BFI Film Academy Lessons

For the past week I have been directing a short film for the BFI Future Film Academy. We used both a Black Magic camera and a Bolex, to have a nice mixture of digital and chemical film, as the film was an experimental one. We had to do all the casting ourselves, so I learnt how to find a 7 character strong cast in the space of two days. I also learnt the importance of planning, as we spent 2 full days storyboarding and shot listing the film, which made it a lot easier when it came to shooting. In addition, we had to get legal permission from Southwark council in order to film there, which may be something we have to take into consideration when shooting our music video, although councils are not as concerning with small dslr handheld cameras as they are with large cameras with tripods, so we shouldn't have to worry about it.

Email to Jagjaguawr

An email has been sent by us to the record label of the song we are using, asking for permission to use their song, Wash.

Ok Go - One Take Wonders

The below music video is from Ok Go and it is shot in zero gravity all in one take, which is very impressive and would have required a lot of rehearsal. I've also included the behind the scenes, which is very interesting. It takes a village to make a music video, clearly.

Storyboard

Here are our first storyboards. These are initial ideas and the finished project will contain more shots to fit with the quick cuts that are typical to a music video.

My Weekend

This weekend I was on a film course and worked with 16mm film. Here's some of my experience.

New Idea Vlog

New Idea

We have developed a new idea for our music video and that is two teenage girls running away from home, who have different reasons for running away. One is afraid to come out and the other wants to get away from a family breakdown. We did some research on why people run away and here was what we found.

Lip Syncing Practice

We just practiced lip-syncing of our chosen song and this has solidified our decision to not use lip-syncing in the video, except perhaps a tiny part that fits with the narrative. This is because the song doesn't have many lyrics so although our narrative will hint to them, they won't be a significant part of the video. The lyrics aren't very clear and the singer has a deep voice so it wouldn't make sense to have the young female characters lip-syncing to them as it may shatter the suspended disbelief that the audience will have whilst watching the video.

Here is the video of us lip-syncing.

Song Lyrics - Wash

The lyrics to the song we have chosen are:

Climb
Is all we know
When thaw
Is not below us
No, can't grow up
In that iron ground
Claire, all too sore for sound

Bet
Is hardly shown
Scraped
Across the foam
Like they stole it
And oh, how they hold it

Claire, we nearly forfeit

I' I'm growing like the quickening hues
I' I'm telling darkness from lines on you
Over havens fora full and swollen morass, young habitat!
All been living alone, where the ice snap and the hold clast are known

Home
We're savage high
Come
We finally cry
Oh and we don it
Because it's right
Claire, I was too sore for sight

I' we're sewing up through the latchet greens
I' un-peel keenness, honey, bean for bean
Same white pillar tone as with the bone street sand is thrown where she stashed us at
All been living alone, where the cracks at in the low part of the stoning

We were thinking of using the idea of growing up and of home that is present in the lyrics in our music video. For example, we are thinking of having a younger and older version of a character. Also, the lyric "climb is all we know" may represent how the character in the video struggles to achieve her dreams.