Production- Feedback

Candidate 1
"The range of shots and framing are good for the shots which are there"
"The movement is good as well" 
"The pace is not bad, its slightly slow compared to the song"
"cutting to the beat is good and works well with the narrative" 
"lip syncing is slow, not giving a sense of realism"

Candidate 2

"Track and pan are really good" 

"A whole range of shots have been used" 

"we're still unsure of the narrative, but thats due to lack of shots" 

"lip syncing is perfect" 

"cutting to the beat, very nice and neat"

"maybe experiment with some transitions?" 

"locations and costume connect well with the song" 

"the jump into the shot with sam was creative" 

"change of costume suits the sense of music" 

Candidate 3

"Framing is good, especially the cloud shot with Sam's back to the camera"

"There is a variety of shots"

"Lip syncing, 19 seconds, a bit slow" 

"Follows the narrative storyline of the music video, narrative could be clearer in terms of whether if the artist is a part of the narrative of separate?" 

Candidate 4

"Good framing!"

"Good range of shots, close ups, maybe add more angles?"

"The camera movement is a little too fast, the pans need to be slower" 

Production weekly reflection- week 10

The productivity during this week was split between Sam and I. I handled all the editing whilst working parallel, Sam took responsibility for the digipak and the magazine advert. I encountered few problems; although there were only a few, they had a major impact on the final outcome of the week. 

One of the first problems was facing the issue of editing with out all the complete footage. This caused a lot of disruption in the chronological order of how I initially wanted to edit. I had to leave numerous gaps editing only with what I had. However we did resolve this problem and film the very last 'final major shots' we needed yesterday (20th November 2011). Sam and I travelled a one hour journey to New Cross and filmed all the shots in front of the graffiti wall and metal door. Though we only had a few shots to film, doing this took us one an hour and a half as we had to capture Sam from every angle. 


I wanted to film Sam from different angles and heights because I planned to edit the lyric "how do you feel when your babies are naked and cold" to the word. Cutting to a different angle at every single word, to create a fast pace montage. Another issue I faced was finding a guitarist for the instrumental shots. I found it difficult to get a hold of Harry because of how little I saw him and there was hardly any communication. I took initiative and decided to resort back to 'plan b' in case we struggled with our guitarist. I asked help from Rajiv who introduced me to his personal guitarist, with whom we have booked a filming date on the 24th of November to film the third dimension of our music video. 

FEEDBACK

During this week on Friday we received class feedback on the progress of our music video. We gained mainly positive feedback, but because there was such little there in regards to content, it was difficult for people to explain and be specific with their suggestion and opinion. I plan to ask for their insight again later during this following week, once I start using the footage from New Cross, London. 


Positive: 

• Good range of shots and accurate filming.
• Good camera movement and framing.
• Cutting to the beat has been carried out well.
• The idea of Sam ducking down and then coming back up again is creative.
• Use of location makes it visually appealing.
• The costume change works well with the style of the video. 

Suggestions/Weaknesses:

• The lip syncing needs to be timed better.
• More shots are needed.
• The pace of editing feels a little slow in comparison to the song.
• The narrative isn't fully clear. Is the artist a part of the narrative or separate? 
• More facial expressions from Sam.
• Camera movement too fast, the pans need to be slower.

After receiving all the feedback, I have planned to film the guitar shots with no movement to give the viewer a 'visual break' from all the constant panning. The aims for next week is to edit accurately and make Sam's lip movement match the song, to film the very last shots with Rajiv's guitarist, to edit chronologically and lastly to start adding more shots to the beginning of the video.

20th November call sheet

Production weekly reflection- week 9

During this week targets were not met as planned, we were unable to film on the 12th of November due to Sam's availability and the guitarist shots did not get covered because there has been lack of communication between Harry and I. Although I looked over footage which we can use for editing and the final product, Sam also created a rough template of the magazine advert. Unfortunately we are unable to create a final draft or template of our initial magazine advert and digipak plans because it all revolves around the graffiti wall shoot, which have not covered as of yet.

It caused a few difficulties when Sam explained how he was unable to film on the 12th of November, instead I began to do some research and started analysing another music video. I utilized my time by looking over my pre-production section and criticising it to understand where it is currently lacking. To improve my work I have planned to now add an analysis of a music video, a textural analysis of my own magazine advert and digipak plans/templates and a hand drawn coloured outcome of what our ancillary products should look like. Also, I have come to understand it is difficult to constantly watch video logs posted in my blog, so I shall be adding bullet points beneath them, for quick skimming purposes.

I aim to film with Harry during this week and get at least ten minutes worth of footage of him strumming a guitar. Sam also needs to find time to play the drums in the music department (we plan to do this in lesson time). The week was not as productive as we thought it would be, although individually I have been working on improving my blog over all. I plan to upload all the improvements and changes during this week, preferably by the 18th of Novemeber.

My aim for this following week is to begin editing and complete the final shots on the shooting script as it is beginning to get frustrating with out all the footage in our editing bin on Final Cut Pro, a software we will be using to edit our shots together. So far I have learnt how to upload footage directly from the HD camera on to the Mac, trim and cut clips together and add a few transitions and effects. I hope to gain more skills regarding Final Cut Pro during this week and then apply them to my work. I will be experimenting with the different tools and using them to create the planned effects.

Production call sheet 12th November

We were going to cover the final shots and complete our last most important filming session, however due to Sam's availability we were unable to film.

Production call sheet 5th November

We covered all of the neccessary narrative shots and completed what we aimed to shoot, however we had to change a few shots according to the weather and cold circumstances we were in; we changed shots 52, 53 and 54 to more appropriate angles and movement.

Production call sheet 3rd november

Sam was unavailable for the filming, so I went to Ilford with Soraya and Talha to complete the 'flashback shots'. The weather was very harsh and I was unable to film any scenes planned outdoors. I started filming a scene on the field but then day light began to fade and the rain made filming difficult. A few of the shots had to be reconsidered and I replaced them with indoor shots of them inside a restaurant, bowling ally and arcade.

Production weekly reflection- week 8

Last week I was unable to gain any response when I contacted Sam during the half-term holidays. This week my aim was to successfully communicate with him to establish filming days, which I did. We planned to film on the 1st of November, 2nd of November and the 3rd of November to cover shots of Sam in Hainault Forest, Studio shots and flashbacks that our narrative male has of the, "good times" between himself and his girlfriend. We obtained all the shots from Hainault that we needed, although due to the difficulty of finding a guitarist willing to film, we were unable to record any guitar playing at the forest. This makes me reconsider the location for the guitarist as it takes an hour for the journey to and from Hainault Forest and this proves to be too time consuming considering how the day light begins to fade at half-past four in the afternoon. 

During the filming at Hainault forest, we had to change a few shots, such as Sam walking up a hill, lip syncing at the same time. We replaced this shot with him sitting on the hill with his legs folded up to his chest just as he had sat in our photo shoot. This was done because the outcome of the shots whilst walking up the hill were resulting too shaky and completely unusable; we thought about the photo shoot we had done earlier and what positions he had been photographed in, so we could later match the same picture with his position in the forest, to have a faint line of continuity between the digipak and Music video. Unfortunately we were unable to get a hold of Harry Maxwell to film at Hainault Forest with, so we have decided to change the location to the field, to save time and still have shots of a guitar player for the instrumental performance.

Before Saturday 5th of November, we had not covered a large portion of the locations listed in our shooting script. I am very keen on using all the locations planned to represent the artist, however I feared that we may need to change a few of the planned locations. The volatility of my partner has lead to difficulties in filming and I found myself filming alone on a few occasions. Filming alone left me insecure as I did not have my partners opinion to reassure me. My partner and I kept regular communication towards the end of the week when we needed to film the narrative scenes, which lead to a successful London shoot. 

The development with the digipak and magazine advert has been progressing along with every filming session. Sam has been editing the ancillary products during lessons, to which I give my input and opinion. At the moment we only have rough templates because we need to complete the final 'metal door' shoot. Our byproducts revolve around pictures which need to be taken in front of the graffiti wall we planned to shoot in front of. We would have done this during the school week, however the location is in new cross; as it is so far, we have been unable to film there on weekdays and have planned to film next week Saturday. 



The guitarist has been difficult to get a hold of, and we are thinking of reverting to our last resort of using Rajiv to help us. I will try my best to contact Harry and confirm a filming day with him.

Filming on the 3rd of November did not go to plan, Sam was unavailable to film with me and the weather was terrible. I made the decision to film the shot planned to have a mise-en-scene of a park, on the field. This was to save on time, complete the shot and still make it to Ilford on time. Upon reaching Ilford I decided to film solely indoor shots as day light had faded completely and the rain became heavier. I first went to 'Bollywood Bowling' to ask permission for filming, which after a short discussion they agreed to allow. I shot Soraya and Talha playing arcade games and then moved on to Talha teaching her how to bowl. Later, I had to once again ask permission to film inside the restaurant, to which a waiter agreed and allowed us to film. I directed Soraya and Talha to playfully feed each other, whilst they did this I experimented with camera movement. At first I started with a "shaky camcorder" effect, as if a friend was holding the camera, then I reverted back to panning as it requested in the shooting script.

The filming session on the 5th November revolved around filming the Narrative in London, to which Sam accompanied us on. Working with the chosen Actors was very successful as they are outgoing and confident. Resulting in absolute minimal shyness and shots which reflected emotion. There were a few issues, such as not being able to use the picnic blanket on the grass; it had been raining during the morning and the weather seemed too dreary and illogical to have a picnic in. Instead, I replaced the shots, 52, 53, 54 from the shooting script, of them using a picnic blanket with more mid shots and close ups as well as long shots depicting the mise-en-scene. The dreariness of the day ended up working in favour for us, as the grey weather added to the emotion and depressing effect of the 'rejection shots'.


There were florist shots which we had not covered but we ended up filming them at liverpool st station. At first we asked permission from the florist at the station who directed us to the national rail office to gain official permission from the manager. We had a 20 minute wait and discussion and eventually gained the permission to film at the station with the condition we do not obstruct any one.

The targets for this week are to complete the shooting script and film on the 12th of november along with beginning to edit and creating the final template for the magazine advert.