Production - Unplanned filming Day

Snow Day 
These were shots which weren't planned on this day, however fit as replacements to what I planned in my storyboard.  It was a school day and it snowed.  We all got sent home from school and so I asked Ollie if he could film.  He said that he could, which was brilliant as I thought we could get some really good shots in the snow.  We took the camera and walked to a field, were we got many shots playing in the snow and of the views around use. It was an unplanned filming day, however very successful.

Production - filming day 6 rushes

These are the rushes of filming day 6.  The shots which I did on this day were in my house in the living room and outside mimicking paparazzi shots.

Production - Filming day 6

Filming in Middleton Cheney 

On the 6th day of filming it was another set of shots in Middleton Cheney, at my house.  These were not only in my house but outside it as well.

Living room

• The first set of shots that I did were in the living room.  Here I took some shots of the male being violent and the male and female together.
• The violent shots were needed as in my class feedback, The comments which were made touched upon the idea that the controlling and nasty side the the male is't shown as strong as it could.  They suggested that more shots of the male being violent would be useful.  Therefore, in the same style I had used in previous shots, I held the camera and had the male hit towards it to show the females POV to the violence.
• I also had a violent shot of the male grabbing the throat of the female.  This was a close up shot and I think it was clear and effective of how the woman is being treated. 
• Other shots which I did in this location were ones of the male and female kissing.  The way that I did this was in the dark.  I had a light behind the couple so that their outlines were strong.  This was a similar style to what I had done in previous shots 

Filming Outside; Day 

• This filming day lasted from about 4 until 8 in the afternoon/evening.  During the day it began to rain outside.  This was brilliant as I wanted to get some shots of the rain to represent the sadness.  Therefore, I ran outside and captured close ups of puddles and rain drops.

Filming Outside; Night 

• When the filming day turned to dark, it was time to do the paparazzi shots.  These were shots which I had planned to do on different filming day to show the deterioration of the female more and more into the relationship.
• We filmed these shots out the front of my house, so that we were in the road.  This is because I wanted the female to fall in the road.  
• There were 5 people, including myself, involved on this filming day.  I had Harry Beck filming, as i directed him on what I wanted and my brother and mum, flashing cameras, to make it look as though paparazzi are there. 

Production - Filming day 5 Screenshots of rough footage

This shows the footage which I got on the 5th filming day.  I have screenshotted the thumbnails of the footage after importing it all into iMovie. 

 The tumbnails of each clip can be seen above.  As can be seen, the footage which I got on this day was all focused in one location, however covered a variety of shots; clocks, record player, flowers, photographs and the male.  All of which have strong representation input.

This shot is the only one of the male I got on this day.  I needed to get more shots of the man being violent towards the woman and generally being not very nice.  This is where this shot came in.  The shot shows the male hitting the camera and its meant to show a point of view shot from the female.  This shots a fast but strong insight into how the male is treating her and begins to build up the narrative. 

The shots of the record player are ones which took me several attempts to decide hat I wanted.  I wanted this shot to be representative of the classics; in terms of Hollywood, vintage and love.  The record is meant to firstly represent the song playing and the narrative continuing.  All records must come to an end and as does this love story.

Another lot of shots which I got on this day were of photographs on the wall.  These photographs showed images of the male smiling.  These shots are meant to be representative of the idea that this is something which has been going on for a long time and the couple have had both happy and sad times. 

Production - filming day 5 rushes

These are the rushes of filming day 5.  This was filming again in my bedroom of objects around my bedroom, as well as some violent shots of Ollie.  This was a very successful filming day and I got a lot of good footage. 

Production - Filming day 5

Filming in Middleton Cheney 

When looking through the shots I had in my music video and what I had planned in my storyboard, I had a few more ideas of where I wanted to go with my next shots. 

• Filming day 5 consisted of filming more shots at my house in Middleton Cheney.  These shots were very wide in terms of variety.  I looked back on my research which I had done into this genre of music video and realised that I hadn't done enough shots which directly represented the lyrics.  This is where a lot of my shot ideas for this filming day came in.
• The first lot of shots which I got were of many objects in the room; clocks, photographs etc.  One of the shots I wanted to get was of a lightbox.  I had one of these in my room and thought they looked remarkably like a sign post; almost cinematic.  This is where I chose to use it to read some of the lyrics on it.  I was very pleased on how they came out and think that they are representative of the fame side of the couples relationship.
• The shots of the photographs on the wall showed the couples history together and represented the happy times and happiness they have had with each other. 
• The clock shot was representative of time.  This showed the passing of time.  In the video I plan there to be many different seasons shown throughout, showing that this is the couples life over a long period of time.  The shot of the clock compliments this idea.
• The last load of shots which I got on this day were violent shots from the male.  The video before this had little development between the beginning and end of the narrative, therefore by having these it explains more.  

Audience negative feedback - Editing so far

• Create a clearer visual of the female deteriorating.
• Still quite a lot of gaps.
• Some of the shots don't fit.
• Not a fan of the still moving shots at all.
• The stills don't fit the song. 

Audience negative feedback - Editing so far

So that I could progress with my video, I got some negative feedback on what I had done already.  This meant that I was able to progress and further what I have done already on my video and make it better.

Audience positive feedback - Editing so far

So that I am able to further my music video and better what I had already done.  I got feedback on what was good and bad.  This is the positive feedback so that I can continue what I am doing good in my new footage. 

Audience positive feedback - Editing so far

So that I knew if I was going in the right directing in terms of my editing in my project, I got some positive and negative feedback on what I have done so far.

Editing - Running clip

In order for the scene of the couple running to be how I wanted it to be, I needed to edit it to make it slower, crop it and turn it into black and white.  I did this all in premiere pro.
Black and White

• When turning the clip into black and white, I selected the clip itself and went into editing effects..  I then searched 'tint'.  Applying this to the clip will automatically make it black and white.  

Speed

• When it came to speeding the clip up, I again selected the clip and then right clicked.  Here there was a selection all duration/time.  When going into this the speed could be lowered or increased, which is how I slowed the clip down.

Frame size 

• The first thing I did when altering the frame size was, i went into the library of clips and at the bottom to the right are some keys.  I right clicked on these and went to the option which said adjustment layer.  This added an adjustment layer to the library.  By using adjustment layers it means that alters to the clip can be made, without effecting the clip itself. 

• Once the adjustment layer was made, I dragged it on top of the clip.  At this point, the size of the adjustment layer was too big for the size of the clip.  Therefore, the first thing I did when importing the adjustment layer was cut it down to size.  I did this by marking the adjustment layer with the cutting tool.  This meant that the two clips would sit on top of each other.  

• After cutting the adjustment layer down to size, It was time to edit the clip.  I searched for the crop tool and pulled it onto the adjustment layer.  I then altered the size of the right and left size of the frame.  This made the ratio of the frame size change.  

This was an effect which I used on many of my clips to alter the presentation of it.  I also think that the frame sizes target different areas of the couples life.

Post production- Editing - VHS effect

To follow the theme of my video, I wanted to make the clips look like old footage. The footage I have edited here, is being edited to look like it was filmed on a VHS camera.  The idea behind this is that the male had been video recording her.  This should be a clip representing the females vulnerability and how controling the man is; he is making her do what he wants.  Below are the steps I went through to make the video look like this. I also did this with another clip to show the footage of the girl being video recorded, whereas this is the footage. I learnt all this through Youtube videos.



The first step I took is finding a screen of scratched old footage to overlay on the footage and make it look dated, having the old film effect. I copied the link of this video and used a youtube converting site to convert the video into an mp4 so that I could then downloaded it. Doing this, I imported it into premiere pro.

Once the clip was imported into Premiere Pro, I created an adjustment layer above the clip itself.  This was done by adding a new folder to my library of other clips called adjustment layer. I made the adjustment layer so that the effect wouldn't change the original clip and only the layer.  This would mean that if the effect didn't come out the way I wanted it to, I could just delete the layer and the clip wouldn't be effected.

Once this was downloaded, I pulled the video over the clip, into the adjustment  layer.  The size of the video was tiny in comparison to my shot.  Therefore, I changed the scale and positioning of the video so that it fit the shot. After this was done   Using a colour key , I removed the black colouring from the screen, so that only the effect was visible.  I also turned down the opacity so that it was more genuine. This made the footage look scratched.


After cutting the scratched effect down to size, I then had to remove the sound from the video.  This was so that there was no sound overlapping the music.  I did this by right clicking on the clip, and then choosing the setting 'unlink'.  This detached the sound from the actual clip so that you could move them individually, without the other being effected.  I then deleted the sound from the clip.


Now the footage had a scratched effect, it was now time to edit the appearance of it so that it looked old; like a VHS. The first effect which I looked into was color balance.  This helped be to create the washed out effect.  I then used a blur tool so that it had a blurred effect running through the clip; like it was rippling.

Once I had sorted the blurring effect as well as the color balance, I then went into a brightness and contrast.  I changed it so that the contrast was very high and then controlled the brightness so that it wasn't as bold.







Once i had finished creating the VHS effect, I saved it as an effect so that I could use it again.  This meant that I wouldn't have to redo all of the steps I have done to create the effect on this clip and I will just have to apply one effect to make it look the same.

This was the end result of the effect of the clip.  

Post Production - Sound

As my product is a music video, I had a soundtrack playing throughout the entirety of the video.  The song was my chosen song 'Video Games' by Lana Del Rey.  To ensure that I was able to use the song in my video, I composed an email to Lana's managers Ed and Ben.  It was very difficult to track these two down and I am unsure of their last names.  In the email two the men, I explained that I was an A- level student and wanted to use Lana's song in my final product.  The copy of the song which I used, was one I downloaded off YouTube.  This meant that it was in my files and that it was easily accessible.  I don't intend to use any other sounds in the video, apart from the sound of paparazzi's voices, however this is something which is already used in the song and therefore there will be no need for any additional sounds.
It was important that I chose the song before any serious planning of the music video.  This was so that I was able to apply the conventions of the genre to video, for example linking the lyrics to the video.

Post production - Titles

When it came to my titles for my music video, I wanted to continue to follow the VHS/ home recording effect which I will following widely through the entirety of my video.  To do this I though I
could use actual footage from a VHS.  I found a blue screen clip online which showed a scratching of static after a blue screen and then footage.  I thought that this was perfect, so I downloaded it.  I imported it into premiere and cropped it down to the size which I wanted.  I wanted it to be very short.  I also wanted there to be the blue screen, then static and then the footage.  Therefore, I used the middle of the clip.  Once in Premiere, I went into the scale in editing and made it so hat the clip only took up the centre of the clip and was't touching the edges.  This made a higher impact in it being VHS footage; it look more realistic.  I then used the text tool to write the title 'Video Games' and placed it directly in the centre of the markings.  It was then time to choose a font, which took me ages as I didn't like the ones in Premiere.  Therefore, I downloaded one online.

Post Production - Editing software

Chosen software - The software which I have used to edit my final music video for A2 is Premiere Pro. This is something I thought carefully about before choosing, however it is the same software as I used last year so It is something that I am familiar with.  As I did use it for my Preliminary film, I have a relatively good understanding of it and using it will continue to further my skills of the software.  Premiere has so much capability and a wide range of editing tools, which is one of the reasons why I chose it.  For a couple of clips I have used iMovie to edit them before putting them into Premiere.  The reason I didn't use iMovie for all of my music video is because it doesn't have as large a range of effects and editing features as Premiere does.

Production - Footage from filming day 4

A lot of the shots in the park are not in these rushes, however all of the woodland shots are in here.  I have made this shot set of rough footage of what I got on the day.  This filming day was highly successful and I gethered the footage which I needed to continue to further my music video. 

Production - Filming day 4

Filming In Middleton Cheney

Park 

• This filming day I wanted to get some shots at the park.  This meant that I could get footage on the swings, which could be placed in the section which says 'swinging in the back yard'.  This would make a strong link between the lyrics and the video.  It also would show home footage of the couple messing around and having fun.  I will film this footage on an app on my phone which makes it look like vhs quality.
• Another shot which I wanted to get was of the male walking through the trees.  This was in the same location as the park.  I got a mid shot of the male walking as I tracked him.  This again was shot on my phone in the same style as the other shot.  This was meant to look as though it was home footage on a vhs. 
• I also took as hot, in the same woodland area of the woman in the trees, looking into the distance.  The camera pans around her as she looks foreward.  This shot is meant to be represntative of the woman acknowledging shes crumbling.  The fact that she is staring off into the distance, shows her in deep thought.  This shows that she is thinking about what is currently going on in her life and how she is changing.

Production - Filming Day 3 Rough footage

This is a makeup of rushes for my third day of filming.  The majority of the clips I acquired on this day are displayed in these rushes.  The day was highly successful and I have gained a lot of useful clips for my video. 

Production - Filming day 3 actors costumes

On the third filming day, the coupes costumes were something I took into high consideration.  I wanted to two to loo fashionable and different; like icons.  However, I also wanted a balance of casual, everyday middle class people to remain.  I also wanted there clothes to remain holding representation.
Female 

• The female on this day wore a long camel, macintosh.  This represented a form of class, which came from their fame.  I also thought that the light colouring of the coat could be used to represent the females innocence.  It is slightly off white, which represents the innocence fading away.  This idea is complimented by the fact that the female is smoking.  The simplistic coat contrasts with the males patterned top.  This shows that there is a lot more to the male, in comparison to the female.

Male 

• The males attire on this day was a stripped top.  Stripped tops are generally associated with France, which is well known as a land of love.  This represents the love between the two.  The top is also less simplistic then the females attire, which represents the idea that there is more to the male than the female.
• In another shot the male wears a puffer coat.  This is navy, and increases the size of the male.  This is representative of the males power and control.

Production - Filming day 3 - screenshots of footage

I imported the footage from the third filming day into iMovie.  These are the screenshots of the

thumbnails once I imported them.

The thumbnails show footage of the couple outside in Banbury. The couple are seen embracing in a cuddle. running down a path and walking against a fence.  All of these shots are in the same location.  There are also thumbnails of the couple of the sofa together, close ups of the male, a tracking shot of the female and close ups of hands and feet. 

The shot captured here is of the couple running down the path.  I really like this shot as it shows that the couple have completely isolated themselves; that it is only them two.  The camera tracks them as they run in a point of view style.  I think in editing, this is a shot which I would slow down. 

This again shows the thumbnails of all of the different shots I got on this day.  They were all very successful and I was very pleased. 

This shot is of the couple lying on a sofa together.  They are shown admiring each other and being in love.  I think this shot is very powerful and shows the couples casual life together.  The shot itself is a close up, over the shoulder shot.  It focuses on the female and over the males face. 

Production - Filming Day 3

Filming outside Banbury reservoir 

The location of the third filming day started outside of the Banbury reservoir.  There was a water station on the drive down to the reservoir which provided the perfect location for the external shots of the couple smoking and embracing.  The significance of this location meant that the casual, external shots, showing the couple isolated together could be shot.  I wanted a location like this so that it made the isolation of the couple clear; that they have no one else and how the two's world are each other.

• We began filming at about 4:00 and Harry, who assisted me during filming, drove myself and Ollie Poole (my actor), to the reservoir.  The shots took us about an hour.  We took shots in front of wire fencing.  This shot was representative of the woman being trapped in the relationship. We also took shots of the couple running together.  This is another shot representative of the couple isolated together.
• In order to film the couple, considering I am the actress for the female, the shots where the males face could be seen (running), I directed the shot with Harry filming.  This was very difficult, but we established it by Ollie and Harry running in the position of the male and female, with me doing practise shots.  I then showed this to Harry and he mimicked it.  
• With shots where the males face couldn't be seen (against the fence), Harry played the role of Ollie and Ollie filmed.  This is because Ollie is very good at filming and good with a camera; Harry didn't have as much experience. 
• We finished filming outside the reservoir at about 5:00.  I intend to do more shots at the reservoir, in the water. however I couldn't on this day as I hadn't received permission yet.    

Filming at my house (Middleton Cheney); Living room  

• Once we had finished filming at the reservoir on this day, we all went back to my house to do some shots in the living room.  Although I had filmed at my house previously, I had not got any shots in this room, which were shots that I wanted to show the couple being happy together; being at home, on the sofa etc.  This showed the loving side to the relationship. 
• We began filming at about 5:30.  The first shots I wanted to get were of Ollie sat on the sofa. These shots were meant to show him alone, thinking to foreshadow the end of the video.  I tried this shot from an angle to begin with, but then chose to take the shot in front of him, with his head slightly out of shot.
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  After taking the shots of Ollie, I now wanted shots of the couple lying on the sofa.  In order to get focus on these shots we continued to use a tripod.  Again, I had Ollie and Harry lay in the position of the man and woman, so that I could do some practise shots, to show Harry what shots I had in mind.  This, like before, made it easier for Harry to understand what I wanted. 
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  This was a shot which I had taken from a long shot and a close up, to show the male and female in love; adoring each other.  This shot was one which I intended to have at the beginning of the video to show the two happy.  I also thought a flashback shot of this would be nice, as things begin to deteriorate. 
• Once these shots had been taken, I no longer needed Harry assistance, so he went home. 
• It was now about 7:00 in the evening and it was dark outside.  This meant that we could get more of the dark shots in the living room.  These were shots of the males hand holding pills and the female taking them out of his hand.  This is the beginning of the drug introduction.  I also had a shot of the couple kissing.
• These shots were done by placing the camera on a tripod and angling it in the right direction.  The one with the hand of pills needed the camera angling downwards and the camera focused on the hand.  This made the entire background go black. I pressed play before I took the pills from Ollies hand. 
• With the kissing shot, the same sort of technique was used.  I placed the stage light so that it was in shot, but behind us and as we kissed, it was blocked out.  I then told Ollie to stand in front of the light, so that I could focus, the camera on him.  The camera was still on the tripod.  Then I moved into shot, as I left the camera filming.  This was a difficult way to film, however it worked. 
  
  

Production - Feedback from first draft

Production - First draft of music video

This is my first draft of my music video, including footage from both of the days.  There is still a lot more work needed to be done to the editing, as well as a lot more footage needing to be taken.  The shots and layout of of the video, follow my story bored relatively well, however lacking a lot.

Production - Filming day 2 Actors costumes

In terms of costume for the hsecond filming day, a lot of the shots involved are of the woodlands so it wasn't that relevant.

Woman  

• When the female was on camera, it was only for the shot of the couple messing around together.  Therefore when it came to costume, I only wanted very casual clothing to be worn to represent the couples time along together.  The woman's makeup was also done in this to show her youthfulness and glamour at the beginning of the video. 

Man 

• As for the male, he didn't wear any clothes in these shots.  This was to show the couples comfortably with each other.  It also showed the males higher power.  He isn't wearing clothes, but she is.  The woman doesn't feel completely comfortable with the man. 

Production - Filming day 2 rushes

These are the rushes for the second filming day.  Using iMovie, I have put together all of the clips I took on this day.  It was a very successful filming day and I got many clips which I can use in my video.  I was very pleased with the outcome. 

Production - Filming day 2

Filming in Greatworth/Middleton Cheney 

• The next main filming day involved taking footage of woodland to play throughout the video.  This day was highly successful.  I filmed in a woodlands in Greatworth, which wasn't far to travel from my village.  I got a wide range of shots here of different parts of the woodland, including close ups an low angled shots of the sky.  It was a lovely location.
• I also filmed at Ollie Poole's house on this day as I wanted more variation in location and Ollie said I could use his house.  This was easy accessible, as he lives in Greatworth and I was already there filming in the woodlands.  Here I got more shots of the couple together.  These were mainly Point Of View shots as it was only Ollie and I there.  I was again able to get all of the shots which I needed here and was very grateful to Ollie. 
  
   
• I had already planned this filming day and told Ollie what was going to happen. 
• After filming at his house, as my house is only a 5 minute drive, we were driven to my house to film some more.  Here we took footage of the couple being harassed by paparazzi.  By the time we were in Middleton Cheney, it was dark, which is what I wanted.  This helped the shots look more dramatic and realistic.  When we went to my house, we were met by Harry Beck, who helped me film these shots.  I also had help from Ollie Farr.  Once Ollie Poole and I had dressed into our costumes for the scene, I directed Harry on how I wanted the shots to be.  I did a few test shots with Ollie on his own so I could show Harry how I wanted them.  We filmied in my back garden and it was difficult to not get the background in.  When we were filming, I asked Ollie Farr if he could use a separate camera to create flashes.  I could have done the flashes in editing, however I thought it would be more realistic if I had someone do it instead.  The shots which I got outside were highly successful. 

Production - Rushes of filming day 1

This is some rough footage and shots from filming day 1.  This is not all of the footage taken on the day, however it shows some of the shots I got.  

Production - Filming day 1 Screenshots of rough footage

These are screenshots of my footage from my first day of filming.  We filmed at my home in Middleton Cheney.  

A lot of the footage was shot at night and were very dark shots.  The shots I took were of the couple smoking, being followed by the paparazzi and of the two in bed together.  The shot here shows the main characters in bed together.  The male looks up at the camera, showing power and intimidation and the female stares at him.  This shot is meant to represent were the couples priorities are; the female adores the male, but the male loves the power and control. 

This shot was one which I came up with on the day.  We had the light outside already and using inspiration from skins, I left the camera on a tripod and had the light come through the window.  This lit up the outline the couple as they kiss. This shot is a mid/wide shot of the couple.  I am extremely pleased with the outcome of this shot as I think it is very representative of the couples low for each other. 

In this screenshot, you are able to see more of the footage which I took on this day.  As you can see in the thumbnails for the footage, there are a lot of close up shots of the two smoking.  This is meant to foreshadow later events of the male changing and influencing the female.  There are also shots of the two having the photo taking by the paparazzi.  These shots are meant to show the coupe at there best, in the public eye. 

This shot is one of the shots in the bedroom.  This shot is meant to show the innocence of the female and that she's quite scared of the male.  She looks a the camera almost in fear; like a cry for help.  This foreshadows later events.  This shot is representative of the males hod on the female.  Also her role in the relationship. 

Production - Filming Day 1 Actors costume

On the first day of filming the costume was as I originally planned in costume.  However, the males costume was slightly different.  The scenes covered many different areas of the couples life and therefore there was many outfit changes. 

Female 

• In the first section of clips (where the couple are lying in bed), the female wears vintage style lingerie (a lilac colour, with a white lace trim).  I wanted the woman to wear little in this scene, as I wanted the whole focus to be on their love.  As well as the lingerie representing a sexual side to the couples relationship, however I also wanted the woman to be portrayed as quite innocent.  The outfit is also vintage which fits my genre. 
• For the smoking shots, The woman wears an oversized T-shirt, with a grey cardigan over the top.  This was meant to show her when she wasn't on show to the public, as well as it foreshadowing her later reckless attitude. Also wears no makeup and her hair back in a messy bun, to follow the idea of her looking scruffy in these shots.  
• In the paparazzi shots, the woman wears a red, off the shoulder ball gown.  This is meant to be displaying her at her best.  She wears a face full on makeup, including bright red lipstick.  She looks like a movie star.  I liked the idea of the woman wearing an off the shoulder, red dress as it showed a vintage, classic Hollywood style.  

Male  

• For the first section of clips (where the couple are lying in bed), the male wears a plain white T-shirt.  I wanted the outfits in this sections to be extremely minimal, which is why I chose the white top.  I didn't want people's attention to be anywhere else but the males eyes; his eyes represent his control and power.  The white top also represents minimalism, in comparison to their Hollywood lifestyle.
• In the smoking shots, the male wears a long sleeve, skateboarding top.  Like in the style of the females, I wanted these shots to be very laid back in terms of costume.  I wanted the male to wear something which he would if he was just at home, with the female; something casual.  The casual clothing also make the pair something the audience can relate to.
• In the paparazzi shots, the male wears a suit.  This is meant to show the male looking his best.  His suit is black and the shirt is white.  The darkness of the suit is also representative of the darkness inside of the male, especially in comparison to the woman's bright red dress.