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

This project and the experience it has given to me will be invaluable to my music video next year. It has given me a more detailed perspective of all the individual roles, as well as giving me a solid general understanding of the music video filming and editing processes. Furthermore, it has made me extremely enthusiastic about the breadth of possibility and the realistic professional look we will be able to achieve. It has also acted as a great learning curve as I am now familiar with the key areas.

The shoot schedule

The first crucial area is preparation and making sure that pre-production is carried out thoroughly. After being part of a rigorous rehearsal schedule and witnessing the staff dedication and planning to all aspects of the prelim, I have realized the importance of preparing sufficiently.

We had multiple documents which denoted the schedule and timing of the shoot day as well as everyone's roles and where they had to be. This made the shoot run smoothly and despite taking longer than expected, the timings were easy to adapt. Therefore, I will definitely use this idea for my shoot next term in order to minimize complications. In conjunction with this, I also learnt the importance of being on time and making sure you are ready when you are needed. Furthermore, I now have a better understanding of the acting training needed and the importance of familiarizing oneself with the different characters and their roles.

Secondly, in production I now realize the need for professional work ethic as well as the right level of compromise to make, in order to achieve any specific shot. On top of this, I now know that a director, a first assistant director, a director of photography (cameraman), a make-up artist and a performance coach are all essential roles for a successful shoot. Now implementing this, I know that even if people have to double up on roles, all these aspects must be dealt with.

Also, by having the hours 8am-8pm, I realize that it is better to start early and leave time for over-running.

Lastly, thanks to this prelim task, I have become much more proficient in editing efficiently and effectively, meaning I now feel confident to tackle my own original project. I understand that to an extent, it is easier to edit a remake as the creative decisions have mostly been taken care of, but this gave us a chance to analyze the decisions they made and the effect that had on the overall impact of the video. The most influential aspects were the quick cut montage sequences and the flashes, as this taught me that the tempo can be used to hold the audience's interest and that it is a good idea to experiment with graphic effects, beyond just filming techniques.

Overall this production was amazingly educational whilst still really fun and the proactive learning environment was very beneficial to the development of my understanding of the subject. I will definitely try to implement and utilize everything I learnt when creating next term's music video coursework.

This is a time-lapse of the shoot day showing how smoothly the day went: