Teacher feedback

I am really excited about the outcome of your music video - if the footage in these little video clips is anything to go by then it promises to be amazing!  The blog is fantastic - Nick your blog about the filming process if excellent.

p.s. what did you do with liquid latex?!?!

Production - Last minute inspirations

We found lots of inspiration in the recently released video We Found Love - Rihanna. This video explores the positives and negatives sides of love and there were some shots and ideas used throughout that were similar to the sort of ideas we were thinking of using.

We used sparklers when filming in the evening in the woods, although some of the shots we a little dark we wanted to create this sort of allusion (without the special effects ofcourse) but the idea of  our artist using sparklers looks really cool and different.

This video also explores different types of projection, like what we recently filmed so it was good to get some more inspiration and ideas from it. We used trees and skies to project onto our artists face.

Here is another projection shot with fairy lights in the background; fairy lights are a main prop in out video and we used them differently to Rihanna's one.

Production - Second day of filming

On Thursday 27th November we finished our second day of filming. We spent plenty of time getting lots of shots and didn't finish till quite late but it was worth it as we got some great footage and think we may have finished with the filming altogether! I was really excited for this session and I think it went very well, we definitely got around 9 or 10 good basetracks and followed everything in our storyboard. As well as this, being in our locations triggered new thoughts and ideas so we explored though.

Here is a video of me doing Poppy's make up for the first scene in the forest during the day. She will be wearing a grey dress that I have brought from home and I am doing dark lining around her eyes, this will emphasis misery and amplify the meaning of the lyrics she is singing. This make up isn't  going to be as bold and outstanding as the style we will be using later in the evening, however as she will be running barefoot in the woods, I think its suitable for an animalistic, alternative look. Eye make up is very important in creating these looks and it helps to re design her whole face.

I don't feel time was on our side though! Some of the shots we had hoped to do during the day we ended up doing in the night as the sun set very quickly and we were a little worried about that. None the less, we had great lighting and it really created a great effect throughout the different shots in the evening. The weather was pretty good also, although it rained earlier, throughout our filming session we worried very little about rain as it didn't rain (luckily) and the cold created mist from our breathe; which was visible in some of the shots and looks great!

Here are some of the main props we needed that Nick kindly brought along! We used things such a sparklers, food colouring, liquid latex and replacement light bulbs. (Just incase for the fairy lights)

Here are two shots of Poppy throughout filming our last scene. We did this inside a room in Poppy's house with no windows and black walls so it was perfect in not looking like the inside of a house at all. Poppy changed into a black and gold dress; with glittery eye make up and we wrapped her up in fairy lights. This kind of image suggests she is an alternative artist as it is more about abstract beauty rather than sexual appeal.

Production - Behind the Scenes Videos

Charon has fun on the swing in Queen's Wood, before we figure out what kind of shots to film of Poppy on the swing.


In this scene, Poppy is filmed in a static shot as she runs through the woods and hides behind the trees. When we come to editing, we will experiment with jump cuts to show Poppy standing behind one tree and emerging from another.


Poppy touches up her make-up as we prepare to shoot another scene.


Poppy prepares the Bat For Lashes inspired make-up.


As we film into the night, we are joined by an unexpected guest!


Poppy applies the make-up for the final shots.

Production - Second Day of Filming

Yesterday marked our second and most substantial day of filming. We met up at college at 1pm to collect the equipment - camcorder, tripod, spotlight and batteries (these were heavy and annoying to carry), umbrella (in case it rained), memory cards, and digital camera. We then got on the bus and headed to Poppy's house where we dumped the equipment and had some tea courtesy of Poppy (and Charon, you would have thought we were at her house, not Poppy's haha!) After some discussion about what we were going to film and the mise-en-scène, we decided to head out to Queen's Wood as the weather was overcast but not rainy (and remained so until it started pouring down when we headed home).



Before this, we narrowed down and decided on the three main costumes that Poppy would wear: a grey-ish dress for most of the daylight scenes, together with a flowery crown; a much more striking flowy red dress for the evening scenes, to connote a sort of 'tranformation' and emphasize the contrast between day and night; and a black sparkly dress for the fairylight shots. The make-up for the woodland shots were influenced by the ideas we discussed during out planning, however, for the fairylight scene, we opted for glitter covering Poppy's eye area (in a similar way to the white face-paint design we used for the projection scene). Below you can see the different combinations of costume and make-up for the corresponding scenes, which I think worked really well, giving Poppy a consistently unconventional artist image.

Mustafa was the main camera operator, with Charon also contributing to filming several shots. I was mainly in charge of playing the music, taking photos of the process, including many that we could potentially use for the rest of the promotional package we will be creating, and helped set everything up. We shot a substantial number of base tracks, including more experimentation with speed editing (lip-syncing to double speed version of the track this time, which once slowed down in editing will have Poppy on the swing moving slowly as she lip-syncs in time). We then headed back to Poppy's house for a costume/make-up change, then went back out again.

 By this time it was getting quite dark so we made sure to get a few daylight shots with the second costume, and then proceeded to film in the dark. The spotlight provided great lighting, and we really liked the outcome of these shots (as well as the others we filmed so far). We also filmed a few shots using a strobe light effect from Poppy's phone, which Poppy originally suggested early on in the planning process, that resulted in quite a creepy and unnerving effect. Some other notable takes include a few where we used sparklers, one of Poppy in a tree as the camera circles her, and another where a cat randomly walked into the shot! (Note that the poor thing was all alone in the woods at night and kept coming over to our light - I just wanted to take it home!) By the time we got back to Poppy's house again, we were really pleased with our shots, and realized that we'll probably have everything we need by the end of the day. Finally, we proceeded to film our last shots in a windowless room in Poppy's house, with Poppy covered in fairylights!



Altogether, and because of how productive the day was, I'd say we have at least ten great base tracks (plus countless others) so we have a lot of footage to choose from. In addition, we have only about twenty minutes of free space on the two 16GB memory cards. Because of all this, we have decided that it wouldn't be worth our time to film in Parkland Walk too, which we weren't too enthusiastic about filming in in the first place. I am now anticipating putting together the music video to see the first real result of our efforts as a group!

Planning - Pre-production Preparation

Weather update:

Tomorrow we will be shooting the indoor fairylights scene due to the 'light rain' - we may then continue to film in Queen's Wood depending on the weather. Below you can see the props I have gathered to bring for the film shoot that will commence tomorrow.

Liquid latex, food colouring, face paint, brush, small sponges,
sparklers, replacement bulbs (for fairylights)

 

Testing fairylights on camera

Planning - Projection Example

"We found love in a hopeless place"

In the lead-up to our filming I am still continuously researching music videos and looking out for possible ideas to interpret. Recently, Rihanna's latest music video for We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris) premiered. The video is fast-paced and full of imaginative and suggestive imagery depicting a destructive relationship. One of the base tracks featured that instantly stood out for me is one of the artist against the same wall of a room as various footage is projected onto her. This is a very similar concept to what we filmed last Friday, the major difference being that most of the projection shots in Rihanna's video are long shots, whereas we concentrated on mid-shots and close-ups (due to the fact that we could not move the projector and so we had to use the classroom whiteboard as the backdrop.)

In addition, there is a one-off long exposure shot, where the artist "writes" in the air with a sparkler, which I really like and wish we could replicate in our own video. Nonetheless, sparklers are one of the props that we've been planning to use anyway which could potentially look great on camera in the dark woodland.

Below you can see some stills illustrating the projections from the aforementioned video, as well as a couple from videos by Imogen Heap and Emily Osment, alongside some from our own production to illustrate their influence.

Planning - Make-up Moodboard

Here you can see a moodboard I created exploring some of our make-up ideas, including a few that I found whilst flicking through some random magazines. For the blue teary make-up effect (middle image) we planned to use food colouring, however it doesn't work that well on skin. Therefore, we will be experimenting by mixing it with liquid latex (a paint-like substance that smells bad and is intended for Halloween). We were also originally worried that the food colouring would stain but I made sure to buy some that easily washes off skin.

Testing food colouring + liquid latex mixture on skin

Planning - More Makeup Ideas

As our second day of filming slowly approaches we are still looking at different types of make up to use for our artist. (Poppy Power)
We are still unsure of what specific style of make up we're going to use for our shots in Queens Wood and Poppy's house but here are some ideas of potential styles we may go for. We want Poppy's make-up to be really extravagant and over the top to convey the different, alternative musician she is.

An example of abnormal, over the top make up to make the artist stand out and create a slightly surreal situation.

We also don't want to forget nail varnish as well! It could either match the make up of the artists as her hands will be visible in several close ups we have planned but also different colours will brighten the image and we don't want to leave her nails half painted if we do decide to paint them as it will be noticeable and won't look very professional.

Here is some colouring we could use to create the allusion of blue tears on Poppy's face, another abstract style of make up that could look really good if it works!

On my way home I saw a huge Billboard of Florence and the Machine, promoting her  new album Lungs. Billboards are always a great way to promote artists as the stand out so much!

Production - Our First Session!

Here is a brief video of the main highlights of our very first filming session!

I was excited to do this part of our filming and it is a great relief to have gotten one part of the filming out of the way! We've decided this piece is definitely a basetrack for our final video, and overall we were really pleased with it. After experimenting lots with of different background images we finally found some good footage and had some good ideas! One of the images projected onto Poppy (the artist) is simply just the programme 'Paint' in the background whereby Nick is drawing in different colours. We also showed footage filming we did in Abney park and queens wood when just visiting the locations; the moving image of trees projected on Poppy was very simple and create a good effect. These sort of ideas worked really well and makes the projection look abstract and suited to our theme of disjuncture.

Overall, this filming session was really successful and makes me feel even more excited to continue and hopefully complete our filming on Thursday!

Woohoo!   

Planning - Location Update

After sending a second email, we finally got a response from Abney Park regarding our use of their location. Unfortunately, they ask for £20 per hour (student price) to film in the woodland, and £100 for use of the derelict chapel, so we're not really prepared to pay this price for just a few shots. Instead, we will concentrate on filming in Queen's Wood and Parkland Walk, meaning that all our locations (including Poppy's house) are now in the same general location, which is ideal if we need to move between them often.