Evaluation of Taylor Swift Video Remake

For this task we had to create a storyboard for a music video, then we had to get into a group and remake 30 seconds of the  video trying to keep it as close as we could to the real version. For ours we did ‘Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me.’ This was to give us an idea of how to create a realistic and professional music video, the problems we may face and furthermore experience in using the editing suites and camera equipment.

We worked in a group of five. I thought this made the task quite difficult because our group was quite large, it was hard to organise days and times in which we was all free to make and edit the video. In my actual music video coursework I will be working in a group of two which I think will make it easier to organise. Once we had made arrangements, times, place and props we began filming.

For the setting we used group members Lydia Barrett’s bedroom as it was similar to the setting in the Taylor Swift music video. I enjoyed filming but we had some difficulties along the way. Firstly the actual Taylor Swift video was a shot from outside looking into the bedroom window, we was not able to do this so instead we created a fake window, by getting a big piece of see-through plastic and drawing window lines on to it. I think it did look like a window and wasn’t a bad idea however it did not look very realistic or professional,  I have learnt from this that I will need to consider my props and settings beforehand to ensure that they are effective. It took about 2 hours in total to complete the filming, this was just for 30 seconds of a music video which made me realise how long it is going to take me to complete a full music video which could be up to 5 minutes long. I will have to plan my time efficiently in order to complete my video before the deadline. I didn’t realise before this task how much time filming can consume.  

When we moved on to editing I realised that the filming was not as good as we had originally thought. Firstly when we did some filming in the mirror we had not realised at the time part of the camera was on display as well as other members of the group where in the background and items which were not part of the video. This did not look very professional and did not fit in with the mise-en-scene which means everything in the setting has been placed in the scene for a reason. I think in my own music video I will have to be more thorough when checking that everything in the shot is perfectly in place and necessary to the video.  Another error we noticed when editing was that we could not make out what our artist for the video was singing. This made the lip-sync very difficult and once we had completed the video the lip-sync and song was not in time on some parts. I have learnt from this that I should take lots of shots of the same scene over and over to make sure I have several options to use. I will also have to watch the filming several times before taking it to the editing suite. I will ask the protagonist in my song to make sure that they are very enthusiastic and over-pronounce when they are singing to make it very clear when it comes to editing.

From this task I think I have learnt lots of useful knowledge on planning, editing and filming which can be applied to my own music video when I come to creating it. I think it has given me a good idea of the kind of difficulties and problems I may face when it comes to the editing and made me realise how thorough and specific attention is needed in order to make my video successful. I will also have to have good time management so that I have plenty of time to fix any errors.