Today we filmed American Boy. we used an empty classroom as our location as it gave us more privacy and room to manouvre. We learnt a few things from the experience:

1. That lip syncing is a difficult job!
2. Timing is key for a successful video
3. Editing takes lots of time and effort
4. Locations are key in creating a beleiveable story
5. Clear direction is needed in order to not cause confusion
6. The song choice is very important

I feel like doing this activity, as well as the digital driving test and phonecall vdeos, has really improved my planning, filming and editing skills., I now feel that I am ready to start planning my own video and feel much more confident in doing so. I will make sure that the lip syncing is perfect, use good locations, choose a sensible but dynamic song, and make sure I spend lots of time editing.

Today me, sophie and claire planned for the practice music video. We decided to use "American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye West. First of all we talked about using "Mr Brightside" by The Killers or "2 become 1" by The Spice Girls. We decided against spice girls because its more of a girl band, and against the Killers because its more of a boy band. We hope that the activity will help us learn planning and lip syncing skills for my final piece.

Today me, claire and sophie finished editing "The Phonecall" a practice task to help us get more confident using scripts and using different camera angles. For editing we had to search through the clips to find ones which we were able to use, another issue was sound, we had to make certain parts louder as the dialogue was not clear. After that we had to use transitions in order for the clips to flow and create a smooth a beleivable sequuence of clips.

The task really showed how much planning you have to do, and how hard the editing process is, how fiddly it is and how long it takes to create such a short movie.

Today we did a digital driving test, I learnt how to set up a tripod for the first time, how to make it taller and pan smoothly. Me, sophie, jack and dan went out and took various shots of the school in order to get used to using the cameras and the equipment. I now feel much more confident using the various tools now, and cant wait to start planning my own video!