Prelim Edit

Audition Video

Personal Achievement

Out of the whole A2 Prelim experience, I want to:

• improve my confidence in front of the camera.
• gain experience of being part of an organised professional shoot.
• learn to work strictly to schedule where there aren't any possible reshoots.
• improve my performance skills.
• improve my networking skills.

It is a bit of a challenge for me because I'm usually behind the camera and being part of a big project is a different situation for me. Team work is in my comfort zone as I have worked with other actors in media course work and class work videos. Performing in a team is a familiar situation as I have performed in a play before.

The audition video helped me to improve my confidence in front of the camera although I still found it hard to look right into the lens. It allowed me to perform as myself when I acted in front of the camera. 

The performance session helped me to have better co-ordination and put energy into my performance. This also helped me to gain more confidence.

My Costume

I am aiming to look glamourous and highly stylised. The colour scheme on the costume would be black and white.

In the shot I would be wearing an eye mask which would be made by the props team.

My hair could be styled in a side bun as my hair is longer than Tate Ashley who plays the dead girl in the video. To keep it neat and stylised my hair could be styled in a side hair bun.


I would probably wearing a gloves, black dress with tights and heels or a skirt and blouse made to look like a dress.

We are intending to borrow the gloves, the dress and the heels maybe borrowed or I will have to wear my own which aren't the same type.

The dress I will wear will be longer than the original dress because it would show less skin so I would be more comfortable that way. The costume will be slightly adapted to the new role as I have to be able to sit on the bike with him.

My Role

My part in the project is to be "Dead girl".

This character slightly differs from the original video as the car in the music video is remodelled as a bike in our remake.




The dead girl in our music video remake is originally alive as she sits on the bike and is dead after the accident. She is highly stylised and glamourous.

My performance involves me keeping a straight face after she girl is dead. It is slightly challenging as I easily convey expressions on my face however it can be done and the eye mask will cover some of my face.

This role wouldn't be highly challenging although it might hurt to be dragged around on the floor.

Question 1: Did you enjoy the workshop day? What were your best bits and why?

We could watch the shoot from seats

I enjoyed the workshop day. It was fun to experience the professional set as it was my first time on the set. It was a good opportunity to get a view of the different jobs in the film industry as an actress and when being able to volunteer as a runner.

I enjoyed learning about lighting because it seemed so challenging since there was a desired lighting set up that needed to be remade. There were many different lights controlled at the lighting desk which had switches and memory. I was able to visit the light desk and watch the software being changed while also physically closing the barn doors of the lights on the actual set with a lighting pole.

A view of the set from the lighting desk. Make up and props on the right. Centre is where it comes together.
Lights are mainly above set. Changing rooms are behind. Runners area and catering is on left.

The camera has a bigger viewfinder attached to it with a shotgun microphone.

I enjoyed acting as my character was slightly different from the music video. I enjoyed being in my costume as it was comfortable.

It was interesting talking to all the different members of the crew and finding out about their roles which gave me a realistic idea of the types of jobs available in the industry.

I helped set up some props by lifting the wires through the chair.

I enjoyed being a runner although I did find it tiring. I am a very active person so being a runner is suitable for me as I like to do things efficiently. The workshop illustrated how much care is taken into each shot of a media product.

I enjoyed watching the director and performance directors explain carefully what was expected from them.

The workshop day was a different experience overall and I have learnt many things that I can use in my project next term.

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.