Further editing changes

1. When showing a shot of our female actor on a tree, we added a 'lens flare' effect. This made it look like the sun was shining down on her, and there is hope for her/them.

2. The shot of our actor throwing stones into the lake was slowed down to 75%. This gives it emotion and makes it seem like time is going slowly for him as he is upset.

3. For the shot of the two walking into the sunset, we edited it so that our female actor fades away. This was done by filming 2 different shots - one of them two walking together, and one of just him walking. They then faded when they were in the same place in both shots. We also added lighting effects to give it some sunlight, which transforms to darkness.

4. The shot of our actor throwing flowers has been given a 'change colour' effect, where the sky is changed to a darker colour.

5. Our shot of the actor on the floor miming has been given a lighting effect - this shows there's hope for them both due to them both having light in the corner, and it being the 'light at the end of the tunnel'.

6. Our 'flashback of flashbacks' at the end was a conclusion of all flashbacks. It shows their long journey and that they've been through a lot, and it's got the 'dip to white' effect between each flashback to make it look like more of a flashback.

7. It ends with the flowers changing from black and white to colour - this was done by putting 2 shots and giving the first one a 'lumetri colour' and 'tint' effect, where we made it black and white. The final shot was given a 'brightness and contrast' effect, to enhance contrast and emphasise the colour, giving them hope of their relationship.

More editing changes

1. On all our flashback scenes, we put a 'gamma correction', 'echo' and 'leave colour' effect on. The gamma correction and leave colour effect made it look like it wasn't at a present time and was in fact in the past, whereas the echo effect made it look like a flashback.

2. Later on in the video, we added a blending shot. This saw our female actor looking like she's on the guitar, getting 'played' by the male actor, which has many aspects to it. We did this by cropping the shot so it only shows our female actor in the guitar instead of on the whole screen, as well as adjusting the scale of the shot to make it fit.

3. To make these shots blend in, we overlaid the shots together, and added a 'multiply' blend mode.

4. On the shot of our female actor walking out the room (on the flashback), we slowed it down in order to make the watcher feel the story more and realise how fed up and upset she really is. We did this by changing the 'speed/duration' to a lower %.

5. The shot of the sky changing colour was a very difficult one. It was done on after effects, which the 'change to colour' effect. I added time frames to change to several different colours, and changed all of the blue to the new colours shown on the clip. It gives the shot more excitement than just having a normal shot of the blue sky. Also, we added 'lighting effect' to give it a bit more brightness. However, this shot has now been removed.

6. For the shot of the image getting smaller and reversing, we overlaid 2 shots together twice, reversing it the second time. This was done by clicking on 'speed/duration', and clicking the box saying 'reverse'. Also, we made the image get smaller by overlapping and reducing the scale of the 2nd shot.

7. During the flashback containing the letter, we added a 'dip to black' effect. This showed the time effect of him having fun and him finding the letter, as well as portraying the darkness and disappointment inside him.

8. After finding the letter, we did an 'additive dissolve' whilst also showing 2 shots blended. This created emotion when singing the lines 'Why are we doing it anymore', showing his disappointment. This was done using the blend mode and blending it with the original shot.

9. We put a larger echo effect on our actor in the bathroom, when cleaning his face. This gives the watcher the idea that he is a different person to what he was, and 'doesn't recognise himself anymore'.

Editing

1. We got some studio shots and replaced them with some of the original clips from our shoot day.

2. This was then updated and lip synced with the audio.

3. After this, we lowered the brightness for the studio shots so it was an almost black background. This made these shots more intense and emotional.

4. For one of the shots from the original shooting day, I made it look like there was 2 of our actor walking instead of just one.

5. I did this through the 'blend' effect, and put 2 layers of the same clip over each other, and clicked on the 'blend with layer' and blended the to images together. As well as this, I put a brightness effect whilst also providing the clip with the 'Track matte key', which further helped the effect on this clip.

6. On the shot with our female actor drinking, we slowed it down by changing the duration to 70%. This gave it more meaning and emotion.

Potential ideas we had for music videos

- Zoom in on framed picture of couple during violent argument. Zoom out slowly with blur to show him by himself looking at the image remembering good times.

- Man goes back to various locations by himself - emphasised his loneliness. (potentially watching over couple during the flashbacks). This would be complex to incorporate in to our video which makes it unrealistic.

- Lip syncing by himself in busy locations with time lapse behind - showing time passing but him staying still. With special lighting after effects. This idea is realistic and likely to be used in our music video - see other blog for more detail.

- Split screen at end of video showing montage/quick cuts of different moments in their relationship - representing their rollercoaster ride. Brings everything to a close and enables viewer to clearly understand narrative.

Analysis of music videos similar to ours

Narrative - flashbacks of couple in early stages of relationship (making music together), next stage of relationship (bringing up child), children growing up (now boy and girl), reading stories to kids - nice family atmosphere

Different stories happening in one video: all a varied stages of their relationship
Man with his dogCouple bringing up children in family homeYoung couple at early stage of relationship (honeymoon period - no responsibilities)Old couple - shows fragility of age and struggle of other half becoming ill
Star Image
- James Arthur lip syncing throughout video in between narrative (flashbacks)- Given most camera time- Playing guitar shows that he is an organic artist (writes own songs)

Examples of Editing Techniques:
- Cut to the beat
- Eyeline match - james playing guitar
- Wide shot to close up of same action
- Blurred foreground
- Input rays of light
- Quick cuts from lip syncing to flash back - to show relationship progressing
- Reflection of window
- Shining light gets brighter - used as effective transition
- Match on action - as woman turns page of book
- Blur to focus

Examples of Camera Techniques:
- Low angle extreme close up shot emphasising star image immediately
- Extreme wide shot from distance showing boat in river
- Close-up of hands playing guitar - organic
- Camera rarely stays still - movement/progression of relationships
- Over shoulder shot when couple making music - from mans p.o.v
- Pan up to show couple smiling at each other
- Extreme close up of baby - shows progression of relationship
- Extreme close up of old man - showing emotion

Similar star image to our artist

These artists are similar to our star image mainly because they are all young and trendy and wear similar clothes that we have pictured our artist to wear.

We feel it is important for us to aspire to replicate the star image of these artists because they are the finished product that we want our artist to be. By researching into their look, it is clear to see that all these 3 artists follow the same clothing style meaning they are mostly all appealing to the same target audience.

By conducting further research into their music, they also all match our artists style in the sense that they are all organic artists who create music themselves and are not controlled by their record companies. They pride themselves on their music and want to appeal to a wide variety of audiences however still strive to look modern and not like a typical organic band/musician.

Props needed for our video

• Bottle of Alcohol - The female character is shown as drinking after their breakup

• Framed picture of the couple - This is for when the man looks at the picture of them in the flashback

• Flowers - for when they throw flowers

• Envelope and letter - for the breakup letter

Singer rehearsals

Prior to shoot day, we felt it was necessary to get together with both male and female singers and do rehearsals of the song in preparation for the shoot day. Throughout this day, we brainstormed ideas of how we would film certain shots in our specific locations and targeted which scenes we would need to devote more time to in order to focus on getting the narrative to come across in the correct way.

In order for our shoot day to be efficient and successful, the singers spent that day learning the lyrics to the song. We felt this was a key part of the process as we did not want to keep stopping throughout the filming for both singers to be constantly looking at the lyrics on a phone/laptop. Furthermore, we include several shots of guitar playing in our video so we also used this day to ensure our guitar player knew all the relevant cords to play to ensure that it was quick and easy on shoot day.

Overall, we felt this day really helped our group as it was a great way to prepare for shoot day and also for the group to bond. This day enabled the process of filming to be much quicker and is the reason why we shot the majority of our video all in one day.

Development of our website

We are using Wix to create the website for our artist. We have included tour dates and locations, song titles and album name as well as description of the artist, his past and his achievements as a result of his music career. We took photos in the studio to include in the background of the website so the quality of the image was high. When making our website, we wanted to include colours that matched the tone of the music and the star image of the artist. Rather than focusing on images solely around the artist, we wanted to incorporate elements of his love for making music as well performing it. This is why we included pictures of his guitar and him playing it in comparison to images on other artists websites that are focused purely on selling the image of the person.

When deciding what font to include throughout the content on the website, we researched in to similar artists who are appealing to a similar target audience. We looked at Hozier, Jake Bugg, James Arthur and Declan McKenna and we noticed that they all had similar style of writing. This gave us reassurance that the font we implemented was correct and appealed to audiences similar to our artist. When planning how our website was going to be designed, we also looked at these similar artists to see the layout, the colours they included and the possible inclusion of sale of merchandise. This is something we weren't sure about including as our artist does not revolve itself around making money off its star image however some similar artists did and some did not sell it.

We also included a contact part of the website. This gives fans the opportunity to interact with the artist and breaks down the barrier between fame and reality. Our aim of including this was to make fans give the artist feedback on what they like and dislike about his music, him as a person or potential improvements of his website. The improvements that can be made from this is vital for the sustainability of the artist as if people continue to dislike what they do, they will go off the music of the artist and eventually lose fans.