1. Did you enjoy the main workshop shoot day? What role(s) did you take and what did you learn? What were your best bits and why?

Despite a long day of sweat and hard work, the workshop day was very informative and so much fun. Getting the role of Hayley Williams was exciting and being on set (both performing and helping) with professional staff and equipment was a new experience worth every minute.

Performing onstage

Everyone performed in groups of 4, I was grouped with Thakshana (guitarist), Mario (drummer) and Amy (bass).
Left - Mario drumming                 Centre - Thakshana rocking out         Right - Filming my CUs

Being in front of the lights (which made it quite hot to be singing and dancing under) and also in front of the camera took time for me to get used to. However with the support of our fellow classmates and expert advice from the crew (who often cheered us on loudly). I got quite comfortable on stage after shooting the first few set-ups.

                                 
I learnt that it was better to not care about how I looked on camera and best to sing with passion as well as aim to exaggerate my moves in order to get the best effect on screen. Actions such as dramatic hair whips and evil 'mean girl' glares looked best on camera when I just felt the emotion of the song and sang. Trying to remember exactly how to copy one of Hayley's moves or facial expressions just ended up with me looking more unnatural than when I just went with the flow of the song or put my own twist on a few things. This was part of the advice I'd learnt from Tasha (dance teacher) and Jasmine (co-director).

Of course there were key moves that all the band's members had to learn and some were done greatly but some set-ups took a few shots to perfect.

Helping on set

I learnt quite a lot backstage. Having my make-up done by a pro artist was great and cheering my friends who were then performing felt equally great. I also learnt what cable-bashing was and saw a portable dolly being used by the cameraman (Jack) who sat on a chair being pulled/pushed along by another fellow classmate. For a few set-ups I was in charge of the clapper board.






Here's a time lapse of the shoot day which shows how the Seward Studio was set up, the equipment we used and what roles everyone took on-stage and helped to stand in for onset.

2. What have you learnt from participating in each prelim tasks 1,2,3 and 5?

Task 1 - The Audition Video

The audition video was slightly awkward to shoot at first and took my team a few takes to start feeling comfortable enough to sing along in a large classroom with just the three of us (me, Thakshana and Iggy). However we blasted Misery Business out and just improvised since we didn't want to prepare anything beforehand and felt like an improvised audition was more natural.

Here is the video. None of us minded what role we would be given but all of us had fun rocking out to Paramore, looking forward to the shoot days. Although it was quite hard to lip sync when I hadn't fully learnt the lyrics which showed up clearly on camera.

Task 2: Learn and practice your performance

It was very important for me to learn my lines and practice my moves as not only does Hayley have multiple key moves in the video but her facial expressions are very emotionally and physically dramatic (a common trait in pop punk music). I had to be slightly wild. I learnt that warming up was one of the key activities essential before performing in order to avoid injuries as hair whips can really stiffen your neck the day after.

Task 3: Help to plan and organise your costume

Here is Hayley's outfit.

My outfit included a red (with white) tank top, black miniskirt, yellow & black tights and black converses. This was a mixture of my own skirt, someone else's top, hand-made tights and borrowed shoes. I did not end up needing to buy anything as everyone brought in what they could meaning everyone shared and could pick what suited them the most.

Task 5: Editing
I learnt from this task that editing a music video took more time and effort than I had thought we would need. I learnt that we needed to grade every shot using ProcAmp, edit in various flashes using the Luma Corrector and place effects such as flips on a few shots. We also played with speeding up shots and slow-mo shots. It was hard work but satisfying after we had finished.

3. Are you pleased with the footage and your finished edit? Is it how you expected it to look? What works really well and what would you change?

Our finished remake edit:

I'm really happy with the footage we got as there were multiple shots of the same set-ups which allowed me to have my pick of which shot I wanted to edit and put onto the video track. It also meant we had varied angles and frames to choose from in order to get the best possible match to the actual video by Paramore. I edited in a pair with Thakshana.

The finished edit took me and Thakshana a long time due to both of us being perfectionists (and maybe also procrastinators). However we tried our best to stick to our edit schedule.

I was quite pleased with the footage we got as my group always made an effort while performing and we definitely 'broke out of our shells' by the end of the day with Mario having to wear guy liner and and Thakshana playing her guitar while lying down on the floor.

What worked really well in our remake video

• The flashes
• The CUs
• The bleached out frames
• The flips
• The slow-mos and sped up shots

What didn't work so well were

• The guitar 'hitting my face scene' and hair whips

I felt this scene needed to be re-shot as the timing is off and I wasn't close enough to Thakshana. We only did one take since we were behind schedule which annoyed me as it was an important scene and would not have taken long to re-shoot. However we also had to be careful no one got hurt.

• Thakshana's knee slide

This was not as dramatic but again we were limited physically as knee slides were quite painful however i feel like there could have been more camera movement to help.

• The drum kick at the end which we couldn't actually do

I feel like this was a major scene as it is quite chaotic in the actual music video so I felt our ending lacked impact because of this limitation. Although i felt we replaced it well during editing.

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

Behind the scenes on the shoot day showing how what each of us got up to behind the camera and our love for the project as well as our support for our fellow classmates.

I think my prelim experience was awesome and would definitely prepare me for next term's music video coursework in every aspect.

1. I would be prepared to take on any role having had the experience of playing Hayley Williams and remember the advice I got from professional people.

2. I know who I would like to work with and who I work best with which is an important aspect when trying to create a project.

3. I will be prepared for the editing as I am familiar with how long it takes to edit a music video as well as the various functions I have learnt how to use on Premier.

4. Watching Jack film everyone on the shoot day gave me valuable insight into how to work the camera and get cool frames and varied camera movement.

5. Planning for the shoot day and casting is essential as even with an edit schedule we were running late. Also next term's music video might require help from non-media students meaning we need to be organised.