Prelim Task and Evaluation

Our preliminary task was to recreate the first minute of an already existing music video. We chose the song Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus as the music video is set in a school and so would be easier for us to recreate during lesson time. The purpose of the task was to learn how to use the equipment we would be using in our main task and to have something to use as a comparison to our final music video to show how we have developed our skills since beginning the coursework. After completing our preliminary task we were asked to answer the following questions to evaluate what we have learnt from the task. Below is our finished preliminary task and the evaluation questions.





What is the importance of research and planning?

Throughout our main task you will always find yourself needing to look back at your original plans, they are your starting point and give you a sense of direction. It is at the research stage when you establish how many actors you will need, what locations you need to scout, what props you need to organize. The planning is where you storyboard and look at shots and angles; later you will be able to look at the story board to know where to position your actors, props and camera to get each shot perfectly mirroring the original. Planning is also important as you need to organize shooting schedules and check availability of locations.

What technologies did you use?

The camera that we uses was the Sony HDV 1080i and it allowed us to shoot our footage in HD. It was easy to use and we could review our footage very easily in the screen. There was a good zoom/reverse zoom feature that was useful when filming some shots in the video. It was also very easy to get the footage off the camera and onto our computer for editing. The editing software that we used was Final Cut Pro. It was easy to use, we could view our clips and choose which ones we wanted. I could clip shots and arrange them in order very easily. Adding visual effects and audio fade in/fade out was also very easy and overall our editing process did not take long.

What difficulties did you encounter?

One of the biggest difficulties that we encountered was that some of our shots were filmed in HD and some were not; we were never aware of when we were and weren’t filming in the same definition. This meant that our video lacked consistency and continuity. Another problem was that we struggled with was how to mount the camera onto the tripod securely, it wobbled and left shots looking unprofessional. We decided to film all shots free-hand, this unfortunately left some shots a bit shaky- especially in our panning shots of the band and we chose to re-shoot many of the scenes. Another difficulty that we had was in the editing process when I couldn’t import some of the footage and use the ‘log and capture’ section on Final Cut Pro. I manage to resolve the issue with a bit of trial-and-error and by playing around with the format settings and we were able to get all of our footage onto the computer.

How successful was your music video?

I think that our music video was fairly successful. We were able to shoot the first minute of Teenage Dirtbag almost perfectly mirroring the first minute of the original video. I think that we could have been more successful if we had done more planning for our shooting. We could have also created a more professional looking final product if we had done more tutorials in the equipment we were using and the editing software we used.

What have you learned?

I have learnt how important planning is before beginning a task. I now realize the importance of  time management and how useful a shooting schedule would be. Another important thing that I have learnt is that a lot of research into your target audience is necessary for you to be able to create a product that will be popular with your audience. When shooting our preliminary video I have learnt that it s necessary to use actors who are reliable and readily available for shooting and later re-shoots of scenes if needed. Going into my main task I now know the importance of research and planning and how I must always keep a focus on my target audience when making decisions regarding the outcome of my final product.