Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes: REMAKE

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes: REMAKE

THE INITIAL PROCESS & SET UP

As a cohort, we took advantage of the Creative Arts Evening in order to recreate the music video for 'Seven Nation Army' performed by The White Stripes. We recruited musical talent from a Year 8 band and asked them to perform the song in front of a set up that we constructed ourselves, using a sheet of green fabric to replicate a green screen, multiple lights and microphones. 

Initially, we asked the band to perform twice; once to record the audio, and second to record the visuals that were accompanied by the audio that we had just recorded. Considering that we had recorded the audio, we were then able to ask the band to perform individual shots lip-syncing to the song. To effectively re-create the video, we used a myriad of shots ranging from profile shots, mid-shots and wide angled shots, much to simulate the shots featured in the actual music video. Whilst changing the angle of the shots, we also had to consider the lighting position as to draw exact influence from the video; for example, for a profile shot of the lead vocalist, we situated the light in front of the performer so that the features on his face would be illuminated, casting shadows behind him. The lighting featured for the profile shot was low-key lighting, whereas the rest of the band were filmed predominantly in high-key lighting also to capture all expressions of the band members. In order to capture the right shot, there was a lot of messing around in terms of positioning the camera in order to fit each band member in frame; this process was imperative as it would make pre-production editing a lot easier.

PRACTICE & POST PRODUCTION EDITING

Once we had all of the footage that we needed in order to successfully and confidently re-create the music video for 'Seven Nation Army', we each took to 'Final Cut' (an editing software) and aptly prepared short clips in the style of the original music video. In order to re-create the video perfectly, we each went through a step-by-step process outlining the steps of editing ranging from 'keying', 'masking' to colour correction and alteration. The first steps were to overlay the video clip with a 'keyer'; a tool that selects and erases a large area of colour, which in this case, was the green screen. This process was important as it was used to isolate the band members, allowing us to transfer any image to the back of the video and in keeping with the theme of the original 'Seven Nation Army' video, we transferred different colour '.png' triangles onto the background. The reason why the triangle image had to be a '.png' file was because a file with this format, is saved with a transparent background, making post-production editing easier. Once we had 'keyed' the video clip, it was important to undertake a 'view' check in order to make sure that once the 'keyer mask' was applied, the edges surrounding the band member was as slick as it could be, and if not, we could alter it to make the clip sharper.


The second step, which in my opinion was the most important, was to adhere to the colour correcting by adding a 'Threshold' mask over the video clips. This mask allowed me to drastically change the colour in order to suit the original video colouration. In this editing step, there were two colours that we had to take into consideration, the 'light colour' and the 'dark colour', both of which essentially acted as the 'highlights' and 'lowlights/shadows'. The original colouration of the video exhibited a cyan hue, something that was easy to achieve using Final Cut. With this in mind, it was important to select a cyan colour for the highlights whilst also selecting a darker blue colour for the lowlights/shadows. With the correct colouration adhered to, I then went into change the intensity, threshold and smoothness of the mask; creating a sleeker appearance and suiting nicely to the original video.

Once the 'Threshold' mask had been applied, it was now time to move onto the 'colour mask [ing]' process. This process allowed me to target any feature that I wanted to change, keep or isolate its colour; in this case, it was the tie. Adding a colour mask to the tie allowed me to keep the original red colour, this creative technique of stark colour contrast (i.e. the cyan colouring with a bold red) was featured within the original White Stripes music video.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND IMPROVEMENTS

If I could suggest a minor, personal improvement, it would be to explore alternative ways in which I could really capture the grittiness of the original music video. Some of the clips were a little too soft with the cyan hue smoothing out the musicians far too much, so for future improvement, it would be to experiment with the harshness of the Threshold mask in order to capture the refined lines of the face, exaggerating them to fulfil a dramatic effect.

A further note, if I had the opportunity to do anything differently, I would play around with the lighting that we used to illuminate the faces of each musician, particularly the lead singer. I felt as if the lighting that we used for the singer was too bright, therefore hindering my ability to capture harsh grittiness/dark lines during the post-editing process. With this in mind, I would have had a light that was illuminated from the bottom, therefore exaggerating his facial features and casting harsh shadows, whilst also utilising a singular side light (situated either left or right).

Overall, my clips came out exactly the way that I had envisioned them. They were precise, re-worked when I didn't feel like it was good enough, and a lot of effort was put into ensuring that the clips mirrored the way that the directors, Alex and Martin, had created such a complex but visually stunning concept music video.