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.
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