Filming-Day 2 and Photo Shoot.

On Sunday, I invited my artist Rhiannon around to continue filming for my music video for 'I Love It'. We also planned to carry out a photo shoot for the digi-pak and magazine advertisement. I think the day in general went very well and was very productive. There wasn't as much filming to be done as the last shoot day, which worked out to be rather lucky as it allowed us more time to do the photo shoot and to attempt as many looks in this shoot as possible.
When Rhiannon arrived we decided to get one with filming straight away to avoid wasting anytime. We went straight through to my parent's bedroom (which acts as the character's bedroom) and began filming. When editing last shoot's footage I realised that there is plenty of footage of the 'Fake Girl' doing lots of activities that represent her side of the girl, but not of the 'Real Girl'. So I decided that it would be a good idea to get some footage of her in bed crying and reacting to the break up situation. I placed one camera in front of her, I zoomed the camera onto her face to create a close-up frame. I positioned the other camera to the side of the bed and did not zoom in on this camera to create a long shot frame of her. This didn't take very long to film and we was able to move on very quickly.
After realising in post-production when watching back footage from the first shoot where the character begins trashing her bedroom, I realised that the footage was actually rather grainy and low quality, I realised that this was due to poor lighting. It was clear to me that this should be re-filmed during Sunday's shoot. I saw this as a positive opportunity as it gave me the chance to see which angles and frames work, so I then incorporated that into the filming for the re-shoot. We filmed this scene over two takes, for the first take I positioned one camera in the corridor looking in through the room entrance so we could get a side view of the action occuring (Upon watching back the footage in post-production from this shoot I realised that this did not work as Rhiannon shut the room door when trashing the room whilst filming which then blocked the camera's view of her) and another as a high angle at the opposite side of the room so we could get a front view of the girl trashing the room. After filming the first take successfully, we prepared for the second take, for this session I placed the high angle camera at the opposite side of the room to where it was before, and the other I took control of, I sat on the bed in the centre of the room with the tripod and simply followed Rhiannon with the camera as she stormed around the room.
I wanted some footage of the Rhiannon miming to the lyrics of the song with the rubble of the trashed room behind her in the background, I thought of this as symbolic to her life being a train wreck as well showing the mess that she has caused by trashing the room. After quickly making sure as much of the rubble in the background as possible to make sure it was in the frame and could be scene we filmed her miming the song. This went well as was very quickly filmed, after that I quickly asked Rhiannon to roll around in the rubble and through some of it in the direction of the camera to create some contact between the character and the audience, her 'rolling in the rubble' almost represents how she does not have any regrets about trashing the room and she 'doesn't care'.

I noticed in my research that some videos within my music genre feature the artist or some of the actors within it in a bath, the reasons for this normally are reliant on the narrative within the video but the reason I planned to incorporate it into my video was because it's unexplained, which represents the spontaneity and randomness of this character's activities. The fact that there is no reason for her to be in this bathtub almost makes it more wild that she is, which is why I decided to go for this. Also my in the area of the bathroom that we used, the primary colours are black and white which matches Rhiannon's costume whilst she was filming this scene. We filmed this scene over three takes, the first take I positioned the camera at the front of the bath and zoomed in the camera to make a close-up frame of Rhiannon. The other camera was positioned at the side of the bath at a high angle (to represent an outside eye looking in and watching what she is doing.) After filming her miming to the song and filming the first take I then re-positioned the cameras. For this take I positioned the camera at a low angle at the foot of the bath and zoomed in the camera on Rhiannon's face so she could look down at it and sing to it, this would make the audience feel as if she is singing to them as she is very close to it and singing directly to it. I sat on this camera and controlled the zoom function and the tripod so I could adjust it when she moved to ensure I could keep her in the frame. The other camera was very close to where it was in the first take as I like this angle because it is visually pleasing in my opinion. We then began filming this scene, this went very well in my opinion. Rhiannon gave a variety of looks that are perfect for the video in which I can use a lot. After this take, I then asked Rhiannon to dance around in the bath in the similar way that she did in the field and the street in the first shoot. This was to simply ensure that I had a variety of footage to use in post-production. For this I raised the tripod a little to make a slightly higher angle and then moved back the high angle camera back a little so it was then a long shot. This take went well, it was brief, I didn't need much of this footage I simply wanted a little to ensure I had something to work with.
After this scene, we had then completed all filming that was required for the music video. It was then time to begin preparations to begin the photo shoot for my digi-pak and magazine advertisement for the album. Prior to Rhiannon's arrival I asked her to bring a large variety or outfits, to which we agreed. She presented me with this different outfits and I selected the first outfit for her to use within her photo shoot. After she was changed we left the house and walked to my local Millennium Green where we found a place that would be ideal for shooting. I asked Rhiannon to lay on a bench in this area. After taking a few images of this I realised Rhiannon was back-lit and the photographs I was taking wasn't as good as they could be because of this so I asked her to face the opposite way so I could photograph her from that way instead, which is where we began this shoot here, we tried large variety of poses from standing on the bench, to laying to sitting. One of poses was one we nicknamed 'The Gaga Pose' which was a stance/pose that we both were familiar with as we had both seen Lady Gaga do when doing her own photo shoots, Rhiannon did this pose and I instantly thought this worked, it gave a certain unique pop star look to her. We then moved to a near-by bridge where we continued shooting. This part of this photo shoot I feel didn't go as well as the first part did because the wind began to pick up, as well as this the  bridge was a little old and had not been painted in a while as well as the plants surrounding it were dead so the area wasn't very visually pleasing, after realising this I then drew an end to this part of the photo shoot and we set off home to prepare for the next shoot.
When we arrived home I then selected a blue dress that Rhiannon had brought along, I liked this dress as it was unique, colourful and had a certain pop star look to it which was the overall look I wanted to achieve in this shoot. Once Rhiannon had changed and we had updated her make up, we departed the house and made our way to the same field that we had filmed in during the first filming day. This part of the photo shoot was rather unsuccessful because the field is an open space so the wind was particularly bad which affected Rhiannon's hair and continued to get in the way of her face when I was taking images. Sensing this was a bad location to shoot I moved the shoot to a near-by forest. This was probably the most successful location of the photo shoot. The trees were planted in lines and were symmetrical, this was pleasing to the eye and was perfect for photographs. I got a variety of looks from Rhiannon and the trees also played a decent role as props, we were able to experiment with how we could use the trees and branches to get the best poses. I tried a variety of framing techniques here, I tried some long shots, some medium close-ups and quite a few close-ups, these were all successful and I got some very decent images.
When we arrived home we began the third and final shoot of the day. I received a home photography studio as a present a few years ago, which we used for this shoot. I used a white screen for this because was the most common background colour that I found when researching CD front covers. I selected black dress for Rhiannon to wear for this shoot because it would be extremely contrasting to the white background that would compliment the image very well. As soon as she had changed and updated her make up and hair we began taking images. This was a rather quick session but it was very effective, I tried a variety of looks, I experimented with flash, extreme close ups and long shots. We also experimented with different looks in regards to Rhiannon's hair, we continuously messed it up to create a rock look which matches both the song's lyrics and my video. After this shoot it was time for Rhiannon to leave and the day was over.

Overall, I think that the day was very successful, the footage that I filmed earlier in the day was of decent standard and I was satisfied that there was a lot within the footage that I could do in post-production, my findings whilst editing this footage supports this. I think that the three photo shoots later on in the day was also very successful, despite some issues at times during the shoot that were beyond my control, I think that the shoot went very well and I am happy with the results. As far as I can see from all of these results from both the photo shoot and the filming I don't feel at this point that a re-shoot will be necessary.