10 vital steps for making a good video!

1. Planning - Planning is a very important step because not only does it help everyone understand what's happening, but it make the whole process easier to get through. If the planning is done well then everyone will know what's happening when, who should be there and where they should be.
2. Group - When in a group, what should you find out about potential members? and What shoud you do to help co-ordinate?
   
   The most important quality needed in a group member is the ability to work as a team. To find everyone's strengths and work on them. If there is just one person that wants to do everything then it will cause many problems, not only resentment within the group but an unnescassary about of preasure on this one person to get everything done. Each member of the group needs to be as determined as the others for the dynamic to work and everyone needs to get on and agree to disagree in certain instances. We also need ways of contacting the other members of the group, so that if theres a time someone can't come or on the flip side we arrange an impromptu gathering, everyone can get hold of one another through Facebook, Twitter, email or a simple phone call.
3. Songs - What to do and what not to do, why and what genre is best:The worst thing you can do when choosing a song is to choose one which is well known itself and even worse, has a well known video. If we chose a song/video that is well known then viewers will just compare it to the original, which of course would be a disadvantage to us because we don't have the ability to make anything slightly comparable with an official music video. It would also make it difficult for us to come up with a new idea for the video, we would end up just trying to recreate the original. The genre that would be most advisable is 'Pop' because it's fast paced so it would be easiest to make the video interesting to the viewer with all the different shots and cuttings with varying locations, mise-en-scene and situations.
4. Pitch - The pitch is a selection of 3 ideas we come up with, from within the group. Discussing the plot, location, costumes, mise-en-scene etc and then we decide which is the best idea, which would get us the best mark and most importantly, which one is the most possible for us to do. We also get a little oppertunity to work with the other group members for a short while as a sort of trial period - in this time we will find out who slots into which role and discover everyone's strengths.
5. Viewing - We looked at some videos done previously by A level media student. This showed us so much, we learnt what looks good and what doesn't work too well. We also saw that things done by amatures like us don't look the same as when they are done by proffessionals, even the most simple of things. They gave us a good idea as to what locations are good to shoot in, for example - if there is a video shot at college/sixth form, then it looks as though it was done at the last minute and not very much effort was put into it, so this isn't somewhere that we were advised to use. There are many aspects we saw that are nothing to do with location, costumes etc and more about the people involved. Depending on your choice of song, you need to have someone that is fitting for the video - for example, you can't have someone like, Amy Winehouse involved in a musical such as The Sound of Music - they don't fit together. Here is one of the best videos I looked at on the internet after this exercise. It is another music video by an A Level Media student;
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6knJHF0YI.
   We also need to make sure the star of the video doesn't overact and make the performance too dramatic for the song, is confident enough to be beleivable but not over confident - again making it unbeleivable.
6. Planning & Shooting - If you plan the whole process of the video making well, then you are much more likely to succeed and get close to the effect you're after. Also if it is all well planned and organised then everyone knows what's happening and when it's happening. Plus, if there's any need for a last minute sooting - there will be more time and more oportunity to fit it in at the end. We also would have more time to get blogging in at the same time as filming and the more involved, active parts of the process.
7. Storyboard - The story boards acts as a sort of checklist. Included in the story board is the estimated time stretch of each individual shot, the mise-en-scene and then theres the sound, lighting, camera work and most importantly a breif sketch of what should be included in the frame. Not only will this help us to include all of our ideas and not miss anything out. It also makes it easier to get enough footage to fit the length of the song.
8. Checklist - The cheklist is really important, we need to make sure we all have everything because we don't want to get out on location then realise we are missing something. Also it makes it more helpful in knowing what peice of equipment is with who. When we're shooting we need to make sure we have:
   - A fully charged battery for the camera and possibly a spare.
   - A tri-pod so that the footage is steady and better quality.
   - The storyboard.
   - The camera
   The chacklist would also come in handy when we are leaving the location because that way nothing will get left behind
9. Effects and Cuttaways - It's important to have different effects and transitions in the video because it makes it interesting for the viewer. Not only with the variation of different shots but also the different transitions between the shots.
10. Editing - The editing stage of the whole process is vital. This is where the whole video comes together. The audio from the shootings we have done is deleted and we put the track down onto the timeline. following this we put all of the visuals down too, syncing them with audio. Which creates th video. In this section, we also get to see what has worked and what hasn't and what we may need to re-shoot or replace.