Evaluation Q1: Did you enjoy the main workshop shoot day? What role(s) did you take? What were your best bits and why?

Overall I enjoyed the shoot day, it was very hands on and exciting. I learnt a lot during the workshop in terms of the different roles of the staff. It was definitely a new experience for me, being surrounded by professionals in the field and having strict call times but even so it was very exhilarating. Down below is a mini time-lapse of the workshop shoot day - this will show the studio set up, performance and us all helping the crew.

I also learnt a lot by working alongside the crew whenever I wasn't on set acting. I was shown a lot of new things such as the lighting set up above the studio by the media technician Emma where she explained how to change the lights when and if the director felt it necessary. The workshop was a great experience and it will definitely put me in a good place next year when we do our own music video.

Down below is a break down of "my roles" and "my best bits" with pictures to match

My roles: 

 

Acting in solo shots of different "cool kids"

 Acting as my character "cool kid 6/8"

 

Using the clapperboard

 

Best bits:





Running around the lockers with the cool
    kids.

Group shots

Getting my makeup done professionally by the makeup artists

Evaluation Q2: What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks, 1, 2, 3, and 5? Focused on studio/technical, styling, and directing skills as well as performance.

I have learnt a lot from all the tasks, and it has definitely helped me improve my skills in terms of pre and post production. Below is a breakdown tasks 1,2,3 and 5

Task 1: Audition

I learnt quite a lot from doing the audition video.  It was quite hard because I had never done one before, especially not in front of a camera which made it more daunting.

I found it challenging because I wasn't fully comfortable, however doing the audition with my friends did make things  a lot easier. This is because they helped push me to try my best and they also made sure I was looking directly at the lens so that it was more personal.

Editing the video helped me to realise how time consuming something as small as an audition video was and to fully take the time to complete it to the best of my ability.

Overall, the audition video helped me practice how to how to lip-sync and the editing aspect showed me the significance of editing the shots so the words match the music.

To watch the full audition press play below!

Task 2: Learn and practice your performance

I learnt a lot about performance from the performance director Jasmine. She taught us all to get comfortable with each other as that would make things easier on the actual shoot day. As a result we had quite a few practices where we were doing some warm ups, some more serious than others. I learnt a lot from these mini lessons because it showed me that even though I was not reciting a script I was still acting and I needed to show emotion when I was in front of the camera. In terms of learning my performance, it was quite simple as I was not expected to do much, learning the moves was fun and easy.


Here is Jasmine instructing someone on their performance

Task 3: Help to plan and organize your costume
I brought in some pieces for me to wear as my costume such as the shoes and different options for my top, the dungarees I wore were kindly from Noa. Mrs Dymioti and Mrs Blackborow helped us to organise our costumes and put all the clothes in the "costume section" of the studio, with our names on the pieces so that we could keep track of what we were wearing and what we had brought in, when we were happy with the final changes to the costume, Mrs Blackborow signed them off as official. I learnt a lot from costume as it showed me how relevant it is in telling the story of the character in terms of personality. Below is a comparison picture with me and my character cool kid 6

Task 5: Complete the remake edit

I enjoyed editing Cool Kids as I was now more confident with my editing skills than I had been earlier since I had a lot more experience from the other projects throughout the year. To edit I worked with Ray Baker, and also completed solo edits. Our first strategy was to complete all of one set and then move to another however we did not start from set one which made things confusing for us, so by day two of editing we had switched our system of editing, and started working chronologically making things a lot more simple causing less room for mistakes. There were some differences that I found in editing a music video, the most prominent one was that continuity editing is not essential and instead random cuts and close ups were used in different orders, this allowed for more creative possibilities which was nice.

here is a picture of me editing

In the edit I:

Dragged and dropped the trimmed shots onto the timeline - however to begin with I trimmed shots in the timeline which was a lot more time consuming, so in this respect I improved my efficiency skills.

Used effects such as slow-motion and also speed effects - I learnt how to edit the footage and add slow motion effects or even change the order of a shot - I done this as some of the shots in the original music video had been edited 

below is the original clip



below is the edited clip that is backwards



Cropped and reframed shots -  I learnt that cropping and reframing shots made the remake a lot more similar to the original video therefore fulfilling the task

Matched the shots to make them sync - so that it looked more professional and realistic
Named shots - I learnt that naming shots would make the process much easier as they would have matched with the shot list that was made. As well as this, if we needed to find a specific shot we could just search for it by using the number as opposed to checking each shot which would have taken a lot of time as we did not shoot the shots in order.

Overall, tasks 1,2,3 and 5 were learning experiences for me. Looking back now, it was very enjoyable and I learnt so much from it. This great experience has made me look even more forward to doing  the project next year.



Evaluation Q3: Are you pleased with the footage and your finished edit? Is it how you expected it to look? What works really well and what would you change?

Overall, I am very pleased with the footage and the finished edit and it is a lot better than what I expected. On the shoot day I was very focused on the performance and hair and make-up etc. that I didn't fully understand how precise and technical the camera op, director and camera assistant were that when I watched the footage back I was very surprised to see the level of accuracy in the shots, which gave me an even more appreciation for the staff. Down below is the remake music video! I hope you enjoy

What works really well:

• Majority of the shots match the original
• The background matched quite well to the original
• All our cuts match to the original
• All our lip-syncs match with the original
• All our performances and band actions match with the original

What would I change?

• Get all the shots we needed as we missed some and as a result we had to use the original shots to fill in the gaps

calendar shot from the original video

•  If we could have actually used a deer instead of a panda making it all the more accurate

deer shot

panda shot

• If we could have had two backgrounds, one that was slightly more grey with more shadow to match some of the shots in the music video

comparison of backdrop colour

Overall, I am very pleased with the footage and the finished edit.

Evaluation Q4: How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

The prelim has taught me a lot about how I should tackle next terms music video coursework as I will be taking part in the pre production section. Below is a breakdown of the different parts of the project and how I will approach them

Pre-Production:

• I will ensure that the genre, character, style, lighting, location etc. are very clear
• I will ensure that costume and make-up lists are made available to everyone involved and clearly match with the "personality" of the character 
• I will ensure that performance, acting and choreography are rehearsed in advance so that everyone is comfortable with each other which will therefore make the shoot day a lot easier and move more smoothly 
• I will ensure that there is a shoot board and shot list with clear timings so that everyone knows when we should be moving on and when we are ahead or late - I will also ensure that these two documents will be adhered to.
• I will ensure that I have fully planned out an idea for the music video - in terms of narrative and performance so that everyone understands the feel that we will be going for

Main shoot:
The prelim has taught me about the essentiality of runners to make the shoot run smoothly. The prelim has also taught me that the cyclorama is very useful and that using it will make things a lot more aesthetically pleasing. it is very good because when lit properly, the corner-less floor provides the illusion that the ground continues to infinity. This seamless background looks very nice in film and photography as the subject can be in multiple camera angles filmed at once as well as this it allows for subject flexibility as they can move around while still staying within the infinity background.

I will make sure to include: close up shots to show off  the makeup and outfit to add more personality lip syncing opportunities as this is essential Performance/dance sections to make it more engaging and fun studio lighting to add an ambiance

Post-Production:

In our editing sessions I will make sure to use the following techniques:

• Solo shots of the lead to make it more impactful
• Discontinuous editing - lots of cuts (to the music) and rapid shots transitions - more engaging

Overall, the prelim has impacted a lot on my approach for next year as I now know what I expect from every step of production. I know what I want, don't want and the importance of time management. The experience of the media workshop was very fun and positive and so I hope that same excitement and atmosphere carries on to next year to lessen the stress of the project.

 Thank you for reading