Second Day Shooting Piano Man [Late Post!]

Late post, due to unforeseen laptop malfunctions. Just got my laptop back this week, so inbetween not being able to use my laptop and having to reinstall the entire system I have had a backlog of updates which I was having to do. Which includes writing into this blog.

Day two of filming consisted mainly of shots built up to suggest where the piano man may have come from- this was shot around the forest fields area, as it was a rather difficult amount of gear to carry and the weather at the time was quickly changing. I gathered a large amount of shots of, for example, the tram coming and going, people walking by, the winds affecting trees, traffic and the such. I had many more plans for other shots but unfortunately down to many other circumstances out of my own control I could not gather them. However the ones I did manage to get are interesting shots and I hope they work in editing.

The third day was dedicated towards the one on one interviews with people's knowledge about the piano man; originally I was planning to video record them while doing the interview (Which I did originally do with my first two interviews) However, when I started looking back on them and re-storyboarded, I found that they didn't work. So instead I just recorded the audio with a couple of people talking about the piano man.

So this weekend, I am dedicating myself to getting some of the video and audio synced up and beginning the stages of fully editing the video- now that my audio files have been fixed by my wonderful sound man, I can now begin with the task of actually putting the video together.

Ed Parsons- CV Video Shoot

Ed With his Badminton Racket

Today I have been shooting with Ed Parson again- this time we were working towards producing his video CV.  Before shooting we decided on the style he was wanting to produce- which resulted in us watching this video (to the right- from about 1 minute 5 in). Ed wanted to replicate the style that was created in this short clip- with him in the video alongside with his activities whilst in the activities.

So today we were shooting for his badminton shots- we shot in the Djanogly City Academy, using the sports hall as our backdrop. We were aiming today to shoot his "Badminton" activity, and had two shots in mind. After a little set back with timing (thought the sports hall was going to be relatively empty but apparently not!) we waited for a couple of hours for the space to become a bit more free and began to do the shoot. We used a court on the end of the sports hall, so then the backdrop would be a wall to make the hall look much less empty, Ed then used two of his friends from the group to help him with his shots. 

The first we tried was using the dolly and tracks and panning them outwards whilst Ed played badminton; we tried a few different takes with this shot- but the main plan was to have it close at first then to pan backwards to reveal the whole court. First we tried Ed serving the shot and then going back to "smash it" once  it was returned. The problem with this was that it was hard for Ed to first serve it everytime, (since he was a bit nervous on camera) but also it looked a bit rushed when he ran back. We then did it so then his friend served the first hit and then Ed returned it. And then we did the same as before but with Ed completely out of shot to then run into the shot and "smash it". Out of these shots the last worked best. As it kept the humour of the piece as well, as if Ed was running into their game and stealing a hit. 

The next shot we worked on, was the shot as shown in the first picture of Ed standing in front of the camera with the badminton backdrop behind him; this shot was relativly easy to work with (as much as we had to keep telling the badminton players to keep playing a lively game!) we shot the last shot twice as the first was a bit too far out, and dark, saying that when you're working with someone twice the height of you and you're trying to video their head and shoulders I think I did a pretty decent job. 

When we left and looked over the footage again we decided we liked the latter shot better, as it was still humourous and it was better shot than the first. It was also simple, which is the main thing when presenting his video CV.

Today has been a good break away from the usual shooting- which has just finished with "The Piano Man" which I will be updating this blog on soon!

The Piano Man- Day One

 Day One Shooting- The Piano Man

So the first day of shooting for the Piano Man has quickly come by- getting up at nine in the morning to pick up my massive amount of equipment was at first not fun, but then very rewarding once I had gathered it all. Thankfully I had been given an equipment trolley for the day to cart the entirety of my equipment around for the day. Today's schedule was to record all my shots inside Bonington building, so then I could spend the next couple of days shooting at other places to create a scene of where the Piano Man plays.

 My equipment bag of the day today was:

• Tracks and Dolly
• Heavy, hard wearing, video tripod
• Edirol R09
• Rode microphone
• Canon 60D
• 24mm Canon Lens
• 50mm Canon Lens

So naturally my kitbag has been quite heavy today! 

My first video shots were very simplistic; using the dolly and tracks I used panning shots to set the scene; these are slow pulling actions along the tracks while keeping the camera still to produce a smooth transition. Shots I included within these types of shots were of the inside of Bonington, including the creep up to the piano where the piano man is usually found playing. With pans you have to be very steady and keep the exact pace everytime you move, which can be tedious but once the effect is achieved it is very effective. As you can see in the third picture there is the set up of the track, dolly and camera on tripod; the tubes were laid out at about 12 foot long along the floor to make sure I got a nice steady pan inwards towards the doors.

 Another set of shots I took today also included close ups of the piano keys; of my own fingers pressing the piano keys, focusing of the piano keys and many other shots of the actual piano. This is to almost personify the piano itself since we do not see the piano man at all, that he is a mere myth within the building. I also included shots of the inside of the piano, like the inner workings of the piano to show the inner layers of the otherwise silent piano man. The fifth, sixth and tenth pictures to the left are how I recorded the inner workings of the piano, I used a closer lens (50mm) to get closer into the movements of the keys.

I also started to record the interviews with people talking about what they know about the piano man; I recorded three interviews today. The students, most interestingly had the most to say about the piano man- possibly because of the more one to one constant exposure to him. The tutor I interviewed, Ian Reynolds, had very little to say about him, possibly because he wasn't as exposed to him, however, he was very excitable about the interview and was very energetic about it. I have reservations about using the footage as I want an overall calm feeling to the video however I will make those sort of decisions at a later date when I have more footage collected. As it then depends on what the rest of the interview footage turns out like.

 Amazingly on this day as well I finally caught the piano man! In fact he was very friendly today; I spent a good half an hour with him, recording his actions and him playing the piano. Throughout the recordings I however never got his face in, or never got him in focus, to keep the mystery of who the piano man is. I also set the recorder onto the piano to record him completely on the piano for possible background sound of him playing.

Tommorow I do not have the tracks or dolly anymore so therefore will be shooting just static shots instead of dynamic ones; however I am taking the camera outside again to take some shots of possible "where is he from" shots. I will also try to get some more interviews and talking done for the overlay on the

 interview- maybe even record myself talking.

New Project: The Piano Man

So a new project has become my new obsession; the filming of the piano man in Bonington. I am filming it as if he is a myth and a legend (which is fact he kind of is!) I am filming it in the way which creates more questions for the viewer than it does answer them!

Assisting Graphic Design student: Ed Parsons "4Seven"

Filming with Graphic design student Ed Parsons, towards a competition brief of creating a 15 second film to advertise the channel "4seven". Before filming we discussed the ideas that Ed had and wanted to achieve within the very short amount of time we got for the brief; Ed wanted to create a heavenly feel to the advertisement as if "old shows were beamed up to heaven- which is four seven".

So we decided on using the basement in his house to start the filming; the set up was simple with a Canon 5D, upon a tripod and using tracks to make pans smooth and glide along. We also used a simple set up of stage lights for different moments in the set up. Also the use of a smoke machine certainly gave the "heavanly feel" that we were looking for (as well as giving us a bit of a high from smoke inhalation! Note, take lots of breaks away from the enclosed smoky place).

One of the most awkward parts was to hang the 4seven logo from the ceiling and then keep it there for the length of the filming! Thankfully we eventually found a good way of just sticking it to the ceiling and using more smoke to cover up the strings!

It took us a good day to film the entire video, when you're working in milliseconds of footage making sure you get the right feel in each shot becomes very important. Overall a really productive day was had and I learnt a heck of a lot from it. Plus we ate strudel at the end of the day too. So that was good too!

Below is the video that was produced, although I wasn't part of the editing side of the video making I played a part in the physical filming lighting and opinion on the end result.



4Seven