Filming day 1

Today was our first day of filming. We arrived at our college during half term (19/12/12) for a 10.30am start.

Today we aimed to get all of the indoor studio filming completed. We started by dressing our studio by using a white back drop and studio lights to create a bright setting without shadows. We faced the lights away from the set so that we still got the benefit of their light but it didn't look too clinical. This is important to make the video look professional. We also ran fairy lights along the top of the set to give it a bit of character and add to the soft, feminine look of the video we wanted to create.

We decided to film the whole song at one angle and then repeat this for each style of shot we wanted to include. This meant less organisation of the different shots we wanted to film for each part of the song and simplified the organisation process of the video. Then we will just wait until we edit to pick out which parts of the song need which style of shot.

We filmed four different shots with the white backdrop. These were...
-Sat down mid shot.
-Side shot
-Close up
-Extreme close up

We then changed the costume from subtle day clothes to a glittery party dress to add some variation and also changed the backdrop to a black colour and kept the fairy lights.
We filmed the entire song in each of the following ...
-Mid shot
-Close up
-Side shot

We found that using the black background it looked better with less lighting so we faced the lights further away and turned some of them off. It gave it a magical and pretty look.

We also took the opportunity of having Hayley (our singer) in costume with a set to photograph pictures for our album cover. We found that making the photographs out of focus on purpose gave a lovely effect. It was soft and intriguing to look at. I think these would be most appropriate for the back cover of the album or the inside because on a pop album cover the front needs to have a clear picture of the artist. So we also took a variety of in focus profile shots of the artist to use as the front cover.

Shooting Schedule

Filming day 1:

Arrive to college at 10.30am

Prepare the studio with white back drop and lights.

Props needed for white backdrop:

-Brown stool

-Costume: 

Wooley cream/white jumper

Blue Jeans

Scarf

Ugg boots

-Natural hair and make up

Sing the whole song through at different angles

Prepare studio with black backdrop and fairy lights

-Christmas lights (dressed across the set)

-Costume:

Sparkly dress

Purple heels

-Natural hair and make up

Sing the whole song through at different angles

-Mid shot facing camera

-Mid shot facing away from camera

-Long shot stood up

-Long shot sat down on stool

During the shoot we plan of taking photographs for our album cover. We want to include: 

-Close up shots of her face

-Strong image of her on the stool

-Mid shot of her on the black back drop

Filming day 2:

In Thursday afternoon lesson

Outside filming in a countryside setting, better on a day with good natural lighting. 

Costume: Winter clothes, scarf, big coat. A warm and cosy look.

Sing the whole song through at different angles

-Mid shot facing camera

-Side shot

-Long shot 

-Close up

Then film a couple (Izzy and Tom) playing in the grass acting loved up and flirty with each other.
-Running through the grass
-Holding hands 
-Their feet walking together
-Piggy back rides

Changes to my idea...

I started to try and arrange locations and people for my video this week. I have found it difficult to find the appropriate people to star in my video. It has been difficult to find an old couple who are willing to star in my video. Therefore, I have changed my idea in some parts to fit this. 

Instead of using an old couple I am going to use the girl who is singing in the performance space and include her in another performance part with a teenage boy. This will be a lot easier to do as I know lots of boys at my college who would be willing to perform in the video for me. The video will now have a bit less of a narrative story. It will now still include the girl alone performing in a studio, with soft lighting and candles. The other part of the video will be of the girl and a teenage boy in an outside location- Bleadon Hill or Ashcombe Park. It will include shots of them having fun outside and looking like a  loved up couple. I will then edit my video so it shows parts of the studio and then the outside locations in a mixed up order to give it some variation. 

Green screen filming

Above shows my finished experimentation using the green screen, this comes from inspiration from the Labrinth/Emeli Sande music video. We filmed Hope (dark haired girl) infront of the green screen acting as if she is playing the piano and Hayley on a plain background lip singing. We then imported the clips onto Final Cut Pro and changed the green screen to be the clips of Hayley singing.

Green Screen experiment

Today we set up a green screen in a photography studio to do some experimenting. This came after getting inspiration from the Labrinth and Emili Sande music video shown in the post below. We filmed Hope in front of the green screen sat on a chair and then we filmed Hayley in front of a plain background (both shown below.)  

  
We had the intention of adding Hayley's part onto where the green screen is that Hope is sitting in front of. I used Final Cut Pro to experiment with the techniques of green screen. I found that it looked really unprofessional putting Hayley's part onto the background behind Hope because the two separate pieces of filming don't blend totally together. 

I decided because of this not to use green screen in the filming of our music video, but I am glad to have experimented with the technique because I did like the video inspiration that used a similar technique but it looked much better done in a professional way rather than what we did using Final Cut Pro.