Filming Day 4 - Studio Version/My House playing Accoustic Guitar

Today I filmed the studio version/performance element of the video at my home, and decided to sit on the windowsill of my bay window and play guitar (mime) and sing to the song. I had my speakers and MP3 which I played the song and put it on repeat. I did several takes and then did some close up shots on different parts of the guitar. I showed the top of the guitar where the hand presses down on the strings to create certain notes and tones, a close up on me strumming the guitar on an angle and then another angle where I showed the whole guitar looking up at it.

Filming Day 3 - Towneley and other places

Today we did a lot of filming, we have been in Towneley and did a lot of singing and non singing shots in a variety of places. Within our trip down to Towneley we went through a town and we took some footage outside a bridal shop their was a Christmas tree which we did some footage around as well as a playground. We liked the variety we got when we were out filming, even out filming ideas come to our head that either work or don't work but we tried them and shot the scene and when it comes to the editing process if it doesn't fit, its better to have it than have very little footage to work with.

Firstly we did the walking shots, singing the first chorus, where I am walking down this path, singing to the camera. We zoomed in to zoom out when I began to walk, we panned down to my face and we also panned up to show the process of me walking along a path, giving the audience a better look on the Mise-en-scene. The weather was rainy and cold, which also gave the dramatic effect of being upset and feeling lost for the character. We took this shot many times, using different pans, zooms and tilts.

The second set of footage we did was at the pond, a fountain was situated in  the middle. I was stood at one end of the pond while Gaynor and Melissa stood at the other with the camera, in which they zoomed in and tracked me while I was walking along the pond. We had a bit of  a struggle with this one, not only being windy and rainy, we had trouble communicating what they wanted me to do. Firstly I was standing at the pond just singing, then when I was told so walk, in which I walked along the pond and no singing and then finally in the end I walked and sang along the pond. For future reference, before going a long distant from the camera, make sure you confirm what you have to do when you get to the destination you are acting from and then you don't have to shout or stop the progress of filming.

We then went to the memorial statue which we filmed once with Kerry. This time there was many poppy reefs and we did different shots this time. We tracked me walking around the small pond across from the statue with a track and pan up, before I reached the memorial statue I started to sing the second chorus. We took this several times and we also came up with ideas for doing some different ideas around the memorial.


After we filmed me walking to the memorial statue singing and going onto the floor, we had another one where I walked up the steps and fell on my knees. We took this several times, as some of the takes didn't look realistic. I think this was due to the fact it was still raining and I didn't want to get my clothes wet, but I did anyway so it would look realistic. This was also part of the continuity editing we were going to achieve. Gaynor took the camera and placed it behind one of the statues, so that it was facing me and it was looking through the reef that was part of the statue. We then had another shot were we had the camera behind me so that we could place this with the shot of me from the front, keeping with the continuity idea.


After this we took another shot of me on a bench, the camera was on my right hand side and it zoomed in on my face, where I didn't sing in this piece and also to show that I am thinking of him and still not knowing what I am doing with myself.


We then had another shot of me walking out of Towneley Hall, emphasising that I am visiting places this character and her boyfriend have been or she is trying to distract herself.


After all the filming in Towneley, we then went into a town where we saw a bridal shop and we did a few takes on that. We had some trouble with this piece, as there was cars going by. Before we shot it we discussed on what we had to do before Gaynor and Melissa took the camera and stood at the other end of the street. We had a zoom in and zoom out, along with a pan up to show the wedding dress in the top window and another idea they took was to follow me walking away from the window.


Although we took all this footage, we might not use it all, as a group when we come up with ideas they sound good at the time and so we try them out and later when we go and start to edit we may use them or way might not.

We also found a church that would look good as though I've come out of the funeral or gone to visit him of some sort. We me walking away from the church and past the camera and then the camera panned up to indicate for the next transition.

We also filmed in a park, where I sat on a swing and looked miserable, as I do all the way through the none singing shots, and then we did another shot of me walking by a Christmas tree and then walking away from it.

Filming Day 2 - Location 2 - Indoor/Singing Shots

Today we have filmed the singing shots within a friends house, to show the character in her bedroom. We played the cover song in which I sang along to. I looked at the camera to engage with the audience and we came up with the idea of having a picture frame, to indicate it is a picture of him, or them both and she's remembering him, by singing to the audience of her story and expressing herself. This also gives it a realism and we have also used different angles, shots and positrons within the room. We took the shots several times and did one whole run through several times and the last section of the song we did several times as the beginning was the one which we shot from the beginning, so by skipping it until the last section we know we didn't leave bits out.

We also went out into the friends neighbours garden in which their was two chairs and a table in between. This represented both characters used to sit together and now its just her. This was shot from the beginning of the song all the way through to till the end of the song.

We then had another shot of me walking towards the house singing the second chorus. We are keeping with variety and different locations so we can use as much of the footage we have and fill in gaps if we have any.

Today was successful, we have a lot more footage to play around with, we have covered the whole track through footage, which gives good start when we start editing and placing footage onto the time line when we are editing. Although we may begin the process of editing, things will be changed and replaced with the rest of the footage we will be shooting.

Filming Day 1 - Wind Terbines

Today we went up to the Wind Turbines situated outside of Burnley and as winter is approaching as well as they're placed on hills, it was very cold and windy, which was good for our video as we wanted it to have a dramatic effect, showing the sadness of the character, as cold and the wind aren't positive factors. We filmed all non-singing shots which allowed us to show the character wondering places to show she didn't know what she is doing with herself, she doesn't know what to do. These places could also identify where she and her boyfriend used to walk together, their favourite places and such.

 

We used different angles to give variety, we took this piece several times. Also this can also give us more footage and variety and as well as keep with the entertainment factor and showing the location in different angles and moments. 

All of the video footage won't have its original audio track with it, as the Cover track will be the only sound audible, this is a positive factor as the wind would be the only thing that would be audible within the video track being used.

While we were there we got a few ideas from the lyrics, such as "wake up to your face against the morning sun" The sun was setting at the time and so we had the camera on a over the shoulder shot, me staring in the direction of the sun, the camera zooms in on the sun over my shoulder. We had a shot of me walking away from the camera and another shot of me walking towards the camera in the same position.

As well as this we had an idea of a place along the hills, were there is a spot in which you can look over Burnley. We went there, were I sat on a bench and looked out over Burnley, and looking around, as well as another shot of me at a fence looking over Burnley in which the camera zoomed out from being zoomed in on a tree and then zooming in on Burnley.

Today was just the start of the recording for our Music Video, and we have made a good start on the progress. Although not all the footage we shoot will not be used but if we have any gaps footage that looks significant or dramatic can be used. These pieces of footage will probably be used for the significant parts of the lyrics and as well as using it for filling in gaps that we may have.

Planning shooting schedule and photoshoot

We have decided keep our old ideas and we have looked at when we are free as well as looking at weekends to do filming.

We have decided to shoot all the filming first next week and so then we can edit, as experience from last year editing takes up a lot of the time and we will have to spend majority of the time syncing the footage with the track.  We then during the editing process do a photoshoot, which we will gradually work on during the editing process so when the editing process is done we will have something to work from.



Filming day 1 - We will be going to the Wind Turbines, as this is the location that is the furthest and do some non singing shots there, were I as the character within the music video, will look depressed, I don't know what to do with myself and as winter is approaching, it will be winding already up there but it will also be cold, which will add to the dramatic effect.

Filming day 2 - We will be going to Location 2 to do some filming there, within our friends house as well as outside the home and in a neighbours garden. This is where we will be having the singing shots, as I will be miming the song and acting it out, showing that it is the characters home to make the narrative realistic.

Filming day 3 - We will be going to Towneley and filming singing and none singing shots there. Within Towneley there are many different places that we can film to give variety to the mise-en-scene for our music video.

Filming Day 4 - This will be the Studio/performance element of the video, with me playing an acoustic guitar and singing along to the song. As well as this we are going to incorporate different camera angles of the guitar to give a more entertaining and variety element to the video.

Change of Plan

With problems due to Kerry's busy schedule and her having many extra curricular activities, we have gone back to the drawing board and have decided as a group to decided to use me as the singer and actress for the music video as I don't mind to be in front of the camera. We already have the cover and the lyrics so my responsibility is to know the songs, how long to hold the notes (miming) and how long to pause.

We have decided to use Location 2 as a place for filming, and its surrounding area. A neighbour as allowed us to use their garden in which there is two wooden made chairs with a table between them which will be a great place to film.

We are also going to use the Windmills that are near by for another possible location, where it will be windy and to give that feel of the character not knowing what to do with herself and the wind will give a dramatic effect, as her hair will be blowing in the wind and it will make her look cold.

Our ideas for the video

We are going to be filming from different locations such as:

Kerry will be in a house (Melissa's house in a spare room) and she will be lying in bed and her boyfriend will be lying with her but he fades away. We want to show the lyrics "And I wake up to your face against the morning sun" in which we will have a lamp and a cloth that will be pulled up slowly to show the sun rising and hitting his face. We are trying to re-create the sun rising but as the sun doesn't set or rise at the window, so trying to re-create it will be a challenge.

The rain shots of her will be none singing shots. A long shot of her in the rain with her standing with her coat on with her hood over her or down, then we will have her boyfriend running up to her in the rain to give her a hug and hold her, but then we will have him fade away to show that he isn't there to keep her warm or be there for her when she is feeling down.

We will possibly have a shot of her waving off her boyfriend on the train platform, a long shot of her waving and then a close up of her looking upset still waving and then walking away cutting back to another long shot showing her walking away.

We will be filming in fields were the windmills will be shown in the background to give that breezy and cold effect which Kerry will be pulling her coat around her self and looking upset and lonely as the breeze whips around her.

Screenshots - Editing process

We had a day of filming Kerry in Towneley Park, a public woodland location, the weather was a little breezy and the season is perfect with the falling of the leaves, shows as a connotation of the couples love dying and gives a sense of melancholy.

Here we have zoomed in on Kerry from a distance as we have set the camera from a distance at the beginning of a path. The zoom on Kerry looks really good as we haven't got the camera in front of her face and allows us to zoom out and track her without having to have the camera hand held.

We have two different shots of Kerry walking along the pond. We have panned down on Kerry to show her reflection in the pond and then she walks along the pond in which we cut to a close up of her feet walking along and back to the reflection of her walking. I got the idea of the close up of her feet walking along the pond from the music video My Immortal by Evanescence.

Here we got the idea that we will shoot this again and have her and her boyfriend's reflection and he will go out of shot and we will dissolve this to show that he as faded away, he isn't there anymore.

Here we pan down on Kerry to show her reflection in the pond.

We don't have the cover track yet, so we used the official song by Adele as a substitute for the syncing process. We have placed as much footage we had from the first filming day into places where the song suits the clip. We are planning another film day which will allow us to fill more of the time line and to match the different parts of the lyrics. This will possibly be rearranged depending on what we have filmed and what suits which part of the song.

We want a variety of camera shots to keep the video interesting and different variety of camera movements, such as panning, tilting and zooming.

We are going to have another filming day where we have scenes in a bedroom were he is fading away and she is looking out the window and looking miserable. Another location we will have is a field were we will have the windmills in shot.

Editing - How to work Adobe Premier

1

In this panel you have your footage that you have imported from the camera. The colours represent what type of footage it is. Purples represent titles and blank footage so you can add titles and pictures and edit them easily. The Greens represent recorded footage or any type of footage that has been imported. With this you can edit them using the effects (See number 2) and which part of the footage you want (see numbers 4, 5, 6 and 8). The panel basically is the components that make up the video.

2

The effects panel is full of variety; these can be used on recorded/imported film footage as well has the titles and pictures. The effects are a lot different to those I have used in Windows Movie Maker, they are much more complex, they are worded differently to those in WMM which are worded simply and you can look at what action it does. The text effects have their own effects too, as well as those in the Effects panel. The effects in the Text are better for the text has it actually uses the effect on the text and not the whole segment as a whole.

3

This is the screen where you will see the footage you have selected in the left panel (See number 1) you can only see actual film footage not text or blank footage these have to be edited and placed in the time line separately to see them and work with them.

 

4, 5 and 6

These buttons are the point markers for the footage that you want to crop separately. Marker 4 is the starting point of the required footage you want and Marker 5 is the end point of the required footage this makes number 6. This is coloured in a lighter grey to show you what you have highlighted. This makes it easier for you to cut the footage you want out and see what it looks like by playing the play, pause, Stop, Rewind and Fast Forward buttons on the left (See number 7) On the left hand screen (See number 14) you can see what the footage will look like when placed into the timeline below (See numbers 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13) by doing this you can click and hold the reel button (See number 8) and drag to the timeline for the required footage you have marked out.

7

This is an alternative way to Rewind or Fast Forward at your desired speed, so you have full control on how far you want to go back or forward or how slow you want to go to get to a certain point.

8

This button represents the Film Reel, this will allow you to drag the whole video or as shown above the selected segment and place it on the time line without the audio. Which we will be doing as you will only need to hear the track.

9

This green bar represents the footage that you have edited/placed effects on or over etc; this allows you to see if you have “rendered” the footage together so that the effects work with the footage and runs smoothly when playing back. If there is the colour red in the green bar is means it hasn’t been rendered, so by using the keyboard shortcut “Enter” button it will render those pieces so that effects will work and the footage is able to work.

10

In this plane you can place another piece of footage that you want to appear before or after a certain point in the footage below that panel, and with that if you place it half way between that certain footage you can see the rest of it after the footage on top as finished. 

11

In this plane you place your required footage that you have in the footage panel (See number 1) and add any effects you want from the effects panel by click and hold and drag and drop onto the footage within the time line.

12 and 13

This panel is for your Audio. This is where the track will go and will run throughout the video. 

14

This is the screen where you can view your video you have created so far from the timeline, and just like those in numbers 4, 5 and 7 you can use the same technique to see the footage at a certain point or to get back to the beginning or the end.

Here is the Keyboard that is used for Adobe Premier;  this makes it easier for the editing with these shortcuts.

Research on Videos and Artist etc like ours

Taylor Swift

 Taylor Swift's music is mostly aimed at teenagers/young adults. She uses acoustic style music for majority of her songs. Her stories within her videos are normally about Girl falls in love with Boy, something stops them from being together, boy as a girlfriend, they both fit into opposite cliques (Taylor Swift is an American singer, her videos are normally based around the stereotypes within an American high school) Her music is normally about love and fairy tales such as these:


You Belong With Me

 

This video is the stereotypical American high school, the jocks, the cheerleaders, the geeks etc. Taylor Swift as the character in this video playing the Geek, who has a crush on a boy who's popular, a jock, as a girlfriend who's part of the cheer leading team. 

 Here they have a conversation through pen and paper through each others windows. The boy is tired of drama "Your on the phone to your girlfriend she's upset, going on about something that you said" and the girl writes back "Sorry" she then begins to write "I Love You" but the boy has shut his curtains.

 It's the schools rugby game and the girl is playing in the band, the male characters girlfriend is a cheerleader, but when they win the game we see the girlfriend flirting with another boy part of the rugby team. The boy breaks up with her and the Taylor's character notices this.

 It's prom and the boy asks through pen and paper if she is going, she writes "no, studying" a typical thing that a geek would do.

The boy turns round and writes "Wish you were!"

She then eventually turns up for prom, looking less geeky and more classy and stylish. She reveals a sheet of paper that says "I Love You" and he also does the same.


Evanescence

My Immortal

All in black and white, in several places - fountain, trees, rooftops, car, inside a house with piano, the band inside a house for the performance element.

Christina Perri -Jar of Hearts

The colour scheme is interesting, the colour is a blue colour to show the sadness of emotion, through out the video she doesn't want him back and she becomes stronger, as do the other girls in the video that have had their hearts broken. This is shown by him taking some sort of breath out of them and they run away from him. They fight back during the end of the video and Christina's character takes his breath and her heart is then healed and the colour comes back into the video representing this.

She as good fashion style and as seen as above she can play guitar in which we will be aiming to have Kerry playing the guitar in a dark room with one spot light.

Adele

Adele as the style we are aiming for, the black and white element as well as the Promotional features. She used very simplistic colours, black and white with another colour, in this instance, Green.

The Lyrics - Adele - Hiding My Heart

Hiding My Heart Away

So this is how the story went
I met someone by accident
who blew me away
who blew me away

It was in the darkest of my days
When you took my sorrow and you took my pain
And buried them away, you buried them away

And I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I've ever known
you'll disappear one day
So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away

I dropped you off at the train station
And put a kiss on top of your head
I watched you wave
I watched you wave
Then I went on home to my skyscrapers
Neon lights and waiting papers
That I call home
I call that home

I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I've ever known
You'll disappear one day
So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away
Away

I woke up feeling heavy hearted
I'm going back to where I started
The morning rain
The morning rain
And though I wish that you were here
On that same old road that brought me here
Is calling me home
Is calling me home

I wish I could lay down beside you
When the day is done
And wake up to your face against the morning sun
But like everything I've ever known
You'll disappear someday
So I'll spend my whole life hiding my heart away
I can't spend my whole life hiding my heart
away

Change of plan

The struggle with getting "Do Wah Diddy" moving, we decided to change idea to something that can be possible and that everyone is free at the same and on multiple occasions. We have changed it to Adele - Hiding my heart, which is possible as we only need two characters - a boy and a girl. Kerry, our friend wanted to take A2 Media so she is enthusiastic to be part of our project. We have possible locations for shooting:

Fields - we have a place that are like moors with windmills in the background, hopefully we would want to have the weather to be a little breezy so that it gives a dramatic effect of the cold, she will be wearing a knitted cardigan, leggings and brown boots, something similar to this style.

Melissa's House - She has a spare bedroom that can be used as Kerrie's bedroom and to be used for memories and the cross fading effect when in the lyrics she sings about him not being there, we can have him there with Kerry and then he moves out of shot while the camera is paused, Kerry doesn't move and then we press play again and we can crossfade both sets of footage to show him fading away.

Train platform - This will be used when she waves her boyfriend off the platform.

Dark room - This will be used for the performance element where she will be sat on a high stool, playing acoustic guitar, possibly miming the song.

We will be colour coding the music video with Black and White for memories and Colour for the present.

A friend of Gaynor's called Jason is playing the male character and is also enthusiastic to be in the video too.

We are to discuss when we are all free and see if weekends are good for filming.

Font ideas for Album

 

Here are some ideas for the font of our band name. Trying to keep with the 60's style as well as trying to experiment with different styles too.

Costume Ideas

Girls

Looking at the 60's fashion for girls and I've found that crazy patterns were popular as well as the swinging dresses.

Boys

For the boys we have decided in a few options.

Posters - looking at other posters and what works best

Out of all the posters this one is the most captivating. Stone Roses are a popular band so they are recognised a lot more. They have star ratings and comments from magazines and music companies. The bold lettering grabs the audiences attention, as well as this they have a banner of their album art work on their poster to give a more extra boost to their advertisement. The creativity with the half cut fruit for the 0 is a quirky yet eye catching piece. It has logos from music companies and stays within a more or less colour scheme of red white and blue with yellow. 

Another creative poster, the artist and its album are split up between each line; the ZLY is on the right had side as the EST is the on left hand side, to show the balance. This also has star rating from magazines and music companies. The bright and quirky background makes the white font stand out and also shows the style of the band.

This poster is not as captivating. There aren't any comments, star ratings from music companies or music videos. It's a simple one showing the artist, the album and saying that it is out now and that you can buy it from Amazon and they have a website. The art work is something of a very artistic approach, very different from what music artists would do.

With this one you are more drawn to the background than any of the actual information given. The background is colourful and as deep detail. The information is yet again simple, the band name, album name, when it comes out, the versions you can buy and what it includes. It as a website and logos of companies.

With our poster we are looking to do something that captures an audience's attention. We would include comments and star ratings as well as some album art detail, possibly a picture from one of the photo shoots. Make the colour scheme work well and make sure everything is well proportioned out so that the important pieces get the audiences full attention.

Auditions day

The Auditions didn't go to plan. No body turned up but we have spoken to friends of ours who would be in the video and play the characters. We need dancers to make it look fun and professional as well as this we I have found a band with the full 5 people, drummer, bassist, guitarist, lead singer and keyboard player.  One of the members is going on holiday this week and some of the band members don't attend this college so this would mean we would have to have a day where we are free to allow to record the song as well has give them time to practise the song. If this does not go to plan, then we would take one of the karaoke versions and get a friend of ours Sam, to record the vocals.

Permission to use Karaoke versions

One of our back-ups was to use a karaoke version of Doh Wah Diddy that I found on Youtube. I messaged the person who uploaded the songs and he gave me 5 different versions of the song.

Audition Poster complete and Backup

Our audition poster is complete and we discussed what we would do if the outcome isn't as successful as we hoped.

If we don't get a full band to cover the song we will ask permission from the user on youtube, uploaded a karaoke version of the song if we can use that in our music video and we will record the vocals ourselves. If both of these plans fail then we will email HMV, their record label, and ask permission to use the song for educational purposes. There is a band playing for a concert on Friday 14th October for the Pink Day charity event our college is holding. We are going to see if they can cover the song and ask if we can record them.

We would like a mixture of Boy and Girl dancers, to even out the genders so that we are not biased on one gender than the other.

Song Discussion

The song we have decided to do is an old song which will make it harder for us to get hold of the owner of the music. We have decided to ask permission for a cover made by a band or to record the track ourselves with a band that is willing to do so.

We thought of the possibility to hold an audition to find possible people to play the instruments that are able to cover the song and can attend the filming sessions.

We would also need dancers for the bystanders that just jump into the video and dance around the main characters.

Here is the first draft of the audition poster

Location hunting

We would like to use streets in our home town and choose the best location by coming together with pictures of our ideas for locations we can choose which ones or all of them and decide the best times to go on location and shoot, along with making the best time for the rest of our actors to be in the film when they can fit in with our filming schedule.

Streets that are varied as well as indoor locations such as cafes that looks old and dated.

Melissa suggested a classroom scene

Downtown locations

Our streets (Google Maps)


Location 1 

Front view

This is wear Ben and the two girls will be, sitting or standing against the wall.

The school as been knocked down now and has been changed to grass land with trees and a big pond.

Location 2

Behind the tree's there is a playing field.

Location 3