First Cut

After putting down a rough placement of all the footage we were going to use in the Music video (on the timeline). The next step included the synchronization of the video with the audio. Our music video had the use of both diegetic (Sound Effects) and Non diegetic (Music) sounds. Mahnoor used the method of syncing sound in a orderly fashion as she went further down the audio. Certain Audio cues were linked up on time with their visual cues.

The first thing she started was the construction of the opening diegetic scene which included several telephones. As the telephone visuals progressed the multiple ringings of telephones increased in intensity.

Mahnoor achieved this by over lapping several ringing sounds in a certain order (so they still have some form of clarity when ringing and its not a loud jumbled mess of sound). The audio she took was royalty free of the internet (Website Linked Here). She had to cut the sounds out of their original loops and make up her own varied loops. Another thing she did was that she started the clip with slightly lower pitched ringers and as the audio began to pile she used higher pitched ringing sounds so they can be heard more clearly amidst the other ringing. I wanted the viewer to notice the increasing intensity sounds with changed pitches.

On the image above you can see the the intervals at which she spaced out the ringings. At one point all four ringers are playing together, the noise then dies out at the shot of the red lip telephone before its picked up by the protagonist.

As the red telephone scene progress there was an instant where audio of the protagonist saying "Hello" needed to be added. At first Mahnoor assumed that she would have to plug in a decent microphone on to her laptop and directly record a hello as a voice over audio and sync it up and maybe tweak the audio to make it sound more phone radio/phone muffled, but by absolute luck she was reminded of another song she heard that had a similar audio sample of a woman saying "Hello". The song in question was ironically called Hello By Clairo.

So she decided to download a Mp4 version of the YouTube video from a clip convertor service provided online. The audio was solely used for creative purposes only. The Hello synced up perfectly with the visuals.

Another thing she added during the diegetic non musical part of the Music video was a long clip of White Noise that she got off YouTube in a similar fashion as the "Hello" Audio. She wanted to added static sound so that the silence didn't seem too awkward. The white static helps build up the anxiousness she feels along side the hand held camera feel.
A small a part that she missed while screen shotting the image above was the addition of a receiver pick up sound to give a more material feel to the phone. (Audio sourced from here)

 

The next thing she added was a Title card for the Music video. This included 3 Lines of text synced with the progression of a musical loop. This included "I got your message" ,the song title "Red Tide Rats", the band's name and lastly "Sad production", the imaginary production house.

Just like the text titles a montage was similarly synced up with the sound loops (highlighted with yellow for clarity)

  

Since the rough cut was done most of the footage was arranged with an approximate time in mind. When it came to editing with the music there were a few mistimed shots. In order to fix that some footage was sped up, cut a little short or removed enter. The removed footage included the red yarn sequence and a extra close up shot of the protagonist running their hand through their hand in the residence scene. This was done to fit all the priority scenes in. During the shoot we recorded a plethora of extra footage just in case if something didn't fit the final cut. similarly the yarn sequence was cut because it no longer fit with the progression of the music video seamlessly. When on its own the yarn took too long to unfold and when it was sped up the footage looked unnatural compared to the speed of the other footage.

When the first half of the non-diegetic musical sequence was edited the next step was to add the dramatic build up sequence (which had no music) she prepared it in a similar manner as to the first half containing no music with the ringing telephones discussed above. Mahnoor used a few more sound effects such as button pressing of a cassette player, cassette button pause click, ringing and later on a phone disconnect sound effect. this was done to increase the realistic material feel of these objects. more white noise was added during the silent phone conversation part to cancel out the void feeling presented by complete awkward silence. it also gave a slight eerie tone to the sequence which amplifies the anticipation and denial portrayed by the protagonist.

-(Audio sources)

The subtitles were added on the basis of creative purposes. we originally planned to add subtitles instead of a recorded voice over to put in for the person on the other end of the phone call.

The dialogue was short and precise, the message was conveyed with a small pause to show the protagonist's visual reaction to the the break up 'command'.

phone disconnect sound effect - Play button click

The image above shows further use of the phone disconnect sound effect and the clicking of the cassette player's play button. this was done to bridge the gap between the silent sequence and the music turning back on. The audio level of the music starting back on was lowered and increased in intensity so that the clicking of the play button was more prominent and acted as a audio cue for the music being turned back on.

Music Fade in

In the music video there were some match on action scenes which included fast cuts as the protagonist quickly moved across the screen. Mahnoor used the marker tool to mark out the exact points where she wanted to the footage to overlap and later cut. 

Once all the narrative was done and set by cutting out excess and applying the required effects. It came to the part of fitting in all performance sequences which included several shots of the protagonist dancing, lip syncing and a few quick montages. When adding in the performance scenes Mahnoor made sure to add equal amounts of each so there wasn't too much repetition or concentration of a single colour on screen for too long. In cases where the footage did not fit the video was sped up slightly to allow it to fit in between the other performance shots and the fixed narrative placement.

We all discussed and voted when it came to which dance sequences to add because we had a large selection of videos to choose from. The lip syncing when filmed was made sure to be filmed at least once with each background so when it came to editing we could select and cut out what ever part we liked best.

With the placement of performance done the First cut finished. You can view the first cut in the you tube video below:

SYMBOLISM:

Colours:

The primary colours play a huge role in the building of the music video's narrative and meaning. Different locations have different coloured walls, associating that location with the assigned meaning of the colours. The colours represent her moods and emotional states: red represents anger and distress while blue represents sadness and yellow, joy (whether that be an illusion or real). These associations are strongly developed early in the music video by having the model show off the appropriate facial expressions and body language along with the actions and props used in these locations. For example the red room, the location that showcases her anger and distress is where the break up takes place.

There is a turning point in the music video (when she gets back up) (Todorov) after which her emotional state is in a flurry, where she's figuring herself out and this is portrayed by the performer's actions and expressions clashing with the colours of the background, a deliberate raiding and reconstructing (John Stewart) to further the narrative. An example of this is her portraying joy while she's in the room with the blue backdrop. 

The Paintings

Perhaps the first one is self explanatory, a boy and a girl done in black paint with a sad face painted on the girls, a reflection of the protagonist's own happiness within the relationship. The placement of the shot where the heart being painted on the canvas is fudged is right after the break up, to symbolically portray this as well as the heart break the protagonist is now going to face.

The first painting is done in black to show the dullness of her relationship (almost looking like sludge, uneven strokes). The second painting she reveals at the end, however, is colourful, filled with all three colours representing her mood. Having these three colours come together to make something beautiful portrays the balance she herself attains in her emotional state, having finally moved on and have accepted herself. There are certain elements within the painting itself which hold meaning e.g there is a lighthouse situated on the top right corner, as a symbol of finding one's way. The red rat in the middle of the painting is a nod to the artist's name 'The RedTide Rats'.

Costumes

The general dress code was chic casual but in certain locations we wanted to match the colour of the backdrops to show the extent of the overwhelming emotion the colour represent e.g the red shirt in the red location and the yellow sweater in the yellow location. A dream catcher necklace was also used to bring focus on the line "I must be dreaming..." 

Hands and Red String

We've used intertextual refrences to the East Asian mythological concept of red strings of fate which binds together soulmates. We see what is implied to be the protagonist's hand to be clawing at the red string trying to pull the other person closer, trying to hold on while the other hand, that of her lover's is still, showing their disinterest.

In certain parts of the music video we see a set of hands which come together, representing the protagonist and her lover's pre-existing realtionship. When the red string completely slips through the lover's hand, these hands move away, indicating the end of the relationship. 

Props

There's a certain amount of props used to create scenes to bring emphasis on the lyrics (Andrew Goodwin) such as the dreamcatcher, the literal image of the laughing crying emoji taped to her back to the lyrics, "And I know my back's good for a few laughs", the radio being turned up and the headphones to the lyrics, "Turn it up and tune it out" and the different heels to the lyrics, "I'm hearing strange names resting on your lips." representing her lover already having moved on.