Our filming began in early January, with nearly all of the video being shot in the forest near to our college: Three Sisters Nature Park in Eccles. My job role was as a director. I controlled the shoot, instructing the cast and crew what to do and where the position themselves and the equipment. I worked closely with the camera operator at the time of the shoots, to try and get the best shot as possible and sometimes operated the camera myself. I positioned Daniel (main actor) in the frame during the shoots and discussed with him what to do during the scene. We also worked together experimenting with different shots, to see what worked well and what didn’t. All scenes were filmed on either Tuesdays or Thursdays, days in which we were in our assignment lesson. We didn’t feel the need to shoot on other days, as practically all of our scenes were filmed in the woodland next to out College.

First Shoot, 14/1/14:

Our first shoot filmed the beginning scenes, as ordered in the storyboard. We thought it would be best to do this as the majority of scenes were to be filmed in the woodland, so we could edit the scenes in chronological order while in After Effects. The ground was quite damp due to heavy raining the night before and this was the first problem we encountered during our shoots. We entertained the idea of using some form of cover to place on the ground for Daniel to lie on, but ultimately we decided against this. This was because we could not find anything appropriate that would blend in or not be visible. Though Daniel would get slightly wet (which is visible in the video-you can see the damp patches on his jacket) we decided to go ahead as it would add a sense of realism, due to Daniel having to be in an awkward prone position. Another issue during these scenes was how to handle the camera for the pan-body shot of Daniel.

Once we had completed the lying down scenes we progressed to the scenes in which Daniel walked further into the forest to investigate. We captured him walking from multiple angles and had to shoot some multiple times, as Daniel would sometimes walk into stray branches. He also tripped on the uneven ground a couple of times, though one of these events remained in the final edit as I believe that it adds more life to the scene.

Second Shoot, 16/1/14:

On this day we continued filming shots of the forest and Daniel’s investigation of the surrounding area. We captured many different scenes of him curiously wandering through thick foliage, admiring beautiful views and navigating across rough terrain. As this was January the weather was poor and made much of the ground extremely damp. This resulted in both the cast and crew getting very muddy shoes and meant it was difficult for us to get deeper into the forest, where we had planned to do our filming.

On this day we thought about getting more extreme shots to add flair and a level of uniqueness to our video and so Lewis climbed to the top of trees and filmed high-angle shots. The results were varied as some shots were wobbly while others had a good appearance due to effects such as camera glare.

To successfully get up the tree (around four metres off the ground, Lewis climbed up with the assistance of myself and Ryan. A production line of sorts was then created, with the camera being relayed to different positions until Lewis at the top of the tree. I was at the bottom, Ryan in the middle and Lewis at the top. He filmed with the strap around his neck and was in a good position with a strong foothold, so this greatly limited the hazard of damage to either the camera or himself.

Third Shoot, 21/1/14:

On this day we filmed more action-based scenes, including the running and falling scenes, along with some more miscellaneous shots that can be used to split up various stages of the music video.

Firstly, we filmed the scene where Daniel falls, gets back up and wipes off his hands. This was a particularly difficult scene to shoot as it was hard to make Daniel fall realistically. As the director, I tried to help him as much as possible, though I was not able to literally help him during filming. In the end the fall doesn’t look too bad, though it is clear Daniel looks like he is pretending to trip on something. Next time, I think we should place soft materials on the ground, to encourage Daniel to fall harder, thus making it look more realistic.

To film Daniel wiping his hands, I made him bend down so I could place the camera (attached to the tripod) over his shoulder. From this angle I was able to get the desired shot; Daniel wiping leaves and mud from his hand.

The running shots were easy for certain angles, as some only required Daniel to run away or past the camera. As the camera was situated on the tripod there was relatively little difficulty in these stages. The last shots of him running however, are of him running up to the camera. This was extremely difficult for me as I wanted him to run up to the camera, with the immediate follow up shot of him running away from it. I worked with Daniel and we took several shots of him running up to it but, he either slowed down as he approached it or ran into it. We experimented with him running past the camera, but ultimately it didn’t fit with my intended vision or pacing of the video. In the end we managed to get a decent shot, which allowed a good cut between the running to and from shots.

Fourth Shoot, 23/1/14:

On this day, we filmed the ‘triangle’ scenes- in which the protagonist of the video discovers mysterious symbols throughout the forest, which is the emblem of Avicii. It was my original idea to use cut-out paper triangles as the symbol but, the rest of my group decided against it, not liking its appearance. We made a compromise and went back to college to retrieve a marker pen, which we used

on exposed trees and visible positions throughout the forest.

For one scene, Daniel walks past a tree and I want to cut to a close up as he does. So, we moved the camera closer to the symbol on the tree and filmed Daniel’s head walking past it. Firstly, we experimented with a black sleeve but, this didn’t work out too well and we reverted back to using Daniel heads. He had to stoop slightly to fit into the frame, but as it is a small glance at his head it isn’t noticeable.

We wrote triangles on various natural objects, including a large stick, which we cast out into the water. It was difficult to film it floating as its movement was very minimal. So, we moved the stick with a longer stick and filmed all of it to ensure we got a good shot. We then had a shot of Daniel picking it up, which was a bit hard for him as he had to handle it while wet.

The embankment was extremely wet also, with thick mud surrounding the filming scene. Due to this, the tripod had to be positioned awkwardly to maintain a straight frame.

These sets of scenes were particularly difficult, as we had to capture Daniel looking at the triangles after he had approached from different angles. Thus, the camera operator had to follow him closely, which was quite difficult.

Fifth Shoot, 28/1/14:

We were due to film our final scenes on this day but, a few people could not attend the shoot so we instead filmed miscellaneous shots including a ditch jump (a scene in the storyboard that we decided to leave out, but decided to film due to slightly less material than anticipated).

We also filmed some more nature shots, such as close ups of raindrops on leaves and branches, sky shots and tree-top panning. We also filmed Daniel discovering the triangles on his neck and scenes of him admiring the natural beauty of his environment.

The ditch scene was particularly difficult to film as we had to get Daniel to jump from a small mound across a small stream of water. It was hard due to the fact he was getting extremely wet and muddy each time he landed, so we adjusted his jumping position se he would land in a more dry area. I wanted to film his feet hitting the ground as he landed, so I placed the camera facing down and we had Daniel jump several times until his feet fit perfectly within the frame.

Note: I have put this above picture here as it was easier than putting it on a new page.

Sixth Shoot, 30/1/14:

On this day, we filmed our finals scenes, in which the protagonist attends a party with other people, who also have the triangle symbols on their body. The day was dark and the weather the previous night very bad, with heavy downpours. Subsequently, the ground was very muddy around the filming scene- a stone seating in the forest. The day was also very dark and resulted in a shoot not as bright as others. This may result in me having to thoroughly edit it to make it brighter. I filmed the scene and also directed it, instructing the actors to stand on the rocks and appear happy, talking to each other.

I used different techniques including zooming, enhancing, panning and close ups during the scene, to display how much was occurring. The other actors had triangles drawn on them to show that he had finally joined his friends. Ryan drew them on different parts of the actor’s body as he had a steady drawing hand.

A slight problem I encountered was the state of the ground, which meant the tripod sunk slightly into the

ground. The rubber feet on the tripod kept sticking into the ground, so I had to keep pulling them back out.

It was hard to direct as the actors kept joking and messing about so I had to shot often to gain a level of authority.Seventh Shoot, 4/2/14:

On this day, we filmed scenes of Daniel approaching the party scene. I had experimented on the previous shoot, but we didn’t have time to make significant advancements.

We filmed the scenes consecutively and had about 8 takes. I got Daniel to approach it, and make several facial expressions including looks of shock at discovering the party and others including happiness and awe.

On this shoot we were briefly shouted at by a group of school kids, though we ignored them and they continued on our way.

This shoot took around 20 minutes and so once we had completed it we went to a motorway bridge, where we filmed cars passing underneath. This took around twenty minutes to the place and around 10 minutes to film, so it took up much of our day’s shoot.

During filming on the motorway bridge it began raining and so we had to quit filming. However, we had got more than enough footage so it didn’t stall our filming process.

Eight Shoot, 6/2/14:

This was our last shoot before the half-term, where we filmed Daniel approaching the scene where he has his flashback and subsequently walking away from it. This included him sitting down and walking for a long distance, with the aim being to edit it in post-production.

We only filmed the before and after scenes as the flashback scene itself required Daniel to have a haircut. It didn’t take too long as I only had to film from a couple of angles. The only slightly difficult part was when I had to reduce the size of the tripod so I could film Daniel on face-level as he sat down.

Ninth Shoot, 25/02/14:

This was our final shoot and was the flashback scene. Daniel had got a haircut over half term to make him look younger to try and make it look like it was in the past. We had filmed Daniel closing his eyes in both the present and past so it should be very heavily implied during the scene that it is a memory.

We filmed Daniel closing his eyes, sitting down and lifting the weights that were in the park-area (it was a free outdoor gym). The camera operator followed me over the shoulder as I walked towards Daniel and I very much like the shot, rather than a camera-mounted on a tripod following me.

With very little to film it was very easy to do and took less than twenty minutes. We then filmed several close

ups of Daniel’s face and me (in character) stealing his phone.

The hardest part was walking up to Daniel and throwing him as It was hard to get a realistic shot without hurting him. In the end I did grab him realistically and pushed him and he genuinely fell over. I kept in character and so the resulting shot looks very good and dramatic.

However, as Daniel fell to the ground he fell into dog poo and we had to take about 5 minutes rubbing it from his jacket, as it would ruin the continuity of the shot. However, it wasn’t too noticeable. The only other problem was a man who walked past and engaged in conversation with us for a couple of minutes. We had plenty of time and so it did not affect our schedule.

Overall, I believe our shoots were very good and we got good footage that can look good both raw and edited in post-production. I believe that we scheduled our shoots very well, with our time-management skills helping us complete the shoot before deadline. Next time, I think we will try and get filming done as quickly as possible so that we get plenty of time for editing the final piece. Also, the weather was a big problem for us so I would look to film in alternative places or film certain scenes judging by the state of the weather and environment accordingly.