Film Blog

      The way the schedule works at our school is that you have 8 classes total. 4 classes one day and the other 4 the next. My plan was to sign out a camera over the weekend to film a bit before the break, but the day I have this class falls on Thursday. There's a rule that if you sign out a camera, you have to return it the next day. Our teacher has allowed us to bypass this rule and return the cameras Monday instead. Most groups are taking advantage of this and I plan to do so as well. So I'm writing this paragraph before the weekend as an introduction of sorts. As always, I expect the process to go smoothly. I've listened to this song multiple times and my storyboard fits with what I imagine the music video looks like. I also expect filming to take around an hour.

      I started and finished filming on Sunday, I got all the footage I needed. However, it wasn't the footage I planned to get on my storyboard. I decided to record a backup video in case I was never able to get the living room to myself. The video is more of a conversation between a returning friend and their roommate. One would be sitting down on his phone and the other would come through the door. The song has a conversational tone so I was able to make this scenario work. I didn't storyboard this alternate video, so it was mainly just me improving my movements. As I've mentioned before, I have listened to this song before so it was easy to think of what to do on the spot. The two characters were wildly different, the returning roommate had most of the lines while the other roommate only had two. The returning roommate, who I'll call NF, had more space to move around compared to the one already there.

      The costumes for this alternative were easy to put together. NF wore all black and the roommate wore a grey jacket. I decided to get a little particular with the outfit and make it so that NF didn't wear glasses, while the roommate did. As I said before, the two characters were way different. Not only did the roommate have only two lines, but he also just sat in his chair and texted while NF spoke. However, NF took a lot more energy. He stood while he performed and that led to me walking around a bit too. Then there was the need to perform the whole minute of the video. I definitely found playing NF a lot more fun than the roommate, even though it took me a while to completely remember the lyrics. I plan on recording the actual storyboard over the break.

Storyboard

1. The Set

      The set won't need to be changed much. As long as the location can be sold as a therapist's office, then It'll work for the video. A couch for the patient and a chair for the therapist will be enough. Nothing that wouldn't fit in an office should be in the shot. Things like a television, family photos, or anything unprofessional.

2. Editing

      Not much editing will be required for this project. Most of the edits will be cuts to different shots between the two characters. To put in the shot/reverse shots, all I'll need to do is put the clips in the correct order and time it with the music. Other than that, I'll just need to remove the segments where the character is waiting for their time to act. This is required for the way I'm planning to film, which is to record the whole song once as each character.

3. Sounds

      The sound is mainly going to consist of the song playing in the background. I don't see anywhere I could add in any of my own sound now, but that could change the further into production I get.

Planning

1. Location

      I'm going to be filming the video at home. There isn't any other place I could go to make look like a therapist's office, as the video would require. So the only place I need to be during filming is at home. Specifically, I'll be filming in my living room. This is because it has 2 couches that can be used for NF's parts and a chair for the therapist's parts.

2. Health & Safety

      There isn't much that could go wrong while filming, so not much preparation is necessary. However, my parents will be home as I film and will be able to stand by just in case. There are other people at home, like my brother, that can help as well.

3. Props

      The video doesn't call for any props, but there is room to have some. If available, I could use a clipboard when acting as the therapist. Other than that, I don't see anywhere I could fit in more props.

4. Costumes

      When deciding the costumes, there's two possibilities. I could wear all black and stay faithful to NF's common outfit. For the therapist, I'll have to wear formal wear to sell the character. Both outfits I can get easily. The only problem I could think of would be changing between the costumes between shots. This is easily solved by filming each pov separately then editing them together.

5. Schedule

      I plan to film anytime I can before and after the break. Depending on how much I do film before, I'll film over the break as well. The first minute of the song isn't as active as the rest, so filming shouldn't take much time. I'd think around an hour would be enough to get enough shots.

The Conventions of NF Research

      With the commercials being done and submitted, we're ready to start a new project. This time, we're going to be making our own music videos. Now that I've learned to use a camera and tripod, this project should be much easier. While filming the commercial, there was a small amount of time spent learning the different features of the tripod. This time around, I'll be able to skip that part and start recording. This time I'll be able to film off campus and use a piece of media I enjoy. So I'm a lot more excited to do this project than the first.

      Just like the last project, I'm working on my own for this one. This made picking the song pretty easy. Once I heard we were going to be doing this project, I've been thinking about which song I wanted to do. I've decided to do The Search, a song with the same name as its album. The Search was made by NF, a rapper. Judging by the artist, the song is a part of the rap genre. Although, NF's videos normally go against the expectations of this genre.

      In his recent music videos, NF uses a lot of long and medium long shots. He makes sure that he's in the shot, keeping the camera around the eye level. If he's moving around or walking, usually the camera tracks him. NF doesn't really have a costume, he just wears his normal apparel if the video doesn't call for a special outfit. The lighting is usually a little dark, still having enough light to clearly see what's going on. When it comes to makeup, NF has a signature look of a black streak going along his mouth; reminiscent of the Joker's smile. He also has another signature for props in the form of 5 black balloons. The setting changes but is usually somewhere noticeable, some locations that come to mind are: an abandoned classroom, an alleyway, and a barren wasteland with black sand.

Another Editing Blog

      Yesterday was the first day we were able to edit. Thanks to my simple plans I was able to get my commercial done in one day. I ran into only a few problems, all of them dealing with the software being used. I've already outlined my concerns with the software multiple times and it's safe to say it was a lot worse than I thought. To start, it was painfully slow, a simple act such as changing tabs would take up to 10 seconds. Then there was the need to wait 20 seconds every time a change was made to a piece of footage, doing anything else before would result in a crash. Which happened multiple times, during instances unrelated to the waiting. The library, where the footage was held, had separate tabs for images, video effects, and actual footage, would close my main media tab whenever I imported anything else in. This would be solved by clicking an 'add tab' button, which was tiny, to add it back. Despite these hurdles, I was able to complete the commercial.
      While editing, after moving past the problems, I didn't use too many techniques. The most used technique was cutting clips, followed by fading in and out from/to black. Using the timeline was simple, it was the same as any other program. As I had no other group members, I did all the editing. This allowed me to change plans and adjust to the limitations more easily. For example, I figured it'd be a bit risky to mess with the video effects, so I decided to leave the commercial in full color. I thought it'd be risky as the program spared no chance to crash on me, and would do so multiple times. Another example being the music, I wasn't able to find something online that was slow but still fit the songs in the official commercials. So I settled for another song that was a lot faster pace. This decision ended up working with the one to keep the color, as the black and white would contrast with the high energy background.
      When dealing with the voice over, the timing was hard to get down. Deciding where the clip should go was easy, but placing it there would sometimes be impossible. The program doesn't let you place media freely. Instead, it would snap it to the start or end of the nearest clip, regardless of which layer it was on. This made what could've been a 10-20 minute project go over that time. I spent a good amount of time trying to line up the audio to where it wasn't too late or too early. Timing them with the start of a new shot would cause the lines to play too far apart. So I had to doctor it a bit and kinda get it to where the lines would seem natural. In the end I was able to get it somewhere comfortable and render it. The project is still saved and I can go back and make adjustments anywhere necessary.