We were told about recce shots. These are the starting point to any kind of filiming, includng studio filming. The idea is to take photographs at the different locations where you intend to film and report them back to the other group members. They need to be good quality so that all detail can be shown. These shots help to establish to other group members whether this is a good location to use to film in or not. Also whilst doing this we need to think about whether we need permisson to film there or not and anything that might get in the way of us getting our shots. We will do this when we come to plan and film our own music video.
We were filming our video for 'Teenage Dirtbag' in any available space around college due to time and efficientcy factors, so recce shots weren't needed. We watched the original Wheatus video and analysed the shots in detail so we knew exactly how the shots need to look. We watched it several times so that we could get used to the video and later discussed as a class how we might need to adapt our footage due to the fact that our video is going to be low budget and using only available props, costume, actors and location. It is vital to create a story board of all the shots that will be needed aswell as a description of each shot. This should include the shot number, shot type, description of action, camera movement/ direction, location, props/costume and description of sound/audio but for a music video no sound is needed.
We print screened every shot from the 'Teenage Dirtbag' video and created a story board with a description next to each shot. When we are filming, a copy will be given to every member of the production team so that they are informed of what needs to be done. Below is and example of what our story board consisted of.
We were introduced to using the camera where we saw a demonstration of how to use the camera correctly. Our teacher told us how to insert the tape, how to record, how to stop recording and how to attatch the camera to the tripod. He also showed us the different functions the camera has, like how to zoom and pan using the tripod. There may be implications when filming due to different factors. One might be sunlight, if it is too bright then the exposure needs to be changed accordingly so that the footage doesnt turn too white. Also we have to consider different weather conditions and how this might affect our filming. For example it might be raining but a solution to this is to take an umberalla with us. We learnt how to adjust the tripod to different heights and how to make it level so that the shots were sraight.
We then divided the story board into sections and in small groups worked on seperate parts so that we could then when we edit them we can put everyones shots together. This saved us time as filming can be very time consuming and we didn't have a lot of time. Also dividing into smaller groups meant we could all practice with the camera and have turns in directing shots.
I took this shot using a hand held camera. I had to walk backwards as I was filming being careful not to make the camera jerk. This was my first go at filming and it took a few takes until we got a shot where we were satisfied. We used a clapper board to write down the shot numbers and the takes. This meant that when we were editing we could easily pick out the shots that we wanted.
I was an extra in this shot and had to take instructions from the director about when to start and stop. Also I was told what I needed to do differently to gain the perfect shot that we needed.
I was an extra again in this shot and had to work as a team with other members to get the shot right. We had to listen carefully to instructions from the director so that we could get the filming done as quickly as possible.
EDITING
To edit our footage we used a programme called Final Cut Express, the industry use Final Cut Pro which is the same software just stronger. We set the project settings to PAL as this is the european editing standard. This means that in this part of the world we watch, edit and shoot programmes at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. In different parts of the world they use a different standard called NTSC which plays at 29 frames per second. Digital editing is non-linear which means that we are able to structure our clips in any way we want and changing the order of slips to however we like.
Once we had set up the project correctly, we then had to capture the footage onto the computer and save it in a convinient location. We connected the camera to the Mac using a firewire cable. We played the footage back and at the same time transferred it to the computer using Timecode. This is a unique number for each frame of the film that we shot.
We edited in three stages, assembly edit, rough draft and the final cut. Firstly we used the razor tool to cut our footage up into all the different shots and deleted ones which were no good. We had written down which shots were good already whilst we were filming so could easily pick these out by reading what takes it says on the clapper board. We then cut the shots down so that they fitted together smoothly and got rid of any unwanted parts at the begining and ends of the shots. The music was the added to the sequence so that we could fit our clips in the right place. If we needed to add any effects we would do this at the end as it it the most tie consuming and could cause us to fall behind scheduele. For this video we didn't need any special effects but considered transitions. Below is our final edit of the footage we filmed as a group.
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