Evaluation

As a group we developed the forms of a typical real music video but most importantly, we challenged them. When we were recording we wanted to include as many camera shots as possible including, long shots, medium shots, close ups and extreme close ups. In the song ‘Everyone’s at It, we wanted to have a serious mood in our video yet, keeping to the ‘Lily’ way, we wanted it to be quite playful also. Using the right camera techniques and effects in editing, we believe we could get across the issue of drug abuse and its effects. The song itself varies its speed throughout giving us a chance to show how we could work with all kinds of situations, this is also handy as it enables us to ensure the audience is still interested with the video.

This is one of the big opening shots for our music video. Using the time tool in Final Cut Pro, we were able to make this, what was rather long piece of footage, into an effective time elapse. This shot really starts the pace of the video showing the masses of people walking through Lewes.
This shot is also most importantly, our first establishing shot. With what is mentioned above, it gives the audience an understanding of where the majority of the setting is and where the character will be.

This long shot was primarily used for the up tempo drum and bass ‘breakdown’ where we wanted to get the message across ‘Lily’ was feeling the effects of the drugs she had taken. We had used the same tool in Final Cut Pro to speed it up giving the sense of a hectic environment and how her head is feeling after taking drugs. Not only is this a serious matter showing the audience how the drugs can affect you, but it gives the audience an amusing picture as an outsider can just see she is spinning on a spot.

This mid-shot was primarily used during our time in the Television Studio. We used this footage during the choruses as we wanted the story to be primarily during the verses where the story is in fact being told. Filming this presented us with a number of problems, primarily with the white background and shadows.
The background we used were white pieces of walls, which unfortunately had quite visible joint marks which during the video, if looking at the background you could see quite clearly. We tried various techniques of lighting and effects in editing to try and remove this but the line was too prominent so we had to compromise and just leave it there rather than abandon the footage.
This close up shot was to really show the emotion of the artist involved and to also keep the interest of the audience by having multiple camera angles and different shots. During the time on the pier we had ‘Lily’ miming along to the words and had shots varying from long shots to close ups as seen above.
Close ups are used an enormous amount in a music video especially when the director is wanting to capture the emotion from the subjects face or maybe even body language. With this in my groups knowledge we used close ups as much as we could without over using it.
In our music video we had also used a number of quite interesting quick extreme close-ups, for example of the coke can and the cigarette being flicked.

Extreme close-ups are also used as often, if not more than close ups. The reason for this is because they can be vital parts to the storyline, for example a text on a mobile phone. However we did use the extreme close-ups to be part of the story line, but to be a break from the miming and from the artist, giving the video variety.

The target audience is associated with the youth culture that is so often commented on by the media, saying they are rebellious and full of anger and attitude which is really what we wanted to achieve with this extreme close up. What we were also proud to achieve was our ability to use the camera’s settings to really highlight the blue in her eyes. This shows, as well as the attitude, that there is femininity and will appeal to our female audience.

During the drum ‘n’ bass breakdown we wanted the sense of paranoia to come across as it is a common affect on someone when taking drugs. What is meant to be happening in this shot, is that the artist feels as though she is being chases by the woods, constantly looking over her shoulder due to severe paranoia.

Overall Evaluation
Our constraints consisted of horrendous weather conditions which made it impossible to film in as no one could leave there house, this knocked us off guard which may have decreased our confidence slightly. Instead we had similar shots in a location we could all get to easier and more often. We took the opportunity to film during some lesson time which was a huge benefit as we were sure we would all be together. Timing was becoming an issue when recording as we were constrained by the weather, as we were hit by series of weeks giving snow or rain which we really could not use to record in.
Filming this video was a tough enough challenge as it was trying to fit everyone’s ideas into it but it became more of a challenge due to the lack of experience we had of actually recording decent footage. If we wanted a clear shot of the Artists face we made sure to have the camera with sun behind it. If we wanted a silhouette style photo making the Artists face dark, we would face the camera towards the sun but not directly as it could over expose the shot or even damage the camera.
We made sure that lip syncing did not become a problem, we did this by discretely placing an ipod in her ear so she could hear the song exactly how it was and mime correctly. She had to make sure to take a drag of the cigarette and blow it out at the right time to start miming in time of the song starting, as it made it easier to keep filming. This wasn't easy and took a couple of takes. We originally used a clapper board to help us in the editing process. In terms of computer programming, I used Blogger, Adobe Photoshop C3 and 7, Microsoft Word, Apple Final Cut and Microsoft Paint. I used Photoshop 7 to produce my Digipack and Advert. We used Final Cut to edit the film which was tricky to do as none of us had used it before, it was a case of it getting taught to us briefly and playing around with it to try and understand it better. I personally found the programme reasonably easy to use and spent most of my time making sure every detail was paid attention to such as the transitions between the shots and the quality of footage we were using.
I found it quite tedious repeatidly zooming in and out of the timeline to match things together and see each frame, but extremely satisfying when I see the end result.
Our group also had to make sure the artist made note or remembered what she was wearing every time we filmed in case we were to go back to the same location to do more filming or re-do any parts. Throughout the whole time we were filming Olivia we had to think about what she was to wear to target the right audience, which is mainly twelve to twenty year olds both male and female. The age as young as twelve because that's roughly the youngest age Lily Allen's fans are and as old as twenty because of the moral issues and themes of the video. The reason why we believed 20 was a good age to stop at was because they will understand more of the morals behind it whereas the 12 year olds will be more concerned on the exciting shots and the fast editing.