Purchased props- The Keychain

When filming there were a series of props that we needed to use in the film. This first prop is of a keychain that sais: I Love you. As you can see, there is only one side of the heart. This makes you wonder who has the other half of the love heart? This is used in a couple of the shots. We see Olly look at the love heart and clench it in his hand and later on we see him drop it into the river. This prop is used to show that he was once in love but he is ready to let go and break away from the pain. This prop was brought just for the shoot as it was an effective tool to show the letting go of the love.

We don't have the prop anymore because the river we dropped it into flows and is also very dirty so we wouldn't of been able to retrieve it easily which would have caused real issue if we tried to get it back. So we decided that we didn't need the prop after we finished so we only had one take of the shot because if we didn't film it correctly the first time, we would have had to order it again which would have been a huge inconvenience because we would of had to meet up again just to film this one shot. Luckily, the shot went as plan so we didn't need to order a second and do it again.

This is a picture of the prop before I took it to the woods to film. We purposely only ordered one half as it adds mystery as no one knows who the other person is and leaves us wondering who the other half of the key ring belongs to.

Setting and Location- Grove Woods

Grove Woods is where I chose to film my music video. Grove woods has both big open fields and a large woods which were what I was after. Again, setting and lighting were two major factors that had to be considered when finding a filming location. In terms of setting, I wanted a large open field where I can do an extreme long shot. This is so I could portray loneliness and isolation within my film. I also wanted to film deep in the woods because I wanted the backdrop to be encased in trees with little light. This is to make the artist looked trapped and isolated for everyone else. Lighting was very important so went down the Woods before I started filming and tested what time it was best to film at the woods. I found the best time to film was about 11am as it was nearly the brightest
time of the day but not bright enough to cause any glare on my camera.

As you can see from the picture, it is bright enough to film at 11am as even though you are surrounded by trees, there is still enough light for the camera. Since I spend a few days filming the shots, it was important I filmed at the same time as I wanted the light levels to remain consistent as I want the video to have the impression it all happened on the same day rather than over a few days. I decided this would be the perfect location as I was already familiar with the location so I knew the best locations to film at for different shots. I also knew that there was fields around so I can film some of the shots, plus the woods is quite local to me and Olly so we didn't have to travel too far which was very convenient for us.

Setting and Location- Rayleigh Studio

Rayleigh Studio

My first filming location is Rayleigh Studio. I chose to film at Rayleigh studio because it was the closest location for the band to meet up at and also it was the biggest space we could find to meet up at. It was important to have a large enough space to film in because we had lots of band equipment to set up and without it we wouldn't of been able to rehearse and play over the top of the backing track.

As you can see from the picture, there is a lot of space to set up band equipment such as amps and speakers. The room was also sound proofed so it couldn't cause a disturbance to anyone else in any of the other rooms. In terms of mise en scene, Settings and lighting were the most important things to consider when choosing a suitable filming location. The backdrop of plain which is what we wanted as we didn't want any drawings or paintings as backdrops as we just wanted the audience to focus on the band and not the backdrop. Lighting was also important. This room is brightly lit which is very important to getting a high quality video. Since all the band shots are in black and white, it was very important that the room was well lit because if the room was too dark, the band may have been hard to see in black and white.

We have all rehearsed in the studio before so we knew it would be a suitable location for us all to film the video in as it was spacious enough and had sufficient lighting to film in.

Shooting Schedule

September 24th-

Rayleigh Studio

We met at the studio in Rayleigh to start filming the band for the music video. We met in the studio at 3pm that day and spent the first 30 minutes setting up all the equipment how it was going to be when it came to filming it. We then all practiced along with the backing track so that we could mime in time with the music to make it easier for when I had to edit. at 4.30 pm, we started filming the music video. In total we recorded eight different angles as the drummer had to leave the studio at 5.30.

We didn't get to film all the angles we would have liked as we underestimated the time it would take to record all the shots. Therefore we agreed to all meet up at the same time the following week to film the rest of the shots.

October 1st-

Grove Woods

We met up again at 3pm to continue filming the band footage. After reviewing the footage we recorded last time, a few shots needed to be re-recorded as they were too blurry to be used in the video. After re-recording these shots we finished off recording the rest of the shots we planned to film the previous week.

October 14th-

This filming session was to take place in Grove Woods in Rayleigh. Me and Olly planned to meet at 11am outside the woods. After entering the woods we discovered that the conditions of the woods was far to flooded so we decided to come back tomorrow to see if the conditions were any drier as it was far too wet to film all the shots. After carrying out the risk assessment on the woods, I concluded that there was a high chance that we could fall over which could result in an injury so we postponed the filming.

October 15th-

We met up again to re-evaluate the conditions of the woods. The woods was still flooded and it was also raining so we unfortunately had to put off filming another week. Instead of filming, I decided to blog in that space of time to make the best use of my time.

October 21th-

We met up again at 11am to start filming. As the weather was sunny all week, the woods has dried up so it was dry enough to film in. We filmed the first half of the music video before it started to rain heavily. So we decided to decided to film again in a few weeks as I still had to plan the second half of the music video.

November 12th-

We both met again to film the second half of the music video. Once we filmed all the shots I started editing the footage and realised that I needed that I needed to re-film some of the shots as there was too much glare.

Planning Diary

Planning Diary

Sunday 24^th September

I created a Facebook group chat and asked the band if they could meet at Rayleigh Mega-Centre at 15:00 for a rehearsal. When we were all there we started by setting up all the equipment. This included drums, bass and guitar. Once everything was set up we decided to play along to the song three times to make sure we were all familiar with the song. At first the speakers were not loud enough to play the backing track over the band. We contacted the staff and they brought up some more powerful speakers that can play the backing track louder than the band.

We decided to play over the backing track because it will make the lip-synching look more natural and make it easier to put the footage of Olly singing over the backing track.

Today was the first day of shooting band footage for the music video. I created a group chat on Facebook Messenger explaining the date + time I was planning to start filming. We met up at Rayleigh Mega-Centre Music Room and set up all out equipment. To make the lip-synching look more realistic we played along with the song numerous times as practice. At first, we had trouble playing the backing track loud enough in the studio so we had to contact staff to change the speakers to more powerful ones that are capable of being louder than the band.

Sunday 1st October

Today we met up again to film the rest of the band footage. Some shots had to be re-filmed and some extra angles of the band needed to be filmed. Some of the shots contained laughing and some of the shots people got in the way. Therefore to make the footage look professional, I decided to re-film some of the footage to remove these mistakes as they would contradict the theme of the music video. This would also disrupt the narrative as laughing contradicts depression and loneliness, so to not contradict the theme of the song, I had to change it.

By the end of this session, I finished filming all of the band material so I was ready to start editing the band footage ready for starting the narrative. I had to cut down a lot of the band footage because we recorded the whole song from a bunch of different angles which means I recorded a lot more footage than I actually needed to use.

Brian Jones

Inspiration- The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are a world famous 60s band that are still playing to this day. The Rolling Stones, similar to The Beatles were prominent artists in the rock scene in the 60's. The English

rock band formed in 1962 and consists of Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The Stones play a mixture of rock and blues and shaped the face of rock over the past 50 years.

The Rolling Stones

Similar to The Beatles, The Stones took influence from other styles during the 60's and incorporated them into the band to create brand new music. Some of their musical styles include: Rock, Folk, Reggae, country, R&B and psychedelic. Their experimentation of musical genres shaped the sound the band had and had a huge impact on rock as a genre.

Keith Richards

I love blues music which is one of my main reasons for being inspired by The Rolli
ng Stones. The Stones took inspiration from Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf who were huge blues artistes during the 50's/60's. Another reason why I am influenced by The Stones is due to their experimentation for their rhythm. Keith Richards, the lead guitarist, started experimented with open tunings for rhythm parts. He experimented with a tuning known as: "Open G" tuning. This is where he changes the string tunings which change the pitch of the chords. This specific tuning is still used today and has had an influence on how people use guitars.

Songs such as: "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" and "Tumbling Dice" which all feature Keith Richards open tuning guitar techniques.

Brian Jones used to be the lead guitarist in the band however he past away. During his time in the band in the 1960's, he experimented with sitars and slide guitars. Similar to George Harrison, Brian Jones took influence from Indian classical music and had lessons from Harihar Rao who was another famous sitarist from the 60's. Brian Jones later wrote the song "Paint it black" which he wrote after his sitar lessons which turned out to be one of The Stones most popular hits.