Busted - Preliminary - Shannon

Pre-production

This stage involved me watching the official music video through YouTube and making a storyboard that displayed all the film timings, shot duration, lighting information, transition and lyrics. The storyboard was useful, as when I was putting the clips together, I could refer to it and ensure all my timings were correct and it allowed me to create convincing lip syncing. I also created a shot list; this allowed us to be organised when filming our shots (for example filming all of the outside shots together) and prevented losing time caused by moving indoors and outdoors.

Before filming, we also discussed what costume and props we would need to bring in. This helped because then we were organised and didn’t have to delay filming which would give us less time editing afterwards. Pre-production also involved sorting out roles for each person in the video so we would all know what we needed for our role and the ‘band’ could learn their lyrics. Prior to all of this, we practised lip syncing so we understood how important timing is when it comes to editing and putting it all together; I feel this was beneficial because then everyone was given experience in accuracy and timing when it comes to making our actual music video.

I would I say I perhaps I need to work on making a more accurate storyboard when it comes to making my video since some of my timings were slightly out when editing ‘Busted’ but I was lucky to have the original music video to fall back on and refer to however I will not be able to do this when I create my own as it will be highly time consuming. During pre-production, I learnt the skill of lip syncing and know it is important to be accurate to make it easier when editing.

Production

After having allocated a camera man/ director, we reviewed the shot list and decided which shots we were going to shoot first. Since the weather was dry, we decided it would be best to film the outside shots first; this way we would avoid falling behind if bad weather was to occur in the next lesson. The person in charge of sound had to ensure the soundtrack was in the right place and ready to play when instructed by the director as this prevented loss of time with getting the song to the right place.

Whilst filming, with the majority of the shots we filmed them more than once; this way when it came to editing we could pick out the most convincing shot and disregard any where there were mistakes or timing issues. We also had to refer to our storyboards so we knew which lyrics were being sung and how the lighting needed to be set to make it match up to the original; the storyboards also ensured we covered all the shots we needed and didn’t miss any out.

I learnt that often you cannot get the filming right in the first take and that filming the same piece multiple times is good as it allows you to pick out the best one and ensure there are no mistakes that are obvious to watch. Also, the importance of an assertive and organised director became clear during the production stage; the cast need to be arranged and directed to prevent wasted film time.

Post Production

After completing all of the filming, I uploaded the footage into Adobe Premiere Elements and sorted through the film to see which shots were suitable to use and which needed deleting.  The editing process was very time consuming and required a lot of patience. I worked from the start to the end as this seemed most logical rather than jump forwards and backwards through the song and become confused about what parts I’ve completed.  I found it quite difficult to lip sync the images to the song as the video footage needs to be accurately positioned in order for it to look convincing to an audience. Cropping the videos to the correct timings and fitting them in with the song was also hard because nothing could be even half a second out otherwise the whole editing piece would be out of sync.

Adobe Premiere elements allowed me to adjust the lighting out shots if needed and also zoom. Being able to zoom was essential in this case because after uploading all of the film, there was, in fact, one shot missing. Luckily the line was covered in one of the group shots performed outside so I was bale to zoom in on the band members face and catch him singing it; the end result was successful and looked like any other shot in the film. Again post-production involved me checking my storyboard and ticking off the shots as I edited them in and the timings helped me to get my video in time.

I need to consider the time it takes to edit when making my own video as I don’t want to run out of time and have a half-finished piece of work. Also, I found that the shots of the band where they were actually singing, when being filmed, created a much more convincing piece when I edited it and lip synced them with the soundtrack than the shots where they are miming. When creating my video, I want it to look as realistic as possible therefore my artist will actually need to sing and then I can cut the sound out afterwards.

Overview

My media product uses forms of real media products because the video was first storyboarded, then we created shot lists and casted roles, following this we began the filming process and finally we finished with the editing process. We worked within a time frame which uses conventions however we had limited cast members and so some of the crowd scenes do not look full like they should therefore we have challenged the original music video. Personally, I think that my video is very effective and convincing. When compared to the actual ‘Busted’ video, you can see that mine is generally accurate and my timings correct.