My MeVid Evaluation

The task given to us was to create a small video no more than 3 minutes that basically described and highlighted my life, so by the end that of everyone watching they would have a clear idea on what exactly I was like. In this video, I had to make sure that many elements in my life were highlighted, for example, my hobbies and interests, a little about my time on the earth and perhaps showing one of my talents. Before even filming this video, I had to ensure that I had a shooting script in which held all the details toward my filming, such as the camera shots, what I was going to say, any different shots that I was going to film or any voice overs that I intended to use.

The shooting script took a long while to make, mainly because it was essential that I got the timing right, or the video would end up being too long, therefore defeating the purpose of trying to get as much of my life as possible into one video. Every scene had to be very precise in terms of timing, however one thing that I should have thought of was ensuring that even though the times had to be precise, they should have also been more realistic. I say this because through a lot of filming, giving myself around 3 seconds to say one sentence was not realistic enough therefore I went over, this meaning I had to either change what I said or I would have to change the shooting script, which became very inconvenient. Because of this, in the future (in terms of voice overs), I think it would be a good idea if I recorded myself before writing how long I would give myself to say something.

This is an example given. I only gave myself 4 seconds to say the dialogue however when I filmed this, I was given the issue of running over 4 seconds, no matter how many times I tried to speed myself up. This is a skill I would need to improve in pre production.

However, something that I definitely improved in pre-production compared to the last task we were given was time management. In the last task that we were given as a class, my group had definitely left last minute decisions and planning too late, therefore when it was time to film, we couldn’t get everything done. This time, though, because I managed to get planning all done in good time, if there were any changes that I needed to make whilst filming, I was able to make them without too many complications which really helped the final piece. Time is very important to keep in mind. Not leaving enough time could equal into rushing of work, therefore not being able to complete it the best of one’s ability.

In production, doing the ‘Draw My Life’ feature was very challenging, so I had to practice a few times with the camera and without the camera before I had my final piece. The idea was to draw out the significant moments in my life and to either voice-over or write some text on the side to explain what I was drawing. This was done by firmly placing a whiteboard down and using a whiteboard marker to draw the pictures. If the whiteboard moved then when it came to editing, taking out unnecessary scenes wouldn’t work since the continuity would be wrong, so making sure that it was secure was definitely essential. This improved my planning skills and my test shots when I let the camera roll and I drew a few random things back. I looked at the shots back and saw if the whiteboard needed adjusting, if the pen was thick enough, if the camera was focussing correctly, etc; and if any of these things were not working then I could adjust them and try again until the shots were perfect.

Another production skill I had to master was learning how to get the right height or angle of the camera on the tripod. When working in groups, if anyone wasn’t too sure on how to do something technical with the camera or the tripod, we could easily just ask another one of our group members and the problem would soon become sorted. However, when working on a solo project alone, when one was totally in charge of their own piece, it was important that if a problem with the camera or the tripod occurred I would know how to handle it without panicking. Luckily, no problem actually occurred, however it still took some time until a suitable camera angle was found.

After actually filming, it was time to start editing, which was easier than the first task since by then we had already gone through the edit workshop, so we were all confident with using iMovie. When editing, skills like adding text were used quite commonly. One problem with this was definitely that iMovie seemed to shut down every time the text selector opened, which meant a lot of time was wasted, however when I kept persisting and shut the Mac down and reopened it, the problem appeared to be resolved for a little while before it went straight back to shutting down again. It wasn’t only my Mac, though. In the future, for my next project, I will remember that the Mac’s appear to be slightly delicate with the text future and will aim not to include too much of it in order for the problem not to occur again, and so that no more time is wasted.

Another thing I have improved whilst editing is cutting down of scenes. Altogether, my original un-cut footage was a little over 15 mintues, which then had to be cut down into no more than 3 minutes and no less than 2 minutes. Therefore I could not use all of the scenes I had, obviously. However, most of the scenes I shot were duplicates of each other, just each one was done a little differently, so that I could choose the one that I preferred when editing them together. Cutting down the scenes started off as rather easy, since it was obvious in which scenes I wanted to use and which ones just weren’t going to work. However, as the editing progressed, it became harder and harder to cut down the footage that just wasn’t needed. What I discovered was, by just taking something as small and select as 0.5 of a second off a picture could make all the difference, which made things a lot easier by being very precise with what I cut out. If I really didn’t need it, it would just have to go.

Some of the skills I have learnt whilst filming my MeVid that would be useful would be time management and pre planning. Whilst making a music video in particular, the order in which some sequences would have to be in would be essential to plan before filming, or the whole project could go wrong. Therefore, planning out all the durations of the different scenes that I would need and even deciding on location would definitely be useful in my music video project.

In the music video production, being different and being original is a huge part of it. I think the ‘Draw My Life’ sequence that I used to open up my MeVid was quite different, a few YouTubers have done it before but it was still quite new. Finding something new and original to put in the music video to make it more entertaining not only to watch, but to film. Therefore originality is another key which the MeVid helped everyone to bring out. Because this video was only about ourselves individually as a person and no one else, individual personalities could shine through which would be quite useful in the Music Video.

In the year 13 documentary, I think films and music are ones that I would develop. I would definitely go further into those topics. For films, I think if I filmed outside of a cinema it would really set the tone for the rest of the documentary since location is very important for documentaries, especially when they’re relevant to the topic.

For music, a rough idea is to see which music tastes are the most popular in terms of music sales and which are most popular in terms of views on YouTube, since I find it rather interesting that some songs can be absolutely hated but still get the most views on YouTube.

Of course, my strange obsession with One Direction and a few other YouTuber’s I think would be very interesting to create a documentary out of. Altogether I think that would be quite fun to film and in terms of filming I don’t think it would be too hard to find a location since my whole bedroom wall is covered in posters, as proven in my MeVid. Screenshots coming soon.