Christmas holiday filming.

Yesterday I did some additional filming. Having a whole two weeks off, I decided to take out a camera to film some more footage, particularly some more footage of me singing to add some more visual variety. I was hoping for some snow to add to the sense of visual variety,  but there has been no sign of it, and still no sign on the weather forecast.  On the brighter side, I have had a look at the footage at home and I am very pleased with it. I think it will finalise the music video well. The next step when we get back from the Christmas holidays, is for me to upload the footage, add it to the rest of the music video and finalise it with some more editing techniques.

New Filming Schedule

I have come up with some more ideas. I am thinking of filming a sequence in a balcony to place in the beginning of the music video, and the end. The shot will consist of me sitting on a balcony reading a book, until a picture of her ex-boyfriend falls out, and triggers her memories. The reason I am planning on filming  the balcony is because it will show her status at this point in her life now that she has escaped the oppressing and saddening relationship. I am also going to film some more shots of me singing as I believe it lacks a good amount of lip-syncing which would be beneficial in highlighting that it is a music video, rather than a short film. The shots will be of me singing in the mirror to imply that she is trying to persuade herself to leave, and arguing with herself about her departure.

Editing.

Unfortunately, due to inset days and other school timetable arrangements, we have not had many media lessons. However, on Friday we had a school progress review day for the younger years, which meant that we were able to come in and do some work. Editing is going great, and I am quite happy with the way things are going. I have tried to add some more effects including the black and white effect, along with the change of opacity.They look really good.

Today we have a media lesson, which we will presumably be spending on more editing. As the deadline is gradually getting nearer, the pressure is on to be completely focused in lessons and try our best to work towards the completion of the music video.

Editing and Lip Syncing

The majority of last lesson was spent on uploading the footage and really getting started with putting the music video together. My overall reaction to the shots was good. I was extremely happy with the establishing shots which I took in Waterloo. I believe the iconography really fits well to establish the setting of the music video clearly. The angles in which I took the shots give a really nice wide view of the area. 

I started adding the clips, also putting in some more cross dissolve effects to add some variety. I also cut the clips according to the beat of the music to make it look really sharp, and more professional rather than being quite disorganised. From my research into music videos a while ago, I identified that the majority of the videos cut the clips according to the beat and I believe this really adds to creating a successful music video. 

A few lessons ago, I learnt and discovered the life of lip syncing. Lip syncing is something which I have always seen, and have been really intrigued to see how it is done, but have never had the chance until this point in time. In the previous lesson we were given a lesson on lip syncing to act as a tool to help us. At first, it seemed completely confusing, but once I gave it a try with my own clips, it was a lot easier than it sounded. I managed to fit my clips to the song accordingly but did come across some difficulties. There were times where I wanted to cut a very small section of the clip out to fit exactly with the song, which was quite difficult as you had to know where to cut it, making sure you did not delete any clip that was actually needed. Although I went through 15 minutes of undo-ing what I have done, I soon got the hang of it, and successfully completed a few clips. 

  

Filming

Tomorrow  I am planning on filming the second part of my music video. This consists of the iconography, such as  the London Eye and Big Ben, and also a few of the shots as the girl approaches the flat. Due to my unreliable actress who was meant to be used previously, I decided that it would be a waste of good footage if I decided to find another girl to replace. Instead, I will be keeping the footage of myself as the protagonist and continuing the shots by directing my friend on how to take the shots etc.

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Second lot of filming done. I am extremely happy to say that the second section of my filming is completed. Fortunately, one of my friends was available, and acquainted me to Waterloo to film some shoes of the London Eye to portray the setting of the music video. I have also taken a few shots of the Thames, and some of me singing. I also included a shot of a bracelet falling, to reflect a sense of the protagonist giving up and moving on. We were in Central London for approximately an hour and a half and managed to get a great amount of footage filmed. I believe this will add to the variation of visuals to stop the music video from getting quite dull and boring. Tomorrow, I will start editing the footage.

Reaction to editing

This lesson, we spent the majority of our time uploading our footage and having a look at it. Overall, I was quite happy with the footage. However, I did notice a few problems, one in particular was my initial idea of using lighting to play a big role in the music video. I wanted the light towards the kitchen to be a lot brighter in contrast to the lighting towards the door (where the boy was standing on the other side). I wanted this to reflect how her life is a lot darker when she is near him. Looking back at the footage the shots near the door were a lot darker and do not show the girls facial expressions. Despite this, it is very clear that she is upset and angry through the use of her body language (her fists knocking against the wall, the movement of her hands, head in her hands).

Problems

This morning the girl that was meant to be the main character in my production called and said that she will not be able to due to an illness she had overnight. She let me know 2 hours before we were meant to meet. This caused a huge amount of stress for me because no one else I had asked before were willing to be appear in my music video.

Despite this, I gave it another try and contacted 2 of my closest friends, and my cousin. Unfortunately, my friends were busy with celebrating their New Year, and my cousin already had plans for the day, which led me to decide to be in my own video, but direct the boy (who is also acting in the music video) with the shots.

I found this decision to be very time-consuming because it meant that before every shot I had to fully explain what shot I want, and what I want to be getting out of it, however it had to be done/