Question 2: What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks?

Task 1-The Audition Video

The audition video prepared me for the lipsynching in the actual video. Be rehearsing in front of the mirror I was able to gain confidence to act in front of the camera. The edit took longer than I expected it to as we needed to intersperse the set ups to make the performance more energetic. This was my first time editing the footage to music as opposed to adding music as background. We had to synch the movement to the original audio by going through it frame-by-frame. We also learnt that we could layer the synched large clip and then use the razor tool to remove the footage we didn't need. This revealed footage from the tracks below.

Task 2- Learning and Practicing my performance

Our performance director is explaining how my posture should be.

During the performance rehearsals, we did exercises that improved our body language, facial expressions and co-ordination. I have learnt that these performance sessions are necessary for the actors in music videos who are usually the artists or models and may not be used to acting in front of the camera. A performance director and choreographer are vital for a music video shoot. The rehearsals before the shoots enables the actors to prepare their roles well so less time is wasted on set explaining the director's outlook.

Task 3- Helping to plan and organise my costume

A range of cosmetics are needed such as foundation,
mascara masks, lipstick, etc.

We had to discuss the practicalities of the costume as our remake had some different scenes to the original video. My hair and make up had to be done differently to the model.

We had a make up trial before the actual shoot to make sure the style actually worked. I learnt that costumes can be filed together with hangers and hole-punched nametags so there isn't confusion.

I learnt that having discussions with the actor about their costume enables them to feel comfortable and thus act well in the shoot and that also they find suitable clothes to wear. Costume needs to be thought of in huge detail as it determines the artist's brand identity.

Task 4: The Shoot

On the shoot I was able to learn about lighting. On set there were lighting shields (seen left) that caused the light to be spread more evenly and dim the glare that they usually cause.  

I was able to visit the lighting desk and be given a tutorial on lighting set ups and the colours that change.

The screen was out of reach so the original view finder is used

Learning to be a convincing dead person

I also learnt how to change lenses by matching the red dots on the camera and lens corner. 

I learnt to change the position of the barn doors of the lights above the set using a pole to hook the doors.

Task 5: The Edit

We had one week to edit the remake video. We found this a very tight deadline as the lipsynching was difficult to synch with the original music track. We learn to layer the best set ups and edit by set up. We had to shift the footage frame by frame. When the music was stopped and started in the middle of a take, the rest of the clip that we had synched would be out of synch so we used the input monitor to mark in and out points exactly for the parts we needed to minimise the adjusted on the crowded timeline.

For grading, we used Procamp, Three way colour corrector (as seen right) and Brightness and Contrast. I think I have improved in my grading skills. We learnt to copy over the effects and finely adjust them for similar set ups. To make the background white we generally had to increase contrast by about 10% but only increase brightness by a small number.