Filming day 3- Faversham

Faversham 13/09/15
As a group, we organised a day out to film in Faversham. The creek was a lovely picturesque location which featured a long path which we thought would be ideal for filming. It created a natural leading line to the viewer which was rather quite unique. We also thought it was a perfect place for our artist to lip sync to and potentially become a tracking shot as she is walking towards the camera. I think that the creek was a successful location as it had lots of greenery which matches with our nature theme that appears to run throughout our video- this therefore secures the fact that consistency will be evident and that it will look like a music video as a whole.

We were keen to experiment with the different camera shots that we could potentially use. We also thought it was a good idea to take advantage of the natural lighting such as by positioning our artist in front of the sun in order to achieve lens flares which add that special touch to footage. I believe that we achieved a range of lens flares however we will evaluate which ones we actually use in our final video at a later date. Troubles we overcame included the fact that we had some issues with the tripod as there was a part missing, meaning that it wouldn't attach to it. This meant that we had to ensure that we had an incredibly steady hand when filming as we wouldn't want any of our footage to appear unsteady and thus unprofessional. We also had problems with the battery life on the camera meaning that we had to make sure every take counted when it was switched on, this however did restrict the quantity of what we could film which could limit the amount of content we put in our final video, despite this I can tell that this definitely made us focus more on aspects of quality over quantity.

We had the opportunity to visit Evie's relative's house whilst on our visit to Faversham who lives on a farm. We took this to our advantage and were able to film a wide range of shots using the resources around us. Examples of this were long wide shots of our artist standing on the hay bales, establishing shots of the sunset, and medium aesthetic shots of our artist. We feel that these shots were successful during filming (due to the natural lighting creating lens flares etc) and will assess which ones we bring forward to our final video.This environment gave us a lot of freedom to experiment with what was around us and how creative we could be with the camera.

We had the opportunity to visit Evie's relative's house whilst on our visit to Faversham, who lives on a farm. We took this to our advantage and were able to film a wide range of shots using the resources around us. Examples of this were long wide shots of our artist standing on the hay bales, establishing shots of the sunset, and medium aesthetic shots of our artist. We feel that these shots were successful during filming (due to the natural lighting creating lens flares etc) and will assess which ones we bring forward to our final video when we review the footage back in the class room.This environment gave us a lot of freedom to experiment with what was around us and how creative we could be with the camera. This type of setting would also look great as fillers between lip syncing therefore we made sure we filmed lots of panning establishing long shots to make use of later.

We were also able to make our own bonfire. We had planned to film closeup shots of the flames to possibly symbolise her burning love for her (once) boyfriend. Fire also gives off very intense colour and is a powerful symbol with many connotations. We thought it may be successful to use, not only for this reason but to also allow the audience themselves to have their own interpretation of what the message behind these visuals are.

This closeup shot worked very successfully as not only does it introduce more powerful raging colour, but it adds something else which is very visually different to what we already have- this adds more range to our video. Although there is a belief that footage that appears very different to other footage may be a negative thing (due to consistency) I see this as adding more variety which is what we needed. I think that we should repeat certain scenes (such as this) throughout the video to balance out what may be seen as contrasting.

We had to deeply consider at which time of day we filmed the sparkler scenes. We needed it to be dark enough for them to show up well and have an impact, however not too dark that it effected the quality of our footage. We researched the time that the sun set which was roughly around 8pm therefore we did it around this time as it was only just getting dark. I believe that the time of day we filmed worked successfully in the end as our quality of filing was still up to a good standard!

Filming a variety of shots such as high angles from the fire to Millie and eventually panning up towards her deemed to be successful and we seem to have naturally created our own little theme of tilting and panning the camera which we now aim to progress with on the rest of our filming days to sustain consistency.

 The Costume:
For the chosen outfits for this filming day, the artist is wearing very monotone colours to fit in with the alternative genre of our video and also visually represent the meaning of a breakup. The outfits are both very casual and therefore represent daytime wear very successfully.

above is the video of us setting up for filming the bonfire scene.

Overall I would say that this filming day was a success! Even though we had some technical issues we managed to overcome them and problem solve in order to find solutions and I am positive that a lot of this footage will make it to our final music video.

Setting up the set.

We all filmed close-ups of the bonfire we made on set. Close-up accentuate a certain feature and in this case fire could represent hell or passion. This is a subjective representation, down to however the viewer interprets it meaning that it could appeal to absolutely anyone- within or out of our target audience.

In this mid shot, the artist uses direct address by looking into the lens and asking if they want to share food with their partner. This is a great example of our home video style that we are aiming to achieve by using point of view shots where it appears as if the artist is talking to someone from the camera's perspective- this greatly adds to our narrative of a relationship.

This clip is of Millie walking towards the camera whilst lip syncing the chorus. It is a tracking shot meaning that I walked back with the camera whilst the artist walked towards me. I feel as though this shot is very successful because it is as if Nova has become part of the audience's life- she is walking into it. The shot is also very stereotypical in pop music videos (especially Demi Lavato) and we wanted to use some key conventions in ours.

On return to our base in Faversham, Evie's relative had a large garden with hay bales. As well as this, the sun was setting at the perfect time meaning that we made the quick decision to ask Millie to stand on the bales of hay and sway to the beat of the music. This was a long shot and therefore had a lot of scenery- this meant that it appeared very picturesque and therefore added to the aesthetics of our video. When I was filming this clip, I noticed that the sun would create a lens flare which made it look ever more appealing.

We decided to film this shot as we liked the lens flare that the sun had created. We positioned Nova to the side of the wide medium shot in order to show off the natural scenery and create a balance between the artist and surrounding environment.
Saying this, we had to reject the footage because the artist's facial expression is not in character and the camera work is wobbly- this would therefore take away the professional appearance we are aiming for in our final product.