JI: Brighton Recce

On 27th September we went down to Brighton with our media studies group for a recce, giving us an opportunity to explore with different equipment and our cameras in an exciting, photogenic location, with an urban feel. On arrival we were giving a number of different shot requirements we had to achieve throughout the day while experimenting different techniques of filming.

Here are a list of the shots we had to include:
MLS panning establishing shot for narrative/performance
Use of high/low angle for performance
Footage for sped up shot of character in crowd
POV handicam shot
360 pan
Tracking shot with character / performer in first person mode of address
A variety of CUs suitable for instruments
2 shots of your own design

These requirements allowed us to gain fresh ideas while filming, giving us possibly different shot ideas to which we had planned out. All these shots are common critical shots within music videos which are used to give the video interesting movement and repeatability for the audience.

To give us an authentic feel to the shots we were going to do we decided to wear costume which we would generally use within our music video. Here is a shot of me and Luca in our costume:



Here is a shot of One Direction in there latest video, 'That What Makes You Beautiful':



Through our initial research into boy bands we have taken some inspiration from One Direction who are possibly the most exciting new boy band in the music industry at the moment, and used similar costume from them to create an authentic boy band look.

Through this recce I feel it helped us getting a real feel for how difficult filming a music video was going to be, especially in a busy location. External factors while filming can prove to be a very influential factor while filming, and effect how the footage turns out. We found ourselves having to wait between shots for the general public to pass by which ultimately ended up being quite time consuming, so this is a factor we have to think about when choosing our location to filming.

I feel for our song 'Close to you - JLS' Brighton could be an appropriate location as it has a very iconic and memorable setting which would work well within our music video. Also with the presence of the beach it could help us bring out that fun, exciting feel to our boy band which is predominately shown amongst boy bands.



Here is a mid-production shot of us filming on Brighton pier:



Here you can see us experimenting with different type of shots, with this one being shot from a low angle to try and add different angles and movement into our filming to create a more exciting watch video. We gained inspiration of this from JLS' video 'Everybody in Love'. Here is a shot from that video of Aston performing:



Other troubles we had was permission while shooting footage. We had to get some indoor shots on our recce, however when we asked a few shops, we found that they took high precaution with people filming within their stores, so this meant we weren't able to get some good shots inside. We were able to shoot for a few minutes within the Churchill Square shopping centre in Brighton, however after a while we were told by security we had to leave. Luckily we had just enough shot footage to be able to achieve the footage of the character sped up in a crowded place. Here's a print screen of this footage:



Overall the recce was a really good experience for our group and gave us some good ideas which we can eventually use within our music video and a possibly an idea of a second location.