Day one- filming- photos

Whilst we were filming in London we took a few quick pictures of the location of Parliament Hill to show how beautiful it was!

Day one. Filming!

For our first day of filming, Mille, Sam and myself travelled into London to find our Parliament Hill location. We set off early morning hoping to have the whole day to spend on filming. However our day did not go as well as we hoped it would... we got lost. We could not remember the ruite that would take us to this location and spent hourse trying to find it. In the end we had to ask directions to help us get there. After around 2 or so hours we managed to find the setting we wanted. It was beautiful. As we now had less time to film we did not get as much as we hoped to get done here as we still needed to find a small London street to do some of our other filming. However the shot list we created helped us to get upto speed again as we knew exactly what shots to film on the hill. Even though we did have to work quickly we worked effectively as a team to ensure we filmed as much as we could. As we were searching for a small street it started to rain! This mean we had to find shelter in a small cafe for around an hour as we did not want to risk getting the camera or the tripod wet. Also we didn't want it to look like it was raining in our shots as we still needed to film the past summer shots. Obviously when we edit our summer shots that we filmed here we will be making them black and white so you will not be able to notice the weather conditions as much. Even though the day did not go exactly to plan we still managed to get what we needed however for some shots we managed to have enough time to do the shot a couple of times so we could decide on which one was best incase one was not as good quality etc, but on some shots we did not have time to do this.  
We have identified that we are likely to not have this problem for our next filming schedule as we know exactly where this location is as it is only around the corner from our school.

Shot lists

Another thing we thought would be a good idea before we started filming was to create a shot list. We wanted to create this list to help us identify which shots could be filmed together. This would save us a lot of time as we can film all of these shots one after the other instead of having to move location to film the shots in the order we have put them on our storyboard. The shot list shows the location in which each shot is to be filmed in, underneath we have listed the types of shots and then we have noted what number shots from our storyboard will be filmed together here.

For example for the first shot list we have put the location which is 'London location- Parliament Hill. Then underneath we have listed what these shots listed will involve which is first the 'Bench'. Then underneath this we have listed all of the shots that will be filmed around this bench.

I have colour coded each list to show even clearer which shots can be filmed together. So for the first example I explained has been colour coded in blue. Once we start editing all of our footage, this will be when we put the shots into the correct order.

Filming schedules

Now we knew WHAT we were going to film... we needed to think about WHEN we were going to film it. We needed to make sure we planned our filming times according to when everyone was free instead of asking our actors last minute. We have also planned what equipment we will need to take with us on each day. Firstly we wanted to get our filming in London out of the way as this would have to be done during a period of time when we were not at sixthform and as we could not miss any of our other subject lessons it was important that we set a day during the half term. We decided to set the day of our London filming the first Thursday of that time off. We decided on this day as Millie and I both work on the weekends so would have not been free at all then, also we needed our actor Sam to accompany us as our storyboard shows that he is in our London shots and this was also the only day he was free. As we have two London locations that we want to film in we decided we would leave early morning so that we could spend the whole day up there. On our first filming day we are hoping to film in a small london street as well as in Parliament hill.

On this day myself, Mille and Sam will be the only members travelling to London. We need to ensure we take the video camera and the tripod. We have also planned that Millie and Sam should take two outfits with them so we can make it look like different shots were filmed on different days. Also as we are hoping to film the over the shoulder shot of sam in the present time we need him to be wearing winter clothers, whereas in the scenes we will also be filming with Millie he needs to wear summer clothes to show this was in the past.

The second day we will film will be during the week when we first return back to sixthform after half term. We are allowed to film during our media lessons and our free periods so we have decided to film for two hours on the following Thursday as this is when our media lesson takes place. The location in which we plan to film on this day will be in small forrest located next to our School building. Again we will need Sam on this day so we have identified that he is also free to film at this time. Again we will need the camera and the tripod and Sam will need a change of clothes.

The third time we will be filming will be the next Friday. This filming schedule will involve our band. This will take place after school as this is the only time any of us are free on this day. Also as we are using actors that are not from our sixthform it was a better idea for us to do this filming at the end of the day as they would have finished college at the same time. We have asked permission to use the hall of our sixthform at this time and are now booked in. We have decided to film for around 2 and a half hourse as we feel this is enough time to get what we need from the band actors.

The next time we plan to film will be the following Thursday the week after. We have chosen this time as again this is when our media lesson takes place so we are free to use it how we need. We will be using the Harlow Town as our location to film more shots of Sam, Mille and myself.

We hope that none of these dates change, however we can not be sure of this as there is the risk of one of the characters getting sick or the chance there could be bad weather could affect our filming but we are hopeing for the best. Also we are aware that if some of the filming takes longer than we thought and we do need extra filming days we will blog about these also.

Other ways to contact the band (Letter)

As well as the social networking we also thought it would be useful to try and contact the band through the use of a letter. This will widen our chances of recieving a reply. We thought it would be best to only use these two methods as we do not want the band to feel we are pestering them. Below is a picture of the letter we wrote them.

Above is a picture of the letter we also wrote to Virgin Records. This is also one of the band's record labels so we though it would be worthwhile to try and contact them also. This would also help us to ensure we are avioding any copyright issues that may occur. For both letters we have stated why we are writing to them and what our assignment involves. We are still awaiting a reply.

Contacting the band

We thought it would be a good idea to contact the band 'You me at Six' to ask their permission of using their song for our music promo assignment as we do not want to break any copyright laws with our video. Below I have included a picture showing how we have tried to contact the band through a social networking site known as Twitter. This site is popular for communicating with celebrities which is why we chose this kind of method for contacting them. However we have not yet had a reply.

Storyboards

Below are pictures of the storyboard for our music promo. In order for my group to be able to start filming our video it was important that we created a storyboard to help us plan how we wanted our video to look. This would save us a lot of time when we start our filming as we will already know what shots we need to film instead of trying to come up with ideas on day 1 of filming. I have sketched an idea of what each shot should look like so that we know how to position the characters and equipment. I have also wrote the song lyrics over the shot that will be playing during that time. Next to the sketch I have wrote notes on the type of shot each will be and what will be happening in each. In some cases I have also said why we are doing this and if any transitions or edits could be put there.
For example; For the first shot I have stated that this will be an over the shoulder shot to show our character Sam walking. I have noted that in the background you will be able to see our London location in Parliament Hill. I have said that we would like to edit this particular shot into slow motion to create a good motion effect whilst he is travelling to the scene in the next shot. By slowing the shot down this will also hopefully help the shot match the pace of the song.

Song lyrics

Before creating the storyboard I thought it would be useful to analyse the lyrics of the song. As my group want to create a relationship with the lyrics and the video by making a narrative story I thought it would be a good idea to jot down a few ideas on a lyrics page to help show how we plan to relate them. This way when it comes to creating the story board we can incorporate these ideas into it to ensure that parts of the video are narrative. On this page I will jot note down types of shots we could use for each idea thought up.

Below are the pictures I have taken of this plan...

 

 

I have made notes on the types of shots that we could include for each set of lyrics. I have only included scenes and shots on this plan that have a relationship with the lyrics, the rest of the scenes; such as the shots of the band will be shown on my storyboard. Creating this plan has benefited me as I feel more prepared to start drawing up the storyboard as myself and Millie have a better idea of what kind of shots and scenes we want to include on our story. 

 

Further Research + Planning (shots + Filming techniques)

Now we had an idea on where we would be filming we thought it would be useful to carry out a bit of research on different filming techniques and shots to give us ideas on how to create our own video. As we had not really had  brilliant experience in filming before we thought this would be worthwile to us as we would be gaining a greater insight into the variety of different techniques that could be used. This could also help us make our video look more professional and better set out.

For this research we looked through music magazine booklets as these were very relevent to the topic. These booklets also gave us video links that would help us understand some shots better. We may or may not choose to incorporate the techniques we research into our video, but this will still help us gain more knowledge on what it takes to film a good quality video.

Below is an image of one of the books we used for our research.

This particular magazine had a text involving 'Hollywood film techniques'. This text talked of the 'Kuleshov effect'. This technique is an editing technique that prompts the viewer to infer a single location from a series of shots, without requiring the need of an establishing shot. Below I have included another image that demonstrates the idea of this shot...

After reading these books we have a better idea of the different types of shots we can incorporate into our music promo video. As we film our video we will identify whether or not we can use these kinds of filming techniques to fit the style of video we are planning on creating. As we have stated previously we already know that we want to include many close ups of the band members in order to provide the viewers with high quality shots of the bands to make them appear more appealing to them. We also want to include a numerous amount of establishing shots in order to show the beautiful and different locations we plan on setting our video in.