BFI trip

Today, our media class attended a music video training session at the BFI (British Film Institute). Our speaker, Tom Woodcock, explained the history of music videos and took us through a timeline of how they have progressed. The timeline dated back to the 1930's, in which the relationship between music and image was first established for an audience.

Here is the history and theory presentation, shown to us in the first session:



Here are a few of the videos in the presentation that stood out to me:

1935: Len Lye - Colour Box



I found the mixture of colour, light and texture in the video above visually appealing. Achieved using scratch discs and moving random abstract shapes around, the montage created is quite psychedelic and therefore interesting to watch. This is a really useful technique to think about in our own music video, where the layering of images and symbols could help us create texture and depth.

1964: The Beatles - I Should Have Known Better



This video is similar to ours in that it has a narrative focus, with elements of performance. It was in this period, that the industry began to construct artist image through film, explaining the long shot duration(s) in the video above. Being made for A Hard Day's Night (1964) - a comedy exploring youthful charisma - the video works to popularize the artists, by surrounding them with people in a train carriage. This contrasts with our own video, as our narrative sees Little Red Riding Hood face isolation and fear; however, increasing our shot duration might help emphasize the idea of loneliness.

1975: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody



This classic song/ music video highlights the birth of the pop promo. Despite falling under the pop genre, renowned for videos using vibrant colours and fast-paced editing, Queen employs a dark colour palette to create an eerie atmosphere. Superimposition is also used, where two adjacent shots fade into one another, to create the illusion of a shadow. We would like to create a similar mood in our own video, therefore the video above serves as great inspiration in terms of editing.

1995: Pharcyde - Drop



Directed by Spike Jonze, the video above takes a very creative approach despite having virtually no budget! It required great skill from the artists, who had to learn the lyrics of the song backwards; when played in reverse, their surroundings appear to be going backwards while they themselves moved forward. This was an extremely innovative video for its time, inspiring us on a creative level as we have been challenged to think more closely about how to plan and execute our own video.

Here is the presentation we were shown in the second session:



We were also given 10 steps to ensure success in our own productions:

1. Asses your resources 
• start with performers
• gather a technical kit
• establish a location
• detail any props/costume
• work within a time frame

2. Warm up 
• practice lip syncing (film and edit)
• do a preliminary task

3. Recce 
 • limit the number of possible locations
• gather photos and footage
• have access to light and power
• do a risk assessment

4. Pitch
• do a treatment pitch
• create a moodboard
• understand what technical elements are involved

5. "Planning Beats Idea"
• don't get stuck
• plan what's in your head

6. Plan everything
• create a storyboard/animatic,
• prepare everything advance e.g people, places, props, costumes
• plan filming days according to a shooting schedule
• prepare technical elements beforehand e.g batteries, SD cards, grips, lights
• make sure the performer has rehearsed

7. Shoot
• shoot at least 10 times
• get cutaway shots
• shoot from multiple angles and consider lighting changes
• motivate the performer

8. Edit
• synch up footage
• paper edit
• cut and cut again
• upload rough cuts and get feedback
• edit grades and effects in last

9. Evidence
• blog all research
• upload the pitch
• gather photos (stills, BTS shots, screen grabs)
• save all test footage

10. Evaluation
• constantly evaluate details of the production, as we go along

All in all, I think this was a really informative trip as we learned about history of our product and how to be successful in our own coursework production!