Elton John - Don't go breaking my heart

1) What have you learnt about filming music videos?

What this exercise has taught me about filming music videos is that filming in full shots of the performers singing the song is more effective than taking separate clips of the performers singing sections or lines from the song as it means that when it comes to the editing of the final video as a whole, components such as lip syncing is much easier. I have also learned that energy and performance is key to a successful music video in order to keep the audience engaged and entertained by the content of the music video. This means that when filming a music video a bit of effort in relation to the mise en scene can make it much more successful and appealing to an audience.

2) Describe the editing process

The editing process of the exercise taught us many things about editing in the tone of a music video. We ended up having to go to film our video twice based on the fact that on the first occasion, we did not obtain full shots of us performing the whole song and when we brought the sequences back to edit them, it was tricky to get the lip syncing correct with the song and we found that when placing the clips next to each other, the continuity and look of the video was unattractive and this made the video as a whole rather unappealing.

After filming again with a three shot set up to the video and carrying out the takes in full shots rather than separate clips, the editing became much more easier and made our video look much more professional and appealing in relation to the previous one. After importing each video onto the mac, we layered the videos together on Adobe and matched them up to the song in order to get the lip syncing in the video correct. We could then lock the main master shot and the track so that the lip syncing is not tampered with. We then began to cut layers one and two with a shot of one performer and a shot of another in each sequence, often referring back to the master shot so that there is a mix between the shots.

When I was singing, we cut Leigha's bit so that I could be seen on the video and vice versa when Leigha was singing. I tried to move between each shot as much as possible with the editing of the video so that it keeps the content lively and engages our audience. After, we were satisfied with how our video looked as a final product, we were then able to export it and upload it to Youtube.

3) What have you learnt about editing music videos?

From this experience, I have learnt that editing music videos means more frequent cutting of different clips in order to match the content on screen to the pace and tempo of the track. It is different from past experiences such as editing the thriller opening where the editing is abrupt and you have to consider the editing of the video in relation to the soundtrack. Also, it is important to understand that the editing for the music video is easier using the layer method with the full shots on top of each other where you can simply cut each layer when you don't want it to be seen and other layers can then be seen. This means that there is less stress when trying to match up individual clips and get the lip syncing right.

4) In what ways could you improve the filming/editing of the sequence

There are various ways that we could have improved the editing and filming of the music video. Firstly, our media department had a dolly eligible for use when working on this task, this could have improved our range of shots and made our video more diverse, attractive and stylistic to the outer audience. This would further mean that I would have built on our original stimulus which was the original Elton John video where they only had a three point filming set up. This would show me using my initiative and being inventive with our work. Furthermore, while editing the video, I could have used a wider range of transitions to get between each shot which may make the video more appealing and stylistic to the audience. This would also show me using more advanced features of the editing software. I will keep this in mind when we begin to edit the video we make for our main coursework task.