Evaluation Q2: What have you learnt from participating in each of the prelim tasks 1, 2, 3 and 5?

Task 1: Complete an audition video

Twerking dance in Shake It Off video

From this task, I was able to gain a good understanding of what would be expected of us on the main shoot day in terms of dancing and energy. I  had to watch the Taylor Swift music video repeatedly in order to learn the lyrics and from this, I picked up an idea of the amount energy that is required from the performers. I'm not a very confident performer and felt uncomfortable about this lip sync task but I soon found that it was fun and built up my confidence performing and dancing in front of the camera, which would be needed in the main shoot.

Above is our audition video - Pru, Eleanor and Ella

Editing the video proved to be slightly challenging due to the amount of cuts that there needed to be and different shot angles, in order to make the video look interesting. As a group, we had to spend time cutting different clips and editing them together in a sequence that matched the lip sync perfectly to the actual Taylor Swift track. It gave me insight into how potentially challenging it would be to edit the main shoot in our A2 prelim final edit and taught me how to go about it, eg. editing back and forth between two clips of the same lyrics to create a nice flow.

Task 2: Learn and practice your performance

'Shake It Off' chorus lyrics

The first session taught me just how much effort and energy goes into making a music video as I found the dance moves and whole exercise routine physically exhausting. Despite not being a very good dancer, I enjoyed learning the moves to the last part of the video which is the final chorus to 'Shake It Off'. In Taylor Swift's video, there is a bunch of people free-styling and dancing however they like, yet for our video we have been given a routine as a guideline, which we can add our own moves to if we like. We also had to rehearse our lyrics over and over so that we were confident with signing them on the main shoot day and so that the words could seem articulate which would make it easier when it came to editing the lip sync clips.

Above is our dance coach, Tasha, doing the end dance routine to 'Shake It Off' that we all had to learn. It was difficult at first to get the moves but eventually we all knew the routine perfectly, it was just a matter of providing the right amount of energy. Our performance coach, Jaz, helped us to be energetic and focused by playing games with us that both worked on our liveliness and concentration, such as 'Woohah'.

Task 3: Help to plan and organise your costume

This task involved rummaging around our closets to find clothes that best matches the roles we had to play as well as begging, borrowing and stealing in order to find the perfect costume! It taught me how to analyse a specific role and what items/props are essential in order to bring a character to life. For example, when watching the street/twerking clips in the actual music video, I paid close attention to the heavy gold jewellery that Taylor was wearing and the sassy style of her clothes. These are things that I don't normally pick up on when watching a music video but be responsible for my own outfit meant that I learnt how to focus on small but important details, which will be vital when we come to male our own music videos in year 13.

Holding my street costume which consisted of a leopard print jacket, bralet and socks, along with small denim shorts and gold chain necklaces.

Task 5: Complete the remake edit

The editing of the remake video was quite challenging at times as it involved very frequent cuts between shots, as well as perfection on the lip sync clips. As a group, it taught us how to manage out time efficiently and how to work together as a team to make sure we completed the task as quickly and well as possible. We decided that we wouldn't work on separate bits of the video, but instead edit it in chronological order to allow us to oversee what each person was doing and made sure that we were all pleased with every edit that was made.