Filming - Day 8 - 31st January - by Josh

 Yesterday we attempted to film the last shot of our final cut, but we unfortunately came across a problem. We were going to film at the Priory Centre car park, and after about 15 minutes of mapping the location and working out what we wanted to film, a security guard came up and told us that we were not able to film in the car park due to it being private property. This was extremely irritating as we found that this would be perfect for re-filming the car park scenes, and we knew it would be very difficult to find another suitable location, as well as not having a lot of daylight left. After we looked around a few areas, Luke noticed that we did not have the tripod. While Luke, Dan and I went to look at the industrial area as a possible location, James and Phil went to look for tripod in McDonalds, where we ate for lunch. Thankfully, it was still there, but by the time they'd found it, Luke, Dan and myself had looked around the industrial area and discovered that this also, would not be suitable. By this time nightfall was nearly upon us, and after some discussion, we decided that we would try and film today at 'Stone House', an old abandoned mental asylum. We do not have much time for this as Dan and Phil have lessons until 3.30, therefore Luke and I shall go at 1 o' clock to scout the area and set up the camera shots. James is going to meet us at 2.30, which will hopefully gives us enough time to discuss the technical areas of the scene, until James's mother drops Dan and Phil off at the location at around 3.45, giving us just under an hour to film.

 When we got to Stone House we scouted the location for about an hour around the area, including the abandoned houses next to Stone House. The scene we wanted to film required a space where the thief could be trapped by the masked men against a wall or something similar. Unfortunately, after searching we found there wasn't anywhere suitable around Stone House, since in every situation there was no exit route for the thief to take, e.g. we considered him running up to the house and attempting to open a door to no avail, but the only option for the thief to take would be to run the same way he had came which would be blocked by the masked men. However, before Dan and Phil arrived we found a place where we thought we could shoot the scene (image below).
 
 We thought this could work as Dan would run up to the wooden door and attempt to force it open, where Phil and I would slowly walk up the ramp towards him.

 

 After several shots (images below) of us advancing on Dan, he would leap over the fence as the lyrics 'brace yourself for the grand finale' are heard. Both myself and Phil would follow him by simultaneously jumping over the rail that ran along the rail and continue to chase him.

 

 

 

 This was a rather difficult day for us, as the location was relatively unknown to us (apart from Luke), it was awkward to get to and we had little time in which to film. Despite this, we managed to shoot all the shots we wanted in the time required before darkness fell which we were all satisfied with. Hopefully this was our last filming day, as accumulated they have taken up more than a week to film all the shots we know have, despite us not using every shot filmed (such as the car park scene where it seems none of those shots will be used).

Filming - Day 7 - 22nd January - by Josh

 As advised by our Media teacher, we sought to add an element of performance to our video. We ultimately decided upon adding a singer to the video who would appear at the start of the video to accompany the opening lyrics. With this aspect we also added another feature, more so perhaps plot twist: The thief (Dan) would be the DJ to the song, and would appear as the DJ at the start along with the singer. He would prompt the singer to start singing, at which point after he would eject the disc and leave the room. For this scene we used a recording studio at Luke's dad's workplace (Deluxe 142). We may also use the footage of the singer throughout the song at different points, but we are not fully decided yet. We have also decided to change the ending to the song, having decided that this was one of the weak points within our video: the chase would lead back to the recording studio, upon where Dan would be trapped by the two masked men. This ends on a shot of them closing in on Dan. However, this cuts to Dan waking up from a dream, which changes to a point of view shot showing that the disc is still in his possession. Relieved, Dan lays back down. Another point of view shot of Dan looking up at the ceiling, with a blinking effect showing him closing his eyes several times. Upon the last blink, the two masked men appear in front of him, where the video then ends. We felt this was a much stronger and more interesting end to our video than the masked men taking back the disc and removing their masks to Dan. In regards to our choice of singer, we decided to use myself, since it would not only be easier than having to find someone and take them up to London, but we all felt that I suited the role since both James and Luke considered me to look similar to a singer, especially that of a dance genre singer. Moreover, this would be easier since I knew the song quite well by this point and I knew the words, what sort of appearance I should take on when singing, etc. Below are the pictures from the recording studio, including the recording booth.

 We started the day with the singing, since only I was needed for this part; Dan and Phil could therefore relax (having got up to catch the train at nine to Charing Cross). We looked around four studios before we decided on the one we used; we chose this one since there was a large recording deck as well as a separate recording booth, just like what real recording artists use. We captured this scene with several shots and differing angles. Below are the pictures from this scene.

 

 

  Fortunately, these shots were not too hard to shoot and didn't require too much time to capture. Since we were already in the recording studio, we decided to shoot the shots involving Dan leaving with the disc:

 Directly after filming these shots we moved onto the last scene of our video involving Dan being chased back to the studio. These shots took a long time to capture as Dan had some difficulty falling backwards onto sofa and making it look natural. It was also difficult for Phil and myself to slow down after having rushed into the room.

 We then filmed the footage of Dan waking up from his dream and looking at the disc. This was easier than the last shots since James was able to film the point of view shots. However, the shot of Phil and I looking at the camera (i.e. Dan) was difficult as we needed to get into position quickly to allow for the blink of the camera.

 The last filming we did that day was the shot of Phil and myself running out of the security CCTV room, since we needed to re-film this shot as we discovered upon watching this previously filmed footage that Luke was in shot. This was because he needed to operate the light switch, which we overcame this time by using a remote light switch to alter the lighting in the room.

 We felt that this was a very successful filming day since we got a lot of filming done and captured exactly what we wanted from that day. However, we anticipate these shots will be difficult to edit into our existing video since they are filmed in a somewhat different way to what we already have. However, this will of course be worth it to see our video have a much better intro and ending.