Skills Development Evaluation

During the task I used very little hardware. The main piece I used was, of course, a video camera. I used to record all the material that went into the music video. It was the first time that I had used the video cameras as previously my work only included the use of a stills camera. So whilst using it, I learnt many things about the setup. In addition to the use of the camera I also learnt more about lighting setups that compliment camera setups. I found the setting up of the camera and tripod quite easy as they are not typically complicated equipment, the height was easy to set and the camera setting were easy to follow which allowed me to film shots quietly and easily. The lights set up was also not as complicated as I had thought it was prior to the task. I discovered the lights should be around the same height as the person being filmed and the light should face the lens with the person just offset from this to make the person appear more alive and lighted. I did encounter some troubles with the camera as one filming session, the camera was broken and thus made all the footage corrupt meaning that I had to make do with all the images that I had shot in prior lessons. I did not manage to find a way around this but it taught me that I should always check the camera and the SD card before using it so that I can avoid this problem in the future. These skills will make the aesthetic of the video more pleasing to look at the people within it will be lit properly with the camera at the correct height for them. It will make the video looks more like a professional one. I also gained filming skills in terms of shot distances. To further these skills, I could recreate other music videos and focus more on different shot types and distances. I could be more adventurous with the types of shots that I take and the sorts of music videos that I recreate to build up a bigger repertoire of skills that I can use in the final product

As well as learning more about the kinds of hardware that I’m going to use. I also learnt how to use the editing software; final cut. As I hadn’t used it before, I had to learn the basics like importing the footage into it and from there editing it together. I learnt several techniques whist completing this task and they are all evident in the video I made. Desaturation of the footage is a simple effect to add and makes the video look more serious then might otherwise be. Lip syncing is an important part of music videos which unfortunately isn’t featured in the video as it was in the corrupt footage and we didn’t have time to do a reshoot. The split screen video was easy to do as well as it was a matter of resizing the footage. Layering the footage was also simple. All in all, I found the software easy to use which will enable me to make a final video to the best of my abilities. As the software is simple it will make the editing processes of making the video fairly straightforward and one of the less complicated aspects. Much like the filming, to develop my skills further I could be more creative with my editing by trying other common effective found in music videos like slowing down footage or trying to edit a video to different kinds of music with different tempos and traits so that I have experience editing to different styles of music when it comes to the main production. Having this amount of experience would be beneficial, especially with group, as I could lend what I know to other members of the team in order to create the best possible piece that we could.

Reflecting on the production as I whole, I think that I could be a lot more serious with what I did. As you can see the majority of the shots are people laughing or generally be silly. If I had more time I would have reshot some of the frames that I have so that I fits in more with then song. If some footage hadn’t gotten corrupted I would have had a multiple examples and recreations that fit with more serious songs. Due to the shortage of time that I had to film I ended up with only a single video which showcases as many skills as I could possibly fit into one video. Overall I am pleased with what I managed to pull together despite the difficulties that I encountered as it did allow me to learn new skills that I can use to make a better, more complete final production. However, there are downfalls to the video that I made as it does lack certain frames that would be featured in every music video. It lacks any form of performance or lip sync which is again due to the technical difficulties. If I have another opportunity to film I would create a video that featured these things as then it would again give me more experience. It would also give me the chance to experiment with the type of shots that I take and allow me to make mistakes and get things wrong so that I don’t make the same mistakes in the main production. It would again enable me to create something of a higher grade in the end.

This task has taught me that there is a lot of research and planning that will have to go before the main production is finished. Before its done I will have to research all different kinds of genre videos, finding tropes and common traits that I can use in my own production. These conventions and forms will have to be planned and incorporated into my own piece. In addition to the conventions and forms; I will also have to research the aesthetics of music genres so that the actors/musicians that will feature in the video. The research will allow me to use the skills I have developed in the most effective way so that a successful production can be created. All some things I find in the research will then have it be incorporated in to the planning for the video, common traits in videos will have to planned. Locations will also have to be found in the planning stages so that when it comes to filming we know exactly where we will be filming. The editing and shots should be planned out way before the actual production is put together, as it will make the video cohesive and continuative. Props and costumes will also have to be bought or found so that they fit the genre. If they don’t need to be bought they will have to be borrowed, which could cause problems as they might not be available when you need them. Now that I have developed these skills I know roughly the amount of time the editing and filming will take so that I can time manage effective as all the steps that it will take to get to the main product will take a large amount of time and thus will need to be managed accordingly. Timing will have to be managed strictly as there will be a lot to get through as not managing time properly will lead to possibly missing something or getting everything that needs to be done. Time will also have to be tailored around the people that I’m working with and the equipment that we can have or the locations that we film in. This will be because these things may only be available at certain times; this is something I found in the task that I did as people could only be available moments and I couldn’t have the camera when I wanted it to do re-shoots.

This skills development task has made me consider real media conventions in my final product. Depending on the genre of music that I pick I will have to consider the conventions that are associated with it. For example, pop music is brightly coloured and often includes a large number of closes ups on the singer that is the star of the video within the videos.  I would have to take this into consideration if I make a pop music video so that the production would look convincingly like a pop music video otherwise it could just be a video that could apply to any music video. I need to do more research into the conventions of different genres of music so that I can best apply them to whatever genre that I choose to do for my final piece. Follow the conventions would make the piece seem authentic and closer to the quality of a professionally made video. In addition to mise-en-scene conventions, I would have to consider the narrative conventions of a genre. The majority of music videos include a section of narrative that fits with the lyrics of the song, I would have to consider this in the planning stage of the process as well as the creation phase as it would feed some emotion in to the video and possibly create a deeper level to the video. Pop music is a good example for narrative conventions as they often have a superficial storyline such as boy gets the girl or vice versa. It would be an important thing to include in the video and this needs to follow the media conventions of the genre. The media has also created conventions to the way artists look such as women are always wearing makeup with styled hair and revealing clothing. Considering that I will have to have a certain amount of censorship, I will have to consider this if I end up using female actors in the video as they will have to ‘look the part’. Male actors will have to also follow superficial conventions as they are expected to wear certain clothing styles and hair styles. These do vary depending on the genre that you work in but they are in every genre and thus need to be comprised with care to create the feel of the genre that we work in.

If I consider all the things that I have mentioned then I will be able to create a convincing music video that will follow genre and media conventions, as well as possible challenging them. It will also have to include a range of cinematography, mise-en-scene and editing techniques to make it look as professional as possible. There will have to be careful planning and research that will allow me to use my skills to create the production that I envision.  This skills development task has given me an insight into what I will need to do in the future to make a video as well as giving me lots of aspects to consider.