Evaluation Q1: Did you enjoy the main workshop shoot day? What role(s) did you take? What were your best bits and why?

I found the main workshop shoot day to be an extremely fun and educational experience. I was able to learn a lot about aspects of making a music video such as directing and technical areas from the professionals that came in to help run the shoot. While it was useful for enriching my knowledge I also found it to be an enjoyable day and it built my confidence in acting and performing in the video.

Acting as Taylor in the robot set up

Shooting the Ballet scene

During the day I took on the role of Taylor Swift along with the other girls in some scenes in the video, while acting as a dancer for many of the other set ups. This involved learning dance routines and also lip syncing along to the track.

The best bits of the day where when everyone was performing together and we felt a sense of achievement as a group when we got the shots we wanted, and had fun dancing after the hard work we had put in learning the routines.

I also took part in some technical aspects of the shoot during the day, for example using the clapperboard at the beginning of shots. I was also able to observe our Director, Dom and our camera operator, Ed, and learn about their roles during the shoot day.

Here is a time lapse showing our shoot day.

Evaluation Q2: What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks 1, 2 ,3 and 5?

Prelim task 1 was to complete and audition video where you film yourself lip syncing to the song 'Shake It Off' by Taylor Swift. I created my audition video alongside Ella and Eleanor:

From creating this video I was able to improve my lip syncing skills and get an idea of what it will be like when creating the real final video. I found it challenging as I am not usually confident with performing, however making this video helped me to build my confidence in preparation for the real shoot.

Prelim task 2 was to learn and practice our performance which involved attending several dance rehearsals with Tash, our choreographer, and one to one sessions with our performance director, Jaz, who helped us to get into the role of Taylor Swift and helped us with tips on how to perform specifically to a camera. Jaz helped us focus on our facial expressions and eye contact with the camera. 

Working with our performance director was really useful for me as I am not a natural actor, but by the shoot day Jaz had helped to build my confidence and I was able to really get into the role of Taylor. As working with our performance director helped me to feel comfortable in the role, the whole experience was a lot more fun and enjoyable. 

Me working with Jaz, our performance director.

As well as rehearsing with our choreographer, Tash, during dance rehearsals, Tash also created youtube videos of our dance routines so that we could practice and learn at home.

Here is Tash's video for the Ballet routine which helped me to practice the dance at home.

Prelim task 3 was to help plan and organise our costumes for the shoot. We were given a costume list created from watching the music video and we worked together with our teachers to buy and collect all the appropriate costumes for our roles in the video. Our costume director, Olivia, was extremely helpful when planning our costumes and I learn a lot from her on how to plan costumes for a shoot. I had to get together 4 costumes including Robot Taylor, Tutting Taylor, Street Dance and Ballet. We then bought these into school to finalise them and took photos to help us on the day when getting changed:

Photos of me with all of my outfits.



Prelim Task 5 was to complete the remake edit and I worked along side Eleanor and Ella over a two week period to complete our edit. I was confident in the first week when we were cutting our shots together to match the real video as I have had a lot of practice in using the razor and cutting tool. Once we had finished cutting the shots together we moved onto grading which I found to be more challenging. However after working alongside Eleanor and Ella we were able to successfully grade our shots to make them look similar to the real video and as professional as possible. I am now able to confidently use the Three Way Colour Corrector and ProCamp in order to grade shots.

Here is a photo of me editing our video. 



This is an example of the Ballet shots which we graded to match the real video.

Evaluation Q3: 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?

Here is our finished edit:

I am extremely pleased with the finished edit as I think it looks extremely professional. I have shown the video to lots of my family and friends and have received extremely positive feedback and everyone really enjoyed the video. I did not expect the footage to look as professional as it does and was also surprised at how we all managed to perform well in the video with little previous experience with acting in front of a camera.



What worked well:

• our cuts match exactly to the cuts in the real video
• the majority of the action in the shots match perfectly to Taylors action in the real video
• the grading of the Ballet and Hip Hop shots

Here is an example of where the action matches really well to the original video.


What would we change:

• We found the grading for some of the set ups to be tricky, and therefore I was not 100% pleased with our final grade for the contemporary dance shots. We found it hard to match both the background colour and the colour of the actors in the shot. Therefore if we were to grade again I would spend more time on the contemporary shots to improve the grading.

Here is what the final grading in our contemporary shots looked like.

Evaluation Q4: How do you think your prelim experiences will impact on your approach to next terms music video coursework?

Next term our project involves chosing a non main stream track and creating a music video for the track and a brand for the artist(s). I am really looking forward to this project as it will give us a chance to carry over any skills we have learn from this prelim project while also being creative and coming up with out own video.


During this prelim project I have acquired many skills that I think I can carry over into next terms project, including:

• lip syncing and performing skills.

This means that in next terms project I will feel more confident in performing in our own music video which will make the project easier as we wont have to rely on external actors.

An example of me lip syncing.

• dance and choreography skills

From having dance rehearsals with Tash, our professional dance coach, we have learn routines and moves that we can carry over into our own video.

The Ballet routine we learnt.

• Planning ahead for the shoot day; costumes, rehearsal schedules, call times etc.

I have learnt the importance of careful planning and enough rehearsals before a shoot day in order for the day to run smoothly and be successful.

• The importance of careful styling, including hair, makeup and costume in order for the video to look as professional as it can.

As well as learning skills which will help us in creating our music video, I also learnt about the conventions of a music video during this project, for example:

1. Beauty shots of the star 
2. Discontinuous editing
3. Frequent jump cuts

I will therefore be able to include these conventions I have learnt in my video next term. 

Overall the prelim project has prepared me a lot for next years project in both performing, planning and technical skills and I am extremely excited to carry over what I have learnt into creating my own music video next term!