Filming Locations

Filming Locations

There will need to be several different locations within my music video: two different locations for the two different halves of the narrative, and another location for the performance section. By visiting a range of locations, I have discovered which ones are best suited for video style and genre. 

1. Pylon Clearing 

The first location that I chose to visit was the pylon clearing. Originally, I thought of filming the video here because it was a location that I was familiar with, it had a solid mossy-concrete surface for good camera stability, and had plenty of trees surrounding it (which helped fit with the theme of nature). Upon arriving and after taking some photos, I decided that this was not a good location for my project because the clearing looks unnatural and somewhat dystopian, unlike I had imagined. To add to this, the ground turned out to be too hard, to the extent that it could present a hazard if filming the bike scenes. The pylons in the background also look ugly and contradict the natural theme that I want to capture in my video. 

2. Rolling Fields

These rolling fields, again, were thought of because they offered beautiful natural scenery and were unique from my most local locations. Although it was cloudy on the day of my visit, I thought that the pastoral landscape would offer bright, clear lighting on a sunny day. The biggest problem with this setting was that the uneven grounds made it very difficult to walk and run while holding a camera, and even a tripod was difficult to set up upon the hills. The narrative ideas for my music video were not ideal for the terrain either; riding a bike down a steep hill in a controlled fashion could be dangerous, and running up and down the hills would wear the actress out too quickly, possibly resulting in a higher risk of continuity issues. 

3. Woodland (including the woodland clearing)

So far, the woodland location has been my favourite location. The manmade clearing from logging still looks somewhat natural and the surrounding ground is firm but soft. There are plenty of trees, conforming to the natural theme, and there are no manmade structures to disturb the tranquil setting. The reduced number of people who use this area also means that continuity should not be a big problem, since there are no background people who would have to be 'directed'. The clearing area provides a source of uninterrupted natural light (perfect conditions for filming on a nice day), and there are enough places to explore in the woods that can be used within the video should one area not suffice. Since there are lots of twigs and uneven grounds in this natural environment, the running sequence to the narrative is best to be filmed here. 

4.  Grassy Field 

In this location, there were lots of trees that surrounded the grassy field, keeping the natural theme central. Although there were pylons in the distance, I discovered that I could avoid them using camera angles and shots to keep them out of the frame (which was not possible in the pylon clearing that I first explored). The grassy ground was firm but soft, perfect and safe for the bike riding sequence, and not too many people were around to intrude the shot. This location is also distinct from the woodland setting, making the two parts of the narrative distinguishable from one another in terms of setting.