2nd March 2011
Recording and Editing
On the 2nd of March us as a group decided that we were going to record the second part of our music video, when we got to school and was about to begin our recording, we faces the problem that our main location that we intended on using was being used for exams. This was the main hall at the Northwood Campus. However luckily we mangaged to gain access to the Drama Studio at the Northwood campus, in this room we were able to gain the same effect that we wanted from the Main hall, this was because there were large black curtains that could be drawn all around the room so that we could create the same dark effect that we wanted to with the main hall. Also there were proper stage and performance lighing in there so we were about to create a spotlight effect or dim or brighten the lighting so that it would make the video look more proeffesional, also we were able to enhance our better features using the lighting, this was then conforming to the male gaze that i mentioned we were going to in the previous blog posts.
Also in the drama studio there are massive full length mirrors that aided us to be able to practise our routines and make them very precise before we began recording it.
I think that because of the lighting facilities that we have in the Northwood Campus Drama studio, the quality of the camera and the video cam out a lot better and a lot more proffesional looking, we were very please with how well it looked when we uploaded the footage.
We set the lighting up so that it was spotlighted in the exact place that we were going to be performing the routine, we then set up the camera so that we were exactly in the middle and we were the main attention of the whole shot. We then performed out fixed routine from many different angles, this was so that we could see which one was best and we could the edit the footage so that there were fast cuts and slow cuts of us from all the different angles.
When we watched the recorded footage back after we had uploaded it to the macs, we found that as a group we liked the routine performed from a face on angle best, therefore this is the one that we used the most of in our actual video.
On the day that we recoreded all of this footage, Charlotte who is one of the members of our group had been in a car accident, this meant that she was unable to attend the recording session, but as it was a main priority that the recording and editing needed to be done, we persisted as we always intended to do and only used the 3 of us as perfomers in the music video. We found that this still worked and we were more than happy with the footage that was produced.
Throughout this recording we all decided that we were once again going to stick to wearing black. However Me, Kirsty and Christie decided that because throughout the routine Kirsty is doing the majority of the miming and is positioned in the centre, it would be best if she wore grey leggings, this was so that there was a contrast in the colours, and to mix it up a little, from always sticking to black.
At first we were going to stick to us all performing the whole of the routine together, but then throughout the research that we did we found that solo parts from different members of each girlband was very popular, therefore this is what we did, and we all had an indiviudal part so that our music video would look and stick to the conventions like all the other girlbands do.
As Christie is very good at the editing part, she did a lot of the editing whilst me and Kirsty included our input when needed and occasionly. However we struggled as a group to make the song track Beautiful, Dirty, Rich to fit over the top of the recording and to make it fit to the music so that it all worked and fitted properly. However after myuch cutting and trimming of each clip individually we found that we made it work and achieved what we wanted to from the start.