Wednesday 26th October 2011 / Wednesday 2nd November 2011

On both these days I edited the music video using Final Cut Pro. I had to chop up three different files of footage, whilst making sure they flowed well throughout the video and also making sure that the cuts sat well with the different lyrics during the song. The only bit of footage that I didn't fill was a brief 30second period during the clip where I aim to put footage of children or something along those lines in just to break it up a bit and make the clip have a bit more atmosphere / appeal. I also added in an Album cover to the beginning of the clip as well as make scrolling text credits at the end on the video.

Wednesday 19th October 2011

Today we filmed the music video in the photography studio. We set up 3 cameras. One camera was set on a wide mid shot which we centered using the HD camera. The other two camera's we setup either side of the room and angled them in towards Jess and Oliver across them. We only needed 20mins to set up thanks to the help from Cam, Damo, Sarah and Taylah. Once we were setup we started shooting. We got what we needed in the first take which was great. Overall it was a successful shoot and hopefully the footage will look good once on the computer. Next week I plan to start editing the clip.

Wednesday 12th October 2011

First lesson back for term 4 we worked on out tutorials. Taylah and myself also organised our filming schedule for our music video. We planned to film the clip in the photography studio using 3 cameras. We aimed to make the photography studio look like a recording studio by setting up a microphone. If all goes according to plan then we should be able to film next week in class.

Wednesday 14th September 2011

Today I was absent from class due to my involvement in "Showtime 2011" state school spectacular.

"Wow, where do I begin? Being part of such a professional production like Showtime 2011 was fantastic. The opportunity to work with so many different industry professionals was invaluable; including lighting, sound, cast movement, etc. The hours were very long, but very rewarding. I see it as a great opportunity for anyone pursuing a career in the industry whilst still at school. Throughout the week at Hisense Arena, I was blown away by the professionalism of all those involved with the production, not only the amazing cast and orchestra but the phenomenal crew working backstage. Participating in the State School Spectacular re-inforced my belief that my dream of becoming an Events Manager in the future is real and achievable! I met some wonderful people, many of whom no doubt, I will have long-term friendships with. I look forward to other experiences such as this in the near future and I cant wait to get involved in the State School Spectacular in 2012." 

Wednesday 7th September 2011

Today I was on day 2 of work placement at PRG (production resource group) http://www.prg.com/ in Dandgenong. I working with the lighting rigging crew to make looms for the several lighting trusses needed for the state school spectacular next week at Hisense Arena. I had to run out hundreds of meters worth of cable and then loom them together using electrical tape. Then I had to tag and label each loom at both ends with specifically coloured tape so that the crew next week will know exactly where the cable needs to go and which lighting truss it belongs to. I then put the looms into specific road-cases ready to be put on the truck on friday. It was a great experience to learn what goes into preparing for a production as big as the state school spectacular. Everyone at PRG were really nice and taught me heaps about different aspects of production that I had not have had experience in. Hopefully I will work alongside some of the crew from PRG during bump in for School Spec next week.

Wednesday 31st August 2011

Today we recorded Jess' song in the studio for the music video. Seeing that it was only vocals and acoustic guitar that we had to record, it didn't take us long to set up the studio and start recording. Firstly i set up a KSM27 on a mic stand with a pop filter on the front of it. I plugged this mic into channel 1 on the desk. Then I set up a SM57 on a stand positioned around 5 inches from the sound hole of Olivers guitar. I then ran a channel through the DI and into the guitar. Jess (vocals) and Oliver (guitar) both did a few run throughs so that we could get an understanding for different levels of the mics and also to see where the peaks in the track were so our levels matched accordingly to that. Once all the levels were correct Taylah and myself were able to start recording. We only needed to record the track twice which was really good. Jess sang really well into the mic which made it easier to get clarity within the track. Oliver originally had his guitar set on half volume and the signal strength wasn't very strong so we boosted it to full to help balance the vocals and guitar before recording, much like what you would do for a live performance, however this brought us peaks on the guitar signal so we once again brought olivers guitar back to half level volume and then adjusted the vocal signal accordingly. The only hard thing about recording Jess' song was that it had low and high parts which made balancing the track difficult. Overall I believe the track turned out reasonably well. The vocal signal was good considering it was a live recording with the acoustic guitar. If I wanted to produce a better quality track then I probably should have recording the vocals and acoustic guitar separately at different times so that I could then get a better overall mix.

Wednesday 17th August 2011

Today we finished off our international promos. We then filmed some footage for a music class. Our groups theme was the word "calm". So we filmed a few different things at school such as trees blowing in the wind. We then went online and found some images of young children playing and smiling. We used this to create our short clip for inspiration for the music students. We used soundtrack pro to create an acoustic track that we could use to help edit our clip. However once the editing is completed we will remove the song track so that the music students can use the footage to help inspirer them to compose their own music. Tomorrow we will head to north brighton to attend sessions at the 2011 Bayside Film Festival.