Second Day Filming

On Thursday 21st of December we did our second bout of filming where we tackled the first part of our narrative. Our main priority was filming in any areas of Leeds where we needed the Christmas decorations as we knew they'd be coming down before our next opportunity to film.

We took the storyboard with us to Leeds so we could check the shots we were filming to make sure they were how we had envisioned them and that we didn't miss anything.

Before we got on the train we filmed some shots on the station for the storyline where he gets kicked off the train.

We wanted to show him clearly being forced to leave so he couldn't walk off it naturally, therefore, for the shot we really like, we had Ed stood inside the carriage pushing James off to make it look authentic and we asked James to look back afterwards as if in disappointment and frustration to help get the message across clearly. We are very happy with the final shot and believe it demonstrates what we wanted it to show. 

Once we were on the train we were faced with the difficulties of filming on public transport - the movement of the train itself shaking the camera, finding an empty seat to film on and members of the public being inconsistent in the background due to them getting on and off the train. We knew this would be difficult and, as we were aware of the the challenges, we were able to deal with them. We had to re-shoot a few sections due to a lady appearing in the background halfway through but managed to avoid any further filming difficulties. 

The other problem we had was trying to make it look convincing - the audience have to believe that James really was showing or not showing his ticket to a conductor so, in the absence of one, we had Ed stand in wearing a black coat which could pass for a conductor's blazer and framed an over-the-shoulder-shot so you couldn't see his face. This also worked really well as Ed looked bigger in the foreground connoting James' lack of power in the background, furthermore, watching the scene over Ed's shoulder also connoted his total control over James and the situation. 

We also decided to film a wider shot incorporating the seats in front of James to display someone showing their ticket to the 'conductor' to make it clear to the audience what's happening and clearly establish Ed's character. 

Then we had to re-shoot the scene but with an alternate outcome for the second half of the video. We recreated the same shots but this time had James show his ticket to the conductor so he doesn't have to leave the train in the second narrative.

The most pressured thing about this bit of filming was the time limit set by the length of the journey but we did manage to finish both storylines in time.

When we arrived we got our establishing shot of Leeds station. As we were setting up a double decker bus drove down and covered the sign as it went past which gave us the idea of having a bus reveal the Leeds station sign as it drives past to add some dimension to the footage rather than it just being a static shot. Therefore, we had to wait for a while until another bus came past but it was worth it for the footage we got. 

The first thing we did when we arrived in Leeds was head to the christmas market to get our establishing shots and film the tracking shot where we first meet our protagonist. We thought this was going to be difficult because it was complex with several different people who the camera needed to follow in time with the music. However, we managed it within three takes and are happy with the way it turned out, although we did have a few problems with people walking in front of the camera as we were filming in a public area. The most difficult thing was actually trying to find the best location to film that particular shot; we needed to move between two stalls and find James tucked away in a corner which turned out to be quite a specific requirement, especially considering the time restraints posed by our need to stay with the music. We did actually manage to find a spot where we could achieve the look we wanted and, after a few practices, we managed to get what we needed. This was the most important bit of filming of the day and we were relieved to have achieved it so early on.

Then we filmed James wandering around the market in different directions, sometimes walking towards the camera and sometimes away, to get some 'filler shots' of him for instrumentals and demonstrate the passing of time. We also filmed some shots of him getting knocked back as he walked to demonstrate how shunned homeless people can be. To get relatively smooth shots of James walking towards the camera we needed the camera person to be walking backwards which was quite difficult in a public place. To overcome this we had Ed wearing a rucksack with the camera round his neck and the string pulled taught to get a steady shot, then I held onto the handle of the rucksack and pulled Ed backwards to make sure he walked in a straight line and didn't knock into anything. We found this technique actually worked quite well to get the desired effect. 

Then we walked down to the ferris wheel to get an establishing shot of it because it connotes fun, family and inclusion which we wanted to contrast against Jame's isolation. It was also next to the town hall which was one of the establishing shots we needed for the introduction of the song. We then continued with these so went to Trinity to get an establishing shot of the shopping centre with the christmas tree which we filmed on an escalator to try and get a smooth tracking shot. Unfortunately the movement is so gradual you can't really see it but it's still a very nice, smooth shot of the centre.
We then went to the piano in Trinity and filmed Ed playing it for one of the introductory shots before getting another at Leeds Arena. When we arrived at the arena it was totally empty and we decided to get a shot of James walking in front of the large open space, again to highlight his isolation and exclusion from society. Through the day we found that we really liked the effect of having James alone in large spaces - we first saw it on the train when we decided to seat him in a 6 seater rather than 2 and again at the arena with him walking across the wide space. We really liked the way it turned out and may try and continue this theme throughout the video.

We had the idea that we wanted to film the cup scene as it's the most significant one in the video because it acts as the turning point. However, when we went to the location we had identified it was really busy and we didn't feel comfortable filming such an unpleasant scene so publicly. So we left filming it and went up to film the establishing shot of the arena but whilst we were there we found a corner hidden behind a grass mound that we could film more privately behind. So we decided to set up James in the sleeping bag and go ahead with the cup scene. It went very smoothly - we used Ed and Rob in different hats as extras so it looked more naturalistic and filmed from 3 different angles, a wide shot of the whole scene, a close-up of James' face and the cup and a backwards tracking shot of Rob walking away. We struggled to get the cup in shot properly as every time Rob kicked it it went too far, so we had to re-do it so Rob stood on it causing the money to fall out in the frame which worked nicely. Then we repeated all the same shots but had Rob put money in James' cup rather than stand on it for the alternative narrative.

The only thing we're worried about with this footage is that we were losing the light as we were filming and, when we reviewed it, there is a significant difference in the light at the start and at the end. However, we're hoping we will be able to fix this in post production as this will be in black and white and we will be able to slightly darken the first few shots so they match the last ones.

Overall we had a very successful day filming and are really happy with the footage we got. Although the weather was unlucky and we had to film a few scenes under an umbrella, we got a lot more done than we thought we would so are ahead in our schedule. We also got a few unplanned shots of James just walking around Leeds with different landmarks in the background which we can use in instrumentals and any time we need extra footage. Therefore we feel confident about the footage collected and will be uploading it to the computers and reviewing it in our upcoming lesson.