Further dance video research

The dance video displayed here and from the previous post are both from a television series of 'So you think you can dance?' and each show varying levels of dancing. The choreographed black eyed peas video, (below) shows a much faster paced and more energetic video than the one on the previous post (Ne-Yo). Yet again, the dancers match the dance with the music which yet again is immensely hard to do, something like these videos would be ideal for my music video, however as I have explained previously it would be very hard for me to find dedicated and reliable dance students with enough free time.

Another video I am going to add is in comparison to the above video, a slower dance routine but with more attention to the lyrics of the song, especially the lyrics "And she shines just like a star" there is a star created out of the choreographers. In the music video project, attention to lyrics is not vital as it sometimes overshadows the whole idea of the music video. However, while doing some online research I found this video and thought it was yet again useful and relevant as it pays particular attention to the lyrics.

Initial ideas

Initial idea

For my first idea when we were told the music video project, I thought of doing a dance video, adding dance elements to the video. Therefore I researched some dance videos on Youtube.com to see how well music and dance fitted together. I thought the element of a dance video would work very well, and it would be something different.
Problems

However the main problem facing a dance video is people willing to dance and to perform well, without having to pay. I first thought of asking the performing arts block at Long Road, but this may be a problem in terms of time, willingness and what they would get out of it for actually doing it. I was not sure about whether if i had a group of dancers, whether they could be reliable, and whether I can get them all at the same place at the same time, without anything going wrong or messing up. It would also involve the group creating a new dance routine to the music track chosen, and this would take up time - with the increasing A level work and pressure I am not sure whether they would be able or willing to have so much time dedicated to the video.

Nonetheless, I have looked on Youtube and have found some excellent dance videos, with some slower dance performances to some faster paced and more energetic performances.

The first one below is a slower paced dance video, from the artist Neyo, with the track called 'Mad'. On this video i think its clever in which the dancers match the dance with the music, and i think they are very effective in the way they do this. This way of dancing would be perfect for a part of my music video, but it is a very advanced level of dancing.

Feedback for music video exercise

After showing the music videos to the class, we were given feedback about what we could do better and what went well, in terms of performance, camerawork and editing. For my video, I got some negative and positive feedback.

Performance

• There were a variety of different dance moves,and this added variety to the sequence.
  
• However, it was an upbeat song and the cuts weren't quite fast paced enough to mix to the music.
• The lip syncing was effective, and my group worked well together.
• There was effective framing, and the shot with us all together worked well.

Camerawork

• There were static shots but they were at interesting angles, such as the recording on the macbook with all of us in the frame.
• There was interesting framework and it was also effective.

Editing

• The video needs more cuts, as the video is very upbeat and sometimes it did not mix as well, it would need to be cut faster.

Overall..
From the task overall, I gained an insight into what music editing would be like, as I did in the previous lip sync exercises. The exercise was very good as i learnt how to lip sync effectively, and realised how to link the video up with the music from watching everybodies finished tasks. After watching Matt L's video of the same track, I realised he had cut the video alot better to the music and this helped me learn how to intertwine video and music together.

Other groups feedback

Dave
Daves version of 'Im a believer' was edited very well, although sometimes the lip syncing was not right and did not match. However, Joe and Matt H did a good performance and felt comfortable - this came across in the video. They knew the words and they were exposed well in the video.

Joe
In Joe's version of 'Im a believer' there were alot more cuts (roughly 2 seconds a shot) and it worked better with the music. The video was cut between the lyrics and it worked with the rythym of the track. The performance was good as with Daves, and there was a good variety of shots, with more close ups.

Philippa
With Philippa's version of 'Im a believer' she had cut well to the music, focusing on gestures to fit with the llyrics etc, The cutting was effective and the group performed well.

Alex
With Alex's version of 'Roxanne' the group had a good performance and worked well together. In terms of editing, there were different abgles, positions, places and a character to each person. There was good editing, with close ups, long shots and effective cutting with the music.

Tim
With Tim's version of 'Roxanne', the performance came across well and you could see the group had gotten into the song and the idea of filming it. They worked well as a group. The editing was done very well and you could see it was clearly cut to the music track.

Loz, James, Hayden
With their performance of 'I fought the law', the performance was effective and they looked like they were enjoying themselves, their performance was very physical with alot of running etc. In terms of editing, there were a few shots which showed the start of variation, but they were all infront of a greenscreen and this made the performance all a bit too similar. The transition's were done well, and they added a bit of pace to the video. However, the videos were only half finished and they all had a 'ran out of time' element to them. It was clear they had tried to do too much but had simply not had enough time to do all of what they hoped to.

Dizzee Rascal music video exercise

Here is our finished video for our music video task.

Music video Lipsync Exercise

For our third exercise, we were asked to choose a song in groups of 3/4, not knowing what the song was at first. We were then told the song and asked to do a lipsync video in our groups.

I worked with Matt L, Alie, Mike and Kirk, and we were given Dizzee Rascal - Dance With Me. This was in my opinion the hardest song to do, as it was the fastest, had the most lyrics, and we had the longest period of the song to fill up compared to everybody else. However, this was a challenge but we thought having a good attempt was the best way to do it.

The pictures show stills from our lip syncing video, the lip sync timeline on Final Cut, and the markers we added to the song in order to lip sync correctly. We then had to find a location and were given 45 minutes to an hour to complete the task. We chose the woods outside and we then had to mime or 'lip sync' the words to the song, we could even sing it if we wanted to, as the original track had to go over the top anyway.

As a group, we found this extremely hard as we had to lip sync the words, which were very fastly spoken. In the end, I think we did a good job in terms of our completed video. This exercise really made you think about the importance of mise en scene, location, camerawork and editing in terms of a music video and how they affected the final outcome.

'You wanna what?' lipsync exercise

For our music video, the second exercise we done was to get the group to understand how lip syncing worked and how the video and sound merged together. We had a demonstration in class about how to lipsync on Final Cut, and it was explained what process you would go through in order to do it.

First, you would have to obviously upload all the footage. Then using the CD player track on the actual footage sound, you would find a part in the song which would be significant, for example a chorus or a particular word. Then, you would mute the CD player sound from the actual footage and add the audio track in.

Finding the same part of the song, eg the chorus, (Also showing the music wavelines) and marking it with a marker, would enable you to place the video and music together. Providing the video is lip synced or sung right, the track would match. You would then add other performances in and cut away unwated parts, enabling you to be able to cut from different angles, locations etc and different characters - this would make sure you had a correct lip synced video.

The video was just a starter exercise, but made sure I knew how to lip sync correctly and I learnt that the correct timing and lip syncing is effective is very important in terms of making a music video.

DJ Format footage exercise

For our first exercise on the music video task, we were given various footage and asked to cut the footage together with a song, from which we could choose the track from various different songs. The footage contained no lip syncing, so would therefore be able to use with any song. The footage was cut up and contained black parts of space in between each clip, so it would ensure we cut the footage right - so there were no remaining black parts or space left between them.

The exercise enabled us first to see how video and music go together, and what works and doesn't work. After the time was up in which we had to edit the video, we walked round the classroom and got to see everybody else's videos they had made. This helped me to see what I was doing right, wrong, and to know what to do next time. I found some had been cut expertly with the music and the beats in the track, and this helped me to progress in my work next time.

At the end of the lesson, we were shown the real video, and I found out I had actually used the correct song for the video. We saw how the real video was put together and whether or not ours were similar, and what parts went where, what fitted well and what the real editing was like. Overall, this was very effective for our first music video task as it helped us to see what putting the correct music and video together was like and how to edit them together.