L04 - Managing the Post Production for my narrative music video.

For unit L04 -

The requirement is to outline how I managed my post-production for my narrative music video.

This will be a clear overview of the process of the project's initial concept to the final delivery.

I begun my project by creating a schedule of meetings between myself and my musician Graham Woolley, these meetings were either weekly or fortnightly and were an opportunity for me to listen to songs from Graham, discuss themes, ideas and also outline the vision for the video.

During the first meeting I began by outlining financial lists for the budget which included cost of travel to the shooting locations, travel for actors to each location and cost of equipment needed for the shoot.

Early on I knew the importance of communication with Graham so that I could acquire his musical file and begin to craft my storyboards and plan for location recces.

I acquired the musical sounds file from Graham and consent form which was very helpful early on and I then begun to look at pre-production documents such as consent forms for filming in each location, permission to film and risk assessments for each location.

After acquiring the musical file I contacted several performing artists to inquire if they would like to be in my short narrative music video, I outlined the story idea, the locations, costume, character profiles.

I then conducted my location recce, I did a recce at Abbie Chilton's house which was suitable for the large bulk of the scene's, I then did a location recce of Bradford College and met with security officers and area managers to ensure I had permission to film.

After outlaying the concept of the music video and the deadlines several performing artists were extremely busy but several were also willing to help so I organised several meetings on a weekly or fortnightly basis to go through the shooting script, character profiles, the style of the video, my personal vision for the video and also the meaning and idea behind the song, this helped the group understand the idea and tap into the characters perspectives.

Using my detailed checklist this ensured I did not make costly errors, although when I successfully secured my location for the first shoot at Abbie's House I did experience time issues due to the nature of large amounts of footage needing to be captured. The critically important issue was the budget and schedule, I created a schedule to keep my artists informed of times to meet and the specific locations.

Throughout the process I learnt about the smoothest way to manage dailies, logging footage and recording shot types.

For my pre-production portfolio I had risk assessment forms which I completed for all three locations outlining the detailed risks and ways to minimize risk, I got signed consent forms from each location, storyboards which clearly outlined the movement of the shot, shot type and audio. Importantly my folder contained a treatment which gave a breakdown of the shooting outline, a proposal outlining intended aim, target audience, justification for choosing target.

After the shooting had finished on June 3rd 2013, I began the editing process, this started with me transferring my files from my hard drive to the Mac computer, creating a file named 'Jake Regan narrative music video production' I saw all the raw footage and then also created a file for converted footage.

Using meticulous levels of detail I used Adobe Premiere Pro and dropped all my files into the editing software. I had large amounts of footage and did find the experience challenging especially cutting and using correct transitions.

My editing style began with me using cuts to ensure that my narrative music video had good seamless transitions, however due to the nature of my storyline's complexities, I rearranged parts of the story for the final edit and using various techniques such as cross fading, dip to black, flash dissolve and dissolve I managed to create the desired effects.

My time schedule was particularly busy throughout this period so I did not manage to dedicate all my time to the editing process, for a future recommendation I would have also gained more experience from editing from going to have an editing class with professional editors. During the editing process I did create a schedule in which I edited everyday, I began to extract the scenes I wanted into the correct order on the timeline and then use the razor tool to decide the best place for the cut.

During the latter stages of the edit I was assisted by an editor Kathryn Pogue who helped with the edit by adding technical effects such as the dip to black to symbolize the passing of time, cross fade to symbolize the imagery of Abbie next to Stephen and the transition's between several shots to give the music video a smooth more refined look.

During the creation of the narrative music video I wanted it to have one look to it as opposed to being over exposed or desaturated. The vibrant colours came through naturally and the dullness of the sky was also shown so I did not need to grade during the editing process.

Commenting on my editing style I was largely inspired by the editing style of Martin Scorsese, the use of flashes, rapid cuts and jump cuts. During my edit I did not however overuse jump cuts or rapid cuts because I did not want the audience to feel jarred, instead I was very brutal and fast with where I cut due to my time limitations. Importantly my editing style ensured that my film looked like a seamless smooth transition,
I wanted to achieve the effect of a character who goes through a journey.

Managing post-production for my narrative music video included ensuring I had the footage saved in the correct location on a file on my hard drive and saved on work in progress as a music video folder. Ensuring I had access to the files easily was important with the edit and also helped me with time management.

For future recommendations I would of begun my editing process much earlier, however due to my earlier schedule of liaising with my music client and liaising with my performing artists, I did not execute a detailed enough time planner.

On conclusion I did manage the production successfully, liaising with a client to create a music video and uploading the film to short music film festivals.