Editing Blog Music Video

                                                         Editing Blog Music Video                                           

     Now comes the Editing Stage. The previous blog was about the Filming and now me and my group have moved onto editing our music video. From the Filming stage, we decided to film our shots on the camera. However the camera was not charged when I arrived at Young Circle. So I took it up on myself to record on my Samsung Note 9. However, I was going to leave early, so Elijah decided to record it on his phone. Elijah's phone is an Iphone 7 Plus. When I left, they said they completed all the filming. I told them to dump the footage onto the computer when the next class came around. They decided to upload it onto Google Drive.
 
     However, when it comes to actually editing, the footage has to be uploaded to Pinnacle Studios. So when we tried to upload it to Pinnacle Studios, the footage was not accepted. The video file was .mov, which was not supported by Pinnacle Studios. Iphone footage typically gets exported as the .mov file. So then we tried to convert the footage into a compatible file type, .mp4. Since it requires special administrative access to download apps, we had to do the converting online. This is where the majority of the problems came up, such as slow speeds and storage limits. We tried multiple websites, but all were slow and only got a few of the clips converted. Then another problem arose when coming across half decent websites. The laptops were not efficient enough to actually do these conversions at fast enough speeds, so we had to leave at the end of class.
   
     Before the end of class today, we had already tried 5 laptops and none of them were of any good use to us. I talked to my teacher, and she announced that students may go to her during study hall the following day. My group took that chance and agreed to go. However, it is my duty to convert the .mov files to .mp4 ones. So when I went home today, I started the conversions on my gaming pc. My pc is well over fast enough to do the conversions fast. Just in case there were no other computers or laptops available to use the next day, I said I would bring my own. However, that means I need an editing software to edit on. I tried out Blender and HitFilm Express, but they were too complicated. I settled on the easy-to-use Windows Movie Maker. Finally in conclusion, tomorrow will be the day we get all the true editing done, and today we prepared for it.

Filming Blog

                   Filming Blog               

     My music video project I am doing for my Media class requires me to film the video itself. The music song choice is "Hey THERE Deliljah". The filming took place on November 23rd. The location was at Young Circle in Hollywood, Florida. The setting for the video was at night so I had to go when it was dark outside. I was leaving from a friends house before I reached the park. My mom had a friend in the car, so they had to leave soon. My mom and friend also came from a party at another one of my friends house. They came to pick me up, but I also had to go film. My mom gave me around 10-15 minutes to go film with my group.

     Misunderstood, she was under the influence that if the video is short the filming will be short. After 3 minutes in, we weren't even filming yet. Elijah and Zeke had other friends there at the park. This slowed down the process to actually start filming since they weren't going to be a part of the vid. The original choice for the female lead into the music was changed into another friend also at the park. I wanted to get as much effort put into the 10 minutes I had, so I tried rushing things a bit. I decided to be the cameraman and got the scenes into position. The first scene was with the man with the guitar isolated. This was completed at the side of a fountain. The next scene was comprised of the setting shot, which would set the setting of the park at night.

     However, it also captured an already placed Christmas tree, which was not planned to be in the video. However this tree sets the mood a bit better with the Holiday and Romantic theme. The third scene was with the man perched on top of a tree strumming his guitar and singing while the girl strolls past unnoticing of the man. The tree blocked most light so it was incredibly dark on camera so flash was needed to film. The camera captured mostly the bottom half of Zeke (the guitar player). Another problem was with the other friends, who kept getting caught in the shot, so they had to move to a completely different position. This was the final scene I could stay and help with since my mom was asking for me to come. Apparently the rest of the filming went by smoothly so I was not worried about the footage. When we went back to school last Tuesday, I asked Elijah and Zeke to dump the footage onto the laptop, but they dumped it on onedrive. The filming stage was finally completed and now my group is ready to move onto the editing stage.

Filming Blog for Music Video

                                                          Filming Blog for Music Video                                    

      This is my filming blog which highlights the important parts about my filming! First of all, the music video my group and I were making is on the song, "Hey There Delilah". My group is just me Elijah and Zeke. The storyboard we made directly recreates what our video would most likely look like. The setting for the storyboard was at a park in New York City. The time it would be at is at  nighttime. Of course we couldn't fly to New York City on such short notice, so we decided to film at Young Circle in Hollywood, FL. The park is rather big and represents what a park in New York City would be. The date we decided to film was on November 23, 2019. The time we started filming at was around 8:25 pm.
      By the time I arrived there it was dark, which was according to plan. Zeke and Elijah were there, along with a few other old friends to help out with the filming. We needed a leading role for a female and a male, which was supported by a volunteer. The camera was not charged so we had to film off of Elijah's iPhone 7 Plus. We then followed along with the storyboard starting off with the man and his guitar by himself in the shot. We took it with Zeke sitting on the edge of the fountain. The next one was the lady walking down some sort of path. Then, one of the volunteers had to walk along a path that went up to a big open area with a Christmas tree to end off the shot. The next scene in the storyboard was with the man in the guitar perched up in a tree with the girl walking past the tree not noticing him. We found a low hanging tree branch and decided that would be a good area to film.
      Once this scene was filmed, I had to leave early at this part.
However the filming went on good without any special problems or events (experiences taken from Zeke and Elijah). Now for the props, clothing, lighting and other necessities. The props we only needed was the guitar, meant for Zeke to pretend play and play along with the song. We had the song playing on a phone to help Zeke mouth the words for the song. For the clothes, they were all casual clothes meant to represent a simple and easy to follow kind of theme. The lighting was dark and bright depending on the shots. For example walking up the path in the second scene was met first with dark and then light coming from the Christmas tree. Sometimes the lighting was too dark so we had to improvise and use it to the best of our abilities. The acting was great since Zeke represented the guitar player really well and the volunteer was following along with the skit. The filming stage was a really straightforward step we took in order to complete our music video.

Planning Blog for Music Video

                                                        Planning Blog for Music Video                             

      Coming into our next project, we have a lot of new variables to consider. These variables include location, health and safety, props, costumes, and finally our schedule. Being that our music video will have a dark kind of gloomy feel, we plan to have our variables work along with this tone. For the location, we know that we want it somewhere dark with a lot of little and pretty lights. This is as close we will get to a New York feel. A place where we know we can get this is Young Circle. Young Circle has a lot of different environment types and we plan to use all of them. From the park, to the little restaurants that surround the circle. We will be filming in a public place and people will surround us adding to the effect of a big city. With this said, some health and safety precautions must be in play while filming. For starters there will be a lot of people potentially with intentions to steal camera equipment or harm us.
      We will make sure our parents come and supervise while we our filming. A First aid kit will also be on site because we plan to perform a few small stunts by our actor/singer. This may include climbing a tree or sitting on a high wall. We obviously aren't gonna have our actor/singer playing the air guitar so we will be bringing a guitar. That's pretty much it for props. That brings us to costumes. We will be dressing our girl actor with regular modern clothing and our male singer/actor in modern clothing. The clothing will be the same as always. The song was made recently so the singers and actors should match the time period. Being that this is a time sensitive project, we have to follow very strict timelines on certain due dates throughout the two week period.
      We started on 11/14. Song choice, and genre convention. This was not a problem because we as a group easily picked a song. 11/20 is our planning blog. Well because i'm doing it right now and not having a problem with it, it will be turned in as planned. 11/25 will be the time to turn in our filming blog. I felt this was one of the easier blogs on our last project so turning this one in on time I think will be the easiest. We'll simply do our filming and right the processes. 12/6 is the final due date. This I know will be turned in on time because if not it will have an extreme impact on my grade. As a group, the need to finish this project and turn it in on time is a responsibility that we feel the need to fulfill. All the other turn in dates after are straight forward. You do what you have to do and turn it in on time. Should be no problem. If we do run into the possibility that we can't turn in a project on time we will pass the responsibility to one of our three group members. Either way, we will not accept a failing grade on one of our due dates and will exercise any way to make sure we do well.

Storyboard Blog for Music Video

                                                      Storyboard Blog for Music Video                                 

      For our second blog, we are finishing our story board and writing about what we drew and did. The story board was no different then our last project. We planned out between us what we wanted our commercial to look like and what scenes we wanted to include. It took us a while to agree on how we wanted to film our scene but in the end we came through. The only difference is that because this video is considerably longer, so  is our story board. Instead of 6 slides, we made 12. We began by watching the original video to get some ideas. The whole video revolves around the idea of a distance relationship and the love they share. Our video complements this in the idea that when Delilah thinks hard enough about her true love, he will appear. That's exactly what goes on in our story board.
      For our first slide, it shows a man singing on his guitar sitting on a stool. The back ground is blank and he's alone with the lyrics of his song. The second slide brings us the park, or "New York." The dark sky, with the many lights lighting it up. Just like New York. This is when Delilah appears on our third slide. She's walking on the path as she thinks of of her true love some where far away. She passes a tree and the sound of her true loves voice fills the air. She turns towards the tree and see's nothing but a normal tree.
      It was in her head she assumes in this 6th slide. We get a medium close up of her confused expression on the 6th slide as well. It happens again in the 7th slide. His voice fills the air except this time it sounds closer. Almost real. She turns around again just to see nothing but air again in the 8th slide. She sits on a nearby bench and cries. She regrets leaving him and misses him with everything she has. She lifts her head and there he stands. He flew all the way to her and surprised her. The other times she thought she heard him may have been in her head but this time it was real. Their love brought each other together again. They hug and set down the path of lights holding hands while humming the song he made for her together.

Music Video Research Blog

   
                                                         Music Video Research Blog                            P.6
  On Tuesday, I turned in my final commercial and my Creative Critical Questions. Also on that day, our teacher introduced us to a new project we have to complete, the music video. She briefly talked about how we need to choose a song to make a film on it. She also talked about groups and the next few weeks. The groups can be as big as 4 people, but Zeke and Elijah wanted me in their group so I joined. This music video will be due in 2 weeks and a half. Now looking at today, she told us that the project will be finished just before the midterms. The other teacher went into talking about how Cambridge has upped their standards for the music video, so our work must be more professional looking. By today we also had to choose a song and form groups, which was half settled on Tuesday.

       My group decided that the song will be Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's. I didn't have much to say because the song was good enough. Elijah first wanted Sweet Caroline as a song choice on Tuesday, but changed it. The song is a part of the alternative/pop rock genre of music. Many people are familiar with it which is a good thing.

     There are conventions for the music genre, alternative/pop rock. There are establishing shots such as the city or a town. There are also many eye level shots in this genre. The sounds are of course the music itself. There are also a wide variety of editing in this genre for example split-screen, jump cuts, cross-cutting, and different-angle transitions.

     This genre has a unique mise-en-scene, this is it in the form of CLAMPS:
1. The costumes/clothes are simple and not flashy. It varies to the tone of the song and its meaning behind it.
2. The lighting for this music video and most of them in general are mostly dark but there are instances of lights shining in some parts of the screen.
3. The actors are adults who are playing the role as a musician, singer, or some other leading roles contributing to the backstory of the song. A leading role for example can be a lover of the musician.
4. The music in the alternative/pop rock genre is distinct from normal types of rock. It does not have blasting instruments, but a much more mellow and lively tone to it.
5. The props for this music genre are usually instruments that the song is using. Other props can include chairs or drinks, according to the backstory of the song.
6. The setting for the genre is typically in the city or out in the country. It has something to with the leading role's characteristics and backstory.

Final Blog

                                                                    Final Blog                                                   

    Today is the last day I could work without rush on my commercial. I finally entered the ending portion of the editing stage. Today was also an early release day for school so I only had 40 minutes to work on my commercial. The last class, we had some time to edit, so I got everything prepared and tidied up some of the clips in order to finish it today. We also had to save our work on the laptop we got, which mines was number 20. Just in case I also saved it onto my flashdrive. When I pulled out my laptop today, I signed out under #20. I booted up my laptop and plugged it in. Then, I tried opening the commercial from the laptops storage but the file was corrupted so the footage was blank.
Thankfully, I saved it on my flashdrive just in case this happened.

    When I pulled the file off my my flashdrive, it was not corrupted. Pinnacle Studios 18 was the software I was editing on this time. The loading screen popped up and I was ready to work. I noticed and remembered that I had to get music into the commercial. In my previous blogs I mentioned how I was going to use upbeat, repetitive rhythmic music in my Gatorade commercial. After barely one minute of searching I found a good song to use. It had the upbeat tune and the drums were playing repetitively all while being rhythmic. I had to download the .mp3 file for the music so I copied the link and headed to listentoyoutube.com and got it. I then uploaded it into pinnacle studies, then instantly to track 3. I adjusted the audio to the starting point and tested it out.

    The music fitted in perfectly with the video. Even the editing from last class, when I edited all the bad and good clips of the high five part into one, matched the beat of the music. So then in order to hear the talking that was featured in the footage, I clipped off a section of it and deleted it. The running sounds playing from the footage at the end of the video was a good idea to keep, but i decided it would match the ending to get rid of it. Last class I also put up a Gatorade Logo at the end of the video big and clear in the middle of the screen. To follow up before the logo appeared, I put the slogan "Is it in you?" at the bottom of the screen as we were running. As soon as the last drum sound finished before the video ended, I cropped the music and deleted the remainder of it. The lack of sound at the end announces the video is about to be over. This is about the time the bell rang, so then I saved the commercial onto the laptop and flashdrive. The long process to complete my commercial was a new experience to me and I liked it a lot, and now it is about nearly done.

Editing Blog

                                                                    Editing Blog                                                       

   This is my editing blog for my Gatorade Commercial. In my last blog, I said I had to finish filming my Gatorade Commercial. I went out today to finish filming. I signed out for the camera, tripod, bags, and SD Card. My other friends were finishing their filming, so I had to wait for them to finish. After they finished their stairwell shots, they moved to the classroom to film. I asked Zeke to come, but I also needed a camera controller. Roscoe came to help. Zeke's clothes were different from Thursday, but I kept the same clothes. We went to the track field and set up.

   When we checked for the camera-tripod connector, it wasn't there. Roscoe had to record only by handheld. I had to re-shoot three scenes from the storyboard. One of them, the high-five scene, was the only scene I forgot to shoot. The other two were not good enough. As the first scene went by, the jogging and getting tired part, it was finished smoothly in one swoop. The second scene, the high-five part, had to be retaken many times. We kept messing up on the high-five and the landing. We finally got a decent one and moved onto the final scene. The last scene was just me and Zeke jogging again but not stopping instead.

   The final scene, was also finished in one shot, next I packed up the equipment and left. When I went back in the classroom, I requested for an SD card reader. I plugged in the SD card I used for my camera into the SD card reader, which then went into the computer. I tried using the computer I dumped my footage from Thursday, but it was not there. Thankfully, I saved the footage onto my flash-drive. I searched through the SD card, and found someone else's footage, but went around it. I found my footage, but me and Zeke were glitched out a little bit. It was too late to go back and record, so I decided I would keep it as some sort of "effect". The editing software had to be accessed by a administrator, and was not due today, so I left it alone. Today I finished my filming, dumping, and organized everything to be prepared for when I actually edit my Gatorade Commercial.

Filming Blog

                         Filming Blog           

    Yesterday, I filmed my Gatorade commercial. I had to sign up for my camera and the kit, including the bag, tripod, and tripod bag. There was also the SD card I had brought from home in order to store my footage I shot. I then proceeded to bring my equipment to the track field. I am in a solo group, so I asked my friends if they could help me, and they said yes. When I started my camera, I got a notification saying something along the lines of, Memory Card Unreadable. I hurried back to the Media room and asked if I could borrow one of the class SD cards. I signed out the SD card and went back to the track field. I opened up my tripod and set it facing the track field on the outskirts of it. I prepared the camera and finally attached it to the tripod.

     Next, I had to wait for my friends to try helping me. I needed one camera controller and another to be in the shot with me. Once two of them were ready I could record. The first scene was with me and someone else jogging on the track field. We had to fake being tired at the end in order to get into the next scene. The second acne was about me handing a Gatorade to my tired friend. The shot was a handheld over the shoulder type. We had to take this scene twice since we started drinking the Gatorade when we were not supposed to. When the third scene rolled around, this is when we were supposed to drink the Gatorade.  The drinking had to be slow in order to make the cut for the total 30 seconds of footage.

  Then, to make the Gatorade look and taste good to my future viewers, me and my friend made it look satisfying. This fourth scene was just us smiling and talking about how much better we felt after drinking the Gatorade. Sadly, for the fifth scene, I forgot to record it. It was supposed to be me and my friend high fiving each other. I will take it on Monday when we have 30 more minutes to shoot or retake our commercial clips. The final scene, the sixth one, involved us jogging away. This scene was played out but went missing or was inadequate. I have to shoot the last two scenes again on Monday. I finally went back to the classroom, dumped my footage on a PC and then on my flash drive both with an SD card reader. Overall I had fun shooting my commercial and felt satisfied with the work I finished.

Storyboard Blog

                                                          Storyboard Blog                                             

   With my storyboard, I have to include the type of camera angles, movements, shots, etc to be used when I start recording my Gatorade commercial. For my first panel, I will use  a tracking shot, a long shot angle, along with a two-shot. Next, in the second panel, the angle will be an over-the-shoulder dutch angle with no movements with the camera swiveling around the two people.. The third panel will feature a medium close up shot with no movements. Coming with the fourth panel, a medium close up shot tilt is included. For the fifth panel, a medium close up and a two shot angle is featured along with a zoom in. The sixth and final panel includes a two shot angle with a pan. The editing between panels will be rather simple, trying not making the Gatorade commercial confusing. The movements shown in the shoots will be decorated with matching edits, such as a pan going to the left will result in a edit of the footage swiping left. The music is yet to be chosen, I will choose the right song during the editing phase. The music will be rhythmic and upbeat, holding a motivational and athletic tone to it. Split screen will be a feature in the third panel showing the two students both drinking and finishing the Gatorade bottle side by side. The setting will be on the track field.

Editing Lesson Blog

                Editing Lesson Blog     

     Today I learned how to use my camera and how to edit my footage. I will get sometime later a camera kit. This camera kit includes the camera, SD card reader, charger for camera and a USB cable. The camera is formatted to be handheld since it fits and stays put in the palm of your hand. We also get an extra camera tripod to get more stable shots. I need to fill out a form in order to receive our camera. I then need to get my camera and put the camera number on the form. This let's me and my teacher know that this camera is mine. If I borrow a camera I have to return it to school the next possible school day. I also need to store my footage onto an SD card that's supposed to be inserted into the camera.

     Soon, I was told that the camera battery lasts a long time but also needs to charge for a while. Once I put the SD card into the camera and save my footage on it, I can remove it. Getting the footage from the camera into my computer is what is called dumping. I plug the SD card into and SD card reader which is then connected to my computer. I make a new folder on my desktop screen and call it something I can remember it by. This folder is where I put the footage I dumped so I won't lose it. In order to access my SD card, I have to go to Files>USB>DCIM or if that doesnt work, follow USB>Private>AVCHD> the one following>Stream. Then drag the footage folder into your own. The editing program I am recommended to use is Pinnacle Studio. In order to import my footage into Pinnacle Studio, I have to go on the program and import from desktop>my folder.

    Conveniently, Pinnacle Studio is relatively easy to use since it gives a clear path to follow. First select your footage you want to edit after you imported it. The film is separated into three layers. The top layer is for your title and words to put in your film. The middle layer is where the actual footage is. The bottom and final layer is the sound. When placing the footage onto the middle bar, you have to wait for the green bar to disappear or else your computer can crash. For identifying a few things, the red bar is the "play" bar that pinpoints which part of the video is being played currently. The razor blade icon is used to split the clip the play bar is in into two pieces depending on where the bar is. To delete one of the pieces, you highlight it and press delete. To detach audio from the middle to the bottom layer, you follow highlight>right click>detach audio. Also to include titles and words, press the T icon and play around with it. If you want transitions, highlight the clip, right click and then open Effects Editor. Finally to save, press save, choose the mpeg 4 file (with highest resolution and quality), and then press export.

Planning Blog for Gatorade Commercial

                                                                        Planning Blog                                         

Props:
  In order to make a proper commercial, it needs props. The props needed for a Gatorade commercial are of course Gatorade and a water bottle. The prop clothes will be athletic such as a short shirt, short pants, and running shoes. We will also need a camera to record and a PC to edit the shots.

   Costumes:
   The costumes I will be using in the Gatorade commercial will all be athletic themed.The clothing will be athletic such as a short shirt, short pants, long black socks, and running shoes. Anything other than this will be too much.

   Schedule:
   I already have completed the Convention Blog and this blog is the step after the first one. The next blog will be finished on October 14, which will be the Storyboard Blog. This will also be when my storyboard is being made. The Filming Blog is the next one and this will be completed on October 21. This is when I will be filming my commercial. The final one, the Editing Blog will be due on October 23. I will be editing my footage to match the needs of my final commercial.

   Location List:
   The locations for my filming will be on the track field and in front of the Cafeteria. The track field is for the athletic theme of Gatorade. The front of the Cafeteria is the drinkable part of Gatorade. I may also film. The Media room, the class I am working on this in, will be the "lounge" of my Gatorade commercial.

   Back-Up Plan:
   If it starts raining on Filming day, I can record inside Media room and just record people in athletic clothes walking in. They sit down after "playing sports" and drink Gatorade, relaxing. If any student is absent, which I am solo in this commercial, I can ask other students to play in my commercial. If that doesn't work any absolutely no other people want to be in my commercial, I can maybe ask my teacher to help me.

                                              Gatorade Commercial Code and Conventions             

      In order to produce Gatorade commercials, there are a few code and conventions you need to follow to produce it with its typical key points. A few key points are the camera angles/shots, actors, props, theme/setting, sounds, lighting, music, voice over and other editing. First off, common camera angles/shots include the tilt shots, tracking shots, close up angles, low angle, extreme close up angles, and others that focus on an object or person.

        In terms of actors, Gatorade is almost always shown to be around athletes. Gatorade is a drink targeted for athletes to boost performance and energize them. The props for the advertisements are of course Gatorade, sometimes ice, sports balls (like basketballs, soccer balls, baseballs, etc.), equipment, and maybe a vending machine also. The main theme/setting for these advertisements are around sports and performance in the sports. The theme is supposed to be like how if you drink Gatorade, your performance is enhanced and you win. In the sports theme, footsteps and thudding are common sounds. Other sounds are usually made with contact with the player and objects when playing a sport. Vocal sounds can be a team chanting, audience cheering, and the coach talking to players.

       Lighting is always an important part of advertisements, and for the Gatorade theme, yellow and bright lights are common. These lights come from field or court lights. The music in these commercials have a upbeat and lifting rhythm for the sports theme. Drums are a common instrument to be heard in the music. Voice overs are usually towards the end when they announce Gatorade's slogan, "Gatorade Thirst Quencher" or for specific drinks it goes something along the lines of, "Be Tough", "Bring It", or "No Excuses". It follows a motivational theme. The editing for the commercials puts together different angles of people playing sports or of Gatorade drinks. It is supposed to put focus people or the sport itself, all while pushing the Gatorade drink into the focus as well.

Introductory

                                                    Introductory Blog                                    

     Hi, my name is Peter. I like to have fun and feel relaxed. I have good grades in school and a good reputation. I try to mess around at first and then start working. I am always up and wanting to go out if possible. I am currently taking three AICE classes, along with Pre-Calculus and Chemistry. School is challenging, but when I pass the hard parts, I feel like it was all so little.

     I like many things such as food, games, shows, and sleeping. I especially like pasta and cereal for food choices. For games, I have many different platforms to play on and enjoy playing regularly. My all time "golden" game is Battlefield 1 since it captured me into the world of gaming. I enjoy watching movies and tv shows that are interesting. Recent movies and TV shows I have watched are Avengers: Endgame, Good Boys, Alita Battle Angel, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, John Wick Parabellum, and One Piece. There are a bunch more that I also love.

     When it comes to disliking things, they are the ones that put me in a really bad mood. I don't like the feeling of regret such as when I do something stupid, buy something I don't like, or just not doing or buying anything at all. Feeling bored is also another thing that I dislike. It just puts me into a neutral mood that doesn't allow me to do much, which also then leads into regret. Also, I dislike when I really want to do something or go out but my plans are wiped because of something else, I feel disappointed. There are not a lot of other things that I dislike, which is a good thing.