Today, on the 26th of October, myself and my performer Georgina filmed for my music video. We went to Dunham park at 11:00 so we had enough time to shoot and so it wasn't as busy with the public in the morning. First, we discussed the idea of the music video to my performer and reiterate the concept of the video's basic themes and structure. This is so she could understand what we were going to do and know about the different scenes and shots I wanted her to perform in. Since this is about a girl contemplating her relationship, even within the non singing scenes, her expressions needed to look as if she was thinking and just a little saddened when wandering around the woodland. Plus, as part of continuity with the magazine advert and digipak, she wore the same top but with a jacket, ripped jeans and boots as we were going to wander around the park. We used the storyboard as a guideline in order to pitch my ideas throughout the day.
NOTE: At most points I wanted to create a camera filming effect (not always in one fixed position) to link into the casual, relaxed ambience of the location (as highlighted with the scenery shots), so that the girl character could contemplate and think in a calm atmosphere. Plus, since I was going to film the scenery and wildlife, it would of been difficult to capture momentary scenes if it was always fixed. I was influenced by the slight movement of the camera effect in Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness song of which I liked and did, but kept the camera in a steady motion with the tripod in some parts (due to the wind at times it looks a little unsteady but has not made a massive impact to the footage).
NOTE: Changed intro - Since it was a little busy with other people and us trying to film the part where she walks down the road and climbs over the steps, I decided to change the intro slightly.The necklace's red heart hanged off a branch at the very start, helped to contemplate the heart beat sound at the very beginning before the song starts. Then showing her sat on a tree trunk within the woodland and checking her phone was the main change. As said, since we were filming in a public area I knew that it would be an issue to film the actual entrance into the woodland, so I decided to have her already in the woodland and checking her phone. I used a mid shot to establish she was sitting down looking at her phone, then an over the shoulder shot to show that she was looking down at it, before having an extreme close up of the phones message. The problem with this shot was that the extreme close up made the text look blurred and out of focus, so Georgina said the text out loud. Within editing, the sound of her speaking (not the video), could be placed over the OSS (over the shoulder shot), then cut it to the mid shot of her huffing in annoyance. After this, to express this anger even further, I had a shot where she threw her phone on the ground. This is to help further highlight that she is stressed with the situation.
Next, I decided to film the chorus part of the song, since recording the singing parts first would be best to to so that when filming the extra scenes, it wouldn't be too much trouble with people passing by. Managing to find a isolated spot, Georgina sat down under a tent made of branches and played the song on her phone in order to lip sync the lyrics. I found her lip syncing great and she managed to do it very well in learning the words. I did want to try to do different shots with her singing, but it became an issue in trying to start back at the point of the song we paused. So, I had to keep filming the same shot as she was singing. Of course in editing, the singing parts can be cut back to after or before showing the extra scenes.
NOTE: The extra scenes with the scenery and her walking around the woodland, will be slotted into different parts of the song/video as well as mixed in with the singing parts and not wholly showing her singing.
Then filming the chorus again, only this time by a tree and I did a close up shot as she sang. Even when singing, she put on different expressions when certain lyrics came up, to match her feelings with the girl's character. For example, the lyrics 'I don't know what to believe' she puts her head back and looks up, added to the effect of her singing and emphasised the emotions of her questioning her relationship and feeling confused.
Finally I noticed that with filming a mid shot of the last chorus part and the song's ending, I could possibly switch back and forth with the extra scenes, the close up chorus and last chorus scene. But this will have to be experimented in editing. Overall, the singing parts were well done in her lip syncing and can easily be placed at certain points of the video. However, I would of like to do different shots of her singing for the three chorus's within their locations, but due to the difficulty of getting back to the right point in the song was time consuming and not possible.
After finally filming the singing parts, I could focus on getting the extra scenes done. I managed to get a lot of the scenery footage of what we mainly saw as we walked around.
I did a low angle shot of her walking over the camera to make the shot more interesting rather than pass by the camera in a mid shot.
I also had scenes where the camera was at in front of Georgina and went backwards as she walked towards it. This was especially good for highlighting that the character had no set answer to her situation and direction that she wants to take. Another scene filmed in linking to my side idea, I used the prop of the necklace in her finding it on the floor, then in editing a flash forward of the heart hanging again and cutting back to a close up of her holding it, and then a point of view shot in her looking at it. This heart necklace will be cut back to within the video, symbolising she still cares for her boyfriend.
Other shots were mainly establishing shots or long shots of the character surrounded by the scenery and looking around the places she comes across. I managed to get some great scenes, where a flock of ducks as she walks by fly away into the nearby lake and Georgina looking at a white stag in the distance, of which I will use in the video and would be visually appealing to the audience in showing off the scenery.
NOTE: The different places she walks around and see's may not be in continuity. This to not only to relate to existing music videos that I have observed, where there are many different cut back and forth's of different locations. But, in relation to my own video's and song's themes - The struggle of her relationship and confusion of emotions - she is wandering around different places to mimic that confusion and distortion of her love life, finding no set answer.
At the end of the day, I finally finished filming with the scene of the necklace being placed on the branch. Luckily, the memory space on the camera had just finished after filming that last scene. But I am glad that I took it as it would now refer back to the beginning of the video and help the audience establish the necklace's origins throughout the video.
In conclusion, I believe my shooting day was a success. I managed to direct Georgina in her performance and she did very well in accurately lip syncing the song and expressing the emotions behind the songs themes and lyrics. The amazing establishing and long shots of the scenery as extra scenes I was pleased in recording and will greatly compliment the music video in it's visual appearance. The storyboard was helpful in guiding my filming as well as developing my ideas in how the visuals match the song and video's themes that I wanted to create. Plus, throughout filming it made me think on ahead about editing and how the different shots could be used. Although there were a few issues in wanting to use different shots whilst singing, issue with the extreme close up of the message on the phone and (looking back at the footage) the camera quality wasn't as sharp compared to some (but I could only use what resources I had) I am overall happy with my work.
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