Blog 7 - Copying an existing music video

In another lesson within the Media Studies course, we are taught Media Production, our teacher is a music producer. He teaches us from using the camera to editing the production and putting it together. We have also worked in groups to produce our own version of the video 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus, by doing this we all have had a chance to work in the different roles e.g. director, camera man/women etc.

In the first lesson we were introduced to the camera we would be using to film the remake of the existing video and also our own music video later in the year. We learnt how to correctly set up the camera and the tri-pod, and the teacher also reminded us of the angles such as aerial and low angle shots, movements such as panning and tracking etc and depth of field and focus. We can use these to create the perfect shots.

We learnt how to create the right balance in colour in our shots too; this includes white balance and exposure.
White balancing the camera:
Automatic (AWB) - however this can be unreliable.
Indoor setting - a lightbulb picture on the camera
Outdoor setting - picture of a sun on the camera
Manual

Exposure:
Shutter speed - 1/12, 1/50 and 1/1000 (the higher the number, the faster the image.


We spent the next lesson working in groups to produce a couple of shots from the Wheatus video which we would then put together and edit. We were given a storyboard each which included the shot number, shot type, description, camera movement/angle, the location, info on props and costumes and description of the sound, we learnt the storyboard is very important in order to produce the exact shot needed. The roles in the groups alternated but included a main character and around 4 extras in the shot, doing this practically it meant we could better understand the equipment and how to use it and also have a hands on experience of filming a video.

After we filmed these shots in the next lesson, we were taught how to being editting the video on the computer using Final Cut PRO. In order to do this we learnt we had to;
Connect the camera to the computer using a cable called the Firewire.
Turn the camera on and set to VCR playback.
Choose the set up on the computer - which we discussed would be PAL as thats the european set up.
Next we had to set the scratch disk which is where the captured footage would be stored on the computer.
Then we had to capture back the video and learnt we could control the camera using the computer using device control. W
We experimented with timelapsing when editting a video, here is the clip;
http://bb.sdc.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_654_1%26url%3D

Now that we had our shots captured onto the computer we were then going to edit them to make the video flow, we did this first by distinguishing which shots we were to use (as there was many of each shot) we did this using the razor tool on this programme we could select the slot of time that was of good work, so this was moved onto another track- track 2 -seperate to that of the whole video, once all the good shots were seperate to the rest we were then able to delete the poor shots we had captured, this is the assembly edit.

Along with the technology of the camera, the organization of the set and filming is important, this includes the storyboard, clapperboard, shooting script and communication on set.
A storyboard and shooting script are similar in the way they are used to depict all the shots in the video which also have notes about the shot type, camera movement, description of action and the sound in the shot. The shooting script also has space for notes to be taken about each shot and why they weren't used.
The clapperboard logs each take on film, and makes it easier when editing if used alongside the shooting script.
The communication on set is important as it makes the shooting smoother and easier as everyone is aware of what they are doing.

Here is the video of 'Teenage Dirtbag' that we created as a group in class;
http://bb.sdc.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_654_1%26url%3D