The equipment I used on this fourth day was again essentially the same as the previous days I had been shooting as I just needed to same equipment to get the outcome I wanted. Due to the fact that I was filming in the same location, I knew what equipment I needed for the shots I was doing, so making sure I had the equipment I needed wasn't essential because I already knew what I should have with me. In the images below you are able to see that the equipment I used on this day included; a Canon E0S 1200D camera, an 8 Gigabyte sand disk (SD) card and my drawing book which includes my storyboard to ensure that I will know what I will need to be filming. When filming on this day I didn't really need any extra equipment and essentially just needed the camera equipment to ensure that I would be able to film what I needed and also get the rest of the shots for this location. When it came to getting the camera equipment I didn't need to get any from the Media department and this was due to the fact that I already had the equipment because I had previously been filming on the Tuesday of the same week, so I just decided to keep the equipment as I knew I would be able to use it at the end of the week as well and because I had also taken out a charger at this time, it meant that the camera was fully charged and I was ready to start filming the rest of the shots that would need to be complete in this location. Overall, I had all of the equipment I needed to ensure that I would be able to get the shots I needed from this location.
On The Day
As I would be filming outside, I needed to keep an eye on the weather especially because of what happened the first time I filmed in this location, even though I knew it was going to rain, but I still decided to film. When I woke up on the Friday morning I decided to have a look at the weather and in the image on the left hand side which I have presented below, you are able to see that the weather was apparently going to be quite cloudy, but would also have a bit of sun at the same time - meaning, there was no rain so I was hoping it would stay dry until we actually begin to film later on in this location. On this day we actually ended up leaving college at around 12:40pm and began filming at 1:10pm and ended up finishing to 4pm. In this time we still didn't manage to get all of the shots we needed due to an issue we came across which I will later go into more detail about. Nonetheless, once we had got to the Humber Bridge Country Park I decided to look at the weather and see what it would be like and I noticed that for the rest of the day it was going to be sunny except from sunset at 3:50pm which is when it will begin to get dark which is the main issue I had when filming on this day. All in all, the weather was generally reasonable on this day - however, the time we had filming (which was only around 2 hours and 50 minutes) wasn't long enough for us to get the rest of the shots we needed for this location which means that we will need to come back to this location again, but hopefully we will complete all of the shots as there are only around 32 more shots that need to be done including some shots that will need to be retaken.
After I had got home after filming in this location, I then saved all of the videos onto my computer to ensure that they were in a safe place and that I wouldn't lose them if I need them and when I continue to edit my music video, but also when I want to go through all of the shots to see which ones I will want to use in my music video. In the image below you are able to see the folder in which I saved all of the images and videos from this filming day and I called this folder 'Woods Day 2' so I would know that all of the items in this folder would be either images or videos which were taken on this specific day. You are also able to see that this folder contains 90 different items which is again all of the images and videos which I took on this day. When looking at this image you will be able to see that a lot of the videos look quite dark and this is due to the fact that this was one of the issues I came across when filming on this day which again I will talk about in more detail later underneath the heading which reads 'Problems'. On the previous filming days you are able to see that both me and Laura decided to take images to evidence that we were filming in a specific location on a specific day - however, when filming on this day we didn't actually take images and this was partly because of the fact that we didn't want to waste any time and wanted to hopefully get all of the shots complete, but also I personally think this was just a bad filming day and in a way I knew that I would have wanted to re-shoot even if I did get all of the shots I needed, so I decided not to take any images because I didn't think it would be worth it as we would be going back to this location anyway.
Problems
The only main issue we actually came across when filming on this day was the fact that it got dark very quickly, which meant that all of the videos looked really dark and there was a lot of background noise in them. Due to the fact that we were filming during Winter, it meant that the sun was going to go down quite early and it was going to get a dark a lot quicker. Even when I didn't think it was that dark when filming, I noticed that on the camera it was a lot darker than it actually was in real life, so because of this I knew straight away that I was going to have to re-shoot the majority of these shots from this day. As I said before, I personally think this day was just a bad filming day for us, but even though we did have this issue, we still managed to get some good shots before it actually began to get dark. On this day I actually did do quite a few shots, but once I got home I went through all of them to see which ones I could use in the final music video and I noticed that quite a lot of the videos were bad quality, so there were actually a few I went through that would need to be re-shot and on top of this I would also have the rest of the shots which I didn't complete on this day because there was no point wasting more time in the forest when I knew that the quality of the videos weren't going to be good.
When noticing that some of the videos I had shot were quite dark, I decided to take some images to see how dark everything actually was to see if I could continue filming in that light and obviously we stopped once I noticed how bad the lighting was. Nonetheless, here are some of the images I had taken:
Here are some of the shots I have put together in a video that I had taken on this day which were really dark and most likely won't be used in my video as I will re-shoot them:
When looking at these images and videos you are able to see that the odd few actually aren't that bad - however, I would't use them because the lighting is so much darker than the previous videos I had shot on the first day of filming and if I put all of these videos which have different lighting into the same music video then continuity wouldn't be created and the music video wouldn't look professional or even look good. Overall like I said before, I believe this was just a bad filming day for both me and Laura and looking back at the videos I now know that I would never use them and I am glad that I have decided to re-shoot them because if I ever looked back at my music video and I had put these shots in, then I would be disappointed due to the fact that I know I would have had the opportunity to re-shoot it and make it better. So hopefully, next week I will be able to re-shoot these scenes and also shoot the rest of the scenes I need which will hopefully be better than the shots I did during this filming session. Overall, there were the odd shots I got which actually looked good (for example the ending scene) - however, I just need to get the rest of the shots and hopefully shoot them when it isn't that dark.
Before I went to this location I again needed to ensure that I had all of the equipment I needed to film and I wanted to ensure I had everything so that when I got back to my house I would be able to begin filming as soon as I had moved all of the objects out of the way in the loft and have set up all of the equipment. The equipment that I used for this filming shoot included; a Canon EOS 1200D camera, an 8 Gigabyte sand disk (SD) card, a tripod, a Neewer (CN-160) external camera light and also my drawing book to ensure that I had my storyboard and would be able to refer back to it when shooting in this location especially due to the fact that these shots included a performance. Again, this is generally all of the main equipment I needed for this shooting - however, there was also the odd equipment I needed, which is again similar to my previous shooting and this included things like the lyrics to ensure that Laura would have all of the correct words and would get them perfect when filming. Due to the fact that I had booked to take out the camera the day before, I also decided to take out a charger just in case I wanted to keep the camera for longer after this filming day to ensure that I would always have a full battery, but also just in case the battery may have died while I was shooting in the loft - however, I did learn my lesson from before and did turn off the camera every time I had taken a shot I needed.
On The Day
Our aim was to leave college by lunch time and we did manage to do this as by the time both of our last lessons finished (12:40pm) we left the college and went back to my house. By the time we got back to my house, we both had lunch and then I went into the loft to move all of the objects that were in the way and also to get the equipment into the loft to begin setting it up. We actually managed to begin filming at 1:40pm and were able to complete all of the shots we needed for this location by 3:20pm, which meant that we had spent a good 2 hours and 20 minutes getting all of the shots we needed. When actually filming, there were no big issues - however, moving the camera around and physically trying to get past the wood blocks in the loft was quite annoying, so I had to compromise and film all the that are from the same angle at one point and then I moved and did all the shots that are from the same angle in a different position and so on until I got all of the shots I needed. When setting up I did notice that the lighting wasn't that great, so it was good that I brought the external camera light with me because it meant that I was able to add more light to the scene and make the shots look more professional and clearer for people to see. Moreover, to get into the loft I, me and Laura obviously had to climb a ladder and this was kind of a draw back because it meant that as soon as me and Laura went up into the loft we wouldn't be able to keep going down and then back up because it would waste a lot of time, but also due to the fact that it wouldn't be that safe if we just kept going up and down in a short amount of time, so we had to ensure that we had everything before we went up into the loft.
Once we had completed all of the shots in this location, we then took Laura home and once I got back to my house I then put all of the videos that we had taken on this day on to my computer, so again they would be in a safe place and I would be able to go back to them when I want to continue editing my music video and also to see which shots I would like to use in my video. In the image below you are able to see that I have put all of the video files into the same folder on my computer which I called 'Loft' which contained 54 items, so when I go back to my videos to begin editing my music video I will know where to go to find any videos which were filmed in the loft.
Again, while filming in this location, both me and Laura decided to take some images of ourselves as evidence of filming on this day and in this location. In these images you are able to see how many different objects were actually in the loft and how it all had to be moved to ensure that there wasn't anything visible in the video that shouldn't be there. Originally, where Laura is sat there were piles of suitcases and other objects which had to be moved to ensure that Laura would be able to sit down in front of the brick wall, but also to make sure that it didn't actually look like it was being filmed in a loft. Also, in these images you are able to see how dark the loft was which was beneficial in a way because that meant it would suit the genre more - however, it was a lot darker than it needed to be which meant that I had to use the light to ensure that Laura was clear on the camera. In these images it looks as if the light is really bright - however this was the perfect lighting to ensure that Laura could be seen in the video and was clear. Moreover, when actually filming I wanted to make sure that the light wouldn't die as when I was given the light I was told that the charge on the batteries wasn't full, so between every shot I turned both the camera and the light off to save charge, but this meant that the room was really dark and hard to see in, so it meant I would have to turn the loft light on between takes as well to ensure we were able to see what we were doing. Lastly, in these images you can also see that there actually wasn't that much room to be filming in, so I had to be careful that I didn't get any unnecessary things in the shot and that I was still able to create the shots I wanted without being able to move around a lot.
Here are the images I took while filming in this location:
Here is a video which includes some of the shots I took during this filming session. Not all of the shots I have presented in this video will be used in my final video - however, I have just presented this to give you a feel for what filming on this day was like:
The equipment I needed for my second filming day was basically the same as when I was filming the first shoot, except from the fact there that were some different things that I needed with me due to the fact that I was filming in a different location and needed certain things to help me get the look I wanted for my video. In the images below you will be able to see that the equipment I used on this day included; a Canon EOS 1300D camera, an 8 Gigabyte sand disk (SD) card, a tripod, my drawing book which had my storyboard for my music video inside and also all of the lighting equipment that was available to me in the green room that would enable me to get perfect lighting when filming in the room. All of the equipment that has been presented in the image is generally all we used when filming in this location on this day - however, there was sometimes the odd things that we use while filming - for example, there was one time when shooting where neither one of use knew what the lyrics were, so we needed to get the lyrics out to ensure that Laura would get them correct and that her mouth would match with the song once the music video has all be put together. On the previous filming day I said that my camera actually ran out of charge - however, I did not need to worry about this happening while filming in this location due to the fact that I was right next to the equipment centre, so if my battery ran out of charge then I would just be able to get a new one which is fully charged - nonetheless, like I said before, I didn't want to waste time, so I still turned off the camera after ever shot I did. Overall, all the equipment I had was all I needed at the time to complete all of the shots I needed in this location.
On The Day
As mine and Laura's lunchtime began at 12:40 am, we decided to spend 20 minutes eating our lunch and then we went to the green room. The time we spend filming on this day was just under 2 hours as we began filming at 1pm and finished at 2:50pm which just gave both of us enough time to get to our last lesson of the day. I was originally going to go to the green room beforehand and prepare the equipment - however, I realized I would need Laura as I needed her to be in front of the camera for me to see how the lighting was, so we eventually just went to the green room together. When we got there I noticed that the white backdrop wasn't up and in the position I wanted it to be in for meet to stat filming, so this meant that we had to find Liam to ask him to help with putting this backdrop up. Due to this, it meant that we took around 10 minutes just to set up the equipment before we actually began filming anything, but we eventually got everything prepared and was ready to begin filming. Thankfully we actually managed to get all of the shots for this location which was beneficial as it meant that I could easily begin editing my video as I has all of the shots for this location, but also it meant that continuity would have been created throughout my video, because if I needed to film again another day then the lighting I set up the second time may not be exactly the same as the first which could have been an issue in the video - however, we wouldn't need to do any more shots in this location, so this wasn't an issue.
After spending the afternoon filming, I then went home after college and uploaded all of the shots to my computer desktop to ensure that I would have them in a safe place where I will easily be able to access them. In the image below you will be able to see that I created a folder called 'Green Room' which is where I put all of the photos and videos that I had taken on this day and this included 65 different items which actually isn't that many compared to the items I had on the first shooting - however, I got all of the shots I needed - meaning, I would easily be able to begin editing my video.
Again, while filming in this location I wanted to get some images of both me and Laura just to have evidence to show that we were filming on this day. In these images you are able to see both me and Laura - however, while I am working on the camera to get the shots, she is in front of the camera preparing to shoot for the scenes that I need. In these images you are able to see all of the different lighting equipment we actually used when filming in this location and this was to ensure that we had the correct brightness and that the video didn't look too bright, but at the same time it didn't look too dark and that the audience would be able to see Laura's face when the video is played. When setting up the lighting I was actually more worried about the lighting being too dark than too light because if the lighting was too dark then it would have meant it would have been hard to see Laura, but also I wouldn't really be able to edit this and make it better in Premiere Pro - however, if the lighting was too light then I would possibly be able to make some changes in the editing stage, but it was best for me to ensure that the lighting was perfect at the time and I personally think that I got it as best as I could.
Here are the images we took while filming in this location:
Here is a video I have made that includes some of the combined shots that I had taken on the day to give you a feel for what filming on this day and in this location was like and what some of the shots I got were, even if they are shots I may not use in my final video:
As this was my first day shooting my music video I had to ensure that I had all the equipment I needed so I would be prepared and would be able to start shooting my video as soon as I got to the Country Park. In the images below you will be able to see the equipment I took with me to the forest which would enable me to shoot my video. This equipment included, a Canon EOS 1200D camera, an 8 Gigabyte sand disk (SD) card, a tripod, my drawing book which included my storyboard so I would know what I would be filming and where and also the two props which included the memories box and the couple photograph. These images present all of the equipment I needed just to film my music video - however, I did take other equipment with me, but they weren't for filming - for example, I took my backpack to ensure that I would be able to carry everything at once and to keep everything protected in case anything happened in relation to the weather or even anything else. All in all, as long as I had all the equipment I needed to film my video, I knew that I would be able to begin filming as soon as I got to the location. On top of that, as I was filming on a Saturday, I actually decided to take out the camera from college on the Friday which meant I did try to again familiarize myself with the camera and this meant that it actually lost a lot of charge, so another piece of equipment I had when I took out all of the camera equipment was a charger to ensure that I would have a full battery when I went out filming on the Saturday - however, I did not take this charger to the forest with me as it would have been useless there.
On The Day
Before actually leaving the house to begin filming in this location, I kept checking the weather to ensure that there would be no sudden and drastic change which would have to make me and my actor stop filming. In the images below you are able to see two different times I looked at the weather - in the first two images you are able to see that I had taken these screenshots of the weather at 8:28am on the Saturday that I was going to film. In the first image you are able to see that between 9am and 12pm the weather was going to be quite windy and in the second image you are able to see that between 1pm and 5pm, it was going to be cloudy with a little rain - however, when I first looked at this I thought that the cloudy sky may be good for my video as I don't want a bright and sunny looking video anyway and also since there was only a 40% chance of rain I decided that I would still continue to film and if it did decide to rain then we would stop filming for that time, but if it got worse then we would have to leave.
Me and Laura were actually filming at the Humber Bridge Country Park between 11am and 2:50pm, which gave us almost 4 hours of filming and in the image on the right hand side below that I have presented, you are able to see that there was apparently going to be a lot of rain between 11am and 3pm. However, I took this screenshot just as I got out of the car to walk into the Country Park and by this time I thought that I was already at the location I needed to be in and it wasn't raining at the time and there was only a 30% chance of rain, so I decided just to stay and begin filming.
After filming on this day I went home and uploaded all of the footage I had taken on the day and had saved it onto my computers desktop so I would be able to work on it whenever I needed to. In the image below you are able to see that I saved all my footage in a folder called 'Woods Day 1' which contained 192 different shots. In this image you are also able to see that there are many shots which look similar and this is due to the fact that sometimes the shots that I was doing didn't go the way I wanted them to go, so I had to keep doing some of the same shots over and over again - however, I have spoken about this in more detail under the 'Problems' heading below. When filming on this day, I decided to take some images to prove that we were filming at the time, but due to the fact that there were a lot of shots that I needed to take and I didn't want to waste any time, I only managed to get one piece of evidence and this is just an image of we working with the camera which I had presented on the right. In this image I was actually trying to resolve an issue with the camera I was having (which again I will explain in more detail below), but at the time, Laura decided to take a photo of me just for some evidence. In this image you are actually able to see me wearing multiple layers and this was due to the fact that it was actually really cold on the day of filming, so both me and Laura brought numerous layers of clothes with us to ensure that we were warm when it came to shooting and because Laura was only wear a thin leather jacket and a t-shirt when filming, we had to especially ensure that she kept warm. Also in this image you are able to see that I am carrying a backpack, which is what I used to carry all the equipment in, but also any extra things we needed on the day as well which included props and another outfit that Laura would be wearing for the video. Underneath I will mention the issues I came across - however, as we were tight for time when filming due to the camera's charge, I decided that I wanted to get all the longest shots over with so I would be able to film the shorter shots quickly when I next came to the location, so I managed to get all of the shots with the props in this filming day and I also managed to get the shots of the silhouette which meant that I wouldn't need to worry about bringing the costume for the silhouette next time we decide to come to this location and I will have all of the shots I need.
Problems
When filming on this day there actually were quite a few issues we came across and I think this is partly because of the fact that this was the first time I had been filming my video, so I wasn't completely familiar with what I was doing and how it would turn out - however, there were also a range of other reasons that actually caused problems for me when filming on this day. Due to the issues that I came across, I didn't get all of the shots I needed for this location and as I matter of fact I only got around 15 shots out of approximately the 50 shots that I needed from this location and again I think this is due to the fact that there were many issues we came across, but also the majority of the shots that I started off doing, actually took a long time to film and make perfect, which is what may have wasted so much time.
The main issue we came across when filming was actually trying to focus the camera and although I had watched plenty of videos on the subject and even asked Liam about it, I still had an issue for some reason, even though when I was practicing with it the night before all of the images that I took were in focus. When trying to focus the camera I kept switching from video mode to photography mode to see if I would be able to get the depth of field effect that I wanted - while on this mode I also took a range of images and in these images (which I have presented below) you are able to see how I have struggled to get the main feature in the image to be in focus and on top of that, I have also provided some of the videos that I shot which did not go well, so lead me onto re-shooting. Nonetheless, I eventually got the shots I wanted and they came out just the way I wanted them and once I had got past the depth of field issue, I then managed to continue creating my video without wasting so much time.
Here are some of the images I took when trying to figure out how to focus the main feature. I have included both the images of when the camera didn't focus, but also some images from when it eventually did focus:
Here are some of the video shots I took that were out of focus which I have managed to put all in one video through the use of Adobe Premiere Pro:
Another issue I came across when filming was the weather, and although I knew it was going to rain on the day, I was still prepared to continue filming. Around 1 hour into filming, I had got about 4 completed shots done due to the fact that I had just only managed to figure out what was happening when I was trying to focus the camera and by this time it started to begin raining quite heavily which meant that me and Laura had to stop filming at that time and we both hid under a tree and put all of the equipment in my backpack to ensure that nothing would get damaged or broken. At this time, we waited around 10 minutes for the rain to stop and then we were able to begin filming again - however, we had to be careful as the ground was slippy and muddy, so we had to ensure that we wouldn't fall over. Another big issue we came across was the charge on the camera and again, this was the first time we had been out filming so I wasn't sure about how long the camera would last and as I said before we began filming at around 11am and left by 2:50pm and this was due to the fact that the camera had died because I didn't turn it off between takes, so when I film next time I will have to ensure that I save the battery and turn off the camera between all the takes. If this didn't occur then I perhaps would have been able to get more shots done and would be able to begin editing my video. Overall, this filming day didn't go as expected - however, I now know what I did wrong and how I would be able to overcome those issues next time I film for my video.
Although this wasn't exactly an issue, I did try to film one scene in a different way. In one of the scenes you are supposed to see the actor just ripping up the photograph of her and her boyfriend, but my actor had the idea to actually get a lighter and burn the image which I thought was a good concept that we could try and would go well with the music video. However, once we tried it we noticed that the photo took too long to burn, but also it was really windy on the day so it kept blowing the fire out which mean that this wasn't going to make the cut of my video - however, I took spare photographs with me, so managed to get a shot of my actor ripping the image up which will be used in my final video.
Here is the video of setting the photograph alight which didn't go according to plan:
