Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Account of Preliminary Music Video Shoot

After watching several music videos such as the ones below, from artists such as Fall Out Boy and Green Day, I have noticed several shot types which recurr within videos of the same genre. Particular shots such as extreme close ups on the lead singer's mouth, and manic panning and tracking shots of the band. This later influenced me to make these choices when writing up a shot list and building a timeline of the music video.

Before the shoot I had made many preparations with my group members to ensure that on the day of the shoot we would look professional and well prepared. For example, we created a timeline of our part of the song, writing which shot we were going to use for each second. A very grungy and dirty set had been built the day before, with some sterile lighting to juxtapose to the dark surroundings. Then we set up the camera and had playback ready to go.

I encountered a few problems whilst trying to piece my video together. For example, my group had a whole minute to film for, when the remaining groups only had 30 seconds, with only 25 minutes to shoot with. Therefore we were very pressured for time which created a very stressful and rushed experience, which felt like we had captured barely any shots. However we could have improved this by perhaps having a longer time or perhaps using easier shots. As we had many specialised shots.

I enjoyed using the studio as it made the experience flow much easier as we had all the equipment we needed to do the video. The set helped to portray and highlight the moody and dirty atmosphere and the genre of the music. It was quite dark in the studio, but we were able to use lighting, which made the shots look more interesting. Due to the darkness of the band and the set in the studio, we were able to manipulate the lighting to make it fit to the mise en scene of the video. So we used dimmed low levelled lighting to create a moody and low key atmosphere, keeping with the bands image.

Using a timeline helped to give us a foundation for our editing. We were able to decide which shots we wanted for particular parts of the song. However we faced some problems with finding a good looking shot but being certain that the track fitted the shots. I also found it very hard using the technology however got the hang of it by the end of the session.

Throughout the production, I took the role of Director and Sound Technician. I enjoyed being the director as I was able to get my ideas and thughts through to the band and to my group directly. However I didnt enjoy being sound technician as much as it was rather boring and frustrating, to have to keep starting and stopping the music! I think we worked very well as a team, and used constructive criticism rather than arguing. I think it helped that we were all already friends so we were able to share ideas comfortably.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise and I think it has successfully prepared me for next years work. I understad there is alot of work to do but now that I know what to expect I think that I will be successful. Our video looks great and we worked very hard to make it, so our hard work has paid off.

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