Editing Match on Match shots

When we were filming we wanted to make sure that we had 1 or 2 match on match shots to give a bit more variety to our video as we had realised that we had been using a lot of wide shots and needed to mix it up a bit. 

We did a match on match shot of jasmine putting her suitcase into the boot of her car in the ending scene to show her from different perspectives and to make the clear impression her going away. We also did a match on match of me in Rochester Cathedral walking along side the chairs towards where stairs that led on to where their was a church choir through the open archway. This shot was taken by Paige as it was originally unplanned as we didn't know if we were gonna be able to use the Cathedral in the video. Whilst there Paige thought it would be a good idea to film me walking towards where the choir was and then do that match on match and video me from the other side. We found in the end that the shots were actually quite affective and worked really well in for this location. 

Both the shots were very easy to edit and place together as before we filmed we had discussed positioning so that we could have a similar angle from both sides. 

For Jasmines match on match she used a tripod to film as she was filming herself this was well done as she managed to get a good side angle that showed her putting her things into the boot and then a shot from behind about to close the boot which although is not the conventional way of shooting a match on match shot still had the same affect.

Complete change in colour for Riverside

 With all of the troubles that we had with the colouring of these three clips we thought that instead of just trying to match the colour, we could change the colour completely on all three and focused on trying to keep a similar saturation and exposure on all of clips it would work better. Although we are not sure if our audience will like this section in our video so we are going to get some feedback before we decide whether we will be definitely be applying it to the clips permanently.
We also thought that this would work since our main theme throughout our video is to use very bright and bold colour as it is conventional of a pop video to have bright colours. And although we have changed the colour of the shots you can still see what we were wearing on the day. 

I think if we keep to these pastel like colours it would work better than having the colours too sharp as depending on what colour we went for it could change the lighting and saturation of the image. We hope this appeals to our target audience but we are happy to have changed the colour of the clips as before the change in the colour was subtle but to us it was still very noticeable. 

Changing the saturation and colour in our clips

When we went through our video we had a lot of feed back on the quality of our video and found that one of our main issues was that we hadn't changed the colour and the lighting/saturation/exposure of our clips which made the footage look too raw.
In response to this we started to change all of the lighting and colouring in our footage which showed us what we were being told as from how focused on the video we were and how we were mainly looking at just getting everything into place we didn't particularly look at the colour. Whilst editing this in our video we then realised that we had to change all our clips colouring and lighting as this really made some of the colours bolder and improved the quality and detail in a lot of our clips.

We particularly had a lot of trouble with the colour of the footage we took in Riverside as although this was the same clip running all the way through unfortunately at some point the sun must have come out which has caused a very significant change in the lighting in the footage and it something that we have spent a lot of time on it to correct. 

In some of our clips we didn't find much wrong with the lighting or exposure but thought as we have changed the rest of our footage to have a warm undertone that we change them so this would be a continuous theme throughout the video. Although at the beginning we were apprehensive to change the colour of footage we found it very beneficial and are happy to have made this change as it has made our footage much less dull. Also a lot of the clips taken outside needed much more correction than the clips from indoors so it did take quite a lot of time but as a group we are happy that this change improved our video significantly than what it had looked like previously.

Editing the Camcorder effect

In our video we had added the camcorder effect because there were quite a few shots that weren't as good as others since we used two cameras one being mine and one being the schools. However, we found that the lighting on the day was our main issue as we weren't used to using this camera we were not able to change the settings manually whilst we were filming and it was something that unfortunately we weren't able to edit significantly enough to use as a normal shot. So that we could till use these shots we used the camcorder effect to make it look like when the characters were out they filmed each other. As a group we had decided that the camcorder would work really well so we could still use the bad shots in our favour. So that the effect didn't look too out of place we put this in multiple clips throughout the video to make sure that it came together. After doing this i think that it works really well with the storyline of our video as it sticks to the lines of friends going out together and having fun. In the future if we are using equipment we haven't had a lot of experience with we will make sure to research and adjust the camera before we leave to film.

Filming in Rochester on the 9th

When filming in Rochester it was only me and Paige that went as unfortunately Jasmine was working but we had no other time that we could have filmed since we were all trying to juggle our work and school lives.

Whilst at Rochester we had managed to film a lot more than we thought we would and has taken a large chunk of our left over space in our video.

When we had first arrived although we knew what we wanted to film we weren't sure what to do first and we found that a lot of the time that we were there we took more shots than we needed and were very lucky to have such good weather throughout the day. We were also able to film in the cathedral which is where we filmed the majority of our shots. We had made sure that we got . few more close-ups and some still shots as from previous feed back this is something we were lacking in, in our video. It was a beautiful location to film at and it worked better than we had initially hoped as it is vast contrast to most of our other locations. The mis-en-scene of the location was brilliant, as the lightening was perfect for our video, the setting for the day worked well and the costume/props suited our location as it was a cold day and we were in casual clothing and had few props.

Overall the day was a success as although we didn't have Jasmine with us we were Paige and I were able to use the location and the day to our advantage and this benefitted us greatly when we went through and positioned our shots in our video.

Storyboards for suitcase scene

This scene is the ending to our video, we are all going off to university at the end if the summer so we thought that this ending was fitting to use as it links to us as a group but also fits well with the song. After the scene before has faded to black, from here we will have a three person shot of all the characters hugging before a series of close ups of all three girls faces to see their facial expressions. Here we will be matching the clip with the lyrics "will you hold me tight and not let go?" to add to the depth of the clip as a standing question as the video comes to an end.

From here we will shoot a mid-shot of all three girls saying goodbye and going their separate ways, to carry on with the story line they'll be three separate clips to show the girls at different stages of packing and moving out.

I think compared to what we were going to do this story line follows the lyrics better and show a deeper meaning to the lyrics that have been interpreted in a different way to the original video. 

Props and costume research for Rochester

For Rochester as it is later in the year we will be wearing casual clothing and warm clothing, as it will be quite cold there. Also during the day Rochester is a place that people visit on an everyday basis so unless your going into one of the more up market restaurants for lunch your unlikely to wear something too formal. So we decided to wrap up a bit warmer but wear casual clothing, throughout our video we have worn different outfits that fit well with the locations that we have visited. 
We also haven't used a lot of props in our video so we wont be using many here most likely only having a bag each and our phones as we wont need much else on the day.
For Rochester i will be wearing some leggings, a loose top, with some converse and a winter coat and maybe a scarf, as a group we will all be wearing something similar so that none of us look out of place and will be in what we are comfortable in.

Editing - Straightening out clips

In a lot of our clips we had to straighten them out and crop them so that they were level, we found this a reoccurring problem and as for security reasons we were not allowed to use the tripod in the majority of places. This meant that we had to film all of our shots by hand which did mean that there were quite a lot of shots that were slightly slanted. Because of this we went back through all of our video clips to make sure that they were all level, and luckily we found out how we could do this as we had started to experiment on some clips to help us achieve this. We used a tool called transform, where we would take a clip we wanted to fix, then we drag the top corner and zoomed in very slightly and move the picture to where we want it, in doing this we were able to only take what we needed from the clip.

Production schedule for the suitcase scene

For the suitcase my group and I have decided to film each element separately as we only have my camera to film them this is also because we wanted to make sure that the footage is all the same equality and we won't be able to find time to film them together.

As i will be the last to film i will be filming my part of the suitcase scene on the 15th of December:
For this scene i will need to film when it is still daylight so that it matches with the lighting of Paiges and Jasmines shots.
I will also need a few clothes to put into the suitcase to set the scene of me packing up,
I'll need a suitcase, my camera, I'll also be wearing casual clothes so that it fits with the scene as you wouldn't wear formal clothes when moving, I'll also most likely have my hair up and and no/minimal makeup on for this scene to emphasise the casual appearance.

Editing Lip-synching in Piccadilly, Covent garden and Camden

    Editing these three shots were quite difficult like the rest of the lip-synching shots, especially the shot of Paige and Jasmine lip-synching together as we had to make sure both of them were in time which unfortunately they were not in some areas. However we found by cutting the clip off where it had started to look more obvious and putting in a shot of the wall lights in covent garden and also slowing down the clip meant that they were in time with the music and any imperfections were much less obvious. We also has brighten the colour of the clip and add in a lot of warm colours as it was very dark that evening that we filmed and the lightening was quite dull.
    Although the lip-synching of Paige in Camden was fairly easy to match up as she pronounced her words well and we had filmed that one a a few times which had made it a lot easier. Although like the rest fo our video we had to edit the colouring as it was quite dull and we wanted to bring out the vibrant colours that were on the wall behind her.
    Jasmines lip-synching clip wasn't quite as difficult as the clip of covent garden but it was still hard to match up the shot with the lyrics as in some places she over-pronounced her words and this meant we also had to speed up the clip slightly as it was too slow.
   Overall, whilst editing these three areas it wasn't too bad as they were all fairly similar and we had a little experience with Final cut so we found it quite easy compared to when we had just started using the program.

Production schedule for 9th December

Rochester - 

Characters: 

Girl 1 - Me 

Girl 2 - Paige 

Equipment - Camera and tripod

Props - 

Costume 

Food 

Drink

Phones 

Travel plans and arrangements:

As Rochester is very close and is only a quick train journey, Paige and I will be meeting about mid-day at Rainham station and get the train to Rochester. We will then have enough time to film and make sure we've used the area and what it has to offer to our advantage. 

Storyboards for Rochester

We wanted to use Rochester as one of our locations as we thought it would add a little more variety in our video and because it is close to where we all live so there would be no travel issues. The main focus in Rochester is to film is to look at the three characters having a more relaxed day out than in some of our other locations.  Also, here we have tried to incorporate a lot more shots as we feel as though it would be beneficial to our video to film from some different angles.

For the first few shots it just filming where they all meet up, we have decided to start this with an establishing shot to show the different location in the video and this will help make the transition between places easier. In the first four shots we have an establishing shot, a close up, an over the shoulder and a mid-shot. This fast changing angles will show our camera quality, we will like in our other locations, aim to take a lot more footage than we need to we can choose the best fit. 

For shots six and seven we go from looking up at the castle to being able to see from the top of the castle we thought that these two images together would work really well as they would link together and make sense. Moving onto a mid-shot fo one of the characters looking over the grounds over Rochester. 

After this the characters wonder around the area, we found through previous filming that if we kept to the storyboard and then also take random shots of different places to see what fits better when we get back to editing. Rochester will be quite a shirt section of our video as although it is a great place to film theres not as much to do there than somewhere like Camden and Winter Wonderland.

Overall Rochester should be a very easy place to film as it is usually not very busy and it also has a lot of different shops a long the high-street. This will add a less typical London stationed video and will hopefully give our video slightly different look because of all of the different are we are filming in.

Solution to picking a date for Rochester

For Rochester we have decided that on the 9th December we will be filming after my driving lesson although unfortunately Jasmine won't be able to film with us as she is working. For this date both Paige and I are free. But, whilst we are there will make sure to keep Jasmine updated during the day so she knows what we've filmed and if we managed to get a lot done or not depending on if we are or are not allowed to film in some areas such as the Cathedral. Although Jasmine isn't there we will be doing quite a few point of view shots so were not to worried her character no being featured.

Problem with picking a filming date for Rochester

As Jasmine and myself have recently changed jobs we haven't been able to set a date as a group to film at Rochester. As i work from 3-7pm Monday to Friday and we can't film Rochester in the dark as there is nothing open in the evening during the week after work. And Jasmine works from 1pm on weekends, also i have driving lessons on Saturday mornings which will unfortunately won't have enough time in between to film.
We will have to overcome this issue very quickly because we need to film this part as it is one of our last locations and we need to get it filmed so that we can finish our editing. Also we can't film on Sundays as we are all busy on Sundays for the next few weeks.

Editing Experience