Footage - First Day Of Filming Up London

 

Graffiti Wall Footage

The video shown above displays the footage my group and I shot from our first trip of filming. On this first occasion we went up to London and got the majority of our lip syncing filmed. In the above video you see a long corridor with graffiti walls all around, this was our first location when filming in London. We aimed to get as many different shots in this location as possible as we thought it would be our main location throughout our video. This specific location was very well suited to the urban feel we wanted our video to convey. This corridor was also underground with helped give a golden lighting which made the graffiti stand out perfectly on the camera.

There is a close up shot of my lips in this video where I am lip syncing. We was going to use this shot for the opening line of our song/video however once returning home from filming we realised I had a hair across my lips, this was a distraction and something we couldn't fix on premier pro or any other software. Due to the hair in the shot we re-filmed this later on in school. At the end of this video you see our actress (Ellie a member of our group) dancing in a Mid Shot against the graffiti wall. In these shots she is looking directly at the camera. We at first placed these shots within our music video, however, after receiving a large amount of feedback we discovered that having both artist and actress was confusing to the audience, making it hard for them to be told apart and understand what their purposes was throughout the video. Giving our helpful audience feedback we removed these shots and any other shots where the same problem occurred.

Shisha Bar Footage

Along with most of our lip syncing shots we also got some shots of our narrative, one being in a Shisha Bar (video above). This location was very well suited to the urban style of our video due to the cobbled path, outside seating, patterns and colours. The smoke in these shots also related to an idea we had that we would later shoot back at our school (Lip syncing in front of a projector with colourful smoke in the background).  The shots show our narrative to our music video, our actress having fun with her friend in a shisha bar, doing typical teenage things. To emphasise the fun they are having and their relationship I filmed close up shots of the two laughing and looking at one another.

During the video you will see a shot of the main actress blowing smoke directly into the camera. However in the process of editing our video and receiving feedback it was clear that this shot didn't fit into our video. Most audience members said that having both artist and actress look directly at the camera made the storyline confusing, making it unclear who the song was about and what the purpose of both characters were. Unable to justify this we decided to change/delete some footage, including this shot, and re-think how we would show both artist and actress in different ways. Another shot that didn't make it into our video was the ending shot in the video above. Both me, my group members and audience were all able to notice the poor quality of the shot and the fact that again, like the previous shot discussed, it didn't quite make sense.

Table Footage

When planning this footage and specific table shots we imagined a warm outdoors café or coffee shop location however up London this was very hard to find due to the fact we only had a limited amount of time and several crucial shots to film. Being in the location of Kings Cross (where we were set to film our last shots in fountains) we came across this small seating area shown above and decided to film anyway. Although this was one of our favourite looks for our artist there were many things wrong with this shot and therefore we couldn't use it in our video. My group and I noticed the flaws as well as our peers, who we received feedback from.

Firstly the natural lighting in this shot was bad and made the overall look of the shot look very boring and bland, although this is something that could be adjusted on Premier Pro there were other aspects of the shot that could not be fixed without then making the shot look of a poor quality. Secondly the building railings that were in the background of the table and chairs completely distracted the audience from the artist lip syncing her new single. Another distraction was the builders in bright yellow jackets walking passed and stopping to look what was happening. Lastly when trying to place these shots into our video we found they looked odd and out of place, not fitting with the overall feel and look of the music video.

 Messing Around Footage

Like explained above, due to feedback these shots didn't fit our music video and made our audience extremely confused. Not only were these shots bad due to feedback there were also things like the barrier with the caution sign on it, in the background, through the glass. This takes away from the entity of the shot and creates a distraction to audience members eyes. Also like the table footage, these shots didn't fit in with our theme of colour and were very dull; something we didn't want.

Fountain Footage 

                             

Here is the footage we took at the colourful fountains in King's Cross. From the very beginning of planning my group and I knew we wanting to incorporate this location. We were set on having the fountains shots at the very end of our song, rounding it off with a nice ending. My group and I really liked this background the fountains provided, along with the quirky lighting they also supplied.

Although we and our audience really loved the shots, there were some slight issues with them. Once on Premier Pro the lighting we really loved didn't seem to be as clear as we thought, therefore we only were able to use a few of the shots in our final piece. Again, as these were shot on our first outing of filming we hadn't yet discovered that having our artist and actress in the same location or even the same shot was confusing. With this feedback we decided to cut our actress out of these shots and just included ones where our artist was lip syncing.

From our first filming outing I have learnt that my group and I need to be more cautious of the natural lighting and how to find the best lighting possible while outdoors. Also that we need to take more shots in one location.