I have been documenting our music video production process in multiple individual posts throughout the course, and now it is time to conclude by putting it all together.

Pre-Production

The pre-production stage was my personal favourite. I enjoy coming up with ideas and creating concepts much more than actually running around with a camera, or sitting in an editing suite, so I found this particular part of production to be especially exciting. Before jumping to brainstorming ideas, Grace and I listened to the song multiple times and wrote down whatever our minds associated with the song. We both agreed on following words:

Youth
Blue and green
Air
Freedom
Melancholy

Since we both felt like these words were really representing the whole atmosphere of the song, we decided to build our video around them. Our main goal was to enhance the song, to make the video and the sound match and complete each other. So, after careful consideration, we decided to make a conceptual video that does not have a narrative, just a certain set of video sequences designed to invoke a certain feeling in the viewers. Here are some sequence ideas we were gonna use, that we thought matched the song the best:

1. A sequence with a light, airy fabric in the wind
   
2. A sequence with geometrical makeup

3. A sequence with paint on a model’s body

4. A sequence with paint and brushes

These are just some of the sequences ideas we had, there were too many pictures to insert. We were also planning to play with a mirror and flowers.

So, we decided to locate our video in two places: St Kilda beach and a green screen studio at RMIT. We were going to shoot the sequence with the fabric and mirrors at the beach, and everything else in the green screen studio. Since we were only two in the group, we decided not to take on separate roles and to work together on every aspect of the production. After desperately trying to find volunteers for the video, it also became clear that we were gonna have to star in our own video as well.

Filming Day 1

Our first day of shooting took place at St Kilda beach. We arrived there at 5:30 in the morning in order to capture the soft, natural sunrise light and also to avoid crowds. At this day, I was working the camera and directing, and Grace was modelling/acting. Although it was our first real production experience and we struggled to get the settings right, I believe that the filming was a success. We didn’t encounter any particular problems, except for the absence of the wind, which made it quite difficult to film the sequence with airy, flying fabric. And even then, Grace found a way to make it work. I was especially glad we thought of coming at the location early in the morning- people started to arrive very early and at 8 am it was already difficult to get a clear shot without cyclists or dog walkers appearing in it. I thought of this after watching the Front 242’s “Egghunter” music video in class: it was discussed that Corbjin managed to get such “empty” shots by shooting early in the morning.

Filming Day 2

The second part of the filming took place in the green screen studio at RMIT. This time, Grace was the cameraman and I was a model. Personally, I found it much more challenging to film in a studio as opposed to an open space. The studio was really small, so the choice of possible shots was limited, and we had a big issue with artificial lighting. Even though the class on three-point lighting was really helpful, we still couldn’t get it right ourselves, and I kept getting weird shadows on my face. Not to mention, the light these lamps were emitting was orange-ish and it couldn’t even come close to soft, natural lighting of dawning sun.Personally, I don’t think we did a very good job in there and I definitely want to improve my skill of filming in a studio. I was surprised to learn how incredibly different filming inside and outside is. Other than that, it was fun to try myself as a model, and it was a great experience overall.

Change of Plans

After trying to put the green screen footage and the beach footage together it became clear that they don’t go together. We tried to find a way to connect the characters, but the problem was in the quality: the beach footage was just times better. The shots from the beach were all light, soft, and natural, as opposed to rough and visibly artificial green screen footage. So, we made a decision to leave out all green screen footage and concentrate on the beach. At this moment, we also realised that a conceptual video with just the beach shots would be too boring, and we decided to add a narrative. The new plan was to show a tragic story of a young man, who lost his loved one. The storyline had to be very subtle. So, we quickly cast Kenneth as the young man, made a new storyboard, and prepared for another day of filming.

Filming Day 3

This time, we knew what we were doing, so the filming went quick and smooth. We had to arrive at St Kilda at 5:30 again, and we were gone by 10 am. The only issue we had that day was the weather: it was around 15 degrees in the morning so we all nearly froze to death. Other than that, the filming was a success.

Editing

It took us 2 weeks to edit the video. I have complicated relationships with editing: I keep losing it during the process, I get incredibly annoyed watching all these little clips again and again, and cutting them, and putting them together, and keeping track on every little detail, and doing the effects, and I even got mad by just writing it now. However, nothing is compared with joy and satisfaction I feel after it’s all done. So, the process itself was really challenging, especially because Grace and I both were new to the software, but the end result was all worth it. I actually think that editing was one of the best parts of our video: I love it how the colour palettes highlight the narrative, I love the ghost effect, the fading… I think we did a really good job. Although I almost turned into Hulk a few times, I really enjoy the final music video.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. These few weeks improved my filming and editing skills a lot, and I feel much more confident. I learned to use a digital SLR, to plan a filming process, to work with a camera outside and in a studio, to edit, and to do some really cool effects in Premiere Pro! I would like to say that I learned to set a three-point lighting set, but the practice proved me wrong… This studio was really great, and I feel that I learned more here, that on all classes of previous semester altogether. Hopefully, my future classes will be just as helpful.