Chloe Kyriacou

Music Video Production- Midway Evaluation

Song- Titanium

Overall the rough edit of my music video-in my opinion- is going in the right direction. In this evaluation I will be looking back on what I’ve produced so far to determine what’s good about it, any changes that need to be made and what I can improve on.

When we first began editing our music video we realised fairly quickly that we did not have enough footage to cover the full four minutes of the song- however this was quickly sorted it out.

The first fifteen seconds of the song consists of all the footage from the entire music video being played back in reverse- this is to show that a ‘story’ is about to be told. Personally, I believe this works well and put’s the point I want across- how did our subject get where she is now? The video then dips to white before starting from the beginning; I originally intended for the dip to be a very short clip of a bright white flash rather than the screen just changing colour for a few seconds, however I never figured out how to add the effect. This is something I can look to change with the help of a teacher when I start my final edit.

After the first initial fifteen seconds of the song the music video then goes’ to ‘real time’- we are now in the present. The first thing I wanted to do before presenting the main protagonist was set the scene; whilst it didn’t turn out how I had envisioned it, it works well and gives us an idea of where she lives. I set the scene with three short clips we filmed of Eccles. As seen below, the first of the three pieces of footage I chose to use is of a tree- I wanted to give off a slight gloomy feeling of loneliness and isolation since there are no visible people around in any of the setting scene clips. Whilst it’s not visible in the below image (on the left hand side) the footage starts of slightly blurred before coming into focus. This was not something I had planned to do, however there was no way of me editing out that part of the of footage without making the clip a lot shorter which I did now want to do. Since it is the ‘opening’ clip it has a slight advantage of looking intentional.

Chloe Kyriacou

We then see a very short clip of the motorway- to show she lives in a city- before we cut to the outside of a block of flats. I believe the cross fade between the flats going on to the living room scene works well- I wanted it to be obvious that she lives inside the building.

The transition from the cross fade of the flats to the pan of the living room is very smooth with movement the whole way through. The video then cuts to a close up of the protagonist

face before cutting to another shot of her sat outside; when playing back the video it’s noticeable that between the close up of her face and the shot of her outside there is slight gap between frames that leaves the scree black- this is something that I need to sort out in my final edit.

The white screen that follows up after the previous shot is supposed to represent a flashback- hence why the clip following on from the ‘flash’ is in black in white. However like in the first fifteen second of the song, I wanted this to be a flash rather than a solid colour so this is an issue I need to address since this affect is used a few times throughout the video.

The flashback is supposed to be of her parents arguing; however now I’ve watched it back I’m not so sure I want to use this specific piece of footage since it’s so short. I have no way of lengthening the clip since that is the full piece of footage so I will have to look at either replacing it with another piece of footage or completely scraping it.

The next thirty seconds simply consist of the protagonist running away from home- we see her running down a variety of streets and through puddle. I have slowed the video down a little, however I believe that the cut edits transitioning from shot to shot work well- there are no obvious gaps inbetween frames that I have noticed. The first shot we see of her

Chloe Kyriacou

running away is not quite as focused as the other footage but it’s too late to change this and it doesn’t really affect the rest of the music video.

Editing the train scene is something I struggled with, we had a lot of good footage but it just wasn’t matching up properly without having to add a lot of effects- which looked slightly tacky. This meant that I was not able to use all the footage we took. The shot we see of her running down the train station stairs transitions on from the running away scene, so it cut edits in the same manner.

The shot of the protagonist running down the stairs was very long so I cut out pieces of the footage and replaced it with a cross fade, however now I’m not so sure I like it, so I may change it in my final edit and just speed up the scene instead. We see another flashback which personally I really like- however as mentioned before I need to sort out the issue with the flash effect.

Continuing on from the flashback scene is a variety of shots of the protagonist at the train station, before we see the train arriving in ‘London’. Since we had no footage of her getting on a train, I had to be inventive in how I put the point across that she got on the train. Whilst I think I have put the point across, it’s something I would change if we could film again.

Chloe Kyriacou

I decided to place two ‘setting scene’ shots before revisiting our protagonist again- the first one is of the London eye and the second big ben and its surrounding streets. I sped up the footage of big ben to show tine passing and how busy it is- however looking back on it, it has

been decided that footage could be sped up a little more, so this is something I need to change in my final edit.

The next few shots don’t really ‘tell a story’- we wanted this footage to be a little abstract whilst still following the theme of the rest of the video. Since the footage has been edited in to a close up, it is a little blurry.

Straights after the up close and personal shots of the protagonist, we see a short shot of her walking away before a variety of ‘random’ clips are shown- I chose to use these to show time passing between her arriving in London and getting a job. Looking back on the clip of London, I now believe it need’s slowing down a little bit.

Chloe Kyriacou

Whilst it may not seem it, the short black flash we see just before the café scene is intentional. I decide to keep the café scene fairly simple- I simply wanted to show that she has a job now. The pan scene of the protagonist leaving needs to be edited so that the movement begins as soon as we cut back to her rather than a few seconds after- this is something I need to change in my final edit.

In the scene following on from the café we see her ‘travelling’ from the inside of a car and a selection of shots of London- every single one of those pieces of footage need to be stabilised for my final edit. I’ll do this through After Effects before rendering out the footage and editing it back in to the music video.

Chloe Kyriacou

The music video the ends with a scene from the beginning of the video- a close of a flyer for performing arts. As the music video fades out we see her bowing on a stage.

Now I’ve watched my rough edit from beginning to end I’ve come to conclusion that I have overused some of the effects and have too much of a large variety. In my final edit I need to look at other ways of editing without using too many.

One of my original ideas for my music video was to have the lighting get brighter as the protagonist got to a better place in her life- I want it to be very a gradual and subtle transition. This is something that I’d like to add to my final edit.