Filming Equipment

When filming there are four main pieces of equipment required on a standard shoot.
The equipment required is: Video Camera
                                            Tripod
                                            Lamps/lighting
                                           

 VIDEO CAMERA - is obviously essential as no footage would be recorded without the camera. The camera we used to record our video is a basic Cannon handheld, digital video camera owned by our school WGSG. We were content using this camera as it was easy to work, had good battery life, good storage (with memory card in) and its greatest perk was the size of the camera, it was only very small and therefore lightweight, easy to handle which made it easier to film various shots and especially when filming in awkward positions or having to hold the camera freelance for a long time.

TRIPOD - the function of the tripod is to keep the camera perfectly still when filming. It is usually used with heavy cameras or beginner Filmer's trying to produce a steady shot, like myself and my team. The tripod allowed my group and I to produce more professional shots by pursuing smoother camera movements.

LAMPS/LIGHTING - our school WGSG provided my group and I with two lights. The lights were adequate to provide enough light to clearly visualise our characters and indoor scenes.

Re-filming and Editing after Feedback

In one of our media lessons with our teacher Mr Mcrae we spent the lesson watching all of the classes videos and then gave constructive criticism and also two good things about the groups video and one thing to improve. My group and I took all the feedback on board. The feedback was all very positive which made my group and I extremely proud of our work.

After this lesson we began editing our video further and taking on board feedback when doing so. We added markers and transitions to our work. Markers were useful when we was cutting certain clips of our video to certain beats in the song. By adding transitions to our video creates fluidity, the different clips flow from one to the other smoothly. 

Re-shoot

When editing we discovered that there were scenes we needed to re-film due to minor hick ups such as one of us being in the back ground of the shot or our foot being in shot or even just the spot lamps being seen in shot. Simple amendments to make but vital to create a professional finish on our video.

We also con corded that we needed more footage just as short clips of Ellie/Elle walking for example as after researching about sped up music videos it looks a lot more exciting when introducing a lot shot cut clips it creates a more crazy, out of control look which is what we want.

Sarah Biswell styled Ellie's makeup to ensure that Ellie looked exactly the same as she did in the first shoot.

Zoe changed the sheets and duvet covers to pink as they were in the first shoot.

We filmed from many different new angles to broaden the variety of shots we already have.

PROBLEMS

One of our previous outdoors filming locations, Eynsford Castle was closed for renovation and we were therefore unable to film and had to decide on a new location which ended up being near Ellie's house in Hextable.

NEW LOCATION

Filming Part 3

On the 22nd of February my group and our two actresses Harry Painter and Ellie Blancke filmed for the third time located at my house in Eynsford. In my house we filmed in the living room, kitchen, hallway/front door and just outside of my house.
   The scenes filmed on this day were the finishing scenes to our video featuring Harry and 'Elle' arguing, leading on to Harry throwing Elle out of his house (my house is Harry's house in the video). On this day we also filmed the memory scenes in the same location, the memory scenes are all happy times between Harry and Elle consisting of day time strolls, cuddles, laughter and just natural young, loved up couple behaviour.

On the day of filming we was extremely prepared and knew exactly what shots and scenes that we wanted to produce. We had already arranged wanted we wanted Ellie and Harry to wear and had arranged two costumes for them, one for the fight scene at the end of the video and the other for the memory scenes.

LIGHTING

Where we positioned the lights were extremely important to prevent them from being caught on camera and to prevent them from creating shadows in the shot.

 As Ellie and Harry are good friends in real life there was no awkwardness when filming as they both felt very comfortable with each other.

FILMING

To produce the required shot/angle we filmed at all different levels and in different positions to achieve the desired shot.

FILMING PROBLEMS

A member of our group, Charlotte Coe was unable to make the shoot due to other commitments. Usually this wouldn't be a problem but Charlotte was meant to be featuring in the video playing 'the other girl' who is Harry's female friend who Elle is extremely jealous of. Last minute I stepped in to play 'the other girl' to prevent us from getting behind on our filming schedule and the filming went well and the problem was solved.

The second major problem was that Harry had work so we only had limited time to film as we agreed to drive Harry to his work in a gesture of gratefulness for featuring in our video. But by keeping to the schedule created above we overcame this issue and managed to get all the filming done, just in time!

The final major problem was that the camera we was using to record was not fully charged when we received it which left us with limited battery time. The camera ran out of battery 10minutes before we had finished filming, so we decided to put the camera on charge while we packed up all the equipment into our cars. By the time we had finished packing everything up there was enough battery on the camera to film the finishing scenes.

Filming Day 2

Over the Christmas holidays Zoe, Sarah Biswell and I did our second day of filming, located at Eynsford castle. The scenes filmed featured our actress Ellie, binge drinking Vodka from the bottle and chain smoking cigarettes. There were also some featured scenes of Ellie simply walking in scenes looking distressed and messed up physically and mentally. Physically through her scruffy appearance and the after effects of binge drinking and heavy smoking and the mental effects of that she looks upset, angry and confused.

Filming - Part 1

Our first day of filming was situated in Ellie's home in Hextable. It was a successful shoot, and we managed to collaborate our first rough cut of our music video. Even though we formed a range of good compositions and involved a broad variety of different camera angles and shots there are a few shots that we need to tweak and re shoot as in some shots fellow team members are in view of the shot or the lighting isn't quite right, but will all be easily amended. 

PREPARATION 

Our first objective of the day was to prepare both Ellie and the set (Ellie's House) ready for filming. For the preparation of the set we moved around furniture, adjusted lighting and added props to acheive the best result when filming and to the scene of our music video. My team and I then prepared Ellie's hair and make up, we aimed to make her look like she had just woken up after a crazy out of control night. We therefore made her imagery very messy.



     BEDROOM FILMING

When filming Ellie in her bedroom, we spent a lot of time perfecting the light of the room as she has a large next to her bed, where we was filming her from and it cast a shadow on Ellie's face. We had to adjust the natural light with our equipment lights to dismiss the shadow and eventually we did.

We then went on to film the rest our scenes based in and around Ellie's house and apart from a few bits that we need to re shoot it was a sucessful first shoot.