Music Video Workshop: The Evaluation

1. Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?

I thought the workshop day was brilliant fun. The set looked fantastic; it all looked extremely professional with the lighting and the camera equipment - it felt like a real shoot. My favourite parts of the day were probably the firts performance on the stage, and the crowd shots at the end of the day, as I was lifted up and had the chance to crowd-surf, which was great.

2. What did you learn from participating in the workshop?

I learnt a lot from participating in the workshop. I didn't get the chance to opperate the camera or work behind the scenes, as I was in many of the shots, but I still learnt about lighting and camerawork.
I learnt that when lighting a set, it is a good idea to use orange and blue filters, as they reflect the skin tone well and make the subject look very good. I also learnt that playing about with focus and changing camera lenses can give the shot a unique look.

Aside from the technical aspect, I learnt how long and tiring a shoot can be, and how much set-up time there is, versus the actual shoot time. It was important for Jake (our director) and Jasmine (our 1st AD) to keep energy levels up and to get the best performance out of us.

3. Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?

I am incredibly pleased with the footage - it looks amazing, so much better than I expected it to. The camerawork is very professional looking, the pans are smooth, the framing is perfect, and the lighting provides for some great beauty shots.

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

The music video workshop will have a big impact on my approach to next years project. The crew put so much time in to planning to make sure that the day ran to schedule as best as possible. Everyone rehearsed together so we all knew the lyrics and the dance, and every shot was planned and thought out by the crew. From this, I know that we will have to spend a lot of time on pre-production next year, as we do not want to encounter too many issues, and would ideally like to shoot everything in one session, like we did in the workshop.

I also learnt a lot about coping with the shoot day. One of the biggest issues that we may encounter, is our actors might not feel comfortable or confident enough on camera, and we may not get the best performance out of them. To counter this, the band rehearsed with Jasmine, to give us more confidence on the day.
We will also have to try and keep the morale of our actors up during our shoots, as it is extremely tiring and we want to get the bets performance from them.

Overall, I thought the music video workshop was a fantastic day, and great experience.