Evaluation: Learning from the Filming Process

Over, the course of the project, we have planned and filmed a substantial amount of footage. I've learnt that no matter how much you plan - how much detail goes toward storyboarding - that you still can't definitely be sure that the footage captured on the day will look as effective as one originally thinks. Indeed, there were several occasions where we captured footage that either didn't look as planned, or once uploaded onto the Video-Editing Machines, didn't quite look as effective as when we were filming it.

However, although we did film a lot of footage that wasn't actually used in our final video, we made sure that we learnt from the mistakes that we made and carried our newly-obtained knowledge onto our next batch of filming - ensuring our final sessions of filming ran as smoothly as possible.

To show a progression of our skills throughout the project, I've collected all our different filming sessions into one post - evaluating each through our own views as well as those of the audience members that we asked to view our product.

1.

Aim: Film our 'Band Shots' (First attempt).
Location: The school's Drama Studio.
Evaluation:
+ Camera Angles used look effective and varied
+ Footage once edited, reflected the fast tempo of the song
+ Synchronisation of diagetic sound and on-screen actions - singing, guitar-work etc looks realistic
+ Costumes used are conventional and therefore look appropriate

- Location fails to represent the conventions of a Rock-music video - it is clear it's in a Drama Studio
- Drumming fails to match urgency of song
- Could incorporate more complicated filming; Jib and/or Track-and-Pan shots for example

"The musicians themselves look professional due to the well-timed synchronisation and carefully-crafted camera angles. Ultimately however, the setting used fails to emit that 'rockstar' aura and leaves me feeling that I've just watched the school-band's rehearsal."

- Media Teacher

2.

Aim: To film our 'Narrative' (First attempt).
Location: Erith Train Station.
Evaluation:
+ In using all the camera equipment for the first time, we learnt how time-consuming utilising the equipment is, a problem we didn't foresee; shooting a track-and-pan shot required us setting up the lengthy track itself and once finished, dismantling it to move it around again
+ The shots themselves were filmed very carefully to ensure appropriate framing etc

- Time-consuming; in just over five hours worth of filming, we had yet to leave our initial location of the train station due to the lengthy process of moving and setting up the equipment
- Once uploaded to the computer - after fast-cuts and editing, the content of the shots was ultimately boring despite the quality of the shots themselves - their framing and angling etc

"I realise some of the shots have been carefully planned - I particularly liked the track-and-pan used to track Georgina down the length of the train platform - that would've been a time-consuming process setting up and subsequently dismantling the tracking equipment for that one shot. However, as a member of the audience, I can't say that I'm emotionally engaged nor interested in the narrative, it seems rather simple - a contrast to the loud and fast song you've chosen."    

 - Sam Robinson, A-Level Media student

3.

Aim: To film our Narrative (Second attempt).
Location: Travelling around London; Bexleyheath Train Station, Brick Lane, Liverpool Street, London Bridge.
Evaluation:
+ Shots were complicated and interestingly filmed; incorporated 'Rule of thirds', 'deep/shallow focus', 'focus-pull' and 'establishing shots' to name but a few
+ Locations featured looked appropriate and conventional of the genre; street-art looked effective as a motif of the scenes - itself representing the underground music and skating genre
+ Used the equipment effectively - setting it up up efficiently and safely to get the required shots

- The content of the narrative, despite the interesting camera shots, still seemed lacking in areas of interest for the audience
- The mobile-phone scenes that were essential in establishing the cycle of equilibrium in our narrative failed to translate from storyboards to filming - the text was too small and therefore unclear to the audience
- A difficulty we found in filming in realistic and busy locations was filming the lead-singer's vocals well enough to sync them to the audio-track once uploaded to the computer; when uploaded we found out that it was hard to distinguish what lines the singer was actually speaking due to the diagetic (and unwanted) noise

"I really liked this footage. I thought the mis-en-scene was great; make-up and location in particular looked really effective - the lead-singer looked quite mysterious in some shots - '0:08' was quite memorable, an almost unsettling extreme close-up. I noticed a lot of interesting camera angles as well although I didn't really understand what was going on."

- Megan Dallimore, GCSE Media student

4.

Aim: To film our Band Shots (second attempt).
Location: Our school's sports hall.
Evaluation:
+ Location captured the idea of the band having a rehearsal - as well as having the added benefit of being a big, open space which allowed for plenty of room; didn't look enclosed like the drama studio set
+ Lighting looked very effective; we had a set up of two professional photography lights lighting the set from behind, transforming an ordinary sports hall into a more professional-looking set
+ Band look professional
+ Shots are more complicated and varied; extreme-close-ups, wide shots encompassing all band members

- Evidence of the fact that it was shot in a sports hall; basketball hoops, floor-court markings etc visible - detracts from the mise-en-scene
- Idea is confusing for the audience; our narrative that included switching actresses for the lead-singer proved to be too complicated for the audience to grasp

"At first I didn't realise it was in the school's sports hall - the lighting was really effective and professional, making it look like it was a carefully-chosen location. However, I then began to notice the iconography of a sports hall - the hoops, floor markings etc and felt it showed that you hadn't actually considered the mise-en-scene of the set/setting. However, the band themselves look professional; the shots of the instruments was very conventional of a music video. Honestly, the narrative didn't really make any sense - there was two different lead-singer's which is not conventional of a music video - if you are hoping to create a brand for the band, aspects such as the band members themselves need to remain consistent."

 - Louis Irving, GCSE Media Student

5.

Aim: To film the narrative (Third attempt)

Location: Inside a garden shed

Evaluation:

+ Set/Setting was carefully planned and executed; painted wall with 'paramore' logo and posters effective for furthering the narrative

+ Lighting was effective in creating a dark, almost unnerving atmosphere

+ Actress portrayed the character professionally - helped the narrative to be taken seriously by the audience

+ Narrative itself was 'striking' and 'captivating' - complimenting the song as opposed to taking the lyrics literally; taking 'reception theory' on-board by leaving it open to interpretation

+ Costume was appropriate

+ Shots were varied, ranging from simple mid-shots and close-ups to canted angles and more experimental filming

- Unusual narrative with unsettling elements - perhaps slightly unconventional for a music video?

"The narrative was really captivating - the recurring motifs of the flame and the unusual editing such as the 'fuzzy' static made it quite unsettling, I didn't know how her behaviour was going to escalate. I like that the narrative is loose and open to interpretation; particularly effective for a music video, a video that you could potentially see several times if you liked the song, so your view on the character and the narrative could change with repeated viewings. I thought the lighting was very good - it wasn't naturalistic - the opposite; the flashing lights and the almost candle-lit effect added to the eerie atmosphere. The acting was realistic and subsequently unsettling."

Louise Salter, A-Level Drama student

6. 

Aim: To film band shots (Third attempt)

Location: Boiler-room

Evaluation:

+ Set/setting fitting for the genre; carries a theme - iconography of an industrial/Urban setting, ladder, sand, equipment etc

+ Actors look professional; instruments synchronised effectively to soundtrack

+ Variety of shots and angles; allows the freedom to use an array of shots for short, fast cutting

+ Lighting is focused and effective in creating atmosphere

"The band, lighting, set and synchronisation look professional - the mise-en-scene has evidently been carefully constructed to represent the rock-music genre."

- Ellice Head, GCSE Media Student

Development: Rough Draft of Final Edit

Above, is one of the many drafts for our music video. This draft represents the half-way mark to completing our task; we had filled just over half of video's timeline with footage. Therefore, blank black screens are present to show us where we need to add more clips as well as the video featuring clips that we would later take out and replace.

Development: Unconventional Advertisements

I designed the following advertisements to enforce the fact that I was creating a brand throughout my ancillary task. However, I wanted to design some different advertisements in terms of style; I decided to design and construct two pre-release 'teaser' adverts for both the bands new single and album. I have used different fonts in these two advertisements than those planned in our groups 'style guide' as I wanted to experiment to see whether our motifs could be applied to different styles and genres of promotional advertisements.

 The idea of the above 'teaser' advert is the bands new single and it's accompanying music video; I have extracted the two themes of the music video and incorporated them into the design to give the audience an insight into what they can expect. I've used the video's stalking theme - the cutting-and ripping-up of pictures of the band - to present the advert's main image in a collection of overlapping squares that I felt bared a resemblance to cutting-up and layering pictures while the main image itself is one taken from the music video's band shots; drawing together both narratives of the music video into the advertisements construction and style. The unsettling nature of the stalking theme also inspired the sketchy 'the new video' font- a warning to the audience of the video's darker themes - accompanied by a bold (and conventional) release date. The minimal information ensures the audience is left with the important information; the band name and the single's release date. Although this advert was an experiment to see whether my advertisement campaign could stretch to unconventional and more unusual ways to promote, I did however include the conventional band logo and band-related image - both of which are two motifs of all our 'Paramore' advertisements.

Development: Applying Media Theories

We wanted to use our knowledge of certain media theories and incorporate them into our music video. We had developed the 'crazed-fan' narrative; when filming this footage we wanted to remain aware of 'Reception Theory' - the idea that our text would be open to interpretation amongst the audience. This meant our shots contributed to an abstract narrative - 'why is this character burning images of the band?; 'who is she?'; 'what is she capable of?'; these questions that our polysemic text was asking with the help of the camera and constructed mise-en-scene, were ways to engage and confront the audience.

Indeed, the fact this character was burning props, shown in dark lighting, and generally being portrayed as 'different', meant that we were following the generic conventions of Vladmir Propp's 'chracter functions'; the 'stalker' was being portrayed as an antagonist to the band - who were portrayed as having fun as well as being in a lighter and therefore brighter set; therefore the band was the protagonists in this abstract open-ended narrative.

Further, the fact that we had created these characters with their own respective 'character function's, helped enforce the abstract 'cycle of equilibrium' - the 'stalker' was disrupting the equilibrium by being menacing and a potential threat/mystery to the band.

Evidently, by using our knowledge of Media Theory, we were ensuring that we were
applying the conventions of a media text to our work, to help make an enjoyable music video for our target audience.

Production: The Editing Process

Throughout the project we have uploaded and edited footage on the 'Video Editing Machines' (above and below). Through its video-editing software, Adobe Premier Pro, the machine has allowed us not only to construct our final music video, but also many video blogs used to evaluate our ideas and current work.

The 'Premier Pro' programme allowed us to edit and manipulate our footage, such as adding layers to create overlaying translucent images; moving frames around to create splitscreens; add filters to create grainy and black & white footage; alter the timescale to speed up/slow down the footage to help with the synchronisation process or create slow-motion shots.

Development: Filming Band Shots

The following pictures give an understanding of how our 'band shots' were filmed.

Joanna (left) uses a hand-held HD camera to capture the band performing. This hand-held approach to filming allowed us to record footage that had a degree of movement attached to it - particularly effective against the backdrop of our fast-paced non-diagetic song choice, 'Misery Business'.

Pictured above is just some of the equipment we utilised in this filming session. We had learnt from previous sessions that ensuring we had all the equipment we needed when filming required a lot of planning; we had to borrow: musical equipment such the drum kit, lighting equipment from a Photography studio, and filming equipment form the school's Media department all on the same night so we had to ensure we planned ahead to make sure we weren't left without any essential aspects needed for filming.

To show the extent of what we needed to plan in order to ensure we had everything we needed for the filming session, is this outline of a checklist we constructed:

'Equipment Needed' List:

Music:

Drum Kit w/ sticks, stool

Guitar w/ amp, plectrum, strap, lead

Microphone w/ stand

iPod Dock w/ iPod containing 'Misery Business'

Media:

Camera w/ spare batteries, upload cable

Steadi-Cam

Tripod

Dolly

Tracking equipment

Photography:

Lighting equipment

Costumes:

Three conventional costumes of the Rock-Music genre

Make-up

A simple shot showing the 'band' setting up whilst Hannah and Joanna, the camera crew, direct them where to stand during filming to ensure effective shots.

Development: Filming the Narrative

As an essential aspect of the mise-en-scene, we used several props during filming; pictured above is the mannequin that we employed to enhance the 'weirdness' of the stalker character in our narrative - we cut from footage of our lead-singer to footage of the motionless mannequin to show the stalker was imagining the lead-singer that she was fascinated with - just from staring at a motionless object. To enforce the stalker's insanity, we added an effect found in the effects on Premier-Pro; this addition of unnatural effects during the editing process only added to the surreal nature of our narrative.

We gathered many props for our carefully constructed mise-en-scene, however some, such as the doll's head above, we decided against its inclusion in the video as it was agreed that it gave the video an element of the horror genre, a genre that we didn't think was conventional of the music video.

To ensure we recognised every aspect of the mise-en-scene, we made sure that the set/setting in which we were filming was housing the conventions that we wanted to be included in our video. As our narrative was concerning a stalker obsessed with the band 'Paramore', we used a garage that had simple, white walls. We then painted the band's name onto the wall in dark, brown paint, before printing of countless photo's of the band - taken from our photoshoots for the Digipack and Advertisement tasks - and plastered them to the walls. This instantly personalised the location; transforming a plain set into one that had several recognisable elements that featured motifs of the band - the band name and the band themselves.

Another picture of us constructing the set; the left wall shows the plain, white wall while the wall to the right shows how we have constructed the mise-en-scene - adding posters and paint to transform the set.

The above-picture shows the make-up for the narrative's actress; as yet another aspect of the mise-en-scene, the make-up was important in portraying certain characteristics to the audience. We opted for naturalistic make-up, with an emphasis on eye-liner; her hair had two different colours - this coupled with her costume of black-leather jacket and black skirt, we felt were conventional of the rock-music genre.

This final picture shows an example of the importance of lighting; the actress is lit from beneath using a lamp with it's shade narrowed to focus the light on the actresses face. This gave an eerie and unnatural lighting to the set, to enforce the weirdness of the character. Indeed, we used several different lighting techniques when filming, from flashing lights to candles - each carrying different atmospheres and emotions through their unique ways of lighting.