First day of filming ...

The plan was for Matt and Adam to go up and film the London Eye, section of our video and myself and Jack were going to meet them after our football match. After our game I got a call from Jack saying that his workload at school ment that he would be unable to perform in our video. Intially I was very annoyed with him but I could empathise with him.

I immediatley rang Matt and informed him of the news, he then informed me that they Eye was closed, things could only get better from here. They did. On the way home Matt rang up his mate Glenn Rice, and asked him in he wanted to be the main character in our video, he said yes.

Glenn is in a band called Go-Zilla, so he is a natural musician, he can play the drums and has been part of making music videos for his band before. He also did Media Studies and had to make a video so we hope to benefit from his knowledge and hope he can pass onto us what went well for him and what they would have improved. Glenn's musical background means that he has experience of lip syncing, which will make our jobs much easier when we get to London. He may even be able to  pass on some ideas to us of good shots or angles that we may have missed.

Here is a picture of Glenn playing the guitar, in our video, he will have a guitar and we will film close ups of  his hand strumming the guitar, this will make it more realistic because he has experience of playing this instrument.

Risk Assessment

Before we start filming it is important that we evaluate all the potential risks before we start filming our video.

Busy Roads

London is an area where the roads are full of congestion and we as a group will have to be very wary when crossing these busy roads. When in London we will have to be patient crossing the roads despite time constrictions. We will always look for appropriate crossing areas and focus on the road when crossing. One of our shots in our video includes Glenn crossing the road whilst singing, we will have to ensure that the road is completely safe and empty so he can cross.

Train Stations

These can be very busy especially during rush hour, whe will have to make sure that we are aware of all the possible dangers at a train station. These stations can also be a hotspot for theft, so we should be aware of this, espescially as we are using expensive equipment. We need to make sure we all stick together as a group, because these stations can be very crowded. Avoiding peak periods will enable us to use our time better.

Time Management

Time is precious for us, we do not want to rush our filming but we need to make sure we use our time effectively. This is why I have drawn out a to do list, this will help us stay focused on what we need to do, and we can work out how to get to all of our locations in the shortest period of time.

Filming in Crime stricken areas

Crime is high in London and in specific areas, some of our video requires us to film in some of these areas. We need to make sure our equipment is with us at all times and that we stick together, because if one of us gets isolated they are more likely to become a target to a theif. 

Final Cut Pro

We are going to use Final Cut to edit our video, this will make our video more realistic as we will be able to use all the transitions and effects that are used in the best modern day videos.  

None of our group have ever used this software so it will be a learning process, and we will make mistakes along the way. This is one of the reasons for doing an animatic, because we learn how to use the software so that when it comes to the real thing we are more confident. This is the same as when we made our music magazines at AS level, we made a school magazine front cover and contents page to improve our confidence at using the software which in that case was Photo shop. This meant we are able to work to a good standard without taking too much time in making the magazine.

Fix You

Coldplay are renound for making excellent videos that grip thier audience for example the video The Scientist is excellently filmed and edited. I am going to look at the video for Fix You, which is half narrative and half performance.

In the early stages Chris Martin is staring down the camera singing the opening lyrics, this incorporates the audience and involves them with the lyrics. Andrew Goodwin states that the lyrics either match or contradict the visuals, in this case the match, the lyric 'stuck in reverse' is followed by Chris Martin stopping and walking backwards. The first cut comes after 38 secs this is reflective of the mellow tone of the music, this video is about a journey and if there were multiple cuts its would look odd as the music is not fast paced.

This changes after 2 minutes 30 seconds, when the main character starts to run as the music picks up speed, we also see that he runs through all the locations that he has been shot so far in, this indicates the idea of a journey. This effect is helped by the use of a handheld camera in some parts, this allows gives the effect that we are chasing his and that we are involved.

The lyrics are matched with the lighting and facial expression of the character. The lyric for this shot is "when you lose something you cant replace". The idea of loss is shown by the low key lighting and the main character diverting his gaze from the camera. This suggests a sadness and regret, he is deep in thought therefore his facial expression is reflecting this.


For the chorus, there is a transition that takes us back to the first setting in the video, this links to the idea of creating a base in your video that can be referenced throughout. One of the main lyrics in the chorus is 'lights will guide you home', throughout the song there are constant rays of light that appear from over Chris Martin's shoulder or behind him. This is another case of lyrics matching the visuals, this is something that we will have to be aware of when filming our video, we need to make our video unique to our song.

Chris Martin ends up running up the stairs to a massive crowd at a concert, the lyrics are matched in the storyline, the lights have guided him to his home, which is the stage. We then see much more colourful lighting to reflect the positive mood and their are more vigorous movements from Martin himself and the crowd. This suggests that he is in a joyful state of mind because he is home, when he is performing there is a light in front of him, this signifies last the light in his journey home.

Animatic

Animatic

 Over the last few weeks we have been creating our animatic for our video, this will help us piece together what our video will look like. This is will help us develop our original ideas and fit the still images we have drawn to the track we have selected. Some of our ideas did not actually fit with the music as we thought so we had to edit them.

Doing our animatic will help us get to grips with using Final Cut, which none of us have ever used before, doing this helped us distinguish roles for the group. We all started to have a go on Final Cut and Matt got to grips with it quicker so we decided that he would do the editing of the animatic and the majority of the video. Adam and I where better artists and worked together to create the drawings and send them to Matt to put on Final Cut.

Here are our storyboards that we have drawn, we have taken individual shot of each of the frames, this is what will make up our anamatic.

"The London Eydea"

One of the lyrics for our song is 'some say you might lose your mind', we struggled to find a visual that would fit well with this lyric. Initially we thought that an image of a normal person going crazy would fit the bill, but it would be very difficult for us to see someone doing this and catch them with our camera. We were searching for locations in London when we got to the famous London Eye, we stopped and admired. Then we had the idea, what if we filmed it going round once, then speeded it up this could have the effect of somebody losing their mind.

Leake Street

We went up to London on the 30th November to have a look at some possible locations for our video. We had an idea that we would use Leake Street at some stage in our video, but when we got there we realised that it was the perfect location for chorus of the song to be filmed. Its unique graffiti makes it a realistic setting for a music video. As you can see from the pictures we took their are many images that could fit in our video and also areas that are well lit and areas that are darker. We decided to use this as the base for the song, this is where the video will start and finish.