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.

Filming Split Decisions

To ensure that everyone in the group had an equal split of filming, we decided to split the filming into four main sections and divide them between the three of us. We split the filming into:
• Red thread
• The library scene
• Live performance
• The argument scene
We decided to allocate the library scene to Liv as she will not be in this scene as an actress so she can film the whole section as there are some scenes she will have to be in so can’t film.

I decided I wanted to film the live performance section as after choosing the location, I had a good visual idea of how I wanted the framing and composition to look.

We decided Phoebe could film the argument scene and then between us, we would each take a ten second filming section of the red thread aspect to ensure we all have equal amounts.

This will help us as we can now plan our own individual sections more precisely as we have less to focus on. This should hopefully increase the quality in our overall product.

Filming Schedule

To help us plan our filming and to ensure our artists know where and when they need to be so we stay on track, we created a filming schedule.  This is according to the dates the artists are available and in accordance to the weather conditions we planned for.

Risk Assessment of Location

To ensure that my group and the actors/actresses we will be using are safe throughout the filming process, I decided to do a risk assessment of the three main locations we will be filming at. This enable us all to be safe and ensure we carry out the filming at a professional standard.

Location one: Altrincham car park

Location Two: The library

Location Two: The library

Due to there being numerous locations in Altrincham, I cannot cover every risk. Instead, when I am filming, I will ensure that everyone is safe and if any issues do come up, I will handle them carefully and professionally. 

Location Decisions

When trying to decide on a location to film our narrative we decided to film in a separate location for the live performance and the narrative performance. This is because it conformed to previous music videos we have analysed. We also decided that to get the best opinion of which location would be best, we would take the props we were going to use in final recording and the artist would dress up in the costume we had planned for the real filming. This is because it would allow us to visualise more effectively what each location would look like in the frame and footage. 

For the live performance we decided to try and find somewhere outside to film. This is because, when I researched codes and conventions of locations for female indie artists, many were outside in natural areas. However, we wanted to challenge this and try and find a more industrial area to create a more ‘edgy’ and ‘grunge’ tone to the live performance. 

Originally we had the idea of filming outside with candles to incorporate the idea from Lorde’s live performance video of ‘Sober’. However, because of the time of year, we realised that the weather wouldn’t be suitable. We also don’t have a camera of high enough quality to create a focus on the artist and a shallow focus on the candles. This therefore, would have washed out the artist. This is why we came up with the industrial idea as it allowed us to still create an edgy aspect to the live performance but it was something that was practically with the equipment we had. 

Therefore, when we were trying to find a location, we found two places that conformed to our vision; a roof top in a town centre, and a car park loading bay. Both of these location featured a lot of brick reds and metallic surfaces all of which created mysterious and dark tones. 

The location we decided to use was the roof top as it had a natural open sky in the background and a skyline. We also thought that if we filmed at sunset we would have a nice orangey/red sky in the background that could connote the passion and love within our narrative performance. 

For the narrative performance, we decided not to plan any specific locations for the red thread theory. Instead we would improvise in the locations on the day to make it seem more natural with the characters we used as they had no acting experience. The library scene we knew we would film in our local library and the rest of the narrative would be filmed in our groups houses which were available on the day. This meant we could organise the props within the house according to how we wanted.

Talent Release

To ensure the people acting in our music video give us permission to allow us to publish the music video online, we asked them to fill out a talent release form. This ensures that our music video will be professionally distributed and ensure it won’t be removed once published.

Although we will feature other people within our music video, their full identity will not be shown and we will not use their voices within the video. Their screen time within the video will only be a maximum of three seconds so they will not need to fill out a talent release form.

Casting Updates

Due to having problems with our actress who were meant to be casted as both the artist and as part of the narrative performance, we decided to change our casting choices. Instead of using Emily as our artist, we decided to use Liv Mclean who is a member of our group.

We also decided to swap the male character and other female character within our narrative to two of our friends as they were more available on the days we were planning to film. Although they have no acting experience, they are both attractive people and fit the brief for the characters we wanted in our narrative.

Lauren is an art student and although she has no acting experience, her creativity meant that we were sure she would understand our vision for our end product.

Callum is a fellow media student so we were confident he would understand the need to be efficient whilst filming and would be able to take our directions well as he has experience in directing.

We also asked them to sign new talent release forms to ensure we could use their footage within our video and share it publicly.