Evaluation question 1: Did you enjoy the main workshop shoot day? What role(s) did you take? What were your best bits and why?

I loved taking part in the music video remake and it was very educational as well as fun. We worked alongside professional crew who taught us about various skills including using the lighting desk and directing.

Marking the hip hop scenes

The roles that I took on throughout the day:

• Slating the hip hop shots with the clapper board
• Acting as Taylor for the ballet/swan lake scenes
• Dancing in the street, cheerleading and ribbon dancing scene

I particularly enjoyed getting my hair and makeup done by professional makeup artists. I would say that my favourite part was performing in front of the camera with the crew shouting the lyrics to Shake It Off.

This is a time-lapse of the Seward Studio during our 11 hour shoot. Here, you can see the set, the different lighting setups and the crew working on set.

Evaluation question 2: What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks 1, 2, 3 and 5?

Prelim task 1: Completing my audition video

The first task was to shoot and edit a short audition video, in which I lip synced to the first chorus of Taylor Swift's song Shake It Off. The audition video was used by the staff team to cast the remake video.

Directly addressing the camera

At first, I was uncomfortable with performing in front of the camera because I lacked confidence; but I had a lot of fun making up moves and just showcasing my character. From my audition experience, I learnt that I should look straight into the camera lens instead of at myself in the monitor. In order to force myself to look into the camera lens, I flipped the monitor around so that I wouldn't worry about how I looked. I think that looking straight at the lens gives off a more confident vibe and it was a necessary progress in order to recreate the music video, where direct address is very common.

I also learnt a lot while editing my audition video. In order to create a realistic audition video, I had to lay a performance bed and I synced the clips up to the music so that my lips were in time with the words in the song.

Prelim task 2: Learning and practicing my performance

The most strenuous part of the preparation was learning and practicing our dance routine with Tasha and Mikey. We attended dance sessions after school and in my spare time, I watched Tasha's Youtube videos to practice the moves. The cheerleading dance video below is one of many dance routines that we had to learn.

This is a video of us doing the routine:

Some of the shots in the music video were impossible for the people in our class to do (e.g backflips, splits) and we might not get all the footage that we needed in a day of filming due to limited time. The choreography was used so that we could seamlessly run through takes from beginning to end. If, in the event that we did not have the shot that we needed to best fit the music video, we could use footage of the choreography.

We also underwent an acting workshop with Jasmine, our performance director. This was very beneficial to me as someone who had no acting experience prior to this workshop. I learnt how important it was to convey the meaning behind the lyrics in order to give a compelling performance that would capture the attention of the audience. Together, we also identified and practiced the movements that I would be performing during my role as Taylor Swift in the Swan Lake setup. I learnt that it was important to actually say the words and sing out loud because it looks more realistic as it requires muscles in our neck to move. If I were to mouth the words instead of singing it, it would look fake and lack the realism that audience expect.

Prelim task 3: Helping to plan and organising my costume

At the beginning of this task we were given a booklet with costume references for all the characters. I had prepared costumes for the Swan Lake, Cheerleading, Street, Ribbon Dancing and the End Dance Scene setups.

Most of my costumes were ordered by the school so that we had matching costumes within the different setups. I brought in clothes that I thought were suitable and borrowed clothing from friends and the crew that best matched the clothing in the music video. I went through costume checks with supervision from teachers and Olivia, our costumes director, so that we could have different opinions on what was best for me to wear.

My costume list

On the rehearsal day, professional makeup artists came in to do our makeup to match our characters and also adapted it to suit our personal preferences. They also practiced different hairstyles for various roles. On the day of the shoot, they helped prepare us for the different setups.

Prelim task 5: Completing the remake edit

The editing process took 2 weeks in total. This included renaming all the shots, placing the individual shots on the timeline, syncing up the cut from one shot to another, and grading the shots. Before editing the music video remake, I only had experience with editing films that followed a linear narrative using techniques to create a continuous flow of events.

Editing using Premiere Pro

These are the techniques and theories that I had to learn and utilise for this task:

• Performance sections: star image/beauty shots/direct address

• Loose narrative structure: episodic structure/repetition/juxtaposition
• Discontinuous editing: jump cuts/graphic matches/frequent re-framing/mobile framing
• Graphic effects/slo-mo/colour mixing

• Amplification: relationship between visual references and lyrical content
• Cutting to the beat/selective cutting

Evaluation question 3: Are you pleased with the footage and your finished edit? Is it how you expected it to look? What works really well and what would you change?

My music video remake:

Overall, I am very happy with our final product. Other people have commented on it saying that "it's incredible!" and that "it looks so professional, well done". I am proud of what we were able to achieve in such a short time.

I think that the footage that we had was of very high quality. We had plenty of shots to choose from and the footage was similar to the music video. I am also very pleased with our grading. The colours are vibrant and are cool-toned, just like in Taylor's video. Jerom, Olamide and I spent a whole evening after school dedicated to grading our shots so that we were all satisfied with our final edit. For the hip hop scenes, I increased the saturation so that the red colours stood out more against the grey background.

Right (before grading)
Left (after grading)

Before grading

After grading:
Three way color correct
Levels
Brightness & contrast

One thing that I had originally been concerned about was that there was six people playing the role of Taylor Swift. I thought that a constant change in the performer would confuse the audience. However, when watching the video, audiences have been so engrossed in the actual content of the video rather than the people playing the characters.

I was surprised by how professional our final music video looked. Despite our lack of performers for many of the scenes, we still managed to fill up the shots.

I was particularly pleased with the robot and the tutting sequence. I graded it to make the gold and the silver stand out as much as possible. I think that this sequence was the most similar to the music video.

If it were possible, I would have had setups that fully matched the music video. For example, in the robot scenes, the setup was not as dark as it was meant to be. This was due to a lack of time, as changing the background would have been very time consuming.

Evaluation question 4: How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

My prelim experience has given me an invaluable insight into how I should go about planning and implementing the creation of a music video. The techniques that I have learnt and the experience of performing in front of the camera will no doubt benefit me next term. If I hadn't done the prelim task, I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to perform in front of the camera or been aware of the importance that styling had on the visuals. The experience enabled me to gain knowledge about how to fully utilise the Seward studio and how to use conventions of music videos in my coursework.

Below is a Prezi displaying the impact my prelim experience will have on different aspects of my coursework.



As a result of the prelim, I would be more inclined to have our group members perform in our actual music video. This is because I have gained confidence in performing in front of the camera and I think that our whole class have achieved a high standard of work. Also, trying to find suitable actors who are willing to take part in a long shoot is difficult to do. It is much easier to focus on the strengths of our group members and work around that.

My performance as Swan Lake Taylor

I am also more likely to prefer to shoot the music video in the Seward Studio as there is equipment readily available to use. For example, the lights, the lighting desk, the background drop and the members of staff are willing to help set up the studio for shooting. From previous experience, shooting on location can be cold and conditions are difficult to film in.

The Seward Studio
Here you can see: the lights, the screens showing the playback,
the monitor, the camera and the makeup department

The styling was vital to the characterisation of the different roles. From matching cheerleading outfits to bold street clothing and and intense smokey eye, we were successfully able to portray the different genres within the music video. For the coursework, it will be important to keep our faces powdered and remember to touch up on our makeup throughout the day because it can get very hot underneath the lights and the makeup melts off.

Here is Olamide and Georgina getting their makeup done
by the makeup artists

I learnt a lot about conventions of music videos which I can apply to my coursework next term. I will use:

• beauty shots
• direct address
• amplification
• discontinuous editing
• graphic effects
• cuts motivated by the beat

Visuals match the lyrics
"To the fella over there"

I look forward to preparing for and shooting our music video next term, using the skills and indispensable knowledge that I have gained from the prelim.

The prelim task would have been impossible without our crew members:

Mrs Blackborow, Mrs Dymioti, Dom (director), Amy (first AD), Ed (camera operator), Emma (playback), Eddie (lighting), Tash (dance choregrapher), Jasmine (performance director), Chris (  ), Olivia (costumes director), Mckenzie & Nathalie (makeup artists), Josh, Shay and Amber (runners)