Filming Log One

In our first filming session, we decided to film the live performance. This is because, it is the simplest aspect to film as it is all in one location. His meant we could get this section filmed and completed before we being the narrative performance.

For the location, we decided to go on to the roof of a car park. This is because there is a skyline in the background with natural lighting. Although we wanted to be inside in a dark location, we realised that the props of candles to make this location effective wouldn’t be realistic. Therefore, we tried to mirror this outside as closely as possible; the lights in the skyline acting as the candles. Also, as we wanted the back ground to be as appealing as possible, we decided to film at sunset. Although this did create a visually pleasing background, the lighting was an issue as the low key lighting decreased the quality of the camera. Therefore, to get around this we used torches to light up our artist and placed them in three-point lighting format to avoid creating shadows on the ‘singer’.

Also, in terms of ensuring we had enough footage, we realised we had a shot window in which to film as the lighting and background would change dramatically over the sunset. Sunset began at 4:05 and it was completely dark by around 4:35. This meant we decided to do five straight run through of the lip syncing to the camera within that window. This meant if something went wrong, we had five repeats of footage to use.

Placing the cameras was a specific creative decision we made. We used three tripods to place three cameras around the artist so we captured the live performance from three different angles. This would allow us to create more depth in the live performance editing as we can use different positions.

The biggest problems we faced:
During filming, one of the biggest issues we faced was the actress forgetting the lyrics to the song due to the pressure. This meant that we didn’t get a complete run through of the lyrics and instead had to film in sections. This therefore, meant there were continuity issues in terms of positioning of hair and the framing. Also, because of this, the lighting in the background of the shots was different again effecting the continuity

Moving forwards:
After this filming session we decided that we would re-film all the footage again and make the following changes:
-film at a different time eg. noon to get better lighting so it stays consistent across all shots.
-Change the costume for the artist so it conforms more to indie codes and conventions.
-Ensure the artist knows the lyrics correctly and we reassure her to make her feel more comfortable.