Reflection on filming - 30/10/12

In the video below I have reflected on the filming we did today. Evaluating aspects such as weather conditions, timing, how the footage fits to conventions, will help me to make decisions about our film in the future.

Reflection on filming - 29/10/12

In the video below I have reflected on the filming we did today. Including weather conditions, timing and shots we experimented with. Evaluating the filming we have done will help me make decisions about filming in the future such as  arranging times, locations and shot ideas.

Filming Schedule 29th and 30th October

On Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th of October we plan on filming about half the shots for our music video. On Monday we are going to film between 10am and 2pm as this is when the weather will be most suitable for our chosen shots. Then on Tuesday we will film between 10am and 4pm as this will allow time to record the scenes (such as the couple sat on the sand dunes) which need to be filmed when the sun is setting. Below are the plans we made as to when we would film each set of shots...

Monday 29th:
Weather forecast - sun and cloud.
10am - Sidmouth - Jonny playing guitar in a field.
11.30am - Sidmouth - Experimenting with Jess and Tom's ice cream scene.
12.30pm - Sidmouth - Jess and Tom spending time together - the park and the beach.

Tuesday:
Weather forecast - cloudy morning, then more sun later on in the day.
10am - Woodbury forest - Jess and Tom spending time together - hugging and holding hands; we also plan on experimenting with ideas such as throwing leaves around and having fun.
1pm - Exmouth beach - Jess and Tom walking along the beach, holding hands and hugging; we will also experiment with ideas such as writing in the sand and splashing in the water.
3pm - Exmouth dunes - Jess and Tom sat on the dunes wrapped in a blanket, we will film this from the front and behind.

Going through song lyrics with Jonny

In this image I am showing Jonny the lyrics he will need to know and discussing how he could learn these. I also asked him to listen to the song as many times as possible so that he could get an understanding of the pace of the lyrics and the way in which he should sing them. In addition, listening to the song will help him get an idea of the beat of the song and the pace at which he should play guitar. It is essential that we explain each aspect of the video to our cast so that they know what to do when we go out and film; this will allow us to be more efficient with our time and fit more good quality filming into the day.

Narrative and genre - Andrew Goodwin's theory

In the presentation below I have explained Andrew Goodwin's theory about music videos and related his ideas to the plans we have for our music video.

Selecting costume items

I have previously looked into costume and given images of the ideal clothing I would dress my actors in, however as we do not have any budget to pay for new clothing we have had to use clothes which me and the actors already wear. I have asked informed the two guys about the style of clothing they will need to wear and about the different costumes they will need for different scenes and they are going to show us the outfits they think are most suitable. I feel that Jess' clothing needs to be quite varied in order to show that time has gone by between each setting they visit; this adds a sense of realism or verisimilitude  it will also make shots more interesting, in addition different outfits may encourage female viewers to want to be like her or have her clothes; this will create an interest and buzz about the video. Therefore I have planned different outfits for each scene based on clothes which Jess and I already own. It is important that we focus on representing Jess to be fun, girly and pretty, as this is a similar style to many members of our target audience, and we also need to ensure that she seems like a normal girl, so that viewers will be able to relate to Jess.

The beach and dunes: 

For the scene where Jess and Tom walk along the beach and the scene where they are sitting on the sand dunes I have considered two dresses, both are summery and light in colour as we plan on filming these scenes on a sunny day. Both dresses are the style of clothing which the type of girl we are trying to represent would wear. We like the plain dress because  it is simple and the belt pulls in at the waist, in addition it is a length which shows some skin and therefore draws the eye, but it does not look too short or provocative. Despite this we have decided that the slightly more colourful dress is more suitable as the colours will draw the eye and make the dress stand out from the pale background of the beach.


The woods:
In the scene where Jess and Tom spend time in the woods we have chosen a navy dress with flowers on and a red cardigan. The dress has an elasticated waist and therefore will show Jess' figure, and then the casual red cardigan will add a sense comfort and relaxation, it will also be more suitable for the weather conditions which we are likely to encounter. The dress will finish just above the knee, and Jess will be wearing black tights in as she said that this made her feel more confident and comfortable, in addition black tights will be most suitable for a forest setting. This style of clothing shows her as a feminine, pretty and happy girl; this is the type of person we are trying to represent. As the dress is feminine and mid length it is more likely to  attract the male gaze.

The picnic:
For the scene where to couple will be lying on a picnic blanket we have chosen a classic red coat for Jess to wear. She will wear this with dark jeans. We feel this will be suitable for the weather conditions which we are hoping to be sun and cloud on the day we chose. In addition the simple and casual outfit will show a different side to the character, as in many scenes she is wearing very feminine dresses, the simple warm coat will contrast with this. The shoes which Jess will be wearing for many of the scenes are exactly the same as the boot shown in the image to the right, these are practical,comfortable and warm, but still add height making her more provocative and appealing. In addition her style may encourage female viewers to aspire to be like her. 

More Preliminary Filming

Recently we went out and practised a lot of the shots we are planning to use for our music video and in the video above we have put clips of our filming together and analysed each shot. Within the video we have recorded our feelings about shot quality, the framing, the lighting, the acting and the general success of each scene; this will be very helpful when we come to film and create our final video as we can learn from the mistakes we have made in our preliminary filming. 

Carrying out this prelim filming has been really useful and encouraging. It has shown me that we will need to be careful when choosing which camera to film with; as we chose not to use a school film camera for this filming and the quality is not very good. Therefore this has helped us save time, because if we had not tested the camera during this filming we would have wasted a lot of time by filming our final video and I would not have been happy with the quality of the shots. Our prelim filming has also been a chance to test out shot ideas and see what works well and also hightlighted some shots that we may need to adapt or reconsider. It has also helped me estimate how long each shot will take to film and which camera angles and locations are more successful. This filming has also been a chance for the actors to come to terms with each scene and experiment with the different ways that they could act in each shot; this will speed up the real filming process as they will already know what to do and I will have already explained each different scene during the prelim filming.