Adele - Hello Cover (Practice Task)

As a practice task for our actual music videos, we got into groups of 4, chose a popular song and made a basic music video for it. Following this, we edited it using ??SOFTWARE?? The purpose of the task was to practise lip-synching, test out different framings and getting a feel for what directing/producing/editing our own music videos are going to be like.

We worked amiably as a group, ensuring consensus with shots and that everyone got a creative input. When working with a group, you have to be easygoing and flexible with ideas as everyone will have slightly different visions to what they want to create.

My role was shared equally with the other three people in my group, as co-director, co-producer and co-editor. After having taken the skeleton frames (long shot, medium shot and close up), everyone got to choose one creative frame (only one due to strict time management) and I chose the shot against the wall, the second one in to the video, as I liked the composition of the frame using the rule of thirds.

A strength of the camera work is the variety of shots we got within a limited time frame. We filmed a mix of basic shots and creative ones, such as the silhouette shot that ends the video. Varied shots are important to prevent the audience from getting bored of the video.

One weakness of the camera work is the mise-en-scene, or lack of. The props, costume and background are not that appropriate for the song - it is quite a slow, soulful, beautiful song which doesn't really match up with the connotations of a red brick wall and the artist wearing a Superman t-shirt. I can take this weakness and learn from it for my own music video - planning early will avoid any inappropriate mise-en-scene elements.

A strength of the editing is the unusual experimentation with the final frame. To do this, we layered the close up on top of the silhouette shot and then changed both opacities to 50%. We then horizontally flipped the close up so that it was on the right side of the frame. This composition is a strength because it worked successfully and taught us a new technique which we can apply to our own music videos.

A weakness of the editing is a lack of continuity regarding the cutting rate. For example, from 00:12-00:15 for the line 'To tell you that I'm sorry,' there are two different frames and a fairly fast cutting rate for the lines before and after. However, for the second round of the same line at 00:37-00:40, there is only one different frame and a much slower cutting rate for the lines before and after. This weakness was due to a very tight time budget - when I edit my own music video, I will plan the frames out on a storyboard first before I actually edit them together so that I can ensure continuity between frames.

I have found this practice task very helpful as it has reiterated to me the importance of careful advanced planning to ensure organisation and a general high quality video. I will take into account all the strengths and weaknesses of both the camera work and the editing from this task and apply my reflections to my music video.