Account of Shoot day

The day begun promptly with a run through of how the day would proceed and alterations that may be required. As a group, we planned the various shots and the order in which they would take place. We did so by looking at the storyboard and questioning which shots we would and wouldn’t incorporate in our days filming ahead. Shortly after this we left school and headed to London, having packed all the necessities for the day such as the camera, tripod, hard wear for Battersea etc. upon arrival at Battersea we were given an induction on using the site for the day, consisting of do’s and don’ts and what to watch for whilst on the site such as hazardous objects. We then met with our artist, Alex Pointer, and were given our hard wear for the site such as helmets, safety jackets and boots. Whilst doing this we were also introduced to our guards for the day who watched us whilst we filmed. This was a requirement on behalf of Battersea to avoid injury and trespassing. We started filming at 12pm with shots of Alex walking around the station looking full of remorse and unhappiness. Luckily the day was dry and clear so we were able to get more shots than we had been expecting. This proceeded for about 3 or 4 hours, with Alex slowly moving around the building. We told our artist we wanted shots of him approaching a guitar, the guitar is important as it shows the connotations of the genre for our music video. The filming then moved to the inside of the building where Alex was told to walk slowly down the hill by the entrance towards our other cast member, Lily Resta, who lay at the bottom of the hill. Her presence is left open for our audience’s own interpretation yet she is there to represent the reason behind Alex’s misery. Inside the building we made sure, with the help of media assistants Luke and Matt, that we captured parts of the building where decay and neglect was evident. This was also important as the decay of the building acts as a metaphor for Alex’s own abandonment. The inside of the building was dark and gloomy so it was perfect for our filming as we wanted to capture the sinister atmosphere. Once finished filming in the outside we moved back outside but to the south side to get any last shots we felt we had to get before packing up to head back to Hurtwood. This didn’t take long as we had most the shots we felt necessary for editing our product. We then took all the safety equipment back to the Battersea headquarters and thanked them for their help and time and headed back towards school. Though we had little time to film during the day, we were pleased with our progress and left Battersea with enough shots to make what we hope others will view as a well produced music video.