Bird Cage Stop Motion

After the success of last time, we decided it would be effective to use stop motion again. One line in particular where we think it would work well is when Kate Nash sings 'and I'm trapped'. Although a short line, we wanted to emphasise the fact that she feels trapped.

So, my co-director and I had the idea of drawing a bird cage with a bird trapped inside, but to show the bird is 'trapped' we would use stop motion and show the bird moving as if it is trying to fly away. To do this, we had to take photographs of the bed moving position so we drew the bird on a separate piece of paper that could be moved.

Differently to last time, Chaya could draw the bird cage and  birds off camera and only had to show the bird moving, but the camera was still set up directly above the paper, on a tripod.

Stop Motion Finished!

Below are all the shots put together creating our stop motion shot! This is only the rough cut as the one in our final video will be sped up and be split up as it is too long to have as one shot.

Stop Motion

My co-director and I have always wanted to incorporate stop motion into our music video as we feel it works well within the indie-pop genre music videos.

After watching the trailer to the film, 'The Diary of A Teenage Girl' months ago, my co-director remembered a particular shot in which a still photograph of a boy is in the middle of the shot and flowers are drawn around him. 

We used this as inspiration and thought we could replicate this with our own drawings and a picture of the performer's ex-boyfriend. 

As I did the animation of Motion, my co-director decided to draw and take the pictures to create the stop motion. She stuck a piece of a3 paper to the table with blue-tack, also glued a photograph of the ex-boyfriend in the middle and set the camera up on a tripod - directly above the paper. 

Chaya drew flowers, hearts and other random doodles around the photograph, ensuring she took a picture on the camera after every line drawn! 

Here is what the final picture turned out like:

The Making of a Music Video

Below is a video made by our media teacher showing us filming some of our music video (4/4/16).

Filming 4/4/16

Today my co-director and I filmed some more shots for the music video. We filmed the shot of our performer crying over her ex boyfriend whilst eating ice cream in her pyjamas, close up of her putting her slippers on, ripping the head off of a 'be mine' teddy bear, angrily scrolling through pictures of her ex boyfriend with other girls and her beating a drum thats covered in confetti. The shoot was successful and we shot the clips we needed.

Crying Shot

We dressed Imogen in pyjamas and sat her on the ground with screwed up tissues as if they had been used.

We dropped eye drops into her eyes to make sure her eye make up ran down her face. 

We asked her to pretend to cry dramatically whilst eating ice cream.


Teddy Bear Shot

As it was too difficult to rip the head off, I had to cut some of the stitching so it was easier for Imogen to rip off. I unstitched the side of the head so it couldn't be seen.

Drum Shot

For this shot we used a drum from the drum kit at school and poured confetti on it so when Imogen hit the drum the confetti would bounce. We hope to edit this shot with a black and white filter and slowed down.

All in all, the day was very successful and we took all the shots we needed. We learnt from past filming days to leave the camera rolling between shots so we could get some natural laughing and dancing shots.

Rough Cut for Our Music Video

These are all the shots we have so far, some of which are not in the correct place yet.

Intro for the Music Video

In our music video, we want a clock to tick from 2:55 until it gets to 3 o'clock. However, we wanted to speed it up so we used the fast forward tool in iMovie. We placed a big clock on a green screen on a table and set up the camera to record.

After we filmed this we added a YouTube sound clip in iMovie of a clock ticking and an alarm bell for when the clock got to 3 o'clock.

Below is our filming set up:

This turned out well and we gave the clock a girly pink background. 

Once the clock got to 3 o'clock, we added a close up shot of our performer suddenly opening her eyes as if she has just woken up. 

Random Shots!

After watching the footage we recorded, we realised that when we left the camera rolling between takes it resulted in some natural close up shots which we liked and wanted to use in our music video. We edited the close up shot of her eyes into the mirror effect.

In this shot Imogen looks up towards the camera so we edited this so it is in slow motion, yet in sync with one another.

Green Screen Issues

After uploading our footage onto iMovie we discovered that the lighting for the green screen wasn't the best as you could see shadows and there was a 'fuzz' around the performer's hairline (see below).

We decided to research further into green screening to make sure the next time we film we can make it look as professional as possible. We went onto YouTube and found a helpful video about how to set up both the green screen and lighting.

The video said to peg the fabric tight to prevent the fabric from creasing thus creating shadows. It also said to 'weigh' the bottom of the fabric down with weights. To replicate this as best we could, we used a metal adjustable frame that our fabric could be put on and used thick textbooks as weights.

This is our new green screen filming set up 

Lighting wise, they suggest to point the studio lights at the screen whereas we pointed them at our performer. Pointing them at the screen prevents shadows appearing.

Filming Set Up

Today my co-director and I started filming the intro to our music video. Our idea was to show our performer stood holding a blanket (to represent a bed) and see her turn over to see her phone light up with a text from 'Stop Looking' and saying 'He's not going to call'. We wanted the text to read this as it provides visuals for the lyrics 'I wish that I could call but I know that you're probably asleep'. A relationship between the visuals and lyrics is one of Andrew Goodwin's 7 music video conventions. To do this I changed my co-directors contact name in my phone to 'Stop Looking' and sent the 'He's not going to call' from her phone to mine.

To make this seem more animated, we wanted to make the phone hang down by our performer's head and fly upwards after she turns away. As we were green screening we threaded green thread through my iPhone case so the thread could not be seen.

My co-director stood on a chair so she was taller than our performer and held the two pieces of string, slowly lowering it.

This took a lot re-takes as my co director's shadow kept appearing on the green screen. However, we persisted and tried putting the chair in different places and we came to the conclusion that the best place was behind the studio light. Re-filming this shot meant having to re-send the text from the other phone numerous times. This is what our set up looked like:

Prop and Equipment List for Filming

Here is all the equipment we will need for tomorrow's filming:

• Camera
• Camera battery and charger
• Tripod
• Studio Lights
• Greenscreen
• iPhone
• iPhone case
• Blanket for bed
• Green thread
• Choice of dresses
• Make up
• Computer to play the song
• Song lyrics

Risk Assessment for our Film Opening

Below is the risk assessment for our film opening:

 

Green Screen Error

When editing our green screen footage for our 9 frame shot, we discovered that there was a shadow in every clip to the right of the shot. This is most likely due to our performers standing too close to the green screen. However, we overcame this issue by using the 'touch-up' tool which allowed us to erase the shadow.

We also experimented with the colours in the clip, resulting in our performers looking much less washed out by the green screen and the colours appeared more 'sharp'. This resulted in our green screened shots looking a lot more professional. When we next use a green screen we must ensure to tell our performers to stand further away from the green screen.

How Filming Went - 17/11/15

Today we finally started to film our music video. My co-director, Imogen, Alicia, Emma and I all stayed after school until 5:30pm to film both the opening few shots of our video and the whole song sung by the girls before Imogen's makeover.

My co-director and I were looking forward to finally being able to start our music video after months of researching, however, for me personally, filming didn't go as well as I planned. We had less time than we initially thought, due to some performers having prior arrangements, not all the lyrics for the song were learnt, meaning we had to stop and start filming, rather than filming the song the whole way through and we didn't have the costumes we planned to use - due to them being forgotten.

This being said, we did manage to get some good footage that can be used for our music video and we even got extra shots of Imogen singing the song by herself and dancing. She started to do this without being recorded and my co-director and I thought this would look good in our video so asked her to do it again so we could record it.

This filming day has allowed us to learn from our mistakes. Next time we will;

• pick a day when all our performers can stay the whole time so we don't have to rush
• provide costumes ourselves so our performers can't forget to bring them and
• give our performers the lyrics at least 3 weeks in advance of filming.

Lighting for Filming - 17/11/15

My co-director and I agreed we wanted to use studio lights to make the green screen shots look more proffesional but we had to decide whether we wanted to use the over-head main lights as well. Luckily for us we have the choice of using either just the right hand lights or left.

I stood in front of the green screen and we filmed a short clip, experimenting with all the different light possibilities and I said which lights were turned on and which were off. When we uploaded this to iMovie we could then see which of the lights worked best.

When watching the clip back, we decided the best light combination was to use the studio lights and to turn off the over-head right lights off and have the left ones on. We decided this because it made the green screen look the greenest - the greener the green screen, the better it will work with a background. The other combinations were too light, too dark and only lit up half of the green screen. To make sure the lighting worked with the green screen we put a picture as the background and all-in-all worked well. The lighting did not create the 'fuzzy' outline which only occurs when the lighting is wrong.

We will use this lighting set up for all our green screen shots.

Planning for Filming - 17/11/15

When filming on Tuesday, we will need the following;

• Cameras
• Studio Lights
• Green Screen
• Tripod
• Laptop/iPad/phone playing the song
• Printed Song Lyrics
• Performer's costumes

We agreed that to make the lip syncing seem realistic, our performers would have to actually sing the words to the song.  The performers are not natural singers so my co-director and I agreed to sing along with them so they don't feel embarrassed - this doesn't effect the footage as we will mute the sound of the clips anyway.

For costumes, we told the three performers if they owned any clothes that could be put together to create a 'geeky' outfit. We agreed to style Imogen's hair in a low ponytail, Alicia will have bunches and Emma will have a low plait. We also want Imogen to be wearing glasses. 

Filming - 17/11/15

We have finally decided on a day where we can film with some our performers. We decided after school on Tuesday 17th November. My co-director and I decided to film all our green screen shots on Tuesday meaning we only need Alicia, Imogen and Emma. The green screen shots being filmed are the ones where Imogen is still 'geeky'. We aim to film the girls individually for the 9 shot scene like our storyboard;

We also want to film the whole song with the girls singing and dancing using the green screen. This is so we can use this when editing and can add the shots of the girls singing in between the narrative story. Filming the whole song ensures all the shots look similar as they have been filmed on the same day, using the same camera, same costumes and same natural lighting. Also, filming this all now will save time later when editing if we come across a part in the music video where we wanted shots of the girls singing and dancing in front of the green screen.

Imogen's Makeup Experiment

We decided to show document the make up looks we tried out on Imogen we would record using the camera and then speed up the footage to create a 1 minute 43 second long video - with no editing! We also decided to experiment with studio lighting for the first time. We set up one light to the left of the camera and this resulted in the video looking more professional and better quality.

Below is the video:


We did, however, stumble across some bridges that we had to cross. These being:

• Half way through filming the camera memory was too full. This was an issue as we wanted the video to be a continuous recording with out any stops. Luckily, because we sped up the footage, you cannot see when the camera cut off. 
• Imogen's foundation was too pale on camera and under the studio lights, therefore we had to use bronzer to create the illusion that the foundation was a better match to her complexion.
• We realised when editing that a plug socket was in shot. This means we will ensure that notjing like this will be in shot for our final music video.
• Finally, we came to the conclusion that using a white wall as a background appears grey on camera. If we wanted to use a white wall for a background it would be best to use a green screen and edit this white.  

Filming Set Up For Imogen's Makeover

Below is our set up for when we filmed Imogen's make up:

We situated the camera directly opposite Imogen at her eye level, so we then had an eye line match with the viewer and Imogen. To the left, we set up a studio light to make the camera footage look more professional and make the make up more prominent so the camera would pick it up.  And finally, to the right we had a table which had all the make up we were using on. 

The above picture shows me applying Imogen's eye makeup. Due to the position of the camera only our arms/hands were only in shot. However, it proved difficult to apply some make up without getting close to her face so half of mine and Chaya's faces are in the shot.

Planning Meeting

In today's lesson my co-director and I discussed more of our ideas, including filming locations, filming days, costumes and specific camera shots. This is what we have decided:

• We will film on Monday 26th October at our school - we checked with the school's bursar that the school will be open as it is during half term.
• For the make over scene, the protagonist (Imogen) will ask her geeky friends to help her. We aim to make this scene quite comical and show the girls doing Imogen's make up but not having any idea how to do it resulting in her looking clown like. When they finally get the look right we will use a POV (point of view) shot as if the camera is Imogen. To reveal her dramatic make over we will use a upwards panning shot of her outfit, make up and hair