Editing progress- 08/03/17

Wednesday 8th March

Today's progress

Editing progress- 7/03/17

Tuesday 7th March- Editing

Today in editing I wanted to add a diegetic sound over the top of the music video to give the effect of fourth-wall breaking in auditory terms (perhaps 'sound barrier breaking'). I achieved this by using the razor tool in PremierePro to cut a segment in the middle of the song where I wanted the sound effect to go, so that the song, instead of being one singular section, was split into three.

 After this, I applied the 'Exponential fade' effect to the end of the first section (the whole song leading up to the diegetic sound) and the 'Constant gain' effect to the beginning of the third section (the music increasing in volume again after the sound effect has occurred). In the middle section, I adjusted the volume of the music via Audio effects control and turned the volume of the 3 second segment down to a suitable volume in which you would be able to hear other noise on top of. 

Shortly following, I downloaded a royalty free sound effect of a doorbell ringing and imported that onto my timeline, placing the sound effect on top of the 2nd segment of the song. The result: the volume decreases and stays decreased until the doorbell has rang in the music video, before increasing to its original volume again for the remainder of the video.

Here is a video tutorial I used for help in adjusting sound in Premiere Pro

Editing progress- 3/3/17

Friday 3rd March- Editing 

Today I spent one hour editing my final project and managed to edit footage to the second verse of the song. This would be about 1 and a half minutes in. I am finding myself experimenting with the Warp Stabiliser effect a lot on Premiere Pro as some of the filming I did via hand-held cameras, particularly the footage shot on the iPhone 6s. The stabiliser effect gives a smooth and professional look but I should be careful in using this sparingly as I still want intertextual referencing to old grind house horror movies which often feature shakes hand-held camera shots, such as Evil Dead. 

Editing progress- 02/03/17

Thursday 2nd March

Today I gathered together both the DSLR footage and the footage shot on the iPhone 6S onto Premiere Pro and arranged them into order. When importing the iPhone shots onto the editing timeline I had to adjust the screen settings as the format differed from that of the DSLR footage, meaning there was an inconsistency. I edited for about 3 hours and managed to piece together the first 50 seconds or so.  

Album name ideas

This week I've been trying to come up with a name for STOKER's debut album. I want it to fit the same theme as the music video will, about self-fulfilling prophecy. I think in my ancillaries (like the website) I might promote the band as semi-political (which would fit the sort of edgy conventions of being an indie follower) and thenceforth tie in all the products: the music video, the album, the website and the band. 
yeah, that sounds good. 

So my thoughts so far are something like:

• The Thomas Theorem 
• Moral Panic
• Stereotypes
• Subjectivity

Or something like that. The Thomas Theorem would be a reference to the concept of the same name, whereby something is made real because people believe in it, sometimes also known as the Tinkerbell theory, after the typical theatre production of Peter Pan in which Tinkerbell remains alive after the audience protest that they believe in fairies (they do). 

Filming- 23/02/17

Thursday 23rd February- Filming 

Today I filmed the final scenes of my music video which included the party scenes, the lip-synching scenes and ultimately, the killing scenes. I had a little under 5 hours to prepare and film the rest of my video without mistakes that had to be refilled, as getting both my actors together on one day that was convenient for everybody would be a challenge to arrange again. I went to my local supermarket and bought typical party food such as pretzels and fairy cakes before venturing back to the rendezvous/filming location/where I live to meet with the actors and get make-up and costume sorted. 

After some practice with the vampire make-up, my protagonist was still unable to look in any way scary or resembling, and so it took only 10 minutes to complete the look of Mona the vampire (no relation).

Filming in storm Doris proved to have its difficulties: though there weren't many scenes I would have to film outside, I still had to be wary of the fact that if I had any kind of formal contract with these actors, surely making them stand out for an hour in the cold and rain would be a breach. 

Another challenge of filming in the late afternoon was the setting sun. I organised the filming to be shot in chronological order so that the last shots featured in the music video would have the darkest atmosphere (in natural lighting and in tone). The location in which I filmed has along window-wall, making it apparent when the outdoors are dark or light. This was the precise room where the 'party' scene was filmed, and so we adjusted the filming schedule to the ephemerality of the day time, a struggle comparable to almost all jobs and interactions and activities there are. 

Filming 10/02/17

Friday 10th February- Filming 

Today I filmed the first wave of footage with my trusted, underpaid and underrated actor, who was happy to oblige waking up at a remarkable hour (10:37 AM) to prepare make-up and costume for the day of filming. 

Starting as we mean to go on: in chronological order, we first filmed the waking up scene in the bedroom of our indoor location. I found an old black sheet which I utilised in my mise-en-scene to make the bed which the vampire wakes up in (or rather on) more strange and coffin-like. It took various tries to get a good take where my actor was able to sit up in a low angle shot where the DSLR would comply with her height and the light outside not interfering with the exposure. 

The social media scene came next, and in the days leading up to this filming day, my actors and I had been inviting people to the party event featured in the video and adding mutual friends via the false Facebook account i had set up for the character of Mona, the vampire (no relation).