1. Did you enjoy the main workshop shoot day? What role(s) did you take and what did you learn? What were your best bits and why?

Me speaking to our director Dom about
the route he took through university and
skills he has acquired.

Acting as Dolly Grip for Jack the
cameraman.

I found the main workshop shoot day very enjoyable. I spoke to people in the various departments about their roles and the routes they each took through school and further education to get to their jobs.

A photo of me cable bashing.

I helped out a lot as a cable-basher, and also took on the roles of dolly grip and runner for various tasks a number of times.

I learnt how to assemble a dolly track and attach and remove the camera to the dolly itself, and how to create a smooth shot using the dolly. I also spent time on the clapperboard, changing the setup and take numbers as and when needed. This helped improve my confidence in time management and working quickly to a schedule.

I feel I learnt surprisingly more than I expected about the performance side of the shoot, participating in the workshop and speaking to both the director and the performance coach Jasmine made me realise how much certain crew members' energy can affect the cast's performance.

This was mainly made clear to me through how involved the director was in showing the cast how he wanted them to act, the role he wanted them to portray.




Though learning about the technical aspects of the shoot was very interesting to me, my favourite part of the day still had to be performing as it was just really enjoyable, and everyone gave it their all. I feel that the performance side of the workshop also helped develop my confidence.

Here is a short video of me performing on the shoot day.

2. What have you learnt from participating in each prelim task 1, 2, 3, and 5?

Task 1: The Audition Video

During task one I learnt a significant amount about music video production. For example, prior to the task I did not know that the singers actually sing when lipsyncing, not just pretending to sing. I also realised that the movements and actions that the band members in the actual music video make correlate to the projected meaning of the song, as well as creating a kind of persona for each character. I also learnt that we needed to take a lot of takes in order to have enough usable footage. I also gained experience in syncing the shots to the music, which was something I wasn't too used to doing.

Task 2: Learn and practise your performance

I learnt that warming up is something very important before performing, to avoid injuries and pains later on. I also learnt that facial expressions needed to be controlled alongside body actions in order to successfully portray our characters. I also noticed the differences in performance between the part I was to play (the drummer), and the other band members. The drummer was seemingly most energetic, and his facial expressions only ever seemed to be either faces of intensity or exhaustion.

The drummer with an intense expression of anger.

Me before (with coloured hair)

Task 3: Help to plan and organize your costume

Me having my hair/makeup done.

Task 3 made me realise how resourceful you sometimes need to be to achieve the desired outcome.

Me after extra items and fake tattoo

I learnt that even though you can dress in the exact clothing as the characters you are trying to portray, sometimes it still takes a little more creativity to create a look that suits the actor and 'feels right'. 

For me that involved adding a bandana, a chain, and a fake tattoo.

Task 5: Editing

During task five I learnt how much longer it took to edit a music video than I expected. I learnt the slightly different approach used in comparison to editing film or other forms of media, with music videos you sync the entire clip and then choose the parts that fit, rather than choosing the parts that fit and then syncing to the audio.

Mario and I editing the music video

I also learnt how to use the 'Luma Corrector' video effect in Premiere Pro, which I used to over-expose footage at certain points, as done in the actual Misery Business video. Grading was also slightly different to what I was used to, as much more colour correction was needed to get the shots looking like the original, (for example, it seemed I needed to add some more blue to the darker areas in most shots to get the right look).

Using the luma corrector we mimicked the original video's flashes.
This involved increasing the brightness and contrast, and at some
 points key-framing the two variables.

3. Are you pleased with the footage and your finished edit? Is it how you expected it to look? What works really well and what would you change?

Our finished edit:


Misery Business Remake - Eddie + Mario from Latymermedia on Vimeo.

Overall I am very pleased with the footage we recorded and my finished edit. I think Mario and I did a great job on our edit as it follows the original music video very well, and for the shots we didn't get we managed to improvise and find other shots which fit in well. The footage itself I was very happy with, although there were some shots we were unable to use, the footage we were able to use was to a very good standard. The energetic interaction between the cast members on the set during the filming really added to the feel of the footage we got.

In total we filmed 23 setups with a few takes for each shot. For most shots the framing seemed to mimic the original music video very well. The hand-held camerawork also turned out looking far better than I had expected, some of the quick pans working really well to keep the fast pace of the shots.

Through use of the Luma Corrector, we managed to give our
footage the same over-exposed look as the original music video,
shown in the bottom right corner.

The finished edit is better than I expected it to look as we graded very well and through experimentation managed to (I think very successfully) mimic the flash and over-exposure effects seen in the original music video.
Most of all I think the effects we managed worked really well, especially where shots are transformed and the colouring changed at the same time.





If we were to do this again, I think the only real improvements we could make would be with how we mimicked certain shots. I think this because there were some shots that were actually the wrong way round (due to the original video being flipped), so when we flipped the video in editing, some shots were the wrong way round, even if the "RIOT" text in the background matched the original video. Furthermore, some shots could be planned better, for example the following shot where the camera was being shaken but went too far, showing the studio where it should not have.

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

I think the prelim experience has had a significant impact on my approach to next term's music video coursework, in particular I have realised that there are far more variables I will need to take into consideration than I first expected.

Makeup artists.

One particular consideration the prelim work has given me is thinking about cast and crew more. I now know the amount of work that has to be put in to achieve a polished video with good footage, I believe that when approaching next term's music video coursework I may have to get people from outside my group to help with the various cast roles.

1st A.D. - setting up set and organising
the shoot.

The cameraman - framing and recording
the footage.

I also now recognise the importance of planning for the music video. In the prelim work we had multiple documents for lists of shots, timings, who needed to be where and when, and reference images to help both the cameraman frame a shot, and for us to edit. Costume lists and character profile sheets were also very useful especially for the performers, so for next term's music video coursework I'd like to make those sheets for my project too.

Our prelim character profile
and costume/performance
references.

For the actual shoot day next term I know from the prelim work that it will be invaluable to have a strict schedule and timings sheet for the cast and crew to adhere to in order to make sure we start and finish on time whilst still getting the footage we need.

Setup/shot list with
references.

Also I now know to plan the times when we will be able to edit the final video, I've learnt that it's better to give yourself loads of time early on so that you do not have to worry about rushing and being out of time later on during the course of editing, this also allows time for any creative effects to be added, in which case it's especially important to have the extra time as getting the look right can be very time consuming.


A 'behind the scenes' video by Josh Stevenson, one of the runners on the shoot day, gives a great insight into the organisation of space and the progression of the day:

Furthermore, a time-lapse video was shot by Jack Downes, showing off some of the day, especially useful at the beginning as it shows the different cast and crew getting in at their required time, something I will need to take into consideration when planning next term's music video coursework.