A2 Music Video: Film Session Two

It snowed today! And because we had planned to do our outdoor shots, the weather made this difficult. This is when we decided that we would finish the indoor shots that we didn't have time to complete.

Clothes Montage:
This took a long time to film, in the music video, the main character goes to get changed and cycles through a load of outfits in the mirror. This links to the fast, upbeat song. The first outfit we placed him in was the one he was wearing on Monday. The purple shirt and black trousers. Unfortunately, the shirt was washed and we had borrowed the shirt from my dad. He wasn't pleased about the orange juice spill so we weren't allowed to do it a second time. Luckily, we only needed the purple shirt for him to walk into the bedroom to begin the outfit montage. The outfits that he cycles through are listed in the costume section. To film this, we asked Chris to stand in front of the mirror and set up the camera on a tripod so that it was an over the shoulder shot, mainly with Chris' reflection in shot. The tripod means that the shot can remain the same for each outfit which is better for the jump cuts. We also marked the floor where he stood so that his reflection was also in the same place each time. Hopefully, the only changing element in the shots will be his outfit and expressions. It was very fun to do and we feel it has worked successfully. We filmed Chris posing in each outfit.

Bathroom:

This scene was also very fun to do, this is where Chris is doing several activities all at once. The first shot is Chris grabbing a toothbrush from a cup, we did this in one take, just a static, close up. After this we filmed him applying toothpaste to the toothbrush and look at the "mirror." In fact he looks at the camera lens as though it is a mirror and starts brushing his teeth. We set the camera up on a tripod for this part because both Freddie and myself were taking part. We both wore white long sleeved shirts to match Chris' costume although our bodies were out of the shot. I applied shaving cream and brushed his hair whilst Freddie shaved his face (the plastic cover was still on) and hair dried his hair. The first time we did this, we played it back to realise my body was in the shot, this was not good because it was supposed to look like Chris had several arms for humour. Our second attempt worked much better although it would have been even better if there was more space around him. I was stood on the bath and Freddie was leaning in awkwardly from the other side. I am very pleased with how this went.

We then filmed Chris spitting out the toothpaste with the shot being focused on the sink. We then stopped recording and moved to behind the mirror so that when Chris stood up from the sink, his reflection was a cleaned face and winked at the reflection. Spitting out the toothpaste was a close up of the sink from the side, then the mirror shot was level with the mirror and an over the shoulder shot of Chris.

Tie Change:

This part of filming took a very long time. I was looking forward to filming this part most. We had a total of five ties so we knew we had to film Chris coming down the stairs five times in a different tie, each time. It took us a few attempts before we realised that we must have a system that makes sure he walks down the stairs exactly the same each time. Our system was that he must put his right foot on the first step every time, he must keep his left hand on the banister as he comes down every time. Also, to ensure that he came down at the same pace, I sang the ABC, a letter per step.

Like most other shots today, we used a tripod to ensure that the composition of the shot was exactly the same each time.

Leaving House:

From the steps, Chris walked to the front door and as he was about to open it, his wife tapped him on the shoulder. This was filmed in two separate shots. One of which was a pan from the stairs to the front door, this was challenging as there is a large mirror in the room and we had to avoid a reflection, the second was a close up of Gabriella's hand tapping Chris' shoulder.

Kiss:

Next shot we did was from outside of the house, the snow/rain had stopped now. Kneeling on the floor outside, we filmed a static mid shot of Chris's and Gabriella's legs, Gabby's leg lifts up similar to cheesy love films to indicate that they had kissed. This is the end of indoor filming for the day.

Street:

It stopped snowing halfway through filming the indoor parts so we decided to get the street section completed. We were really excited about getting to use our dolly, however, when we attempted to use it, the wheels we used meant that it was really shaky. This is when we decided to shoot the tracking shots using my car.

Whilst I was driving (slowly), Chris was running on the path. Freddie was seat belted in the back and faced the camera out of the window and we drove along side him. Running in different directions, we filmed many shots of Chris running. We also needed Gabriella to play a school girl. We carefully arranged the stunt where Chris pushes Gabriella out of the way so that it happened just as we drove past. It took a few takes but the end result was just as intended. I feel that the car has worked far better than our dolly would have!

Despite not getting everything we wanted to film done, we have managed to catch up with the film schedule ready to soot the garden and office scene tomorrow!