(20) Final Practice Project
One-Take Music Video
Before we begin our actual coursework, we were given the opportunity to complete one more practice task. This practice task, however, contains a twist: we were assigned the task of producing a music video filmed in one entirely continuous shot. For this assignment, we formed into groups of three. My group included Noah, Emily and myself.
We were given a list of 6 songs to choose from to create a video for. Our group opted to use 'Galway Girl' by Ed Sheeran. The reason we chose this is that, firstly, we wanted to choose one that wasn't being used by any other groups to ensure originality. Secondly, it was the most fun and appealing out of all the songs left.
There were several rules we had to follow for this video. Obviously, it had to be filmed in one take. However, we also needed to include at least four people in it. Another thing we had to make sure was that it was fun and corresponded with the upbeat song we had chosen. Lastly, it had to be planned and filmed within our two-hour lesson.
One-Take Research
First of all, what is a one-shot? A one-shot is a music video in which the entirety of the video is filmed from the perspective of one camera in one continuous take with no cutting. While the footage is often filmed in one take, in some cases the footage is carefully constructed and edited to create the illusion that there is no cutting involved.
Using long takes is a convention that dates back to early cinema, most notably seen in Hitchcock's 'Rope'. It is often used to simulate 'real time'. The long take technique has since evolved (due to the transfer over to digital in which digital cameras can roll longer than film cameras) into the use of entirely one-take films. Examples of these films include 'Birdman', which adopted the technique of careful editing and production in order to compile the footage to look like it's shot in one take.
The technique is commonly seen in music videos nowadays. This is often because of the impressive style, rather than to convey meaning like in features. Artists famous for using one-take videos include OK Go, who often create fun and unusual videos. Below is an example of one of their one-take videos.
Our Ideas
We decided to create a mindmap to keep track of our ideas:
After brainstorming various ideas we decided to keep our video simple so that it wasn't too difficult and didn't require intense planning. We wanted to involve dancing as, because we didn't have the visual representation of the song through cutting to emphasize the beat, we figured dancing was the best way to compliment the song. However, we still had to stick to the rule of having to include 4 people and we knew that it would be extremely difficult to choreograph 4 people dancing. Instead, we decided to include one dancer and three musicians pretending to play along with the song. We decided to record each musician in their own shot and fluidly move from the dancer to musician and so on everytime the tempo/beat of the music altered. This, along with the dance, would emphasize the beat of the song and therefore compliment it well through movement.
Final Practice Video
Although we had the entire two-hour lesson to plan and film, we were finished relatively quickly as it only took us a couple of minutes to film. It took us about three attempts to master the choreography and camera work (particularly focusing) and in the end we got just under two minutes worth of footage. We decided to film in the drama studio as it offered plenty of room and also provided a beautiful backlight from the large windows to create a nice image. Here is the final video:
Overall, we were relatively happy with the outcome as the happy dancing/instrument playing matched the cute and fun nature of the song. Furthermore, it was extremely fun to do and unlike any of our previous practice tasks. While it was difficult to maintain a shot for so long, it was definitely interesting and insightful.
It has made me consider using this technique in my coursework, however, the ambitious nature of my short film and the fact that it is a short film will make this a hard technique to implement into my work. Furthermore, it's far too risky and will require extensive choreography to pull off well - particularly in scenes involving dialogue.
Before we begin our actual coursework, we were given the opportunity to complete one more practice task. This practice task, however, contains a twist: we were assigned the task of producing a music video filmed in one entirely continuous shot. For this assignment, we formed into groups of three. My group included Noah, Emily and myself.
We were given a list of 6 songs to choose from to create a video for. Our group opted to use 'Galway Girl' by Ed Sheeran. The reason we chose this is that, firstly, we wanted to choose one that wasn't being used by any other groups to ensure originality. Secondly, it was the most fun and appealing out of all the songs left.
There were several rules we had to follow for this video. Obviously, it had to be filmed in one take. However, we also needed to include at least four people in it. Another thing we had to make sure was that it was fun and corresponded with the upbeat song we had chosen. Lastly, it had to be planned and filmed within our two-hour lesson.
One-Take Research
First of all, what is a one-shot? A one-shot is a music video in which the entirety of the video is filmed from the perspective of one camera in one continuous take with no cutting. While the footage is often filmed in one take, in some cases the footage is carefully constructed and edited to create the illusion that there is no cutting involved.
Using long takes is a convention that dates back to early cinema, most notably seen in Hitchcock's 'Rope'. It is often used to simulate 'real time'. The long take technique has since evolved (due to the transfer over to digital in which digital cameras can roll longer than film cameras) into the use of entirely one-take films. Examples of these films include 'Birdman', which adopted the technique of careful editing and production in order to compile the footage to look like it's shot in one take.
The technique is commonly seen in music videos nowadays. This is often because of the impressive style, rather than to convey meaning like in features. Artists famous for using one-take videos include OK Go, who often create fun and unusual videos. Below is an example of one of their one-take videos.
Our Ideas
We decided to create a mindmap to keep track of our ideas:
After brainstorming various ideas we decided to keep our video simple so that it wasn't too difficult and didn't require intense planning. We wanted to involve dancing as, because we didn't have the visual representation of the song through cutting to emphasize the beat, we figured dancing was the best way to compliment the song. However, we still had to stick to the rule of having to include 4 people and we knew that it would be extremely difficult to choreograph 4 people dancing. Instead, we decided to include one dancer and three musicians pretending to play along with the song. We decided to record each musician in their own shot and fluidly move from the dancer to musician and so on everytime the tempo/beat of the music altered. This, along with the dance, would emphasize the beat of the song and therefore compliment it well through movement.
Final Practice Video
Although we had the entire two-hour lesson to plan and film, we were finished relatively quickly as it only took us a couple of minutes to film. It took us about three attempts to master the choreography and camera work (particularly focusing) and in the end we got just under two minutes worth of footage. We decided to film in the drama studio as it offered plenty of room and also provided a beautiful backlight from the large windows to create a nice image. Here is the final video:
Overall, we were relatively happy with the outcome as the happy dancing/instrument playing matched the cute and fun nature of the song. Furthermore, it was extremely fun to do and unlike any of our previous practice tasks. While it was difficult to maintain a shot for so long, it was definitely interesting and insightful.
It has made me consider using this technique in my coursework, however, the ambitious nature of my short film and the fact that it is a short film will make this a hard technique to implement into my work. Furthermore, it's far too risky and will require extensive choreography to pull off well - particularly in scenes involving dialogue.
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