Preliminary Task

Task outline

For the preliminary task, as a class we had remake and produce our version of the Britney Spears video to 'Hit me baby one more time'. Everybody had to take part in all the major areas of the production of a music video, these include:

• shooting/filming
• directing
• editing
• lip syncing
• taking part in the video
• organising costume, props and location

Planning

When it came to planning this task, all of the jobs involved were delegated so that everyone had the chance to organise the way the video was going to be filmed. decisions had to be made on all of these areas:

• Location
• Costumes
• Storyboarding/shots

After individuals had thought up ideas/grou

ps for each other these areas, we all came together to choose and make the final decisions. This way we all agreed on they way our production would run and also when it came to filming, we all would know where to be and what we were doing; making it run a lot smother on the day.

This is a storyboard that was made of all the shots that were needed to put our production of the music video together.

Filming

When it came to the days of film, it did seem a little unorganized, not everybody was experienced in filming and directing so it took a while to get everybody in their places and in charge of some shots. I filmed two shots of the boys walking out of the classrooms, I was included in a section of lip syncing and was a dancer throughout. On the day the acting was difficult as not all of us were that confident in front of a camera and struggled to act probably, but as the end result I think we did a pretty good job.

It took us longer than expecting to, to film all of the shots as we were not as organised as we had planned. It also took longer for us to film lip syncing shots as people like myself, were not comfortable filming them. This is something that we can considering when producing future videos; making sure that we use people that are comfortable and happy with being filmed and also lip syncing in front of a camera.

Editing

Editing was quite a struggle, some of the software at college is slow to use; however I tried to make the most of it. We had done a lot of takes on all of the shots, so it took a lot of time to go through them all and pick out the best ones for the video. I started by picking out all the best clips for each shot and putting them in the correct order, then cutting them all so that they fitted in with the music. Using the original video to help I lip synced each part as best as possible until the video looked okay. Unfortunately we must have missed some shots, so they're not exactly the same as the original Britney Spears Video.

Final Product

When it came to editing the video, I struggling with exporting and uploading the video. This version is a completed video by a class member Richard Kish.

My Contributions

I contributed a lot of hours towards the final production as I was there for all planning, filming and also all of the editing.

I filmed the parts of the video where the boys are dancing in the corridors and out of doors, I helped to direct it and make it look like the original video.

I lipsynched a part at the beginning of the video, it made me fel uncomfortable as I do not like being filmed. I sang to the music so that it looked more like it was in time with the music.

I edited the beginning of the video then everything was put together.

Evaluation

I wouldn't say that our final video is professional, as our camera angles and not everyone's acting is great. However this is because we aren't all professional actors, only a few are drama students, which is why they took the lead role.

It was useful to produce the project as a group, because everyone had to make sure they worked as a team otherwise the project would never have all come together. It is also useful to learn how important it is to be organised before going into making a video otherwise not everything will go right and the video could end up being a lot more difficult to edit.

I have learnt that planning is an important process to carry out before making any production; that way everything will run a lot smoother. I have also learnt a lot more about making sure when filming using a tripod is vital otherwise you can get very shaky on un-professional images. A final thing I have learnt is how to use the complex things on the editing software, which I will use when it comes to making my own music video.

One of the main problems that we all came across was that most people were uncomfortable with being filmed and especially singing. However everybody tried their best. But in the future when I come to filming something, I will make sure I use actors or at least people that are comfortable with being filmed. This was it will not look as awkward and uncomfortable. Another issue that I found was when it came to the editing stage, I didn't have enough or the right amount of shots to make it look the same as the original video meaning some shots had to be manipulated making them look a bit fuzzy.