Filming for my music video

I wanted to get all of my filming done over one weekend because the two actors in the video were only available for that weekend as the next weekend they are available is too close to the deadline for me to edit the video in as much time as I feel comfortable, the last thing I want to do is rush my filming and miss out ideas and then rush editing.

Saturday 6th May- Filming session one:

My original idea was to film Saturday afternoon and get all of my filming done on that day, however unknown family plans happened which meant that I had to delay the filming to Saturday evening. This meant that when I started filming outside I had to adjust the aperture and ISO on my camera past the ideal settings that I would have had if it was earlier in the day. I had to set my ISO to auto after trying for a while to get the ISO to stay at the right one as every time I moved the camera the exposure kept changing so by putting it on auto I resolved that issue. This meant that some of my footage was grainy, I could have re done my grainy footage but the main idea of my music video was that it was a child filming himself trying to become the image of a pop star however he can't live up to that quality.

Sunday 7th May- Filming session two:

I had to continue filming on the Sunday due to the lack of time on Saturday. The biggest difference that is visible in the video is the lighting difference inside the house from the Saturday evening with the artificial light on to Sunday afternoon without the artificial light on. This means that some of my footage is more yellow looking, from the artificial light. I couldn't have fixed this by filming in the evening due to my actors having to go back to their mum's house. I could have filmed it on another date but it would have been too close to the deadline and more awkward to ask them both to wear the exact same clothing as they were before. I managed to fix the issue with the ISO that I was experiencing the night before and managed to get my ISO down to 100 when I was filming inside the house and the outside. Whilst filming inside my aperture was 4 and was perfectly exposed. Due to filming earlier in the day on the second filming session it was a lot brighter than before this meant that I had to put my aperture on the maximum it could go on my lens ,18, to ensure that my e
Another issue I have noticed while I have been editing is that there are some continuity errors. The main error is that the female actor changed how she had her hair. In the start of the video her hair is in a ponytail and it changes halfway through to a bun. At some points of the video it could be argued that she changed while her character was off screen however towards the end of the video it changes between shots. This happened due to me filming some of my exterior shots on the Saturday and the rest on the Sunday. If I had been aware of this issue during the filming I would have asked her to change her hair back to a ponytail and filmed again but I only noticed this error during editing. In my personal opinion the hair change is only noticeable to me because I knew we filmed on separate days. most of the exterior footage is made up of long shots, and due to this I don't think people who watch the video will notice this.

Editing Log

                                                    Editing Session One
After my first filming session I wasn't confident that I could save my footage because of the lighting problems I had suffered and everything being so overexposed. However I experimented with a colour corrector and it worked which meant that I didn't have to scrap everything I had filmed so far. This meant that I could continue editing and piecing together the interiors of the cars and some of the exterior shots, because of this I managed to get through two minutes of my promotional video.

I continued trying to make my two minutes of footage even more professional looking so I added a stabiliser to my footage so that it was less jumpy and looked smoother.

Survey Results

I created a survey to help me discover what types of music videos people liked watching the most. I then posted my survey to social media to help me with my ideas for my own music video. I posted it on social media to get a wider range of opinions than just people who I go to college with which would be biased as they are all aged 16 to 19. Posting my survey to social media meant that I had access to a wider range of ages. To get an even more diverse range of opinions I could have also asked people who don't have social media the same questions. My survey has helped me discover that my original concept was actually the type of music video supported by the majority in my questions. This also means that I asked the best questions that I could without being biased or influencing the answers I got.

I asked this question so that I could see what genre of music people preferred to listen and watch a music video for. My original choice of song was from the pop genre and this was backed up when the majority of the people I asked preferred pop with 20 out of the 52 choosing it. This means that I can now continue with my original song choice. 

This was one of the most important questions that I asked as it helped support my decision of what type of music video I was going to create for my song. My original idea was to do a narrative video as I personally prefer a video that has a story. My survey results showed that yet again the majority,18, of those who took my survey preferred a narrative music video. 

I included this question to see whether people do still feel that a music video is important to a songs success and 47 people agreed that they still enjoy watching music videos. 

Music Video Analysis

Katy Perry's music video for her song Last Friday Night is a narrative video. It tells the story of a teenage girl throwing/attending a house party and being unable to remember what happened.

The first thing I noticed whilst watching this music video was the fact that it was. The first shot of the music video is a long shot of a typical American suburban street, which connotes the idea of the American Dream and perfect families. The camera then tracks a paper delivery boy on his bike throwing newspapers at each of the houses, at this point credits appear on the screen in a yellow font, symbolizing happiness, telling us that this video stars Katy Perry and has been made by Capitol Records. The appearance of young celebrities and well known people as well as Katy Perry herself attract a younger audience as well as these celebrities fan base meaning more views and therefore more sales of Katy Perry's album/songs. A jump cut then takes us to Katy Perry's bedroom, the wise en scene of the room is that it is decorated in white and hot pink and is also decorated with numerous trophies and toys which shows that she is still quite naive and sheltered from growing up and is good enough at a craft, or at school to have won so many awards. However the room has been vandalized and now has blue graffiti on the bed covers and the pink curtains have been pulled down as well as having three men asleep in the room. One of these men is asleep on the floor with a beard and glasses drawn on in black pen, this is the kind of thing a younger person would do to their friend while they are asleep. Another one of the men is tied to a desk chair with tape whilst wearing a shirt and tie, this to me symbolizes Katy restricting her studious side and embracing her youth and promiscuity this can also be shown from the third man who is asleep in Katy's bed next to her and is topless. This is also the first time we meet Katy's character who is shown to be a stereotypical 'geek' with her headgear braces and her big glasses. The use of these tropes quickly inform the audience of this as well as telling us this video will be a comic one. This is also where we meet the first guest star of the music video, Darren Criss is an actor and internet celebrity. Criss gained a large cult following when a musical that he co wrote was uploaded onto YouTube and went viral. Criss then guest starred on Glee, however he quickly became a permanent star on Glee and was one of the starring roles. Last Friday Night came out in 2011, which was when he was at the peak of his fame. The use of Darren Criss will have meant that his fans will have watched the music video to support him and possibly bought the song.  Katy also featured another star of Glee in the video, Kevin Mchale. Glee’s fans were mostly teenage girls, who have a larger disposable income than an adult meaning that they are more likely to purchase Katy’s song.  Two more celebrities are in this music video: Rebecca Black and Corey Feldman. Rebecca Black is an Internet celebrity with a YouTube channel that has over one million subscribers. Rebecca Black is most well known for her viral music video to her original song ‘Friday’. The song went viral and quickly gained millions of views catapulting her to celebrity status. Katy Perry knew that Rebecca was one of the most well known people on the Internet at that point and by asking her to be in the ‘Last Friday Night’ video that she could ask Rebecca to promote the video to her followers and gain more views for her music video yet again resulting in more money and sales of the song.  Corey Feldman was part of the famous set of actors from the 1980’s he starred in the cult films: The Goonies, Stand By Me and The Lost Boys.  These films are some of the most famous films ever made and are loved by many, which yet again attracts a larger audience. This also links to part of the video where Katy wears iconic 1980’s fashions such as a neon yellow skirt and a bright pink crop top. This shows that Katy is following the roots of her parents in the narrative.