In terms of camerawork, I believe that I replicated the shots in the first minute of the A-Team by Ed Sheeran very well. I have demonstrated that I am competent in framing shots well, at all heights, distances and angles as well as understanding what the effects different types of shots give off. My favourite shot to recreate was the 180 degree shot which was executed very well. It was the most difficult shot to film because it needed to be at a low angle, and pan around an actor smoothly and quickly only taking up five seconds of footage. Despite this, I think that there is some noticeable camera shake in some shots which is difficult to minimise when the camera is in a dynamic state. We couldn't use the tripod in those particular shots as we needed the camera to move with the actor or pan around. Also, in one or two shots we made simple mistakes like leaving filming equipment in the background.
EDITING PERFORMANCE:
The main target of the editing stage was to cut the shots and concatenate them as best as possible like the official video has done. This has meant timing all the shots to the second in order for it to accurately reflect the real thing. Other features of the editing included adding a slow fade transition and adding a black and white filter to our colour footage. Although these were not difficult, it shows that I have made progress and steps to learn how to use Final Cut Express- an editing piece of software I had not used proficiently before. I hope I can continue developing these skills when it comes to editing my real music video. Overall I believe this was the best part of our Preliminary Task.
MISE-EN-SCENE PERFORMANCE:
Mise-en-scene was the most difficult area of the production process of the Preliminary Task because it takes in multiple factors including costume, props, lighting, setting/location, body language and more.
Costume was relatively easy to mimic as the dress code is very casual int he official video. It included a grey jumper/hoody, black tights, a small black skirt, and black shoes. Our actor Jakarta had already got these items so nothing had to be purchased or borrowed.
The only prop included was a blanket. This is used to provide warmth to the homeless character who is forced to sleep on the cold streets, or in this case, a park bench. The character in the official video actually hands a duvet. However, due to us being unable to bring on to the location, we had to use a blanket instead.
For the first few shots, we controlled the lighting to suit the scene. We did this by simply closing the blinds in the room and turning off the lights whilst still having enough light to see what was happening. We couldn't control the lighting in the main block of the footage because it is set outside, where there is natural high key lighting. However, this didn't necessarily matter as it was the day time (which is what we needed) and the video was going to don a black and white filter anyway.We only needed to select two settings to replicate the first minute of the video. This included a park and a small dark setting. For the latter, we chose a small dark classroom in the corner of a block at our school. The room is only roughly 3x5m squared in size and has a window and blinds. Suiting us as we could control the lighting, the room was perfect especially because it is rarely in use.
I felt the body language and acting by Jakarta was very good and was an easily recognisable performance from the official video. At the time we filmed, we couldn't get another girl to play as the other female so I personally had to step in and pretend. While this isn't ideal, we know that the Preliminary Task is just a building block where we can learn and improve upon.
Overall, I believe the mise-en-scene in our video was well thought out.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER:
-Reducing shakiness of camerawork.
-Making sure nothing was hiding in the background.
-Establishing and building upon my experience with Mac based editing software.
-Getting correct props.
-Ensuring that lighting isn't dismissed.
-Organising actors a bit better.
WHAT CAN WE APPLY FROM THIS PRELIMINARY TASK TO OUR MAIN TASK:
The Preliminary Task has showed me that it is better to take longer organising the production of filming as it generates a better end product. Simple things such as ensuring camera equipment is out of shot degrades the authenticity of the product. Hopefully, by the time of the main task, I will have gotten to know my group a bit better and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This way, we can collaborate and organise more effectively and make a high quality video.
