Filming Day 8 - Stone House - Luke

31/1/13

On the 30th January we were planning on re-filming our car park confrontation scene between Dan and the masked characters. As we got to the car park we spent about 15/20 minutes planning out our shots and were very confident that we would come out with a lot better footage than we got on the first time filming in the car park. There was, however, a problem. Just after we had set up the camera and were ready to film our first shot, security and management of the car park came up and told us that due to the car park being private property we were unable to film there and therefore had to leave.

We then spent the rest of the day thinking about other possible locations that we could film our confrontation scene, and with time and light running out, it was looking like we wouldn't be able to film. We did, however think of an industrial estate that was close to us that might have looked good for the scene, but after getting there and scouting the location we realised that it wouldn't be a suitable location to film in, mainly because of the large amount of vehicles in the area and the lack of a place where Dan could be cornered or trapped.

After more discussion we decided that the next day (31st January) we would go to 'Stone House', which is an abandoned mental asylum, to try and film the shots. When we arrived at Stone House we scouted the location for just under an hour, looking for suitable places for Dan to be trapped. One idea we had was that Dan could run up to the door of the old house, which would be locked, but realised it would look too easy for him to escape, not creating the tension that we wanted.

We then found another area on the grounds of the asylum that we thought would work perfectly; a ramp with rails on either side that led up to a wooden gate. We had the idea that Dan could run up to the gate and try to open it, only to find out that it was locked. We then planned to get Josh and Phil walking up the ramp towards Dan, appearing the think they have him trapped. Then, to link in with the lyrics 'brace yourself for the grand finale', Dan would jump over the rail followed by Phil and Josh who start chasing him again.

We recorded this from a variety of different angles, getting close ups of Dan as he panics trying to open the gate and a still shot of the masked characters approaching Dan. Once we had finished and watched back the shots we had filmed we were very happy, and thought that they would work well within our music video, even thought they were different to the car park scene that we had originally planned.

Over the past week of filming we are very happy and feel that we can now go on to construct a professional looking music video for the song 'Finale'.

Filming Day 7 - Deluxe 142 Re-Filming - Luke

26/1/13

After receiving feedback and deciding upon what action we wanted to take (can be seen here), we returned to Deluxe 142 to film some of the new ideas we came up with for our video. When we arrived my dad showed us a range of different recording studios before we decided on the main one we were going to use. The one we eventually picked was chosen because of the separate recording booth and the large recording desk, which we thought would give our video some professionalism.

The first shot we filmed in the recording studio was of Josh singing. We played the song through James' phone so that Josh could get the lip sync perfectly in time. We filmed him singing the song three times from three different angles so that we had a variety of footage to use for the parallel cuts between the chase scene and Josh in the recording studio.

Next we filmed the section where Dan takes the disc and leaves the studio, before giving Josh the signal that the song had started recording. We filmed this section from a variety of different angles and positions. Upon looking back at the footage we found that these shots look very good and the new re-filmed introduction will fit in well with our music video.

After filming the intro we immediately started to plan and film our shots for the end of the video, which features Dan being chased through the door into the studio and falling back on the couch. The shot of Dan falling back on the couch proved extremely hard to get right, as many times the fall looked un-natural and faked. In total we took around seven takes to get it right. James then filmed the POV shots of Dan falling back on the sofa and waking up from his dream, completing the filming in the recording studio.

The last footage that we needed to record was back in the cinema. We needed to re-film one of the shots, which included me standing in the corner of the shot turning on the lights, something we had not noticed on the first time of filming. This time we made sure that this would not be repeated and instead of me standing at the light switch waiting to turn them off, we got a remote that would turn them off with the simple push of a button, meaning that there was no risk of me or anyone else being in shot. We are happy we the footage that we re-filmed for the beginning and end of our video, and are now slightly happier with the idea of using performance within our video.

Responding to feedback - Group

After receiving feedback from both our peers and our teacher, we needed to decide what changes we had to make in order to make our final cut as good as possible. One of the main points our teacher advised us to change was to include an element of performance into the video in order to make it more believable as a real music video.

We could understand how this would make the music video look more professional, but it gave us the problem of finding someone who would look good in our video as the vocal artist, feel comfortable being filmed singing, and also the problem of finding a way to fit in the clips of the artist singing with the other shots in our music video. After a lot of discussion and considering many different people we decided that Josh would be the perfect person to take up this role in the video.  Him being the vocal artist as well as one of the security guards wouldn't be a problem either as the mask would cover up his identity and nobody would be able to see that they are the same person.

After deciding that josh should be the person who performs the vocals within the video we now had to turn our attention to the other parts of our rough cut that weren't so good. Based on the feedback we received and our own opinions on the video, we decided that we would be better off changing the idea behind the music video, and refilming both the beginning and end. This was mainly because we ourselves felt the these sections were not as strong as they could have been, and also because of some of the feedback we received regarding the acting in a couple of scenes. There was also the problem with the lighting in the confrontation part of the video, taking place in the car park. This section needed to be totally refilmed aswell. Looking at what we needed to refilm we became slightly worried that we may not be able to fit in all of the filming within the time that we had, although after a bit of thinking we realised that we would be able to refilm the sections in a relatively short amount of time as most of our shots could be filmed within one place, the editing suites and sound studios at Deluxe 142.

All three of us went home and tried to think up some alternative starts and endings to the video over the weekend. This proved a tough thing to do, and the only idea that was reasonably easy to film, and would work well within the video was an idea that James came up with. He suggested that the video should start in one of the recording studios with Dan acting as the music producer/DJ instead of a thief. Josh could be introduced to the video at this point as being the artist in the vocal booth. Dan would then hit record and josh would start singing as the lyrics of the song come in. As he hits record he would eject another disc, giving the idea that it is a song that he has previously recorded, and that he has taken it in order to keep hold of it and stay in control of his music. This idea of artists wanting to keep control of their music and stop it being changed by record labels in order for it to cater for the mainstream can be seen within many music videos. One example of this is in the music video for the song 'Show Me A Sign' by Modestep where four girls seemingly being the Charlie's angels of the music industry are sent out to 'destroy all commercial music'.