Ipswich Waterfront: Filming On-Location & Capturing Video with Final Cut Pro

Today we started the filming of our Music Promotional Video for the song 5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale. We hired out a Canon Mini DV-Tape Camcorder and Tripod and took these with us to the docks. As Director and Cinematographer, I set up the shots according to those I had planned on my Storyboards, and discussed them with Josh and Emily and also decided on modifying some of the shots. We used our surroundings and the street to our advantage, and I filmed yachts sailing out of the marina whilst Josh and Emily discussed another of their A2-Level subjects. Although we may not need these shots of the yachts, I was getting as much footage as possible (about 10 minutes of footage) so that when Editing we have more than enough to use in the video and this will help towards not running out of shots to use.

When we returned to College we went back to the Editing Suite and captured the video onto the Apple Mac computer via a Firmware cable and the Editing Software/Programme Final Cut Pro, ready to be edited when we start editing after Christmas. We had fixed the 'timecode' issue on the camera today that we had problems with throughout last year's project and Prelimary Exercises designed to make us aware of the possible issues with Mini DV-Tape Camcorders.

Josh: "During the filming we have managed to execute we have been keen to produce a variety of camera shots and angles which serve to add both texture and characterisation to our video. For example we have played around with focus in some of our shots so that our main character (Chris K) is at first out of focus and then comes into it as the camera comes across him. We hope that this technique will produce the effect of portraying the character as someone who is not quite in tune with the world because he is in mourning. As well as that we have used several tracking and panning shots to show the character's journey, moreover his meandering struggle with his own existence."