Filming Day 1 - Rochester

1/9/2015 - Rochester

On the 1st of Septemebr, we decided to have our first filming day - since the weather was rather gloomy we thought that it would be a good day to film the 'break up' scene, this is because the weather will reflect Nova's mood in this scene - they are both sad and depressive. Since some of these scenes are filmed in a coffee shop, we decided to go to Rochester to film; Rochester has some nice, small coffee shops with an alternative feel to them, fitting with our genre. 

In the coffee shop, we filmed some close ups of my face, with no make up on, looking quite sad/miserbale - this is to reflect the effects of the breakup that has happened; also, we have filmed some mid shots of me reading in the coffee shop or just staring into space to enhance the drama of the breakup. We filmed in a café called 'The Deaf Cat' which is a quaint coffee shop that provides books for you to read as you drink your coffee or eat your food - it fits with the 'edgy' look and feel that we are aiming for; this then creates continuity between the location and our artist.

As you can see in this image, we had a lot to work with as the wall in the background is extremely colourful and will make this part of the video a bit more interesting. When it comes to editing, I think that some sort of a filter or wash over the top of these scenes will make the background stand out more and attractive for our viewers.

We then went to the castle grounds to film some more naturist scenes, this also shows the weather which will create a sense of Pathetic Fallacy - 'Nova's' emotions will be reflected in the gloominess of the weather.  

We shot some long shots, close ups and mid shots; we also had filmed some tracking shots to create a variety. We want to try and experiment with the levels in our video therefore, we decided to climb up on this ledge to get a really good high angle for our video, this allows our shot to be artistic as it shows our artist from a different angle to normal also, extreme high angle shots are not the norm in most videos therefore, we are breaking typical conventions of music videos as we have said that we would like too, we feel that this will set us apart from all the other videos out there as we are willing to break the rules to get a good shot.

We have now filmed majority of the break up scene shots - our next filming day will be focusing on one of the 'memories' of the relationship scenes.

I think that Rochester was a good location to use due to it's natural edgy-ness, this not only fits in with Nova's look but it also gives the video that alternative look we were hoping for. The weather was perfect as it was quite a gloomy day; normally, this would be seen as a bad thing however, due to the context of this scene (a breakup), the weather created a sense of pathetic fallacy.

Overall, I feel that today was a successful day due to us filming majority of the footage we needed to for the 'Breakup' section of the video. We also worked well together and bounced ideas off of one another so that we could evaluate what would be the best camera position and angle for each shot.

Costume

We decided to go for the outfit we discussed in the Process of Creating a Character post as we feel that it fit a break up scene most. The overall 90s look of the outfit fitted in with the location and it also gives off the edgy vibe we wanted Nova to have.

Review of Footage

Here I have inserted two clips from filming on this day, one that is likely to be used and one that we will have to think about using...

This is a low angle shot of me in Rochester Cathedral. Firstly, we thought that Rochester Cathedral would be a good place to film as it is a beautiful building with lots of history, this will make Nova look as if she is interested in the past of the buildings around her also, the cathedral is linked to religion - religion is something that people tend to turn to when they are going through a tough time in their life, for Nova in this narrative, the tough time would be the break up. I personally, am not a fan of the low angle as I feel that this isn't something we are going to continue within our project therefore, the continuity will be rather off but, the low angle does give the audience a better view of Nova's suroundings, making the scene seem more majestic due to the decor of the cathedral. I feel that this is a shot we need to discuss as a group when it comes to editing as it could be controversial within our group.

This video was taken in Rochester Castle grounds, I am sitting on a wall with a bridge behind me along with a lot of nature, this is a wide shot as to show our audeince where I am whislt having me in the shot. We decided that we wanted to have me sitting still whilst the camera tracks around me, to show my emotion from all angles, as you can see I follow the camera slightly with my head, this was to create a deeper connection with the audeince, My facial expression is mournful and glum, this is to show that these scenes are the aftermath of the breakup, it shows how Nova feels usless without the person she loves -linking with the lyrics 'I'm nothing without you'. My favourite part of this clip is the end where my hair is moving in the wind and I am looking down slightly, I feel that this captures an essence of the heartbreak we are wanting to convey. I personally, do not like when the camera is face on as I feel that this looks to restricting, this is not something we want to have our video feel like; for this reason, I feel that we need to crop the clip and only use the last few seconds of it.