Personal Development Summary

At the beginning of fourth year I had only created two videos previously; a title sequence in second year and an experimental video in third year which was the inspiration for this project. It was a risk taking on a video based project for fourth year having very little experience but I knew that video production was what I wanted to do as future career- and still do. The experimental video in third year was the first module out of the three years that I genuinely passionate about and it didn't feel like work, I enjoyed every part of the process, from the concept, pre production, filming and editing. 

Filming and cinematography

When I started fourth year, my videos were below average in regards to understanding how to make an interesting and engaging video. I have experimented and therefore learned about the power in using different camera shot/ angles, camera movement, location, composition, lighting etc. These techniques developed naturally through comparing my videos to videos that I watch and artists work that I was looking into for the literature review. An example of one of my videos that didn’t have enough location, camera angles, movement and well lit is “Dee and Scope- I’m done”. This was through lack of time as the two boys lived in Glasgow and so I only had one day to shoot everything for the video. This put a cap on how much I could capture and if I had more time I would have taken more time to light the green screen better so it would have been easier to edit, I would have shot at least another 2 more locations and used a dolly for camera movement.

Learning how to set up my camera and how to prepare for a shoot has also been important. I have learned to take more time finding the right composition in the shot and not rushing into filming.

Premier Pro and After Effects

When I first started fourth year, I had never even opened Premiere Pro or After Effects.  I feel that my editing skills have been the most significant and greatest learning curve. I used to have to google “how to cut a clip in premiere pro” which was soul destroying and frustrating. But through trial and error and the help of tutorials I have came out the other end with a vast knowledge of both. Through learning the software from scratch I am most importantly efficient with time. I don’t have to spend hours trying to figure how to do something and because of that I can get more done. Understanding and learning the software has improved the quality of my footage and I now understand the techniques that can be applied to raw footage to adjust to make more professional and of a greater quality. As Colour is an important part of my project it was very important to understand how to alter and control colour within my videos.

The Construction of videos

Doing “Visual music” as my project has made me significantly more aware of music and the power it can have.  When exploring the field of visual music, I very quickly became aware that it was not just artists who specified specifically in visual music but that the relationship between music and visuals is everywhere from music videos, tv adverts, installations, title sequences, live performances etc.  Having this in depth knowledge of visuals and music will hopefully improve the way in which I construct visuals in future and I will never throw in a piece of music at the end without putting considerable though as to how the aesthetics of the two work together.

What can I take away  for my project “Visualising Music”?

Not only have I learned a significant amount about the history, current artists and the construction of visuals for visualising music. I have a great knowledge about the relationship that visuals and music have together which I hope will give me a great advantage when going into video production. I have learned so many transferable skills that can be applied to any future jobs.  

Musical and visual characteristics have taught me so many valuable lessons from timing, dynamics, repetition, rhythm, tone etc. All these characteristics can be used in any video and by learning significantly about how to use them and how to reflect on the music I have taken on a whole new outlook on constructing my videos.

One of the best personal outcomes from this project is being able to critically evaluate and analyse my own work through the development of the critical framework which assessed the case studies , practise based research and finally my own work.

What could I learn in the future?

Even though my editing skills have gone from basically nonexistent to being able to edit confidently and efficiently I still have a lot more I can learn to produce higher standard and more professional videos.  In regards to filming and cinematography, camera movement has been my weakest area but that has more to do with the equipment than my ability to do it. I plan on buying a dolly for my tripod which will give me freer and smoother movements.

Finally, I am very proud of what I have learned in the span of 9 months. This project has produced my biggest learning curve in video production to date and with further development, learning and the right guidance I will hopefully achieve in getting a job that I want.