Production: Progress Review Blog

Production: Skills Development 2

Production: Skills Development

Production: Review of Final day of Editing

Our final day of editing was quite frustrating as we were feeling the pressures of meeting the following day's deadline and towards the end of the music video we ran out of shots to use. We had about seven different shots to work with for the last minute and a half so we worried that the shots might become abit repetitive and boring in comparison to the start of the music video which uses a variety of shots and the editing is fast and snappy.

However, we went through the unused shots that we did not put into FinalCut Pro from our days of filming and luckily, due to the bountiful amount of shots we have, managed to find several good shots to put into the end of the music video rather than having to keep reusing the same shots.

We had no technical difficulties so we weren't stuck wasting time on re synching shots with the lyrics or having to redo all the markers we put in so our focus was completely on the editing.

As we started our music video off with the artist smoking we decided to end the music video the same way; that way the music video ends as it starts but with different costume, makeup and set but the shot, which is close up, is exactly the same. After watching this footage back our teacher Mary commented on this straightaway and said that it is a nice touch as its like a cycle; the music video goes back to how it started.

The only editing problem we faced was deciding which shot we were going to slow down and make slow motion as the entire song is very upbeat it would contrast negatively. We decided on slowing the final shot before the music video ends as the beat there and at the beginning of the song are the only relatively slower paced parts of the song. The shot that was slowed down is of myself exhaling smoke; we changed the speed to about 45 and it made the smoke being exhaled look very effective; especially as it was dragged out so the shot ended exactly when the music stops.

Overall, I am very pleased with the progress we managed to make in our three solid days of editing and am happy with our final result.

Production: Final Day of Editing - Photos

Production: Review of Second day of Editing

Production: Second day of Editing - Photos

These are some pictures from our second day of editing. Today, we continued to put markers onto the rest of the song so we could get the edits on the beat, and then we used the razor tool to cut the shots we have and match them to the markers we put onto the song; which we did because we were trying to get the beat of the song so when we edit the shots transitioning will match the beat of the music video; this will make the video look more in sync and make it look abit more polished as we arent going to be using alot of effects on our music video; we are going for a more natural and chill music video rather than having lots of special effects and obvious edits.

Production: Feedback on Roughcut from Mary and Class

Here are two videos we recorded of our classmates and teacher giving us feedback after watching our roughcut. Mary, our media teacher, mentions that we are the only group in two sets to have filmed proper closeups and that the shots that we have overall are very good. Several classmates mentioned that they liked the fact that our performer, Aleksandra, was being enthusiastic with her performing and singing and that it suited the genre very well. 

Mary and classmates also encouraged us to film the scenes with the paper planes as they liked the concept of the motif and feel that it would boost the music video strongly and make it even better. Comments were also made that the locations we filmed at suited the mood and pace of the song and fitted the audience profile and that the editing was on point with the beat of the song which is good to hear. 

Production: Roughcut

Here is the rough cut of our music video for the song 'Paperplanes' by MIA. We just managed to get the first 45 seconds edited without putting any special effects in. However, the editing matches the pace of the music and the lip synching is very in sync so it is a good result.

Production: Pro's and Con's of first day of editing

These are what I consider to be the Pro's and Con's of our first day of editing. Overall, as you can see by the size of the Pro's compared to the Con's, it was a pretty good day and I am pleased with the progress we as a group managed to make with the editing in the three hour lesson. Even though it was embarrassing doing the editing as we had to review the clips of me performing and listen to my terrible singing voice out loud in lesson I am glad that I sung the song as it made the editing process really easy; it took literally one minute to sync our base tracks and shots with the lyrics; it would have being much harder if I had lip synched the words, especially if it was a long shot or faraway camera shot where you couldn't be able to see my lips that easily. 

Production: First day of Editing - Photos

Here are some pictures from our first day of editing: included are pictures of the software we are using; FinalCut Pro, and the process of putting in markers and editing the shots we have and matching them to the pace of the music video and also pictures of Group 10 working together!

   

                                                  

Production: Short Vlog on first day of Editing

This is our first initial day of filming, we basically just started to import our base tracks into FinalCut Pro and tried to sync the shots and lyrics correctly with our music video. We used a red markers to pick out a word in our video and a word from our CD track of MIA PAPERPLANES and tried to make the lip syncing more accurate and on point. This editing part was fairly simple as Aleks, our star actor of the music video, had sung the song out loud which made it easier for us to sync it in with the actual song itself.

Production: Cancellation of filming at Emily's

We had to cancel what was intended to be our final day of filming at the locations Bricklane and Emily's house due to Emily being unavailable to film on the day; since the scenes with the paper planes were to take place at her house and be filmed in her bedroom and cellar we could not film, also Aleksandra does not have a cellar and her bedroom does not fit the idea we had for the music video we had to cancel that location all together, as the deadline for filming was on Friday 16th November and we had to give back the equipment the next day and no one was available to film on the Thursday as everyone had conflicting college schedules and was not free on the day. We are really disappointed that we had to cancel filming at Emily's because it means we had to scrap the paper planes motif idea we had which we felt was really good and if incorporated properly into the music video would have significantly made the music video more special and appealing. However, we feel confident in the shots that we have so far and we feel they are strong enough to stand alone and without the Paper planes motif.

Production: Review of Final Day of Filming

Our final day of filming did not go as smoothly as we had planned. Firstly, we all planned to meet up at 10AM to travel to Ladbroke Grove together however Mostafa was unable to make it and outside factors like traffic and weather meant myself and Emily meet up at 11am at Angel Station.

We travelled to Ladbroke Grove without a hitch however, we had some difficulty actually finding Ladbroke Grove skatepark; to add more confusion into the mix we did not realise that there are two skateparks in Ladbroke Grove; The Bay Sixty 6 skatepark and Westway Skatepark. After asking several pedestrians for directions to Bay Sixty 6 we arrived after an hour and a bit of being lost and realised that you have to book in advance to enter the park £14 and you can only enter if you are taking skateboarding lessons.

However, all was not lost as we found several other locations to film at in Ladbroke Grove such as Portobello Market and a colourful mural of graffiti just behind Ladbroke Grove station; we managed to get about 8 good shots in various different camera positions and then proceeded to travel to Banksy tunnel in Waterloo where filming went off without a hitch as the location was not packed out, it was secluded and the few passerby's who were there were kind enough to not get in the shots. At about 3:30pm we finished filming our last shot and were done for the day!

Here is a GIF of some of the pictures we took of the locations we filmed at:



creating gifs

Production: Organizing the Footage

Before we begin the editing process of our music video, I decided to go through the footage that we have so far at Camden Town, Kings Cross, Angel, Ladbroke Grove and Waterloo to see what type of shots we had managed to get and see if there was anything else that we might need to re film.

I also took the liberty of watching the shots and deleting any that had a false start or weren't positioned properly or were out of focus. This is going to be very helpful as in the editing process it would be very laborious and time consuming to have to sift through all the footage we took to see which shots were good and which shots were not.

I arranged all our footage into folders according to the locations we filmed at and put them into FinalCut Pro so they will be ready for when we start the editing process which will personally I believe, be a lot smoother.

Production: Photos from final day of Filming

These are our photos from the final day of filming. Unfortunately Mostafa was unable to make it due to other commitments, so Emily and Aleksandra went. Our plans to film at the Bay Sixty 6 skate park in Ladbroke Grove were altered due to our failure to research the park and upon arrival realising you had to book a skateboarding session to enter the park. However we found another spot to film nearby and continued on to Waterloo where we filmed in the Banksy Tunnel. Overall we are pleased with all the footage we shot over the days of filming. We've noticed changes in our original plans, such as the motif of paper planes.

Planning: Plan for fifth and final day of filming

10AM - Aleksandra and Mostafa will meet up at Angel Station and travel to Emily's house by bus together.

10:25AM - 11:30AM- Group 10 will set up the set; e.g make paperplanes and hang them up from the ceiling in the cellar and stick them all over Emily's bedroom; making them become a part of the props and background

11:30AM- 1PM - Film interior scenes at Emily's house such as Bedroom and Cellar scenes with the paperplanes

1:30PM- Group 10 will travel to Bricklane together

4PM- Finished with filming! Aleksandra will take the camera and tripod home and return the equipment on the next day at 9AM.

Planning: Plan for fourth day of filming

MONDAY 12TH NOVEMBER 2012

10AM - Group 10 will meet up at Angel Station and travel to Ladbroke Grove by train

10:30AM - Group 10 arrive at Ladbroke Grove and travel on foot to the skatepark

10:35AM - Arrive at Ladbroke Grove Skatepark and commence filming

12PM - Group 10 wraps up filming at Ladbroke Grove and will begin to travel to Waterloo, where we will be filming at Banksy Tunnel

12:35PM - Group 10 arrives at Waterloo Station and travels to Leake Street (Banksy tunnel) by foot

12:40PM - Arrive at Banksy tunnel and begin to film

3:45PM - Group 10 is finished with the fourth day of filming. Emily will take the camera and Aleksandra will take the tripod home and bring it for the next day and final day of filming.

Planning: Weather forecast for final filming days

We have just two more days that we plan to film on: which is Monday 12th November and Tuesday 13th November. To be fully prepared for those two filming days, I have taken the liberty of checking the weather forecast in advance so I can be aware of bringing anything such as an umbrella to protect the equipment and also what costume I am going to wearing as I am not going to be wearing very little layers of clothing if the weather is bad as I did on the Kings Cross filming day which resulted in me becoming quite irritably and quickly ill.

Monday 12th November:

It will be mostly dry on Monday but at around 2PM it should start to rain lightly; this is workable as we will be meeting up early and doing a lot of filming in the morning so hopefully we will be able to get some good shots before it starts raining in the afternoon; we won't be finished by that time as we are going to be filming in two different locations that have a considerable amount of travel time so we are going to have to be very aware and cautious when filming and with our equipment on the day. 

Tuesday 13th November:

On Tuesday we are once again going to be meeting up early to film and it appears that on the 13th it will be quite a dry and rainless day until much later on in the evening, which is convenient for us as we will film at our exterior location Bricklane in the morning up until midday and then film at our final location which is interior (Emily's house) so the weather should not ruin or interfere with our filming. 

Planning: How to get to Banksy Tunnel (Leake Street)

Since we are going to be filming in two different locations on the same day we may be a little short of time so we are going to have to divide time between our two locations; Ladbroke Grove and Banksy tunnel, evenly. We are going to travel from our first location we are filming at, Ladbroke Grove, to Waterloo as it would be longer and more costly to get back to neutral ground (Angel) and then travel to our second location; it would also waste valuable filming time as we are going to be working against factors like weather and it getting dark earlier.

Here is a Screen Grab from TFL of the journey we are going to be making from Ladbroke Grove to Waterloo: where Banksy Tunnel is located:

We are going to be taking a train as the alternative is 3 buses and since we are going to start filming at our second location in the afternoon, factors like traffic could get in the way and make us waste time getting there.

From Waterloo station, Banksy Tunnel, which is on Leake Street, is not that far away so it would be a short walk to our filming location. Here is a screen grab of the directions: We will walk from Waterloo station to our location, it would only take 5 minutes so the journey is fortunately quite short.

Planning: How to get to Bricklane

Here is a screen grab taken from the TFL website: I went on the journey planner to see how we could get to Brick Lane from Angel. I already knew that it would not be a particularly long journey as Brick Lane is not that far from our college so taking a bus should not be a problem as the journey should only be about half an hour long and requires us to take two buses; since we are going to be meeting up in the morning to film we are not in any particular rush to get to our location as we would be if we were filming in the afternoon and were trying to get shots before it started to get darker. 

Planning: Final Filming Production Schedule

As we are working to meet a deadline that is not that far away for our roughcut we are taking the equipment out again to film at the remainder of our filming locations during college time. We took out the equipment during the second half of half term and managed to get two good days of filming and got three of our locations out of the way: however, due to conflicting schedules and not being able to agree on days where we were all available to film we did not manage to get all of our filming finished.

Now that we are going to have two days off of college due to teacher training days we decided to take this opportunity to get some filming done as it is hard enough finding the time to film whilst in college as we do not all have the same timetable and have to juggle our college work with the filming. 

Here is a timetable for our second and final production schedule which shows the days we are filming in red, and the day we picked up the equipment and when and what time it needs to be handed back so that other students can also film: 

Production/Planning: New Filming Location

So far we have filmed at 3 locations out of the five exterior locations we are going to be filming at; excluding Emily's house. We have managed to get some good shots at Camden Town, Kings Cross and in Angel. Our last two exterior locations are supposed to be at Ladbroke Grove (in particular the skate park) and in Brick Lane. However, we have decided to add Banksy Tunnel as another location to film at because we feel that not only does the actual location match the vibe of our music video (which is quite hip, urban and underground) but you would tend to find people who match the criteria for our audience profile hang out there so the image we are trying to project for our artist could be shown through location choice. 

Here are some images of the new location we plan to film at: 

Production: Filming Faults

After looking back at the footage we filmed in Camden Town, Kings Cross and Angel over half term in our two days of filming I realised that some potentially very good shots that could get us high marks were ruined because of the positioning of the camera: The rules of third and the 360 degree rule it seems were completely forgotten.

We had a couple of shots where the performer, which is myself, had my head cut of completely in one shot and in others the camera was quite shaky and kept moving and cutting out the performer; also the camera in one shot at Kings Cross kept going in and out of focus which ruined a very good shot completely.

The reason for this could be because in two shots Emily was holding the camera and was following me walking in the markets in Camden Town: we thought that this point of view shot was artistic and would look really good and match the theme and vibe of our music video but at some parts it just failed and ended up looking unprofessional and amateurish. I think if we could do several practise shots we could master holding the camera steady and filming but factors outside of our control like the weather (the wind) and the large crowds meant that we had to be extremely careful with the camera so it had to be moved to avoid a passerby colliding with the equipment and it potentially getting damaged or broken.

When we can, we should always have the camera on the tripod as it may be a nuisance to carry around and to put the camera on and off the tripod but it is always guaranteed to produce good quality shots.

Here are some screenshots of the shots that I have mentioned:

Planning: Attempt at making paperplanes

Before we film the scenes at Emily's house with the paper planes we need to be able to actually make paper planes that will vary in size so that it looks more effective in the camera shot.

In a previous blogpost Aleksandra posted a tutorial on how to make a paperplane: Below is a video of our attempt to make a paper plane and testing the flying range of the paper planes:

Here is a picture of the some of the paperplanes we made:

We plan to make alot more of these that will range in colour and size!

Production: Cancellation of Day Three of filming

Unfortunately we have had to cancel our third and final day of filming on Sunday 4th November. We were due to film the paper plane scenes at Emily's house where we would have made paper planes and implemented them into the decor and background of the setting which is Emily's bedroom and cellar.

However, we had to cancel because Emily has a family commitment on Sunday so her house is unavailable for filming... also our performer Aleksandra got quite seriously ill with tonsilitsis so is unable to perform and sing.

We have decided that we will film the scenes at Emily's house after half term like we plan to do with our locations such as Brick Lane and Ladbroke Grove skate park; preferably we will be able to film on Tuesday 6th November if we are able to take the equipment out as our whole group finishes at 12:15 on the day and Emily's house will be free that day. This is an unfortunate turn of events but as a group we are happy with what we have filmed so far and we feel that we are on top of the workload and will be able to commit time and effort into filming after half term.

Production: Day Two Photos

Production: Review of Second Day of filming

Production: Day One Photos

                     

Here are all the photos that we took today on our first day of filming. Included are pictures of us in the process of filming, our performers before and after costume and makeup photos and pictures that we took of our performer during the filming process.

Production: Review of First Day of filming

Our first day of filming went fairly well and was successful as we stuck to the schedule we had planned out for today. I met up with Emily at 1PM at her house to get into costume and makeup and we arrived at college at 2:30PM to pick up our equipment. Initially we planned on filming in Kings Cross only but found some good places to film at in Angel like the park, a block of flats and a colourful secluded road; We managed to get at least 8 different base tracks and a variety of camera shots so we are pleased with that. The weather forecast was as predicted in a previous blogpost; mostly dry but very cold but we had no difficulty with the weather; just that our performer felt very cold!

At around 4ish we travelled to Kings Cross by bus to get our shots of the performer at the fountains and birdcage; however upon arriving at Kings Cross we found that the birdcage we planned to film at had the swing removed and it was closed off so unfortunately we were unable to film there. However, we got many different shots of our performer at the river, by the fountains, at an outdoors cafe and walking amongst a backdrop of bright lights so we are satisfied with what have filmed today and its quality.

In terms of Health and Safety we were very cautious of where we left our bags and equipment and aware of our surroundings and people in general. Whilst filming Emily had the bags in very close proxemics and during filming there was never any danger of us leaving something behind or equipment getting lost or stolen  or even damaged.

Overall we managed to get about 12 different shots which have potential to be great base tracks so we are very happy with today's results.

Here are some photos of todays filming: