Filming day 1 - Rochester

1/9/2015 - Rochester

On the 1st of September, we carried out our first filming day. We felt that as the weather was dull, we would film the 'break up' scene. We thought this was a smart idea as the weather will almost reflect Nova's sad, depressive mood in this scene. We wanted to film in a coffee shop and so felt Rochester was the most suitable location due to their quirky cafe's. The alternative vibe the cafe has to it is reflective of our genre.

Whilst in the coffee shop, we made sure to gather a variety of shots from close ups of Nova's face to mid shots of her reading/staring into space. The close ups intensified the emotion that was clearly overcoming Nova and helps to tell the audience this with ease. The mid shots give an overview of her glum body language, further connoting her distraught following her break up.

The café we filmed in was called 'The Deaf Cat'. It is a fairly quaint coffee shop that provides books for you to read as you drink your coffee or eat your food - it fits with the 'edgy' look and feel that we are aiming for; aiding us in creating a sense of continuity between the location and our artist.

As you can see in the below images, the colourful, decorative wall in the background gave us a lot to work with, hopefully giving our video an interesting range of visuals. When it comes to editing, I think that some sort of a filter or wash over the top of these scenes will make the background stand out more and attractive for our viewers.

                                        

After we were happy with the footage attained at the cafe we then went to the castle grounds in the hope of filming more naturalistic scenes. Being outside also meant the weather was visible,  creating a sense of Pathetic Fallacy - 'Nova's' emotions will be reflected in the gloominess of the weather.  

Whilst at the castle we shot a range of long shots, close ups and mid shots; In addition, we filmed a few tracking shots in order to give the audience a variety. We wanted to try and experiment with levels for our video and so climbed up onto a ledge of the castle allowing us to get a  great high angle shot for our video. Extreme high angle shots are not usually present within music videos meaning we are breaking the stereotypical conventions of music videos. This is something we had planned on doing because we feel that it will set us apart from all the other videos out there.

Our trip to Rochester allowed us to film a large majority of the break up scene - our next filming day will be focusing on one of the 'memories' of the relationship scenes.

I feel that using Rochester as our location for this particular scene was successful due to it's natural edgy-ness. This not only fits in with Nova's style and persona but manages to give the video that alternative look we are looking for. The rainy weather was perfect due to the nature of the scenes. 

In conclusion I feel that today was a success. We managed to film a majority of the footage that we needed and made a good, steady start to our project. Our team work was great with our ideas bouncing off of one another and also our analytical skills - discussing what looked good and what didn't work so well. 

Costume

We decided to go for the outfit we discussed in the Process of Creating a Character post as we feel that it was the mot suitable for a break up scene. The overall 90s look of the outfit fitted in with the location and it also gives off the edgy vibe we wanted Nova to have.

Review of our Footage

Below are two inserts of clips from this day, one is a piece of footage that is likely to be used and the other is one that we will have to think about using...

Above is a low angle shot of Nova in Rochester Cathedral. Initially  we thought that Rochester Cathedral would be a good place to film as it is a beautiful building with lots of history,making it appear as though Nova is interested in the history of her local architecture. In addition, the cathedral obviously is linked to religion. Religion is something we feel people turn to when they are having a tough time. In this instance, it would be Nova going through a break up. I personally, am not a fan of the low angle as I don't feel as though we will use any other shots of this angle within the rest of the video and so the continuity will not be very good. On the other hand, the low angle does enable the audience to get a better view of Nova's suroundings, making the scene seem more majestic due to the decor of the cathedral. I feel that this is a shot we need to discuss as a group when it comes to editing as it could be controversial within our group.

This second video was shot in the Rochester Castle grounds. Nova is featured sitting on a wall with a bridge behind her, in amongst  a lot of nature. This is a wide shot, allowing the audience not only to see where Nova is, but also to ensure she is kept in shot at all times. There is a small element of tracking evident here also. This was to show Nova's emotion from all angles. As you can see, Nova seems to almost follow the camera with her head,  creating a deeper connection with the audience  Her facial expression is glum, highlighting that her mood is the aftermath of a breakup.

We felt a really effective part of this clip was near the end where her hair is moving in the wind and she is looking down slightly, this captures the essence of the heartbreak we were trying to convey. However, we did not like it when the camera is face on as we felt that this looked a little restricting and this is not something we want our video to convey. As a result of this we have decided to crop the clip and only use the last few seconds of it.