Blog 14- Shooting Diaries

6th February 2011

Our first filming of the music video took place on the 6th of february 2011 in friston forest which gave us the perfect location for our music video because we planned to have most the video in a woodland area similar to most florence and the machine themes in existing videos. We decided to begin shooting at 12pm as the midday sun would give us the best quality of lighting as well as being able to continue filming through out the day untill we began to lose the day light. As we arrived to the location we were concerned because the weather was a bit drizzly therefore we had to think about maybe postponing our filming for another day as the drizzle could damage the camera as well as not being able to film all the ideas for the video that we had such as logs being dangerous fot the actors to clime on or lying on the damp floor. However, as we walked into the forest contenplating wheather to continue filming the weather seemed to clear up, although the lighting wasnt as good as we wanted it to be therefore we overcame this by adjusting the lighting and contrast on the camera to look like it was a brighter day than in reality. In the end the shooting went very well dispite the fact only 2 out of the 6 actors/dancers, who originally said they could make it, were able to come. We managed this fine by instead shooting shots of just the girl playing florence and also shooting scenes of the settings that could be used in the video, therefore in the next shooting slot we could concerntrate more on the dancing and routines when more people could make the filming time. We used just the main character to start our original idea of having her young at the begining then as they day goes on we could show her as an old person using make up and clothing. We later decided not to use this idea as it did not fit properly with the rest of the video. We also experimented more with the camera by trying different shots such as close, mid and long shots as well as using different camera angles of the same shot so when editing we could switch the angles to make it look more interesting and show we have experimented more with different camera uses.

<<< This image shows the use of make up to show an older person who is clearly young underneath to create an abstract image.













20th March 2011

We continued the forest scenes on this later date. The weather was a lot nicer on this day allowing us to use the lighting effectively and also film the sunset as the day got later. All the dancers turned up for this date which meant we could now shoot the dancing sequences and film the main character with the dancers in the background to make a more interesting image with more than one focal point. These shots worked well with the filming we did on the previous date because we now had single shots of just the main character as well as dance shots which we could use well to break up the music video. We made all the characters in the video wear all black clothing which contrasted nicely with the bight colours of the forest showing an interesting mis en scene.

We decided to also give the main character a band of leaves round her head to look more natural and show she stands out from the other characters. Again we filmed dancing shots from different angles so when editing, for example, we could have a shot of the dancers from the front then switch to them doing the same movement from a long side shot so the two shots link together. This shows us developing new ideas with how we can use different camera angles to create more interesting idea. We also used shots looking down onto the main character on the floor. As well as lots of dancing shots we also decided to get the main character to sing the whole song in lots of different locations and angles. We filmed her by the river from the side, on a boat from the side, on the floor from above and sitting between two trees from the front. This was we could use many shots in the video of her singing various parts of the song in different locations as well as switching back to the same locations.

<<< This image shows the mis en scene of the black clothing against the bright colours of the forest.











<<< The band we created to make the main character stand out from the dancers













<<< Showing the use of different angles














Lastly, later on in the evening we filmed the sun going down which we would later speed up during editing so we could use for the ending and reverse the shot for the begining symbolising the begining and ending of the video. It was very important that the camera was not moved during this time therefore we secured it to the tripod and left it for around an hour as the sun went down. Unfortunately the battery ran out just at the end of the sun set therefore we could not get complete darkness as we wanted however we edited this so the last bit of the sunset faded therefore it had the same effect of complete darkness. We used the fade effect to do this.


<<< The camera on the tripod filming the sun set.



















15th Feb 2011

This filming slot was dont in a studio at college allowing us to film our sencond location of the boy building the coffin in a shed like surrounding. Luckily one of the walls in the studio was brick which was a perfect background to film against as it showed a work place effect. We used close ups of a hammer hitting a nail repeatitively which we would put in time with the music. We also did lots of close ups of features of the boy such as eyes and mouth and also filmed his shadow, but never filmed the whole of him to make the boy a mystery so the audience can never see his whole identity throught out the video creating a more interesting look. We used a studio spot light and angled it to the side of the character creating his shadow next to him on the wall. We then shot him hammering again in the shadow which we could again put in time with the music. I think this is an interesting affect because we thought about other ways of filming the boy in the work shed rather than just simply filming him working.
The filming went really well in the studio as the lighting worked well to create shadows on the wall which we captured at a good angle on film.