Music video

The following link is the music video myself and my group have produced for this coursework.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCB148pVcmI

Before editing

Just before we started editing to produce our music video I and my group members decided to sit down and take a look at all of our footage in order to extract all the best clips for use whilst editing. Once the clips were transferred on to the Mac we made separate folders in final cut pro according to the quality of the clips and if they were usable and looked professional enough to be used in the video or not. This way by putting our clips in to folders it was easier to access the clips that were definitely going to be used in the music video in comparison to the maybes and extra clips as we had a total of 139 clips and some were repetitive however because we were shooting on busy locations like the golden jubilee bridge through our scenes we would have pedestrians walking past, which is why we would have to then retake the same shot again and by making folders it allowed us to extract the best scenes and make easier access to when it came to using them.

Day of the music video shoot

Today we went central London to do the final and main shooting needed for our music video. We had reached our location which was the golden jubilee bridge at 3pm perfect enough to get a bright view from the bridge whilst the sun was up. This was when it wasn’t too dark but not extremely bright as it is winter therefore we were there on the right time in order to get opening scenes whilst the sun was up and then we finished shooting with a sunset for the closing scene. We finished shooting around 5pm however there were some complications with lighting as well as getting the frame for the camera right

First of all the bridge was quite busy as it is a popular bridge with a beautiful view, but it was also quite narrow in terms of getting a wide angled shot with both the scenery and the actors in the frame. So we had little space to play with as we had to leave way for pedestrians who were trying to get across, and so we had the camera quite close to our characters which is why we took time getting out camera angles correct, so the pedestrians would not walk in front of the camera and would go behind. This way we would have clear shots with no one walking in front of the camera, however this did happen on several occasions which left us to retaking the same shot from the start t get it more accurate and so it would be easier to join the shots whilst editing.

Another problem with faced with in the beginning was that our main character was afraid of heights, something me and my group member were totally unaware of however by time he was used to the height of the bridge so managed to get quite close to the railing in the end anyway.

We had some technical difficulties on the day with the camera, for some reason neither me or my group member were able to get the camera stable on to the tripod which is why it made scenes where I was trying to pan quite difficult as well as holding the camera still on to the tripod whilst shooting. However when we took the camera and tripod back to college the next day and were asked to set it up again by the technicians we had done it perfectly well and the camera was stable. So it showed that the equipment was perfectly fine, we just had technical difficulties on the day, this may have been due to the weather as our hands were really cold and it as quite windy up on the bridge as well.

We managed to get all the shots needed from this location as a result it was good that we decided as a group not to choose Trafalgar square as our second location. This is because we lost daylight and the location was busier compared to the bridge when we visited it after anyway as it’s a big tourist attraction making it harder for us to shoot our video. It would also have been much more time consuming then the time spent shooting on the bridge.

Flashback shooting and further planning for the main shoot

This week we have shooted for our flash backs which were done in the fields at college. The choice of location was chosen as this because we wanted to show the normal daily lives of the couple before they had broken up.
The shots were quite dificult to capture as it was the first time me and my partner were using the cameras which is why it took several shots to get two perfect shots for usage when it came to editing. We had a third member of the group who wasnt present at the time of the shooting although he was the best and had more experience with the camera, but we did recieve positive critisism from him from the shooting of flashbacks, which is why when we went into editing although he wanted us to redo the flashbacks using different angles and scenes we decided to cut up and work with what we already had, because it would be easier especially if we wanted to overlay some of the shots.
After the shoot we then made further planing thoroughly for our main shooting which is on the 14^th November in order to make sure that we are organised and know what kind of camera angles and shots we want for our music video and other other specifics needed such as props and costume, which would represent the lifestyles of the chacracters. This will make it easier for us to shoot our music video as we will know what to do and how to position our actors once we are on the bridge.
The reason to why we chose to do the flash backs before is because we now have a much more clearer idea to the story boards we disgned and what shot was going to be fitted around what scene.

Flashback shooting and further planning for the main shoot

This week we have shooted for our flash backs which were done in the fields at college. The choice of location was chosen as this because we wanted to show the normal daily lives of the couple before they had broken up.
The shots were quite dificult to capture as it was the first time me and my partner were using the cameras which is why it took several shots to get two perfect shots for usage when it came to editing. We had a third member of the group who wasnt present at the time of the shooting although he was the best and had more experience with the camera, but we did recieve positive critisism from him from the shooting of flashbacks, which is why when we went into editing although he wanted us to redo the flashbacks using different angles and scenes we decided to cut up and work with what we already had, because it would be easier especially if we wanted to overlay some of the shots. 
After the shoot we then made further planing thoroughly for our main shooting which is on the 14^th November in order to make sure that we are organised and know what kind of camera angles and shots we want for our music video and other other specifics needed such as props and costume, which would represent the lifestyles of the chacracters. This will make it easier for us to shoot our music video as we will know what to do and how to position our actors once we are on the bridge.
The reason to why we chose to do the flash backs before is because we now have a much more clearer idea to the story boards we disgned and what shot was going to be fitted around what scene.

Planning for the music video shoot

Whilst the planning for the shoot of the music video I had carried out some independent research of music videos and came across one that had similar features to what me and my group members were looking to do. The features that were similar were in terms of some shots taken on the bridge and depth of field shots used as well as the story line. However there were even some bits in this video that could be improved on such as the acting and lip-synch and storyline in the end when the two couples are at the bridge seemed a little confusing due to acting as it wasn’t clear if they were smiling at each other or not talking. So acting of the characters is where I thought was key in the shooting for when we would go on to it for our music video. Some editing techniques were also somewhere where i thought the video would be better off without. Although this is a total diferent genre of music i still felt the slow tone was similar to our chosen song aswell as at this planning stage it was a picture painted of some of the ideas me and my group member had in mind.