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

This preliminary exercise has really helped me to realise how much more work is required to make a music video than we have previously been putting into past projects. Especially seeing as nest term's coursework requires a lot more than just the music video, I think that a number of the skills learned on this task will help me to complete our A2 music video to the best of our ability.

[-] Lip syncing
With the lip syncing for our actual A2 coursework, I feel that I learnt a variety of new techniques to improve the quality of the footage for the video next year. Simple things such as making sure the actor opens their mouth enough or that the actor is directly addressing the camera can have a huge difference on the final product, and they will definitely be taken into consideration for the tasks to follow.

[-] Casting / Character Breakdowns
I recognised quite early on that the process of knowing the characters and their roles in the video was the first process to address. Being able to replicate or create a believable personality to suit the genre for next year's video is going to be a hard task and I have decided that having a character breakdown for the casting would be the most sensible thing to do, as it would make the job a lot easier and more efficient.

An extract from the booklet given to us containing information for the shoot

[-] Organisation
Organisation of a shoot is a really large task I have learnt, and I think that the main areas of organisation that caused the shoot to run so well were the costumes, the time schedule and the organisation of actors on set. Firstly I think the key was to have it all down on paper and to make sure everyone had a copy. The costumes were all written down and laid out to make sure that all the cast knew exactly what they had to wear. Even on the shoot cast members had hangers assigned to their character, and I'd really like to replicate that level of detailed organisation for my project. The time schedule was incredibly organised, especially seeing as it anticipated overrunning and the complexity of the scenes. On top of this, on the shoot day, everyone had a role, which I thought was also really important. Overall, I think I may just use the remake information booklet as template as I was really well structured and clear for all members of the team.

A time schedule for the shoot day

[-] Equipment
Next year, the equipment we use is a lot more varied and advanced. After working on the shoot using a Canon DSLR and also owning one myself, I think that I would be sensible to work with one of these cameras for the coursework next year. Lighting of the shoot is however the bigger issue. I feel like I already have an idea for a video, but It involves shooting outside as well as in the studio. On previous projects working outdoor has been a lot of unnecessary effort. I like to think I am competent with using the lights in a studio but I don't know how outdoor lighting would play out, and I will have to discuss the idea with my teachers

On set for The 1975 music video remake

[-] Editing
With the editing task, I felt that my method was not the most efficient, seeing as I worked on the project constantly throughout the week and still managed to finish late. I will definitely take advice from other class members on techniques or tricks that allowed them to finish an equal standard of edit to mine, on time. I will try to use the performance bed technique to edit my video, as I feel like that will be the quicker approach and will be just as effective.

A screenshot of the Adobe Premiere workstation