The task we were set was to produce our given section to the song 'Thrift Shop' by Macklemore. Each group was given a different section which indicated a different style. The style we had was Abstract. An abstract music video is one that has virtually no meaning to the song or it's mood/pace. Everything in it is unexpected and just random. The section we had to film was the second chorus which was about 19 seconds long. As we had the abstract section, we had to come up with a random idea that had no relevance. In the end, we chose the idea of my older cousin having a tea party with some teddy bears. After coming up with an idea we produced a shooting script so that we could follow the shots and make sure we filmed everything. The shooting script also helped us out when editing as we knew the order. It can be seen below.
Production
After making the script we decided to start filming. We only had 13 shots to film so it didn't take us very long. We made sure we followed the script exactly and didn't leave any shots out. In about 30 minutes we had finished filming and were happy with the result.
Post Production
When we came into lesson that week, we imported the footage onto the Mac and began editing. The editing program we used was Final Cut Express. We had used this before previously when editing the opening for our BSR film, but only to add the sound in. This time we edited the whole thing with the software. After being taught the basics by our teacher, we started to edit. It was fairly simple as we knew how to edit, we just had to adapt to the new controls. One thing that I had to get used to was to keep rendering the sequence after we made any changes. After one lesson we had finished editing as we only had a small section.
When watching the clip back we decided it wasn't as abstract and weird as we wanted it, so we started to play around with effects and see how we could make the video more abstract. We opted for a few effects; fish eye, replicate, earthquake and blur. I think all of these effects added to his state of mind, connoting how he was unwell. The fish eye effect on one of the teddy bears made him seem unwell and also the earthquake effect which made the screen shake made him seem angry. After editing we had to decide whether we wanted to export the section with effects, or the one without. In the end we chose the one with effects as we felt it looked more abstract and demonstrated our skills within editing. I was very happy with the final sequence as I felt we had made a good abstract section for the video.
After we finished editing, our teacher had given us some post-it notes to stick around our work. Written on them were the conventions of a music video that we had put into our sequence.
One of the things we thought was important to include was a simple narrative. With a music video, you don't want the audience to get too confused in a short window of time, you want them to watch a video they can enjoy and watch again. Our narrative was quite simple, just a grown man having a tea party with teddy bears so it was pretty easy to follow and was still abstract.
Most videos have some element of lip syncing so we also decided to put it in for a short second or so. We just have the actor lip syncing 'tags' in the video. I feel like lip syncing helps connect to the song more and maybe even get the viewer singing along too.
Because our style was abstract, one of the conventions of an abstract genre music video is having random mise-en-scene that doesn't really fit with the song. Our location was a dining room in an ordinary home, the set wasn't very abstract. The thing that made it abstract was the fact the actor was having a tea party, dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a hoodie, with teddy bears. It was a strange thing to take place in a dining room.
I feel that camera movement within shots make the video a lot more watch-able then just still shots. For example when you see the shot of him holding a tea cup, then camera moves in slightly, giving it more an abstract feel. Also at the end, with the effect of earthquake and the camera moving down suddenly, it gives the impression that the man is angry, it makes it more interesting to watch.
A range of shots also makes a video more watch-able. If a video was just one type of shot the whole time it would get boring. Having different types of shots, especially close ups makes a video more interesting as you can pay more attention to detail.
I think cutting to the beat is the most important in a music video. Without this, the whole edit just looks odd and messy. We paid extra attention to this convention and tried to cut exactly when the beat changed. We went back a few times to perfect this. I was very happy with how it turned out as we did well to cut to the beat.
This is a picture of the page where we got the effects/filters from. We mainly used the Stylize section as that had the most interesting effects. I think the effects added a whole new abstract feeling to the video and made it more enjoyable to watch.
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