Filming for our Music Video – Performance

Me and my partner decided to film the performance part to our music video, we were lucky because the weather wasn’t raining, but it would have looked much better if it was sunny. However, no one else was free and it could have been the only time that we had all the bands members and equipment together. We found a suitable location that was in my friends back garden, it has a great view and it was on a hill as we had wanted. We believe the shot looked good from all angles and was suitable for our needs. We got all the equipment together and band members and headed to the location, we had planned all the necessary equipment beforehand and we believe this saved us a lot of time. It took us about 3 hours to get the equipment ready and to get shots of each band member individually and together. We believe we have good qualitative and quantitative footage for us to work on. 

Shot List Timings – Performance

For the narrative part of our music video I planned a schedule for the day, this was extremely useful as by following it we managed to get organised and get things done on time. We also didn’t have to do any retakes as we believe our footage was perfect.  We believe as we are filming our performance part in one go we need to get it right as we will be pushed for time. This meant we start early and finished quite late. We were lucky as it started to rain minutes after we had finished and got the equipment back into the car. Again we have the disadvantage of working with limited day light; as it’s forecasted to be cloudy we will have even less day light.

11:00am – Meet partner and then drive to Linton to meet band members

12:00pm – Get equipment into the car drive to location, start to set up

1:00pm – Once everything is ready, start to film band members alone then together.

4:00pm –Review the footage, retake anything is necessary

4:20pm – disassemble equipment and load into car then drop it back off.  

4:40pm – Drop partner home and finish for the day.

Sunday Filming - Finishing Narrative

On Sunday me and my partner, Graham drove to Sewards End to get some more narrative shots. As part of our narrative we planned a location with a long path that almost looked symmetrical. We needed a place where I could walk down and the camera tracked me. We found an excellent public footpath with a long winding path, on each side there are trees and bushes and they almost look symmetrical. This shot and location allows us to edit extra features into it which helps add detail to the narrative. For example, as I am walking down the pathway there will be shots of my "parents" with their arms crossed shaking theirs head, connoting their disappointment and also engaging the audience to wonder why they may be disappointed with their "son". We did want to try get some performance shots done, but our friend had let us down at the last minute, but this meant we would have to reschedule at film another narrative part.

Here are two shots of the path we used and how we hope to edit the parents into it.

Narrative Event Time Line

For our first 33 seconds we have a introduction which shows the main characters and builds up to bringing the song in.  We edited this sequence earlier today from the footage we filmed last week. The footage we have edited shows myself walking out from my friends house into my car, turning the music up loud and then driving off. at 27 seconds there is a close up of the stereo showing my hand turning the volume up, at this point we will edit it so our chosen song starts off quietly and then gets louder as I turn it up on the stereo. We will switch to some performance shots at about 10 seconds in and switch back after a couple of seconds. We aim to make sure that at about 26 seconds into the song we to a mid shot of our vocalist, at this point in the song the vocals start and we want to introduce the vocalist at this point. We aim to introduce each member of the band individually. So to start we will show the drummer, then guitarist, bassist and finally the vocalist.

Weather Check for 17th and 18th December

We need to make sure that on our day of filming that it is hopefully not cloudy and a blue sky.  This is for several reasons, it means there is better light and it looks better in the narrative as well as continuity. If we were to film on a cloudy day there is always a risk of rain and this could ruin our plans. We also made sure that everyone was available for the day we choose to film, which was both Saturday and Sunday, so we could get as much as done as possible. Here is a screenshot taken from BBC Weather for Cambridge, were we will be filming our narrative and performance parts. This weather does not look promising, it will be cloudy all day, which also means there will be less daytime as it will get dark quicker. There will also be the chance of rain. However, we will film our performance part becuase we dont have to worry about continuity becuase we havent started it yet.

Equipment List 17th & 18th December

For our day of filming it is essential that we have the right equipment, as it could be a waste of time if we get to our locations and we are missing or have forgotten equipment. If we had forgotten an SD card for example we would not be able to record anything. Our equipment list is as follows:

·         HD Camera and Bag

·         SD Card

·         Tripod

·         Dolly

·         Car Availability

·         Storyboards

·         Same Costume  (Black Jumper, Polo, Jeans and DC Shoes)

·         Same Characters (James, Will, Graham and Myself)

Possible Performance Location

I found a possible location that we could use to film the performance part of our video The location is an old barn that would be perfect to set up all the instruments and to get some excellent shots. It has a roof and only one side wall, this is perfect because it will let in suitable light and will shield from rain and wind. The barn looks abandoned and grungy which will be perfect to match with chosen music genre. It is big enough to spread out and get both long and close up shots of the instruments, individuals and the band as a whole. Here is a picture of the barn we will be using.