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hlr-mv · 6 years ago

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Last Train Music Video Evaluation

Pre-Production

Back in January, when I was initially given the brief, I instantly knew that I wanted to collaborate with my Dad’s band, Bargain Blooze. Previously, I had filmed their rehearsals and performances on a number of occasions but I had never worked on a music video for them as they currently only perform cover songs. My Dad had mentioned a few times that he had some songs that he wanted to record which I thought would be perfect for this project. Unfortunately, due to everyone’s busy schedules, it would have been almost impossible to record a new song in the space of a few months and film a video in time for the deadline. A couple of weeks later my dad came up with a solution; we film a music video for a song he wrote with his previous band, Devils River Blues Band, specifically the song Last Train (Rainford, 2005). I listened to some of the other songs from the album Dead Man’s Canyon (Devils River, 2005), but I felt that I could produce more of a narrative music video (which was the style I wanted to use) with this song. I also wanted to include a performance of the band as there are three members, using only the lead singer for the narrative sections of the video, then all three during the performance.

The song is about social conditioning, feeling trapped in the 9-5 work day and wanting to find a way out. I wanted to portray this topic in my narrative by interpreting the lyrics slightly. The genre of the song is blues. I went on Youtube.com and watched a couple of blues music videos to give me some inspiration on the style of video I should create such as Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix (1970) and Tears in Heaven Eric Clapton (1992).

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Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix (1970).

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Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton (1992).

When I was watching these videos, I was looking specifically at the camera techniques including composition, movement and transitions. I noticed that the use of fades was common. Another element which I picked up on was the fact that music videos for blues tend to use darker colours which I took into account whilst colour grading later on in post-production. I wanted to follow the same techniques. To further my knowledge of the codes and conventions of music videos for the Blues genre, I attempted to do some research online however, I struggled to find any information and therefore I had to rely on the videos I had watched.

Another video which I looked at was Happiness (Steve Cutts, 2017). The video tells the story of trying to find happiness and fulfilment in today’s society. The reason why I watched this video was to fully understand the theme in order to portray it in my music video effectively. It was this video that inspired me to include time-lapse’s.

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Both my Dad and I had very similar ideas for the video. The only differences being, he wanted to include the quote by Charles Bukowski which can been seen in the opening of my music video and also, the two books which are shown; Brave New World By Aldous Huxley (Huxley, 1932) - a story set in a futuristic society which is based on science and efficiency and I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Matheson, 1954) - a novel focusing on the character Robert Neville who is supposedly the only survivor of a worldwide apocalypse. Both of which are very popular novels which my target audience will hopefully understand, the correlation between these stories and the narrative of both the song and music video.

Being completely honest, I did not write any notes whilst I was planning my ideas as I am more of a visual thinker. I planned it in my head by analysing the lyrics, listening to the song repeatedly and conversing with my dad. Throughout this process, I tried to visualise each scene, and building it up until I had a general idea of how I wanted this music video to look.

As soon as I had my idea, I began my production folder (each stage can be viewed in my previous posts).

Production

Whilst I was filming the scenes on the train, going towards Liverpool, I was supposed to have an extra appearing. As it happens, he got on the train after the one I was on so unfortunately he did not appear on the shoot as planned. Despite this, as we were travelling during rush hour, there were plenty of commuters in the background, on their phones which is what I wanted to capture anyway so this wasn’t really an issue. Once we arrived in Liverpool and has captured the majority of the footage that I wanted for my video, I began filming the time-lapses. I decided to add a few more locations specifically ones which portray commercialism and the rush of people heading to and from work. I had already planned to film on Church street and decided to film more time-lapses in other locations. I moved onto Liverpool One by John Lewis and then The Capital building which contains many offices for various companies. This time-lapse took ten minutes to film and my dad turned 360 degrees a couple of times to represent his character being engulfed in social conditioning. Then I moved onto Rainford Square as a little homage to my surname. When I began to situate my sequence together in post-production, I realised that I needed to film another time-lapse as the total duration for this section was not full as I had planned during pre-production. I went back into Liverpool the following week and filmed it while my dad was on his break from work. Originally, I planned to film this outside the Old Hall Street entrance of Moorfields Train station however, it was absolutely pouring down with rain so we got onto the train and went to Liverpool Central and filmed inside the station instead.

Another change I made during production was for my final shot of the train driving off with the sunset in shot. I decided that as there is currently construction going on next to the train station, the view of the sunset would not appear in frame much. I went to Fisherman’s Path which is by Freshfield train station in Formby. I have walked around that area many times and knew it was a great alternative. I also saved money on travel as this location is closer to home.

Finding the time to film with Bargain Blooze in their studio came with more difficulty than I expected. I kept asking my dad to make the rest of the band aware of my plans in order for us to schedule a suitable date to film. However, the band came across an issue concerning their drummer not being able to attend all gigs meaning, they had to bring in a new stand-in drummer. With many upcoming gigs quickly approaching, it was vital for the new drummer to have as much time as possible to rehearse. This delayed filming and dates kept changing and subsequently, the shoot was left to the last minute. Due to this, I began feeling very anxious about filming, successfully, in time for the deadline. I ended up filming the band in their studio a week before the deadline which wasn’t ideal at all incase I needed to capture more footage. All in all, the band only gave me twenty minutes to film for my music video which I wasn’t happy with at all since I had been planning this for so long. I also got the impression that my dad hadn’t given the other members much detail about what we were doing; for example, they had to learn the song there and then which understandably, made them a little uncomfortable due to the lack of preparation. Fortunately, I had filmed some of their rehearsal and I’m glad I did because I wasn’t able to capture everything I wanted for my music video. Therefore, I had to use some of the rehearsal footage in my music video in a way which syncs up with it.

In both past and recent music videos, I have seen a lot camera movement, some of which was very interesting. I wanted to incorporate this into my music video by being more experimental in terms of using gimbal moves that I have not used before to keep my target audience engaged. The video below gave me a lot of inspiration and I tried to copy some of the techniques used.

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As I was filming a music video using a song from my dad’s old band which his current band mimed, it caused a bit of tension within the band. The bassist was not happy about filming and asked for the music video not to be shared on their Facebook page. Understandably, he’s being protective however, the rest of us could not really understand his issue as the band perform covers anyway so it doesn’t make too much of a difference. Despite this, the video has been shared multiple times by family and friends on Facebook and has almost 200 views on YouTube after one week.

Post-Production

The post-production process was very straight forward. The only technical elements that I used were; cropping a few of the time-lapse shots to align their composition, use of on-screen text and colour grading. I particularly focused on colour grading. I wanted my music video to follow the codes and conventions of a blues music video as the song fits into this genre. As I mentioned earlier, I was unable to find any information on this so I looked at the use of colour in similar videos. I decided to make this video slightly cold looking. I used a LUT which I downloaded called Industrial STD. by Bubvisuals. I then went onto adjust the contrast, highlights (making them warmer by using orange shades), and a vignette.

(Before)

(After)

In conclusion, I am pleased with the way my music video turned out. I found the production process slightly challenging however this pushed me to work harder in order for this project to be successful. I would’ve liked to have experimented with skilful techniques that I haven’t used before however due to the genre of music and from watching similar videos, I found that music videos of this genre are very simple and straightforward in terms of both the style and editing. I will definitely take this into consideration for future projects. I especially enjoyed researching past music videos as I have always had an interest in history. Previously, I had no desire of working on music videos as a career but since completing this project, it has become an interest of mine.

After completing my practice music video, You (Dan Morgans, 2018), I have been contacted by a friend of Dan Morgans to film a music video for him which I will be working on over the summer.

#post-production #music video

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