Production for Music Video: Skills Development ( My Approach to A2 Planning)

Highlights of Group 22's and my personal approach to  the A2 planning process:


I think that experiencing the planning process in AS helped gear up my group and I with the knowledge we needed to create a plan for our Music Video. Whereas in AS, we needed a lot more guidance into what to base our planning on, in A2 we were able to work more independently with the resources we were given, as well as find our own resources. I found that I was able to do more of my own independent research, such as the audience research, which allowed me to plan our methods of reaching the target audience more precisely. I also feel that in AS we had more general ideas that were only made concise after the production of the project, however in A2 I have a better understanding of the importance of being specific. For example, in AS we would have an idea of the area we would want to film in, for example "a room in college", but we would not carefully select the room based on lighting and mise-en-scene. In A2 we narrowed our location choices from just "Shoreditch" to specific streets such as Scrutton and St Pauls street, because of the shadowed lighting effects we could create against the dark graffiti backgrounds and the warehouse effects in the background.

Further Improvements?

I do however think that we underestimated the time period we had to produce our Music Video. For example, instead of carefully following our production schedule or changing our production schedule every time something didn't go to plan, to estimate how we could maximise our time left, we left some things for the last minute. Although we still managed to produce our Music video to a good standard well before the deadline, our short comings in the planning stage meant we put a lot more pressure on ourselves that was not necessary, had we put more effort into our time management. Having said that, from the first stages of planning, we knew that our video needed more advanced editing than in the Thriller work in AS, so I already predicted that in the last stages of the editing, most of my free time would be spent in the editing suite. Therefore overall, in regards to planning, I have truly learnt the importance of time management and constantly referring back to the production schedule. I also think this skill is one that is transferable to other situations, because I had to make sure I managed my time between production of the Music Video and my other commitments.