Filming session 8

Today I filmed the scenes where Rosemary and her friend are supposed to be hanging out. I say 'friend' because unfortunately the other character was too ill to be filmed today. In general I had to make changes anyway as I eventually decided to change the location completely. Originally I wanted to have it in Enfield town where the little outdoor mall is. But knowing that the scene is only a few seconds short, and that travelling would have been more trouble than necessary for the two characters - which would waste more time, I thought, no, why not do it somewhere closer, with less people to interrupt the scene and have it close enough so that I could easily travel to the next filming location (my house).
I did several walking outtakes with the main character and her friend. The idea was to have them casually walking and talking so that when I edit it, it will look like they are just hanging out and chilling out normally as friends would. I wanted to experiment with different angles so I filmed behind them and then back in front so that they would be walking away from the camera from behind and then toward the camera as I moved it in front.
After the 2 cast members arrived at my house I filmed the scene where Rose is rudely interrupted whilst having a conversation with her friend, as her friend's phone rings and he boyfriend happens to be calling. I had a close up of the phone and a quick cut to the friend going off on the phone to illustrate the sense of loneliness the main character felt.
Secondly I had the two characters walking down the red stairs and a close up of Rose's hand turning the door knob, as well as her doing her make-up in front of the mirror. The last scene I did was towards the end of the day at about 6ish when I saw the sky outside, I couldn't resist filming another time lapse just as the sun was beginning to set. I wanted to keep the scenes short and snappy but I am worried that they will be too quick for the viewers to digest.

As previously planned, I did have many other scenes I would have liked to do such as the 'waving a sign' scene where Rose sees a sign that is completely different to what is actually there, or the ending scene where she meets her prince charming and we see a panning up from his legs....but, I decided that as much as I'd like to really narrate the music video as much as I could through the scenes, that being literal isn't always the best technique to use. In fact, I think that the viewers probably get the whole concept of 'waiting' in the song as soon as the first chorus is sung. Instead I'm thinking of doing as I planned in terms of crosscutting back to the beginning when she was in the classroom BUT not including the other playful, really short scenes because they are actually quite unnecessary now that I think about it.
If it's anything new I've learned today its that sometimes simplicity is better when illustrating a music video.

Re-filming Scene 6

I re-filmed Kemi's part today. The weather was nice and sunny. I had her in a completely different spot from last time to eradicate space restrictions. There is a small area with a brick wall just behind the grass at one of the back door entrances in to the school. I had Kemi walk up the path to the school, walk across the grass and then I filmed her against the brick wall in different positions. I had her in the shady part of the wall because the intense sunlight on her just wasn't working on the screen, not only could I not see her because the exposure levels were too high, it was also probably uncomfortable for her as well standing in the sun. As a result I decided to limit her standing in the sun too much. So the final result ended up with her standing in the dark for the majority but one of the last shots standing in the light. It wasn't intended BUT...I think it highlights a concept in itself, her going from light to dark could visually link to the lyrics and the fact that time is going by gradually as she is waiting for love. "need love like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that," so in my opinion it does work conceptually if not visually. Overall I think this filming session was a lot smoother, I wasn't constantly zooming in and out as she was walking and I kept the shots simple. This allowed me to be more steady with the camera and focus more on the variation of shots to take.
But when I edit the whole thing I'm thinking of cropping the edges because some parts of the mise-en-scene seem a bit necessary, for example when she is walking there are garbage containers evident, not exactly the look I was going for.

Filming session 7

Filmed the cafe scene today with Sharlene and Mikael, main character Rose and an extra as her friend.

Getting permission was easier than I thought, I just asked the man if I could film, and once I told him how long I'd be he let me but he said I didn't have long.
The layout of the cafe was not really as I expected. As soon as I walked in I noticed the seats were not at the front, and I originally intended to have an over the shoulder shot of Rose standing and looking at the couple from inside of the place. So instead I decided to film inside, with the 4 characters sitting parallel to each other and having their own discussions going on before they both interlinked with each other as Rose turns to see them.
I decided to have a shot panning of the inside of the store before it got to the characters sitting down in the frame.
The lighting was a downfall, it could have been a lot lighter and it was quite dark in there. But I did manage to get the short scene done even if I had to change the whole structure of camera shots to work around the layout of it.
Yes...I will admit there was an element of poor preparation in terms of working with the structure of the setting, for example, I could have gone after school to have a quick browse around the store so that I could see what kind of shots would have been suitable for the layout of the place. This wouldn't have changed the situation but it would have allowed me to be more prepared instead of having to think on the spot all time.
What I've realized is that although organization is KEY, it is not my forte!

Feedback from second cut

Things to improve on:

• Try not to use too much tilts/zooms
• Improve on the framing in scenes
• Kemi's scene I recently filmed has a lot of random zooming in and out as she is walking and not sure if it works
• Better stability in shots

But, overall, much better footage.

I am going to re-film Kemi's part even though I have a lot of scenes to film over the week because I want to get it perfect, I just won't stand for 'ok'.
I will probably change the location again, just because the location I chose was very awkward and this may have impacted on the footage and the accuracy of the lip syncing.
In actual fact, I am not sure how Kemi's part can be linked to the stop-motion clocks on the table in the next sequence. I'm not sure it flows...but for now, I haven't had any particular negative comments about it, so I'll leave it until I've sorted out the major scenes.

Filming session 6

Filmed Kemi's bit after school today. I used the area not too far away from the school as I wanted there to be a brick wall in the background. I didn't get ALL of the initial shots I wanted to use in the storyboard, by this I mean, proper close-ups on the artist's facial features or of the watch on her wrist... (although that was probably because I did not have a watch at the time!)
But I did have her walking in different directions as planned. And when I edited it I had the three scenes of her walking which merged together as I faded them. I tried stop-motion with Kemi but the third angle of her went wrong because the framing had somehow moved, and stop-motion involves the background in a scene to be at a constant angle all throughout, so that it remains effective, so I might have to re-film that part!
As usual there were quite a few disruptions during filming as we were right in the middle of a pavement in Palmers Green, deary me, I'm actually starting to doubt my choice of location! It was originally meant to be Canon Hill, but today is a school day, it's easier to get access to areas closer to the school for my actress so I decided to compromise.

Filming session 5

Originally intended on re-filming the bridge scene s mentioned in the previous post, BUT I realized it just wasn't working for me. The area was too narrow, I was getting far too many interruptions which pressured me to rush things and the lighting there was very dark even through the sun was out at the time.
Finally I came up with the idea of having the main character walk down the path of the field. It was an open area and allowed more space in terms of framing and the camera movements were not limited due to the size of the area. Personally I feel it's a big improvement from when I was filming on the bridge last. The steadiness of the camera has also improved vastly which was one of my main concerns. I filmed her from two different angles. The first was a (horizontal) long shot which transitioned into a mid shot of the character walking towards the gate and the second was a zoom shot where I zoomed out of the character's face as she began to walking through it.
I've decided to use the best bits of the bridge parts I had filmed to put in to the rough edit and sped it up. I'm not sure if it works. But I'll have to wait and see!

Filming session 4

Today, I managed to do the scene of Rose in the 'separate room' I mentioned earlier on in the planning stage. I decided to use my mom's bedroom because the Mise-en-scene includes the color red which can be used to connote the theme of love in the song.
I used a lot of variations in terms of the positioning of the character cause I just wanted to identify what position looked best in the frame. I had her lay down, sit up, rest against the pillows, stand by the window and look in the mirror. The lighting could be better as she is standing by the window but I can always make it brighter hopefully when I edit it all together.
I'm a bit worried about the lip syncing right now, I explained this to my character as at some points before I noticed her mouth movements were over-emphasized, making the lyrics appear to be coming out of her mouth much slower than necessary.
I did get a lot done in this session though. Right now I'm trying to focus on getting the short scenes of the narrative finished, I think I might even re-film the bridge scene if possible, because even though the rough cut I did didn't contain the better sequences that I had, even those ones could be improved more. I'll keep the scene short and snappy because I don't want the audience to get bored. I might even have a tracking shot at the beginning to include more of a variety of shots at the beginning to draw the audience in more and allow them to connect more with the singer.
I used a coin to tighten the tripod and reduce shakiness. To be honest, I wish I did that before, it would save me having to re-film the bridge scene! lol but oh well, re-filming is inevitable and vital for improvement.

Feedback from first cut

• The shots are too shaky
• There is not enough range of shot distances
• The lip syncing is out of sync with the music
• The intro is too long.

Overall, the first rough edit showed poor footage.
(the black gaps in the cut below indicate bits where inserted footage should be)
Most of the feedback I am not surprised with. I am aware that the rough cut of editing I showed my teacher did not include the best sequences, this is because even though I refilmed the bridge parts when the weather was brighter and when the ability of zoom shots were much better in the end I felt some of the old footage may have fitted in better. I even decided not to use the zoom shot I filmed and this jeopardized my range of shots. I do still feel I have considerably better control over the stability of the frame because even whilst tightening the parts tripod, it is easy for the camera to move and I have been having problems with this lately but this particular problem is easy to improve on...
I have noticed myself that in general the artist is not connecting with the
audience enough.
The style my music video is in is a narrative style, but now I'm a bit worried that instead of taking a literal interpretation of the lyrics, it should have been a bit more abstract maybe? I'm not sure...but I have much more to film, and I know I will include
various filming techniques in between the rest of the scenes so I probably shouldn't worry too much about getting a boring visual display, cause as my teacher said, objects and mise-en-scene are just as important when it comes to conveying the concept of the song.

You can already see it's pretty bleak and unclear in these snapshots, and that I've gotten a bit carried away with the zoom function! - whoops.

Filming session 3 continued...

Today I filmed the second part to the beginning of the music video where main character Rose is walking on the bridge and turns round to see a couple hugging each other.

I had a friend that offered to get a guy she knew to play the part for the boy in the couple but his schedule seemed totally out of sync with when I needed him so I finally decided that today I should just improvise and use someone I knew and had regular contact with (i.e. from the school) to play the part of the boy for me. So, I grabbed one of my brother's hoodies and his hats and popped it int he bag with the tripod and camera before I set off for school.

Success. I selected a boy and a girl and at approx 1:15pm I started filming the 5 second scene.
It was fairly easy, I decided not to do any zoom shots because I had to continue on from the scene where Rose turns around to see them and I felt at the time it would be more effective to have a long-shot of them hugging because it suits the character's perspective from where she was standing and also highlights her feelings of possible loneliness.

Re-filming Scene 3

Today I managed to re-film the first part of the music video where the main character Rose is walking across the bridge.

I feel the camera was much steadier this time and I can see I've gotten used to controlling the speed of the zooming in and out movements.
Another plus side is that the weather was actually sunny today and not as bleak, dull and dark as it was when I previously filmed. I did a lot of outtakes today, cause I was worried about the lip syncing of the lyrics and whether or not they were in harmony with the song.
Shortly after that scene I suggested we use a small closed off park bit near my home area, but when we got there it was not the look I was going for. The ground looked muddy and dirty and the bench looked old and crooked plus there was no nice scenery that I may have liked for an establishing shot, so then we hopped straight back towards Palmer's Green, where I decided to film in Broomfield Park. The ducks flying round the pond looked like a nice establishing shot to have and the bench was clean enough to sit on for the main character so this setting was much better. I made her sing the chorus' of the song and I mounted the tripod so that I could get a tilt shot pointing downwards.

I thought by recording her singing the chorus to the song in different places would give me more variety of shots for when I want to jump cut from each scene to the next. But I still want to use the green screen fabric I bought. So I did some more research then went to Argos to buy 2 clothing rails to hang it on. I'm hoping I will find a big enough space to use it in and that lighting will not be a problem.
Tomorrow I'll be filming scenes 6 where Rose and her friends are seen walking in the outdoor mall. Hopefully I can squeeze in scene 7 also, where Rose is at my house with her friends.

Filming Session 3

08/02/11 10:20am - 10:50am

Today I did my second filming session in the scene that follows after the classroom scene transcends into a daydream. The weather today is bleak and slightly foggy but the quality of the movie sequence still came out alright. I decided to have a quick establishing shot before the camera addressed the main character and because the filming was done on the bridge,the establishing shot included some of the pond and the ducks which kind of set the scene before Rosemary's character was introduced. I had to experiment a lot with this shot and I realised that loosening the tripod head gave me the smoothest movement as the camera panned to the right.
The scene consisted of the main character Rose walking across the bridge, stopping and staring into the distance of the pond, after this she lip synced to the first two lines of the song. During the scene I had a lot of zoom shots, focusing on her face cause I feel it gives the audience an immediate connection with her character if they can see her close-up.

Problems/issues: Although the area was not too crowded with people, we did get the odd person on their bike or jogger running through the scene. I don't think much can be avoided with this except next time I need to pause the recording quicker to avoid them showing up in any of the outtakes.
Secondly, zooming in and out at the appropriate pace was difficult for me at times I think I just need to familiarize myself with the way in which I push the 'T-W' button on the camera as although I know how to do zoom shots I often confuse how to use the button to zoom out and how to use the button to zoom in a lot, and this is one of the other reasons why I kept on having to re-film the bit where she stopped to look towards the pond area.

However, having a lot of outtakes is not necessarily a bad thing cause then I have more choice to use when it comes to the editing process.

Improvements: I think I've improved the steadiness of the camera a lot since the last camera session as I've got a lot better with manipulating the tripod parts to suit the movements I want to create, For example, I made the establishing quick as the camera panned to the left to suit the tempo of the introduction which is quite fast.

The thing I'm looking forward to is experimenting with different recordings that i can insert in between scenes in the editing process. For example, I might have a recordings of the electronic bus timetable at various bus stops, I might have a recording of traffic lights changing, different clocks ticking as well as the filmed traffic lapse i have already done. Hopefully, all of these scenes will contribute to the symbolism of time.

Filming session 2

So I just filmed the traffic time-lapse that I wanted to film, but surprise, surprise the location suggestions I was going to use went completely out the window. Instead I chose to film a bit nearer and recorded it at the bridge located on Bounds Green Road near the Bounds Green station - which to my advantage, was convenient as its just a drive away.
I managed to stay for at least half an hour before I went. At first I had some trouble finding the right angle to film at, because the bridge had bars on it I had to try and fit the traffic in the frame without including the bars in the sequence. When I did that I realised that I still did not have the perfect view I wanted, the tripod was tilted downwards yet only the middle of the road was predominantly shown with the cars coming from the right side only. After 5-10 mins I realised something was wrong, the tripod had to be stretched completely outwards so that the screen displayed the WHOLE road in the frame without showing the bars.
It is then that I realised I could do with a bit more practice and experience when it comes to angling the camera correctly and positioning the tripod appropriately as well; bearing in mind I have only just started using this tripod today. But nevertheless I finally managed to include all of the road in the frame if not most of it and I am quite pleased with the result.
This is my edited version of a section the time-lapse.



Faster Improved Version

Traffic time-lapse from Imani Pratt on Vimeo.

First filming session

The first filming session took place after school today at around 3:45pm. It wasn't originally intended to be at this time of the day but at lunch time I couldn't find many of the cast members as they probably had gone to lunch and the time was running out too quick, disabling the chances of recording a worthwhile sequence.
Secondly, the original classroom I wanted to use was in use by one of the teachers as they were having an after school lesson so i had to relocate the cast to another classroom nearby.
The first scene was fairly easy to film, I instructed the classmates in the scene to act as if they were in a normal lesson, doing a test or exam paper with a few messing around in the background. First I started with a shot that showed the back of the classmates and the front of the teacher at her desk, during this part a classmate in the back row decided to throw some paper at her friend in front of her, to which they both laughed and the teacher told them to be quiet. I was fine with this part, I felt it was good in the way the actresses immediately responded to the "shh!" as this made it more effective in the way that it was sharp.
However half way through filming I had a few problems. The first was the zooming in of the title on the board. I had placed the camera all the way at the back of the class just so the full frame of the mise-en-scene showed on the screen, but as I tried to zoom in when the teacher was writing the title on the board it was not smooth at all, in fact it ended up looking very jerky and unprofessional, although I did attempt to re-film that part quickly towards the end of the session, I ended up with an even worse attempt.
I don't particularly know why I had so much trouble zooming in steadily, I think I just need to practise a bit more doing it smoothly like my first rough cuts of the clock ticking, or perhaps it was the positioning of the tripod (on top of a table)which made it unstable.
I'm not happy with all of the result, for example, the tripod head was very stiff so it was hard to turn to ensure a smooth camera movement every time i wanted to turn. I may need to think of borrowing the school tripod if this one continues to give me problems.
All in all, much more work is needed on the general technical skills of the first scene; this includes improving the smoothness of the camera movement and improving zooming in and out.
I expect to re-film on a day where most of the cast members have free periods, if the editing can not correct the visual problems. An ideal day would be Tuesdays as most of the sixth form have periods 3 & 4 free.

My test edit using Windows Movie Maker at home:


FEEDBACK
My teacher suggested that:

1. I should make the sound muted for the majority of the film after the teacher tells the student to 'shh!'. The silence should be replaced by the ticking sounds of the clock.


2. The main character Rose should not be the last shot in the frame, instead the clock should be ticking last and maybe transition with a fade into the next scene


3. If I'm going to use the warpy/dreamy effect near the end of the intro, it should be either more prominent and powerful or just be replaced by a fade instead.