Preliminary Music Video

Music Video Prelim

In the studio we filmed each other lip syncing to price tag by Jessie J, once in front of the green screen, a fireplace set and a tracking shot in front of a cave set. We took a series of different shots from medium shots to close ups and extreme close ups. We rotated in our roles so that everyone had a turn at being the director, filmer, singer etc. We learned how to sync up the music with the singers through the editing process and how to keep serious on set and get the music video results that look proffessional. We also learned a lot about the performance side of music videos through this. I enjoyed filming tracking shots because it was different to what we had done before and it was a more complex shot to take than the others we had been previously trying. I learned that its vital for the singer to know the lyrics for the music video to look confident and flow properly and that when editing it to make the video flow cutting accurately on the beat of the song makes the video look successful. The thing I liked least about being in the studio was pressing the button for the music because it wasn't that involved. When we edited our shots together to make our music video prelims we took it in turns to edit, I cut the ending shots together on the beat and helped line everything up correctly whilst other people were editing. I enjoyed cutting the shots to the beat because it was something new that I had learned to do but it made such a difference to the video in linking it together and making it flow successfully. I found synching everything up difficult though because we got it wrong by a miniscule amount and it was obvious and made a huge difference so we had to go back and re do it. We decided among ourselves to use the shots in the sequence we did so that it would all flow and conform to music videos we had been looking at prior to the task. We cut the music to the beat by deleting the sound from the shots and going through the song soundtrack in super slow motion to find out exactly where the beat started and cut into it. I've learned that to make a successful music video your singer needs to know the words so that they can be confident in their performance and give a realistic performance. This overall task will influence my video in september by making sure the singer knows the words and obtaining a wide range of interesting shots to choose between and cut through to each other.

Finished Thriller

Audience Feedback

This is the audience feed back we got when we showed our thriller to a focus group

Never Let Me Go analysis

Throughout the trailer the theme of romance is emphasised by means of the soundtrack and what each shot contains. We constantly see shots of the male character with each of the two main females individually which shows us that there is going to be some kind of love story and romantic conflict between these three characters. From the trailer we can connote that not only is it a film made of the book, but also it deals with elements of social realism within a potential reality of the future.

What we have learnt about technologies

Looking back at the Prelim

We planned for our thriller much more thoroughly than we did for the preliminary task, primarily because of what we had learnt from our preliminary task. But also the idea for our thriller had much more depth and was way more complicated than the basic shot and editing sequences we had gone through for the preliminary task. For the prelim we were given a storyboard and script which meant we only had to work on creating the basic shots that we wanted. Where as for the thriller we storyboarded, wrote a script, chose specific actors, designed the set and had to research the conventions of the type of thriller we wanted to create. The editing process was much more complicated partly because of the sheer number of shots we took, which required marking, but also because the thrillers we researched were mostly produced by big media conglomerates, for example the film Se7en I researched was produced by New Line Cinema which is a fellow subsidiary of Time Warner. In the prelim we were only using basic wide, medium, or close shots where as for the main task we were using the range of shots and filming skills we had learnt about since the prelim. We found storyboarding difficult as our thriller contained montages and after effects, however we used the benefit of the script in order to formally introduce our thriller and explain the concept of it. The visual narrative was generally shown through the way our thriller was displayed and the editing process, because it moulded our sequence of shots into a game show program and solidified the basic plot of our thriller. The camera work of our thriller is clearly an improvement from the prelim task. We took into account head space, the 180 degree rule and the framing for our shots. In the beginning montage sequences we knew to keep the camera in exactly the same position for each shot of every character so that it would flow fluidly. We displayed new techniques like the wide shot zoom close up of the presenter during the introduction of the show, which we had learnt about through research of reality TV and throughout the planning of our thriller. The spacing and framing we used for each character interview was a new skill we had all learnt since the prelim. Our use of all areas has been developed since the prelim including sound. When filming the prelim we stuck to using the attached microphone, where as during our thriller we used a second wire microphone as well so that we had the choice of which sounds recording to use. We set the microphone up by doing rehearsals of the lines each character was going to say and making sure that the sound was keeping at the right level. Another difference between our prelim and main task in terms of sound was the after added sounds in our main task, the voice over, the synchronous non diegetic sound effects of gun shots etc and of course the music we added to create mood with in chosen shot sequences. This was done by our utilisation of a relatively new media technology, final cut pro and after effects which allowed us to work over the top of our thriller and add the special effects that help to conform to the conventions of reality television

Tripod mid two shot



Compared with a handheld shakey mid tracking shot



tripod side angle two shot

compared with a handheld interactive shakey shot

Thriller Annotations