On the 10th November we decided to do a shoot for our opening which included Bradley getting covered in powder paint to personify the lyrics of "Bring Me To Life". We decided to shoot outside down by the 6th form car park as this allowed us to make as much mess as possible and not have to worry about it. Also the reason we used this location is because when we tried to do it in my utility room we had trouble with holding the sheet up so we got two lads to do it for us from the school.
The Group (left to right) Ollie, Freddie and Brad
My Role
During the shoot I took the role of the cameraman with the joint responsibility of throwing the paint at Brad as we needed it coming form both angles. But due to the size of the sheet we were limited to how much we could experiment with different shots.
How Useful Was The Shot list?
The shot list only included a few different shots so it was easy to keep on track however once we had got to the location it was clear that the sheet wasn't big enough so we had to limit the amount of shots we could use down to the single one. This being the shot of brad in a MCU.
This is the framing used for the paint shoot
What Are Your Best Shots?
As we only managed to take one shot it meant that there wasn't much margin for error, but we still managed to have a few problems with this shot so we'll probably have to do the shoot again.
Our two helpers, Alex and Patrick
Any Problematic Shots?
As we originally planned to do the shoot in my utility room, once we got there it was clear that we wouldn't be able to do this because we needed people to hold the sheet up, after this we drafted in two boys from our school to do it for us so we did it back at school. Also the wind was affecting our sheet causing it to move which was affecting the authenticity of our piece. Also at times the sheet wasn't completely in shot which caused it to affect the shots authenticity again.
On Tuesday the 10th of November we shot some practice shots during third period and lunch using the powder paint. We decided to do a practice shoot first because we wanted to be confident filming with the paint before we filmed the actual thing. This was a good idea because several unexpected problems came up which we can now deal with before we shoot the actual thing, for example we didn't put the camera onto 60 fps before we started shooting, this would of made it easier to edit into slow motion. the shoot involved me, Ollie and Brad as well as two other people who had to hold up the bed sheet behind Brad. We were shooting near to the sports fields car park which was reasonably suitable as a location.
sheet holders.
My Role: My role was basically to throw paint at Brad from one side whilst Ollie did it from the other side, whilst the camera recorded Brad in front of the white bed sheet. We realised upon looking at the footage that we should probably experiment with a wider range of camera shots.
Shot list: During our filming we only used one shot, so the shot list was useful to that extent. We did the same shot multiple times with different coloured paint but the camera and framing stayed the same. We were slightly limited by the fact that our bed sheet was quite small so we couldn't employ a wide angle shot because then the viewer would clearly be able to see that we had two people holding up a bed sheet which would of compromised continuity.
Best shots: Our best shot came when we threw the paint from both sides of the camera , this created a more aesthetically pleasing shot in terms of contrasting colours.
Problematic shots: Before filming in the location we chose we wanted to film the practice paint shots at Ollie's house. when we got there we realised that the paint would of got everywhere in his hose so this wasn't an option. We learnt that the very first shot we take will be one that we must get right first time because it would make no sense if the video started with Brad already covered in paint.
1.What was your individual contribution to the storyboarding and animatic task?
Ollie and Brad created the images and sorted out the timings effectively, I filmed and edited it, the filming could of been done more effectively as it was hurried so some shots are shaky. furthermore because the shots were taken over two separate days the lighting is not consistent.
2.What have you learned from completing this process in terms of, camera - distance, movement and angle; editing - duration and transitions; sound - relationship between lyrics/sound and visuals, emotional colouring; Mise en scene - locations, character blocking?
creating the animatic has made it very clear that we have to produce a large volume of high quality footage and edit it effectively to achieve top band marks. Moreover it has reinforced how the small factors of mise-en-scene are very important to the general feel of the music video. making the animatic also reinforced how organized we must be in terms of collecting props and choosing days to shoot which are suitable for the actors. The process of editing also reminded me of how to edit which was good because I was quite rusty having not edited anything since last year. As a group we decided that the main thing the animatic made us think about was the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Before making the animatic we hadn't thought about this thoroughly enough.
3.How else has this process helped the development of your concept?
During the process of making the animatic we developed are concept by bringing in the idea of masks as our main prop. We want many of the minor characters in our video to be wearing plain masks to demonstrate how they are yet to be given life, as the title suggests. This element of our video is very illustrative because it links directly to the title.
4.How was this task more complex/different from the same task at AS?
Its longer and requires more shots which makes the whole process more pedantic. Furthermore the shot length at AS was much slower because a horror films cutting rate tends to be quite slow in comparison to a dance music video.
Paint
mixed together from all the different colours and thrown as a huge mass at
the same time
In
the car park
6
Bradley
In
the car park
7
Bradley
TWGSB Media Studies Film Production
Risk Assessment
You
need to consider all the potential risks at each location shoot and outline how
you will work to prevent any accident or injury to you, your cast or the
equipment.
Location
What is the hazard?
Think about road safety, filming at
night, potential damage to equipment
Who/what might be harmed and why?
Think about who needs to be aware of the
risk
How will you reduce the risk?
What steps will you take to ensure that
the risk is lowered?
On
the roads
Getting
hit by a car if we are negligent when crossing the road
One
of the team could be harmed and even the equipment could be damaged in the
process.
Look
both ways when crossing the road and make sure that all the team stay
together
In
the car park
Brad getting paint in his eye
Bradley
is the paint is thrown directly at his eyes
Don’t
throw the paint straight at his eyes and try to aim for his cheeks
In
the car park
Getting
powder paint on uniform or possessions
Our possessions
By
not throwing the paint at each other and aim purely for brads face to avoid collateral
damage
On 4th November we went to Bidborough Ridge to film some selected shots from the opening of the piece just to get some practice before we are to go up to London to film. It has given us a lot of feedback on what we need to do for this part of the opening in regards to how much movement is needed from both the camera and the actor.
The overall feedback when showing people is that we need to include quicker movement of the camera up and down from each shot as well as the sky having to be the same on each of the shots to create some continuity between the two shots. This could be most easily achieved if the sky is clear on both shots as it will be hard to match cloud patterns. Also we were advised that the jib would be good to use to create this shot.
Costume will be one of the most important factors aesthetically in our video. The main characters in our video will all be wearing bright colours which fits with our theme of bright contrasting colours. In terms of mise-en-scene our main costume feature will be the masks we are using, the masks are also a prop because through interacting with them the narrative of our video develops.
These masks are similar to the ones we are using in our video. we have deliberately made them plain so that they contrast heavily with the the people who are not wearing masks. Furthermore for our final scene we are having a large group of people wear the masks, these masks are a practical choice because they are not very expensive yet they are still affective.
Another point about costume in our video is that we want the clothes of the characters to reflect their mood. For example all of our main characters will be wearing bright colours during the scenes where they are interacting socially. This reinforces that they are enjoying themselves and reflects the positive overall message of our video.
For our opening shot featuring the powder paint Brad will be wearing black and white clothing, this is practical and effective because the fluorescent paint will stand out more on a black or white background.
