Colour Effect

Me and Paige decided to use a black and white effect on of our shots throughout our video; we were undecided on whether to use a sepia effect or black and white. However, we felt that black and white would give more of an emotion to our video, especially in the sad shots of Dani and Jack rowing. It was also easier to use contrast and lighting on a black and white effect. We wanted to make our shots very definant, so we use a high contrast and a low lighting level, however this caused us problems as the video pixalated too much. Me and Paige decided to do a test for the effects of contrast/lighting, as when the video is exported, it may be a worse or better quality picture, therefore illuminating the pixalation.

Here is our testing, where the contrast is high and the lighting is slightly lower:

Editing Over All

As we filmed over 3 days, we had to upload what we had on each day to the computer. We started off by deleting extra footage that we did not need, for example, rolling the camera before actually lip synching. This took a long time to decide which parts to delete, and what parts to keep, as Me and Paige shot atleast twice for every scene, so we had variation and extra if anything went wrong. To decide which scene we would use from each shot, we concentrated on the angle, the timing, the lighting and the mise-en-scene. Also, we played with contrast and effects to see how each shot would look with the effects we wanted to put into it.
To edit our whole production, it took about 10 hours all in all. When we had edited and cut down our shots, we decided to put them into storyboard order. We followed the stages up to the first chorus, from then on, we used new ideas to see what order shots would look best in. We had to consider continity and the storyline- would our audience understand the happy vs sad scenes? Our lip synching scenes had to be put in order of lyrics, so "Cry me a river..." obviously had to fit in with the chorus. When we filmed, we kept the camera rolling for the chorus so Dani could lip synch the whole chorus, therefore this gave us more footage to handle and edit.
Once our scene were in order, we started to cut them down to the music, so that each change of scene would fit in with the beat of the music as well as the lyrics. I found it difficult to edit very precisely, so that the shot would change at the correct time so I overcome this by making the scenes shorter or longer. It was rare that we sped up scenes, as slowing down the duration fit in better with our aesthetic style and mood.

3rd Day of Filming - 9th March

Our third and final day of filming focused on getting the inside shots finished, as well as going back over the Hartham to re-film the 3 shots that had erased from the last day of filming. We started at 4.30 and made sure Jack and Dani were ready in their customes, as well as hair and make up the same as the last two filming days.
Firstly, we filmed the shots that Jack was in inside, there were 4. Then we went over to Hartham which took 15 minutes to re-shot, and then back to Dani's house. We needed to shot 7 scenes of Dani to finish our storyboard. These were shots such as ripping up a picture and others such as re-filming Dani throwing things about. It did not take us long to film our final shots, and we experiemented with angles, such as a high angle shot looking down on Dani.
Our last filming day went well, and we got the scenes filmed very quickly as we needed the natural light in the bedroom!

2nd Day of Filming - 8th March

This was our 2nd of filming, and we aimed to get 10 indoor shots filmed and all the ourdoor shots filmed. We started filming at half 11, and got the outdoor shots of Jack filmed as we had to wait for Dani to finish school. We then filmed over Hartham, which took about 1 hour for the outside shots. Whilst we were trying to stick to our storyboard, we found this difficult, as we noticed that some of the shots were the same e.g. walking and holding hands. Me and Paige adapted these shots to our location- we used the Hartham Bridge to film low angle shots, and walking long shots. These were effective and give variety to our production. Also, we used long grass to film Dani in- but when playing this back, it was hard to see her lip-synching.
When filming the first couple of shots, we had to use continuity e.g. Dani walking towards Jack, and us filming her on the left side of Jack in shot 2. Also, in shot 3, we made sure that Dani walked towards the right of the tree, so in shot 4 Jack was standing to the left of her.
Although in our 2nd day of filming, we did not follow our storyboard completely, we used our creativity to adapt to our location and think of new varied shots. I feel that this was successful, and I am glad we did not follow our storyboard. From this I have learnt how important animatics are, as if I was to produce a storyboard again, Me and Paige would have to consider every shot, and vary them more.
We planned to finish filming all of out shots, and also re-filming some indoor shots that we were not happy with e.g. Dani throwing things around her room.
Unfortunately due to a really cold day (!) Dani and Jack wanted to film the next afternoon for the indoor shots, as they were too cold! As well as this, it was getting dark outside, and we wanted the natural outdoor light for the indoor shots.
Overall, our 2nd day of filming was succesful, as Paige and I got the majority of shots filmed. When playing back out footage at home the same night, the outside shots on the bridge (there were 3 different scenes) had been erased, so Me and Paige plan to go back to Hartham to re-film these the next afternoon for our final filming day.

1st Cut Presentation Feedback

We presented our 1st cut presentation to the class and our teacher on the 25th of February as scheduled, however we had not finished filming all our scenes due to not being able to film for the reasons listed before. Despite this, we were still able to create a mood and effect with the scenes we had already shot, and our editing effects allowed this be continued as we used black and white effect, slowed down shots and sharpened some. We also started to add fade to black transitions. So far, we had 50 seconds worth of footage, which is the majority of the inside shots. We need to put these scenes in time with the music and shoot the rest of our scenes.
The feedback that our teacher gave us is as follows...











From this feedback, we are going to make improvements by using more transitions such as dissolves to make variations. Also, we are going to make sure our images fit in well with the lyrics when editing. When we shoot our next and final scenes, we want to make sure we get into the 32-40 marks, so Paige and I need to make sure our shots are steady, frame the shots well and interesting - maybe more creative, use appropriate material and props/customes, select our locations well, edit for meaning (so our lyrics fit in with images, and there is continuity) and vary our captions and other FX. Unfortunately we do not have the original 1st cut, as when we uploaded our 2nd lot of footage, the first cut got over wrote by new footage! So we had to upload everything again onto Adobe Premier and re-edit.

First Filming Day - 25th January

For the first day of our filming, Paige and I planned to shot 19 indoors scenes in Dani's house. We started filming at 3 o clock, after we had got the customes, hair and make up completed. We started from shot 10, which we found easy to shot because it was a wide angle shot showing the bed and Dani standing next to it. We stood the camera infront of the window, so we had the natural light shining on Dani and the shot. For the next two scenes, 11 and 12, it was really hard to film because the windows reflection dis allowed us to see Dani and Jack through the window, for the time being me and Paige will have to re think the two shots. Scene 15 was a successful shot because we used a low angle camera view to look at Dani, looking at herself in the mirror applying make up. The lighting was also good in this scene as it light up Dani's face well. Scene 16 was okay, but will look better when slowed down, as Dani was ripping a shirt it looked too fast and hard, but slowing it down when editing will make it fit in better with the music. We positioned the camera opposite the side of the bed, so it wasn't too similar to shot 10. Using the voile curtains, and the fairy lights, Me and Paige created a dreamy effect in scene 17 with Paige and Jack. Although, the camera is quite shaky, so we may have to re film this, depending on our feedback. Shot 18 was really good, because we used an over the shoulder shot to show that Dani was shouting at Jack. We reversed this and looked over Dani's shoulder towards Jack shouting back but realised that, when editing, Dani's robe was coming off her shoulder so it did not look continious. We found difficulty in scene 20 because it was hard to do a tracking shot following Dani falling to the floor, so instead we chose to use a zooming in shot to Dani, then we are going to use the transition, fade to black, to see her on the floor looking up. This looks much more effective, and still flows. Me and Paige do not like the shots 25, 26 and 27 because of the prop. We did not have an old fashioned phone, so we used a modern one for the time being. When looking back on it, we decided we are going to re film, but with an old phone. The shots and angles are succesful however.

The first day of filming was succesful, but we were unable to film at 19 indoor shots because we ran out of time- it was getting too dark. However we have got enough scenes to edit and to give a impression of the mood we are going to create in the first cut presentation. In the 2nd day of filming, we will re film any scenes we did not think were done well and film the rest !

Sample of Music

This is a sample of the music we are using on the production called Cry Me A River by Julie London. We are stopping filming at 2 minutes and 18 seconds.