As a group we each choose an area of research, I choose to make a list of the appropriate props needed and how to obtain them. Once I was satisfied what was needed I gathered props such as; the text books and the iconic pink fluffy hair bands worn by Britney Spears. As I was unable to obtain all the props I instructed others of costumes they would have to wear if they were an extra such as; the school uniforms which I looked in detail at by researching images of the costumes and viewing the video.I found that the research and planning was essential when recreating the music video and it also helped us when we were in the filming process. The planning task that I found most useful was the storyboard of every shot in the first 30 seconds which were print screened in order from the official Britney Spears video, Hit me baby one more time. By creating the storyboard it allowed us to assess the shots in greater detail such as; props, the location, how many extras are needed and the camera angles used. When we were in the filming process, the director kept referring to the shots to create the exact or similar shot in the official video and by referring to the storyboard it allowed everyone to know what they were doing such as; Britney (Alex), the extras, director and producer which meant time could be allocated to certain sections of the filming.
We had a week to film and edit the video so time was an issue as we only had 1 hour lessons and one 1 hour 20 lesson. A plan schedule and shooting script was created so that time could be managed, we did not film the shots in the order of the video, instead we filmed it in sections such as; classroom, corridor and lockers which I suppose is less time consumer and we did not have any problems searching for the clips needed in the the editing suite. The only flaw of the storyboard was that non of the shots were timed, this meant the shots were filmed longer than actually needed which is time consuming and caused a problem when dancing as the timing was guessed which was not such a great idea but luckily our dancing sequence is similar to the official video but not exact.
For my A2 coursework I have to produce a music video to a high standard and to achieve this, thorough research and planning will be needed. Many things will have to be thought about in great detail such as; genre, camera angles, movement and the technology used. The recreating of the music video was a fun task but it also has helped me understand the preparation and effort that goes into a music video which has prepared me what to expect when I produce my own music video.
