Uploading Footage and Having a Look Through

Yesterday afternoon (17th Dec), Molly and I came into uni to upload the footage we had filmed from Crosby onto the Macs in the editing suite. We had previously tried uploading the footage onto Avid as we had done before for the TV Studio performances. However we encountered a few problems as the footage wouldn't capture and with Molly having to leave a little earlier, we decided not to waste any time and move up to the final cut suite which I had a go at using for the first time since the newer version was installed earlier this year.
The format of Final Cut 10 seemed a lot more basic and fun to use in comparison with the older version, however the editing tools were slightly harder to find which set me back in terms of becoming familiar with the software. I plan to watch a few YouTube tutorials on the software to get a better sense of how it operates. Looking through the footage of the mum's interviews, the band's rehearsal and the reccee interviews with the band, I was happy with the way in which the sound was captured and how the shots were positioned. Being the one of three camera operators (me, Emma and Ceri switched between camera operating during the band's rehearsal), I was able to get a good range of shots of Ricky, including mid shots of him talking when he shares his ideas with the rest of the band members and extreme close ups of his mouth singing into the mic from a slightly lower angle which made the shot look quite effective. Likewise with filming shots of Dan, the keyboard player, I thought using shots of him listening to what the other band members have to say would look good as a visual when we incorporate voiceovers from the interviews. Again extreme close ups of Dan's hand on the keyboard zooming out to a close up of him playing the keyboard was shot as I believe it would work well as an establishing shot when discussing Dan's musical background. The footage came out a lot clearer than I originally expected and was even able to gather a few possible outtake shots of the mum's and the boys acting silly or laughing/talking amongst each other to include right at the end of the promotional video OR to add to the website.

Band Rehearsal and Reccee Interviews

On Friday evening (the 13th Dec) my group, excluding Molly, drove down to Crosby where band members Ricky and Felipe are based and where the band rehearse on most Fridays. We thought it'd be a good idea to film the band rehearsing both old and new songs to give us a better sense of how their group dynamic works when not performing. I was able to see how ideas were shared or disagreements were resolved within the band whilst they rehearsed. For example, Felipe, the drummer of the band, put across his opinion that his drumming went on for too long for part of the song which didn't quite fit the sound for the song and wanted to make that particular part shorter. Ricky, who is also Felipe's older brother agreed with the small issue Felipe had and was able to make the other band members aware of why it didn't fit in with the song they were rehearsing. Minor issues like these I saw were resolved fairly quickly and the band were able to continue rehearsing as normal, which I found quite desirable and made me like the band even more due to their mature way of dealing with issues, considering the fact that they are all under 21. The only issue we had was the amount of space we had to fit all 3 of us in the attic room, along with the band and the camera and tripod. Luckily enough this wasn't that much of an issue and we managed to get a good range of shots for each individual band member rehearsing.
Before we filmed the rehearsals, we found the perfect opportunity to gather some footage of the boys mum's (excluding Mike's mum as she wasn't present at the time). Esperanza (Ricky & Felipe's mum) and Sonia (Dan and Andres's mum) were more than happy to be filmed discussing the boys relationships with each other, how they have learnt to leave the boys to their own devices in terms of music and how their South American roots have or have not influenced their musical decisions. I, personally was very pleased with how the interviews with the boy's mums went as it gave us their perspective on how the boys work in a group and how they see their sons' future in music progressing. As they hadn't really had the opportunity to talk to a small group of people about Rangoon Sons, it came at an advantage for our own project due to the fact that they were able to re-live memories of South America and give us some anecdotes on their own experiences with the boys.
After the band's rehearsal we spent a good hour and a half doing reccee interviews with the boys themselves, both collectively and as individuals. With the reccee interviews our aim was to get a clearer sense of how they see each other and how they manage to balance both jobs, college, hockey and music on a regular basis. As I was filming the boys answer a few questions, I was able to think of more on the spot which I believe will give the audience and their fans a better understanding of who Rangoon Sons actually are as people and not simply musicians. The audio and visual footage gathered from the mums' interviews, the bands rehearsal and the reccee interviews with the band will be looked through thoroughly by myself, Molly and Emma next Tuesday (the 17th Dec) to pick out which parts worked well, which ones didn't and what we may need to re-shoot or rephrase when asking questions to make the interviews work more effectively for the finished piece.

Uploading Footage to PC's - Avid Suite

After a progress meeting with Alex and Camilla, me and Emma decided to go and upload the footage we had recorded of the band from the TV Studio last Friday onto a PC in the Avid suite. Unfortunately due to work commitments, Molly and Ceri couldn't join us to see the footage we had previously recorded. As we had footage on one master tape for the 'Jealousy' and 'Caught me Cold' performances along with the tape that we captured footage from the Z1 which was left to record whilst the band warmed up etc, it took a good few hours to upload the entirety of film we had.
Looking back at the footage, we noticed a couple of the recordings from both performances had a few out of focus shots, which we decided won't be used within the final piece as it won't make our final piece look as professional as it could look. However, as we have decided to cut away from the performances to create a better audience interest, the audio from the performances with out of focus shots can still be imposed within the piece whilst an interview is playing on screen. We also came across a few natural shots of the band and individual band members whilst they were warming up, which both me and Emma believed would create a nice visual when each band member is talking about their involvment in the band for example.

The performances themselves turned out pretty well, excluding the out of focus shots and a few shots that didn't match with the sound ie. a mid shot of Dan when Mike has a solo part or a close up of Andres's feet, which didn't work as well as I thought it may have when recording. Other than that, the majority of shots filmed worked well in accordance with the audio, especially the use of a 3 shot of the 3 singers, Ricky, Mike and Andres and close ups of Felipe (the drummer)'s hands whilst playing the drums.
I'll keep you posted on how filming the band's rehearsal goes Friday evening :)

Production Meeting to Discuss Ideas for Before & After Xmas Break

This afternoon our group met for a production meeting to discuss what ideas each of us had in mind for the remainder of the promo video for the band Rangoon Sons. A few of us liked the idea of cutting away from the performances we had filmed in the TV Studio last week, to keep viewers interested but also give them a good feel of the band's musical background. As the filming session for the beach had been cancelled last Sunday (1st Dec) we decided that the best time to film this would be after Christmas due to Ricky having work commitments and one of my group members going home for Christmas this weekend. The beach scene would have to be shot in the morning/afternoon as it gets dark at around 4pm and an evening shoot wouldn't fit our idea for the piece. We also decided on the title sequence being on the beach and the boys would write their band's name in the sand either with rocks/pebbles or carve the name with just their fingers to add a more personal effect than a simple title sequence created on After Effects.
As the boys enjoy playing hockey in their spare time, it was decided that we would film them playing, preferably training, not an actual game so the audience can see their personalities when they're not recording music. After we recieve the dates from the band for when they are free to film, my aim is to get a release form to allow us to film in the hockey area in which the boys play in, hopefully before Christmas depending on when we are given the dates. We might have to film in the evening if the band are training in the evening which won't be much trouble for me and Ceri as we are based in Liverpool, however my other group members may have to leave early as they live outside of the Merseyside borough.
The idea of booking a photography studio to allow the boys to draw sketches of each other whilst talking about their fellow band members is an idea we were given off one of our tutors, but I along with a couple of my other group members believed this idea would work really well add a bit more depth to the piece. If all goes to plan and the boys agree on this idea, Emma is going to book the studio before Christmas which will cost each of us £12.50 each for 2 hours of studio time, which we don't mind paying as it will hopefully spark audience interest.
With 4 out of 5 of the band members having South American roots, it was decided that we would interview their mums, using just voiceovers in the final piece to give us some information on their roots and their opinions of the boys involvement in the band. We will also be needing to set a date to film this particular segment once Andres gives us confirmation that their mums are fine to be filmed or have their voice recorded. This Friday will involve going to Ricky's house in Crosby where the boys rehearse in the evening, again to show the audience how their rehearsals pan out and what is involved during rehearsals. We will also be interviewing the boys individually and the sound captured from these interviews will be used over the sketching of each other segment to avoid talking heads.
With any band it is always useful to know where and how they found their interest in music and so with this in mind, the idea of using baby photo's within the final piece seemed like a good idea. We have asked for the baby photo's to be brought to Ricky's house in Crosby where we will either use photocopies or the actual photo's themselves with either green screen or rostrum camera in the New Year.
As the final piece is going to include a web component as well, we have been thinking of content to include in the website and we decided to try and get the band to talk about how and why they changed their name from 'Broken English' to 'Rangoon Sons' which will be included on either the 'About Us' or 'Explore' page.
We were informed that Mike, one of the vocalists, has a sister who is good at drawing so we were keen on the idea of her sketching up a logo for the band, something they have control over as obviously this is something that will stick with them and seperate them from any other Indie Rock band. Once we get this logo we will incorporate this onto the website with the hope that it provides a more professional and well thought out theme.

TV Studio - Filming the Performances

On Friday my group and I went into the TV Studio and helped the band set up their equipment for the 3 performances we were planning on filming throughout the day. As one of the band members, Dan had a keyboard exam in the morning we were a bit wary that he wouldn't make it in time for the first performance. However by 10:30 he arrived and we were able to carry on with our day as planned. Setting up the cameras in their appropriate positions and sticking the camera shots to the camera so we knew which shots we had to get ready were just a couple of the procedures we had to go through before filming. Molly filmed the song she wrote the camera script for first which was 'Jealousy', a more recent song from the band which is not on their EP. As Molly had written the script for this herself we collectively decided that she would vision mix for this performance and I would vision mix for 'Caught Me Cold' and switch between Camera 1. I found the shots quite easy to transition to and from as there weren't a large range of shots and I had made myself familar with the equipment and had trial runs of shots way before we began filming.
It took until after the lunch break at around 2:30pm to complete filming Jealousy as Mike, one of the main singers, forgot his lines a few times. However as a group we didn't let this affect our schedule too much and carried on filming when everyone was ready for another take. The band were very confident when filming them which made it a lot more easier for us to film and as we were left to our own devices we didn't feel as much pressure to get everything on point.
In the afternoon we left the equipment as it was in the morning and prepared ourselves to film the next performance of 'Caught Me Cold'. Whilst the band prepared themselves and got their voices warmed up, I went in the director's gallery to practise cutting from Cameras 1-3. My group members were slightly worried I would struggle to cut from one shot to another as my camera script involved more than twice the amount of shots than included in the 'Jealousy' performance and Molly had stated she had struggled cutting with just 25 shots. However I didn't have much trouble at all with the 60 shots I had to cut to and from but the only issue was having to do a few more takes with this performance as my group members complained they didn't have enough time to transition from one shot to another for a few of the shots which struck me to cut out a few shots or adjust the shots to an easier transition. The penultimate take that was shot went well, which I believe we will use for the final piece although a few shots weren't as planned on the camera script and were slightly adlibbed. The acoustic performance of Caught Me Cold was scrapped due to time constraints however we managed to finish in time to pack away all the equipment and get out of the studio before 5pm. I have kept hold of the tape that Elaine gave me after we finished filming which I will use today on a tape deck when me and my group have a production meeting to watch the performances and collectively decide which ones will work best for the final piece.

New Camera Script - Complete!

This evening I finally managed to finish writing up the new camera script for the band's performance of their 'Caught me Cold' song from their EP. As Alex advised me I should write my camera script up in a more professional way rather than the basic format Elaine from the TV Studio advised me on, I acted upon her advice and began writing the new script a few days ago. This task was quite time consuming due to the fact that there were around 65 shots in total and for each shot I was required to write the shot number, the camera which this shot would be recorded on, how the shot would be filmed and the appropriate lyrics for that shot. So you can imagine doing this 65 times, including the instrumental parts, was rather tedious! However it didn't take me that long to finish writing it up this evening and was able to post it into my group's Facebook group in which we inform each other of our individual progress and any issues we may have.
Here is a brief screen shot of my new and improved camera script;

Discussing Web Component & Ideas for Narrative

This afternoon myself, Ceri and Emma met with Ian to discuss the web component part of our assignment which will include band information, outtakes from filming, an explore page where the audience can view profiles of each band member and more obvious elements such as gig listings and Twitter and Facebook links. Our main concern was which website designer we would use which was discussed with Ian as he has the most knowledge on this sort of subject. He advised us that Wix would act as the best model for creating the website as it has more easier options for us to navigate through ie. finding the appropriate text without having the write the HTML code for each individual element. However he did want us to keep in mind that although Wix is the best model for us to use, it's longjevity is quite uncertain therefore he advised us to use Dreamweaver as a back up in case Wix closes down for example. We were quite worried that we would be marked down for using a website that provides us with templates for the website we wish to create however Ian informed us that this is not an issue to be stressing about as the content itself is the most important element. Therefore although the website needs to have a professional look and feel to it, the content of the website is primarily what we will be getting marked on.
Once we had our meeting with Ian, we had a brief production meeting where we discussed possible elements to go into the promotional video as at the minute there isn't a great deal of content. During our meeting with Ian he gave us the idea of each band member drawing a quick caricature or cartoon image of their fellow band member(s) to give us more of an insight into how they see each other. This sparked me to pitch the idea of a time lapse of each band member drawing one another, getting up and drawing the next one in order to add a bit of uniqueness to the promotional video. This element would be accompanied by voiceover sound whilst that band member draws their fellow band member to support their drawing.