Day Of Filming

Today I started filming for my music video using my Actress, Hannah Epstein. Everything in regards to the weather went to plan as it was slightly sunny, not too cold, and just a little bit windy. The fact that there was a little bit of sun was better than none at all or too much - as too much would have made the film look too happy and I don't think this would have captured the mood that I was aiming to capture, and no sun would have made the film too gloomy and therefore a tad hopeless. A bit of wind helped as it meant that my actresses hair moved a bit in some shots, and it also allowed me to get some good shots of the grass and branches of trees moving in the wind, therefore making some of my shots more dynamic and less static, and thus more interesting.

I came across a few problems when it came to filming, this included a slight problem I had to do with the tripod, which seemed to be on a slant for some reason. I tried readjusting the legs of the tripod a few times before I started to film but when this failed I put a flat stone under one of the legs to even it out. This seemed to do the trick and I had no further problems with the tripod.
Another problem I encountered was pretty much self induced as at one point I left the camera recording for a few minutes and when I went to actually film some shots I turned the recording off, therefore missing out a chunk of what I thought I had recorded, however I noticed this when looking back over my footage and luckily had time to re-film the parts of film that I hadn't recorded.
One last issue that I experienced was down to the props that I needed for the film i.e. the string. Although a small problem, It was slightly time consuming with the fact that I had to tie up my actress multiple times due to the material of the string being quite smooth and therefore difficult to tie tight enough for it to not fall off when filming, in combination with this, It also took time to detangle the string in between filming shots.
Other than these small issues I think that the filming of my music video went quite well, as I realised the mistakes I made in time to fix them and in hindsight, nothing went terribly wrong, this is mostly thanks to my actress who is incredibly reliable and punctual.

Thinking About My Digipack

I also managed to take multiple pictures required for the making of my digipack using my own Canon EOS 450D camera as it takes really good, high quality pictures and I thought that this would increase the professionalism of the pictures and the digipack overall.
I am really pleased with the pictures that I have taken as the quality of the pictures are really clear which also enhances the clarity of the string that is tied around the actress. I am really quite looking forward to editing them
when it comes to creating my digipack.


To the left is an example of one of my favourite pictures taken for my digipack which I have edited using the 'fix' option on windows photo gallery on my own computer, although I hope to use photoshop to edit it properly when it comes to creating my Digipack. I didn't want to edit the photo so much that it looked unnatural so I edited the contrast a little bit and played around with the colour to make it a tad brighter, which almost made it look warmer. I really like this picture as my actress portrays the sadness of the character really well, and the camera is set at a high angle shot looking down on her, therefore suggesting that she is weaker than the person looking down on her, this is a reflection of the song lyrics and links with the idea of feeling trapped which is shown through the use of the rope. I also really like this picture as the bright colour of the dress stands out against the neutral tones of the garden, and draws the audience attention to the actress.

When editing this photograph I decided that it would be a good idea to make a range of different copies in multiple styles so that I could keep my options open when it came to making my digipack and so I made a basic black and white copy of the photo. I increased the contrast in this picture slightly as I thought that the bright whiteness of the actresses skin was a good contrast against the rest of the picture, which looks darker and more dull, as well as drawing more attention to the string tied around her, especially at the hands.
I really like the black and white effect of this picture, as it looks more glum than the coloured version and this therefore may make it a better option when it comes to making my digipack. Despite the feeling that this picture is more poignant, I still feel that the coloured version of the picture is more eye catching than the black and white version, so I will have to weigh out my options, also by using the other pictures I have taken, when it gets closer to the time of making my digipack.

Below are two other pictures that I really like, both of which are brighter and more complicated due to the greenery in the background.