Editing

The two images on the left show the program "Final Cut Express" with our video project file open.As you can see, we had many video tracks to edit. This is because of the multiple takes of every "Band Member" we took. Although this meant we had a lot of editing to do, it did give us a lot of flexibility with camera shots.

The image on the left here is a screenshot of the image manipulation software "Photoshop". This screenshot shows our Abbey Road parody image along with a cut-out Band Member.

Magazine Advert

Finished Digipak Design

Above is the design for our Digipak. Our front cover shows the title of the Digipak - Butch Walker; Paid to Get Excited - as well as clearly showing our four band members and the record company "Briefcase Records".

With our back cover, we wanted it to act - in a way - as a second cover. This is why we did not place any text it. We also chose to stick with the idea of making an Abbey Road parody when it came to this final design.

Digipak Template

This is the template we gathered from the internet for our Digipak. It contains spaces for six panels.
(In Lesson, write a brief paragraph about where each of the six panels are in "real space")

Abbey Road Parody

For our Abbey Road Parody shot, we needed a shot of a Zebra crossing. Our original shot (shown on the left) is of Luard Road in Cambridge. As well as a lack of a Zebra Crossing on the shot the weather was dingy and dull.





Here is the edited version of the photo. It now contains a Zebra Crossing and we have made the image look much nicer and appealing.

Photo shoot for Digipack and Magazine Advert

For our Digipack and Magazine Advert we needed to get photos of the band members in the poses we required.
To get these photos we decided to hold a short photo shoot. Below are the raw photos we took and approved for possible use.

Digipak Research

This is the opened up digipak for Nuit et Brouillard's album, Flutwacht. This includes the cd of the album, as well as a artworl boklet, complete with lyrics. However, this design is very plain, and we intend to make our digipak more interesting to the eye.



This is the complete digipak from the band Muse. This is their most recent alum, The Resistance. The boxset costs £59.99, And comes with a hard outer case, the original album artwork, a booklet of artwork of the band, the CD, 2 12" vinyls, and a 2GB thumb drive. The pack appears plain at first, but upon opening the artwork is evident and the finished product is impressive.

Initial Ideas for Magazine Advert and Digipack Design

DIGIPACK

FRONT COVER IDEA

Our idea for the front cover of the digipack is to use the image displayed on the left with the four band members positioned on the right on a diagonal, with one in front of the band member behind.
On the right is a pencil sketch of this idea.

INSIDE-FRONT COVER IDEA

For the inside cover of our Digipack, we intend to use a screenshot from our finish video. The screenshot is the same as the one shown on the left here. We decided on this freezeframe because it contains all four band members during the song's chorus.
The left of this screenshot will contain a track list.

BACK COVER IDEA

Our idea for the Back Cover was inspired by The Beatles album "Abbey Road". We plan on getting the four band members walking across a zebra crossing in the same way The Beatles have.

MAGAZINE ADVERT IDEA

We plan, for the Magazine advert, to use the same idea we have used for our Front Cover, but to do a few alterations to it so it contains the relevant information for a Magazine advert as well as changing the aspect ratio to fit a magazine advert.

Feedback for Final Music Video

CLASS FEEDBACK
The feedback we got from the class greatly praised the performance from Stuart, saying the lip-syncing was done well and the act was very believable.
We were told that despite the few technical problems with the Chroma Keying effect in the final video the backgrounds worked well and fitted the lyrics nicely.

TEACHER FEEDBACK
One of the main pieces of feedback that we got from the teacher was about the 3D backgrounds. Although he commented on the advanced look of these backgrounds he said that he imagined them having more animation in them - for example, a car driving past in the Vegas background.
He also commented on the strong performance from Stuart, as well.

GROUP 54 FINISHED MUSIC VIDEO

Q3-54 MUSIC VIDEO 2009 from SATMEDIASTUDIES on Vimeo.

Monday list

We are approaching the end of our time, and bringing it all together. At the end of the last lesson I exported a work-in-progress video for the 3D and I am now making a list of all the editing changes we need to make.

This is a list of separate sequences we created inside our Final Cut project, and the editing changes required.

First:

Re-Chroma Key

Fix the height

~Possibly replace

1:

Guitarist is far too small

Drummer too big

2:

Remove white

3:

Fuzzy Chroma-Key

4:

Glitch edge

5:

6:

Guitarist too high in relation to drummer.

7:

White in the bottom left

8:

Drummer too big

White in bottom left

9:

Drums need to move to right

Large white area

10:

Drums again

11:

12:

Outside shot

Out-of-sync

Replace

13:

Crop

14:

15:

Crop

16:

Outside shot

Replace

17:

Drums too large

18:

Chroma key issue

19:

Crop

20:

Crop

Large white area

21:

Outside shot

22:

23:

Outside shot - Fine-ish

24:

Drummer too low

25:

White area

26:

27:

Outside

Excessive playing with hair

28:

White area

29:

30:

White area

31:

White area - crop and key

32:

33:

Crop

34:

Outside shot

35:

White area

36:

Guitar could be larger

37:

Crop

38:
White area again

39:

Crop

40:

Crop

41:
White area

42:

Outside

43:

44:

White area

45:

Crop

46:

White area

47:

Crop

48:

Final clip

Fine

3D Background Test Render

Over the past month or so, Stephen has been creating 3D backgrounds that will be used for the GreenScreen effect in our Music Video.


To the left is a screenshot of the program Modo of an in-progress 3D model.





Below is a test render of the "Desert" scene that has been created. It consists of 240 frames and is still in progress - rendered as a test to make sure it would all render correctly.

Tuesday Plan

Tomorrow's editing session will be spent with Stephen editing the footage, and the rest of the group will be emergency filming Bass and possibly Drums. The footage obtained over the weekend was too dark for use, so the filming will allow us to obtain the footage we need to finish our project.

Checklist for Monday

Monday:

Footage filmed and Uploaded: Stuart???

Finalize editing and timings:

Excess footage removed/moved to hidden layers:

Finalized clips moved to their own sequences:

Footage composited behind the focus in each sequence, scale and place band as applicable, singer at the front, bass behind on the left, guitar on the right and the drums behind that:

Green Screen/Chroma Keying checked for defects:

Tuesday:

Complete anything left from the previous day:

Set up digital angles for rendering:

Render and place placeholder/final backgrounds:

Filter the band to make the lighting consistent/Set up shadows for the band in the sequences:

Work more/Polish/Dream up new tasks to inflict upon the rest of the group:

Wednesday:

Render as much footage overnight as is complete:

Insert footage:

Finish what we have inevitably forgotten....

3-day Sabbatical

Once completed to a reasonable state:

Integrate lyrics into the surroundings as much as possible:

Experiment:

Time Plan for Last Two Weeks

Across the next two weeks, before the deadline date for the project, we have a lot of opportunity for editing and final filming during our free time. This means that we have a set time to do particular tasks, but we have set aside spare time should the task be a tad more time consuming than first thought.

Today (Wednesday 4th November 2009), we are continuing to edit our footage - Chroma Keying and Cropping, mostly.
We have an hour or so later on in the day, should we need to continue on and finish up this task.

On Thursday 5th November 2009, we will be planning on the weekend filming session of Stu. We will be filming "The Drummer", "The Bass Player" and any last bit of footage required for "The Guitarist".

Saturday 7th November 2009 is the date we will be filming the sections we planned on the Thursday before. Because of the lack of college Over-Weekend Camera Bookings, we will be using Stephen's camera and the GreenScreen sheet we bought.

During Monday's (9th November 2009) our main task will be to get all of our footage uploaded to the computer and commence the editing on this footage.

Tuesday 10th November 2009 will be the continuation of this task. From 4:10pm until 8pm Tuesday we will be staying in college for extra editing time. During this time, the 3D backdrops Stephen has been creating will be finalised.

The last two lessons we have before the deadline, Wednesday 11th/Monday 16th November 2009, we will be completing the editing stage and rendering the final project, in time for the 3:25pm deadline on the Monday.

Class Feedback

Our rough cut Music Video garnered praise for various features, such as shot variety, and Stuart's performance and lip-syncing.

However, in it's rough form we appear to have peoples main criticism as being the unfinished state, with the Green screen incomplete and backgrounds missing. As well as a lack of other band members, seeing as we intend to composite the band together from various green screen shots of Stuart as the separate band members, as well as focusing on the ancillary details such as people walking past out of shot which will be cropped out. However they do criticize the close-ups of Stuart and a shot in the college grounds.