Solivagant: Reflective Journal

In this reflective journal, I will be taking you through my step by step process of creating the music video for Solivagant by Eric De Asis. The previous steps I have taken before this point is the research music videos, to help get inspiration, and form a scissor reel. With this scissor reel, I have created a storyboard for the main plot of the music video. The first thing was to do was to alter the storyboard, to account for the change in fortune, as the UK was put under a third lock down, meaning I will be a one man team for this production. I altered the storyboard to cover this by limiting the characters, simplifying the shot concepts, as well as changing the filler shot ideas, so that I can use tripods, seeing as I am both the camera man and the actors.

Day 1 (Recces)- The first job was to complete recces, to find the perfect locations for the music video. I wanted to shoot at a few different locations, that look slightly different, because the main focus of the music video is about adventuring, so I wanted it to look like the adventurer is traveling across large areas, to try to find the creature. I did however have to find suitable locations, that at least looked similar. I live in Williton, Somerset, and so there are plenty of walks and public areas around, and so I was spoiled for choice. The locations I ended up wanting to investigate included St. Audries Bay, Staple Plain, Doniford, Sampford Brett, Williton and West Quantocks Head. These were mostly areas I was familiar with, due to dog walks, but I still scouted them all out to check that they were up to par with what I remembered them to be like. After checking all of the sites, I narrowed down the locations to using West Quantocks Head, Staple Plain, as well as locally, in Williton. Doniford was too steep, meaning that it would have been very difficult to place down the tripod, as well as the slopes hampering with access to the site, especially seeing as it was heavy rain during the week I set out to film. Sampford Brett was very nice and I could picture myself using that location, but it was also a popular walking site for dog walkers and families, especially during lock down, more people are out walking, so I decided against using this site, as it will save paper work, and also for parts of the video, I would be using a gorilla costume, so I didn't feel as comfortable with the idea that people could possible see me in the costume dancing around. Sampford Brett wasn't natural enough for the right feel of the music video, with gates being common, as well as industrial power lines in the fields, ruining the aesthetic I was looking for. Finally, the last location I crossed out was St. Audries Bay as this area didn't suit the right aesthetic. I completed recces for the sites that I investigated, and you can find them below;

Day 2 (Risk Assessments)- Next up, I created a risk assessment form, to ensure I was making sure I was taking health and safety seriously, and to evaluate the small and large safety risks when recording the music video at the different locations. The week that I was recording the music, it was very cold, wet and windy, which amplified the need to ensure I was staying safe and within health and safety measures. I completed the risk assessment whilst I was checking out the sites for the recces, by noting a potential health and safety hazard, and then completing the assessment when I got home. Below you can find the health and safety form I completed;

Day 3 (Shot List)- The next step to creating the music video, was to ensure I used my time efficiently, once I was at the site for recording. This is because first of all, I was by myself, and so I didn't want to be there for prolonged periods of time, and also, because if you know exactly what you are doing, when you are doing and why you are doing it, filming footage becomes a lot more organised, as well as quicker to record and more enjoyable. I wanted to create shot list, so that I already knew some of the shots that I wanted to take, and how to take them. I watched the scissor reel as well as reading the story board back a few times, and decided on some shots, some generic, as well as some specific shots for different locations, as well as different scenes. Below you can find the list of shots that I created.

Day 4 (West Quantocks Head shoot 1) - Today was the first shoot day for Solivagant. I decided to choose West Quantocks Head as the first location, because this was the location where I could film the majority of the music video. The shots that I was going to shoot at the location included a lot of the adventurer hiking. These shots were done by placing the camera on a tripod, and shooting it as a mid shot. I wanted to mostly walk from the left of the screen to the right, for continuity throughout the music video, but I also sometimes walked away from the camera, as well as towards the camera. I knew that I would also mess around with the movement of these shots in premier pro, by applying more movement to them to give them an artistic feel. At this location I also recorded some nature and landscape shots by hand, and were more long shots, as well as close ups on flowers and trees etc. It was very wet and muddy on this day, so I had to have the correct shoes on. I also found a good location for the final scene, and so I did a bit of thinking about how the final dance scene with the creature should go, and started recording. This scene starts with the adventurer finding the lair, of which I used a 'U' shaped tree to appear from which I thought looked very artistic. The final scene involved me putting on a gorilla costume, and I had already walked past a few people on the walk, and so I was very wary of the public. I researched some basic dance moves to complete, although as soon as I put the costume, most of the dance moves were improvised. This dance scene involved different types of shot, and I was also cold, and wanted to finish as soon as possible as I had been at the sight for around 5 hours at this point. I set up the tripod, and completed dances for around 1 minute, before switching the position of the tripod, and dancing for 1 minute again. I did this for 5 camera shots, including 1 long shot, 2 mid shots, 1 close up and 1 extreme close up. After this was completed I headed back to the car to go home. I reviewed the footage once I got home, and got rid of some of the footage that wasn't up to standard. Due to some of the shots being on a tripod, and me not having a subject to focus on, some shots didn't turn out right, or were overexposed or blurry, so these were the shots I got rid of.

Day 5 (Staple Plain) - The next day, I decided to visit my second location of Staple Plain. This location was arguably the most picturesque location of the 3. I wanted to complete more hiking shots, as well as hand held scenery and nature shots, but I also wanted to create the skit scene shots. The skit scenes include the adventurer finding the creatures poop scene, the binocular scene, as well as the adventurer reading the book scene. I went about this day by walking around the location in a loop multiple times. The first time I looped around, I was taking tripod hiking footage, as well as handheld nature and landscape footage. At the same time I was looking at which locations would be the best for the skits. The first skit I recorded was the binoculars scene, of which included 4 parts. The first part, was handheld looking across at an area, of which in edit, I would make it look like the shot is from the perspective of binoculars. The next shot was a tripod shot, looking at the adventurer who is using the binoculars. The third shot is the same area as the first shot, with the binoculars effect, but this time, the gorilla creature runs across the screen. The fourth and final shot is the adventurer putting the binoculars down and looking surprised. The next skit I recorded was the book scene. This was 2 easy shots. The first being a tripod shot of the adventurer reading a book. This book is supposed to be about the creature that the adventurer is trying to locate, and the second shot is a close up, birds eye view of the book, open on a page, in which I printed out a picture of the first frame of the gorilla dance, so that when it comes to editing, I can use this as a transition between the adventurer walking around and the gorilla dance. The last skit was the adventurer eating the creatures' poop. This again involved 2 scenes. The first being an extreme close up of fake poop, meant to be the creatures. The next scene shows the adventurer rising from kneeling down to get some poop, and I used chocolate icing on my finger to act as poop. The adventurer then tastes what is on his finger, and then carries on walking. I then also tried to shoot a bit of the car scene, but I didn't like what I shot, and decided to do it a different day, and possible just do it in my drive at home. Later on this day I went out in the car with my parents, to record some passenger seat scenery shots, of both the road, and the scenery as we drove by. I went through all of the footage once I was home, and deleted any that were not up to standard.

Day 6 (Williton) - On this day, I decided to first, go to the woods near my house, to record some more hiking footage, as well as the final gorilla dance scenes, as well as recording some drone footage as well. I already know the location, so I planned my route at home, so that I could record the gorilla dance scenes last. First of all, I went to an open location in a field, that is right next to a forest. At this location, I recorded the drone footage. The footage consisted of the drone slowly scaling the forest, as well as flying slowly over the top of the forest, with the camera angle tilted slightly down. I didn't record much drone footage as I am not very confident with flying the drone and I think that there might have been people in the forest so I didn't want to push my luck. Next up, I walked around to the gorilla dance location, but on my way, I also recorded hiking footage and mature/landscape footage. I had a few trips trying to set up some of the tripod shots due to the wet ground but nothing serious. Finally I got to the gorilla dancing spot, in which I had already rehearsed what dances I would do for this area. These shots were all mid shots, all in one spot, of which I would edit later on. I went home to review the footage, and delete anything not up to par. The only scene left to film was the opening car scene, that I would do the new day.

Day 7 (Williton) - The final scene to film was the opening 15 seconds of the song, where the adventurer packs his bags into his car, and sets off towards the location of the creature. I got inspiration from the 'Keep it Gold' music video by surfaces, and so I had a good idea of what I was doing for the opening shot. The first two shots were close ups, followed by an array of mid shots, of which I would choose between in edit. After that, I needed a shot of the car leaving, to transition to the travel and drone footage. A simple clip of the car driving down the driveway would do the trick. After this, I was done with the recording for the music video, and all that was left was editing the final piece together.

Day 8 (Editing) - The first step to editing this music video, was to piece together the different scenes. To make it more simple to edit, first of all, I individually overlooked all of the footage, and removed any clips that I didn't think were interesting or well shot. With the remaining clips, I went in to all of them, and timestamped the best parts of the clips, so I knew what I was working with from each clip, that I could increase/ decrease the time from later on when they were on the timeline. Most of the editing done for this music video was beat editing, and so a lot of the clips were of similar length, which made editing slightly easier. I was doing absolutely no colour correction or applying visual edits to the footage at this moment in time, as I would do it all when the clips were pieced together. The majority of the music video was simply choosing what clips to go at what times of the song, apart from the gorilla dancing parts of the song.These parts of the song were a lot more edit intense, with faster edits, as well as following motions and slightly changing the speeds. After around 5-6 hours, the first edit was complete. I now needed to alter the look of the clips to look more aesthetic, and vibrant.

Day 9 (Colour Correction and Luts) - Today I was tasked with finding a unique look for my music video, including finding a Lut that looks right, as well as adjusting the individual clips to change the brightness/ contrast and other factors of the clips, due to me not being able to do so manually with the camera, because a lot of the clips were on tripods, with me being the actor in the clip. First of all I created adjustment layers for brightness and contrast and altered the individual clips so they looked well shot and not over or under exposed. The next stage was to find a Lut that brought the best out of the footage. I went through a bunch of the Luts that I have installed to my Premier Pro, and finally settled on using the 'Celestobarite' Lut. This applied a vibrant orange colour to my clips, of which worked well due to the majority of my clips containing dull greens and browns, so the orange made them more vibrant and colourful. I adjusted the colour intensities as well as vibrancy and saturation of the Lut on each of the clips, keeping in mind I couldn't change it too much, to keep consistency on my clips. After the colour was consistent and I was happy with the look and aesthetic of all the footage, I decided to add black horizontal curtains on the top and bottom of the overall footage, to give off a more cinematic feel. I had to readjust a few of the clips to fit in with the new dimensions, but after about another 5-6 hours, I was done with the colour manipulation.

Day 10 (Final Edits) - On the last day, I went over the full music video, and changed a few clips, as well as perfecting a couple of the edits, especially focusing on the dance scenes. Making sure the beat editing was perfect, as well as making the dance scenes more explosive with faster edits when needed, as well as applying small edits to the rest of the clips. At this point I was finally happy with the finished product, and I was ready to send it to the client for some feedback.

This was the end of the reflective journal, and I will now be producing a final evaluation, as well as talking about the many improvements I could make on the music video, and lessons I have learned for future productions. I will also be talking about client feedback, and what I think I did well in the project, and what can be improved. But for now, I think that, for a production riddled by Covid restrictions, I am proud of the outcome. Below you can find the first edit of the song, and below that, the final edit.

First Edit;

Final Edit - Here is a link to the youtube video, as it is too big to be posted on Wix;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq2KC6GgaP4&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=Ravin%27Gavin