Digital Film Production and VFX Week 13 Music Video:Final Editting Process

Effects test with target distortion

 During todays editing we were able to complete a rough version of our film and started to finalise a few shots and tweak a few frames to line up to the music but after doing the overall production of the music video we were able  to locate the effects in final cut to which we had forgotten we had and so began to have a few test and apply to the footage.

A lot of our flow of production whilst editing was stopped and started due to the process of rendering our videos each time we had made a slight adjustment and the amount of footage that was placed above other footage's on the timeline hadn't helped the rendering process.

So after having multiple work flow pauses to wait for rendering to be done we asked Matt the AV Suite Technician why this was happening and after he had checked the settings and found the information about the Mac he told us that the Mac hat we had been using had 2GB of Ram which was why it was taking longer and that the Macs should have about 16GB of Ram to do video editing and the highest GB of Ram he had available on his Macs was 8GB of Ram and so we had to move all of our footage and files to the 8GB of Ram Mac to render quicker.

Although the Mac that we had moved to was an 8GB of Ram Mac it was rendering our footage a Little quicker but still had taken longer than expected.

 Although the effects that were available worked for most of the footage we had, we created our own effect such as adding multiple Robbies (Gorilla Suited Actor) to go along with the beats of the music as the wax monster forms up.

The effect was so good we had the multiple Robbies appear after each row of the beats of the music and used the footage of Robbie dancing which was just excess footage that wasn't planned which was seen as a right piece of footage for this shot.

 We had found that there was a piece of footage that was so absurd to match up the action of our actor that we decided to have him seem as if he's surfing along on top of it as it slides across the screen.

Doing this bit of film was similar to animating in Maya, as we had to do key frames for the scale and center point of our actors actions and making him animate along with the wax monster movements.

Here is another one of the effects which we had found fitted this particular bit of footage as it is the scene where the actor comes out of the world of monsters to  the real world and by using the pond ripple effect we were able to create an outcome or a connection between the two, with the person getting from one to the other.

Here is a image or snapshot of the background image we will be using for the background of the before and after entering the monster world footage. The reason we chose this was because the background was basic and not too complicated allowing a continuity to not be a factor in terms of animating it to go along with pans and zooming in.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 13 Music Video:Continous Editting

When creating the initial idea for this music video we hadn't put too much detail into specific parts of the film we wanted and so during editing we had joint ideas and one which was to have a close up of the wax monsters as when they get close during the melting process create some weird visuals, the effects which would go well with our video.

This wax monster particularly had a egg type face which set it out from the other wax monster allowing us to have a close up of its face creating a weird close up along with the music.



Initial idea for this was to test if having more than one Gorilla Suited Actor in the shot at once and as you can see from this image we can use this as an advantage allowing a mirrored effect making the video more peculiar and random than it already is.

On of the main aspects of the wax monsters was that the monster took minutes to melt and so we had to manipulate the speed of the footage to how fast or slow we wanted it and even reversed to have many of the monsters seem like they are forming up.

A effect that is so simple can come across as what certain pieces of footage may need and that was the case for this bit of footage as it the footage seemed inappropriate and maybe disgusting we thought we would have it short and upside down to make it weird and unexpected, overall watching it with the other effects the video works together.

 Here is an image of a text for having the Gorilla Suited Actor be surfing on one of the wax monsters and as we stopped the footage it seemed like the little gorilla is on the big gorillas back which made it funny to see and perhaps be used later on.

Adding more than one piece of footage that is the same makes a great addition to the look and overall presentation of the music video we are trying to achieve, comedic and this is shown with the same footage zooming into the bigger version of the footage as it zooms out.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 13 Music Video:Editting

We started to edit our footage by removing the green screen to allow a transparent background around the actor, to which a specific type of background will be used.

Having to key light the green screen footage was a quick process but having to make the black and white balance out was difficult to do a there were always the odd bits of black and white visible. When key lighting the green screen out the text on the packet of crisp had changed to the colour of the background due to it being green and so we had to duplicate the bit of footage and add a mask to make the green text on the crisp packet to show up.



When editing we used both windows to view our film and the footage to allow us to drag pieces of footage on to the timeline.









Working with the music's timeline to get certain actions in the footage to match up, making the film work a lot better as you have a connection of the footage and the music giving it a better presentation in how the footage is based on the music.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 12 Music Video:Behind The Scenes By Steven Elmes

Another part of the film project was to have a behind the scenes of the filming process and so Steven Elmes had begun to start filming behind the scenes for us.

Steven Elmes had used one of the effects we will be using in our final film of increasing the speed of our footage and from that effect Steven had sped up the behind the scenes footage of near 20 minutes to roughly 5 minutes of behind the scenes.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 12 Music Video:Helping Hands

Part of this Project was to work on two other projects along with your own and so i was offered by Chris Rhodes and Steven Elmes to help with their projects. I had helped with the set up of lights and equipment for Steven Elmes' test light footage and doing the behind the scenes of Chris Rhodes' showdown video.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 12 Music Video:Filmed for Edit

Myself and Mark have finished filming today and found that we had filmed enough footage to work with and match up with the music and the melting footage from the wax monsters which will be used for the background.

With help from Danny Beckett, Dave Harris and Steven Elmes during the filming of our live footage, helping setting up lights, green screen and other equipment we were able to get the most out of our time and equipment.

Using Robbie King as our actor was a good choice because of his self-weirdness and what i mean by that is he knows how he expected to play this part, in total randomness.Robbie was able to add facial expressions to his acting which we hadn't asked him to but hadn't realised it till after viewing the footage filmed. The video which has been uploaded is one of many of the clips which were filmed for the behind the scenes, by Steven Elmes. Having Steven Elmes film behind the scenes was a good decision that Steven had come down when we had been filming as he covered alotof how we set the equipment up and what everybody does whilst filming goes on. Steven Elmes will later upload the footage that he has editted to be speeded up and show a behind the scenes video to go with our final film.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 12 Music Video:Melting Wax Monster Footage Re-Shoot

Due to the first wax footage shoot being out of focus we had brought in a more experienced cameraman in Matt Taylor and having him film the footage brought out a more greater outcome in film because along with a better focus reshooting the melting process of the wax monsters made different movements, allowing us to plan a few of the melt processes.

Below are a few of the images Matt had taken to get his focus and perspective right with his camera:

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 11 Music Video:Melting Wax Monster Footage

Here is a test footage of melting wax and we found that this would suit our project for the background monsters, to have them as creatures in another world which would be fighting our gorilla suited actor.

Here is one of the many clips we had shot of the melting wax monsters and had found that the camera we had used was not in focus and due to this we had to reshoot our footage. The footage that was shot, in terms of what is going on is really good from the wax monster sliding side to side but due to the focus of the camera we weren't happy with the overall outcome.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 11 Music Video:Similar Style

Due to filming next week i had nothing to blog about and so started to research into similar styles of music video to what we are wanting to achieve and found these couple of videos:

I started to look at some 60s music videos and how they were presented. They're presentation came across as a psychedelic type video because of the colour filter over the video, tryin to use the video effects that were available at that time gives us a chance to not have our video as perfect as 2010 musc videos are.

The next video i had found was of a soviet music video filled with people dressed in animal costumes which is similar to what we are trying to achieve with our film, in creating a comedy video which has no rules or limits to produce. As shown in this video the use of animal costumed people didnt have to be an idea to use, but using this makes it much more comedic as you watch grown men and women dancing wearing animal costumes.

Again the animal costume use works best in this video, to what we are wanting to do because the randomness of what the animal people are doing doesnt fit with the music and with the animal costumed people doing things that would seem ordinary, e.g. playin basketball looks funny with the costumes on which makes it a good video, by bringing a comedic sense to the visuals as the music plays on.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 11 Music Video:Cover Art By Chris Rhodes

Well, the pieces of this music video project are coming together as Mark and myself had asked Chris Rhodes to do a cover art for our dvd cover and he had come back with this image.

This comes across as the basic solid colours, which are bright and stand out which is good to grab the attention of viewers and the image used for it connects the title and what to expect from the music video.

A basic cover comes across as being easy enough to understand what is going on and because this is a great cover art we will be using the cover art for the packet of crisp in the music video.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 10 Music Video:Schedule and Props List Created by Mark G.

Here is a schedule and props list created by Mark G. and thought that it was best to have this in my blog to keep track of what needs to be done and what will be happening:

Schedule:

Saturday 27th Procure Blue Monkey suit, plastic monsters.
Monday 29th, ceramics department create moulds and make monsters, quick test shots.
Thursday 2nd Dec, Shoot 'melting monster' footage (or possibly 6th)
Saturday 4th Procure rest of props.
Monday 6th Shoot live action Blue Gorilla suit footage in Studio Theatre.

Editing/effects from 9th December onwards

Props list:
Blue Gorilla Suit (Steve Elmes)
Childrens plastic toy figures (Chris and myself )
Hair dryer (Ifraz)
Shower head (me)
Plastic Sword (me)
Golf club?
Pack of Gorilla foot Crisps= Chris
Monster moulds Plaster (via help from ceramics department)
2kg of tallow, plus coloured dyes(wax crayons) ceramics department
Hot plate + heat resistant green paint?
Paint stripper gun, ceramics dept.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 10 Music Video:Final Storyboard

Here are the pages of the storybard that Mark the director had sketched up planning the shots and scenes of our music video and we basically set out on creating an achievable music video and one which wouldn't exceed our limitations and came up with this idea.

We start off with the person eating some kind of monster shaped crisps to which he is thentransported into a world and upon arriving he is transformed into this gorilla, whilst the actor is actually wearing a gorilla suit, equipped with random objects which are later used as weapons, will come into play when the interaction between a wax monster mould, which were planned to be either chocolate or plastic something which would be easy to melt.

So melting these monsters will give us footage of the gorilla suited person fighting and descinegrating the monsters and would then end with the monsters melted forms used in reverse melt shot and cover the gorilla suited person.

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 9:Research

So i began to look at gorilla related videos which used a gorilla suited person in their videos and found these, the most stand out is the Phil Collins Gorilla drummer Cadbury advert but also there are some videos which show some of the ideas that are similar to what i was thinking of doing:

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 9 Music Video:Storyboard Ideas

Here is my range of ideas i ave come up with for myself and Marks music video project although there  is a continuation of the gorilla suited person theme, the reason for this is because i wanted a connection of the tile, Gorilla Foot and the actual music video and thought an actual gorilla suited person fit the role and so here it is my range of gorilla suited ideas:

Green Lantern Sneak Peak

Digital Film Production and VFX Week 8 Music Video:Choice of Music Tracks

After being briefed on our next project, music video working in a group and due to previous work done with Mark i had asked if i could work with him again which he accepted and because he is similar to me as to being on this course for the games aspect and not seeing how music videos would help in that department would be a good project to not restrict ourselves. Working together we approached this project simliar to approaching projects in the past, with individual ideas to later become joint and so here are snapshots of the tracks i thought could work for our group as we wanted something that wouldnt be over complicated, comedic and would be a good outcome for a group of people who dont see music video as there future ambition.

The track that we have chosen is 'Gorilla Foot' which is by 'The Itchy Creeps':