The Prelim Evaluation

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

I did enjoy the workshop. I found that the day was catered to be as close to a normal shoot as possible so it meant that I was able to imagine and experience a real shoot properly with all the hitches, issues and time constraints that they usually would have. I found that time was the biggest issue on the day; not just for me waking up at 5:45 in the morning, but through following the shoot schedule and trying to get everything filmed in time regardless of shots and props going wrong. My favourite part of the day was probably near the end when there were just a few more individual shots to be done. Everyone was aware that we were nearly finished so the final spurt of enthusiasm and excitement ended the day really nicely even though it had been a strenuous and self-consuming 12 hour shoot.

2. What did you learn from participating in the workshop?

I learnt that to have a successful day and to end in good spirits everyone involved has to be completely enthused with the shoot and be eager to participate in any way that they can. When the extras arrived and one of them was unmotivated and quite negative about the effort needed, I saw the contrast between us and how different the day would have been had we all not thrown ourselves into the action.

3. Are you pleased with the footage and your edit? Is it how you expected it to look?

I am extremely pleased with the footage and the edit. It was surprising how many shots were given to us to edit, and how varied each one was. Finding the right shots to match the feel of the video was a large consumer of our time and this process was a learning curve regarding the editing profession. The colour grading was the most frustrating part of the edit and editing each individual shot became quite monotonous and boring. I found that this is something that I should probably get some more experience in as the colour grading controls confused me. By the end I was extremely happy with the final footage and it was the best final product that I could have expected.

4. How do you think your workshop experiences will impact on your approach to next term's music video coursework?

I think next term I will come to the music video topic with a lot more confidence and enthusiasm to experiment with my ideas, and work out how I want to develop my ideas through collaborating with other people on the course. However, with the confidence I have gained through this workshop, I am also more aware of the time constraints present and the practicalities around location, equipment and the final footage. Through the workshop though, I learnt about improvising on original ideas to get something similar but easier to produce, and I think that this will be beneficial when producing my final video.