Trip to the BFI - Corin Hardy

The day after we filmed in London we had a trip to the BFI (British Film Institute) on South-Bank, London. We were given a talk all day about how to create an opening sequence for our coursework. We did this for AS but it still was helpful knowledge as we could adapt to fit our A2 work. However we had a talk from a director called Corin Hardy who has created a recent film called 'The Hallows'. He was able to share with us his experience in creating his film and just how difficult and time consuming it really is. As well as this we were able to watch the first opening minutes to the film as he discussed how each of the scenes were shot and created. This was very interesting and useful as we could see easy correlations compared to our A level work.

Corin was also able to show us how much time and planning went into the creation of his film by showing us his script writing, shot-list and sketches of various different characters and how they had been changed over time during the creation of the film. This also helped as we could see how our pre production should look and the level of detail it should be in so that when it comes to filming everything will run a lot smoother.

Train Timelapse Trial

Me and Jordan adventured out into oxford to finalize our locations and shots for our music video. Here is an example of a time lapse we would at look using for our final piece but we would recreate in a rush hour period as then there will be more activity with the trains. This was taken at Oxford train station at 11;30am on a Tuesday, we would like to recreate this shot again between 7:30am-9am and/or 4:30p,-7pm Monday-Saturday as these times are the peak of the rush hour due to our research.

First day of filming - 20/10/15

Our first day of actual day of filming for our music video Bloom by Odesza will be on Tuesday the 20th of October. We will be filming in and around Oxford City Centre. We have chosen this date due to the weather forecast and us all being available. We hope to achieve 2 time lapses and 1 hyper lapses that we can use for our final piece. We know the location we would like to get these shots so it should be a successful day of filming.

First time-lapse attempt with audio

This is Jordan's first attempt at a time-lapse during his journey from Oxford to Southampton. This is 2 hours of footage which relates to around 35 seconds of film. This is a good first attempt and now we can see that the camera must stay in an identical spot to get the best outcome for our music video. It also helps show that the genre of song is perfect for this kind of footage.

Practice Timelapse



I decided to try a practice timelapse before I went out to film the real one. This is because I had never attempted one and wanted to go out feeling I was comfortable enough to plan and shoot one to a high standard. Attached is a screenshot from my practice shot. There were some strengths of the footage looking back, one, it was in high definition and stayed in focus throughout and also it was around 15 seconds long so wasn't too short to use as a genuine scene. However, it had limitations, it has two black dots at the bottom of the shot throughout which is very unprofessional so if it was the final product I would not have used this clip. Also, not much happened as it was a fairly clear blue ski meaning at points it was unclear that it was a timelapse.

Overall, the timelapse for a first attempt was very successful and defiantly taught me things that I will replicate when I go out and film the final shot.

A Level Media showing at Wheatley Park

Today we had a school trip to the Wheatley School Film Festival, where we were able to watch other peoples work from both AS and A2 coursework. This featured our opening sequences that we made for our work last year as well as other schools opening sequences. Our school won several awards for their opening sequences and we were able to gain some insightful knowledge and experience from attending the event because it gave me ideas on what I wanted to include in my music video.

As well as watching all the schools pieces of coursework, we also had a Q and A session from someone who works in the industry for a company called Audio-motion. They were able to give first hand experience as to what they do as a career and what its like working in the industry for big filming companies.

Costume for main character

Costume:

Plain Red Hoodie: We decided that this would be ideal as we wanted the focus to be on the camera work and audio rather than what the main character is wearing. Also, it will make it easy to change the person playing the main character as we could buy two of the same hoodies in different sizes for cheap.

  

Black Morph Mask: We decided to use this to cover the face of the main character so it stays anonymous in the gender, race etc. This way the audience will be able to relate more to the character.

Grey Joggers: This was decided on because they are easily accessible and go well with the hoodie that will be worn, also they are easy to do tricks in on the BMX which is what we are aiming for later on in the music video. 

Final song choice

We have decided to use Bloom by ODESZA as we felt we could relate to this style. We have many ideas for shots, locations etc that can fit to this genre of music. We also just received confirmation that we cold use this music by ODESZA for our A2 Media by Chloe over the phone.


This is the song choice we have decided

 

Requesting permission to use Bloom by Odesza

Here is confirmation of our email to Chloe who was the contact details regarding getting in touch with the band. Here is where we asked to use the soundtrack of Odesza called Bloom. She never replied to our email request saying we could or we couldn't so we decided to use it anyways. 



 

Our Pitch

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More about our Canon 700d

This is George's camera and the one we will do the majority of our shots with. We decided on this camera as it is higher quality than Jordan's and myself so will give the highest definition to our shots. Also, George uses regularly for a variety of filming and photography so is very comfortable around it. Saying that, all three of us will be using it to film as it is a group production.

 

 

Our Camera Equipment

Before we start filming we had to make a list of all the camera equipment we had or could get a hold of so we could see what we could and couldn't shoot.

What we own:

2 GoPros
Canon 700d
Tripod
DJI Phantom 2
iPhone 5/6/6s

What we can get a hold of:

Camera Rig
Steady Cam
Another Tripod

As you can see we have a wide range of equipment to use meaning that we should be able to get a wide variety of shots and shot types helping raise our overall production.