Professional Practice: Go Pro Shots

During our shoot, we used a GoPro camera which we attached to the bottom of Jed's guitar to get some close up clips of him playing. After reviewing the clips, I wasn't really happy with how they looked, and thought that they looked messy at time and also gave a strange angled shot which almost made you feel a bit sea-sick if you looked at it for too long! I originally planned to use these clips in the transition of each track, but decided to leave them out as it didn't fit with the style of the video and just wash't to the same standard as the other clips we shot. These clips also caught some ugly things in shot such as the light rig, a window, and sometimes even me filming! Also, they fought a nasty reflection from the lighting we used which also took away from the initial shot which was another reason why I chose to leave them out. Heres a still from one of the clips so that you can see what the angle looked like and why I decide not to use these shots.

Professional Practice: Syncing Audio

Once all of the my clips were imported into Final Cut Pro X, I started to sync my audio to my sound. After many failed attempts at using the 'multi cam' tool and also the 'automatic sync' tool, I decided to sync the sound the old school way and do it manually for each clip. It took me a full day to match up the audio just to my wide shot clips which I filmed on the Sony EX Cam, and I then had to find shorter clips which I could then cut down and match the audio with them too. 

Having a 'Clapper' at the start of each track helped me so much and enabled drop my videos clips in at where they roughly should have been, meaning I only needed to tweak them a little to get the sound on the mark. Final Cut Pro X is a software which I am not very familiar with, however, I was able to get to grips with it quite easily. This version was easier for me to use in relation to sound, as the viewer allows you to see the wave formats much more clearly then Final Cut Pro 7. I also used markers during my edit which were a great help, and something which I have not really used before. I fell like I have learnt a lot from using the newer version and I can't wait to get editing again!

Professional Practice: Editing the footage

This morning I have started to edit the footage which I managed to shoot yesterday at the studio. Im very happy with the outcome of the clips and also the sound quality. I think that the edit will be tricky syncing up all of the clips from each camera but I have found a tool on 'Final Cut 10' which enables me to almost vision mix my clips as if I was editing live in a studio.

Using this tool means that Ill have to sync the sound from the clips from each of the cameras before i start to mix them. I made sure on our shoot that we had somebody to introduce each scene and clap before we started each track as we didn't have a clapper board on hand. By using this 'clap', we can sync the clips from the exact point, ensuring that they all match up to the sound.

Professional Practice: Shooting the Video

Toady we finished the shoot in the studio. We spent around 4 hours recording different songs. We shot short sections from around 10 songs. Our sound was recorded straight from the sound deck through an iMac. I am really pleased with the quality of the sound.

I used a Sony EX Cam to shoot most of our wide shots, and had two Canon DSLRs to shoot close ups and GVs from different angles. We decided to shoot with a studio feel and made the most of the surroundings available. We hired studio lighting which looked really effective in our shots. I also used a small Go-Pro camera which we attached to the end of our client's guitar. This has given us some really cool angled shots looking along the strings of the guitar.

Our clients were really easy to work with today and provided us with all of the footage we needed. The clips from the shoot look great and I'm really excited to start editing them! Here are some still which I have taken behind the scenes at todays shoot.

Professional Practice: Booking the Studio

Today we have managed to book a local Photography Studio for our shoot next week. We have booked it from 12-5 which should give us plenty of time to shoot the tracks which we need. We have decided to choose the white backdrop for our shoot and we can do much more with it. Speaking to Adam about how he wants the videos to look has helped me decide on how I want to utilise my cameras.

We have also book huge studio lighting which is on a moveable ceiling rig. Using this rig instead of using the smaller tungsten lights means we should get a more even spread of lighting, plus, if we shoot with a studio-style, these lights will look great on camera.

Lux Studios - Maidstone - Check out the studio which we are going to use next Wednesday!

Professional Practice: Working with my client & managing my time

Due to the nature of the work which my client does, he is often really busy, making it difficult for us arrange times which are suitable for both of us to shoot. This is something which I have struggled with throughout my Professional Practice Unit and Has made things harder for me to plan. I have also found it difficult to manage my time correctly throughout this semester of my course. This has taught me to give equal amounts of time to both of the Units which I am doing at that time.

Professional practice: Formulating Ideas for my Shots

I have been looking at some different styles to shoot our video. I have been looking at several styles of music video and discussing this with my clients to meet his needs for the video.

Here is a previous video which was made for my client. We liked the style of this, but thought it could be a lot sharper. The image quality could be better and although I wasn't too keen, my client liked the idea of a plain white backdrop. I agree that it definitely focuses on the artists more and doesn't distract the viewers eyes from anything else. Once we have booked our studio space and have looked at our options, we will decide what will be the most suitable backdrop.

This is a still shot from Jessie J's video for the song 'Wild'. The use of a plain white background is really effective within the video, although we also see a studio setting which surrounds the white space, also with cameras and equipment in shot.

Another advantage of using a plain white backdrop is that graphics and effects can be added in easily and are much clearer than if the are over any other image. This is something that we would like to think about, especially if we are going to shoot a medley of different tracks which may need astons. Here is an example of a white backdrop shoot with graphics that have been overlaid in edit.