Thoughts and Reflections so Far;

After returning from study leave, we got straight on with our music video project. At first i wasn't completely happy with the choice of music video we were to recreate - I felt "In The Sun" by She and Him, was a bit cutesy and the style of music and choreography with lots of dancing wasn't to my liking. However when Jake, a professional director and the man to be directing our video, came in to talk about our music video and his experience in the industry, my feelings toward the production changed. Jake told us that when working with a song, we will hardly ever get to work with a music genre that we are personally fans of so it is important to be professional in our approach. I decided to put my inhibitions aside and throw myself into the project, even putting in effort when it came to dancing - an activity that i have little enjoyment in doing.

I found Jake's talk extremely helpful as it gave me an insight into what goes into creating a music video and gave me some insider knowledge that i would have otherwise not have known. He talked about how to be creative with the song you are given and how to work with both the music and lyrics to create a video that the artist is happy with. Jake also told us what happens on a shoot day; how long the average music video takes to shoot, the average budget of a music video, the editing tricks used to make the artist look better than they actually are along with tips about how to keep the artist and extras happy and co-operative on a shoot.

Jasmine Blackborow came in to school to help choreograph our music video and teach us the dance routine. On the shoot day, Jasmine will be the '1st AD', assisting the director and making sure everything runs smoothly and on time. At first, when she came in to teach us the dance, i was skeptical and nervous as i don't think I'm a good dancer. However, Jasmine quickly taught us that it isn't so much about the quality of dancing, as the enthusiasm you put into it, and soon i had lost my inhibitions and started to enjoy myself. She also taught us that it was important to focus on facial expression and body language when dancing, as this helps to further portray the mood and genre of the video.

I'm really excited about the upcoming workshop and i can't wait to work with the industry professionals and to see how a real music video is made. I'm also looking forward to using the professional shooting equipment, i think it will be a really beneficial lesson for us all to see how to use the camera and other equipment in use. As nervous as i am to dance and make a fool of myself, i think it will be a really enjoyable day, with the positives strongly outweighing the negatives!