Filming Day 8!

Date: 30th November 2010

Location: Sophie's House!

Today we refilmed the footage that we had previously filmed last thursday. We filmed using the exact same story board so no major alterations were made. After filming, we rewound the tape to double check that all the footage was all there and of a good quality.

However, there were a few minor changes:1. The table scene was done with the curtains drawn back, as the lighting today was better than thursday.

2. For the final lines, we filmed them in our white tops instead of our black dresses.

Editing! (26.11.10)

Despite the fact that we couldn't edit what we actually wanted to do today (because it wasn't there), we still made use of the 2 hour time period. We did the following things:

1. Edited the falling glass into it's intended spot in the song.
We did this by editing it down so that it was literally just before the point the glass came into camera shot and hit the floor. Once this was done, I slowed the speed down to 50% so that when the glass shattered on the floor it looked really dramatic. This is the climax point of the song, and although it looked good it was not long enough to fill the gap we had. So, we decided to copy the footage and paste it in in the gap. We then edited it with reverse speed, and this gave us the effect of the glass shattering and then putting itself together again. We felt this looked very effective.

2. Adjusted the flashback shots in the last chorus to fit more smoothly in with the song.
Firstly, we identified a shot in the song where Joe is meant to notice Emily leaving the house. My group mates felt that this shot didn't work, so we deleted it out of the video all together. Next, we pulled down from the video line a long shot of Joe walking through the corridor in the house to follow Emily when she leaves. We cut this into two sections, and placed the first section in the spot where the original shot of Joe was, and the other we put in the place of a close-up of myself. We did this as we felt that the flashbacks shots needed to be closer together for them to have an impact and make sense to the audience.

3. Tidied up some previous editing that we had done.
This included simple things like re-framing shots, and generally just slightly cutting down any shots to make the editing as tight as it could be.

Today, a big problem occured...

When we came to upload our footage today, we found that the footage of Emily and Joe in the dining room wasn't on the tape and nor were the first 3 shots of us against the brick walls.

Then, to add to the dissapointment it seemed that our tape have experienced problems and out of the shots we did manage to obtain, all but 3 showed stripey lines throughout. Despite our best efforts, this problem was un-fixable so we have no choice but to film again.

RE-FILMING WILL TAKE PLACE ON TUESDAY 30TH NOVEMEBER!

Filming Day 7!

Date: 25th Novemeber 2010

Location: Sophie's House (The dining room!)



Today we had an hour to film the remaining shots we needed, these were:

1. The four montage shots of Emily and Joe at the dining room table.

2. The two close up shots of Jodie singing her two lines that occur in the anti-climax section of the song.

3. The four individual medium close ups of us four girls against the brick wall in our white tops.

4. The close up of Charlotte singing the closing line of the song.

5. The extreme close up of me singing one of the closing lines.

6. An extreme close up of a wine glass being dropped onto the floor and smashing.

During the course of filming, we did manage to obtain all of the above shots.




What Worked Well?

For me personally, I believe the best shots of the day were the ones of us four girls against the brick wall. They were all framed really nicely in a medium close up, and I thought the white tops we wore really signified the innocence of our characters.

Problems/Things that didn't work so well.

We didn't come across any problems today, but what didn't work so well was the lighting in the dining room. It was far too bright outside so the actors seemed dimmed. We managed to over-come this problem by drawing the curtains in the living room and the turned all the dining room lights on - we felt this gave us a reasonable result.

Storyboard!

This is a story board composed by my group member Jodie Butcher. Here she has drawn basic pictures to represent the framing of the shot, and then shot details on the right so when we go to film we will be able to efficiently get all the shots as we have a decent plan to follow.

Re-Filming: The New Plan & Influence

We decided as a group that the series of shots we originally planned for the anti-climax section of the song just wasn't working. Instead, we brainstormed about new ideas; we developed an idea that was influenced by the iconic film Citizen Kane

"It was a marriage just like any other..."

This famous quote is said by Charles Foster Jane just before a montage sequence begins, showing the viewer an insight to his marriage.

The couple here are at the beginning of their relationship, and quite clearly show how happy they are with eachother (they are close together and he is giving her a kiss on the cheek).


By the end of the montage, we see that they are sitting opposite eachother at the table. The distance bewteen them is huge in comparison to the initial shot in the montage, and it really implies that the closeness between the couple has been lost. There is also no communication between the two, and they are both sitting silently reading - this gives off a completely contrasting vibe to the one that was felt at the beginning.

Our Idea!

So, using this as our influence, we came up with a plan to use a similiar dining room setting. However, because our montage needs to be only 15 seconds, we are only going to do 4 shots of the couple drinking wine at the table. In the first shot they will be extremely close to eachother, and by the fourth they will be at opposite ends of the table.

Our Twist on the Idea

To ensure that we are not simply replicating the table scene of Citizen Kane, we are also going to film short shots of us 4 artists standing in a white t-shirt and trousers. This quick shots will be edited in between each table shot, and this is to show the audience that the reason why these two people are moving apart at the table is because of us 4 girls who the boy has cheated on his girlfriend with. We feel that this is a modern twist on the Citizen Kane influence, and fits more tightly into the girl-group video criteria.

To-Do List!

After today's editing session, we came to a group conclusion that we needed to do a very small amount of refilming. We found that:

1. We didn't have enough footage between the last chorus and the ending shot.
So we need around 3 more seconds of lip-synching footage to pull it together.

2. The anti-climax section of the song still didn't work, despite our best attempts at editing.
This means that we will have to shoot about 10 seconds worth of this footage again to try and create the feel that we originally wanted, as it is simply not working as it stands now and does not make much sense with the song.

As well as re-filiming, there are also a few minor additions and adjustments I think we need to address in the next week, these are:

1. Adding the heart-beat sound effect to the very first flashbacks.
I have already found the sound that we are going to be using (see previous 'sound searching' blog post), so all I need to do now is put it on a memory stick and take it in to the lesson where we can upload the sound and edit it into position.

2. Adjusting the last chorus so it fits together more smoothly.
Today I noticed that the last chorus didn't quite look right; the actual lip-synching looks good, as we have tightly edited it. But we have also got Emilys flashbacks that link up to the pre-video footage, where she is packing her case and leaving. The shot of her packing her case is fine, but then there is an extremely large gap until we see Joe's reaction shot of her walking out with her case - and this reaction shot is very short in length. We decided as a group that we are going to re-adjust this sequence so that the reaction shot is longer and closer to the other flashbacks, we feel that this will make the chorus flow more.

Editing! (12.11.10)

Today in our double lesson we continued editing our project to get it to the furthest point we could possibly do.

What we did Today

We managed to edit to the end of the song today, and easily detect what we had left to do in order to finish our production. Here are some of the main things we did today in terms of our editing:

1. Re-adjusted image sizes to correct framing and cut out 'bad' shots.
Whilst watching the footage through today we noticed that 3 of Jodie's shots had people in the background walking their dogs or simply walking past. We were unsure what to do with these as we felt it ruined the whole tone of the video, but then a class mate suggest we actually zoom in and drag the image to make the people in the background dissapear. We successfully did this by dragging the size of the image from the corner, and we found it worked quite well. In some instances it was not possible to get rid of the people throughout the duration of the shot, so this meant cutting the length of the shot.

2. Constructed the shoe montage and placed it in to the song.
As we had originally stated in our pitch, we wanted to colour code each girl in the group individually. We did this in a subtle way by wearing black dresses but each had individual heel colours. However, as of yet we hadn't used this in the video. So we cut down our extreme close ups of all our feet and created a quick flowing montage to establish this colour scheme.

3. Added more footage into the chorus to break up the length of it.
In our feedback we got told that a certain shot in our chorus of us all standing in a group and singing was too long, so we wanted to improve this. We selected a nice full-body shot of Sophie singing a line of the chorus and cut it down to fit in the middle of the long sequence. We found that this did really break it up and made the chorus flow better.


4. Added another flashback into the second chorus.
This originally came about from the fact that we adjusted the size of the choregraphy scene in the chorus as we felt the framing wasn't central. By doing this, however, we found that we ended up with a jump cut, as we didn't need to re-frame the whole sequence (only the last bit where we step out). This meant that we had to cut the shot with the razor tool, and change the size of the second part of the sequence - this is where the jump cut occured. So, instead of just leaving it framed incorrectly I suggested we put another flashback sequence in so that it breaks up the two shots. We chose one of Emily sitting on the stairs looking through the banister (giving the sense that she is somewhat imprisoned by this relationship).

5. Put the ending shot on the song & made audio adjustments.
We felt that the song was far too long at the end - the lyrics finish and there is about 10 seconds worth of quiet music. Instead of deciding to fill this with random shots, we decided to use an audio crossfade to make the music fade out quicker. This worked well, and to compliment this we used a final 'blooper' shot of the four of us together in Epping Forest laughing. We felt this looked nice and wasn't out of place, and decided to decrease the overall speed to 50% so it was in slow motion. This fit in well with the tone of the song but finished it on an uplifting note. We then added a dip-to-black effect at the end to close the song.

Rough Cut & Feedback

Positive Feedback:

1. Our first scene (before the song starts) really shows off our camera work skills (the use of 2 cameras, and the boot shot in particular).

2. There is a good intergration of the story into the music video.

3. The whole video ties in with girl-group conventions (for example the choregraphy, and the fact that we unite as a group but still create individuality through costumes and individual shots).

4. The black & white effect for the flashbacks worked really well, and it is easily distinguishable that it is a flashback.

5. The ariel shot in the second chorus shows off original camerawork ideas.

6. The lip-synching was of good quality, it was in time with the song and there was a good perfomance of them.

7. The different locations we used were nice (the house we used was interesting).

8. The lighting worked well.

Negative Feedback:

1. The speeded up footage in the anti-climax section of the song didn't work, it gave a comical feel to it which we didn't intend to happen.

2. The shot of us singing together in the first chorus is too long - people may lose interest.

3. There was a 'dodgy transition' somewhere in the song (but people couldn't remember where)

Suggestions:

1. We could experiment with lighting if we are to film again (the halo effect for example).

2. We could experiment with a couple more transitions.

Analysis of Shot

We were asked to select one shot of particular interest in our production, and produce a paragraph of reflective writing to practice our evaluating skills for both the coursework evaluation and the final exam in the summer.



The shot that I have chose to use for this is shown above. It is taken from one of the flashback scenes of Emily and Joe.

This shot shows Emily and Joe in fight, and this screen grab is taken from one of the three shots of this particular section. I find this particular one both interesting and relevant to our video because it shows Joe trying to embrace Emily, but she is pushing him away. Firstly, this relates back to the lyrics of our song; it is not a direct link, but the song itself is based around someone missing a relationship - but for all t he wrong reasons. This flashback shot is a visual representation of the kind of disfunctional relationship that the song lyrics are reffering to.
The shot itself is a birds-eye view, and shows the couple from above and looks down on them. This shot-type is aswell relevant to the lyrics, as it potrays a sense of vulnerability of the couple as the camera is looking down on them making them look small and over-powered. This is symbolic of a fragile relationship, and can also be seen as a sign of weakness (where both people in the relationship are weak as opposed to one more dominant character).
The framing of the shot shows the couple in the middle of it, which shows that they are central to the story. You can also see stair banisters from above, giving a sense that they are trapped in their own destructive relationship, but the huge open space which is their house makes it hard for them to leave eachother (as they are leaving so much behind). In the shot Joe has his arms open to embrace Emily, but you see that she is pushing him away. This tells the audience that they are having an argument, but it is Emily who is being distant from him as he tries to make peace. This shows Emily as a defensive character, but instead of just coming across as being generally hostile the audience are aware of her reasons (because of the flashbacks at the very start of the song which show that Joe - her boyfriend - is a serial cheat).
In this shot, lighting isn't of great importance. The use of black and white is to represent that this is a past event, and it was a dull and dismal part of the couples (especailly Emily's) lives. The use of black and white can represent many things, but most commonly it is used for an older looking effect. I feel that this shot works in black and white, and the effect adds to the picture that the audience have about the two peoples relationship (and the darkness that lies within it).

Editing! (3.11.10)

Today we were given an hour to continue our first cut editing (we initally asked for both the hours, but Mrs Allison gave us the extended deadline till Friday but with one hour's editing time as a compromise).

Today we achieved:

1. Putting together the last chorus in terms of just lip-synching, so now all the lip-synching shots are in place on the editing reel.

2. We put in two sets of flashbacks in the last chorus, using the standard black & white video effect.

How much do we have left to do?

To achieve our first cut to the standard we want it to be we would ideally like to:

1. Add the remaining flashbacks to the the video reel.

2. Try and sort out what we are going to do about the anti-climax scene.

Realistically, we can enter our first draft submission now. It is not perfect, but in comparison to the rest of our class we are actually quite far ahead having around 3 minutes worth of footage to show. Our plan will be to show the class our video as it now stands on Friday, and obtain feedback and come up with a final plan of action about what to do next!

Editing tools/features used today:

1. Black & White (Video Effects)

2. Speed Increase (Speed/Duration)