Music Video
Skills Audit
Demo Work
Demo Work
Demo Work
Contents
Demo Work
Contents
> Theoretical exploration of the purpose
and application of research
> Secondary research into
music video genres, codes, conventions,
techniques, and theories
> Primary research with the
client to inform ideas development
> Focus group presentation of ideas for
feedback and review via questionnaire
survey
Moving Demo
Monday 4th April
Thanks to me visiting many of my locations on Saturday, I was able to make a good start to my location assessments today. This took me the majority of in class time, as I wanted to make sure they were detailed enough. I was able to fill out everything to what I felt was a good amount of detail. However, I wasn't able to fill in the dates/ times that I will be at these locations yet. Similarly to my production schedule, this is because I haven't completed my production schedule yet, which I will be doing on Wednesday. Once I have completed this bit of work, I will be able to come back and finish my locations assessments properly. But for the meantime, I have uploaded the almost completed ones onto WIX. The only location I couldn't visit on Saturday was College, so I took the photos for that today. I have also emailed Nigel today to ask for permission to film within the College, as well as asking if he could inform me of when the classroom is empty and available so that I could fill in it. It's important to ask him this now, so that I know before Wednesday when I complete my production schedule. Emailing Nigel now and asking permission will hopefully also allow me to get him to sign the location release form later on. I have also gathered permission from my parents to shoot within my house, and this will also be backed up by a location release form by the end of this week. The other two locations do not require location release forms as they are free to use and public property. I have also began to ask people about being actors and will also have this backed up by talent release forms by the end of the week. Currently, I have a definite Cody, Cameraman and Director as well as a possible Doctor. I know who I will ask for the other characters I just need to get in contact with them. I am hoping by Wednesday I'll have all of my actors so that I can start on the talent release forms.
Nigel has emailed me back and said that that our classroom is only usually free around lunchtime. This could work but Nigel also said that I could possibly book another empty classroom. I have emailed Nigel back asking about who I should talk to in order to book a classroom. Hopefully Nigel will get back to me and I can try to sort the room out tomorrow so that I’ll be prepared for Wednesday. This means I’ll have to complete the last location assessment when I have a finalised location.
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Before the lesson ended I started creating my Shot list. At first I thought it was very similar to a production schedule and shooting script but as John told me last week, this is something you would take on set with you. Because of this I sectioned my shot list so that all the shots that take place in the same location are grouped together so that when I take it on production it will be easier to manage. The basis of the shot list is that it contains all the useful information you would need to film the shot. So my current plan is to bring this as well as my storyboards with me when I film as this will mean I will have the proper description and planning in the shot list as well as a visual within the storyboards. At first I was a little hesitant about the purpose of the shot list but now that I’ve made it I understand how useful it can really be now, and I think it will be very useful that I can bring it onto my productions.
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The final thing I did today was find the music for my piece. I made sure to find copyright free music as I want to upload this final piece to youtube and so using copyright free music means I won’t get copyright striked. And additionally, in many short films with minimal budgets copyright music would be used as it does not cost any money and is free to use. And luckily, while looking I found some quite good pieces of music. There was one account called “LuKremBo” which had lots of free uncopyright music. Lots of the music I found was also in roughly the same genre, being Lo-Fi/Jazz, which is good as this allows the piece to have a consistent style throughout, which is carried by the same genre of music. Thanks to this found music I’ve been able to update my Audio Script with the music pieces and so I’ve been able to upload the fully completed version to WIX.
The very last thing I did today was update my Bibliography. Today, I had used a reference in order to complete my shot list as well as updating my bibliography with all the music pieces that I have found. I have been using less references in my pre-production, but it’s still good to keep my bibliography fully updated.
Tuesday 5th April
Thanks to my completion of Location assessments, shot list and music yesterday, it meant I only needed to complete my risk assessments today. This was not too hard to complete as I have a decent amount of experience with completing risk assessments by now, so I was able to use this prior knowledge to help me complete these effectively.
With my risk assessments done I have now almost finished all pre-production which relates to locations. Currently I only need to fill in the dates on my location assessments and these will be completed by tomorrow or Thursday after I have completed my production schedule.
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I have continued to email Nigel from yesterday about booking a room to shoot my college scenes in and we are going to have a chat tomorrow where he can help me look into this. I already know roughly what days and times I will shoot these scenes as to be in line with the timetables of my actors it will likely be the first Tuesday or Second Tuesday back from Easter which is my two weeks of production. And will be during College hours. These are the times the actors are available and there aren’t too many shots within the College room so hopefully this should be plenty of time to get the shots I require.
So by tomorrow all my locations should be figured out.
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I also continued scouting my actors today and now have a definite confirmation for the STUDENT who defends Cody. By the end of the week I should have a signed talent release form from them. For my bully character I am likely going to need to re-dub the voice of the character as the actor cannot film during college time as they go to a separate school. However, I’ve already planned for this as I have been thinking that would be a likely problem. My planning is that I will get a body double in, and make them cover their mouth when the camera pans to them, this will also help to show the fact that the two characters are whispering. Additionally, this was also likely going to have to be done anyway, as due to the high demand that all the equipment will be in, I think it is unlikely that I would be able to book out two audio recorders at one time, as I will need one for Cody’s part within the scene. I have received confirmation for the body double for the Bully and am currently waiting on confirmation from the actor who will dub the voice. Hopefully by the end of the week I will also have them signing talent release forms.
The last thing I did today was start to roughly plan my production schedule, however this will be fully completed tomorrow. I think a big hindrance will be access to equipment due to high demand. My current plan is that I will plan everything for when will best fit me and then after I will look into booking equipment. If the equipment is in extreme high demand then I will likely need to discuss with a lecturer about the best approach to take, but hopefully it will only cause small changes and adaptations, or even none at all if I’m lucky, however I think this is unlikely.
Wednesday 6th April
I started my day with the second of the feedback meetings, this time focused on my Research. Once again I had it with Nigel. Nigel said it was really hard to fault my research, and that every time he thought I could’ve added something extra, he then scrolled a bit further and found what he was looking for. This was very good to hear as I spent quite a lot of time and effort on it. And Nigel saying that it was really up there in terms of grading was really nice to hear. So, there wasn’t to many things that Nigel recommended me to change really. He only said to possibly look into how to make Foley for example footsteps and things, as well as to talk to Ash about using 4k footage on our computers. When I film with my phone I was going to use its 4k feature and Nigel said that the computers at school may have trouble with this and so to talk to Ash. This is fine to do and I will do it in the coming days. The only other things Nigel showed me was a couple of pieces that may be good for inspiration. A documentary called Welcome to Chechnya and a Mockumentary series called Cunk on Britain. The latter seems to be on youtube so I can watch it however I will have to look where I could possibly watch Welcome to Chechnya. Overall, it was a really good meeting and has made me feel a lot more confident with my work so far.
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The other thing Nigel helped me to do this morning was book out a classroom for my production. I now have room C15 booked out for 2 hours on Tuesday 26th April. I was able to go review this classroom and I’m pretty confident it will work. And seeing the classroom allowed me to complete my location and risk assessment for it. However, I was unable to take photos for the location assessment as the classroom was in use. I’m planning to go again tomorrow at lunchtime when it should be empty and then I’ll be able to upload the location assessment to my WIX website tomorrow.
The rest of my lesson time was dedicated to creating my Production Schedule. This is one of if not the most important piece of technical pre-production as it structures my time for the next month or so. I have talked to my actors and knew when they’re free to film, as working around their college timetables would be a big struggle. I already had an audio recorder booked for Easter, so I structured some of my production with that, when I don’t need any additional equipment. Currently, I have all my production structured across 9 days from the second week of Easter and the two weeks of designated production. I went through several versions of production schedule, but I’m now confident that this final version works. However, I will be 100% checking these dates and times with my actors tomorrow so it could still possibly change slightly, however, I’m confident it should remain relatively the same. Tomorrow is also when I’ll be getting all my talent and location release forms signed.
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Completing my Production Schedule also allowed me to update both my location assessments and resource list with the correct dates and they are now updated on my WIX website.
When I returned home, I started booking equipment as I now knew what days I needed it for. I made notes in my notebook for when I would need certain equipment and I was astonished to see I only needed to book equipment out on two separate occasions. On both occasions, the equipment needed was: Canon DSLR 600d, Tripod, Zoom H4n Recorder, LED Light Kit, Boom Mic and Boom Pole. Other equipment such as the phone gimbal and phone are my own property and so didn’t need to be booked out. The first occasion I have booked is from 12pm on 25th April till 3pm on 26th April. This covers my productions for these two days. And the second days were from 12pm 29th April till 10am 3rd May. This covers the production over the weekend and then my final one on the Monday. On this second booking I was able to book all of the equipment needed. However both the Tripod and LED Light Kit are unavailable for my production on the 25th April. However, to be honest, this is the best day for this equipment not to be available. I have my own tripod, which even though it is worse can still do the job. And the only shot the LED Light kit was needed for was shot 39. So I will film this without lighting and if it turns out bad I will reschedule Production for that shot.
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To aid with my equipment booking, I created a table to present which equipment I have booked, what it’s being used for, when I need to pick it up and when I need to drop it off. This will aid me in remembering what equipment I need as well as making sure I don’t return anything late, as I do not want to hinder any other students productions.
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The only thing left to do regarding equipment is booking the boom mic and boom pole. These pieces of equipment cannot be booked on the online system and so I am planning to talk to Ash in person about booking them tomorrow. Hopefully, if that goes all well then my equipment booking will be almost completely successful.
The very last thing I did today before uploading all my work was to update my action plan. Now that I have created my production schedule, I not only have my production planned out but also my post production. I have structured the majority of my first week of post production focused on visuals and then the majority of the second week is focused on Audio editing. This is primarily due to the fact that the visuals will take a lot longer, especially in regards to Ebsynth. Whereas because it’s a mockumentary the majority of Audio editing will be Dialogue and music, which I have a good amount of experience with and so I’m fairly confident I can finish it in the time I have dedicated myself. So now that my Action plan is updated, it’s pretty much complete as the vast majority has been filled out. The only time it will likely change now is if production or post production is haltered or when I come to properly planning my evaluation and reflection stage.
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Overall, today has been extremely helpful and productive and I’m now confident I’ll be able to complete all of my pre-production by the end of the week.
Thursday 7th April
I started my day be revisiting the classroom that Nigel had helped me book yesterday. Luckily today the classroom was empty so I was able to take photos of the room in order to add them onto my final location assessment. Now that I have taken these images, all my location assessments are 100% completed.
When I first got to class, I talked to Ash about how to book the boom mic and pole as I wasn’t available to book these yesterdays as they’re not available to book on the website. Ash told me to email him with when I would need this equipment. So, now that I have emailed Ash this information, I’m hoping this now means that all the equipment is booked. I currently haven’t received an email back from Ash but the email I have sent should be enough to have this equipment booked. So now all my locations and equipment are fully completed which means that all my days of production should run smoothly with everything already prepared.
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I then spent the entirety of the lesson on creating my call sheets which was one of the last pieces of pre-production that I needed to complete. I needed to create nine call sheets, one for each of my production days. These were not too hard to complete, and I was able to use the additional notes that the lecturers had provided us. These notes were able to guide me on some of the points when I wasn’t entirely sure what I needed to do. My production schedule, Script and Shot list were also very helpful in the production of the call sheets. These aided me in knowing what scenes, shots and actors I need for each of my production days. But now that I have completed my call sheets, this is practically all of my pre-production that I needed to complete.
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There was a small part of the call sheets that I wasn’t able to 100% complete which was the weather. Most of my productions take place to far in the future for the weather reports to be complete. However, I was able to find a small prediction of what the MET office says about the weather during the weeks of my production. But I shall check the weather before productions and update these call sheets before each of the productions.
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The very last thing on my pre-production were my talent release forms and location release forms. I was able to get all of these signed today by my actors and the location owners. All the people had previously agreed to be part of the production and so these release forms were just the final paperwork that needed to confirm their participation. I was also able to confirm the filming days with the actors and they said that they should be able to do them.
So, with all of my work that I have completed today, I have now finished all of my pre-production work. Now that the work is completed I am ready to head into my production phase. The last things that I will complete during tomorrow’s lesson will be to write up an evaluation for the pre-production phase as well as tidy up all of my work on my WIX website. But getting all of this pre-production work completed feels really good and I’m confident that the work I’ve completed is to a good standard.
Friday 8th April
As I had finished all of my pre-production work yesterday, today acted as a way to get it all wrapped up and completed. This mainly revolved around the presentation of it on WIX.
Yesterday, I had planned what I needed to do, these included, adding a brief description and detailing what was on my pre-production page. This was not too hard, as I have done this several times before for my initial idea and research pages. Adding these just helps to flesh out my WIX page a bit more as well as making navigating the pages a little bit easier.
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So, with that completed the only thing I had left to do was write up an evaluation for my final Pre-Production page. I underestimated how long this would take me. In the end, I spent about an hour and a half working on it and ended up writing about 2 pages for it. This was a lot more than I expected, but after reviewing it, I felt that it was all useful information and should be included. Within the evaluation, I evaluate each piece of work I did as well as how I felt about the Pre-Production as a whole and so I think this is why it turned out so long. But evaluating each section thoroughly is incredibly important as it allows me to convey my thoughts as well as what I learned from each stage of production. And so with the evaluation completed, my pre-production is now officially finished.
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The only other thing I did today was pick up the audio recorder that I have booked over Easter, this'll allow me to do some of my production over Easter.
Next week, I am away on holiday which means I won't be able to get any work done. However, as seen on my production schedule, I plan to start production the week after. And to be honest, I think it will be good to take a week off between pre-production and proper production. This'll allow me to clear my head and relax a bit. Meaning I'll be able to jump straight into production with a fresh and energetic attitude.
