Filming at Aylesford

We have now finished all the filming for our music video, the final scenes being shot in the Aylesford graveyard. We are very pleased with the way the footage turned out, despite the rain, as we were very inventive and creative with our choice of shot types and movements which will add a variety in our final cut of music video. We also used all the aspects of the location to our advantage and included as much of it as possible in the shots. 

Here are some screen shots of us filming and of the location:

Filming of the finale

We successfully shot the 'final scene' shots at Bluebell Hill, in which the two characters of war and peace finally meet. This included the paint fight scene which we were able to shoot using both the watered down paint and the combination of powdered pain made by us both. We found that the best way to throw the paint was to prepare the pain in some plastic cups ready for use. We are happy with the way the paint scene turned out as we were able to effectively capture the falling of both the powdered pain and paint with the use of a slow motion app downloaded onto one of our films. This was our initial aim for this scene as we wanted to capture the motion of the paint ,which otherwise we would not have been able to without the slow motion app, to create quite a dramatic effect which is need for the ending of our music video to bring the narrative to a 'big finale'. We were however on quite a tight time schedule so we had to unfortunately rush and we did not get all the intended shots, however we do have many shots that we can use as a back up for the missing scenes. 

Here are some screen shots of the paint in motion and the aftermath:

Final Scene Preparation

For the final scene of our music video we want to have a big paint fight between the two characters as a means of showing the unity of the characters as the soldier 'breaks free' and joins peace. Our initial plan was to use powdered paint which is used in the famous Holi festival, due to its powdered state and vivid colour. However, powdered paint was too expensive for us to buy so we discovered that it can be made using corn starch and food colouring, so we watched some You Tube tutorials. However, we soon discovered after making several batches that making the powdered paint was not only time consuming but also not very effective. Our own home made paint did not have the same vibrance or powdery consistency as real powdered paint so we had to think again to what we could use. We then decided that the only other option for us was to use real paint. We bought a four pack of Crayola washable paint so that it can easily be washed away by the rain. This paint cost us £7 so we decided that we should water the paint down for it to go further. We have now mixed the paint and have some plastic cups that we will poor the paint into as this will be the easiest way for us to throw it. Below are some images of the mixed paint and powdered paint which we made. 

Above is the paint mixed with water, ready for us to film the final scene. 

Above is the blue batch of powdered paint in the drying process, this takes 2-3 days and once dry the paint will be solid and cracks will appear. The pain can then be broken up and finely sieved. 

Here is the final product of the pink and orange batch. 

Viewer Analysis

As we now have our second draft we felt hat it would be a good time to get some feedback on our music videos so far so that it enables us to think about what people have said and try to change and improve anything which may need to be. We made a questionnaire of 8 open questions, which we then printed and handed out to the viewers when they watched the music video so that they could note down anything which they liked or perhaps did not like and also ways they think that we could improve. We gave this questionnaire to 9 of our fellow peers to get a variety of opinions. The results from the questionnaire were mostly positive, and we were given only a thew ideas on how we could further our music video. This questionnaire has helped us as we have now received opinions from people outside of the group and we now know that we are heading in the right direction with our music video. We will also look over points made such as the one about cutting on the beat. Below is the responses made:

  

            

Second Draft

Here is the second draft of our music video. It is still incomplete but the editing has been made smoother and overall has been improved and the section of pan shots have been added to this draft. 

First Draft

Here is the first draft of our music video.

Filming at Bodiam Castle

Here are a few shots from us filming at Bodiam Castle. We set out to the location early in the morning in order to get the scenes we wanted without the worry of getting other visitors in the frame. We are pleased with the shots that we got as we felt that the castle was rather effective and help with inspiration. We initially wanted the scenes with the peace character to be shot in sunny conditions to create more visually pleasing scenes which have a dramatic impact to those black and white shots with the solider character. However, to our best efforts we were unable to catch the sun and the day we filmed was unfortunately a very cold and dull one and due to the time frame we have to film and the time of year we could not do anything else other then to film in those conditions. 

Digipack Ideas

To help us plan our ideas for what our digipack front cover might look like and what we need to put on it, we decided that the best way to get all our ideas together would be to create a mind map which can be seen above. We put down all our ideas for potential imagery and also other concepts such as font. We already knew we wanted to have quite a simple design and use black and white. This is because after doing research into the artist of our chosen song we discovered he uses black and white in his CD covers, which also links to the black and white of his music videos. The red line indicates our final chosen design idea for our front cover. 

Above is a sketch out of our final chosen design idea. This idea is to have a plain white background with the use of a large image of a gun laying in flowers. We decided upon this idea as we felt that the image would be simple but yet quite powerful and symbolic of our music video and the war and peace theme we portray within it. We then decided upon keeping the theme of black and white, like Woodkid himself, as we felt that the image should be in black and white, but the colours of the flowers remain as this then shows the contrast between war (the gun) and peace (the flowers). The text will also be in black and will have a simple font like 'Times New Roman' to keep a simple design, and also in the bottom centre we decided to place the crossed keys symbol of Woodkid as it features on all of Woodkids singles and album.