FILMING REFLECTION
​Records
For the first song, we lost the best time for shooting which is in the autumn because we were not planned properly so we decided to change a song.
2023 February 26th - 2023 February 27th
The filming took place in various locations.
The first filming was in the rural area of YanQing, Hebei, China on February XX. It was a three hours drive from Beijing, and we chose this location to start after tons of research because the natural environment of the place (unmelted snow in the mountains, withered trees and plants, etc.) gives a wilder and desolate feeling which fits our song “Die For You”.
We used drone to start our shooting because we want to set our quality high at the beginning so we have high standards and expectations for ourselves. The drone that I used this time has settings which allows me to target Shirley when she’s acting so it was relatively easy for me to control it. I could set the course of it before it flies which is very convenient. However, I had to really pay attention to the battery or else I might lose the drone in the mountains….
After using drone to do some wide establishing shots, it was already sunset time so we utilized the last bit of sunshine to do some inside shots. A problem that we face in this place was that because it’s a hotel hundreds of kilometers away from Beijing, it would be really hard for us to do any reshoot. And as we only reserved one night there, we would have to make sure we’re shooting in a very efficient schedule. So after catching some sunlight, we ate dinner and did some night shooting in the mountains, utilizing setting based light sources such as the car’s head lamp, the street lamp, the light from the cabin, etc. It creates very good contrast in the dark, low light polluted environment. However, another problem we faced in the night was that the place gets very could at night and we were just unable to be out there shooting in such temperatures. So we decided to leave the night shots in other locations.
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The next day, it was really misty in the morning so we utilized the mist and took some shots without even putting on any makeup. Then we ate our breakfast at around 10AM and started our shooting the remaining outdoor shots on the plain with all the yellow withered grass. I really like this location because I had always wanted to do a running scene where Shirley runs in the front and takes my hand as I follow. The motion of running would be a really good fit with the rhythm of the song while adding a different camera technique into our MV. After these outside shots, we did some lip syncing inside our cabin until we were told to leave.
Something that I feel I did very well was on the costume side. As I searched up the place, I settled what color and vibe of costume we should bring so when we took the shots, the costumes stand out and blend into the environment very well.
Something that we need to improve, is to have a better time schedule and plan out what all the specific shots are like because this would be the only time we film here (considering the distance of location and cost of a night). If we had these ready, our filming would be more effective.
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2023 March 15th
The second filming took place at Shirley’s house, I set up the equipments as she did her make up and we filmed at the window of her room. The sunshine in the afternoon around 3 shines through the curtain and creates a very good atmosphere so we utilized the light and shadow and did lip syncing shots and conceptual shots. A difficulty that we encountered is the gamble where we had trouble balancing the camera. Because it didn’t work that well, we changed back to using tripods. Something we should do next time is to plan out the movement and lyrics she have to lip sync because we were taking random shots has a small possibility of them all getting used.
Then we went down to the audio-visual room to use the projector because we want to take shots with imagery projected onto Shirley. It would create very conceptual shots with a very low cost as it can generate a surrounding atmospheric color. We also shot “blank” shots without the face such as ones with only the hands so the audience would not get aesthetic weariness.
A problem that we encountered was that Shirley forgot to download the clips from the memory card before returning and it went missing. (At that time, we thought that it got deleted, but later on, we found the clips)
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2023 March 20th
The third shooting still happened at Shirley’s house and it was during the night. As our MV is a hybrid of conceptual and narrative, we decided that we need to plan out a clear storyline to make it more amusing. So this time, I took shots of her and Justin (the one she’s dying for in the music video). A clear storyline going through would make the MV more amusing. and the reason why is because we only have shots of her alone so we really need some shots of the man character with her together. I got the job of shooting again as there’s only the three of us and I directed their movement so that they look natural. The tip at the end, was to takes shots of them when they didn’t realize that I was shooting because they are true couples so their actual interaction is the best movement.
We first shot more at the curtain and this time I made them go behind to hint that this is the “past” and they’ve now break up now as the shots of her alone is outside the curtain.
Then we went down to the kitchen and audio-visual room to shoot some more sweet daily memory shots. Something that we find hard to adjust is the lighting in the house. The warm lighting makes our clips very yellow which would need to be later on color graded. Also, the battery was not fully charged so we had to change the battery once in a while though the shooting. We should prepare our equipments more properly next time.
Importance of Pre-production
Planning is very important because our scenes are very weather dependent. Without scheduling the date and time, we wouldn’t get the shots we want. For example, there was one day that we wanted to shoot the curtain scene but the weather was bad which could not create the sunshine effect we want.
Storyboarding and analyzing the lyrics are also very important because they would make the shooting very effective. Because we had a relatively immature storyboard and analysis of the song, our filming wasted a lot of time. We also didn’t stick strictly to our storyboarding and analysis because there were setting that we were unable to shoot. However, we worked as a group with clear job roles, I am responsible for part of the planning, most of the editing, most of the product design, and all of the shooting while Shirley does all the acting. My planning role includes drawing the storyboard and writing down what each sentence of the lyrics mean. My editing role includes starting off with all the rough clips and creating a basic structure of the MV, then adding in the details such as cutting on the beat, filters, effects, color grading, etc. My product design role includes creating the digipak and parts of the social webpage. My shooting role includes SHOOTING EVERYTHING and directing everything.
What Worked Well?
We used around 30% of our lip-syncing footage. A lot of the bad footage is because the lip syncing movement is too small which can’t be understood by the audience. The ones we used in the MV have bigger facial and lip movements compared to the other ones. Also, we had a lot of lip-syncing shots with the same lyrics so we only choose the best ones to use. Other shots (not lip-syncing shots) has a high rate of use because we have chosen very good settings to shoot. Especially the drone, we have used up to 90% of the clips.
What I like about the shots is how each scene is clearly separated. The audience would be able to identity the emotional state of the character clearly. At the curtain scene, I really liked the contrast of day and night where during the day, the color was warm and bright, and when during the night, the color is cold and gray. At the drone scene, I really like the whole scenery with the snow and golden withered grass which required less techniques in shooting.
A particular shot that I really like was a drone shot that leveled down. As it went down, the light changed from front-lighting to back-lighting which allows us create a long shot that matches the beat with its movement. When we add a slo-motion to it, it seems very professional.
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A partícula shot that I dislike is the shot that we took randomly in the art department. It is taken with our phone as we didn’t bring the camera which means that it has a very low resolution and that it does not have a change in focus. The shot took our whole video down as the setting is also very lame.
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The biggest “last minute” change that we had was that we changed our song after we did a huge amount of work. I already finished blog 1-12 for the previous song so this means I have to do it again. The reason why we have changed is because we have passed the best time to shoot the MV for golden hour which is in autumn and it would be hard to think of a better “plan” for the song so it was easier to find another song we really like and do that instead.
