Shooting Preparations on the day

We are currently preparation to travel to our first location (London) to shoot these specific shots in our animatic. We are having to remember to take these vital items
– storyboard used for the animatic > this is a necessity as we are using a colour coordinated version to be able to quickly specify what shots we need in that particular location, helping us control time management
– steadicam > absolutely vital for the tracking shots of the artist, as we have practised in our previous blog post, and have found the steadicam produces an extremely more smoother and stable finish to the moving shots
– Camera with strap for adaptability
– Props + Costume accessories > this is only really the artists jewellery and the males hat.

Ellena’s Final Preparation

Here is my final preparation before shooting over the weekend beginning 15th November. I felt it was extremely important for me to actually learn how to use and control more than the cameras basic features as I will be using the camera independently tomorrow in the shots where George is needed present as the actor. This picture below shows the camera user guide that I have read thoroughly at home over the last couple of days as well as in school to familiarise myself with the vetting features of the camera, and also booked the camera on the 14th November to give me one day of practising how to use these new buttons on the camera.
I feel that I have independent stretched my photography skills as I have only ever known the basics and have sometimes been quite shy when shooting and allocated myself the jobs of either acting in the film or doing other things like scripting or setting up costume and props. I feel I have grown in confidence and reliance in myself in operating te equipment, which is the tripod and steadicam as well as the camera itself.
There is also a picture of the blog posts that I need to upload before we have completed filming on Sunday. Me and George will work together over the next day to ensure that these blog posts have been published as they are vital to our evidence of the planning and shooting process.

Time Management- 14th November

Time Management

Props

We carefully watched our Animatic video and made notes on the various props we had featured within our music video. Here is a list of the props that we made on our iPhones and will be the props that we now need to carefully source with an almost non-existent budget:

You can see that using Apples newly updated Reminders app it is possible to make lists and keep on track with the tasks you have completed. It is a quick and easy way to refer to the props that we need to get. From this screenshot, it is possible to vividly identify that our microphone prop has been sourced and therefore is checked off of our list. This has been mentioned in a previous blog post.
In order to check off a few more items from our list we decided that a few local charity shops could be good places to locate the props we want as they are generally priced reasonably and often contain older objects which could be ideal for our art-deco theme:

Unfortunately the trip was not as successful as we had first anticipated as the shops contained very few items that were from the Art Deco period. Due to this slight disappointment we have planned another trip to Romford as it is a historical market town and so holds many cheap market stalls as well as various high street charity shops and so we feel as though our chances of obtaining the remainder of our props are significantly higher than our previous trip.

Time Management – To-Do

Recently during one of our media classes we analysed the elements we have completed and posted on our blog and then created a list of things that we had to do.
This exercise helps as it ensures we get all of our planning and preparation done before we begin filming our music video.

Artist Casting

We decided that our artist will be portrayed by my sister, Hannah Lawrence. She is a 20 year old University student who we feel would be perfect for the role. Hannah has the type of look and style we were hoping for our artist and we feel is well qualified having spent a majority of her teenage years attending Renées School of Dance and Performing Arts and Rhodes Stage School. This will mean she has the confidence and experience to pull-off an authentic performance when we film the video.
One problem we have is her current availability. She is in her first year at Reading University studying Law which means she is staying away from home and has a lot of work to complete. I recently contacted her in order to find when she would be available to come back home and this was our iMessage conversation:

This was the moment we finalised our filming dates.

Theatre Location and Lighting

Today (5/11/13) we went to speak to the school keepers in order to find out whether the theatre would be available to film in on the weekend that dates 15-17th November. Initially, we were hoping to film on the Saturday morning, however, during this brief meeting we found that the theatre is used by an ‘outside’ Theatre school. We then enquired whether it is free to use the theatre the following morning and fortunately we are able to. During our discussion with Mr Hanford he outlined certain rules that we must follow:

• We must inform the care taker when we arrive and depart (incase there is a fire and we need to be located)
• We speak to the drama department regarding the use of the light fixtures
• We cannot have more than 10 people on site due to health and safety regulations

After visiting the school keepers to see if it was possible to film at the schools theatre, we then went to the theatre to get a closer look and discuss lighting. Here is an annotation of the theatre, explaining the lighting we have concluded will be appropriate and why:

View this document on Scribd

This is a great step forward in the final preparation that we are carrying out before the weekend that we shoot the video. We have now chosen, located and visited all of the sites and are confident we have made the right decisions.

Evidence of Time Management

Below is a picture of our meeting times when making our animatic. We feel we managed our time efficiently, and used time outside of lessons, both inside and out of school, to meet up and continue the animatic, and eventually film and edit it.

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