16th November

Although scheduling to film on Friday we were unable to do to due to one members personal priorities this therefore became another hurdle in our music video making marathon this however metaphorically gave the group a 'kick up the butt' in which we concluded to spend the 4 hours we all had free on Tuesday to bring our filming to completion.

After meeting in Manchester town centre we headed to the top of the Arndale car park to produce one of our favourite ideas of the entire music video which was to reinact the line in the song 'open up your eyes and then your free' by filming the Male performer holding his hands over the eyes of the female as they both walk towards the camera and presumably towards the edge of the roof top. We then walked around the carpark in search of the best view (much to Fawaz's dismay as he is terrified of heights!) once we were satisfied with the view we had found we carried out an establishing as the male performer held his hands over the camera and opened them up therefore turning the shot into a point of view from the female performers perspective. After this we carried out a few more different angles of the two performers looking over Manchester. We not only included this estanlishing shot of Manchester to create a romantic setting but also to show a sense of patriotism to present where we come from. After this scene we departed the carpark and headed to market street in which we proceded with the filming by doing a hand held tracking shot of the male performer miming the words and playing his guitar. We will use this particular sequence in the part of the song where music heightens and it seems as though people are singing along with Mraz therefore we chose to do the market street scene at 12 mid-day when we could certain that Market street would be at its busiest. The hand held tracking shot was particularly difficult due to the 'hand held' aspect as even the steadiest hand is going to begin to shake after 3 minutes of constantly holding your hand in the same position whilst walking backward through a chaotic croud however after we later reviewed the footage we found the obstacle had hardly affected us as we had done quite well in keeping the camera still.
We then headed towards the gardens in search of a busker willing to be involved in our music video and hold the 'Im yours' cardboard sign which we had made earlier. After we found a kind guitarist who was more than happy to participate we filmed the male performer continuing his walk through the town centre but from a side shot therefore getting a long shot of the grinning busker (who got a nice tip for his participation!)

The last location of the day was the abandoned building in the heart of Rusholme. On the journey to the mansion the group was slightly apprehensive over whether the building would still be remaining abandoned as scaffolding and builders isnt exactly the scenery appropriate for our 'natural' theme or whether it would be private property there for forbiding us to film on the land. However our luck was in as the location was fitting Matt's description exactly therefore making it perfect for our music video.
We began the shoot by filming some solo shots of the male performer miming the lyrics of the song whilst perched on the bonet of a doorless neglected car amongst the trees. We then used the the holes where the doors would be as a framing for the couple as we then filmed the section where 'im yours' is written on the sneaker. We involed the make converse into the music video because Converse is typically a brand wore by the younger generation therefore relatable for our target audience. This section involved a tracking shot of the male peformer walking towards the car, then a close up of the male performer holding the female performers shoe, in the same way the prince holds cinderella's when trying on the glass slipper and then to finish an extreme close up of 'im yours' being written on the toe of the sneaker.
We felt the day was very succesful as we accomplished all tasks we had set out to do so now we aim to focus fully on the editing aspect of the production.

It has become apparent that we have a little more than two weeks before the music video deadline and although we cracked on early with our filming and have been consistent with thinking up new ideas and going out to follow them through the panic has still set in to get this project done to the best of our ability.
Due to deadlines for other subjects and other personal priorities we have scheduled times that will suit the group best,  on friday afternoon we aim to visit a location suggested by Matt which is an abandoned mansion in Rusholme which has natural run down surroundings and apparently abandoned cars which we can also use as props.
We will film one of our stop motion repetition clips at this location of the "im yours" on the converse sneaker. On Friday we will also revisit Plattfields park to film the "im yours" carving on the tree in which we were unable to complete last week.


We understand that this filming with be a challenge due to the rush and panic of so little time but we are sure that through working as a team and the hardest we can we can get it done.

2nd November

In preparation for the filming we chose to meet at the main entrance of Plattfield's park, Fallowfield at 9 o'clock. We deliberately chose to film at such an early time to capture the crisp morning sun in which we needed to portray the image of a perfect autumn day which continues the theme of seasonal changes. Although we have chose the location we haven't chosen particular locations within the park as we thought it would be more success full to take the place as it comes and be spontaneous with our shots.

Entering the park we immediately came across a location perfect for a solo guitar piece, which was a table and chairs obviously made from the stump of a tree amongst a grassy scene this added to the natural hippy look in which we aimed for within the video.

Firstly we started with a two second long shot which could also be considered as an establishing shot of the location of the performers being framed by branches of a tree to symbolise the idea that the hippy couple are constantly surrounded by nature to follow we then used a mid angle panning shot that focused upon both performers this then lead to a mid shot/ traveling shot of both performers walking towards the railings in which surround the park's lake. We all agreed on introducing this part of the park to our autumn scene due to the picturesque lake in the background. The shot in which followed this was an eye line shot of the performers looking into the lake being framed by the trees in the background, this therefore increasing the autumn feel of the scene.Although we were aware that this kind of shot will have been used before we thought it would be useful to ensure the stereotypical scenes for a music video of the romance genre.

We then decided it could make for a unique shot if the male performer was to climb up into a tree along with his guitar to mime a section of the song. The first shot of this scene was a low angle shot of the male performer playing his guitar. Throughout these shots we have used natural lighting due to the fact all of our shots have been filmed in outdoor locations. The male performer then held the camera and carried out a free held low angle shot following the female performer as she walked around the tree, this shot resulted into giving the impression of a point of view shot from the males perspective this therefore showing a romantic connection between the two. This was then presented as visa versa when the female performer then took the camera and conducted the same shot just the other way around so therefore a high angled shot into the tree.

We then performed a running scene of the male performer chasing the female as a consequence of her playfully tugging him out of the tree. We chose this kind of narrative as we discovered that when editing the beach scene the performers were unable to portray the giddy youthfulness of the young love in which we aimed to present as the overall shots were quite still and almost motionless in our opinion which we found very unrealistic. However when carrying out the chase scene we found it was very time consuming as it was hard to keep tracking the performers without making them appear jumpy. We then realised that an autumn scene wouldn't be an autumn scene without a shout of the performers playing amongst the leaves so with aims of not letting it look cheesy we carried out a 360 degree shot following around the outside of the male/female performer.

Then finally we continued with the chase scene finishing it with the pair playfully tumbling to the ground with the female performer falling on top of the male, finalizing with them both lying down amongst the autumn leaves.