task 9 - Evaluation

Single Camera Techniques Evaluation

To plan our video we firstly started off by discussing our different ideas about what we could do. Our first idea was doing a video to ‘Wheetus – Teenage dirtbag’ however when we started to brain storm these ideas we noticed that with this song telling a story, it would limit us to a narrative music video. We then carried on discussing our ideas and found that most of us enjoyed watching music videos of live gigs or parties. This gave us the idea of having a party based music video as they are fun and random and it doesn’t really limit us on what we could do in the video. Once we had decided on the idea we then started to think of a song. We all sat and discussed what would suit our party them. We tried ‘kid cudi -pursuit of happiness’ and all thought it would be the perfect song so we decided to brain storm our ideas on a sheet of A3 paper. We wrote about what camera angles we would use, what props we would need and what equipment/lighting we wanted. My role in the brainstorming was writing down other people’s ideas as well as my own. We thought that this would be perfect however we then discovered that the song was over 7 minutes, it was too long as it would take ages to film and edit.  We then tried ‘Bondax – gold’ however then decided that it would be too slow for the fast paced music video we were hoping to create. Finally we all listen to ‘Sub focus – turn it around’ and decided that it would be perfect as it has a mix of slow and fast paced beats and doesn’t limit us on what we could do and isn’t too long.

After doing our first bit of planning we collected the props/equipment that we would need to create the video. Megan bought drinking glasses and food. My role was gather together lots of fancy dress items so I borrowed wigs, glasses, hats and headbands from friends and family. I also wiped my cameras memory to make space to filming.

We had to complete our pre-production documents before we started video so that we had everything planned out. The documents were story boards, risk assessments and a list of who would be there as cast and crew. My role in the pre-production documents was to draw the storyboards. To do this is I drew out what each scene in the video would entail step by step. These came in very helpful when filming as they gave us a brief guide on what to film and roughly how each scene should be set out. The cast and crew list was done by Megan. She wrote out a list of everyone who would be definitely taking part in the video as the cast. She also listed all of the names of the cast so who would be videoing and setting up each scene. This also came in useful as we could then allocate each cast member to a certain scene before we started filming. Finally was the risk assessment document, these were filled out by Emily. These were very important as they allowed us to be confident in keeping our cast members safe and not at risk of injury while filming. She filled out the sheets with the various potential risks and safety hazards (such as smashed glass). The filming could not have taken place without all of these pre-production documents being filled out.  

We arranged a night a night when we would do all of the filming and notified all cast and crew members. When it came to the night of filming Megan and Emily set the house up to look like a party theme by lining up shot glasses and placing food out. I then filmed me and a group of the cast putting on our fancy dress accessories and getting prepared for the party ahead. I then filmed us on our journey to the party and this showed the local iconography. The filming inside of the house was very casual. Megan and I were the main film crew so we walked around and took a lot of clips of people enjoying the night so that the video looked more casual and un-staged. Emily also done some little clips of filming and helped us set up each scene and get the cast we needed to feature in it. We used the story boards I made as a brief guided for each scene. We took a variety of clips from people drinking to people dancing with ironing boards. I was also filmed in the video dancing and having a goodtime. We did improvise a lot when filming as we had lots of ideas when we started to actually film. Overall the filming went very well and we got it all done in one night. There was no accidents and all of the cast were very helpful and did exactly as we instructed.

We wanted the video to look as casual and un-staged as possible so we didn’t use a lot of equipment. To get the effect of the person filming also being involved in the party we wanted to use lightweight handheld cameras. 3 of us in the group have Nikon D3100’s so we all used our own cameras to film different areas and capture as much as we could.

In my opinion I think that we all worked very well as a team and overall the video was a success. I do think that some of the group did more than others for example a member of our group helped us to do the pre-production but then was unable to come to the actual filming or editing. We never had any other problems and everyone else stuck to their roles. Everyone in the group contributed in some way and I think that we all worked well as a team.

The only problem we really encountered was the changing of the song from ‘pursuit of happiness’ to ‘turn it around’ as most of our pre-production was specific to that song. Even though this did cause slight difficulties when it came to the editing we all sat together and worked as a team to edit the clips in appropriately.

The video overall was a great success. I think that it was very effective as it had a mixture of different emotions within it. It showed people dancing, laughing and also having serious discussions. I think another part of making the video that worked was how well we worked as a team if someone didn’t agree with what we were doing we allowed them to express their point and then we all worked together to alter whatever they disagreed on to make sure everyone was happy this allowed everything to work out well with no arguments and everyone happy in the end. By finishing the video in one night it allowed us more time to edit and left us with a lot more time that the other groups in the class had which was a great advantage. The pre-production and post-production both went well as we were all allocated roles and we made all of our decisions as a group. The only things that caused us were the song and attendance. The song was a problem because we had done all of our pre-production before we changed it. Our group’s attendance was also a problem as a member of our group left the course when we were mid pre-production and he had some of our work on his memory pen so we had to retrieve it.

I think that my skills in video production have improved a lot by doing this project. I have learnt about different camera techniques such as single and multi. I have learnt about different genres of moving image formats such as documentary and series. I think my skills in editing and filming have also improved as I have learnt from both my lecturer and my peers. I think my skills in using editing technology have also improved as I have been introduced to different types of software such as final cut.

I would be very happy to do video production in the future. I have had a lot of fun making the music video with my group and I would be keen to look into it more and develop my skills even further in the future.