Music Video Filming Blog

This week, we started filming our music video. This meant we would be looking over our storyboard and planning and following what we had planned to do. Before hand, we also had to prepare the props and scenes we were going to film. I had bought sunflowers for our video as well as brought the lighting we needed for some shots. We also had to discus what we were going to do about the shots that turned out different than we planned. Some had to be cut entirely because we found that they were impossible to get. We then had to go back to the storyboard and decide on something different to fill the space when it didn't work out. But before that, we did get some shots that were usable and fit with the video. Since my partner was the actor for most of the scenes, I did a lot of the filming with her input between each take. This means that a lot of the shots we had to take and retake were done by me.
One thing I had to do in the setup was talk to my partner thoroughly before each scene and help her with what she would be doing in the scene. She wasn't able to see herself while acting in the video so if something looked off I had to tell her. The other person we had acting in the video also helped with this and gave input. When filming I had to tell how long a shot should be and tell my teammate this so it would all fit together well. To do this we filmed a few seconds longer than we needed so we can trim to the length we need later when editing. One example of this would be when I filmed on the trampoline, I had to film extra because we weren't sure how much footage we needed. Another thing I did was help with camera setup. I either handheld the camera or in later shots will be using a tripod and in both of those situations I will be helping out. I did some of the recording as well as tested out the camera before shooting. Most of the filming process I was involved in.
One thing that was a struggle while filming was the battery life of the camera. The cameras were a bit old so the battery life of them were not as good as new cameras. To make up for this I had to plug in the camera between shots and charge it to make sure it would work. Occasionally while filming the battery would die so we had to stop shooting to charge it. One way I got around this was using an extension cord that my teammate had. Another problem was getting the lighting and atmosphere of each shot right. We had planned on getting the shots we needed right at sunset but the sun set quicker than we anticipated so the lighting was dimmer than we liked. We got around this problem by making the different lighting show a passage of time so it looked more natural. It also started raining right when we wanted to film outside so that set us back and we had to improvise. To improvise I shot the scene on a patio instead of a trampoline and it actually turned out better than what we first expected.