Our Chosen Music Video

15.1

The Video

Chasing Highs

Two a.m., I'm fading in the dark

Like floating in the ocean

People need the poison 

Three a.m., you just touched my hand

And made me lose my focus

I almost didn't notice

And I better know what to do

Who's gonna be the first one to move?

I wanna get closer to you

And I better know what to do

Who's gonna be the first one to move?

I wanna get closer to you

I was chasing highs

Then I found you

We're doing it in slow motion

We're doing it in slow motion

I was chasing highs

Then I found you

You are getting closer in slow motion

I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-highs
I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-hi-highs
I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-highs
You are getting closer in slow motion

Four a.m., almost touching you
Drowning out the noises
In between the voices
Five a.m., there is something more
I caught the look you gave me
Phases going hazy

And I better know what to do

Who's gonna be the first one to move?

I wanna get closer to you

And I better know what to do

Who's gonna be the first one to move?

I wanna get closer to you

I was chasing highs

Then I found you

We're doing it in slow motion

We're doing it in slow motion

I was chasing highs

Then I found you

You are getting closer in slow motion

I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-highs
I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-hi-highs
I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-highs
You are getting closer in slow motion

I stopped counting the hours
Spaces between us getting smaller and smaller
I'm losing the powers
I'm falling higher and higher with you

I was chasing highs

Then I found you

We're doing it in slow motion

We're doing it in slow motion

I was chasing highs

Then I found you

You are getting closer in slow motion

I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-highs (ooh yeah, ooh yeah)
I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-hi-highs (I'm chasing, I'm chasing)
I'm chasing hi-hi-hi-highs (ooh yeah, ooh yeah)
You are getting closer in slow motion

Songwriters: HENRIK MEINKE, PASCAL REINHARDT, JONAS KALISCH, ALEXSEJ VLASENKO, JEREMY CHACON, ALMA MIETTINEN

© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

15.2

Email Request

15.3

The Artist

What I have learnt

          This task has allowed me to get to know the artist better and taught me on how to write a formal email. Even though it was a small research, it gave me the idea of the artist background and her journey becoming popular which is quite interesting. The email writing is also beneficial for me to learn as it would be useful in the future.

Thinking of a Concept or Song

          We picked 'Chasing Highs' by Alma because we feel like we can do so much on this music video as the beat is quite fast and it sounds energetic and happy, moreover, many idea's popped into our heads as we think about what we could do with it. The music and the lyric allow us to use narrative and performance.
          However, we didn't choose the other potential music videos; even though it has a quite fast beat with happy vibe - similar to 'Chasing Highs' - we didn't feel quite as inspired when watching them. There are also other factors that affected our music video choice, including ideas such as the sort of location we wanted to use but couldn't get easy access to, limited choice of actors, and the video concept.

What I have learnt

          For this task, we went on looking for inspirations from various music videos with different genres. However, after doing the research, we’ve decided that we are going to do dance/pop music video. Pop music often expresses happy and energetic atmosphere which would help engage audiences' interest, hence why we chose this genre. With that idea in mind, we went on searching and watched many dance/pop music videos which enables us to see the difference within the concept, camera work, editing, and mise en scene. As we came up with some music videos that we thought we could use for our final product, we finally decided to do ‘Chasing Highs’ by ALMA. This video caught our interest because it allows us to do both narrative and performance, and it is quite slow music but have a dynamic energy. During this task, I also have learnt that communication is important as we are constantly changing some ideas, giving opinions and suggestions that could help with the planning.



Advanced Editing Techniques

Here are variations of advanced edit we attempted:

What I have learnt

          From this task I have learnt a lot more on editing. There are various different types of editing that is interesting and some are quite tricky at first. I did all of these editing mostly in Adobe Premier Pro and some in After Effects. It is a little different to what we usually use last year which was iMovie that has a simpler layout, but less features. In the process, I did some research on how to achieve those effects on YouTube and it was very useful. It helped me to learn how to use and get familiarised with the software. The editing does require more time than usual, although with practice and getting familiar with the software; it will be a piece of cake.

          The comment I receive on this task was that this is excellent and is up to a professional standard, especially for the ‘Zoom1.1’ which encourages me to do more. Personally, I don’t think it is up to the professional standard, but we will definitely use some these techniques that suits with our final music video.

Digipak

Front Cover

This is the front cover of the album we made:

Here is the original picture collected from Google images 

Back Cover

This is the back cover of the album we made:

Here is the original picture collected from Google images

What I have learnt

          This second editing practice task has allowed me to understand about the importance of presentation and theme in an album cover. The album cover that we created has a consistent theme which works well, in my opinion. However, we could definitely do some more on the front cover since it seems a little unexciting and characterless, compared to the back cover. We could improve it by using more colours, or using different font which suits best with the theme. Moreover, the blurred effect doesn't look appealing, as it looks confusing. I'd suggest creating a quick plan before creating an album cover, just to ensure that it's clear and well presented as every element works together.

Album Poster

This is the album poster that we made:

Here is the original picture collected from Google images:

What I have learnt

          During the making of this album poster, there are so many dilemmas on which font to use, and where to put them. We spent too much time looking for the suitable font, which in the end we found the one. I suppose this task have enabled us to practice before doing our own poster, as well as it gave us an idea of how much thoughts needed to be put in the process of the making of an album poster. I think the simplistic look of this poster may work, although, it doesn't reflect anything from the name of the album (except the use of pink colour). I suppose it is possible to make this piece better and more engaging by not using black as the background, and also not using a simple font where there are a whole range of variety of fonts. Other than that, I could suggest that when making the poster, do create a plan beforehand to give an idea of how it's going to be, and depending on the genre, do use any colour other than black.

30 Cut Scene

Shot list

What I have learnt

          During this task I found a more efficient planning method that helped our filming process to be easier. As we are filming in a studio and we used multiple different models; it is better to do every shoot needed with one model in one day - do the same with the others. This could be done easily with the help of a storyboard, where we can simply look at each planned shoot and do the ones needed. Although, it does get a little messy when it comes to post-production because there would be parts of blank spaces for the clips we skipped. Unfortunately, this method may not work for filming in different locations outside studio. Furthermore, I also have learnt about the importance of pace in music videos. Different paces gave different atmosphere to the audience. Usually, a pace that’s associated to the beat is more appealing to watch, although, an offbeat transition could be used to emphasise something related in the video. On top of that, it is crucial for each individual music genres to deliver the right mood that reflects the music.

          The comment for this task was that there could be more varied camera work used in this video. I personally like the outcome of this video, although I have to say there are some clips that don’t look as appealing as the others. With this, I’ll have to think of a more interesting camera work that could be used in our final music video, as well as the props and location.

Lip Sync Practice

This is the original scene from 50 Days of Summer.

This is our lip sync version of the scene from 50 Days of Summer.

Planning

          We were inspired by this scene in 50 Days of Summer where it plays the song You Make My Dreams. This song has a good vibe and it also not hard to learn.

• Props - There are not many props needed for the first minute of this scene, and all we are using listed here;

1. A golf club
2. Water Bottle x4 (for the water sprays - annotating the water fountain)
3. Sunglasses

• Equipment - for the equipment we are using a DSLR camera and a tripod to ensure steady shots.
• The actors - We asked a group of people to participate in this. We made sure that we asked someone that has high level of confidence to act out in public - which most of the time is tricky to get. Luckily, we got a group of people that are available, and we used one for our main actor where the rest become the extras.
• The lighting - Obviously we are heavily relying on the natural lighting with the direct sunlight as it would create a happy and fun atmosphere.

Storyboard

Location 

          We found a perfect location for this and it was around Rock Street, Thornbury. It's a public place which we thought would be a really good idea since there are a lot of people would be around town; making them a great extras. 

          Here are the screenshots of the planned route:

Shot list

What went well

Filming

          Filming was a little challenging as we were filming under direct sunlight which really drained our energy quite quickly. We start filming from 11 am until finished around 2 pm. It does take longer than what we expected, but it was all worth it. The shot where the main actor crossed the crossing was tricky to do, as the camera had to follow her and had to manage to get a steady shot at the same time. We did come across another struggle where the SD card ran out of space in the middle of filming and the battery went low. With that, we had to delete some of the clips from the beginning and film fairly quickly before the camera ran out of battery completely. Other than that, filming went very well, we managed to overcome the struggles we had and the actors are very cooperative.

Editing

          Neither struggle nor big problem faced when doing the editing; in fact, it was done by no more than one hour. As we recorded all the clips we needed and there were barely any mismatch on it - made it easier to edit. I'd say the lip syncing is consistent throughout, although, some of the match on action didn't quite go well together and that made it quite tricky to edit. 

Problems

          We came across a couple of problems and struggle during this task. When filming, the SD card ran out of space so we had to delete unused clips on site which causes delay to the process, and the battery of the camera went low which pushes us to work faster in order to finish all the recording.

What I have learnt

         This task was interesting to do and it has allowed me to plan projects better than before. Although, there are still flaws on our planning on this task - but we are able to think of a concept and use the time more efficiently. With numbers of practices from last year, we are able to develop our thinking when there are problems and do things a little faster on this task. I have also learnt on how to keep a steady shot on movement - even though it is still not perfect. I say, I now know how to not be worried too much on the detail and precision when editing since that has been my problem from last year - but, I still pay attention to them to make sure the continuity is smooth.