We spent the next week looking at our footage and beginning to edit it and fit it around our other footage of the band. It was beginning to look really good and we were becoming very excited about the outcome.
Editing the storyline was easier because we had a specific space in which we had to fit it. This meant that we had to be brutal about cutting things, hence only putting in the best of our footage.
Our idea of having the boys change into eachother like in the Next adverts left us technolocially overwhelmed and we were unable to use this idea. However, Danni and I found a cube spin which was a more than adequate second best. It was really just as good as the Next effect would have been, but also has the bonus of creating the illusion of time passing.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Filming the Storyline.
The day started off as a bit of a disaster...
1) We realised that we didn't have a camera.
2) Jerome and Grace both had to pull out of the filming last minute.
3) My train was delayed to get into Berkhamsted.
Unfotunatley, the day didn't improve all that much...
Luckily, we managed to convince Danni's sister that she would like to be in our film and bribed Tom Baker to fill in for Jerome with promises of Dominoes pizza later that afternoon.
Danni then saved the day by going to get the camera from school. We (eventually) all met at Danni's house where we were expecting to film, but Danni's mum had decided to redecorate that week, so we all went down the road to her Gran's house which she kindly (and bravely) allowed us to film.
Danni went off down the road with her sister and Eamonn to take pictures of them looking like a couple which he would burn at the end of the video. Meanwhile, Charly and I set up the room to look as if a younger couple might live there. Being very careful to move photographs and ornaments which didn't fit in with the mise en scene. We started to talk about where we could put the camera and which angles and lighting we should use to create the right ambience.
We began filming the sofa scene, but because we hadn't had the camera that morning, therefore hadn't had a chance to charge it, it soon ran out of battery. We then had to wait for ages as we charged the camera.
Once it was charged we decided that it was best to move on and film Danni's sister walking out of the bedroom, down the stairs, out the door and into the car. As we were all standing outside filming Danni's sister walk out the house, she shut the door behind her. A feeling of doom fell over the group as we realised that the house key was sitting on the hall table! We had to wait a few hours for another key to be cut... perfect time for Tom to get his pizza! We filmed a few more scenes outside before the camera ran out of battery again.
By the time we got back inside the house, it was beginning to get dark so we quickly filmed the last of the outside scenes. We charged up the camera again before filming the rest of the inside scenes. ie. on the sofa, in the bedroom, and the girl being caught cheating by her boyfriend.
We charged up the camera, for the final time, and went down the road to film Eamonn, the estranged boyfriend, sitting on the park bench and flicking through photos before finally throwing them on the ground, burning them and walking away. When we reached the bench, we realised that the lamp wasn't very bright. Charly had the genius idea of using Danni's car headlamps as extra lighting. It illuminated him and made him look alone, but in control of the situation. Almost as soon as we had finished filming, the battery on the camera died, I kid you not.
So after a day of disasters, we had finally finished our filming. We all went home for a well earned rest!
1) We realised that we didn't have a camera.
2) Jerome and Grace both had to pull out of the filming last minute.
3) My train was delayed to get into Berkhamsted.
Unfotunatley, the day didn't improve all that much...
Luckily, we managed to convince Danni's sister that she would like to be in our film and bribed Tom Baker to fill in for Jerome with promises of Dominoes pizza later that afternoon.
Danni then saved the day by going to get the camera from school. We (eventually) all met at Danni's house where we were expecting to film, but Danni's mum had decided to redecorate that week, so we all went down the road to her Gran's house which she kindly (and bravely) allowed us to film.
Danni went off down the road with her sister and Eamonn to take pictures of them looking like a couple which he would burn at the end of the video. Meanwhile, Charly and I set up the room to look as if a younger couple might live there. Being very careful to move photographs and ornaments which didn't fit in with the mise en scene. We started to talk about where we could put the camera and which angles and lighting we should use to create the right ambience.
We began filming the sofa scene, but because we hadn't had the camera that morning, therefore hadn't had a chance to charge it, it soon ran out of battery. We then had to wait for ages as we charged the camera.
Once it was charged we decided that it was best to move on and film Danni's sister walking out of the bedroom, down the stairs, out the door and into the car. As we were all standing outside filming Danni's sister walk out the house, she shut the door behind her. A feeling of doom fell over the group as we realised that the house key was sitting on the hall table! We had to wait a few hours for another key to be cut... perfect time for Tom to get his pizza! We filmed a few more scenes outside before the camera ran out of battery again.
By the time we got back inside the house, it was beginning to get dark so we quickly filmed the last of the outside scenes. We charged up the camera again before filming the rest of the inside scenes. ie. on the sofa, in the bedroom, and the girl being caught cheating by her boyfriend.
We charged up the camera, for the final time, and went down the road to film Eamonn, the estranged boyfriend, sitting on the park bench and flicking through photos before finally throwing them on the ground, burning them and walking away. When we reached the bench, we realised that the lamp wasn't very bright. Charly had the genius idea of using Danni's car headlamps as extra lighting. It illuminated him and made him look alone, but in control of the situation. Almost as soon as we had finished filming, the battery on the camera died, I kid you not.
So after a day of disasters, we had finally finished our filming. We all went home for a well earned rest!
The aftermath...
The next week of media lessons were dedicated to uploading the footage and looking through it to see what we could use and what needed to never be seen again!
We used input and output points to break up the footage, rather than having one long piece of footage which we have to go the whole way through each time. We burned the song from the CD to iTunes, then imported it to Final Cut Express. We started to fit teh footage of the band to the chorus, doing it this way round means that we will have the lip syncing perfect, then we can fit the storyline around it, rather than having to do it the other way.
We had a slight cast change too. We decided that since James had cut his hair short he looked too much like Jerome. The band offered us a replacement who they assured us was perfect for the part. We also decided that Grace would work better than Danni as the girl in our film as she does A-level drama and was likely to be more convincing.
When checking the final details of our storyline, we decided that we would rather film the boyfriend finding out about his cheating girlfriend in his house than Costa for a number of reasons:
1. We would have to gain permission from Costa to film on their premesis, which would take up time that we didn't have.
2. To keep moving locations on the only day that we had available for filming would be a complete time waster.
3. We would have to get written permission from every person who walked through the background of the film, and have to organize people so that they weren't in the way of the film.
In light of this, we decided to have the boyfriend catching his cheating girlfriend at home because it made the whole betrayal more stinging. It also showed that the girl wasn't just out with a friend for coffee and was most definitley cheating.
We used input and output points to break up the footage, rather than having one long piece of footage which we have to go the whole way through each time. We burned the song from the CD to iTunes, then imported it to Final Cut Express. We started to fit teh footage of the band to the chorus, doing it this way round means that we will have the lip syncing perfect, then we can fit the storyline around it, rather than having to do it the other way.
We had a slight cast change too. We decided that since James had cut his hair short he looked too much like Jerome. The band offered us a replacement who they assured us was perfect for the part. We also decided that Grace would work better than Danni as the girl in our film as she does A-level drama and was likely to be more convincing.
When checking the final details of our storyline, we decided that we would rather film the boyfriend finding out about his cheating girlfriend in his house than Costa for a number of reasons:
1. We would have to gain permission from Costa to film on their premesis, which would take up time that we didn't have.
2. To keep moving locations on the only day that we had available for filming would be a complete time waster.
3. We would have to get written permission from every person who walked through the background of the film, and have to organize people so that they weren't in the way of the film.
In light of this, we decided to have the boyfriend catching his cheating girlfriend at home because it made the whole betrayal more stinging. It also showed that the girl wasn't just out with a friend for coffee and was most definitley cheating.
Filming the Band
I met the girls at 3pm to begin filming because I'd had a House Music rehursal. They'd done a brilliant job, with help from Mr Wellington, of setting up the lights and cameras in Dean's Hall.
We didn't have much time as the band had to be in Tring as they had a recording session at 6.00. This meant that we had until 5.30 to get everything we needed. The pressure was well and truly on!
We used two sets of four coloured lights which had already been set up for the school disco the night before, they were fitted so that they flashed in time to the music which was very effective. We also had four free standing spotlights, which meant that we could enhance and lighten the appearence of the band, taking away any shadow which may fall due to natural light, hopefully making the footage look more professional.
We set up the cameras so that we had Camera 1 directly in front of the stage, about half way down the hall. We had Camera 2 to the left of the stage, and Camera 3 to the right. We had the band repeat the song until we had a varied amount of angles and distances from the band.
After we had filmed from the floor, we moved the three cameras up to the stage and filmed each band member playing through the song individually.
Although it was a highly charged, stressful and busy afternoon. Essentially, the band were lovely to work with, it was enjoyable and very successful!
We didn't have much time as the band had to be in Tring as they had a recording session at 6.00. This meant that we had until 5.30 to get everything we needed. The pressure was well and truly on!
We used two sets of four coloured lights which had already been set up for the school disco the night before, they were fitted so that they flashed in time to the music which was very effective. We also had four free standing spotlights, which meant that we could enhance and lighten the appearence of the band, taking away any shadow which may fall due to natural light, hopefully making the footage look more professional.
We set up the cameras so that we had Camera 1 directly in front of the stage, about half way down the hall. We had Camera 2 to the left of the stage, and Camera 3 to the right. We had the band repeat the song until we had a varied amount of angles and distances from the band.
After we had filmed from the floor, we moved the three cameras up to the stage and filmed each band member playing through the song individually.
Although it was a highly charged, stressful and busy afternoon. Essentially, the band were lovely to work with, it was enjoyable and very successful!
Camera Angles
We had decided that we would film the band in Dean's Hall as it looked like a good 'gig' venue.
We broke down the song into sections and decided what each camera would film and for how long. We felt that this pre-preparation would help us on the actual day of filming as we wouldn't have to keep deciding where to move the cameras and we would be far more efficient. It was incredibly important that filming went as smoothly as possibly because it was the only day the band could film altogether.
We broke down the song into sections and decided what each camera would film and for how long. We felt that this pre-preparation would help us on the actual day of filming as we wouldn't have to keep deciding where to move the cameras and we would be far more efficient. It was incredibly important that filming went as smoothly as possibly because it was the only day the band could film altogether.
Storyboarding
We drew our storyboards to work out which camera angles would work best and which locations would be the most suitable to film in.
...Ready, Steady...
We recieved written permission from the band, and booked a date to film on October 11th. We were all now really excited about getting started.
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