Diary Entry: 18th October

In the first hour of the lesson me and Lauren updated our blogs to ensure all the posts were in the correct place and the best it could be to make sure we got a high level. We added more images and edited posts so they flowed and made sense.

After doing this we then showed sir our music video production so far. We were extremely delighted when he told us we were currently on a level 4 and we produced on of the best shots of having someone appear then disappear on a bench. Knowing that our hard work was paying off we great to hear and continued to make us work harder.

Once tidying our blogs up we then edited the footage that we had filmed the previous filming session and started to edit last lesson. We changed the speed/duration of some of the shots including when Harry leaves the room after an argument, this storming out bit was supposed to be quite quick and dramatic. Therefore  we increased the speed and cut the ending so we would only see him leave the room and it would not continue to see him shut the door.

By not having long of the lesson we then started to amend the suicide bath scene.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 17th October

In todays lesson we continued to edit our music video. Today was very time consuming as we had to view 2 days worth of footage- Fridays and yesterdays.

As soon as the lesson began me and Lauren went straight to upload and import the footage from the past two days, we tried to not waste time as we had a lot to do. Once importing we viewed Friday's footage and discussed which arguing scenes were the best. A problem we face with this was the framing changed for many shots therefore it was hard to use a variety of clips because they did not flow well, therefore a lot of editing was done to ensure the footage looked like one and could easily change from shot to shot.

We firstly edited the shot of Grace singing so one line would be a mid shot high angle and it would quickly cut to a close up of her face still singing. All the singing shots have been manipulated in colour by changing the footage to black and white and altering the brightness and contrast; by making the brightness higher and contrast darker so that we would get a white background type with Grace standing out.

After doing this we edited Fridays footage of the argument, we created a match on action of the two arguing as well as putting shots together to get shots from different angles and positions of the room.

Having only 10 minutes left of the lesson me and Lauren edited the footage of the dance/ romance scene on the bandstand. We placed this footage over the lyrics 'love, love, love, love' as we felt it was symbolic to the footage as well as the happy memories the couple had.

We were pleased with today's progress as we only have half a minute of footage to edit, however it may be time consuming if the ending suicide does not look effective and we may have to re-shoot with our male actor.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 16th October

At the end of school, the sixth filming session took place. This session was filmed by the Tamworth Castle Grounds- Bandstand. This was the perfect location because  when it turned twilight and the tea light candles were lit it gave the location a eerie romantic feel. We got this idea from a lot of movies that we had watched such as A Cinderella Story and thought it would be a brilliant way to include it into the music video as a happy flashback. 

Using candles was a health and safety issue because the bandstand was made out of wood. Therefore we had to be very careful that we did not burn anything, as it would be our responsibility and it would add time considerations to the production.

When the outdoor lighting was perfect the candles were lit, we filmed a range of shots of Harry and Grace dancing. Firstly a 360 degree turn was used as a high angle to show the couple cuddling on the bandstand floor, however when viewing the footage we could see the shadow of the camera equipment and therefore stopped this shot as it may not look good once uploaded on to the software. We did not delete this footage though encase we could edit the shots so it would not look obvious.

Another shots that were taken included the couple sitting down and talking/ kissing to show how in love they were as well as them lying on the floor laughing and cuddling. We did this by using extreme close ups, high angles, still shots, pans and tilts.  

Today's filming went better than we expected as the tea lights were visible and we could still see our actors. The shots that were taken were good because there was a range to choose from and all fitted well together. 

Diary Entry: 15th October

In todays lesson we viewed the footage that was filmed last Thursday and Friday. We chose our favourite shots and continued to edit our music video. 

Firstly we viewed the footage of Grace singing and chose our favourite parts, however we had to be careful when choosing the certain bits as it had to be in sync with actual song. We then edited this clip to make the colour look darker and the contrast to be white so that the background could not be seen. This looked very effective because it was very white with the dark image of grace.

After doing this we then edited other shots by putting transitions in such as fade to black to show the flashback is happening.  

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 12th October

After school the filming for the argument between Grace and Harry took place. This footage was done in the same location as the 11th October.


For this scene me and Lauren visioned a flashback of them arguing which led to her killing herself due to the emotions. However a reason was needed for them arguing we thought of many reasons- one was forcing Grace for intercourse but she rejected him and it leads to an argument. However this idea did not go well between our casts because they felt awkward acting that out.

Therefore another idea was thought of- it was to have a simple idea of cheating. Harry is on his phone ignoring his gilfriend; Grace and she looks at his phone which causes an argument. Due to the anger he leaves and reacts by throwing a pillow at the door and thinking of this flashback causes her emotions to be upset and angry and it leads to her suicide.  Filming this idea was more successful than the other because it looked more like an argument and fitted well with the other footage.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 11th October

We arrived at our location about 12:00pm and had about four hours to film two scenes. The filming took place at this house shown on the left.

The first scene that was filmed was the singing of the song. Me and Lauren decided that we wanted our main actress Grace to sing the whole song so that when we are editing and there are gaps for no flashbacks or something happening we wanted her to sing, just like a music video would. Therefore she cuddled herself all upset and singing in the corner of the bedroom. We did this shooting four- five times but at different angles and shots so every time we put this scene in, the shots would not look the same. For this shot she wore grey tights and an oversized grey jumper so that the actions and styling would fit together. 


After filming this shot we then filmed the suicide in the bath. This was a difficult idea because it could either go very well or a disaster therefore we also discussed other alternative endings if this one did not go to plan.  For the suicide scene she wore black leggings and a grey vest, this was done so that she could be easily seen in the bath.      

A problem that we encountered whilst filming was the memory space on the video camera. We found that we had hardly any free space for more filming just before the suicide scene, we therefore started to delete the files that were not needed from our filming. This was a time consuming issue however we was glad we did not film as the water bit would have been tricky to keep re-shooting. 

Apart from this todays shooting went well, we got all the shots we needed and hoped when we edit on Monday the footage will look effective and there will be no need to change the ending.


The picture to the left is a high angle shot that I took. We wanted to film the entire suicide therefore felt if we did a high shot we could see the fall into the bath. 

This image to the right is a close up of the singing. Whilst Grace was singing we wanted a variety of shots at different angles and frames so that when it was used at different bits in the music video it would not look the same.

Diary Entry: 8th October

In todays lesson I looked at the footage that was filmed on Friday. I was very happy with the shots as it is exactly how I imagined it to be. Once chosing our favourite videos we edited the shot by making them shorter and adding effects in such as dissolves.

However at first we imported the new re-shooted footage from thursday and edited this so that it would look more clearer and flow well. We then edited Fridays shots adding a range of effects and transisitions to make the video more fun and professional. 

The footage that we have currently got is very effective and was exactly how we wanted it. We kept it simple to ensure it would be effective because last year we found that our filming was very complicated and it made the end result very poor.

After school we went to a council home that is currently in progress of decorating, this was the perfect location for our photoshoot as it fitted with the grunge theme we were going for. This property belonged to Lauren's sister and we were pleased that we did not have to worry about having to find a place and have permission which would take a long time.

To make sure our actress we looked the part me and Lauren played the role of stylists, directors and cameraperson. We put a lot of black eye shadow around Grace's eye so that in the pictures it stood out and looked bold. We kept the foundation pale as well as the lips so the eyes were centre of attention. This vision portrayed very well in the pictures capturing everything we wanted. 

The front cover shots were of Grace sitting on the floor. We varied the shots and incorportated cigarettes to symbolise the album title- Light Up. However we took the same photos without the cigaretted incase this prop was not allowed. She wore a black and grey silk dress, ripped tights, high heels and a leather jacket. We wanted this black consistency through the clothes because it had to be relevant to the music genre and we felt this looked good with the scene.

The second set of shots were of Grace cuddling up to herself. For this shot we wanted the shotn to be in the frame of a medium close up, showing a bit of leg but not the shoes-the upper body. This photo would be used for the back cover as it was the perfect positioning for the track list to be written down the sides. Grace wore the same ripped tights and wore an oversized grey jumper.

Finally the third set of shots were of Grace sitting on a run down, tatty arm chair. She sat on the chair in a landscape way with her legs hanging off the arm rest. For these shots she wore a grey slouchy vest with black jeans and high heels. This shot would be used for the magazine cover as the main image. We tried a variety of shots using this prop as it worked well with the background.

All the shots were taken in black and white and some with a tint effect. At first the shots were taken in colour however we felt it did not look as effective therefore we took the images all in black and white. Using this colour correction made the shots better because it fitted with the concept and it fitted with the other albums of The Pretty Reckless.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 5th October

Today after school, Lauren and our two casts went to film one of the long flashbacks. I was not able to attend this filming session due to personal concerns. The filming that was captured was the flashback of the girl and boy having fun and holding the camera as if they were filming themselves. It was hand held on purpose to make the filming looking realistic and to vary the camera shots.

The clothing that was worn was very casual and colourful compared to the other shots, this was also done on purpose because we wanted it to look like a flashback as well as to make it look like the happier times.

Diary Entry: 4th October

To start the lesson off me and my teacher had a one to one discussion about my blog and any improvements that needed to be made. He was very pleased with the progress and said all documents were up to a high standard. This meeting was very brief as all the feedback was written.

After having a meeting with my teacher me and Lauren discussed the photo shoot for all of our print artifacts. We have booked Monday 8th October for the photoshoot and it will be located in an unfurnished flat which implies it is very old. This location was founded by Lauren due to knowing the landlord and he agreed for us to take pictures here. This place was chosen because it fitted with the genre of the music- Grunge. As well as discussing the date and place we spoke about what the main cover girl would wear. Three images would be taken and we wanted to have three different outfits to make the printed artifacts different and appealing because the shots are not the same. This clothing atire was chosen because the colours fit in with the genre of music as well as the main girl Taylor Momsen's personal style, we therefore wanted to recreate this with our own twist.

Front Cover- Black lacey dress, leather jacket, ripped tights and high heels.

Back Cover- Jumper, vest and ripped lights.

Magazine- Black jeans, vest, high heels and maybe leather jacket.

Near the end of the lesson we discussed our previous work and felt we could get better shots therefore on late notice we decided to re-shoot the footage from Friday 28th September. We contacted our casts during the lesson and asked if they could meet us to film, we were fortunate that netiher had nothing to do and happily agreed. Once finishing school we went to reshoot the footage and it was better to do it again because the weather was duller which added to the sadness of the opening as well as we knew exactly what to do to ensure our shots were clear and fitted together.


Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 3rd October

In today's lesson we did a variety of tasks which helped a lot. At first we discussed as a class the improvements for our blogs and thoroughly went through the mark scheme. This was done to make clear how many marks were available for each section. 

After discussing this we then looked at print artifacts provided by our teacher. As a class we spoke about the pros and cons of each example as well as talking about the codes and conventions of the print artifacts. We found that the font style and colour were the major issue with the printed creations, and made us realise that we had to ensure our colours of the background and text did not clash and could be readable. 

Once discussing our blogs and printed documents we edited the footage that was gained on thursday, we created a project as well as our own folder so all our files would be safely  stored. After setting up we started to edit and import the shots, we changed the contrast and brightness of the shots as well as the speed of the shots so the start with the walking was not long winded and boring. Slow motion and dissolves were used to imply the passing of time. These features were very effective in making the project look professional as well as effective. 

Author: Kiran Paul