What I Have Learnt from my Lip Syncing Task:

Digital Technology /Post - production

I learnt that several problems come with using a green screen. For example, if the natural lighting varies throughout the room, this can have a disastrous effect when applying the green screen effects later when editing due to the green either being lighter than the whole green sheet and being ignored by the computer or the sun making me look paler, therefore I sink into the background when edited. Therefore, people of darker skin would stand out against the background when edited.

Image 1

 Creating distance when filming with a green screen is difficult as you have to fit the whole green sheet into frame otherwise walls, lights etc, are not edited out easily. Because of this, we had to (poorly) film the shots with back up dancers and Snoop Dogg separately, then edit them together later. It would have been much easier to have some sort of green room to use.  

Creases in the sheet or clothing also create a dark shadow, ignored by the green screen. We had problems with this. (See image 1) 

Image 2

If clothes worn while filming were close to green (such as blue or yellow) they would not be picked up. (See image 2). To recreate the music video, we had to copy the key features of it. This music video was all in black and white. We did this by exporting out video in colour, and without the picture on picture, which we added on in a new project after exporting it. To download the original ‘Drop it like it’s hot’ music video, we had to use an online YouTube to video converter. We did the same for the music and then edited both so they would start 23 seconds in.

Creativity

Our props included ice cubes (made ourselves); a glass that was as similar to that in the music video as possible, several snapbacks, clothing changes such as t-shirts, hoodies and polo shirts; and a beard drawn on with black eyeliner.

Research and Planning

I made a detailed story board of every shot and its time in order to make editing much simpler. Whilst editing, I also referred back to the original music video very often to check that my music video flowed as well as the original.

Using Conventions

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I found the dance moves by Snoop Dogg and the backup dancers represented the lyrics in the song. For example, the lyric ‘park it like it’s hot’ the dancers and snoop dog can be seen ‘reversing a car’. There were several close up shots of Snoop Dogg and Pharrell William’s face with a harsh facial expression, common of the genre. We had to study these to recreate it ourselves. By recreating Snoop Dogg's signature facial hair with eyeliner, wearing snap backs, hoodies and baggy t-shirts, we represented the RnB/rap genre well.

Image 4

There were several shots over the 30 seconds: framing of these shots also varied greatly which added to the pace of the rap song due to the quick cross cutting, matching well with the songs tempo. When artists break the 4th wall (which is common with mean expressions such as (See image 3), it pushes the idea of a 'badman' rap image paired with the ostentatious bragging of large boats and 'bling'. (See image 4)