Filming through the Freeze

Today we started work on our performance sequence, currently we have an abundance of narrative and ZERO performance which is obviously a major flaw. So It felt really good to at least make a start on filming even if we didn't get that far! For our performance we decided that less is more - working with big cast & costume & makeup shoots for our previous sessions we decide that the juxtaposition of a colour crazy journey through the past would be most effectively contrasted with something extremely minimalistic and simple. We debated having our lead singer performing to a television & our lead female being trapped inside the television (using already filmed footage of her in different decades). Though as our school was very inconveniently robbed we now don't really have time to export all our footage onto quicktime files & put them onto a disk in order to film the scene, not to mention the tweaking in the edit suit to make the transitions work continuously. So unfortunately like our 'band performing' idea we had to tame our creativity in order to feed practicalities. We have been aware all along that our video would never be able to be at a standard to which we would be 100% proud because we don't have the time or the money. For example, though i came up with the idea, i find the polaroids in the beginning of our sequence a tad predictable and cheesy, however in order to paint an overt picture of this couples "intense" relationship we needed that graphic signifier to be included. 

Consequently we decided to film the lead male (Bing) wandering the streets attempting to find his "lost love" &  sat in a messy bedroom looking depressed and hopeless. We wanted to expand their emotional distance by making Rhianna (lead female) be stuck in a time warp, whilst he was looking in all the wrong places. We aimed to reiterate the themes of the video by cross cutting their distance and create a representative piece in relation to the song lyrics. We knew we had to include only extreme close up's, close up's & mid shots for our performance (mainly) as we were majorly lacking them in our narrative shots. We needed our audience to be fully connecting with bing in order to sell the product well, keeping in mind the fact that we are promoting 'Suburban Typo' (our chosen band name) lead singer, our band, their image, their music, and their ethos.

One of the key focuses of today was on eye contact, connection & acting abilities when working with our protagonist. It was extremely difficult for him in the middle of a freezing common (in the snow!) to stay focused and to feel at ease. As he was mainly concentrating on remembering the lyrics and not freezing to death, his performance became slightly stilted. As a drama student i suppose i am more picky about facial expression & body language when filming than the rest of GEAR, but we were all agreed that filming in a near by house may help us achieve a stronger image. Once inside we had the song blaring, lyrics up on a screen, (not to mention some warmth) and he really loosened up. Evidently when performing an actor/musician needs to warm up, partake in rehearsal techniques, vocal exercises and so on, so for our next filming session i hope to plan a warm up activity just to allow our lead male to feel at ease and not so coy about performing properly. Though when we were filming outside myself & Rhianna (Grace was filming) really tried to be extremely active, sing along, make our performer laugh & feel comfortable, because there is nothing worse than your actor feeling awkward & uneasy when your trying to produce a confident performance. 

Overall we got a fair few shots today & photographs for those using bing for their album art, but we are planning to shoot again of friday the 1st of March - when it's less cold, Amy can be present (she had to miss today's shoot due to work), and Bing feels more at ease with the song & the brief at hand. 

 

 

 

                      

1970's shoot prep & storying boarding

Pick up Shoot

Today we completed one of our pick ups, filming a new ending to the 1980's shoot in order to make the transition coherent. The shoot went extremely smoothly, we had to work around the other clients in our location, but used the space & slot efficiently and had the shot completed in just over the time we had estimated. Only needing our lead female (Rhianna) for this shoot, meant prepping it was extremely simple; we could only really use our lead as we knew that wouldn't be able to hall the large cast we originally used back in order to help visually aid the ending. However we worked around the resources & cast we had, and were meticulous about continuity throughout hair&makeup, and the shooting, as exams had taken place in this venue since our previous shoot and thus there were writing desks littering the space, and other students using it for dance or drama purposes. We made sure we ascertained both Medium, Long, Extreme Long, Close up and Extreme close up shots for the two segments of this shoot, and experimented widely with angels in order to completely cover our backs & allow us maximum creativity & scope when it came to the transition into the 1970's protest scene.

Filming&Editing&Tweaking

 In terms of filming we have x2 shoots left to complete. From the start we knew our ambitions were extreme & our hopes were possibly unrealistic. We knew that blunders would block our path & something that has been extremely tricky is reliability of key actors & extras - as of course an industry production company would have the budget to pay for casting directors, an experienced cast & in turn their commitment. The reason i am drawing on this particular issue is that currently our lead male singer has fallen ill which has completely postponed our performance filming. originally we aimed to acquire an already formulated band to sing the performance pieces (which would  then be inter cut with our narrative), however the commitment of those we asked faltered and thus we made the decision to only use our lead male in the video itself & not feature an entire group. So far he has been fantastic : taken direction well, looked good on the camera, and been extremely punctual & reliable, however falling ill is hardly his fault, but it is slowing down our production line. 
                                                

We want to film him watching our lead female travel through the decades on a television - in the first established location (reiterating a place of comfort & one reminiscent of their relationship). We aimed to convey his constant presence in her mind, and his continual protection over her, even when separated unrealistically by years and years of history. In terms of this shoot we have orchestrated all costumes, props & planned hair style & makeup (blemish coverage & guy liner). We are however yet to upload the footage onto a disc (for the 'TV' effect). Though is only because we want to wait until we have shot our final era, as then we will have a clear idea of all the transitions & of the chronological order of the footage.


  

We have had to majorly cut down the footage on our timeline in order to make way for this shoot & the performance. We did actually debate cutting it altogether, especially because the performance needs to be almost equal to the narrative in terms of screen time & our song is a relatively short piece of music, which means we have an extremely acute time frame to play with. However I did really fight to keep this shoot in as i felt the aesthetics would help to create more of a complete piece of work. I knew we could experiment majorly with  symbolism & rely upon signifying features in order to make this era easily recognisable & visually powerful. Before we planned to shoot some 1970's punk rockers in a public place, clowning around, acting rebelliously - stereotyping typical hedonistic behaviour. However I thought the concept of using a protest to represent an era flooded with anarchy & resistance (for example Vietnam, Nuclear weaponry & Russia,). Thus we plan to film a slightly larger cast that anticipated running with banners as if off to protest (giving a clear impression of their actions without actually filming hundreds and hundreds of people at a protest). Using a larger cast makes organizing slightly more challenging in some respects, but in others it means we can be slightly less picky about casting (we were previously restricted to merely 'punky style people').. So we spent quite a lot of our meeting today making mock 'anti-vietnam' posters - as well as editing & blogging.

 


So far we have:

*Uploaded all of our footage from - the modern day & 1980's & 1950's & 1940's & 1920's
*chronologically ordered the footage
*Cut down all acquired clips to the correct size
*Altered the speed of clips 
*Reversed parts of actions, for example : at the end the entire sequence is played on rewind as if she is being thrust back into the present day 
*Reversed actors movements - EG: coffee shop scene - slowed & reversed the lead male's movements in order to extend the drama
*Added slow motion 
*Starting colour correcting (currently in this process & debating whether to set some eras in black&white and sepia)
*Removed unneeded sound & uploaded our artists track onto the timeline
*Cropped certain shots & zoomed in, in order to gain a wider variety of close ups as we were majorly lacking in them & desperately needed to artificially create some in order to a.) embody a greater sense of variety in our shots (more visually interesting) and b.) remain faithful to the conventions of music video.

 

1940's shoot

Today we filmed the first part of our 1940's bomb shelter scene. We wanted to use two locations for this particular section of our film, (creating an almost reverse tardis like effect) in order to include both, exterior authenticity - using a real 1940's bunker (for stylistic purposes), and also keep the shot cramped and atmospheric - using a 'cubed under the stairs' to show to mimmic war-time 'make do and mend' spirit -using this smaller space, more intimate space would thus enable us to stress the difficulty of living in Blitzed London Town. We felt that spending a lot of time discussing and debating the finer contextual details of each scene was really important - for a production like our own skimping on mis en scene & historical accuracy would deter from our post modern style, and also weaken our narrative's strength & clarity. Both props & performance ability were extremely key for this scene. As we were using a very limited space we needed the actors attire to look passable (for 40's wear) and the actors themselves to be confident & believable in their actions. Thus we decided to use x2 year 10 drama students as our 'air raid children', hoping that by acquiring capable & experienced actors that we would be able to obtain and mutual relationship between actor & director, rather than wasting shooting time overly coaching our cast. Over all the shoot went really well; we faced a one easily avoidable problem, but it was quickly resolved - for example : we couldn't use the tripod due to the fact that the support was missing. Therefore we had to 'keep calm and carry on' and just make do with hand held footage, keeping our grip stead, and making our shots longer & more varied in order to get all of the necessary footage. The actors all worked together really comfortably & effectively, having a high standard of acting & concentrated work will make the editing process so much easier, in that we will only have to rely upon our own motivation & efforts & skill in order to create a high quality final piece. Due to our minimalistic set and cramped filming space I feel that the footage we captured today  is probably (so far) some of the most authentic - we didn't need to dress / rely upon a vast set to make it look perceivable and we avoided (& saved time) spending shooting time moving lots of objects which wouldn't contextually fit in the era - for example on our 1920's shoot, we had to exclude the plastic table cloth & coloured photographs. 

SHOOT COSTUMES & PROPS & EQUIPMENT 
Rhianna - Navy-Blue dress, white knitted cardigan, long grey cotton socks, hair plaited.
Esme - Sky-Blue floral dress, custard yellow knitted cardigan, long black socks, red hair ribbon, hair in plaits. 
Laura - Floral cream / peachy coloured dress, green knitted jumper, long grey socks, hair in bunches.
WW2 gas mask box
Blankets
Camera
Tripod 
Bible - entertainment during the air-raid 
Matches 
Candles 
Teddy bear & Rag Doll 


RISK ASSESSMENTS 
Because we were using matches in a small annex space, we had to be extremely careful that none of our cast & crew got burned or acted irresponsibly around the flames. We secured a set place that any used matches would be placed - a wooden surface away from flammable materials, and we made sure the candles only stayed lit for a short period of time & that they were properly extinguished after use (and later disposed of carefully and properly). Most of our over shoots have been relatively low risk & sitting down and going over safety precautions has not been a necessity, but today it was vital!

  - InteriorShooting

        - 1940's authenticity

         - Costumes & Props

 Hair & Makeup

1920's shoot.

Today we completed our 1920's shoot, which was certainly the most fun to film so far. We created a cosy tea/petting party scenario based on extensive research into popular culture & the social norms of this decade. We dressed our actresses in mid leg length skirts, head dresses, feathers, pearls, tap shoes / kitten heals from the 1920's. We tried to uphold historically correct costume and thus if any of the dresses were too short to look authentic for the era, we made sure the people wearing them were sat down at all times. The location we chose was perfect for the shoot as well, we had debated long & hard over three locations after visiting them, and comparing the back drops & mis en scene already present at each (in addition to the extra props we had already sourced). We finally deciding upon our location (a large & quite dated house in the local area), and in retrospect this was definitely the best decision. We stuck to the storyboard least on this shoot out of the ones so far completed. I feel that this was only because the actresses were so comfortable in this improvised setting that there natural flow of socialising - conversation, dancing, laughing created a visually stronger piece than if we had been much stricter in there actions. We brought along snacks for our actresses as well - which we also used in the shoot as they seemed very appropriate, we knew that when filming people with out any pay that clear direction & incentive were key. Though the shoot was more loose in structure than some of our previous ones i.e.: the 1980's, we still directed all the participants with briefs before we began filming each time to a.) ensure we got every compulsory shot completed and b.) we got the best performance possible out of everyone. We used the lights for the first time as well today and really noticed the difference they made to the footage, improving not only the quality of the shots in terms of the mock natural light we could create in dreary December, but also the actor's complexions all caught the rays well and made them photogenically much more glamorous & stylish.  

1980's Shoot prep & filming

*This is a copy of the email I sent via facebook to all the members of the upper school and sixth form choral drama group. All these girls are extremely confident and experienced performers and thus i new it was vital to secure them in order  to create a sequence that had natural rhythm and effective choreography. We have managed to secure a large wardrobe of costumes for example : neon leg warmers, bright vests, leotards, block tee's, leggings, high shorts, denim jackets etc, for our cast to wear; and also are going to provide refreshments and a reward for their generous participation (client care is of course just as important as the shoot itself). 

 Ellen Fraser



                  Hello choral drama people, (and please forward this on to anyone you have on facebook but i haven't included / remembered or any friends who are interested in drama or dance esp ) for my A2 media film we have to make a music video, and for my piece i am including a montage of sequences from different historical eras as my protagonist (main girl) travels back through the decades to find herself (the idea probably makes no sense to you right now but thats irrelevant for the moment). The reason i am explaining all this is because tomorrow lunch we are filming the 1980's scene in the gym, and we (me and my media group) already have quite a few people to come down and take part but are desperate for others, we want people to dress in : leotards, leg warmers, bright tights or leggings, sweat bands, or coloured hair pieces, tight shorts, big denim jackets or cardy's / jackets etc basically 1980's http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?num=10&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&rls=en&authuser=0&biw=1360&bih=555&tbm=isch&tbnid=aZbdx3PZv5R5HM:&imgrefurl=http://www.simplyeighties.com/&docid=tHdVoEUhgvYnAM&imgurl=http://www.simplyeighties.com/resources/81_physical_98.jpg&w=322&h=478&ei=Txy1UJPXKIHO0QWl-YC4CA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=337&vpy=4&dur=257&hovh=274&hovw=184&tx=108&ty=89&sig=115379148672381749777&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=136&tbnw=91&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0,i:126 http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?start=25&num=10&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&rls=en&authuser=0&biw=1360&bih=555&tbm=isch&tbnid=GKb2JL2E06qBrM:&imgrefurl=http://mediarelations.illinoisstate.edu/report/1011/nov30/rec.asp&docid=MKacseNUA0tNCM&imgurl=http://mediarelations.illinoisstate.edu/images/600-00917063w.jpg&w=550&h=462&ei=Txy1UJPXKIHO0QWl-YC4CA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=238&dur=420&hovh=206&hovw=245&tx=96&ty=110&sig=115379148672381749777&sqi=2&page=2&tbnh=141&tbnw=188&ndsp=34&ved=1t:429,r:25,s:0,i:19
if anyone would be able to come to the school gym at 1:25 (lunch tomorrow) and be in the video then my and my group would be SOOO grateful, all we want people to do is literally dance along to a song & it would only be for a small while, like i say if anyone would be able to come or get their friends to come i would love you forever, thank you & don’t worry if no-one can make it.

 20:12
Ela Pincham
: sounds really cool, I may be able to come :)  xxx





 20:25


Sofia Victoria El-engibawy

 : Will be there.





 20:25


Rosie Barwick

I'll come :)xo





 

  20:26

Thea Goozée

okay;) : same i'll brign leggings and i will look for leg warmers


 

 20:40
Rosie Barr: I have some physics thingy but I'll defo come if I can get out of it xxx

21:43 Hannah Brownie : sounds awesome i will try and find stuff to wear...i might have rehersal not sure so will have to double check but will try my best to be there xxxx

22:03 Tara Drummie : COUNT ME IN.




22:04 Rosie Barr : Yay Tara, we can skive physics together! ;)xx

22:07 Tara Drummie : yeaaa:') got it all sorted and in my bag:)))


22:16 Lotte Nash : I’ll be thereee :D

SHOOT
Our shoot went really well, everyone was so efficient, positive and proactive which made the filming so much easier to complete. Hair, make-up & mis en scene were a hug part of this scene - they helped to define the generic features of the era & create sterotyped iconography for our audience to relate to in order to catch on to the interextual link. We spent ages kitting everyone out with a huge variety of colourful tops, leotards, leg warmers, tights, jumpsuits, hoodies, jackets, trainers and so on. We did everyone's make and transformed the teen girls into brash, eccentric, 80's divas - hot pink lips, glittery blue eyes & hair in high pony tails, half pony tails, or curled.  The location - a retro style gym, (along with the flash of colourful movement created and choreographed by myself and the other 'GEAR' girls before we started) helped to really bring the era to life. Everyone was so relaxed and co-operative and this was the atmosphere we really hoped to create, we wanted to ensure that our cast members felt at ease, as well as performing with energy & authenticity. We brought a fellow peer along to photograph the shooting, which enabled us to really get involved with our own work & stick meticulously to the story board with out additional tasks to complete. Thus moreover we managed to shoot each shot that we aimed to produce and now have a vast array of angle and different movement (camera) styles to sift through & choose our final footage, however in terms of some of the close up / extreme close up reaction shots & emotional expression we may be lacking in. Largely we concentrated on mass clips and making the extras feel as at home as possible & thus may need to consider later on when fully examining the footage if it's at a high enough standard for our liking. 

Shoot #2 1950's diner

Today we filmed our second shoot in Frank B's diner in Kingston, the location was perfect for our 1950's cheesy Americanised theme, and the staff were overly hospitable, which made film much easier & less stressful (on a tight time frame & budget). The restaurant was practically deserted allowing us to fully utilise and embody the 50's style without any additional customers, dressed in contemporary costume to interrupt our work. 

It took a long time to plan costumes in order to all correspondent to one another & the era to match the vibrant mis en scene and props. We relied upon the diner's bold decoration to amplify the performance style, as we couldn't produce proper actors the music & dance vibe helped to loosen up our chosen cast members (only some of whom had performance history) & receive short snaps of confident displays of energy. 

We made sure we stuck meticulously to our storyboarded shots (shooting in a mere 45 military minutes) in order to keep an orchestrated structure to our work & thus majorly followed through on our previous planning (we had carefully constructed each image through bullet points & then sketches). 

Shoot prep

                 

          

                                            

(26.11.12) Our second shooting date is imminent, for which we will be heading to our chosen location for our 1950's sequence (which is an applicable styled diner called Frank B's). Therefore we have been prepping our appropriate costumes and planning the make-up and hair styles for each cast member who will be featured in the shoot (Rhianna Price, Ellen Fraser, Esme Fraser, Amy Garnett.) 

*Ellen Fraser : three quarter length baby pink stripped skirt, button puffer sleeved woollen blouse, white ankle socks & plimsoles, high pony tail & hair ribbon. 

*Esme Fraser : Vintage high waisted jeans, cropped cotton jumper, high pony tale & hair scarf. 

*Rhianna Price : knee length cotton navy stripped skirt, black tee-shirt, hair in a twirled bun & head scarf. 

*Amy Garnett : High waisted tight salmon trousers, pulka dotted cropped blouse, plimsoles / or a tailored floral puff dress & baby pink cardigan with plimsoles & a pong tail

First Day of Filming

This afternoon after - weeks of planning, discussing, debating, arguing, resolving, mind mapping, mood boarding, costume hoarding, cast searching...(etc) we actually began our filming!It was amazing to actually see our ideas work and come to life after so much written prep  & pre planning- 
When making such a film, research & planning is of course such a necessary & engaging task however its not the same creative buzz as we recieved when we actualy begun formulating that material and transforming it into the product of all that hard work.
 When our sketches became a performance (the blueprints of our overall piece), our excitement and interest reached new levels (though the two stages are practically equal in energy)!
                    

We started chronologically, with our opening shots in modern day London. We managed to shoot x5 different snippets of a day in our first location (Dukes Avenue in New Malden - typical London suburbs), and then another scene set in 'Costa Coffee' on New Malden High street (after previously securing the permission of the owners of course). We attempted to capture a diverse range of shots using a variety of possible camera movements & angles & levels, in order to reduce the possibility of later stress or hassling re-shoots. Knowing that if we can manage to spread out the shooting dates and fully commit to the meticulous detail then our final piece would be progressed with energy not motivational loss. We were aware of the difficulties of our projects, the multiple locations, costumes & characters and wanted to be able to film everything with accuracy, style and equal enthusiasm. 

We got shots of : 
our protagonist & her boyfriend (the lead singer in our staged band) in bed in the morning, making brownies / taking them out the oven, cuddled up eating cake together, curled up on the sofa watching a movie under a blanket,getting ready for a night out - costume choosing & makeup, going for a "romantic stroll" down the street together & finally walking off to go for a night out in their finery. We aimed to use the idea of film within a film - or photo within in a film, to creating moving images (framed as pictures) of a montaged relationship condensed into the first x19 second of 'If You Wanna' (By 'The Vaccines'). 

 

After securing the internal shots we went to Costa coffee & worked on a variety of shots of the couple ending their relationship after tribulation over their future & identities (juxtaposing the cheesy montage sequence before & amplifying the drama whilst highlighting the start of the lyrics & leaving the audience filled with enigma for the rest of the song).

 

Costume choices :  Pyjamas & dressing gowns, smart evening dress & tucks, contemporary jeans & hooded jumper / coat, jacket & jeans with trainers. In relation to wardrobe decisions it came down to so much more than throwing anything on from our cupboard's to represent the modern day. A key part of our entire concept was to express exaggerated stereotypical, noticeable outfits that would clearly convey to our audience a generalisation of the specific era. We thus chose an ensemble which would be visually appealing and in complete contrast with our time traveled to by gone eras. 


                       


Lighting choices : We didn't manipulate the lighting in our first shoot as much as we will need to for many of the others, of core concept was of a natural, authentic, serious yet playful relationship, thus we aimed only to use sunlight (which created a beautifully dappled effect highlighting our actors features and creating a romantic ambiance for their morning lie in scene) as well as a few additional bright tap controlled lamps. 
Mis En Scene: For each small sequence we also tried to include many signifying items which would allow the audience to easily contextualise & recognise the location and make sense of the couple relationship through this string of shots (though evidently at other points in the video we will employ confusion or ambiguity aiming to provoke re-play and entertainment for our audience, at this point we wanted to open them up to the pretences of the narrative thread). 

Prop & costume ideas

We envisaged the addition, of a variety of (subtle) contextual props in the background of each shot. These will help to aid each time change and set the scene historically as well as creating an interesting atmosphere and forging links back to the popular culture in the period. I looked into different events / popular bands / popular figures in the mainstream EG: fashion, royalty, hollywood etc for different stages in the 20th century. Mostly I tried to do research in particular into figures / events to which a majority of people would be able to understand and receive additional pleasure from. As well as filling the background with historic trinkets we of course will need to pick out costumes which can authentically match the era's we are planning to shoot in. I have done extensive research into the evolution of fashion trends from the 1920's to present day & here have enclosed some photographs of some items i have managed to source which actually come from the eras we are featuring. Of course not every costume will be able to be completely genuine as with our budget and resources this would not be plausible, however we aim to predominately dress of key protagonists and band members in vintage items to help intensify the visual effects. 

 

 

    

    

  

                         

   

 (1970's)