"Pre-Production" Process -
Building a Team
The very first thing I did for this project was present it to the two entertainment classes in the eComm program in order to build a team of people who would be helping me with this project. Surprisingly 34 different students were interested from the start which was amazing to see. A power point was presented to them showing Olathe Northwest's first Lip-Dub from 2011, as well as our latest video made in 2015 centered around High School Musical's "We're all in this Together". I had talked to the classes about how I would like this year's video to be the traditional "Lip-Dub" style because it allowed everyone to participate and show off their love for what they spent high school involved in. After getting a team together, our production crew was asked what positions they would like to be apart of (Director of Photography, Editor, Art Director, Location Managers, and Music Supervisor) and filled out small applications allowing Mrs. Smith and I to pick who was right for each part. Our next step from there was to present the idea to administration and get everything approved before we could plan.Administration Pitch
After scheduling a meeting with the administrative staff, I presented to them the same power point I originally presented to my production team. We sat in a room and talked through all the possibilities and different ideas we would like to have in the video. They asked questions about how we planned to execute this video and how they could help. They agreed with the reasoning behind why the video should be made and they felt that this was something the school really needed due to the changes made. By the end of the meeting, we got the approval for the video and we were able to start planning.Production Team Planning
About every week we would meet one morning at 7 am and would have breakfast and talks about the different things we would like to have in the video. One of our biggest things was the song as that is the most important part of the video. We worked to create a path to maximize the number of students we would put throughout the school as well as where each group should be based on how many participated and how much they wanted to do in the video. A drone was incorporated to show the entire outside of our school and then we focused on showing off the students, what Olathe Northwest was really about. One thing we wanted to make sure we HAD in the video was a big ending scene with everyone coming together because that showed off what the "Raven Nation" really was. In the time of planning, posters and t-shirts were made for the entire production team. The administration was given shirts as a gift for all their help, as well as additional staff t-shirts for all the eComm teachers and a few additional who were part of the planning and execution of the video.Prep-Night
As the student director, this was the most fun I had aside from the actual lip-dub. Prep-Night was November 8th, the day before the lip-dub. My production team helped hang up posters, blow up 600+ balloons, do walkthroughs, go over job assignments/final procedures for the next morning. Different rooms in the school were arranged different ways, we figured out where rugs needed to be placed for camera movement to be clean, as well as where poles needed to be moved from what doors. Our final touches resulted in taping sports on the floor where our RFC members (Raven Flight Core) would start their lip-sync section. A small group of us stayed the entire night and by the time we left it was 10:20 pm and the next morning we were back at 6:30 am ready to go again.Production
November 9th, 2017 was the day my production team and I had been prepping for since the second week in August and the day production took place everyone was very excited but on edge, because we all wanted this to be amazing so it quickly was a reality check that the video was happening. Fox 4 was there getting behind the scene footage of the filming of the Lip-Dub as well as additional people from the district in order to see the process. There were some complications during filming that day. We originally planned for the lip-dub to be shot two times through completely that way we had options, but we ended up having to do four complete walkthroughs because we were running too fast through the path.Take One/Take Two
Our first two recordings of the lip-dub, you were not able to tell what each group was because we were running instead of just walking. We had an incident at the end of the second run through where the music had stopped right before entering the gym so our last couple people lip-syncing made up what they were doing and people around them had just continued cheering and keeping the spirit going.Take Three
On our third take it the music had stopped halfway through which resulted in a total reset right after making it past Golf into the commons. At this point, we switched out speakers in order to make the music louder as well as make sure it would work all the way through the school.Take Four
The fourth time we were able to make it all the way through with the music as well as slow down our speed so everyone was noticeable. By the fourth take, the timing was practically perfect, there were only a few things noticeable about the first three takes to the final take and that was the spirit in some parts of the hallway. It was hard for everyone to maintain the hype by the end of the fourth run through due to all the time it was taking.Gym Scene
The gym scene was by far the most successful part of this video in my opinion. The entire school came together and we did our "Oh When Northwest" chant and at the very end the student body rushed the floor and balloons were pulled and thrown into the crowned. This really showed the unity and pride our school needed coming together for the shot."Post-Production" Process -
As soon as we finished filming in the school, we immediately headed upstairs and the editing team got to work. We started to pick our what shots we wanted to use for the gym, as well as which take we wanted to use versus ones we could not use. The editing team worked Friday, then the following Monday-Wednesday on getting color corrections, nat noise, music integration, clip alignment, as well as transition shots were done. Thursday, November 16th was the day of our premiere to the school and all of us were extremely pleased with the outcome even though there are things we know we can change.Final Thoughts/Conclusion -
The entire experience behind the lip-dub was extremely fulfilling for me. While there was a lot of stress, I was very happy with everything in the end.Changes -
There are a few things I think would be beneficial for next year if we choose to do this again.1. Communication between location directors - During our run-throughs, we had art directors calling and yelling what we were passing so the other side of the school knew what was going on and it made things hard on both ends. The other side of the school didn't know, the calls would drop, different things like that.
2. Louder speaker(s) positioned throughout the school - Everyone needs to know where we are and there were points where I feel like students were a little blindsided by the fact that the camera was right in from of them cause it would be a really quick turn of a corner and it instantly was there turn to get hyped up.
3. Press - I think this would have been beneficial if we were to bring more publicity to what we were doing. Posters being made sooner and hung up for the rest of the students to see and be made aware of. Mrs. Smith made a good point that we could have easily drawn more outside attention from this that would show off our school in a positive manner so that was something to keep in mind for next year.
Those were the three biggest points I thought would have made the video smoother but I know there are others. The week following the lip-dub we got feedback from both entertainment classes where a lot of good points were brought up that I also think will help change how next years video is produced.
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