Filming production:

This post examines the journey I taken during the filming stages of my draft music video.

1. The first stage of the filming was to take the outside shots set at the start of the video. I took the footage with a camera on 30.10.12. AKA Halloween night. Therefore, I had plenty of time to take the footage as at this time of the year. There was only one of these shots to take, but it was a long one. I applied the drunken feel of the shot to the video via a certain movement. Since it was a third-person handheld shot, the camera focused on the view in front of me. With the ‘drunk man’ walk I was using to move, the video camera was producing a blurry shot, even an unintentional temporal black-out half way through the shot. While this would initially appear to be sloppy production, it actually strongly relates to that of the narrative content of the video.

2. Once the outside shot was taken and without distraction, the next stage was to execute the other 5 pre-song shots. I quickly placed dirty clothes, a spilt beer can and some newspapers on the floor to make the place appear less clean and more like a pit of degradation. Once done so, I quickly pointed the camera towards the intended shot of the room. A quick pan shot was taken, showing emphasis on the mess that has been made as part of the placed mise-en-scene of the shot. The next shot was the beer one. Originally intended to use a bottle, a beer can was all I had access to at the time, but the intended effect remains. I spilt the beer around the can and onto the table for its intended effects of portraying sloppy living and an open and unhealthy lifestyle my character is living. Then the following shots involved the shirt being dirty, which I placed stains onto for the filming, the shot of the side of my face to show depression, and finally the shot of the playing but not being watched TV to show lack of focus. Once these shots were quickly taken, I moved onto the main filming...

3. The main filming during the progression of the lyrics was probably the most simple part. At least the first half of the song was. I simply had to put on a mad face in front of the camera while displaying the appropriate facial expressions. Then keep it there for at least the time required while the first few song verses play.

4. The inbetween shots which took place in the middle of the song were the most difficult to place into the video while still conforming to my song timings. The shots I taken were not long enough even when combined, to fill up all the time in the middle of the song between the 2 sets of verses. I had to expand this part of the video by using new shots, or expanding time of the original shots, and how long they played in the music video. I had to use a substitute image instead of the one I was originally going to use. More replacement material had to be used for the next stage...

5. The second half of the filming during the lyrics had to be taken while I actually sang, thus the requirement for accurate lip sync. Due to time constraints, the quality of this that I could gather from this is limited in the editing stages. I will have to progress well to achieve getting this video to a decent level. The substitutions also continue here as well. The female performer was unable to make it and will be for the near future. I will be able to use her for filming of the final video product, but not for the draft version. Hence a few changes will be made. For instance, instead of the girl walking with me in the sunset during the last shot, the final shot will now be me walking up the stairs, followed by a quick shot of the camera zooming away from my face, both to visually represent that while the camera is moving away from me and vice versa, so is the problem for the character I portray in the video.

Draft music video:

This is my draft video, filmed and edited. Many improvements will likely be required, but here is what has been produced as of 02/11/12. This is a video that has been planned for a while now...

Brief draft video filming schedule:

31/10/12: Primary filming, once dark, I must film the footage I have intended to. All shots of outside content must be filmed at the appropriate time. Stick to intended shot types and duration.

01/11/12: Most filming has been complete. If necessary due to film incompletion, book another session with the video camera and film all remaining shots.

02/11/12: Hand-in draft sample of video footage. I f possible, begin editing for video.

03/11/12: Use camera to film scenes requiring female artist.

Costume examples:

Shirt option no.1: This is the first shirt choice that I could use to wear in my video. The reasons being simple, the shirt is cheap, old, worn and does not appear to be very well kept. Keeping in mind that the clothing I wear in the music video is supposed to be somewhat messy and unclean to represent the narrative content of self degradation from the character, a simple, cheap shirt such as this one might be a good choice for clothing.

Shirt option no.2: This is the second shirt. Since my star is 18 years of age, this slightly more mature shirt may be a good idea to choose for wearing in the video. Since this type of shirt can usually be seen a trendy fashion within young adult men, perhaps this choice will be better for visually appealing to the target audience I have of young adults.

 Shirt option no.3: This is a shirt I had in mind for use in the music video as it is an incredibly basic and cheap T-shirt that I could use as a clothing prop. Perhaps gradually staining and making this shirt more dirty shortly before filming would be a good idea. So that come filming time, I have this shirt in ready condition to wear as part of my degradation narrative in the video.

Jeans of the cheap and baggy variety may be of use for this video. The idea of the clothing in the video is for the man I play to be wearing cheap, worn out clothes that truly present the concept of cheapness, degradation and poor life choices, this jeans type will certainly help to do so.

This hoodie jacket may or may not be worn, unzipped, above the choice of shirt that I use for the music video. This is a simple, old, fairly fashionable piece of clothing that should certainly present the man in the video's concept of youth, as well as poor lifestyle.