Prelim Evaluation

Question 1

I really enjoyed the workshop day. It was very interesting seeing the professionals in action and there was a good atmoshpere as everyone seemed to be having fun. Dancing was fun, although very hot, but the bits I most enjoyed were helping out the crew:

Runners:
Since the runners were very busy on shoot, we got asked to help out where we could. I helped on playback, showing the dancers their original bits so they knew what moves to do in the video, it was pretty simple but it was nice to have a minute to sit down whilst doing it.

Camera:


Laying out the dolly track

I did some cable bashing for the dolly, and it was interesting seeing how it works but even more fun actually pushing it along and getting some practical experience.



Adjusting the pink grunge lighting

Lighting studio:
My favourite part of the day had to be learning how to use the studio. We learnt about the monitors all over the school and how to control what was shown in the Seward studio as well as a little about the TV mixing capacities. The lighting panel, where you could  control the colour and intensity of the light was especially cool and I hope to learn more about it next year.

Question 2

Task 1: From analysing a music video myself I learnt more about the structure and conventions of music videos and put into practice what I'd learnt in class to heighten my understanding.

Task 2: When we created our lipsync, it helped our confidence in performing as well as helping us understand more how to synchronise videos with lyrics since we realised how much it helped to sing instead of miming.

This is the audition video we created to practise lipsyncing

Task 3: Learning the performance helped me realise how much effort is involved for just a short time of performance and how much you have exaggerate moves to look good.

Task 4: Planning the costumes showed me how much goes in to making just a single shot look good and how much is required for a whole music video.

Task 5: From the workshop I learnt about real roles on a shoot and how much time, thought and effort as well as different scenes and set ups go into what seemed at first like a really simple video. I also learnt what it feels like to be a performer so I know more about how to act/treat a performer next year.

Question 3

Overall I am mostly pleased with the edit. Given the details of the videos and sheer quantity of split second shots, it was difficult to get all the shots we needed and there are some discrepancies between the real video and our remake but I think the overall effect is good. As well as this, the video is much more complex than I first thought and so many distances and specific moves made it tricky to edit accurately and that is something I am a bit dissatisfied with. The quality of the lighting, especially in the individual shots is so good that we did not have to do much grading which made the edit much easier for all the individual shots except Perrie's. As Olivia and her background are so pale and she moves around the set, almost every shot needed individual grading which was very time-consuming. The group shots were similarly tricky because we moved around the set so much and there were so many of us. 

The lighting and size of the group set

Question 4


Group costumes and set  

Pink grunge: I'd like to be able to
recreate a similar effect

From the preparation leading up to the workshop, I will make sure I am very organised next year. There are so many aspects of mise-en-scene that I have decided to make sure I am not relying on anything at the last minute. I have also learnt about how much the pre-production phase is crucial; the more planning we do, the easier the shoot and the edit will be. I will also make sure we have a large variety of costumes and settings, since they add texture to the video, making it seem more professional. Lighting is also something I will consider more carefully, since the lighting was such good quality that little grading was needed for the edit which made it much easier. Another consideration will be who is in my group, we were lucky to have so many good dancers in the year, however depending on the strengths of my group next year I may choose go for a more narrative based idea rather than a totally performance based video since it seems best to use group members to star, given the time and complexity required for the prelim project.