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.