Evaluation

Evaluation for music video

Over the past few weeks of this term, we have been exploring what goes into making and making our own Music Video. As few of us have experience in making a music video, it was very hard work and we had to overcome a lot of obstacles.
So to get us warmed up for this and experienced for the real thing, at the start of the term we were set a task of taking a Barry Manilow song, and record a music video to it, and most importantly get used to lip syncing so it became in time with the song. Overall our group of me, Tom, Dan and Bobby, worked really well together and produced a good video with a variety of shots that worked well with the music, and as it was the first time we had done anything like that I was extremely happy with the outcome, and for the real music video we kept basically the same group apart from we inherited Ayo into our group while Dan went to another group.
So after we had done that we then moved onto planning our music video, we got into our group, and went onto the Mac’s there was a programme called Garage band, we searched that for any backing beats we could use, and help structure the song with the appropriate music. It had thousands of beats and tunes we could put on, so not only was it easier to produce but for a one off we could use the song and just keep it on the computer, and transport it from file to file, computer to phone etc..
This was a good move to use this I think, although it meant it could not be performed live, we only needed it for a one off, and it was a lot easier to do it this way where it was already there for us rather than searching for instruments, singers etc..
Once we had established the beat and decided it was appropriate and worked with the song. We needed to come up with the idea and story for the video, all 4 of us went home that night and worked out 4 different ideas we could use, and either use one, or collaborate them all together to get one good idea.
When we all explained the idea, we all noticed that in all of our ideas we had one thing in common, a journey or walk story, so in the end we decided to collaborate all our ideas together and have a journey from different places to college which would be our Destination for the journey. We decided to add bits in such as it would be a dream and all four of us would come from different places, so we had me coming from Christchurch Park and all my shots in there coming back from there. Bobby from Cardinal Park, Tom from Portman Road and Ayo from Tower Ramparts. These are all well known established parts of town so we thought the audience watching could relate to these. I woke up on a bench and the shot showed me dashing to get back to college. All of the shots of all of us were different shots of us rushing back to college. We had to be careful we wore the same clothes if we came back and recorded because otherwise it would’ve looked weird to the audience if one shot I was wearing a shirt and the next a jumper.
So after we had fully established the idea and done all the paper work to plan it, storyboards, risk assessment etc… We had to think of lyrics to go with it; we had to make sure they were relevant and went with the beat, we all went off and wrote our own, came back and made sure they all fitted with the song.
We then went to a recording studio and sung our lyrics, then put them on a pen drive so they could be included in the song. We found this good because we went to the music section of the college, where they have all the best equipment.
When we got round to the filming of the video, we planned it out before hand, with a schedule so we knew where we should be at what time, and so we could fit it all in the allocated time. We managed to do this and by the end of the week had all the adequate and relevant footage, we had it all to edit in the next week.
So all of the next week we edited it, as we had logged and captured it, we could go straight into editing it, this meant lip syncing it which we had already practiced with the Barry Manilow work, so we done that and also edited everything so it went with the music, selected the shots we wanted to use from the ones we had taken. Also we cut down each shot and made sure it was the right length and cut out any black bits of any shot.
The week after this we wrote all the research and what we had found out whilst making the video, skills etc… We also had the chance to watch the other groups videos, and from what I saw the majority of ideas worked really well and everyone got on as a team, some were a bit out, and looked a bit amateur but as this was all our first attempts I thought they were excellent. I especially liked Stuarts groups ideas where they shot all there’s in one shot and just edited it with movement angle, speed and subtitles. That idea was very well structured, and left me whilst I was watching very engaged.
The things that worked well was that our group got the best out of each other because we were all friends, and all knew we would work well as a team and came up with constructive ideas for each other, and that was evident in our music shots, we all contributed with different ideas for shots. Also we all arranged to meet at certain times and came in at them times, otherwise if we had not it would be very mixed up, but we all came at the right times and this enabled us to go to schedule and have things done and over with in the right time.
Our all round shots worked well we used a variety of angles and shot types, these all added effect to the impression we were trying to give to the audience. I very much enjoyed making the beats on the computer and the freedom we were allowed, there was a very wide spectrum of ideas we could’ve used, for example when we looked at each others videos, all 5 were totally different to one and other. When we were watching it back a member of the class commented on one of the shots with the police car in the background and said it was “outstanding” this was obviously pleasing to hear good feedback such as this.
As it was only our first attempt at this some things were bound to go wrong, and as we took it from the computer to computer, the different speeds of each machine meant as we watched it back the lip sync looked a bit out. As well as this the continuity could’ve changed a bit for example; Ayo was wearing different clothes in 2 of the shots.
Had we had more time than we had, we would’ve been able to address these issues I also would’ve added in a variety of shots, and maybe different effects such as “Green Screen” to help the effects of the shots.
Overall I was very happy with the way things went and I thoroughly enjoyed the task as a whole, I mostly enjoyed the freedom we were allowed to do what we want, rather than be limited to themes, this enabled us to get the best from what we had. As it was my first attempt it was never going to be perfect, but as a group we pulled together and put together what was a very well established music video, and our tutor said it was “ a very good” piece of work. If I did it again I would perhaps add in more shots, and review it a bit more and perfect it, but other than that there were no major issues. Doing this rotation has made me see a different side of talents I may have, such as shot choosing, and editing, that I had never done before, and overall I thought I worked hard and found something I enjoyed doing. Of the opportunity came around to do something like this again, I would jump at it, I would also like to thank the tutors for the support we were given throughout the project.

Pre production work