Friday, 25 November 2011

tips for next year's A2 students- producing a music video

So, as a proud A2 student of our baby-music video, I can give some tips for the next year's students. 


You're realize how much your skills have improved; you'll feel much more confident when it comes to editing, handling the camera, planning etc.  I didn't see it at first, last year I was so bad with editing I actually hated it, and this year I realized I can do so much stuff with Final Cut Pro that I was editing and being confident about it. (and surprisingly excited!) 


When planning your video, pick a song that gives you the most ideas. We did that and we came out with a great music video, that gave us so much fun. We brought our personal interests into it. Think of the things you like or have, which you might use.Either if it's an activity, setting or a special prop. And I think our video is a great example of how you can have fun with what you're doing. . We knew that the song will be hard, because it's quite repetitive and many people know it. BUT still, we decided to face the challenge and work on it, because while listening we hand the most ideas. I remember us saying "it'll be hard to move away from the actual video, and everyone know the song. It's a good challenge, but when we but so much work into it, it will pay off' And it did =) ! 


Music video doesn't have to be boring, you get to plan what will be in it, make sure you will have fun! I had so much fun working on planning, filming and then editing!


When picking people in your group, don't pick your people you have nothing in common with. Pick people that share similar interest, listen to the similar music. Because this will allow you to share your ideas which many people accept. I think our group was perfect- we had 3 people with similar ideas and 1 who was keeping it real and was helping us, accepting our ideas, trying to improve them. Sometimes working with people with different interests and style may be interesting, because you get to know a different genre and conventions it had. I know someone who struggled because they didn't like the genre of the music. So, whichever suit you most :) 


Next is filming; don't do stable shots. They're boring! You're producing a music video, which will entertain people, make them excited, sad or whatever. Hold the camera in your hands, walk around with it. Pan, track! You'll see that the movement often fits with the beat, if not you can always slow or speed it up! Try not to shake it too much, but don't worry if it's a little shaky, it looks good sometimes. Let a person with the least shaky hands do it. 


When it comes to editing- spend time on it! seriously, it will pay off. the best videos were edited the longest. In A2 you'll have much more free time between the lessons or days off. Get everyone's timetable and switch, when someone is in lesson other person/people can edit. Then you show what you've done and talk if it's good, you can always change it. That's why it's worth spending time on it.


While editing, take short breaks. Walk out of the room, get a drink, eat a sweat (of course outside the classroom with Macs:D). When sitting in front of the computer for too long I felt like ripping my face off, because I was getting angry more quickly when it didn't work as I wanted it to. 


And whatever you do, whatever you film PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE remember about one and the most important thing in this whole process: SAVE YOUR WORK!! It's worth spending 3 secs on pressing CMND+S to save it, rather than spending 1h or so trying to fix everything. (sometimes when you paste, the whole thing moves back and it doesn't fit the song anymore). I made a sign that said "SAVE" and we had it it front of us, and saved literally every 1 minute. But then, if something went wrong we had an updated version. 


You'll find producing music video much more interesting, because it's something you can relate to.Good luck! =] 

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