Editing Diary: 4

Today we finally finished editing the interior scenes and began work on the exterior clips. We again made use of the camera and a FireWire to upload the remaining footage, our advanced experience with iMovie making the process much simpler than before.

Already the process feels much mroe straightforward, as the unhappier modern times utlise heavier amounts of editing in order to create a tense and abrupt visual style, in portrayal of the amosphere of the narrative. The editing in the flashback shots should in theory be much mroe straightforward, as it's narrative style is much looser - prehaps seen to encoroprate the postmodern theme of a disjointed narrative structure in that it does not follow any rigid or chronological timeline instead montaging a number of uplifting and bright clips to enforce the feeling of joy and vibrance. This makes for a much easier approach in the editing stages as it allows us to focus on the clip indivudually as opposed to worrying abotu how it will fit in exactly with the preceding and following clips.

One continuity issue that we have picked up on in this section is during the clips of the couple on the log, shot from behind. Through the middle of them, you can see the corner of one of our bags lying on the grass, which would break continuity in that neither of the characters were seen to exit the house with a bag, or seen to be carrying one in any exterior shots. In an attempt to overcome this, we decided to use clips of the same scene taken from a forward-facing angle, however we deduced that these were of a lesser quality and effect than our original intention had been, and therefore we decided that we had no other real option than to use these clips. Overall, it does not create a massively detrimental affect on the scene, but it would obviously be preferable to have as perfect continuity as possible.

We have realised today that we have deviated from our storyboard slightly. Whilst watching through what we had done so far, we noticed that the clips were not all necessarily in the places that we originally intended them to be - for example, we had hoped the lyrics 'unfinished messages' would be visually illustrated by a shot of the couple laying down scrabble tiles mid-game, however it is now illustrated by the beginning of the flashback, where she looks over to the window and notices the Scrabble box. We feel that overall, even though not all clips are where they were initially intended to be, they still work in their current positions, possibly to an even better effect than our original ideas would have done.

Image Ideas

These are some image ideas that we may use in our ancillary products, either in the CD packaging in some way, or on the music advert. All of these images are natural, and have not been edited at all yet, and hopefully won't even need to be edited much at all. This is because our group had decided to go for the-low key, conventional approach of realism and the naturalistic representations that are so popular throughout this genre.

I personally quite like this image. I feel that the use of natural lighting in the form of the sun is fairly effective, as it accentuates all the colours and tones of the image, making it more aesthetically pleasing as well as playing to the generic conventions. The way her hair is tousled by the breeze conveys the pretty young girl image that we were aiming for in representations. This image is highly unconventional for this genre as you can't see the girls face. Normally, there would be a close up shot of the girl with particular emphasis on her face, in order to promote her image and create a sense of recognition and familiarity with the audience. As you cannot see her face here, it creates an element of mystery, perhaps adding music more of a dynamic to the product and subsequently the artist. This image poses the question of why she is facing away from the camera, and where she is going or the significance of what she is looking towards. There is no evidence of male gaze theory, and the image is not sexualised in any way - in fact there is minimal focus on the female form, as the guitar dominated most of the foreground, perhaps implying that the music is more important than the image of the artist, very much in line with typical folk music values. I think this image would work effectively as an album cover, as is both a conventional and unconventional representation on the artist and the genre, which makes for an interesting narrative behind the image, creating a story that is deciphered entirely by the audience. I don't think we would have to do much by means of editing to this image, apart from perhaps cropping it, and using slight effects to enhance the image to it's full potential - adding the slightest bit of contrast for example in order to bring out the colourings of the image more. Furthermore, it would create the right level of cohesion between the narrative and the CD cover, as it is not an image sourced directly from the narrative, but there are still many visible connections that would be able to seamlessly link the products together.

This is an image of the female actor lying in the grass, with her hair deliberately fanned out behind her, dominating a significant section of the frame. This is one of the few conventional, close up shots we took of her showing her face. It is again quite representative of the whole innocence idea, and is in no way sexualised, instead playing on the idea of the cute young girl. This may be good to use somewhere within our CD case or booklet to aid cohesion between the generic representations and the already establish representations in Gabrielle Aplin's previous products, making it look like it could be a real life media product.

This is an interesting shot, taken from quite an unusual and unconventional angle. This could again be used as representative of the music being more important, or at least more of e focal aspect that the image of the artist something further supported by the use of lighting in this image, brightly lighting and drawing attention to the guitar, and casting her in shadow. It also again serve to create an element of mystery, as all you can see of the girl is her hands, and her body is silhouetted by her leaning stance. This makes the audience question who she is, and her significance, intriguing and enticing them into wanted to know more.

This shot may be quite effective to use inside our CD package, perhaps as an inlay or inside to booklet. It is a shot Hannah took at home of Scrabble tiles, spelling out the words 'More Than Friends'. This serves to create a strong visual link and cohesion with the name of the track and the ancillary product that we choose to use this image on. The dim lighting in this shot extends the feeling of romanticism that we were trying to achieve in this scene, emphasising it's effect and reinforcing the synergy between products.

Filming: Day 2

We managed to film the remainder of the flashback scenes that we required today, as well a successfully gaining a range of images for potential use with our magazine advert and CD packaging.

I met up with my group and the actors in the common room at lunch, at led them to Victoria Park, roughly 10 minutes away. The lighting on the day was much better than we were hoping for, as the sky was fairly clear and the sunlight was quite strong. Unfortunately though, it was quite cold so we felt that we couldn't keep the actors out for too long in just vests and thin cotton shirts, so we did rush the process a little bit, which may potentially have affected the quality of the visuals we produced. We will review and import this next lesson, but the likelihood of being able to film again is slim, so we will more than likely just have to work with what we've got.

The filming process went relatively smoothly, and there didn't seem to be any major problems or complications. By now, we had grown to be incredibly familiar with the equipment, each assuming an equal hands on approach throughout the group. The filming process was a lot faster due to the lack of rigid narrative structure to be followed: we had basic outlines and ideas, but we wanted to promote realism and the natural theme, so allowed the charismatic nature of the actors to transgress in the visuals.

We managed to capture a great deal of photographs between the three of us, and so we will have a wide range of shots to choose from when it comes to creating our ancillary texts. I think this is important as it allows us some freedom and movement in our ideas, instead of being stuck with one single image which would ruin the whole effect should there be some fault with it.

These are a sample of images I took today:

[IMAGES]

Editing Diary: 3

There are a number of problems we have encountered in the editing process today. Firstly, we have found that the clip of the 'present day' narrative leading up to the first flashback scene is too short. It involves the couple sat at the breakfast table, whilst Beth daydreams and Oscar eats by himself. Our storyboarded plan here was for the female to sigh and look out of the window, catching her eye on a Scrabble box hidden in the corner. We then intended to cut to a shot of recognition on her face, which would lead smoothly into the beginning of the flashback, showing the two in a happier time frame playing the board game. However, the clips we have did not turn out to be as effective as we had planned, and a number of them were unusable for numerous different reasons. Additionally, these shots were taken on one of the handheld camera as opposed to the camera attached to the tripod. This means that there is an excessive and perhaps unavoidable element of unsteadiness to the shot, which can potentially have a negative effect on the overall professionalism of our video. The only usable clips we have for this section were extremely short, lasting for around 1 beat each. This contrasts highly with the smoother, more in time editing of the rest of the video to this point, so will be something that we will review and try to iron out at a later stage. For now, we feel it is an ineffective use of time to devote hours to one small section of footage, so we will continue to edit the rest of our video and then review this section, and make any amendments if possible.

Another problem we encountered in this stage was the lighting throughout this flashback scene. Our original intention was to elevate the romanticism and sentimental value of the scene through the use of low-key lighting in the form of closed curtains and candles. However, the main flaw in this idea came in the fact that we had to film these shots during the day, and therefore could not effectively create an authentic night-time impression. In many shots, the bright natural daylight can be seen from behind the curtains, pretty much ruining the illusion of nighttime we had hoped to achieve. Additionally, the candle light did not appear to do much by way of lighting the scene, and therefore this was a rather ineffective approach to the filming. If we were to do it again, I would suggest perhaps the use of other methods of low-key lighting, such as lamps to dimly light the couple from the front, still serving to create a similar effect, but at least making them visible in the filmed footage.

We have attempted to resolve the lighting issues in these clips through the use of editing, but we are still uncertain as to whether this has aided the effect at all. We are likely to go back to this in a later stage of the editing process to see if there are any improvements we can make.

We have been experimenting with different effects we could include in the video, and decided to add the diagetic sound of the glasses clinking during the match-on-action shot. To do this we raised the volume levels on that one particular clip to hear that sound simultaneously with the song. However, we decided that this was not a professional nor product conventional feature, and overall would not tend to work as an effect in a real music video, and so we removed this effect, dragging the sound levels back down to mute it.

The editing process around this section is quite tricky, as we have not yet filmed the second half of the flashback scenes. This means that we do not yet know if there is any outdoor footage we want to include up to this point, and therefore must leave gaps whilst editing in order to add footage to fill the blanks at a later date.

Planning: Day 2

WEATHER:

Today, we plan to film the remainder of the outdoors shots for the flashback scenes. As these scenes are supposed to demonstrate a 'happier' time in the relationship, we felt that the weather was one of the most important factors in preparation for filming these shots, due to the warm and generally happier connotations of bright sunlight. Additionally, not only should the bright natural light help the shots to turn out softer and more appealing, but the usage of sunlight in this manner is also a fairly typical convention of this sort of genre.

This is the weather forecast for the intended filming period:

COSTUMES:

To promote continuity throughout our video, we have asked the actors to bring the same costumes as they wore for the flashback scene before, i.e. when playing scrabble. For Beth, this outfit consisted of a red checkered shirt, dark jeans and red trainers. For Oscar, this consisted of a red vest, dark jeans and trainers. These outfits expand on and emphasise the happier connotations of the narrative with this scene, particularly through the usage of colour connotations.

LOCATION:

We plan to film in Victoria Park, a large park roughly a ten minute walk away from college. I live close by, so this means if we are unable to return to college after filming, I would be able to take the borrowed equipment home safely. Additionally, this means that I know the park well, and should theoretically be able to suggest suitable locations for filming.

PROPS:

As one of the key themes running through the narrative of these scenes is simplicity, we do not require any props. The emphasis will be strongly on the couple, enjoying each others company and spending time together. I will, however, need to bring the guitar again. As well as finishing all of our filming today, we plan to capture the rest of the images we need for the ancillary products, including the images of Beth alone to be used for the CD cover and the magazine advert. This also means we will need to bring our digital cameras to capture the images on, as well as borrowing the camcorders and the tripod from college again.

ACTORS:

Hannah has contacted the actors and confirmed that they are available from tomorrow lunchtime onwards, which allows us the double period at the end of the day as well as a little extra time after college should we run over the planned filming time again.

Editing Diary: 2

We eventually got round to importing the track to use in the editing process of our video, as to progress much further without the song could have a negative effect at a later stage, making the editing much more difficult for us. I personally owned the EP on which the track was contained, so I brought my copy of the CD in and uploaded the track onto iTunes. We then imported this into iMovie using the audio tool. This allowed us to begin fitting the visuals to the song, both in terms of positioning the shots of the narrative in coordination with the lyrics, emphasising the convention of the slightly illustrative style we were aiming for. This also served to strengthen the relationship between the music and the visuals, meaning we could edit the clips to fit to the pace and beat of the song, in order to create an overall fluid visual style. The main beat of the track was on a bar of 4, which promoted ease of editing in that as it is an even number, if we wished to use short, sharp clips and a faster edit in places, we could cut them to last for half of a bar, meaning they wouldn't stand out and become too visually abrupt.

It proved to be beneficial for us at this stage to have such a vast selection of different clips of any one action to choose from, as the flexible filming enabled us to pick and choose the one we though would work best next without being forced into a certain line or structure as storyboarded, which would then be difficult to change and avoid certain problems if there were no more clips to choose from.

One problem that we encountered during this stage was that of the lighting and camera quality in the bedroom scenes. As we had been very reliant on natural lighting whilst recording, this took effect on the end footage as different angles seemed to consist of different lighting. This took a negative effect on the cohesion of the clips to create one overall scene, as the appearance of the scene was inconsistent. We experimented with various editing effects to resolve this, and decided our best hope was to use the brightness and contrast tool in order to lighten the image, and then make it slightly sharper and clearer by adding a slight amount of contrast. Unfortunately, this did have a negative effect on the overall quality of the visuals, but there is not much we can do to resolve this, short of scrapping the entire clip altogether, subsequently creating a massive gap in our narrative.

Despite this problem, the majority of this part of the editing process was fairly simple and straightforward - as our video is narrative based and accompanies a fairly slow paced track, the majority of the transitions we are using between shots are that of straight cuts. This allows for an uninterrupted visual flow, and also helps in promoting the idea of continuity crucial to the conveyance of our ideas. These also allowed us to clearly portray a number of match-on-action shots, for example in this scene when Beth rolls over in bed, or when Oscar turns his head to look at her before getting up - a straight cut here allows us to cut immediately to show the actors face, thereby clearly using body language and facial expression to create the mood and atmosphere of our narrative.

In addition, we muted all of the clips to remove any background sound that would at all undermine the authority of the song, allowing the track to be the sole focus of aural attention and not distracted from in any way. The very first shot of our video is that of a ticking clock - this is used to set the pace and location for the visuals, as well as allowing for an introductory shot to the visuals. We decided to include the diagetic sound of the clock ticking to emphasise the slow pace, as well as to create a comfortable, smooth transition into the beginning of the song, which we slowly faded simultaneous to the sound of the clock fading out.

Editing Diary: 1

Today we began the editing process for our music video. To do this, we created a new project in iMovie, and used a camera and a FireWire to import all of the footage we had captured so far. This became quite complicated, as we had a number of tapes containing different footage, so it was to difficult to determine where all of our footage was or if we were missing anything. This caused problems when we went to review the clips and put them in order, as were unable to find any of the specific clips we needed. To prevent this problem from happening again throughout the remainder of the editing process, we decided to put all the clips we had so far in order, making for an easy point of reference, and allowing speed and ease in finding clips as and when we needed to.

Additionally, due to the abundance of footage we had shot in order to cover all bases, viewpoints and angles, we used up quite a lot of computer memory. We went through and deleted all the off cuts of clips that we knew were definitely unusable in our footage - for example out of focus shots, or accidental recordings taken when we didn't know the camera was turned on. This didn't really have a dramatic effect on the free memory levels however, so we tided and uncluttered the Mac desktop from files that were no longer needed, to allow more room for memory, which we would need when we imported the second lot of footage, later on.

We then began to edit the opening scenes of the video, however as we had not yet imported the song, this was a process that we had to do quite carefully. We did not want to be too specific and detailed in our edits at this point without being able to see how it would link with the track - i.e. we didn't cut too much out of the clips at this point incase they were too short to be used in harmony with the song when we imported it. The only real editing we did to these clips at this stage was to remove all the sections that we knew would be in no way usable, such as shakes and poor lighting. This meant that we would be able to begin to get a picture of the overall finished product, but it still allowed for freedom and flexibility in the finer editing stages.