Location Report

Location One- Bonfire

For my music video, I needed footage of fire, and my cast in front of it to create a silhouette effect, and a foreboding feeling to my video. I was lucky to start filming in late October, as this coincided with Bonfire Night, so I was able to have two opportunities of filming fire. I went to the Kevic's bonfire night in Totnes, where I filmed a large bonfire, but wasn't able to get very close to it due to a large perimeter being fenced off for safety reasons. Moreover, it was raining at the time, so I only used my phone camera to get the shots, meaning they weren't as high quality as my other shots. Adding on, I couldn't successfully get footage of my cast dancing in front, as there were too many people at the event. In the end I only managed to get a small amount of footage, which I hope to layer over some close up shots of the cast.

My other fire footage was at a friends house, who was having a bonfire and fireworks. The actual fire consisted of an old pet cage, which looked like a house burning, so this proved perfect for creating a foreboding scene for my video. The fire was much smaller than the one at Kevic, but I was able to get much closer and use a higher quality camera. Moreover, I was able to use my tripod (as it wasn't as muddy as the previous shoot) to attain still quality footage, and play around more with lighting and the movement of my cast in front. I got a few ECU shots of the fire with a 35mm zoom, that turned out perfect for my video.

Location Two- Swimming Pool

To get good quality underwater footage, myself and a fellow classmate asked around in the local area for any swimming pools that would let us film. This proved difficult, as some summer pools were closed for the winter, and many wouldn't let us film due to safety reasons or having to shut early so the pool was empty. However, we did end up getting a location, Wheeldon Off Road Centre in Totnes. This was the perfect location, as it was very quiet (with it's busiest times being in the summer) and the pool was near to a power supply so we could easily use our industrial lights which we brought to the location. The pool itself wasn't particularly deep, which had it's drawbacks as we couldn't achieve long distant shots of my actor sinking very deep, however we could easily stand up when filming with the go pro and therefore attain more footage. We took turns being the actor and the director, achieving different shots, some being from above with the actress sinking down to the bottom of the pool, and others from a side angle, tracking the actress as they sank down. Although the go-pro footage isn't the best quality, the shots turned out very well, and overall it was successful in getting the shoots I needed.

Location Three- Beach/Sea

For this location, I had to get the timing right, as I wanted a full moon for the shots. My actor for the footage also had to be willing to get in the sea in the middle of November, and swim for the shots... To film these, I went to Teignmouth sea front on the 11th of November where there was a full moon. The weather was perfect as the sky was clear with limited cloud cover, and we started filming when the moon was at the right height. I chose Teignmouth as it has easy access from the train station, meaning I didn't haver to carry my equipment very far, and it isn't far from my house, so I didn't have to transport my camera and tripods in the car to a more remote location. Moreover, the time we would be filming meant it wouldn't be busy, so I didn't have to worry about pedestrians getting into my shots. I got a few different angles for these shots. For one, I did a tracking shot of following the actress into the water by using the cop grip on my camera to keep it steady. For another, I positioned the tripod very low to the water to film the actress with her face partly submerged under the sea. And for another I positioned it as a wide angle shot, standing further up the beach so she went into the distance, and walked into the moonlit water.

Location Four- St David's Church -Exeter

For this location, it was more of a spontaneous filming than a planned one. Eve and I were on our way to the train station to film at Totnes Bonfire when we came across the church which was lit up beautifully against the night sky. Moreover, on the side of the church we found that there was a strong light coming from a lamppost which created shadows against the wall. I decided I would do some impromptu shooting here, as I already had my tripod. We filmed here easily, as it was busy due to it being early evening. I managed to get lots of different angles, some tracking shots of Eve dancing against the wall, and some still shots of the church spire lit up. This also gave me some time to get used to my tripod before I used it later that evening at the bonfire.

Location Five- Royal Albert Museum (Exeter)

For my film, I decided I wanted some more close up shots of Poppy and also some more shadow work, as I really loved how the shoot went with Eve's shadows at Exeter Church. Therefore, I went to RAM in Exeter central as I knew they had a new exhibition on with a projector. I took my tripod and camera to the location and set up different angles, some being at the back of the room and others close up. I found the close up ones were more effective, as the framing of the shot was better with the whole frame being taken up with the screen instead of having a black border around. Moreover, the video that was played on the projector conveniently used the same colour scheme as my video, using reds and blues. This was perfect for taking some shots of the red and lighter blue for the contrasting imagery in my video.

Equipment Checklist

· Tripod

· Phone adapter for tripod

· iPhone XR charger

· Lenses for iPhone XR

· Industrial lights

· Industrial extension chord

· Towels

· Fairy Lights

· GoPro

· Zippo lighter

· GoPro charger

· Hot drinks

· Spare makeup (mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow)

· Costumes

· Food