Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Filming Difficulties

We filmed our video in two main locations, a house and a professional studio. Our first location was the student house, where we had to ensure that we had all of the necessary equipment and props, such as guitars, drumsticks etc. We also made sure that the set for filming looked suitable for the video, which meant we had to clear the room in which we were filming in, by removing any objects in the room which were not part of the video, such as dvds that were lying around etc. We also set up the room with things such as pizza boxes on the table and posters on the wall to make the room look like it was lived in by the band, which would appeal to our audience. This was however, a time consuming task, which meant that we had less time to film that planned.

Whilst filming, we came across many areas that challenged our filming process, which meant that we had to adjust certain things which we had planned prior to filming. Aspects such as lighting effected many shots and angles we wanted to carry out. Whilst filming in the studio we hired out, we realised it was very dull and dark and lacked natural lighting, which meant we had to work with what we had so turned on as much artificial lighting as possible to make it suitable to film in.  This was inititally a problem but when editing the footage, we will be able to edit the brightness and contrast of the clips in order to overcome this problem. We also noticed that whilst filming outside the lighting was considerably lighter than previous filming in different locations, such as the studio and inside the house. In order to overcome this problem we will edit the lighting and colours in the video, which will make the footage look effective.

As well as the lighting, some angles we wished to carry out were difficult to capture, such as high angles and birds eye view angles. To get the footage we wanted, despite being at awkward angles, we discovered many techniques to overcome this such as using the tripod and holding it above the things what we wanted to shoot. This meant that there was often high risks on location, as equipment was often at risk of falling, or one of us falling whilst shooting. Fortunatley, we did not encounter these issues and were able to capture a variety of shot types and angles.

Prior to filming, we had created a storyboard which we used throughout to ensure we captured suitable and effective footage for the production of our video. However, when we began filming we became aware that it was not possible to shoot all the of initially intended shots, as we were unable to get some of the props we had orignally planned to use within the video, such as a smoke machine. As well as this, the large amount of chots we had planned meant that we were also limited for time. This was particularly restricted within the studio, as we had only hired it out for a few hours, meaning the filming process had to be done quickly but without missing out any important footage. As well as being limited for time in the studio, we had also a time limit when shooting in the house location, as we had to capture all of our footage before it was time to go to the studio, and had to take photos on set, which didn't leave us with a grea deal of time to film.

Another issue which caused delays in filming, was that the actors for our video were not all available at the same time, as the vocalist for the band was unable to be on set at the house location in time. To over come this problem, we began filming with only two members of the band, however it did not cause a problem when editing, as we were able to use a lot of the studio footage to compensate for one of the band members not being at one particular location.

Some of the ways we asked the band to act (using facial expressions, props, etc) within the video did not turn out to suit the genre as well as initially thought but with some consideration and slight changes we managed to make it fit and we worked round this by, re-filming certain parts to make it fit. Within the research of the video we were inspired by several bands/artists, which made it hard to collaborate all these ideas into one for it to still, make sense, through discussion and trial and error the final piece seemed to go well together and suit the storyline and genre.

Overall, the filming process was indeed a challenge with regards to time limit and lighting in particular, however we think that we have gathered a good variety of different shots in order to create an effective music video.

Setting up music equipment in the studio


Sorting out props for house location, such as posters, pizza on the table,etc