Improvements to Second Cut

There were some problems and disappointments for our second cut of a music video. One of the first things we noticed about our production was when Harry was dropping objects out of the window. The camera kept jerking up which gave the sequence a very unprofessional look. We plan to rectify this by making the cuts quicker which makes the camera not jerk up every time. This also happened when we were shooting in the park, when I attempted to zoom into Harry's face. This can be fixed similarly to the way we plan to fix the dropping objects out of the window.

When Harry is boxing the shot is to dark and we cannot see his face clearly, which can be related to when I am riding the bike down the hill. We can correct this by reshooting both sequences with stronger lighting. The  park scene is also badly lit but that is harder to control, despite having opportunities to reshoot this the weather is too dark and we need the light to make the sequence look comical. Some of our shots were messy and untidy especially the jenga sequence, their is too much empty space in the background with unnecessary objects.

We have decided to add in shots that we believe will improve our music video. The green screen will be used to add funny and amusing images using a green screen. We plan to miniaturize me or Harry and have them lip sync on the other persons hand.

Second Cut

Editing

 

We began to experiment with the video effects in Premire. We looked at all of the effects and choose the ones that gave our video a wacky affect, we editied the transition further to make it suit the shot. Some of the transitions didn't work for the reasons that some didn't go with the music and some just didn't do anything. However we managed to find at least seven good effects to put in our video.+

 

Audience Feedback on Our First Cut

I decided to do a survey to give the people I asked a simple job in determining what we needed to improve on in our music video. I asked people to fill out 10 different questions and asked two girls age 17+ and two guys aged 16+. The questions I asked were;

1. Out of 10 how would you rate our music video?

The first question resulted in three 7/10 and one 8/10, I was happy with the scores because that means if our first cut is 7/10 we get push it up to 9/10 or maybe 10/10.

2. Which was your favourite part?

The two guys said the favourite part of the music video was when Harry dropped different items out of the window, while the two girls said that their favourite part was the quick beginning shot of the street. They said that the video was perfectly in time with the pace and it led in well with the next shot.

3. Which was your worst part?
The parts that all four said they didn't like was the shots when mine and Harry's faces are in the dark and they can't see us lip syncing. This was the part we fixed by re-filming this as part of our reshoots, we didn't have any of these problems in the reshoot.

4. Which was the funniest part?
Three of the four I asked said they found the scene when I rode down the Chauncy hill on a bike, and made crazy faces to the camera. The guy who said otherwise chose time when Harry dropped stuff out of the window, said that it was the funniest and favourite thing of the video.

5. Which part needs the most improvement?
The two guys and both girls said that the part that needs the most improvement is when Harry is lip syncing with the punch bag behind him. They said that it was too blurry and the shots were too diverse.

6. Is the camerawork good enough, if not can it be improved?
Everyone said that the camerawork is good and that the only problem was the stage shots at the end of the video. For the reason that it wasn't framed well and that it didn't look as good as the other shots, particularly the shots with Harry and I lip syncing.
 

7. Is the editing good enough, if not can it be improved?
The four people I asked all said the pace of the music video was fine and that the begining was a bit too fast and they couldn't really see whats going on.

8. Is the pace correct or is it to slow/fast?
I decided to do a survey to give the people I asked a simple job in determining what we needed to improve on in our music video. I asked people to fill out 10 different questions and asked two girls age 17+ and two guys aged 16+. The questions I asked were;

9. Does the video look amusing?
They all found the video amusing and said that the only average scene that didn't make them laugh was the shot's when I'm lip syncing in the hall.

10. Does our music video look professional?
The two boys said that the video does look professional but when people were saying 'bonkers' you could clearly see they were in school because of the lockers in the background. The two girls said the same as the guys but they also added that the slow motion, black and white shot of me going down the hill didn't fit in.

Looking Into the Work of Spike Jonze

 Spike Jonze is a famous music video director who has directed numerous video by artists like Jay-Z, Weezer, The Notorious B.I.G and Ludacris. All these videos have a  crazy element to them, which relates to our video. 

The first video I analysed was Otis by Jay-Z and Kayne West. This video doesn't have a comical effect but Jay-Z and Kayne West destroy a car to make it suit them, this is what Jonze does to music videos. He gives the artist something simple and lets them edit it to their liking, and this is an occurrence in most of his videos. The similarity between their video and ours is Jay-Z is wearing a flat peak cap and raps directly to the camera.

 

Jay-Z makes gestures with his hands like Eminem and other rappers while rapping to the camera, and we mirrored that in our video.

 The second video, I am analysing is The Sky's The Limit by Notorious B.I.G. In this video the Notorious B.I.G is played by a kid and so are all his staff and bodyguards, which is comical considering all the kids are trying to rap but it just ends up being comical. The similarity between this video and every video I've seen by a rap artist the rapper always raps to the camera.

The Notorious B.I.G is seen rapping in his bed which is what we did in the beginning of our music video.

At the end of this video the Notorious B.I.G ends up on stage and this is common in a lot of rap videos, but not particularly in Spike Jonze's videos.

The final video I am analysing  is Get Back by Ludacris. This video is only filmed in two locations in a mens bathroom and on the the street. A lot of Jonze's videos take place on the street and they either have a comical effect or have a crazy effect to them.

This video uses a mirror effect which is what we did in two different moments when Harry smears shaving cream all over his face and when I'm lip syncing to a mirror with a camera facing it.

Ludacris wears a comically large arm over his own arm and this is  obviously a costume that Jonze has recommended because it is funny this is what makes this video extremely funny.

Comparisons Between Our Video and the Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff's- Parents Just Don't Understand

The Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff- Parents Just Don't Understand (YouTube link)

The Fresh Prince (or Will Smith) has had a lot success as an actor but this song, which was created in 1988, has loads of similarities with our video. Just like the beginning of our song the Fresh Prince starts off in his bed.

The Fresh Prince then get up and raps to the camera just like with what we did for the beginning of our music video. Another similarity is the colours used are based around white walls, white clothes and other objects.

The speed of the editing in the video is very quick and snappy and often the speed of the shot quickens which is a comparison to ours.

The Fresh Prince often raps to the camera and does amusing poses to give the video a very funny and comical effect which is what we tried to do, with 'Bonkers'.

We attempted to use a dutch tilt in our video by either changing the height of the tripod or using a handheld camera, and that was the same in this video.

Comparisons Between Our Video and Eminem's- Without Me

Eminem- Without Me (YouTube link)

There are a coupe of mad moments in Eminem's song 'Without Me' and the editing and camerawork is very similar. At the beginning the speed of the shot gets sped up quite a bit just like ours.

The first shot of the main star 'Eminem' is when he sits up in bed which is exactly what we did in our 'Bonkers' video, however his room is darker while our room was lighter and included more object that were white.

Eminem uses crazy costumes in his music video like someone dressed up like a pink rabbit and someone dressed up as a cactus. Harry dressed up as a penguin which was also very comical which mirror 'Without Me'.

When Eminem is rapping he speaks to camera which is what Harry and I did in our music video, also Eminem made gestures with his hand like we did.

In Eminem's video he gets other people to lip sync in their video like we did by making people say 'Bonkers' and what Eminem also does is make people were flat peaks caps as well.

Reshoot at Harry's House

We had to reshoot certain scenes at Harry's house because some of the shots were very bad and blurry. We reshot the beginning scene were I was in the bed and lip syncing, and we decided to add in funnier shots like Harry rubbing shaving cream all over his face.

Comparisons Between Our Video and Nickelback's - Rockstar

Nickelback- Rockstar (YouTube link)

There are a couple of similarities between our music video and Nickelback's video of Rockstar, the first main similarity was the fact that Nickelback got a lot of different people to lip sync in their music video which is what we did.

What they did include in their music video that we included was a specific type of clothing; flat peak caps, shades, funny top and trackies which is what Nickleback did in theirs. This type of clothing is very common in hip hop and grime music videos which is why we decided to wear it.

There is also a crazy element to Rockstar and that is really similar to our video, in Nickleback's video because in their video someone is breaking a guitar and in our video we throw various objects out of a window.

Right at the end of Nickleback's music video they finish with people in a gig with the band on stage which is how we ended our music video.

Reshoot in the Park

We decided to reshoot the park sequence not because there was anything wrong with the shots, just because the shots didn't look 'bonkers' enough so Harry dressed up in a penguin costume to make it look funnier.

Comparisons Between Our Video and Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some More

Busta Rhymes- Gimme Some More (YouTube link)
The beginning shot in Busta Rhymes' music video is very similar shot to our music video because it shows a house while our music video shows a long shot of the camera walking round the area in a really fast shot

The first shot of someone lip syncing is a close up and that's exactly the same as our shot, however our first lip syncing shot is a high angle while 'Busta Rhymes' uses a low shot.

Busta Rhymes uses a crazy theme to his song and this is what we tried to do with our song as well what we did was dressing Harry up in a penguin costume and make him look crazy.

We have a very similar colour theme to Busta Rhymes because  he uses a lot of white in his background and so do we, for example the bed sheets are white and so is Busta Rhymes' background.

Almost all of our shots have someone lip syncing to the camera and that is the same throughout the whole of the song, just like ours. 

Busta Rhymes gets different people to sing in his song to say 'gimme some more' just like we got different people to say 'bonkers' in our music video.

Reshoot in My House

We had to improve the shots in my house because we used two different cameras and they were on different settings and they looked too different, the big thing was that one was on LP (long play) was way to blurry.

Editing

We started to edit our video after we did the reshoots and improved our production, we are not finding it very difficult. We have already uploaded the reshoots and are replacing the bad shots that didn't work.