Music Video Practice Activity - Evaluation

In media we had to get into groups of 3-4 and create a short music video for either Pharrell Williams - happy or Let it go by Disney. My group decided that we were going to recreate Happy. In my group we decided that I and Celia would be in the music video itself, Tajay would help to direct and choreograph the music video and Aadam would film and edit. Although we decided what roles we were going to have, we all managed to help each other, so we all had an input in what was being created, but most importantly all of ideas were being acknowledged and used. As a group we decided we wouldn’t need our story board whilst we were filming, however as a consequent of not using our story board it made directing and film much longer and time consuming.

Aadam took charge of filming and editing, it was fairly easy for Aadam to use the camera as we all had previous knowledge when it came to using the camera. One of our strengths during filming is that we knew how to adjust the brightness etc. When it came to shooting at our second location the lighting was very dull because of the angle the natural light was coming from however, Aadam adjusted the brightness so the shots were clear. One thing we found hard during the editing process was matching different shots with the lyrics of the song as me and Celia was lip syncing throughout the music video.

When it came to our general idea’s and directing it was fairly straight forward as we all had very similar ideas which was, to have a fun video full of ‘bloopers’, dancing and bright colours to converge with the lyrics ‘because im happy’. Tajay is a dancer so it really benefited us when it came to creating and directing the choreography. As a result of the video only being 30 seconds we didn’t get to include all of our ideas, one being another location preferably out in the field.

After completing this task it has definitely taught me what I need in my actual music video next time, one being a bigger variety of shots to show how diverse my group can be, also merging the different shots together subtly so that it goes together more like a story and seems more believable. Also next time I’d really like to use both slow motion to capture action and fast pace shot changes to catch the attention of the audience.