Evaluation task 1 (part 1) - Introduction

For my music video we followed the conventions of 'girl power' 4 strong women who dominate a man, this would not be classified as a stereotypical pop video. A convention is a way that something is already done 'the normal'. Our video adhered to a pop video in the sense that there was a lot of lip syncing and and quirky shots and ideas. For our website we wanted to portray a alternative vibe, as the four girls are very different from other artists so we wanted to represent this on the website and this will also reflect onto the CD digipak, so we have had to work on artwork that shows of the band whilst not showing their faces. The overall performance of this video was the four girls trying to allure the man into their own different worlds, which is very unconventional. For this evaluation question i am going to compare my music video, website and CD digipak to other professional music videos, websites and digipaks and look at how they adhere to similar conventions or are completely different.

Evaluation Task 1 (part 2) - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The editing process

What is editing?

Editing is part of the creative post-production process of making a digital video. Normally a digital video editor works with raw material/footage, choosing shots and cutting them into sequences to create a well put together music video (pop promo).

Process:

Our initial result for the video was for it to be fast cut and frantic involving the use of PVO shots as possible and going through/changing rooms. This process should confidently allow for good group work and to produce something that looks professional. I think with the shots we have chosen we have created something very eye grabbing and interesting to watch. 

The first week of editing was slow getting together all the shots in the correct order and sorting them into sections. Me and Genny did all the editing throughout this process and Mingyu worked on assets for the website. Editing is quite frustrating at times when you are not sure what shot to use next, however it is always good when i had Genny there as it was easy to confer with her and decide on shots. Having each other to jump off each other made our music video better as we kept coming up with new ideas how to edit. 

Editing consisted of looking back through our footage and separating them into different files, collecting all the different girls shots into different folders. While we picked out the best shots we started to rename them as we went through, so it was easier to identify the footage, so we were to try and find a piece of footage we would know which one to cut from. There were two factors to renaming the file: Primarily it is the characters name (E for Eloise). Secondly the camera angle (wide, mid, close up or POV).The timeline in used to lay out all the chosen shots and help the producer to connect shots together syncing them with the music. This is done by looking at the playback video shot on the footage and matching it with the time on the timeline.

During our editing and filming we have used different conventions for example the lip syncing also the performance of our actors, which helps the audience identify the story line easier. As usual we used the program Adobe Premier Pro, which was helpful as we already knew how to habit the software already due to the making of our thrillers last year. We didn't want to rush this process so we concentrated on the quality of each cut as we wanted to develop the detail of the video and this method worked really well. We used the cutting tool so we were able to cut footage into smaller parts making editing a lot easier, helping us choosing the perfect shot we wanted to use, if it only be a second worth. 

We had to really think about the sequence and order of the shots as the continuity of each setting leading into the next had to be perfect. We knew the order from the shoot day as we had to get footage form one room leading into another. Because our music video revolved a lot around lip syncing of the four girls this means there was an added weight on our shoulders because of the level of attention we had to give when editing that it was all in sync with the music. When editing i made sure i made a duplicate of the first ever cut i made, so if anything happened of if something needed to be changed it was easier to access and it also means that nothing could be lost throughout the whole process.

By the end of the editing process me and Genny decided that we could add some more beauty moments in from each girl, i think this just added another element of girl power etc. Then right at the end we looked at the width of the screen and narrowed it taking some off the bottom and top, I think this just added the finishing touch to the video.