Editing

The editing process was remarkably simple as, having viewed all the performances; we knew which elements of the masses of footage held the shots we wanted. Learning from last year, we had already marked all the tape and sorted our material as we uploaded it for easy access to what we wanted.

Syncing the footage was slightly trickier, especially with the lead singers as upon filming they did all fumbled some of the words sometimes. This meant that some of the shots we had in mind had to be replaced as the song would not have synced to the footage if we used it. However, this was a difficulty easily overcome as we had shot so much footage (roughly eight takes per band and a lot of narrative).

We found that the cut scene’s volume was poor as the camera was a distance away and thus contemplated dubbing the audio. However, after discovering that the audio could be enhanced, we did this and found that people preferred it when the audio dipped somewhat as it made it enhanced the idea of everyone being distracted. This also made the swearing censorship less obvious which, as our target audience would not mind swearing and we were primarily doing this to conform to PG regulations by the BBFC, less obvious and thus less distracting.

During editing we were aware of the expectations an audience for this video required. As we had established a narrative we tried to conform to the conventions surrounding how much and how the focus is divided between the narrative and performance elements of the video. This was also depentdent on the kinds of shots we got; if there was a peice of perfromance that we really wanted to include but had story boarded for a narrative shot or even a different shot, then we adjusted the storyboard and peice. Although we did this we did still try to keep to roughly the same ratio of performance and narrative that would be expected in a music video and that showed the different stories that we wanted. Although learning in the first year that the story line can be manipulated in post production, we didn 't do that this year as we wanted to stick to the original concepts of Todorov's Narrative theory. However we did find that through editing we changed the realtionship between the two characters from being quite ambiguous (as seen in the story board) to a strong friendship (as we chose to incorporate the DVD box of 'Spaced' which has the connotations of DVD friends would watch rather than a realtionship.

Filming: Narrative 1

We shot the narrative shots for the majority of the video in one day. Here, we dabbled in set design to make Jack’s living room seem more like a bachelor’s pad where he had passed out, as well as did our first bit of outdoor filming down his street. As discovered in previous filming expeditions, cars on a street have to be heavily censored for personal safety issues and thus we were careful not to film and registration plates or cars with people in them when outside as this would mean we would have to blur out the number plates which, although showing off our skills, would also make the shots look bad and poorly planned. Thus we were very aware of this during filming.

The Narrative shots in doors were shot with no script as we knew there would be no sound in the video. This proved interesting as we got genuine emotion and some interesting arguments.

The narrative in our video conforms to Todorov's Equilibrium Theory of Narrative as the shown plot features Jack sleeping (Original Equilibrium) and is then rudely awaken by his friend (Sonia) who then starts a fight (Disequilibrium). The two fight and then ignore each other (Acknowledgement) until Jack apologises with a peace offering of ice cream and a film (attempt to repair the situation) whic leads finally to Sonia accepting this offering and them singing and laughing together (NEW Equilibrium), restoring their relationship.

However, within this, the background story also follows Todorov's theory. Taken into context of the character's lives, we come in the Attempt to Repair stage of these character's life, presuming that they once had a good friendship which would lead to Sonia caring about Jack's habits (Equilibrium), then jack got into drinking and drugs - shown through the initial scenes with close ups of beer bottles and packets of drugs - which Sonia didn't like as Jack changed and was threatening the equilibrium of the friendship and his life (Disequilibrium). Sonia must have acknowledged the situatoin before because it seems that this in the not the first time this has happened - through his reaction to her shouting, again, and also through Sonia's reaction to the situation. The dialougue in the Cut Scene also reinforces this idea. The video then comes in to witness the last two stages of Todorov's theory when the two fight and brood then Jack apologises (Attempt to Repair) and they solidify their friendship again (NEW Equilibrium). However, our narrative is slightly naive as it doesn't address whether or not Jack's character gives up the drugs and the drink. However, looking at the construct of narrative's within videos, especially of this genre, they do not have to be this detailed and thus we didn't feel the need to address this fully, but instead included the shot of the two friends singing and laughing together in Jack's living room in which there once was drugs and alcohol etc, but now is clean. This happy ending should please audiences as a music video is not there to leave a sense of impending doom, nor to depress, and the story line fits into the style of the music; happy and carefree and thus demanding a happy ending.

Filming: Band: Battery Point

Although we could not have the whole band at Battery Point, we did manage to take the two guitarists out to the original location and shoot some individual shots there. This was sparked originally by a fault in the editing process (see ‘The Wiped Tape’), however proved for the better as we got some great shots that were used for a lot of the final product. We shot the guitarists in front of the graffetied wall here as well as on the cliff looking out across the bay.

To our target audience, the graffetti would appeal as it symbolises the rebellion of youth culture as well as the grunge from which the band Feeder take it's roots. It also proves as an interesting background for Mise-En-Scene purposes.

The shots on the cliff looking over the bay were also a homage to old epic rock videos of the 80s as well as providing interesting shots and giving the video range and texture within the mise-en-scene department which wouldplease the target audience as a video is there to illistrate a song as well as be visually spectacular - something these shots add to the otherwise tame locations.

Filming: Bands: Guitar Hero (TM)

In order to stay true the fan idea as well as OK Go styled videos, we decided to have a guitar hero band. This was filmed in the same location as the Female Narrative shots, but featured only two band members. However, on the day, we thought of the idea of a ‘Stig’ band member. As with OK Go’s video in which they feature a load of dogs and one goat in the background, we thought that we could cover the face of player and feature them discreetly in the video. This was played by Jack and was highly successful as when I was playing the drums Jack was filming and when Jack was playing the drums and playing the guitar I was filming. Both of us have distinct filming ways and thus each shot was different and we filmed a wide range of shots and angles in this shoot.

With there only being two band members, we could experiment with shots and framing as we did not have to focus on getting a whole band in. This allowed us to be more creative and stray from conventions of shots and thus conforming to Knight’s theory that it is interesting to defy conventions. Although this is about genre, it could be allied to the shots and frames as genres normally have their own style of shooting material (as we discovered in our initial research).

Filming: Cut Scene

Using the fake quarry band we shot the cut scene in two takes, both long shot. We choreographed where Sonia and Jack (playing female and male) would walk to and certain things they would do (such as Sonia picking up the rock and the mic) and improvised the rest. This turned out to be funnier (the intention) than any script we had prepared. However, it did lend itself to the use of swearing which we will have to censor due to our demographic and the ideas surrounding these things.

We used a simple tri-pod held long shot for the duration of the this shot as it was a contrast to the rest of the video as well as reflected how everything stopped and got distracted by the narrative scenes meeting the performers.

Filming: Bands: Quarry

Pulling together some people that replied to our advertisement we put together a band of people who can’t play instruments. We filmed at sundown (for the light) in Black Rock Quarry and found that the shadows in the quarry created interesting patterns that were great for the piece. As with all the bands we shot the whole band performing the song as well as individual shots and steady cam shots of everyone.

I feel this was the most successful shoot of all as we got the best performances and I have found that a video is made good by a good performance (after comparing amateur videos to good quality ones).

We also filmed the cut scene on this day.

Filming: Bands: Climber (Jack)

As we decided to have the narration being from the perspective of the male, we thought it would be a nice idea to have the male start the song with the opening guitar solo. For this we chose to work with something quirky to follow our ideas of OK Go, as well as work with some of Jack’s skills (as he would be playing the part). Thus, we decided to have him absail down a cliff and play the opening solo then climb back up at the end of the video. For this we chose a sunny day (for good light) and got help from an instructor (Adam Blinman) in order for us to do this. We filmed this part of the video in Black Rock Quarry.

There were no problems and we chose to use an acoustic guitar in order to express homeliness and that he wasn’t actually playing the song.