- 2x Lights + Relevant colour gels I would need ( Red, blue, purple, yellow and orange ) so that I could ensure my music video was properly lit, trying to eliminate any shadows, and so I could create different emotions and levels of warmth using the colour gels.
- 2x Light Tripods so that I could set up the lights to be free standing in the position I wanted and they would stay in the same position until I moved them myself.
- 2x Camera, I took away both a Sony and a Nikon camera as I was undecided which I wanted to film with, so I just took both as a contingency and practised with each before deciding to use the Nikon as my hand held camera and set the Sony up on a tripod to capture different angles.
- 2x Camera Tripods so that I could set up the cameras on a steady platform to get a stable shot. and also to set up to get level shots from different angles.
- 1x Wheel Camera Stabiliser, this was a stabilising tool where you could fasten the camera down in the middle of a wheel and almost drive the camera around to film stable shots whilst also giving a hand held feel to the shot being captured.
- 1x Reflector, I used a large reflector to help keep the light in the shed, this is because at the end of the shed where I filmed my music video there is a large window and I did not want any uncontrolled natural light entering, so I set up the reflector to reflect the sunlight back out the window, and reflect the lighting I set up back inside.
- 1x Drum Kit, I was fortunate enough to have a friend who let me borrow their drum kit for the weekend so that I could film my music video.
- 2x Guitars, I already own a guitar which we used in production and the lead guitarist also brought two guitars he owns, one to play on and another one we could smash.
- 1x Microphone and amp, I was once again fortunate enough to have a friend who was happy to let me borrow their microphone and amplifier for the weekend to film my music video.
Setting up Equipment -
I used a 2 point lighting set up with my lights, using one as a key light and the other as a fill light. I did this because I wanted my actors to be clearly lit whilst also having some shadow behind them, this for me is personal opinion as I thought that being able to see the shadows behind the moving actors in front of you gave a more 'real' feel to the end product. The reflector I used was double sided, one side was a blank white in order to reflect the light how it arrives on the reflector and the other side was a golden reflector meaning that it gave the light more of a warm feel when reflected. I used the reflector with the golden side facing into the shed to reflect the lighting I set up and the other side facing to the window too block out the natural light coming in from the window.
To set up the camera I first had to set them both to the right settings, this was:
- Shutter Speed of 1/50
- 25 Frames per Second
- I set the aperture on the Sony camera I used too F8 as this was going to be set in one place so I only needed it to be focused on the subject so this had a shallow depth of field.
- I set the aperture on the Nikon camera I used too F22 as this was going to be the camera I was holding and moving about the frame with, therefore I wanted to have this camera focused on the subject as well, but also have detail in the background setting.
- The ISO I used on both cameras was 200 this is because I was shooting with a lot of different coloured lights and I wanted the image to be as sharp as possible with minimal 'noise'.
As I mentioned before I used the Nikon Camera as a hand held camera, so I could move around the set getting more abstract and moving angles, whereas I set the Sony Camera up on a tripod I used this when I needed to have a steady camera pan, for example in the opening scene:
I also used the Sony camera on a tripod as a contingency, to be able to leave the camera filming the scene to capture different angles that I had not previously thought about, and to ensure that I had enough footage, for example:
I used the Nikon Camera in a hand stabiliser shaped like a wheel, this meant that I could control the camera very well and move it around set easily, with the knowledge that to footage I was collecting would be stable. The majority of my footage was filmed this was, using the Nikon camera in a hand stabiliser.
Whilst using the Nikon camera I changed between Manual focus and Auto focus a few times, depending on what shot I was trying to film. Shots which include actors moving closer or further away to the camera I used auto focus as I was not confident enough to be able to change the focus manually to adapt to the changes in composition and such a fast rate. This is an example of where I used auto focus to film with:
I used manual focus to film shots which involved little or no change in how close the subject was to the camera, therefore I could spend time setting up the camera to focus and it would stay in focus, here is an example of where I used manual focus:
Filming Diary -
Thursday 5th of December:
I printed out my risk assessment and all the action that I needed to complete in order for my location to be safe for the actors so they did not hurt themselves. I simply worked down the actions I needed to complete ticking them off as I went and removing objects I didn't need to create more space for my production... aided of course by a cup of tea:
Friday 6th of December:
My first port of call was to transport the drum kit which my friend had offer to lend me, from one house to another. To do this I travelled to their house and helped take apart the drum kit, making mental notes on how to put it back together. This is when I came across my first problem, it would not all fit in the car however this was quickly resolved by implying doing two trips back and forth between the houses. Upon the arrival at my shooting location, my house, after the two trips picking up drums, I then had to make the decision wether or not to leave them in my house over night or outside in the shed. I decided to make space inside my house and store the dissembled drums inside my house in the end as I could not guarantee the security of the shed, and as it was not my drum kit I wanted to make sure they were looked after as best as possible.
Saturday 7th of December ( Filming Day ):
I set my alarm for 7:00am in order to move the large objects and furniture out of my shed and into the garden as these could not be done on Thursday incase there was any bad weather. This is when I encountered my first problem of the day, how to move a fridge and sofa safely by myself, of course this was resolved by approaching the task with a 'slow and steady' mindset. Once I had removed these items and covered the sofa with a waterproof tarpaulin I began to transport the drums from my lounge into my shed:
The time was now around 8:30 and I had asked my talent to arrive at 9:00am which gave me just about enough time to finish transporting and setting up the drum kit before the talent arrived; I set up the drum kit in the corner of the room as this was most space efficient and it would not be in the way. Once I had finished setting up the drum kit I made a pot of tea and a pot of coffee so that I had something to offer to my talent when they arrived. My talent then arrived and I offered them tea or coffee and asked if they wanted anything to eat or drink, I then proceeded to lead them outside and showed them the area we would be filming any what the overall plan for the day would be and let them get familiar with the space and equipment:
The time was now around 9:45am and we had a strict deadline as the drummer needed to leave at 12:30 so we had around 3hours 45 minutes to film the whole performance segment. I set up the lights inside my shed and connected to a speaker that was placed out of frame so that my actors could here the actual audio of the song and the lead singer could lip-sync successfully. Then we began working through the performance scenes that I had drawn out on the storyboard, which I had a printed copy of with me, ignoring the scenes which weren't performance as they did not require the presence of a drummer when I had so little time with mine. The first problem I faced was my lead singer being camera shy, this took some time to resolve and for him to gain his confidence upon me agreeing to sing along with him.
11:30am: We had been filming for about two hours and had worked through the storyboard, and I could tell my actors were getting tired so I decided we should have a break, where I made them some hot drinks and fed them up with breakfast foods such as sausages, bacon, beans and toast. Whilst they were eating I went back into the shed and replaced the camera batteries, changed the lights around and did some general tidying up. After my actors had finished eating and were all rejuvenated we went back into the the shed and I got some close ups of the drums and some drumming sequences and then it was time for the drummer to leave. As the drummer had left there was no complete band shots I could get, so I just collected some fill shots and close ups of guitars before the two guitarists headed home.
The time was now around 13:30pm and it was only me and the lead singer left at location however, this was not the end of production however as I still needed to film my narrative sequence which the lead singer was also due to act in. I was aware that my lead singer had been acting now for just under 5 house straight so I decided it was best to let him relax for a little bit before pushing to film the narrative. This was when my third problem of the day kicked in, rain; as me and the lead singer were talking in the kitchen we heard the faint patter of rain drops on the windows. The narrative sequence I needed to film was one which involved an open fire pit, with the lead singer burning photos in it which is clearly going to be stumped by unfortunate weather. The time was around 14:30pm and we went outside to try light the fire pit in the hope that if we could get it going then the rain would not matter, even possibly adding to the cinematic affect, however our efforts were futile and we could not start the fire. This meant that filming today was over and I sent the lead singer home and began packing up the drums and camera equipment whilst trying to think of other ways to film a narrative.
Organisation of Clips -
To organise my clips I used the folder labeled "Unit 3" which was stored inside the folder "A-Level Media Studies" located on my desktop which is where I have already stored all of my pre-production documents up until this point.
To import the footage from my SD Card to this folder to make them accessible for editing on my laptop I simply opened the SD card storage files then went down and selected all the footage I wanted to import (By holding shift and using the arrow keys) then dragged it from the SD card storage files to the my "unit 3" file and waited for them to finish importing before removing the SD card.
Filming Diary Continued -
Tuesday 17th December:
I had been editing my the footage I had collected on Saturday the 7th of December and been trying to make it work as a complete performance music video however I still felt like it was missing some narrative segments. So I found an actor and went to find an empty room in school to film the new idea I had for my narrative sequence. This only involved the screen being split into 9 boxes and the actor singing directly to the camera in the centre of the screen and shots composed to that it looks like she is singing to herself:
To complete this me and my talent found an empty room around school and set up against a white board so that there was a neutral background. I then set the camera up on a tripod and set the frame, I used one main light on a tripod, facing my actor so that there was just a small shadow cast beneath her face and also used the torch function on my phone to shine from the right hand side, in order to balance the light.
I used a Nikon Camera with a shutter speed of 1/50 which shot a 25 frames per second. I chose an aperture setting of F8 for this shot as I wanted a shallow depth of field since I wanted the main focus to be on the subject rather than the background, I set the ISO to 200 as I was creating my own light so I did not need to open the lens any more than needed too. I also used manual focus for this shot as the subject was not moving towards or away from the camera so I was confident I could used manual focus and come out with a high quality image instead of using auto focus which may have lost focus at points during the filming.
When it came to the actual filming of the narrative it was relatively simple, I centred my actor in the middle of my frame ensuring that there was enough headroom, and she fitted in frame well. Then it was a matter of collecting all the needed shots, so lip-syncing whilst facing at all sides of a 8 wind-compass and of course one shot where my actor is facing directly at the camera for the middle square.
Reviewing Footage -
A lot of the footage I filmed did not go to waste, and most clips involved valuable snippets which I took and used in my final edit of my music video. Below are some examples of footage I thought was really good and footage that did not make it into the final edit:
The first take was the very first take of the day and I thought my tripod usage was bit rough making the clip seem almost bumpy, and also one of my actors was already inside the shed by the time I had panned down to show them all entering. I had some practice with the tripod and spoke to the actors and the second take in the video was much better and I used it for my opening scene in my music video.
I did really like this shot, as it each shirt rests in the middle of the line of thirds and when they are taken off I feel like it sets the atmosphere of the music video, and assures the audiences that they are getting ready to watch something good as they get ready with the actors. The only issue is the long pause between the 2nd shirt being pulled off and the 3rd shirt, however I am confident that I can correct this in editing and make it look natural.
This was a shot I decided to take in the moment as I thought it could be nice and show more of the journey of the actors getting ready to put the audience in the situation. Unfortunately I was not pleased with how the shot turned out as I feel like it looks a bit tacky and the actors are all facing away from the camera so I will not use this in my final edit.
I really like this shot as I think its mine-en-scene is really nice and the half and half lighting really represents the genre of music and the whole atmosphere of the song, especially when the lead singer takes a step back and joins his friends. The actors I used were also doing a great job here and matching the energy of the audio with their movements and actions.
This is an example or when I left the Sony Camera recording on a tripod and didn't pay much attention to what was in frame. I can't use this footage as I get in shot which completely ruins the illusion of film, and also the drummer actually throws his drumsticks over the drum kit by accident, which would not look good in my video.
This is another shot I took in the moment thinking that I may be able to use it in the introduction to my video however it is too dark, the drummer is sat in shot not doing anything and I did not like how the cameras would have been outside the shed filming inside when all my actors had already entered.
I really like this shot and how the camera takes time to focus in on the drum sticks and then loses focus again however I never found anywhere to put it into the timeline of my music video as there is no where in the audio which would match the visuals of drumstick resting, which is a shame as I do think it is a nice shot.
I will cut this shot down so it just shows the last time he puts on his glasses and then goes into playing the guitar as it fits the genre of the song perfectly and also helps to show the audience some personality of messing around and doing silly things which my target audience will be able to relate to.
This was the planned ending for my music video where we see the band members finishing and laying down their instruments and leaving the shed however I was disappointed with how the shot turned out as I think it looks very scripted, no offence to my actors, but I did not like the feel of it and felt like the camera should have been more zoomed out.
I didn't like this shot as it is one I filmed after the drummer had left and covers the lyrics from the start of the song, yet it is obvious that the lead singer is sweaty and tired which wouldn't have made sense being at the beginning of my video. I also don't like the amount of light shining on him as it would not have fitted with the dull, fairly monotone start I had planned as the light is too bright. I did not frame the shot very well either as it is obvious he his close to a wall and the guitarist keeps entering in and out of shot.
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