Performance Filming.

Karin and Pete found a bench on Brandon Hill, Bristol that they thought would perfectly contrast to the city, also the colour scheme of autumn we thought would create a nice warmth to the shot furthermore deepening the love of where he is compared to that of the inner city life.

Me and Pete met up to film but however Karin was unable to attend as she had work commitments. We knew what we wanted to film so therefore this allowed us to get on with filming straight away and get us much done as possible. We asked Josh to sit on the bench with his guitar and set up an ipod and speakers for him to play along to, helping and ensuring his timing matched that of the songs. We decided that we were going to film Josh doing the whole performance at three different angles.We did this because we wanted it to give us different variations of the performance. It would also allow us to keep cutting back. We decided that we would give Josh two takes. We did this for a number of reasons, the first reason was because we thought that it would benefit Josh because it would give him a chance to warm up. The second reason we decided to film it twice was because it would help us out a great deal when it would come to the editing process.

Whilst Pete and I where filming the performance we decided to take a couple of still shots. we did this because we thought it would help us when it comes to our auxillary tasks. Here are the pictures that me and Pete decided to take.

Rough Cut Editing

Importing the footage

We imported all the footage that we had taken into Imovie so that we could begin our editing process. We came across a problem on Imovie where it decided to letter-box our footage. We knew that this was a problem for us and had to take it off so that it did not letter-box our footage.

Editing

After we had imported all of the footage and the song we decided to cut down the footage so we had smaller chunks to match the phrases within the music. These key pauses and breaks within the melody are what we will match our cuts and transitions to, this will help in keeping the cutting rhythm similar to the tempo of the song.For the opening we decided to use on of our establishing shots over Bristol. Between the performance shots we will keep returning to the city and traffic shots to determine this contrast further.

Final Rough Cut

In our rough cut version we decided that we were going to leave gaps. We did this to symbolise the shots that we had not got round to film yet. Also by leaving the gaps we knew what we wanted to place in them.

Rough Cut Filming

We decided that we were going to try and film in a location that symbolises isolation. We went down to the Lakegrounds in Portishead and saw that there were many different benches down at Battery Point. We had to find a bench that would be right for our video and one that would not distract anyone from the perdormance.








































































In the end we decided upon one that was just at the peak of the hill.

Shooting

For our rough cut Pete stepped in to perform the song in place of our actor, Josh. Pete stepped in because he plays the guitar so he was the best person. However due to Due to weather difficulties we had to finish filming earlier than planned.e of day.

We took with us:

• 1 Video Camera
• Tripod
• Still Camera
• Ipod and Speakers
• Guitar (for performance)

We wanted to record this performance in 3 different shots:

• straight on medium close up
• side on close up
• low level

We had to play the song 3 times so we were able to film each different shot. We had to play the song on speakers so that Pete was able to make sure that he was in time. We had to play the song on speakers because it helped us with where we were and this would become crucial in editing. We decided to give Pete one run through of the song so that he was able to get used to the song. After Pete had gone through the song we decided that we were going to go straight into filming. When we were recording Karin and I we on hand to make sure that any members of the public we would not walk into the shot.

Music Video Test Shots

The group decided that we needed to film some test shots of the city as it would give us an idea of where our best possible location would be. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the filming session as I had work commitments but Karin and Pete were able to go along and film. 

They used the following equipment:

• Video Camera
• Tripod
• Still Camera

They decided to take a still camera as we thought that it would be good to capture locations that they had found and a still camera was taken because we thought that it would help when it came to story boarding. Before setting off we discussed as a group that we knew that there was a wide range of locations that could have been chosen but we came to the conclusion that we thought these were the best locations possible: 

• Outside 'The Hippodrome' - Traffic lights and traffic shot
• On top of the NCP Car Park - establishing 
• Brandon Hill - establishing
• Cabot Circus - general city shots

Once the filming had been done the guys decided to show me what they had managed to capture. After seeing this we imported the footage into Imovie and decided that we would try and play around with the footage and matching it up with pats of the song. After this was done we then decided to see what effects could be used. After playing around with the footage and effects we came to the conclusion that the traffic shots looked good in black and white and that it looked good speeded up. We talked about it, and came to the decision that the city establishing shots would be good as the first shot for our music video as it would set the scene. 

We wanted to film these test shots as it would give us an idea of the shape of our video and how it would turn out in the end. Another reason why test shots were done is because it would give us ideas for different shots and what would look good in our music video. 

Possible Video Ideas/Locations

We started planning on paper where we thought we would be suitable for our location for the video. We sat down and put these ideas on paper and talked about which ideas we thought would be best. Here are the ideas that we came up with: 

Locations:

Here are the ideas that we came up with before filming of possible locations for where our music video could be set:

• City
• Car
• Airport/Bus Station/Train Statio
• Rooftop
• Beach
• Woods
  
• Park
  

Techniques:

Here are the techniques that we thought would look good within our film:

• Black and White
• Slow motion
  
• Double layered shots
• Sepia tone
  

Original Outline

This is the outline we planned to base our music video on.

• Performance Element: On a bench with guitar to show the isolation. Singing whilst walking.
• Flashback shots of relationship
• Shots of the City
• Traffic and Transport shots
• Montage of all the above
• End as began

Video Research

Newton Faulkner Video Research:

Newton Faulkner is a male artist who is similar to our own artist. We decided to look at a couple of his videos. we decided to look at " I need something" and " All I got". This is what we found out:

'I need something'

• Silhouetted shot
• Dark and bland (mood)

Below is the song I need something.

'All I got'

• Close up of guitar
• Abstract
• Mostly vocal performance

Below is the song " All I Got"

Jason Mraz Video Research:

• Jason Mraz is another artist that we feel is similar to our sort artist. This is what his video for 'I'm Yours' included:

• Slow motion group shots
• Establishing shots
• Handheld style shots
• Silhouettes
  
• Narrative and performance

Below is the video " I'm Yours"

James Blunt Video Research:

We felt that as James Blunt has produced a number of slow songs we would be able to relate him to our artist.

Here is the video to the song " Wise Man"

David Gray Video Research:

David Gray is a solo artist that we felt we could use for research for elements that we would be able to include in our music video.

His video 'Sail Away' included the following:

• Background noise
• Nightlife
• Flashing lights
• Location sound effects
  
• Performance
  
• Dark

Here is the video "Sail Away"

The Video 'This Years Love' included:

• Series of narratives
• Costume
• Emoting shots
  
• Colour scheme
  

Here is the video " This Years Love"

Jack Johnson Video Research:

We decided that we were going to research Jack Johnson. His video for "Better Together" had these things that we felt we could use in our own music video:

• Black and White
• Montage of photos and video
• Close up of face to show emotions

Here is the video " Better Together"

Jose Gonzalez Video Research:

We looked at this artist because we felt that he is very similar to our because he is just a man with a guitar. We decided to have a look at his video " Heartbeats " because we wanted to see what the video included. We found out that the video included:

• Out of focus in points.
• Guitar Shots
• All performance

After watching this video we decided that is was one of the more simple videos that we had seen. This was because the performance and the artist was in the same place the whole time. After watching this we decided that we thought it would be best if we did not do this as we thought it gets boring. Although we came to the conclusion that some of the angle shots of the performance would be good to use in our video.

Here is the video " Heartbeats"