MV in the Making

Sunny Day Filming

Over the Thanksgiving break, I got in contact with my actor and we started filming.  We filmed on a Wednesday morning with some impromptu props that we found. Instead of filming at the beach, which we still plan on doing, we filmed at my house in the grass to get the close-ups that we wanted. This helped us closely match the conventions of an indie video with multiple locations. We also decided to ditch the tripod for these scenes because the handheld shots gave a more authentic, homemade vibe. On the morning of the shooting, we were not able to get the fruits like we wanted before so I decided on getting fake flowers to surround our actor with and to put in her hair. This would give her a more ethereal feel and lessen the amount of editing we'd have to do for a rustic vibe on the video. 
  While filming we ran into some trouble with the sun. While we did want natural lighting for the video, it was difficult for the actor to look into the camera with the light in her eye. It was also difficult for me to see the screen of the camera with the sun right behind me. However, I fixed that by changing the position of the actor. Instead of having her eye-level with the camera and staring towards the sun I had her lay down while I stood over her with the camera. The first set of videos was not quite right because I did not stand directly over the actor which caused the camera to point into her nostrils. After going over those clips, I decided to re-shoot those scenes but this time, standing directly over. We had the actor laying on a blanket instead of the grass because we wanted the black dress and floral pullover that the actor was wearing to really stand out. The fake flowers that we had would not be as prominent if it was in the grass.
  When we went to film at the beach we did not have as many problems as before. We already had the blankets and flowers ready for the filming so it didn't take as much time as before. While filming at the beach we decided to forego the tripod altogether so we didn't get sand on it and so the whole film would be shot handheld. It would be better for the video to not have constantly changing conditions. After I approved the first shots I decided to just continue with handheld shots. With the weather being more desireable at the beach we managed to get more shots from there. At this part of filming, I managed to get the mandatory shots necessary but also get some experimental shots that would just add to the aesthetic of the video being a trailer.