12/12/11 - 16/12/11: Week Post

Fresh Start
This week we intended on having audience feedback on a rough edit. On Monday we got a pleasant surprise and Zenith came up to us saying that he had acquired some kit that was necessary for the fire spinning which pushed our plans into motion. Furthermore the majority of filming had to be completed as we were leaving for our christmas holidays

Audience feedback
On Monday we had audience feedback which proved to rather interesting as we were able to identify the strong points and weak points of what we currentl had. Therefore throughtout the week intended on trying to address some of the issues raised.

4th Shoot
We decided to film our boxing scene which Jubel was starring in and it consisted of a single punch and a dramatic fall that we intended on editing so it would reverse as one entire scene. We ran into a couple issues due to the fact that the boxing equipment required was in use during the period of time thast we wanted to use it for. Therefore we decided to continue some more editing whilst Jubel worked on the poster and Scott worked on the digipak. Later on during the day we finally started shooting the boxing stuff but better, but obviously knowing our luck it just proved to be a lot more difficult than anticipated. Once we had gotten back to upload and edit the footage it just didnt work meaning we had to film it again.

5th Shoot
After our intial failure to film the boxing scenes effectively we attemplted them again. Lucky for us we found some photography lights that created this flashing effect which made the shots look very conceptuual. Therefore we turned off all the lights within our location and had Jubel aggresivly punch towards the camera whilst the lights flashed and it ended up looking really good. Allowing us to address some oof our critism

6th Shoot
As aformentioned we finally were able to finally film Zenith's fire spinnig which we had organised and it worked brilliantly. We had to wait till around five for it to get really dark so that we could really get the best possible effect from the fire spinning and it was rather amazing. Our entire group attended the shoot.

Good ending
This proved to be a very good ending to the wekk as we had practically filmed the majority of our film it was purely a matter of piecing all the piece together and possibly addressing anymore of the critism brought up.

6th Shoot 16/12/11 (Zeniths stuff)

Finally we were able to actually film Zenith's fire dancing at Wandsworth common and we were all filled with joy not only because of the fact that it was going to be a spectacle but because of the fact that after all our initial failure it was finally happening. The entire group along with Zenith and his 'Burn unit' armed with a bucket of water and a blanket make its way toward Wandsworth Common. There wasn't really anything that was expected from him to perform other than actually light the cubes and from there we just allowed him to do his thing. Something we did want to do is get him from a variety of different angles in order to create more of a stylistic effect. This resulted in some varying shots which consisted of close ups as well as distorted shots. Below are a variety of practice shots and images that can once again depict our gradual progression throughout the shoot.

Here is some footage taken from when filming the his fire stuff:

5th Shoot 14/12/11 (Jubel boxing V2)

This was our second attempt at filming Jubel in order to once again get this 'stylistic' affect in order to try and keep the boxing theme interesting. In addition in order to make the scene more interesting we wanted to alter the light using the photography lights allowing us to flash in and out of the scene by altering the natural lighting. Below are a collection of images that depict our gradual progression throughout the entire shot as we developed from our previous idea.

Initial flash

Punching flash scene

                                         

Preparing punch stance

Throughout the entire shoot we really wanted to make sure that whilst incorporating the boxing theme we needed to make sure that it remained quite interesting and would still fit in with our conceptual music video. We used an array of different flashing lights to create this effect and felt that it seemed more professional and gave it a sense of repeatability. In order to insure that we could control the light within our mise en scene we used a large white reflective board in order hide the background as it was cluttered.

4th Shoot 13/12/11 (Jubel Boxin V1)

Today we filmed the first re-shoot of the boxing scene and we wanted to try and aim for a conceptual look to try and make sure it looks visually interesting which would help to maintain a sense of repeatability. We tried to vary the types of shots so that we could be able to use them in multiple ways to represent that constant thread throughout the entire music video. Furthermore we wanted to try and create a reverse motion introduction for our video which would consists of the main character spitting into the camera. However we didn't seem to create the dramatic 'stylistic' effect that we were aiming to achieve. This therefore meant that we intend on re-filming this scene and below shows the gradual progression through the entire shoot from being rather hopeful to seeing that this wasn't going work. 

                                           Character in boxing stance

                                           Character preparing to do spit take

                                          Character being punched and then recovering
                                          

Audience Feedback - Initial Edit

Today we had a preview of our rough edit to a select group of candidates in ordeer to gather feedback concerning the negatives and positives of what we had. However due to our ever changing idea it wasn't a significant amount of the video that had been produced so people were required to base their judgements purely on what was there.

Mise en scene

- Good use of glitter/light effect on the drums

- Fire spinning is different and gives a unique edge

- Very professional scenery

- Good use of lighting creates 'mystery'

- Boxing clips are very lack luster and bring down vibe of the overall video

- Random punching bag scene ruins smooth flow of the other shots

- On the verge of a good conceptual video but needs to link the scenes better

- Currently level three

Editing

- Edited to the pace of music creating synchronous flow of shots

- Fast pace retained audience attention

- Good use of conceptual methods by adding subtle effects

- Make sure every shots fit with the beat

- Level three or four

Cinematography

- Variation in camera shots

- Close ups of glitter create stylistic effect

- Tight shots retain audience interest

- Use more unique shots to try and relate back to genre and type of video

- Have more angle shots

- Worried that we don’t have enough footage to fill rest of the song as we don't want to bore people

- Level three

Creativity

- Immensely original idea

- Themes of the song transpire through the shots

- Use techniques to juxtapose actual themes of the song rather than portraying a literal meaning

- Use of fire spinning and glitter creates unique visuals not normally seen

- Have more props and possibly more characters

- Level four

Genre

- Leaning towards grungy look

- Not instantly able to recognize genre with greater though

- Inspire that we include all aspects of the songs genre and project that through the shots, mise en scene etc

- Leaning towards rock

- However still has suggestive themes of other genres which retains audience interest

- Level three

Intended changes

 In light of these changes we intend on:

- Re-shoot boxing scenes and portray them in more stylistic conceptual way

- Have a greater amount of shots by trying to incorporate performance in a simple way

- Shoot form different angles

- Have a constant thread to relate back to throughout the video

- Make sure professional shots remain constant

5/12/11 - 9/12/11 Week Post

Initial Failure
 Monday was the worst day in the world because nothing went right, which eventually resulted in a massive breakdown of the group. On Monday we intended on filming Zenith's fire scene, as well as our initial film shoot. We attempted to organise the band scene but it all fell apart as we couldn't find a suitable location to film but both of our actor no longer felt comfortable being a part of it. Furthermore when trying to use test shots we realised that our mise en scene has poor surroundings as it was cluttered but also our initial idea wasn't practical enough thus making that period of time pointless. We also argued about some of the ways in which we could alter the idea, which eventually resulted in a breakdown of the group structure and all filming halted. Whilst in an attempt to piece us back together none of us were in the frame of mind to try and potentially fix the issue.

Minor success
 After our slight breakdown Jubel and Scott then went searching for an effective way to insure that we could film in our desired location without actually seeing all of the clutter in our mise en scene. They eventually found a large white back drop that was easy enough to move and covered the entire area. Unintentionally it seemed quite professional despite it being a 'quick fix' and proved to work well when we tried to create various lighitng effects. Whilst this was a minor success it dealt with one of our many problems.

More failure
 Around four in the afternoon we intended on filming Zenith's fire spinning act. We went to Wandsworth Common and waited for 45 minutes in the freezing cold as he failed to even set fire to the balls and apparently it was due to the fact that they had not been fully burnt in the paraffin properly. Throughout the ordeal I had taken over 30 images on the camera to try and at least have evidence of the shoot; however once we got back to school in order to upload the images none of them were there and had apparently not saved properly. We  then arranged with Zenith to refilm some his fire scene again the following day as well as the boxerobics on Friday

New inspiration
 We came back on Tuesday motivated attempting to alter our idea in order to make it creative yet practicle, which then resulted in us sitting down as a group discussing what was capable of being filmed and what wasn't. We decided to make the primary focus of our video conceptual in comparison to the performance and led to the decision of no longer having a vocalist, which allowed us to then go back to some of our intial idea and try to portay the video from more of a stylist angle. Therefore we decided to keep the boxing idea but just represent it as aforementioned in a more stylstic manner which introduced some narrative elements and there would be a consistent thread throughout the video.

 Furthermore we planned on redoing the band shoot but approach it in a different manner and decided to use more materials such as glitter which now plays a large role within music video but also help to make the performance segments seem more visually interesting. In addition we intended on  using different types of lighting in order accentuate the glitter even more but also create this professional finish.

2nd Shoot
 On the Wednesday we successfully set up the band scenario but had to go through a long process of testing various shots as the glitter effect that we were hoping for didn’t seem to initially work. Therefore we had to change the intensity and position of lighting as well as film it in a way that looked as professional as possible. This consisted of us using a variation in lighting equipments as well as creating new ways of positioning them with a low budget.

3rd Shoot
On friday we finally went to this boxerobics club which we had been informed about by a friend. However the way in which we had imagined it to be was far from what we expected but due to the fact that we were running out of ideas to try and incorporate our boxing iidea we thought that we'd just go with it just in case anything useful came out of it. We arrived there and lets say it didnt have the best possible mise en scene as it was in some ugly brown gymnasium that had only a few punching bags and a massive net. We tried to really confine the boxer to an constricted area so that we could potentially get the effect we wanted without actually seeing any of the clutter in the back. Lets just the results weren't that great.

New Digipak concept
We also had a new concept for our album cover and poster which helped reinforce our bands and revolved around childrens toys but ones which we battered and broken. Our intial idea revolved around using a dolls head which was provided by me (Junior) but proved to be far to 'girly' which defeated the purpose of our idea. However this allowed our idea to develop to burning a vintage teddy bear but once again this failed. Purely due to the fact that this era has everything 'saftey proof' which to our dismay wasn't a good thing. We tested it on several different toys a monkey, orange bear and a normal brown bear.

Consistent failure
On Friday our intention was to attempt at filming Zenith's fire stuff again to see if it would actually work this time but obviously becuase the world likes to challenge us apprently one of his parent threw all of his equipment away. This proved to be tideous but it was an essential part of our video and caused us some serious problems. Hopefully next week things will go better.

3rd Shoot 08/12/11 (Original Boxing stuff)

Today we tried to put our boxing idea into action and went to the boxerobics club in order to see if we could film anything potentially useful that could be applied into our music video. However we were slightly disappointed as we felt the location being used didn't fit the mise en scene that we had imagined. It was cluttered and had very limited equipment.

                              Students in hall practicing with punching bag

                            Essential boxing equipment e.g Gloves

                                Original actor used within our video for boxing

                                    Boxing coach instructing younger students

Below are a collection of images that depict that gradual progression throughout that evening of trying to gather  various shot types and angles. In addition we tried to set up a boxing match which didn't seem to work as well.

2nd Shoot 07/12/11

Below are images of a new concept that we tried to incorporate into our music video to reinforce our conceptual scenarios are try to link back to. It was a very productive day and filmed a lot of scenes and there is also a lot of glitter.

This photo shows us testing out the lighting and the way that we could potentially use that to distort the background clutter and create a professional mise en scene. We used numerous red lights and captured images from various angles to see which worked best as well as create the best visual effect.

This image depicts use moving the instruments into the right position in front of our home made background, which consisted of a plain white board. We wanted to place it there to hide both the clutter that was originally in that location but also contain the lighting.

 When it came to putting our glitter idea into practice it proved to be a little more difficult because of the fact that we were unsure of the amount of glitter to use in order to create the glowing dramatic effect that we wanted. In addition we had to play around with the composition of the glitter but also the position of the lighting and camera in order to figure out what looked best on screen. Below you shall see the gradual progression as we began achieving our goal.

Furthermore we then expanded on our glitter idea by finding ways in which we could potentially make this scene potentially be used as the introduction for our music video. In order to create this effect we created a trail of glitter leading up to the band area and used a flashing LED light in order to create the distorted effect. Once again the images below show our gradual progression by finding numerous ways film it. We decided not to use to doll that is seen in the last image due to the fact that it didn't seem creepy enough but quite girly, and failed to create that unique style we tried to incorporate.

                      

Album cover trials

As aforementioned in our most recent blog post I mentioned that we took some pictures for our album cover. We went round and found both male and female model hands that we could use, and we put them in front of a green screen as there as we could potentially alter the background in order to achieve the effect for our album cover or poster etc. Below are a collection of images which include some of pictures that we took along with various versions of our actual album cover image.

Initial test for album cover in Adobe Photo shop

Samuel

Rhianna Gale

Jennifer Broadbent

 

28/11/11 - 2/12/11 Week Post

Throughout this we really tried to insure that we could finish off all the pre-production tasks in order to move forward into production. On Monday we went around and gathered some of the potential characters that would be within our music video and had a cast selection in order to see which roles fitted which person best. As well as doing that we had Scott take the green screen and take pictures with various people hands for our album cover and possibly our poster, and consisted of female and male models. This was so that there was a large selection to be able to pick from to see which ones looked best in the chosen position. Once he had taken around several people’s hands he went back to the mac room to be able to begin working on it. One of our peers that said he could help us get a gym came back and informed us that they weren't too keen on being filmed and therefore I then had to search for some boxing clubs within the area. I found one at Balham Triangle and after speaking to him on the phone he didn't seem to keen and said he's get back to us. However not to sound unappreciative we don't have time to wait for them to make their mind up. Therefore I had to call several other boxing gym and all weren't too keen on it. As we progressed throughout the week our boxing theme proved to prove to be difficult and in order for us not to be held back any further we decided to at least film the initial part of our music video on Thursday, which required Jubel to jog down a road as we were still keen on our gym/boxing idea. It proved to be a lot harder to do that it should and we filmed from various shots and angles to give us a variation to work with. On Friday we had to then begin reconsidering our boxing concept and began to think that we could use some of the previous props used within our thriller but use them in a different way, and really focus on the conceptual elements to represent the boxing theme rather than illustrating it in a literal manner. Next week we intend on filming the band as well as the Zeniths fire scene.

1st Shoot 01/12/11

We had our first filming shoot on Thursday last week, and we planned to film the first part of our music video, which consisted of one of the main characters within the video and he was jogging along a road. Everyone within the group came on the shoot which  lasted for about 30 minutes as we wanted to get a variation in the types of shots that we could, even though its only the first 6 seconds of the entire video.

Jubel & Scott

Jogging location

Beginning to film