Filming Diary

On the 8th of October we filmed our music video. We planned to film on this day 2 weeks before because we had to find a date that the singer in our film could do. A week prior to filming we created the funeral programme and printed it on to card and we also booked out the theatre of our Sixth Form because that is one of our filming locations. To do this we just had to ask reception if it was free and we booked it out for an hour. On Thursday we began filming at 11.30, we had already planned the shots we wanted to film so we could begin straight away. We moved some black curtains across the walls of the room to create a blank canvas and put a stool we borrowed from media in the middle. When creating our pitch we said we were going to use mirrors during this scene and have them surrounding the artist, but when we set this up we decided it did not look as effective as we anticipated. We therefore changed the shot by having the artist sat with no other props or mise-on-scene surrounding her, which we believe looked more powerful and indicated isolation of the artist which helps with the narrative. We then set up the camera, tripod and dolly to the angle we needed and then got Jess to sit on the stool. However when taking on set photos we realised that the quality on our iPhones were higher than on the camera and it was a much more clear, crisp image where as the camera's were much more pixilated and blurred. To ensure our phone cameras would work for filming we filmed some preliminary shots and found that it worked well and therefore we recorded the rest of our footage on our phones.



When we first went to the theatre to film all the chairs were down, so we put them back up because we thought we were using the mirrors, and you could see the reflection of the chairs in the mirrors due to the way we wanted them placed.

 This is a picture of us setting up the mirrors. We wanted them to surround the artist round the back and sides of her, and we were going to film so you could see her reflection in them. We played around with them because we didn't feel they looked effective e.g by moving them in different positions, but in the end decided against them all together.

Setting up the camera, tripod and dolly before filming, where we decided against using them and used our phones instead due to the better quality.









At half 12 we made our way to the second location at the church. On the way we did some filming in the car. We did not take a recce shot of filming in the car because we did not have a definite idea of what we actually wanted to film so  we played around with it by recording a few shots of the artist singing while looking out the window. These did not look as effective as we had hoped so we did not include them. However we also recorded the artist just looking out the window which did look effective because it was as if she was having flashbacks, remembering old times with her friend. We also filmed a time-lapse of the surroundings out the window which looked really effective due to the contrast between the slow music and the shot of the time-lapse, which when played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster. 

To our surprise when we tried to go inside the church to film it was locked so instead we overcame the problem and filmed in the surroundings of the church and are happy with how they have turned out. We did not spend as long as expected filming at the church as we pre-planned the shots we wanted to film so knew exactly what we were doing and just got on with it.



After filming at the church we walked to our third location at the forest. On the way we found an small pathway surrounded by trees which we thought would look effective in our video. We filmed a few random improvised shots of Jess walking along the path etc which turned out effective so we decided to keep them and use them in the video. After this we made our way to the third location of the forest, where we had planned to film shots of the artist singing. However once we had arrived there we came up with the idea of filming the artist as if she was having a day dream/flashbacks with her friend who had passed away. Despite this being unplanned, recording it in the moment and getting Jess to improvise worked very well and it looked very natural which is what we wanted to come across. The only problem we came across on the day was trying not to get any property or members of the public in our shots, but this was only a minor issue as most of the filming was is quiet areas and due to filming in the middle of the day there was not many people around.

Task 10: Production Schedule

Task 10: Risk Assessment

Task 10: Recce

Before filming we did a recce of our locations. Film companies use recces to decide whether the location is suitable for what they are hoping to film. Checks will be done to make sure that the area is safe for all the actors and filming crew and to locate any possible problems that may arise in the process of filming.


The first location we visited on our recce was the church. We really liked this location because the surroundings were very quiet, meaning there is not much chance of getting disturbed e.g cars driving past, the public walking past etc. Also it is a very traditional church, which is what we wanted, because we felt it would set the scene better and would help tell the storyline more. The only problem we may fact is that there may be people visiting the church while we are filming. If this occurs then we will stop recording and leave the church until they have gone and then continue.

This is the main entrance to the church itself. We will have a tracking shot of the artist walking down this path and to the door, as she is going to the funeral of her friend. We will probably incorporate this at the beginning of the video.

This is the other side of the church again from the previous picture. We will film another tracking shot of the artist walking down the path and round the corner to the back of the church. We may also film a medium shot of the artist sat on the stairs reading the funeral programme.



This is the whole church from the front. We will film an establishing shot of this to set the scene for the audience and we may also film a panning shot, panning up to the top of the church as there is a cross on the top, which isn't visible on this photo. We thought that the cross was very symbolic and would be nice to include in the video.

The second location we visited was the forest location. We are going to have the artist walking through here and maybe crouching/sitting down while singing the lyrics to the song. We believe there is a variety of shot types we could use here, for example close ups while the artist is singing and also long shots that include the scenery. There is also a lot of open space in the forest that is not visible on this picture, which will look effective as it will make the artist look vulnerable and powerless. To further connote this we will do high angle shots looking down on the artist.

We could not do a recce for our first location which is the theatre at our sixth form because you have to book it out, which we did not realise. We have now booked out the theatre for the day we film and will take photos on set before filming. We will check the weather forecast before filming as we don't want to ruin the equipment.

Task 10: Permissions

In order to use the Beyonce's song "Heaven" we had to get in contact with her record company and ask for permission. We firstly planned to send them a letter because we could not find the correct email address, but we kept looking and eventually found it. The picture below is a copy of the letter that we wrote, which we copied and pasted into an email. 

Also we had to ask permission from the Church Wardens and the Vicar of the church to film in the church grounds. We found the email address of the church on the church website and sent an email through the website.