By the end of the workshop day I was very tired but I found the whole experience very enjoyable. Watching the crew work and being able to help them was my favourite part of the day. The entire process was, in my opinion, extremely professional and I can easily imagine how a professional music video would be created, based off the workshop day. Another aspect which I liked was the atmosphere within the studio during the shoot; the entire crew was still working enthusiastically at the end despite shooting for over 12 hours.
What did you learn from participating in the workshop?
By observing the crew I learnt about the different responsibilities each person had, how they contributed towards the shoot. The prop artist and make up artist had to get props and people in front of the camera looking their best at the right times. They had a huge role to play and also had to keep a watch on the shot schedule. Crew working with the camera used many different equipment, including a jib, dolly, track and a variety of lens. By the end of the shoot day I had learnt the basics of how they operate this equipment by watching the crew.
Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?
From the beginning of the workshop I had never expected the end product to be as well made as the real music video, but it turned out much better than I had anticipated. The set looked fantastic and the drapery made a good replacement for the infinity wall. Although some of the movement in the shots were quite difficult to recreate, the crew compromised by establishing their own movement, for example, with one of the panda bear shots involving lots of panning and tracking. In other cases, the size of our studio hindered the shots, in the shots with the doll house the crew could not track far back enough as the track on the floor would sometimes appear at the bottom of the screen. During the edit the group was able to pick the best sections of footage together so I am happy with the footage on a whole.
How do you think your workshop experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?
The workshop has given me insight to professional music video planning, production and post production and it will help me successfully create my own music video next term. I think that the workshop experience will benefit my planning for next term's project. Seeing all the planning done in preparation for the music video workshop has made me realise that it would all be a disaster without it. Everything ran smoothly thanks to all the planning done by the crew.
