DW: Brighton Reflection

Where did you go and what were your aims? 

We went to Brighton in Sussex to refresh our filming skills, begin the creative process of filming a piece and also start to consider what type of shots and content look good in a music video. We had a list of seven set shots that we had to get: a panning - establishing shot, high and low angles, time lapse, POV handicam, 360' pan, tracking shot and a variety of CUs. We then had to choose two shots that we wanted to include, for us this was an upside down shot and a shot where it appears as if the public are walking backwards but the focal person of the shot is walking forwards. We chose these two shots because of what we had considered using in our actual music video; an upside down shot is a good way of causing disjuncture and unease amongst the audience, and the walking backwards shot was something seen 'Eleven Eyes' by Heights ft. Sam Carter which has been desirable since seeing - and something we wanted to see if it was achievable. All of this was to be done in at least two interior and two exterior locations. 

What did you achieve? 

All of the shots we set out to capture, we got - and more. As we were walking around Brighton we saw some fantastic locations; whether they were covered in graffiti or simple a winding street, all of them fit the aesthetic for the song we chose on the way down - 'Marijuana' by Chrome Sparks. We chose this song because of its varying tempo and intensity, plus its aptitude to fit with a set of slow motion, slightly obscure shots. These locations were where we utilised the POV handicam, making the camera like eyes, we focused the camera on where we were looking thus giving it a sense of exploration. We spent a while trying to film a seagull taking off so we could reverse it and put it in slow motion; when we got it, we looked back at it, reversing it frame by frame and it looked better than expected.  We succeeded in getting our two creative shots that we set out to get, on camera play-back they looked interesting and different - what we were going for. 

What problems did you encounter? 

On the whole, the day was very successful; there wasn't a location we couldn't film at which was not expected, especially for the arcade, but proved very useful. The only setbacks that could be considered are things that are to be expected on a public shoot; people not wanting to be in the shot so you have to abandon some footage, and others being quite the opposite - doing anything they can to get in the shot! However, I think I can speak on behalf of all the group in saying we were pleasantly surprised at the lack of these setbacks - the amount of people who didn't mind being in shot or for us filming in their shop/cafe was really useful as it reduced the amount of time looking for locations thus increasing our filming time. The only other setback was the weather, it was exceptionally windy and at times raining which more-or-less stopped us filming on the beach - however there was a point where the weather was neutral, this was when we got our seagull shot.

What did you learn from that which you can take into the next shoot? 

Being the first shoot to do with a music video or anything like that, we realised the sheer freedom there is. With AS, we had to restrict ourselves to genre conventions and stylistics - that is far less apparent in a music video. So, with that in mind, with the next and with each shoot, no matter how much storyboarding has been done, we will not limit ourselves to shooting only that - we never know what we may see that might inspire us to use. Also, not to be put off by the public; there only seemed to be three or four people out of hundreds who didn't want to be filmed, even less is the number of people who messed around in front of the camera, therefore there is no reason not to film in public spaces. Lastly, we are now seriously considering going back to Brighton, its range of locations and general culture is great for filler shots.

Here is the video of our Brighton shots.