Single Camera Techniques

This piece is about the single camera technique in film and TV. I will be comparing both multi and single camera, saying the differences and the reasons as to why and who would use one over the other. 

Camera:
The idea of single camera shorts is to create a more intimate feel and realism for the piece. Having a single camera short allows you to gain more control of the scene and lets you control lighting for each individual shot and allows for more creativity. Directors will sometimes will use more than one camera in certain situations, such as high speed chases or scenes that involve stunts. This is because it is easier to use more than one camera so you can get the shots from all different angles and won't have to continuously re-shoot the scene. For a single camera piece, they are shot by doing the same scene from different angles. For example, filming a conversation from one persons perspective, and then filming it from the other persons. 



Me and two other people made a 10 minute single camera short for our media. This is an example of how a single camera short is shot. The shots are typically longer and make you feel as if you are in the scenes as they add a more personal feeling to the piece. Because the scenes have to be shot a number of times, you have to make sure that everything is done the same as if it isn't it will break the continuity when in editing. 

Lighting:
A single camera production is a lot easier to light as you can actually light all the scenes individually which gives you more creativity with lighting. You can light all thaw shots in the scene differently if you wanted to, however this wouldn't be the best idea. The problem with using multiple cameras is the lighting can end up looking fake and can look like it's been filmed inn a studio. The advantage with single camera productions is that you can control the lighting a lot easier and make it look real. 

Again for our media, me and another student created a music video, using one camera. Throughout the music video, you can see where we have used the lighting. In some shots we have made the lighting visible to provide a studio look to the video and in others the lights aren't visible. The lighting is used to highlight and bring your eyes to one area. Dragging the focus of the audience to what you want them to see. The lighting allows you to define certain objects or things in the scene that you might not be able to do with multi camera set ups. You can specifically target one thing with lighting of single cameras, again, brining the audiences attention to where you want it. 

Sound:
For sound in single camera productions, it can become very awkward depending on where the camera is. For example if you are further away from someone in one shot than you were in the other, the sound would end up being different and may pick up background noise that you don't want. One thing that also makes it awkward is the when filming you have to overlap and start from certain parts in the script to make sure that the sound is all the same and that is is no differences. If this isn't done it can make the sound jumpy and can lose the viewers interest. However one thing that can be considered an advantage is not all audio is used from one scene. because you have multiple takes, you can use the audio from other clips, meaning that you wouldn't have to re-shoot scenes just to get the audio right. this can save time and in the industry, money. 

This is an example of what the sound would be like in a single camera production. It also shows how it would be shot and set up.

Editing:
Editing can take a long time to do and an advantage of multi camera productions is that they can be edited a lot quicker as there is less footage to go through as single camera productions film the same scene over and over again meaning that there is a lot of footage. Single camera productions commonly film a lot of scenes in one go to try to speed up the process, however this depends on the availability of actors and if the location. Multi camera productions can usually be edited live. For example in football or on the news, they can switch between different cameras to get a better view of whats going on. this can'y be Dione with single camera productions as you would have to physically move the camera to get a different angle. Shot logs are commonly used inn editing as they allow someone to see which shots are good and which are bad. this is handy and commonly used in single camera productions as it saves more time for the people editing as they won't have to look through all the clips too find what shot they need. People will also sort all the shots into folders and will do logs to manage their footage. 

Single Camera Genres and Formats:
A commonly used genre for single camera productions is horror. This is because a lot of horrors are slow paced and build up. An example of the sowed be where you are following someone slowly down a hallway. The single camera makes it feel like you are there and adds a personal feeling to the scene. An example for this would be IT which released in 2017. the slow pace builds up and tension and brings you in. Films that have a faster nature are easier done with a multi camera set ups, and things that are of a slower nature, such as horrors, are more suited to a single camera production.


Multi Camera Techniques:
Something such as an action movie would be suited for a multi camera production as fast scenes are easier to film with multiple cameras. One other example for multi camera productions would be soaps. because they have to the film and edit there pieces quickly, a multi camera set up is more favourable. It allows them. rot get the shots that they want in less takes and allows the deifying to be done a lot quicker  this is good because soaps are sometimes done live, or are aired a day after they have been filmed. 

Clown Business Proposal

Research and Planning: Responding to the Brief

My ESting will meet the requirements of the brief because: 

• It will be a stop motion animation, which is something that is required for the brief.
• It will be a claymation, which is a form of animation that you can use for the ESting competition. 
• My animation will include the E4 logo and use the music that is allowed for the ESting. 

When I do my piece, I won't to change any of my ideas as I know what the requirements are, and I've made sure that I've followed them all. For my piece the only legal and health issues I have to be aware of is copyright for the music and sounds, but all the music is already sorted for us so that isn't a problem, and the location release, being permission to film where we are filming. However this isn't a problem because mine is set in my classroom. So I won't face any legal or health issues. I am the only person in my team as I'm doing my animation by myself so I will be directing, shooting, and doing all the planning and editing for my piece. The deadline for all the pieces is the 30th of October - 22nd of November. 

Pre-Production Work

Research and Planning: Music Video

Research and Planning

Step 1: Choosing our Track

Song Ideas:

Believer- Imagine Dragons
This is a slo motion scene of billy going through the corridor shooting and killing people in a suit and seeming like a gangster. This will show shots of him in slo motion getting suited up in low light.

Wildfire - Seafret:
This will be a romantic couple based video in VHS. This will show a couple doing really well and going on dates until the boy gets a text saying the girl cant do it anymore. The music will stop with the sound of a tape being paused as you see the VHS effect disappear and it comes out of the camera to show an older man looking at the camera as if he is viewing it all. You then see another older hand rest on top of his and the camera looks up to see that woman who said she cant do it, much older, holding his hand and smiling at each other. They then both look at the camera and begin to play it again, the footage then goes back to VHS and the music picks up again to show how they worked it out. The video ends on the two people walking along but the bars on the side come out and the VHS slowly fades away to show the couple being older instead of younger.

We have decided to go for the song and idea of Believer and then later decided that it would be a lot easier and practical to create another song with another idea. We are now going to produce a music video for the song "RICH BRIAN x ZHU. x SKRILLEX x THEY. - Working For It". 

Working For it - RICH BRIAN x ZHU x SKRILLEX x THEY:
This idea is based around the already existing video for this song. This song does not already have a music video however it does have a video of a title and a few neon animations showing up on the screen. Our plan for this song is to produce a music video with a neon based theme and a lot of colours and glowing objects to create a similar video to the existing whilst maintaining the theme. This will also switch to a lyric video in certian parts of the song.

Step 2: Analyzing the track (Imagine Dragons - Believer)

Step 3: Analyzing the Artist(Imagine Dragons - Believer)

Clothing:

Their clothing is not always consistent throughout all of imagine dragons videos, however, there are a large amount of them which will use black or rather dark clothing. They also will use their clothing to match the styles of the video which is not always the same e.g. Believer uses a different kind of costume as the video is about boxing which requires the gloves and shorts in order to represent boxing. In their video "Whatever it takes" they use masks and underwater fantasy costumes to show that they are creatures of another culture. The music video shows the bands house being ruined and falling apart which can represent how his life is falling apart. This can also be a metaphor for his life not seeming real with it all falling apart.  A large amount of their clothes will be matching the slow and dark tone of the music.

Make Up (Imagine Dragons - Believer):

Imagine dragons do not use a large amount of make up throughout their videos as it is not a consistency of theirs. They will only add make up to certain aspects in particular videos in order to bring across the narrative. An example of this is in "Believer" where they use make up in order to make the narrative more realistic. They use fake blood and make up to create the illusion that the people fighting have been hit in the face hard and are now bleeding. They also used make up in a song called "Bet My Life" where they use the make up to make them seem dirty.

Tone of Existing Music (Imagine Dragons - Believer):

The tone for each song will be different however, the song "Whatever it takes" is very slow and has a sad sounding tone. This tone of music matches the lyrics very well for the song as it is a sorrowful sounding beat and melody. The slow speed of this also adds to the tone of the music as slow sounding beats tend to be more commonly used throughout sad songs. The song below called "Believer" has a use of strong beats with a slow melody. I feel these strong beats reflect the lyrics of the song as the song is about going through hardships and prevailing. This strong beat and harsh tones are a metaphor for the strength in mentality to go through what he talks about in the song.

Existing Locations(Imagine Dragons - Believer):

The location in each video is always different however, there is a consistency throughout their music videos. They will always put a lot of effort into their locations and sets. They will also use low lighting throughout these videos to create the tension and will use a lot of compositing and visual effects rather than actual backdrops or props, it will mostly all be edited in through using green screens and CGI etc. The video above called "Believer" uses a CGI background and the set is heavily edited to make it seem more colorful. The video above that called "Whatever it takes" again, uses a lot of editing to create their setting and location through the house looking like its falling down and the flames that are used on the microphone and instruments towards the end of the video. Even in the video "Thunder" most of the surroundings and scenes are computer generated rather than filming in the actual location.

Concepts/Narratives(Imagine Dragons - Believer):

The concepts and narratives throughout their music videos will always consist of hardships and pain rather than happiness and upbeat concepts. In "Believer" the video shows two men fighting, the video "Whatever it takes" shows all of the band drowning, having a house fall on top of them and also all of their equipment being on fire. Their narratives will often be somewhat literal of the lyrics and tone of the song.

Step 2: Analyzing the track (Working For it - RICH BRIAN x ZHU x SKRILLEX x THEY):

Step 3: Analyzing the Artist(Working For it - RICH BRIAN x ZHU x SKRILLEX x THEY):

Throughout all of Rich Chigga's videos, he chooses to wear rather unconventional clothes to the style of rap and culture that he is in. This is due to his video "Dat $tick" which had gained so much traction from the fact that his choice of outfit did not match the tone of the music which resulted in a lot of people finding this humorous and was then shared around to make him who he is and as a result created his style. This has now became a common theme throughout most of his videos however in some of his videos he has now become more conventional and wears more expensive clothes to show off to his audience and further create his style.

Make Up:
Rich Chigga is in a rap culture that does not wear any make up or if so, is used very rarely. This means that Rich Chigga himself doesnt use make up for any of his videos. Through looking at all of his videos, i found that he uses make up in one video for portraying that he gets women. He uses lipstick on his cheek for the "Glow Like Dat" music video.

Tone of Existing Music:
All of Rich Chigga's songs are usually quite hard and will be sounding very serious. They all reflect the lyrics of the song and will often be beats that are generic to the rap culture he is in. These beats will be hard and the melody will often be dark. 

Existing Locations:
The locations for each of his videos will often be about showing off what he has. The video Chaos by Rich Chigga shows a large pool with a lot of women and servants around him. This shows his power and money as this rap culture is all about "Flexing" on people which means to show off how much you have and being the best. This commonly creates an artists style through doing this. His locations will often be wel thought out and play a large part of his videos.

Concepts/Narratives:
A lot of Rich Chigga's concepts will be based off of the lyrics of the song and will relate to the main message of the song. In the song "Glow like dat" he uses bright colors and glowing flowers around him as a metaphor. In the song "Cold" Rich Chigga uses an ice skating ring as his location and ice skating as his concept for his video.

Styles, Conventions and Techniques

In this piece I will be writing about the different types of music videos and giving examples for each of the types.

In-concert or "as live":
These music videos are where the artist takes clips from concerts and uses them for their music video. This is used to give an effect of what it would be like to see what they are like live and get somewhat of an experience. This can also be done with VR (Virtual Reality) where people can experience what the concert is like and feel like they are there. 

                                                                  

This meets the live style of video as there is a crowd and the music is being played live
. 
Narrative and Interpretive:
These sort of music are usually used to allow the artist to show the the meaning behind a song and what the lyrics mean. These sort of music videos can be quite literal translations of the lyrics, but can also have a more interpretative approach. 

The music video is more of a literal meaning type of song, It shows how the black community work around the struggle of guns and drugs and police brutality in America and how people are still being treated as slaves. The video shows a small snip of what black people have to go through.

Surrealist/Absurdist:
These sort of music videos are usually far from what the lyrics actually mean and have little relationship to the lyrics. They can often come across unconventional to the type of music video, for example rap music, you'd expect chains, alcohol, cars, women and anything expensive. 



This music video fits the surrealist category as a lot of the stuff is unconventional and also, like in one part he is riding a cat. The lyrics express little to no meaning to what is happening in the video so fits the surrealist video to the tea. 

Impressionist:
These types of videos are there to create an emotional impact with the lyrics of the song. This can also be done to break the boundaries for how music videos are made for certain areas. Most of the artists that create "Impressionist" music videos usually have an artistic view on the world, and take longer creating their videos. 21 Savage's "Nothin' New" music video that is already on this blog could be put into this category because of the emotional impact that the video creates.



Intertextual:
These types of videos can reference other materials. These can usually be other songs, or artists or movies. These types of videos are also used for the movies. The artist uses clips from the film, and creates a video out of them. The film Black Panther that was recently released had a soundtrack for the film produced by Kendrick Lamar. With one of the songs being named "Black Panther". Artists can also use music videos, in a way of paying respect to an influence. 



The song "Pray For Me" features in the film as they enter the Korean casino. It shows reference to the film as the songs were specifically made for the film, but also some of the lyrics to the song are "I'm always ready to start a war again". This is linking to what happens throughout the film and what is happening later on in the scene.

Animation: 
This style isn't always used in music videos, however is starting to become more used in hip-hop music. An artist called Lil Uzi Vert uses animation for most, or all of his music videos, especially the japanese style anime. 



This song uses animation through parts of the song, and uses the animation to transition to the next scene in the video. Lil Uzi is known for using animation for his videos. Another popular one being "XO Tour Life".

Lip-Sync:
This is most common with narrative based music videos. Because the video is more based on a narrative, the artist has to lip-sync the lyrics as the min focus is the video itself. This can also depend on the speed of the song and the scene that is being filmed, for example, a high speed chase with normal paced audio. 




This song is mostly based on the video, and the areas where 21 is in the scene, he is having to lip sync. The scene where all the hostages are in the room, the movements are in slow mo, so he has to lip-sync the lyrics for the video to match the song as the audio is at a normal speed.


Editing:
Editing in music videos can make any music video seem a certain way, depending on how shots are placed and when cuts are made. 




The one that I chose off of the list was "Wyclef Jean" by Young Thug. The thing that interested me about this video before I'd clicked on it was the fact that it was a hip-hop song so it's the genre of music I listen to. The video itself is really good. The fact that the artist didn't show up and the video went so well means a lot. The editing made the video comical and the writing describing stuff kinda made the song, somewhat irrelevant in my opinion and was more about the video. My favourite part is one of the first scenes where Young Thug is saying what he wants fr the music video and how the cars are all in the same spot but switch between each car, and then when more cars start to appear as they talk about what they want. 

Cutting to the beat:
A music video where the song or shots cut to the beat and more rhythm to your shots.



The song cuts to the beat where it glitches between shots and when the beat switches to move on the next scene. The video cuts between three places and uses the beat to switch between them all.

Post-production effects:
Artists use visual effects to attract the attention of an audience, or use them to do things that you can't do in real life, such as turning someone from a skeleton to a human, which is what Travis Scott does in Goosebumps.




Travis Scott uses visual effects in most of his videos. Another example would be "Butterfly Effect", as this uses a lot of visual affects, however, doesn't uses as many as Goosebumps. Goosebumps uses a lot of colour grading and animating throughout the video to make it seem quite euphoric. 

Split screen:
This type of music video is where multiple or more than one image is on the screen with both the images being in different places. These types of videos aren't very common and are mostly made by people who want to create an artistic view to the song, or want to give it some sort of meaning. 



This music video fits the split screen category as it shows different images throughout the video at the same time. The video uses two images side by side and makes them look like the fit together in an odd way, even though the images are completely different, wether it be the colours or the locations or the actual images themselves. 


Chroma key:
These types of videos are where the person or people are in front of a green screen and the unwanted colour is blocked out so that the secondary image, which is layered behind is visible, this is Chroma key. 



Although I have already used this song as an example for a different part, it fits in with the chroma key, as you can see by the video thumbnail. Their heads are bigger and on top of their bodies and the beach background is on a green screen behind them, this being chroma keyed. 

Camera movements:
This is where the music video uses a lot of camera movements, such as a crab, pan and a crane. This can be used to create a flow to the video and make it interesting for the audience. 




God's Plan uses a lot of different camera movements to show and create emphasis in certain parts of the song. It uses the crane when he's on the building and could link in with the title God's Plan as they God is considered higher up. They also uses a lot of crab and pan shots to show different parts of the city and the area that they are filming in. 


Camera angles and shot types:
The creator of the music video can make the video seem more impactful and give things more meaning through the types of shots and angles used. An example would be a close up to show the expression on somebody's face.



Beibs in the trap uses a lot of different camera angles and shot types throughout the video. I don't believe that it adds more meaning to the shots for this song in particular, however, I do believe that it highlights specific things more by the angles and shots used as there is more focus towards these things through the shots and angles used.
Mise-en-scene:
The mise-en-scene is to do with the lighting, objects, setting, etc, to help carry on the mood of the song into the video. Some examples I think that use this well are :
Ed Sheeran - Perfect
I believe that this works really well with the song because of the types of lighting used. The types of lighting used are the types that you would see in a romantic film so I believe that this works well.
Ed Sheehan - Thinking out loud
I believe that this one works really well as the setting fits the song really well and again goes along with the romantic film setting again very well and uses mise-en-scene very well, this being the lighting, costumes, objects used and the setting.