Prelim Evaluation

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

I very much enjoyed the day, despite how tiring and difficult it was. I think the best part of the whole day had to be the end. Feeling sad, relieved, happy, tired and somehow still having the energy after 12 hours of working under burning lights to dance with everyone around the hall to the last ever playing of the song... until the edit.

I also loved the harsh reality of it all. This shoot was almost exactly like others I had been on with jake (except more fun). It gave everyone a real taste of what their future could be like and that is an unmatchable gift. It was also great working with all the crew, and being taught by a professional director was especially beneficial.

 

2. What did you learn from participating in the workshop?

I learnt a lot about the many jobs that have to be done to keep the day running smoothly. Runners, cable bashers, camera operators and grips, the director who takes care of the whole shoot and the assistant director who takes care of the director. I knew all these jobs existed but seeing them all work so hard gave me a new found respect for everyone in the industry. I also learnt a lot about how things can go wrong, even professionally; cameras breaking or not connecting, lights not working, a shot not lined up in a way it can work. This makes me feel more confident in my future shoot, because its not about avoiding these occurrences, its about how you deal with them.

I also learnt a lot about the technological side to the shoot, got to understand how the jib and camera work properly. I also saw Jake's attempt at lighting which was good despite not being his forte.

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

The footage was just fantastic. The 5D truely has one of the best quality pictures I have ever seen. The camera makes such a difference, as even if we'd shot the exact same footage on a standard video camera it wouldn't have looked anywhere near as good. Watching it for the first time on monday was such an amazing moment, when I realised this was going to be a really, really good video.

Our group decided not to edit the footage into an exact replica of the original 5ive video. We decided to do this because when attempting to match up our footage to their cuts it didnt feel right. I wanted to make it more our own work and so we spent our time editing what the footage we shot wanted us to. The video we made has some of teh same feel with the choppy editing, jump cuts and slow-motion dancing. However the feel of the shots we chose (I think) is more friendly and "poppy"

 

4. How do you think your workshop experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

I now know just how hard it can be to do take after take after take and have learnt, from watching Jake, how to appropriately deal with actors to get the best performance out of them i possibly can. I know not to be too ambitious when shooting, because even when we knew exactly what shots we were meant to get we still couldn't quite manage it all. I think I shall try and go with the flow more during my shoot and obviously make sure I have absolutely everything ready with backups.