Evaluation Q4: How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

I think my prelim experience will have a positive impact on my approach to next term's music video coursework. Overall, I have learnt a lot from all three sectors of production, pre-production, main shoot and post-production.

Pre-production

From pre-production I have learnt that it is important to have:

Our performance schedule

• a clear sense of what genre our music video belongs to as this will heavily affect lighting and styling choices
• detailed schedules for both cast and crew and this helps keep everyone focused and stress-free
• choreography learnt and thoroughly rehearsed before the shoot as this will help it run smoothly
• all required locations booked/available so shoot days have less hassle

Main shoot

From our prelim's main shoot I have learnt to:

The set-up on the day of the main shoot

• have an assistant director whose job is to ensure we don't over-run; on the day I felt this was critical in us having a more productive shoot
• shoot every take more than once as this gives you more options when editing
• ensure that any actors who are required to lip-sync actually sing as this helps make their mouth movements more believable on camera
• ensure that all the actors are supported and encouraged frequently as this helps bring out better performances as a result of boosts in confidence

Post-production

Through the post-production period I have learnt that:

Me working at my edit suite

• having an edit schedule is imperative in making sure that the final deadline for the project is met and in turn helps keep the load more evenly spread out between group members
• grading choices can only be decided by experimenting and they must accurately reflect the genre of the music and therefore the look/style you are going for
• cutting shots to the beat is very effective in delivering a professional music video of which the story being portrayed does not take away from the music

Conclusion

Overall, I believe that this prelim has taught me a vast range of new skills which I can carry on into my next project. It also taught me that the time required to actually make a music video is very long and thus must not be underestimated by any one taking part. However, no matter how long it took I also feel that this process was thoroughly enjoyable and has made me very excited for next year.