It is vital that after deciding on the narrative of the piece, and after having brainstormed some ideas for scenes and shots, that you venture out to scout locations to film at. The locations that you choose must be suitable for to film in, the mise-en-scene must be appropriate and they must be accessible for your cast and crew.
We sat down as a group and, considering our initial ideas for our music video, we came up with a list of some of the locations types that we would need. We followed this by identifying locations similar to these in our area, and we then set aside time to go and assess these locations for their suitability.
Ogmore-by-Sea is the beach nearest to us, and therefore, it was the first place that we thought of when we knew that we wanted to film some scenes at the beach. We have all visited this location many times, yet we still went out to visit the beach again, to assess its suitability for filming.
Upon visiting the location, we found that it would be a very suitable place for us to film. There were a variety of different levels on which to film, which would allow for opportunity to gain lots of interesting shots via different angles. We also thought that the different surfaces that were available, such as pebbles, rocks, grass and sand would provide interesting mise-en-scene. Additionally, these varied surfaces would provide the ability for us to acquire a lot of shots that had a similar look to them, but that were all different, which subsequently would make the overall look of the scene more appealing to the viewer.
We visited Ogmore-by-Sea on a relatively bright day, which allowed us to get an idea of how we could use the scenery to connote a happy atmosphere. However, from having visited here on many occasions, we knew that if the weather was gloomy, the scenery could very much reflect a melancholic mood. We thought that we could use this to highlight the misery that the protagonist feels with her boyfriend, and that it could act as pathetic fallacy.
We found the pebbled surface to be difficult to walk on, and we thought the uneven surface may provide difficulty in maintaining steady tracking shots, etc. However, we thought that this could be overcome by wearing appropriate footwear, and by choosing our paths carefully.
The beach is very open, which means that it can be very windy there. This is a disadvantage of the location, as it may have an impact on the look of the shots that we would attempt to achieve, particularly with the protagonist's long hair. This is something that can be expected of most coastal locations, particularly in the winter months, which is when our filming period is.
Ogmore-by Sea is the closest beach to us, at about a 15 minute drive. It was important to us to chose the best location for filming, but also had to make sure that it was within a reasonable distance, due to us having to be able to obtain lifts there.
Beach: Rest Bay, Porthcawl
Though Rest Bay is one of the beaches in our local area, it is the furthest away. It is also difficult to reach by public transport, as there is no train station, which means that unfortunately, we were not able to visit this beach to assess it for filming. Though we know the beach the beach very well, the difficulty we faced in trying to get there to scout the location, showed us that we would not be able to feature Rest Bay in our music video.
Beach: Southerndown
Southerndown beach is just a little further in the car than Ogmore-by-Sea. However, the location is a lot more remote.
We visited Southerndown in the evening after school, which meant that the sun was setting. This provided a really nice shot, as is pictured to the left, and this provided us with some inspiration of how we could use a setting sun in our piece to signify the end of the protagonist's relationship with her boyfriend, and to signify that Hannah's character is reaching new horizons.
An advantage of the relatively remote location is that the beach is often clear of people, especially in winter months. The beach is less open than Ogmore-by-Sea, as the pebble beach falls in between two cliffs, which is an advantage as it meant that it was more protected from the wind.
The cliff edges in Southerndown provided a unique platform for some very poignant shots. Though, in order to make these shots look their best and create the desired effect/mood, we discovered that we would have to stand very close to the edge.
We decided that this location would not be suitable for our group, due to its relatively remote location, and the fact that we were concerned for the safety of our cast and crew in certain areas that we desired to film in.
The dingy/graffitied area we chose: Multi-story car park in Bridgend town
Caitlin had recently used this location, and therefore, we did not re-visit it to scout it. Caitlin had told us that she thought there were multiple locations within the car park that were fitting with what we wanted to use. She said that there was a stairwell that we could use, that was very similar to the one in the image below that inspired us to include a shot similar to it.
Caitlin had said that there were window adjacent to the staircase that, at midday when she was there, the sun shone through that acted as a spotlight. We thought this would be very useful for us to film a shot with Hannah sat on the stairs, as the light would shine on her, making her the focal point of the shot. However, it would mean that the rest of the staircase would appear darker, making it look more even more dingy, which would help to create a gloomy atmosphere.
There was also a large white wall close to the entrance of the stairwell, which would is something that we wanted to use in our video. We desired to have a shot of Hannah stood against the white wall, to signify her isolation. We also had the idea to have her wearing a white t-shirt, that we would gradually cover with splashes of coloured paint between shots, taking inspiration from stop-motion filming techniques. The colour in this shot would be another method of including LGBT+ flag colours/rainbow colour imagery that we wanted to include throughout the video to signify the protagonist's sexuality.
We chose to use this location as we could reach it easily by just a 5 minute train journey. This meant that we would not have to rely on lifts from anyone, which meant that the location would be convenient for our group.
Caitlin also mentioned that there was a graffitied section of the carpark wall outside, which meant that the location incorporated everything that we were looking for. The graffiti wall would provide a contrast to the white wall, and the graffiti imagery is conventional to be included in alternative music videos. Additionally, as we had planned to have the protagonist drinking alcohol/smoking against the wall, as part of her breakdown sequence, we knew that there is a societal association between graffiti, drinking and smoking.
Dingy/graffitied area: Graffiti wall in Cardiff Central
As a group we were aware of this location next to the Principality Stadium along the boardwalk. However, we wanted to assess the location as none of us had visited there previously.
We caught the train in Cardiff Central one evening after school, but fitting with the time of year, it was just starting to get dark. Thankfully, this did not affect our ability to assess the location for filming use, and we actually thought that the slightly dark lighting provided a nice contrast to the graffiti wall that was popping with colour.
As you can see from the photo above on the left, we trialled some shot types to get an idea of if the location would be suitable. We liked the busyness of the graffiti, and we thought that this could be useful to reflect the confused nature of the character, and be representative of her overflowing thoughts.
As shown in the picture above, there were multiple different graffiti wall designs, which gave us the idea of creating a montage from us replicating a shot that we would take of Hannah in front of one of the walls, in front of each of the different walls, to give the effect that the background was changing.
This location is a 20 minute train journey away from us, which is a manageable distance for us to commute. However, the trains to and from where we are based to this location only run once an hour. This would make it more difficult for us to be able to get here and be able to film unless we had a considerable amount of time at one time.
We decided that this would not be our primary choice of location, though we may visit here to film if we think that it will improve the look of our piece.
Houses: Josh's, Hannah's and Jade's
These were locations that, of course, we were all very familiar with, and we decided that we would feature all three of these locations in our piece. We needed three different houses, as we needed one to represent the houses of each of Josh, Hannah and Jade's characters.
When creating the opening sequence for a thriller film for our AS level piece, we filmed it in Josh's house, so we knew that it was suitable for filming. We knew that as it was Josh's house that it would be suitable to use to represent the relationship between Josh and Hannah's characters, as we could use Josh's room., which is a stereotypical presentation of a male's bedroom.
Hannah's house will be suitable to film the party scene, as she will have just moved house at this point. This will mean that there will be limited decor, and that the living room will be a blank canvas for us to use. Hannah's bedroom will be very neutral and bare when she moves in, which we will use to reflect how her character feels numb and empty.
Jade's house will be featured in our video as Jade's characters house. The decor in Jade's bedroom is very feminine and this is will provide an excellent contrast between that of Josh's room, which will be reflective of the difference between Josh and Jade's characters, and subsequently, will highlight the change the difference in Hannah's sexuality.
Plain white wall: Shopping arcade in Bridgend town
As previously mentioned in the post, we were looking for a location with a plain white wall that we could use for some shots of the protagonist.
We remembered as a group that in Bridgend town, there was a section of a shopping arcade that had recently been painted white, which can be seen in the pictures on the left.
We liked that the whole area was very plain, which meant that it fitted the blank canvas look that we wanted. Additionally, the walls are tall, which would give us the ability to film a long shot of Hannah, but still have the whole background plain.
We decided that we would not use this location, however, as due to it being the entrance space to a shopping centre it, it is frequently used by lots of people. If we were to film here, we could inconvenience shoppers, which means that it is not a suitable location.
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| An image I found online |
Bright and colourful lights: Winter Wonderland in Cardiff
We knew that Winter Wonderland was a beautiful location that features lots of bright and colourful lights. We thought that it would allow us to create some visually beautiful shots, whilst the colour would be representative of our narrative that focuses on sexuality. We also thought that the lights created a magical effect, which would make the sequence of footage very dream-like. We thought that this could highlight how Hannah's character feels as though she is dreaming; now that she finally has embraced her sexuality, she feels free.
We visited this location on the same day as we did the graffiti wall, as we were already in Cardiff Central. As we got there, it was dark, which accentuated the colour of lights. Therefore, we decided that when we would use the location to film, we would visit in the evening.
We had to consider that this venue is very popular, and that it gets very busy in the evenings. Additionally, many of the venders here sell hot drinks, which means we will need to be cautious when filming whilst walking through the crowds, to avoid bumping into anyone.
