The amount of shooting that got done on each day was very dependant on the weather each day. On the first day of filming the weather was pretty bad and therefore decided to change the location. I think it was for the best. The woods that I decided to film in was 'Manadon Woods' this woods was a little bit smaller than 'Saltram Woods' but I think it worked better as a location because it was more enclosed with a lot less people walking through. Alongside that these woods were only about a five minute walk from my house. The reason why this location was chosen was because it kept raining and if it got too bad the three of us would have to go back.
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Day 1
Once we got there Olivia and I set up the camera and tripod. Even though we bought lighting with us we didn't actually use them because the day light was bright enough to work with. The first thing that Olivia started filming was the first 10 seconds. I would say that the first 10 seconds took the longest to film because they were some of the most important parts of our music video. The first 10 seconds were filmed in three different parts of the woods. The reason for this was because I wanted to be able to change it when it came to editing. For the first 10 seconds 30 shots were filmed to make sure that there was enough footage. Every time the camera was kept in the same place so I just made sure that I moved around the open space.
Once the first 10 seconds were shot Olivia moved onto the first verse of the song. A lot of the same clips from different angles were filmed just because I think it looked better when there is more than one angle. I had previously done a schedule of what shots to do when and how long they would last. I felt as though this was incredibly helpful because it meant that there was something to follow even if it was only briefly. For this verse there was an idea to make up an anecdote. This was because the bench was being used as a couch to follow the lyrics 'we were lying on the couch.' Alongside that I also made sure that I had polaroid shots at hand as this also links to some of the lyrics. This was important to be able to follow the story. Although a major importance was to make sure that every single lyric wasn't copied as this would make it look incredibly cheesy and something that wasn't the point.
For the second verse pretty much the same was done as what was in the first verse. In this verse a necklace was used because of the lyric 'your necklace hanging from my neck.' Alongside this there was also some dancing scenes filmed; although they didn't make the final cut in editing because I felt as though they didn't come out as well as I hope. At the end of the second verse Olivia and Matt threw paper airplanes in the direction of me to match the ending lyrics.
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Day 2
Day two of filming involved going down to the woods again in the morning. On this second day it was important that I wore the same clothes as the day before. It was quite hard to keep the continuity but I knew that this was an important part in order to make it look realistic. In this third verse I didn't want to match the lyrics up to any of my movement although there were things that did connect to the lyrics. For the second day a different part of the woods was explored as Olivia and I felt as though this was important because else it would just get boring by just being in one part of the woods. Due to having a bit more time on day 2 a lot more was done because it was decided that the same shot was to be filmed 6 or 7 times to make sure that every angle was done therefore it could be switched in editing to give a more professional outlook.
After Olivia had filmed all for the verses we filmed a couple of extra running shots that I thought would go well alongside Olivia's parts in the chorus.
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Studio
On the following Wednesday I filmed the chorus's of Olivia singing. Instead of filming at Olivia's house we decided that it would be better if we filmed it in an actual studio so that it would look a lot more professional. We booked out one of the studio alongside that we also got two Canon 600D's, tripods and dado kit. The idea was that there would be one camera to the side and one camera head on, this way there would be shots from different angles. Alongside that we also did some handheld filming. Olivia sang the full song about 5 or 6 times, the reason why she sung the entire song was because just incase we were short of footage from the woods. The room was pitch black as there was just the lights from the dado kit, this was so that the only reflection was from the lights as every time Olivia moved a little bit more light would shine through and we really liked the look of it.
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Editing
When it came to editing both myself and Olivia did our own edit on Adobe Premiere Pro. For me I thought that the editing would be a lot easier than the filming however it wasn't. My idea for the start was to get the first shots we filmed this was because they matched the beat well. My idea was to only have Olivia in the chorus however once I had seen how well the studio shots came out I decided to include a couple in the verses as well. I think that the idea integrated them was a good one because then it didn't look strange when she just came in through the chorus. I think that the hardest part of the editing was most definitely matching Olivia's singing up to the chorus this was because I had to make sure that I got it spot on to make sure that it looked real and as though she was actually singing it. Once I had done that all I had to do was make sure that I turned the opacity down so that the woods looked greyer than they actually were.
Edited once exported to mp3.
I was really impressed with how my edit came out although I did had to use more of studio shots that I thought I would however I still think the outcome was a lot better than I originally anticipated.
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The Struggles
There was only one major struggle when it came to filming and that was the weather. The reason for this was because it kept raining on and off throughout the first day and therefore this was difficult for us to get a lot of filming done. I think had the weather been a bit better it would have made things a lot easier.
There was however a smaller struggle we had when filming which was the continuity as I mentioned above because we were filming over two days therefore we knew how important it was to keep the continuity therefore this was a bit focus of ours and a little struggle at times.
The only real struggle during editing was matching Olivia's singing up although this did take a couple of hours to fix because it was quite hard going through it all and making sure that it was exactly matching. However I do think that once I worked out the best way to get her lips matching it came easily.
Other than the rain myself and Olivia both found it quite easy to film because other than that it was straight forward.
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My favourite part was definately filming in the woods. The part I liked the most was walking through the trees and how the camera followed me, the reason this is my favourite part was because it took us a few times to do. It took us a few times to do because the branches kept swinging back in my face every time I moved it therefore it was hard to get the camera through it however once we managed to get it right it looked amazing and I also enjoyed editing this part. Alongside this I also enjoyed the running scenes in the woods because it was fun and something a little different to do. Overall I just really enjoyed the woods location because it was great to play around and do something different.
The props that we used included paper aeroplanes, dominoes & a necklace all of these props were to help us with the woods filming because they helped us to tell the story of how we wanted it to be told. Alongside these we also used a microphone & stand when it came to the studio filming because we wanted to make sure it looked as though Olivia was recording in an actual sound booth.
Overall I am really happy with the music video.
