Practice Lip Synch Video Evaluation

Making a practice music video for 'No Scrubs' by TLC was an very informative process and I believe it will help me loads when creating my real music video. The strengths and weaknesses of the final project as well as the experience has provided me with a good idea of how to work on my actual music video, in order to ensure success as I now know what to and what not to do.

In terms of the music videos strengths, I would say the ability for the actors to accurately lip synch and get into the role of girl group was the biggest one. However there were many weaknesses, in the filming and editing process, in terms of planning, camera, editing and mise-en-scene and there are many things that I need to improve on when creating my real project.

With planning, we weren't given masses of time to plan so the planning of the song and locations was very unorganised and the teamwork as well as the final plan wasn't as secure as it should've been. On the day of filming, we changed the song multiple times before settling on No Scrubs. Additionally, we did not have any set locations to film in and decided on the places to film on the day. This is one thing that I would largely improve on, as it meant that we weren't able to film a variety of scenes as we were more focused on finding the actual locations and therefore our music video footage was limited when it came to editing, and we only had two solid scenes. Teamwork is also something which could be improved as we all had differing ideas on what to do and how to edit the practice.

In terms of camera, that is also something that could largely be improved on in terms of shots and focus. Lots of our shots were out of focus and additionally, there weren't a variety of different types of shots - they were mainly mid-shot and mid angle.When it came to the editing stage, it was clear that lots of our shots either weren't in focus, or were filmed badly so they couldn't be used. This was of course a hinderance as it meant that we had a limited amount of footage available when making the music video, and it was hard for us to experiment and make up the 30 seconds.

In terms of mise-en-scene, the locations fit the song and also the clothing. 

Overall, the video did not come out as wanted and definitely wasn't of a high standard. However, for a first try, I believe it was an acceptable standard, and it has enabled me with do's and don'ts tips for when making my actual music video.

Practice Lip Sych Video

Initial Notes

Little Mix - Touch:

• Mid - shot of the members dancing with professional male dancers
• Dancers and members wearing similar clothing, quite provocative for the girls and the same for boys e.g. open tops,and same colour scheme to tie the girls in together - linked costumes as its a band
• Typical cuts between shots
• Pan between two shots
• Tracking when they were watching them walk, bird's-eye view - to follow the artist and the singing 
• Different colour sets for the different members parts - maze location
• Girl group members were always in the centre of boys dancing around them
• High - key lighting to represent the pop genre - lively
• Separate shots/scenes for the different members parts
• Mid-shots, wide shots and close ups - shows all the group together + the separate members
• Cross-fades
• Some use of slow-motion 
• Fast-paced cuts to black and then the scene as the speed of the song increases- 'cutting to the beat' - cuts to the speed/beat of the song
• Birds eye view shot of the girls towards the end when they were coming out of the labyrinth 
• Screen wipe to black at the end
• Camera zooms in and out on the singers
• Performance-based video

Justin Bieber - Sorry:

• Pan and Tracking around the dancers to get to different groups
• Dancers are wearing very vibrant, colourful clothing- all dancers were wearing the same sort of style 
• All female dancers
• Jump cuts, Cross cuts to different groups of dancers
• Some cutting beat, however it wasn't very obvious or very frequent 
• Reasonably fast-paced editing
• Against a white background the whole video - studio location
• Various different shots - two shot, wide shot, long shot, close up , 
• Pull focus and Shallow focus 
• Singer wasn't in the video
• Performance-based video

Blog Welcome

Hi, this is the blog that I will use to publish my A2 media work that is relating to my music video coursework.