Evaluating skills developed

Evaluating skills developed.

During A2 fortnight I learnt quite a few things about making music videos this included things like the techniques that are to be included, what technology and equipment you are able to use . When making our music videos there was a couple of issues that we came across this included time management, planning, sorting costumes and props, practicing the song and the amount of takes that were needed.

The sort of techniques that we learnt included what can be typically used within music videos to help them fit the genre of the music. This would be things such as; Split Screen, varity of framing, angles and distances, tracking and lip syncing. Other things that are important to attracting the viewers’ attention and getting them to want to watch the video are; costume, props, technology and skills that we can use to mirror (to the best of our ability) the music videos that we had chosen to do. Learning these skills meant that we will be able to apply them to our work later on in the year as for our course work we will be making a music video and we will need to make them as good as we possibly can. We chose to do Bruno Mars- Lazy Song, Paolo Nutini- New Shoes and One Direction- Kiss You for this particular skills development task.

Leia Cordey

During this task we used a vary of technology this was; cameras, fig rigs, a track, the macs and tripods. This meant that we able to use a range of software to produce or video clips, this included final cut.

Leia Cordey

From the issues that we came across I think that time management was the most predominate issue that we came across. This is as we needed to learn the words of the section of song that we were doing so that we were able to get it to look like we were the ones that were actually singing them. So to overcome this particular issues we chose songs that we already knew quite a few of the words of this meant that we had more time to learn the sequences that went with them and by doing this it meant that we had to do less takes which also took up less time. This then meaning that we also had more time to edit the footage together.

Another issue that we came to when doing this task was costume and props, this is as we didn’t have much time to acquire relevant props so we had to make do with the ones that we had in the class room and things that we had on us at the time of filming. We could have overcame this by planning the task out better so that we knew what costumes and props we needed from the start of the task not just when we came to filming our footage.

This leads to another issue we had which was planning this is as we didn’t really think about that side of things and we just kind of jumped into things head first and hoped that we did it right. For what we did it worked out okay. However, if we were to have spent a bit of time on the planning then our final clips would have turned out so much better as we would have had a better idea of what we were going to do and when we were going to do it. Resulting in a more professional looking piece of work.

This task has helped me to develop skills within cinematography and editing, this is as we had to think about what we included within our videos as we has set things that we needed to include. When filming we managed to include this by using the technology that was appropriate to achieve the shots and techniques that were to be used in our clips. We used two cameras to get footage from different angles to put in our work so that we had a variety of angels, distance and framing. We used the dolly to get a tracking shot and we used final cut to add in our split screen.

When editing it became very clear that the consistency of the shots is very important and that to make everything flow well it is better to use more than one camera when filming at different angles and as we did this we were able to make our clips look good. Doing this also meant that we could decide which angle some parts looked better from as we may have thought different at first.

Editing sound and image in sync was really easy at the points where we had lip synced the words correctly but where there was a few slip ups it made the editing process unnecessarily harder. This was as when we were filming we didn’t really look back at the footage as much as we should have and we should have done more take just to make sure that we had got the words correct and in time with the music in the background. Doing this would have saved us

Leia Cordey

time when editing meaning that we would have more time to fine tune everything else to make the final product as good as it could have been.

My basic understanding and skills will give me a head start in my own coursework as it has given me an idea of the extent research and planning that I will need to do so that I have a good product for my coursework. This is as I will need to understand what needs to be done to make the video look as good as it can. Planning is really important as it means you, now what you need to do for the whole project, this will include; storyboards so that you know which shot to use at which point, shot lists so that you are clear on what shots you are using, recces so that you know where you are filming the video, detailed costume and prop research so that they fit in with the genre of music that you have chosen to use. The planning will make sure that all of this is clear before filming starts so that you can focus on that and not having to make things up as you go along.

Organisation is very important as if you are not organised quite a lot of things can go wrong such as you may not know which shots and stuff is meant to be happening on a certain date which means that numerous shoots and retakes will have to take place to have it correct.

Leia Cordey