Filming Update - Completion of Stop Motion Filming

I have finished filming all of the stop motion footage, that I intend to include in my video. Whilst filming I also took the liberty of creating some extra shots, should I not have enough. Also, my main ideas have been fairly complex, and as I was filming, I thought of another way of using my stop motion, without the actual filming being more complex. I created a few shots using my crayons, appearing in a circle shape, with others on the outside the opposite way, which I intend to edit, in a music equaliser way, with the number of crayons going up and down, in correspondence with the music and beat, which I think will be simple, but effective. Also whilst filming, I looked over the footage with my actor in it, and think when editing that I may adjust the colour saturation to give it more colour, and a different texture, however I will need to see how it looks, as it may not be quite right for the video.

But, the main point of this post was to highlight that all the stop motion footage has been successfully completed, and now the only pieces of footage I need are my playground sections, which will be filmed in the next few days.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of my set up whilst filming:

I also intend to work on my ancillary text ideas over the next few days, so will upload those, and an update about them, when they are suitable completed.

Filming Update 2

Well today was my second day of filming the stop motion section, which went fairly successfully, although, I did not manage to complete all of the stop motion today as I had intended. This was simply because, as I was filming, I added certain extra shots, that I can add or take away as appropriate, to make sure I have plenty of footage. Also, the lighting I was using, is slightly influenced by the outside light, as I wanted the whole thing to look quite bright, so if I used all artificial lighting, a slightly off white tone would be produced. I have found I can slightly recreate the lighting, as I have a daylight lamp, however it is not that bright or large, so I can only slightly lengthen my filming time when using it, or I will be able to use it, if daylight from outside isn't bright enough. I could not incorporate this today, as I had to practise with the light, to check that it looked okay, rather than carrying on filming, with the wrong lighting. I am aware though, that some minor light changes can be made on Final Cut, like adjusting the auto levels, contrast or brightness. I am not relying to heavily on these effects, as if they are used too much, it is often too obvious, and the lighting cannot be made accurate enough with them.
I plan to continue filming on the 24th of Dec at which point I am certain all the stop motion footage will be completed, as I have now done the majority of it, and can extend my filming, if necessary with the daylight lamp I now have. Also if I finish the stop motion filming early, I may take some practice shots, and possibly actual shots, of the playground I am using in my video. However, if I don't have time for that, I will be filming my park scenes from the dates 27th Dec to 1st Jan to allow for extra filming to be done, and change in weather conditions, and also I think on these dates, the park will be not that busy, which is what I need.
I will post again after my next day of shooting, a summary of the days events.

Filming Update

Well on the 16th of Dec I filmed the section of my music video that involves an actor, singing, for the second verse. This was fairly successful, as I filmed the entire part, several times, so I have different shots to choose from, rather than having to make do. I think the lighting was good, but I will need to check this once it is uploaded, as it was quite highly lit, but sometimes what looks good on the camera screen, doesn't quite transfer to the computer as well. Also the only real problem I had, was the make up I had intended to use. Firstly I had to substitute the blue colour for a green instead, and I change the colour/shapes slightly, although this was just due to circumstance, but I am still very happy with how it looked. But I had to put a lot of make up on my - thankfully willing - actor, as the first lot I put on, didn't seem  to show up that well.  After applying more, I was happy with  the colour, but again, I need to see how it looks once uploaded, because if the colour is not as strong as I want it to be, then that section will have to be filmed again. Hopefully this will not be the case, as it would put me back slightly in my schedule for editing and creation of ancillary texts, but if it needs to be done, then it will be. Also there was only a little problem with my actor, in that, he had learnt most of his words very well, but there were still a few little bits that he was uncertain about, that had to be filmed many times. This is another reason I repeated many shots, to make sure the mouth looked right, and that his 'singing' was convincing enough, as I have seen from the previous student work I have analysed, sometimes the 'singing' isn't hugely believable, and I made a point of wanting to avoid that in my own work.


Also today (21st Dec) I began filming my stop motion parts of the video, which I thought went particularly well, especially as it was the first time I had started on my stop motion this year. I managed to get the right lighting for my video, so I was happy about that, and the actual stop-motion itself seemed to go quite smoothly, no matter how time consuming it actually is. I laid the white background on the floor, so I could move my pieces easily on get a solid, steady base.. So far today I filmed the first 30-40 seconds, although I did film some extra different animations that I hadn't planned, as I didn't want to end up with not enough movement in the shots, thus slowing the pace. Tomorrow I intend to film the rest of the stop-motion footage that will be included in my video, as I will be able to get the lighting the same as it was today, and I will also be better acquainted with the actual process of filming stop motion, as before today, I had not filmed anything in stop motion for quite some time. I will be prepared more realistically for the time it takes, and the precision that I need when filming, meaning the filming process will be easier, and more manageable tomorrow - in theory.


I will post again tomorrow evening, to update on how the filming went.

My Chosen Song

I have already put a link on here to the song I have chosen to do, as I was unable to embed the official video because it was disabled, however here is the audio of the song:





After serious consideration of the song, discussing it with a teacher and listening to it many times, I have decided to remove the 60 second instrumental towards the end of the song, as it would make the song over 5 minutes long, and I feel the extra footage for the one minute would be slightly unnecessary, and may make the video seem too long, or more like a short film. Also by cutting a part out of the song, I will be furthering my skills using certain technology, as I will need to learn how to do so effectively, with the software available.

Make-up/Costume Idea

Within my video on of the verses will be sung with an actor in shot, so I came up with an idea for their costume/make-up in order for it to link in with the r est of my video.

I intend to use bright coloured make up, in geometric shapes on the actors face, to link with the bright coloured crayons and buttons etc. that will feature in the stop motion section of my music video. By keeping the rest of the actors face clean, and blank, as well as the background being white, a similar effect of having a blank canvas will be created in these shots. However I do need to test these shots, to ensure that they look right, and will fit in with the rest of my concept, or if I have to alter it in any way.

Self Evaluation - Planning and Post Production

To assess how well I am currently working, I have reviewed my blog so far, and marked what I have done, making notes of other tasks I need to do, and how to improve, in order for my work to be of level 4 standard.

I think I have researched similar products and potential audiences proficiently, but I do not think it is of excellent standard yet, as I have only researched one ancillary text in 2 formats, and have only done one questionnaire, so I need to carry out different questionnaires in future, to improve this. I think this is similar to my organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props as I have made some main decisions about actors, locations and props, however I need to improve this by making a record of the planning and progress I have made with this.

I feel my time management has been almost excellent, as I have completed all the tasks necessary at this point, but I need to continue to plan to complete my ancillary tasks etc. To allow me to reach level 4. I think I have been careful when presenting my planning and research, in trying to ensure it is neat, clear, easy to understand and easy to use. I think my use of digital technology or ICT has been essentially excellent as I have used many hyper links in my blog posts, embedded videos, uploaded pictures and uploaded videos when I was unable to embed them. I have also been able to link certain words to relevant articles,  to allow people to quickly access certain sites when more information is wanted or useful. I also think I have worded my posts with clarity, to make my ideas easy to understand by others, and successfully show readers the progress of my planning and music video.

The level I would give myself for each criteria are as follows:

- Research into similar products and a potential target audience - Mid Level 3

- Organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props - Low Level 3

- Work on shot lists, layouts, drafting and storyboarding - Low Level 4

- Time management - Mid Level 4

- The level of care in the presentation of the research and planning - Low Level 4

- Skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation - Mid Level 4

- Communication skills - Low Level 4

I would put my work at a mid to high level 3, around 14-15 marks. I have not given myself full marks as there are some features in level 4 that I feel I have achieved, but not to as fully as I could have done , so a level 4 grade would be inaccurate.

Ancillary Text Analysis - Band Website

I chose the 'Marina & the diamonds' website to analyse, as she is quite new, so her website would be quite up to date with any new features on a band/singer's website, so is useful to me as I can use similar features when I create my webpage.

Audience Research - Planning and Post Production

I constructed a fairly basic questionnaire, just to get an idea of my target audience, what they like or dislike and any opinions or clear trends there may be. Here is a sample of the questionnaire I distributed:

From the data I gathered, I can see that the audience I am most likely aiming my product at are in the age ranges 13-17 and 18-24. I have not only chosen these age ranges because they were the most common answer, but also because I used opportunity sampling - asking whatever participants were available to take part - showing that these age ranges are the most accessible audience for me, so it is logical that they are my target audience.
I found that 90% of the people I asked liked music videos, so making my video well is essential. However I got some quite unexpected answers for the question "How often do you watch music videos?" with 63% watching them 'sometimes' and 32% watching them either 'rarely' or 'never'. I found it to be quite an anomaly that only 5% watched them all the time, yet almost all the people I asked said they liked music videos, but hardly ever watched them, suggesting that although they like music videos, watching them is not a high priority.


Also in my questionnaire I asked if the participants were aware of the differences between a concept, performance and narrative based video, as simply asking them which is their favourite, unaware if they know of the differences, may have caused some unusual results. I also included that question to get an idea of my target audience's knowledge of music videos, and whether it would have an effect on my music video. I found that quite a high percentage - 63% - did know the difference and although a smaller percentage were unaware, it was still fairly high - 36%. This shows that the style of music video I make will matter a lot, as my target audience will be able to understand it better from knowing the differences, but also that as a fair few aren't as knowledgeable, I have a little more freedom with my video.


Overall the favourite style of video was narrative, with the main reason for people liking it was because they found it the most interesting and liked it to link with the song. Although my video doesn't really have a narrative, my concept does link with the song, so I hope my target audience will like the link, even without a narrative. But the only combination people stated they liked was narrative and concept, which I found interesting, as they are quite different ideas, so to want a mixture, seemed fairly unusual, however it was helpful to me to see that some people did like concept videos. My results also showed that, generally speaking, my target audience prefer the music video to reflect the music and lyrics, as 100% said that was their preference. This result is useful to me, as my music video has quite a strong link with the song, and often reflects the music, which is what my target audience want, so it should be successful in that respect.


I also asked what people's favourite genres of music were, to get an idea of how many would be aware of, or like my chosen song, and if it would greatly affect the reception it would get when shown to others. The most popular genres were Pop, Rock and Metal, this was mildly reassuring to me, as MGMT's music is Pop/Electro, so as that was one of the favourite genres, hopefully my target audience will be familiar with the band, or song, and like it. However, as Metal and Rock were also quite popular, I may receive quite mixed reviews of my video, as these are quite different styles to the song I have picked, and the style of my video.


Overall I found this initial research to be quite useful, in giving me some general ideas of the audience I am aiming at, and helping me draw some tentative conclusions about their preferences.