Problems and Risks/ SHOOTING DAY 5

SHOOTING DAY 5: Bar Re-shoot

 

 We  decided to practise this scene prior to shooting and also make sure we know what shots need to be done and also make sure that the same footage is done using different shots as this provides variety, to make sure there is as little as error as possible as we were running out of time to shoot, as this shooting could only take place on the weekend, closing times and we would need to book the same bar again if things went wrong this time, this is why we had already decided that it was best to pre-book the bar and arrange suitable timings. We didnt get all the footage that we required as the cast didnt arrive on time, also we had problems as some footage was ruined due to the camera being jilted, the eyes and lips close ups didnt work either apart from one eye clip that we will be using.

Problems and Risks/ SHOOTING DAY 4

SHOOTING DAY 4: Piano Scene

There were hardly any problems with this as it only took a couple of minutes. We needed to make sure the music room was available to us, as this is where the piano was, and we also needed to search the notes for the music for ‘Foundations’ to be able to play but it was only the first couple of notes. Again as we had decided against the use of bright coloured make-up we used red instead, we have established the red lipstick as part of the image for our artist, hence this would be something the fans would be able to familiarise themselves with. It’s somewhat part of her signature style. It was a bit dark in the music room, the location wise it wasn’t perfect but it turned out fine.

Problems and Risks/ SHOOTING DAY 3

SHOOTING DAY 3: The Narrative


 

It’s safe to say that this day was the epitome of problems for the crew; out of the entire filming process this caused the most difficulty. Locations caused huge problems, ideally they should have been pre-booked but as we had such short notice of our latest cast member and we weren’t expecting this, the new addition to our cast could only make it on certain days and then, also due to our examinations in process it was difficult to arrange. After going to different café’s, KFC is what we had to settle for but fortunately that worked out well rather than looking tacky. Finding someone (decent enough) to match the good performance displayed by Erna was essential, but tough as it wasn’t really in our hands as it depended on whether someone would be willing to do it, but it was important for our narrative. The bedroom scene- initially what was decided on was that Erna would push the male lead off the bed, conversely Erna’s bed was too high as a result there was a risk of injury consequently for safety reasons it was decided against doing this, especially considering how difficult it was to find someone suitable for the role in the first place. The crew decided to experiment with a moving aerial shot which turned out pretty well and added variety to the shot types we used. As we were advised that during indoor filming, good lighting would be vital, lights were set up for the filming in spite of this some of the shots displayed a hint of artificial lighting effects which didn’t look at all right and in some of the shots the lighting shone too bright in Erna’s face, again which didn’t look appealing. Luckily these shots could be taken out of the video without causing much problem, therefore these weren’t used. We all like the little cheeky touch when Erna pops her number into the pocket of Luke’s friend and kisses him on the cheek, this helps put across the light hearted nature of the song and also displays her image as an artist as being fun, and cheeky. The bar scene was a big problem, none of the shots worked out, the lighting focus on Erna was terrible although the crew wasn’t aware of this at the time as on camera it looked perfectly fine. We also decided later that as the bar scene would be the main part of the beginning of the music video we need a way to really establish a narrative, which also represents Luke as the one who is wrong in the relationship and show him as not a very good boyfriend. Also this is important as not much was going on during this scene initially. Another spontaneous decision was to film an argument scene which could be used in between, this was shot in the car (kindly lent to us by Zainab who later on played the role of the ‘other girl’) and on the street. That was useful as helped establish the on-going arguments mentioned in the song and also show the progression of the relationship over time. Locations wise as we weren’t permitted to film in the gym we felt there was not entirely a need to shoot in a gym, and the bus stop was as convenient to get the friends involved, in the storyline.

Problems and Risks/ SHOOTIING DAY 2

SHOOTING DAY 2: Performance Parts
 

Risks? Not any, as no previous bookings were required nor any other cast member being relied on. This shooting was pretty much spontaneous, not pre- planned as such but we couldn’t sort out the narrative parts due to not being able to find a suitable male lead cast member, hence decided extra footage for performance would be useful, as it was! Especially if some shots don’t work as well, also it adds variety and thus makes it more interesting to watch so will cause visual pleasure for our audience. First off the common room shooting didn’t work well at all, it didn’t fit in and would have seemed random (not in a good way though) and there wasn’t enough intimacy or focus on Erna. Even though we had an umbrella the camera didn’t respond very well to the rain so we finished off quick, walking down the street performance was too difficult to film, there were lighting changes between shots, some shots displayed too much wind, with Erna’s hair going everywhere so some shots couldn’t be used but the zebra crossing one we all love! Also not forgetting the best shot we all felt was the one with brick wall background which had beautiful lighting (literally shimmering against Erna’s skin), you can’t always make it look like a great summer in the middle of winter with a plain camera. The outfits worked well and were very eye catching, and established the kind of focus (eye catching type) on Erna. Even though we initially planned maybe to do more costume changes it wasn’t convenient in the time we had available on the day. We didn’t want to risk the change in lighting doing parts of the shooting on different days.  By this scene we had established that we will no longer be using bright and colourful make-up and instead opting for something more stylish but still eye- catching, the signature red coloured lips and it also works with her red hair.

Problems and Risks/ SHOOTING DAY 1

SHOOOTING DAY 1: Green Screen

First of all practise shoot needed to be done so that we knew whether the green screen would work or not. Need to check availability of the drama studio, (where we are shooting) which we found to only be available for our use on Wednesday in second period. Also we had some problem accessing it so we ensured to specifically book it out to make sure no further delay is caused in filming. Had a few technical light issues, most of the time but managed to overcome them during editing. However due to the limitation of the software there are minor glitches in quality. The bird’s eye view shot for green screen as practised didn’t look as good hence we decided to use the other shots and positions mainly focusing on close ups but might be adding variety if it works well. The studio lights didn’t work, well most anyway/ focusing them in the right direction was a problem as they didn’t turn.

Shooting Schedule

The shooting schedule, we wanted to figure out what we would need and what we will be using- including locations, props, technical equipment and outfits so that we had a good idea what needs doing and didn’t forget anything.  As we went along we added to the shooting schedule (like the bar scene re-shoot which we didn’t know previously that we would need to do that) I have attached the completed version of the shooting schedule. We decided to do this after discussing exactly what was going to happen at each part of the video so that we had clear idea when and what needs doing.

Current stages of editing and filming

With our editing we currently have most of our footage uploaded and edited into the sequence, however we need to re shoot some scenes due to the lighting on the clips not being light enough to see the star’s face , this has been arranged so will not take long to shoot and upload . We also need to shoot some more clips for the green screen as we need more variation of the camera shots . when we asked for feedback from students and teachers they pointed out we need more jump cuts and close up shots to show off our main star , so when we re film our narrative clips we will also shoot some close up shots to make the music video flow more and expose our star.

Shooting Day 4

Today we shot most of the narrative sequences. We traveled to different locations, changed outfits, and used varied media equipment such as lighting.etc. Shooting required a timed schedule, that we managed to stick  to. We had to shoot some shots several times, so that we could achieve good quality footage. Sometimes we found that the shots that were achieved unexpectedly were our favourite shots. For example the birds-eye view shot of the bedroom.

Luke after a hard day of shooting!

Casting Discussions 2

We had another discussion about the male lead, as the person that we had originally cast, had prior commitments. We decided to cast Luke Stokes. He has the desired, indie styled look and he is extremely confident in front the camera. He was willing to commit to the shooting days and we were glad he decided to do it.

LiveType and Editing our Greenscreen

While editing our greenscreen , we needed to import a background that was animated and would stand out from the artist . We researched different backgrounds over YouTube , Google etc however we then came across LiveType whiched offered us many variations of animated backgrounds. We looked through the different backgrounds and selected a few , then we saved them as clips and imported them into final cut , from there we placed them over our selected clips to create the backgrounds. We had some difficulties with placing some of the clips overs the shot as the greenscreen had too many shadows which changed the background , unfortunately there was nothing we could do except re film them on a seperate day.

Shooting Day 1

Our costume for this performance scene; we wanted to have a bright outfit that would stand out from our location. We chose this outfit because it complimented our artist and made them look both glamorous but casual. This is what we aim to achieve throughout the music video as we want a relatable artist and star image.

Hair and Makeup- Shooting Day 1

Today we filmed one of the performance scenes. Here you can see Sophie in charge of hair and makeup for the performance. We wanted to have a dramatic and bright costume and makeup. This included false lashes and red lipstick as well as bright leggings. Our iconic image throughout the music video is the use of the bright red lipstick. We wish to maintain this throughout the music video as it will remain a vital part of our star's image.

Green Screen Test Shooting

We began a test shooting for our green screen to make sure we would be able to film this without any problems and to make sure this would work well. Testing our green screen we came across some difficulties , for example we noticed the lights made shadows which later on would make it difficult to edit successfully . We also noticed it was hard to keep the camera still because of our birds eye view shot and we thought this would make it look unprofessional .

Starting filming

We have currently started shooting for our music video , we have focused on shooting individual shots of our main actress 'Erna'. When doing this we have came across a few problems but have been able to overcome this , for example , when shooting a tracking shot down the street and changing the camera shots the mise en scene changes as different people walk in the shot each time , to overcome this we made sure we had no people walking through the shots as well as shooting the scenes at once. Another problem has been the weather but obviously this is something we cant change , yet when the weather changes dramatically e.g snow , we use our time for shooting inside shots and work on our blogs and artist portfolios.

Planning Meeting 3

Today we started planning our storyboards. We already had an idea of our shots we just had to organise the order and annotate the storyboard. We had already thought about our shots and written it in relation to the lyrics. Therefore this stage was relatively easy as we just had to draw our images to visualise our ideas. We drew out all of our shots and worked out which shots needed to be filmed together. We also annotated the shot types but werent sure of the timings yet.

Email To Production Company

We emailed the production company- Fiction Records, the company that is responsible for producing the song Foundations by Kate Nash in regard to using the record for educational purposes. Above is copy of the email sent.

Animatic

Here is an animatic showing the timings of our storyboard in relation to this song. This helps us to visualise how our music video will work with the timings of the song. Although this is a very simple visualisation, it helps us when editing to place each scene at the correct timing.

Green Screen Test

Today we practiced with the green screen so that when we come to film our final music video we know how to successfully use it and edit it. We came across a few problems while doing this practice. Our first problem was lighting, we struggled with creating the right lighting to eliminate shadows. This made it harder to saturate the background when adding the animation. We also found it difficult to find the right animation to use as a background. A problem we only discovered when we came to edit was the camera movement. We need to use a tripod when filming the final to make it steady. We overcame all of these difficulties and managed to create the look we wanted. We will remember this when filming our final music video.

Costume planning

In today's meeting we put together our ideas for the costumes with items of clothes we had and decided what should be worn when- so that there is a variety of clothes in the scenes.

Practice Flashback Attempt

Today we did a practice to make sure we could do the effects to make the flashback look successful , we used a camera and zoomed into the eye of our star . By doing this we realised this wouldnt be as effective because for a music video the narrative does not have to bee 100% in order and instead decided to do a montage of the past events rather than doing a flash back . But also the flash back was not needed and tok up frames that could be used for other footage of the music video.