Day 8 Filming

Location - Sophie's house
Date - Thursday 30th November
Actors & Crew- Myself, Emily, Joe, Laura, Charlotte, Sophie

Today we just re-filmed what we did last week which didn't work on the camera. We filmed the exact same thing and exact same shots as last time. We had no problem with today's filming as we made sure to check back over what had been filmed after we filmed it.

There were only a couple of things we did differently today which were:

• Had the curtains open rather than closed which we had last time - simply because it wasn't as bright and the lighting looked okay.
• The final lines were filmed with the girls wearing our white tops instead of the black dresses as before.

Here are the pictures from today's filming:

The girls lip-syncing in white tops:

Emily and Joe at the dining table:

The plan for next week..

Our deadline date is getting closer and as we had planned to be finished by now we are now in a bit of a rush to get re-filming!

We have decided to re-film what hadn't worked on Thursday 24th on Tuesday 30th at 11.30 at Sophie's house. Hopefully we will be able to get the all the shots we need so we can edit them in our last allocated editing session on Friday 3rd December!

If all goes to plan we hope to have the shots edited by the end of Fridays lesson which would mean our music video will be done.

Editing 25-11-10 [ What we managed to achieve ]

Due to the problem with the tape and the fact that the footage we planned on editing hadn't actually filmed it meant our editing session was going to be a bit of a waste of time! We really didn't want to waste this valuable time so we managed the achieve a number of things:

We edited into the video the shot of the glass falling and smashing to the floor.

We already knew where we wanted this shot to go which was when the lyrics climaxed and say 'love is only true if it hurts'. We used the razor tool to cut the shot down and started it when the glass just comes into view when falling and ended it when it had finished smashing on the floor. We wanted this shot to look as dramatic as possible so we slowed it down to 50% and turned it black and white to match the flashbacks. The shot was not long enough to finish the anti-climax section so we decided to reverse play it after it had fallen. The effect it gives is that the glass falls and smashes to the ground, then puts itself back together and goes up, this looks interesting and professional.

We adjusted the flashback shots in the last chorus.

The shot where Joe notices Emily leaving the house with her suitcase we felt came too long after the shot where Emily walks downstairs with her suitcase. We thought that the viewers might be confused and think it was just a random shot. We deleted it as we all felt it wasn't a good shot in terms of framing and lighting. Instead we found a shot of Joe walking through the corridor in the house to follow Emily when she is leaving. We cut the shot in half and put the first half in the place that had been created from the deletion of Joe's reaction and the second half we used to replace Laura's close-up. Having these shots instead of the reaction shot definitely look better and will help the audience understand what is happening.

We made sure everything done so far was edited as tight as possible and re-framed some shots.

Basically we tidied everything up so that all is left to do is the anti-climax section of the song to the end. We did a few adjustments such as re-framing and cutting down shots the tiniest bit.

Effects used today:

• Black and white
• Reverse Play
• Reduce speed

Editing 25-11-10 [ a BIG problem occured! ]

Today we had a very annoying problem occur. Whilst capturing the footage from our camera onto the computer we realised hardly any of the footage was actually on the tape! None of the shots of Emily and Joe at the dining table were there as well as the shots of us 4 girls wearing our white tops. We were hoping that something had worked that we could edit otherwise our 2 hour editing session will be wasted!

The shots of me and Charlotte lip-syncing that had been filmed were unusable because they came out with lines and overlapping each other! There was nothing we could do about this which means we will have to film again!

Day 7 Filming Pictures

Here are all the pictures that were taken from Filming on Thursday 24th November at Sophies house.

Day 7 Filming

Location - Sophie's house

Date - Thursday 25th November

Time - 9.00am

Actors and crew - Me, Charlotte, Sophie, Laura, Emily & Joe

The aim of today's filming session was to re-film some flashbacks of Emily & Joe for the anti-climax section of the song and get some shots of each of us girls and me lip-syncing.

This was the shot list:

• 4 shots of Emily and Joe sitting at the dining table drinking wine
• Shot of wine glass smashing on floor
• Shot of me lip-syncing wearing white top
• Shot of Charlotte lip-syncing wearing a white top
• Extreme close-up of Laura lip-syncing her line
• 4 shots of each girl against a brick wall

We did manage to film all of the above in a short amount of time! First of all we shot Emily & Joe's dining room shots, we had a bit of trouble getting the camera in position so that both Emily & Joe could be seen when sitting at either ends of the table but we managed to do it. Once we had these shots, Joe & Emily left so we could film our shots.

My lip-syncing shots were filmed next so I stood against a beam and we used a close-up for my lip-syncing, the line is only short so it was done quickly.

Next we filmed each girl individually looking at the camera with they're backs to the wall. These shots are nice as they are framed well and the brick background was simple and doesn't take the attention away from the girls. The white t-shirts we are wearing also look good as it makes each girl look innocent.

Last of all we filmed the glass smashing on the kitchen floor. We placed the camera on the floor facing a little upwards will the floor still visible. Laura stood over the camera and we made sure where she was going to drop it was in the right place. We only had 2 glasses so really we needed to get it right first time and the shot came out perfect and smashed really well!

Luckily we faced no problems with filming today and got all the shots we wanted. The only minor problem was that the lighting in the dining room was very bright as there are lots of windows which made our actors look dark. We overcame this by pulling the curtains across and turning on all the lights and lamps possible!

What influenced our new plan & the storyboard

Our Influence

The series of shots we have created for the anti-climax scene just weren't right and didn't work with the song so we decided as a group to do something different. After brainstorming as a group we came up with an idea that was influenced by the film Citizen Kane.

The famous quote 'It was a marriage just like any other marriage' which was said by Charles Foster Jane is said just before a montage sequence begins.

This is the couple at the beginning of they're relationship. They are clearly happy and in love as her lovingly kisses her on the cheek and she smiles.

Here is our version of this shot:

Our take on the shot is a lot less glamorous and more realistic. We did this because the couple in our video are an ordinary couple sharing a glass of wine and enjoying each others company. This shot will be turned black and white once edited into the video.

The last shot of the montage shows how distant the couple have become as they are sitting as far away as possible from each other. The closeness between the couple has clearly deteriorated as the distance from the initial shot of them together compared to this one is considerably large. The couple don't make eye contact or communicate at all which gives the audience a sense of hatred, awkwardness and tension.

Our version of the shot:

Once again our shot is much more normal and typical of a young couple with the simple mise-en-scene and casual clothing. The couple are also sitting at completely opposite ends of the table like in Citizen Kane and not making eye contact and will not be communicating in the shot.

We do not want our version of the shots to be the same as Citizen Kane so we have developed a series of shots that will suit the style of our music and also the way the video has been edited so far. Our plan was to have quick shots of me, Charlotte, Laura and Sophie wearing white tops and edit them in between each table shot. The reason we are doing it this way is because we want to reinforce the fact that the reason Joe & Emily are drifting further apart is because Joe keeps cheating on her with each of us 4 girls.

The Storyboard

Here is my version of the storyboard which will be needed for Thursday 24/11/10:

Plan for filming Thursday 24/11/10

During today's lesson (23/11/10) we decided as a group we are going to re-film some sections of the video. Filming will take place at Sophie's house at 9.00am and each member of the group will be present as well as our 2 actors, Joe & Emily. We decided to film tomorrow as we have a 2 hours editing session on the Friday which without this needed footage will be a waste of time as we have edited as much as we can.

As a group we decided to each take a story board home and create the storyboard for the series of shots. This way we will have the same idea storyboarded 4 times but a bit different so we can decide which is the best idea.

Our new idea to replace the shot we currently have in the up-beat part of the song is to have Joe and Emily sitting really close together at the start and gradually getting further apart so that at the end when the song climax's one of the glasses of wine that they have been drinking together smashes on the floor. We are also intending to super-impose me over the top of the action singing. We will also film individual shots of each of the group wearing white clothes to have in case we run out of shots and need to fill some gaps. Filming shouldn't take long and we hope that by the end of the session we will have all the shots needed to finish the video as we do not have enough time to have to film again.

Here is a list of shots we intend on filming tomorrow:

1. Shots of Joe and Emily sitting at the table drinking wine (sitting close, further apart, very far apart, at different ends of the table.)

2. Shot of glass of wine falling and smashing onto floor.
3. Individual shots of each girl wearing a white top looking casual.
4. 2 shots of me lip-syncing to my lines wearing the same black dress I wore last time and looking as similar as possible.

What next..

After today's editing session we decided that to make our video look as good as possible we should re-film a few of our weak shots. Here are some problems we found that will need changing:

1. We ran out of usable footage after the last chorus and towards the ending of the song. We need a few more shots of us lip syncing to pull it together completely.
2. The anti-climax part of the song just doesn't work. We realised this part of the song gave us the best opportunity to show-off our editing and filming skills and that if we re-filmed we could produce some-thing really good and interesting. The idea of using reverse was a good idea and represented the storyline really well but we just weren't able to make it work. This gap is around 10 seconds long and we will try and create a similar idea and shot to the one we currently have.

As well as re-filming there are a few adjustments we can make to our video using the editing suite:

1. The sound effect of the heart beat still needs to be added to the flashbacks at the beginning. Laura has these effects and will bring them in on a memory stick to our next editing session.
2. Editing the last chorus and the end of the song to make it look more smooth. The last chorus doesn't look right despite our good lip-syncing and tight editing. I think what the problem is is that there is a flashback of Emily packing her bag which links in with the start of the song's flashbacks, but the reaction shot of Joe seeing Emily packing her bag and leaving comes much later in the chorus and could possibly look random to viewers. The shot is also very short in length as our actor didn't hold the look for long enough. We decided to adjust this sequence so the reaction shot doesn't look so short and is closer to the other flashback.

Editing 12-11-10

Today we had a double 2 hour lesson which meant we could focus on editing.

What happened today

Our main aim was to finish the song which we did. This allowed us to spot exactly where we still needed more footage and start brainstorming ideas of what we could fill the gaps with. Here are the main things we achieved in our editing session today:

1. In our pitch we stated that we wanted each girl of the group to have a different colour that they would wear to differentiate them from the others. The way we did this was by having each girl wear a black dress and different colour high heel. We realised we hadn't used the shots of our shoes so we decided to create them into a montage and edit them in.
   
   
2. We re-adjusted a few of the shots' image sizes to correct the framing and remove unwanted people from the background. We knew before we presented our first cut that a few of the shots of me lip-syncing in the field had dogs and people walking in the background. We thought about leaving them in as our teacher hadn't noticed them but when I showed them to friends at school - they noticed it straight away, therefore we knew we had to change it somehow and we didn't want people distracted from the performance because there is a dog in the background. One of our class mates suggested we zoom in which would cut of people from the background. We did this successfully by dragging the size of the image from the corner. In some instances it was not possible to get rid of the people throughout the duration of the shot, so this meant cutting the length of the shot.
   
   
   
   
   
3. We added more footage into the chorus to shorten the length. When we presented to the class we got told that one of the shots of us in Epping Forest was too long. We chose a well framed long shot of Sophie lip-syncing to the chorus and cut it down to fit perfectly in with the chorus. The chorus flowed much better afterwards.
   
   
4. Because we adjusted the size of the choreography shots it meant that the framing wasn't central and did a little jump cut. We needed to change this so we decided to add another flashback into the chorus. The flashback we used was the shot of Emily sitting on the stairs looking sadly through the banister (like a prison). We put the shot on top of the jump cut, this looked really good because it looked like we had filmed the dance sequence 2 times and at different closeness.
   
   
5. The last thing we did was put the ending shot at the end which was the one of us all laughing sitting on a large fallen tree trunk in Epping Forest. The shot worked really well as it didn't look out of place. We decreased the speed to 50% so it was in slow motion, this fit in well with the tone of the song but finished it on an uplifting note. We then added a dip-to-black effect at the end to close the song. We felt the song went on for too long at the end so decided to fade it out using an audio cross fade. It just meant we didn't have to fill the quiet music with pointless, random shots.

First cut feedback from Mrs Allison

Rough cut and feedback

Here is our rough cut of 'Missing You'.

Feedback from presentation to class

Positive:

• The match on action at the beginning of the video where Emily walks out the door was very good which proved using 2 cameras at once worked well.
• Charlotte's idea of filming Emily putting her bag in the boot from inside the car created an interesting shot.
  
• Good camera skills - all shots were framed well using interesting angles.
• The integration of the story in the music video was good
• By turning the flashbacks black & white it created a more personal and emotional story and accentuated the fact they were in the past.
  
  
  
• Our choice of actors were good as they performed well and look very realistic.
• One of the best shots was the ariel shot of Joe and Emily fighting which was filmed by one of our crew holding the camera over the banister.
  
  
  
• Our lip-syncing was spot on and our performances were of a high quality
• The choice of locations were very different which made the video look more interesting and true to life.
  
  
  
• The lighting in each location was good especially Epping forest
• Editing looks invisible and well done.

Negative:

• The up-beat part of the song where Joe is walking to where Emily is to give her a necklace is too long and should be cut down. Some possible solutions are to either change the sequence to quick cuts, don't have it sped up as it looks a bit commical.
• The shot of the 4 of us in the woods is too long and may make the audience bored.
  
  
  
• Experiment with lighting a bit more - maybe try a halo effect.

Analysis of shot

We were asked to write a paragraph about one shot from our production that was particularly interesting. This will help practice our evaluating skills in in preparation for our summer exam.

The shot I have chosen is the black and white shot on the right taken from a flashback of Emily and Joe. It shows Joe walking away, rejecting and ignoring Emily and leaving her upset.

This is one of my favourite shots as it really says a lot about Emily and Joe as a couple. What has just happened is that Joe has just walked straight past Emily and ignored her. I would say this shot best represents the meaning of the lyrics as quite clearly Emily is missing Joe and they are not the same couple that they used to be. The shot itself was originally a medium shot of Emily until Joe walks towards the camera. By having Emily go from being the only person and at the front of the shot to being very small in the background is a visual representation of what we are actually trying to portray in the video. Because Joe is cheating on Emily she is becoming smaller and less important in his life - effectively being pushed out and towards the back of his mind.

The framing of this shot is very important at Joe has deliberately been made to be at the front and close to the camera to show his importance. Where-as like I said before, Emily is forced to the back where she is only just able to be seen. Emily's facial expression in this shots tells it all. She looks sad, depressed and helpless as she does not know what to do about the situation with Joe. Where-as Joe's face looks rather awkward as he knows he completely ignored Emily and it was probably the wrong this to do. This shows that Emily is the weaker of the two of them.

The lighting in this shot also makes Emily look weaker as Joe is looking the more angelic good person in a bright white t-shirt with a brighter face. Where-as if Emily was more in the shadow then you wouldn't be able to see her! Making her look the bad person and in the wrong - even though she isn't.

Editing 3-11-10

Today we had an hour to continue editing our first cut (we asked Mrs Allison for 2 hours but as a comprimise for our extended deadline she gave us 1).

What we achieved today:

• 2 sets of flashbacks were added in to the last chorus using the black & white effect.
• We put together all the lip-syncing in the last chorus - they are now all in place and on the editing reel.
  
  
  What is left to do:

• Add the remaining flashbacks on to the editing reel.
• Sort out and think of ideas which we can use for the anti-climax part of the song.

What editing tools and features we used today:

• Black and white (video effects)
• Increase speed (duration)
  
  
  

Response to deadline extension email

Here is the response email we recieved from our teacher Mrs Allison regarding the deadline. This now means we will finish our first cut by the end of Wednesday's lesson (3-11-10) and will present to the class on Friday (5-11-10) and recieve feedback.