Prelim Edit

Audition Video

Audition Video

My Costume

Describe or list the specific costume:
- Black Tshirt (preferably long sleeve, but sleeves are rolled up so short sleeve can work)
- Black fitted jeans
- Black coat during photography scene
- Black guitar
- Black boots

Do you have the items you need, or do you need to beg,borrow/steal?
I have a short sleeve black t-shirt, but not a long sleeve.
My trousers aren't skinny jeans, but they're fitted enough to still look good.
I have a black coat that may be able to work for the photography scene
I need to clean my boots, but they work well

My Role

Describe your role, how you feel about it
My role is the guitarist for the white and photography scenes, and he's quite chilled out, with little movements forward and backwards and quite a lot of bouncing, with no addressing the camera, concentrating on the guitar.

At first I was slightly disappointed because I didn't get lead, but I didn't really mind because guitarist is the role that I actually wanted, as it seemed more like a role that suited me. I quite like it as I play guitar, so it feels natural to have the guitar on me.

What does the performance actually consist of?
As I've said before, the performance mainly consists of little movements with no direct address, and a lot of bouncing from the knees.

A few of the things I have to remember to do are:
- Bend from the knees, but also bend from the hip at the same time
- Pace forward and backwards slightly, while still bouncing a little bit
- Remain in character at the start; act disinterested and not wanting to be there
- Look up from the guitar
- Show the difference in the chorus by using more movement and perhaps interaction with the rest of the band

Is this a challenge?
It's a challenge for me because I'm not used to consciously moving around while playing guitar, and also I sometimes have problems staying in a moody character, so I enjoy the challenge as it develops my acting ability.

Personal Achievement

What do you personally want to get out of the whole A2 prelim?

I would like to learn how to edit a music video, as well as see how to organise a professional shoot (organising costumes, rehearsals, sets, lighting, camera) so that when we come to make our own music videos, I will be able to do it to a high standard. I also want to learn how to act in front of the camera in a music video style rather than film, as in music videos they directly address the camera more, and I want to learn how to do this properly.

Is it a challenge for me?
It's a little bit of a challenge, because I'm not used to acting in front of a camera when I have to address the camera, and syncing audio during edits is also quite hard, but once I've practised it will be fine.

Have you achieved anything so far?
So far I have learnt how to:
- Lipsynch
- Create a performance bed
- Perform to a camera
- How to sync audio when editing

But I still wish to develop these skills more so I can use them more efficiently in future.

1. Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?

I enjoyed the workshop day for the most part because it was quite interesting being on a pro-shoot and seeing how things differed from planned, i.e. any retakes being done at the time of filming the shot rather than waiting to review footage at the end of the day. It was also interesting as I was able to learn about the lighting desk and how to control lighting and create presets, which will be very useful for me next year.

My favourite bits were filming the photography scene and also reviewing the white scenes on the monitor to see how camera focus and movement was changing. I enjoyed filming the photography scenes because it felt like a truly replicated set, and by that time in the day I was far more loose, whereas when filming the white scenes I was still nervous about performing on camera.

There were times when I found the workshop slightly dull, which was when I did not have anything to do but continue to watch the monitor, but then I realised that I could shadow Nico on lighting or Jack on camera, and it instantly became more engaging and I also learnt more about how to organise a pro-shoot by doing this.

2. What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks?

Audition
Doing the audition taught me the basics of lip-synching, i.e. actually singing rather than mouthing the words, and also the basics of performing to a camera, ensuring to maintain a direct address. One of the things I found most challenging about the audition was coming up with different angles to film and different ideas for shots, as it was such a small window of time, but we managed to do a few. The editing was harder due to the limited amount of time to watch clips, choose the best ones and edit them together properly, but this taught me to ensure that we storyboard our music video next year.

Learning and practicing the performance
Practicing the performance helped me to realise the importance of rehearsals, as it showed me the improvement that occurred after having practiced movements, gestures and facial expressions, ensuring that we were aware of key things to practice once we went home. It also developed my performance towards a camera, again prompting direct address, but also making me think more about the little details of my movement and facial expression, as these would show up clearly on camera.


Planning and Organising costumes
Adapting costumes, compromising but still keeping to the theme
Planning and organising costumes has taught me that this is one of the most important aspects of working on a shoot, as it ensures that composition will be correct and that the look of the video and characters will fit with what they are meant to look like. However, this has taught me that you can compromise and adapt with costumes, for reasons such as lack of availability or actor discomfort, and the video will still be able to retain its' look.

Here, I did not have a long sleeve black t-shirt, so it was adapted to a short sleeve one.

Shoot
Looking around at all of the paperwork on the walls helped me to understand the level of organisation that is needed on a pro-shoot, but the day itself taught me that these schedules can be changed, as it was when doing re-takes at the time of filming rather than at the end of the day.

Going up to the lighting box taught me about the different ways you can setup the lighting, how to control it, and how to save these lighting setups as pre-sets for easy reference in future. This will be very useful next year if we use the studio. (See above, the photography lighting and the white scene lighting)

Edit

At some points, movement was more important, i.e. the yellow shots, but during the performance lipsynching was prioritised. Grading was also slightly difficult on some of these shots, as if colour correction was applied, then skin colour would be affected, but if not then colours were off. We decided to minimise colour correction as we thought it looked better without it.

Editing the prelim video together was quite a long process, as at first we went through shot by shot, but then realised it was quicker to go through and place shots by setups rather than shots. We also created a performance bed for the white scenes, and placed other setups on top of that so that the white scenes would always be in time and also require no further work to place at different stages of the video. One thing that I learnt from trying to sync the lipsynchs/movement was that listening to the sound of both the recording and song helped when there was lipsynching, but with movement I found it better to synchronise the visual movement so long as there was no lipsynchs.

3. Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?

I am quite pleased with the footage, as it looks very professional and it showed me how important make-up is to improving the quality of footage as well, which is helpful when reflecting on previous projects and planning for future ones. We were able to remake the video accurately for the most part, with obvious barriers being the car and the girls' costumes, but these changes still worked with the original video, the costumes looking similar enough to the band girls, but also looking good on the actors and improving their confidence.

The bikinis in the original shot were changed to be more conservative and allow the actors to feel more comfortable

I'm also quite happy with my edit, as there was a lot of effort was put into it, and it is pretty accurate to the actual video, with a few moments that may be off, as well as colour correction lacking on some shots because it seemed to compromise the shot quality.

The yellow shots had a gradient in our shots, whereas in the original shots it was a sold yellow. Colour correction was attempted but it changed Kayvon's skin colour, so we preferred to leave it alone.

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

I think the prelim task has taught me many skills that will help me next year, such as:
Lip-syncing - The prelim task has helped me to further realise that lip-syncing helps a video to flow, so it has guaranteed its' use in performances during my video.

Shoot organisation - Creating a shootboard detailing each setup, so that we know how much time we have to do the setup and also which shots are vital to get within that time.

As First A-D, Chris was in charge of keeping the team on/ahead of schedule.

Performing - Although I'd prefer to take a more technical role in my video next year due to being an actor in my last one, and therefore not being able to use the camera as much, it has taught me how to perform as in a music video, to pay attention to movement and facial expression so that character attitude comes through effectively, so that if needed I can perform adequately.

The photography band discussing what needs to be done during these shots with Dom and Tash 

Editing - The prelim task has shown me how to edit to sound, so cutting with the music as chords change or on the drum beat, and that this helps to make the video seem fluid and natural.

Adobe Premiere Pro's interface

Make up - Previously I didn't think that make up was quite as vital as it actually is to making videos look good, but the prelim task has made me realise that make up helps to dramatically enhance your on-screen appearance and therefore the integrity of each shot. I will make sure to use this next year, and attempt to learn what make up tricks may be needed for our videos.

Olivia, our make-up artist, who offered to help us with make-up next year