Editing starts!

Now we have all the shots we need we can start to edit them in any ways we want to make our music promo.All of the editing had to be done in school as we needed to use the Mac laptops that were provided to us as these contained the editing software. We first downloaded all of the clips onto the software so we could view them all and decided which shots were good enough to keep. Any shots that were blurred or didn't come out right we deleted as long as we were sure we definitely wouldn't need them later on. Millie and I worked together on the editing to ensure that it was not left just to one person. However Millie had much better experience with it and therefore had more skill with it so now and again Millie would have to show me how to do some things so that I could gain more experience with it. After a few hours of experimenting with it I became more confident with using the software. 

We used the storyboards to help us piece together the video. We were grateful that we decided to film some shots twice over as some of them did not come out the way we'd hoped however the second shot did so this meant we would not have to go out and try to film it again. We started to piece together the video, however when we were editing the beginning first few shots we started to have doubt about the planned start of the video. On our storyboard we had originally planned to start with an over the shoulder shot of Sam and then the band would later on be introduced. However we thought more about our research and how we would target our audience and thought it would be much better to start with a shot of the guitar playing the tune to the song this would then introduce the band waiting to perform and then the shot of Sam would come after. We thought this was a better idea as in our target audience research we had identified that our audience 'indie scensters' are heavily interested in the guitar music so we thought that we would target them better by placing a shot of the guitar at the beginning of the video, this would then keep their attention to watch the rest of the video. We also thought about the fans as well, and by providing them with shots of the band this early on in the video would help them straight away recognize who the band is again influencing them to watch the rest of the video. Also because they'd recognize the band straight away they would recognize what type of song the video would be based around again targeting their interests.  

The editing was a very long process and we worked hard on this for a couple of weeks to ensure everything looked the way we wanted it to. Luckily there were no more changes made to our storyboard so we were able to follow it easily. There were only a few problems we had with the editing and most involved putting the shots in the right place so they were in time with the video. For example we really struggled at first to get Matt's lip syncing correct to make it look professional and as though he were actually singing it. Sometimes in order for these shots to fit in time properly we would have to cut some of the other shots before or after this clip down in order for his singing to be in time with the song. As well as cutting we sometimes had to have longer clips even if we didn't really need some of a certain clip. However this was all worth it as we managed to sync it properly and we were happy with this result. 

We were also a bit worried as some of the shots of Sam and Millie were meant to be in the 'summer' to show they were in the past however on day one of the filming when these shots were recorded we did not have much luck with the weather and we therefore thought that this would show in the video. However as we planned for these shots to be in black and white, fortunately you could not tell the weather conditions as much as the black and white helped make it look like this was summer because of the summery clothes Millie and Sam were wearing.  

Below are some pictures to show us using the apple Mac to edit our video.  

Below is a picture to show the editing affect we used to create the shots on our storyboard of Sam walking through the forest and of the black and white shots that follow of Sam and Millie walking that same way. You can see that we used the cross dissolve effect in order to get the exact types of shots we'd hoped for. This kind of made it look like Sam was being 'followed' by the memories of him and Millie being together in this location. It took us a while to find the exact affect we wanted, we also tried other affects such as over lay and fade in, however these effects did not blend the shots together as well as you could tell that both were completely different shots as there was a short space in-between them, whereas the cross dissolve effect allowed the shots to run into each other smoothly.

Day 5 Filming!

Now we were ready to film in the town center. We used our shot lists and storyboard to help us identify who was needed for these shots. Myself, Millie and Sam needed to go to this location. As we were filming this after sixth form we had as much time as we wanted and needed to film the shots so we did not have a time deadline. 

Once we got to the Town we went straight to Burger King to film our 'cafe' shots. We started by filming the shots with Sam and myself in. Of course Millie had to film these. As these shots involved me talking to Sam whilst getting little response from him I found it hard to make it look like I was actually having a conversation. We thought it would be a good idea for me to actually be talking to Millie whilst looking at Sam so I actually had something to talk about and it looked believable. We then went on to filming the shots of Sam and Millie, Millie did not find it difficult to make it look like she was talking to Sam as these shots involved him actually responding back to her to show the difference between how he felt about her and how he feels about my character. We then used the storyboard and shot lists to film other shots that were needed.

Below are some pictures of us in the cafe filming.   

 

After we had filmed the shots in the cafe we went to the Water Gardens to film the outside scenes. These involved the final shots of Millie and Sam meeting again. These shots of them will be in colour so we will not have to edit these when we put the shots together to make the final video. I feel this filming day was a success as we did not have to wait around for anyone and we were not in any rush to get the filming done as we were not set a time deadline.

Day 4 Filming!

This day we had planned to film in thew town center, however when we checked back over the shots we filmed on our third day we realized that we had not filmed as many close ups of Matt lip syncing as we'd hoped and planned to, this meant that we had to postpone filming in the Town center until next week as this was the only day that Matt was available to help us. This meant we were adding another day to our filming schedule which could put us a bit behind.

We arranged to meet Matt in the same school hall location. As we just wanted close up shots of him  we did not need to position him on the stage where we'd got the previous close ups of him. We decided to stand him in front of a black wall for a good effect. Again we filmed shots of him lip syncing the whole song through twice in order to ensure we had enough good footage to use. This did not take long at all and we only spent around an hour filming him. We were pleased with how professional he was and thought his lip syncing was brilliant. We knew that he would be good as we trusted him which is why we are pleased we chose him for the main member of the band.

Day 3 filming!

As we planned, our third day of filming took place in the school hall where we could film the band performing. Our filming was unfortunately delayed for around 15 minutes as one of our actors was late turning up and we couldn't start filming without him. This left us less time to get what we needed filmed within the time period we were given to use the hall on this date. Once the actor finally turned up we realized he was not dressed in the way we wanted him to be to fit into the character of the band member and to suit the genre of music. He originally turned up in jeans and a jumper, whereas we needed him to be wearing a smart shirt just like the rest of the actors. Fortunately one of the other actors had a spare shirt in their bag that could fit him so he was able to change into this. Once everyone was ready we began to film, we used our shot lists and our storyboard to ensure we knew exactly what shots to film. 

We thought it would be a good idea to film the band performing the whole song straight through at first, and we would do this twice. This would help us ensure that we could get a good shot if one of them did not turn out how we planned. Filming it straight through for the whole song would allow us to later on pick out the bits we wanted and edit them into our video. We had Matt lip sync the whole song and filmed this from different angles in order to make different types of shots. We also made sure we got close ups of each band member as in our research we identified that this would be a good way to target our audience. 

At first the boys found it hard to take it seriously when Matt was lip syncing however after a while they got used to the idea of it and cooperated a lot better and acted professionally.After 2 hours we were done and could thank the boys and tell them they could go. I feel that despite the two small constraints we managed to get on with it and the filming went successfully as we shot everything we needed to. However if we need to film with the boys again we will ensure that each one of them knows the dress code!

Below are some pictures to show what the boys were wearing and how they were set out on the stage in the hall. 

Day 2 filming!

Today Sam, Millie and myself were able to use our filming schedule to identify that we needed to make a trip to the small forrest area near our sixth form to film the next set of shots we needed here. We took our storyboard and shot lits with us so that we knew which shots needed to be filmed, what type of shots they were and which ones could be filmed together. We found that our shot lists really helped us on this day as we did not have to keep looking through our storyborads to find out which shots were being filmed in exactly the same spot as this was clear on these lists. When we first reached the forrest we found that the opening to it was very wet and muddy so we had to walk through the woods for a while in order to find a dry spot to film in. After about a five minute walk we found a nice place to film.

We managed to film everything we needed to film in around 2 hours which was no where near as long as the time we spent filming in our London location. I feel this day went a lot better than our first previous filming day mainly because of the weather and the fact that we knew exactly where our location was. I also feel that we came prepared for this day as we brought camera covers and coats with us incase it started to rain so that we would still maybe be able to film if the weather conditions turned bad again.

These are the shots we managed to film this day, with the help of our shot lists and story board;

- The shots shown in this photo were the ones that could be taken in groups in the different areas of the forrest.

 

We started filming all the shots with Sam and Millie, then we moved onto all of the ones that involved my presence. We then moved onto filming shots of the scenery in this specific area of the forrest.  

- For this shot we had to film around five takes to ensure we got the right shot we were looking for. This was because at some times Sam would be walking faster than me so I would look like I was jogging rather than walking! In other takes that we filmed of this I would forget when to grab Sams hand in order for us to be in the right position on the camera at that time. After these five takes we managed to look back at the shots and identify that we had filmed a few good useable takes.

The shots below on our storyboard are the other types of shots we filmed on this day. We had to film Sam walking on his own and then film him walking with Millie. When it comes to the editing we can add the effect in to make the shot look exactly how we want it to.

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.