An analysis of our first one minute extract, A Million Way by OK Go.

1. One Minute Extract Analysis.

2. Cinematography.
Original long shot. Our long shot.
Our minute extract of A Million Ways did not include much
camerawork. As the band did, we used one continual long shot which
was wide enough to include all four of us, plus some scenery of the
garden to show location. Our long shot was successful because it
achieved the same as the original video had.

3. Mise-en-scene.
The only elements of mise-en-scene we had to consider were
costume, setting and actors. We tried to get our costumes the same
as theirs, but obviously we could not get the exact clothes. Our
locations were also similar. We couldn’t find four guys that would do
it for us, so me, Hannah and Livvy had to do it instead.

4. Sound.
The only sound we had to worry about was the music
over the dancing. When editing, all we had to do to our
video sound-wise was mute the clip and put the track
over the top.
This was surprisingly quite hard, because we had to put
the track on the exact right moment with the dance, or
it would have been out of time.
However, I think that we got it right, because the
dancing fits in time and doesn’t look wrong.

5. Editing.
When we were learning the dance for this piece, we found it a lot easier to mirror
what the band were doing, and then flip it when editing it in Final Cut Pro.
This is what our shot looked This is what our shot As you can see, it is
like when we filmed it. It’s the looked like after we had now the same as the
wrong way round because we flipped it. original video.
just mirrored the video we
were watching.
Editing was important to us, because it meant we could just mirror the band in their
video and then flip the video. Our use of editing made the video the right way
round, so I think it was quite successful;

6. Lighting.
Our lighting was natural, as we Their lighting was also natural;
filmed in the daytime. however, they filmed theirs on a
slightly darker day.
I feel that our lighting was quite successful because it was quite
simple. Their lighting was natural, so it was very easy to re-create.

7. Direction.
This is how it was meant to look. This is how it came out.
Our direction was hard. We got a lot of it right, but the part shown in
the pictures was a part we just couldn’t get right. Our direction was
probably the weakest area, because there were parts we got wrong.

8. Organisation of location.
This is Hannah’s garden, the location This is the location used in the original
we chose for filming. We chose video. In the original, they are standing
Hannah’s garden because I do not on concrete; however, none of us had a
have a garden, and neither of the concrete garden we could use, and the
other two had gardens big enough. line of concrete in Hannah’s garden was
too narrow.
Overall, I think that our location was quite similar to OK Go’s and so
was quite a successful choice.

9. Organisation of cast.
Our organisation was initially very good. We planned out dates for
filming and re-filming if we needed to. However, I had to be sent to
hospital the night before filming, so we didn’t get to film that
day, plus I was still ill the next few days so we couldn’t film then
either.
However, we got it sorted and arranged other dates, so we got the
filming done with enough time to edit.

10. Organisation of cast.
Our (slightly female) cast. OK Go’s (all male) cast.
We have terrible friends who were unwilling to help up film this, so
instead of having an all male cast, like the original, we had to use three
females instead.

11. What I found easy.
Based on our work from AS, I found framing the
piece very easy.
The framing of the piece was very easy, because it
was just one, continuous long shot.
We also found organising everybody to get together
easy, because we were used to having to change
dates etc. when filming our film opening for AS.

12. What needs improving on.
Our direction needs working on, because some of
it did not go right.
We also need to work harder to find the right cast.
This will be especially important in our music
video, because if we cast a wrong person, it will
look wrong.

13. Elements I’d consider using.
We could use the element of dancing in our
performance element for our music video.
This would make it interesting and, if we went for a
comedy video, it could be quite funny.

14. Elements I’d not consider using.
We probably wouldn’t consider using the dancing as
extensively as OK Go did.
We’d also want to add in a narrative, rather than
make it purely performance based. This is so that it
would be interesting and have depth to it, rather
than just me and Hannah jumping around.
We also wouldn’t want to do one continuous
shot, because that would make it harder to infer a
meaning, because we wouldn’t be able to do a lot
with just one shot as a narrative.

15. Overall conclusion.
• Overall, I think our first minute extract was quite
successful; however, there were things we missed
that we didn’t even realise until we started this
analysis.
• For example, our cast was mostly the wrong
gender, something we didn’t realise would be
wrong until we started to analyse.
• However, I do feel that we got the
cinematography, location, mise en scene and
most of the direction right.

16. Five things gained.
• Pure performance only works in a music video
when it is entertaining and different.
• If we use a dance routine in our video, it is
going to be hard to co-ordinate/organise.
• Simple things can be just as effective as
complex things.
• How to use the self-timer on the camera.
• The importance of location.