Green Screen

Today in lesson we learned about the ideas of green screening. As we have not yet done this, it is a new feature to us so we were unsure on how to do this so far. However, it could be a very useful thing to include when it comes to filming our music videos so we are going to learn how to use green screening. In the lesson we were shown an example of green screening so that we could see the different stages of the videos and the final product. We did this in iMovie.
The idea of green screening is to remove the background from a video and be able to replace it with an image or another video.

This is what our example looked like:

 Here, you can see that the original image was a woman in front of a green screen and after editing she was stood in front of a video of rain.

Photoshop Technique - Image Inside Text

Putting an Image Inside Text

To insert an image into text, you start off my opening up an image in Photoshop, you then type the text you want to insert an image into and then Rasterize the text so that it can be treated as an image.

You then select the text using the magic wand tool, you must make sure that you have selected every letter.

Once you have selected each letter, you save this selection. Here I have chosen to save this selection as “Text” because I have selected the text.

Once I had saved my selection, I inserted the image that I want to place inside my text. I then choose the rectangular select tool on the toolbar and use the mouse to drag a rectangle to select the part of the image that I want to use. Then I use ‘cmd+c’ to copy this selection.

Once you have copied the portion of the image that you are going to use, go to select on the top bar and load selection. Then choose the text that you saved from earlier and your selection will be highlighted.

When the text is highlighted, go to edit at the top and select special paste and paste into. Now your image should paste into the text. 

When your image has pasted into the text, go to the layers on the right of the page and click between the two images to lock them together. You will not be able to move them as one image instead of separately. You have now got text with an image inside.

I put a few different Photoshop techniques together and created this poster for a Hardwell tour. This was a practice poster but it is an example of what I am able to do in Photoshop and I will use similar techniques to create a tour poster for our created artist when we get to that stage of production.

This is my own version of this technique. This is to the theme of the Red Bull Harbour Reach wakeboarding competition that took place in Liverpool earlier on in the summer. I have simply used the text "Harbour Reach" and have inserted the Red Bull logo into it.

Photoshop

Throughout this year, my coursework is based on the creation of a music video. However, as we are creating our own artist, we are going to also be creating different items such as posters and album covers. As these features are images with text over and different uses of graphics, I am going to be using Photoshop. I have used Photoshop through AS level media and sometimes for my own personal use so I already have some experience with this software. I am comfortable using this software and I am going to use my current skills to create my poster and album cover and develop my skills further through A2.

Camera Movements

Zoom In
Represented as 'tight' (T) on a camera. 
A zoom in is used to create a close up on an object or a character. This would usually be done to show the significance of a particular object in the scene or to show the facial expressions of characters. This can commonly be seen when two or more characters are having a conversation.
A lot of films feature this camera movement because it can help to create a particular mood which the target audience would be able to pick up on because it would relate to what is happening in the rest of the film.

Zoom Out
Represented as 'wide' (W) on a camera.
A zoom out often reveals the rest of the location/environment in a particular scene. Zooming out can also show a group of people in a single frame that you wouldn't be able to see zoomed in. This gives a bigger perspective of a situation and also used a lot during films and also in music videos.

Tracking
Tracking camera movements create a smooth, consistent movement.
This technique is filmed on a dolly. This is where the camera is based on a mount that runs on a mini train track, this keeps the camera perfectly still whilst moving. Tracking shots are mostly used when the frame is following a car or a character that is walking from one place to another.

Pan
A pan shot is where the camera moves smoothly from one side to another.
This can be seen a lot in the Breaking Bad series, particularly in the desert. This is used to show the size of the environment for emphasis. This is good because it can set the scene for particular parts of a show and it can also reveal extra details that you wouldn't normally see.

Whip Pan
A whip pan is the same as a normal pan shot but happens a lot quicker. 
This sort of shot can be seen in the Fast and Furious film series, mostly during racing scenes when the cars go past the camera at high speeds. Other uses are also in conversation for switching between people talking, although this isn't too common because it has had bad feedback from audiences as it can make people feel quite dizzy after a while.

Arc
An arc shot moves the camera around a subject in an arc shape, this creates a depth of field.
This would normally be used to show the surroundings of a single character, giving more of a perspective of what that character can see. This can sometimes also act as a close up shot where you would be able to see the expressions of the character, giving a better idea on the mood of the scene.

Crane Shot
This is where a camera is placed at the end of a crane which is controlled by a person either on the ground or on the crane with the camera.
This sort of filming is commonly used during live performances such as gigs or festivals in order to be able to film above the crowds. This allows camera crews to film both a performer and the crowds to create a better atmosphere in a video, the camera can also move around very easily so a lot of filming can be done easily.

Steadicam
This is where a camera is mounted onto a camera crew member's chest with a harness.
This filming method is commonly used during TV shows when the camera follows characters walking or in conversation.

Aerial Shot
This is a constant shot filmed from above.
This is often seen during the introduction to different TV shows such as The Apprentice where the city of London is filmed from above. This shows the size of a location and can also act as a fill between different scenes.

One method of filming an aerial shot is to use a remote controlled helicopter with a camera mounted onto it, however this is not used commonly as it is not a very reliable method and the equipment required can be very costly.

The more common method of filming aerial shots is to get a piloted helicopter and get the film crew to go into the helicopter and film from there. This costs less money and the crew also have more control on what is being filmed.

Hand Held Camera
This is where the camera is held by hand to give a more personal filming perspective.
This technique has been mostly used in the horror genre to make the films look like they were filmed by real people as things have happened. This has been seen in films such as Rec and The Blair Witch Project. Since being used by The Blair Witch Project, this style of filming has become more popular and very common in the particular genre.

Lip Sync Choices

Read My Mind – The Killers (October 2006)

I have chosen this song because it is a song that I used to listen to a lot when I was younger and also reminds me of when I went to America for the first time. I also know the song quite well and it seems like a straightforward song to lip sync.

There are various different meanings behind the song that people have developed but most commonly the meaning has come up as being about life going on even if we pause and that we need to break out of our own personal bubbles in order to see the world.

The video features the band making their way around a city in Japan. As the band is not from Japan, this is a very good way of showing the meaning of the song. This is because it makes the video more cultural as it is set in a country not generally affiliated with the band.

Hero of War – Rise Against (May 2009)

I have chosen this song because this too was a song that I used to listen to when I was younger, mainly through senior school. I also know this song well as this was one of my favourite bands for a while.

This song is about how nations see members of their armies as heroes but on the flip side they are seen as the enemy. The song runs through the process of becoming a soldier leading up to what happens on the front line. The lyrics are all backed up by the video being presented to the target audience as a narrative. The clips often run with the lyrics where what is being said in the verse is happening at the same time in the video. This represents the lyrics well and gives off the meaning of the song easily. As well as filming a narrative, there is a lot of performance footage in the video of a single artist playing guitar and singing in a similar environment to that you would find a soldier in, directly relating to the lyrics and the meaning of the video.

Linkin Park – In The End (November 2001)

I first heard this song a few years ago when I was younger and was the first song that I heard by this band. The song is about the lead singer’s struggles that he had whilst he was growing up and how problems do not matter once they are over with. This is represented by the lyrics

“In the end, it doesn’t even matter”

The video to this song does not relate to the lyrics, as it is mostly a performance video where members are in the desert. The song is aggressive which is shown by the expressions of the artist and the use of cameras to emphasize the artist.

Nickelback – How You Remind Me (August 2001)

This is a song that came from my childhood as my mum often played Nickelback songs in the car on long journeys. I know this song very well and as Nickelback were a huge band from my childhood I it suitable to use this song to lip sync.

In the music video there are a lot of performance clips, which I think are suitable for the genre as it is a rock song. The style of the artist and the way the video is filmed makes it look like the camera is from the point of view of someone in the audience of a live gig. The lighting is lower than that of videos from genres such as pop which again is suitable to the genre because the music tends to be more aggressive.

The meaning of the song is to tell the audience about a dysfunctional relationship that I think the video represents well. When the lead singer is looking directly at the camera, the camera is looking through the point of view of the female in the relationship and the lead singer is singing directly to them.  Throughout the video, the main focus is on the lead singer of the band. This is because the song is about a relationship that he has had that went wrong. The acting along with the lyrics work well together because just by watching the video you can pick up on the meaning of the song because of the way the characters act with each other and the low lighting sets the mood.