Happy Music Video

Happy Music Video

For this task I had to film two ten second videos to the song 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. The first video had to be lip synced to the lyrics and the second had to be a performance. 

'Happy' by Pharrell Williams

The style of Pharrell William's music video of 'Happy' has a positive and bright mood/atmosphere which works perfectly with the uplifting beat and lyrics. The brightly coloured simple tracking shots capture joyful people dancing, lip synching, clapping etc. this helps forms a unified and immersive video which radiates happiness. The tone, alike the style and mood collectively adds to the video's optimistic perspective, with sunshine seeping through in each shot, alongside the hazy orange colour grading; together create a comforting and warm visual. The purpose of the music videos simple style was to create a reel using various shots that play alongside the song for 24 hrs. I have watched a small section fo the 24 hr version when the song was release in 2014, this I felt worked, however in a short form music video I thought it could be more creative and experimental. I chose this original music video of Pharrell William's 'Happy' as I preferred the pace of the song in comparison to the cover. The quick and catchy beat I thought would be more effective when timing my visual effects to the song. 

My response to being given this music video was disappointment, as I felt the song was too repetitive  and I thought I would struggle trying to create and think of visual ideas to add to the song as there is a lack of storyline in the lyrics. I also thought the music video was quite bland and dull in terms of its cinematography and shots which gave me little inspiration to draw from.

'Happy' Cover by Kina Grannis

The style of Kina Grannis's music video of 'Happy' is similar in terms of its positive mood and simple shooting style, however, it experiments with layered sounds captured using natural echoes of objects and drums, while also being layered with the singer's voice. I personally found her voice to be overly auto tuned which did not fit alongside the more natural and raw sounding beat. Another way in which this music video differs from the original, is the editing style, this video visually plays around with scale sizes and captures both the singer lip syncing and the musician creating the beat using objects around him. I found this editing technique alongside the brightly filtered shots, gave a pace to the video and formed a natural, optimistic tone. 

I did not choose this cover as I found the production of the song to be poor and disliked the way in which the singer's voice was auto tuned because it sounded too artificial and lacked emotion or emphasis, which I felt would not work as well with visual effects, in comparison to Pharrell William's original version.

My response to being given this cover as an option to use for my own video was again disappointing, as I had hoped to be given different songs to choose from because I struggled to find a storyline from the lyrics as they lacked symbolism and purpose. Although the music video preaches positivity, there is very little meaning behind the words that allow the listeners to find hope in, besides being told they 'should be happy' why not try and preach a reason. 

First Idea - lip sync

The time frame I selected from the music video is 0.00 to 0.17 seconds. My initial idea for this scene was to create a dual mirror visual effect which would give the illusion that another version of the protagonist appears in the mirror lip syncing to the lyrics as they fade into the scene.

The image below is a sketch of the visual effect in a storyboard to capture the framing, lighting and msie-en-scene of the shot.

To create this effect, I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to mask two shots into one scene using a mirror. I found this tutorial to be useful and clear. Once I finished researching how to make the effect, I struggled to create it myself, as framing my actor in the same position (for when the transition occurs) it looked visually poor, to change this I faded in the opacity of the 'happier' reflection to make it more obvious that another version of the character had replaced the reflection. I used a software called Adobe After Effects which allowed me to mask the two scenes together and add feathering to make the mad edges smoother. 

To create this visual effect, I firstly imported my two scenes and audio and layered them in time.

Secondly, I then masked out the mirrors framing of the 'happier' version clip and cut it to the timing of the 'sad' scene. I also faded in the opacity of the clip to give a more visually disorientating transition, that would enhance the mirror's new reflection of the 'happier' protagonist.

The video below is a rough cut of my attempt at creating the dual mirror visual effect. I did not like how it turned out as I felt the transition between the 'happier' version of the protagonist in the reflection looked unrealistic and amateur. I will be creating a second idea for this lip syncing video as I want to allow myself more opportunity of adding more visual effects and graphics. 

Second idea  - lip sync

Time frame - 0.00 - 0.17

My second lip sync idea was more basic and consisted of my protagonist sitting in an open field with natural sunlight lighting the shot. I thought this visual might work better as I felt it fitted alongside the lyrics more because the setting not only radiates 'positivity' in terms of its brightly lite setting but also would allow me to experiment and add with animated graphics and text, as I can add them around the protagonist in the background, allowing me to be more creative with my visual effect skills. 

First Idea - performance =

Time frame - 1.50 - 1.60

My initial idea for this video was to play around with natural light and shadows. I imagined a shot of my protagonist's shadow dancing in a open field, I thought this would be simple to create and would also allow me the freedom of adding visual effects as the scenery would not be cluttered or enclosed but open. I also wanted to add a few experimental shots of my protagonist, either running, lying in grass, etc. I wanted imagery that would radiate freedom and escapism so that I could give my video more meaning alongside the positive lyrics and beat of the song. 

Happy Music Video - Lip Sync and Performance

The video below will lead you to my video of both the lip sync and performance, I have added edited them both into one video. The opening of the video, I created to practise using stop-motion animation, I also thought it would work effectively as a introduction to my video. 

For my lip sync video, I recorded my actor miming along with the lyrics as it played in the background so they could be prompted with timing. Once I was in post-production, I layered the audio of the studio version of the song onto to the lip synced footage, adjusted it in time and faded out the audio. 

Visuals - To add some visual effects and style to my video, I added a warm toned colouring to my footage which helped enhance the yellow tones in the shot. To do this I added the effect 'Lumetri colour' which has colour wheels that allowed me to change the colours of the shadows and tones. I also added one sketch graphic that outlines the protagonist for a few seconds in a frame by frame style, as shown below. To do this I used the brush tool, double clicked on my layer and set the frame rate of the animation to 1fps then drew my sketches frame by frame.

Lastly, I masked some text into the background in a yellow colouring to emphasis the lyrics, the effect I created is shown below. To do this I created a text layer, typed in the quoted lyrics, positioned them to slide out of the protagonist's head, then copy and pasted another layer of the original footage, masked around the second layer, then positioned the mask frame by frame in order for it to look as if the text was behind the protagonist. 

For the performance, I used two shots, both of the protagonist's shadow dancing, however the second one is timed to the beat. The first shot is layered with a low opacity to create an ethereal visual, I also added two small frame by frame sketches to practise using my 2D animation skills while also making the visual more fun and creative.

Evaluation

What were you asked to do?

For this task I was asked to shoot my own footage of someone lip syncing the lyrics of 'Happy' by Pharrel Williams, then I had to overlap in post-production (After Effects and Premiere Pro) the audio of original song in time with the lip sync. After I finished matching the audio to the footage, I had to then make animated visuals to go with the video. For the animation, I created outlined scribbled effects that moved frame-by-frame in the background, I also quoted a line from one of the song lyrics and masked it into the background, so that when it is revealed it looks as though it were sliding into the background behind my actor's head.

Did you need any help? - if so did you get it from a peer/teacher/google/figure it out by trial and error?

Yes, I struggle to mask an animation in Premiere Pro and asked one of my peers to help me, he showed me step by step the process of layering the mask and making sure I had all the correct settings and positioning of my keyframes, which I then realised I had not set correctly, but with their help the animation eventually worked. 

Did you play with the setting?

Yes, I did play with around on After Effects, using the paint tool, I learnt how to animate frame-by-frame and change the settings of the frame rate by selecting 'custom' in the animation pen tool settings, this allows me to control the duration of movement within each frame. Experimenting with these settings allowed me to know for future projects how to create hand drawn animations and taught me how to change the frame rate of my animations.

How does the scribbly line effect suit the Bruno Mars song?

I personally believe the scribbly line effect suits the Bruno Mars song because it works alongside the movement of the dancer (being Bruno Mars himself) by being timed to his movements and to the beat of the song, creating a satisfying visual. I also believe the scribble effect gives the video more energy as it is bold yet quick in its motion, similar to that of the dancer.

What sort of effect(s) might suit a dance/techno artist's music video?

I believe an effect that would suit a dance/techno artist's music video would be 3D animation in time with the beats of the song, either surrounding a dancer or illustrated animations that reflect the lyrics of the song (much like the Bruno Mars video). I also believe another visual effect that would work in a dance/techno music video would be masked overlays, this effect is commonly used in rap music videos with either smoke, glow, skeleton figure overlays etc. I feel this effect would suit a dance/techno music video because it creates visuals that are entertaining while also allowing various imagery to be created using lighting and colours.

What sort of effect(s) might suit a heavy metal band?

I believe that an effect which would suit a heavy metal band would be 2D animation, this effect has been used in many heavy metal videos as it characters and cartoons can be created and intertwined into the music video either for fun or with a meaning/message about the song. Another effect I believe a heavy metal band might use in a music video would be the use of overlays as an overlay of fire can be layered into shots giving them the appearance that fire is present (as fire is also used commonly in heavy music videos because of its symbolism).

Briefly, how did you make the effect?

To create the squiggle effect, I used Premiere Pro. I first used the rectangle tool to create three thin shapes, added the effect 'roughen edges' to create the squiggle, then added the effect 'circle' to my shape layer, selected in the settings 'stencil alpha' and positioned my keyframes. Lastly, I then added a second 'circle' effect to my shape layer and selected 'stencil alpha' and 'invert circle' and my visual animation effect was complete.

Are there transferable skills you learned that you could use to do any other effects?

Yes, after having learnt how to create the squiggle effect I can now transfer the skill of animating shapes into other projects. I can also add the squiggle part of the effect into other animations I create in the future, and now I have understood how to mask shapes using Premiere Pro using the 'circle' tool, which will transferable when animating other objects and shapes in my future projects. 

What effects did you learn how to do yourself?

An effect I learnt how to do by myself was frame-by-frame 2D animation on After Effects. 

Briefly outline how you did them?

I learnt this effect by experimenting with the pen tool and created small lines surrounding my actor in the 'happy' lip sync video. I also watched a tutorial on Youtube which helped teach me how to change the frame rate of my animations.

Was this something you might want to do more of?

Yes, I would like to experiment with more 2D animation on After effects, I'd particularly like to learn how to animate characters expressions and movement more. However, I prefer filming, it would be interesting to play around with more 2D animation. 

Animation Practise - Happy Music Video Audio

For this task, I created 50 second long of animation to visually go alongside the song 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. To create this animation, I used the software After Effects.  I firstly added solid layers and illustrated some characters to my composition, then animate them I used the transform tool and layered small effects such as optical compensation, gaussian blur and motion blur onto my text and illustrations to give them more movement. Overall, I enjoyed this task as it allowed me to experiment and broaden my skills on After Effects while also giving me creative freedom.