(Production) - Performance scenes recci images

Today my partner, our cast members and I went to Hainault Forest to film the performance scenes of our music video for 50 Leaves song 'Man on Fire'.

Setting up:

My partner and I felt setting up relatively easy as we decided to stick with basic equipment, including, a Canon video camera and a tripod. This is because we thought by using equipment we had used several times we would spend less time setting up and more of our time filming. Also by using this equipment we feel that it helps connote the idea that the band is upcoming and so perhaps, like many upcoming bands, would not have that much money to spend on filming equipment.We also brought with us a digital camera to take pictures for our digipak and magazine advert.

Location:

Although Hainault Forest is big, it did not take us long to find the perfect place to film in, because my partner and I already had a good idea of the mise-en-scenes we wanted for performance part of our music video.

 These mise-en-scenes included:

- Shadows of the trees

- Bright lighting from the sun

- Autumnal leaves

- No forest paths

Actors: Thomas Dadwell, Patrick Rawlins and gemma Doherty.

Actors:

We had some trouble with our actors for this section of the music video, as two of the actors we were going to use dropped out the night before we were to film.

Due to this I myself had to be part of the music video, alongside Thomas Dadswell and Patrick Rawlins. Me and my partner felt that, although this was not our initial idea of what we wanted the band to be like, by adding a girl to the band we feel that we can now attract a larger target audience.

The two actors that we did use, however, did a great job and we feel that they looked the part. If we were to re-film this section of the music video, I would say that we would still include these two actors.

What went well and problems we faced:

What went well:

My partner and I feel that the actors we used actually looked like they could be a band and that the clothes they wore fit the style we are trying to connote very well.

Differing from when my partner and I filmed the NARRATIVE shots of our music video, the weather was not to bad and so we felt it easier to film for longer. 

Problems we faced:

The biggest problem we faced was our to actors dropping out at the last minute, as me and my partner had began to imagine the video with this actors in mind. However, we managed to find replacement actors and once we began filming my partner and I felt that the actors we managed to get where very good at understanding what we needed from them and fit the part well.

Although the weather was not to bad for most of the day, it did begin to get colder towards the end of filming, so our actors began to look more stiff in the shots. This effected the actors playing the guitars the most, as they found it hard to keep playing the instruments for the whole length of the song as their fingers began to hurt.

Another problem was that the actor that was playing the lead vocalist found it difficult to remember all of the lyrics. My partner and I decided that in order for the actor to sing the whole song through without forgetting the lyrics it would be best if he had the song playing. My partner had her Ipod with her which could play the song out load. We tried this, but with the forest being a public one there was a lot of noise from other people around and the noise from the wind was quite load, making it hard to hear the song. Instead of playing the music out load we gave the Ipod to the vocalist so he could play the song with headphones. We thought that this might look a bit strange in video, however after looking at the footage we found that the headphones are barely visible and when they are visible they could be passed off as a head set that would normally be worn by vocalist on stage.

      

Whilst filming my partner and I had some difficult in making sure the camera was straight, due to the rocky surface of the forest. We found that we had to move the camera and tripod two or three times in order to find a spot where the flooring was flat enough.

Digipak and magazine advert images:

My partner and I decided to take the pictures for our digipak and magazine advert in the same location as where we filmed the music video, as we felt that this would help connect all the bands texts together. We wanted the pictures to look quite relaxed and so my partner to the pictures when the two actors and myself where practising for the scenes, talking, walking through the forest and even whilst we were filming.

My partner and I looked at the photos we took after we had finished filming for the day and narrowed the pictures we wanted to use for our digipak and magazine advert down to these six:

 

In are next meeting my partner and I will it down and choose which pictures we think will look best. If we choose the pictures where the camera is seen in the mise-en-scene we will cut and edit the camera out.