Plan Of Action

Improvements

Above is a photo of an action plan we intend to fulfill so that our video will be overall improved and hopefully look more professional. We decided to make adjustments on the following: 

• Remove the under-cranked shots of the London Eye and busy road near Westminster.
• Include more narrative shots of London, there is too much of Glenn singing the song.
• We need to film in more locations, to show the range of life in London.
• We also want to change his clothing, as the dark jacket looks dull.
• To make the lighting more effective we will need to film in daylight, because some of our shots were filmed in the dark.
• Regarding the locations we need to try and travel to different social classed areas, for example higher classed areas such as Chelsea which can contrast to lower class areas such as Bermondsey, South London.  
• Have Glenn learn how to play some of the song on the guitar, this will add more realism to the video, as in the rough cut he pretended to. 

We now need to re-group and find out dates for when Glenn is available to film during the coming weeks. This may pose problems as he has work loyalties so finding free time to film with us may prove difficult.

Finished Rough Cut and Feedback

Here is our rough cut to our video for 'What A Life'. After watching through the video the audience will certainly recognize some gaps, which is where the footage we filmed just didn't fit with the rest of the video. We also watched the video with the rest of our class and received feedback from our classmates and teacher, this was very useful as the constructive criticism has revealed to us that changes need to be made to improve the music video. 

After viewing and submitting feedback for the rest of the class we received our feedback from our classmates, this has helped us greatly. The points which our class thought needed changing or improving were: 

• Certain shots such as when Glenn is holding the signs is rather repetitive and some too dark to see the sign clearly.
• Some shots are too long, more cuts need to be made to break up some lengthy shots.
• Some of the lip syncing is slightly out, this needs to be perfectly on time with the song.
• Using more locations will show more of London's colourful culture, as we filmed in a small number of areas. 
• There are some areas of the video where it is blank for a second or so, this needs to be filled with appropriate footage.
• Some of shots are rather bland, with little colour which can make the shot look dull.
• More close-ups of Glenn playing the guitar and when he is singing.
• Needs more varied shots, such as POV shots, long shots, tracking shots and also use more angles when filming Glenn. 

Feedback From The Class

 Above is an image of the feedback we received from the class. The bullet points are the most common areas of improvement the class thought we should consider, and the image shows all of the feedback which also has some positives such as many thought the opening and ending shots were appropriate and effectively shot.

First Filming With Glenn

We traveled to London on the 19th of January with our new character Glenn to begin filming for our music video. We could only leave to film at 2pm so our time was limited whilst in the city, this meant we could only get a selection of shots completed on this day. However we recorded Glen in several locations performing the whole song, this means that when we begin to edit the song we can select certain parts of the song to fit our plan.

Jay

This was the first location of shooting, it was by London Bridge Rail Station and the idea was for Glen to sing the song whilst looking out over the River Thames. This image shows Jay filming this shot, which required using the tripod to keep the camera steady.

Me

This image shows me filming Glen walking over Tower Bridge, this shot wasn't actually planned but as we was walking over it we thought it could prove to be an effective tracking shot. For this shot I held the camera and we had Glen walking towards me, I had to have a steady paced walk for filming this shot as we didn't want the shot to be moving vigorously.

Matt

Here is Matt filming Glen playing the guitar and singing the song, this tunnel will be used through-out our video so making sure these shots were shot well is vital. This image is showing where in our video we want a slow movement from Glen's feet to his upper body. We also used the tripod to film this shot which came out more effective than filming it free hand, as the movement was much smoother.


We also wanted to share the responsibility of filming so that the workload was evenly split and so we all were comfortable using the camera. We all wanted to be able to use the camera so that in case anyone couldn't attend filming days we had a back up camera operator.

First Day Of Filming With Jack

On the Sunday of January the 15th myself and Matt travelled to London to film the London Eye and Jack doing his performance shots. During the train journey Jack phoned Jay to let him know he couldn't perform in our music video, once Jay let Matt and I know of the situation we all thought the video would be a huge doubt.

The day progressed and we went to the London Eye as we had no character to film, however once we arrived at the Eye it was closed! This day was planning out to be a disaster, as we had no character to film, and no London Eye. The events of the day casted doubt over the group and I as our whole video was in jeopardy, however our luck soon turned whilst traveling home.

During the journey home, Matt asked his friend Glenn Rice if he would be interested in being the main character in our video. Luckily for us he said yes, this helped our group greatly as Glenn is part of a band (called Go-Zilla) and therefore is a natural musician. He also makes his own music videos for his band so his knowledge for certain shots and camera angles will provide us with great help.

Glenn Playing The Guitar 

Here is a photo of Glenn playing his guitar for his band, he can also play the drums which adds to his musical ability. With Glenn having a strong musical ability it will work as our advantage as he also knows how to lip sync to the lyrics, this will make our video look more professional and original. 

Equipment We Need To Use

In order to actually film our music video we need to use a Sony Handycam. This is small enough to be easily carried around London and still has enough quality to record a high standard of footage. We will also store our footage on a recording tape, and then upload it to the computer from there. Using a tape is useful as we can simply rewind it and film over any shots we do not need or want.  

In order to film some shots without any jerky camera movements, we need to attach the camera to a tripod. The tripod allows the user to film shots which have no movement from human error, at different heights due to the retractable legs and have slow pans and vertical movement as the base of the attachment can move up and down and from side to side. Using a tripod in our group will certainly make our filming easier as we have many planned pans across the River Thames and long length shots of the London Eye and a busy road in Westminster.

The group and I will also need to use a music player of some sort. This is so Glenn can hear the music whilst lip syncing the correct lyrics at the right times. Matt suggested downloading the track 'What A Life' to his iPhone so that Glenn can simply have the music playing in his jacket pocket. This will aid Glenn in when to come into a certain lyric and how long to hold it for.  Our phones will obviously be useful when planning to film our video as we can call or text each other to arrange times and places to meet. 

We took still photos of each other whilst filming with my digital camera so we can show them on our blogs. This will also help show our stages of production as we can take photos of each stage as we continue with our filming of the music video.

Risk Assessment

Before going to London to start filming the music video the group and I had to carry out a risk assessment for the day of shooting.