Don't Go Breaking My Heart Evaluation

How We Filmed The Exercise:

How we recorded the sequence

In my opinion, I think I was able to complete this exercise very well. This was my first time of really doing editing by myself so I found it challenging but very rewarding at the same time. In terms of the takes that we used, we filmed Alex and Freddie lip syncing the song all the way through about 5 separate times. This was done from all different angles which means during the editing process, we could chop and change which scenes were to be used at the right time. We filmed the exercise in this way because we felt it would be much easier to edit this way. In addition to filming the whole take about 5 times, there was also 2 short scenes of which we filmed specifically to a part of the song. For example, when Freddie sung “Oh honey, when you knock at my door”, we decided to have him stand outside of the room and knock on the door in an over-exaggerated way, and when Alex sings “I gave you my key”, she pops into the scene with keys in her hand. In another scene, when the line “Nobody Knows It” is echoed for the second time, there’s a scene in which myself and Alanta are singing in that scene. We did this because it just makes the video more interesting.

Shot Types

When filming this exercise, we made sure to film lots of different shot types in order to be able to get lots of choices when editing the video together. We felt that the more shots that we was able to use, the better the exercise would be. Our first shot that we used is a mid shot. We filmed the first sequence from this camera position as we felt that this would be the best way to start the sequence, a bit like an establishing shot. Another shot that we used is when the camera was on the left hand side, so Alex was closer to the camera and Freddie was further away. We also filmed one take of the exercise from this exact position. Another position that we put the camera is high up, using a high angle shot. We filmed another take of the exercise in this position and we also used this shot a few times in our video. Another way that we filmed a take of this exercise is by using a camera dolly. We mounted the camera onto it, and was able to move the camera left and right while Alex and Freddie was signing. This allowed for tracking shots to be included of which we also used. Another shot we used is when Freddie was knocking at the door and Alex gave him the keys. We used this shot as we felt it would make the video more interesting.
 
How we edited the sequence together

To edit all of my clips together, and make them into some kind of video, I used the program adobe premiere. First of all, I made sure to edit my sequence in a way that the camera shots and the music match, so that lip syncing looks well done and not scruffy. I thought that the best way of editing the clips together would be to change the camera angle/shots in time with the song. This makes the editing fit in with the music that has been played. I also tried to make the shots that I put in there as short as I could, so it means that there would be many different camera shots and angles. I made sure I edited the sequence in a way that used a lot of different camera angles and shots. This makes the sequence look more appealing. I tried to add as much variety as I could to the sequence. I also edited the sequence accordingly to the lyrics of the song. For example, when Freddie knocks at the door, I made sure to edit the sequence accordingly so that, that shot was in the sequence at the specific correct time. To end off the sequence, I put a blank screen with my name on it, just to end it off.

Mistakes

I feel that we didn’t make many mistakes when we was filming this sequence. The main one that I can think of is to make sure we actually know the lyrics instead of reading them from a sheet of paper. This would make our next exercise look more professional as we wouldn’t be reading from sheets of paper. Another thing we could of improved in our exercise which isn’t really a mistake, but just a way of improving our video, would of been to use a more variety of shots. This would of given us even more choice of shots when we was putting our video together so could of made our video even better.

Lessons learnt for my Final Project
 

Doing this exercise has taught me many new things of which I will definitely use for my final project. First of all, and most obviously, this exercise has taught me how to lip sync effectively and made it look like they are actually singing. As this was the whole purpose of the task, and where we had never done anything like this before, we had to learn the techniques of syncing the music with the video clips. We found this challenging but definitely rewarding and it is a technique we will be using in our final project.

Second of all, I have learned that it is much easier and faster to film whole takes of lip syncing scenes rather than film each scene individually. It is also more beneficial to us when editing the piece together because it gives us more options of what shots to use at a specific time, rather than being limited to having to stick to just using one scene.

Another thing that this exercise has taught me of which I intend to use in my final exercise is that the more shots that you use, the more variety that you have. In particular, our group used the dolly for the very first time, so we all learnt how to use that effectively in order to film a tracking shot as evident in our practice. We feel that we used the dolly well for the scenes that we filmed it for, and is definitely a technique to consider using in or final project.