Filming the Best of Both Worlds

   During my filming "experience," everyone in my group shared responsibilities to ensure that everything was done correctly. For the music video, I would be an actor and also one who filmed certain takes. We got together on Thursday since everyone would be available to meet at a specific location that day. I was in charge of carrying the camera throughout the school day and when I got home, I brought the props and clothing that would be necessary to film. Such items included a microphone, a hairbrush, chap stick, fuzzy socks, and pajamas. When I got the Amy's house, I pulled out the camera and noticed that the battery was low and would only last about an hour. It was a group effort to make sure that we conserved the battery as much as possible and efficiently filmed.

   We filmed the scenes in the order that they were drawn in the storyboard. In the first scene, I helped Aitan decide where the tripod should be placed and if adjustments had to be made regarding the camera angle. I also helped determine the perfect amount of zoom that would be needed for the second part of the first scene. In the second scene, I would act as the "normal girl" who didn't apply any makeup but rather put her hair up into a messy ponytail. At the beginning, it was quite hard to concentrate and focus on the objective of the scene. I would forget about the fact that we were filming or misunderstand when to start. However, after a couple of takes, I was finally able to successfully put my hair up. In the third scene, there would be two separate parts with two different actresses. During Amy's portion, Aitan filmed Amy adjusting her clothing straps while I waited outside. I wanted to contribute to the making of this scene but unfortunately, Amy and I could not stop laughing and it was easier to simply leave the room. It would then be my turn again to be an actress where I had to put on my jacket and zip up the zipper. This scene was filmed with more ease as I already knew what to expect and was more comfortable acting "natural." 

   The sun was beginning to set and we had to film our third scene with Aitan with the car outside. I introduced the idea that the scene could imply that the sun setting in real life could be seen as the sun rising in the music video. I asked Amy if she could move her car back a little bit so that the car wouldn't be so close to the garage and so Aitan would be able to more easily get out of the car. In this case, I was the person in charge of filming. Since Aitan was inside of the car with the windows up at the start of the scene, it was quite difficult to tell him when I would actually begin filming the takes. Due to this complication, it took about four takes to finally establish what would be done and when I should start filming. On the following take, everything was happening accordingly when our camera's screen turned black and died. We all went inside and I pulled out the chargers from the camera bag that I had brought. After various attempts, neither charger was showing signs of charging the camera. Each of us tried to insert one charger and we found multiple outlets that we could have used but there was still no progress. We left one charger in a camera and headed out to buy some food to see the the issue was time related. When we got back the camera was still black and had no battery left at all. We all took into consideration our backup plan and decided how we would film the next time we met up. 

Storyboard Blog

   Our music video based on the song "The Best of Both Worlds" written by Hannah Montana. We will start the music video when the song is at five seconds and finish the video at one minute and eleven seconds in order to hit the time requirements. We drew eleven different scenes on our storyboard. Each lasting six seconds each. In our first scene, our celebrity actress, Amy, will be walking to the bathroom while listening to music while in pajamas. She will be filmed using a tracking shot following her to the bathroom. She will be seen picking up an eye shadow pallet and then seen applying mascara with an extreme close up. In the second scene, our normal actress, Katherine, will be seen putting her hair up into a ponytail also in pajamas with a medium shot. In the third scene, for three seconds, Amy will be adjusting the straps of her romper in front of her mirror. The scene will transition into another three seconds scene where Katherine pulls down her sweatshirt and pulls up her shorts. Both of these scenes will be shown with a medium close up. The following scene will play while the song says "I got the limo out front." The assistant actor, Aitan, will be filmed arriving at Amy's house in a nice car with a long shot. In the fifth scene, for three seconds, Aitan will be handing Amy a pair of heels from an assortment of shoes. As he picks up the shoes, there will be a low angle shot. However, as he gives the shoes to Amy, there will be an eye level shot. For the next three seconds, Katherine will be picking out a pair of socks to wear with a medium shot. In both of those scenes, the lyrics "hottest styles, every shoe, every color," are playing. In the sixth and seventh scene, we will be attempting a graphic match. In the sixth scene, Amy is putting on lipstick while being filmed with a medium close up. There will then be an eye line match as Amy looks at an alarm clock. In the next scene, the beginning is the camera on the alarm clock which then moves to show Katherine applying chap stick with a medium close up. At the beginning of the chorus, Amy will be seen partying under LED lights while singing with a microphone with a medium close up. Afterward, Katherine is seen listening to music and singing along with a hairbrush with a long shot where she can be seen dancing on a bed. At the scene where the song plays "mix it all together," there will be a split screen showing Amy and Katherine doing similar dances to the song with a medium shot. In the last scene, for three seconds, Amy will be shown getting into bed. These two scenes play while the lyrics finish the chorus. It is supposed to imply that the end of the chorus can be seen as the end of the day. In the final three seconds, Katherine is shown pulling up covers and going to sleep using a long shot. This scene will conclude the music video. 

Planning Blog

1. Location
We are planning on filming at one of the actor's house and around their neighborhood. This allows us to have different locations and backgrounds without having to go to a lot of places. She lives near a shopping plaza too, so if we need more backgrounds, it is easily available to us. We also might film at one of the other actor's houses because they have lights that would be beneficial to our video. These lights will make the video more flashy and will look good with the "celebrity" actor.

2. Health and Safety
At the houses, we have medical aid and parental supervision. A few of the actor's neighbors are doctors and are fire-fighters, who are guaranteed to be home. The main filmer/one of the actors is CPR/AED and first aid certified. While filming in the street, we will have the person not in the shot be cautious of any cars that may pass.

3. Props
We are going to use a car for the scene where the song goes "I got the limo out front." Another prop we are going to use is makeup, including lipstick, chap stick, mascara, and eye shadow. This is going to show how a celebrity and "normal person" live differently but still do a lot of the same things. We are going to have an array of shoes to show 'Hottest styles, every shoe, every color." We will also have a microphone and a hairbrush to demonstrate the actors singing to the same song. 

4. Costumes
The "celebrity" actor is going to wear a nice romper, high heels, and sunglasses. Celebrities are known for wearing nicer clothes and heels everywhere. The "assistant" actor will wear a nice shirt and black pants. This is normal attire for an assistant of a celebrity, who should still look nice, but not over-shine the celebrity. The "normal person" actor will wear regular/everyday clothes including a sweatshirt, shorts, and fuzzy socks. This shows that normal people don't go all out when going out and how they differ from celebrities.

5. Schedule
11/18: This day we did not have media class so we were not able to do anything
11/19: We started to plan and make a storyboard for our video
11/21: We finished the storyboard and will start to film after school but we won't be able to finish all of our takes.
11/27-11/29: Week of Thanksgiving, will not work on music video
12/1: We will finish filming anything we didn't finish before.
12/2: Start to edit our video.
12/4: Finish editing.
12/6: Editing blog and submit music video.

Music Video Research

   After a couple of weeks of working on filming and editing with my group, we successfully completed our Gatorade commercial. In the last project, I learned quite a lot of things. For one, I learned how to make transitions when the scenes changed. I learned how to remove sound from the films, delete it, and add voice overs. I also learned how to create a split screen and change the position, size, and duration of scenes. This week, we will be beginning a new project. In his project we will be making a music video and we will have to choose a song and make a corresponding film. 

   The song that we chose was "The Best of Both Worlds" written by Hannah Montana. This song covers the genre pop rock and country. "The Best of Both Worlds" is the theme song from the Disney Channel Show, "Hannah Montana." The song was also a single from the album "Hannah Montana." In this song, Miley Cyrus explains how she enjoys both of her lives, where she is a popular artist and a normal teenager. At first, there were contrasting views between song choice. We were unsure if we should have chosen the song "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift but ultimately we decided to not stick with that song because we wanted to choose a song that would represent a popular social issue. 

   Normally, pop rock songs are upbeat and can connect with the audience by demonstrating common issues that are faced in everyday life by people of various ages. Most of the time, pop rock music songs show the artist or the band performing in the background of the video. However, in our video, we were planning on only demonstrating a fictional story that goes against the usual conventions. The songs often gives advice through the video of the band performing by delivering a general message. But our video will be able to deliver the same message through a stronger connection between the actors and the audience. Most pop rock songs show a multitude of different camera angles and movements to highlight having a good time. Editing effects included are dutch/oblique shots, close ups, and long shots. The sound in the video would only consist of the song. 

   1. Costumes: The typical clothing in pop rock music videos and bright colors and dramatic styles. The band is usually dressed in casual clothing. We will be using flashy colors and clothing as best as we can.

   2. Lighting: In music videos, the colors are normally very bright and colorful but can also highlight partial naturalness. These colors demonstrate a vibrant environment that is similar to concerts.

   3. Acting: In music videos, there is not much acting by the performer. Usually, the singer just sings the song and dances along.

   4. Make-up: Most videos have glam makeup because they are performing on a stage. We probably won't do an excessive amount of makeup because we are not following the typical conventions of these types of music videos.

   5. Props: The props in these videos are usually microphones, a stage, and instruments. We will use cars, a guitar, microphones, and more.

   6. Setting: The setting tends to be in an auditorium, a studio, or a stage. It is usually a concert but we will being filming in houses and around neighborhoods. 

Editing the Commercial Part 2

   After a couple of days where my group and I weren't able to continue with our commercial, Pinnacle Studios was finally installed into the available laptops. The class before we began to edit, Amy and I were permitted to film our voiceovers in an adjacent room. This room was quieter since most students were either in the classrooms or finishing last minute takes outside. I thought that to edit, it would be easier if we stayed within the same room in order to hear our clips better so I shared this idea with my group. Once we entered the room, we filmed the necessary voiceovers that we needed. When we had all of our clips, Emi imported them into Pinnacle Studios and everyone started collaborating on the commercial. It was decided upon that I would be in charge of making the split screen. This part would be difficult because the class was never taught how to do one meaning that I would have to ask the teacher for advice to understand. I had to wait until Amy installed all the sound and voiceovers into AV Track 3 and Andrew cutted the clips to the necessary length that matched with the sounds. It would then be my turn to replicate what I drew on the storyboard onto Pinnacle Studies as an actual video.
   On the storyboard for the Gatorade commercial, I drew a split screen that would be shown towards the end of the commercial. In this scene, every athlete would be shown one by one doing their activity at best performance after the consumption of the Gatorade products. My objective for editing would be attempting to find out how to change the size of the clips and how to adjust their time duration. When it was my turn for the editing process, I first went to Mrs. Cats so that she could show me the basics of a split screen. I first told her what three scenes I was planning on incorporating. She told me that I had to add two additional AV tracks. These new tracks would have only one scene per, being the second and the third clip of the split screen. Mrs. Cats also showed me that in order to change the size of the scene, I would have to right click and select Open Effects Editor.
   As I adjusted the scenes in their separate tracks, I realized that in order to make only one third of the split screen appear at a time, instead of placing the scenes directly above each other, I had to place them relatively next to each other. While I was doing this however, I noticed that the video would glitch slightly when played. My teacher told me that this was due to errors in the cutting stage where a sliver of a scene was cut. I was taught that to delete these, so that they wouldn't interfere with the split screen, I would have to select the three dots next to the AV tracks. This allowed me to see every single scene and delete unnesscessary ones with ease. Once I fixed the order of the scenes and adjusted it to match with the audio, I opened Effects Editor for every third. I selected the first option: 2D-3D. After that, I selected 2D Editor Advanced. Once the scene could be seen on the computer, I selected preset to be no preset. Then, I began to play around with the position, size, rotation, and transparency of the clips until they came out nicely. For position and size, I only adjusted horizontal changes rather than vertical, in which I had to unlock the settings for the numbers to be different. For position, each scene starting from the first one, would require a larger number horizontally to change where the scene would appear. As for size, the horizontal number were relatively similar since the screen would have to be divided equally.