Blog 18-Creative camera use and editing

I have made screen grabs of shots in our final music video that i feel we have edited well and also used creative camera use in. Of course our video contains a lot more shots than just the ones i have shown below but i have chosen the ones i feel best show off our learnt techniques of how to use the camera and editing skills.

This is a long shot of the main character standing in a kitchen. The shot is a still and the camera was straight on. The camera was mounted on the tripod, we securely attached it and that it was level. There are a series of 5 still images while the introduction music is playing. They are all the same length of time and they shoot from one to the other quickly. As the girl, in each shot, i moved to a different part of the room/different places in the shot so that the composition looked good in all the shots and also the make it seem like the girl was there for a long time, thinking to herself in different positions. We had to change the colouring on these type of shots however as there wasn't enough light in the shot so we changed the gamma colouring which made the stills lighter.

For this shot we used the technique of hand-held camera. This is because the tripod was too big to fit between the stairs we wanted to shoot and the wall behind us. The tripod also didn't go to a short enough length for us to film what we wanted to film. The shot is a mid-shot of the girl walking up the stairs. We panned the camera up a little bit and then to left as to follow the legs walking. The camera movement also reflects the way the stairs move up and to the side (to the left) as well. The camera was moved in time with the walking speed. I think that the person who filmed this shot did well as we were very constricted space wise and having to hold the camera and pan smoothly isn't that easy but i feel that this shot looks professional and as if it was on a tripod (smooth and steady). To steady the camera as much as possible, the camera was supported on the legs of the camera worker while she was sitting down. We wanted to really focus on the legs and feet so we kept the stairs empty of clutter or objects and we made sure that the legs/feet were mostly central of the shot at all times.

This shot was made so that the lyrics came in at the same time as the girl pressed the CD player. The camera was mounted on the tripod securley and then we panned it to the right, down the arm to the hand...the hand to the CD player. This showed who was pressing the CD player. The lyrics came on when the shot was on a still of the finger pressing the play button on the CD player.

I like the composition of this shot. The girl is positioned at the left hand side filling that side of the shot. We then made the girl (myself) hold the mirror on the other side so that balance was created. The natural light illuminates the shot through the background window/curtain. We had the camera mounted on the tripod so make the shot level. We wanted to show the girl putting on her makeup and getting ready for the day. Everything looks okay and that it going to be an okay day but then we see that everything changes and later on, we see the makeup smudged on her face from her crying. I also really like the shot composition as the colours all balance each other out and the makeup is the main bold colours therefore the eye is drawn towards the girl which is what we wanted. We wanted some reflection to be in the mirror, which we have also created by tilting the mirror slightly towards the camera. This gives the image depth.

From the shot before, we made an extreme close-up shot of the lips and the girl putting on makeup. We thought that this shot would show off the unique and bold colours that the makeup is (like lady gaga's style). This was hard to do as it kept on going out of focus but in the end we got it right by using the manual focus on the camera. This shot is good as it's different to the other's before it and shows contrast.

This is one of my favourite shots

because of the camera technique we used and what leads on from it. We centered the picture of the main girl and boy actors. We choose to focus on a picture of them together so that the audience realise that the boy is going to be part of the concept of the music video and that the girl and boy are meant to be associated in with each other. For this shot, the camera was mounted on a tripod so that we could get the zoom really steady and level. We then zoomed in slowly towards to couple's faces. This shot then faded into a shot of the boy by himself in black and white which we did as to show the past. From the picture to the real-life shot of him, it not only looks good while fading in but also shows that he is actually going to be in the video. The shot of the picture is a mid-shot made into a close-up by the zooming. The shot of the boy is a mid-shot.

We then moved onto a shot where the main girl comes into the shot before so it recreates the picture and its frame in the last shot sort of. The connection is made that they are a couple fully now. They look at the camera for a while and then turn to face each other a few seconds in to the shot. We made them look into the camera as to represent that they were looking into a picture camera and were having their photograph taken. For the turning heads, we had to get the director to count throughout the shot and on one of the seconds, the actors would know that they had to turn to face each other. This made the shot look more professional as they boy and girl turned at exactly the same time. We kept the shot in black and white to show that the audience is looking at a flash back of the past of them being a couple together. The camera was mounted on a tripod to make the shot easier to manage and less shaky as we wanted to shot to look like a photograph which wouldn't have any movement/shakiness to it. The shot is a mid-shot.

We wanted to make a connection and link from the girl being inside to the next few shots being outside. To make this possible we thought that it would be a good idea to make the girl walk out of the front door of the house and then fade into the forest to show her movement from the house to the forest location. I really like this shot and editing as we kept the girl central so that she fitted in perfectly to the road in the forest which was also central in the shot. The camera also represents her point of view as if she was holding the camera and showing where she was now. The camera was then mounted onto a tripod during the forest establishing shot as we wanted to zoom in and make it steady. This made it look like the girl was walking along the strip of road in the forest that you can see in the image attached to this text (above). It was like she was holding the camera and walking down the road to where the shot ends.

This shot is a visually pleasing shot of reflections in the water/lake in the forest. I love this shot as it slightly pans to the left very slowly in the flow to the water. It's different as it doesn't show the real setting but just the reflection of it in the water which is obviously upside down and a little bit quirky which is lady gaga esq. We wanted to include some scenery shots as well as portrait shots which include people and actors so make a contrast and change, but we still wanted to keep the shots different and unique, such as reflections and tilted angles.

This shot was hand held as we wanted to make it a slight low angled shot. This is where the camera was lower to he ground instead of being level with the actor. This gave the effect of the actor looking down upon the camera instead of straight on to it. We kept the girl central to the shot as to focus on her. The scenery behind her is dull and the branches are "spindly" so it gives the whole shot a dark and sad atmosphere to it which links into the actress as she is crying. The costume is a red lacey under ware corset to link into lady gaga and her sexy and unique style/appearance. This shot is a mid-shot.

The next few shots are like the beginning 5 series of images. We used the same technique as those (different positions and quick snap shots). The location for these shots was in the performing arts studio at college therefore we used a nice black background. Light was coming through from behind the black curtain at the bottom of the shot so we decided to try and make it look a little bit more illuminating and interesting by changing the brightness of the shot and other sorts of filters on the lights. We came across this, which made the light tinted blue and spread out more. We thought that this looked really good as gave all the shots light and made it more interesting to look at. Especially against the black background. It also gave the effect of professional lighting which we would have loved to have used but couldn't get hold of. Lady gaga, in her videos, uses a lot of professional lighting effects so this links into these few shots.

For this shot, we had the girl (myself) stand in different areas of the shot for a period of time and then when editing, used a timelapse effect on it. This is where we speeded up the shot so that the movements were quicker and she moves quicker to each position. This gave a really good effect over all as it looked like she was standing there fore a long time and time just "flew" by as she was thinking about her "lost" love. These shots were all long shots and the camera was mounted on a tripod and not moved so that the girl was the only one that moved and the camera focused on the same place of the forest.

We shot this by using hand-held camera and she wanted to follow the girl walking down smoothly as possible. This is called a tracking shot. We did try it with a tripod attatched to the camera but we found that the legs got stuck in the ground and by using the camera hand-held we could move more freely and follow the girl better. We edited this shot into three sections. The first were a colour version of her walking down dragging her arm across the fence beside her. Then that faded into the same shot but we made it black and white and then the third section went back to the colour version. The concept behind this was to show that she still does the same things that she used to do in the past (when she was with her love/the boy). She still goes back there to reminisce the past. I really like the editing we managed to do on this shot, it looks really effective and interesting. The shot was a long mid shot of the girl walking down while the camera followed behind her.

This is mid-long shot of the girl throwing leaves up in the air. The camera was attached to the tripod securely as we didnt want any shake or movement with the camera as there was a lot of movement going on in the shot anyway through the throwing of the leaves. We slowed down this shot so that the leaves fell slowly which gives the shot a more sad feeling to it as its slow paced. We kept the back ground plain and the colours link into the leaves. The dull colours of the background and the leaves show a more depressing atmosphere and also the contrast of this to the outfit that the girl is wearing is good as it sets her apart and makes her more clear to see.

This is long shot of the girl miming to the lyrics of the song "brown eyes". We wanted it to look like a stage setting so that she was performing. The girl (myself) always had eye contact with the camera to intensify the lyrics and also give the effect that she is talking to the audience and incorpriting/engaging them into the song as well. We then zoomed in to face and tilted the camera upwards to focus on the face.

This shot pans upwards while the shot is on a canted angle. Its shot by a hand-held camera and is of the scenery surrounding one of our locations. We choose it because if shows the reflection on the water at the bottom of the screen and then moves up towards the light of the sky.

These shots were made using a timelapse effect. We shot the girl holding her head and moving around franticly to show that she was upset. Then when editing, we speeded all the shots up to make it look even more frantic and quick to show what her head was like at the time (all over the place). We did try and use a hand-held camera and move the camera around as well at the same time but we found that everytime we did it, it went out of focus and ended up looking messy. So we decided to use the timelapse effect to get across the atmosphere we wanted. This is mid-long shot of the girl and we placed her slightly off center to make the composition of the shots more interesting.

These two still images show the boy and the girl main characters in sepreate images to show that they are not together anymore. We placed them in quick still image shots next to each other (alternating) 4 times (twice each) quickly to go with the beat and lyrics of the music at that moment in time. How the girl is in colour and the boy in black and white shows that the black and white image is the past and shows that the boy is not "around" anymore which we find out why later on in the music video.

This shot was near the beginning of the music video so we thought we could put it in again but reverse it (make it go backwards) as if she is walking in the door instead of out of it. This shows that it is coming to the end of the song as well.

This is shot by a hand-held camera because we wanted it look purposly look a little bit shaky as if she (the girl) was reading the letter and getting upset/crying over it. We have filmed it so that the audience can read it or atleast certain words of it. We wanted the audience to be able to read it because this climax's the music video and makes the audience understand why the boy "left" her (killed himself). We have placed the letter underneath the camera as if the camera is working/representing the eye of the girl reading the letter. It moves like an eye would when reading the letter by use panning the camera across the words and tilting it down towards the next line etc.

For this shot the girl falls down onto the bed. The camera was mounted onto the tripod because we wanted a high angle shot in which we could not reach that high up if we were holding the camera. We used a high angled shot as to show that she was "down" and upset...that the girl felt like she was "nothing" without her love/the boy.

Personally, i feel that this is one of the best and my faveourite shot of the whole music video. The song is links into "walking away" in the lyrics so we wanted to incorprite this into our music video and the actions somehow. We used a tripod in this shot and didnt move it atall and we wanted both the couple walking away and her by helf to blend in well and look like he had just "dissapeared" out of the shot. We made the first part (boy and girl) black and white as to show the past and then we faded into th same shot but with the boy not there so that the girl was just walking alone (in colour to show present time). We then fading out the scene in time with the music fading out so that the audience realise its the end of the music video. I love how we blended/faded the two shots in togeher and how well they go with eachother and tell a story all by itself...(boy and girl as a couple walking down the road together...then the boy disappears and is no longer there so the girl is walking by herself) These two shots together basically represent what our music video is about and i think makes a really nice ending and connects up everything from the previous shots well.