Editing Investigation: You're Nobody Till' Somebody Loves You - James Arthur

I decided to observe James Arthur's new song, "You're Nobody Until Somebody Loves You". I counted the cuts in this, which came to 182.

There is a large proportion of the music video which involves shrinking cinematic time, for example, the party/performance starts earlier in the day which is visible through the natural lighting and also by usual everyday happenings, however this fades into nightime where everything is a little looser and 'wild'. In realtime, this would probably take at least 6 hours, however in the music video it took 3 minutes!

There are also points in the movie where cinematic time has been expanded, for example when he first enters the music video towards the stage, alongside some shots of the people dancing at night.

The cuts generally occur when we have taken in enough information to build a picture/understanding of the culture. For example, there are several quick close ups of individuals who contribute to the urban community which are embedded within the video. The cuts are very snappy and allow us to take in the concept without becoming bored. Once we have taken this in, the editor has made it so it cuts to a different representation.

I compared this to the amount of cuts in the first 3 minutes of the film, "stick it" which resulted in 44 cuts.

This shows that music videos often operate at a far faster pace than films, and more cuts are needed. This is something we need to refine and establish to move away from the conventions of film which we studied for AS and more towards that of music videos.

Editing Update: Importing the Powder Paint Footage

We started to edit our music video the day after we shot the footage we had shot of the powder paint the night before - we were very excited about seeing what it looked like!

We started by importing and naming all of our clips which makes finding footage so much easier. We try and describe the clip, e.g. 'Close Up Selina Good'. We realised when we put the footage into Final Cut Pro that the wide shots were of lesser quality and had no depth to them in comparison to the close ups & the mid shots which were sharper and better lit.

To solve this, we decided to use the less quality shots in quick, choppy succession and hold the greater quality shots for longer. We have decided to match the pace of the visuals to the pace of the song so this actually works quite well considering it's a dance video.

So far with the editing we think it has gone extremely well and we are very happy with how it is turning out. The powder paint fight was a huge success and we are very excited about it's potential.

Powder Paint Fight: Review

We only had one take for this shoot as the powder paint so it was essential that we stuck to our plans or it would come at a great cost to us.

To make sure we were organised, we briefed the actors with what they would need, what we were bringing, times and locations etc. We arrived half an hour earlier to set up the camera and do some test shots. We also set up the powder paint and put the rest of the equipment we were't using out of the way so it wouldn't get covered in paint.

We set the camera to shoot 50fps rather than 25fps so that when we slow it down in editing it will be a smoother shot. We waited till it got darker which was around 7pm, and because the actors had arrived at 6.30, we were able to get the most of our shooting time.

We only had one chance to film all the actors whilst they were clean as once the first handful of paint was thrown that was that, so we ensured we got all of the footage we needed for that particular setup.

We then got a wide range of different shots of the paint fight that we could edit together. We instructed the actors to throw it in different sequences and at different people, making their throws as exaggerated as possible. We also took some close up static shots to provide a contrast and also to make the footage more intimate.


Overall the shooting went really well and we all thought it was very successful. The paint showed up really well and the lighting was really good too. I also think that the costumes suited the convention of the image we are creating as they enabled us to show the effect the powder paint has when thrown.

If we were to do it again I think we would have got more powder paint and shot even more footage just to be certain that we had enough shots. However we ar confident that we have enough shots to use.

The only real problem we found was that one of our couples said they couldn't do it last minute, and neither of our reserves were available either! We managed to get a third girl but we couldn't find another partner to match it. We were definitely not going to reschedule, so to ended up having three girls versus two guys which in the end didn't look that bad at all and wasn't such a disaster.

Powder Paint Fight: Shotlists

Here are the shot lists for our powder paint shoot:

Powder Paint Fight: Storyboards

Here are the storyboards for our powder paint fight shoot:

Powder Paint Fight: Lighting Research

Lighting is going to be a key factor within our music video, as it will affect many other elements, such as depth, colour and focus. We knew from the planning stage that we would be filming undewr extremely low light level conditions, and were considering hiring generators to power spotlights we could also rent.

We wanted to maintain the effect that it was nighttime, so wanted to get the light balance and contrasts in place so that we could achieve this. After a test shot, we decided that the one LED light that attched to the top of our DSLR camera would create this effect, as it did not dazzle or take away from the image, yet you could see all the subjects on focus.

We did initially want spotlights placed behind the actors (so as part of the setting) so as to create a silhouette/shadow effect, but we dicided against this as it would have affected the light entering the camera lens and not made the collour come accross so clearly, which is one of the main elements we are aiming to portray.

Lastly, we agreed that we should use a bright white light rather than adding any colour filters at this stage, as this would allow us to demonstrate the full spectrum of colours we were aiming for without them being masked by any sort of particular coloured haze. If need be, we could apply a colour filter during the editing. Filming it with plain white LED's basically gives us more freedom in the post-prooduction, as we be limited as to where we could place for example, a scene with a blue filter which might be frustrating if the composition is good.

Audience Research

John Newman's demographic ranges from anywhere over 5 years old really; his music is upbeat and lively, appealing to younger generations, but also has a blues/jazz twist which makes it more sophisticates, broadening its appeal to older audeiences too.

I would say that the majority of his audience would however be teenagers/young adults, purely because they have the best access to such content through being active internet users. This is where a large percentage of new music is marketed and distributed now as opposed to more tradidtional methods, i.e. CD.

Our audience appeal will be similar to this. We are targeting more so the party/dance culture which appeals to teenagers/young adults. We are doing this through the creation of a bold, lively and vibrant visual to match the upbeat, electronic dance remix. We must be careful not to turn away audience members that are not part of this age category; everyone is individual in their music taste so we are not going to appeal it to a concrete, narrow audience by any means, however it is simple to observe that it will most likely appeal to the aformentioned demographic.

Powder Paint Fight: Actor Research

In our music video, we are planning to have three couples. In order for the video to seem realistic, we set out to find three actual couples rather than annonamous boys and girls so that their relationships would come accross in their body language and gestures, making it more believable for the audience.

We chose reliable people who confirmed the date and location, and briefed them on how to do their gair/make-up. We also gave them their costumes which we had provided. Just in case, we alse asked 2 couples to be 'reserves' in case any of our definates couldn't make it.

We wanted the couples to be of a similar age to those who would be listening to the track and watching the video, meaning it is more relatable. Therefore, our actors ranger from 16-19 years old. This also links to the party culture and young, energetic vibe we are trying to create within our music video.

Powder Paint Fight: Location Research

We had to brainstorm a wide range of locations, as obviosuly we have a huge logistical dillemma in the fact that we are going to make a huge mess, so will have to choose an appropriate place.

We originally thought of places such as abandoned houses/warehouses, the woods or a field, purely because we wouldn't have to worry about the powder making a mess. The problem of this was actually finding a place like this that would fit the conventions. We were left locationless, with 15kg of powder paint and were a little bit disheartened.

 But then we remembered an intimate location under neath our local bridge. It has huge arches which you can walk under, and one particular one was very desolate and disused - perfect! The space was big enough to fit everyone in.

We realised we will definitely need some form of lighting, as the location wasn't fabulously lit even in broad daylight, so this was something we had to consider when confirming the location.

Powder Paint Fight: Hair & Make up Research

Hair and make-up is going to be an important factor within our music video. We wanted to link to John Newman's retro style, so have decided to opt for a vintage look rather than a modern take. Therefore, we have decided that the, 'half up-half down' style will work really well for the female actors; it will ensure that we can see their faces, yet it will add to the concept of movement within our piece too, which perhaps a more controlled hair do would not allow. We wanted again, to relate to the dance/party vibe within our music, therefore, the actors will wear bold eye-liner and red lipstick to represent getting dressed up for a night out or a party. We thought that foundation/colour of skin wouldn't be of quite as much importance, as soon they would be covered in paint!

Powder Paint Fight: Costume Research

Initially, we thought that a 60's style fashion would look great as it would highlight the movement through all of the statement dresses. However, we then realised that this would not work so well with the modern, stylistic setup we are creating for the second scene.

We then became inspired by Tyler Shields' photography work, 'Chromatic'. His models wore white and black outfits which made the colours stand out very well.

From here, we made the decision that the girls will wear white, sleeveless skater dresses and black high heels, whilst the boys will wear dark trousers and a smart white shirt. We chose these outfits as they are a mixture of smart and casual, so can be dressed up/down as appropriate. Therefore, this holds connotations with partying.clubbing, which is where our song would be most likely to be heard; we are making small links for the audience to match the visuals to the music.

Powder Paint Fight: Prop Research

The most prominent prop we will be using is the powder paint. This is a chalk-like substance which creates some great effects when used in a variety of ways.

We had to be aware of the quantity we would need, as we want to avoid re-shooting down to a lack of supplies, and we also wanted to get as much footage as possible.

Another consideration was the cost side of things. We didn't have a huge budget so wanted to get the best value product.

Lastly, we thought about which colours we wanted to use. We decided to go for bright, vibrant colours as these would provide a greater contrast against the darker setting. We have chosen pink. blue, green, orange, red and yellow and have ordered 2.5kg of each which we think will be enough to last us for this shoot, and hopefully some left over too.

Ideas Update

We have intensely brainstormed about the features of our music videos. Our initial idea was to have the setting/concept as summer,parties, festivals etc as this would really suit teh vibe of the song. However, we thought that this was a little bit predictable and 'safe' and we wanted to push the boundaries a bit. Also, we would have been doing the majority of our filming over winter, so this idea was also impractical.

We further filtered through various ideas, and after studying several existing dance music videos, realised that there is commonly a narrative which goes alongside the concept. The concept within our song is love, fighting and forgiveness, so we came up with the idea of having a 2 person narrative between a boy and a girl which works alongside our concept.

Now we had this idea of narrative in mind, we had to develop a concept. Again after lots of research, we realised that colour was an essential theme within dance video, as it exagarates the bold, confident music. Therefore, we have come up with the idea of a powder paint fight. We will film this at night to contrast lights, darks and colours against each other.

To summerise, we will have 2 scenes; the first with a couple arguing in a non-naturalistic house setup (i.e. quite simplistic and representative rather than realistic) and the second, a poder paint fight between 3 couples.

Love Me Again: Lyric Analysis