Test Footage

We decided to film some key scenes for our video to get a better idea of what we needed to do, how long it would take and if there was anything we need to change in our plot.  Fortunately everything ran ok and although we realized we needed to practice techniques such as a dolly zoom, as our final attempt is still very jerky, we feel confident that the rest of our filming will run well.

Filming

We began filming outside as we wanted to catch the last of the sun and hopefully get some footage during golden hour.  This shot was not originally planned but when we saw the light over the field we thought it would be a brilliant moment to test different lighting.  We really liked the glow this shot has and the natural sun flare created and decided it would not look out of place in our video.  We also liked how this light illuminated the background but creates a shadow over the character's face, isolating her from her surroundings.

We did not originally plan to film performance shots but decided that it would be worthwhile while we were there.  Our main worry was the lighting, as we only had a torch on our phone to create the light that should illuminate the performers face.  However, considering we had minimal resources we did not think the overall result was too bad but we would like to enhance it in the final video.

This shot we had to reconsider when we got to this setting. It is similar to one scene we will include in the final video where our protagonist is looking into a larger mirror, so it was useful to practice it. In the final filming we will probably go closer to the mirror so it is more central to the shot and remove any objects we don't need, like the pink razor. We will also ensure the blind is all the way down so there is no reflection in the glass.

This was a shot we were eager to practice as we needed to figure out how and where our actress would land and where she would need to drop the bottle so it lands within the frame and the pills do not scatter too far.  It took us several takes as we struggled to focus the camera in time or the bottle would fall too hard.  After a while the pills begin to stick together from being dropped too many times.  We now know what height we will need to drop the bottle from and know to subtly mark the place where it needs to land.

We needed to practice this scene to decide how we would need to instruct our actress to move about. In this footage I moved about a bit too much in too set a pattern so that the result doesn't look natural, which will need to be avoided in the real thing.  Fortunately we were able to enhance the footage and gloss over most of the acting with the addition of useful filters when we came to editing.  The prism effect was particularly significant in emphasizing the effect of the drug and a blur filter helped show the character's disembodiment.

This was the trickiest shot to film in sense of technique as we had little practice with doing dolly zooms and we had to do a smooth one over very uneven ground. The end result was still very shaky and we tried to correct it with a stabilization feature on final cut, which had little effect but did make it appear more dramatic.  Surprisingly it fit rather well with the music but we would seek to improve it in our final footage as we want it to look more professional.  

Filming Schedule

Copyright

Copyrighted music is allowed to be used for educational purposes without the written consent of the record company. However, because we are using a copyrighted track that we need to put online, we needed to contact the record company (Red Bull Records) asking for their permission to do so. Unfortunately - although not unexpectedly - we have not yet received a reply from the company. Therefore, as an extra precaution, we will also credit the music to Red Bull Records and Beartooth on our final video to disclaim our rights to the music and to avoid copyrighting. 

Editing

Because our test footage was done quickly, in order for us to practice certain techniques and visualize complicated shots, we decided not to re-film certain shots too many times. Therefore, we relied quite heavily on the addition of filters and other editing features to better the final product.  In our actual footage we intend to take as much time and care needed to perfect the shots so that any editing added will just enhance our already professional-looking footage. It was useful however, to practice with final cut pro so that editing will be easier in the future.

One technique we needed to practice was the dolly zoom, as neither of us had much experience with it. It took us several attempts to get used to but because we were treading on uneven ground our end results were still rather shaky.  We attempted to correct this with the editing option "Stabilization" (seen here in this picture), unfortunately as the correction stabilizes by zooming in, it did not smooth the footage over.  However, the close proximity of the shot created by this and the dramatic shudders that had been enhanced, seemed to fit with the music and we decide to keep it in the final product.

We had always planned to add filters to this 'overdosing' scene to exaggerate the character's loss of control and her apparent hallucinations. However, we were unsure as to what filters would look best. We originally planned to have flickering lights and colour changes but decided this may look too over-the-top. We settled for the filters 'Prism' and 'Blur' which emulated heightened senses and showed her loss of reality and we will probably use the same filters in our final video, maybe with another addition to really enhance the scene. The risk of this however, is focusing on one scene too much and not adding enough effects to the others.

This shot came out a different, darker colour than the others from the same sequence even though they were shot in identical lighting.  This may have been due to the different position of the camera or due to a shadow being cast over the lens.  Fortunately we were able to easily correct the shot by adding the filter "heat", which matched the lighting exactly from the shots following before and after.  If, in our final footage we encounter a similar problem, we will not need to worry too much about slight changes in lighting as we know we will be able to easily correct them, even if we have to edit filters slighting (by using the slider bars on the right to change the extremity)

Digipak Research

digipak

ˈdɪdʒɪpak/

noun

trademark

1. A type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs.

We will be recreating a digipak for Beartooth's album "Disgusting". When trying to gain inspiration we did a quick google search of the synonyms of disgusting, trying to see what we picture with each word.

When this did not help us enough we sent a survey around trying to see what other people were expecting, these were the results:

Target Audience

We knew we wanted to aim our video at young adults, as we believed this genre of music would suit this audience better.  However. we were unsure of what else we needed to know about our audience in order to ensure our video was better tailored to suit them. Therefore, we sent a survey around to a mixture of ages to see who everyone else believed we should be targeting to.

Our first question was just to see if everyone agreed with our original target audience, as we expected the majority of people chose the young adult age range. Although, probably due to violent nature of our video some did choose the older age bracket but we will continue to aim our video at young adults as this had the most backing.

This was included out of curiosity, we aimed to target our video at all genders but we wondered if people did believe one gender would be more interested.  Surprisingly, we had a 50/50 result which means we will not need to cater more to one gender, meaning we will not need to include more voyeuristic elements for a male gaze etc,

We wanted to know more about our audience and we decided if we knew about their hobbies we would be able to reference these within our video.  Strangely, our results were very generic with answers such as skateboarding, music listening and clubbing being repeated by almost everyone. This is useful for us as it can be implied by the age of our actors that they do this in their spare time without us having to directly reference them.  

Conventionally, rock music is believed to be aimed at people of a middle/lower demographic so I was surprised to see the majority of people chose the middle demographic as our target audience, However, I believe this could be due to the blurring of demographic lines so that people are less sure of the distinctions between them.  Although we do not intend to aim our video at the higher demographic, we will have our main characters portrayed as wealthy, to show that anyone can have domestic problems and that money and wealth does not always solve everything.

This is not overly important for our research but it was interesting to find out what everyone believed our audience would be like. The majority of votes was that our audience would have at least A levels and GCSE's but there were almost equal results for everything, suggesting that higher education is now a social norm.

Risk Assessment

The most significant risks in our music video include:

• The "fall scene"                                                                                                                           In this shot, our actress falls to floor as if she has tripped whilst running. This could obviously be problematic and potentially cause a small injury. Unfortunately, there is little we can do to avoid this.  We will make sure that the place where our actress will fall will have no sharp objects or obstructions in the way so that her landing is as soft as possible and have her fall in a brace position. We will also make sure we shoot this scene in very few attempts so she will not have to create further risk for herself.

• Sparkler Scene                                                                                                                                We have two scenes where we will be featuring the use of sparklers, which will be filmed in one go.  This obviously means we will have the usual risks involved with handling the sparklers plus having them near to the filming equipment.  Fortunately, the shots we need do not have to be very long and will not be difficult to film, so the risks will be minimum and we will control these risks by keeping the sparkler from a safe distance from both the equipment and actress.

• Strangling Scene                                                                                                                             In this scene our actress will need to appear like she's being strangled, which we will want to look realistic but we do not want any harm to come to our actress. We will film this by having our main male character have his hands relaxed around the back of her neck but tense at the front, so that it appears a lot of physical effort is going into the act when no harm is actually being done to the actress. We also cast our actors knowing that they would have to do this scene and were fortunate to find two people who were close enough not to feel uncomfortable filming this scene, so that they would not be affected emotionally, 

• Smashing a frame                                                                                                                           This scene involves throwing a picture frame at a wall.  The glass in this will need to appear to have smashed on contact to be realistic but this could result in glass shards falling around the bedroom setting, potentially causing our actors to tread on glass in later scenes and causing cuts on their feet etc.  One way to avoid this would be to take the glass out of the frame when it is thrown so it can not smash, and then carefully smash the glass afterwards in a way that be contained and easily cleaned up.