Settings and Locations

When choosing our locations and settings we had to decide whether the target audience understood why we were choosing those particular shots and the settings they were in. For example at Liverpool Street Station we had a long shot of the main character Tom,walking off of the train meeting up with the other members of the group. This post will highlight the main places we filmed and why we specifically choose those locations.

The first shot was filmed at Liverpool Street Station. This shot proved successful as it was a long shot of the train, where all of the characters could be seen joining up from the different parts of the platform. This is a good location to use as many people use train stations in order to start their day. This shot is fitted with the style and the tempo of the music. Before we shot we went to the security office to ask for permission to film there. They had no hesitations to grant us this. A problem we faced was waiting for the platform to be empty in order for us to get a scene where it is only us in it.

This is a shot of where we filmed on a bridge. You are able to see many of the features which integrate well into our song, such as the River Thames below and off into the horizon. The shot was successful as it looked as if the main character was having fun with his friends on the bridge.

We also filmed a stationery shot of the characters in which you could see the background attractions of London, however we may not use this particular shot in our final edited version of the video. The actions filmed were of the three characters running on the bridge having a laugh, this works well with the lyric 'do you want it, do you want it, do you want it all?' This is due to the fact people in life want happiness and we feel that the shot matched well with what the artists are singing. In order for us to get the best shot possible, we had to wait for a gap in the crowd. This proved very difficult as it was a busy bridge and the tourists were always present.

This is the tunnel to a boat tour on the Thames. As a group we feel this was our most promising location, and we achieved many different shots here.

The lighting was perfect and there was not much to be seen surrounding the location. This was good for the sort of shots we wanted at this location because our goal was to make the main character the focus of some of the shots and not the setting around him.

The iconography in this clip would be the River outside of the Tunnel that we filmed in, the retro clothing that the characters in the video were wearing and finally the acting that was involved in the video, E.g. the main character singing into the camera. When we arrived at this location, we had a number of different ideas about where the camera would be placed, whether or not it was just going to be the main character shot here or the whole group.

 This location is Southbank Skatepark. This is a world renowned place in London, that many people have either heard of or been to. We were able to film many shots here as it is quite a retro area, that fits well with the theme of our music video and artists. This is one shot in particular that we used and as you can see, the BMX rider in the background was used to add extra effect. Later on in the video he also does a trick behind the characters in order to give the shot more of a interesting factor.

The stereotypical iconography expected to be seen in this location would be BMX riders and skateboarders, along with graffiti on the walls surrounding the area.  On arrival at this location it was reasonably busy with alot of BMX and skateboard equipment around the area. However, we overcome this problem by asking the people to move some of their stuff and also waiting for the crowds around to depart.