Question 1: Did you enjoy the main workshop shoot day? What roles did you take and what did you learn? What were the best bits and why?

The music video remake shoot day was the most impactful and enjoyable day of my media a-level. The exciting, yet still very productive and educational nature of the day meant I was able to learn huge amount about the ways in which a professional shoot works, without any tedious moments. I was able to expand my knowledge in directing and the more creative aspects, whilst also gaining a better understanding of the technical and organizational areas. Moreover, the challenges I faced, such as acting confidently, gave me wider awareness of the acting thought process.  Lastly, it was great bonding experience for me to connect and work effectively with my peers.

Working with Tash (our performance coach)
 in rehearsal. 

My band warming up for rehearsal.

Over the course of the day I learnt many skills and roles. Firstly, I was performing as the Lead Vocalist; Hayley Williams. This meant I had to take on her character as well as performing the correct movement and lip-syncing convincingly.

Practising the specific movements.

At first I found it quite difficult to convey the emotions just using gestures and expression, however with help from the performance coaches I was taught how to envisage what I was singing about and using that imagination to light up my eyes and inspire my movements. Leading on from this, I also learnt that embodying the character is more important than copying the physical actions step-by-step and that actually singing is crucial to a good lip-synch.

Our clapper-board

In addition, I also did some roles off camera, such as cable-bashing and using a clapper-board. Cable bashing; which entailed pushing the dolly smoothly and moving cables, was a very interesting role as I was able to analyze the spacial relationship between the actors and the camera as well as working alongside and understanding the job of a professional director of photography. The further practice using the clapperboard also meant that I could become more proficient at it and meant that the editing process was must quicker and easier.

Another performance being
streamed to the monitor

Watching the footage on the monitor was also very informative as I was able to adapt and improve my performances throughout the day as well as learning and gaining inspiration from the other groups.

The morning briefing was a great moment as I was filled with anticipation and butterflies about what the day would bring. However, overall I think the best part was the final take of the day. This is because it was my group performing and with all my peers dancing around me there was an amazing uplifting atmosphere which I could feed into my acting, whilst also implementing and reflecting on my learning curve of that day.

This is a short behind the scenes video which shows the process we followed and how the fun nature lead to effective proactive learning.

Question 2: What have you learnt from participating in each prelim tasks 1,2,3 and 5?

1 - My Audition Video

Our first task was to create an amateur remake of the video clearly displaying our lip-syncing and acting techniques, with which the staff team could cast our roles.  I produced a 3 minute video with Ela (another media student) in which we experimented with different angles and props.

Here is our final product:

This sequence was very enjoyable to film, despite some challenges; the hardest being my reluctance to act on camera with confidence, but it was a very proactive way to learn about the audition and music video processes. Overall, I think that the majority of my learning was through reflection when editing. This is because I learn about laying a performance bed and the importance of correctly syncing the footage to the track, both things I had not experienced before.  As well as this, it was also when I realized that lip-syncing convincingly is not just about knowing the lyrics well. What I learned later from the performance coaches, is that it is also about understanding the meaning behind the words and learning how to convey that. It was definitely a very crucial aspect to my steep learning curve.

2 - Learning and Practicing my Performance

My annotation on the lyrics

Filming the beauty shots

This was arguably the most beneficial and influential aspect of the whole project, primarily because of how much I learnt. We started off by working closely with the acting coaches and the director and learning about what makes a good performance. This was extremely beneficial as it help me to understand what they need from me and what in particular they were looking for. Following on from this, we then began to unpick the video and the lyrics in order to pick out key movement and character traits, as well as getting an in depth understanding of the song. I then began to closely analyse individual lyrics and I tried to connect them to particular stories I found relatable. This helped me to embody the character and her motivations.

We then began to practice the prevalent movements and actions in the video in order to implement them on the real shoot day, so to achieve a strong remake. This was important for me, as it gave me a wider context to the song and helped me to tackle my performance related nerves, through my better understanding alongside warm-up and relaxation exercises.

A clip from one of the rehearsals:

3 - Helping to Plan Out and Organize my Costume

At the beginning of this task we were given a booklet with costume references for all the characters. After having watched the video and using this guide I then brought in all my clothes that were appropriate for the roles. We were then required to pick out a costume with the help of the teachers. After our outfits had been finalized we then had our head shots sent to the make-up artist to enable us to reach a closely matched end product. This make-up was then tested on one of our rehearsal days and adaptations were made based on the test shots.

Here are some head shots compared to the real thing:

Angela's head shots

The real make-up and costume

This was all very interesting to experience, as I wasn't very familiar with the process.

5 - My Edit


Overall, I think that the edit was the hardest part of the project, primarily because it was the most time-consuming, but also because it contain a lot of experimenting with luma correctors, color-balances and general grading. In addition to this, I also felt it was a great way to become more skillful on Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as further practice on laying a performance bed. I dedicated all of my free periods for that week, as well as some early mornings and evenings after school in order to finely tune and perfect our edit. As a result of that, I feel both myself and our project benefited as I was able to gain invaluable practice framing and creating sequences and cutting together jump cuts. In conclusion, I learnt a lot from this edit especially when adding in the flashes and the highlight was
probably the long flashing and lighting changes
of the shot below, due to the detailed key-frames I created.

Question 3: Are you pleased with the footage and your finished edit? Is it how you expected it to look? What works really well and what would you change?

My Final Music Video Remake:


Amber and Ela - Misery Business SD from Latymermedia on Vimeo.

The whole set

Overall, I am extremely pleased with both the footage and the edit, as I think we reached quite a professional final outcome. The rushes had good variation meaning we had a wide choice when editing and due to good acting, filming and direction, most were useable. The lighting of the beauty shots also made grading much easier, as well as contributing heavily to the overall impact. The guitar slide was another notable shot, as Gift (the actress) was completed committed to the performance and played very well with her spatial relationship to the camera. Overall, i also think the final edit was a success. This is primarily down to the grading and flashes, but also as a result of good syncing.However, this was only possible as a result of the high quality footage produced.

I was also shocked at how professional the end product looked and the amazing quality of the costume and set.

Having said this there were a few issues that I would change if I had the chance. Firstly, as the footage was not filmed step-by-step it resulted in a few moments where we were left without suitable clips, meaning it was harder to make a convincing edit. This can be seen in the clip below where we did not have an exact take and as a result, had to improvise.

The shot we missed out

In addition, there were also a few shots that were film from the wrong angles, making a complete match difficult. As can be seen below, our shot doesn't match the real shot (in the bottom right-hand corner).

In relation to editing there were also a few aspects in which I felt were lacking. The main issue was that, due to time limitations, the continuity of the grading was not perfect. Also in hindsight, a couple of our chosen shots lacked depth, despite being the best match, maybe proving it would have been better to stray further for a more powerful shot.

All in all, I think that these issues were only minor and didn't hinder the outcome of our project significantly.

Question 4: How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

This project and the experience it has given to me will be invaluable to my music video next year. It has given me a more detailed perspective of all the individual roles, as well as giving me a solid general understanding of the music video filming and editing processes. Furthermore, it has made me extremely enthusiastic about the breadth of possibility and the realistic professional look we will be able to achieve. It has also acted as a great learning curve as I am now familiar with the key areas.

The shoot schedule

The first crucial area is preparation and making sure that pre-production is carried out thoroughly. After being part of a rigorous rehearsal schedule and witnessing the staff dedication and planning to all aspects of the prelim, I have realized the importance of preparing sufficiently.

We had multiple documents which denoted the schedule and timing of the shoot day as well as everyone's roles and where they had to be. This made the shoot run smoothly and despite taking longer than expected, the timings were easy to adapt. Therefore, I will definitely use this idea for my shoot next term in order to minimize complications. In conjunction with this, I also learnt the importance of being on time and making sure you are ready when you are needed. Furthermore, I now have a better understanding of the acting training needed and the importance of familiarizing oneself with the different characters and their roles.

Secondly, in production I now realize the need for professional work ethic as well as the right level of compromise to make, in order to achieve any specific shot. On top of this, I now know that a director, a first assistant director, a director of photography (cameraman), a make-up artist and a performance coach are all essential roles for a successful shoot. Now implementing this, I know that even if people have to double up on roles, all these aspects must be dealt with.

Also, by having the hours 8am-8pm, I realize that it is better to start early and leave time for over-running.

Lastly, thanks to this prelim task, I have become much more proficient in editing efficiently and effectively, meaning I now feel confident to tackle my own original project. I understand that to an extent, it is easier to edit a remake as the creative decisions have mostly been taken care of, but this gave us a chance to analyze the decisions they made and the effect that had on the overall impact of the video. The most influential aspects were the quick cut montage sequences and the flashes, as this taught me that the tempo can be used to hold the audience's interest and that it is a good idea to experiment with graphic effects, beyond just filming techniques.

Overall this production was amazingly educational whilst still really fun and the proactive learning environment was very beneficial to the development of my understanding of the subject. I will definitely try to implement and utilize everything I learnt when creating next term's music video coursework.

This is a time-lapse of the shoot day showing how smoothly the day went: