AS1: Task 4: Understanding the Techniques of Music Videos – “The Pretender”

Understanding the Techniques of Music Videos - "The Pretender"

The Creative Process:

When creating this animatic, the initial idea was to storyboard 45 seconds of the music video and demonstrate the different uses of shot angles within this piece. From my knowledge and understanding I have now established that there are more shot angles that I hadn't heard about before. These include high/low angle crane shots and various others.

After story boarding each frame, I uploaded the pictures onto Premier Pro in order to edit my sequence to the beat - this had to last 45 seconds due to the fact that the 28 frames totalled to 45 seconds.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

I would say that one of my strengths included how I was able distinguish shot types that I have learned about previously.

The mise-en-scene was the most difficult to draw onto the storyboard, particularly where there were objects in the background such as stereos and lights as I attempted to draw these as precise as they appeared in the actual music video.

Another weakness I found at times was trying to edit the clips I had to the timing of the video - this is because some clips were barely 1 second long before it was time to move onto the next scene.

What I have learned:

I found it quite difficult to storyboard this music video, due to the fact that I didn't realise that it would take up to 28 frames on the storyboard to cover only 45 seconds, I understand now that this requires a lot of time and commitment. I mainly struggled to draw parts of the video in certain frames that depicted the reflection of lights in the background (for example). I have learned how to edit a video to the beat and pace of the music itself. It was a tiring process but it was quite enjoyable overall and I am pleased with my final outcome.

Over the course of making the video, I have learned about the different types of shot variety (as I have mentioned previously mentioned) and how to keep up with the pace of each shot. I have been able to develop my knowledge further on shot variety and it has enabled me to practice a variety of shots in my own work. For example, the use of a low angle crane shot. In my spare time I have practiced filming a video using the new angle shots that I have learned about and it gave me the desired outcome that I wished for. Although I had to experiment a few times to find the perfect angle, learning about the different types of shot variety helped me to produce videos with better quality.