Performance Shoot with Jess

12/03/15

Today Megan, Aaron and I stayed behind to do the performance shoot with Jess. I think the shoot today worked really well as we got lots of various shots from different camera angles of Jess singing which looked amazing. Her performance was superb as she was actually singing along to the song amplifying her emotions to connote the lyrics. In some sections of the song she was forgetting the lyrics, however when editing we will not include these errors. She also brought along various dresses of the colours: white to connote peace and elegance, red to connote danger and love and dark navy to connote the idea of darkness. I liked how from the beginning to the middle Jess's style and outfit is subtle until the end ,where the music picks up more beat and gets aggressive, having a dark style. We kept the source of light, white studio lights, being the same and used the fan however didn't use the prop of a micro-phone as it meant that Jess would be limited to showing her emotions through body language. 

As our music video has to be handed in on Monday, Aaron will take a macbook home and will start constructing our final music video using the footage we got today.

Reshoot on Alex's Performance

10/03/15

As Alex's performance was not right from the shoot Hayley and I did at Danson park, the group and I decided to do a re-shoot however this time making it seem like alive performance in the drama room using low key lighting. The Danson park shoot, we feel, didn't look right due to the scenery being out of place from the narrative and gallery shots. Also the costume she had on didn't quite illustrate the pop genre vibe however I feel that her hair being out and the wind blowing it onto her face created a great impact; connoted the sense of annoyance and aggressiveness reflecting upon her emotions and lyrics.

When doing our re-shoot in the drama room, we set up white studio lights so that the lighting is different from the lighting used in the ballet scenes. Alex's costume here was of Hayley's prom dress and her make-up was light to give that elegant natural beauty vibe. As Hayley and I liked the idea of Alex's hair blowing, we used a fan in some of the shots to create the build up of tension which is heard through the fast pace music towards the end. A prop of a micro-phone was also used to give the sense of the performance being sung live. When filming we used two cameras in which one was purely tripod based getting wide angles from each side and the other being hand-held getting the close-ups and mid-shots. We also used a crane to give a great impact to the part in the song where there is a high-pitch.

I think that some of the shots we got today were really good. Especially the ones where Alex was leaning on the wall as it gave that voyeuristic image of her which most pop music videos to to grab male attention as well female.

Danson Park Performance Re-shoot

06/03/15

Today Hayley and I went to film the out door scene of Alex singing while Megan and Aaron were editing indoors. The footage we got, I felt, was pretty good due to it being filmed in different angles and being filmed in a park with open space. In some of the scenes the sun was shinning and beaming towards Alex's face which I felt went really well along with the song as it connotes that she has overcome the battlefield of love; the scene being greenery and of open space contributed to this. We tried using the crane when filming however it was difficult to deal with so we just decided to film free handed.

Now looking through all the shots, all we need to do is now film the final scenes of Grace and Alex being together and just construct everything in chronological order reflecting our storyboards. After having all the editing done and finished our music video will be completed and handed over for the teachers to mark.

Ballet Reshoot

02/03/15

Today we shot Graces ballet dancing scenes in another drama room using the drama lighting so that we get a mixture of ballet scenes for different settings. I think the shoot went pretty well as the angles in which we filmed from and the lighting we used really gave that performance vibe. Also experimenting with different techniques and cinematography positions conveyed the professional filming side in our clips. My favourite part was when we filmed grace dancing in a circular motion following the camera as it created tension in which the song builds up in the song. I think when we add these shots in our edits it will fill in the missing gaps in our music video making it more structured and interesting.

                

                  

Narrative Reshoot

23/02/15

Today Megan and Aaron reshot the narrative part of our music video with Grace; some being indoor shots and some being outdoor. I looked through some of the clips and they looked really good in that some of the shots taken where what we originally imagined and put in our storyboard. Our intentions from here will be including some of these shots in our final edits being shown at fast pace creating tension towards the audience.

 

 

Solo Performance shoot

12/02/15

We started filming all the solo performance of the singing again as we have now changed our artist. In the shoot we did today, Hayley and Megan are in charge of the cameras and setting the lighting up while i was in charge of her hair and make-up, costume and playing the song battlefield over and over again. 

             

We filmed this solo performance by setting up two cameras and taking a long shot of the whole song being performed. We did lots of retakes by changing the camera angle, panning and the zooming of the camera in each retake we did. Also the lip stick, costume and accessories were also changed in each retake so that we have lots of different variety of footage.

                       
                                

The shoot went really well as the lip sync Alex was doing went in sync with the song along with her facial expressions (visuals) which were expressing the song lyrics. The lighting was also equal making the clips we had taken look really good. The different camera angles we got really helped in getting a variety of shots which can be incorporated in our music video. By having a range of shots it makes the visuals of our music video pacey and interesting.

Poppy's singing reshoot

10/02/15

After school today Aaron and I went into the gallery and started getting the set ready, lighting and camera set up, so that we can do a reshoot of Poppy miming to the Battlefield song being Isabel Beau. We had to do a reshoot due to the incident before of the camera lens having a pale yellow filter. In today's shoot I, being the stylist, focused widely on the make-up and accessories making Poppy look like an actual pop star. The shoot went pretty well in the sense that the mise-en-scene element was fitting well and to what we imagined. When shooting this time round Aaron and I had decided to use two camera's when filming Poppy miming so that we get a range of shots in different angles; our initial idea was to use three cameras however due to the third not being available we stuck to using two.
Here are some of the shots we took:

Although everything went to plan I still think the scenes don't look good. It's not to do with the camera, lighting, costume or setting but i feel as if the performance is not as strong as we imagined and want it to be. Battlefield is a very emotional, aggressive at times, and affectionate song in which I don't think any of these adjectives are being expressed through the performance. Aaron and I discussed about this and decided to wait till tomorrow's lesson in which we will review over the footage taken and decide whether we need to re-cast or re-shoot talking to the whole group and Shaun.

Filming

03/02/15

We all went to Megan's house to film the arguing scenes of the parents and car scenes. We took the tripod and DSLR d1200 with the 50mm lens so that the pull focus can be shown beautifully to create the sense on tension being there. 

When filming the argument scenes, it was difficult for the parents to argue as they are not the argumentative type but once they started to get into the role i think they're performance was looking really good. I think the roles suited the parents really well as the dad is quite tall and butch representing the stereo typical view of the male dominating over the female that is innocent and vulnerable. Once we had filmed the argument scenes, we began to set up for the car scenes out side. However here we encountered a problem as the SD card that was given to us was only 8mp which was not enough space to film the car scenes inside. Here we overcame this problem by using an iPhone 5s which we knew for a fact has a good camera.

I think the shoot we did today went pretty well as we filmed on time and everything was organised of what we will film where and of who. We will now wait till Wednesday's Media lesson in which we will all as a group go through the scenes we captured today.

Filming Dance Performance

27/01/15

Aaron and I started filming the ballet dance scenes of Grace today. The shoot didn't start off too good as the dance room we originally wanted was occupied so we had to use another drama room. In the room we shot in there were no spotlights which meant we had to use a studio lamp, which was not professional however it didn't look too bad. I think the shots we filmed were actually pretty good, obviously we will have to do a reshoot, but for the time being its right as it gives us a little more of an idea of what we are aiming for and what we need to improve in our music video. I think the dance performance was really professional and the costume being white looked amazing against the darkness around Grace; it showed the idea of negative spacing. The camera we used, D500 50mm, was not too good as it made the shots look grainy, so next time we will use the D1200 to give that clean look. The next time we shoot we will film more of the narrative side when filming the dance scenes so that it goes according to our storyboard and makes more sense when put into our final music video.

 

Experimenting 1200 DSLR Canon Camera

26/01/15

Today as we had nothing planned, due to both our actresses being busy, we decided to play around with different camera lens and filming using DOF( depth of field). Depth of field "is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image." This is what makes the scenes captured more interesting due to the idea of shallow focus and having one object be the main subject. The lens that really amplifies the shallow focus is the 50mm lens on a 1200 DSLR Canon. This is why we have decided to use the 50mm lens when filming the dance as it will give a greater impact of focusing on certain areas making the audience focus on those areas.

Here we had a play around with the 50mm lens experimenting with the different pull focus and how to move the camera along, keeping the subject in focus, while the subject is moving.

I think this lens works really great as it gives that professional look due tot he pull focus. Using this when filming the dance scenes will really work well and look slick.

For inspiration, when filming the dance sequence, we looked at the music video from Whiplash which was shown towards the end. The pace of the cuts being fast and from different angles and camera shots is what makes this performance in the music video interesting. This is what we will try to persue when filming the dance scene.

Narrative Music Shoot

13/01/15

Today we did the narrative part of the shoot to our music video. As the day was pretty sunny and bright we thought to film the outside part in which the younger Isabel Beau (Grace) is waiting for her dad to pick her up from dance class. When filming here we elaborated on the idea by filming grace timing her shoes, walking out of her dance studio and waiting. The costume that we told Grace to wear really connoted the idea of her being a dance student due to the pineapple bag, sports bottle and tracksuit. We took some footage of Grace in her room in which we felt could contribute to the video. However we didn't get to filming the house scenes due to the camera battery running low. Overall, i think the shoot went really well, Grace was working well and acting out the way we wanted to which was perfect and we filmed some good shots.

Poppy's Solo Shoot

09/01/15

Looking through the videos taken we found a pretty big problem in that the whole shoot was filmed with a yellow filter which lead all the shots recorded in being filtered looking really horrible and strange. As all of the artists singing videos are suppose to be in colour we can't hide the filter by making it black and white. The other thing was when we were viewing the videos were that they looked a bit too staged and fake; the acting and emotions were very minimal and not realistic. Although we were going along with the idea of negative spacing i don't think it works well enough as it doesn't give the pop feel, maybe this is because she has no colour on her face or the hair is a bit too simple.

So to overcome all of these problems we have asked Poppy to learn the whole song of 'Battlefield' so that when it comes to doing the shoot we can just film her singing again and again changing the camera angles. We have also decided to style her up a bit more giving her some colour. Having her wearing red/pink lipstick along with eyeshadow and styling her hair differently. We will also be aware of the fact that the camera may have a filter so we will test it out and check it properly before filming. The next shoot of Poppy singing solo will be sometime next week when we feel like she knows the song vaguely.

                                                 

Shooting of Poppy's solo shoot

09/01/15

Today's shoot went really well as the footage we got of each scene looked proffessional and far better than the scenes we had from the start. The black costume against the white background worked really well as the centre of attention was our artist which is what we wanted to do. By having the setting be in the gallery made the scene more realistic due to the wider environment and natural lighting being the main. We had also set up the studio lamps up so that the lighting is bright and equal. The way each line was mimmed and acted seemed to look goo. Again, in this shoot, we lots of takes were taken; as much as we could so that we have lots of shots to choose and edit from.