Filming has begun

Today, with a mug of tea, a croissant and a pair of socks for gloves, we began filming. With the sun set to rise for 6:50 we all got up bright and early to film, and managed to get to Alexandra Palace for 6:35. It was already bright outside, so we actually thought that we had missed sunrise. We got some good view shots but it wasn't what we were looking for, as we were hoping to create a time lapse of sunrise. 

Then all of a sudden the sun appeared. Myself and Anna ran for our lives trying to set up the tripod on the hill whilst Lucy and Rachel continued filming from the roadside. We were absolutely ecstatic and we managed to get some great footage for our time lapse.

Whilst we were filming the time lapse, it was pointed out that the lighting would be ideal in order to create silhouettes. We had the perfect weather conditions with the clear skies which really allowed for some good shots. Here are a couple of images of the group filming our silhouette shots.

Alexandra Palace Vlog

Postponed

The very day that we wish to begin filming, the UK is set for the strongest storm in a decade. Typical. Filming was meant to commence today but due to the storm we were unable to start. Many trains have been cancelled and as we were planning to go to Alexandra Palace today, we had no way of travelling up there. The rain and the very windy weather didn't seem to be a good idea in order to achieve the very best shots, so we have decided to postpone the filming.

Weather permitting, we will start on Wednesday and if we need more shots, we will plan a couple more days to film in the half term. It looks as if Wednesday is going to be a reasonably good day, so fingers crossed.

Storyboarding

We began to finalise some camera angles and camera movements to use in our video, so I decided to start over and create a new storyboard. There are a few blank boxes as we are yet to decide what angles and movements we will be using in certain parts of the video, but this will give us some guidance when we begin filming on Monday 28th. Below is the illustrations and a brief explanation of what will appear in each frame.

• Time lapse of sunrise [11 seconds]
• Silhouette of Rachel layered on the sunrise [9 seconds]
• Silhouette of myself layered on the sunrise [7.5 seconds]
• Silhouette of Lucy layered on the sunrise [7.5 seconds]
• Silhouette of Anna layered on the sunrise [6 seconds]
• Long shot of band [4.5 seconds]

• Close up shot of boots [2.4 seconds]
• Long shot of band [2 seconds]
• Low angle, 360 shot of trees [2.8 seconds]
• Kaleidoscope [10 seconds]

• Tracking shot of two members of the band [8.5 seconds]
• Close up of a member of the band [2.1 seconds]
• Mid shot of boots[5.3 seconds]
• Panning up of members of the band [8 seconds]
• Wide shot of a member of the band [1.1 seconds]

• Mid shot of a member of the band [1 second]
• Low angle shot of members of the band [2.2 seconds]
• Aerial shot of all four members of the band [1.2 seconds]
• Kaleidosope [15.6 seconds]
• Close up silhouette of Rachel [0.6 seconds]
• Close up silhouette of myself [0.7 seconds]

• Close up silhouette of Lucy [0.6 seconds]
• Close up silhouette of Anna [0.6 seconds]
• Split-screen including all four members [1.6 seconds]
• Panning shot of two members of the band [2.4 seconds]
•  Long shot of all four members of the group walking towards the camera [6.4 seconds]

• Kaleidoscope [0.2 seconds] (Kaleidoscope flashes on the beat)
• Long shot of all four members of the band walking towards the camera [0.8 seconds]- both are repeated 10 times until it fades to black at the ends of the song.

Lip-Syncing Outtakes

Lip-Syncing

In today's lesson we started to prepare for Mondays filming session. I thought it would be a good idea if we practiced our lip-syncing and looking at the outtakes which are to follow, I think you will agree that the practice was most definitely needed. We mimed our first couple of takes, but I mentioned whilst watching Lucy, that miming made it look very false, and the best way to make it look realistic was for us to actually sing. We then built up the courage to faintly sing along with the music and it looked far better.

Final Cut Pro

Looking at previous A2 students work the best videos, I believe were created when the students used Final Cut Pro and we hope to follow in their footsteps to create the best possible video we can. Last year, iMovie seemed like an enormous challenge but we quickly learnt how to work it effectively and therefore wish to push ourselves further. Here is a tutorial on how to use Final Cut Pro and an image of myself and Anna familiarizing ourselves with this new technology.

Story-boarding in Progress

Although we think that a lot of our video is going to consist of the group going "Oh that would be a good shot" on the day, we still think it is important to create a storyboard to have something to go off of. We have decided on many of the shot types that we want and also camera movements but we just need to complete our storyboard. Below is the opening shots and camera movements and also some notes on what is going to be included in our video.

The opening shot is going to be a time lapse of sunrise at Alexandra Palace. I liked this from Lana Del Rey's video 'National Anthem' and something similar to this would fit well with our song.

A side shot will then follow the opening shot. I found this in the Doctor Who trailer and we hope to replicate this.

Below is further evidence of the camera shots and movements, and effects that we plan to use throughout our music video. We have also discussed our costume and make-up choices which will coincide with the 90s feel we hope to create. 

Props

We want a somewhat 90's feel to our music video, which we hope to achieve through our use of props and costume. We all really liked the idea of roller-skates which could potentially be used in our video but it is just whether we can get our hands on them. We also think we can get some very good shots if we have the roller skates, as the camera angles would be more creative along with the camera movements.

Although it is not exactly the route we want to go down for our video, The Saturdays recent music video has quite an 90's feel to it and it is also set in a rollerskating rink.

Flares have also been an idea of ours which I think would be really interesting, as it would be a burst of colour and light which we could use in the evening or even possibly in our 'dawn' shots, for the climax of the song. The flares could also be used to create silhouettes which again is something that we hope to create.

Inspiration

Here is a great example of how a simple video, can be far more effective. For our group we want to focus on the camera angles and movements which is something we often forget as we get caught up trying to create a brilliant story-line. This video was created by an A2 media student, and the immaculate shots and flawless editing just proves that quite often a simpler idea is far more effective than a complicated one. Ms Foster informed us that the entire video was filmed solely on a SLR camera which then led us to discover that Lucy in fact owns one. The quality of the camera will improve our shots a great deal, we just hope we will be able to use it!

Group Discussion

Scheduling

Planning is going well, which means the next step is to go out and start filming.We have set aside a few days in the half term to get cracking. Similarly to last year we really want to get most, if not all of the filming done very early on, which allows us plenty of time if we need to go out again to get more shots. As we have discussed, editing is going to be a crucial aspect within our music video so by filming early we also leave ourselves a great deal of time to edit. Filming is due to start bright and early on the 28th where we will hopefully be travelling to Alexandra Palace for our 'dawn' shots.

It is very likely that it will rain over the half term, so we had to figure out a way to work around the English weather. When discussing this we all decided that the rain may not be such a problem and that it could actually look quite good within our video. We discussed the use of slow motion with the rain hitting the ground and also how if we were to film outside when the rain is 'falling', it would coincide with our song title, but this may be too cliche. There are some drawbacks to filming in the rain though, apart from the fact we will all be absolutely soaking, Rachel also highlighted the issue with lighting. For us we want the best quality lighting and if we are to film on a drab, rainy day, the natural light may not be quite what we are looking for. It seems that we are just going to have to pray for a lovely, rainy day with amazing lighting. Is that too much to hope for?

Crystal Fighters: Inspiration

I came across this video today when flicking through music channels and noticed the use of the kaleidoscope in their video. This is pretty much what we hope to achieve when thinking about incorporating the kaleidoscope effect in our video. The colours and lights that are used make it very interesting and I think it is an all round brilliant video, along with a very catchy tune.

Crystal Fighters- LA Calling

HAIM

Kaleidoscope

What would we do without Anna! Anna had the brilliant idea of using a kaleidoscope video within our music video. I think if done correctly, using the right colours it will really add something unique and interesting to our video. Here is a clip to give you an idea of the colours and designs that can be created.

This video shows us how to create the effect on Final Cut Pro 

Inspiration

I saw this video today and I loved the idea of the some what organised/ unorganised faffing about like idiots look and thought that it could relate to our video (minus the unorganised of course). Although I do appreciate the simplicity of the video, the lack of camera angles and variety of camera movements do in my opinion limit how interesting the video can be, so for our video we hope to use a range of camera angles and movements to entice the audience.

We are the Ocean- Chin up, Son

Concept Vlog

Last week, we began a conversation about our change of song so we then decided to vlog to show our discussion.

Email Request

As we are using another artists song we have to ask permission in order for none of us to get into trouble. We sent the email today and it consisted of our reasoning's for using the song and also explaining that it was being used purely for our studies.

Stop Motion

Anna yesterday showed me this video about stop motion. I was really interested when I saw it and I think it would look really good in our video. It is a very simple but effective idea but it seems like a very ambitious task to set ourselves so we may just use snippets of stop motion in our video.

Mood Board

I have created a mood board which illustrates some of our ideas and some videos that we have been inspired by. The vast majority of the pictures are secondary images as we have not yet visited all of our suggested locations nor have we finalised our costume ideas.

Change of Song

As predicted we have changed the song... again! Today after listening to OneRepublic- Counting Stars I fell in love with the beat and also the whole idea behind the video. It actually made me question our song and how 'One Day' lacks a strong beat. So I mentioned to the group that I was questioning 'One Day'. With a few shocked faces at first and a couple of "YOU WANT TO CHANGE THE SONG?!?!" we managed to all agree that changing the song may not be such a bad idea.



The song everyone seemed to agree on was 'Falling' by HAIM. We all loved the sound of HAIM in general but this song stood out most to all of us. Although we have changed the song we still want to stick to our concept for the music video just with a few adjustments.

1) We still plan to focus our idea around one day in which the characters all share together but we are perhaps not going to have it changing from the present day to the past therefore we are not going to use the idea of the characters in their mundane jobs.

2) Lip- syncing seems to fit appropriately with the song so there is a high chance that we will include lip- syncing.

3) We have also been thinking of the characters being part of band which fits with the indie genre.


Lyrics

I give a little into the moment like I'm standing at the edge (I know)

That no one's gonna turn me 'round

Just one more step, I could let go

Oh and in the middle,

I hear the voices and they're calling for me now (I know)

And nothing's gonna wake me now

Cause I'm a slave to the sound

And they're calling,

Don't stop, no, I'll never give up

And I'll never look back, just hold your head up

And if it gets rough, it's time to get rough

They keep saying

Don't stop, no one's ever enough

I'll never look back, never give up

And if it gets rough, it's time to get rough

But now I'm falling, falling, falling

Falling, falling, falling,

Falling, falling, falling, falling, oh

Now I'm going down,

And I can feel the eyes, they're watching us so closely oh

I'm trying not to make a sound

Cause I'll be found out somehow

So keep calling,

Don't stop, no, I'll never give up

And I'll never look back, just hold your head up

And if it gets rough, it's time to get rough

They keep saying

Don't stop, no one's ever enough

I'll never look back, never give up

And if it gets rough, it's time to get rough

But now I'm falling

Into the fire feeling higher than the truth

(I'm falling)

I can feel the heat but I'm not burning

(But now I'm falling)

Feeling desire, feeling tired, hungry too

(I'm falling)

Feels like I'm falling, yeah

I can hear them calling

(I'm falling)

Into the fire feeling higher than the truth

(I'm falling)

I can feel the heat but I'm not burning

(But now I'm falling)

Feeling desire, feeling tired, hungry too

(I'm falling)

Feels like I'm falling, yeah

I can hear them calling

(Now I'm falling)

falling, falling, falling

Falling, falling, falling,

Falling, Falling, falling, oh

Oh and now I'm falling

Falling, falling, falling

Falling, falling, falling,

Falling, falling, falling, oh

Falling, falling, falling, falling

Fall yeah

And now I'm falling

Falling, falling, falling, falling

Fall yeah

And now I'm falling

Into the fire feeling higher than the truth

(I'm falling)

I can feel the heat but I'm not burning

(But now I'm falling)

Feeling desire, feeling tired, hungry too

(Now I'm falling)

Feels like I'm falling, yeah

I can hear them calling for me

(Now I'm falling)

Into the fire feeling higher than the truth

(Now I'm falling)

I can feel the heat but I'm not burning

(I'm falling)

Feeling desire, feeling tired hungry too

(Now I'm falling)

It feels like I'm falling, yeah

I can hear them calling for me

Never look back, never give up

Never look back, never give up

Never look back, never give up

I'll never give up

I'll never give up

[x6]