As most of you may well know, I am doing the Race for Life 5k on the 25th of May, which is in 9 days time!
Prancing around Bute Park in some sort of silly costume! (well… thats the plan!)
My plan was to go training, but that’s not happened due to the extensive stress with university! (oops)!
But I still need you to sponsor me!
You can do it online by clicking HERE, or you can come find me and give me the money when you can!
Every little helps, and it’s for a good cause! Tell your friends!
xxx
Had a great time shooting with Neil Simons (camera) and Gareth Bevan (photographer) yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and the footage looks great! This so far is the only scene I am really happy with from the film.
After talking with James Cooper (who is helping me write the song, more to the style of what I wanted in the first place) we decided to use the following as inspiration:
Video Style:
Chorus:
General Song Style:
So going on the style that Tiesto’s video is shot in, but with added ‘inner stories’ to the video. Which is where the filming the photoshoot comes in. As the piece is called ‘The Camera Loves You’ the idea was to film a photoshoot happening.
The whole process was really fun to do, as I find that the music video will be quite experimental, I told Neil to go with the flow and use shots that he thought best, as long as it covered the majority of the photoshoot from both angles, my side and Gareths side, leaving the camera work up to him meant that I could concentrate on the actual photoshoot itself.
We got a lot of footage from the shoot yesterday, I am planning to shoot the rest at home in Nottingham at various locations with a vast open space, getting Richard Kish (my brother, who is taking A Level Media Studies at George Spencer College) to film it for me.
The plan is to visit Wollanton Hall, Attenborough Nature Reserve, and other areas to film on, finding visually striking locations. As well as visiting Whitburn Beach in Sunderland to film on also, giving a variety of locations to use as the main chunk of the video, using a range of shots and movements.
In the edit words will appear on screen, but only those that highlight the point that is being made. This I feel will be a central theme that runs through the whole film, but I have yet to discover whether this will be too much.
I am still trying to decide whether I should be ‘singing’ in the shots, or keep true to the genre of music video that has inspired me.
After throwing together a rough edit of Scenario 11, and sending it to my tutor to have a look at, I am still not confident on it.
This is the first edit of the scene, mainly to get a rough idea of how it shapes up, and to whether my idea would actually work or not. As explained in my earlier blog, the shoot went VERY wrong, with my camera man not turning up and leaving me to shoot the entire thing on my own.
“The stuff with you talking to your alter egos is very interesting, although you ever quite really interact… id like to see you actually interupt and have the screen head really hear you, or the other figure react… at one point the seated figure is talking away but the standing figure has walked down the room, so the seated fig is talking to no one ( or focusing in wrong place). not terrible but underlines that they are edited/ layered images. and the voices are all a bit the same. obviously it can be the same person, but maybe in energy (like mood) there is some variation, just to help the viewer.”
I’m pleased that the general idea works, but what Steve has said really does worry me, because it really does underline the fact that it is edited. I have e-mailed Room bookings to see if there is a room to re-shoot in, and that is my plan for today. If that doesn’t work, I can use a drama studio in Chilwell School back at home.
I know that I need to plan my movements this time round, and mark where I will be at what point so the focus of each of the characters are in the right line, so they are focusing in the right place. I also need to distinguish the characters, although from other feedback received it does highlight the theme of Schizophrenia, which was something I had been thinking of.
The words, however are the biggest issue, as from all the feedback they seem very out of place to the scene. My initial reaction is to cut them completely, however the title of the Scenario 11 – Untitled (100 words) indicates that there are 100 words in the scene, which there is… I was planning to have the words being said when they appear on screen, so it isn’t just silence, but I couldn’t find the files during the edit.
“biggest issue is the words on screen. i think they feel a bit meaningless. the shot is held too long, the rhythm is too predictable …next word …next word …next word …next word …next word … then all the words on screen for ages … we read really quickly … why not flash them up and fade them out, so each one appears on its own adn at the end they all fade into view together ??? or something. maybe it is the wacky 70’s cartooney use of different fonts and colours that all looks a bit ‘someting from the edit box” – i cant tell what i am supposed to understand here
also, i prefer single words, but some of them are two word phrases, and this muddles it a bit – try reading them out loud as they appear on screen. i think you can be bolder and more daring here, be less obvious, less clear, more frenetic, less predictable… once it starts you know how the sequence is going to look and feel, even if the words change.”
I think maybe in order to combat this, I will need to a) have numerous words appearing at once, not in rhythm but scattered, all in the same font but different colours maybe (thinking of a word cloud), with the words being said but not in the right order to what they appear on screen, or b) cut some of the word sections out, or clump them together more, making those sections a lot less and faster in pace.
“I’d say you can get away with the 3 person stuff with maybe a tighter edit in places. some reshoot if you really want to/can (maybe the ‘Monitorhead’ in close up, to get really good reactions/interuptions without redoing the big set up?) but it isn’t essential
do something on the words in the edit. something more stylish maybe or just more interesting. and dont hold onto the shot of all the words for so long.”
I know that the edit can be tighter, as it is only a rough cut, and the quality is rubbish because it is in .mp4. I am also aware that some of the audio is out of sink, as when I was editing for some reason the audio was out of sink with the visuals and I had to try and re-align it, which proved difficult, so these need work.
I am still really on the fence as to whether create more work for myself, and just re-shoot the whole thing, hoping it will turn out better than the last time, and take on all the feedback and advice I have been given, or to just re-shoot the little bits needed.
These two scenarios are filmed, but not edited yet.
I still have to record some of Scenario 1’s answer machine messages, but the bulk has already been recorded, and i have started to edit it together, and it’s looking good. After initially wanting a long one shot snake effect for Sc1, I decided to cut it with tight close ups of the objects on the floor, as I filmed this on my own and it was quite difficult to achieve the snaking effect without getting the sofa in, which was meant to have me lying on it. However, I feel that the footage does look suitable for what I want, I just need to add effects on it, to make it look more ‘thrillerish’.
Scenario 9 is coming together nicely, after initially wanting to have me sat in front of a projector, and using the original footage I feel that it was boring and not interesting to watch, so going along to same idea, but using a number of different shots, and close ups of my face throughout the scene should make it more interesting to watch, and to inter-cut it with some of the more horrifying clips that I am using in the projection. Also with this scene, I have decided to use the “filmic going crazy” look, of the character being in front of the camera and pulling their face and hair over the place, then adding “echo” and “motion blur” to the clip, as well as cutting into it and deleting sections to make it look more surreal and disturbing.
Attempted to film yesterday, “attempt” being the key word here.
My camera-man never turned up or got in contact with me, despite my best efforts, so I had to produce a one woman show yesterday, filming myself 3 times overs, as well as working the camera (pressing record and running to position, acting and then running back to turn it off again. When I watched the footage back, there was a lot of shots out of focus etc) and I can guarantee that the sound is awful, as I couldn’t sound check myself, as that would have been hilarious on camera, I will probably need to dub it to make it sound remotely acceptable.
As you can tell, my confidence in this project is growing less and less as the days go on.
I thought I was finally confident with my song for scenario 5, and after listening to it again today, I now hate it, and want to change it again, but I have no time, as I am meant to be shooting the video for the song on Thursday, with no music, because I am recording it the Thursday after…. I have got a friend who is currently trying to “fix” the song for me, so it’s more suited to the original piece in the script, but with such a short time, I really don’t think it is possible..
Scenario 9 is not working out as I planned, the projection really didn’t work, so now I have to try a new technique of filming myself and overlaying what was meant to be the projection on top of some footage, but I think after experimenting that it will be quite boring, so I think I will have to make some angles, and do the stereotypical film/tv thing to show someone is going crazy, by having my hands covering my head, moving my head around, and editing it so it’s jerky, motion blur, etc…
I can feel this project slowly crashing down around me =(, it looks brilliant on script and storyboard, but the realities of trying to make it happen with very little help is extremely hard…….
One plus side, I recorded some of the answer machine messages for scenario 1….. however, the footage shot needs to be re-shot….
Panic and Stress are really setting in with this now, I’m finding it extremely difficult and because I want to do well, it’s making it even harder to succeed in what I see in my head….
I’m dreading seeing that big fat 30 = FAIL mark on my sheet of paper =(
After having a pretty rubbish weekend, I have decided to do something to make me feel good about myself, and also do something for a good cause. So I’ve signed up for the Race For Life 2011 5k event which is taking place on the 25th of May 2011 at 7pm in Cardiff.
It would mean a lot to me if you could sponsor me, as it would show your support in me, and in Cancer Research UK. No donation is too small, anything you can give helps move a step towards finding the cure for Cancer.
I will be planning to run the 3 mile’s, so I’d better get my training shoes on and start going for runs! I also hope that an ending result of this will mean my back is better and pain-free, with the added bonus of loosing weight!
Please click the link at the top of this post, and sponsor me.
Keep watching for updates!
Sophie
xxx
sophielouisekish.co.uk 