Making Of The Picnic Scene

Below i have found some footage that gives a good insight to the making of the picnic scene which is the first date the pretty girl goes on with the average guy. This footage has some funny bloopers as well and shows the thoughts we went through when we was filming this, like a birds eye angle of the picnic date, attention to detail and a wide angle pan of the scenery.

JOSH - PLEASE READ

Hi mate, its adam

How have you been?

You do sound stressed lol

The video is coming along fine, i just need to upload the work i have done so far onto the blog. I'm guessing you can't make the monday evening slot then if you can't don't worry about it too much i will be there though blogging like mad and editing like crazy.lol

would have uploaded it sooner but it takes a age to import onto a blog post, if you know what I mean

I will try and keep my phone on but with its shocking short battery life i'm not hoping for much

try texting or something

We do need to talk about filming extra footage sometime and talking over blog posts is a very slow way of doing it. If either Perry or Alicea are reading any of this feel free to try and blog talk to us.



See you Wednesday or some other time

Adam

ADAM - PLEASE READ

Hi Adam its Josh.

I have been trying to call you but can't get through at all! thought this was the only other way as i cant get into college at all.

How is the video coming on? Have you done any more editing or made any changes? If so, export it as a Quicktime and post it on the blog so i can see. I will try to come in again on wednesday to see it then if you cant but ill probably call you before. SO TURN YOU PHONE ON! LOL

Ermm, we need to talk about any extra filming and times and dates etc. Still working on it but ive got the media essay due and lots and lots of business studies as well as work on top. Man i sound stressed lol.

I'll hopefully see you Wednesday if not some other time,

Josh

Thursday 16th October- work done

In this Thursday media lesson in the first week the majority of the group has been away on business studies work experience i have been editing the rough cut from the point josh edited up to when he came in on Wednesday 15th. To give the group an opportunity to make any editing changes from major changes to minor tweaks i have save a copy of the work josh has done so far so i could continue on my own copy of the rough cut in case members of the group wanted to come in and edited from the point we finished editing as a group.

To show what the progress of my edited rough cut i have quicktime the work done so far on Final Cut Express HD so I can get feedback from the members of the group that are away. The black parts would represent footage that still needs work on and therefore could not be put in yet.




feedback on this from the members of my group would be gratefully received

Week One- work done so far

This week is the first week three members of the media group has been away on business studies.
Below I have done a quick recap of what has been done by myself so far as well as mentioning additional help from members of the group that have come in on their spare time to help while still doing they work experience.

Monday 13th:
In the first lesson without the majority of the group, I gave feedback on the rough cuts of the music videos done by the other groups in our class as they also gave feedback on our rough cut. To give comprehensive feedback each group analyzed camerawork , effects, Performance/genre, Editing, Mise en scene and overall comments to mention any improvements they could include. Once this was done I typed up the rough cut feedback onto the blog and then imported the rough cut work we as group done on Friday the 10th.

Wednesday 15th:
In this lesson, josh came in during the day from 10:50am through to 14:35pm as he had spare time to carry on any editing to ensure the work gets completed by the deadline. He also helped me solve the continuity problem which Andrea spotted out which would have lost us marks if left unsolved. While Josh editing our footage, I blogged the method of solving the continuity problem and also wrote about the colour correction josh attempted after Adrea showed us how. After the lesson me and josh were allowed to work through our free period to brush up the work on the rough cut so far as well as progressing to the next scene of the picnic from finishing the locker scene and the library. This also gave me the chance to blog some more.

Thursday 16th:
In this lesson I made a copy of the rough cut so i could make my own attempt on finishing the music video. Another blog posted explains the process in more detail. I also started structuring the daft of part one (1500 words) in for Monday 2oth of October.

Editing tip from Andrea

After recent feedback from Andrea over the start of our edited music video, Andrea pointed out that different shots of the same scene see to have different brightness levels due to the angles we have been using and the position of the light. This caused continuity problems which were reflected in our editing feedback. An Example of this was the picnic scene date with the average guy and the pretty woman when looked back on after filming each shot had different shadows and shades of light.

To solve our continuity problem Andrea suggested increasing the brightness of each different shot. To apply this effect we had to highlight the desired footage and then click effects and then video filters to then apply the colour correcter from the colour correction tab. This then able to finely tune the brightness of the shot as well as the contrasts to create the lighting that suited the scene and could be easily recreated for every shot in that scene.

Rough Cut Feedback

Feedback of the Rough Cut

Camerawork:

• had some great shots
• when you half walk out of the door then edited well to flow
• locker shot cleverly done
• great use of panning with locker scene

Editing:

• good but transitions need some work
• lip syncing also needs work

Effects:
no comments

Mise en scene:

• good use of scenarios
• good simply ideas for outfits
• good involvement of using the guitars
• good locations and using props
• like the different locations

Performance/Genre:

• performances were believable

Continuity:

• the picnic scene had parts where it appeared that the bottle was teleporting

Overall Comments:

• rough cut is very good and can see what you guys are trying to acheive
• will look a lot better once finished
  

Rough Cut

Below is the rough cut footage of our progress so far in the music video

Behind The Scenes

While filming our video, we took out an extra camera which, thanks to Adam, came up with the great idea of behind the scenes. In my previous project which Perry was a part of as well, we had a behind te scenes, however in this one, becasue there was four of us within the group and a maximum of 2 infront of the camera ant any one time, we kept the camera rolling throughout the majority of the day.



This brought us laughs as we looked back on the footage and also revealed problems and issues that happend while filming. Also, we thought tis was great because it showed exactly how we shot the film, the methods we used to shoot it and who contributed the most and what each of us did. An example of this would be the shot of the locker scene where Perry and Alicea ar having a coversation. This showed how we managed to hide perry in the distant sht and then appear as the camera pans around Alicea. (watch it and you'll see). This example also showed how we all contributed with ideas and who had what tasks like Adam was on the Behind The Scenes camera, i shot the music video using the college camera, as required, and Perry and Alicea were acting.



I have placed some of the BTS (Behind The Scenes) footage below so that anyone can see either to have a laugh or analyse our working methods etc:

Locker Scene Camera Angle Method

Another look at the way we shot our locker scene

Testing how we could shoot the legs close up shot

Leaving scene 1 to move on to Cineworld to shoot some more





Costume change (perry being a perve!)

Alicea dropping everything and Perry picking them up and dropping them again, being a gentleman, NOT!

A p*ss take of Alfi's video

Look closely at Josh....We wondered where Adam's clothes went to, they fell down a gap and we couldn't get them back! I think there still there....

Adam making a quick getaway to Boots for some food.

Our transport to get about each scenes

Walking back to the car from college

Overtime

Also, today as me and Adam stayed in class throughout the day we worked out how we can both contribute to the video at the same time even though we have one computer to edit on. This was that i carry on editing the video as Adam, as he likes to say, "blog's like mad".

We chose this way because i enjoy the editing part of the project and can do it reasonably well and quickly in order to get it done and Adam can then write about what ideas WE came up with on how to edit it. This also gave him the chance to blog any problems, gaps and other issues which will affect our video.

From todays editing, we found that there are some gaps in which we will need to shoot some more footage and perhaps some additional scenes where Adam is too plan tonight ready for next lesson and maybe another.

Another thing we did today was write out notes for a Call Sheet including costumes, props and locations where again we decided that Adam was going to write up a finished one. When doing this, because we will be reshooting some scenes, we had to consider any props which were seen in the shot, costumes which went right down to Alicea's wristband and lighting and/or weather such as the picnic scene. This will need to be carefully planned out so that we do not misuse this time and lose the oppertunity to finish any filming so during next lesson, i will go over the Call Sheet and double check with all of us that e can all attend and speak with our teacher to book out the college equipment when needed.

While Me, Perry and Alicea ar away

Today, me and adam took advantage of any spare time possible we had in order to complete as much of our music video as three of us including myself, have a business studies project and will be missing the following two weeks. However, because this music video is such a big part of our final grade, i will be trying to come into college over those two weeks whenever possible to help Adam with the editing. Also, as this will be the last practical part of our Media Studies course, i want to take the opprtunity to use the equipment and learn as much as possible because this is, i hope, the sort of industry i would like to persue a career in.

We have as a group worked out a plan to help while we are away and this included Adam publishing the video he has worked on on the blog so that we can see it and thegive as much feedback as possible so that we all have an input into this project.

Location change

Locations we were going to film at have change because of lack of permission and time management.

Below are the locations that have changed:

Restaurant date with business man at

Address: Pizza Express
7a Jesus Lane
Cambridge
CB5 8BA

has changed to:

Address: Frankie and Benny's
Cineworld
Cambridge


Jewelry window shopping with business at

Address: Grand arcade
Cambridge
CB5 8BA

has changed to:

Address: Grafton Center
Cambridge
Cb5 8BA

Bowling alley date with player at

Address: Cineworld
Cambridge Leisure Park,
Clifton Way
Cambridge
CB1 7EA

has changed to:

Cafe date with player at

Address: Cafe Nero
Cambridge city center
CB1 7EA

Cafe meeting of girl and business man at

Address: Starbucks
Quayside
Cambridge
CB5 8AB

has changed to:

Restaurant meeting of girl and business man at

Address: Frankie and Benny's
Cineworld
Cambridge

thanks for reading

Video editing session 2- Wednesday 8th October

Plan for today's video editing session
"Wednesday 8th:
we as a group, have a media lesson second period (10:50 to 12:20) time spend in that lesson will be on editing as well as the chance to work through lunch time and third period which me and josh have taken advantage of. This gives us a three hour and fifty minute window to get editing done to best possible standard "

What we have done in this session:
In this additional video editing session to involve the members of the group that will be away from the 10th of October onwards, Josh has been continuing the editing previously done in the first additional video editing session on Monday 6th of October. The editing work that has been done by Josh is finishing off the first meeting of the average guy and the pretty woman and started editing the first meeting of the player and the pretty woman which was filmed near the lockers.

While editing we noticed huge gaps within the edited work josh had done so far that was missing vital shots that worked well with the song and linked each shot smoothly. While editing was being done i took the oppertunity to note down the missing footage we need and plan when we are going to film it as well as updating the blog mentioning the process we are going through at the time and stating changes that we have made.

In Conclusion:
A lot of progress has been achieved with the first 55 seconds of the song nearly edited well enough for the rough cut.

Editing feedback from Andrea

Extract from a recent conversation our group had with media teacher Andrea Joyce

"After looking at the early stages of your editing for the rough cut deadline, I have noticed that your skills in editing have dramatically shown improvement since your last project being the thriller "Double or Nothing". As well as this the group has also maintained the signature humor that Josh and Perry have brought into both the thriller and kids TV opening sequence "Jungle Files"."

Behind the Scenes

We decided to use an extra camera to film behind the scenes when filming the music video so we could show the public the making of this video as well as the challenges we faced while filming that would of remained secret, or otherwise out of the public view. Footage of the behind the scenes is still in the process of being edited.

Time management of music video editing

Our timetable of the editing of the footage we filmed when doing the music video has changed because three of the four members of our group have arranged job placements as work experience for their buisness studies course. These recent events have affected Josh, Alicea and Perry contribution to the editing. In a attempt to help Josh, Alicea and Perry, me and Josh discussed the new timetable and have explained it below:

Business studies work exprience starts monday the 13th this timetable gets the majority of footage editing done before that date so our whole group doesnt lose marks on quality of editing or personnal contribution to the editing. Keeping in mind that the rough cut of the editing is due in on the Friday 10th.

Monday 6th:
we have a media lesson last period (13:50 to 3:20) time spend in that lesson will be on editing as well as the chance to stay after college hours, this depends on the staff's decision.

Tuesday 7th:
no media lesson and no oppertunity to edit

Wednesday 8th:
we have a media lesson second period (10:50 to 12:20) time spend in that lesson will be on editing as well as the chance to work through lunch time and third period which the majority of the group have a free period. This gives us a three hour window to get editing done in making it a great oppertunity to take advantage of.

Thursday 9th:
we have a media lesson first period (9:00 to 10:30)time spend in that lesson will be on editing as well as the chance to work through lunch time depending on decision made by our group and staff members.

Friday 10th:
hand in rough cut of edited music video

Hopefully this new time table gives the whole group a chance to work as a team to get the editing done so we reduce the chances of losing marks.

thanks for reading

Plan for Thursday's Filming

Thursday is our best day for filming as we have the whole day for filming allowing us to get alot of work done without distraction.

Below I have listed the scenes we still need to film (rough idea of what needs to be done):

• meeting of the average guy and pretty woman in library
• meeting of the buisness man and pretty woman in a cafe
• first date with average guy in the park having a picnic and walking along the river
• first date with buisness man at a fancy restuarant
• first date with the player at the bowling alley at cineworld
• shots of the average guy singing the song while playing acoustic
• pretty womans choice between the guys
• ending

thanks for reading

Wednesday Filming day review

camera was booked out at 4:10 on wednesday 1st october and I have review the progress of our first evening of filming the music video. Has been done in bullet points as it was done quickly by me before i forgot what happened. Basically each point is explaining the shot, techniques used and problems we came across and how we overcome them.

Filmed three shots in the Long Road Six Form Library
(when the pretty woman catches the eye of the average guy)

Shot 1:

• went really well, shotlist came in very handy
• filmed Alicea(pretty woman) walking towards the camera

problems with Shot 1:

• problems faced with doing a side on angle on the walk because it was unsteady and couldn't be acheive with the use of the dolly as the tripod could get low enough. Hence having Alicea walk towards the camera.

Shot 2:

• the other shot worked great with height advantage for the camera which covered all the areas needed for the actors to work in.

problems with Shot 2:

• no problems with that apart from finding the right angle with enough height and distance to have the whole location in the background as me and Alicea acted in the foreground.

Shot 3:

• final shot in the library with the final shot of the average guy singing after the pretty woman passes him by.
• this went well after testing diferent angles to filming in. the end result worked well.

problems with Shot 3:

• problem was lip synching at times but was overcome by playing the song in the background to make it work better with trail and error improving the overall performance of the lip synching

Filmed three shots outside the lockers of Long Road Six Form College

(where the pretty woman meets the cool talking player)

Shot 1:

• slight problems occured before hand with cleaning out my locker and making it look more girly using props such as a girl magazine and a pink folder
• great use of shots with rotating camera pan of Alicea and Perry acting
• get a great idea of a touch of comedy when perry(the player) pops up from behind the locker door after remaing hidden which works extremely well as camera angle has Alicea look more 2d making it more of a surpise when the locker door is closed to find the player there.

problems with Shot 1:

• use of dolly was brilliant but problems appeared when the dolly path was obstucted by other lockers to get the desired angles we wanted but was overcome with smooth steady filming by Josh

Shot 2:

• is a over the shoulder angle of Alicea looking at Perry asking her out
• is a refreshed new way of doing a close up of each character when they are interacting with each other

problems with Shot 2:

• slight problem with shot bloopers but was avoided by trail and error technique until we created a impressing angle to portray the view Alicea has

Shot 3:

• final shot outside lockers showing Perry(the player) give Alicea his number, done well with good acting and body language with no on screen bloopers when it came down to filming
• camera angles was mid range to show reaction of both characters as they acted and looks realistic enough to work

problems with Shot 3:

• none simple shot required no talking

Filmed three shots of Jewellery shopping

(Alicea goes shopping after a date with Josh(the buisness man))

Shot 1:

• Josh walks Alicea home through a shopping mall after a date
• test footage of corridor filming technique worked brilliantly here as Josh and Alicea walk towards the camera.
• Walking talking to each other, telling jokes for the purpose of body language between the two (as diegetic sound will be muted for the song) and sharing eye contact to maintain the illusion of romance we are trying to create

problems with Shot 1:

• main problem here was strange looks from the general public, didnt stop us that much and planning a route for Josh and Alicea to walk so they were close enough to the jewellery store as well as a route good enough for the dolly to follow and film them. Final route chosen made the bullet points above appear much better, in my opinion.

Shot 2:

• Alicea grabs josh's hand and drags him towards a jewellery shop
• Camera angle used was a mid range shot of the both of them with the dolly following them side on and then behind them as they looked at the jewellery leading onto the next shot nicely

problems with Shot 2:

• problem here was one only as a member of the public walked in front of the camera while filming. We decided to use this to our advantage of him being a extra that made this shot more realistic. A decision to mention his contribution to this music video in the credits is still undecided.

Shot 3:

• in the final shot showing Alicea and Josh both pointing out peices of jewellery they like
• this was done with a close up of a over the shoulder camera angle so we could get the outline of both Josh and Alicea in their characters pointing out the jewellery they like. This worked well as the detail we got of the jewellery was incredible

problems with Shot 3:

• this shot was accomplished with no problems and was done in one take.

I think thats conclude our progression of the music video in the first night of filming

thanks for reading

Blog Feedback

Today, we analysed each groups blog to give both positive and negative feedback in order to help them improve their final music video. Below we have placed the feedback we received about our blog:

Are there any types of post that are missing from the blog?

More video to portray our intentions for this music video.

Is there evidence in the blog of completed background research,locations, equipment, organization and developed ideas from initial concept?

The Joe Brooks research
the character
the planning the camera hire
lots of information and research- good stuff you guys are great

Does Our Blog effectivly portray the end result of our media video?