production reflection

1. Stage 5
Production Reflections
Your Name

2. Process – week 1
Idea generation
In the first week we were first introduced to the project and began exploring existing products
and generating ideas. As this is a area I'm more interested in, I found it easier to come up
with storylines and song ideas. I developed 3 different music video plans for different songs
and then used these to pull together one final idea and song for my final piece. I chose to
use the song songbird by oasis and to create a romantic music video and edit it to appear
old fashioned. After choosing my song I did some quick research on some background
information on the song an band.
we created some mind maps of our ideas and wrote out the things we liked about our initial
video ideas and narrowed it all down to develop the final idea, we then wrote out a
descriptions of our final thoughts, looked at the techniques we would need to experiment
with and what we would need to research to create the video then once again looked at the
positives and negatives of our final idea until we were clear on the main idea/ structure of
our video.

3. Process – week 2
Research and development
In week 2 we did more specific research and looked at techniques and styles we wanted to
include in our videos. I watched lots of oasis music videos and some by other Britpop groups
so I could see any reoccurring themes in the genre. I also then looked at other videos that
were stylized in a similar way to mine or used techniques I was interested in exploring. I found
this really helpful as I got a lot of inspiration and ideas on ways I could make my video more
interesting. I looked at some films and how their aesthetics and narratives effected the
audience and took some inspiration from them too.
Then I did further research into oasis and the specific song I had chosen, I looked at the
instruments and the themes in the lyrics, I didn't find this part especially helpful as I was
already quite set on my idea and didn't’t take a lot of influence from oasis videos and their
styles. However, it was good to know more background on the band and the song as it helped
me understand the meaning behind the song better.

4. Process – week 3
Experiments
In week three, I did some experiments and tried out different techniques. I found this helpful as it
allowed me to narrow down my ideas and figure out what worked well and what I wanted to include
and then discard ideas that didn’t work.
For these I did some filming with molly and Tristan and we did a variety of different shots in different
styles, I then made a shorter practice video trying out new things in premier when editing. I actually
really liked this experiment an felt it worked really nicely but I also learnt from it. I knew after that
experiment I wanted to film freehand and only have one person in my video. That experiment became
quite melodramatic which I liked but wasn't what I wanted to aim for with my final piece.
I later did some experiments with Adam, sticking more to the style of what I wanted, like a draft of my
final video. I did some shots in a park and then edited them and put them with my chosen song to
basically see what a rough version of my final piece would look like. Unfortunately the footage quality
was really bad but this meant I knew I needed to use a different camera so it wax actually helpful to
know that the camera I used wasn't good for what I had in mind and gave me chance to organise using
different equipment.

5. Process – week 4
Production
This week I filmed the shots for my video, I went out twice, I did one full day around
York and then one evening after college and got some evening shots. These didn't
work as well as I hoped because the camera didn’t focus as well in the dark but I still
got a few nice shots.
In total I had about half an hour of footage to whittle down into 2 minutes so its
taken a long time to comb through all my shots to find things I can use and then get
them in the right order. This actually took much longer than I expected which was
annoying. When I finally got my shots in order, I was able to begin editing adjusting
all the colours and adding transitions. I decided the best way to give it the old film
style I was looking for was too ad another layer and blend it together, so I looked
online to find a tutorial and a overlay I could use.
I learnt how to add on my overlay and blend it and I think after this project I’m
definitely much more confident using premier.

6. Process – week 5
evaluation
This week I finished all my editing and exported my video, and finally uploaded it to
YouTube leaving me with just my evaluation to do. Luckily I got this finished at the
beginning of the week so I had enough time to complete my evaluation and peer
feedback.
I began looking back through my previous coursework pre- production and thinking
about the strengths and weaknesses of my work. I find the evaluation helpful but it
is difficult and a tedious process. I then looked at each individual element of my
work and analysed it and compared it to existing work, thought about how I could
improve but also what went well and what skills I've developed that I can use in
future projects.
I think my evaluation was god but could have been better if I had more time, I'm
aware that evaluation is not my strongest area as I'm often running out of time
before the project is due so its rushed so I'm trying to make sure this doesn’t
happen in future.