Post Production Stage - Editing (Part 1)

We are now at the post production stage and already our video is starting to look decent. We've captured all our footage and put most of it on to the timeline. It's amazing how editing can make raw footage look good, all just by cutting shots together, adding some video filters, and putting in some interesting transitions.

(picture of me editing on the Mac)

However, we are going to have to shoot some more good footage, as the footage we have now (despite there being a lot) isn't good enough to make it into this video.

Production Stage (Third Shoot)

We met up at 11pm on Market street to film the sequences we needed to film. First of all we decided that we should film on the outskirts first that way by the time we finished filming on the outskirts, market street would be completely empty, or at least fairly empty.

On the outskirts of town we tried to film a tracking shot with the camera man (Ashriel King) on one side of the street and the protagonist (Mohammed Adel) on the other side, but we ran into some problems. Firstly, on the first take, Ashriel was running with the camera, but as he was filming Mohammed sideways, he couldn't see what was in front of him, and he almost ran into a car which was pulling out on a side street. Funny but dangerous, so we discontinued to film like that, plus the camera kept shifting in and out of focus anyway because the wasn't enough light and so much movement.

After a series of tracking shots on the outskirts of town, it was 12am and we headed back to market street, which was then empty. Once there we filmed what would be part of the opening scene. We set the tripod up so Mohammed was framed by the surrounded buildings. Ashriel came up with the idea of editing the footage to make it look like it was on a bad TV, as if to imply that someone is watching the protagonist, and we hope that it gives the impression that whoever or whatever is looking at him on the TV is what he is running from.

Afterwards we did that we decided not to have a tracking shots that were too long because of the unwanted blurry effect. We started with Mohammed just walking as Ashriel followed him with the camera, it was good because we used the camera in a hand held position so it created a shaky camera effect which makes it better when we edit it, because the plan is too speed the footage up.

It was then when we bumped into a couple of police officers. Using my excellent powers of persuasion, I managed to get them to act in our video, so we had yet another tracking shot of Mohammed, but this time he is actually being visibly followed by someone, and it was the police!

That was probably our finest stroke of fortune throughout the whole production. Thankfully the area of town where we filmed them was well-lit and so there wasn't any focus shifts on the camera. The police are another bad omen for Mohammed's character.

We then decided to go to the Piccadilly gardens, this way we can get a scene of the protagonist on his own in town, illustrating his loneliness. To do this we used a combination of tripod footage and hand held footage to hopefully create a surreal feeling to it. However, instead of the protagonist running away from unseen characters, we had Mohammed dance in Picadilly fountains. We then cut between him dancing around, and him sprinting to show a contrast.

Market Street (Main Location)

Production Stage (Second Shoot)

Part 1

The second shoot was done in underneath Chorlton Bridge. The walls here were covered in Graffiti, because of this reason we thought that this place would suit the song we would be doing because the lyrics in the chorus of the song states, “the writings on the wall.” The protagonist (Mohammed Adel) is supposed to be getting chased by his own inner demon. So this location would have really suited our idea of what the theme is going to be behind the video of this song, the reason for this was that the place was dirty, dark and scary, where demons are thought to be the strongest at.

(picture of us fliming in Chorlton)

The many different shots we did of the protagonist (Mohammed) running underneath the bridge, to show facial expression and body language which would initially state that Mohammed is scared himself and is not really sure what is happening.

Part 2

The location of the alleyway was originally chosen by Ashriel King, the corner’s and the state of the actually alleyway fitted exactly into the criteria of location we had for our video, it was a tight squeeze passage where hardly anyone would go through, again the place for a demon to be at. We initially thought of Mohammed going through there as his inner Demon is guiding him into there to maybe cause harm to him or do something evil. In the end, these shots didn't make the final cut.

(Picture of us filming in the alleyway)

Liverpool - Location Scouting

I went to Liverpool for the day to visit some friends and decided that, because of the 'old traditional' look that Liverpool town centre has, it would be an interesting location for our video. In the end though we decided against using liverpool because of the trouble of getting there.

Production Stage (First Shoot)

Filming for the video was, I’d say an easier process than the film opening we did last year. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, you could direct your actor with spoken instructions whilst rolling the camera, as any sounds picked up by the microphone while filming didn’t matter, as the only audio going into the video is the song track and so any other audio could be deleted. This meant we could film in even the nosiest of places and not care about the background sound, unlike the two minute film opening last year.

However, because conventional music videos have a cut pretty much every second or two, it means we had to capture a lot more footage so we weren’t short when we came to the editing process.

Our first shoot was outside and inside a car park.

Part 1

Using our shot list as a guideline, we filmed about ten different shots of Mohammed running around.

The Prodigy

Inspirational Music Videos

The Prodigy - Voodoo People

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WazjVftN6mo

Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Az_7U0-cK0

Omen - Official Music Video

Here is the official music video to our song choice. It consists of footage from a live performance by The Prodigy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olHnyslc-OM

Plot

Although it is a disjunctive narrative, there is an actual story to our video, although it may not be that clear. Basically the protagonist (portrayed by Mohammed Adel) is on the run from our version of a grim reaper (played by Ashriel King). The grim reaper is a personified bad omen.

The grim reaper turns on a TV which is sitting a dark room. He laughs manically as the protagonist appears frozen on the screen. It then switches to real-time with the protagonist standing stock still in the middle of town at night. He looks around then, after sensing the grim reaper watching him, starts his journey running through a deserted city centre. However he has only run for a short time when he is teleported from town into a dark and dismal alleyway. He sprints off again after sensing the grim reaper closing in but again he is quickly teleported into a grave yard. He carries on running, he looking behind him panic-stricken, but he isn’t watching where he is going, and so he drops into an open grave. He screams in absolute terror as the screen cuts to black. Then it goes back to the grim reaper with the TV (now displaying static). He roars ominously and smashes the TV with his bare hands.

Pre-Production - Possible Locations

A Rave

Car Parks

Alleyways

A Cementary

Manchester City Centre