For this unit, we were tasked with creating our own music video for a song of our choice. My chosen song was ‘Always’ by the artist: ‘Panama’, as I personally enjoy the song, and the lyrics also connected to my initial idea for the video. As shown on my storyboard, my first idea was to create a narrative style music video, following a boy as he reminisces about his relationship and times with friends; the video would have a non-linear narrative throughout, jumping between past and present, whilst showing the past through a point-of-view shot for our protagonist. Unfortunately, a couple of my friends were unavailable to film due to their college and work schedules, and I was not able to get a decent amount of footage to make this part of the video. In order to accommodate for this, I got more footage revolving around the relationship aspect, and decided to base the video entirely on this theme, as it was simpler to film.
When planning my shoots, I decided to film in three unique locations; this is because I wanted to show three different occasions in the past, to correlate with the three choruses of the song. The first shoot took place on the beach in Lanzarote, as beaches are usually associated with happy memories, and I thought this would be a good location to represent that. With this shoot, I had to be mindful that we were in a busy public location, I kept the equipment out of the path of people to limit the potential of the setup being a safety hazard. I also kept the camera out of the sand at all times to avoid any damage. The second shoot took place at Coombe Abbey; this is because it is an aesthetically pleasing location that provides contrast from the location of the beach. The country park is also easily accessible via car and so was ideal. As this location is also a public place, I kept the equipment out of the way to avoid damage. For my third shoot, I planned to film in an urban setting - most likely Birmingham, again to contrast against the previous two locations. However, on the day I had planned to shoot, the weather was poor, meaning I couldn’t record. To overcome this, I did another shoot in Coombe Abbey to get enough footage, but also slightly changed the course of my narrative to cater to the change. For my fourth shoot, I just filmed in my own house, this was generally a low risk environment, apart from one shot requiring filming around stairs, with which I was careful and aware of my surroundings.
Regarding the production itself, I decided to film the ‘present’ segment of the video from a 3rd person perspective, so the audience is looking at the protagonist from an outside perspective. This was to show clearly who the protagonist of the video was, and who’s point of view the audience will witness in other parts of the video. When filming this, I came across the issue of underexposure, due to the lighting being quite dim indoors, in an effort to keep camera settings the same, I tried to allow more light in by opening windows and doors, this worked to an extent, as it allowed more light into the room, however it resulted in some over-exposed areas in some of the shot. To avoid this in the future I would perhaps use a different lens which allowed for a lower aperture setting. For the ‘past’ segments of the video, I shot using a point-of-view angle throughout. This was a to emphasise the narrative of my music video, and also helped to highlight that the protagonist is looking back over past memories. A disadvantage I came across during filming this is that the camera is quite cumbersome when trying to film from this particular perspective, as it restricts your view, therefore becoming a safety risk. In order to overcome this, I ensured that the path was clear ahead of me to limit the chance of tripping over. Also, some shots came out quite shaky, due to the camera being handheld; in the future, it would be wise to use a GoPro for the P.O.V shots as it would limit the camera shake, but also make the shot seem more realistic.
Before beginning the editing process, I labelled the names of the clips in the folder, so I knew what the clips were of. I also compiled all of my footage into location categories, such as Coombe Abbey, Lanzarote, etc. This helped make the overall editing process more efficient, as I was able access the footage easily, without having to search for each clip.
When editing my video, I tried to cut to the beat of the song to the best of my ability, this is to make the video seem more professional and polished, and also to compliment the music. During the P.O.V instances, I also added overlay effects onto the footage to highlight that it is taking place in the past. I downloaded a film grain overlay from the internet, which added over the footage, and also tried to added a sepia-type filter in addition. I chose to do this so the audience will be able to distinguish between the past and present instances. Furthermore, during the transitions, I added a 'Gaussian Blur' effect, combined with a white colour matte, in order to make the transition seem almost dreamlike. An issue I came across during this process is that the sepia filter diminished the effect of the blur, making it less intense for some reason, despite changing the opacity of the layer.
I decided to alternate between the past and present at the points where the song switches from verse to chorus. This was to give the video a strong feel, as the editing and narrative will compliment the song structure. The song I chose was quite a long track, and I found it difficult to piece together enough footage whilst avoiding a repetitive feel. As a solution, I decided to cut the song shorter, this is because the last minute or so is purely instrumental and quite repetitive, therefore I cut a section out of the middle, and combined the remaining pieces of the song to the exact beat, to make sure that the change isn't noticeable. I cut the song down to an appropriate length for my narrative to come to an end, but also made sure the song lasted around three minutes, a common convention of contemporary songs.
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