Problems with uploading HD to a Mac

Due to being one of the first groups to upload to the Mac's in the AVCHD format, I tried using the software that came with the camera but it would not load on the Mac as this is how I would have uploaded at home, so I had to find out how to upload without the need for the desired software.

As the HD camera saves to an SD card the clips could not be 'captured' as we would have done previously with the school cameras. Instead by using Final Cut Express and going to File > Log and Transfer and then selecting the clips from the cameras memory and queuing them up, all the clips could be uploaded to the Mac and directly to the sequence on FCE in perfect quality.

Summary of filming the first scene

We filmed the first section of our music video on Monday, this went well due to the whole group pulling their weight and all having an input in to the organisation before hand and also during filming, with Clarice and I setting up the scene, and then while I set up the camera equipment and tested the it with the lighting Jasmine and Clarice dressed the numerous actors we had for the shot. Setting up consisted of clearing Clarice's dinning area moving the table and chairs out of sight and removing anything from the room that could get broken. We then placed a few chairs around the room, especially the armchair as it was to be the focus point as it would be where our "goon" would be sitting and so this had to be placed accordingly for the shot. For mise en scene we placed alcholic drinks made up of empty bottles filled with different strengths of tea to achieve realistic colouring and bottles of beer for some of the actors to drink to keep an effective feel to the shot seeing as we were filming during the afternoon.

Camera equipment consisted of my Panasonic SD-10 with a 0.43x Wide Angle lens. The lighting then consisted of blacking out the windows using spare curtains from the drama studio, a strobe light set up behind the camera to give the impression of the party that we wanted and the built in light on the camera to draw focus to the subject. The actors were arranged so that I could still walk through what seemed to be a crowd and still be able to film the vital sections of the shot. Jasmine and Clarice featured in the shots and because of this could give instant feedback on anything that wasn't working from a different perspective. This meant that we got 16 shots, many of which contained usable footage for the important first few seconds of our video.

Evaluation of filming the party scene

We filmed the first part of our music video on Monday, althought it only takes a few lines of the song we had to film a lot as will be made faster. Also as we were using actors we wanted to get a few takes and pick the best.
From research we new what people at the party needed to wear to fit into the style of music, we brought some of these with us, to get people to wear. These were some of our own and some we borrowed from school. For exapmple jackets, skinny jeans and leather.
We also put dark make up on females as well as giving people messy hair.
Although there was one character which had to look different, we did this to emphasise his part.
We used old alcoholic bottles and boxes for props, and a big black sheet for blocking out light. This didnt work very successfully, but we worked around it.
Overall i think the filming went well, we got a lot of good footage ready for editing.

Evaluation of filming the first scene

We filmed the scene of the party on Monday. Chris used his HD camera and I gave everyone punk style clothing to wear so that all the people at the party fitted in and looked similar. However we asked the goon to wear chavier style clothing so that he stuck out and would be noticed as being different. We had the first problem of only having one black curtain to cover the windows, however this was very effective on the main window, we used a dustsheet from Chris' house to cover the other window but saw that it was not dark enough, however we solved this problem but using green tarpauling as well, tucked into the edge of the doors which we then closed to keep it all secure.
I had empty bottles of Jack Daniels, however this was not enough so we asked people to bring some if they had them, which we filled up with tea so it matched the colours of the original liquid, we scattered these around the room so that it would look more like a typical teenagers party, I think this idea turned out quite well.
We put on music from my laptop, played it through speakers and asked people to dance, talk and just act as they would if they were at at party. Chris walked around with the camera using many different angles whilst people were doing this, however we did not tell them that they were being filmed so that it would look less staged and more realistic, hopefully when we edit all of our shots together and fast forward this scene everything will fit.
Overall, I think it was a successful day of filming as we filmed many shots so that we had a lot to choose from, everything turned out as we wanted. We will bring these shots in on tuesday and upload them to the mac's so we can see what we have.

Filming Sequence 1

Progress Report

So far we have:

• All the props and costumes needed for the filming of the party scene.
• All the necessary cast
• Completed our storyboard so we know about timings
• Decided on a time and date to film; Monday 12th October from 12.30pm until we have finished.

We will need to:

• Organise a time in which we can fim the band
• Upload the film which we would have recorded on monday to the mac's at school
• Decide which of the shots we will use
  

Costume, prop and lighting preparation

We went to the drama department and borrowed a number of suitable items of clothing, to dress people who appear in our video.

We will use this lamppost in our shot with the policeman, filming inside the drama studio, with high level lighting using the available spot light and a secondary light in the lamppost to create a feeling of reality.

We have borrowed a huge black curtain so that we can black out daylight as most of our video consists of filming night shots. This can also be used as a back drop for when we film the band performing. This curtain can also be used to affect with filming narrative sections of the video with backlighting through the curtain.

For lighting Chris can get hold of a number of high brightness lights on stands to achieve whatever effects we want.

Location one

This is the layout of my kitchen and the possible ways in which we could use it.

Band's positioning

I thought about where the band members should be standing when they are playing, conventionally it is set out with the lead singer at the front in the middle, the bassist to the right and the guitarist to the left with the drummer at the back and slightly to the left so they can still be seen. I think we should stick to these conventions as the original bands within our genre used this layout, however i will discuss this with the rest of our group to see if they agree

Costume for the band

The band need to be dressed in punk clothing in the style of bands such as The Clash, the Sex Pistols and The Jam

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This is the style of punk clothing we will ask the band to wear, with black or white skinny jeans,with rips or zips, tshirts or vests with logos, brands or paint on them. I also know that most of the band members already own the style of shoe as you can see in the picture of The Clash, therefore we will ask them to wear these. However i also think that we should not stick entirely to the conventions and add an element of the 'mod' fashion by asking one or two of them to wear a skinny tie with a jacket as shown by The Jam in the picture below;

Cast needed.

We thought about all the people we need in order to make our video. We hope to get most of these people from our sixth form, however we may need to ask outside friends if these people are unavailable. They are as follows:

• Goon-Male, he will need to look 'chavy' with diamond earrings, tracksuit bottoms and a tshirt
• Girl-To be with the goon, she will need to dress like a punk with a ripped band tshirt, tights, a jacket and boots. She will look like the girl all the punk guys would want to be with.
• Girls to be written on-Between 2 to 6 girls who wouldn't mind being in little clothes, hopefully with different hair and figures.
• Policeman-Adult, male, we hope to ask Mr Fletcher, a drama teacher however if he declines we will ask a friend who looks quite old and is quite tall.
• Neighbour-Male or female, they will stand at a door if we decide to use this idea.
• Older brother-Male, will need to look older than the girl with the goon, other than that there are no preferences.
• People at the party-Between 10 and 20 friends, mixture of people dressed like punks and chavs, however not as striking as the main characters.
  

Ideas for video and necessary props

Looking at the lyrics we decided that it would be better to do mostly performing with certain lines using other people and acting out what the lyrics say. So far we have decided on the following, and for this I have thought about what props we will need to accomplish this:

• "But you won't catch me sippin' out your cup of Baileys" For this line we plan to have the lead singer holding a glass or a bottle of Baileys and dropping it so that it smashes, therefore we will need an empty bottle or a glass which we can smash or at least drop onto a pillow.

• "So its BANG BANG BANG" We had the idea of using a bang gun for this shot, therefore Chris bought one off of eBay, however as there are three 'BANG's we will need to decide on what we will do for them.
  

• "Or the crooked 5-0" We hope to find an adult male to stand wearing a policeman's outfit, and had the idea of him taking the hat off to reveal a phrase or word to do with the lyric written on his head. We could find this outfit in the drama department which I will look for tomorrow.
  

• "He knocked my teeth out" I had the idea of taking still photos of one of the band members and blacking out one tooth at a time, then making it into film. However we would not black out all the teeth, just three or four at random.
  

• "Gimme gimme just one little look" For this we had the idea of writing on girls as most of our audience said they wanted to see naked ladies, however the girls will be wearing clothes though the writing will be on their backs, stomaches and maybe chests. Therefore we will need a pen which rub off easily, eg. a drywipe pen.
  

Disclaimer

Our chosen song contains a number of explicit lyrics due to the nature of the song, therefore it must picture a parental advisory sticker as part of the album cover.