Editing

I uploaded all the footage onto my mac at home which was easier than restricting my working time to school. I used iMovie08 to organise my footage.
First of all I added the audio track of the song that I made the video for. I then cut the video footage up into different clips and trimmed them so that the words and music fitted the motion on the video. This was probably the most challenging part of the production process. Making sure the lip movements were in sync with the vocals of the track.

I had to make sure that the cut rate was appropriate for the song. The song is quite slow and quiet, so I had quite a slow cut rate. As the song progresses, there is a part where the singer sounds fairly uneasy and restless, I decided to quicken the cut rate during this part to represent that further.

I had to edit the lighting and the levels of the video so that each shot would match as the video was shot in many different sessions and in different weather conditions.

Location

The location that I chose to use for most of my video was the Lakegrounds in the town of Portishead.

The scenery of the Lakegrounds is very nice and looks out onto the Severn Estury. The main problem with the Lakegrounds is the constant strong wind!

This location was ideal for my character as it is a place I often go to and sit on the sea front to chill out or when I am feeling restless. It is a very peaceful environment and is naturally beautiful. The water represents the feelings of being lost and the term 'at sea' often represents a relationship. I chose this location as it is not very busy and is therefore easier to film in, it also helps with the fact that the character is alone.

Filming

I put aside a few days to do a bit of solid concentrated filming.

As I was working on my own on my music video, it meant that I could choose when to film quite easily as I did not need to organise times with anyone else. The drawback of filming on my own was that it meant I had to do everything myself. I chose to act in the video as well. I did this because I know the song really well, and again it meant that it was easier to organise a time for filming. The drawback of both filming and acting was that I had to set up the camera on a tripod and then move into shot and start acting, this took up time and made it fairly awkward to do.

I had to be able to lip sync so it looked like I was singing the song and be able to mime playing the guitar for it to look as if I was playing the song, I used my phone to play the song which was in my pocket so that I could hear it. This proved to be fairly succesful as in the end I got a good lip sync.

For my music video, I wanted to have simple camera angles for the performance side because if there was too much fancy camera work then it really would not fit the song or the action on the screen. I mainly used a tripod to do the filming for my video, but at times there is some handheld camera work which creates the feeling of unease at a certain point of the song.

Planning

Before shooting my music video, I had to do a bit of planning.
The story of the video changed over the planning time.
From the start I definately wanted to have the themes of being lost and going round in circles. I then decided on the idea of having arrows for the character to follow, this idea suggesting that the character is in such a state that he will follow anything just to give him some sort of sense of direction. After following one or two of the arrows, he then feels he needs to follow them all to find out what is at the end.
During this main theme I wanted to follow the idea of the car accident by maybe filming one myself. I then realised this could be not only difficult, but also very cheesy and not subtle enough for my video. Having a car accident in a soft acoustic song would look out of place.
I decided to stick with the idea of following the arrows, but to break up the story with shots of performance. The performing shots would all be very similar generally involving the character sitting on a bench whilst playing and singing his song. As soon as the vocals come in on the song, there is a shot of the character singing and playing guitar. I also wanted to have a few close up shots of the singer's face, this would make it more personal to the viewer.
I wanted the end of the video to have the character ending up in exactly the same place as he was at the start of the video, this would carry on with the theme of going round in circles. It also shows that whatever he was looking for has been there all along.

The planning I had to do was fairly limited as I already had a fixed idea in my head about which song I am going to choose for my music video. I did not need to plan any sort of shooting schedule as I am working on my own, so I can do it when I am free! From the start of me choosing which project I wanted to do, I knew that I would do an acoustic/indie/alternative music video because this is the genre of music in which I perform and write.

Your Accident Song

The song for my music video is called 'Your Accident Song'. I wrote this song after a friend was hit by a car and had to spend a few days in hospital. Here are the lyrics to the song.

You did exactly as I told you to,
but i swear i didn't mean it,
if someone asked you to run off a cliff,
would you do it? i didn't think so.
yeah i guess i did what you wanted me to do,
but it happened in time,
i didn't take it up straight away,
i couldn't accept you weren't mine.
But I'm just thankful you weren't completely taken away,
oh my once darling you had me shaking,
please stay.
I wish i could have been there for you,
to put my arms out in front,
I would have caught you i swear i would,
just to show you i would,
but I wasn't there for you my dear,
that's the story of my life,
I would have jumped out in front of you,
I would have happily died.
But I'm just thankful you weren't completely taken away,
oh my once darling you had me shaking,
please stay,
and even though I had wished this upon you,
I cry that I wish all of my deepest wishes came true tonight.
I promise I'm not falling again,
those memories I cannot pretend,
They were the best I'll ever have.

These lyrics will be reflected in the video but not too heavily. I do not want my video to mickey mouse the lyrics, but I want the action on the screen to complement them.

The video more reflects the feelings that a person can go through due to the events that the song is about.

Research

I decided that i wanted to make a music video for my A2 media studies production. I wanted to make a video for an acoustic song by a solo artist. I chose a song by myself which is called "Your Accident Song". Having chosen this song, I decided to look at solo artists music videos. Some of these artists were:

Elliott Smith

Conor Oberst

Bob Dylan

Dallas Green

I also watched various music videos which were not in my genre. I did this to get an over all feel and some inspiration from great music videos such as 'Close to Me', 'Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades' and 'The Scientist'. Watching such videos gave me great ideas for my own production. I really liked the video for 'Close to Me' because it had an almost eccentric feel and used a clever idea of the band being inside the wardrobe. Even though the other two videos were different to each other, they still gave the same sense of mystery to the viewer. In 'Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades' you do not totally understand where the main character is and what is causing him to do the things he does in the video. I really like this because it keeps the viewer interested in what will happen next. In the scientist, the main character is moving backwards, this effect has been created by reversing the video. I really liked this as it kept me wondering where he had come from, and when i saw the end i was surprised by the twist. I also really liked the skill of the production of this video, as he has been reversed but his lips are still synced perfectly with the sound.

These videos can be found here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjPrdTNxQ0

Album Cover Research

Album Cover Research.

I have put together a mood board of album covers that i like and which could be suitable for the genre of music i am dealing with.

I especially like the Joshua Radin, Elliott Smith, and City and Colour Albums as they are the closest to my genre.

Joshua Radin is a simple yet effective cover. The image of the door represents that the album is a opening to Joshua's feelings, but with the sign on the door it also hints at a 'do not disturb' idea. The font etched into the door infers that the feelings are painful.

Again the Elliott Smith Figure 8 cover is also simple but effective as he is in black and white, the only colour in the picture is red which suggests romance. The City and Colour cover is very good because it is such a good drawing and looks almost like an emblem which signifies wearing feelings like a badge for all to see.