The first problem we had was the fact that despite asking the cast to turn up at 1:30 so that we could leave at 2, one of the cast wasn't able to get to the meeting point until 2. This did put us behind schedule, however, when we were waiting, we decided that it would be an efficient use of time to get everything into the car ready to leave when the cast member arrived.
At the first location, the forest, we set the equipment up very quickly, making sure the spirit level on the camera was correct as we wanted the shots to be level. We managed to take a lot of shots here, including most of the ones we had on the list that we produced to help us. We had planned to spend 1 hour on this part of the filming to make sure that we had enough time to get everything else we wanted done, but, we stayed in this location for about 30 minutes longer than planned which would impact the schedule for the rest of the day.
We then moved to another part of the forest to do the lip sync element and while we set up the equipment properly, the artist changed costume. We had previously asked the artist to learn the lyrics, he had not learnt them as well as we had hoped. This was a problem as it meant that not all the shots we took are good enough to use. We did manage to get a few shots which we really liked as well as some interesting tracking shots of the artist moving around the forest. For this particular shot, we directed the artist to mimic what Tom Odell does when in the forest performing in the video 'I Know'. Luckily, we will also be filming in the school studio at a later date, therefore, there is still time for him to learn the lyrics and we can use this footage as well.
We had also bought theatrical smoke bombs to use for this section as we had seen similar effects in other indie music videos. The first problem we had with this was that they were very difficult to light, but once we got one lit, we were able to see what would happen. Unfortunately, this did not work as well as we wanted because the smoke did not spread in the way we thought it would, this could've been because we did not light enough of them at once, causing the smoke to be concentrated in one area. A second problem with this was that the smoke disappeared quite quickly as a result of the wind. Despite this, we did manage to take a couple of shots with the smoke in the background which could look effective when we come to edit the video.
After this, we then packed up and moved to our next location which was the lake. When we arrived, we were already behind schedule, however, it turned out that this was beneficial as we realised that it would not be dark enough for the final location at the time we had planned. Additionally, once we had parked the car at this location, it started to rain, so, we waited in the car for a bit until the rain stopped. When the rain stopped, Sam, Bianca and I got all the equipment out and started to set up while the cast changed costume. When we started to film, it was clear to us that the cast were not acting in the way we wanted as they were sitting too far apart to connote that they were a couple. We therefore asked the cast to sit closer and act like they were in love. This took a few shots but they then got into what we asked them to do. While we were filming, it did start to rain which gave us an idea of a different shot which we could take. We asked the cast to put the picnic mat over their heads and walk off like that to avoid the rain.
Our final location for the day was the view point. Again, when we arrived, it was raining so we had to wait until it stopped to film, fortunately, the rain did not last long. The cast changed costumes for a final time while we set up, taking with us the lantern and the sparklers. We took a few shots of just the couple standing looking out as well as some with the lantern which looked very effective as it started to get dark quickly after out arrival. We really liked how you could see the lights in the distance becoming brighter as it got darker. We then took out the sparklers which were very difficult to light as the lighter did not have much gas in and the matches didn't want to work. Finally, we got the matches to work and the sparklers were lit. We were very happy with the shots that we took of the couple playing around with the sparklers. As well as this, we took a few shots of the artist lighting some sparklers which we put in the ground. This looked nice as an over the shoulder shot with the girl watching. Another shot which we decided to take here that we thought may be good to end the video with was a bunch of sparklers being thrown up into the air and landing on the ground.
Once we had finished at this location. we then went back to Bianca's house and finished the day. Overall, I think that the shooting was fairly successful as although there were several problems we encountered, we were able to overcome them and take some good shots.
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