Preliminary Exercise: Learner Response :)

1) Type up your teacher's feedback in full plus a summary of the comments you received from other students in the class.

WWW: Love the opening shot of the vinyl record – such a great way to set the tone. The overall feel is incredibly authentic – it feels professional. The only thing I’d say is that it perhaps already feels like a music promo rather than a straight music video (as the prelim brief specified) but seeing as the real brief is a music promo this is a pretty good problem to have! The effects you’ve employed are incredibly effective – the grainy texture, the ‘film’ effect, some of the editing – and these really help to establish the genre and purpose of the product. The live shots are excellent – they fit perfectly and you’ve either shot or cropped them cleverly so you can’t see the actual artist on stage! I’d like others to see this as they may want to use a similar approach 

EBI: The only shot I’m not 100% on is the cat – perhaps one to put to the class and see what others think? Finally, the lip-syncing isn’t particularly clear in the last 5 seconds. That might be one to think about in terms of building some synched-up performance into the final product at some point 

2) Using a combination of your own reflection on the preliminary exercise and the feedback you were given, write three WWW bullet points and three EBI bullet points for your work.

WWW: 

• The editing of the music video made it seem professional 
• The added effects are a goof touch to the music video 
• The live shots are effective as they don't show the artist who is actually performing 

EBI: 

• I need to make the lip syncing more clear at the end of the music video 
• Some of the shots may not fit in with the aesthetic of the rest of the video 
• Try create a narrative based video for the other music video in the promo 

3) How effectively did you complete the objective you laid out in your mini preliminary exercise statement of intent?

I think I completed the objectives very effectively as I set out what I wanted to complete and I completed it- in terms of filming, I had a list of shots that I wanted to get and I was able to carry out what I had envisioned. I think I achieved a range of different shots in order to convey different messages. Although I could have had more emphasis on light in the video 

4) What have you learned from the preliminary exercise that will help you in the actual coursework project?

The preliminary exercise has allowed me to refresh my editing skills on Premiere Pro as well as emphasising the importance of the skill of time management in coursework because the deadline allowed me to know when I should have everything filmed and edited by. Through my planning and research, I also analysed a lot of different music videos which gave me the opportunity to plan the elements I wanted to recreate in my music video. The preliminary exercise also allowed me to realistically plan out my video rather than having unrealistic ideas that may be hard to carry out 

5) Now you have completed the preliminary exercise, will you change anything in your actual music promo video plan? This could include your selection of songs, actors and style or technical elements such as mise-en-scene, camerawork or editing.

I original music video plan stated that I would have 3 20 second music video clips but after making one of the music videos, I have realised that making 2 30 second music videos is more realistically achievable. My initial plan was to use "Hard Times" by Paramore for the first music video but I changed it to "Decode" by Paramore after discussion with the actor I am using as my artist. The style and aesthetic that I initially planned has stayed the same but some props have been added that were not in the initial plan. However, the setting has slightly changed from the original plan as it is no longer clear that a bedroom is being used as the setting of the music video but I plan for the second music video to have a more recognisable setting