Filming Day 3 - Review (Connor Burgess)

Nathan

We have nearly completed all of the filming required for our music video after the third day of filming, all we need to film now is in St. Andrew's church and then in Micheal's bedroom and then we will be finished. I think that this day was the most enjoyable to film but perhaps slightly less productive.

Paul

Due to the fact that we had a bigger cast because of the scenes we had to film there was a lot of laughter which resulted in more takes needed to get the shots that we wanted. However we did get the shots that was required and followed the storyboard, there was slight frustration when it was taking longer than was necessary to film a certain shot; but we managed to film everything that we needed to film.

Adam

Nathan, Adam and Paul all wore clothes that were relevant to the scene and managed to help us in terms of mise en scene. They wore clothes that a gang of lads would wear to beat up another person and looked the part. I am overall happy with this day of filming and the fact that we are getting through the filming quickly emphasises our ability to work well as a team.

Filming Day 3 - Preparations (Connor Burgess)

There is not much that we need to do as a group in terms of preparations for this filming day. We are returning to Everton park in order to film one of the most important scenes in the music video and we are bringing in the two actors (stated on the call sheet) in order to do so. Nathan is also going to be a temporary actor for the day in order to help us film the scenes.

We have told all the actors what to wear as the mise en scene (costumes) in this scene is crucial in order to make the scene look professionally directed. Due to the fact that we have a bigger cast for this day of filming, it is a bigger task for Michael to make sure that we can all help him get the shots and make sure that we follow the storyboard.

Shooting Day 3 Review - Michael Hickey

We have finished our 3rd day of shooting our music video. The 3rd shooting day took place on the 26th of November 2014. I feel that we have got 2 thirds of our music video finished at this point, we only have 1 more location to film at now and we will hopefully have all our recordings finished by next week.

Unfortunately we took longer than usually due to the amount of takes we had for some shots. Because we had 2 other cast members filming with us it wasn't ideal and therefore had multiple takes sometimes as the actor was distracted or the shot wasn't good enough.

As i was the Camera Operator and Director for the day i wanted the shots to be perfect and to follow the storyboard.

Film contact list (Michael Hickey)

This is my contact list for all of the filming clips that we have recorded so far. Creating a contact list is a very easy way to view your clips and separate them all. I am going to separate all of the clips when we are finished recording, this will allow me to know what recording is what and make it easier for myself when editing. I will also name each clip to know the specifics of every recording. I will also be able to know what clips are take or final clips.

Shooting Day 2 - Review - Michael Hickey

I was very pleased with our planning and preparation on the 2nd day of shooting , i feel that we got a lot accomplished despite our issues with the camera. The camera we were going to initially use had issues so we had to use a mobile phone camera instead for some of the recording which wasn't a big problem as the quality was still good.

Just like the first day of shooting my aim was to get as much footage as possible, When following the storyboard and story script we independently added some new shots and camera movements as we wanted to develop the storyboard slightly. Some changes had to be made to the storyboard and what we initially planned as there was some problems with the location, weather and lighting whilst on location. Some areas would be too bright and the weather would change. We often moved around to see what shots would look best and work in our final edit.

Overall our time management has been great as a team and we have followed our schedule. Hopefully we now only need one or two days of shooting and we will have all of our shots and footage to begin editing.

Filming Day 2 - Preparations (Connor Burgess)

This is arguably the most important day of filming for my group because we will be filming the most important scene of the music video. This will be the scene when the actor (me) is dragged by a gang of thugs and is beaten by them for a reason we have decided to leave ambiguous, however suggested that the reason is something to do with religion.

To film such a scene I will need to look like that I have been beaten up, luckily for my group I personally know someone who can do the make-up for me and make me look like I have been beaten up.

The picture shows the make up that will be used to make me look beaten up. Firstly wax is needed (white tub) to produce the cuts on my face and the white scalpel is used to spread out the wax to make the cut look realistic. Secondly is the box with the colours inside, this is used to make the black eye that I will have and to make the red swelling that will be around my cuts.

Lastly is the black bottle which contains the fake blood and the brushes are used to apply the fake blood to my cuts and to apply the red swelling around the cuts.

The second image is how my face is going to look after the make up has been applied. As you can see the make up is very realistic and it looks like I have been beaten up. The black eye looks very good and looks like it has been done recently.

The cuts on my face are in places where we thought I would have been punched and kicked, and the blood dripping down the cut on my nose makes it look recent. When we film there will be blood dripping out of all the cuts to make it look like it has just happened.

I think that the make up is top quality and helps us make our music video the way that we want to.

Filming day 2 and day 3 (Nathan Kearns)

Over the past two days we were filming some long and short clips for our music video. We done the filming in Everton park. The location changed from Newsham Park to Everton Park when we seen the views and wildlife in Everton Park. Also the hills and the pathways also caught our eye because we knew they would suit some of our camera shots and movements. 

On the first day the weather was very cold but it stayed dry. This was a good thing because we knew Connor needed yo film some scenes on the floor and it wouldn't have been as good on a wet floor because he could ply have done so many shots before being soaked through. We only needed Connor in front of the camera on the first day.

 Connors girlfriend come with us on this day to do Connors make-up. We needed him to look beat up so the make-up included blood and bruising. I thought she done extremely well to make it look so realistic. As the camera man I thought I done very well because not only did I get the shots on the shooting script but I managed to get in some of the wonderful views in the background. Like the first day of shooting Michael was very organised and knew where he wanted to shoot Connor all the way through.

On the second day we didn't need any make-up so we didn't need Connors girlfriend to be there. We went to the same location because we needed more shots. We needed to film Connor being beat up by me and 2 other of our mates (Paul and Adam). These two people were very helpful and done a very good job and followed all Michaels instructions very well. I had to take on a new role as an actor. This was new to me but I thought I done well in playing the role of the gang leader. Michael needed to take on two rolled so he was the director and the camera man. I also thought I helped him out with the directing because I tired to put the other actors in a certain spot that wouldn't show us not really hitting Connor. The weather was more wet than the first day so I don't know if this will show on the music video. If it does it is a bit of a let down. 

I will be uploading images soon 

Filming Day 1 - Review (Connor Burgess)

I think that the first day of filming our music video went extremely well, I think this is mostly down to the group's organisational skills as we prepared well so we all know what we needed to do. We followed the storyboard and got a few shots that we already had planned out however Michael suggested that we take some more shots so that we have a bigger variety when it comes to editing the video.

Nathan recording me lip syncing the chorus

Despite the fact there were several people passing by whilst we filmed, we all performed well and not let the potential interruptions affect our filming. I believe that I performed the best to my ability when we filmed as I managed to stay in character whilst filming. We also encountered a problem when my phone died and we could not play the song, despite this we went ahead and continued filming and I managed to continue lip syncing without the use of the song.

Michael worked as a great director whilst we filmed, he helped us stay to the storyboard and to shoot additional shots to help us whilst editing. He dealt well with the conditions and positioned me and Nathan well to make sure that the sun light did not affect the quality of the footage. He also helped Nathan with the camera angles and movements in order to stick to the storyboard and to film the shots the best we can.

Me and Michael discussing the next shot

I think that Nathan worked well as the camera man for our group, he gave his opinions when we thought that a shot wouldn't look right and listened well to Michael's instructions. He also kept his composure during filming so that the camera did not shake so much during shots when he had to move the camera. 

I think collectively as a group we worked very well during our first day of filming, we prepared well and got the shots we needed. I think that we will be able to finish the filming quickly and produce a top quality music video, if we continue to perform this way.

Filming Day 1 - Preparations (Connor Burgess)

First day of shooting analysis (Nathan Kearns)

I think our first day of shooting went very well. I think we worked very well as a group and we all stuck to our roles that we decided on a couple of weeks ago. These roles were...

Actor - Connor

Camera man - Nathan

Director/editor - Michael

I think Connor done his role extremely well. He followed Michaels instructions all the way through the morning and kept a straight face when he needed to. I was also surprised at his very good lip syncing because there was a point that he didn't even need us to play the song for him. I think this was a bonus for us because we didn't need anyone to play the song so we could focus more on our other roles.

I think Michael was a very good director. I think he visioned what camera angles would look the best on the video and what locations would be the best when it come to us filming. He also was telling us to wait for the sun to go behind the clouds before we were shooting because it would look bad when we come to editing it. 

Finally I thought I done a good job getting as much footage as I could because the more footage we have got the more we have got to work with when we come to making the video. I also tried to get as many camera angles and shots as I could so we can look what will look better when we come to edit it. I feel the camera was a little bit shaky at some times but we have a software that will be able to fix it.

First day of shooting pictures (Nathan Kearns)

Shooting Day 1 - Review - Michael Hickey

Shooting Day 1 Review
I am very happy with our progress on our first day of shooting. I feel that we were all pretty consistent and on track throughout shooting.


We were all confident in our role and met the requirements for a successful shooting. Nathan Kearns was our camera operator, Connor Burgess was the Actor and I was the Director.
We all had constant input into what shots we should do and how we may be able to implement new shots. After following the story board and shooting script to see what shots we had to do we recorded a lot of extra footage to use when editing.

I feel that by having extra footage we are able to have a lot more diverse options when editing our final music video.

It was also very important for us to get to the location on time. We had to stick to our schedule to ensure our shooting wasn't interrupted. We got to the Albert Docks at 10:30 and finished around 11:30.

I am very pleased with our time management for our first day, i am also very happy that we got more footage than we should have to ensure minimal mistake when editing.

Premises Permission - Church (Connor Burgess)

A church is one of the main settings we are going to use for filming our music video. However with Christmas being so close, we needed to make sure that we could film in a church through getting permission from the priest.

St. Cecilia's church

So, because we are filming in Newsham park as well we decided that we was going to film in one of the two churches in Tuebrook for the convenience. The two churches are St. Cecilias and Church of St. John the baptist which are both located on Green Lane. St. John the baptist is right outside a bus stop in Tuebrook and St. Cecilias is a 2 minute walk from the same bus stop, showing that the churches are both easy to get to.

Church of St. John the baptist

St. Cecilia's church is the church in which I got baptised in and had my holy communion, because this is technically my family's church that is why I chose this as one of our choices.

However Church of St. John the baptist was chosen because of it's convenient location as it is only a bus ride away from Cardinal Heenan and the city centre. Both churches have different styles and they both suit the type of church that we wanted, which is an old fashioned looking building.

I rang up St. Cecilia's and left a message on the answering machine for the priest, a few days later the priest rang me back and we talked about the possibility of filming our music video in his church. The priest did give me permission to film in his church and I was told that I had to let him know when we are filming a day in advance.

Also, I visited the Church of St. John the baptist on one of my half days. I spoke to the priest and he also granted me permission to film in the church. He also told me that we had to let him a know a day in advance.

We are now deciding which church we would like to film in as they both have different styles in terms of exterior. We will make our decision on Monday which is the day before we film in the church.

Our shooting equipment (Nathan Kearns)

This is our first piece of shooting equipment. This is a standard Hitachi video camera that we are lending from the school. Here is some information on what the camera can do and some of its features.

• 23 x Optical Zoom
• 120 x Digital Zoom
• 3in LCD Screen
• Full HD 1080p Recording

Accepts SD, SDHC and SDXC memory card formats



This is the Apple iphone 5c. Michael and Connor both have this phone and will both be using it to take some different kind of shots while we are filming so we can choose which shot is the best to use. Here is some information about the camera on this iphone...

• 1080p HD video recording (30 fps)
• LED flash
• Time-lapse video
• Video stabilisation
• Take still photos while recording videoFace detection
• 3x zoom
• Video geotagging

A new group decision (Nathan Kearns)

As a group we have decided on a new location we are going to do some scenes in. This is Everton park located in Everton (15 minute walk from the Liverpool city centre).

As you can see the views from this park are brilliant which is why we have decided to get some shots here. We also think the hills in the park will be good to film on because we can really get good use out of shots like a low angle and a high angle.

Shooting Day 1 - 22nd November 2014 - Michael Hickey

The 22nd of November is our first day of shooting for our music video. We are going to be out on location from 9am-12pm. I feel that we are very prepared for shooting, we have our costume and equipment ready and cast and crew are organised.

Our shooting for the 22nd of November will take place at the Albert Docks. We have looked at the weather forecast, this date isn't only suitable for all out cast and crew but it is also the ideal weather for our shots. We will also bring our shooting script and storyboard with us whilst shooting to ensure that we are organised and working effectively. It is essential that we are aware of every shot we are going to take on the day.

We are also going to record some extra footage to allow us to have a variety of options when editing the clips. I feel that by having extra footage it gives us leeway when editing. If something corrupts or goes wrong withe the clips it is essential that we have back up footage to use.

Our Shooting weather day 1 (Nathan Kearns)

When we film for the first time on Saturday, we aren't hoping for the best weather due to this daily weather update that was updated on Friday. We will make sure we are ready for any weather by taking coats, umbrellas and bags to protect our equipment. We know the weather take take a turn for the worst at any time during the day.

Group Blog Paperwork - Michael Hickey

Preparing for Filming - Dolly for tracking shot (Connor Burgess)

After my group and I completed our storyboard for our music video, I realised that we plan on using a lot of tracking shots throughout the video. Due to the lack of resources for our music video I decided to find out how we can make a dolly that we can use whilst filming for our tracking shots. There are two ways in which we can make a dolly for the camera and they are:

• Skateboards
• Prams

These are two very simple ways in which we can fashion a dolly, they are both ideal because they have wheels as there is no way that we can create a track to carry the camera along for the tracking shots. Both are very viable options however, if we decide to use skateboards for the dolly then we would need to balance a tripod on top of the skateboard to get it high enough for to make the shot.

However with a pram we would not need a tripod as the camera could lean against the end of the pram and be level enough (on an angle) to make the shot. Also with a pram we could have the camera man push the pram to follow the actor but with a skateboard we would need to find the right amount of power to push the skateboard with for it to follow the actor as long as we want the camera too.

This video shows how we can use a skateboard as a DIY dolly. We can use both methods for different types of tracking shots, using a skateboard can help us film tracking shots at a lower angle and if we can angle the shot right can also help us film low angle shots.

Risk Assessments - Michael Hickey

For our risk assessment we had to consider all of the possible risks and hazards that could happen when we are out on location shooting. The possible problems we could have when shooting are:

- Audience/Publics

- Confined Spaces

- Derelict Buildings/ Dangerous Structures

- Inexperienced Child/ Performer

- Noise

- Physical Exertion

- Heat/Cold

- Weather

- Fire/Flammable Material

There are a large variety of problems we could come across when shooting for our music video. It is vital that we consider all of the options and anything that could happen, if not we would be very unprepared and not ready. It was also very important for us to note each of the roles for our music video such as the Director, Producer and Camera Operator.

Our Locations (Nathan Kearns)

Opening in 1868, Newsham Park is known as one of the largest parks in the city with over a thousand people visiting the place every day. 

We decided to go with this location because like the Docks, we want to get some good angles and backgrounds. Also we need benches and a certain scene is filmed in a park that is probably the biggest scene in the video.

The Albert Dock is located in Liverpool. This is one of the most famous landmarks in the UK because the docks were known for being one of the largest trading areas in the world back in the 1900's.

We decided to use this location because of its history and because we thing we will get some very good shots her including the background and the weather.

We are yet to know specifically what church we are going to use for the video due to certain rules they have about filming but we know we are defiantly going to use a church at some point. We needed to use a church because it is a vital part of the song. The song is very religious and so is the official video by Hozier. I think this was the location that needed to be in the video most because it will link in very well with the song.

We are also going to use a bedroom for some shots. We are going to use Michaels bedroom for this. This location was just chosen for the video to look original and like every day life. Also we need to show Connor thinking as people think best in a private place like their bedroom.

Group Progress (Storyboard) - Connor Burgess

One of the things that myself and the rest of my group had to do was to produce a storyboard to illustrate the ideas we had for our music video. There are a few things that the storyboard needed to include: 

• Small sketch of what is going on in the scene 
• Type of shot
• Type of camera movement (if any) 
• Audio (what part of the song is playing in the scene) 

 This helped the group decide what we wanted the video to look like and how we wanted the music video to be. We now know how the video is going to be filmed and what camera angles/movements we are going to use to help us.

Group progress analysis - Nathan Kearns

During a previous lesson we needed to come up with an idea of what our music video will be about (storyline). We all gave an idea of our won then we was going to pick the best. Myself, I thought it would be good to link it into football with a big rivalry of the fans. Michael thought it would be a good idea to make a metaphorical video of what the lyrics actually mean. 

Connors idea was the one we decided to go with. We decided we would make it similar to the real music video for it but to change the discrimination to a religious topic instead of a sexual topic. 

We got to know the lyrics of the song because me and Michael didn't really know them. We then done a story board of the video and the places we are going to film the different scenes. A church was something we really needed because the video is religious. We used Michaels skills as a artist to draw the rough sketches of the side of the paper. The story board is just a rough idea of what the video will look like but we are probably going to make a lot of changes when we film it because a lot of things can change like the weather and just ideas in our minds.