Media Trip Evaluation; London 2010

A group of media students went to London for a music video workshop on the 9th November 2010. We got to hear tips and a step by step guide from the chief examiner, Pete Frasier on how to plan and create our music video. We also got to hear some music video directors working in the industry producing videos for artists such as Paulo Nutini and Biffy Clyro, give us advice on making our music videos and also an insight into what it is like to work within the industry. It was particularly interesting to listen to Corin Hardy as I was already familiar with his work on videos from Biffy Clyro and The Prodigy. The chief examiner put into perspective how many shots are involved by explaining that each minute of film must contain at least 50 shots, far more than that of a film or television show. This means that our song at just over 4 minutes long will clock in at over 200 shots, total.

AVERAGE SHOTS PER MINUTE: 50

4 MINUTES OF FOOTAGE = 200 SHOTS

What follows are some notes on the process of planning and creating a student music video:

Step 1:

Before we begin filming proper, Pete advised that we do test shoots (which are group has breifly started) and experiments with different types of footage and audio. Learn to lipsync and do practise videos and experiment with multi-angles.

Step 2:

Do good planning. Have a strong and simple idea. Don't be too ambitious but don't use a boring idea either, strike a good balance between a realistic, doable idea and an exciting idea that will be interesting to watch.

Step 3:

Be organised. Make sure you have everyone's numbers and you are sure you know what each person is doing. Plan in detail costumes, locations, props, actors. Shoot early and make sure your performers are rehearsed and prepared (know all lyrics etc). Make a detailed storyboard and possibly an animated storyboard.

Step 4:

Blog and take notes of any useful ideas you get. Make notes of influences and things that inspire you.

Step 5:

Get to know equipment and editing software before filming. Bring speakers to play music on and be prepared to try practised techniques.

Step 6:

Shoot performance at least 10 times to make sure you have enough footage. Have plenty of cutaways and remember you need many shots. Shoot more than needed. Use lots of close ups and enthuse your performers.

Step 7:

When editing label each shoot and break footage apart into manageable chunks. Make sure you capture the whole performance more than once.

Step 8:

Cut constantly, get whole picture rather than small detail. Keep screen grabs of each edit.

Step 9:

Get lots of feedback and post on blog. Show what you've learned/improvements. Utilise Youtube and it's comment system. Also sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

I plan to use these notes as much as possible during the production of our video.

http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/