Prelim Edit

Audition Video

My Role

My role is to the "Red Dress Girl" who drives the car and then crashes, killing her friend. The girl is quite animated and fun so I don't mind having this role.

My character driving the car

For the performance I have to sit on the Vespa and drive it but in quite a gimmicky way, and then I crash. At first I don't know what to do because my friend is dead but then I leave her behind because she's ruining my image and part of my dress is wedged underneath her.


Jasmine advised me to be self-obsessed and so in my thought process bring everything back to me e.g. "I look so good on this bike.... I've killed my friend... Why does this always happen to me... Do I look good?" this helped me to create more of a character as opposed to just constantly posing without a purpose.


I'm not very posey/pouty or girly so initially it was quite weird but then as I looked at her in terms of a character the role became easier to get into.

My Costume

My Costume Consists of

• A long red dress, quite glamorous
• Heels
• Most likely Red Lipstick, lots of eyeshadow and eyemakeup

Overall, it looks like quite a red carpet look. The bottom half of the dress is being made for my by Olivia and the top half is a leotard which is being brought in for me by Georgie.
I may have to buy shoes but I think my black heels will be ok.

Personal Achievement

I personally am intrigued into how the music video comes together as a final piece. Using management by the director and organisation of the crew. I'm also quite interested in learning the logistics of a professional shoot (lighting, camera, sound) and seeing how everything works.

I'm used to acting so in that sense I was in my comfort zone however doing it on such an intimate level with people I haven't spoken to in the past was quite hard and having the confidence to let go in front of these people was also harder than I anticipated.



So far, I have learnt how to lip sync and how to how to sync mouth movements with lip syncing to edit the audition video which was very challenging.

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

I really enjoyed the workshop day, it exceeded all my expectations. Not only was it really fun and cool to take part in, it was also a great day of learning as well. I found it very interesting to watch how the combined efforts of different groups (makeup, sound, lighting, actors) came together to work like clockwork on the day in a very professional manner.


Some of my favourite things were working with old latymer students who are now very successful like Dom our Director and Jack. It was quite inspirational as a lot of people stigmatise the subject Media by saying its 'pointless' but they both seem to be getting a lot out of their careers and from being able to speak to them I found there are endless roads to go down with Media.


Another quite new experience was the makeup. I am generally not a very glamorous person, so being able to be made up by a professional make-up artist was a really funny experience but one which I enjoyed nevertheless.

Getting my makeup done

Finally, personally I enjoyed the challenge of having to work more precisely to the camera which was out of my comfort zone because I'm more used to stage acting. I also enjoyed the big screens which allowed us to see through the cameras eyes and therefore understand the importance of blocking and how differently they could make a set up appear.

Beach set with the big screen

2. What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks?

Clip from the audition video

Task 1: Audition

The audition was quite fun to do because luckily I was paired with my good friend Mari, so I felt comfortable to look a bit silly in front of her. It was awkward to begin with but the more we got into it, the easier it became. It helped me learn how to lip-sync whilst performing and also helped with learning the song because I hadn't heard it before. I think because it was just two of us, it was more silent in the room at times, but getting used to overcoming initial nerves meant it was easier on the shoot to be in front of the camera, because I was grateful to not be the focal point as I was in my single shots in the video. Editing the audition video also gave Mari and I a chance to learn how to sync music with our lip syncing which we initially found very hard as we tried to do it shot by shot but then we decided to look at the performance beds of the clip and match it to the track - this was a lot easier.

Running through some poses in the rehersal

Task 2: Learning and Practicing Your PerformanceI found this very fun as it gave me an excuse to play music very loudly and lip-sync in the mirror. I found it difficult to practice the exact movements of the car because it was a Vespa. So I mainly focused on her quite animated facial expressions when I was at home, and used the performance rehearsals to learn the movements I could do on the bike.




Task 3: Costume Planning

On set in costume

Luckily, the only contribution I had to make towards my costume was the shoes. On the first day discussing costume, Georgie said she had a top which could be the upper part of the dress and a member of the make-up and costume team, Olivia, enjoys fashion design and so made a lace skirt with similar red material to the one in the video. I simply had to attend a fitting session for the top and have Olivia take my measurements. Although, I've learnt from other people in the group that costume does need to be brought in quite promptly to ensure if everything fits and if anything additional needs to be bought if nobody has it to lend. Also, on the shoot costume needs to be looked after very well to avoid losing things, especially if they don't belong to you.

Bike scene Set-up

Task 4: The ShootThis was definitely my favourite part of the project. Not only was it fun, it taught me the importance of teamwork, organisation (particularly time keeping) and co-operation. I got a deeper insight into the logistics of the shoot. This was fun because I usually watch a lot of music videos so it was interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes.




Task 5: The Edit
This task was definitely an initial challenge just because I find editing music videos is a lot more fiddly than editing any short film sequence which I have been used to. It mostly helped build up my confidence with Premiere Pro and improve my grading skills. Becoming more accustomed to synching the music with the mouth movements in each shot will definitely be a transferable skill for our shoot.

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

I think the footage is amazing. Its really nice to see all our hard work from the start of the term come together to produce such high quality footage. It was really fun to see all the random small props people had brought in/bought, came together to help produce each big set. I was really impressed at how well we replicated scenes, such as the poolside scene, although there were some lighting issues, props wise it looked exactly the same.

Our Set-up

Original 

Also, we were unable to get a car into the studio just because it wasn't practical but I think improvising using the vespa and keeping the rest of the scene identical to the original was just as effective because the costume and the rest of the set design was put together so well.

Our car set-up with a Vespa

Original scene

I think some of the best shots were the guitar shots and the shots where Kayvons movements matched Matts exactly because it really showed how carefully we meticulous we were about the whole thing.

Kayvon and Matt scratching their eyes in sync

There was a shot of Audrey playing the guitar where I think the framing could have been a lot tighter because it made it look like we used a completely different shot from the original.

My favourite scenes were the white scenes because I think they looked most similar to the original and the pool scene for similar reasons, plus it was very nice and colorful.

White scene

4. How do you think your prelim experience will impact on your approach to next terms music video coursework?

From this experience, I have learnt a lot more about camerawork, the importance of organisation, lip-syncing, acting for the camera and how to deal with one of my biggest challenges which was editing.


EDITING
Due to being away during the assigned editing week, it added more of a challenge for editing. I didn't realise how difficult I would initially find it until I got down to it as editing a music video, to me, is a lot different from a film sequence. However as I edited more, it became easier, I learnt how to do some new things which made editing easier. I also found myself enjoying the color-grading aspect of editing and I think it will be one the strengths I can offer my group for the music video coursework. The experience also made me appreciate how difficult editing really can be but the importance of persistence.

Camera lashes that were put in during editing to replicate the original

IMPORTANCE OF ORGANISATION AND TEAMWORKI'm not a very organised person but this taught me the importance of having everything organised and scheduled. Having to make sure all costume and props were in school and that I was in the right place at the right time. I know that when it comes to making my own music video I will make sure all possible aspects have been thought out, organised and if possible scheduled to ensure there is a guideline because things do get quite hectic. Also, I learnt that in order to get things done properly, everybody needs to help and communicate at all times.

Me helping block some of the guitar movements when a guitarist was on break

LIP-SYNCHING AND REHEARSALLearning how to believably lip-sync will make it a lot easier to make a realistic video when it comes to making my music video next term. The warm-up performance classes were beneficial to loosen everyone up and helped us to feel confident around each other. They acted as a ice-breaker between everyone (students or team members) and I think made us give overall better performances because we didn't mind messing up in front of each other.
Also, from this experience I learnt the importance of rehearsal and practice. I thought sitting and posing on a bike would be a lot easier than it was - rehearsing allowed me to see how I actually had to do it, and it was a lot more choreographed then I expected. This process reiterated the "easier said than done" idea and from this experience I know that the work involved with any part of the music video shouldn't be under-estimated. I will also make sure we rehearse because it makes everyone feel more comfortable on the actual shoot.

Me and Abi rehearsing some of the bike scene

So, overall, I think the main things I will remember for my own music video are to:

1. Stay organised
2. Make sure everyone (including myself) steps out of their comfort zone (either through performing or in editing) as weaknesses shouldn't be ignored
3. Have fun