Castle Howard - York
Fairytale Scene
Plan:
After having a set plan and filming the day there was many very successful things I captured as well as some things that can definitely be improved on once looking back at all the footage together. They will be mentioned in this post later on. All of the thumbnails of my footage are shot below, these are all of my shots together once put into a folder on my hard drive.
Getting ready for the shoot; Elle and Jamie as planned set off at 8.30 and arrived at my house for 9.15 due to traffic. By 9.30 we were starting to get ready for the shoot. I curled Elle's hair after choosing in my hair and makeup tutorial shoot that was the most appropriate for my work on the shoot day three. I then used glitter and gold eye shadow to make Elle's eyes and hair colour stand out before getting her ready in her dress that I had fitted to her measurements. Jamie also got ready in his suit and shoes to look the part.
I used Vivienne Westwood planet 3d earrings and a Vienne Westwood pearl necklace to match her 'classy' and 'fairytale' style dream as they are very expensive and shows compared to the necklaces she is wearing in the other shots, it is a lot more elegant and not so alternative.
The dress that I got for Elle to wear is a wedding dress, unused from my auntie. She bought two as and once decided gave me the unwanted one. I then got the dress altered to Elle's size due to the fact the dress was a 14/16 size before and Elle is an 8/10 on top due to her chest and waist ratio. This then meant there was a lot of extra tie to the dress on the back therefore I twisted it into place instead of crossing it all the way down so that it still looked nice but tightened Elle into place.
Once Filming
As you can see from the photographs at my location it was a lovely summer day even though it was in early january however it felt FREEZING. Emphasis on the temperature as it was at its highest 3 degrees, which meant every couple of minutes I had to stop and wrap Elle up in a blanket we had to keep her warm. We also had my mums body warmer and Elle's coat to try keep her warm.
For the beginning couple of shots of the eyes and Elle surprised at her location I felt great about, they are my favourite shots of the shoot and knew straight away I didn't need to re film them. The eyes I knew I could crop as in the frame I wanted the image stretched a bit so I could see the hair but only the bridge of her nose. I am planning to do this in iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
I framed the shots so that my actress was right in the centre of the frame in front of the fountain and castle so that straight away you can see the vibrant location she is in compared to the dull corridor in a school. This was planned purposely so that the audience is as just as surprised with the location as Elle herself.
The panning shots and tilt shots I filmed were to show off the outfit of my actress and the long shot of the location my actress was in. I wanted to show the heels that my actress was wearing as they are also elegant and match the mise en scene featured in the frame. The shot also portrays the jewellery my actress is wearing, this connoting the same message. I feel this was an experimental shot and could be used but also may not be, I am going to work in iMove or Final Cut Pro to see exactly what will be used and on what line of the lyric.
The walking away shots after the establishing shots are now put in here. These are three of the shots that I could use for my next part in the music video, the close up of the shoes shows the outfit as well as a replication in the continuity style that progresses from the same type of shots in the last scene.
For this section I only need a couple of seconds for each video therefore I didn't want to make it too complicated and didn't film my actress from every angle like I have in the last scene when walking through the corridor. I chose to use an over the shoulder shot to my actress turning around then a direct approach with a straight forward sideways shot.
These shots could be straightened to make them more visibly correct to my audience when editing.
The finding of the note and following of the string scenes were recorded just next to the fountain. I was able to capture the note scene and keep it held in place in the bush. This was with the help of the branches. I wanted to get a variety of shots to keep my video conventional and professional. I wanted to show off the location by the positioning of my actress but still also show the narrative and storyline. All shots are not bright enough for my narrative and initial idea therefore I will use the saturation tool to manage this later. I rolled out the string from the start up and until this point on the bannister, I then ravelled the string back up to start again towards the next location therefore the public wouldn't be restricted by the string not have confusion from it.
This is the journey part of my music video and features shots like these that all link together to show Elle's path in finding her love interest. I will be adding extra editing for example the last two shots shown will be blended together to create an overlay video image, this extends the visible second time and also help make a clear transition to the next video and location.
The Change of Location Shot
Knowing that once I arrived at my location and realised how much time I had to shoot, and possibly wouldn't be able to go back to that location to shoot, I needed to change my plan of where I was shooting. This meant stepping away from my first storyboard slightly. I used a swap of trees technique to make it look like the location below is actually behind the tree above, this is not the case. Using the video above and the video above that one, I collided them together in editing to be able to merge the scenes to make it look realistically the same tree. That way I could shorten my video yet keep the storyline.
I took locational shots like these situated above as time fillers, if for any reason there wasn't enough footage or I needed a transition I could use these to fill the gaps. It also shows off my location to the audience more as well.
Once it came to filming the lip syncing part of my video Jamie had gained an audience from the members of the public therefore was not as confident as I would of wanted him to be, never the less I feel that Jamie did the best he could of done. Once people had dispersed a little he felt a bit better to over exaggerate the scene with his facial expressions that relate to my genre and the seductiveness of a prince like character to my female audience.
As we had no music to follow on Elle's shots I had to sing the song back to Elle on her part to try get the beat of the song correct. This is extremely hard and if the footage doesn't match each other once I edit them I will have to work as closely as possible to one another in order to get them in sync.
I used a tripod for this shot however as we were on top of a hill the levelling wasn't spot on therefore I will have to straighten this shot and then work at stabilising the shots as they are slightly wobbly.
The running towards each other scenes were filmed fairly quickly. Everybody was ridiculously cold and wanted to go home after being at the venue for almost 4 hours. I wanted to prolong this as long as I could however you could tell me actor and actress were getting very tired and this was my main priority, I wanted the video to look good but also cared about their wants and needs in the process. The footage as you can see was getting dark due to January days sunsetting is around 4.30pm. I produced quick shots only a few seconds long for each piece of footage as I wanted a build up before seeing them stood together, therefore I filmed a lot of footage but short footage.
The big mistake
The big mistake that was made was quickly shooting this shot without looking at the details. This set on location was at the top of a hill, a hill that would be impossible to get up in heels, Elle changed into her black boots to be able to get up this hill and everybody was so focused on going home they didn't, including me, realise she didn't change back into her heels.
Therefore.. this lovely shot that I filmed in order to get to the big climax will have to unfortunately be cut or edited so that the feet are no longer in the shot if I can not return to this location. This is very depressing as I love this shot of the two if them as it doesn't look like fake passion or chemistry between them however I will have to work around the problem that is created.
They do not belong as a couple
Elle and Jamie are good friends, however once put together in a love situation or environment are terrible together. Even though they were trying to act as professional as possible I had to retake a lot of footage due to the fact they were giggling or messing around when I needed straight romantic faces. Although this was of high comedy I had to manage the two of them the best I could. I feel Jamie was slightly more controlled than Elle as she squealed a lot in the video as you can here if you play through them.
I wanted a collection of videos that show Elle's final thoughts on the two of them and her love for Jamie in her imagination before it cuts back to reality. I am going to make these videos a lot brighter and more fun to work with in terms of colouring and brightness in the editing suites and feel I could make the couple look a lot more romantic than they are by positioning the videos in a certain way.
The final shot in the dream are these two looking up at one another holding hands. This then will cut back to Elle's eyes in the corridor.
During the Day
My main priority on the day was keeping my talent warm, on such a cold day I didn't want them to get ill therefore wrapping them in my belongings, blankets and coats I was hopefully able to do this, these are just a few pictures that show the bottom of the hill, the surroundings and walking around.
Development on my video draft
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