Friday, 10 September 2010

Lesson Overview 6/9/10

In this lesson the class received information on what to expect in this school term. We were given constructive criticism as a whole class. It was explained to us that most of the videos we made previously were not as good as they should be. Therefore, our teacher showed us other student videos and asked us to note the positive and negative aspects of each. He (the teacher) gave us the marking criteria and insructed us to give our own grades/levels along with reasons why. What he didn't give us was the actual grade, so that we could break each convention and aspect down, and study them in order to make a decision.

We watched each video, making notes on what we thought stood out and what didn't work. This was a vital experience because in order to learn, we had to look at previous videos. They were examples of what to do and not to do, which was needed so we didn't make the same errors. Now we had looked at others, we had some idea of what we were going to do.

It was agreed that length of editing should match with the tempo of the song. If the song is fast and upbeat, the cuts should be quick. If a slower, gentler song then the cuts should be slower. In addition it is important that the mise-en-scene suits the genre. For example, we witnessed a zombie-style rock video. Unfortunately it didn't work because the lack of costume and props. It also lacked effect on the audience because of the poor acting. However, it was clear that the producers had a good idea, it just wasn't executed properly. Lighting was also important because it set the tone of the whole video. Music videos generally stick to a clear narrative however some didn't, but still managed to create meaning. Furthermore, the miming needs to be perfect. If it is off even slightly, it spoils the effect. Framing was an issue for some, because heads were cut off and it just appeared sloppy.

This lesson was crucial because we were able to distinguish the typical conventions of different music videos.

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