MEDIA STUDIES A2 LEVEL
by fabyan damsyiq azhar
product development
In here, I will document the processes it took to complete my work.
shooting day 1
26th of March 2023 is the day I shot the scenes with Rey. In the afternoon, I was also helping her act in her music video so I was already pretty tired. Thankfully, I only had to shoot two shots but the preparation for it was quite difficult because it was my first time shooting a scene in the dark so I spent a lot of time adjusting the settings. I did the settings as best as I could utilizing my current knowledge on shutter speed, iso, aperture and such.
The fake blood I made it myself from powdered sugar, red and green food colouring and milo powder. It looks pretty real to me. I just can't figure out how to get the brownish streaks when you smear blood. Moreover, I don't want to risk ruining my already realistic concoction.
For the bird's eye view shots, I used a ladder to achieve it which was straining my arm as I had to hold it free-hand. The rest of the shots was only using tripod and some required the use of ring-light.
We concluded the shoot with only a handful of shots which I figured was sufficient.
shooting day 2
On this day, it was shooting the scenes with my little brother Haydan. It was quite difficult to make some shots work because of the darkness especially the scene where he is lying down on the floor as I can't get the camera high enough so the results were a bit shaky and I can't have it any other way.
I also took photos for extra measure to overlay certain shots to make up for the awkwardness of the shots. Everything was hectic partly due to the amount of time that I have.
The bottom two rows are the result of the second shooting day. I will try my hardest to make everything work and make a decent video from mediocre shots.
editing
For this project, I used both Premiere Pro as the primary software for editing the video and also used Photoshop to edit pictures into the video.
1.
First, I imported all the chosen video clips into Premiere Pro. Then, I cropped every clip to the desired length to arrange into the sequence in order of the script.
2.
Next, I colour-graded the clips to make them less warm. I also adjusted the exposure, highlights and the shadows to bring out details that might be engulfed in the shadows.
3.
Some of the clips have this auto-exposure or aperture adjust thing from the camera that happens when the Haydan opens the fridge which I don't like because it's too harsh so I tried to fix it the best I could. I used the cut tool to cut split the video at the time when the camera auto adjusts the brightness. After that, I adjusted both of the clips' brightness to roughly the same and then to make the transition in between the clips smoother, I added a cross-dissolve transition. I also added the song in the sequence in another track separate track from the camera's audio track which I muted. Then, I lowered down it's volume to where the level on the right doesn't go red. I vaguely recalled my friend Joshua talking about some audio engineering stuff and he said to make the audio level not go red to avoid clipping or something like that if I'm not mistaken.
4.
I used this clip as the 'colourful lights' that deceives the character into infatuation. I got this clip from my vx1000 plugged into a streaming software called OBS studio. I basically utilized it as a webcam and pointed it directly into the screen and recorded it. It makes the feedback loop effect similar to when two mirrors are pointed against each other. I did this effect in my film opening project. However, this one looks different because I put the camera lens directly on the screen of my laptop and zoomed it in so you can see the individual pixels changing colours. I found out about this nearly a year ago at the same time I figured out how to do the feedback loop effect. I added this clip at the beginning of the sequence as a premonition that predicts the character's future and it matches with the sound of the music. This wasn't in the screenplay and is a decision I made during editing.
5.
I recycled this video clip from a barbeque at my friend's house in 2019. I overlapped the clip on itself and turned the blending mode to difference and put it to where the music intensifies to that ambient section. I made it cross-dissolved into the clip of the feedback pixel screen thing that was the premonition implying that it became a reality.
6.
I spaced out the clips and left some black spaces particularly before the clip Haydan opens the fridge which is a long one for build up and for it to start with the lyrics and on-beat.
7.
For the scene before the fire, Rey is supposed to reach out. When I sat down and viewed the clips individually. The shot looked bland to transition into the scene with the fire so I had to figure out a way to give it a build-up of motion to explode into the next shot. I tried experimenting on effects in Premiere first. For example, I used find edges and that made the edges of Rey's have this pixelated glow which I like and also tried using blending modes but none of them looked good as I had to find something subtle and will look good when built-up. I had an idea to implement some mixed-media elements in this to give more variation to the video.
8.
So, I exported the clips as PNGs and printed it out. I cut them to make them look like puzzle pieces. I scanned it using my flatbed scanner and I messed around with the pictures in photoshop to make the colours pop using the camera raw filter. I also scribbled on some of the printed pictures.
9.
I also pieced these together in Photoshop because I accidentally cut too much of it and it gave it a collage-like look to the photo which I like.
10.
I also used the brush tool to scribble on the photos to add more variation to it.
11.
Normally, how people do mixed media animation is that they scribble on every frame to make up one second of a shot similar to stop-motion. However, I don't have time for all of that and also since the shots are mostly static and don't have a lot of movement, I just added grain to sprinkle a little movement and also duplicated the pictures [Rey] and cropped the duration to make to less than a second and used the move tool to shift each of their position so that it looks a bit shaky. The one with the obvious grain in the doorway I used grain and checked the clip result values. I did that because it looks good as a build-up leading into that all white doorway before Rey appears.
12.
In the hand shot, I added cross-dissolve to transition into the printed one.
13.
The same method was used to add motion but this was a little different because I added the cut out above this clip using some blending modes and duplicated it and overlapped it to make it seem that the boy is being overwhelmed with new feelings. I didn't put the clips beside each other. Instead, I put them above each other.
14.
There is supposed to be a scene with a clock overlapping the clip of Haydan sitting on the porch like he's waiting but I didn'f film that. So, I put it over a shot where he's lying down in bed. I tried all the blending modes and nothing worked. It either looked too invisible or too flashy so I tried using no blending at all and making the clip play in a small box over the primary shot but I abandoned it because it looked too awkward, cliche, abrupt and out-of-nowhere.
15.
After that scene, there is another chorus. So, I filmed this old disco-light projector that my dad has lying around. I pointed it up on the ceiling and filmed it with my camcorder.
15.
Then, there is a scene to show that his wound is growing, so I tried to do another mixed media thing because I forgot to film that part that day and the shirt was already washed. The only footage I have is pictures. However, that ultimately didn't work. So, I cut that part out.
16.
Here comes another problem, with some of the scenes not working, I end up not filling up the duration of the song so I chose another song that has a similar serene atmosphere and mainly shorter. I can't upload the video to Wix because it has a storage limit.
My song choice now is Natural Part by Horse Jumper of Love. The song is just around 1 minute long and has a really nice drowsy atmosphere with its slow tempo and repetitive use of 1 chord throughout its 2 verses and a simple melody during the chorus. The lyrics could be nonsense but some lines could be related to the story in my music video.
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All I have to do now is arrange the music video according to the tempo of the song and that's it.
final product
Here's the final product. I would say that the first half of the music video was alright but the rest was mediocre because I did the latter half when I'm fasting and I'm extra cranky during Ramadhan and I don't want to do anything and I can't deal with stress as well. The biggest struggle was trying to make awkward shots work and that's up to the audience to decide whether it is or not. I'd say that it's way better than the raw footage. I'm also not sure if the meanings and story is implemented correctly but it could add to the mystery. I'm also not sure why the quality of the video drops when exported. One thing I almost forgot to mention is that I can't find anyone that has the Operation Game and I hadn't had the time to go out and buy it.
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The story is that a boy looks into the fridge similar to how a child looks into a shop window to look at a toy they want but can't have. Because of this, he focuses too much of what he doesn't have. He starts to create avoidable problems. Could it be partly for attention? A girl appears on his doorstep granting him wishes at the expense of what he has which he doesn't realize and blindly accepts the offer. The abstract scene represents what he wished for. He turns dependent and waits for her everyday. To his delight, she comes back and grants him more wishes. The scene where there is a small wound on his chest and him lying on the ground was the cost of the wish and it gets bigger and he doesn't care. The process repeats to the point other people interfere which explains the handcuffs. He gets pushed down the stairs possibly by her. He realizes that he is losing more than gaining but only for a moment. The video starts all over again. He opens the fridge again but with the handcuffs undone implying that he still doesn't care.