Planning and research

For the first task that Leah and I had to complete, the lip syncing task to 'total eclipse of the heart' we simply watch the Bonnie Tyler video and got a feel for the style of video and song. It was a powerful song so when practising for the song we used big, melodramatic arm movements and facial expressions to connote humour. We also practised different silly dance moves to go into the video.

For the second 'What I go to school for' video, I was the director. This meant that I had to take control over the planning and research for the task. It also meant that I had to organize the class and instruct them on various issues such as casting them to different roles in the video. I planned the video by firstly creating a story board, then a schedule for the week's lessons so that we would finish in time. I also made lists of props and extra's we may need for each shot.

Firstly, I cast the class into different roles. I did this by watching the video and then trying to match the different characters to people in the class. I also asked the class who would prefer to have a main part so that it was fair. I then created a list of all the props and costume (school uniform) they would need by going through the video and noting down any props we would need, for example, three electric guitars. I then printed this off and handed one to everyone in the class so that they knew exactly what they could bring in etc. On the days of filming, I also brought in spare school shirts in case anyone had forgotten them or in case we needed extras.

The storyboard was made by watching the original Busted video and grabbing screen shots and pasting them into an organised table. The table showed the shot, the timing of the shot and the different props etc we may need for it.

After this, I decided I needed to organize the class so that they knew what we were going to be doing every lesson in the week. I looked at all the video and because many of the shots were repeated (for example, close up of Miss Mckenizie's face) I decided we could do all the similar shots in one day. I created a 'shot list' which was a schedule of the week and allowed the class to know what they had to bring in on what day. I decided to do the easier shots at the start of the week (the close up of characters faces) and the harder shots for the end of the week when we had got more accustomed to filming (the outside dancing shots)

On days of filming I would use the shot lists which would help organize my time and the filming. It allowed us to get through filming really quickly because everyone was organized and knew what they had to do.