SHOOTING DIARY

SHOOTING SESSION 1

Date: 02/12/15 Time: 11am-2.40pm

Today I planned to film the 'ink in water' shots for my music video, as this makes up most of the video and requires a lot of different editing.

I made arrangements with the art department staff to borrow a fish tank, different coloured ink, pots to mix the colours in and pipettes for over the course of an hour and a half (11.30am-1pm). I also booked the green screen room for the same time slots.

I also asked the college kitchen staff to borrow one of the trolleys which they use for transporting food around college. I used this to carry my equipment to and from the art department as it is a long way away from the green screen studio, also the fish tank was very heavy. Shown in the picture below I also used the lift located in the atrium to transport the equipment as the trolley could not go up the stairs. Although it involved asking the reception staff for the key to use the lift as it is for disabled access and teachers only. I did not expect to use neither the trolley or the lift as I didn't realise how heavy the fish tank was, especially filled with water as it took two other people and myself to carry it onto the trolley and then the table in the green room - still with difficulty. However, I learnt that I was very independent in gathering resources and experimenting with what was a difficult challenge.

I also booked out a tripod, an SD card and a camcorder from the college's media and film equipment room for the same time slots I allocated. This shows how I had a tight schedule and I found it difficult having such little time, as it had taken 45 minutes before everything was set up - that was after filling the tank only once! I also brought my own tripod, nikon camera and SD card from home, this is the one I was shooting for the music video with. I had planned to use college's equipment to film evidence of what I was doing (a behind the scenes), however after setting it up the camera had already ran out of battery.

The images above show how I had set up my tripod and the tank against the white background before my camera also ended up running out of battery - deleting the first continuous close up shot of the water and the only one I had time to take. This resulted in me having no footage after all of the effort, I was very disappointed but after a progress review with my teacher and also from this experience I have learnt how to improve the next time when trying again.
These pictures were taken after my camera's battery died, so the ink had morphed together and looks grubby - it actually looked really pretty when it did work so it's a shame I didn't even finish with the one long shot,

I will definitely choose a smaller tank or a glass vase or bowl. This means that I will fill it with water a lot faster and efficiently in comparison to filling the large fish tank with 5 buckets of water. It will also be easier to carry and then clean each time I need to put a new substance in clean water. I will need to ask the art department if I can again borrow their ink but take it home overnight so that I will have more time to set up and then shoot. I also had the standard shutter speed set on my camera, although I have learnt that by setting the camera on a slower shutter speed I will get a more detailed and slower result for the slow motion effect I wanted to include in my music video. The iPhone 6/6s has new camera options that include slow-mo and time lapse, the camera is also now strong enough to work with Final Cut Pro. Therefore, I will be borrowing an iPhone 6s to shoot the ink shots next time. I am also hoping to use materials other than ink, such as juice, oil and maybe ice.

SHOOTING SESSION 2
Date: 12/12/15 Time: 10am-11.30pm

During this shooting session I filmed with my actor, Jack Walker. I took many location shots this morning and different shots of him exploring the locations (Barton nature reserve).


SHOOTING SESSION 3
Date: 10/02/2016 Time: 7pm-8pm

I was travelling home from a university and I had already planned to take some shots during the journey home. I had to film this on an iPhone 6s so that I could time lapse what I had shot. You can speed up shots in post production however it is not as good quality as an intentional time-lapse and can damage how the frames look when played. I took four long shots as a few minutes can reduce to 15 seconds, also so that some shots were in focus and some were out of focus to see what looked the most effective. I am using the blurred, out of focus time lapse as it shows no clear identification of what road I filmed this on so it can link with the narrative in my film that has no established location within the diegesis.

SHOOTING SESSION 4
Date: 16/02/2016 Time: 2pm-4.20pm

I arranged to film my actress at most of my locations and also another friend to come as she has a car. She was a very big help driving us and the equipment from location to location, they weren’t necessarily far apart but it made the process a lot faster. I also asked if I could use her car to film a shot I needed of the actress. I filmed just before the sun started to set which meant good lighting. I am happy with what I’ve filmed so far and I feel that I stuck to my shot list. I’ve filmed all of the shots for the montage so I’m glad that my actress and friend didn’t let me down, nor did the weather.

SHOOTING SESSION 5
Date: 28/02/2016 Time: 5.30pm-7.30pm

My actress is a great friend therefore she was comfortable to respond to my direction. I also used my shot list during the process. The weather outside was also clear and a pretty night as the sun had set. Unfortunately some of the shots are darker than they really were in person, meaning that this was harder to edit in post production.