Production Log

Amy: On the first week, I went after school to meet up with some students from the lower years during their dance rehersal class where I played them our song of choice and they began to coordinate a dance routine in time to the music. However I feel that the first few seconds of the dance sequence was quite unorganised and sloppy, but once they started to dance in unison, it began to look like something we could incorporate into our music video. I then asked them if they could come in on Monday (which is a teacher professional day, meaning there will be less distractions and more space for us to work in) and to wear their own clothes.

Amy and Tugrul: At the weekend, Tugrul and I took the SLR camera and the GoPro to Brick Lane in order to test shoot some scenes. We used Tugrul in the meantime due to our main character Krishan being unavailable. With the GoPro scenes, we had Tugrul walk around Brick Lane with the camera on a bike helmet on his head to capture any scenes that may look good. One thing we didn't like about the GoPro however, was the fact that the quality was considerably more low in comparison to that of the SLR. Also another issue that arose, was that of the GoPro being very unsteady on the helmet when he ran, and so it inevitably fell off, unfortuanately breaking in the process. This put a lot of strain on our video as we relied on the GoPro for many of our shots. When looking back on the footage, we have realised that there wasn't enough movement within our scenes, and recieved feedback suggesting whether or not we could use a car, bike or bus to create the element of movement. There also wasn't a large variety in shot type, so we plan to fix that when we film the actual footage. We also recieved feedback suggesting if we could focus a lot of our close ups on our characters hands due to our significant fist symbol that we have decided to use throughout our music video and within our artists album work. In a few of the shots Tugrul plays another character that we wish to use. This character will be played by JP and we plan to have him be the first character to be liberalised, and we have also decided to have him be our DJ who has incorporated himself in the video for a few seconds.

Amy, Tugrul and Elias: On the Monday of the dance scene, we practiced the office scenes first while we waited for the students to come in. Tugrul filmed Elias photocopying, however we came to the conclusion that the office space that we had originally intended to use didn't look very good at all. The colour of the walls were too bright yellow, the space was limited, so we couldn't film Elias from the front, and the mise-en-scene in general was messy and unorganised. After this, Tugrul, Elias and I went to meet with the dancers, however, unfortuanately, only two of them had shown up. Luckily on the other hand, the two that did show up wore their own clothes. After waiting around and attempting to contact the other two, we had to commence with filming. The footage however wasn't the best it could be due to the lighting, and the unattractiveness of the surrounding area. The wall art behind also creates confusion as there are so many colours and images of people, which distracts you away from the actual dancers. Also we hadn't used a varying range of shot type, so it looked quite dull and stiff. For the next shoot, we plan to vary our shots and use a different location.

Tugrul: That same week turgul created the first panel of the digipak using Photoshop. We got the text from Dafonts website, and we chose this particular font as it seems quite edgy and fits in with our revolution type theme. He also did it so that we could somehow incorporate it into the dance sequence, using it as a backdrop whilst the dancers performed. We got feedback on the font, as it was said to be too spaced out, so tugrul made the changes using Photoshop tools. Elias also came up with the name Self-Taught, as we wanted the name to be something that reflected the theme within our music.

Amy and Tugrul: We stayed behind after school that week Thursday in order to test shoot the dance sequence in its new location. We had originally wanted the spotlights to be on, however the lighting technician, Toby, had told us that the previous school production that had been held in there had set the lights up facing different directions than we wanted them, and so we would have to wait another time for them to reposition the lighting. Again, the drama hall was quite an unprofessional environment in which to film the dance sequence, but at the time we agreed to have the lighting set up before hand. We also got feedback on more close up shots. Elias was'nt there because he had a GP appointment but he started the digipak at home.

Amy: After shooting the drama hall dance scene, I went to stencil and cut out a template for the fist that we plan to spray paint onto the back of a denim jacket that Elias brought in. I spray painted with a few different colours to test out which one that we wamted to use. In the end I decided on white as I though it would be the one that stands out the most and I thought it should be quite simplistic.

Amy: Monday, I cut the sleeves off of the denim jacket and used the white spray paint to create the fist logo on the back. However the white spray didn't come out as well as we wanted it to, so I took it home and went over the pattern with white chalk. This made it much more bold and the details were clearer and recognisable. The images above are examples of the shots we are going to use for the back cover of the digipak. Eias caried on with the poster.

Amy, Tugrul and Elias: We got the dancers to come back during school lunch time into the drama hall to perform the dance scene again because we managed to get the spotlights on how we wanted them. However, after telling the students previously to wear their own clothes, they hadn't and so we had to work with their uniform. Instead of them having their blazers and jumpers on, we decided to have them in their shirts with their different coloured ties to make it seem a little better. and like a kind of dress code, however it still looked like they were in their school uniforms making it unprofessional. We also tried to have various shot types, however we didn't do it efficiently enough as we only used long shots and mid shots due to the dancers moving too much, however we plan to change this for next time, making sure to get close up shots of their legs and arms. Also the bright spot lights highlighted imperfections in the drama hall, so when attempting close ups, the scenes looked flawed. We then made the decision to make a day to redo the dance sequence.

Amy: That Sunday, Me and JP (who is supposed to play the artist who is briefly in the video) went to Brick Lane to do some shooting. Unfortuanetly the other people who needed to be there didn't show up and the Sunday market stalls meant that the area was very crowded making in impossible to film there.

Elias: Elias filmed a film with a student in our school named Cedric. This was supposed to be apart of the office scenes, however, we had previously agreed that we wouldn't film in this particular location because of its mise-en-scene, so we do not plan on using any of this footage.

Amy: I filmed a scene with a student names Hansen in the teachers staff room. We struggled for a while with the background, but fortuanately there's a white board in the background that we can use to cover up most of the unwanted scenery. We also had trouble with working the scanner, however overcame this eventually by experimenting with it. Issues occured with making the camera face him as the scanner is pushed against the wall. Eventually I had to hand-hold the camera. The footage that I filmed here was exactly what we wanted however the character that we needed to run past and touch him on the shoulder in order to make him dance, wasn't in at the time, and so part of the sequence is missing.

Amy and Elias: With this scene we had massively improvised as the teacher who had promised to help us didn't show up, so instead we had to use Cedic and Dyshon. The lighting and the location however was terrible so we are unable to use this footage also. Next time we plan for a better location and cast.

Amy and Elias: With this scene, Elias and I had also last minute decided to use this character for our video due to the original teacher not showing up. The first shot we had was well shot, however we recieved feedback that suggested maybe for the second shot we shouldn't of shot from behind, however due to limited filming space we were unable to shoot from the front. Also our feedback had said that we should've played the character the song so they could move their heads and shoulders in time to the musics rhythm. We plan to shoot this scene again taking on board the feedback that we received.

Amy and Elias: We went to Brick Lane on Wednesday. We had originally planned to shoot the professional Brick Lane scenes with our main actor, Krishan, however he had turned it down that day due to the rain which was a healthy and safety hazard whilst he was free running. Instead we did more practice shooting with JP instead. This day Elias and I had filmed a few more scenes, where we had used a lot more varying shots. For instance we had feedback that said perhaps we should focus some more on the free runners hands due to the symbol of the fist that is spray painted on his back, and purely because it is the main logo for our artist and his music video. Because of this feedback, we tried to incorporate shots of his hands into it a lot more. These shots however were complicated to shoot due to how limited we were with the amount of free running skills that are 'step in' actor had, so it seemed quite random, uncoordinated and stiff.

Amy: The thursday after the scenes shot in Brick Lane, I edited together the scenes that had been captured so far, in time for the rough edit. All the clips had been put in order that best made sense with our narrative. However out scenes were quite all over the place and it didn't look anywhere near how we wanted it to. We also had to use alternating clips of JP's Brick Lane scenes and Tugruls. However for next time, we are able to see what needs improving the most (Rough edit is on another tab)

That Friday, Tugrul continued to finish off the digipak, experimenting with different editing methods, however, he hadn't known internet imagery couldn't be incorporated into it, so he needed to start from the beginning, step by step screen shotting the process.

Tugrul: Next Monday Tugrul brought in the front panel of the digipak that he created over the weekend, however it wasn't very good. It looked quite unprofessional and like little effort was put into it, so we recieved a lot of feedback on what should be changed and we got onto it right away.

(Add image of front panel below)

Elias: He continued with the creation of the poster as his first draft was of images taken off the the internet, which needed to be changed. He then created one that also looked unprofessional and received a lot of criticism and so we took on all the feedback, immediately getting on to the changes.

Tugrul: He created our final version of the digipak later on that week, however everything that we had originally intended to put in it didn't happen, so the digipak idea had changed completely.

Amy, Tugrul and Elias: We went to Brick Lane on Wednesday to film the free running scenes, however our original actor, Krishan failed to be reliable, so we had to improvise by using Tugrul. He tried his absolute best to imitate someone who can free run so that the storyline can still remain similar to how it was before, however we decided to not make the Brick Lane scenes the main focus of the music video. We tried to vary the shot types a lot more for this final shooting of the scene, and we made sure to reshoot clips of the same thing, only at different angles so that we had a variety of shots to choose from when it came down to the actual editing. I filmed, whilst Tugrul acted and Elias helped direct how scenes should be shot.

Amy and Tugrul: We decided to change part of our idea some time earlier in the week. This is because we didn't have anyone lip syncing in our song, and we realised it was essential that we needed that element. Plus we also realised that the dance sequence within our music video wasn't working out too well as we were reliant too much on these actors (one of them had left the school recently) and we also couldn't find the perfect location for them to be filmed. So instead of having the dance sequence, we decided to regularly cut to a female artist singing. The week before we had originally asked a girl named Zoe in our sixth form to be our female singer, as she has a lot of drama experience, featuring in a lot of the school productions and she had also previously been in a music video for another media group a few years ago. We later found that she was also quite unreliable due to her being extremely busy with school work, and time was closing in. Elias then contacted a female outside of school who attends a drama school, and agreed that she would participate in our video this Tuesday. We constantly contacted her, making sure she was still able to make it, and directing her on what she should wear, what she would be doing and where she needed to go, however on the Tuesday, last minute, she informed us that she couldn't make it as she had to go to the hospital. We then asked around for females in our sixth form that were confident enough to lip sync to our song, and a year 12 named Hannah stepped in for us. We previously booked to spend the day after school in a photography room in the schools Arts department, and so we set up in there where we played the music to Hannah (giving her a sheet with the lyrics) and got her to lip sync along to our chosen song. I (Amy) brought in some make up for her so that it seemed quite bold, and we got Dyshon to perform in the scenes at times also so that it looked a bit more fun and upbeat where both these characters are dancing. Something however that we did think was a bit of a drawback was that in some scenes Hannah is looking off screen because we had wrote the lyrics on a large piece of paper for her an positioned them slightly to the right of the camera, however we look to overcome this in the editing stages where we will cut away from them scenes to other shots, for instance of Tugrul of the office characters.

Amy, Tugrul and Elias: We filmed some more of the office scenes on the Wednesday and Thursday. On the Wednesday we filmed a scene with a boy named Tarik. We were limited with our locations as this was during lesson time and most classrooms were in use. We had to massively improvise with the space that we had, when Tugrul comes from behind him, there is a door there, however it doesn't open, and so we have to film at an angle that looks as though Tugrul had just come from somewhere else and wasn't just standing there. I feel that this scene is quite sloppy, however the camera we plan to edit it quite fast pace so that it doesn't look too unprofessional. On the Thursday we finished of filming Hansens scene now that our character was in, however Tugrul had forgotten to wear his costume, and so we again had to improvise with the camera angles in order to make it not look like he's wearing something different. We also have recently realised now that there is a continuity error as in the previous scenes Hansen was wearing a red tag around his neck, and now in the recent ones he is not.