Music Video Study Day - Pete's Tips

On the 26th of August I had been involved in a media music video workshop ran by the chief examiar Pete Fraser and music video director Jake Wynne to recreate Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams (One of Jakes own music videos) and to get advice on our blogs and products.


Pete Fraser gave us some invaluable tips to use while we go through the process of creating this blog and product:

• Regularly take screenshots of progress to allow people to see the developmental process
• Don't copy the original music video as this will lose you marks 
• Plan for everything and plan early as the product and everything else will not come out as well if it is rushed
• Make storyboards (you can and should always shoot extra footage) as this allows us to plan for a 5 minute video even if we only use 3 minutes worth of footage.
• Make sure the actors are well cast and are enthusiastic and professional about putting effort in otherwise the video you create will look bad.
• When filming the performance, make sure the actors are actually singing and playing the song as it will make it much easier to edit and it will look better.
• Plan costumes carefully, don't just wear clothes that you would wear everyday - make sure they fit the genre as this will make it look much more authentic.
• Before filming, make sure the you have all of the equipment with you as if you forget something the whole day could be wasted.
• Make sure there's a fresh SD card in the camera before filming as this could cause big problems when filming.
• Shoot the performance at least ten times for each set-up as it makes it easier to edit and also gives your performance variety.
• Make sure you have plenty of cutaways as this will break up the music video and make it look better.
• Experiment with extra angles and lighting changes as this will add an edge to your video and make it stand out.
• Include lots of close-ups as they are very effective.
• Shoot more than you think you will need as it is better to waste footage than not have enough.
• Avoid really famous artists/songs because they will be too well-known and the viewers will already have preconceived ideas in their heads of what standard it will have to live up to compared to the original video
• Aim for three minutes or just under as this will be long enough and still be good quality.
• Utilise the whole day when filming - make use of natural changes in lighting but make sure they are still in context.
• Each member should make a digipack each and then we can compare them and take the best parts of each one to make the best digipack we can.
• Regularly collect feedback from peers and record it, then reflect on criticism and suggestions to make your products better.
• Record all behind-the-scenes footage, jobs etc as this will make great data for the digipak and website later on.