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.