Our Final Video!!!

Here's our final video production:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3UTaFbdEek

Filming - Final Chorus Lead Performance - Thursday 7th February

• This was our last day of filming where we returned to the rooftop of the car park in Tunbridge Wells to film the lead's performance shots and then later in the day we filmed the drummer (see other post.)
• Due to the fact that we had re-storyboarded the last minute of our music video, when we went to the rooftop a lot of the shots were improvised, experimenting with camera angles, positions and movement to create fast paced cuts in the final chorus.
• The only two shots we had planned were; the shot for the opening of the mid-8 and the final shot of the whole video, which were therefore the first two shots we filmed.
• For the other shots we then filmed me lip-syncing the whole of the final chorus so that we could chose anywhere to put a certain camera angle. Before going to location, we had had thoughts about what sort of camera angles we wanted to include and we were also aware that we needed quite a few close ups to reinforce the star image and act as the 'meat' of the video.
• One of the best experimental shots to come out of this session was the camera panning around the lead in a circle with him singing to camera.

Filming: Love Interest Scenes - 2nd February

• We had planned exactly what we wanted to film on this day, so were more than prepared when we arrived at each of our three locations: Bradbourne Lake, Hannah's street and Ed's house.
• We were lucky that the weather was (despite being freezing) good so the shots looked bright and everything in the mise-en-scene could be clearly seen.
• We filmed at Bradbourne Lake first because these were the most important shots for us to get and we wanted to film while the weather was acceptable.
• We filmed everything that we had storyboarded at least four times because from our editing the week before we had learnt that it really is useful to have a few different shots of the same thing so we have choice about which one we use. For each shot we filmed at different angles too and tried adding zooms or pans to create movements in the shots. Actually, when it came to editing we normally preferred the shots with movement in them, even though we had not originally planned it.
• A lot of what we filmed on this day didn't require lip syncing, but for those few shots that did we had some iPod speakers so I could get the timing just right.
• The second location we went to was Hannah's road, where we simply set the camera up in one position and filmed Hannah walking down the street and back up again. This was so that we could create jump cuts of her either walking towards or away the camera. (In the end we chose to have her walking away as it reinforced the narrative of her not being interested.)
• Our final location was Ed's house, where we quickly shot a scene of Hannah walking past the lead and then a close up of the lead singing the line so we could cut to this, which obviously acts as the 'meat' of the video and reinforces the star image.
• Our most important piece of filming at Ed's house though was the shooting of the montage to be used for the second bridge, where the lead is seen offering the love interest three different gifts at her front door. We had to be very careful that the camera stayed in the same position so that the cuts looked good and so the mise-en-scene did not move position on screen.

Drummer Performance Shots

These shots turned out to be the last footage we filmed considering we did the shooting in the school's music rooms, which made it hard for us to just turn up when we wanted. It would have been unnecessarily difficult to find another location which we could use as a background for the drummer's shots, and we didn't really intend on dragging the drum around town, so shooting in the music rooms with a drummer was ideal.
Beforehand, our drummer did not actually know what he needed to do, yet after he listened to the song a few times, he picked up exactly what he needed to do to fit in with the video, in a very professional manner, and he made it particularly easy for us.
The actual shooting was reasonably successful. We got the main shots that we needed done including the panning up shots and the close ups, and the last shot we got was a high angle shot in which I stood on a chair, and held the camera up just for better effect.
However, not all our shots could be completed as we were pressed for time, and the recording studio next to us was continuously telling us to stop playing every five minutes so that they could record. Although, we feel we have enough footage to use and fill in the blanks now, making the filming successful nevertheless.
The costume for the drummer didn't cause any problems either. Though he was wearing his school uniform, he wore a t-shirt underneath which he was able to present on film, and wore a jumper over it.

Filming: Matt's Bedroom - Sunday 20th January

• When we were planning when to do filming, we decided to film the bedroom scenes at the first weekend possible due to the fact that the location was simple to get to and was not weather dependent, meaning that if needed, we could easily re-shoot any of the shots once put on the timeline.
• The camera set up was simple for this location, so it gave us a good opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the equipment, giving us a better understanding of how the camera works and how we needed to use it to get the results required.
• We stuck to the storyboard religiously while filming because we had many shots to do with varying camera angles and we wanted to film everything at least twice (if not three times) so that we had a choice about which shot to use.
• We mainly used the tripod to set up the shots, but we did an experimental shot where I held the camera at arms length as I laid down on my bed. Whilst we had originally planned this shot, we were not sure if it would look good or whether it would look too shaky due to me holding the camera myself.
• All the shots turned out really well and there should not be any need for reshooting anything, but now we are in the stages of editing, we may need to film some addition shots to fill any gaps on the timeline.

Lead Singer Performance Shots - 18th Jan.

We had planned that we would film the lead singer performance shots on the same day as the guitarist shots because the two locations were near to each other and therefore it would be logical to visit both plavce while we have the equipment. In addition to this, these shots would be potentially very tricky and we thought that filming them first would give us more chance to return to the location to re-shoot them.

The filming went very well and we managed to film the performance shots for the first two choruses, however, due to time constraints we were unable to film the shots for the final chorus after the mid-8. However, because we filmed some experimental shots that we had not storyboarded, we have a few extra shots that we can use for parts of the final chorus. An example of this was a simple close up shot of the lead singer doing some 'passionate singing.'

Therefore, we have learnt from this filming session that it is benifical to experiment with shots and try to film everything at least twice, so in future, we will try to give ourselves more time. We will also continue to experiment with unplanned and extra shots. We used different camera angles such as high angles, low angles, and close ups as well as zooms and panning shots so we have a variety of interesting shots to choose from. Considering there was a strong wind, we were unable to film any handicam shots, which didn't affect us much considering we hadn't planned to use any.

Guitarist Performance Filming - 18th Jan.

We decided that our first shooting session would be the performance shots of our guitarist. We chose to do these shots first because they will only make up a small percentage of the final video, so this meant that we could experiment with these shots a lot with loads of different camera angles. Also, if our filming did not turn out the way that we planned due to our inexperience, these would be the easiest set of shots to re-shoot.

We were worried that the weather, which was particularly poor, would hinder our shots, but it ended up enhancing the background so that it sort of contrasted with the music being played in the track, and fitted in nicely. Also, we will be able to turn the contrast up on the shots to make the them brighter.

Using our storyboard that we took on location, we had a solid idea of what shots we needed to do, and using a small grassland area discovered during our reccie-hunting, which would provide a good, and authentic background for the guitarist.

The shots went as we had planned, and we were able to experiment with our different shots such as zooms and pans. We filmed the shots we had intended to do, and then went back and experimented with new shots. One shot in particular which we didn't originally intend on having was a simple shot of the guitarist playing, and we rotated the camera so that it was at a diagonal angle. We kept this in when we captured our footage, and noticed that it worked particularly well.

The last shot we did was when the guitarist stood across the road from us whilst we filmed the cars passing, keeping the camera in exactly the same position. the guitarist was not allowed to move. When editing, we will speed this scene up so it only lasts for as long as the electronic jingle. This will give our video a unique, interesting look.

Our guitarist wore a black shirt to make him look smart and like a rock star, with a red top underneath to connotate the love narrative.

Storyboard Animatic

This is our finished storyboard animatic, which is now on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIoVw22AeeM

Filming

Exciting news!!! We will begin filming on Friday of this week. (18/01/08)

On the Friday we will be filming on two exterior locations; firstly, we will be filming our guitarist scenes on a greenery by the A26 in Tunbridge Wells. Secondly, we will be filming all our lead singer shots on top of the Tunbridge Wells multi-story car park by the Assembly Halls.

We will then keep the cameras over the weekend so that on Sunday we will be able to film on an interior location; Matt's bedroom, which will be used for the first verse.

Creating Animatic

• In order to create our storyboard animatic, we had to film every shot that we had drawn for our storyboard for several seconds.
• Once every shot had been filmed, we captured the footage onto the editing software.
• We then put the whole uncut version of our storyboard onto the timeline.
• We went through the whole piece and had to split the footage so that every different storyboard picture was seperate, allowing us to edit them individually more easily.
• We had to change the length of each shot to correspond with the music track and the time that we wanted a certain frame to appear on screen.
• Once every shot was at the correct length, we had to do some post-production work to certain shots. This included using the horizontal and vertical pan presets as well as the zoom presets. This gave us a better visual idea about how the final video would look as it created movement within the shots.
• We feel that we have planned enough for the video, with our only concern being the mid-8 of the song, but the tempo change allows the cuts to be longer providing we use movement within the shots.
• However, we will still film some 'filler' shots when on location just in case when we come to edit the final piece some shots do not work in the way we intended, meaning we have to delete them and fill the space with something else. For example, in the mid-8 we will film Hannah (the love interest) walking down the street at various angles to vary the shot (it seems a bit too long on the anamatic) but also it will mean that if one angle doesn't work (ie. too dark) we can just use another angle.
• The thing that we learnt most from our anamatic was the fact that we have to put a lot more movement into our shots than we originally planned, so that the video looks varied rather that purely static shots which last around 2-3 seconds.