Filming

Filming - Day 1:
The first part of my filming process was initially gathering the equipment needed for filming and making sure it was sufficient for filming. The day before filming, I made sure that the camera was fully charged, so that it would not run out of battery whilst filming. Even though it would have been easy to charge even if there wasn't enough battery, as I was filming outside my house, there was the issue of lighting that I had to consider. As it is the time of year when it gets dark fairly quickly I didn't want to waste anytime having to charge the camera. To ensure good lighting, I proceeded filming at 1pm. The location for this footage was just outside of my house, against a brick wall. I wanted to use this brick wall as the album is called 'Made Of Bricks' and I wanted to capture a still from the footage so I was able to use a still of my actress against the brick wall for when I created my album cover, as it fits in with the imagery of the albums title. For lighting, the weather on this day was quite good, it was fairly bright although it was windy and cold. However, this does not come across on the footage I have captured, as my actress did a great job, she worked well following my instructions and her miming was in sync with the song. I didn't encounter any problems for sound, as the track was played through my iPod, which was connected to a docking station. I placed the docking station close to the actress so she could hear the song clearly and be able to mime along in sync. The only bad thing I would say about this day was that there was always the anticipation of rain, however, luckily it was fairly dry. I was able to relax more when the shots of my actress against the brick wall were done, as the next few shots I needed were going to be filmed inside and I therefore didn't have to worry about the lighting or weather.I feel that the first day of filming went well and through playing back the footage captured on the camera I was happy with it, as I will be able to use most of it.

Filming - Day 2:
The second day of filming was like the first day, but quicker. Although I knew what parts of the song I needed (as I had watched the footage captured from day one) I thought it would be wise to still get extra footage just in case it was needed, so instead of getting my actress to sing to the parts I needed, I simply asked her to do the whole song. Day two of filming generally consisted of more shots against the brick wall, but this time I asked my actress to wear a different outfit. On this day I was more experimental, as I included shots with movement and asked my actress to position herself in different places against the brick wall, to vary the shots. I particularly liked the footage with movement, as I felt it added more to the video, instead of my actress just singing against the wall, this time I made her dance along to the song whilst I used the tripod to mimic her movements. The weather on this day was better in my opinion that day one, as it was brighter and less cloudier, although unfortunately it was still cold and windy.

Filming - Day 3:
The third (and final) day of filming was the most easiest, as these were the shots in the park and of the clouds. I needed three shots of my actress sitting on the bench in three different positions, three shots of my actress walking on a pathway in the park, in three different positions and one shot of my actress leaning against a tree, looking up at the clouds. I found this footage was quick and easy to film and didn't take much time and to ensure the lighting was clear and bright I chose to film early in the morning, at about 10am. This enabled me to have the rest of the time to film my clouds, while it was still bright. Luckily the clouds looked really good and because it was windy they were moving quite fast. I set the camera on the tripod away from direct sunlight to ensure that no damage was done and left it running for twenty minutes. To check that I had enough footage of the clouds I played it back on the camera, but watched it whilst it was forwaded, as I was going to change the speed in editing anyway, to make them appear to be moving faster. Overall, I feel my filming went really well, I am very happy with the footage I have captured and can now proceed to log and capture my footage off the DV tapes I have used so I can then move onto the editing stage.