Research in to the Music Video Industry

Question 5

What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing your advanced portfolio, do you think?

From completing this task, I have learnt how useful research and planning is so you know exactly what you are doing. I have also learnt how to operate the video camera and how to use the editing programme which will be extremely significant when completing my advanced portfolio as I feel confident with what I am doing.

Question 4

How successful was your music video? Please identify what worked well, and with hind sight, what would you improve/ do differently?

I think our research and planning worked well in the process of creating our music video as we had storyboarded the whole music video and identified all the camera shots/angles/movements, costumes and where they were shot. Therefore our music video looked very similar to the original due to the time and detail we put in to this section.

However, due to us spending a lot of our time on research and planning, we didn't leave enough time for filming and editing. We underestimated how long this would take by quite a lot. Therefore we joined a larger group. To improve next time I would create a timetable and give myself deadlines so I would have sufficient time to complete each task.

As a result of poor time management and poor coordination between the two groups our music video wasn't fully completed. We definitely needed more time for editing which was made harder by the lack of communication we had with the other big group. I have learnt from this that making a final schedule of when and how we are going to do everything by would be the most effective solution.

Question 3

Did you encounter any difficulties? If so, what were they and how did you over come them?

We encountered quite a few difficulties when using the video camera as this was the first time anyone in our group had used one, so no one was very familiar with the device and how to use it properly. This resulted in us losing some of our footage while trying to use the "playback" option. To overcome this difficulty we re-filmed the footage on an iPhone. However, unfortunately this footage was of a lower quality. Next time, we will be more familiar with the camera and how to operate it so hopefully this won't happen again.


Another issue was when we tried converting the footage onto the mac, the file format wasn't correct. This was because we were saving them into the wrong area so all we had to so was re upload them and save them onto final cut pro to make the files valid to use.


The final difficulty we encountered was our time management and not realising how much time it takes to cut and edit the footage. As this was our first time in creating a music video, we also underestimated the timing of how long it would actually take to get everyone together to film all the different scenes. In order to allow time for editing we joined with the other group to split the work load but also gain more cast members to fill gaps in the scene. By working collaboratively with the other group, it was much easier to get shooting done quicker and understand what needed editing and who would do what.

Question 2

What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

Video Camera:

This was the key of technology that we used to film our actual music video as it aloud us to film, transfer to the mac and then edit. Once we had established how to use the camera it was easier to use different camera shots and movements such as zoom. Mostly we just used steady cam but on occasion we moved around with it to get different angles.

iPhone:

We decided to use an iPhone instead of a video camera in the final tennis court scene due to the weight of the device and being able to move it around more freely. However, by doing this we made our video look less professional as it was harder to control the camera and keep a steady hand so the video is slightly wobbly. Although the video camera would've been the more suitable option to film some our scenes, the IPhones' camera quality and zoom maintained the quality of each shot.

Mac:

The IMac was used for the final, editing section of finishing our music video. We used this for editing as it has the editing software 'final cut pro'.
Cutting the videos and aligning each section was fairly simple, however matching the lip syncing within the video with the music was very difficult and we had to render a lot of sections which took up a lot of time.

Question 1

What have you learnt about the importance of research and planning?

Research and planning was very important in the creation of our music video. Research and planning enabled us to decide as a group what genre would be best for the music video we were going to replicate. We did this by examining various music videos by looking at the pace of cuts and mise en scene to make our final decision . We also made sure that all the music videos we were researching were set in schools as this would be the most easily accessible location for us.

We finally agreed on the song 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea and Charlie XCX as it was appropriate casting wise and had fairly similar locations to what we already had as it is set in a school. This would enable us to make it as similar to the original as possible. To do this we were limited to 1 minute and 30 seconds, therefore we divided up into pairs to look at a 30 second section each. This was very effective as it was time efficient and it also meant that we would get more precise recordings of each camera angle and movement and what is happening in the scene at different times; regarding mise en scene and body language. This was an important stage of creating our music video as it was basically a storyboard for our music video that we could follow and made it a lot easier and precise when we went to start filming ours.

The final stage was planning. This was useful process as it gave the whole group more confidence about the organisation of filming time and what everyone was doing and when. When we planned we probably should've considered a few more things such as an extra camera as ours didn't charge overnight. I will carry this kind of planning experience and factors that we did not plan for when I produce my music video.