I liked and thought would look good someway on the digipak. I added a effect on the photo and then also added a smoke effect  but made it transparent so therefore it isn't as obvious on the cover. Next I made both sides of the flowers pixalated and added text. I made the name of the artist and the song title/album name in the same font to make it look neat. However, I made the song title/album name much bigger and bolder than the artist name. Infact, I think that the artist name is maybe a little faint and unreadable so when creating the final digipak, this will be something to be wary off. Lastly, I added another effect to make it stand out. If I was creating another front cover, I would consider including a crown to incorporate the goddess element, the flowers also tie in with the video, which i'm not sure is a good or bad idea. Below is the final result:

Lara's Idea:

George's Idea::

Georgie's Idea:

Write up of shoot day.

What did you do the day before, to set up for your shoot day?

We met at 3pm in the studio the day before out shoot to ensure that we had time to set up and make sure everything was ready to make sure that our shoot would run smoothly. This consisted of us unpacking and making our paper tissue lanterns, this took around half an hour and there was three of us doing it but it took quite a long time to make one flower and make it look good, but by 3 of us doing it at the same time, this speeded things up. Next, we swept the floor to make sure it was clean and white and would look good on camera, and finally, the most time consuming job was wallpapering our set. We began to do this at 5:30, leaving only half an hour for us to wallpaper it all, we had to cut the wallpaper and then use paste to put it on the wall, we left school at 6 and left half of wall paper undone which was a bit of a problem. 

How did you feel when you woke up on the morning of the shoot day?

On the morning of the shoot, I was nervous but excited as I have only ever filmed my thriller last year and apart from that I haven't filmed anything, so I was excited to be filming it especially as it was our idea that we had created from scratch so I was excited to see what the final out come would look like. 

How well prepared were you when you arrived for the shoot, what did you have to do before you could start shooting?

I would say that we were very well prepared as we made sure we had all the costumes etc the day before and that they were all in school so if we had forgot anything then we could bring it in on the morning of the shoot. Thankfully, the set designer, Jacqueline had wall papered the rest of the set for us, but when we got to the studio in the morning, we still had to bring in the throne and then we decided to add lights to it, which took a lot of time, we had to staple the flowers to the wall and we also had to wait for the make up artist to do the artists make up. Therefore, instead of starting at 8:45, we started at around 10.

Describe what the studio looked like when you started to shoot, how well do you feel you managed to create this look for your concept?

We first set up our girly set and we were unsure on how it was going to look as we wanted to hire a throne, but instead we found one in the props at school, it didn't look exactly how we wanted, which was annoying, however, we added some lights on it to make it look better and it looked really good. We were also surprised at how good the flowers turned out, as we wanted a real flower wall but it was going to cost too much money and we didn't have the budget for it, so we used the tissue pom pom flowers, which turned out great, and they were also bigger, so it filled more of the wall, so overall, we were really happy with how the set turned out.

How did you divide the roles on your shoot day? What roles did you play?

We decided to pick 4 roles that we all really liked and as there was 4 of us in the group, we just rotated roles each times the set changed. The roles were; playback, camera man, director and creative director. The roles that I liked most were creative director, as I always had to be alert to make sure there were no continuity issues and everything looked right, I also liked being the director because I shouted the instructions out whilst watching what was being filmed on the camera, on the TV screen, so I could see exactly how it was going to look in the actual video.  

What do you think that you personally did particularly well?

I think I was quite good at being creative director, this is probably as enjoyed doing it and I liked to check the sets, make up and costumes and make sure there was no wardrobe malfunctions etc.

What problems did you have on the shoot day and how did you solve them?
When checking the costumes, one of the problems we had was the white leotard that we wanted to use on the projections set, was really really see through and with the shapes being projected onto her, it really didn't look good- so we decided to put her in a white top and jeans, so the outfit was still all white, however, it wasn't see through. Another problem was because we started so late, each of our sets over ran, meaning we were meant to finish at 3, and didn't finish until 4:30 and one of our dancers were also called to Grease rehearsals so therefore, we were a dancer short, so we just had to film each dancer on their own in the UV set. 

Which part of the shoot do you wish had gone better and why?
I wish that we had managed our time better as the end of filming felt quite rushed and we only filmed 2 shots in the projections set, which didn't matter too much as both shots were really good, but I would have liked it if it didn't feel as rushed. 

How well do you think you managed your talent?
At first, I think we were overwhelmed with what to do, but we talked over our plan of the day and then made sure we knew what everyone was doing and where everyone had to be, so after that, I think we managed our talent effectively, it was just taking a long time in make up. 

What was the part of the shoot that you enjoyed the most?
All though I enjoyed all of the shoot, I was really surprised at how the UV make up and costumes turned out, so it was really cool to see that on the camera, and we shot this just after lunch, so everyone felt refreshed as we had just had a break and we really wanted it to look good. 




What are you looking forward to seeing the most in the edit?
I am looking forward to see the final video, but I am also really looking forward to seeing the UV set because when we filmed it, it looked really good, especially the hands when we painted them in orange UV paint.

How well do you feel that your production group worked as a team?
I think our group worked really really well as we are a group of 4, quite laid back, girls who all had similar ideas so I am really happy that I decided to move to this group earlier on, as originally, I wasn't in their group.

Are there any changes you might need to make to your website and artwork, in order for them to fit in with the video that you have shot?
We didn't really have an idea set in stone for the digi pack and website, so we don't really need to change anything to make it fit as our ideas were really vague, but now we have the video and especially once it is all edited, I'm sure we will take elements from the video and in corporate that in the website and digi pack.

Roles on Set on Shoot Day.

We decided to pick 4 roles that we all really liked and as there was 4 of us in the group, we just rotated roles each times the set changed. The roles were; playback, camera man, director and creative director. On the girly set, I was the director, which consisted of me shouting out instructions to the artist (Sasha) and then watching how it looked on the camera, on the TV screen. On the blinders set, I was the cameraman, I enjoyed this, but not as much as other roles, this is because I felt as if I was constantly glued to the camera and couldn't actually look at what was going on on the set. In the UV set, I was playback, so I made sure that the iPad was infront of the camera so we could see the numbers, so it is easier when editing and finally, in the projections set, I was creative director and once we sorted out the see through costumes and figured out what we were going to do with the chair, there weren't any more problems. The roles that I liked most were creative director, as I always had to be alert to make sure there were no continuity issues and everything looked right, I also liked being the director because I shouted the instructions out whilst watching what was being filmed on the camera, on the TV screen, so I could see exactly how it was going to look in the actual video,

Shot List.