Over the course of this unit I was asked to create a piece of moving image work. For this unit I chose to make a music video. Music videos have always been an interest of mine so I was excited to have the opportunity to make my own. Moving image is something I have never worked with before so this was a completely new experience for me. During the course of this unit I completed a number of technical workshop, some of these workshops included; Premiere Pro, After effects, choreography, styling and green screen workshops. All of these workshops were relevant and very useful for a first time film maker like myself. I had never attempted video before so learning all of the programs such as, premiere Pro and after effects did come with challenges, but after lots of practice I am now much more confident in my editing abilities. As soon as the brief was announced I knew I wanted to make a music video. My approach to making my music video was to research artists such as, Andy Warhol and Alexander McQueen, along side music video directors who made videos for artist such as; Mystery jets, Sports Team, The Verve and Fatboy Slim.
By researching the artists and directors it gave me lots of visual inspiration for my own work. I found looking at lots of other music videos useful to my project development. The most influential piece of research I conducted was Andy Warhol’s screen tests, I knew I wanted to make a video featuring portraiture but as soon as I saw Warhol’s work I loved the idea of making work were the audience didn’t know if the images were still or moving images. I also found looking at Mystery Jet’s music video for their song, someone purer, particularly useful as I was using one of mystery jets songs for my own music video. I wanted to use a song that didn’t have an existing music video so I chose Midnights Mirror by Mystery Jets. I chose this song as I really love the overall sound of the song, also the song is not a well known song so I felt I had more creative freedom to create an original music video. I had the song in mind before I started shooting the video, I found having the audio already made it easier to create the effect I wanted for the music video.
Having the Audio beforehand made me able to make a structured treatment and shot plan for my video. Creating a treatment really helped my concept development. By creating a treatment plan for my video made me release I wanted my original concept, highlighting the isolation of city life to changing into a mirroring moving portrait concept instead. My original idea was to focus on the mental health and isolation a person can feel when living in a city, the original message behind the video was even though a person can be surrounded by people and busy life, it’s still easy to feel isolated. I changed my original idea because I was struggling to get the right message across to the audience without making it too obvious or too stubble. After a lot of consideration I decided to have a different approach to my music video. My actual concept for my video ended up focusing on mirroring moving portraits. This concept of mirroring came about from reviewing my existing footage and making a link between my footage and my song choice midnights mirror.
Having a well structured shot plan was a vital part of creating the moving portrait effect I wanted. I used two separate models for the shoots, each having separate shot plans. The footage was shot over different days so this meant the weather was drastically different on both days of filming. I made the decision to make the video black and white because, the colour correcting was taking up too much of my time, and as a first time film maker this colouring job became very complex, so by putting the my video in black and white made it much easier to colour correct. I like the effect the black and white has on the video, it gives the video a vintage quality which I found visually appealing. If I was to change anything about the filming process it would be to invest in a gimbal. Due to the equipment at photography department all being booked out, I was unable to get a gimbal on the days of filming so this meant I had to do the whole thing hand held. I got quite a lot of camera shake but luckily I managed to stabilise most of the footage in premiere pro. Overall I have really enjoyed this unit. Film making is something I had never done before so I enjoyed trying something new. I will definitely be using more video in the future. I am happy with the way my music video turned out, although if I could go back and change something it would be my use of a gimbal.