Shooting Journal - Day Three

This was the first day that we actually left on time and all of us felt motivated and ready to film despite how cold it was. When we got there is was the early morning sun weather which we caught in some of our shots which looked really effective.  Being at Langley Park we went to our soon to be famous 'Heartwood Tree' and bean the normal procedure of chucking red string all of the place in an organised manner.

Seeing as we had three cameras to our use this time, we decided upon seeing how our first day of shooting went that we would do a full song run through which we did about three or four times. This involved me sitting in a tree singing the whole song while being recorded from three different perspectives. This saved time drastically and gave us three points of performance that we could choose from when in post-production.
The next thing we decided to film was the crunching of the leaves under the feet and a tracking shot of the side to show that 'Amanda' is following it. This shot will then flow into her discovering the heart covered in red thread in the centre of the tree from three different perspectives shown below:

These shots didn't take too long to shoot and only took a few try's to get them right. The last few shots that we did involving the 'Heartwood Tree' was me prancing around it, as we liked the idea and shots from the first day of shooting but they were too dark so we had to redo them all. from doing this we also obtained a lovely close-up shot of me walking towards the camera lip-syncing which really secures that connection that i have with the audience.

After that we decided to take on the photo tree and started to set it up putting photos all over it attaching them to string. We had a dress change to the green and blue halter-neck dress of variation and began filming the next few set of shots. We filmed some performance of me next to the photo tree looking at the photos and singing t the audience, we then shot me ripping down all the photos in a twirly dancy kind of manner. After that we tried out Keeley's brilliant idea of a shot of me next to a photo of an eye and positioned myself so that it covered on of my eyes. this was mainly for the lyrics "imperfected me will not be seen". It took us quite a while to do this shot as the wind kept blowing and the eye kept moving, so I had to hold onto it instead. Next we filmed some close-ups of me ripping a photo to finish off the photo tree section of the music video.

As the sun was setting we decided to get a move on and film the shots involving the long flowing magnolia coloured dress.First we filmed some running shots in which we decreased the frame rate on the camera so when we slow it down in editing, it will flow better and have a batter quality. we filmed from the top of the path up the few steps they had, and I stared just below the steps. This was very effective when looking back at the shot as the path ended and the sunset began. We then filmed some close-ups of the dress floating down the stairs which worked very well as it flowed just like we wanted it to. Next up we shot me at the top of the stairs holding onto the ends of the dress and flowing it around which we also decreased the frame rate for. for the last few shots we shot me from the back looking out to the sunset dramatically holding the ends of the dress and lifting them up slowly as they get blown by the wind. Our last shot was a tracking shot of my feet running from the side down the path in which we planned to use for the chorus.

After the long old day we decided to go home and it was just in time as our cameras had slowly began to run out of battery. We looked at the footage that we shot and were very happy! We cant wait to start editing it!

Shooting Journal - Day Two

Unfortunately for us on this day we had all met up on time and because it was raining we decided to check if the parks were closed due to BBC's predicted storms, unfortunately for us they weren't which meant we delayed in shooting again! we decided that we would still get ready if the parks were to open up again on a later date.

[INSERT PHOTO HERE] 

Finally we had some good news as about midday we checked the site and the parks were open again! When we got there, we went directly to the set that we had planned to shoot at and got filming with no time to waste. As we had two cameras again, we decided that we would split into twos and try and get some shots done, therefore no-one will be left just standing there and we could get more shots done at the some time. Whilst Vicky and I were off filming some shots with Amanda Rogers (me) weaving in and out of trees, spinning and jumping, Keeley and Cary got to filming nature filler shots which consisted of sun spots and panning shots of the empty forest with bright blue skies (believe it or not). After we had all finished that, we grouped together to film some of the specific shots we had written down for black park such as the close-up of feet walking through the forest and the sound of the crushing twigs underneath them, and some of our narrative shots of the red thread.
Then we started to film some lip-syncing shots particularly "and those greens and those blues seem to perfect to be true." Earlier on I had found an area with grass that was so green it looked like it had been taken out f some fairy film an the skies were so blue therefore mimicking the lyrics.We did this by me standing on a tree trunk in a long shot so you can see the green grass and then when I look up, the camera pans up to show the really blue skies. This is a shot we were particularly proud of and was shot by Cary.

We then intended to film some shots by some trees that we thought were good because they went from brown to green leaves at the top representing the way that 'Amanda' was dressed from scruffy boots to an elegant white strapless dress. But the day we decided to film the trees had got more brown and golden giving a vintage feel to our music video, and a blue hue could be seen when playing back footage which worked well with the type and style of our music videos. 

Shooting Journal - Day One

Due to some of the group having commitments earlier on in the day, we decided we would shoot from 1:00pm onwards, but other things such as sorting out hair and costume took some time before we actually left to get on to set. Seeing as the clocks had gone back, we now had less time to shoot all our footage and we knew by then that we would be needing our extra day to finish all the shooting! When we finally decide to get moving we were two hours late into our filming which was worrying. But we made a speedy recovery by getting the set ready to shoot very quickly by coming together as a team and literally throwing red string any-where and every-where all over our 'Heartwood tree'. Upon discovering this location, it was decided that this tree would be the centre of the music video. After we had set everything up, we went about shooting our first shots on our shot list which included a some performance shots in the tree's for the verses. We had two camera's to use to our advantage and this diagram kindly borrowed from Cary shows the positions we placed them in:


When filming, we realised we were losing light very fast and due to it being natural lighting, there was nothing we could do about it, but having two cameras helped solve this issue and we got twice the footage that we could have had.

Other shots that we decided to shoot was some frolicking around the tree shots for the chorus as it is more upbeat and the drums in the song could represent the running around the tree's.We also filming some random filler shots of nature that we could add somewhere into our sequence to break up the sequence and narrative and make it flow more.

When the park closed we had to stop shooting and leave the premises. When looking back on the footage we realised that all that we captured, the lighting was really dark, and if we were going to use some of this footage, it should be colour graded to make the image lighter.

Shooting Schedule

Upon deciding the locations where our music video was shot we had to arrange with the parks the days that we could come in and film and also of course get our filming permit which was free.

We had to sort our shooting schedule to the times the park opened and closed which was:
Langley Park: 8:15am-4:30pm
Black Park: 8:00am-5:00pm


Shooting Schedule

Location                    Day             Date                                   Time

Langley Park            Sunday         27th October 2013            1:00pm-Closing

Black Park               Monday       28th October 2013             9:30am-3:00pm

Langley Park          Saturday      2nd November 2013           10:am-2:00pm

We decided that the last day on Saturday would be a pick up shot day if we didn't get all the footage we wanted. We chose Langley Park for this last day as most of our footage is shot here and there was no way that we would have finished all that footage we wanted to capture in one day, so we out down a reserve just in-case. 

Editing Journal - Day One

So we have finally reached what will be the blood sweat and tears of our music video - the editing. It is so important when editing a music video, (as we have found out) that the pace and lighting and angle of the shots have to be so carefully worked out in order for it to be a success. But the good thing we didnt have to do was put it in chronological order like we did in our film. We were in a way more free to mess about and experiment with different ideas and places to put different shots.

So during day one, the goal was to upload all our footage that we had shot from dayone of our shooting and just place the very bare bones of our music video in creating a skeleton to work with. The video upload was a success, but as youcan imagine took forever! So as we were waiting we decided to watch back on all our footage. One thing that we did notice with this, is the the fact that some of our shots came out really dark in Final Cut Pro eventhough it came out really bright on to camera. This meant that we definatly had to go back to Langley Park to re-shoot some things.

Once we had finished uploading our footage, we decided to focus on the main goal that we had set for today and place in some shots that we definatly knew we wanted. We found this really challenging as we hadn't uploaded the mp3 of 'This Beauty' into Final Cut, so we were just guessing most of the way.

By the end of this session we had completed the following:

-Uploaded all our footage we have so far

-Looked over our footage and found areas and shots that we would have to shoot again

-Made a rough skeleton of shots that we knew we definatly wanted in there

Editing Textual Analysis - Go Back ~ Marketa Irglova

 Title: Go Back

Artist: Marketa Irglova

Director: Unknown

Release Date: October 6th 2011

Genre: Folk/Indie

Intro

This song is made entirely out of reversing clips and is very effective with such simple editing  done to it. I like this music video because it challenges the conventions of its genre and I really like music video's that can tell a story.

How Many Shots Are There In The Music Video?

Surprisingly there were 49 shots in the music video which is shocking because I expected it to be more because of its type of genre. The shots tend to fade into one another almost merging but not quite. 

Where Were The Cuts In The Music Video?

When we first listened to the beat, because of the time signature being 4/4, we thought to make it even and in time the shots would cut on the beat but we found when listening to a certain layer of the music or taking a layer out, the beat sometimes cut to the rhythm of that. So technically it was still in time but in different instruments in the music. We found that the music video was full with jump cuts as it was interchanging with different scenes of objects in different stages of reversing.

Did The Music Video Shrink Or Expand?

From a first glance the music video looked like it was shrinking time because obviously the reverse sequence makes it look like its shrinking but when we looked at it again, we realised that it was indeed expanding time because the objects and actions that were happening have been slowed down like the reversal of the match lighting up and candle burning.

Editing Textual Analysis - Yellow ~ Coldplay

Title: Yellow

Artist: Coldplay

Director:  James Frost & Alex of The Artists Company

Release Date: June 26th 2000

Genre: Alternative Rock

Intro

Coldplay are a very popular band that have played all over the world and in many exciting venues. They even played in the Olympic opening ceremony which is a very big thing to do. I came across this band when I was a lot younger and I always liked the inventiveness of their music videos.

How Many Shots Are There In The Music Video?

The entire music video is one continuous shot of a performance based music video, which captures the essence and emotion of the song. The audience feel a really deep connection with the artist as he sing directly to them.There is not much at all going on in the background so this one continuous shot is just directly about this artist singing.

Where Were The Cuts In The Music Video?

Since it was just one continuous shot there were no jump cuts or cuts in general to comment about. But he did do certain things on the beat of the music like run or slow down or glance at the sea beside him. 

Did The Music Video Shrink Or Expand?

Looking at it from my point of view I think it did both as the background was changing from night to day about three or four times which obviously resembled different parts of the day. But the music video had a feel overall which made ir feel like it was expanding time because of the amount of slow motion that was used.