Filming day 2 - Whitstable

7/9/2015 -Whistable

On the 7th of September we went to Whistable to film the first of many 'memory' scenes that will be in our video.

We felt Whistable was a good location as it is a nice, little seaside town which will allow us to get some amazing beach shots as well as some shots of Nova walking around the narrow, quaint streets. Whistable is a pebble beach, which for us, was really important as pebbles are linked to relaxation, which is a theme we feel our song represents as it is slow. We want our visuals to tie in with our audio and by filming here we felt this would be achievable. 

As this was the second location we went to, we decided to begin testing out lip syncing as well as getting establishing type shots. We found a wall that was on the beach and set up the camera in a way that meant Nova would appear in the right hand side of the screen. We have decided that this will be an ongoing motif throughout the video, both for continuity reasons but also so that when Nova is on screen, the audience get to see some of the location as well. To start with Millie found lip syncing in public a little nerve wracking due to the few strange looks you tend to get. Initially, Millie made a few mistakes purely down to her anxiousness however the longer we attempted it, the more comfortable she became. As a group we decided to film Nova lip syncing the opening verse and chorus of the song in this particular location. The reasoning for this is that the opening of the song is quite slow and relaxed, much like the atmosphere of the beach. In addition, we have decided that we would film the chorus in every location we go to as this is the section of the song that is going to need the most lip syncing so we want to have enough variation when it comes to editing.

In addition, we filmed scenes of Nova walking around on the beach. We got a range of shots - some with her looking at the camera and some with her looking away. This was to make it look as though it was in Nova's 'partners' point of view. We filmed a variety of movements including tracking and panning as well as some different shots such as long and mid.

In reflection, I feel that Whitstable was a good location to use as it is extremely picturesque. However, the weather wasn't particularly great that day so when it comes to doing any editing, we will need to sort out the colour balance to make it seem a bit brighter.

Costume

For these scenes we wanted something quite bohemian that still had an edge to it. With this being said, we settled on a cream gypsy top with black short dungarees. As we were going to a seaside town, Millie left her hair natural (waved) obviously this linking with the location as beach has waves.

Review of footage

Above is one of the lip syncing clips. When watching this back we felt that Millie did a good job of lip syncing, especially seeing as it was her first attempt. She ensures she is looking at the camera as well as off to the side, making it look more natural and not staged seeing as she is not static. Although there are certainly many positives about this clip, we have decided against using it as we feel you can tell that Millie is a bit nervous.

This second clip is an obvious point of view shot. We plan to include a number of shots that  look like Nova is holding her partner's hand and this is what is apparent within this clip. I personally feel that this was really effective as it feels almost like you, as the viewer, are holding Nova's hand. It allows for the audience to imagine themselves as part of the video. Once this clip is cropped and scaled, I feel that it will look perfect within our video.