Final Filming

This was to be our last filming session, and after planning and discussion we came to the idea that it should be predominantly used to film footage that can be used to fill gaps in our main filiming, such as moments in between verses where no real narrative would have to be partaken.
We returned to where we started the filming, at one of our group memebers house, in order to create a party scene that will play upon the idea of 'the night before' and how it has contributed to him and his hangover now.
We only needed a couple of shots, and we maintained to keep the idea of a party theme. We did however experiment with angles and shot types, and we felt that it was important to keep the first person shot theme going as it would create a sense of being apart of the video for the audience, and will benefit the effect the video has on the audience.
We experimented with filming using just one shot, gaining about 3 minutes of footage and therefore creating a sense of flow when cutting back to the scene.

The footage filmed today was purposly just going to be used as gap fillers.

We have focused on syncing the lyrics to the actions of the main character in which the Carol Vernallis' theory suggests. As a class we have looked at Vernallis and I felt that its a very worthwhile theory and one that makes more of an impact than others. We decided as a group that we should use Vernallis' theory as it linked in the most compared to other theorist's.

Preperation for filming

Before we start filming we wanted to sit down a discuss exactly what were doing, such as where were starting, where were filming and whos going to be our main character. we came to the agreement that with the help of altering mise en scene and a little help from our friend final cut, we could easily use a simple setting such as one of our houses and edit it to give it a far more music video, and in some cases a rags to riches feel.

Filming 3

Today we looked at doing our 3rd filming session with intensions to do a large part of filming, and it went to plan in some cases.

As a group we filmed the entire first verse and it went as planned, although straying from the storyboard only to benefit the video itself.
We filmed every thing we needed for the 1st verse and this has eased our time pressure. We have started to edit in the new footage and it is looking very promising, and as a group our motivation is still at an all time high. We want to use different effects to make it look professional and so far we feel we have accomplished this to the best of our abilities.
We want to use a variety of shots when filming and we have done this so far and will consistently do this throughout the filming to hopefully gain extra marks.

Filming 2

We decided that our use of the 1st person affect to give the effect of a drunk and crazy night was working very well so we looked to continue this in ou further filming today. We felt that using or main chaacter with no trousers on will give a comedy effect as well as a serious one as this is what happens on crazy nights.

The main character is woken up by the man (myself filming) holding the camera and have to rush out the door and we will do quick cuts to give a rushing effect.

We did a few variety shots of close ups of door openings to give variety of shots in our work.

I would like to point it i filmed the music video so far, allowing myself to get my ideas across which so far i believe is working very well. I in particular remain to refrain from level shots, or keep the camera still as i feel as soon as i start filming from a straight on angle it starts to take away from the narrative.

Filming in first person

As a group we are looking to film in first person in order to give out video its own unique narrative. Researching other music videos i found it rare to come by a video filmed in first person, which is very good to know for the group as we now feel we are pioneering the idea of first person filiming in music, as well as not being tempted to similarise are peice with other videos filmed in first person, basically allowing us freedom with our ideas.

I myself will be filming the first person shots, and personally i feel it is better to minimalise cuts if neccessary as its takes away from the narrative style.
I have also looked into how to master first person shooting, and i found it works well to never keep the camera at straight angle for too long or straight angle turns, as the whole point of the style of filming is to give it a naturalistic film. Personally i feel i pulled of this style of filming very well with help from group members.

Filming

For our first day of filming, we decided to go to a group members house (chris) due to his house having a lot of space to film. We started out by renting out a HD camera from our Media department and then began. We got to 'the set' and then we got or main character B Money (played by ben) changed, ready for filming. We then filmed our opening 10 seconds in a first person style and this took a few takes and adjustments as we wanted the first approx 10secs to all be one cut. Althouh adjustments did have to be changed to our storyboard due to factors such as setting and spur of the moment ideas i feel it still provided as a guide and a benefited in giving us a sense of idea of what we was looking to capture.

After a couple hours of filming, we went back to school to upload what we had filmed onto the Mac's and see how it looked in sync with the music. As a group we felt that the filming was a great success, and we got a lot of good footage taken today.

We plan to film again this weekend and make sure we carry on this positive vibe, and good work.