Jake Wynn

 We was very fortunate to be visited by Jake Wynn, a music video director and editor. He kindly shared his experiences of the media industry. Here are some of the notes i took.

He went to university in Staffordshire and studied TV, Radio and film Studies.

When he left uni he went to begin his career and started as a runner for rushes Post Production Company however edited music videos on the side as that is what he enjoyed doing.

He went on to be a music video editor and edited the Spice girls - Wannabe

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Jake was awarded a Brit award for the work of this video.

After this achievement he formed a production company with one of his close friends called Jim and named the company, 'Jake & Jim'.

Commissioning Music Videos

Jake took us through the process of commissioning music videos.

1. Video Commissioner ; Get directors by commission.

    Send track out to prospective directors with a brief.

2. Director ; Breaks tracks into elements and considers the dynamics of each track.

    They also take words from the lyrics but does not stick to them.

    A treatment is then written in order to "sell" the concept to the label.

3. The label decides usually in conjunction with the band.

4. Crew ; Camera/DoP

                1st Assistant Director

                Producer

                Editor

                Director

                Art Department including stylist.

5. Locations, cast, shot list.

    No need to storyboard ; just shoot in full takes.

6. Filming (per performance) ; Must have playback

    Always shoot; Lead singer

                            A wide

                            Whole Takes

                            Each band member

7. Filming (narrative) ; Shoot as a short film

    Consider detail

8. Editing ; Start with the performance because you get the best bits of the band.

    Weak spots can be cut away to narrative. These are the performance takes which forms the                      

    performance parts of the video.

    Edit narrative separately as one complete story.

9. Final edit ; With detail

10. Online edit ; Special effects etc

He also advised us when making a shot list, make sure you put the most important shots first and the less priority shot after.

As Jake was a music video director and editor we planned to create our own version of a music video he has previously made, which was Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You.

The whole class was involved and going to take part in every role, for example i would take a turn being in front of the camera, behind the camera and directing. The class got dressed and made up as wild rockers to fit the theme of the film. Everyone looked amazing and so in character. We used the school's hall as it was big with a stage and looked like a real performance venue. As i am quite a shy person i didn't really want to be in the performance however my career aspiration is to be a camera operator so it still worked out because i had the chance to be in control of each of the cameras. So i was on the main camera doing the wide shot, the little hand held cameras that capture particular areas of the stage and band members and the dolly shot which obviously we had to improvise and use a wheelchair. It worked very well as a dolly though so i was pleased with the footage i took.

I definitely learn't tips and general information to do with filming and what to look at when creating and producing a film whether it be a music video or feature film.