Final Acillary Tasks

Front Cover

Feedback for Front Cover of Digipak:

Phoebe: "I really love the simplicity and the shot itself. The text is clear and shows what is necessary and I think blurry background really works and expresses the video. I think the connection between digipak and video is clear and obvious."

James: "I think the colours on the front album cover are really distinct and effective, especially as it is blurry. I like that Phoebe's face is clearly shown to the audience and her mood is reflective on the song itself."

Personal reflection: I personally love how simple we have made the front cover of this album as I think it works well with the theme and tone of the song. Yes the song is simple but that does not mean it isn't good and often songs of the EDM genre often have simple meanings as they are supposed to be light-hearted. The photograph itself is a reflection of the music video as it was taken in the same setting, therefore, it suits the entire theme. The skyline is also very apt as it is a time where the day comes to an end - this along with Phoebe's facial/body expressions give off the vibe of a youth's sadness, which was what we were aiming for.

Mr Kerrigan: "The image you have used is very striking. I like the use of the tall, lit-up buildings in the background of the image; it is very appropriate given the title of the song. There is something about the use of soft-focus that makes the urban setting seem enigmatic. It is, however, fitting that the focus is on your performer. There is something interesting about the way she is looking 'across' the camera as opposed to away from or into it; again, it is very enigmatic. The type-font you have employed is simple but clear, meaning that it is easy to read and doesn't distract from your image."

Feedback for Back Cover of Digipak:

Alex: "I think the text isn't clear as the lights are interfering with it. I like the colours and I think it meets all the traditional conventions. However, it obviously isn't finished therefore I cannot make a proper judgement."

Scarlett: "You can see where the product is going and I like how the information is around the outside so not to interfere with the picture. I think the colours in the picture are really cool and I love that they don't look fake or manipulated."

Personal reflection: I like how in the front cover you can see Phoebe's front and in the back cover of the digipak you can see the back of her - it just makes logical sense and also flows nicely. I think the fact the barcode is in an unconventional place add uniqueness to it. All the conventions of a digipak that were researched during research and planning, e.g. social media logos have been included.

Inside Front

Feedback for Inside Front Cover of Digipak:

James: "Originally the front inside panel was plain and didn't have the text but I really like that it has been added in. It fits really well in the space its in and is clear to the audience in what is says. I like that the shot is really fresh and unedited as it looks more effective this way."

Alex: "The shot itself is so cool. I love how clear and focused it is. Everything about it is sharp and collected and it works really well with the actual music video itself."

Personal reflection: This is my favourite of all the digipak elements we created. I just think the lyrics along with the picture work so well to highlight Phoebe's emotions, especially because facial expressions and body language are not visible here. The current of the water also show how she feels like everyone is leaving her as it is moving in the opposite direction to where she is positioned.

Inside Back

Feedback for Inside Back Cover of Digipak:

Scarlett: "The simplicity and unedited atmosphere of this shot kind of links with the music video itself and how relaxed it is. It works well with the rest of the digipak and I like that the template of the CD is included so it shows the true effect."

Ben: "By keeping the template it shows exactly how the back inside is meant to work. The colours are consistent with the rest of the inside, however I don't like that the shot is off centre."

Personal reflection: This shot is very simple but during the editing process the whole group was drawn to it and wanted to include it in the digipak. I think because this is the section where the CD would be placed it does not even need to be particularly special. However, saying that some critics might argue that it was not very imaginative. This shot ties in nicely with the inner front cover as they were both taken at the same location and therefore the inside of the digipak has great continuity. If there was one thing I would change about this shot it would be to perhaps straighten it up as it is a tad off centre. I also think we could have made the colours sharper - we did try to do this in Photoshop but were unsuccessful as everything we tried did not add much to the shot and made it look dusty and blurry, which was not the desired effect.

Side

Feedback for Side Panel of Digipak:

Ben: "The lamppost is really cool and it works as a side panel. It fits with the front and back cover and doesn't stand out in a good way."

Phoebe: "I really like the incorporation of the lamppost and it works really well as a side panel. The colours match the front and back panels and it all fits together really well."

Personal reflection: I really like this shot and I think it is one of the most effective out of the entire digipak. Again, it will be featured on the outside of the digipak and so therefore to give it continuity points we opted for the night-time shot. The way the sunset and lamppost fit perfectly within the frame in a straight angle gives the spine a very professional feel and is atheistically pleasing.

Magazine Advertisement

Feedback for Magazine Advertisement:

Phoebe: "The finished product looks really good and like it would fit into a magazine. All the features incorporated work and are in sync with traditional conventions of promotional posters."

James: "The text is clear and the colours are really cool. I like the reflectiveness of the expressions and it fits with the music video. The brand is recognisable as there is a connection between the products. The use of the logos is really good as it shows it to be in professional setting."

Alex: "This is a cool poster and I like that the writing is clear and in a large font. It fits the conventional features of a promotional poster. It looks better now that the sizing is correct."

Scarlett: "I think the poster picture and the picture on the album cover work well together as they're obviously at the same location. There is a clear link between the products which is good for the audience and the artist as the brand is recognisable."

Ben: "It's really important to make a link between the products for the audience and the girls have achieved this really well. I like that all the logos are incorporated and the text is clear which is also important. It all works really well, even better now it's the same size."

Mr Kerrigan: "Again, the images you have used are very effective. There is something striking about the difference between the image used for the body of your magazine poster and the image used for your digipak; I like the contrast between your performer facing away from the camera in one image and being side-on in the other. There is a clear sense of interconnectivity between your three products."

Personal reflection: I am glad we made the changes we did as a group because the poster now looks a lot more well thought out and overall just looks as if it was established better. I feel like all the components (e.g. record label logos) are much easier to read and understand and the whole poster itself looks more professional. When looking back on the real media artefacts I researched and blogged about previously I definitely think that our final magazine advertisement has many more connotations than our first edit, this not only shows improvement but also highlights the importance gaining feedback and using your own personal criticism to improve your production. I also prefer the poster now it is the correct size as it meets the criteria of being a "magazine advertisement". The connection between all ancillary tasks are also recognisable and flow well together. On presentation points I think that the chosen font and text work well as it shares the attention with the image itself and the album cover being closely centred shows the audience what the product they are being persuaded to invest in looks like.

First Edit - Magazine Poster

Feedback:

Alex: "This is a cool poster and I like that the writing is clear and in a large font. It fits the conventional features of a promotional poster. It does however look a little stretched out and not the shape of A4 paper."

Scarlett: "I think the poster picture and the picture on the album cover work well together as they're obviously at the same location. There is a clear link between the products which is good for the audience and the artist as the brand is recognisable."

Ben: "It's really important to make a link between the products for the audience and the girls have achieved this really well. I like that all the logos are incorporated and the text is clear which is also important. It all works really well, however isn't the right size."

Production Journal: Magazine Advertisement

Ancillary Product 2: Magazine Advertisement

1) Went through all the pictures we had taken for the magazine advertisement and chose the one that was of best quality and the one we liked the look of the most.
2) Opened Adobe Photoshop and imported the photo.
3) We also imported a smaller picture of our first ancillary product (the digipak) in order to promote it further on the magazine advertisement.

4) We also got our real media artefact and initial ideas blog posts up from our research and planning section so that we could follow on from what we planned and also use the real media artefacts we had analysed for some last minute inspiration. From this we began editing part of the poster on Photoshop.
5) Firstly we inserted the artist name - 'The Chainsmokers' along with the name of the song - 'New York City'. This was done by one of our group members who used the 'Typing Tool' on the left hand side of the Photoshop programme.
6) We then edited the font size, font and colour. We played around here on Photoshop, testing lots of different types until we were finally happy with our decision. We wanted the text to be bold as this was one of the connotations of magazine posters that we found whilst researching them. To be effective it would need to be bold enough to stand out so you can see it from a distance or for it to catch your eye as you're flicking through the pages of a magazine.

7) We then added our social media icons as well as the record labels names in the bottom right and top left corners.

8) After getting feedback and reflecting on our own work we changed the positioning of the image of the CD from the top right-hand corner to the middle of the magazine advertisement. From our own criticism we though that it would make more sense for the CD cover to be in the middle of the advert rather than the top right and it looked pointless and the whole purpose of the task is to promote the album so we thought it would be better off promoting it from the middle of the poster (where it is eye catching rather than top right (where it just blends in with the background).

To reflect, unfortunately our the process of editing our ancillary tasks was long and frustrating and we encountered a lot of problems due to our unfamiliarity with Adobe Photoshop. This meant we had to heavily rely on Google and the assistance of the IT staff at school. As a result a lot of trial and error techniques were involved as we needed to explore all avenues before making any decisions so that we could produce a product we were happy with. I think something that would have benefited us most would have been learning how to use Photoshop to a level of understanding that at least meant we could get the process complete quicker as it would have saved us a lot of time and stress.

Production Journal: Digipak

Ancillary Product 1: Digipak

Production of the ancillary tasks took around two weeks.

One of the first things we did was go back to our previous blog posts and revisit what we had planned to create for our 'Final Digipak'. Once we had remembered what we had planned we used this closely alongside our digipak construction process. Our first job in the actual creation of our digipak was to source a template for it so that we had a rough idea as to what the dimensions would be as well as the layout. We then opened up Adobe Photoshop and inserted the template along with the images we were going to use for definite.

Digipak Dimensions

How we used the templates to scale our digipak photographs within Photoshop

We differed slightly from our original digipak idea after looking at the shots we had taken from our filming days because some of the ones we took looked better and more effective. As we worked more and more on the images by moving them around and adjusting the dimensions it began to look more like an album cover quickly. Therefore as a group we went through pictures which we had taken and decided on the most appropriate ones to utilise.

Adjusting dimensions

We wanted the outside (front and back covers) to have the washed out sky/dark shades on it because the songs a night-time theme. This meant that the front cover was going to be Phoebe (on top of the car park) positioned to the right hand side of the album cover. She was looking out into the distance to highlights how intensely she is thinking about her situation and that it has really affected her.

Front Cover

The outside back cover is a picture of Phoebe from a side view, and again she is looking out into the distance from the top of a Maidenhead car park. When investigating the connotations of other real media artefacts we decided it would be a good idea to include a barcode (for the advantage of the consumer) and also social media icons was another thing that our research proved to be prominent. Therefore, we included the logos for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify.

We also included two logos for The Chainsmokers record companies, Disruptor Records and Colombia Records.

We thought that all of this was important information to include because we used what we found out from researching our real media artefacts that these were all conventions of traditional album covers and they all serve a purpose being placed onto it, e.g. logos to show how to access more knowledge about the artist, tour dates and merchandise.

Back Outside Cover

We also needed to establish how we were going to include text onto the digipak. This was an essential part of the digipak as it indicated who holds the rights to the artist and the CD's profits along with the record label and release date. Having looked at a lot of album covers altogether as a group and by using them as guidelines we feel as though we have managed to create an effective digipak that coincides well with the themes and look of our music video. It will link and flow nicely with the music video and magazine poster.

Final Back Outside Cover

After this section of our digipak was completed we then moved onto working on the front and back of the inside of our digipak. We thought, as group, that it would be nice and versatile to have the inside of the digipak as 'daytime' and the outside as 'night time'. This meant that we used a photo of the opening shot of our music video (Guards Park Island bridge) as the inside back cover.

Inside Back Cover

We then decided that the best photo to use as our inside front cover was a photo of Phoebe looking out at Maidenhead Bridge (over the shoulder shot). We used Photoshop to insert a lyric from the song onto the photo to enhance our Photoshop editing skills and to make the digipak more interesting.

Inside Front Cover

Finally, we moved onto working on the spines of our digipak. We had a choice of two pictures and by using the cutting tool on Photoshop we cut around the original picture in which we chose to have as our spine. We chose the left photo (lamppost) to have as the spine of our digipak because we originally wanted it to be a photo of the initials of our two characters engraved into a bench but when it came to scaling down the image to fit the dimension of the spine the picture was no longer visible and it just looked like bark as you could not read what was engraved. It also made sense to have the lamppost as our spine because it meant the whole of the outside of our digipak was 'night-time' themed and we also thought if we used the bench photo it would look jarring as it was taken in the day time.

Final Production

Feedback

Mr Kerrigan: "I like the idea behind your narrative; there is a clear sense of progression, and it ties-in well with the song. The idea of a literal journey that parallels an emotional journal is a well-established convention of story-telling, and it works well here. I particularly like the night-time shots; they match the tone and mood of the song. There is a nice transition between the day-time and night-time scenes; the use of speeding up the footage in post-production editing works well and is an effective way of time-shifting. I like that there is a sense repeatability in your video; whilst the story makes sense after the first viewing, subsequent viewings allow the viewer to pick up on subtle details, which allow for a more developed understanding."

Phoebe: "I think the girls have made this video look really cool! The corrections which were needed after the first and second drafts have been made, the final product looks really refined the concept is definitely there."

James: "The quality of the final product is understandably a lot higher than the first two drafts. I really like the transitions used and the reversed sequences. I like the fact they've gone off path from their plans in order to avoid continuity issues as I think is shows how versatile they are as a group."

Alex: "This is still completely different to the storyboard but it works. The girls have obviously worked hard and spent time on fixing the issues and I like that they kept putting new ideas in there. I really understand the concept and storyline of the music video and it fits well with the song."

Scarlett: "It was a promising first draft and an even better second draft, this final product is an even better outcome. The audio goes with the visuals and you can see that links are being made. I am really glad the jumpy cuts have been fixed and the music video is more visually enjoyable now."

Ben: "I really love the emotions Phoebe is portraying in the music video and it goes really well with the song. The whole concept works really well and I can easily understand what is going on. I like the use of different shots and angles to portray different messages and meanings and I really like the underlying messages which have connections with the song."

Personal reflection: "I am really proud of our final production. I think that despite the numerous changes we had to make  I think  they were all for the better and the production now looks better than expected. I am also confident that after showing the music video to our focus group that our target audience will understand the story in which we are trying to portray. If there was one thing I would change about the entire process of making our music video, it would be our planning. I think that as a group if we organised ourselves better and had access to all of our planning blogs in physical form I feel like our music video would have been more effective. We might have even been able to film all the footage on one day instead of two."

Second Edit & Feedback

Feedback

Phoebe: "I think the girls have made this video look really cool and it is getting better and better! The corrections which were needed after the first draft have been made, there is some refining to go but the concept is definitely there."

James: "The quality of the second draft is a lot higher than the first. I really like the transitions used and the reversed sequences. I like the fact they've gone off path from their plans in order to avoid continuity issues as I think is shows how versatile they are as a group."

Alex: "This is still completely different to the storyboard but it works. The girls have obviously worked hard and spent time on fixing the issues and I like that they keep putting new ideas in there. I think it is almost at completion but will look even better with refinement."

Scarlett: "It was a promising first draft and an even better second draft. The audio goes with the visuals and you can see that links are being made. I am really glad the jumpy cuts have been fixed and the music video is more visually enjoyable now."

Ben: "I really love the emotions Phoebe is portraying in the music video and it goes really well with the song. The whole concept works really well and I really look forward to seeing how the final product turns out."

First Edit & Feedback

Feedback

Phoebe: "I think the girls have made this video look really cool and as it's a first draft there are obviously corrections which need to be made and the shots are al quite jumpy but you can see the concept is coming together."

James: "You can tell it is still only a draft as there is a lot of refining to be done. None the less I think the sequencing is cool and works. The lighting also works well and I like the fact they've gone off path from their plans."

Alex: "This is completely different to the storyboard but it works. It is obvious the girls ran into a few problems and have solved them well. I like that they have new ideas in there and I think it is coming together nicely and will look even better with refinement."

Scarlett: "It is a promising first draft. The audio goes with the visuals and you can see that links are trying to be made. As the work progresses hopefully you will be able to see them more clearly and hopefully the jump cuts will be fixed."

Ben: "Phoebe looks awesome as the actress in this music video and I think that the instruction from the group during filming has really played off because it has resulted in a strong product. There is more to be done which is quite clear but none the less it looks awesome so far!"

Editing Journal: Part 2

This is when the actual editing process started to take place and the final product was beginning to come together. We mainly worked on placing the footage we had in time with the music, e.g. lip-syncing and linking the direct visuals with the music to show how well thought out our music video is. We started to cut each clip so that any loose ends of the individual clips were erased and that the exact timings could be calculated. This took some time as we had a lot of clips to get through and a lot of clips to watch so that we knew we had chosen the best ones that we had.

Our group faced huge challenges in that fact that we did not like the way the footage was placed and how it flowed. It looked dull and we found it boring to watch and we knew our target audience would as well. We would have also had to cut clips incredibly short in order to link the intended visuals with the audio, meaning we would have to get rid of some great footage we took and also we would have encountered timing issues if we did that. It took us a while (almost two hours) to figure out what we could do to solve this problem. We experimented with a number of different openings from the car scene to trying to make our original idea work by swapping clips around but none of these worked. In the end we managed to use a sequence of footage (the forest scenes) at the beginning of the music video instead of at the end and we all agreed that in fact we preferred this idea to our original storyboard. Therefore, we went completely against our storyboard idea and where the original footage was supposed to be and changed our music video completely.

Lip-syncing process

Once we were comfortable with the changes we had made we went on to trying to match the lip-syncing clip we had taken in the forest up with the audio. As a group we decided it was a good idea to make sure that we include lyrics to visuals so that it conforms with the traditional conventions of music videos. It also proved to be popular with our focus group and target audience, meaning we have followed the brief.

Creating the time lapse

After completing the lip-syncing process of editing our music video we decided it would be a good idea to sort the time lapse out. Fortunately we filmed enough footage (two minutes worth) of Phoebe putting on her make-up in her bedroom and so we managed to create a time lapse of multiple different shots of her applying it. To create a time lapse in Premiere Pro we just sped up the footage to a much faster speed than the rest of the clips so it was obvious what we had done but not so fast that important details were lost. The only difficulty we faced was we needed to make sure that the main part of the song where the beat drops needed to match the fast pace time lapse as this is what we had intended form the outset as the pace of the time lapse would look so effective with the fast pace music.

We then saved our first draft and spoke to one of our media teachers about what she thought and to give us some feedback on how to improve.

Miss Pearce said: "The bench shot cutting straight to the car didn't make sense to her so therefore won't make sense in your music video". She went on to say how this could be improved by including a shot of the bench with Phoebe not within the shot to show how she is leaving that location and going into her car from the bench. This will then look more effective and realistic. Miss Pearce also said "I like the way the music matches each shot and that the lyrics and visuals work well together. I also like the underpass clips because to me it shows as if someone is watching Phoebe throughout the music video and that Phoebe is unaware of this happening." This is exactly what we has intended and so we are happy with the way our music video is coming together.

Editing Journal: Part 1

As a group we discussed the editing process together in our first media lesson back after the filming process had been completed.

We had previously had a tutorial on how to convert footage and how to use Adobe Premiere Pro so we did not have any concerns about timing or deadlines for editing because we knew this process would not take long and in the past we knew the Internet was an excellent resource for instructions as were the IT technicians at school.

Example of editing process

1. Imported footage from SD card onto the iMacs.
2. Dragged footage once it had finished importing onto Premiere Pro and started to place them in the correct order in which we believed they were going to go in - following our storyboard. This was just the generalised version of our music video which had no editing involved. It was to just give us some sort of idea on average length and timings etc.
3. Having placed all the clips onto Premier Pro we cut all of the audio which came with them as we did not need it because this was a music video and downloaded the audio = 'New York City' by The Chainsmokers. We did discuss the idea of including diegetic sound and whether or not this would be effective, particularly for the forest scenes. But we decided for now that it would be best to save this idea for when we have the final draft and see what it looks like then instead of trying to combine hundreds of unplanned ideas into one music video.

Filming Journal: Day 2

Our second day of filming, which took place on the first Monday back after half term as availability issues with members of the crew meant we could not finish filming in half term. We began by filming the bedroom, which happened to be Phoebe's bedroom in her own home. For this sequence we did not stick to the storyboard entirely as when we got on set there were numerous possibilities in which we could create effective shots. We included new shots, e.g. pan of Phoebe's bedroom and a shot of Phoebe picking up her car keys. We felt it was important to make these changes to our storyboard and shot list because it made sense to add new aspects to the narrative that were inspired by the location we chose. For example, a pan of Phoebe's bedroom would tell the audience what type of person Phoebe is. We thought this was important to include in our music video to show a sense of continuity and real life aspects to the people who will be watching our music video.

We faced numerous difficulties when trying to film the mirror shot for the time lapse of Phoebe applying her make-up:

- Needed to find a decent camera angle/position in order to create an effective shot whilst not being able to see the camera or the camera woman in the background.

- We were not quite sure of how long we should film for as it would be sped up in editing.

- Had some lighting issues due to the positioning of a bigger window facing the laptop and then a smaller window with less light facing the mirror.

However, we were able to overcome these issues by moving furniture in order to have enough space for the camera and crew to the left of the mirror without being seen. When filming the time lapse we made sure we took at least two minutes of footage in order to have lots to work with whilst editing and as we knew it would be sped up we thought it was best to have more footage we could discard than too little so that we would end up making our music video look repetitive. We took a lot of photos whilst adjusting blinds in order to have the correct flow of lighting throughout our shots.

We then filmed Phoebe walking down the stairs and putting her coat and shoes on, to highlight the narrative and really try to portray that this was what she did during that day. We encountered no issues when filming this section as the shots were simple and easy to set up. We filmed numerous shots, which include:

- Phoebe walking down the stairs putting her coat on and then opening the door (filmed from the top of the stairs).

- Phoebe sitting at the bottom of the stairs putting her shoes on then walking out the door.

- And a shot in which the camera was positioned in-between the stair bannisters, filming Phoebe's legs walking down the stairs.

After this, we needed to film Phoebe driving to the new location. This shot was simple but quite hard to achieve because I had to sit in the middle seat of her car, whilst trying to keep the camera still as I filmed her driving. Speed bumps and traffic lights made for sharp, bumpy motions in the footage - but this was to be expected. It was also necessary for Phoebe to look at the camera and break the fourth wall so we had a link between footage and the lyrics of the song "When I went away, saw your face in my rear-view". The fact that Phoebe had to look at the mirror long enough for me to capture the shot meant our safety was at risk due to her eyes being off the road, this was also heightened due to the fact it was rush hour. But after a few takes we managed to quickly capture it successfully. I decided to film the whole car journey and not just sections because I was worried that the footage might not be up to standard due to the unsteady motion of the camera. This also allowed us, as a group, to obtain masses of cool footage and gave us more options of what to include when editing. The fact that she drove through different places also gave us lots of different backgrounds that featured members of the public and various lighting set ups - this meant that if we were to use more than one shot it would show that she actually went on a journey, which gives the shots more validity and professionalism.

The second sequence that we filmed was Phoebe walking up towards the top of the car park, on the roof. We did not need a lot of shots up here because they were going to be used at the end of our music video to show Phoebe's day coming to a close. In order to create our professional, smooth sequence we used a tri-pod - this allows us to create shots with a steady hand whilst filming Phoebe walk up the stairs towards the roof of the car park. We took multiple videos of for the clip because it was hard to get the camera to move still as the angle needed to be lifted up and over a hand-rail whilst on a tri-pod. These shots will help us when it comes to editing because we have so many to chose from and we can edit different shots and combine them if we don't have one singular shot we want to use.

Filming on the top of the car park (pictures) was probably one of the easiest of the shots we needed to create. We were most impressed with these shots due to how effective the location made them look. The setting of the sun really shows how Phoebe is feeling alongside her facial expressions/body language and  it also linked well with the narrative - a day of reflection for Phoebe coming to an end. The colours of the sky mixed with the fact that it was still rather dark made for an aesthetically pleasing background alongside all the lights from the surrounding buildings. Our test shots (to see if the lighting was too dark to be able to see Phoebe effectively) were successful.

Once we had finished filming on the roof of the car park we drove to our next location, which only five minutes away, to the underpass near Waitrose. We chose this underpass over the others (as there are loads of similar locations all around Maidenhead) because on the walls there are hundreds of small circular mirrors that can distort your face due to their positioning and shape. Difficulties we faced here included:

- The time in which we managed to film was around 17:30 and so it was rush hour, this caused lots of members of the public to interrupt the filming process. To overcome this we sent Bonnie to the other end of the underpass and politely asked people to just wait two or three minutes at the ends of the underpass in order for us to complete the shot and the rest of us did the same for the other side of the underpass.

- Again, we had to make sure that the camera was not visible in the mirrors on the walls of the underpass.

This sequence went entirely against our storyboard and shot list because we I came up with the idea of taking a few shots of Phoebe in this location on the day. We thought the underpass would make for an interesting number of shots due to the colourfulness of it and also the numerous camera angles you could create with it. We thought having a shot of Phoebe walking through whilst the camera faces the mirrors on the right hand side of the wall, which then cuts to a shot of the mirrors on the ceiling panning down to Phoebe walking straight through the underpass. We really liked this idea and are glad that it all worked out in the end and that we managed to obtain the footage we needed. We also thought that by using the mirrors it could depict the fact that she feels insecure (as mentioned in the costume research) and create a sense that someone is watching her and she is unaware of this.

On reflection, I believe filming was better on the second day because we were more comfortable with the camera equipment (after only just reusing it again since year 12) and also I feel as though we understood more about the conventions of traditional music videos and what we wanted to achieve when creating our own one. Although we did make some minor changes to our storyboard this was only for the better as it improved our music video a lot.

Filming Journal: Day 1

Filming journal - A daily record of news and events of personal nature (a diary).

As a group, we decided that the best and most practical time for us to film would be during October half term because we were all free, as was our actress and the equipment. It also gave us plenty of time as we had the entire day to film rather than a few hours after school where we would have to rush our filming before it got dark at around half past five in the evening.

Bonnie and Katie got to our first location (Guards Park Island) before myself and Phoebe (actress) so they began to take some test shots and started to get the location ready - following our storyboard and shot list. We used our storyboard and shot-list throughout filming, which enabled us to be consistent as we knew what shot to use at which time. This made filming time efficient and productive. However, as with most filming processes, when we were conducting test shots and discussing the filming plan we slowly began to see that the original storyboard ideas did not quite add up to what was plausible/achievable from our chosen location. This lead to us filming more footage than we were expecting as we thought it would be beneficial to have more footage than too little - this would only make the editing process a bit longer. An example of this would be the over the shoulder shot of Phoebe standing on the bridge looking out at the other bridge a little further down the river Thames.

 

First of all we began to film the establishing shot of Phoebe walking up the stairs of the bridge and along it until she got to the other side. I then suggested that it would be a cool shot to have the camera resting on the floor of the bridge and have Phoebe walk across it so that her feet are very close to the camera. We thought this would be a great shot to add angle variation within our music video. Fortunately, we did not experience any issues whilst filming this sequence because by using a tripod it meant that the camera footage would not be shaky - adding a sense of professionalism to our music video. For all of the shots we filmed we took multiple shots in order for us to choose the best fitting clip when it came to editing.

After this sequence we moved on to filming Phoebe in different positions on the bridge:

- Over the shoulder shot of her looking out at the other bridge (Maidenhead Bridge)

- A pan of Phoebe looking down at her shoes

- Various close up shots to show her emotions

We didn't face many challenges whilst filming on the bridge except for when I filmed the pan of Phoebe looking down at her feet the camera is quite shaky because the floorboards of the bridge were old and uneven. Again we made sure we took multiple shots of Phoebe so that we did not face any problems when it came to editing our music video together.

Shortly after all the footage of Phoebe on the bridge was filmed we moved on to the scenes we needed to film within the surrounding forest location - this was just across the river as you cross the bridge. We did not really need many test shots of this location because the scenery was all the same and we had a clear idea as to what we wanted to achieve but we took some anyway just to be safe:

 

When filming in the woods we followed our storyboard and shot list exactly as we did not change anything from our storyboard for the shots taken in the forest. We took numerous shots of Phoebe lip-syncing as she walks past the camera on the forest path. We then moved the camera so that it was closer to Phoebe so we had variation within our shots. We thought these were effective shots as it included some form of lip-syncing, which met the task brief. We took five takes in total for this shot so that when it came to editing and viewing our footage on Adobe Premier Pro we could make sure viewing our footage and cutting it that it was satisfactory and was what we wanted our music video to have in it.

After we had finished the woods sequence we noticed there was a bridge looking out at Maidenhead Bridge in the background and thought we would take a few shots of Phoebe sitting on the bench reflecting about what has happened to her. We made sure that it matched the angle which we wanted the shot to be so that Maidenhead Bridge was visible and so was Phoebe. We also took a shot of the carved initials of Phoebe and her ex bf to show the validity of the relationship and that he is still very much on her mind and in her thoughts.

Once we conducted all of the filming needed in the woods filmed a small section of the Maidenhead Bridge. These were just more establishing shots that could be added in during editing if we found out we needed more shots to fill up space. No challenges were faced for this section due to the simplicity of the shots. We changed around the camera lens a few times so that we had  a variety of different angles for the same location, just to make our shots more interesting. Again, this was not included in our storyboard or shot list because we came up with the idea on set as we thought it would ease the editing process.

On reflection all aspects of filming were completed on the first day of filming and we achieved everything we wanted to, which eased pressure on the second day as it meant we had less to film and worry about. Despite making minor changes that differed from our storyboard and shot list it was beneficial for the group as it meant we had more footage and options when it came to editing and we, as a group, feel like it has improved our music video as we used our location for inspiration.