Fifth filming schedule

Fourth day of filming

Today we did our fourth filming meeting from 4:00pm - 5:00pm, booked all the equipment that we needed (DLSR and tripod) and remembered all the props needed (flannel shirt, black dress with a white cardigan, and the bag).

Here is all the shots that we filmed:

• We redid the mid shot of the coat for the lyrics 'Leaves her coat' as we realised when editing that Elsie, who is playing the main protagonist, walks past the coat, and this wouldn't make sense as the main girl character had already gone outside.
• We then did the long shots of the main girl rushing up the stairs and going back to her bedroom. 
• Next, while in the bedroom we filmed a close up of her dropping the bag on the bed, a mid shot of the girl on the bed with the shirt and then her lying down holding the shirt and looking upset.
• After that we filmed the instrumental parts where the main girl breaks-down with worry and stress as she does not know where her lover is. Shots we filmed include a close up of the girl hitting the wall and leaving a hole in it, a long shot of the girl throwing the shirt and a pillow, and a mid shot of her looking sad and frustrated.
• Finally, we filmed a close up of me and Laura holding hands for the lyrics 'to the sound of love'.

What went well:

We were able to film everything we planned on the shooting schedule, and we remembered all the props and equipment needed to film the shots. We used a range of different shot types and angles to make sure that it wasn't boring to watch.  

What could be improved:

 We need to make sure that we've cleared everything in shot as there was a poster in the background of one of the shots and that could make it look less professional. Also, for the shot when Elsie punches the wall we need to improve the match-on-action as when we put the shots together in editing it didn't look like one swift movement. To improve this I will make sure that I don't change the camera angle as much when we go to re-do the shot. 

Here are some screenshots of what we filmed:

Fourth filming schedule

Here is the filming schedule for our fourth day of filming. There is everything that we want to film on it, so we can tick it off when we have finished the shot.

Updating our social media accounts

After yesterday's filming, Today my group and I decided that we should make sure that we keep our band's social media accounts active (like how real bands would keep fans updated). 

On Twitter, Elsie added a screenshot of some filming that we did on day 2 and I posted some photos that I had took behind the scenes 

Furthermore, Elsie then started to post on our band's Instagram using photos from each filming day.

Here is how it looks:

Third day of filming

Here is an update on our third day of filming and how we have developed our final music video. Today, we filmed shots including the 2 friends 'ripping' and 'drowning' the photo of the main girl's 'lover', the girl leaving the note, and all of the outside shots using the equipment we had booked (DLSR camera, tripod and shoulder mount). Because we were mainly filming outside we all made sure that we were prepared by wearing suitable footwear, warm clothing and bringing all the probs we needed with us including the boy's shirt and the girls bag.

The shots that we filmed in order consisted of:

• A close-up of the tap running
• A high shot of the boy's picture in the sink
• A close-up of the picture being ripped by of the girl's friends
• A shot of the picture being thrown (which we had to do a couple of times to make sure that it was in shot. We also had to do this with a new photo that hadn't been wet, so as we were able to get it in the shot without it being too fast).
• Close-up of the girl opening the box which she keeps the photo of her lover in
• Extreme close-up of the girl's (Elsie's) eyes which fit to the lyrics 'I'm stunned'. Here we wanted the girl's eyes to look angry, so we took a fairly long shot to make sure that we can pick out the best part when we are editing it.
• Extreme close-up of the main girl's mouth lip syncing to the lyrics 'people marching to the drums, everybody's having fun to the sound of love', which we did to make sure that we still had some conventions of a music video (making sure that it didn't entirely drift off into something which looked more like a short film etc).
• A long shot which we filmed outside of the girl walking away from her home, as well as a mid shot of her turning around and looking back at her house.
• Long shots of the girl walking to a bench (outdoors). We then used a shoulder mount to film a shot of the camera panning around her while she was sitting on the bench.
• A long shot and a mid/close-up of the girl looking around the woods for her lover
• Long shot of his shirt hanging on a tree
• A low shot of the trees
• A mid shot/close-up of a globe spinning (we ended up using a different one than the one that we talked about in our props blog due to not having the access to it at this particular time).
• Long shot of the view from the window
• Ranges of different close-ups of Elsie playing the guitar
• A close-up of Laura marching from three different angles. (This fits with the lyrics 'People marching to the drums, everybody's having fun'. We did this to try and follow a convention of music videos with the visuals matching the lyric

Here are some screenshots of the filming that we did today:

What went well:

We filmed everything that we had planned on the filming schedule. 

Also, with regards to the weather, we were lucky as it was forecast to rain but it didn't so we did not have to worry about lighting or finding a way to stay dry.

What could have been improved:

We need to make sure that we remember all of the props as we had to use a different flannel shirt and globe. 

Furthermore, we had to think about how to throw the picture of the boy as we soon realised it was too light and damp to throw with force (after 'drowning' it). However, we did fix this problem quickly by crumbling a dry version up and using that.

Updating music on our band website

We have decided to name our band's album 'Transylvania', after the band's single that we are creating the music video for. We also thought that to make our CD be more realistic, we add other songs on to it. Therefore, Elsie did some research and found the website www.purple-planet.com/ which allows you to use music from other students school projects (so all credit goes to them).

While updating the music on our band website, we added the rough draft of our album cover (however, this will change once we've finished it).

This is what the latest updates look on our band website:

Here is our album, along with the different songs that we are adding on our album.


Music page part 1


Music page part 2

Third filming schedule

Here is the filming schedule that we made for filming on Saturday at Elsie's house.

Second day of filming

Today my group and I focused on our second shooting our music video from 3:30pm - 7:30pm at my house again. For this we booked a DLSR and a tripod. As this was something on our 'what could be improved' part last time, we also remembered to take 2 batteries in case one ran out (giving us more time to film). Also, with regards to costumes, Elsie bought her dress and I had the onesies (which we all wear in our music video).

We used the shooting schedule more this time around, as we found that it helped us keep on track of what we needed to get done (we ticked off what we did as we went along). The first parts of filming we did included the quick cuts of the girl before she leaves the house (which in editing we made into quick cuts to create the dramatic effect that we wanted to achieve). Other shots that we filmed included a long shot of the bedroom, close-ups of a mug on the bedside table, the TV being left on and a mid-shot of the dressing table. We then filmed a mid-shot of the main girl packing her bag, opening the door using a close-up, then a long-shot of her going downstairs for the lyrics 'she plans to run away with him forever', and finally a mid-shot of her leaving her coat for the lyrics, 'she leaves her coat in silence'.

We then filmed the footage for more of the sleepover part of the narrative. This included us filming a long shot of us all sat on the bed, but since looking at it we feel that we will need to make it darker in editing to keep the 'spooky' theme going. We then shot a quick close up of each of us with the torch being held underneath our faces (to once again keep the spooky theme). We also shot the extreme close-up shot of me blowing out the matchstick (after I lit the candles in the bedroom).

Finally, we decided to film me and Laura lip syncing again, as before we felt that it didn't work as well as it could have, because the lighting was not quite how we wanted it. We were able to improve the lighting by switching the main light off and using a torch on our faces. Also, we remembered to take down the posters in the background, so it looked more professional.

What went well:

We believe that our time management went well as we were able to get most of the shots done that we were planning to do. Furthermore, we started filming shots from the other side of the narrative (the 'spooky' story). What also went well was the fact that we were able to improve the shot of me and Laura lip syncing.

What could have been improved:

We feel that we probably needed to set up quicker and make sure that we had everything that we needed was ready for filming. For example, we were going to film the shots from the 'spooky' story narrative of the girl opening the box and looking at the picture of the boy that she likes, as well as the shots of the girls friends destroying it. However, there were technical problems so we weren't able to print out the picture, so therefore we will have to film it at the next filming day we have at my house.

Here are some screenshots of what we did on this filming day:

Second filming schedule for final music video and website update

On Wednesday we will continue filming. Here is the schedule we did so we knew what needed to be done:

Also, we added information to the ABOUT page on our website, with a review on the band from

a magazine and some general things about what the band have been doing.

Updating the website

Today Elsie added the wristbands that Laura made yesterday to our band website and duplicated the 'Buy Now' buttons next to them so that they all matched. We decided as a group to make the price £2.50 as usually small merchandise is cheaper than clothing and we made sure to make the button the 'Price' button was the same.

Then we needed to complete our social bar displayed at the top right hand side of our website. This involved creating a YouTube channel and changing the profile to our band logo and the background of a tree to show our theme of trees. After that we created a Instagram account and did the same thing that we have done with all our social media (same profile band logo, description and with a link to our website if possible). We then linked both of these to our social bar on our website.

Youtube page:

Instagram page:

Finally, we added in the contacts for the 'CONTACTS' page. The contacts included: management, PR and booking. This involved coming up with fake names and emails.

Updating the wristbands for the websites

Today our group thought it would be best for us to update our wristbands for our bands merchandise line for the same reason we updated the clothing to make it look more professional. We thought Laura would be the best to design these with her artistic abilities. Laura came up with doing a falcon icon on the front of 2 of the wristbands, as well as adding the band name and some of our singles (Transylvania) lyrics on 2 of them. Then on the last one Laura decided to draw a simple tree design (to fit with the theme we have on our website and social media and also the CD design idea we came up with), and with the band name on the back.

Here is what they look like:

Social media update

My group and I decided that we should start to use our twitter page (to make our band seem more realistic). Laura added a bio, our location, and put in a link to our website so that we are more connected, making it easier to get recognised. We also decided to write some tweets. Here is what was updated with regards to our information and what was tweeted:

Tonight, we also decided to create a Facebook page (which can also be linked to our band website). We added our band logo as our profile picture and stuck to the same theme as our Twitter page. We added a 'send email' button onto our page as well as the events that we put on our website (the gigs that we made up for our band). 

Here is a link to the page for our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/FirelightFalconsOfficial/

The first day of filming

Today my group and I started filming for our final music video. We worked from about 3:30pm - 7:30pm and focused on interior shots. We were prepared and booked all the equipment that we needed (DLSR, Shoulder Mount and Tripod) and remembered what costumes were needed. 

We firstly filmed Elsie lip syncing to the whole song and made some lighting choices (making it quite dark to fit with the 'spooky story' feel). To achieve the lighting that we wanted, we turned all of the lights off and lit some candles, as well as using a torch under her face.

After this, we took some short close-ups of me lighting some candles which we did from a variety of angles (these will be used at the beginning of the music video). We then did some shots of the candles burning and then been blown out. We decided to do this as it will make the structure of our music video clearer with the candles being lit at the beginning of the music video and then showing them being blown out at the end  when the story is finished. 

We then filmed Laura and I lip syncing to the parts that we are singing to in the music video when we are shown to be teasing Elsie's character. However, we feel that we will need to film this again as the framing could have been better and we weren't always looking in the same direction. Also, we think that the lighting in the shot needs to be improved, however we will check if this can be altered during editing.

Here are some screen shots of what we worked on:

Here is what went well and what we could have done to improve:

What went well:

• Elsie's lip syncing was in time, the lighting went well with how we wanted it to look. We also filmed her lip syncing to the whole song, so this will come in handy when editing the video. (meaning that we have more footage than we need and will be able to use bits in our video whenever we feel that we need more lip syncing to be added).
• We also think that the candle shots turned out well, and the lighting also looked how we wanted it to be, to fit in with the feel of the song (and the 'spooky' story that the girl is telling').

What could have been improved/what we will do next time:

• Next time we know that we will have to make sure that the battery is charged, because it ran out quickly so we missed a lot of time that we could have spent filming. Because of this, we also learnt that we shouldn't leave the camera on when we are setting up the shots, as this wasted it's life a lot.
• Trying to steady the shots more is something that we should try and improve on, as when watching some of our clips back, we found that they weren't as steady as we thought they were. To improve this, we will try and use the tripod and webcam as much as we can, and try to avoid more handheld shots (apart from when we want it to look more shaky to fit with the 'spooky feeling').

UPDATE: We have decided that we were going to film more again next Wednesday, as well as Saturday next week, as we feel that we need the time to get all of the footage that we want.

First shooting schedule for final music video

 As we are beginning to film our final music video on Wednesday we have completed a shooting schedule which includes all the shots we are going to film, the equipment, probs and costumes we will use, the time and place we are doing it.

Creating a Twitter account

Today my group and I decided to make a twitter page for our band as we could link it on our band website. 

We decided to put our profile picture as our band logo and set the header as a picture that we had previously from when Elsie went 'exterior location scouting'. We decided to use a photo where there is some red incorporated in it, so as it fits with the red in our logo. 

Here is the link to the Twitter page that we made:

https://twitter.com/Fl_Falcons

Here is a screen shot of what we have created so far:

Here is the social links bar that we have linked our twitter to on our website:

Risk assessments

CD ascetic inspiration

Today our group started thinking about what design we might want to use for our band's CD cover. Laura found some inspiration from this image of a Deathly Hallows symbol from Harry Potter and thought that it would help us create something for the cover of our own CD. Here is the image that Laura found:


Elsie went out for exterior location scouting and took some photos that we also began to use on the website, we thought that this would be a good aesthetic and theme to stick to for our band. Therefore, we thought that if we made our own symbol/artistic picture (such as this one of the Deathly Hallows) but one that linked to our band and with our theme, we could do something with it like what has been done in this symbol.
By this, we mean that we thought about after making our own symbol for the front cover, we would then fill it with one of our own photos (such as a picture of the trees with the sky in the background), like what has been done in this one, apart from with a galaxy design.

We thought that this would be a simple, yet artistic CD cover that would be different to other ones, as it will be a lot more exciting than just having a photo of some trees as the cover.

Later, if we stick with this idea, we will probably start thinking about designing our own symbol and how we want it to look. 

Developing merchandise and updates to our website and CD cover inspiration

Today we decided that we should update our merchandise so it would be more professional. We thought that it would be a good idea to use the falcon from the bands logo to show a consistency in the bands design and branding. Instead of using cartoon templates of clothing we should used plain real clothing to make it more realistic. Elsie found some images of pieces of clothing and then edited our falcon onto them.

Here is what they look like:









Elsie then added these to the website and we decided that the t-shirts should cost £15 and the jumpers £20 as they are usually higher in price. We added 'Price' and 'Buy Now' buttons next to each one and decided on their placing and colouring. Furthermore, we added two headers 'T- Shirts' and 'Jumpers' in a pastel orange as it matched our aesthetic.

Also, 'Home' and 'Gigs' pages were updated with tour dates and where they would be taking place. We decided that we would choose small gigging places as our band is not fully established but is just starting in their career, therefore, naming smaller places of performing would make more sense then an arena. 

Here are the updates to our website:
Website link: https://firelightfalcons.wixsite.com/officialwebsite






On Homepage


On Gigs Page

Finally, Elsie found some artwork of a nature based piece on animals and thought that it would fit our tree theme shown across our website perfectly. This inspired us so we decided that Laura should draw a version with a falcon. We think that we could use this as part of our albums front or back cover.


Here is our inspiration and our version drawn by Laura:



Inspiration from Twitter.


The version Laura drew.

Here is a rough draft of how it could look used as an album cover: