Satan Said Dance

This blog follows the Pre-production and, in part, production, of the music video that Julia and I had to make as part of our A2 Media Studies Coursework. This blog focuses on our original idea of creating a narrative/experimental music video for the song 'Satan Said Dance' by the band 'Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.' We later changed our idea.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Second Blog

At this point, the ideas that Julia and I had regarding our project and intentions for it began to evolve. Thus I have separated this work and consequential string of events from those that followed this point. The progression of our idea from this point can be found here.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Satan Said Dance Experiment

Julia and I have expressed some concerns about our idea. We worried that the footage we had did not visually suit the song that we were using and consequentially we decided to edit together a very brief example of what our music video could end up looking like. We have decided to do this before we take our idea any further so that we can analyse how we have managed thus far and the difficulties we know we have yet to overcome. 

We did not spend very long on this sequence. We simply ordered the shots on a new sequence in Premiere Pro and then attempted to quickly cut them to the beat. We used the experimental sequence in the beginning of the track as we felt is successfully correlated with the distortion at the beginning of the song; it used thought beats to illustrate the dis-jointed and relatively dark tone of the song in the first few seconds. We then cut to the candles and the over-the-shoulder shot of the devil smoking inside the warehouse. We chose to use these shots next as the begin our narrative in an elusive and strange way, leaving the audience questioning what is going on. After this we introduced the story by showing the boys entering the warehouse. We particularly like this shot, but had to use jump cuts to attempt to keep up with the pace of the song successfully. We created these jump cuts to the beat. Cutting away from this, back to the candles we feel we successfully correlated the cuts to the unusual sounds in the song, before cutting to the close up shot of Julia as the angel, opening her eyes. We had to use this shot here, though ideally it should be the devil, because the shots of myself as the devil were out of focus. For the purpose of this review of idea we had to use the angel. I like the way that this correlates with the beginning of the piano in the background.

So far the visuals do relate to the sound of the song, though the quality of the footage and of the editing in this sequence are questionable, but from here it became obvious that we have not nearly enough footage to fill up the length of the song, let alone to portray an understandable narrative. Having used the little projection footage we had, we had to then cut to the footage we had of the boys ‘dying’ with the smoke flares. However, this footage is incredibly poor.

We managed to, using bad footage of the smoke flares, create a sequence that is 58 seconds long, meaning that, at this point, we have over two minutes worth of filming that is incomplete. We are beginning to question our idea seriously because of the lack of quality regarding the majority of our footage and the little footage that we have. Though we understand that we have completed a sequence to project over ourselves, we are aware that this will not equate to the time we need to fill because of the amount that we will, in post production, speed up this footage. We also need to go back to the warehouse to film our narrative, but the problems with light and space will most likely be problems a second time round. If we were to film during the day then we would have to rethink our narrative and re-film the good footage we already have, as we do not want continuity errors regarding how dark the footage is. Julia and I are currently speaking about ways in which we can combat these issues and thus if our idea can be saved. However, we are aware that we may have to come up with a backup plan for this, or maybe even another song, should our ‘Satan Said Dance’ video prove too challenging, in the short space of time and with the limited resources we have. 

[satansaiddancevideo]

Post Production: Experimental Sequence to Project

This is the final sequence that Julia and I have created of the experimental footage that we filmed previously. We took the most successful shots of all the shots that we filmed and opened them up into Preimere Pro. We were not too concerned with the order of shots, the length of shots or the length of the overall sequence, because the sequence is going to be used to project. There were a few simple steps that we took to create the sequence using Preimere Pro.

Firstly, we started a new project and imported the selected footage into Premiere Pro. Secondly, we dragged the footage piece by piece onto the timeline. Though we were not too concerned with the order of the footage, we did attempt to order the footage so that we avoided consistency. For example, we did not want to open with all of the lava lamp footage, then continue with ink footage. Instead, we wanted consistent ‘randomness’, meaning we wanted the entire sequence to change in colour, movement and subject throughout. Once we had done this, the first thing we needed to do was crop all of the footage, one by one. Some pieces needed to be cropped because of the build-up of dark dye at the bottom of the tank and the reflections that caused, other pieces needed to be cropped because the sides of the tank were visible, detracting from the shot, and others were cropped because Julia and I had noticed a particularly successful but small feature of a shot, and wanted that aspect to be the main subject. For example, the gif below is of a piece of footage that was cropped so that the focus of the shot is the spinning blue and yellow ink. Once we had completed this, cropping all of the footage to the correct size, omitting aspects of each shot we did not want, we had the beginnings of a successful sequence.

Above: Cropped Footage

Next, we went through the sequence, shot by shot, and increased the speed by right clicking on a shot and selecting the ‘speed/duration’ option. From there we increased the speed to roughly 250% for each clip, though this percentage varied somewhat according to how fast the dye was moving in the original clips. We had to be careful not to speed the shots up too much because we are aware that they will be projected onto us, re-filmed and then sped up even more so. We do not want the ink to be moving too fast in the final shots and have thus had to carefully estimate the speed of this sequence. On some shots, we selected the ‘reverse speed’ option, which flips the frames in a shot, consequentially making things appear backwards. We did this for shots that were particularly interesting regarding movement, meaning that we have much more surreal, aesthetic and overall enticing shots to project.

Above: Speed/Duration and Reverse Speed Option

The next thing we did to the footage was to flip some shots upside down. This worked especially well on reversed clips as the movement is the focus of the shot, but it is obscured and thus becomes must more surreal in tone and overall appears more experimental.

Finally we completed the most imperative and challenging process in the creation of this sequence; we corrected the colours of the background, striving to correct the background to white without affecting the colour of the dye too much. We also attempted to use colour correction to remove reflections. This was the hardest aspect of the creation of this sequence, as we relied on many different tools, including the Contrast Tool, Change Colour Tool and the RGB Curves tool. Each shot required different settings on these tools to achieve the best possible colour correction, though on reflection I feel we could have sacrificed some of the colour correction because it has resulted in dye that, in some shorts, appears completely artificial. We are relying on the aesthetic of the projection footage - including the fact that the projection footage filmed previously appeared to capture the actual projected footage in bad quality, creating an aged and thus somewhat dark tone - to complement the often artificial aesthetic of the dye in this sequence.

Above: RGB Curves Option

We feel as though overall this sequence is a success. We may return to it to make some adjustments before we have the opportunity to use the photography studio again, but feel as though we have overcome a series of challenges and that this product is more than appropriate for our music video. We have not yet decided which parts of this sequence will be projected onto the angel or devil characters within our narrative. This will be something that we will plan carefully prior to the day we will film, which has not yet been decided because the photography studio is busy currently.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Above: Lava Lamp, Underexposed

Production: Experimental Footage to Project

Today we were able to successfully film experimental footage in order to project over the devil and angel characters in the studio. We did this because we were interested in capturing more projection footage in order to cut away from our narrative and establish the intentions and persona's of the two characters within our narrative successfully, aesthetically and easily. Rather than use existing footage, we were interested in capturing our own as we felt it would give us a greater amount of control over the aesthetics and because we were unable to capture more footage of the warehouse during the day. Before we began, we collected the Canon 1100D and Manfrotto tripod that we had arranged to use. As a trial, before setting up to film chemicals such as potassium permanganate  and inks such as paper dye, we noticed a lava lamp and asked if we would be able to film it. We chose to do this for two reasons; firstly, we wanted to practise setting up the camera and familiarize ourselves with filming small subjects behind reflective surfaces, as we were moderately concerns about how successfully we could film ink because of the fact that the glass tank would be reflecting light, and secondly, because we liked the colours of the lava lamp and felt that the movement of it could be used to project, allowing us to capture interesting, unique and aesthetics projection footage.

We stood the lava lamp on a desk in front of a perfectly white wall, and set the camera and trip up so that the camera was at the correct height for the subject. The camera was relatively close to the lava lamp, but we had the lens zoomed in so that none of the room is visible in shot. We focused the camera, before realizing that the reflections on the glass were incredibly noticeable. Below if a gif I made to illustrate the prevalence of the reflections in the first piece of footage that we captured of the lava lamp. This piece of footage was shot with the correct exposure settings, meaning that is captures the lava lamp as it was, pink, with a white background, however, this meant that the correct amount of light was allowed into the sensor, meaning that the reflections were also captured. This is particularly noticeable in place where the lava lamp fluid is in the shot, as the reflections blend into the white background in the negative space.

In order to counter this, we firstly tried holding a black coat around the set-up that we had, with the intentions of blocking out reflected light. This worked in part, but then we tried completely underexposing the shot, which changed the pinks to red and the white background to a very dark brown colour, as seen above. We felt as though the red was much more appropriate for the sequence, as red has connotations of danger, and thus filmed the above clip.

Above: Laval Lamp, Correct Exposure

We liked the footage of the lava lamp when filmed with the camera set-up to underexpose the subject as it, coupled with the holding up of a black coat, meant we were able to remove the majority of reflections. However, though the red fluid was more appropriate to propject than pink, we did not like the brown colour the background had become. Thus we opened the clip into preimere pro and used the ‘RGB curves’ and ‘contrast’ effects to correct the colour in the background to black, as seen below, which we feel is overall much more aesthetic. We will be projecting this clip.

Above: Laval Lamp, Underexposed and Edited

After filming the footage of the lava lamp, we felt confident that we could film the footage we had planned to. We found a technician named Ken who retrieved for us the tank we had agreed to use and the chemical that he had said may work well. At this point, we could not find the portable studio and thus we set up in a similar manor to previously, with the tank filled with water with a white piece of card behind it and the camera, on a tripod, set-up so that only the tank was in frame. We had to set up in the colleges darkroom, with the lights on, because it was the most convenient free room we could use that had a tap in it, to re-fill the thank with. 

Above: Potassium Permanganate

Above is an example of the footage we filmed with this set-up. Reviewing the footage now, it is clear that this shot is not particularly successful and thus cannot be used in a sequence that will later be projected over our characters.While filming, it was not clear that, once again, as the tank filled up with chemicals and the water was thus darkened, the reflections were prevalent. We had filmed this with the subject underexposed by 1 stop and with the black coat held up around the set-up.as a precaution, but clearly that did not prevent the camera from capturing reflections. While the reflections are not as bad or noticeable as they could have been, there are other aspects of this footage that make it, to me, unsuccessful; there are water droplets on the tank, in clear focus, and thus the camera is not focussed on the chemical. This detracts from the aesthetic of the potassium permanganate. The colour of the background works to the same affect and overall gives the shot an unprofessional and un-aesthetic tone. The movement of the potassium permanganate is perfect for creating the footage we envision, but the chemicals tested prior were thin, lacking in pigment and overall did not move in the water in the appropriate, slow manor. We will not be using this example in the sequence for projection.

We then moved up to the colleges art department, were we found the portable studio and collected the paper dyes in order to film the majority of the footage we were able to capture on the day. At this point, Julia and I had massive concerns about the trouble we were having with reflections on the glass. Thus, we took a moment, while setting up, to look up ways in which we could minimize the number of reflections visible. We found this video:

Above: Shooting Without Reflections

The tips the the video offered us included holding up a black coat, shooting face-on, shooting without flash, and shot without the sun on the glass, of of which we were doing. Thus we decided to set up in the back of the room, so that the lights were in-front of us and were consequentially blocked by the back wall of the portable studio. Secondly, we cleaned the tank thoroughly. Thirdly, we tried pushing the lens up against the glass. Unfortunately, because of the small size of the tank, this meant that the camera would not be able to focus on the subject. We tested this by putting a pen into the tank, with the lens against the glass, and attempting to focus on manual focus. Because of the focal length of the lens, this was impossible. When we tried to rotate the tank so that the camera was looking down the longer end, we found that we were unable to zoom in enough to block out the side walls of the tank, meaning that in the background there was vertical lines, detracting from the shot. Thus we travelled to the photography department to try and find a macro lens or macro filter (to help with focusing on close objects) or polarizing filter (to reduce reflections.) Unfortunately, we found neither and thus went back to the media department were we collected the Lumix G1, as a teacher recommended we try and different camera. We set this camera up as we had done with the 1100D and decided to begin filming. We were able to push this camera closer to the glass than the 1100D, so we chose to attempt it once and then decide which camera we felt was more suitable.

Above: Lumix G1 and Set-Up

Overall we found the Lumix G1 challenging to use and thus switched back to the 1100D. We felt we had wasted a lot of time with setting up, but were finally abe to film, dropping paper dye (a powerfully pigmented powder) into clean water using a small paint-brush. Below is an example of one of the pieces of footage we were able to capture. This particular example is successful, though the the bottom of the tank fills with darker pigment the reflections begin to show. Other than this, the colours and movement of the dye is successful, aesthetic and is perfect to use as a piece of footage to project. We liked the organic appearance of the shapes the dye formed into and the slow, hypnotic movements it made in the water.

Above: Paper Dye

Overall, filming with darker pigments meant capturing greater, much more vivid reflections. Within this example we were able to crop the footage so that we removed the bottom of the frame, where the camera was beginning to become visible. As an experiment we also reversed the speed of this example, in order to see how the movement created interest. This is clear in the gif below.

Above: Reversed, Cropped Example

There are some examples of footage that were so dark that the room we filmed in is visible in the glass. These pieces of footage cannot be used. However, in some examples only small reflections can be seen. We hope to use these example as footage to project over the character of the devil, who wears black, because the projected footage will not show up over her clothes. This means that we can save some footage. Overall we feel this was a successful use of our time; we had to solve problems throughout the day, but feel we were able to capture enough footage. We have begun and will complete a sequence of the the experimental footage that we can later project onto our main characters.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Plan To Film Experimental Footage

As, at this point, we are unsure of the state of the warehouse or whether we can get back in it any time soon to film the close ups and wide shots that we need, Julia and I have decided to use this time to focus on gathering ideas for and filming footage of our own that can be projected onto us - other than our narrative - in the studio. We need to film a substantial amount of projection footage in order to use in in our music video; because we are speeding the footage up by such a large amount, there needs to be a lot of it.

We have started looking at the kinds of footage we need to film that can be projected onto us in the studio. We particularly like this; we feel as though filming ink being dropped into the water could be easy to do and effective. We used footage similar to this when we first filmed the projection footage so feel it would be consistent with what we already have. We enjoy the organic nature of the ink and how that contrasts with the nature of our character previously subverted these organic and thus natural connotations of the ink in order to create tension regarding the character of the angel. The shapes are particularly aesthetically pleasing and we feel they will draw the audience in, much like the way the Devil draws the male characters in using the façade that she is an Angel within our narrative. The colours are striking and can be used to enforce the connotations of our characters or to oppose them, creating confusion and contrast. The movement of the ink is also particularly interesting and also resembles the smoke of the smoke flares within our narrative, meaning that we could create a link visually between the narrative and the more experimental projection footage. 

Finally, we like the way that the ink in this example has been edited so that, while the subject is still instantly recognisable, the movement is highlighted. For example, below is a gif I created of a moment in which the inks speed has been reversed, so it appears to suck in on itself and disappear out of the shot. Julia and I feel that this looks particularly aesthetically striking and that we would very much like to experiment in this kind of style once we have filmed footage as similar to this can we can.

We have arranged to borrow the Canon 1100D and a Manfrotto Tripod for an upcoming date so that we can hopefully film our own footage of ink or similar materials being dropped into water. Having spoken to various members of staff at collage, we have arranged to borrow a fish tank from science and a portable studio from art (a white box with only three white walls) and have arranged to firstly attempt to film with chemicals such as potassium permanganate, a purple powder used to illustrate convection currents in water to dyes such as powdered paper dye, which appears to explode in water.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Trouble Filming at the Warehouse

Today we were presented with a spontaneous opportunity to travel, as we had hoped, to the warehouse with a camera in order to film both wide shots of the location and close-ups of elements of our narrative such as the burnt out candles. We had hoped to do this in order to have relevant footage of our own to project over ourselves and film in the studio. We have not yet been able to book the studio for such occasion. We understood that this decision was relatively unplanned and spontaneous, but today we expectantly found the opportunity and thus decided that it would be a good use of our time and that we could ‘see’ shots once we arrived, despite having only established that we wanted shots of the candles and the location.

Unfortunately, once Julia and I had arrived at the warehouse we found that there were several builders working on the area. They appeared to be clearing out large quantities of scrap metal from the surrounding grounds and thus the warehouse was completely sealed off and we were unable to film. We attempted to set up the camera in order to film a wide shot of the location where we could see the warehouse clearly, but were asked to leave and thus returned to college. 

As a result of this, we discussed the possibility of us filming our own experimental footage such as ink in water to project upon ourselves in the studio and thus will begin research into this possibility.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Post-Production: Face Pixelation

Regarding editing our narrative footage, Julia and I have been considering methods in which we can hide the boy’s faces as the smoke got in their eyes and made them laugh, hide their face or generally loose the blank expression that we had hoped for. We have decided that trying face pixelation - or pixelation of their entire bodies - would be a visually stimulating, creative method of doing this, while also depersonalizing them and consequentially focussing the music video on the angel/devil.

The film V/H/S does this in this scene regarding one of the film’s antagonists. Wherever it is on screen, the entire body is pixelation and the footage begins to glitch. We found the above tutorial and intend to follow the method as an experiment upon one of our pieces of footage before we decided whether or not it will be as successful as we envision.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Filming The Warehouse In The Day

Looking through some of our footage from filming at the warehouse, we feel that we should go back to the warehouse during the day at some point and film both wide shots of the general location and close up shots of, for example, the candles, burnt out, amongst other things, to show the aftermath of the narrative and because we feel these shots could potentially be used to project. Our priorities still remain with filming further projection footage and doing research into methods of experimentation, but at the next opportunity we intend to go out and gather more shots. We would ideally like to have these shots before we return to the photography studio because in that case we can aim to complete the production of all of our projections footage as soon as possible, consequentially keeping us up to date with our plans.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Stabilizing Footage Example

Some of the footage from Friday was filmed handheld as we were only able to take one tripod, but had two cameras with us. We have specified that we do not want the shaky look that handheld brings to filming, so I learned how to stabilize the footage using After Effects.

I opened the shot onto Preimere Pro and created a dynamic link to a ‘New After Effects Composition.’ This opened After Effects and loaded the shot into it. I then used the tutorial below in order to remove the camera shake using ‘motion tracking’, consequentially resulting in a much more dynamic, aesthetic shot. 

I am happy with the resulting shot and feel as though this technique can be used on several of our shots, consequentially meaning that many examples of footage that Julia and I were previously concerns about, regarding whether or not they could be used, can be perfected and thus, using post-production, we can improve the quality of mediocre shots. 

[satansaiddancevideo]

Kinetic Typography 

As I have learned how to use and create kinetic typography, I decided to create this short tutorial explaining how it is done. I did this primarily as a reference for myself for the future, as I expect that I will use the technique in the creation of at least one of my responses for the four evaluation questions. 

[satansaiddancevideo]

Warehouse Filming Review

I made this video, featuring kinetic typography, explaining our experience attempting to capture footage for the narrative aspect of our music video for the song, ‘Satan Said Said.’ The footage accompanying the recording are some examples of the footage that Julia and I were able to capture on the 14th. Julia and I have do have some concerns about our idea, because there were many problems that we had to overcome. This video touches upon these difficulties and some ways that we can get around them. I mention in this video that Julia and I wish to do two things immediately from now; firstly book the studio to film more projection footage and secondly research more experimental techniques that can be completed using Premiere Pro and After Effects that may improve our footage and even save some of the poorer examples.

[satansaiddancevideo]

Props: Candles

As mentioned previously, we intended to collect candles while on our way to the location in order to light the devil. We were able to pick up 300 candles, which we feel is a sufficient amount. The candles are an imperative aspect of our film because we are relying on them as a source of light. Candles are also incredibly symbolic of rituals and spiritual gatherings, which directly relate to our theme as our narrative centers around religious and ‘cult’ issues. We also bought food for our male actors as a thank-you for them helping us with our project. 

[satansaiddancevideo]

Props: Smoke Grenades

Today, on the day of the filming, our smoke grenades arrived. We had been particularly concerned regarding whether or not they were going to arrive on time, in which case we had discussed the possibility of pushing back the filming date a few days or only filming half of the footage today. However, luckily they had arrived and thus we do not have any concerns regarding props. All of the boys that have agreed to help us will be meeting us at the warehouse at roughly six. On our way, we intend to collect candles, as they are an imperative aspect of our film and we are relying on them as a light source. 

[satansaiddancevideo]

Above: Experimental Sequence, Below: Updated Music Video Idea

Above is the final result of the experimental sequence that we began previously. We are incredibly pleased with the result and thus we have updated our music video plan. Below is our updated music video idea, in which we explain more about how we created the sequence, why we like it and how we want to adjust our music video idea based around the successfulness of the experimental sequence. 

Today is the 14th November and thus later we will be travelling to the warehouse with our equipment and meeting the male characters in order to film the narrative aspect of our video.

[satansaiddancevideo]

After Effects: Motion Graphics

As a task on the side of our media product, I have been learning about using After Effects to create motion graphics. I do not know whether or not this will be useful for our product, though there is a chance we could apply this knowledge to our video in order to create titles, but feel that this will be particularly good for the creation of my responses to the four evaluation questions that we must answer at the end of our project. 

[satansaiddancevideo]

Post-production: Experiments

Julia and I have begun experimenting with the experimental footage we filmed recently, with the objective of, like Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, creating a confusing, surreal sequence of footage. This sequence can then be used to cut away to when we are in the post-production stage regarding the narrative element of our music video. We have been using the speed/duration tool to speed the footage up as this way it appears jumpy and has connotations of age because the movement of the subjects and projections within the footage have visual similarities to old film. An example of this is the film ‘Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory’ which is one of the first films. In this film, the footage is ‘jumpy’ because the camera will have been hand cranked, and the people appear to be walking fast because it will have been filmed in a much lesser frame rate than modern day cameras film in. The sequence bares resemblance to stop motion because the jumps between frames are relatively noticeable. 

By speeding up the footage in this short experimentation using Premiere Pro, we have been able to create a similar aged effect. The fact that the footage uses projections means that our footage appears, in part, to be in bad quality, when it is not. This complements the aged, confused atmosphere. We are also experimenting with the colour balance within the images, making them slightly darker and the colours much more seductive and overall cinematic. We have also overlaid the pattern of the ‘black lodge’ from the TV series ‘Twin Peaks’ over some of the footage, as we feel the connotations of this pattern complement our themes. We will continue working on this experimental sequence  

[satansaiddancevideo]

Andy Warhol: Exploding Plastic Inevitable

Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable was a series of multi-media events organized by Andy Warhol between 1966 and 1967. The shows featured musical performances by The Velvet Underground and Nico, screenings of Warhol’s films, dancing and performances by Mary Woronov and Gerard Malanga. The shows pioneered many lighting practices in use today, using stroboscopes, sildes and film projections onstage. These events were about sensory overloads, using many forms of media to overstimulate peoples sense, consequentially creating confusing and separating them from the outside world, almost to the point that they deprived peoples senses.

The experimental footage that Julia and I filmed recently uses projection, as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable did, and thus, we feel that by experimenting further with the footage we could potentially use it to create the same confusing, deprived tone that it did. We feel as though the aesthetics of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable are appropriate for our video and that if we were to cut away to heavily manipulated footage that visually resembles these events, then it would enforce the chase-like, confusing nature of our narrative. We also feel that these aesthetics are particularly ‘dark’ in atmosphere and that they would complement the dark themes within the narrative of our video.