Filming for Hothouse

The saying goes never work with animals or children! Well, yesterday I went to a Devon Primary school to film a music workshop with foundation and year 1 pupils ages 5-6 on a Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon is a difficult time to get children motivated and with the added dimension of filming making them excited, some of children’s interaction was hampered. We were lucky that the subject was singing, which kept them fairly motivated throughout the afternoon’s filming.

I had been contacted by Peter Scott who runs 'The Hothouse' who wanted to make a simple promotional film for his website by filming a video which could be used as resource for teachers to help them deliver quality music lessons in their schools. After viewing his website before the shoot I believed that this would be to promote his 'Beatboards' exercises. Instead, the afternoon’s filming consisted of guitar call and answer songs where the children had to follow the lyrics and sing them back to Peter in time.

Having talked with Peter before the shoot, I was instructed to film using only one camera on a tripod, mostly keeping the shot static with a few pans across the room for variation. I arrived at the school half an hour before the shoot to sign in as a visitor. This covered my safety checks as I was not required to have a CRB as the teacher would be present throughout the filming.

I set up two light units and we re-arranged the classroom so that the background was clear so that the children had plenty of space to move and dance to the music. Peter performed his songs in front of the pupils as they sat listening. All pupils involved had permission from their parents to appear in the video for exclusive inclusion onto the 'Hothouse' site. 

We began by filming the Foundation class. These children are the youngest in the school. I was using a Sony HD solid state camera, with a Rode video microphone attached. I positioned myself so that I was as far back in the classroom as possible. By keeping the shot open for random movement allowed me to capture all the excitement and changes occurring whilst Peter sang.

Peter signalled to me when to stop and start filming. This would mean easier cutting of the film later. It was an interesting way of working. Following an earlier discussion with Peter, I filmed in a static position so that the film could be shown as a demo instead of a heavily edited video with many camera angles and effects.

The second group, a year one class, aged 6 years, were quite tired as by now it was 14:30. This class contained one child with special needs. Throughout the filming she had some vocal tics which made me more aware of sound levels. I could then suggest changes to Peter at the end of the song and the possibilities of doing another take.

All children enjoyed the sessions, and so did I. It was my first film shoot involving children so young. I learnt the importance of patience and thinking on your feet as they can be very unpredictable at such a young age. The shoot has also made me aware of the importance of gaining permission to ensure safety and child protection procedures.

I look forward to working with Peter in the next few weeks and seeing the work on his website.

Never work with animals or children? I just might do that in the future. Animals next!
www.the-hothouse.co.uk

Another opportunity not to be missed!

Things have been busy this week as my contact list has borne fruit! On Thursday 5th April I will be off to Cornwall to the studios of Sawmills. The studio is only accessed by boat and is housed in an old water mill.

My contact, Ruth Taylor, will be meeting me at Par station and taking me for a day in the studio to see how things work. There is a band recording on that day, although I don’t know who! Looking at their website you will be able to see how many famous bands have used the studios since its opening in 1974. I have my notebook and camera at the ready and I am really looking forward to the experience.

I’ll blog more next week.

Checkout their website here

Filming Opportunities

After Easter I have the opportunity to do some filming with Peter Scott. Peter is a musician who runs a project called ‘The Hothouse.’

The hothouse is a family run project and delivers ‘innovative and inspirational music services.’
(quote from website).

Peter has designed and developed a set of beatboards for particular use in schools. They are designed to develop skills in rhythm. They can be used from any age and from beginner to more competent musician level.

Peter has recently set up on his website a ‘beatbank’. This is a resource for teachers which shows how the beatboards can be used in the classroom. Peter wants to add more to his website by filming in a local school. The filming will include footage of reception and year one children (ages 5-6 years) developing rhythm and rhyme games. This resource can then be used by teachers as part of the English curriculum, and in particular phonics which helps the children in their first steps with reading.

More about Peter and his beatboards can be seen on his website. I will be filming the pupils and then editing the footage for use on his website.

Watch this space for more details!

Check out The Hot House here

Process of making my personal project video

Intro
As I was creating a music video I drew a lot of inspiration from listening to my finished track. The music formed ideas, feelings, colours and scenes in my head for me to draw inspiration from.

Story Board
I set out some boxes on A3 paper and drew down what I thought fitted with the music. I find A3 paper or larger more comfortable to use for the expression of ideas. Physiologically it makes it easier to feel free when I use a large work area to capture drawn graphics.
Before I sat down to do the initial storyboards I would doodle. This allows my mind open up creating new avenues of inspirational ideas.

Audience
All types of art are subjective to opinion. I have set out to create something that is suitable for all ages. Because the music is also unusual this could mean it appeals generally to the younger adults (16 – 25).
Initial ideas
Initial ideas were that it would be totally shot at night. The track utilised a lot of echoed instruments and small vocal pieces, giving it a fragmented distant feel. I therefore first thought of night time to support the track elements. Purples, light blues, dark greens and other earthy tones would reflect this prominence of the echoing elements in the track. Empty garages, car parks, warehouses, large expanses of flat land were my initial thoughts. I also had thoughts of comparing city based landscapes with rural ones when the song develops into its different parts. This would have worked as a background idea to support other main storylines or focus points. I decided against this idea as it wasn’t original and didn’t support the vocals in the track. I came up with the name energize from the vocal I used. Much like a pop song the last few words of the chorus would determine the name of the track. I applied this way of thinking to my track so that it was straight forward for the listeners/viewers to remember the music and video.


Cuttings
When I read magazine and newspapers I like to cut out pictures or photographs that interest me. I may cut out various things depending on my interests at the time but generally new colours, patterns and original design ideas I haven’t seen before would be taken for inspiration for new projects. I feel it is very important to keep close to what you think looks good and what interests you at certain times. Looking back over time I’m sure I will notice patterns in my cuttings that can help inform me of my previous thoughts and feelings so I can keep creating new and original ways of thinking in the future.

Illuminate Bath

My input

Sound recording
Camera man
Editor

The new festival of light and art installations was first held in 2011 all around Bath. It showed us new talent, new thinking and new ways to use light and performance.

For the days that I was there, I recorded sound video and completed editing work for the performances during the festival in Bath city centre.

Bike Rides

We first started at the top of Victoria Park, where the race was starting. The light visibility was low for conducting interviews as it had just got dark. The bikes were fitted with all sorts of flashing lights and neon glowing bulbs which looked great on camera. We got an interview before the race with Richard Bidgood who is on the board of trustees for Bath Spa as the chair/union president. We took him slightly out of the park into the street lit areas and used LED lighting to contribute to the available light. Naturally, he spoke very well on camera which would prove to be an interesting and exciting interview for use later on in the post production edit.

This shoot in particular was more difficult than the later Illuminate shoots I was involved in as everything we did was new to us, filming off the cuff and finding as much important, exciting and relevant shots throughout the short bike ride event. We only had one chance to get the bikes coming into the finish line so we had to make it count.

Interviewing people on the spot on their bikes straight after the race was difficult in terms of content of what they were saying, but also a way of gaining an exciting reflection of the event that had just taken place as this made each interview both interesting and vibrant as the bikers were panting and rather worn out after finishing the race. Ciaran, who was interviewing the cyclists, interviewed them without prior planning. After the third and fourth person we managed to interview I noticed that the questions were ‘closed’. This meant that the responses we were getting were limited in length and complexity.  If I was to repeat this again I would prepare some ‘open’ questions for both before and after the race so that our answers would vary across the board, making a more interesting piece for the viewing audience.

Performance Art

In the centre of Bath in the newly built shopping precinct there was a performance art show. The show consisted of miming acts, circus movements, running, screaming and general circus type performances. There were people in strange masks, balls that lit up, lots of makeup, general clowning around, running about and dancing to music. I managed to get some great reactions from the public who where passing through. When I was using the camera I tried to cover as much of the public’s reactions during the event as I believed it to be the most interesting thing for the viewer, besides the actual event.  Children’s reactions were also great on camera, as they stared in amazement and laughed with joy at what was going on around them.

 I enjoyed filming and getting some great shots for the project and it was a good learning experience which taught me how and when to seize the right shots. It was good to experience how to react to a crowd quickly and which shots to take when the opportunities presented themselves. Along with the general running around of all the characters in the performance, there was also an ensemble type event where people all joined together to dance. The dance was a cross between tribal African and bebop jazz swing. It looked so exciting on camera with all the lights around it as well as the audience watching. There was also a smooth Jazz band playing in the background when the dancing performance art was closing up. I decided it would be useful to capture this on film to show the community spirit of Bath and link it into the Illuminate Bath festival later on in the edit.

Projector Installation

This was more of a sideline project that was around the rest of the main events such as the performance art piece. There were three projector installations that I was involved in. The first projected image was a straight shot of a wall where the passers by were walking on the pavement. They were captured on camera. This footage was then projected onto where the video had previously been recorded so it looked like there were people walking by where the projector was presenting the video. Some people saw the projection and thought they were being recorded and shown onto the wall and hurriedly got out of the way of the projection. Some realised it was not them and laughed, which looked great on camera.  Some didn't notice at all. The sound for this was not needed as we were just gathering shots of the projected images on the wall and gathering the reactions from passers by who were walking through the projection.

The second projection I was involved in was another small installation using an overhead projector with small objects such as buttons, shells, felts, cord and many other small pieces blown up and put on a wall. We interviewed an array of people who had a go on the projector, getting snippets of what they thought about the festival so far. The audio for this was more difficult to record as we were in the type of alleyway which channelled the wind past us. To solve this I had to put my back to the wind to keep the microphone sheltered.

Light tubes and interviewing the artist

We interviewed the artist responsible for creating an array of huge coloured glass light tubes. They were absolutely beautiful in colour, and magnificent in size. There was also a golden chair and desk piece and a row of large light bulbs that lit up the far end of the room. Because the room was very light and quiet we didn't have any problems when recording audio and video. The interview was also successful in terms of content and information about each piece.

Coloured light projection on walls

I was involved in camera and sound work for this. The room was a large white walled empty shop that contained two large high definition projectors. The two projectors cycled through the spectrum of colours, merging each colour slowly into one another and creating a pulsing effect with the colours. This was then projected onto two white walls. The effect was vibrant and of course very colourful. People wandered in off the street to see what was going on. We interviewed a couple who were creating shapes with their hands and body which was cast on the walls by blocking the projectors light and we captured them talking about their experience. We then interviewed the two guys that were in charge of direction for the installation. We asked them questions about how they came up with the idea. They gave great answers and interesting references for the viewers of the light festival to look up. I managed to get a few nice shots of the light behind a large gate that had been put into an empty shop that we were filming in. I liked how the gate was silhouetted behind the colourful lights. Although this was not part of the concept of the installation I decided it would be a good shot to include in the edit and it could be used for pictures of the festival for a DVD case or screen shot for blogs about the festival.

Editing

I took part in some of the editing including the introduction for Illuminate Bath 2011 and two Interviews of the lanterns light show. One of the Interviews consisted of talking about a coloured ice sculpture made into columns which slowly melted over time. The interview was quite dry but I managed to cut it down to a two minute interview from 20 minutes of footage which still included some interesting points such as what the sculpture was about, what it did and the reactions of some passers by. I layered these cuts of passers by and included shots of the sculpture over the top of most of the interview to keep it as stimulating for the viewer as possible.

Illuminate Bath 2011 was a fun festival for all the public and I was able to learn a lot about different filming techniques and sound skills throughout the project work.


Check out the Bath Illuminate page here

The Event!

I met up with Nathan and Sean to produce the slide show montage edit. This took about an hour from getting the photos to producing the rough edit. Small technical problems were encountered such as final cut dropping out and the rendering/exporting stage taking over fifteen minutes. On the whole the transition of photos and final edit was smooth.

When showing the piece the guests laughed and seemed to enjoy the way it was cut with the music and photos. We decided to only use a small part of the song as a whole 5 minute slide show montage would have been repetitive to watch.

Although I only managed to catch the last few minutes of the guest speaker, I really respected his down to earth attitude, inspirational work and overall enthusiasm for media. I think this rubbed off on our guests and made a profound positive frame of mind for them to leave with.

The Preparation!

In preparation for the event I and Sean met up with Nathan who would be taking the photos. We decided it to be a good idea to create a mock up edit using some of Nathan's shots so that we could run through exactly what would be happening on the day. We would need this mock edit on the day to drag and drop the correct photos onto mostly saving us time and limiting confusion on the event day.

Looking for songs was our first objective. We both thought of choosing a track that was well known, melodic and summery. After sifting through various YouTube videos we settled upon a track by the strokes.

Track Below

The idea!

The brief was simple, get some secondary school students in and create a media event that will excite and stimulate them to contemplate their career paths and to get a sense of what it would be like in the media industry.

A green screen was suggested to show the students. The class agreed this would be a great idea as it is interactive, practical and fun. At some times the group conversation flowed and at others disagreements and squabbles arose which I thought was unpleasant but we worked through it and have come up with some good ideas.

For the event I and Sean were set the task to find music, organise an edit on the day of the event and also show it at the end of the event day. For this we both referred to our hard drives, musical tastes and of course, YouTube. YouTube for me is a excellent way to find tracks and also find ones that relate to one another musically.

ENTARAINMENT Final Video

A sunny day outside but inside I was busy finishing off two edits.

The video was primarily made for promotional use for the 'Entarain' brand name and the different nights it hosts. This video will hopefully entice, remind and excite the viewers to come to an Entarain night if they already haven't been to one.

The video was completed just a week after the night. Here it is...

ENTA-RAIN-MENT from Entarainment on Vimeo.

Endemol Music Video Shoot

Over the past couple of weeks we have had a variety of bands into the Endemol Studios in Bristol to capture live music performances for band promotional use. The videos captured will also be used for editing assessments within the university.

The talented music students at Bath Spa covered a diverse mixture of music from funk, ska, jazz and pop influences keeping each shoot interesting for the crew.

The crew we had consisted of students and established professionals although the director seemed to take a back seat when he saw us on the cameras. Eventually the students took direction of the whole shoot advising people with cameras and lighting. Each band also had a short interview after the shoot which really let the audience see what the band was like. The final videos and interviews will be up next week.







Bans performed:
The Vinyl Project (which are all images above):Jazz Fusion Funk

Trick The Fox :Ska Funk Soul

Hello Kadenza(Now called Eyes of Mars)
I prefer Hello Kadenza:Pop Vocal acoustic

Good Night Jupiter:Indy Pop Funk

ENTA-RAIN-MENT

On Friday 19th a big new Urban event called 'Entarain' was born. Specifically this time for club Xl(Formerly known as Cadillac).
I was asked to Dj as well as take photographs and video for the event which as expected turned out to be a challenging task. I played everything from Funky house, UK funky, UK garage, Oldskool RnB and some Reggae.


While I was taking the photographs & video my mate Ram took the place on the decks in the second room. I then took video of the events going on in the main rooms such as Mcing.
The night was a huge success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
I hope to see another Enta-rain-ment event soon in the future.


Enta-rain-ment...falls like rain







Now off to the studio to edit!

Big Heart Media

Just finished 'my first day at work'. After an introduction and a quick brief I was assigned to transcribe a teachers conference which took me a couple of hours to write up. I can safely say that transcribing is a relentless and strangely fulfilling experience. After loss of feeling in both hands and eyeballs we then broke for lunch.

Ptooch on Leather Lane was a good lunch, great times!

For the rest of the day I did research into a project for sailing around Lincoln on canal and sea.

Day Two was quite eventful. I shadowed the editors which used Avid . I then was sent to kings cross station to get train tickets for a shoot going on in Nottingham.

I really enjoyed the short two days I had at Big Heart and would welcome the chance to go again to learn more.

God is a Dj

It’s a refreshing subject that people often misunderstand, whether it's what a Dj does, how hard it is to be a Dj or what lifestyle they lead.

People who I have questioned in passing conversation would make comments such as:

“It’s easy”
“I could do it”
“All they do is play songs”

On the surface of Djing, you could justify these brash comments, but dig a little deeper and find a different story of appreciation, production and a lot time & money.

The concept of Djing seems easy, but actually mastering it, is hard. The project I am starting will document the changing role of the Dj in the new decade.
My target audience is predominantly 18+. Although the documentary would be suitable for an older age range I think it would most appeal to the younger audience (17-27 years) as this is the typical age range that are immersed in the club culture.

To keep the interviews fresh, interesting and as exciting as possible for the audience I want to seek out local talent whether it be, Djs, promoters, club/bar managers or the public. My aim is to obtain as many diverse viewpoints as possible on camera to achieve a montage with a fast paced flowing edit. I especially want to explore how music shapes lifestyle, how it influences people, their actions and their friends.

The documentary I will produce will use a similar structure to the video below but will be centred around the underground scene, producers and locally run events by the people rather than huge events run by commercial club company promotions.
Take a look.

Behind The Music

It’s been too long since my last blog post!
This month I have been working on various projects and portfolios. For this we decided to produce a behind the scenes documentary. Finding the subject proved harder than expected.

Our initial ideas included:
Aardman
Liquid soap(A student led, acted and filmed production along with the help from tutors and professionals working at the university)

Top Gear
This was simply an idea we had as Laura was going to watch the show live in the audience. Obviously on such a big production that has millions of viewers, they do not need any additional advertising or promotion therefore we decided not to pursue this idea any further.

Music video in Portugal
This was a friend of Chris’ video shoot that we were going to cover, another complication with flights, time and confusion over when it was going ahead left us uneasy so we collectively decided not go for this as we all knew that it wasn’t a solid choice.

Eventually our most recent conquest resulted in filming a behind the scenes documentary on a music video shoot. The shoot consisted of 18 bands that had a mere one hour slot for complete filming. With just two days of studio time the heat was on. The director and crew did very well to stick to schedule as well as they did.


Various other companies were contacted via well constructed emails from each member of our group yet still failed to yield any results for our behind the scenes production.

After more desperate searches I managed to land on a lucky break when I caught ear of a music video shoot going on at Bath Spa’s university theatre. The commercial music students were producing videos for their newly recorded tracks so I thought it would be a great idea to cover this for a Behind the scenes style doc.
I will upload the final product once the edit and audio levels have been finalised.


My DVD label - Click for larger image

B.o.B. - Put Me On Video Shoot

After participating in a 2 day music video shoot I've been looking at various video shoots online. I really liked how this one was put together and edited.

Easy to watch, interesting and flowing. The music was cut in well with some of the extra behind the scenes camera shots and interviews with Bobby Ray.


Watch the finished product below



Bobby Ray B.o.B - Put Me On (Reebok Classic Remix)

Sampled from RAMP - Daylight

Bernard Hermann

Barnard Hermann, Hitchcock, Saul Bass, all geniuses at work, which when put together become and unstoppable force.

Bernard Hermann’s music in particular encapsulates and enhances the mood in every film. Vertigo, Psycho, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Cape Fear and the song twisted nerve which was featured in Kill Bill.

All hugely successful movies and the reason for this I think is largely to do with the musical score.
Taxi Driver

Psycho

Cape Fear

North By Northwest

Vertigo

Oceans 11
Not sure who did the music for this one but still a great title sequence.


Great site for all sorts of classic and new titles sequences in HD here

ADR - Automated Dialog Replacement

Just been researching ADR and found an interesting video behind the scenes of the ADR production of King Kong 18 weeks before its release. It shows some great insight into what ADR is all about which to tell the truth I have never thought a great deal about before.

Title Music for Programme

We are putting together a programme using our group projects in a studio like area. Recording ‘as live’ we will feed in pre-recorded interviews, and our video projects. Amongst this will be live interviews with an internet film critic and groups discussing the video.

I have no idea what to do for set design as I can only acquire one poster which is ‘The day the earth stood still.’
I could bring in some old vinyl sleeves to pin up but I would need more ‘filmy’ objects to put up. If anyone has any film posters or interesting things to pin up as well that would be great.

I have been put in charge of title music which I just finished up on Fruity Loops. It’s nothing special and deliberately quite cheesy, Megan’s favourite music!
I made up a loop myself and used some samples as well to flesh it out to make a fuller sounding track. Tell me what you think. If it's terrible just say and i'll find some actual music.

Deal or no Deal?

I went to see deal or no deal at Endemol studios in Bristol last week. I rarely watch the programme on television and normally dislike watching it when I do. None the less I thoroughly enjoyed myself when I was watching it live on the front row of the Halloween special.

Above: Steadycam

The studio looked surprisingly small in comparison to on the television. I could only spot four main cameras. Two facing the main contestant and audience, a secondary camera on the main contestant and finally a steady cam to shoot the box openings and remaining shots.

A phone call interrupted the flow of the programme even though we were all told to turn off our mobile phones several times throughout being there! The crew had to stop and reshoot some parts of the programme for continuity.
They had been filming all day and we were the last of the day. As it was the Halloween Deal or no Deal everyone was in costume caked in white ghostly makeup. The set looked great with the costumes and cobwebs draped everywhere. We were also instructed to wear cobwebs to make ourselves look “authentic”
Overall it was a great night and I enjoyed seeing Noel and the programme in action.

See more Deal or no Deal here

Colour Correction

Over the past week we were looking at how our documentaries were shaping up for the hand in. I found the other two documentaries to be modern and interesting from start to finish. I also liked James’ use of multi-screen as it was innovative and interesting to look at in the edit. It allowed the audience to appreciate each tattoo in its regular state when zoomed in and to see the full tattoo when zoomed out.
Looking into colour correction was interesting and not something I had really thought deeply about before. Colour correction in short enhances and modifies the colours, hue and saturation of the video allowing the editor to create the right atmosphere with his/her video clips.
Below is an image I colour corrected