Time to edit!

The time has come to finally edit the footage we filmed.

This is the part of film production that I personally look forward

to the most. It’s the part where the magic happens. You finally

see the vision you had in your mind come to life. Editing can be

an exciting and stressful process. Well the exciting part comes more

towards the end when everything is coming together as a whole.

Whereas the stressful part is a feeling one has throughout the whole

editing process. The stressful part isn’t really working with the software,

it’s more the deadline for the project that is stressful. We have to edit

our whole music video in the span of two and a half days because we

were only able to film a little while ago due to my group and I’s conflicting

schedule. I completely understand that in reality, the film industry has

strict deadlines that need to be met so this gives us a genuine experience

in the film industry. 

In the hour and thirty minutes that were given in class today, we were

able to edit thirty seconds of our music video. Given that our music video

is only a minute and fifteen seconds long, getting half of it done in class

is pretty impressive in my book. We want to make the footage and the song

to flow together as much as possible. This means where the song has a

certain beat drop or sound effect, we want the footage line up perfectly in

order to create a ‘satisfying’ feeling to the music video. We’ve been able

to achieve this with a good majority of the music video. So far the music video

is in it’s sequence that it needs to be according to our storyboard. However

we still need to put the other takes in order to correspond with our storyboard.

Other than that we need to add transitions that are necessary for the clean

\flow of the music video. Some shots just need some help to look better, and

a transition can do that. It’s important that we choose specific transitions that

will work because if not it can make the music video look bad. 

We plan on turning in the music video on its due date which is next week from

the date of this blog post. Hopefully we were able to finish it in a timely manner

where we had enough time to get everything we wanted to in the music video.

So far the music video looks good. We have high expectations for it like we did

for our commercial. I think we have what it takes to impress with our music video.

Like I said in previous blog posts, the song is an iconic one that everyone knows.

This means that not only are our expectations high, but everyone who loves the

song we chose. Even though we have to follow a rubric (which of course we are following)

we would want to take it to the next level. With the time crunch that we’re on,

that might not happen. All I can do is hope and have wishful thinking that we

are going to make it how we want it and how we envision it.

Continuing to film

We finally filmed! This past Wednesday, November 27th,

three out of four members of our group met up and recorded some scenes.

Unfortunately it came to an abrupt stop when one of our group members

who had checked the camera out from our classroom neglected to check if

the camera was charged or not. So when we tried to officially record our music video,

the camera would not turn on. However, I was able to deduce that the camera can be

on when you kept it plugged into the wall. We were able to film certain scenes that

did not require the camera to be moved or at a position that was distant from the outlet

in the wall. We filmed about two different scenes but many takes of each scene. We

honestly did great with what we had. 

Like I said before we filmed a total of two scenes. One scene during the music

video where the stalker realizes that her 'stalkee' is playing ping pong with his friend.

The camera does a close up and then it cuts to a POV where the viewer sees the phone

as if they were the stalker. Then it shows the stalker grabbing her belongings and running

to go to where he is. We filmed this multiple times in order to get enough chances to

capture what we envisioned. The second scene we filmed is when the 'stalkee' is with

his friend playing video games. Like the first scene we filmed we took like three or four

takes of the scene. We then filmed the 'stalkee' receiving a phone call from his stalker.

During this scene, the stalker is continuing to play video games and suddenly gets a

phone call and shows his friend. It then cuts to a close up of the phone where it shows

“unknown” to solidify that it was the stalker calling him. 

We plan to film the rest of the music video this Thursday, December 5th. We have a

minute and some seconds left out of the music video to film. After school on Thursday

we plan on going to the mall to film those scenes and then to our group member’s house

to finish the scenes we need to finish. We ended up changing a lot from what our storyboard

initially looked like. We managed to keep the concept the same but the locations are different.
Instead of a park, the location changed to a ping-pong area in our group member’s house.

We were unable to find a nearby park that fit the purpose of what we wanted. Hopefully we

finish filming the complete music video. From my experience of doing the commercial, the

editing is what matters. The filming skills can be okay but if you know how to edit then

everything can come together nicely. The sooner we do the filming, the sooner we can

edit and have our final product.

Filming Blog

Our group unfortunately hasn’t filmed yet. We are all looking

forward to filming our music video. Since we all actually listen

to the song we plan on making the music video to, it’s going to

be a fun process. It’s an upbeat song that we’ve been listening

to for years. ‘Kiss Me Thru The Phone’ is a classic that came out

in 2008. Like mentioned before in the storyboard blog, we plan on

putting a twist to the music video. Originally, the song is a love song

that centers the artist and his love interest. However, my group and

I plan on making the music video have a plot of a stalker story. Closely

listening to the song and its lyrics we were able to come up with a weird

twist. The main character in the music video will be in love with the other

character but it’s in an obsessive way. The stalkee will be going through

the process of not realizing the stalker, recognizing the stalker, and

confronting her. 

We have planned extensively on what we would like the process of

filming to be like. This includes what was written in the planning blog

and the storyboard blog. We had also talked in person and over text

messages on what we would like to do for our music video. We have

three official locations that we want to film at. These include the

Galleria Mall, a public park, and one of our group member’s house.

The reasoning behind these locations are specific to the settings. For

the mall location, we had wanted to choose somewhere that the main

character can first see her love interest. The mall was perfect because

many people go to the mall so coming across her love interest wouldn’t

be so shocking. The park was fitting because it’s a setting that can be

seen as more casual and not so ‘stalkerish’. We included the house as

a filming location because it’s where the climax of the music video is taking

place. The stalker finally is seen as insane because she had gone to the

love interest’s house. 

Hopefully everything goes as planned. When we were filming our

commercial everything went smoothly to where we got the takes that

were necessesary. However, the editing process was a little more stressful.

Since there was a problem with the editing software, my group and I

had a very short amount of time to actually edit. I feel like if we had

more time to edit, not just an hour and thirty minutes, then the final

product would have been better. I want to do as much as we can to

be able to have as much time to edit the music video. That is why we

decided to film on the 11/26 (Tuesday) even though one of our group

members can not make it. We are filming scenes that she isn’t needed

for. Then we would like to film on 11/30 when we can all film. We all have

positive thoughts in order to have what we have on paper come to life. 

Storyboard Blog

Today our group worked on the storyboard for the music video that we will be filming. After countless deliberation, brainstorming, and replaying, we managed to finish our storyboard, laying down the framework for the filming process. For our music video, we decided that we will be doing the song “Kiss Me Through The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell’Em featuring Sammie. This song was a perfect choice as it lacked profanity and would be easy to recreate with the resources we each have access to. We would detach all audio and let the song tell a story itself. Since we were given a minimum of a minute and five seconds and a maximum of a minute and 15 seconds, our plan was to cut various parts of the song given that it is a total of three minutes long. We chose to use the introduction, a phrase towards the middle of the song, and the ending. From there, we divided the song by increments of five seconds, establishing what exactly would be taking place within the said time frame. We knew that it was essential that the audio not only fell between the specified range but also still flowed together. This would help us avoid any inconveniences that could potentially offset our productivity during the filming and editing processes. Since the goal of this project was not to create an imitation of the original music, the creative juices had no choice, but to be activated. Our vision for the project took a sharp detour in regards to the general direction of the original music video. The overall plot of our music video goes as follows: A young teen’s love at first sight quickly evolves into a mesmeric obsession, resulting in the pursuit of a connection to an oblivious boy by all means necessary. Initially, one of the ideas presented was a love story in which the guy pursued the girl with good intentions and romantic interests. We ultimately decided to stray from the norm and go with a more “stalker story” as it was more original. 

Within our storyboard, we divided the music video amongst 15 boxes. The first six take place in the mall. During these scenes, we anticipate there to be bright, white lights as it is a shopping center. There are four actors, all which are members of the group, Autumn, Emilio, Victoria, and Jeffrey. The actors will all be dressed in casual clothing and will be carrying shopping bags. The next 4 take place at a park. Lighting will depend on how the weather is looking that day, though, we intend to film on a sunny day. Emilio and Jeffrey will be dressed in sports apparel, playing basketball, while Victoria and Autumn will be in casual clothing. The final 5 take place in an apartment. During these scenes, Jeffrey and Emilio will be dressed in light clothing such as pajamas. Victoria will once again be dressed in casual clothing. We will likely use dark lighting in order to build the suspense of being stalked. We intend to use jump cuts, inserts, establishing shots, point of view, and various other cinematographic elements in order to not only transition between the scenes (boxes) but also effectively portray our vision. For example, the first box, marked the 0:03 seconds to 0:8 seconds of the actual song, displays a wide shot in which Victoria and Autumn find Jeffrey and Emilio at the mall and Victoria becomes infatuated with Jeffrey. This will jump to the second box, marked 0:8 to 0:13, a close up in which Victoria and Autumn look at each other and notice that Emilio and Jeffrey are gone.

If everything goes as planned, we intend to stick to our story board and end the music video with a minute and fifteen seconds.

Planning Blog

The first day of our planning process was November 18th. The teacher gave us instructions on what to do and we began. The first thing we discussed is what we wanted to do for the music video. We know we didn’t want to follow the normal convention of the music video. The original video shows a couple who is dating and even though they can’t see each other they call and text each other. We decided to change the theme and now instead of it being a couple, a girl has a crush on a guy and she’s delusional thinking that they are together. For this project, things were a little harder because the concept was more complicated than the commercial. The biggest problem for us was figuring out when we were actually going to be able to film. We wanted to start filming this week, but we couldn’t figure out a day when we were all free. Some of us had to work and others had after school activities that conflicted with each other. We talked about our schedule for about 20 minutes before I suggested a solution.  Since not everyone was going to be in all of the scenes, the people who were free a specific day could go filming and film the scenes that they can get, then another day the other people in the group could go filming. 

By the time we figured out our individual schedules and the plan it, the class had ended so we got on group call at night to discuss the video in more detail. We discussed the health and safety issues, the props we were going to use, the costumes and the schedule we were going to be following. 

Location

To create our vision, we figured that the best place to film would be the mall because the mall is a crowded area where people can easily be followed without being spotted. So when the female is stalking the male interest, he wouldn’t be able to spot her in a crowd. The next location that we chose was someone’s house. In one of our scenes, we have the female looking into the window of the male interest’s house trying to see if he’s home while calling him. A one-story house or an apartment with windows on the first floor would be the perfect place to film the scene. The last location that we chose was the park. The male interest is going to be hanging out with his friend playing basketball and the female and her friend are watching him. Once again when stalking someone, the person stalking normally does it in a crowded area. In the scene, you would see the female fawning over the male interest while he is up and active. An important task we had to do was make sure that we were allowed to film in all of the locations that we chose. Autumn was in charge of getting the approval of the people in charge. At first, she called the Galleria Mall, the mall we wanted to filmstrip.  and the manager stated that it was fine as long as we gained permission to film the people in the mall. The next part was getting the house. Our new member of the group offered to use his house so he asked his mom and she said yes. We figured that since the park was a public area as long as we had permission from the people playing on the court, filming shouldn’t be a problem there.

Health & safety 

Because we are filming outside of school campus, we have to make sure that our group, the equipment and everyone around us isn’t put in harm's way. We will have to drive to the locations so everyone in the car will use the seatbelts. Another safety issue is the weather. The weather forecast says there will be days of thunderstorms. To protect ourselves we will stay inside and shoot all of our inside scenes. If we happen to get caught in the rain, we will bring umbrellas to protect the equipment and raincoats to protect us from the rain. 

Props

The props we will be using 

1. Phones
2. Basketball 
3. Shopping bags
4. The room in the house

Costumes

1. Basketball shorts with a t-shirt
2. Jeans and a hoodie
3. Pajamas 

Schedule 11/18-12/9

11/18- Discussed the theme of the music video 

11/20- Plan the props, location, and costumes

11/22- We are going to storyboard, our video, write the script and figure out the kinks with our individual schedule. 

11/26- We begin filming. We will start off at the mall, then make our way to the house to shoot our opening scenes.

11/30- Film the scenes at the park and go back to the mall because we need a shot with all of the actors/actresses in it. 

12/2- Begin the editing process, figure out the scenes and takes we want to keep and what we want to get rid of, adding the music, and doing the voiceovers needed

 12/4- Double check to make sure that the music video looks put together, add any last-minute details that we might have missed and play it back. 

12/06- Turn in the final music video

Music Video Conventions

The day we say goodbye to our finished commercial is here. The process was a somewhat smooth one. Preparing, story boarding, filming were all easy compared to the editing process. We didn't need to re-film any of the scenes which was nice because that allowed us to have more time to edit. The editing was stressful because of the time crunch that we were on. Overall, it was an exciting experience that bettered my production skills. Since the beginning of the school year, I was super excited to make the music video project. Personally, I love music so being able to plan, film, and edit one is going to be fun. 
We chose the song 'Kiss Me Thru The Phone' by Soulja Boy Tell'em. We chose this song because we all think it's a great song that's really catchy. Even though this song came out in 2008, we all listen to it to this day. Also, the song has no profanity so there was no need to look for a clean version and it can be interpreted in a different way than what it actually means. Figuring out the song that we wanted took some time but were able to chose this song out of all the other options. The other options for this music video project were 'Because Of You' by Ne-yo and 'Let Me Love You' by Mario. 
The song 'Kiss Me Thru The Phone' by Soulja Boy Tell'em falls under the genre of Hip-Hop/Rap. 
The original music video has the typical mis en scene that a Hip-Hop/Rap music video would have. The different camera angles, sound, and editing techniques. In a traditional music video for Hip-Hop/Rap, the camera angles are usually low-angled close up shots in order for the main artist of the music video can seem like the most important focal point of the video. Shots that are taken in a Hip-Hop/Rap music video include many two shots, typically with the main artist and a love interest to indicate that they are desirable. It also includes shots like club/party scenes where it gives the artist credibility because it shows how large groups of people are enjoying their song. Depending on the song itself, there can be a range of sounds that are not including the song. There can be sounds of engines revving to depict the luxury the artist or people yelling their name so it shows their importance. The editing, like the sound, also depends on the song and how the director and the artist want the song to be interpreted.

C- Costumes within the Hip Hop/Rap genre, artists tend to wear a variety of apparel. This
may range from designer clothing such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Ferragamo
complimented by expensive chains, watches, and other forms of jewelry. This aims
to emphasize the wealth that the artist has accumulated and is often a reflection
and even a product of the rags to riches story they likely experienced.
L- The lighting can differ depending on what the director and the artist want to use.
There is usually darker lighting if the scene is in a club or it can be outside during the day
or at night.

A- In a music video there isn’t a lot of acting involved unless there is a background
story to the music video. In the original music video you see spots in the video
where the person is looking to be having a conversation on a cell phone. They
did this to signify them calling the other person through the phone.

M- The makeup is also an important part of Hip-Hop videos. Back in 2008, the girls
wore vivid makeup that popped on screen. For example bright eye shadow colors,
or and big eyeliner. Some videos would showcase the girl in a scene where she
would just need normal makeup. The guys however, didn't really a lot of makeup
due to the fact that makeup was more fememine. 

P- Props that are heavily featured in many of the videos of the hip-hop genre
would include phones, jewelry, clothing, and stacks of money. They serve to
captivate the audience’s attention, and portray the characters in the video as
wealthy and well off in terms of power and status. 

S- Setting is very important for these types of videos, as they help to demonstrate

where the video is taking place. Most often in the Hip-Hop genre, the setting is
usually on the street, or a neighborhood, parties, and social gatherings. 

Editing the commercial

Today my group and I were really excited to start editing

our commercial and begin the magical process of seeing

our commercial come to life. But sadly, that excitement came

to a halt when the editing software wasn’t working and half of

the school computers wouldn’t even turn on. It really sucked.

We were all ready and looking forward to editing and putting

our commercial together. Last class we dumped our footage

onto my personal computer because all of the school computers

had been in use. This morning in class, we had transported the

footage onto a flashdrive and then onto a school computer. After

twenty minutes of waiting for the footage to transfer, we were set

to edit. We then tried to open the editing software but we were

presented with a lovely message. “This application is blocked by

your administrator.”. After complaining about it to our teachers,

we were informed that the application itself had been down on

all the school computers. 

We ended up having to dump our footage not only on the school

computer. We also had to dump our footage onto my personal Google

Drive. Our teachers told us that the school computers may be wiped

of all data in order to fix the problem of the editing software not being

available. I went ahead and transferred all the footage onto my Google

Drive. After that, there wasn’t anything for us to do. We decided to try

and go in depth as to how we wanted our commercial to look like.

Even though we had discussed this in past classes, we tried to do

our best and talk about specifics. We discussed the different techniques

we wanted to use during the editing process. Since common conventions

in a typical Gatorade Commercial included jump cuts, flash pans, and

other fast paced editing styles. We also went into how different filters

and lighting can change how a scene is interpreted. 

Since we were not able to edit this class, our commercial schedule

was adjusted. We are going to edit the next class period and hopefully

finish the commercial. Next class, I hope that the editing software is

available to use. If the software isn’t available, I have no clue as to

when we are going to finish our commercial. Before we even started

filming our commercial, our teachers had hyped the editing process to

be a fun one. My group and I are still looking forward to it. Even with

this road bump, I think my group and I are going to enjoy the editing

process. Editing the commercial may be inspiring. I know what I want

to be when I grow up but that might change it. Seeing our work become

what we envisioned can be magical.

Filming the commercial

Today during class we took the whole period filming!

It was a new experience that was actually really fun and interesting.

Prior to filming we had done our storyboard which really helped

(even though that’s what it’s for) because when we were having

trouble figuring out what we needed to film we just referred to our

storyboard. It was amazing to see our vision come to life when filming.

What had been on paper became a reality which was exciting. In our

group, each of us had a role in the actual commercial. Even though the

concepts of our roles were the same, they turned out to be different

when executing them. One group member had played the part of a

percussionist, another had played the role of an auxiliary (band), and

I had played the role of a student. We all took turns using the camera

and setting the tripod. The camera was surprisingly easy to use. We

had taken multiple takes of a scene in order to make sure we had

options when editing. 

During the filming process, I had the role as the director.

Even though we hadn’t necessarily assigned roles in the group,

I naturally took the role as the director. It was fun being able to say

whether a certain angle or camera movement should be used. Not

that the others didn’t get a say in the matter, they were able to input

anything they wanted. However, I was the one inputting the most opinion

in filming our commercial. When I wasn’t filming, the other group members

were. My role in the commercial was the role of a student. We wanted the

commercial to have a different target audience than normal. In a conventional

Gatorade commercial, athletes are targeted. We wanted to target mostly

high school to even middle school students. 

Although the majority of filming the commercial was smooth sailing,

it still was a little bit challenging. Being the overachievers that we are,

we wanted to go all out with our props and costumes. This meant that

the group member that played the role of a percussionist needed his

drums and the group member that played the role of an auxiliary needed

her uniform. This took up almost twenty minutes of our filming time. At

the time it didn’t seem like a concern but we had later found out that twenty

minutes makes a big difference. Towards the end of filming our commercial

we began to run out of time while needing to film a whole entire scene.

It was stressful but we managed to film the entirety of our commercial. Even

though we were given the option to film next class, we decided to finish

filming this class and then edit during the next class period. Overall, we

enjoyed filming the commercial. We get along really well so even through

the stressful times, it was fun. We definitely got some hilarious bloopers out of it!