Filming Diary Day 7

After showing my teacher what I had filmed so far it was thought that I may need more shots of my character lip syncing, therefore I decided to have an extra day of filming in the field to get some more of these shots. I decided to take shots of Katie lip syncing the same place from multiple different angles - a long shot, a medium long shot, a close up, and then a medium close up from her right and one from her left whilst she was still lip syncing facing forward to give the illusion of multiple cameras. I also took some footage of some filler shots, such as her looking up at the camera and smiling or looking up at the camera and shaking her head. I also re-filmed the opening shot of her walking towards the camera whilst zooming out, in order for her to lip sync during that shot.

Issues faced during filming

As it is winter and we had originally filmed a couple of weeks ago, most of the trees had started to lose their leaves now and houses were visible behind them, which didn't look very professional. However this was only an issue in the re-filming of the opening shot, which isn't essential to be used and I could just use the original if it doesn't look good when it comes to editing.

There was also an issue of lighting, which could be a problem with continuity as the lighting went from very sunny to overcast. However if this is an issue I can always make the shots more contrasted during editing to give the illusion of sun.

I had planned on doing some more filler shots of Katie walking through the trees and a low angle of her lip syncing, however it was extremely cold (around -1°C) and after filming for an hour the cold became unbearable and we were unable to film anymore. Especially seeing as Katie was wearing a strapless dress, sheer tights and dolly shoes, I think we did well to last an hour. Luckily, these shots were not essential and just extra footage just in case so it wasn't essential that is be filmed.

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Other than those weather issues everything else went to plan. Hopefully I won't need to film anything else now and can concentrate on editing.

Digipak Continued

I will still be going with the same theme for my digipak cover that I posted in my previous digipak cover idea post. I have decided to go with the idea that I anotated on the picture, of having a picture of the girl in my video's face, with the left side crying with smudged make up and the right side perfectly made up smiling.

I will be using two pieces of software to make my digipak, Serif Page Plus and PhotoScape. I will be using PhotoScape to edit my photos and Serif to actually assemble my digipak.

As I will need 4 panels for my digipak (the front and back cover and inside right and left panels) I have made plans for both of the inside panels of my digipak and the back cover. After measuring some digipaks that I own myself, I have found that each panel will need to be roughly 14cmx12.5cm in order to be the right size for a digipak.

My idea for the track list on the back cover is that the song names will cascade vertically on alternate sides of the line, looking like a vine. On the left side will be the 'heartbreak' songs (the sad songs) and the right will be the 'beautiful' songs (happy, more upbeat songs). I feel like this is an interesting idea that I have yet to see anywhere else during research and think it ties in with my theme really well, helping to create a brand identity.

Seeing as my music video will consist of the colours green, white and black, I have decided to use these as my house colours and therefore all images or fonts will consist of these colours, apart from the image on the front cover which will be a close up of Katie.

I have chosen to use the font 'Papyrus' for the word 'Heartbreak' on my front cover, as it has a shakey, broken look to it that I feel fits with the theme.

I will be using 'French Script MT' for the word 'Beautiful' as it has an elegant, pretty and classy look that I, again, feel fits with the theme.

I am using two fonts to show the two sides of a situation, like I have done in my music video.

I will also be using the font 'Verdana' for the band name because it is bold and stands out. It also has a simplistic clean look which is what I am going for with the album and magazine advert.

I will update with any changes to my plans.

Filming Diary Day 6

Unfortunately I was unable to film today due to rain, I have rescheduled to film on Friday 22nd November. This may have worked out to my advantage however, as today me and my actress would have had to try and rush the filming during our free period and lunch, whereas on Friday we will have an inset day meaning we will have all the time we need to get the shots. Hopefully the weather will be better by then, otherwise I might have to just try and work with the footage I have already got.

Filming Diary Day 5

I was unable to film on this day due to illness, and upon review of my footage I feel that adding another situation scene may be too much and instead I should get some more footage of Katie lip syncing in the field to break up the situations a bit more. Filming for this should be commencing on Monday 22nd November, weather permitting.

Filming Diary Day 4

Today I filmed the field scene, in which the character is lip syncing to the music. There were a few issues I faced during filming, including:

Traveling Issues

• Due money and not wanting to lose too much light I decided it would be easier to the filming in my local field, Pinehill Field. This field gets less people walking through it than the one originally chosen in Luton, as it does not have a playground. Therefore I believe this was a better location in the end, and gave me some really nice shots to work with.
  

Weather

• Ideally, I wanted the weather to be sunny when I filmed. In the morning the sky was clear and the weather forecast was sunny, however once my actress (Katie) and I got to our location it was cloudly and extremely cold. As my actress was wearing a strapless dress during this section of filming, we could not film for more than an hour and a half due to the extreme cold.

• The field was also very muddy, which made it extremely difficult to do all the shots I had hoped to do (including the character spinning, running across the field, etc), therefore these had to be substituted with walking shots and shots of the character lip synching static. However, I was able to do most of the shots I had planned and was able to creatively use the focus on my video camera in order to keep Katie in focus in certain shots and the background blurry, making her stand out whilst lip synching. This, I believe, will look very good in the final product.

I may be able to go back to the field and film some more if I do not have enough footage, this will be decided whilst editing and any additional filming days I decide to add will be updated on future posts.

Filming Diary Day 3

Again, due to the weather I was unable to film anything I had planned today, which was the scene in town where the characters expectations are that she would be meeting a boyfriend in town, when in reality she is sitting alone. The other shots planned for that day where the field scene in which the character would be lip synching. These scenes have now been changed and my shooting schedule has been changed accordingly:

Filming Diary Day 2

Due to weather conditions I was unable to film the scene I had planned to do in the town center today. This has been rescheduled to Thursday at 12:30, any ammendments to other shoots made will be put on later posts or on an updated shooting schedule.

I was however able to film the school scene in which the characters expectations are that she has lots of friends and she's talking to them in a group, when in reality she's sitting on her own watching the surrounding people talking to eachother. There was only one issue I thought of whilst filming:

Room size

The room I used was rather small and so there may be an issue when it comes to editing where the edges of the shot will be cut off to fit in the split screen and therefore I will lose the majority of my extras, if this is the case I will need to refilm in a larger room.

Other than that there were no problems whilst filming.

Actress Choice and Final Storyboard

The actress I will be using in my music video is Katie Glenister. I chose her because she has a history of acting experience, and has also been in a band herself in the past where she appeared in videos and would therefore find it easier to lip sync to the song. She is also a very mature, organised, and reliable person which I think are valuable qualities that I will need in an actress for my music video, as if I planned to shoot one day and my actress canceled on me at the last minute this would make me behind with filming.

Other actors I will be using will be extras for the study room scene, which will consist of friends that I have already asked and will arrange for them to be in there when I need to film. I will also be enlisting the help of my friend Adam to play Katie's boyfriend in one of the scenes.

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Final Storyboard

I have put my final storyboard into a PowerPoint however some of the notes may be hard to read so I will also post the original images. Changes I made from my original draft storyboard are that I took out the 'matrix' style shot and the end cloning shot, because of the feedback I got from my music video pitch and the fact that I found I would need at least 4 cameras to achieve the 'matrix' style shot. Although my storyboard is not in colour, I have realised the main colours of my music video will be green, black and white and I will make these my house colours and include them in my ancillary tasks. I have also changed my blog colours accordingly.

Final Storyboard

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Filming Diary Day 1

Today was my first day of filming and I was lucky enough to shoot everything I had planned in my shooting schedule and an added scene. However I underwent some problems in filming such as:

Lighting issues

I originally planned to film the university acceptance/rejection scene in the living room, however the lighting was poor and would have made the film grainy and so I decided to move this scene to the dining room as it has patio doors which allowed for more natural light.

Angle/framing issues

This also made me have to change the angles of shots, such as originally there would have been a shot of the character walking down the stairs filmed from the bottom of the stairs but this had to be changed due to the 180 degree rule. I also had to change what room I did the 'Facebook in a relationship/single' situation as my desk didn't have enough room to frame the shot, so instead I used my parents' office.

Time taken to complete scenes

The time I allowed on my shooting schedule to film was not long enough to set up and film each scene and therefore I ran over into other filming time slots. Therefore, I will have to amend the timing of future shoots (possibly filming earlier than I had planned), especially if I have a limited amount of time to film in.

Added scene

During filming I had an idea for a scene where Katie would be sitting in the living room waiting for a friend to pick her up to go out. In her expectations, the friend turns up and they leave the house to go out however in reality she gets a very blunt text from the friend saying she can't go out anymore at the last minute. We decided to film this with me playing myself as Katie's friend, using the tripod to film. The scene worked really well and I am thinking of adding this as the last situation used in the music video.

Shooting Schedule

I have devised a shooting schedule for my music video. I have taken into consideration when will be appropriate times of the day to shoot each scene, and when my actress would be available to film. Any changes made to my shooting schedule will be updated in later posts.