Filming extra shots

Due to the lack of shots that we have had for the conceptual and the fact that we didn't want repeated shots in our video, we will have to film some more extra shots and edit in the next 3 days in order to reach our deadline. I think that this has definitely made us realise that planning, organisational skills and time is essential so that problems like this don't occur ever again!
The few shots that will be filmed will involve magentic letters and the dress used in the conceptual and the face of our character won't be shown but it will show her playing with the toys.
Many parts of the editing is complete, however deciding where to put the stop motion shots and other conceptual shots in the instrumental part has proved to be challenging as we have to ensure that the continuity of the shots flows well with the beat of the song.

Shooting in the classroom

We shot most of our music video in the media classroom which was uncomplicated for us because of easy access to the equipment we needed and the high quality lighting. Once we had chosen the right background, we began to finish filming the performance (since we had started it already). At first we started filming still shots for the performance and then our teacher told us to film whilst moving around so that the video will seem more alive and real. We then experimented and tried this out, and it thankfully made a positive difference to our music video. We encountered some problems along the way, one in particular was when the background kept falling down which became irritating and very time consuming. Another problem, we faced was when the lighting became very yellow and unclear for a few minutes so in order to solve this we had to fix the lights so that the bright colours would show clearly. When filming the conceptual we shot a range of shots (high angle, low angle,CU, ECU, long shot and extreme long shots) which involved many of the props such as the chess pieces, finger puppets, clown figure, rubik's cube and the bubble maker. Over the next couple days we were able to finish filming although we finished late we still managed to obtain lots of shots which is very beneficial for us during the editing process.

What is our music video about?

Our music video involves both conceptual and performance. We were inspired by the title sequence of Amelie and how the little girl was represented. We wanted to achieve a similar representation of our character in our video. In the conceptual, we will be using a range of props such as dice, stones, russian dolls, bubbles.etc to perputate the character's childhood and how as a child she was unableto interact with other children so she created her own environment using toys. In the performance, our character will be wearing a mask and an oversized suit to show their awkwardness and loneliness and how this hasn't changed anything. The mask will illustrate the hidden identity of our character, how different they are from society and the feeling of isloation.

The locations where we considered to film...

- The drama studio
      

- Green screen room

 



 

- Rebecca's house

 

 

 

- Our media classroom

 





 

Meeting 5

On a Wednesday, we all met up at Rebecca's house so that we could finish filming the performance side of our music video. We were keen to try out a variety of different shots and experiment with the lighting however due to 'technical difficulties' (power cut and broken fuse) and limited space it made filming more difficult for us. On the positive side, we were able to use a lamp towards the end to help us film a range of shots from several angles and distances even though the lighting wasn't exactly perfect.

Shooting Schedule

Half term
- Wednesday 31st October
- Thursday 1st November

- Saturday 10th November

- Monday 12th November

- Wednesday 21st November

- Friday 23rd November

- Wednesday 28th November (This will be our last day of filming)

Background change

Our lecturer thought that our original background was really plain and appeared washed out in the footage. Since we didn't have any other types of cloth, our lecturer decided to help us in finding a suitable background. The one that he had given us is alot more better in terms of colours and patterns and is also larger so we will be able to experiment more with the variety of shots.

Conceptual Shot List

These are a general list of the shots which might be in the conceptual:

• CU shot of estelle's face when she is reading a book
• CU shot of the rubix cube in estelle's hands
• CU shot of the completed rubix cube
• High angle shot of estelle wearing the mask and looking down  
• ECU shot of the the book's pages being turned very quickly
• CU shot of the russian's dolls on the chair
• ECU shot of estelle's hands and her holding the rubix cube
• Long shot of estelle
• A shot where there is half of estelle's face and half of the book which she is holding
• A low angle shot of estelle holding a book
• CU shots where estelle is blowing bubbles
• Long shots of estelle blowing bubbles 
• Handheld shots of the chair and then estelle playing with the russian dolls
• ECU shots of estelle shaking dice in her hands and then opening them to reveal stones 
• CU shot of estelle flicking the coins on a wooden table
• Long shot of the beaded animals on the wooden table (stop motion)
• Long shot of the wooden model (stop motion)
• Long shot of russian dolls on wooden table (stop motion)
• CU shot of half of estelle wearing the mask

Progress so far....

These are some of the shots we have taken for the conceptual.

Prop List

This list of props might change, as we may find later on that some of these objects are unsuitable for stop motion or simply don't look good:

- playing cards

- dice

- rubik's cube

- russian dolls

- bead animals

- clown figurine

- books








- stones



















- coins

- bubble maker

- finger puppets

- chess pieces

- butterfly clip

- owl figurune

- voodoo dolls

 

- glasses
- masks

Meeting 4

On the 30th october we met up to find a suitable background for the conceptual side of our music video. Before that we took 2 lilliputs and a manofotto back with us as our filming location will be in one of our living rooms. We went into various home stores to look at wallpapers and fabrics to see if there was a design that suited our requirements. In the end, we didn't find anything that stood at to us instead we will use one of our initial choices of backgrounds.