On Saturday the 10th of October I went to film the scene of the youth walking up the tree and begining to feel more positive.
Requirements for production session one
Pink and red shirt (for when Youth runs through water) Blue shorts (for when youth runs through water) Dark green jumper (for when youth goes up the tree) Light grey jogging bottoms (for when youth goes up the tree) Dark grey/brown shoes with orange laces ( for when youth goes up tree)
Camera and lens Spare batteries (fully charged before filming to lessen the risk of low batteries) S.D card
Bag to carry costume and equipment
Story board to enable for me to accuratley reference my visuals onto the camera frame. Script for reference to what lyrics are occuring in each shot. Thus this will enable for me to form an understanding for approximately how long the shot should last for, in accordance for the duration it takes for each lyrical word/sentence to be sung.
Initially I began filming by my self.
Below are the shots I filmed, how I acted and instructions and changes I applied:
Wide shot (youth climbing up tree) - I placed the camera onto the tripod and ensured the bottom of the tree branch was reasonably near the bottom of the frame to enable the tree to be reasonably close and in centre of the frame, bearing it more visually significant to the lyric 'On the tree'.
As I climbed up the tree, I walked rather slowly and sometimes shifted by feet back a little bit to convey my character was not completely use to climbing trees, emphasising how new the country was to this character, whom lived in a town.
Mid shot (Youth continuing to climb up the tree) - Initially I attempted to film this shot myself and with the tripod. However I could not position the camera high enough for a high angle.
Therefore I quickly contacted a nearby family member to assist me with filming the shot. Originally I was planning to use a direct low angle of the youth climbing up.
However, I then noticed a two tree branches which had a small gap. The branches being at the opposite ends of the frame would make the shot more visually intriguing along with seeing the protagonist climb up the tree between both branches.
For this scene, I wanted to convey the youth was still slightly upset but trying to move on from the sadness of leting of his relationship break up. Therefore I conveyed a rather reluctant facial expression by having my mouth slightly gaped open as well as having my eyes positioned downward to convey the protagonist still being in thought about his sadness.
Cut in side view (youths hand gripping onto tree branch) - To enable my relative to effectively film with the camera I gave her a brief lesson on the basic functions of the camera, from how to zoom in and out, what button to press for recording and how the make the clear or blurry.
I positioned the camera to the desired position and moved my hand onto the branch and determined whether the shot was suitable or not.
Cut in front view (Youths fingers touching the leaves)- I filmed this shot by hand holding the camera as the leaves were far too high for my tripod to position the camera. I delicately circled my fingers over the leaves to convey the protagonist was begining to appreciate the elements of nature.
In the end, there was an issue with the cameras S.D card, meaning I had to continue filming the next day.
Unfortunately my relative was not available for filming. However I felt the shots could be reasonably achieved with the tripod and by hand held positions.
Mid shot low angle (Youth looking up at the sun of screen) - I made sure to slowly raise my eye brows and slowly raise up my lips and teeth to convey a mild smiling gesture, to implicate the youth was begining to feel slightly more happy.
P.O.V shot of youth looking up at the sun filtering through the trees
Medium close up side view (sun light reflecting onto Youths face, causing him to close his eyes and smile more) - A handheld camera technique was used as the tripod could not be positioned high enough.
Mid shot low angle (Youth ultimately smiling at the sun light of screen) -
I applied this shot. However, after positing the camera around I noticed the sun fully fliltering through the trees and decided to apply a low angle mid shot of the youths back turned to the screen as he was staring up at the sun.
This would make the visual more appealing due to the shot containing both the sun and protagonist. This shot would help to emphasise the sun as having a more dramatically positive effect on the youth as appearing as a symbol of positivity making the youth rising to being more optimistic and happy.
Close up side view (youth nodding and smiling) - I raised my smile gesture to a more certain impression to imply the character was now more confidently happy.
Additionally though, I wanted to convey a legitimiate reason for the protagonist to suddenly appear in bright clothes when dancing accross the stream.
Therefore I applied a cut in of the dark green hooded jumper being thrown onto one of the tree branches. This would convey the protagonists first step in re newing himself.
I will apply this shot shortly after the close up side view of the youth smiling and nodding to himself.
This would make the shot of him throwing the jumper legitimate as he is now shown to be 'turning over a new leaf',
I was considering a similar shot with the jogging bottoms. At first I thought it would create a slight sense of humour as audiences would wonder if the youth was now not wearing any trousers. Then when seeing him wear his shorts, it would create a slightly humorous relief as audiences may have expected him to now be wearing only pants.
However it would be slightly inuendous and break the rather serious tone of the song.
Cut in youth splashing feet through water - Originally I applied a shot of the youths shoes splashing through the water. However when I went with my parent (mother) to do re shoots, she recomended the idea of my character wearing bare feet, which would make more logical sense as it would imply the character to feel more free in the sense that he wants to feel the water and have fun in getting wet, emphasing his sudden care free nature.
Additionally my mum and I thought of having the youth run through the water too to emphasise the youths sudden surge of happiness and care free nature.
Additionally, my mother also conjured the idea of the youth running through a smaller section of the stream and jumping over the little water fall. I felt this idea would be very effective in emphasising how free and happy the youth now felt.
Wide shot (youth spinning around water) -
Mid shot ( youth spinning around water) - Luckily the sun was reflecting from my position in shot helping to convey a happy and bright tone in implicating the youths positive energy and happiness.
I filmed some additional shots of a lamp posts light reflecting onto the water, I blured the shot, giving the illusion of orange dots sparkling around the water. This gave a surreal and intriuging form of visual imagery.
Production session 2
On Tuesday the 13th of October, I filmed the shot of the youth protagonist having a drink with a freind.
Originally I considered setting the chair and table around this part of the back garden
However, the dark green back drop may look rather dark. The leaves hanging down however would give more visual intrigue for the audience.
In the end though I decided to have set the table and chairs around the back garden.
The leaves in the back drop give a more interesting back drop, but are light enough not to distract from the characters, tables and chairs. Additionally, a plate of Pizza was convniently served to us for lunch. I istantly thought this would be good to apply to the mis en scene of the shot, as it many youths enjoy eating pizza.
I also considered placing the blue umbrella at the left hand side of the frame to give more diversity in the shot. Additionally, it would also be legitimate as the youths would want to keep under some shade during a sunny day.
To make our acting realistic, as though we were having a genuine discussion and laughing, we replicated a conversation based on how we normally spoke to each other, while holding the glasses and pizza slices to emphasise the characters were having a good time.
Additionally, I decided to add extreme close ups of our characters smiling through the glasses, creating a rather humorous and intriuging form of imagery.
The pink drink would also give the smiles behind the glass a bright colour emphasising the characters to be very happy.
I also considered a low angle of the two freinds under the blue umbrellas.
Production session 3
Production session 4
Due to it being October there will be less sunny days.
However according to BBC weather there are sunny spells from eight o clock AM to six o clock PM.
One of my scenes with the Youth lying down happily on the rock stone is meant to take place during the evening time.
Therefore I will need to ensure this scene is done on Friday from 6 o clock to eight o clock during the evening.
Requirements for this scene
Pink and Red short sleeved shirt:
Light blue shorts.
Shoes:
Camera:
Spare batteries:
Tripod:
Permission required: The area is a public for anyone to walk about in. Additionally it takes place during the evening time where there are less likely to be many people around (apart from those walking their dogs), but will be ensured not to be filmed during the session:
Low angle mid shot (youth lying on the rock and smiling) - I placed the tripod onto the rock and it was secure before angling the camera down ward.
For this shot, I needed to create the impression that the character was feeling conclusively happy, to emphasise how he had now found happiness in enjoying the simple things in life. I projected an huge grin gesture to emphasise my characters fulfilled happiness, as well as resting my head on my arms, to convey my character was also relaxed.
Close up side view (youth slowly closing eyes while lying on bed rock) - For this shot, I slowly closed my eyes, while continuing to smile to convey the youth was now feeling at peace and could move on.
Additionally, I could see the moon up in the sky and felt it would be good to obtain a shot of, as it is a common symbol of night time and could correspond well with the lyric "when day is done" as the moon comes after the sun (which in turn represents the "day").
I also thought of the idea of a cut in with the youths mouth blowing away at a dandelion flower to give an intriuging visual and too personify the the blows of flowers as the youth blowing his past away.
Production session 4
On Sunday the 12th of October I went to film the bike scene.
I messaged the owner of the bike for permission to use it as well as asking him to assist as the camera man. Both of which he kindly accepted.
We met at his house and then took the bike down to the tree tunnel.
I gave him a quick tutorial on how to operate the camera as well as the tripod.
For the shot of the youths foot stepping onto the bike pedal, I decided to position the bike around a pile of leaves, which were scattered around the ground and had a rather golden brown colour tone.
The shoes being worn had a rather bold blue and light green colour tone, which would correspond well with the light golden brown leaves, giving a bright and considerable attractive tone to the shot.
Originally I was going to apply a close up, but resorted to a mid shot as the leaves would then be visible to the frame.
Extreme close up - (Youths eyes behind the bike) - There was some difficulty in being able to angle the camera so my eyes and the bike handles could be captured sequentially. Eventually, after instructing the camera man to bend down more and keep the camera positioned straight forward, we managed to achieve getting both of my eyes and the bike handles contemporarily fixed into the frame.
For this shot, I needed to convey my character was feeling very optimistic and excited to ride the bike. There fore, I smiled to allow for my eyes to convey a slight gleaming gesture. I also narrowed my eye brows to convey my characters optimism to cycle.
Long shot panning left (youth cycling on bike)- For this Shot, lowered the tripod down to as much as it could be. I instructed the camera man on how to work the tripod, by lightly turning the pan stick. During the first few takes, either I was too fast at cycling for the camera man to be able to track me, or the panning was not smooth enough.
Additionally, we had difficulties in the position of my bike as sometimes my head would be cut of.
We did several practises of my proxemics on shot, to ensure both the bike and myself would sequentially captured in the frame.
I had to memorize my cycling path after the test shots.
In the end, we managed to obtain good shots.
For mid shots of the youth cycling through the tree tunnel, we originally had the camera man walk/run backwards. However, as well as risking the camera mans chances of falling over and injuring himself, the footage was rather shaky.
I then decided to have the tripod positioned vertically, so that the cameras steadiness could be controlled more effectively.
During the shots of my character raising his both his arms up, I had difficulty in continuing to pedal the bike.
We tried several attempts, by having my self walk the bike instead of pedalling. However it did not look as realistic.
Unfortunately, my camera man had to leave shortly after.
Therefore, I decided to re shoot those shots, by having only one hand. I annotated the shots on the storyboard to remind me for next times filming session.
Production session 5
On Sunday the 18th of October 2015, I went to a local woodland stream area, to film the scene where the protagonist is sitting by the stream area and watching the picture of him and his ex girlfriend flowing away down the stream.
Unfortunately I had not yet acquired a picture and therefore could only film the long shot of the youth sitting by the stream and the close up side view of the youth looking sad.
I packed the tripod and camera into my bag, as well as two batteries (both fully charged), my S.D card, green hooded jumper, grey jogging bottoms and shoes for costume.
I walked to the location and then set up my tripod.
Long shot - Youth sitting by the stream: In this shot, the youth was letting go of his break up, by getting rid of the picture. Therefore, I needed to convey a completely miserable and resentful personae. I did so by sitting down on the log seat, with my back arched down and head craned completely down. I also had my hands in my pocket, positioned my eyes directly down to the ground and projected a very in expressional sad gesture with my mouth.
Thus hopefully emphasising how the protagonist does not feel any emotion other than sadness and conveying how difficult and upsetting the youth is finding it to let go.
Close up side view - youth wiping away a tear: This shot occurs after the shot of the picture flowing away down the stream. Therefore, I needed to express the youth now letting his sadness out and beginning to resentfully cope
I expressed these actions by wiping away my eye to convey a tear, as well as gaping my mouth slightly and narrowing my eye brows to indicate an almost near to crying gesture.
Afterwards, I did an additional close up shot of the protagonist walking through some long leaves.
Below is a picture of the shot:
This shot I feel can metaphorically indicate the youth as entering a new world and ultimately a new life.
Production session 6
On Friday the 23rd of October 2015, I prepared for filming the prologue scene by the bridge.
The weather forecast was reasonably thin with cloud. There were no chances of rain, making it safe for me to film, while making the day look reasonably grey still.
I dressed up in my green hooded jumper, jogging bottoms and shoes for the costume of the protagonist.
Next, I gathered up my camera, two batteries, tripod and story board and packed into my bag. I also packed an alcohol can as well as the vodka bottle.
To prevent the risk of exhibiting drunk symptoms (due to there being multiple shots of the protagonist drinking), I emptied the bottle of Vodka and replaced it with tap water. Thus I could drink out of the bottle to realistically convince audiences the protagonist was drinking alcohol, while at the same time not getting into any trouble.
I walked over to the bridge area and began to set up the filming equipment:
The road area, I intended for my character to walk through had many parked cars as well as some people walking around. I felt it would be safe to find another place after filming the bridge scene, as there was the risk of the license plates showing on shot.
Cut away -Youth walking up bridge- For this shot I made sure to defocus from the bridge rail in front of the screen and to focus on the back drop of the rest of the bridge, where the protagonist was walking up. Thus enabling audiences to focus on the protagonist as well as be intrigued by other elements in the shot (I.e. bridge rail).
For the shots of the protagonist acting rather depressed, I projected a rather monotone expression and sometimes gaped my mouth while wiping away a tear, to imitate an almost near to crying gesture.
For when the protagonist drank out of the Vodka bottle, I made sure to tilt my head up quickly and quickly dart the bottle to his mouth. This would emphasise how willing the youth was to forget about his broken up relationship by drinking.
For when the youth was happily dancing, I projected very raised eye brows and gaped my mouth into a dramatic smile, to convey a rather false smile, implicating the youth was not truly happy.
Sometime after, I left the bridge, having finished the required scenes and walked back.
I found a small alley way area, which I felt would be very appropriate for the opening shot of the youth walking.
Below Is a picture
Long shot - Youth walking through alley way: I positioned my hood up, to imply the characters desire to be unnoticed, conveying an isolated vibe to his character.
Additionally, I filmed close up side views of the character walking through the walls, to give variety in shots.
I also filmed an extreme close up of the youths eye behind the glass of vodka, which was quite an intriguing visual, to hopefully start the music video of with.
Next I filmed a long shot of the youth laying down on the ground, beside the wall, this would convey the character to sleep rough on the pavement as well as having a drinking problem.
Sometime after I packed my equipment and left.
Sometime after, I came across a tree area with leaves and a hand made rope swing. I decided to incorporate a shot of the youth swinging up and down on the swing, to emphasise the characters happiness later on in the song, during dinging sections of the song. The dinging sections convey a playful and light hearted atmosphere which I feel would tie in well with the shot of the youth happily playing on the swing.
Additionally I filmed a low angle shot of the youth looking up at the leaves, which had a beautiful velvet red tone. Thus giving visual appeal.
I also filmed a tracking shot of the tree to give an interesting camera movement and visual appeal sequentially for audiences to view.
Production session 7
On Wednesday the 28th of October 2015, I filmed the shot of the youth dropping coins into a money bottle. Below are behind the scenes pictures:
For the scene of the youth cuting the grass for the woman, I decided to change it. Unfortuantely the location had very short grass. Therefore it would not make sense for the youth to cut grass that was not long enough.
Additionally, I felt the youth could do more varied garden jobs from pulling a wheel barrow and watering the plants. This would emphasise the youth to be more active and emphasise his optimisim in wanting to renew his lifestyle.
For the wide shot of the youth offering to do garden work for the woman, I asked for her to have a rake in her hand, to convey she was busy in trying to get on with her working in the garden.
To make both of our characters actions realistic, I decided to add conversation. I started by approaching the woman and asking if she would like help. I asked my grandma to respond my grinning her teeth and exlaiming 'yes' to emphasise by facial expressions how pleased she was for someone to assist her. Thus audiences would hopefully feel rather proud for the protagonist in seeing how happy he was making the woman, by offering to help.
Additionally, my grandma offered the idea of quickly placing the rake into my hand while smiling. I liked this idea as it was a quick action and would give a lively and energetic tone to the scene and retain audiences attention span.
To give more visual appeal to the shot, I positioned both of our characters in front of a light green chair.
Additionally the rake had a bright yellow front part and rather bold green pole.
Below is the picture:
Next I applied a cut away of the wheel barrow being pushed forward. The wheel barrow had a bold green colour giving visual appeal for audiences.
Next I placed the mid shot side view of the youth pushing the wheel barrow. To convey my character was finding it rather difficult to push the wheel barrow, I narrowed my eye brows and gritted my teeth slightly to convey how heavy the wheel barrow was.
Next I did an additional wide shot of me pushing the wheel barrow. I set the background at a bush area where there were small light orange like berries, which would give the background colour a little bit of variety.
Next I did a cut in of the rake putting the leaves into a pile.
Next I did a close up of some colour ful flowers being watered.
Next I did a cut in of the womans hand putting some coins into my hand.
Next I did a diagonal mid shot of the youth looking down at the money and smiling. I raised my eye brows slightly and grinned my teeth to emphasise how happy the character was at earning some money.
On Saturday the 31st of October 2015, I decided to re shoot the garden scene due to it being sunnier.
Additionally my grandmother was not wearing a bright enough colour in contrast to my characters costume. Therefore she did not stand out as effectively.
I asked her to wear a more brighter costume.
In the end, we agreed on this pink shirt, which had a light bright tone, enough for her to be able to stand out.
Additionally, I decided that the light green chair may be too distracting from the characters actions.
Therefore I positioned our characters in front of a bush with light orange berries, which would give the back drop a subtle attractiveness, but not so much as to distract audiences.
My grandmother thought of the idea of having her character raking up a pile of leaves. This would emphasise the characters difficulty and hopefully make audiences feel rather pitiful for her character in seeing how tired she is becoming from raking up the big piles of leaves.
Thus audiences would feel more proud of the protagonist in seeing him help other people.
Additionally, I re shot a cut in of the youth raking the leaves.
I also applied a cut in of the youth carrying a yellow bucket containing the leaves. I also applied a cut in of the youth pouring the leaves into a white bag.
Next I applied a wide shot of the youth dragging the large white bag. I positioned the shot to where the sun was shining in the backdrop, giving more visual intrigue.
Next I reshot the scenes of the youth being handed the money and smiling as a response.
Additionally I shot a mid shot of the woman smiling, impressed with the protagonists work.
Production session 8
On Wednesday the 28th of October 2015, I went to the tree tunnel again to continue filming the rest of the bike scene.
I looked at the weather, which was luckily forecast for sunny spells from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
Production session 9
On Wednesday the 29th of October 2015, I went to the supermarket area to film the scene of the youth disposing of his beer can.
I angled the tripod and camera so both the top of the bin and the youth from chest to head could sequentially be visible to the camera.
Below is an image.
To prevent any risks of product infrigment, I made sure to place my self directly in front of the 'Co op' sign, which is only briefly seen, and that the logo is not visible.
With the car meanwhile, I tried to blur it out as much as I could. However, I can also control the inpoint and out point to where my character was blocking the car. This will prevent the risk of the license plate being exposed on 'YouTube'.
For the shot of the youth walking to the bin, I narrowed my eye brows and walk/marched toward the bin, to convey my characters disciplined nature in wanting to get rid of the beer.
Additionally I filmed a shot of the youth begining to drink the beer but then pulling it away and then narrowing his eye brows. This would make more sense as the youth would not suddenly buy a beer to automatically dump it into the bin.
Next I filmed a close up of the beer can being dropped into the bin.
For this shot, I could not risk litterally droping it into the bin. Therefore, I placed one hand into the other slot of the bin and positioned it so the camera would not capture my other hand inside the bin.
Then when I throwed the beer can into the bin, my other hand would be ready to catch it.
This worked rather effectively, although at times my other hand was caught in shot, when lifting the beer can back up.
However, I can control the out point of this shot, so the hand inside the bin, is not captured on screen.
Production session 10
On Wednesday the 28th of October 2015, I went to film the close up of the picture flowing down the stream.
At first I was finding it rather difficult to be able to find an appropriate spot to drop the photo into a river, have the camera positioned as well as retrieving the photo sequentially.
Eventually I found a good spot and did the take twice. The last one with the photo completely ripped to emphasise the couple as now being completely separated and that the protagonist was now beginning to accept the break up, as the photo half of the male youth was flowing away from the half picture of the female youth.
Production session 11
On Saturday the 31st of October 2015, me and my grandmother drove to 'Whitehall Garden Centre' to film the fish scene.
I asked the 'Aquatics Centre' staff for permission to film a few shots, explaining it to be for a music video. They very kindly accepted. We went at sometime after nine o clock AM, where it was empty and the staff were continuing to clean the animal enclosures.
I decided the most appropriate tank to be one with some gold fish which were of large enough size to highlight the shot and intrigue audiences.
Additionally the tank was on the left hand side enabling for other tanks to be in the backdrop.
My grandmother very kindly accepted to taking on the role as the camera woman.
I did not wish to use the tripod as it would take longer to set up (leading to the likely hood of customers turning up when filming begins commencing) and would get in customers way, when wanting to look at the fish.
Mid shot (youth staring down at the fish tank)- for this shot, I wanted to convey the protagonist was not feeling any excitement from looking at the fish, by positioning my eyes down on the floor and additionally looking straight through the tank and not exhibiting any slight grin or expression to implicate intrigue. Basically a complete monotone expression, with my hands in my pockets, to convey the protagonist was so upset about the relationship break up, that nothing else could even interest or make him slightly happy.
Medium close up side view (youth staring down at the fish tank -For this shot, I applied the same basic monotone expression. Additionally though I also gasped my mouth slightly open and wiped at my eye to convey the protagonist was feeling upset. Next I walked of screen quickly to convey the stress and upset my character was succumbing to.
Mid shot (fish swimming in tank) - I tracked a gold fishes movements. At times the fish would just drift around the water. This action would be useful in conveying a still atmosphere, corresponding to the youth possibly feeling nothing and being still too.
At times, I managed to get shots of two fish swimming close together which could form as emphasising the relationship between the boy and girl.
Next, I considered doing a shot of the protagonists reflection staring into the tank, which would give visual appeal as well as potentially emphasise the youth feeling trapped in the water possibly.
Production session 12
On Saturday the 31st of October 2015, I filmed the shot of the youth looking out of the window on a car. Originally I was going to use a bus.
Just in case though of any errors occurring with filming on a bus (e.g. people trying to steal camera or filming not being permitted), I decided to film the shot on the back seat of my grandmothers car ( while driving to a shop).
I framed the shot so only the window and protagonist could be seen. This would give an anonymous identity to the vehicle the protagonist was using.
we drove past many different parts of Trowbridge including roundabouts and houses which would easily give of an urban feel, conveying the youth to be departing to the town.
Next time though I may film the car driving through a field, to convey the youths arrival to the country, which would make more of a legitimate transition to the protagonist suddenly appearing in the country.
I imported all of my accumulated footage onto my hard drive, to ensure it was not lost and had enough space for retakes to be imported too, as well as being transferred from different mac computers if one is unavailable during post production.