PreLim Task 1: All About Me
My process for creating my “All About Me” was fairly simple. When I started I didn’t particularly know what would be the best video format for my video without just plainly sitting and talking to a carry so I had a look on YouTube. The majority of the videos were cringe get ready with me (GRWM) featuring teenagers showing themselves getting ready with excessive amounts or products. Because of this I decided to lean into the idea of it being cringe and tried to make a comedic attempt at one through the use of odd product choices I chose. Other than the initial idea of what to do I didn’t come across all that many problems. One thing I will need to focus on in future tasks is my editing skills which are very entry level at the moment – often using the very basic skills on Canva and iMovie, which I will need to expand from in future in order to get a higher quality final product.
Prelim Task 2: Mini Music Video:
Research:
Music Video Planning:
We have decided to work as a class (group of 5) to create a music video based around the song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears in a narrative style music video. We are achieving this through splitting up tasks into each person: Madi: Scheduling and shot list, Alina: editing, shotlist, and moodboard, Ben: location scout, Malachy: Editing and gear, Sean: Actor list, costumes. Prior to deciding this we researched and watched a few music videos and annotated them to get an idea of what we wanted, and how best we would convey our choices. Last year one issue I had with my work was that it didn’t seem all that realistic to me – partly I think due to the presence of it mostly being shot at school and in school uniforms. Because of this, with my projects this year I want to incorporate more realistic elements, such as better mis-en-scene and location choices to add more realism to my projects and hopefully get a higher grade. In the case of our mini music video, we are planning on filming at a beach at 5:30-7:30pm in casual beach style clothes to appeal to the 80’s aesthetic that aligns with our song we are using: Everybody Wants To Rule the World by Tears for Fears.
Mini Music Video: Production Reflection:
Photos during filming
Featured photos/ screenshots of filming
Photos during filming
Featured photos/ screenshots of filming
Photos during filming
Featured photos/ screenshots of filming
We chose to do our filming for our music video over the prior weekend, at Milford Beach at 17:00. We chose Milford beach because it offered a large grassy field with a beach volleyball court facing the ocean that would allow for a good group of shots that portray our main idea for the music video (showing a transition from being happy with friends to reminiscing over the past whilst alone) very well. We chose to film at 17:00 as it would generally be realistic to hangout with your friends in that early evening time, and the lighting then would also be ideal to fit our film brief. It was suggested to film during the early morning as the lighting would be somewhat similar however the rest of our group decided the realism and no loss of sleep would suit our filming better. I think generally our filming went very smoothly as we were able to get an album of all the originally planned shots and videos as well as a surplus of extra shots that can be added if we either ended up disliking the main videos filmed or if we needed some filler videos to add in if there were small gaps. One thing I feel we could have improved on was communication on the day. As it happened, we all arrived at the beach and generally started playing with a volleyball on the beach volleyball setup at the beach, and Alina started filming. I feel this could have been better as we could have sat down and gone shot by shot as per the shot list we created, as to put less strain on Alina.
My main job in the group was organising the mis-en-scene in the group. I decided that casual style clothes including comfortable tees and shorts, jeans, skirts, and hoodies were the best fit to meet our brief of a friend group in the 80s (same time period as the music video). I also assisted in the placement and planning of shots, particularly in the car scene. I felt that it would be fitting to have the car parked in a secluded area, facing towards the water, with the camera situated in the boot behind the friend group. I think one personal success during filming was ensuring we didn’t get too side tracked; I aimed to make sure that all the needed filming was done in the time frame we allocated, and that ended up being a success, with us having all the videos we planned for as well as the surplus already mentioned. During our shoot we didn’t use all that much gear, however we made use of a tripod and small film camera. The tripod was to be used to allow for a steady film with a change in angles whilst the film camera was purely for better quality. There was no need for anything such as a microphone – due to it being a music video as the primary and only audio source – or any additional lighting, as we aimed to capture a selection of raw 80’s inspired scenes of friends simply playing sports together. Overall the filming went well, we were able to get everything we needed and I enjoyed it alongside the rest of my group.
Here is our final product of our music video for the 1985 Tears for Fears song: Everybody Wants to Rule the World. I generally like the end product however there are some elements that I would change/ won’t include for my final coursework music video. One thing I would change is to ensure that the clips filmed included backup footage/ more extra footage due to the instability of the camera. I think this led to an unrealistic vibe in the video, and our editor also claimed this made it harder to get a consistent and realistic product whilst editing. Another thing I would tweak is to take out the clip of myself at the end. Originally that was filmed at the very beginning of the filming day to check that the cameras were working, however it ended up being added into the final product which I think is somewhat unprofessional in the terms of our music video. I think that the colour grading and the incorporation of lyrics on the screen were great additions to the video that aligned with music video conventions of the time period. Overall in future I’m going to take away some elements from this video to either use or not use in my final coursework as for it to be the best and most realistic it can be.Final Product: