Video Project

First Thoughts

I have just received the new brief for the Video Installation section of this course, and my first thoughts were the same as anyone else's 'Oh no, what do I do, I have never done video' and then I took time to step back and start focusing on what this brief actually entails, and having thought that I'd never done video before is ridiculous because nearly everyone at some point in their life has recorded something on video, whether it being just messing around with your mates or too home movies, but you are subconsciously checking for the right lighting and getting the perfect frame even if it is just as simple to say, "stand there, the sun is on the lens" these are basis of video techniques. Panicking about doing video is simply idiotic, because from taking photos and checking for your framing, headroom and lighting, those initial things with setting up your image is simply converted from one single shot to one, continuous moving shot. After taking some real time to see what this entire brief is about I have started to look forward to it and come up with all kinds of different ideas. When doing my video installation I plan to look at the photography aspect of it as much as possible, I have an advantage with filming by already understand how image is captured, and how lights and framing and dynamics are all used to change the final outcome of the video. Photography and Video are two extremely similar types of creative media, so I doubt the actual filming aspect will be all that difficult, however once all scenes have been recorded, most people will be grounded to a halt by not have the faintest idea in how to edit their video. Overall my initial thoughts were looking relatively positive in trying something with is fairly new to me. 


Early Development

For a 2 week project I did not have much time to do early development, however I decided to add this video in because it was fairly recent and I was very much a part of making it, so I understand how the entire thing was filmed, and what went wrong and what worked well. this video was a 360 degrees animation video, which took quite a while to 'film' but it is one of those things that you don;t care putting in the time because yo know the overall result will be great. This whole film started off sat around an outdoor theatre in which every member sat in different locations and, slowly moved with the camera taking very slow photos, and still circling on a tripod at the same time. Instead of 'filming'(taking photos) I was actually in the final project, and I have done this kind of thing before so whereas people were just dotting around the screen, my final movement, looked reasonably swift and in normal time. I decided to do some rather different things in my attempt such as walk in opposites on the stairs,(right leg up left arm back, and vice versa on each photo change) Some parts were more difficult than others like if the shutter on the camera couldn't keep up and I had one leg in the air, so I tried to keep as still as possible because I knew that once the next photo had been taken then it would of looked as though nothing changed. I definitely feel that this video was an overall succession, and one other key thing is, because this was just a whole heap slowly circling photos being taken then no sound was being recorded so then I had to find an interesting song that expressed the mood of the vide, and chose a very up beat one, to keep in time with our freakishly fast movements. 

360 Animation Video

Research

For my research I immediately started researching some of the videos that I would like to record, in the style of. My favorite types of film/tv/video is directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephan Merchant, this comedy duo have inspired me since I understood humor.  Creators of: The Office, Life’s Too Short, Extras, The Ricky Gervais Show, The Invention Of Lying. However, this style of tv/film is very dry British humor, also award winning, so it would be quite hard to fill such big shoes. When researching this video installation it seemed, only wise to quite simply search the word video, and from that find out all which branches of it. Video is moving into photography so rapidly, that it would be a brilliant opportunity to learn some basic skills when still in education than to get asked to record a video at a photographic job and just stand there with a blank stare. Researching loads of different types of filming, from silent movies, to stop-motion, quite frankly this opened a very large window for just simply watching movies, however watching a movie would help do research but looking into how it was filmed, and seeing the how the camera moved around each scene and difference in shots, was a real mind manipulator, normally when watching a film you just enjoy the acting and subconsciously love; the filming, for example if a chase scene was filmed just by someone running away and the camera zooming at the actor, then that would not create the sense of fear or scare that the director is trying to inject into his/her film. When doing this research I thought of all my favourite films that I had really enjoyed when I was just watching the actors, and go back and re-watch them baring in mind all the filming and editing that would have to take place after the actor was relaxing in their green room. I found that once I watched these films again with the right frame of mind, I enjoyed them much, much more. Every single shot seemed to look incredible because I know how hard it must all be. 


A certain style I am interested in, is music videos, however I do not like the simple video which doesn’t have much creativity of uniqueness. Some music videos can be very bland, and boring, and not have a very captivating style about them, whereas I think if I was going to chose to do a music video for my final piece I would spend quite a while doing planning so that I could come up with something, new and exciting. Here are a few music videos I very much so enjoy: 

I find this video of Rizzle Kicks - Prophet, amazing, it is a combination of two things, one camera has gone on a set path and recorded the artists rapping/singing the normal song, and then one run was all long exposure photos of light trails. They work really well because most of the photographic side has been layered on the video and masked out the face to see the lips move to the words. This video has some amazing elements to it around  1:09 where they go around with a red coloured light all around the woods, and also at 2:10 where it is two photos/videos of each member one in the mirror and one in the bathroom, and also two different pictures of devil and angel play-offs. 

1:12 Screen shot of faked forest fire with red gels on torches.
Little effects like this really play with the viewers perception and make them question,
and once the viewers is questioning and doubting their own mind, then you
know that they will be mindlessly enjoying the song in the background. 

2:15 Screen print, fake angel wings, only in mirror, by layering two photos.
This video was a very good starting point for my research because it is
pretty much the closest thing to photography that a video installation can be.

2:17 Screen print, same shot however, different artist in
 reflection and the opposite to the faked angel effect.
This shot is excellent because yet again you barley notice
that the actual musician in the mirrored image has changed
completely, not only is it a different artist,
it is a polar opposite to the angel in the first section.

Here is a video I am seriously thinking of recreating of in the style of, with the help of my friends. The band is Feeder, and they have just got loads of random people to send them videos of themselves singing along to their song, and put then in a big collaboration video: 

This video has been a favourite of mine for quite some time now, I enjoy the bad quality and awful angles that were set in place in this video, it gives that real all alone feel, where your door closes and you can change into whoever you want to be. In this video it is poor quality, and some sound clips over lapping the original song and also all cameras have been set-up on any sturdy surface instead of eye level tripod, so it gives that home feel into the video, also transitions are key in this video from a basic 'line-each' type deal with each fan video. Also in this video there are certain segments where the fan in the video isn't playing in time or not singing but then kicks in when a snare sounds. 

0.09 This, pre intro scene of some fans holding up signs for the actual
band creates a strong sense of  passion for that actual band it's self. 
In each scene that the band had chosen to go into the video, the 
fans have all got 'Feeder' postured around their rooms and 
hidden in a very subliminal matter, some more than others.

This scene of someone, playing off the lyrics in time is
also good because it shows obvious lyrics, which is always
good because if you were just singing along to this song and wanting
a friend or who every to try, guess what you are listening to, then
you would just simply air action out each lyric.

Luckily for me my brother has done a music course where they had to provide music for around a 10 minutes piece of film, he chose the popular film ‘No Country for Old Men’ I was really impressed with the final piece when I saw it, so I am going to get some pointers from him. Here is his final video:

For his university project he had to take a segment of film and create the instrumental for the scene, because he is fairly experienced in this field, he created and recorded every single instrument  you can hear in this piece of music.

After researching some music videos I begun to get ideas of doing a short film/tv advert. Some of the videos I have seen of short films have been absolutely incredible, I feel that the fact that the film is such a short time limit, big issuers are more effective. I think that short films have made things very effective, After a while one video lead to another, and then I ended up watching various clips and short films which I find amazing, here are a few:

Sony Bravia advert

This advertise is a very brilliant example of what I would like to make, however, this video was shot on a closed road and they obviously had quite a large budget to make this from Sony, and I would have to create/fund mine from my own back, however I do feel that some of the  short scenes in it are very effective such as:

This scene is perfect for this advert because they are just setting out to
capture amazing footage to show that you can watch stunning
 things on their product, however this scene with the frog would be
nearly impossible to capture if it wasn't set-up.

After researching music videos, tv adverts and also music scripts I decided to study my final type of research, short films/short scenes. Some of these short films have won awards for around 6 minute pieces, for showing their true creativeness in their work. I love this idea of filming because it really is, fantastic that people can create such innovative pieces of film by getting an idea and expressing that through 3-8 minutes of film. 


This first short film, is entitled: The Black Hole. This film had been shown to me previous however, this video installation project gave me a chance to express my  feelings for this amazing piece of footage: 

This clip has everything you could ask for in a short film, a creative idea, brilliant acting, amazing editing, and very nice filming, i.e camera angle, lighting, white balance, composition, framing all of which are spot on. Simple intro, comforted by quick fire story line, at around 0.23 you are hooked. 

0.51 seconds, the camera level is at a perfect angle for the
interesting editing to come into play, also the acting here is really good,
when he is showing signs of fear/excitement. Another part that had
me hooked to this scene was the lightsaberish sound effects when
he moved his hand closer the block hole.

0.59, Here is where the very clear special effects are brought into place which
 litterally gives the entire short film another dimension, now the lead man
has an almost super power, he has a gateway that can pass through solid
objects which has a huge effect on how the rest of this film will pan out,
right now viewers have their own imaginations of what they would do with this new gift.

This scene has been very well thought out, from finding this magical
gateway to the main conclusion would of been pretty ridiculous
however by adding this short scene, not only conveys humor,
but same level understanding, because that is a thing that normal
people would do and last but by no means least, this scene adds
the sense of greed.

Here is the section of the short film which adds controversy and
a hidden rip on popular human society, within 60 seconds of having this
gift, the natural thing to do is to turn to evil and crime, which, in this
day would be the normal thing to do with someone in this situation,
but not only is the story amazing throughout the entire short film
each camera angle and lighting direction has been spot on to create
that office environment and that guilty feeling.

This final scene, is the one that will print itself in your memory forever,
The image of just a closed safe with money scattered outside,
normally wouldn't create such a twisty feeling, however this film
comes with many morals of the story because it is an absolutely incredible way to show that
"Humans, are so easily sucked in by their won, selfish greed."
With the ending scene a slow moving frame backwards with an ominous
knocking from the inside of the safe is the best ending this could possibly want.

Important Notice

When having a final check on my brief it has a specific line, which is outlined quite clearly, which reads: Export as a HD movie file in 720p. So I felt this to be quite an important part of my project, advise I would give to anyone would be always refer back to the brief. 

Exhibition Space

The exhibition space I would put this video on is right here on Blogger, because it would get a lot more views being on the world wide web than in a tiny exhibition in a small town called Lancaster, on Blogger I have the freedom to send this video to whomever I choose, and also most screen resolutions are set to same resolution that this is outputted to. The internet is the best place for anything if you want it to get viewed or critiqued, A normal exhibition would be pretty good however all the people you invite are the ONLY people who will see it, whereas if it is on the internet, then anyone can view it.

Final Video Installation

For my final video I decided on doing a short film, based on the popular horror/thriller genre. When doing any kind of filming it helps to storyboard your ideas before you shoot.

When filming I encountered some difficulties, and I feel that I overcame them rather well, such as: on the day we were filming it was very windy outside and sometimes the tripod moved ever so slightly, and so I took my heavy camera bag and placed it on the hook on the bottom of the tripos to create a extremely still shot, also when filming it is always best to film for longer than necessary on each shot so that once editing you are not limited to dodgy crops, another thing was that sometimes little things in shot was becoming distracting so, sometimes it is just as simple to just keep every thing you want in shot, I.e if a coke can was in the scene then just simply remove it from frame. My entire video was shot outdoor, so weather can also be an issue, luckily the day I planned to shoot, the weather was on my side however even when filming outdoor you can never be entirely safe that it doesn't rain, or go dark or a parade comes down the street. When filming outside another thing you need to take note of is what is happening behind the focal point, for instance if I was filming an actor crossing the road, behind him, a car crash could take place, in which case your entire scene needs to be cut and relocated, the best way to avoid this would be pay to have the road closed and hire stunt extras to ensure safety, however I did not have nearly the amount of time to do such a thing. For my video I had story-boarded that my actor would end up being, killed/kidnapped in a play park, so I had to go film that scene when I knew that most children would still be in school. Some of the scenes you will see were thought of differently but when I came to film them I got a totally different idea and so I decided to go with it. When I was filming my scenes, I had to bare in mind that I wanted to mainly control the mood of the film with the sound, so I had a couple scenes where the actor takes off and puts on some headphones, because I knew that this would shift my film in the direction I wanted. Most of my film was recorded in a collection of all my favourite types of film/tv. This video project was a good opportunity for me to show that you do not need an expensive camera or amazing lighting, to achieve some decent results, however I am rather upset that I had to use such an old camera for filming, but feel as though I did it to my absolute potential. I hope you enjoy this film as much as I enjoyed making it.