Filming 25/09 & 06/10

Filming 25/09
Despite my ideas not being fully developed, I felt that a filming session would improve my camera skills before progressing onto much more time consuming and well thought out filming. I decided to do some close ups of natural objects to allow myself to gain an understanding of what aspects of nature I should consider including in my product. I focused on close ups and hand-held filming, as I used a tripod much more in the AS coursework and I felt that certain shots may look better handheld, as the slight movement of the camera gives a natural effect, in-keeping with the theme of the song itself. I also tried shooting some long shots to judge the quality of the setting I had chosen. As the shot was an ELS of a large tree, I think that having some practise shots helped me to judge whether the tree was central in the frame, as mise-en-scene is an extremely important aspect of filming, especially in the indie-folk music videos. I think that this filming session helped me largely as I felt that it improved my abilities to shoot close ups and I was able to create a soft focus effect due to the HD quality of the camera. However, I think that to improve further I should have practise shots from different angles and distances, such as MS, LA and HA.

Filming 06/10
Even though my animatic is incomplete I wanted to practise a few shots I have on my storyboard; I felt this would give me a better feel for my product and allow me to gain a better understanding as to whether certain shots will work or not. Learning from my previous filming session I focused on a range of distances and angles, as not only did it help me with practising camera use it meant that I could visualise how the storyboard would look with the music when I begin to edit. I think that this filming session was quite beneficial for me as it taught me that my location at the moment is fairly hard to film in; the uneven ground made it extremely difficult to place the tripod so that the framing of the shot wasn't wonky. As well as this, I struggled with filming in the wind as it constantly moved the camera, again causing the shots to appear unnatural. This filming session taught me that I should rethink my location, but as I have another location in mind that shouldn't be a problem. I also learned the effectiveness of certain shots, such as the ELS shots of Emily walking, however I'm beginning to think that I should change the location to indoors as well to allow myself to have a larger range of shots, as well as keeping the audience interested and engaged. The majority of the indie-folk music videos I watched used the same location throughout but by subverting this convention it could benefit my product, or possibly do the opposite. Thus, I'm going to produce my animatic using the storyboard I have at the moment to see how effective it is when with the music, and if I feel that it's too repetitive I will rethink my idea and introduce another location.