Prelim Question 1: Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?

I found the workshop day very enjoyable as I got involved in many areas of the music video filming process. Overall I found the whole day involving and interesting, as I learnt new skills for shooting an effective and professional music video.

Lighting the Band for the stage shots

I helped with the lighting for the first shots of the day with the Five band members on stage singing the first chorus. I also participated by dancing during crowd scenes and also helped to lift Michael during the crowd surfing shots. My favourite part of the workshop day was during the filming of the verses as we all got to dance together as one group. I enjoyed participating in the workshop more than being part of the technical team, as it made me feel more involved.

 A Group Dance

Prelim Question 2: What did you learn from participating in the workshop?

From participating in the workshop I learnt that music video shoots are very stressful and are also very tiring, as there are lots of run throughs in a shot period of time. You have to make sure you cover everything, so you need to do lots of takes from different angles. You also have to make sure you shoot every lyric from the song from different angles more than once.

One of the numerous run-through on stage

However, you need to schedule the entire day and also allow time for any alterations to the camera or the setup. During the workshop on Friday, we took longer over shots than we had first planned, so alterations needed to be made so that the schedule could still be met.

Our schedule for the day's filming

I also learnt about different technology you can use on set to make filming a professional music video easier. On set we used a Jib (pictured at the top) which helped us to get the smooth panning shots. We also used a high quality monitor which enabled the director and the rest of the crew to see how the shot would look in the final music video. We also used a track and a dolly in our shoot, which gave us smooth tracking shots. I learnt on shoot that you must be careful when using the jib on a track, as the camera can become unstable and fall off of the dolly itself

You need to be careful when using the jib on the dolly

Thanks to the monitors it was easy to picture how the shots
would look in the final video

Prelim Question 3: Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?

I am very pleased with the footage we have taken - it looks very similar to the real, professional footage. The lighting reflects the same colours used in the real video and it also provides some very creative shots.

http://vimeo.com/26759993

Here is our finished video. I am very happy with the finished video as it looks very professional and similar to the real thing. The real video is in the corner of this video, and we tried to keep our edit to the same type. The main problem whilst editing this video was getting the lighting to be a similar colour to the real edit. After a long time of colour correcting, we finally got our video looking how we wanted it to.

Prelim Question 4: How do you think your workshop experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

My experience with this workshop has impacted on how I will plan and prepare for next term's coursework. Firstly, it has taught me that an in-depth schedule is essential for a shoot so that I can use my time effectively. This schedule will also need to allow time for any problems which we maybe faced with when moving the camera and cast between set-ups.

From this workshop I have also learnt that you need to do numerous takes in each set-up so that you ensure you cover every lyric of your chosen song. If you haven't filmed a particular lyric or you haven't got enough then it is very difficult in the edit process to construct a full video.

Five - Everybody Get Up Re-Edit

Here our the re-edit of Everybody Get Up - Five

Whilst doing this task I learnt that editing a music video is very precise work which can be very stressful. In order to match the music with the singing you need to match up each frame perfectly otherwise the lip syncing is wrong. I discovered that cutting to the beat is effective in certain parts of the song, such as the drum part before the chorus, as it emphasises the band and the song itself.

The re-edit starts with Abs rapping. The editing here is contrasting to the beginning of the video where they are all watching the stage. This change of performance area gets the audience (both in the video and the audience watching) more involved with the band and the song.
The backwards track of the band whilst Abs is rapping shows aggression which is a signifier of rap music. This section focusses more on band identity, as we hardly ever see the dancers.
There is then a short section which doesn't focus on the performing of the song, but rather on the rest of the room itself, which involves the audience and gives a party feel to the video, rather than a performance feel.
The penultimate section has an energetic feel to it, and is the reverse of the backwards track section, as the main focus is on the dancers and less on the band.
Finally, we have the whole room singing the chorus and dancing in a group, which really gets the audience viewing the video involved and makes them feel connected to the band.

From this re-edit I have learnt that for our version of this video we will need to make sure we have covered the entire video a lot so that when it comes to editing we don't find that we have missing shots. To solve this problem we will need to film complete run throughs at every camera set up, so that we ensure we have the correct shots.

Music Video Prelim Task

Here is my group's prelim lip sync for Everybody Get Up - Five.

As you can see in the video above, I would like to play the band member Jason in the group lip sync. I am confident with the lyrics and the dance and am not afraid of using additional props in my performance such as the umbrella at the start of the song. I think you should cast me for the role as I am an extroverted performer and I do not hide away from challenges

Meeting the Director: Jake Wynne

We were lucky enough to meet the professional film director, Jake Wynne.

He has directed many famous music videos, including It's Raining Men - Geri Halliwell and Have A Nice Day - Stereophonics. He was able to give us many tips about directing our own music videos.
The first tip he gave us, which I will plan to use in my final video, is to include Beauty Shots. These are shots which are usually tightly framed around the artist or on of the band members as they perform.

He also gave us tips for our shoot about planning ahead so that we can use our time effectively, as the shoot days are usually quite long but there is a lot to do. He also told us that whilst editing a girl/ boy band song we should try and give each member equal screen time, as the music videos are used to sell the brand of the artists.

Whilst working on the video for Stereophonics - Have A Nice Dayhe told us about how important it is for the director to motivate the artists so they look like they are having fun.

I am really looking forward to working with Jake in our group lip synch video later this summer.