Personal assessment and overview of our two filprojects

1. Test Video
Reflection &
Review
Harry Statham

2. Tasks
• BEFORE you start this proforma, make sure you have
exported your 2 videos from Premiere and embedded
from YouTube to your blogger
• Make sure you have sent your blog address [NOT the
login page address] to your tutor
• Once your Key film and test music video are exported
and uploaded you can then clean up your files and
delete the footage from the computer or archive to
One Drive
• Then you can begin!
• Feel free to add extra slides, notes, images, etc where
necessary – make sure you answer the section fully.
Make a point with an example, explain this and link to
other points and your future practice

3. Filming - camera
List and discuss a minimum of 3 areas you found interesting, difficult, what went well, what was less successful, etc about using the camera:
• We had a problem with the camera in the key story as the battery slot at the bottom was broken, meaning the batteries weren’t stable in
there so they kept falling out leading to the camera falling off. This meant we had to film clips very short just in case. I decided to make the
most out of our issue and do jump cuts of the trio or duo looking for things to do in the room to entertain themselves, this also caused an
effect of time passing which worked out quite well.
• We got some very good angles in both videos, but especially the music video. We had sideways shots and close-ups. We were about to
shoot an upside down shot but decided we didn’t want to put the camera itself at risk so decided not to.
• In both projects we did well with the look of the camera, the focus was practically perfect and there was no shaking at all in the scenes that
were filmed with a shoulder rig or hands. The tripod was also very easy to use and we weren’t afraid to experiment with it. We did shots
from up on tables with the tripod so it looked super high up but didn’t work out well at all.
• In the music video there was only two of us, as one of our team was now in a different group and another one of us disappeared halfway
through the day. We used this to out advantage as the two of us now had full control. I wanted to perfect this video so I would often get my
cameraman Aidan to take my place before shooting so that I knew what It would look like from that angle, and change it if necessary.
• Overall using the camera was a fun and educational experience for the whole group, especially in the second project where we had more
experience with it. We were trying out more things by then and the video came out a lot better, lighter and more in focus on the main actor
being myself.

4. Filming - people
List and discuss a minimum of 3 areas you found interesting, difficult, what went well, what was less successful, etc about working with others
on the test filming:
• We took a lot of time with the key story as it was our first time doing anything like this so we couldn’t finish it unfortunately, leaving out
“key” parts of the story. Our short was originally going to be unsettling and end with the people trapped in the room turning to insanity, self
harm and eventually death due to starvation, ending with a “scientist” (Kai the cameraman) walking in with a clipboard and assessing the
experiment. We didn’t have the time to do either of these scenes so ended it on another montage jump cut scene of the subjects being
bored in the room. This lead the genre to go from plot-twisting unsettling thriller to an ironic comedy with the end implying that no matter
how many people come inside the classroom after finding their own key, the group are too stupid to get to the door quick enough, like one
of those classic silent films.
• I considered myself somewhat the director of both projects, as I had written down my vision and ideas, wrote the story for the key short and
then used my shot list with specific timings to direct the “actors”. Everybody was very fond of my ideas which helped the project huge
amounts and there wasn’t really any problems or arguing as everyone was so on board.
• My ideas can sometimes be rather over the top or exaggerated, especially in the key story, so this caused for us to not go through with a lot
of things, which was fine in the end. Another mistake I made was assuming we would all be amazing actors and be able to work the camera
extremely well, we turned out to be ok at both of these things and get better and better, however, this did take some practice and getting
used to which took some time, which is another reason we couldn’t film a lot of scenes and it ended up being a comedy.
• Overall I feel my team worked very well together, we all had lots of fun and two projects I would consider being rather good were the
product of this.

5. Editing
List and discuss a minimum of 3 areas you found interesting, difficult, what went well, what was less successful, etc
about your editing in Premiere:
• A problem I faced editing the music video was the fact that we hadn’t taken a crucial bit of advice and instead
ended up recording the lip sync in different parts, causing breaks in the music. Eventually I put an MP3 of the
song over the video and tried my very best to sync it, it some parts it looks very good but not so much in others.
• Another problem was that the videos were turning out very tiny on premiere every time I dropped anything in
there but I eventually got this fixed which made editing a lot easier.
• We filmed a lot of clips for both projects, we did a lot of takes for most of the scenes so I had to go through and
find the right ones. I think that in the future we will instead just delete a take we aren’t satisfied with on the
camera.
• I hadn’t used premiere before as I had always used iMovie for the short films and other videos I make for fun at
home. I took a while to pick it up but I turned out to be pretty similar to iMovie in the end, it just looked slightly
different to it.

6. Reflections – what have you learned?
What are the 3 main things you think you have learned from these exercises?
• That working with what you have can sometimes be the best outcome, as it
gives a more authentic and humble feel.
• Always ask your team things such as what they want their role to be a while
before so that you can plan it out quickly, as some could be camera-shy or not
like the plan.
• Practice with the camera and angles a lot more before filming the takes that will
most likely end up in the final thing.

7. Action Points
Make 5 action points from the work you’ve done here that you will be considering and using in your music video project [it
could be a technical aspect with equipment, time management, working with others, planning, etc]:
• If there are any lip sync scenes, which I'm sure there will be in rather small amounts, then I will just record me lip syncing the
entire thing in one video so I can use that as the audio and it all sounds right.
• I will use the specific shot list timings in my music video, it isn’t meant to be strictly followed and is only a rough idea, but I
feel it is necessary and helps to get a vision of the video from start to finish in my head.
• I will take a lot of my own time perfecting it, as I would like it to be as good as I can possibly make it.
• I will use more filters to fit the narrative of the song and music video, as I know a lot of this wont be achievable otherwise,
such as night time shots.
• I will use premiere pro instead of iMovie, as I would like to get out of my comfort zone and get used to more advanced editing software which
I will probably use in the future a lot more.