I can't seem to remember where I left off last time I made a proper blog post, but I'd assume that it's the beginning of our filming week.
First day back from half term, and I was late. You get used to sleeping at 4am and waking at 1, it's not a simple task to be into college at 10:50. I was greeted by a graph written on the board, with each groups filming plans written on it. Everyone had plans filled in throughout the week, and all was looking grand. And if it wasn't for our group having one massive gap throughout the whole week, it'd be one hell of an impressive show. Sven and I discussed how we wanted to shoot things further, and the digipak ideas we had during the half term. It wasn't an intresting day, and if I were to have the days events in a single blog post, you'd be left feeling disapointted.
Tuesday comes along, and it's our first day back at Coleridge. I can't remember what we did, I'm sure it's on Svens blog somewhere. Remember, I'm doing this via email on my phone, I can't just check around on other stuff. I'd like to say I'll edit this, but I make no promises.
Stuck in a hotel for tonight and last night, you know it's a slow time when sky news is the most intresting thing thing to watch. It's crazy, I don't think I'll ever understand the format. It's pretty unique, and could only be topped if the team behind MTV Cribs teamed up with H.M. Prisons.
It's easy to imagine the production offices being crazy 24/7, with the mission statement 'Find It, Shoot It, Pimp It, Shout It'. I feel I could do a better job with the mission statement, but I'm too lazy to think it out any more than that.
But seriously, why do people watch this rubbish? It's like asking for a book, and being given the diary of Anne frank with pop-out illustrations by a comic book artist. I want to know the news, I don't want to see images of people trapped under rubble, yelling for their lives with flashy graphics over the top, some smug guy on location watching everyone with a moral compass help out while also pointing out that I can give my views by going on the website. It's heartbreaking, depressing stuff packaged for the MTV generation, and I'll never get it.
Wednesday came around, and Sven and I had hoped to get some pickup shots for our video. Close-ups of objects, nothing out the ordinary for a music video, but it'd seem we didn't get the memo on no filming on Wednesday. Seeing as it was a media lesson, I don't think I need to write about the lesson on this blog. But then again, I write paragraphs on stuff that'll never get me marks, so I can't really talk.
The more significant thing about Wednesday was helping out with Tinas group, and her music video for 'Shadows', which was eventful to say the least. A few months ago I saw 'Where the Wild Things are', and fell in love with it. So much that after just one viewing, I decided to make my own wolf suit, like that of the main character, Max.
As it turns out, Tinas video for 'Shadows' had an Alice in wonderland feel to it, and my wolf suit would look great in it as a White rabbit feel. The setup was long, the place looked great, and then it started raining. 3 takes of performance were done, and we were unable to film anything else, meaning me being there was unrecorded in the video, but I'd like to think I was good in the helping out setup stage. Also, I got mud on my tail. That's very, very annoying.
Thursday was next, as you'd expect from your standard seven day week we've become so used to, and I was late. The realisation of the little time we had left to shoot hit us hard, and we decoded to make plans to shoot the bulk of the video the following day. We knew we'd need extra materials for the location where our performer would be in front of a canvas with 'i'm not alone' behind her, and went to the art department to ask about where we could get one. It was also on this day we discovered that chloe would not be able to perform due to other media commitments, so we knew we needed to find someone new. As it turns out, canvas is really expensive, and we needed to choose something else. I decided that a bedsheet would work best, and online found one from tesco that I could afford. I also searched for paint and paintbrush, which I found at the early learning centre quite cheaply. Also, on Thursday, we re-wrote our treatment to remove the house and street location, because it was too complex with what time we had left. I think it was a good decision, and we made good compromises with the treatment. After college, I went to the early learning centre, and bought the paint and paintbrush, and looked in poundland for something we might be able to use. I found a large roll of paper, and superglue which I thought would work very well instead of a bedsheet, and so I bought those.
Thursday night was a panic. We had everything set for Friday, apart from performers. I managed to get my friend, Glenn, to do the drums in our band performance, but that was all I could manage, as it was being shot at Coleridge. Sven managed to get liam to bring in a acoustic guitar, and that night I prayed that the following day would turn out okay. Well, I didn't pray, but I lost a little sleep over it.
Colgate seems to have stolen sensodyne's idea. I wish I could google sensodyne, I'm not sure if I typed it right, but oh well.
The idea is to make the adverts seem as if they're a documentary on what's going on, but it's clear as day that it's all been planned to look that way. Ever notice how generic they are in sensodyne adverts? Whoevers talking speaks like they're in a position of knowledge on sensitive teeth, but they're nor. The position they get given is that of a guy from the press, or a upper level guy from the company, no one with actual value when it comes to this. Using words like 'can help prevent', or 'is proven too', people can believe that the guy knows what he's on about. And note he always says something about seeing a dentist? He might as well have held a sign saying 'Go talk to someone that can give you informed infomaton'.
Colgate have a toothpaste out now that does the same thing, and intrestingly enough, they've gone for the same documentary style format. It's horrible to watch, it's so badly done. I can't be bothered to continue on this, but if you saw it, you'd notice how everything is scripted, and badly acted out.
Friday came about, and I had high hopes, aside from those when it came to finding a main performer. Liam had agreed to play guitar in the video, Sven was okay with playing bass and we had Glenn on the drums. In convincing angelica, who agreed to be our performer, I came up with a new line, 'Do you trust me? Because I believe in you.' I'm proud of it.
Charna was a big help in getting us instruments for the video (Bass and Drums), as she knew the music teacher at Coleridge. We didn't have long with them, so it was a big rush to the drama studio to get everything set up. We went for the same feel as we had previously done with 'My Generation', a black backdrop with lights brought in for the performers to be lit up. We didn't get as many shots as I had wanted to, but with the limited time we had, we were lucky to get what we got. Later in the day, Sven went to film with max's group, and I went with angelica to film at the stage for some solo performance. Once again, we ha limited time with the guitar, so we rushed to get our shots as soon as possible. I brought down two extra lights and the wide angle lens I forgot for the band performance, and got as much as we could. It's not a lot, but I feel what we do have looks good.
Sven and I wanted to film our canvas performance on Friday, but ran out of time. It was also very windy. We took a camera and tripod out over the weekend to film on Sunday with angelica.
Sunday rained and was generally miserable.
As you can imagine, we got nothing filmed over the weekend, and so brought on Monday, where it brought sunshine and joy, but mostly sunshine.
Because of this we filmed the canvas performance. It looked fantastic. The light was bright and perfect, and we spent a long time ensuring that all the painting was filmed correctly and got as much performance as we could. Honestly, I didn't think it would go so well, and I'm thrilled that it did. At the end, we decided to use the remaining paint by spraying it all over the canvas, in which angelica got paint in her hair on the first take. From then on, she only pretended to throw it, while both Sven and I filmed close ups of it hitting the canvas by either one of us. The HD brings out all the sunlight in the paint dripping down, and I can't wait to work on the edit for that footage.
We only knew how good it looked today, Tuesday. Both Sven and I are very grateful that we were allowed to film on both the monday and tuesday on edit week, as we were so short on footage. Angelica, Sven and I went to Coleridge Rec to film the park scenes, and Tina came by to help us. We spent a long time filming it, because the video hung on this looking good. I acted in the video, and had to change clothes a few times for the role. We also did a few performance bits with angelica sitting on the grass singing, which I think look really nice. Although we ran way over, and ended up carrying loads of equipment myself as quick as I could to long road, I think it was really worth it, and I will sleep well tonight.
And I just typed all of that on my iPhone over two hours. I've been paranoid it'll crash and lose everything the whole time. If it broke now, I'd break down.
